As of today our final winners in the Pygmy iPhone Audiobook App giveaway have been rewarded.  I want to thank Blackstone Audio for sponsoring this promo.  They were nice enough to donate 10 redemption codes that let people download the app from iTunes for free. If you haven't yet checked them out, you should head over to their site and see just how well made this Pygmy app is.

http://blackstoneaudioapps.com/2010/02/pygmy-chuck-palahniuk/

And to see all our entries for this giveaway, check out: twitter.com/#search

Below are our final day's two winners.  Stay tuned for our next giveaway, which will be for the Invisible Monsters iPhone audiobook app!

Day Four Winners
Assignment: Take a pic in a crazy pose, position or costume.
Winners: @onefrozensoul and @carissadean

read more »

You might have noticed the past week that we have an awesome banner in our leaderboard position for an Pygmy iPhone audiobook app from Blackstone Audio.  Blackstone is revolutioning the way people can now listen to audiobooks on their iPhones.  They plan to release a number of Chuck's books as audiobook apps.

Anyway, to help promote the audiobook, Blackstone is letting us give away 10 ten promotional codes (free redemption) for the iPhone app.  But you'll have to be a follower on our Twitter page @chuckpalahniuk to play.   Yesterday, we picked our first two winners.  Today, the rules have changed.

Today's Homework Assignment: Take a photo (Twitpic, etc) of yourself "wearing" your favorite Chuck Palahniuk item, memorbilia or swag and Tweet it with the tag #PygmyApp.  We will then select the two best pics of the day and announce them tomorrow morning.  The winners will then receive a Direct Message on Twitter with their promo code as well as instructions on how to redeem it.

Just remember, don't email us your pics or post them here.  Rather, Tweet them to our @chuckpalahniuk Twitter account.  Also, make sure you have an iPhone before you play, as the app won't work anywhere else.

A couple years back, Chuck Palahniuk appeared on an episode of Anthony Bourdain's 'No Reservations'.  As you may know, this is a show on The Travel Channel in which Bourdain travels to different parts of the world to learn about their culture and sample all of their local cuisines.  So it was only a matter of time before he'd dedicate an episode entirely to the Pacific Northwest.  And for the segment of the show that took place in Portland, Oregon, he teamed up with Chuck to visit some local hotspots.

For those of you who missed this episode when it initially came on, you can see Chuck's full appearance in the clip above.  We're looking to gather as many television appearance of Chuck as we can for our new YouTube channel.  In particular, we're looking to see if anyone has video clips of Chuck's appearances on Conan O'Brien (Oct 30, 2003) and Craig Ferguson (May 26, 2005).  If so, please contact us. read more »

Greetings, all.  Today we'd like to let you all know about a little site that just launched on Tumblr.  It's called Project Mayhem, and it's a site dedicated to 'Fight Club' fan artwork.

Check out Project Mayhem here

'Fight Club' fan art is nothing new around here.  In fact, our massive collection of fan-made material is one of the things that first made this site tick.  So if you ever have something in general that you'd like to submit, just shoot an email over to submissions @ chuckpalahniuk.net.

You can see our collection of fan art here:

The Cult's Fan Art Gallery

Hey, everyone.  The day you've been waiting for (since last week at least), is here!  Chuck's publicist at Doubleday just contacted me with the tour dates for Tell-All.  Keep in mind, these dates and some details are always subject to change.  So if you have very specific questions, don't post them here.  Instead, contact the stores.  We've included website and phone information for all the events.

• Tuesday, May 4th - Portsmouth, NH
• Wednesday, May 5th - Boston, MA
• Thursday, May 6th - New York, NY
• Saturday, May 8th - Asheville, NC
• Monday, May 10th - Chicago, IL
• Wednesday, May 12th - Calgary, AB - Details Posted!
• Tuesday, May 18th - Los Angeles, CA
• Thursday, May 20th - San Francisco, CA - Details Changed!
  

Also, Chuck's publicist wanted me to include this message, along with the dates:

NOTE: Chuck will personalize one copy of TELL-ALL and one backlist title for the first 100 ticket holders at his events on the 2010 tour.  However, please note there will be a not signing portion to the Boston and Chicago events.  Please contact the bookstores at the phone number or website below for ticketing info and other details.

Find out more about Tell-All and order the book here! read more »

One of the best things that happens when Chuck gets close to releasing a new novel (besides the book tour, obviously), is that the journalist in him re-awakens.  This usually leads to a slew of articles and interviews he'll do for magazines such as Maxim, Playboy, BlackBook, Esquire and more.  You might remember that these articles were all captured in his 2004 collection Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories.

