• Sprint Week and Other Updates, Or, The Short Story of How Liz Has Too Much to Do and Yet Keeps Piling Stuff on Anyway

    Hey all! Sorry I’ve been so absent lately. Things (novel-ing, grad school-ing, reading, writing, Final Fantasy-ing) have been hectic. Here’s a quick rehash of what I’ve been up to: -Louisville Comic Con (haven’t decided yet whether or not I’m going to write a post about this — I’ll have to find a connection to writing,…

  • Reading List #5 — The Man in the High Castle

    Here we go again. Please don’t worry about whether or not I’m going to be able to read all these books by August — I’ve read more than 5 of them, but I’m just behind on my posts. Phillip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle is a fantastic science fiction/literary masterpiece that takes…

  • NEAT. Issue 3!

    Drum roll, please . . . TM Keesling and I just released our third issue of NEAT., the Midwestern literary journal we’ve been slaving over (in a good way). This winter issue is full of the three P’s: poetry, prose, and photography (but holy cow especially poetry). TM and I had an exchange this morning…

  • This Weekend in Bullet Points — Reading, Writing, and #neatingout

    Lots of new things happening in Liz’s life right now. 1. I turned 24 this past week. I feel old. 2.The third issue of NEAT. is about to go live. There is a metric tonne of poetry in this one, and I’m super pumped about it. Can’t wait to sit down with my Kindle and…

  • WARNING: Rant Ahead — Liz’s Thoughts on “Genre”

    First of all, WordPress informed me yesterday that it was my one-year anniversary with this site. Woohoo. I’ve managed to annoy people with words for a whole 365 days now. Here’s to 365 more! Okay. On to the nitty gritty. Yesterday morning I read my friend Katie’s blog post about genre and her thoughts on…

  • The Infinite Wisdom of Terry Pratchett

    “The first draft is just you telling yourself a story.” — Terry Pratchett What a wonderful man and wonderful writer. I’m currently re-reading The Wee Free Men, and I’m realizing what an important impact Mr. Pratchett has had on my life and work so far. I don’t write anything like he does, but the way he…

  • What and why is art? — Follow-up on Jesus’ Son

    I mentioned in my post on Jesus’ Son that I was going to be discussing it with classmates and would post if anything interesting came up in the discussion. It was mostly the usual kind of discussion you have in that kind of craft class — what is he doing, how is he doing it,…

  • Reading List #3 — Plainsong

    Yes, yes, here it is, the elusive #3. I decided to not be lazy (ironic, considering I feel like poop) and finish this entry. This week, I read Plainsong by Kent Haruf. This book is about a group of characters in the town of Holt, Colorado. In a seemingly simple, episodic narrative, we learn all about this…

  • Reading List #4 — Jesus’ Son

    If you’re confused that this is #4 and not #3, good on you for paying attention. I have #3 drafted, but I never seem to have the book around to grab quotes out of, so it will sit there for at least another day until I can stop being lazy and find the book. (I…

  • …Like a Patient Etherized Upon a Table

    Let’s get something straight. I write fiction. Fiction is what I do. Novels, short stories, flash fiction, non-fiction (it made me crazy, but I did it). But every now and then, when the moon is at its apex in the eastern sky and the crickets are singing and there’s beer in my belly and the…