The Brothel: A Whoring Thread for Writers

Something I wrote about workshop a while back:

I really don’t know how I can continue on without plugging workshop. That was the big turn. It’s where I went from writer to an author. I probably learned more in six months than I had in six years. That’s how effective it was. If you actively participate and do the work, you WILL get better…this, I can promise. I’ve seen it happen and continue to see it happen.

The Cult will breed great authors in litters…mark my words.

the most bang for your buck are the intensives, imo - studying under Clevenger, Monica Drake, Max Barry, and Jack Ketchum was huge for me - the workshop itself is really good too, and for $40 a year? forgetaboutit - when the anthology was open it was a real flurry of excitement, more laid-back now, but still a great place especially if you're still fairly new to this all

You get out what you put in. I've uploaded one story, only looked at a few some people have wrote and only looked at a couple of essays. However, if you're in there, constantly reviewing and uploading, reading and writing, it will be extremely helpful. Like most things, you have to put the work in to reap the benefits, but the tools are there for you to increase your writing screen tenfold.

On a whoring note: DId an interview with Audren Niffenegger (hardest last name ever), found at http://jayslaytonjoslin.com/2011/03/22/audrey-niffenegger-time-travellin... . Bit of one sentance replies but still cool.

P.S Feel free to like my FB page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=504975542#!/pages/Jay-Slayton-Joslin/101972209889052 . I double dare ya

I'll like yours if you like mine.

For those with a Kindle, Stranger Will is available for $2.99. Makes me wish I had one (aside from my Android Kindle app)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004SPJZ6I/

Shivers VI just got a started review by Publisher's Weekly:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-58767-224-8

SWEET!
Only thing better would be if my story "Stillness" got called out.

My story, "Evenson's Tongue," an homage to Brian Evenson and his work, is now live at > Kill Author. I've been reading > Kill Author for a while, so it feels like a true accomplishment to get something posted there.

Also, this isn't really a publication or anything, but last night I posted at my personal site about how authors can better navigate the increasingly complex route to publication. I wouldn't normally post here about my own blog posts, but this one I think would be especially helpful for people here: http://www.calebjross.com/2011/04/the-real-questions-authors-need-to-ask-when-deciding-between-self-publishing-and-traditional-publishing/

'Birthday Boy' went live at Thunderdome. Not to keen on the piece because I wrote it a while ago and think I have progressed since then, but thought it would be worth trying to send out.

http://thundadome.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=80:thunderdom...

Then go on my website and subscribe. Broke 1k hits recently, woo!

My eSingle "Victimized" is up at the Amazon Kindle Store and Smashwords (for the Nook)

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004QS98VO
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/51495

"'Victimized' is one of the best pieces of bad-ass, hard-core apocalyptic noir I've read in a while." --Scott Phillips, author of THE ICE HARVEST

"Put your dukes up, readers, because Thomas is gunning for the KO with this brutal little ass-kick of a story." --Craig Davidson, author of SARAH COURT

"As tough, ass-kicking and twisted as fiction gets. Imagine a Dear John letter that Hitler might have written to Lucifer right before he blew his brains out. Then crank things up ten notches." --Donald Ray Pollock, author of KNOCKEMSTIFF

SYNOPSIS:
In the near future, Annabelle lives a fractured life, haunted by the shadows of her past, dark moments of abuse and freedom at the hands of her own kin. She has the opportunity to get into a boxing ring and fight her oppressor, to face the man that altered her, to beat him down with all of her rage. This is the way things are now, society given the chance to take on the murderers, the rapists, those that have tainted their lives, hurt their family, destroyed what was innocent and pure. Preparing to go to battle, Belle taps into her true identity, and changes, a warrior entering battle, unwilling to hesitate, ready to kill.

I got two micro pieces picked for a couple of sites that I really like, I know some of you guys are into the micro/flash writing thing. I find it to be quite a fun challenge, a nice break from driving myself crazy by obsessing over longer stories.

First Reptile House at Short Fast and Deadly, a really cool site that Matthew Odonnell linked to earlier in this thread.

and

Scars, Worn Well at 100:WORDS, which is a kind of communial project site run by a artist in Ireland. I know that some people here must already know about this site as Caleb J Ross and Jay Slayton-Joslin also have pieces on there.

Both of these are very short reads. (this post is longer than either) Cheers to Matt and Jay for bringing the sites to my attention.

