billy lit !!! december 2019 |
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Happy Holidays to you from our cozy condo in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood. This past month came with an amazing launch of the Fall 2019 issue of Hypertext Review, a holiday party for friends and supporters of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, a beautiful reading of an upcoming one-man show of You're Being Ridiculous founder, Jeremy Owens, a trip to Boston to visit my son, Kane, Valentino's final puppy training session (we'll be homeschooling him from now on), and a nearly accident-free house-training month (we're not counting the post-bath peeing frenzy in early December). This month's newsletter brings you an essay on Narrative POV from the amazing teacher, writer, and softball hero, Pete Turchi, a recent story and essay from me, a few photos and videos of Valentino and friends, a bonus for young writers, and a few anagrams for you to solve. Whaaat?! |
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An Essay and A Story It remains a great thrill whenever a literary magazine finds something I write worth publishing. Below are my two latest publications–an essay that was 12 years in the making, published by Hypertext Magazine, and a short story published in Ireland's HCE Review. |
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| | Bless the hearts of the folks at Hypertext for helping me finally find a home for this essay. Click the button below for the essay | | |
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| | This little story needed a Donald Barthelme immersion, an image of Jesus in our kitchen table, many sounds, and many dreams to come to life. Click the button below for the story | | |
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For Fiction Writers Narrative POV In my estimation, the serious fiction writer will never stop trying to better understand Narrative Point of View–studying it, experimenting with it, pushing the limits of their relationship with it. Peter Turchi directed the MFA program at Warren Wilson College when I was there. Let his essay, below, be part of your scholarship in fiction this month. |
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Don’t Stand So Close “There is nearly always a difference between the story the narrator understands and wants to tell, and the story the character would tell. That’s why the story is in the third person.” Part 1 of Peter Turchi’s essay on shifting narrative distance in third person fiction. Find Part 2 at fictionwritersreview.com | | |
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On Blurbs Every writer I know has at least a couple of interesting stories about blurbs. I have three, none of which present me in any favorable way. One of them is the primary narrative in the essay above that Hypertext published; this is the other: Way back in 2008, my well-armed publicity team somehow managed to convince long-time NBC Sports Analyst and Olympics Announcer, Bob Costas, to blurb my book, The Man With Two Arms. When he turned in the blurb, after much pestering on our part, the blurb turned out to be much the same language as what I had already written on the inside flap of the jacket. Still. Bob Costas. When the book came out in 2009 (I was a frequent self-googler in those days), I did a boolean search for our names and discovered my title and blurb about a thousand titles deep on a website called, "Bob Costas will Blurb Anything." I am quite certain, though, that the blurbs for Morning Will Come, found below, were written by authors who did read the book. |
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"Billy Lombardo's exquisite first novel shows us a fractured family the only way it can accurately be shown––through a fractured lens. The sorrow and honesty of this wise book is almost unbearable, but it's literature's best kind of unbearable, build upon a foundation of generosity, heart, and masterful craft." ––Patrick Somerville, author of The Cradle, (TV) Maniac, The Leftovers "Billy Lombardo's Morning Will Come is these things: exquisitely written, real, painful, and true. His talent for depicting the nuances of marriage and family is extraordinary; reading this, one feels as though Alan, Audrey and the boys are your close friends, about whom you somehow know a little more than you should. His ear for dialogue is spot-on, and his understanding of the human heart is profound. This is simply a lovely, heartbreaking book." ––Elizabeth Crane, author of You Must Be This Happy | | |
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Some photos from November and December 2019 |
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On a wall somewhere in Boston |
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Amy and me at Monica's, where we decided that Calamari is a food of hope. Mostly, it's not good, but you keep ordering it hoping that it will be. Believe it or not, I'm holding a long, flexible selfie stick that I invented and taking this photo myself. |
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I'm not sure how you feel about dogs in human clothing, but I think it's funny and warm. Here's Tino in a human infant hoodie from the second hand store ($1.25) and me in a western-style flannel from the clearance rack at The Gap ($4.99) As for animals in human clothing, you must read Joe Meno's beautiful story, "The Use of Medicine," from his collection, Bluebirds Used to Croon in the Choir. |
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Me and Nooch in Boston's North End after a meal at Parla. Shortly after this photo was taken, we beat up a couple of punks who were making fun of my skinny jeans. The key to the truck behind us was in the ignition, and Kane started it while the punks were groaning, he scooped up the two stunned punks. But soon, all four of us were laughing and crying at the terrible silliness of it. Afterward, we took the two toughs to a 24-hour bakery, set down the shovel and had cappuccino and biscotti. |
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After a night of great Italian food, we took a long walk down a street we weren't familiar with, and lo and behold, we came upon this famous bar serendipitously. Serendipitous Inventions The five words/phrases below are anagrams of serendipitous inventions. The first 10,000 people or animals who figure them out will receive a free subscription to my newsletter! poor as ivy clover movie watcher guru peels snot potties |
