Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

My friend and co-writer Emily Franklin and I went to speak at a local high school on Wednesday. ÌýWe had a wonderful time and hopefully didn't get our host, Barb the librarian, fired. ÌýI'm pretty sure I only swore twice. ÌýI think.

The students had done summer reading projects where they made an original piece of art inspired by a book they read over the summer.

After Emily and I finished speaking to a group of students, one came up to us and asked us if she could play us the song she did for her project. ÌýIt's based onTessa Masterson Will Go to Prom and is more or less a musical version of the first chapter. Ìý

Also it is awesome. ÌýAlso I was thrilled and totally humbled to hear it. ÌýMaybe you'll like it too--click below to find out! ÌýIt's by Carissa Angelo, who is crazy talented. ÌýYou can like her band, The Crooked Screws, on ÌýI did!

While I'm focusing primarily on DIY authors as I prepare for the launch of Enter the Bluebird, I thought it only appropriate to focus on a DIY pioneer (to me, anyway). ÌýKarl Meyer and Sluggo released the Contradiction EP in 1983. It was a blast of DC-style hardcore that I, frankly, didn't really get at the time, but I bought it anyway because Karl was in my history class, and I knew somebody who had a record! Ìý

As I think about my own journey to becoming a DIY author, I don't think I can overstate Karl's influence--after all, the guy put a record out in the tenth grade. ÌýAnd introduced me to punk rock, played the Minutemen for me for the first time...well, I could go on, but his head is big enough already. ÌýOn the 30th anniversary of the Contradiction EP's release, Karl agreed to answer some questions for me about doing it yourself in the actual heydey of punk rock. ÌýEnjoy!

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Brendan Halpin:ÌýSo you were like 16 or something when you did the Contradiction EP. What made you even think you could make a record? I could barely make my own lunch at that point.

Karl Meyer: In 1978, when I was 10, my mother was the curator of the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in downtown Cincinnati. The CAC held a concert and performance series in September called Nine in the Ninth. One night they had the Ed Davis Band, and another night they had The Customs, The Verbs, and The Ravens. These were all local underground bands. Seeing these bands up close was nothing short of mind-blowing for me. From that moment on, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to play in a band.
My mom was obliging and bought me copies of The Ed Davis Band 45 (Keith Richards Dead b/w Asshole) and The Customs 45 (Bring My Cadillac Back b/w Let’s Get It On) directly from the bands those nights. I loved both records, and this started my in interest in local, DIY records. Over the years, I made it a point to pick up local DIY records, particularly 7 inches, of the bands I got to see. Some of my other favorites from that
era are Auto Glamour Sound, Dennis The Menace, and Ronald Koal and the Trillionaires -- What a Bargain (from Columbus).
So, by the time Sluggo came together in 1983, I had been thinking about doing a record for several years.

BH: How did you learn all the stuff you needed to know to do this? I think people who grew up with the internet have no idea that we didn't always have all the information right in front of us.

KM: I knew what to do from talking with other musicians. It’s not that difficult. Once you have the money together, you record your music in a studio, you take the tape to a pressing company, and they press up the records for you. Once I decided to do this, I started called up local studios and asking them questions. I wrote down all of the costs I could think of and worked it out so that it fit within our budget. There was only
one pressing plant in town -- QCA, but they were considered top-notch, so I just went with them.
As far as marketing goes, by the time 1983 rolled around, promoting a hardcore punk record nationally was pretty straightforward, thanks mostly to . MRR would review literally any record, and their advertising rates were cheap. Anyone who cared about
hardcore read MRR. I also corresponded with a guy who had a punk band in Indy and he sent me a list of college radio stations that had played his record. I sent the EP to every station on the list. The EP got decent airplay at a lot of stations. I still have a stack of the xeroxed playlists they sent me. Locally, I just set up consignment deals with the record stores in the area and spread the word by showing up at to plug the record on Monday nights and Wednesday nights -- Billy Blank's and Clem Carpenter's most excellent radio shows.
All that stuff is easy -- you just and do it. The tough part was the previous 5 years or so -- finding a bunch of guys that were serious enough about playing in a band to make something stick. Practicing, writing songs, working out arrangements, keeping a band together: Ìýthat's difficult because of the personalities in the mix. The main reason we recorded in such a hurry was that I was afraid the band would fall apart at any moment. I wanted to capture us as soon as we had enough original material to record. It turns out I was right about limited window of time we had -- our drummer, Andrew, left the band a few months after we recorded the EP.

