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So, I may not be quite as excited as Karen Meisner is (that picture is SO cute!), but I am mucho looking forward to the new Superman movie. (Christopher, on the other hand, is pretty much as stoked as Ms. Meisner. And doing better, by the by.)

Prompted by Karen’s entry, it seems like a good time to point again to this year’s Fountain Award-winning story "Girl Reporter" by Stephanie Harrell, which the good people at One Story have made available online in its entirety. Its an alternate universe take on the Big Guy; highly recommended. Here’s the opening:

You remember the day he first swooped into our lives, the sky bathed bright orange with zeta-rays. You remember that stray satellite that was crashing toward our fair San Angelo, and what emergency shelter you were fighting the mob to get into.

I, myself, oblivious to personal safety, was snooping around the power plant’s observation chamber, looking for the scoop on flawed disaster fail-safes. Suddenly the klaxon started to sound. Blast doors slammed. As the room I was standing in slid into a defensive domed shape, it wrenched me off my footing, leaving me to grasp and dangle from an inverted railing. On page 46 of Flight of Justice, his so-called memoir, he says he heard my screams from miles away.

Let me assure you, here and now, I did not scream, at least not till much later in our sordid little tale. I was too busy clutching onto steaming steel grillwork, a radioactive roar of heat below me, my hands slippery, wrists about to give. I never scream when these kinds of things happen to me.

See you at the movies.

Andy Duncan has a shiny new blog. Sure to be high-larious, if his personality and his entry about the Maryland state song are any indication. (Via Jeff Ford.)

And psst: check out the online classroom discussion for his class on 21st century fantasy.

Sara Gran says:

I don’t often give out writing advice here, becasue I doubt anyone wants to hear it, but here’s some: choose honesty over cleverness and coolness. Cleverness and coolness are quicksand that will kill you and your writing. There is always someone more clever, someone more cool, but there is no one who can be honest exactly like you can becasue there is no one who’s seen exactly what you’ve seen. Don’t be so scared of being a schmuck, or of making you characters schmucks. Don’t have people "lament" or "bemoan" when really, they’re whining. Never let your characters "inhale the smell of a fine book," and don’t even think about telling me you’ve done it yourself. Old books smell dirty and sweaty; it’s not something you want to inhale. You don’t stop loving old books, you just start describing them as what they are: dirty and smelly. Instead of trying to be clever and smart, you try to be honest. If you choose honesty, you will succeed even if you fail; but if your goal is to be clever and cool, you will fail at having done anything worthwhile even if you succeed.

Glen Hirshberg says:

The point is, work. If anyone is still reading this blog for writing insights, there is no better or more important one I or any writing teacher or coach you will ever have can offer you. Clock’s ticking. Days are passing. You’re going to have sunlit, silent rooms sometimes. I hope you will, because they do help. But you also have subway rides, lines at the post office, lunch breaks, sweetly exhausted evenings. Want to be a writer?

And other stuff. And next he promises to talk about why the window-dressing (or lack thereof) can also be important.

But this one I thought worth pointing to, because I needed it, and maybe you do too.

Bennett Madison nails why I enjoyed the hell out of this movie despite its shortcomings. Perhaps even making it safe for me to see it again(!) without shame. Here’s a taste:

The bottom line is that if you can’t see the beauty of a man in a Styrofoam catsuit delivering ham-fisted lines with a giant, shit-eating grin, you should really not be watching a comic book movie in the first place.

(Did one of us cheer when the Beast first came onscreen? Well, yes. And I thought Kelsey Grammar and the costuming lent a certain Grandpa Muppet quality that was very comforting; comforting like a big, blue, furry marshmallow.) Now go read all that post. Bennett Madison is so a superhero day job name anyway.

Mr. Barzak’s big news is finally public. And here’s the Publisher’s Marketplace listing (Thanks, to Ms. Secret!):

 

FICTION: DEBUT
Christopher Barzak’s ONE FOR SORROW, pitched as "THE LOVELY BONES meets CATCHER IN THE RYE," the coming-of-age story of a troubled teen boy haunted by the death of a murdered classmate, to Juliet Ulman at Bantam Dell, by Christopher Schelling at Ralph Vicinanza (NA).

Give the boy his champers.

From that fabulous piece about Black Swan Green everyone’s linking.  David Mitchell says:

"Teen fashions are mercilessly cruel and short," Mitchell says. "But there are always badges and uniforms that reject the infant and the adult worlds. As a writer you never really alienate people by judiciously using obscure details, because what they represent is universal."

…

"To unlearn the experience and street wisdom you’ve gained through tough lessons leaves you vulnerable. It was painful fun."

Definitely a piece worth reading. (Spotted first at Bookninja.)

Sorry for the sketchy silence, but we’re having (another) one of those weeks. Yesterday saw the arrival of a bill adjusting our gas bill (long story short, someone came out to read the meter the other day) $1500 to our detriment. Ouch.

Despite all that, it’s spring outside, and feeling like it for a change. I bought Hemingway the Cat a bunch of toys, including one that C had to use his manly-putting-together skills to assemble, and which I don’t believe Hem’s bothered sashaying inside yet. That’s what catnip is for.

I’ve been reading the excellent Mohr this week; Unbridled Books continues to impress with their extremely strong editorial taste and beautiful packaging chops. The author Frederick Reuss uses a series of real photographs from Germany in the 1920s and ’30s of exiled playwright and novelist Max Mohr and his wife Kathe (and their lovely daughter, Eva) as an organizing principle and a jumping off point. The book jumps expertly between Mohr in exile in Shanghai and Kathe at the farmhouse in Germany. I’m not quite finished with it yet and will likely have more to say. It’s such an elegant book. The combination of the photos (which Unbridled has incorporated into the book design) and Reuss’ excellent novel add up to something that feels like a much larger story. Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief is next in line and I think it will pair wonderfully with this book.

The image up and to the left is from the gorgeous X-Ray art of Judith McMillan. Worth checking out.

Good weekends all. Happy chocolate egg or stale marshmallow bird hunting, if that’s your thing.

From the Kuwait Times:

KUWAIT: Hawally police arrested an Egyptian sorcerer in a luxurious flat in the area. Following a tip-off, police observed the man for a long time and sent an undercover agent posing as a customer. Police then arrested him and confiscated from his possession a number of items used in witchcraft. A source stressed that most of the man’s customers were women. Police filed a case and referred the expatriate to the authorities.

(Via Anne at Vertical.)

The Observer has a piece about the nature of inspiration, including various artists’ thoughts about it at the end. Novelist Naomi Alderman says:

It’s wonderful when you notice something inspiring unravel before your eyes. I remember hearing a rabbi give a sermon about this once. Inspiration is an aspect of the divine. You are given a gift of a flash of lightning, a moment. The rabbi said it’s as if you are walking in the dark, with no streetlights and no moon, then there’s a flash of lightning and you can see the steeple of the place you are going to. But to actually get there you still have to walk in the dark. And all you can do is to try to keep in your mind that sudden flash on the horizon. That’s exactly what it’s like.

(Via Jenny D.)