Jeff Vande Zande

Real Quick Local Note

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:01:00 +0000

My novel, Landscape with Fragmented Figures, and my full-length poetry collection are for sale at the Court Street Gallery in Saginaw. It's in Old Town, folks . . . one of the coolest places in Saginaw. Support me and a local business by buying one of my books (or a book from someone else) from the Court Street Gallery.

Reading

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:37:00 +0000

I just finished reading Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground. I read it first almost twenty years ago, and I had this idea in my head that it was this big, ground-breaking, formative book for me. Having just finished it, I don't see how it could have been. Don't get me wrong...I'm not going to dis the big D. I enjoyed the wildly neurotic main character...too intelligent to "fit" into the machinations of society. Maybe that's what draws young readers to the book...this idea that intelligence and perception are burdens. Young thinkers reject and embrace the world at the same time. That part of the book I can really understand. Still, it wasn't this overwhelming read for me this time...not at nearly forty years old. Was it ever an overwhelming read or, at twenty, did I just feel cool having actually finished a book by Dostoevsky. Hell, I think it's the only manageable book, page-wise, that the guy wrote. I can still remember the six months (or more?) that I lived with The Brothers Karamazov (which I also remember as a great book).

Interesting what memory does with the books we read. In memory, do those books become something else? Well, I mean they have to. They must end up affecting us more in a subconscious way rather than a conscious way. In the end, like with the main character in Notes, maybe reading just makes us miserable...by making us intelligent and perceptive.

I don't know. But, it could be all my reading that triggered the cynicism in the blog post below. Though, I reread it, and I stand by what's written down there.

As to other reading, I just started (and am enjoying) E.L. Doctorow's City of God. I don't know much about Doctorow, other than he wrote Ragtime (which I haven't read), and he gave the great quote: "Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."

In any case, I'm digging City of God. It's a tough read. Lots of thought. Lots of jump in narration and narrative point of view. Still, worth staying with. Doctorow strikes me as a writer, not a creative writer (see my post below). Doctorow is a statesman of letters.

He's dealing with faith issues in the modern world, for Christ's sake! Who does that? The book was published in 2000, so that's pretty darn contemporary for me.

Cynicism

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 04:23:00 +0000

The idea of the importance of a "community of writers" is a myth started by MFA programs to help justify their existence.

Writers should probably work alone without a lot of quasi-friend/hangers-on back-patting them into an unrealistic sense of self importance.

Writers in groups begin to sound like each other, mimicking what works for others ("works" meaning getting published in obscure magazines that nobody reads)

"All writing fails." (That's not me, that's Faulkner)

I mean, if a guy like Faulkner felt like his writing failed, then it seems a little silly for writers to pop into the blogs of fellow writers to tell them how fantastic their work is. It's delusional, really.

Hemingway was in Faulkner's town once. He called Faulkner up and said, "I'm in your town, and I'm drunk." Faulkner said, "Me, too," and then hung up. Hemingway, in his clumsy way, had invited Faulkner to join him in a community. Faulkner made the good choice.

My father once said that there are no statesmen anymore, only politicians.

Playing off that, I'll say that I don't think there are writers anymore, only creative writers. That ain't good. Creative writers seem to behave in many ways like politicians. Really. It's true.

This cynicism will end soon, don't worry. My new book, Threatened Species and Other Stories, comes out soon from Whistling Shade Press. After that, all of my blog posts will be rosy, positive, and sales-oriented. This post will probably be deleted. (at least I'm being honest about all of this)

Fiction to Come

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 14:18:00 +0000

Well, I've hinted at it here and there . . . so here it goes.

My story "Load" will soon appear in The Fiction Circus.

I've really been admiring what they do over there. Really fun and smart and irreverent articles and updated quite frequently.

The story they recently published, The Aquarium, is quite strong . . . and about much more than simple bestiality with an octopus. (probably got your attention with that one!)

FC seems to be run by some young guys, and the fact that they accepted a story of mine makes me feel kind of young. I found a few more hairs sprouting up in my bald spot, so thanks to The Fiction Circus for that.

Million Writers Award

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:59:00 +0000

A quick thanks to Steve Himmer over at Necessary Fiction for nominating my story "Inside Job" for a Million Writers Award. I admire Steve's selections for the magazine, and a nomination coming from him means a lot.

