Swerve and Vanish: The bad novel

"The bad novel aims to please by flattering, whereas the good one is an exigence and an act of faith." (Sartre)

Chatter and buzz

Video interview with Pete Crooks of Diablo Magazine about Bigfoot, libraries, Queen, and the apocalypse.

An interview about writing the novel and freaking out in the woods.

An interview about not knowing I was a writer ... and the college class I hated most.

My piece on Necessary Fiction about doing Bigfoot research as a kid in the 70s.

"A delightful black satire." -- ForeWord Reviews

"Captivating ... the characters are believable even in their outlandish moments." -- Lake Tahoe News

"So lovely, so well-done, and so hard to explain. I loved Bigfoot and the Baby."--Insatiable Booksluts

"It's refreshing in these post-irony times to see characters who believe--and not just in the traditional religious sense." -- Necessary Fiction

"A love song and a Molotov cocktail to the American myth of self-reinvention." -- Anthony Varallo, author of Think of Me and I'll Know

"Skewers a culture gone mad with consumerism, religious millennialism, and the obsession with celebrity." -- Lawrence Coates, author of The Master of Monterey

"At once highly imaginative, playful and deadly serious. I loved it." -- Ellen Kirschman, author of Burying Ben

"An engaging fable of the contemporary American West." -- Stuart Rojstaczer, author of The Mathematician's Shiva

"A delicious and moving story, filled with mischief, satire, and ultimately great joy." -- Harriet Chessman, author of The Beauty of Ordinary Things

"Bigfoot and the Baby had me at Rapture! What a remarkable, deeply original book." -- Deborah Michel, author of Prosper in Love

Borrowed Fire

Borrowed Fire is a (now intermittent) series in which I read classic works of literature and try to point out what contemporary writers can learn from their craft. All BF texts are posted on Project Gutenberg--so you can follow along, even if you haven't read the book!

Previous works:
Chekhov, "Gusev"
Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles
Conrad, The Secret Agent
Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground
Gogol, "The Overcoat"
James, The Turn of the Screw
Melville, Moby Dick
Stoker, Dracula
Thoreau, Walden
Wells, "The Door in the Wall"

Swerve and Vanish

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

The bad novel

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