Link of the Week

Link of the Week: Chris Hardwick, Interview 2: Watching the “Daily Show” Saved My Life

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Geekadelphia just posted my interview with Chris Hardwick, host of The Nerdist, Talking Dead, and about fifteen other podcasts and television shows.The turning point of his book and life was went post-Singled-Out Chris realized he’d followed the cliche’ comedian’s path right into a bottle.

While he doesn’t begrudge anyone who can drink without fear of addiction, Chris, in his own words, has the gene that makes one drink become ten, one night of drinking become two weeks.

Luckily he was watching an episode of “The Daily Show” when his old pal Jenny McCarthy came on. (Skip to 3:35.) Yeah, Jon Stewart buried him. Boom! Right in the kisser. But that was when he realized how much of a joke he’d become…Chris was an aside, jammed in at the end of an interview.

Here, from the Geekadelphia interview, Chris talks about that moment:

“Most people don’t get an intervention from their favorite television show, but that was really what happened. It was still couple more years before I decided to clean up my act, but that was the first moment I was aware. At the time it crushed me—it was ultimately was one of the best things that ever happened.”–Chris Hardwick

Do yourself a favor, listen to his podcast “The Nerdist.” Maybe even buy the book.

Enjoy your burrito!

Link of the Week: Foyles Announces Murakami Contest Winner

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If you ever want to know what it feels like to be a writer who loses a contest then reads the winning entry…well, I will tell you that it’s a lot of smiling that feels like swallowing bitterness. Anyway, this contest was a cool idea: write a story in the style of Haruki Murakami using a line from his new bookstop novel 1Q84.

Courtesy of the writer.

The winning entry, which comes from Kavita Jindal, is an excellent story with the kind of restrained yet entrancing voice that Murakami does so well. Losing sucks. But it’s not so bad when you get to read such a wonderful story as a result.

Writers of all levels would do well to see how the story handles telling and showing, using one to set up the other. It also has a subtle strangeness common to great micro fiction.

Well written is well done.

Unstuck Uses Twitter as a Short Story Medium

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Image from Unstuck

Courtesy of Unstuck

Micro fiction has always pushed to tell the biggest stories in least space. 1500 words became 150 words became 25 words. Then six.

When the stories work, they are amazing. For examples, see Amy Hempel, one of the best from the so-called fictional minimalists.Other times, it becomes a code for which the reader needs a cypher.

Unstuck Annual, an independent literary journal, has entered its own experiment in micro fiction, using Twitter as the medium. Twelve Tweets telling one story. For the next five Mondays, the remainder of its “Lovemarks” contest finalists will have their entries tweeted out.

The first, “BIG BRIGHT DREAMS” by Kira Atwood-Youngstrom, came out this morning. Look for the rest. Let me know what you think — below or on Twitter. And remember to vote for your favorite.