I grew dissatisfied with the original covers for the Short Fiction Lab releases over the weekend. My original goal with the series wast putting together a consistent design scheme that also forced me to write a bunch of blurbs–practicing skills that I hadn’t needed as a writer. It worked, to an extent, but getting blurbs down […]
Apocalypse Ink Productions–the fine folks who published the Flotsam series–will be shifting their focus in 2019. They recently made the public announcement on their google group: Apocalypse Ink Productions will be changing focus in 2019. We will no longer be publishing books by other authors, instead we will focus on books written by Jennifer Brozek […]
The Sunday Circle is the weekly check-in where I ask the creative-types who follow this blog to weigh in about their goals, inspirations, and challenges for the coming week. The logic behind it can be found here. Want to be involved? It’s easy – just answer three questions in the comments or on your own […]
I released The Birdcage Heart and Other Strange Tales on November 30th last year, which makes this the official first birthday of Brain Jar Press. Over the last twelve months I’ve put out two short story collections, one essay collection, and a pair of short stories in the new Short Fiction Lab series. For those who […]
The most interesting essay in Tom Bissell’s collection, Magic Hours: Essays on Creators and Creation, takes a close look at the differing styles of writing books and the kinds of promises they make to prospective writers. Ostensibly a survey of several different books, Bissell pithily outlines the rules of engagement for each type: the users […]
My friend Lois shared this post about the difference between Supper and Dinner, and the meaning of dinner changed as a result of industrialisation and the rise of the middle class. Meanwhile, this week’s my newsletter will feature a short semi-essay about the origins and goals of of the Short Fiction Lab series. If you’ve […]
The free period for Winged, With Sharp Teeth is over, which means I’m now sitting here and prodding the numbers with surprise, saying things like, “Really? That many people from the German store? Who’d have thought it?” Some people went on and pre-ordered Eight Minutes of Usable Daylight, which is out now if you live in Australia […]
I finally had a chance to clear my RSS feed over the weekend, and uncovered a fascinating profile on Janelle Monáe and the productivity tools/corporate structure she uses over on Fast Company, and the things she’s picked up from businesses like Pixar. Interesting reading. But I’m still not the biggest fan of Slack. # Speaking […]
It’s the three-year anniversary of the Sunday Circle this week, which I almost missed amid the chaos of the last seven days. Big thanks to all past and present circle posters–I appreciate you dropping in and sharing your weekly goals with us. The Sunday Circle is the weekly check-in where I ask the creative-types who […]
Yesterday my partner read Eight Minutes of Usable Daylight and picked up a bunch of mistakes i’d missed, plus added a few notes about a point where the story offended her knowledge of science. This proved to be fortuitous, as fixing the problem gave me a new line of dialogue with a little more metaphorical punch […]
I am sitting at my desk and trying to corral all the projects on my immediate to-do list, which I’ve allowed to get slightly out of control. That was to be expected this week, so I’ve largely run with the wolves, but I’m not sure it would be a good idea to carry this level […]
As promised in the last post, you can pick up a copy of Winged, With Sharp Teeth for free this week. Just follow the links here to claim your copy: Amazon US | Amazon Australia | Amazon UK And here’s a little taste of what you’re getting if you follow the link. The rain draped […]