Looks like many, many stories are nominated, but online editors are only able to nominate three stories from what they published the year before . . . so this feels like a nice pat on the back from Steve.

Check it out on Word Riot

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:22:00 +0000

I had a flash fiction piece published over at Word Riot. Editor, Jackie Corley, asked me to send an Mp3 of me reading the story. I did her one better. I had my wife read the story (since it's told from a woman's point of view), and I only came in when the male character spoke. I think our recording turned out pretty good.

Check it out: Word Riot

Editor Shout Out

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:27:00 +0000

I was thinking about a story today and how different (and better) the story turned out thanks to Miracle Jones over at The Fiction Circus. Thinking of it made me think of a few of the editors who got their hands in there and made my work better. So, I thought it appropriate to thank those editors. Let's see . . . there's Larry Smith at Bottom Dog Press (helping me edit two novels), Robert Bixby at March Street Press ( who helped me cut entire chapters from Into the Desperate Country), Joel Van Valin at Whistling Shade Press, and Tim Green at Rattle magazine.

Of course, I can't forget Josh Maday and Matt Bell. They were never editors for me at a press or magazine, but they were my writing buddies for a time. We had some great evenings in my backyard over in Bay City...talking about writing, talking about reading, drinking, eating steaks. I didn't want some of those nights to ever end...and some nights they nearly didn't. We were each in our own way discovering ourselves as writers...and as supporters and critics of each other's work. I learned a lot from those times, and some of the stories of which I'm most proud ("Smolder" and "The Neighborhood Division") came from those times.

The three of us aren't nearly as close as we used to be (disconnected and not trying would be a good way to describe it)...and probably we won't ever be again. That's how things often shake out in this transient world in which we live. Still, tonight, when I pour a glass of red, I'm going to toast Josh and Matt. Thanks, guys for really good memories...and for pushing me to grow as a writer.

Campaigns

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 05:20:00 +0000

So, what thoughts does anyone have on campaigns to win writing contests? From time to time I'll receive an email from a writer "friend" telling me to go to such and such website and vote for his or her story which has been nominated for an award. Even typing it as I did just now . . . it simply sounds bad. Doesn't the contest then become a popularity contest? Whoever can get the most "friends" to vote for his or her story wins? What happens, then, to merit?

Once I was asked how I got 14 people to review my novel, Into the Desperate Country, on amazon. I'll be honest, when people contacted me via email to tell me they liked the book, I always asked, "would you be willing to say what you just said to me on amazon?" Their initial responses, however, were unsolicited. I couldn't do it the other way. I couldn't contact people I know out of the blue and say, "hey, whether or not you read my book, give it a good review on amazon."

That's what it feels like people are doing when they say, "Hey, pal, go vote for my story. Get your friends to vote, too. I know my story is really, really good . . . but to get other people to see that it's really, really good . . . well, I need an unfair boost."

Just a Reminder

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:52:00 +0000

I'll be reading tonight with Tim Kenyon at the Magic Bean Cafe on State St. in Saginaw. The event starts around 7.

Also, always fun stuff over at The Fiction Circus

I have a TBA piece of info as it relates to The Fiction Circus...watch for that (meaning, watch for that, Mom, since my mom is probably the only semi-regular reader of my blog)

Plus, earth-shattering news, I plan to reread Notes from the Underground after Demian. I remember liking Notes... and so plan to like it again.

To Such Ways of Such Things

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:01:00 +0000

Just a couple of brief things . . .

I had a great time doing a screenwriting workshop for the folks up at the West Branch Children's Film Festival. Always fun to meet a thirteen-year-old who already "knows" that he is going to be a film maker. What passion! That's great. I wish the West Branch group the best. Check them out at www.wbcff.com . . . especially if you have a film that you think is appropriate for kids to view. They are looking for films.

As to books, I started reading Demian by Herman Hesse. So far, it's rich and rewarding. I know, I know, that's two older books in a row. The next, I promise, will be a contemporary book, though, sadly, I'm already guessing that it will feel thin compared to Farrell and Hesse's work.

Finally, I just learned that my poem, "In Early Drafts Robert Frost Relied Heavily on the Thesaurus" will appear this summer in Rattle . . . in their issue themed around humor. Tim Green, editor at Rattle, pushed me to rewrite the poem . . . and it turned out so much better. Thanks, Tim.

