In high school this is how I was taught to write news articles: the "inverted pyramid;" the "lede;" the "five W's and an H." Tease all facts out of the event, record said facts coherently into the template, spell-check, fact-check, print, read. Ta-da! Journalism 101.



The covered events could be boring or exciting, even historic. But that's immaterial to how they should be uniformly reported. When I read news I want information… Continue

In the grand tradition (urban legend or romantic truth?) of Picasso paying his tabs with on-the-spot sketches, Esquire Magazine solicited authors to pen impromptu stories on cocktail napkins.



Esquire cast its net over the typical Esquire demographic -- mostly male, white, "serious" fiction or Belles Letterers (Rick Moody, Ben Schrank, Jonathan Ames, were notables). The closest they got to genre that I… Continue

[This is cross-posted to within an inch of its life in numerous places, but I wanted to puff out my Crimespace profile with a first post and this is a good sample. For the day-to-day I have my LJ feed linked to the left and at the bottom of this page.]



Music's my petrol, my caffeine, my heat, my light. I write to what's currently sending me. And like Crash Davis in Bull Durham, I HATE people who get the words wrong.



And people always do. Isn't "excuse me while I eat… Continue