BH: What was the best part of doing this record yourselves? What, if anything, sucked about it?

KM: The best part of doing it yourself is that you have complete control over the product. No one can tell you to do things differently. You don’t have to make compromises with anyone outside of your band. The flip side of that, especially if it’s your first time, is that you’ll make a lot of mistakes. So, that’s the part that sucks. We made a lot of mistakes in terms of the sound -- mixing and mastering. We should have taken more time with both processes and ed together a better product in the end.

BH: What was your bar for success at that time? Did you have a sales target or anything, or did you just want to get it out there? Did it feel successful to you at the time? I remember sitting in the library with you showing us the letters you'd gotten from Ian MacKaye (I think) and Jello Biafra and not really understanding what a big deal that was, though I do now. Was it enough to get noticed by icons like that, or did you want
more?

KM: The main thing we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted to be noticed. We wanted Sluggo to be taken seriously by both the local underground music scene and the national punk scene. In that sense, the record was a success, our expectations. Locally, as a result of the record, we got the kinds of gigs that we wanted and we were recognized for
being the first band to bring DC-style hardcore to Cincinnati. Nationally, due mostly to MRR, we were recognized positively as well. The encouragement we got from folks like Ian and Jello meant a lot to me personally. I also got a lot of letters from people all over the country who dug the EP and who wanted to know more about the band.
One thing that I didn't anticipate
was that Sluggo quickly inspired a bunch of other high-school-aged kids to start their own bands in Cincinnati. So, soon there was Flak, Dead By Popular Demand, Mexican Pig Torture, Anathema, and others, all playing at the Jockey Club. To me, this was a great affirmation that Sluggo had started something really great.
From a financial standpoint, I was happy to break even,
which nearly happened. Some of the distributors never sent me any of the money they owed me, but most did. I sold most of the records one-at-a-time via mail order, so, of course I’m not factoring in my own labor as a cost. But I enjoyed coming home from school every day, opening the mail, and processing a few orders.

BH: What about now? How does it feel 30 years
later (good Lord)? Are you glad you did it? Would you have done anything differently?

KM: Vinyl is permanent. This is a good thing and a bad thing. Once you've committed your music to vinyl and distributed it to the masses, you can't go back and fix your mistakes. So, 30 years later, it feels good, certainly. I'm proud of the record. It's not watered
down in any way. Because we did it ourselves we didn't have to compromise on the intensity of the music. Fast, loud, hard -- that's what you get on that little slab. I'm proud that we also didn't apologize to anyone for unleashing a relentlessly thrashing record on a sleepy, unsuspecting Cincinnati. I think we pissed off a few parents in , so that's a good thing. I remember talking to the mother of one of our fans who said she "didn't approve" of our music. I will cherish that moment forever.
If I could do anything over again, it really would just be the mixing and mastering to get a better sound. Others have said that we should have waited until our songwriting had matured before recording. Certainly Sluggo wrote better songs as time went on, but, I think if we had waited, the moment would have passed and we would have imploded before recording anything. The record conveys that urgency. We had to do something right now. We wanted to show the older punk bands in town that we were faster, tighter, and sharper than they were -- for them. We wanted the world to know that Cincinnati had a small but thriving punk scene and that we were right in the midst .

BH: What advice do you have for creative artists today trying to get their work out?

KM: The great thing about today is that you can distribute your music without committing to vinyl or CD.
Just record your music, post it up on ReverbNation or one of those sites, share the link on your Facebook page, and there you go. Of course, everyone else is doing that also, so it's probably tough to be heard above the garbage if you're any good. So, I guess my only advice is to go for it since getting your music out there certainly can’t get much easier.

