If you tend to hop around from project to project, or take interest in a variety of topics, or generate a ton of disparate ideas, or write in different genres and voices and styles, and wonder if you’re an oddball, well…
OK, maybe you’re an oddball. But maybe you’re also a creative type who can’t stick to one thing.
That’s not a bad thing, as author David Epstein (whose book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World ought to be on every writer’s reading list) points out in this 20-minute video. In fact, he writes, “your scattered interests might be your biggest creative advantage.” Take, for example, two British musicians who came of age in the late 1960s: David Bowie and Peter Frampton. As Epstein explains in the video, Frampton found his lane quickly as a guitar prodigy while Bowie was all over the place. Both achieved success, but one’s path was narrower than the other’s.
‘He stacks nine or ten of the cookies pyramid style on his plate, then turns, the tugboat reversing course, and steers toward his table…’
I’m hyped to have a short story out today in the legendary online literary publication Burial Magazine. Please give “Senõr Newton” a read!
Here’s what Burial editor Z.H. Gill (who previously was featured in a Friday Five on this site) has to say about the story:
new in burial: @andrewcareaga has been writing these vignettes about restaurants…they make me feel some kind of way. i’ve spent about a quarter of my life in buffets, so i felt this one was a natural fit in the mag. so come meet ‘señor newton’—you won’t soon forget him. read 👇!
‘The single most valuable asset you possess is your own unique view and your unrepeatable experience’
As I was preparing to send a draft of this post to this week’s featured writer/editor, Iryna Somkina, Iryna herself was enduring the horrors of the latest drone and missile attacks by Russia on the Ukrainian capitol of Kyiv, where Iryna now lives and–somehow, in the midst of everything–writes some incredible creative nonfiction in English as well as a bit of poetry. “Honestly, my life has been so intense and packed with reality that there’s absolutely no point in even trying to write fiction,” she writes.
Iryna Somkina
Originally from Donbas, which has been a focal point in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she is also preparing to launch a new literary magazine, Sunday Morning, which will make its official debut Sunday, July 26. She also serves as fiction editor for Michigan City Review of Books.
I have such great respect for Iryna’s commitment to writing even in the midst of a horrific and senseless war, and even greater respect for her decision to create a new forum on which writers may publish their work.
Read on to learn more about Iryna’s writing, her new lit mag, and how she generates ideas for her writing.
I wrote this declaration and posted it on the Fourth of July. I thought it might be worth sharing again as we in the USA approach our country’s 250th anniversary.
‘I’m interested in what happens when people find themselves at a crossroads and have to make difficult choices’
Michael Downing
BREAKING: Bad Intentions is now available for pre-order. Be the first on your block to purchase it! A portion of proceeds will support Philadelphia-based nonprofit Philabundance.
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When I found out last December that Literary Garagewas looking for crime stories for an anthology of crime stories inspired by the legendary musical master Warren Zevon, my heart sank like a stone. Because, even though I’m a longtime Zevon fan, I assumed poor, poor pitiful me would have no chance in landing a spot in that book, since I hadn’t written any sort of crime/noir fiction since a Perry Mason story I wrote, probably on a Big Chief tablet, in third grade. Even so, I gave it a shot, and now, as I’ve mentioned here before, my Zevon-inspired crime story is one of fifteen to make it into this anthology.
Through this process, I’ve gotten to know more about the guy put in charge of selecting the stories for this anthology (called Bad Intentions), Michael Downing. Originally from New Jersey (land of Springsteen, as Michael will proudly tell you) and now living in Georgia, Michael is an accomplished writer himself. His latest book, Saints of the Asphalt, published last year, is available online and at select bookstores. (Here’s an excerpt.) Over the past twenty years Michael has written plays, published several books, and has had short stories published in numerous literary publications. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three times, and his fiction appears in several anthologies, including Under the Thumb: Stories of Police Oppression (ed. S.A. Cosby), On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Anthology (ed. Curtis Ippolito), and Six Sentences Volumes II & III (ed. Rob McEvily).
A literacy advocate, Michael also is the founder and former creative director of StoryTellers, a community-based literacy organization in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and Rome, Georgia, dedicated to helping underserved teens and young adults develop confidence through creative writing and self-expression.
He now lives northeast of Atlanta with his wife Helen, but remains unmistakably New Jersey—attitude, edginess, and Springsteen songs (just not Bon Jovi). Read on to learn about his writing, his work with Bad Intentions, his literary advocacy, and his thoughts about the music of Warren Zevon.
