HOKAIC (“hawk-ache”) by Jason Brick HOKAIC. It sounds like a Klingon curse word, but actually it’s the most important concept for success in any writing endeavor. It’s an acronym that stands for Hands On Keyboard Ass In Chair HOKAIC is absolutely the key to success as a writer because writers…well, we write. Maybe not for pay. Maybe not for publication. But we write. So at the end of the day, you’d better have spent some time with your hands and ass in the right place. It’s not always as easy as I’m making it sound, but it’s exactly that simple. Kick writer’s block where it hurts, then get busy writing. This is just part of the day for most people who make a living at our craft. For folks who still struggle with this, here are…
Coffee Cup…Butts?
My nephew Luther, who lives in Chicago, is a really creative, ingenious, and funny guy. I love him a lot and follow his interests with great interest because they’re always so interesting. Like his handmade Christmas cards. Like his recent project to build a motorized volume control for his antique Marantz receiver [for those of you who don’t know what a receiver is, click here]. But I am not here to tell you about his retrofitted volume control, but to pass along another of his interests more in keeping with our own: coffee. Specifically coffee cup butts. Yes, you read that correctly. Luther has discovered the coffee equivalent of tea leaves. It hardly makes sense for me to attempt to describe what a coffee cup butt is. You’ll have to find out for yourself my clicking…
Book Review: A Hoarse Half-Human Cheer
It was Peter Dexter who wrote, “Keep in mind that a book that entertains without enlightening can still be a guilty pleasure, but a book that enlightens without entertaining is algebra.” Joseph [X.J.] Kennedy’s delightful A Hoarse Half-Human Cheer is, admittedly, intended to entertain, yet it enlightens in being a period piece – après-guerre America, circa 1946 – foreshadowing the sprawling modern era in this country with wit, humor and irony. After you finish re-reading Heller’s “Catch-22,” this is the novel you should begin. Young Moon Gogarty is the book’s Candide, trying to deal with his stultified feelings after having lost his first love to his mortician grandmother, just as he’s about to begin his studies at the infamous College of Saint Cassian of Imola. He’s thrust into a community of 4,500 older men who’ve…
People, Places and Things I Know on Twitter – NOT!
Why do I get these completely random Twitter notifications about people, places and things I don’t know, would never wish to know, and confound my sense of what’s spam? This is ridiculous. Google does a better job of targeting me with adverts that are at least within my interests or peer group[s]. Call it machine intelligence. Naw, call it machine irrelevance. The computer version of robocalls. And yeah, I know I can log into my account and change my preferences, but clicking the garbage can icon is quicker and more satisfying. Twitter Goes BIRDBRAINED! Tweet! Tweet! Wheeeeeeee!
Sign of the Times
Some people write. Some paint. Some people take photographs. Some take photographs of themselves. Do you take pictures of yourself? Do you have your own selfie stick? Sure looks like it’s become popular, as this photo attests. All sold out. Tell us about photos you like to take.
About the Podcasts
We think podcasts of books are the audio format of the future. Last year, we presented our founding barista’s novel, Wild Blue Yonder, and some other fictional works and old-time radio dramas in downloadable audio files. Jack’s been a DJ and media nut most of his life, so you never know what he’s gonna podcast next. OUR NEW PODCAST This week, we begin the new podcast series of Jack’s second novel, Madrone. It’s the second volume in the Nathaniel Hawthorne Flowers story, and it’s received rave reviews from readers. Now you can listen to it here. We’ll publish one chapter a week for the next 24 weeks. The podcast is read by Leonard Mailloux, a lifelong radio broadcaster and broadcast writing practitioner. Len is Senior Faculty in the Communications Department at Simmons College. Sound engineering by Walking…
Writer’s Block? Take a Nap.
Lately, I’ve been hit hard by the busyness bug. In today’s society it’s hard to avoid. But it had gotten so bad for me that I’d started nodding off in the middle of lunch or while reading (War and Peace has been known to have that effect). At first I was annoyed that my body couldn’t keep up. However, I began to embrace the idea that maybe these naps were a good thing. The other day I had just woken up from a long winter’s nap and was greeted with the most pleasant surprise: having a song stuck in my head. But it wasn’t any song I’d heard before; it was one I’d just written during my nap. I scrambled to my computer to clickety-clack my verses down, shining with the glow that only a…
The Year of Writing Dangerously
Happy 2015 everybody! This year’s a big year for me in terms of publishing and writing and all that jazz. I don’t say that to brag, but rather because the experiences are going to be a great opportunity to learn about what’s going on with writing and publishing today. I will definitely take the time to share that learning with all of you, because if you don’t share what you learn what’s the point? By coincidence stemming from a little bit of design, I’m going to have a total of six projects coming out this year. All of them are releasing via different methods. Self-Publishing My vulgar and (I think) hilarious Farkas Foxtrot series goes live next month, self-published via Amazon, Kobo and all the other big boys. They’re novellas, and I plan to release them…
Welcome Back and a Special Request
Hello everyone, we apologize for the lapse in updates as we continue working on our new site design. We are very excited for the changes in store for the website and for Fictional Cafe this year and promise it will be worth the wait. In the meantime, we welcome you to tell us which of our member contributions from 2014 was your favorite. Please write your choice in the comments section below. “The strongest of all warriors are these two – Time and Patience.” – Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
The Sketchbooks of Jonathan Shih
Jonathan Shih lives in Taipei, Taiwan, although he lived for many years in the U.S., mostly in New York, where he earned his MBA and worked in finance. You cannot say he has retired, for his interests and activities keep him busy every day. A prime activity is his art. He carries a sketchbook wherever he goes. We met up in a beef noodle restaurant on TaoYuan Street in Taipei. [BTW, the beef noodle soup was exceptional!] Jonathan arrived with three sketchbooks under his arm, and I had to know what they were all about. He told me these three were just for the past few weeks – he regularly fills four to five sketchbooks a month. Clearly, art is his passion. I began browsing through the sketchbooks and quickly decided we should feature his work here at…