The Confabulator Cafe

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  • Let Me Play and I’m a Happy Man

    I’m not usually a guy who engages in literary exercises. If I’m writing, I want the words I produce to count toward something.

    Now I understand there is value in learning, and no word written in pursuit of craft is ever wasted. I get that. But I also know myself well enough to realize that I get impatient when words on the page aren’t leading me toward completing a work in progress.

    It’s not a great trait, but we all work with what we’ve got. (I also don’t like to read books about writing, though I love to buy them and have a bookcase full, but that is a blog post for another day.)

    So after laying this groundwork, you’ll understand why I was less than enthusiastic when October rolled around and one of our assignments was to interview a character for our upcoming NaNoWriMo novel. I admit that I had an advantage over some of the other Café contributors because I’d planned to use the month of November to complete a novel I was already writing. But that didn’t stop me from doing a whole lot of internal bitching about the task.

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  • Bring me another!

    We have been asked to look back at all our assignments over the last year and pick a favorite. I’ve been over the calendar multiple times, trying to think of a specific week that spoke to me. I’ve scanned over the posts, mine and my colleagues, waiting for something to jump out.

    Nothing has. It isn’t that we haven’t had interesting assignments. We have. It isn’t that we haven’t had good contributions. They have been great. The more I’ve tried to isolate an assignment, and the more I have failed to do so, I’ve realized my brain just doesn’t work that way.

    Ask me about my favorite story I’ve written this year, and I won’t be able to answer it. I’ve already moved on. I rarely think about the things I have written in the past, unless I am currently re-writing or submitting them. The other day, a guy I know asked me a question about “Perfect 10,” a horror story I wrote for Insomnia Press. It took me a second to understand what he was asking about. I hadn’t thought much about the piece since it got published. (more…)

  • 2012 Year in Review (Week Ending Jan. 5)

    2012This week, we celebrate the end of one year and the start of the next. And with it, we here at the Confabulator Cafe also celebrate our first anniversary. The Cafe officially opened on January 1, 2012. Two days later, the first of our posts was published — and we haven’t looked back since.

    Until now. This week we’re asking our writers to discuss their favorite post (or posts) of 2012, whether their own or someone else’s. We may even have some who pick several in a theme.

    For those who have been reading with us since the beginning, we hope this week will remind you of some of your favorites. For those who are just finding the cafe, we hope you discover some gems in our archives.

    Until Next Week,

    The Cafe Management

  • Ephemera – Favorite Book of 2012

    It’s the end of the year, so we’re asking the Confabulators what their favorites of 2012 are. This week, they tell us what their favorite book of 2012 was. For this question, some interpreted as best book published in 2012, others answered it as their favorite book they read in 2012. We accepted either version.

    Ted Boone

    The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks, Wool (Omnibus) by Hugh Howey, and Among Others by Jo Walton (don’t ask writers to pick ONE favorite book!)

    Kevin Wohler

    I’m going to be honest here. My favorite book of 2012 has been Monster in My Closet, by R.L. Naquin. I’m not just saying that because she’s in our group. She’d forgive me if I picked something else. The truth is, of the few NEW books I did read this year, it was the only one that left me feeling I could read the sequel immediately.

    Christie Holland

    It’s a tie between The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Both very different. Both fantastic.

    Larry Jenkins

    Broken Harbor by Tana French. Every book she has written has broken my heart in some way, and I love her for that.

    Jack Campbell, Jr.

    Hugh Howey’s Wool. I don’t read many new books. I don’t like to pay inflated prices for new releases, and there are only one or two authors that I can’t wait long enough to find their book on a used shelf somewhere. I certainly don’t read as much science fiction as I used to. Enter Hugh Howey and Wool. Howey wrote Wool as a short story and released it directly through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing System. Howey’s silo world became an overnight success, leading to the release of parts two, three, four, and five of Wool, and their release as a single omnibus edition. Since then, it has been followed by the prequels First Shift and Second Shift. If you like dystopian science fiction, Wool is waiting for you. Ridley Scottbought the film rights. Yes, that Ridley Scott. The original short story is free on Kindle, but you can pick up the omnibus (stories one
    through five) for $5.99.

    Sara Lundberg

    I’m a few years behind on most new releases – there were several 2012 books I wanted to read but didn’t get to – so pickings are slim. Luckily, I think I probably read the two best books of the year. The first one being our very own R.L. Naquin’s Monster in My Closet. Of course I am obligated to mention it because she’s my fellow Confabulator and friend, but in all honesty, it was the best book I read all year. It helps that I’ve watched her series evolve over the past three years, so it was incredibly rewarding to be able to read the finish product. A close second, though, was the third book in another one of my favorite series: Grave Memory by Kalayna Price. It’s in the same genre – urban fantasy – which I just can’t get enough of these days. Honorable Mention goes to the anthology that my own story was published in, Shadows of the Mind. Lots of good tales of horror in there. That was it for 2012 for me.

