Writing • Page 40

not sure if it’s writers’ block or lack of inspiration, but here goes nothin..

-hope is a light (haiku)-

 

Been a slightly weird experience lately with the publisher of this collaborative novel. Our editor fell off the face of the earth and stopped responding. Granted they said they were dealing with personal issues but there has been no communication in the weeks since then, even after we messaged and emailed and DM’d on social media. We reached out to the EIC and they’re taking over the typeset. Thankful it’s finally going to see progress but man it’s nerve-wracking to deal with that as the release date continues to creep closer and we still don’t have a finished ARC.

 

I'm a regular columnist for alt-weekly here in my town. my birthday's coming up and it's also the anniversary of losing a close relative so in my latest i reflect on all that via journal entries that span 20 years. just felt like sharing with it here.

The Sound of Eternity by Kirbie Bennett

 

Aiming to finish the first draft by the end of summer. A little over 1/3 done with 114 pages. It's extremely fun to come up with the story and write it down. I'm envious of those that get to do it for a living. If it weren't for work I'd have it done already (I'd like to think so, at least).

 

Nice going! What is it you're working on?

 

A children's/YA age novel about a group of friends at a summer camp who meet a girl whose family is related to a witch coven. A little bit of horror, but more of a mystery/coming of age story. Something that I would hope inspires more younger kids to read.

 

Nice! That sounds super cool. I hope the writing keeps going well.

 

update on this - the editor was the only one with access to the working ARC, and since they've now seemingly ghosted us, we have to backtrack and re-add all our revisions to an older draft from months ago. The publisher also converted this older draft from pdf to a doc (due to an apparent change in their template), which caused formatting issues with paragraphs and indentations and removed hyphens from hyphenated words. all very frustrating

 

Thanks! I'm going to be have more time over the summer to write than I did this past spring so I'm planning to make good use of it.

 

Today I’ve announced my next novel, which drops this summer, something I’ve been working on persistently and extremely hard since late last year! It has been a WILD experiment, what with the deadline and the fact that it was a uniquely collaborative effort. My announcement below and the preorder link below that.

Side-note of transparency: it would be so truly appreciated if you could support and buy a copy. Because this was such a unique opportunity, and the fact that there were two other trios publishing novels in this same series, the (super small) publisher didn’t foresee how expensive it all would be — so long story short, authors won’t make any royalties unless presales do really well. So support your chorus fam and get a copy or two if the story / experiment itself interests you.

SPARK BIRD by Jonathan Koven, Danny DeRock, and Julian Shendelman

 

um yeah that's an instant buy for me!

 

new amy winehouse movie got me in quite a mode last night.

fragments: amy winehouse

 

Truly dope review of my latest poetry collection, from Philly’s own Broad Street Review. Very touched and honored to receive such a close reading as this for a book that means the world to me.

Mystic Orchards, By Jonathan Koven | Broad Street Review

 

MY NEW NOVEL IS OUT TODAY!!!

(if you haven't ordered, get it now before it sells out - Spark Bird — Thirty West Publishing House)

To celebrate my collaborative novel Spark Bird’s release, here’s a playlist of music inspired by the novel! The tracklist is intentional to reflect the story chronologically, and many of these artists are name-dropped throughout. Ranges in genre but mostly quiet, weird stuff! Made this with some help from my co-authors over the last few months. There’s some IDM, Spanish guitar, Japanese new age, dreampop, fourth-world, jazz fusion, freak-folk, roots reggae, drone, dub techno, musique concrète, vaporwave, worldbeat, post-rock… and it flows well! Take a few hours and let it float you away

 

came in here to call your book out and say congrats @OotyPa ! can't wait until my copy arrives

 

sincerely appreciate that! I can't wait either haha. still haven't seen/held a physical copy myself!

I so hope you enjoy it

 

Bumping this post. Never fails to happen. Almost three weeks since the new one released and I’m feeling really low.

 

I hear you dude. There’s a weird sense of finality and permanence about it that I wouldn’t have expected. Like all these ephemeral daydreams are just - thunk, made real, and no longer inside your head - and they don’t really fit in your head anymore in the same way, and you have to find new ones.

 

Yup, it’s exactly that. And there it is, just a book on the table. People use it for entertainment. Usually their second choice after television. They’ll flip through the pages and maybe it’ll sail them away like it did for us, or maybe just a distraction for the evening. For some readers, even less. And here I am, waiting for some unidentified thing to make the dissonance feel worthwhile. It’s so strange.

 

well damn

 

work in progress: you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take

*finished*

-you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take-

 

-unfaithful-

 

How goes it with everyone?

I'm nearing the very end of my fourth draft. I actually lucked into finding a developmental editor, which was going to be my next step. She's just getting started and was willing to do a once-through with a light line edit at no cost to get her portfolio going. Pretty stoked about that, but she'll also be looking at my story through professional eyes, so it's also nerve wracking.

 

I’ve been on a writing break to avoid burnout after starting, finishing, and publishing Spark Bird in record time. It was exhausting. But I’d really like to return to my WIP by November if possible, to at least attempt (some version of) Nano.

 

That’s awesome about the editor, congrats! It’s exciting but totally normal to feel a bit nervous.