Blips and Such

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:10:00 +0000

Okay, what's going on . . . hmmm

Well, I finished The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan. Great book. Tough book. It's hard to explain, really. I mean, you don't like Studs, but you don't hate him. In some ways, after finishing it, you realize that it's a sociological study. Studs is a product of environment...almost doomed to his fate. The ending is perfect. Books like this could still be written...if writers were interested in looking at the world as opposed to trying to escape it.

Still have that reading coming up on Friday, Feb 5th at the Magic Bean Coffee Shop on State Street in Saginaw. Both Tim Kenyon and I will be reading short stories.

Speaking of reading short stories, I've read over 100 stories for this anthology I'm involved in for Bottom Dog Press called On the Clock. I forgot how time-consuming editing can be.

My favorite lines

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:26:00 +0000

Here are some of my favorite lines from that "death of fiction" article that I linked to below.

"Indeed, most American writers seem to have forgotten how to write about big issues—as if giving two shits about the world has gotten crushed under the boot sole of postmodernism."

"At the same time, young writers will have to swear off navel-gazing in favor of an outward glance onto a wrecked and lovely world worthy and in need of the attention of intelligent, sensitive writers."

"I'm saying that writers need to venture out from under the protective wing of academia, to put themselves and their work on the line. Stop being so damned dainty and polite. Treat writing like your lifeblood instead of your livelihood. And for Christ's sake, write something we might want to read."

Finally . . . some Truth

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:24:00 +0000

Check it out . . .

Mother Jones

I love these articles when people tell the truth about the state of writing. It saddens me, too, because most young writers won't listen. We'll keep getting love of sentence over love of story. Love of style over love of story. Love of experimentation over love of story and character.

And, worse, love of make-believe over love of this friggin' world that we live in!

Writers feel this need to be loved ... and so are polite, kiss each others' undeserving asses, and avoid any topic that might offend someone.

I think that's why The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan appeals to me. Farrell shows his Chicago world for the way it was. He doesn't apologize for his characters and their racism, womanizing, and violence. He doesn't condone it, either . . . but he certainly doesn't hide it.

I don't think Farrell could very easily publish today. And that's sad.

And the current state of fiction is sad, too.

Poems to be Published

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:09:00 +0000

I had some poems picked up for publication by a new magazine: Poetry Quarterly

I wish this magazine the absolute best. From what I can tell from the editor, Glenn Lyvers, he's got good taste in poems. I don't mean my poems, but the poems I've read on their site that he admires . . . although I hope my poems are good, too.

Want to do a good deed? Subscribe to Poetry Quarterly. They're just starting out, and they have one of those professional sounding names that says . . . "We're going to be around awhile."

Upcoming Events

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:38:00 +0000

On Saturday, January 30th, I will be giving a two-hour workshop on screenwriting at the West Branch library. The event starts in the morning and goes into the afternoon. For more information, contact the West Branch library.

On Friday, February 5th, I'll be giving a reading of my fiction at the Magic Bean Cafe in Saginaw: 5789 State St. I'll be reading with my friend, and fellow fiction writer, Tim Kenyon. The reading takes place at 7 p.m., and I'm told that there will be music and an open mic.

Story up at Necessary Fiction.

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:49:00 +0000

I have a little flash piece up at Necessary Fiction entitled "The Major Players".

Check it out: www.necessaryfiction.com

Only Eleven Days In

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:11:00 +0000

It's only eleven days into the new year, and I had a flash piece picked up for publication. Thanks, Word Riot, and a special thanks to editor, Kevin O'Cuinn, for his helpful edits. The piece is titled "The Difficulty of Endings", and Jackie Corley tells me that it will be in their February 15th issue.

Other things are going well. The new short story I'm working on is really going well. I'm slightly over 2000 words in (taking a break to get the new semester started), and I'm thinking about it quite a bit. I'd call it a surreal story, and I think that aspect of it is slowing me down.

I'm about half way through The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan, and I think it's just excellent. I can see why, though, in our PC world, such a book wouldn't be very popular. There's some racism in it (even from the main character), but I get the sense that James Farrell was a true realist, not out to create people as they should be, but as he knew them to be.

Still co-editing On the Clock, a collection of post-industrial fiction, for Bottom Dog Press. The process is going slowly, but I'm reading about 10 stories a week.

