Please, please, no more promo emails for your client’s new book where the first line is a question meant to sum up the central conflict. I seriously just got this one: “Dear Blake, What happens when a serial killing cab driver and a suicidal socialite collide?” Bro…

I’m curious about your  job and how you negotiate job vs. creativity–or if there’s a difference. Take my survey? I’ll post results/anonymous responses and conclusions when I get enough responses. A Job Worth Doing

“My writing isn’t a career or a craft or a hobby or anything like that. It is more like a tiny annex to my life, a little crawl space in which I occasionally end up by accident in the dark.” — Gary Lutz, interviewed by David Winters @ 3:AM Magazine. Also: Lutz is reading tonight at the Soda Series.

“[…] The outcry was shrillest from those who confuse art, which exists to make people uncomfortable and to spur them to new thinking, with entertainment, which is meant to gratify, relax and confirm preconceptions of decorum, prettiness, or good citizenship.  No art is great if it makes its consumers feel comfortable.”

–Richard Davenport-Hines, “Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil and Ruin”

Setting is not character. Stop saying that.

The Millions most-anticipated list for the second half of the year attempts to rip its penis off.

Carmen Gimenez Smith’s book BRING DOWN LITTLE BIRDS has just won an American Book Award. Huge huge huge congrats to her. And, she got the news while sitting in my house.

What do we mean when we refer to craft?

Muumuu House favorite Jordan Castro has announced via Twitter that he is going to pull his dick off… and he’s invited us to watch!!!

Clear your calendars because the video goes live at 11 PM EST and will only be available for 24 hours.

**UPDATE** The EXTREMELY NSFW video is no longer available for viewing on Vimeo.

Jordan Castro and his band, The Ohioans, have released their debut studio album, also called The Ohioans.  Bros are really good, I’m impressed.