Thursday, October 16, 2008

Read This

Just a quick post to point you to an always-timely (for me, at least) meta-post by Leslie Pietryzk about facing the occasional dread of writing.

What do you use, the carrot or the stick (or a combination of both)?

And while we're on the subject, what do you think about Leanne's win last night? (She was my pick all along-- I should have found a bookie.)

Monday, October 6, 2008

Guns and Likker


Not only is Matt Bondurant a "person I know" (to borrow a phrase from this guy), he is an excellent writer and a great storyteller. His new book, The Wettest County in the World, is ridiculously good. Matt envisions 1920s rural Virginia-- bootlegging country-- in a bleak, sometimes surreal, manner as he tells the tale of his moonshining grandfather and great-uncles. Precise, delicate description grounds the violent narrative so that even a wuss like me wanted to keep reading until the book's mysteries unfolded. Go buy it now!