Writer Spotlight: Misopogon

Misopogon hails from the desolation that is Detroit, MI and yet his writing contains none of the fatalism that usually accompanies writers from that region of the country. On the contrary Misopogon's writing is optimistic, open, and sincere to a point that almost seems like a throwback to a far-gone time when writers were more interested in telling stories than being hip. In short, Misopgon's writing is refreshing.

I have known Misopogon for nearly a decade, ever since our time together at University of Michigan and since those earliest days he has been the consummate journalist, studying the world around him and honestly reporting what he sees. As of late his writing has focused particularly on the world of sports and most of the time he can be found at the extremely popular Michigan sports blog MGoBlog where he has carved out a niche with his incisive wit and total lack of pretense. Even while running intellectual circles around the reader, his distinctive voice always remains approachable and friendly. In the world of sports journalism that is saying something indeed.

For an exhaustive list of his musing on MGoBlog click here.

And here is one of his short stories, which is, as of late, unpublished:

"The Sweetest Sound" - A hard-working father receives a surprise text from his teenage daughter, which changes both of their lives. Written largely as text message between the father and daughter, "The Sweetest Sound" is both believable and extraordinarily touching.

Word of the Day!

couture [koo-toor]
-noun
1.The business of designing, making, and selling highly fashionable, usually custom-made clothing for women.
2.Dressmakers and fashion designers considered as a group.
3.The high-fashion clothing created by designers.
-adjective
1.Created or produced by a fashion designer.
2.Being, having, or suggesting the style, quality, etc., of a fashion designer; very fashionable.

Twitter Lit

Much has been made about the current state of the publishing industry: that sales are down, no one reads print media anymore, etc. And yet, despite the difficulties of the major publishing houses, or maybe because of the difficulties, there has arisen some interesting ways of supplying the modern consumer with literary options.

In searching for new markets to place my fiction I stumbled across the heretofore unknown to me subset of the publishing industry, Twitter Lit. Essentially a subgenre of flash fiction, Twitter Lit requires that the author tell an entire story in 140 characters or fewer. For those of you who have ever tried to write good flash fiction you will recognize how incredibly difficult it is to write short shorts, let alone something under 140 characters*.

Some may argue that this is all just one more symptom of our ADD society and that no one has the attention span to write, let alone read, great American fiction anymore, but I say bullocks to that. If you can move me in 140 characters or fewer you, sir or madam, are a damn fine writer. Cheers!

For more information and some good examples of Twitter Lit go here or here or here.


*For a taste of how difficult this is, this post is approx. 927 characters long.

Word of the Day!

connubial [kuh-noo-bee-ul; -nyoo-]
-adjective
Of or pertaining to marriage, or the marriage state; conjugal; nuptial.

The Road

About a third of the way into The Road, the Father turns to his Son and says, “I will kill anyone who touches you because that’s my job,” and that grim sentiment lies at the heart of John Hillcoat’s (The Proposition) horrifying but powerful vision of fatherhood. Based on Cormac McCarthy’s (No Country For Old Men) lyrical, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, The Road is by turns complex, appalling, beautiful, and deeply moving.

Set in a bleak and cold landscape, the movie takes as its focus a Man and a Boy as they trek along a road, bound for the coast and hopefully warmer climes. The cause of the apocalypse is never explained, just as the characters remain nameless, and it is one of the film’s great triumphs that neither of these choices disrupts the emotions that sit heavily at the center of this harrowing story. This is a film about fathers and sons and about family and good and evil; names and causes have no role to play, other than as a catalyst for stripping the world down to it’s barest, ice cold, wrinkled skin. There is only a Man (Viggo Mortensen) and a Boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee*) and whatever they can collect to survive on the road south. And there is also hope, even if it is quickly fading.

The Road is not an easy film to watch. Slavishly devoted to McCarthy’s equally bleak novel, the film is all grays and blacks with only brief flares of fire to break up the darkness. There is screaming, guns and arrows, starvation, grunting and persistent coughs, and at least one horrible (even if it isn’t particularly graphic) depiction of cannibalism. Yet for all of the darkness the glory and beauty resonant in the Man and Boy’s relationship as they cling to one another against the impossibility of survival, makes for one of the most moving filmic experiences of the year. This is not darkness for darkness’ sake; it is a treatise on what remains in men’s hearts once everything else is gone, love, hope, food, warmth.

