Brady Dale

On my way to Toronto for TCAF. High hopes for submitting some long ignored fiction to some publishers on the way. First, some reading. I wish I had brought some Ambien. Not so I could sleep, but so I could slip it in a drink and give it to the little kid sitting behind me.

05.10.13 /09:09

toronto tcaf fiction writing comics

I covered this book, The Third Coast, by Thomas Dyja, for Next City. You can see my review here.
Then, I had a really substantive conversation with the author, which we ran an edited version of here. It was kind of an amazing talk. I had to do it over the phone and try to type out as much as I could of what he said - which I don’t like doing, because I knew I was missing a lot. It also made it hard for me to engage with what he was saying as well as I might have liked, because I was concentrating so hard on getting it down. Fortunately, I had prepared a bunch of questions in advance, so it was okay.
But here’s what surprised me: he and I talked on the phone for an hour. Me asking questions, then me typing furiously as he dropped all kinds of Chicago knowledge on me.
When we were done, I did a word count on what I’d typed.
4400 words.
IN ONE HOUR!
Imagine… you really could write that much in an hour if you just had the focus. NaNoWriMo? Please. NaNoWri3DaysOnCoke, you know?

05.08.13 /14:23

writing chicago thomas dyja The Third Coast NextCity cities

The haunting and unhurried Joe Bell works his way through the last of the crowd in the final moments of last night’s Tight Six open-mic.

This show felt really good. I hadn’t been in months, but I heard members of the hosting team talking excitedly about it, too. Here’s something that has been remarkable to see over the year or so that I have been doing stand-up comedy: a switch flips for many comics one day. Comedians that are good or okay or even pretty funny just kind of take a leap forward, all the sudden. They keep going up and keep writing and one day they get on the mic and you are just like, “who the eff is this guy?” Even though you have been watching him for months.

It’s totes wicked dope.

It feels like the switch is flipping for a lot of the comics I have been watching since I first went up at Philadelphia’s Laughs on Fairmount. I am really excited for these artists and I hope to see them flip a lot more switches.

It gets a bit tiring to spend quite so much time at mics, but I would have missed out on witnessing all these transformations if I hadn’t. (at Fergie’s Pub)

04.22.13 /15:24

standupcomedy fairmount comics laughs philadelphia comedians writing openmic tightsix

Doodled notes from the panel organized by Barrelhouse’s Joe Killiany, on creating suspense in Fiction. Authors Con Lehane & James Grady offered a lot of fodder for plot, captured in these tiny drawings. From this weekend’s Conversations and Connections Conference in D.C. When in doubt, walk a man into the room with a gun. Or a metaphor.

04.15.13 /17:39/♥ 1

authors suspense drawings fiction writing writers

My #doodle notes from the first two sessions of #ccdc13. #writing #literature #writers (at Johns Hopkins University Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences)

04.13.13 /15:18

doodle writing writers literature ccdc13

#Drawing of (sort of, kind of) a lady I saw while trying to get started #writing this morning. The stripes on her blazer caught my attention.

04.12.13 /11:47

drawing writing

My girlfriend is a compulsive straightener. So I might have a few things out together because all of them are part of a project. They all have a way of disappearing into stacks that have no logic beyond appearing neater, visually. The four pens I favor for writing can end up about anywhere, disappearing into jars full of writing instrument also-rans.
So last night I showed her these four and said, “These are the Beatles of my pens. The Fab Four.” I showed her a spot to put them if she must disrupt my work areas. I can’t bear for them to go in with the lumpen. Plus, I need them when I go out.
Which raises the question? Which pen is which Beatle? I guess the blue one is John and the red felt tip is Paul. Those two do most of the heavy lifting. Which makes the reliable red Hi-Tec-C George (my favorite Beatle but not my favorite pen…) and the gray brush tip, Ringo. That one mostly just adds character as needed, right?

04.08.13 /11:19/♥ 2

girlfriend beatles pens writing

This pen is fighting to keep going but I will wring the last bit of life out of it yet.

04.06.13 /10:51

pen writing

So I have this email list that I use about every six weeks or so. Only when I have big news. Like the fact that I am going to be in this big show in Philadelphia. Here’s the latest message that went out, with the hot news.
If you dig it, you might click that SUBSCRIBE button in the upper left and get on the list. You won’t hear from me much, but maybe what you do hear will grab you.
Maybe?

04.05.13 /14:56/♥ 1

lists email newsletter writing writer performer Philadelphia Brooklyn

Writing about books for NextCity rocks, you guys. Here’s the two books I will cover after Thomas Dyja’s The Third Coast.

04.04.13 /13:54/♥ 1

preview books nextcitybooks writing Thomas Dyja Moses Gates Pete Jordan

Finished writing the draft of episode two of the novel I am working on. These days I am referring to chunks of action as “episodes,” in my head, rather than “chapters.” What I think are going to be the events of a chapter always turn out to take way more text than I think they will. Not that it matters, but this works better for me somehow.

I like to read short chapters, but that is not at all how they come out of me. So I hope to break these episodes up later into shorter chapters.

I have been stressed about this one as I have taken a couple stabs at it and it just felt boring, maybe because it sets up future action and I was struggling to make it its own action. As I was writing this morning I found a way, out of nowhere, to set up a whole other piece of action in a facet of the story that hadn’t been dealt with at all yet.

Once that was done it seemed like the episode had a certain amount of discovery for the reader in it, and the episode did not appear to be boring anymore.

But who am I to judge? I am no judge. I am just flailing about for meaning here, like everybody else.

04.04.13 /12:25

reader novel discovery working writing

#Writing

04.03.13 /09:37/♥ 1

writing

So, I think that Olivia Wilde is the hottest woman on screen right now. Top that off with the fact that she is also a substantive human being, and I could not miss seeing her do a live interview with the ur-Twitter celeb, Kelly Oxford last night at Housing Works Bookstore, in Manhattan. They were both great. Wilde’s voice should make you fat it is so rich. At one point, Wilde remarked that Oxford comes off well because it seems like Twitter is just a side thing for her. Oxford is commenting along the way, NBD.
I think the word Wilde used to describe the lesser lights of social media was “urgency.” I know she used the word “desperation.” She said Oxford doesn’t come off as having the desperation of so many on Twitter.
It was as if Wilde walked off the stage and pointed at me and said, “Like this dude. This dude is just begging for attention on-line.” It made me want to give up this whole enterprise. Which assumes that there is something besides #writing that I think I could do.
And, let’s be honest: if Wilde really had walked off the stage and done that I would have been, on balance, really excited, because it would have meant that Wilde knows I exist. (at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe)

04.02.13 /08:58

desperation twitter substantive celeb wilde human writing manhattan Olivia Wilde Kelly Oxford Housing Works Bookstore

Prev / Next

Canvas by andbamnan