Me, I'm starting to submit to places, but it's hard. I don't take rejections badly at all. I really don't care. Sadly, that means I also can't really be bothered to submit to places very often. I have four stories right now in circulation. With luck one of them will stop being rejected.

I just finished Vanity and am sending it to my agent tonight. No idea how the actual selling of it is going to turn out, but after five publications, three live readings, four nominated pieces, and three read by Chuck himself, I feel pretty good about it.

Best of luck, Brandon. Whatever I can do to help, let me know. I know my blurb doesn't carry much weight, but you've got it, if you want it. Keep me posted.

http://www.indigorisingmagazine.com/2011/04/that-lombardi-thing-by-phil-...

Of course I want it. Don't be crazy.

You've read a lot of it anyway.

Well put me on the ARC list when you sell it, brother. Best of luck. It's a fantastic collection.

ChiZine and Dzanc are two to put on the list.

The official line-up for the Warmed and Bound anthology is now available online, and I'm definitely happy to be a part of this lot.

We've got some big guns with Craig Clevenger, Stephen Graham Jones, and Blake Butler.

Check out the full list and see how many Culties you can spot: http://warmedandbound.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/authors/

WOW, look at this. Thrilled to be in here too:

Table of Contents

Death Juggler by Axel Taiari
Click-Clack by Caleb J Ross
The World Was Clocks by Amanda Gowin
Mantodea by Matt Bell
All the Acid in the World by Gavin Pate
Crazy Love by Cameron Pierce
Chance the Dick by Paul G Tremblay
Soccer Moms and Pro Wrestler Dads by Bradley Sands
Take Arms Against a Sea by Mark Jaskowski
This Will All End Well by Nik Korpon
Midnight Souls by Christopher J Dwyer
The Tree of Life by Edward J Rathke
The Killer by Brian Evenson
Headshot by Gordon Highland
Inside Out by Sean Ferguson
Laws of Virulence by Jeremy Robert Johnson
Bruised Flesh by Craig Wallwork
Bad, Bad, Bad Bad Men by Craig Davidson
Three Theories on the Murder of John Wily by by J David Osborne
The Road Lester Took by Stephen Graham Jones
My German Daughter by Nic Young
What Was There Inside the Child by Blake Butler
Seed by Gayle Towell
They Take You by Kyle Minor
The Redemption of Garvey Flint by Vincent Louis Carrella
Blood Atonement by DeLeon DeMicoli
The Liberation of Edward Kellor by Anthony David Jacques
Act of Contrition by Craig Clevenger
Say Yes to Pleasure by Richard Thomas
The Weight of Consciousness by Tim Beverstock
If You Love Me by Doc O’Donnell
Touch by Pela Via
Love by JR Harlan
Practice by Bob Pastorella
Fading Glory by Brandon Tietz
Little Deaths by Gary Paul Libero
We Sing the Bawdy Electric by Rob Parker
In Exile by Chris Deal

Shit. That's got to be a thousand pages, at least.

last i heard we were at about 400 pages

Gotta say, that's a damn nice collection of "who's who" right there -Congratulations to everyone who got in. When's the release date for this?

No set release date as of yet, but I'm sure one of us will come back with that when it's announced.

I'm hoping this year. Could be as soon as this summer.

My story "Ten Steps" is now up at ChiZine (Chiaroscuro) as part of their major new relaunch. So many other great voices here, previous, and coming weeks, can't even begin to list them. Hope you dig it.

http://www2.chizine.com/volume_47c.htm#fiction

Shroud Magazine gave Transubstantiate a really good review. A tongue lashing for OWP about the typos and cover.

http://shroudmagazinebookreviews.blogspot.com/2011/04/transubstantiate.h...

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Also, my story "Stephen King Ate My Brain" is up now at Nefarious Muse.

http://nefariousmuse.com/2011/04/23/stephen-king-ate-my-brain-by-richard...

True story.

My flash fiction is at Short, Fast and Deadly. Find it: http://jayslaytonjoslin.com/2011/04/24/short-fast-and-deadly-a-death-in-... You might just happen to have to go through my site to find it. You might just want to subscribe to it as well...

PANK interviews me:

http://www.pankmagazine.com/pankblog/interviews/ask-the-author-richard-t...

Six great questions.

http://jayslaytonjoslin.com/2011/04/26/leodegraunce-a-night-with-a-soldi...