Well, Chuck hasn't stopped.  Since then, he's continued to pump out more (many of which, you can find databased in our evolving Bibliography section).

His latest article is a landmark.  It's for the most recent issue of Men's Health, and I truly believe this is one of the finest pieces of non-fiction Chuck has ever written.  It's sort of a self-help article on people thinking about suicide.  But that's all I'll say.  Read it and then discuss it here after.  We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Read "Live Like You're Dying' Here

*The moleskin black notebooks of Craig Clevenger

By now you all know Craig Clevenger.  He's beloved on this site for all his contributions to us over the years.  He started out as just an author we all quickly became obsessed with.  His debut, The Contortionist Handbook, was a landmark novel, a book you'd see fans of Chuck's clutching at readings, with dogeared pages, creased up spines and pen scribbles with quotes and underlined passages all throughout.  The book eventually made its way before Chuck's eyes, and he flipped for it.  You might remember there was a year where Chuck barely did an interview where he wasn't pimping Craig's debut novel.  He even offered this quote for the paperback edition:

"I swear to God this is the best book I have read in easily five years.  Easily.  Maybe ten years."

Soon after completing his second novel, Dermaphoria, something great began to happen with Craig and he became more than just an author.  The dude got hungry.  Hungry to teach.  Recognizing what a natural proclivity he had for tutoring people, through his thorough, essay-length Forum posts, we decided to harness that knowledge and offered him up one of our ground breaking Master's Program Workshop Intensives.  Craig's writing workshops on our site soon became some of the most popular entries we'd offer.  From three hour conference calls to sometimes 24/7 feedback with his writing students, Craig was quickly becoming something of a guru.

Today, we unveil the next incarnation of that raw knowledge the guy seems so good at sharing:  the writing essay.  And this one's on the house, folks. 

Here's a quick tease of what lies in The Devil In The Details:

What follows are some fundamental techniques for letting your reader visualize rather than visualizing for them. We'll achieve this by choosing only a few select details (in spite of the temptation to grab more) and pitting those details against each other, so their contrast creates a depth which cues the reader on filling in the rest. We'll end by experimenting with syntax and sentence structure first, then using modifiers second.

This is a thorough essay that scratches the surface of what you'd get in the beginning phases of an MFA creative writing course.  Craig's become something of a pro at this, so do yourself a favor and study this thing.  Then, if you want more, consider joining our next Writers' Workshop.  Craig's already taught a bunch of them and will probably be teaching more in the future.

Read 'The Devil In The Details' read more »

Doubleday needs YOUR help choosing which 50s-style movie poster to produce for Tell-All! 

And to thank you for your help, they are offering 50 (FIFTY!) fans a quantity of the winning poster!  This means that you don't get just one Tell-All poster, but a bunch that you can share with friends that are also Chuck fans. How cool is that?

How to enter to win:

1. Please review the following link carefully, and vote accordingly! Doubleday  is looking for a very specific type of poster as detailed in that link. (There are a lot of great posters, but not all are following the criteria.)
2. Vote!
3. Send one email!

- The subject line of the email should have the artist's name (It is below the posters).

- The body of the email should contain your full name and mailing address. (Your email may be disqualified if you don't follow those directions)

- Only one email entry per person and no amendments or do-overs

Email to: tell_all_poster@chuckpalahniuk.net read more »

Check out this awesome feature on FilmSchoolRejects.com called 'Print To Projector'.  In this episode, they look at the potential Survivor movie adaptation, that has wallowed in the Hollywood quagmire called "turnaround" for close to ten years now.

Props goes to FilmSchoolRejects.com and Dr. Cole Abaius for posting this.

Read 'Survivor: Print To Projector' on FilmSchoolRejects.com

The Anthology Project keeps ticking right along.  Linked below, you'll find the latest round of critiques on members' story submissions from Chuck Palahniuk.  You'll need to upgrade to a Premium Account if you'd like to click through and read these stories and/or begin to participate in our amazing online workshop.  The premium membership fee is a small token of support for our ongoing efforts in maintaining the site and bringing you more great things.  Restricting reading access to the stories also helps preserve their pre-publication value for our upcoming book.

Chuck Critiques Top Stories from August 2009

No Sex in the Morning - Keith Buie

These Hands - Kasey Carpenter

This is What Stephanie Says - Jason M. Fylan

Good Deal On a Gun - Blake Moscatello

Careers Day - Adam Saifer

Diamonds - Brandon Tietz

Happy Reading!  And don't forget to...

Join Us in the Workshop Today! read more »