And the answer that The Road compellingly posits is that what remains in most men’s hearts is nothing more than animalistic need, a cold, detached frenzy that can only be quenched by death. But in some men there remains a flame that endures and must be passed on if humanity, not just people but that which makes men human, is to survive. Thus the film relentlessly juxtaposes the inherent difficulties in choosing to carry that flame. The Man and Boy are besieged by roving bands of cannibals, are forced to decamp in whatever shelter they can find, and spend much of everyday scavenging for something, anything to eat.

It is a vision of humanity that leaves very little room for happiness, or even hope, and yet there are moments in this film of such sublime joy that Hillcoat almost tips his hand, belies the fact that this is not a mean-spirited depiction of the evil of men. No, this is a film about the elemental quality of the relationship between a father and his son. This is a film about the flame that parents pass to their children, about the urgency of that exchange and about the power and selflessness inherent in parenthood.

Essentially this is a film about love. And it is one of the best of year.



*Smit-McPhee, it should most definitely be noted, turns in one of the most natural and amazing performances by a child I have ever seen in my life. There isn't a single moment in the film where you doubt he is the Man's son, never any of those "That kid is trying too hard" moments. He is brilliant. On a second note it is funny to me that 2009 should produce two of the best child performances ever (Max Records in Where the Wild Things Are and Smit-McPhee in The Road). Are we to expect great performances from children now? Perhaps we are.

Word of the Day!

mephitic [muh-fit-ik]
-adjective
1. Offensive to the smell; as, mephitic odors.
2. Poisonous; noxious.

Noble Three featured by AOL Music

Noble Three, a musical side-project of mine with singer-songwriter Patrick Rickelton, will be featured on the main page of AOL Music for the entire month of December. This has been made possible through AOL Music's partnership with OurStage.com and since Noble Three has been really very successful on OurStage, we seemed a good fit for the feature.

To check us out at AOL Music click here.

Raymond Carver

One of my all-time favorite authors, Stephen King, wrote an insightful and thoughtful review of Carol Sklenicka’s Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life for the New York Times last week and I thought I would share it with y'all if you didn't read it already. Raymond Carver was an incredible short story writer who was credited with helping revitalize the short story as a popular medium. This article is a multi-leveled treat because not only is it an engaging piece about what sounds like a great biography about a great author, but it also is a pretty interesting peek into the potentially toxic relationship an over-eager author can have with a domineering editor*. Much is made about the importance of a good editor on the success of a good writer (think about a really interesting bush that just needs the right gardener to prune the bush into something of superlative beauty) but there has been much less written about the opposite, the editor who abuses their relative position of authority to bully the writer into becoming a creature of the editor's creation. In this article King uses the review of Sklenicka's book to launch into just such an investigation. Well worth the read.

To read the article click here.


*As well as it is an excuse to read about 4000 words of Stephen King's prose. I am convinced that, even if his originality is beginning to dry up a bit, King gets wiser, more incisive, and downright wittier as he turns into an old prune. For more hilarity from Uncle Stevie check out his series of random columns he writes for Entertainment Weekly.

Word of the Day!

vagary [vay-guh-ree; vuh-ger-ee]
-noun
An extravagant, erratic, or unpredictable notion, action, or occurrence.

Writer's Block: Five Sure-Fire Ways to Smash the Block

Ahh, writer's block, the great mythical specter that haunts every writer's dreams, and turns beautiful gilded story ideas to festering, poisonous mush. Writer's block has been around as long as there have been writers, and it has stymied many a literary vision. As with other ubiquitous calamities, like the common cold, there are nearly as many cures for writer's block as there are books starring teenage vampires.

As a reader of, and subscriber to, about 4 million writing blogs, magazines, and newspapers I have heard just about everything imaginable when it comes to "smashing the block", and yet, strangely, nearly every solution is targeted at the symptom and not the root cause of the blockage.

Word of the Day!

renege [rih-nig; -neg]
-intransitive verb
To go back on a promise or commitment.