BH: What are you up to now, musically speaking?

KM: I live in Chicago and I've been playing with various blues bands around
town for about 15 years or so. I enjoy being a hired gun -- I learned from my experience with Sluggo that I'm not a good bandleader. I'm too much of a control freak. It's best for me to stand in the back and just thunk on the bass while the others play it cool. These days I mostly perform in local restaurants and blues clubs.

BH:ÌýAnything else you wanna
add?

KM: If you want to hear the Contradiction EP or any of the other music that Sluggo recorded, it is all available to download for free. Enjoy.

Well, I promised to use this space for something more positive than just sounding off on whatever happens to annoy me at the moment, and here I am living up to that promise! (I know! Weird!)

As I noted a while back, we're living in a chaotic but pretty exciting time for artists. Pretty much everything is in flux, and so a lot of artists are choosing to do it for themselves, as Annie Lennox and Aretha Franklin might have said.Ìý

So here's our first DIY artist spotlight: Ultra-Noir writer Eric Coyote, author of Ìý

Ìý

Here's my Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ review:Ìý

A homeless alcoholic tries to solve a murder to collect reward money and save his dog. What results is a crime novel that stands up next to Charlie Huston's Hank Thompson trilogy. Which is to say, it's an involving and consistently surprising story, and it also manages to sneak in some social commentary and philosophy along the way. Highly recommended for fans of crime fiction.

Those of you who know me know that I do not throw Charlie Huston comparisons around lightly. I loved this book, and I am really looking forward to the sequel. If you like crime novels at all, you need to pick this up. ÌýOr, you know, load it down, or whatever.

Eric was kind enough to answer some questions I sent him about his experience as a DIY author. ÌýHere we go!

ÌýBRENDAN HALPIN: What made you decide to do this book yourself?

ERIC COYOTE: Out of necessity, really. My agent shopped The Long Drunk to numerousÌýeditors, who overwhelmingly loved the novel. But we faced a stiff wall of resistance from theÌýaccountants and "sales guys" who ultimately green light these things. They thought it would beÌýtoo hard to sell a book about homeless vomiting drunks in outlets like Walmart and Costco. SoÌýthere you have it. With the demise of traditional brick-and-mortar bookstores, publishers areÌýtaking fewer and fewer chances on books that can't easily be peddled at the big box mega-stores.ÌýThrow in the consolidation of the publishing industry and a shifting marketplace, and it becomesÌýincreasingly more difficult for first time authors to break in, especially if their work pushes theÌýenvelope and isn't cookie-cutter consumer product. But that's what makes self-publishing soÌýexciting. Great works of literature can find an audience without having to resort to the smutpeddlerÌýroute of Nabokov's day.

BH: What surprised you--in a positive or negative way--about the process of publishing a bookÌýyourself?

EC: What a huge time suck it is, time I'd rather spend writing. Formatting a presentable ebookÌýalone is a challenge. All I have to say is, thank god for Scrivener, which made it easier. It stillÌýtook hours of trial and error, though. And I wasn't smart enough at the time to take notes on whatÌýI was doing, so I'll have to go through the whole process again when the second book in theÌýtrilogy comes out. On the plus side, self-publishing affords me complete creative control overÌýthings like my cover design, marketing approach, and website.

BH: One of the things that's exciting to me about DIY publishing is that we get to define our ownÌýcriteria for success. What were yours for The Long Drunk? Do you consider this book to be aÌýsuccess?

EC: As an artist, I don't have a moneyball criteria for success. I'm more worried aboutÌýcompleting the trilogy. I'm a firm believer in the if-you-build-it-they-will-come philosophy. ThatÌýsaid, I'm thrilled The Long Drunk is connecting with readers and also pissing some people off.ÌýTo me that's the sign of true art, challenging people. I particularly loved the one star review thatÌýsaid, "If you like reading about skid row, drunks and other low lifes... then this is your book.ÌýOtherwise, if you are a reasonably normal human being - forget about it." I must be doingÌýsomething right to elicit such a strong reaction.