Two short film scripts that I finished, Sleeping Deeply and Distance, are in pre-production. I think Michael Randolph might even be close to doing some casting calls for SD. Jim Gleason and I plan to shoot Distance this spring. I'm going to take a stab at playing the lead role. I plan to watch some old William Shatner footage...get my technique down.

Frost loved Oranges

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 04:19:00 +0000

I get sick of titling these things so there you go.

Still working on the new story, tentatively titled "Renovation". It's nearly doubled . . . up to 1600 words. I think it's going well, but taking a little break from it (instead, taking notes and thinking about where it goes next).

Tonight I'll probably take up the more burdensome task of getting some work submitted to magazines.

If I heard right, Gina Myers is the new book editor over at New Pages . Congratulations to her and to them. Good place to go if you want to find out more about lit mags or new books. If you see one that sounds good, buy one or subscribe. I once heard someone say that the literary world would be much healthier if every writer that submits their work would subscribe to at least two lit mags a year and buy one small press book.

Still reading about Studs Lonigan. Great book, but it depresses me too because it essentially disappeared into obscurity. Makes me wonder sometimes why I even bother to write . . . if a book like that can just disappear.

A small, sickly bird

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 04:14:00 +0000

So strange, this story writing business. I haven't written a full-blown short story in eight months. Now, I have one cooking, and it seems to be good (at 897 words in), but I'm afraid of it. I'm afraid I'm going to kill it . . . burden it with my dead prose like dioxins, suffocate it with predictable dialogue, snuff it out with cliche conflict. I'm really liking it but, as though I'm on a date that's going well, I keep guessing that the next words to come out of my mouth (head) will be the wrong ones . . . the ones that end things.

Even tonight, I have a blessed two hours to work on it, and I haven't put down a word yet. I've played Bejeweled Blitz, checked email, read a story for an anthology I'm co-editing, and even added to my blog (which I'm doing now).

Have others experienced this . . . holding a new poem or story like a sickly, beautiful bird . . . wanting so much for it to get well and fly, but fearing that you're much more likely to crush it like Lenny from Of Mice and Men?

Fifth Wednesday Journal

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:36:00 +0000

I only subscribed a few days ago, and my first copy of Fifth Wednesday Journal has already arrived. It looks great. I only hope I have time to give the writing in it the attention it deserves. I shouldn't even be writing this. I should be looking at stories for the On the Clock anthology.

Also, my new story is coming along, albeit slowly. So far, it hasn't withered and died, but it's very different for me. It's an attempt at a more surreal story. Ironically, I just checked, and I am six hundred and sixty-six words into the story. That's kind of a bad sign.

Oh well.

Fifth Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:36:00 +0000

Gearing Up

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:36:00 +0000

I have a concept/idea for a new short story. Only problem . . . I haven't written a full-length short story in so long that I think I may have forgotten how. Let's see . . . there's character, conflict . . .

Still reading The Young Manhood of Stud's Lonigan. Turns out that it's the second book in a trilogy. There's a first book about him as a kid/teenager. And there's a third book called Judgement Day . . . I'm guessing about his later years. That always fascinates me when writers do that. John Updike and his Rabbit series. Richard Ford and his series that begins with The Sportswriter. I'm sure someday I'll write the second book in Stan Carter's life . . . the main character from my novel, Into the Desperate Country.

Start the Lonigan series for yourself:

Does anyone know of a female author that has done this?

On another note, I dropped off some books at the Jeff Ward Gallery and Golden Gallery in downtown Bay City. I know Jeff would like to carry more local authors' books. See him. His gallery is on Water Street across from Studio 23. I sell some books there from time to time . . . just picked up some money today as a matter of fact. And, his deal is 70/30 . . . a fair alternative to the usual 60/40.

Jeff and I are working towards having a book shelf of local authors at his place.

Seriously, go see him and bring some books.

Fiction Circus, etc

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:48:00 +0000

More good writing up over at the fiction circus.

I've been pretty good so far. In the last month, I finally got around to subscribing to two literary magazines: Rattle and Fifth Wednesday Journal.

I'm really trying to buckle down and read some of the submissions that Josh Maday and I received for the forthcoming Bottom Dog Press anthology, On the Clock. We received quite a few submissions, and the reading is going slowly. So far, some promising looking pieces are in the "maybe" pile. It should be a strong collection.