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Please consider subscribing officially to this newsletter below |
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For High School Writers (and grownups who love them) Only |
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If you're thinking about applying for a summer program for writers, the deadlines for programs range from February to April, which means now is the time to start doing your research. And if you want to get a heads up on the other applicants applying for some very selective writing programs, you can contact us at the writing prose/e to have an accomplished published fiction writer give your writing sample a manuscript consultation. Click on the image to the right for the writing pros/e website, or the button below for my author website. | | |
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Dec/January Chicago Lit Events Sun., Dec.22. 7-10p. Uptown Poetry Slam Christmas Show at The Green Mill Sat., Jan. 11. 7p. Tiger Room Salon Reading where I'll be reading w/ Donna Seaman, David Trinidad, John McCarthy (Whaaaat?!) 1132 Oak Ave. in Evanston Sun., Jan. 19. 6:30p. Sunday Reading Series: Poetry, Prose, and Cocktails. Hungry Brain Sat., Jan. 25. 7p. Morning Will Come book launch at Volumes Bookcafe 1474 N. Milwaukee Sun., Jan. 26. 7p. Sunday Salon Reading Series @The Reveler |
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Consider donating to these Literary and Arts Organizations this Holiday ! click on the image to go to the organization's website |
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| | Hypertext Magazine: publishing fiction, essays, interviews, poetry, and visual art since 2010. And HMS–Hypertext Magazine and Studio–is a social justice teaching & publishing nonprofit. | | |
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| | CLHOF's mission is to honor and preserve Chicago’s great literary heritage through educational programming, awards, exhibits, an annual induction ceremony, and creating a repository of detailed information about Chicago’s past, present and future literary life through such projects as the Chicago Literary Map and Chicago Literary Tours. | | |
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| | Polyphony Lit: a global online literary platform for high school writers and editor. Since 2005, Polyphony Lit has received submissions from high school students in 71 countries. Every submission is read by at least three h.s. editors from around the globe. Every submission receives a thorough, thoughtful response from at least two editors. | | |
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| | Engaging the public in celebrating Americans writers and exploring their influence on our history, our identity, our culture, and in our daily lives | | |
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| | Art Works for Youth: an arts instruction and education advocacy program in Port Elizabeth, South Africa | | |
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| | WRITE CLUB is the world's greatest competitive reading series, featuring only the most audacious and fearsome of writers and performers. | | |
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| | Through creative writing, Young Chicago Authors helps young people from all backgrounds to understand the importance of their own stories and those of others, so that they can pursue the path they choose and work to make their communities more just and equitable. | | |
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| | Bringing together the varied voices of Chicago and the world through innovative and integrative programming highlighting the intersections of marginality, the power of community, the impact of arts and activism, with a mission of social justice and literary arts for all | | |
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An inexhaustible list of Summer Writing Programs for Young Writers |
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Tino has made great strides this past month. His lexicon of sounds and expressions has grown in unimaginable ways. Here, you can see that he's getting annoyed with all the photographs we take of him. Shortly after this photo, he whined this throaty, growl of annoyance that sounded like, "billy, I'm looking out the window. The #%&@ window. In the video below, because there is food involved, he's less aware of Amy's chronicling of the event. We're working on the high five. |
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be an official subscribe to the newsletter |
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When our nap times don't quite align |
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Here's Matty Vaccarello, my friend of many decades, just before making bread in Albany Park. Three reasons he seems taller than I: 1) the floor is wicked sloped; 2) he's slightly in front of me. 3) he's wearing two flannel shirts. Everyone's doing it in Chicago. |
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Above is Mickie Flanagan laughing at some hilarious thing I must have said. Look closely at the table for my book, Morning Will Come. The dedication is to Mickie. |
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Quote of the Month I ran into Reginald Gibbons, the Chicago writer and NWU teacher at the Holiday party for the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, and reminded him of my great fortune to have him and Charles Baxter as the presiding faculty in a workshop during my MFA program at Warren Wilson College. Reg told me a story that happened at a faculty gathering at WW shortly after Don DeLillo's book, Underworld, was published. Reg was walking into a conversation about the book when he heard Charlie Baxter say: "It's a book in which one feels that every sentence carries the burden of having to belong to a masterpiece." |
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Question of the Newsletter: What advice do you have for a young writer or poet? |
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