BH: I'm interested in what you've done to publicize your book. I saw your , and IÌýactually discovered and bought the book through a email. What have you found mostÌýeffective? What would you not bother doing again?

EC: BookBub has definitely been the most effective tool in the box. They hit the target audienceÌýright on the mark and bumped my sales to the top of the charts in several categories for a shortÌýtime. It's always satisfying to see your novel listed as #2, right behind Stephen King. I'm theÌýAvis of hard-boiled writers! As for other publicity, I've learned you can spend a lot time andÌýmoney working on your publicity for very little return. Print ads are definitely dead. Even advertsÌýin the New York Times Book Review yield tepid results. As in zero. The hardest part of myÌýpublicity campaign was building a new brand from scratch on a limited budget. The Eric CoyoteÌýbrand didn't exist when I started, so a lot of my efforts have gone into developing my brand imageÌýand staking claim to the "ultra-noir" niche, not necessarily pimping my novel. It's like creatingÌýa coral reef. It takes patience, doing a little bit here, and little bit there, growing it slowlyÌýover time. I know that might sound vague, but getting eyeballs from a variety of websites is theÌýgoal. With that philosophy in mind, it's difficult to track which of those sites bear fruit andÌýtranslate into sales. All I can keep doing is building the reef.

You can buy the Long Drunk for your or , and you totally should. Visit Eric Coyote at , , , or just check out of him writing to Sarah Silverman.

Thanks to Eric for agreeing to answer my questions! ÌýIf you'd like to be featured in the DIY author spotlight, check out my guidelines ! More authors and artists coming soon!

So, yeah, a lot of people took umbrage at my taking umbrage at Sherman Alexie's request for authors to work for free at a bookstore. I'd like to explain a little bit about where I was coming from and answer a few of the most-repeated questions and criticisms of my piece.

Without getting too into detail, I've been feeling pretty alienated from the middle class recently. ÌýThis is due to a number of factors, but one of them is that I work with a bunch of really bright, talented, and hardworking young people, some of whom, through no fault of their own, are really staring into the cracks in society that people fall through. I have had students have crises about getting to work because they don't have train fare. ÌýIn Boston, this is two dollars. Ìý

This is the country in which we live. ÌýThere are people whose livelihood is literally at risk because they can't scrape up the cost of a tall Starbucks coffee in order to get to work. ÌýWhich is not Sherman Alexie's fault, or the fault of indpendent bookstores, but in light of this, yeah, the rally the troops cry to go volunteer at a for-profit enterprise rubbed me the wrong way.Ìý

Now to the frequently asked questions/frequently made comments!

Q: Why do you hate independent bookstores?

A: I don't! ÌýI just don't think people should work there for free! ÌýHaven't you ever had a vehement disagreement with someone you care about? Are any of you people in long-term relationships?

Q: It's okay to disagree with something, but why do you have to voice your objection?

A: We're so far apart here that I literally cannot understand why you would ask something like that.Ìý

Q: Why is the distinction between libraries and bookstores so important to you?

A: Because one is a public service and the other is a business. Apparently a lot of people don't think this distinction matters. ÌýIt matters to me. ÌýIt doesn't mean that bookstores are evil or anything, but they are different. Ìý

Q: Why are you so hung up on money, and connecting work to money? Ìý

A: I don't love trotting this stuff out, but there's a pretty big red flag of class privilege right there. ÌýThe answer is that I, like a lot of people, have to be. ÌýI have done volunteer work and will continue to volunteer in service of schools and libraries and other nonprofit organizations, but if the organization where I'm working is making money, I should be making money. ÌýI know bookstore margins are very small, but they're not charities.

Q: But you would benefit! ÌýIt's a win-win!

A: It's a lose-lose. ÌýI'm not a big enough name to draw people into the store, and I'm not going to sell more than a handful of books in a day. ÌýHell, we can even imagine that my normal awkwardness in one-to-one interactions disappears and I wind up selling 20 books in a day. Remember that I'm making in the neighborhood of 10% (or 8% for a paperback) of the cover price. ÌýYou can do the math. ÌýIt's an even bigger loss for a writer of Alexie's stature. ÌýEven if he sells 100 of his books in 8 hours, that's not a great hourly wage for someone at his income level. ÌýIf he wants to do that, cool, but for at least ninety percent of writers, this is not a moneymaking proposition.Ìý

Q: This is not going to get anybody to buy your books/This is why you can't afford to write full time/I hope you enjoy teaching!