Studs Lonigan and Creativity (two separate thoughts)

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:21:00 +0000

One of my goals for 2010 . . . to blog a little more.

I'm still reading The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan and enjoying it. It strikes me as a pre-Beat book. It deals with young Irish men on the south side of Chicago, and it shows their aimlessness. They are what the beats came out of . . . the streets. Except Studs Lonigan and his gang aren't all hopped up on literature and zen. They haven't dropped out of universities because they never started in the first place. They are working-class boys trying to find their place without all the mental acrobatics of the beats. They are directionless, full of desire that, unlike the beats, they can't speak about. They are putting on tough faces. And, yet, as they layabout in pool halls, they exhibit that same restless desire of the beats . . . except for them it comes out as violence, drunkenness, and lustful cravings. The young man in America . . . always a volatile thing.

Farrell is a very honest writer, and he pulls no punches as he exhibits the lustful, violent, racist world of Studs Lonigan.

On another note, what I've discovered about myself is that I'm happy when I'm creating and not happy when I find myself in a non-creative state. Creativity used to mean writing for me, and it still does. It means other things too. Over the last month, I envisioned a couch, and then made it, cutting the parts from a single 4 by 8 board. While engaged in its creation, I felt much the same way I feel when I'm writing . . . except without the frustration. Above is the couch, sans cushions (which I discovered are kind of expensive when they need to be custom-made. Tomorrow I will contact a local upholster.)

Write now, I'm engaged in adapting a short story of mine into a screenplay, which Michigan director Jim Gleason will turn into a movie. The art of adapting is much more creative than one might expect, and I'm enjoying it.

First Post of 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Vande Zande) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 03:57:00 +0000

Okay, real quick year-in-review of 2009. I sold 265 various copies of my books. I had four full-length stories, six flash stories, and four poems published. I wrote eleven new pieces, but only one was a full-length story (I got really bogged down this summer in the re-write of my feature-length film and it was hard for me to get back into the short story form). I read twenty-two books. The best books I read were Ken Meisel's collection of poems, and Beautiful Rust and the novel, Lord of the Flies (which I read to my son). New contemporary books I read and liked were Bonnie Jo Campbell's American Salvage and Matt Bell's The Collectors. Long books I read were The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction and Thomas Wolfe's You Can't Go Home Again. I read a mix of classics and contemporaries and, this year at least, the classics won. Another book I read to my son was To Kill a Mockingbird -- just friggin' excellent. Books that disappointed were Blake Butler's Ever and Richard Ford's The Sportswriter. I'm told that I have to read Butler's Scorch Atlas and, if somebody buys it for me, I will.

Oh, I also read the second issue of Electric Literature. Although I enjoyed their first issue, this second issue left me with mixed feelings. I really wanted to like the story by Colson Whitehead, but it was pretty boring. Two of the stories, by Stephen O'Connor and Pasha Malla, were really pretty bad . . . in the way that only romantic relationship stories can be bad. The second to last story by Marisa Silver "Three Girls" was good . . . especially with the way it revealed a dysfunctional family. And, Lydia Davis' odd little story "The Cows" started out by irritating me, but then grew on me, and soon surprised me by how much it intrigued me. If I had to give stars, I'd give this issue three stars out of five. My advice to the editors would be to stop trying to collect name writers and instead collect five outstanding stories. Christ, they must get hundreds and hundreds (I mean, they are paying $1,000.00 for each story), and I find it hard to believe that these stories represent the five best.

Over the year, I also discovered Fiction Circus (www.fictioncircus.com) and I just love reading it. The articles are funny as hell, and there's an honesty there that I don't find very often. They simply tell the truth, and they aren't caught up in the hipster, indie lovefest of "Your story's the best" ... "No, yours is." Being an open node is one thing ... kissing ass to make connections is another.

I'm starting out 2010 with an older book: The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan by James T. Farrell, who I'm embarrassed to admit I hadn't heard of. So far, I'm enjoying the book, and I was amazed at how prolific Farrell was over his lifetime. Although it's 60 years old, the book still speaks volumes about the lives of young men. One of the most dangerous things in our society remains the directionless, young male.

Hey, Happy New Year to all. I hope it's a good one.