Follow us on Twitter!

I am super-hooked on Twitter and I've pulled Amy along into the game. It goes without saying that we'll be using Twitter at Pilcrow in May. Are you on Twitter? Then add PilcrowLitFest, me and Amy.

Don't know what Twitter is? Once again I turn to my friends at Common Craft.

Do you go on writing retreats?

In the past few months, I've been luck to attend two writing retreats. I like to go off to woods to work with other writers, it reminds me that of all things I need to do, I need to write.

In November I went to the Algonkian Park Novel Writer's Workshop with Michael Neff. I had a great experience and was forced to find a new idea for a novel in short order. It was just what I needed. Nights in a cabin with a fire roaring, in the living room writing with two others. Tapping away at our keyboards and sharing a bottle of wine. Later we'd turn off our computers and tell each other stories, look out on the Potomac River, and laugh ourselves silly.

Last weekend I took a shorter trip and went to the SOFER Writing Retreat at OSRUI in Wisconsin. This was a bigger group split into poets and novelists. Again we had a forest, great teachers and room to write. I even talked the organizer into blogging.

Do you ever go off to the woods to write? Off to the city? Off to a diner? What retreats would you recommend for fellow Pilcrowers?

What a pretty Pilcrow you have...

I got a sneak peek at the festival posters yesterday! Look closely--


Big thank you to Momma's Boy Design, for making Pilcrow look so sharp.

Five With Charles Blackstone

Next up in Pilcrow's "Five with", please welcome Charles Blackstone, author of the novel The Week You Weren't Here, as well as his new play, Rogers Party. (Psst, there's a benefit for Lifeline Theatre Company on May 6th. Go and get a preview of the play. And drink wine. Everyone wins.)

1. What are you working on now?

Trying to come up with a good excuse about why I've ignored these questions for so long. I am a bad, bad Pilcrower. It's not my fault. It's just been a busy couple of weeks. Rain on the Pilcrow, blood on the plow, this landfill nation, etc.

2. What is your favorite part of literary festivals and why?

I like getting to see in person those colleagues who I spend the rest of the year (sometimes the rest of the years) communicating with via email. These aren't even necessarily people who live in other cities. I also like the fact that in a world dominated by so many festivals (jazz, blues, food, booze, comic books, furries) that have little to do with all things literary that there can be a moment when words and the people who make them and think about them and care about them are all the rage.

3. Who are your favorite small press mover/shaker types at the minute?

Impetus Press. I've gotten to know Jennifer Banash and the more I learn about what they're doing, the more excited I get about small press publishing. Usually small presses set out to be as unlike their mainstream counterparts as possible, which means they're going end up eschewing meaningful literary fiction that is more or less formally conventional, and Impetus isn't like that. They have pretty delicious covers, too.

4. Which author do you wish was coming to Pilcrow Lit Fest this year who is not?

Zoe Trope. The last time she was in Chicago, we had such a blast. We went to IKEA, a Purim carnival, a Thai restaurant, a sushi bar, Mity Nice Grill with my friend Julie, a couple of used bookstores, the top of the Hancock building, the U-505 at the Museum of Science and Industry, Old Navy, Target, and, at one point, she baked me Snickerdoodle cookies. Now imagine adding Pilcrow to that list. Need I say more?

5. If you were in charge of picking a theme song for Pilcrow Lit Fest this year, what would it be?

This song called "Folder," by Plastic Operator. Why? Because it's going through my head right now, and because it contains the term "copy and paste," which to my mind no other song has ever included. It's also on my iPod, so it wouldn't be hard to broadcast, and it's fast, so you can run to it.

Start using RSS!

I'm helping the Guthster with the Lit Fest on all things having to do with social media. What's that? All the new fangled stuff on the interwebs. Blogs, social networks like Facebook and MySpace, photo sharing sites like Flickr, video sharing sites like YouTube, microblogging sites like Twitter and Pownce... You know what I mean?

Since I'm the one helping with that stuff, I thought I would teach some skills as we lead up to the festival where you'll be fully prepped to ask me stuff in person.

The first on the list? RSS.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and you might already be using it. Got a personalized Google home page? Using MyYahoo? Personalized your MSN? Then you are using it but learning how to really use it will save you time. Time that you could be using to write the next project!

I'm going to let Common Craft explain RSS and then I'll be back.




Lee mentions a few feed readers: Google Reader, Bloglines, NewsGator and MyYahoo. I have used both Google Reader and Bloglines and have to say that I'm a Bloglines Girl. It is the first reader I ever used and I like being able to empty it to zero, you can't with Google Reader and sometimes I like to start from scratch.

So, your mission? Set up an account on a feed reader and add five of your favorite blogs and two favorite news sites. Let me know when you've done that.

P.S. I also endorse the Back In Skinny Jeans post about RSS.

International Festival of Mystery...?

I started with the idea of getting local authors together, then I realized by the time I rallied my peeps, and those peeps rallied their peeps, that Pilcrow would bring authors together from around the country. Well, my friends, Pilcrow goes international as of today with a fabulous guest from Berlin. Not bad, kids. Not bad at all. Details shortly.

Five with Timothy Schaffert

Happy Monday! Ready for another "Five With..."? We thought you might be. Welcome Timothy Schaffert, author of Devils In The Sugar Shop, The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God and The Phantom Limbs of The Rollow Sisters, and is the man behind (Downtown) Omaha Lit Fest.

1. What are you working on now?

I foolishly have two novels in the works at the same time. I started one that I like very much, but it was coming along only in fits and starts, needing more time to fester in my brain, then this other one cropped up and commanded my attention, fluttering its eyelashes and stealing me away.

2. What is your favorite part of literary festivals and why?

I would say the torrid affairs, but I have yet to have one at a literary festival. So I'll say the potential for torrid affairs. The reasons should be obvious.

3. Who are your favorite small press mover/shaker types at the minute?

I was just at a conference where there were miles of tables of small press people, all of them so skinny and nerdy-glam with horned-rim spectacles and cigarette pants and charming Attention Deficit Disorder, so I'm having a hard time picking my favorites. So I'll be biased and pick a few who have been good to me lately: I love what Jonathan Messinger does (full disclosure: he accepted a story of mine for a featherproof mini-book), and the work he publishes is super-tantalizing. Kate Bernheimer, with her Fairy Tale Review, and now the Fairy Tale Review Press which is reissuing great books, is one of my favorites too. (Full disclosure: I have a story forthcoming in the Fairy Tale Review.) And both of them are fiction writers producing inspiring work of their own. I also want to include Zachary Schomburg and Mathias Svalina, who produce some beautiful books with their own Octopus Books, and who are destined for stardom.

4. Which author do you wish was coming to Pilcrow Lit Fest this year who is not?

Flannery O'Connor, peacocks and all.

5. If you were in charge of picking a theme song for Pilcrow Lit Fest this year, what would it be?

"(You're) Having My Baby" by Paul Anka, because we'll all be pregnant with ideas.