A: I find your sudden concern for my book sales a little odd. ÌýHave you been this concerned all along and just now chose to speak out? But yeah. look at how being an opinionated loudmouth has crippled the careers of Jonathan Franzen and Bret Easton Ellis. ÌýJennifer Weiner is making a second career out of going after Franzen, and you never hear about her anymore. Is she still around?

I don't write full time because, like the overwhelming majority of writers, including those who only ever blog and tweet about unicorns and rainbows, my book sales can't generate a full-time income. ÌýAlso I like seeing people during the day. ÌýIt makes me a better person.

I think you are being sarcastic, but I do enjoy teaching very much. ÌýIt's a great job that I'm lucky to have.

Q: You clearly have no understanding of how the book business works.

A: I've been writing professionally for eleven years. ÌýI've done dozens of book events in that time. There are parts of the design process I don't get, and the oft-mentioned editorial meetings and sales meetings remain mysterious to me, but I do get this end of stuff pretty well.

Q: You are a twat, a jerk, and idiot, an asshole and an assclown.

A: Is it my lack of deference to Sherman Alexie or my insistance that businesses are businesses that's provoked this level of outrage? Honestly, you'd think I kicked a puppy or something.

ÌýI thought about what provoked my outrage--I invite you to think about where yours is coming from. Ìý Also, isn't assclown sort of a homophobic insult? ÌýIt sounds like it. Ìý

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Long time readers know that I often use this space for ranting about whatever is annoying me at the time. ÌýThe problem with this is that the world is very very annoying, and my ranting usually just serves to get me all worked up. Ìý

So I'm gonna try to celebrate some stuff that makes me happy. ÌýHere's something that makes me happy: we are living in a time when it's easier than ever for people to put out books for themselves. ÌýI'm calling this DIY publishing because DIY sounds badass and punk rock, whereas "indie" just makes me think of movies with quirky characters who mill around for two plot-free hours before the whole exercise mercifully ends. Ìý

ÌýDIY punk rockers were able to put out music that the corporate labels wouldn't, and we're all better off as a result. ÌýI think the same thing will happen from the DIY publishing revolution. ÌýPublishers are especially risk-averse right now, so DIY projects that catch fire are going to have the effect of expanding big publishers' ideas of what will sell. Ìý(I suppose this has already started to happen: who knew that BDSM porn had such a huge potential market?)

And, of course, nobody knows anything about how to get a book to catch on, so perhaps the DIY authors will teach us all something about how to sell books.Ìý

One challenge I've noticed in trying to promote my own DIY project, Enter the Bluebird, is that many of the book bloggers who have said kind things about my past projects don't accept self-published books. ÌýI don't blame them for this: there's a lot of un-copyedited crap out there. But still. Let's say you have an awesome book that is up to professional standards. ÌýWhere do you go to let the world know it exists?

Well, you can come here. ÌýHere's what I'm gonna do, on as regular a basis as I possibly can: I'm going to feature a DIY author, ask them some questions, put a bigass link to their book on here, and do what I can to help out folks trying to do something new and different. Ìý

Caveat: I have to have read and liked your book. I have a couple of people lined up already, but if you have a book you want me to read, email me at brendan at brendanhalpin dot com. ÌýI'm not gonna say I don't read this or that genre or subgenre: I'll try just about anything. That doesn't mean I'll like just about anything, but I will try it. Here's a link to my goodreads shelves if you want an idea of the kind of stuff I've liked in the past.

So watch this space for some DIY authors, and keep creating things!Ìý

Although Steve Gerber is my favorite comic book writer of all time, and he worked for Marvel, Batman is my favorite superhero, and so I've always had an affection for DC comics, especially those of the bat variety.

