C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m

See all my books at AllThatChazz.com.

10/02/2010 • 2:10 PM 0

Contest #1 Winner Announcement

JEFritz won Kevin Smith‘s graphic novel Cacophony (art by Walt Flanagan.) Find her blog here.

Thanks, JEFritz, for supporting Chazz Writes and congratulations! It’s a great book. (Regular readers know I love all things Kevin Smith and I’m even seeing him in person next month!)

Thanks to all those who sent left comments, linked to the blog, discovered the blog or just sent me nice notes on Twitter. If you’re disappointed, please don’t be. Contests #2 and #3 are still open! Submit a book review or write a short essay and let us in on your thoughts on the future of publishing (pretty wide topic, so take liberties if you like as long as it’s about writing, publishing or editing.)

I want into the draws! Take me to the contest rules, Chazz!

Filed under: Contest announcement, book review, contest winner, Graphic novel, Kevin Smith, publishing, Walt Flanagan

07/14/2010 • 9:01 AM 0

How I Became a Famous Novelist

Not me. The book. The book is How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely. It is the novel you MUST buy–and yes I know capital letters in a post are obnoxious and mean I’m screaming at you. But it’s that funny and that pointed. It’s that good. You need to own it and suck it down.

Publishers, overly earnest and sentimental writers (published and non), Hollyweird, MFA programs, lit journals, bestsellerdumb! It’s all here and you will laugh and then you’ll think. There’s enough truth behind the jokes to make you feel like you’re not sure you should laugh, like the author is making you giggle so you’ll let down your guard as he slips a shiv between your ribs and gives it a half twist.

There is a lot of great criticism of the way things are in this novel–so much in fact that when you finally close the book at four in the morning you’ll be puzzled at how much is satire. There is a slight pullback and redemption after all the hijinks, and I’m not sure I believe the transcendence. Maybe the author really means what he says for most of the book. His criticisms of publishing are hard to fault. If it’s a test of reader cynicism, I failed.

Please do read it and you’ll see what I mean. PLEASE!

Filed under: book reviews, publishing, Writers, book review, How I Became a Famous Novelist

06/19/2010 • 12:10 AM 2

Stephen King On Writing

Horror doesn’t just describe a genre, but what the reader is supposed to feel. I took in a short gasp of horror when I read a sidebar in The Writer which blithely informed us that we’d learn more from Danse Macabre than we’d glean from Stephen King On Writing.

Everybody’s entitled to their wrong opinion but the casual dismissal of On Writing took me aback for the simple reason that Danse Macabre is broad and descriptive of the genre, but On Writing is prescriptive, beating the adverbs out of you and even giving a solid example (if not a template) for approaching agents etc.,…. I’ve read and reread On Writing and it bears reading and rereading. It’s useful in its instruction and lyrical in biography (though for no reason I can understand King denies it’s a biography.)

Lots of people–okay, I’ll say it, English Majors–have discounted King in the past, and too easily. They forget that not only has he been one of the most successful writers on the planet, he used to teach writing, too. If you are a writer, you must own this book.

Filed under: book reviews, Writers, writing tips, book review, On Writing, Stephen King

05/23/2010 • 11:26 PM 0

Foreskin’s Lament

I last laughed out loud, all the way through, reading Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint. So much masturbation and death anxiety was hilarious in a way few books are–consistently.

If I lived long enough, I figured I’d run across a book that would make me laugh all the way through again. 25 years. Reading. Waiting. It finally happened. The next laughfest has a lot in common with Portnoy’s. Somewhat less masturbation, loads of death anxiety, much more anger at a God who’s out to kill us all and isn’t that imaginative about it.

You need to read

Foreskin’s Lament

A memoir

by

Shalom Auslander

Go to the store now. Slip on your Depends, stock up on coffee and M&Ms and laugh your ass off.