Stewart O'Nan
I can't watch television anymore.
There are a few things that I still enjoy - DEADWOOD, THE SHIELD... - but for the most part the general clamor and pointlessness of the shows make it almost impossible for me to watch anything. It's not just that the subject matter is getting stupider - but so is the level of visual literacy. Recent movies are proving to me just as much as a trial for me.
When I see a shows like the MTV MOVIE AWARDS and movies like VAN HELSING, I completely understand why the terrorists want to wipe us off the face of the earth.
So in my small amount of time away from working on CLOUD SYMPHONY and SEX MACHINE, I've been doing quite a bit of reading and spending a lot of time at Border's looking about books, thinking about writing, seeing what my old favorite authors are up to...
Killing time on the web today I learned that my college writing teacher, Stewart O'Nan is doing a book with Stephen King about the Boston Red Sox '04 Season.. Very good news. This collaboration should definitely serve to expose O'Nan's work to a wider audience.
I only had O'Nan for a few classes over a single school year, but it was easily the most I got out of the whole college experience.
I'm a little bit embarrassed of the bullshit I wrote while I had him as a professor. Lame stories about drugged out satanists, washed out porn stars and as much sex and violence as I could get away with. Despite the subject matter, O'Nan was one of the few teachers I've ever had that was genuinely interested in my work and really took it apart line-by-line, explaining what worked, what was stylistically sloppy, etc. That period is one of the only times in my life when I've been genuinely thrilled to get revisions back.
The thing that really drives me crazy is that I have somehow lost/misplaced the porn-star novel I wrote during that time period. I'm planning on reviving it as a film project in the very near future and if I could find that draft it would save me a lot of time - and heartbreak.
But back to O'Nan. He's an incredible writer. And if you read at all there are a couple of books you must check out: O'Nan is a literary writer as opposed to a genre writer. The following recommendations are fairly quick reads and very accessible to new readers.
1. Snow Angels - His first published novel. It's very short but it's a beautiful read about some white trash characters, a boy growing up and a murder. I read it every other year or so.
2. Speed Queen - This is the book he was actually writing while he was teaching at U.C.O. At that time, he intended for the title to be "Dear Stephen King." Apparently, at that time, he couldn't get the title cleared, so it ended up seeing publication as "The Speed Queen." Still a very interesting book, set in Oklahoma City and Edmond which is of special interest to the Oklahoma readers.
3. A Prayer for the Dying - An absolutely excruciating and scary novel about a disease outbreak in a small Wisconsin town just after the Civil War.
Whether the subject matter interests you or not, if you like good writing, you will enjoy these books -- and probably the rest of O'Nans body of work as well.
There are a few things that I still enjoy - DEADWOOD, THE SHIELD... - but for the most part the general clamor and pointlessness of the shows make it almost impossible for me to watch anything. It's not just that the subject matter is getting stupider - but so is the level of visual literacy. Recent movies are proving to me just as much as a trial for me.
When I see a shows like the MTV MOVIE AWARDS and movies like VAN HELSING, I completely understand why the terrorists want to wipe us off the face of the earth.
So in my small amount of time away from working on CLOUD SYMPHONY and SEX MACHINE, I've been doing quite a bit of reading and spending a lot of time at Border's looking about books, thinking about writing, seeing what my old favorite authors are up to...
Killing time on the web today I learned that my college writing teacher, Stewart O'Nan is doing a book with Stephen King about the Boston Red Sox '04 Season.. Very good news. This collaboration should definitely serve to expose O'Nan's work to a wider audience.
I only had O'Nan for a few classes over a single school year, but it was easily the most I got out of the whole college experience.
I'm a little bit embarrassed of the bullshit I wrote while I had him as a professor. Lame stories about drugged out satanists, washed out porn stars and as much sex and violence as I could get away with. Despite the subject matter, O'Nan was one of the few teachers I've ever had that was genuinely interested in my work and really took it apart line-by-line, explaining what worked, what was stylistically sloppy, etc. That period is one of the only times in my life when I've been genuinely thrilled to get revisions back.
The thing that really drives me crazy is that I have somehow lost/misplaced the porn-star novel I wrote during that time period. I'm planning on reviving it as a film project in the very near future and if I could find that draft it would save me a lot of time - and heartbreak.
But back to O'Nan. He's an incredible writer. And if you read at all there are a couple of books you must check out: O'Nan is a literary writer as opposed to a genre writer. The following recommendations are fairly quick reads and very accessible to new readers.
1. Snow Angels - His first published novel. It's very short but it's a beautiful read about some white trash characters, a boy growing up and a murder. I read it every other year or so.
2. Speed Queen - This is the book he was actually writing while he was teaching at U.C.O. At that time, he intended for the title to be "Dear Stephen King." Apparently, at that time, he couldn't get the title cleared, so it ended up seeing publication as "The Speed Queen." Still a very interesting book, set in Oklahoma City and Edmond which is of special interest to the Oklahoma readers.
3. A Prayer for the Dying - An absolutely excruciating and scary novel about a disease outbreak in a small Wisconsin town just after the Civil War.
Whether the subject matter interests you or not, if you like good writing, you will enjoy these books -- and probably the rest of O'Nans body of work as well.
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