But I'm done with these folks for now.Ìý of all the talented creators who have left DC in the last few years. And here's their !

I don't know enough about the politics of such things to know who's really running things as opposed to who appears to be running things or whatever, but whoever is in charge over there is doing a terrible job.Ìý

I think those of us who care about these characters have an obligation at this point to send DC a message and stop buying their stuff.Ìý The characters belong to DC, but they alsoÌýbelong to the fans, and the fans trust the company to put the characters in the hands of capable creators and let them do their thing.

We can rant and rave on our blogs and various forums (fora?) or whatever, but DC is a business and will really only listen when money talks.Ìý If we say we're pissed about what happened with Batwoman but keep buying the comic, they are understandably not really going to care about what we say.Ìý

So I'm not buying any DC comics until something changes. Not because I don't love the DC Universe, but because I do.Ìý IÌýcare enough to hold out for better stewardship for the characters I care about.

Dear Sherman Alexie:

I sawÌý at our local independent bookstores.

I checked the date and was surprised it was SeptemberÌýfirst and notÌýApril first because are you fucking kidding me?

News flash:Ìý Most of us actually can't support ourselves writing full time.Ìý I, for example, teach all week and then try, between taking kids to soccer and grocery shopping and trying to keep the house from falling down, to write on the weekends.Ìý

So you're asking me to give up the only time I get to write in order to work in a bookstore.Ìý Well, I guess I'll consider it.ÌýHow much does this gig pay?Ìý

Because I don't work for free.Writers shouldn't workÌýfor free and neither should anybody else. It's disrespectful of your time and expertise to even be asked to work for free. I mean, sure, you can volunteer for a worthy cause, and such organizations are registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits.Ìý Or if you want to do something bookish, go volunteer at your local library, which is actually a public institution operated for the benefit of the community. A local bookstore, on the other hand,Ìýis a for-profit enterprise, and unless they are paying me, they're not getting any of my labor. Otherwise, I'm spending my day working to make money for someone else. And that makes me a chump.

So, no, I'm not skipping a writing day in order to donate my labor to a local business.Ìý And neither should anybody else.ÌýWhat a weird, out of touch, implicitly classist, and insulting thing to ask.Ìý

--Brendan Halpin

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About a year ago, a tiny little store opened in my neighborhood. It's called . The proprietors are friendly and knowledgeable, and while the store is not large enough to have a gigantic selection, what they have is carefully curated, so I know whenever I buy something there, it's going to be good. ÌýThere's a beer tasting every Thursday and a wine tasting every Friday.Ìý

Half a mile down the road, there is a liquor store called Blanchard's which is at least five times the size of Streetcar. ÌýSeriously. ÌýThey have everything, and their prices are lower. ÌýI shop there sometimes. ÌýBut I continue to patronize Streetcar as well because I really like the place, and every time I stop in there on a Thursday night, I get introduced to an interesting beer I might not have known about otherwise.Ìý

Probably you can see where I'm going with this, but I'm gonna go ahead and make it explicit. ÌýYou know what the guys at Streetcar never do? ÌýTalk about Blanchard's. ÌýEverybody knows about Blanchard's already. Streetcar is in the same category, but they offer a very different experience.

So why are independent bookstores talking about Amazon all the freaking time? ÌýI probably see a link once a day in which an independent bookstore makes an explicit comparison to Amazon in a Ìýblog post, or a witty sign, or a tweet, or something. Wow, is this counterproductive. ÌýFor one thing, people buy a lot more than books from Amazon these days, so these mentions just serve to remind people of Amazon as a bookseller. Furthermore, when you say something like, "well, they might have everything and be really cheap, but..." you're just reminding me that Amazon has everything for really cheap. ÌýFinally, these comparisons make independent booksellers sound whiny and petulant rather than proud and fun. "Shop us! We're resentful!" doesn't really resonate as a catchphrase.

Streetcar will never be as big as Blanchard's, and so they wisely are trying to do something very different and not talking about the gigantic chain that they can't compete with on its own terms. ÌýSimilarly, your mom-and-pop bookstore will never be able to compete with Amazon on Amazon's turf. ÌýSo stop talking about them! Stress your own good points and let Bezos do the talking about Amazon!