My work live at Leodegraunce, been on a flash fiction role recently. Now back to writing longer things. A really good site, has had some great writers on including our very own Richard Thomas. Enjoy it while you can, in about a weeks time it will be gone and only avaliable in the print anthology.

You're killing it at the moment, Jay. Congrats, man. Great stuff.

congrats jay, way to go - i had a story up there too!

He name-dropped you in his post, Dick. Way to read the whole post. Ha.

I even mentioned the Cult in the interview. Mother Teresa can shove it.

Congrats Jay, you are certainly racking up the credits now eh?

Also, well done on the SF&D piece too, I really liked that one.

missed that somehow, oops

The tears have yet to stop

My review of Slut Lullabies is now live, RIGHT HERE AT THE CULT:

http://chuckpalahniuk.net/reviews/slut-lullabies

Great collection of sexy, funny, dark stories.

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/04/volt_heathcock/

My review of Volt by Alan Heathcock is live at The Nervous Breakdown. If you liked Knockemstiff, Sarah Court or are a fan of Benjamin Percy, you'll probably dig this collection of interlinked short stories. Rural, dark, touching. Loved it.

BUSY WEEK.

My review of The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch is now live at The Nervous Breakdown. WOW. A great book - sex, drugs, abuse, and a fantastic literary voice. Inspirational really, powerful stuff.

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/04/yuknavitch

I've posted a new short story of mine on my website. Sad, yes, but I figured it would be a wise idea, considering that it's the first chapter of the novella I'm currently working on, and I'd like to build up a bit of hype to the project, and my site.

The story is called "Every Engagement Worth Celebrating" and you can read it right here: http://lifesgarbage.com/everyengagementworthcelebrating.html

My thoughts on BLACK TICKETS by Jayne Anne Phillips are now up at the Emerging Writers Network for Short Story Month.

http://tinyurl.com/3n4sj94

So, my story, originally workshopped here, "The Ash, The Embers", is live over at Pulp Metal Magazine, if any of y'all wanna suss it out.

My review of Cowboy Maloney's Electric City (Dark Sky Books) by Michael Bible

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/05/cowboymaloney_bible/

is now live up at The Nervous Breakdown. Great little chapbook, very entertaining, lush read.

Hey congrats man, they came round in the end eh?

Very cool, it's very neo-noir. I like your term "dirty noir" too, totally appropriate.

Yeah, cheers, mate.

It was good to get it placed. Had a few rejections on it, and had been meaning to send Jason something for a while. No idea why it didn't click sooner that Pulp Metal would be a good home for this. But when I clued on to it, I was pretty confident he'd dig it.

And, yeah, Dirty Noir. The amalgamation of Dirty Realism and Noir, which, I reckon, is pretty well what I'm doing. Sometimes there's more noir, like in this piece, and sometimes there's more of the dirty realism, like in, say, "Two Guys Walk Into a Bar" or "The Placebo Effect".

Again, thanks for the read, man. Really appreciate it.

We just published a piece by one of my new favorite writers, Ben Tanzer. Come on over and check it out: http://wearevespertine.com/2011/05/10/the-good-parents-by-ben-tanzer/#mo...

Some very kind words from Jed Ayers (Noir at the Bar in STL) about Transubstantiate in his Barnes and Noble column today, when talking about The Dewey Decimal System by Nathan Larson (which looks like a great book).

http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Ransom-Notes-The-BN-Mystery-Blog/...

My review of FORECAST by Shya Scanlon is now up here at The Cult. Vonnegut meets PKD, it's a fantastic book.

http://chuckpalahniuk.net/reviews/forecast

So, Part One of that short story trilogy Nefarious Muse are serialising went live today.

Veronica's Trilogy deals with three distinct parts of a relationship and the shifts between the two lovers in each part. I'm really stoked Nefarious Muse were keen to serialise this. Makes me feel like an old-school pulp writer or something.

The next part will probably go live in a month, maybe less, and then the same distance between the second and third.

I have some news as well. My story, "Another Empty Nest," just went live at Six Minute Magazine: http://www.sixminutemagazine.com/

Issue #1

And this one's different -no murder, sex, or mayhem, really. My first true attempt at "flash fiction" too. But I like how it turned out. Check it out if you get a chance.

And thanks to Mark Vanderpool -he helped me tremendously by challenging me to rethink the mid-section of this from its original run -I wrote this in his Art of The Short Story class -Winter session. Thanks to my classmates Scott, Tyler, and Jairo who all took a look at this one as well (where Are you, JR??)