grin and bare it
A blog by Matthew Dicks
Pieces of me
Nicholson Baker has a new book, a non-fiction piece about World War II entitled Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization. I heard him speak about it and other topics on…
Read MorePunctuation matters
It’s always so lovely to find someone who shares the same pet peeves as me. This is why I was thrilled to find the “blog” of “unnecessary” quotation marks, a site dedicated to the world’s…
Read MoreNicholson Baker and me
My book club meets today to discuss Nicolson Baker’s The Size of Thoughts. It was my turn to choose the book, and Taryn, my agent, turned me onto Baker’s work during my initial revisions of…
Read MoreI have no idea what pants I’m wearing
A friend of mine recently noted that I was wearing sweatpants out of the house. “And?” I asked. “I just would never wear sweatpants in public,” she said. “And I know that most people don’t.”…
Read MoreThe unexpected
I’m often questioned as to how I can be surprised by something that happens in the book that I am writing when I am the one doing the writing. “Don’t you know what’s going to…
Read MoreMy beginning with Mr. Compo
In the acknowledgments of Something Missing, I thank Mark Compopiano, my high school English teacher, for teaching me that “words can change minds.” I had always wanted to write, but Mr. Compiano, my English teacher…
Read MoreMy writing group
About six months ago, I gathered some friends who are interested in writing and formed a writing group. We meet about once every other month and discuss our work. It’s quite a varied group. We…
Read MoreInternational
My mother-in-law found Something Missing listed on the Japanese version of Amazon today. Kind of neat. Huh? While I’m not certain, I think this is actually an English version of the book, being sold in Japan. …
Read MoreOne step closer
The Advanced Reader Copy for Something Missing arrived today! An ARC is (in the words of Wikipedia) a copy of a book released by its publisher before the book has gone to the press. ARCs…
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