I've been poking around for the last few days, and at the risk of appearing to be exactly what I am, which is an out-of-touch old man enthusing about something he doesn't fully understand: wow, is it cool.

There's just more energy and excitement around reading and writing on Wattpad than I see anywhere else. Ìý (Well, except for my own classroom, of course. ÌýAhem.) And what's really cool about it is that writers now have their very own DIY scene that has never really existed before. I mean, obviously, there have Ìýbeen zines forever, but the zine scene always felt like an adjunct to the music scene, and if you wanted to write a longer work of fiction, you couldn't exactly do that in a zine format.

No, you'd have to copy it and send it around, or email it to your friends who might or might not actually want to read it and desperately crave feedback that you might never get and then...well, you get the idea. Ìý

Wattpad allows you to be a writer right now, and possibly get comments and feedback. ÌýI saw Mike Watt perform in 2005, and at the end of the show he shouted (perhaps a little optimistically at the long-in-the-tooth crowd): "go start your own band!" ÌýThis is the punk rock ethic, and books now have this. ÌýGo write your own book!

Now, yes, there is a lot of One Direction fan fiction on the site, and very little of what's up there is a polished final product, but that's kind of the point. You've got a whole community of readers and writers spending an hour or more a day reading widely (and since everything there is in pretty short chunks, it's very friendly for reading while in line at CVS or wherever) and sharing feedback and ideas. ÌýIt's a cool and fertile creative community.

And, like I said, it's full of novice writers. ÌýI love the energy and passion that suffuses their work, and there's really one thing I've noticed more than anything else that separates the novice writers from the more experienced ones: Ìýhow they deal with exposition.

Novice writers tend to do big info dumps on the characters and situations at the beginning of their stories. ÌýActually, more experienced writers sometimes do this too. ÌýBut it's something I've noticed in a lot of novice fiction. Ìý

It's easy to tell people to show and not tell, but it's a little harder to get what that means and how to do it. ÌýI am a writing teacher in addition to being an internet curmudgeon, so here's a little exposition exercise I came up with. ÌýMaybe you'll find it helpful. Maybe not. Ìý

If you're going to steal, you've gotta steal from the best, so let's have a listen to Bobbie Gentry's, "Ode To Billie Joe." ÌýBut not the whole thing. ÌýAt least not at once. Ìý(Oh, you don't like country songs from the 60's? ÌýToo damn bad. You can dis this song when you can tell this much story in 358 words.)Ìý

So at the following points, stop the video and ask yourself this: ÌýWhat do I know and how do I know it? Ìý(write down your answers if you're feeling ambitious) 1:18. Ìý2:09. 3:00. 3:51. End.

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Here are my thoughts (aside from holy cow, look at those fake eyelashes! They make Snooki look restrained!) :

1:18. ÌýAt this point, we know we're in the American South in the Summer and someone is dead. But we also know that this is a farming family--note how we get "I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay." So we know where we are and what time of year it is because we've been told, but we know they are a hardworking farm family because of what we've seen them doing. ÌýNote also how Mom tells them to wipe their feet before telling them about Billie Joe's death. A pretty clear signal of how unimportant this death is to (most of) this family.

2:09. ÌýThe last two verses get the most attention, but this one is just devastating. As before, the mundane stuff about passing food around trumps the news of Billie Joe's death, and the father is pretty contemptuous of him. ÌýWe also get some insight into both parents here: ÌýPapa's got a ton of work to do and doesn't really care about Billie Joe, whereas Mama brings the conversation back to his death: she's a little softer and more sentimental than her husband. ÌýWe also learn that this family may be hardworking, but they're not necessarily poor: they've got a "lower 40," which implies an upper 40, so we're not just subsistence farming here. Also, MamaÌýtalks about Choctaw Ridge like it's a troubled area--perhaps where the poor people live? ÌýWe're not sure, but it does seem that the family in the song looks down on the area.