  • An Atypical Year

    In the bumper at the start of the week, the amorphous management asked of us writers, “Do they love this time of year or hate it? Are the holidays a time of coming together or pulling apart?”

    And my heart broke, because this year, it’s all of that.

    I usually love holidays. I love visiting family. I love the frantic planning to make sure everyone is included. I love the food and the crafting and the wine and the sleepless nights. There’s nearly never drama, even though we divide our time between three families. (more…)

  • Winter is Here

    Ned-Stark-Game-of-Thrones
    Fortunately I don’t have to make the same kinds of hard decisions as Ned Stark, but Winter and the holidays don’t have to be grim.

    There are quite a few words that can describe the beginning of Winter and the year-end holidays: dread, lonely, cold, snowy, warm, happy. I’ve run through the gamut in my time on Earth, and in general I find this time of year to be pretty nice.

    That’s the most honest thing I can say about it. I like Thanksgiving and Christmas because there are good meals that go along with seeing family. (I like my family.) It’s not really about presents, or at least it hasn’t been for fifteen or twenty years. I like stuff, don’t get me wrong, stuff is good. It’s just that I’m in a position now where I can get almost any stuff I want when I want it. I don’t have to wait for the holiday or my birthday or Father’s Day.

    I’m fortunate that the business I work in is closed during the holiday season, too. That means I get an extended vacation of a week or sometimes a little more every year beyond any time I take off in spring or summer. Again it’s time to spend with my family and do things like read or go to a movie.

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  • All the Whos in Whoville

    The very first book I learned to read on my own was How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I still love that book— I even have “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” on my iPod.

    I have the reputation of being the family Grinch. Not because I’m trying to ruin anybody else’s holiday, but because I can never think of anything to put on my Christmas wish list. The truth of the matter is that I have everything I need and most of what I want, and bringing anything else into the house just adds to the clutter. Or else it would be a purchase so idiosyncratic that I want to pick it out myself.

    Quite frankly, my idea of the perfect holiday is Thanksgiving, or Memorial Day, or maybe even the Fourth of July. You hopefully get to take the day off of work, get together with friends and family, cook an elaborate meal, and eat leftovers for a week. Perhaps there’s a parade, or a concert in the park. (more…)

  • The Musician

    I love the holidays, and I’ve always been moved by the charity of people at this time of the year. Stories of generosity have a way of hitting me on an emotional level, and I always want to share them with others. My hope is that if a tale of giving can bring out the charitable side in even a single person, then it has done its job.

    When I was a kid growing up, I had an uncle who used to read us the same letter every Christmas.  Written by a distant cousin, it told the story of how one late night encounter with a musician changed the way their family celebrated the holidays. Here is his letter:

    Several years ago, my wife and I were traveling across the state with our first child through a snowy Wisconsin night. We had been visiting her parents for the holidays, and we were driving on a lonely stretch of highway. With an hour or more to go, we noticed a young man walking the side of the highway thumbing for a ride. My wife asked me to pull over and we offered him a ride. (more…)

  • Holiday Slippage

    a-charlie-brown-christmasI have a confession to make. For much of my life, I was a Christmas Eve shopper. Not because I procrastinated or because I was a Scrooge, but because money was paycheck-to-paycheck, and only that last check before the holiday allowed me to buy presents. Christmas isn’t cheap, and other extra things had to come out of those prior checks—extra food supplies like flour and chocolate chips, a Christmas tree, gifts for work parties.

    Every spare penny was already earmarked for something.

    I was fast at it. By the time I got to the mall on Christmas Eve, I knew what I needed to buy. I’d get it done in record time, then be up until midnight or two in the morning wrapping everything. (more…)

  • Looking for a Christmas Drinking Buddy

    Merry Christmas? Why the hell are you reading this? Go spend time with your family!

    Unless you’re like me and alone for the holidays. Wow. That was depressing. Sorry. But then, if you’re sneaking on the internet when you should be having Christmas brunch with your parents, you deserve it. If you’re sitting by yourself, I’ve got a couple of bottles of wine in the fridge, come on over and we can split them.

    Ever since my parents’ divorce, scheduling holidays has been tricky. When I was still living at home, it was easier, because they lived about forty-five minutes away from each other, so I could feasibly see both of them for the day. Then I went off to college, and I purposefully chose a college that wasn’t close by to either of my family members. Suddenly I had to decide which parent to spend which holiday with. (more…)