3:00. ÌýWell, now we know Billie Joe and our narrator had more of a relationship than we knew about before. ÌýWhen they were younger, Billie Joe played a prank on her, and then she was talking to him after church. ÌýI just want to point out that at no point does our speaker say, "he was my boyfriend." ÌýShe never actually explicitly admits to any relationship at all. ÌýIt's all shown to us with these little details. ÌýAnd once again, pie trumps death as a topic of conversation. ÌýWe also know that Billie Joe has access to a big saw, which might or might not relate to what comes later.

3:51. ÌýOur speaker is the only one not eating. ÌýShe never tells us she's in shock and grieving: this detail tells it all. ÌýNotice also Mama's choice of words; Ìý"that nice young preacher"--I think this indicates that he's the guy Mama would like our speaker to date, rather than some guy from Choctaw Ridge. ÌýAnd of course the creepy line about throwing something off the bridge raises questions, but it also tells us everything we need to know about why our speaker's not interested in the preacher: he's a gossipy jerk! Why does he tell Mama this tidbit about the bridge anyway? Ìý

End: ÌýBrother and Becky Thompson can buy a store, so again, we know there's at least a little bit of money around. ÌýAnd our speaker mourns--she's leaving flowers at what passes for Billie Joe's grave. Ìý

Ìý

There you have it: not only a great song, but the perfect example of how to use economical details to tell your readers (or listeners) everything they know without spelling it out for them. ÌýGo do likewise!Ìý

Disclaimer: this Boston Comic-Con-related post will not be accompanied by lots of fun cosplay pictures.Ìý Because when you are a middle-aged man by yourself and the majority of the cosplayers are people in their early 20's in skin-tight or otherwise semi-revealing outfits, there's just no way to ask them for a picture without seeming incredibly creepy.Ìý So I saw a lot of excellent costumes, but I took no pictures.Ìý

Unlike certain other comic cons I could mention,ÌýthisÌýoneÌýwas all about the comics.Ìý There were many dealers with excellent deals on trade paperbacks right up in the front.Ìý There were fewer vendors of t-shirts and collectables than I expected, but there were a few.Ìý Most of the creators were at the back, and the movie and TV people were over to the side. (Honestly, I never get this part of these cons--you can stand in line to get your picture taken with someone who plays a small part in a TV show, or you can walk right up and chat with Steve Niles, or Amy Reeder, or Tim Sale, or Gabriel Rodriguez or Bill Willingham or...well, you get the idea.Ìý The people who make the comics upon which the movies and TV shows are based are sitting right there!Ìý

For me, the most exciting part of this convention was meeting a bunch of folks who really love this art form and are doing what they can to get their work out there.Ìý So here's what I bought:

Anathema .Ìý Written by Rachel Deering and illustrated by Chris Mooneyham, this is an awesome 70's-style horror comic focusing on the misadventures of a lesbian werewolf.Ìý It is very entertaining, and as it pays homage to the Creepy and Eerie comics I have loved, well, it's fantastic and highly recommended.Ìý You can get it through .

The Graveyard Gang.Ìý Written and illustrated and lettered and inked and everything by Rich Clabaugh, this is a really fun all-ages comic about a gang of kids in 1930's Massachusetts--indeed,they are a bunch of, er, little rascals--who annoy the creatures of darkness.Ìý You can read it for free .

Flutter. Written by Jennie Wood with art by Jeff McComsey, this is a really smart, interesting graphic novel about a teen girl who can shapeshift and who shapeshifts into a boy in order to get the girl.Ìý Complications ensue.Ìý I think this one demands at least two readings, because the beginning, especially, is a bit confusing on the first go-round, but even still this is a really smart and thoughtful and absorbing book that I highly recommend. You can check out a preview and order it .

I also bought some otherÌýindependent comicsÌýI didn't really care for, but I'm not gonna mention 'em by name because maybe someone else will like 'em, and they were made by nice, hardworking people trying to make a dent in their favorite medium.Ìý

Boston Comic-Con was a well-organized and totally comic-focused comic con. If you're in the area when it comes around next year, I highly recommend it.Ìý (Get there early, though--it gets packed!)