I'm sure you are all familiar with Craig Clevenger, author of The Contortionists Handbook and Dermophoria, he was prominetly featured on the Cult website in the author essays section as well as the short story tab. I hope everyone has taken a look at his essays in particular. He has such insight and such a grasp on the craft that I am antsy just waiting for him to release another essay. He mentioned something about releasing a book on his lecture notes, from which these essays come from. Has anyone any information on this? Or how we can get in touch with the man and encourage him to share?
his book probably has another year before it gets to us, even if he sold it tomorrow. thats what he told me. i had three chapters of the original version, which now isnt happening, but i seem to have lost them switching to this computer....
Craig is a fantastic pedagogue. He is also involved with our site, so keep an eye out!
Yeah, Craig is definitely around and his essays are fan-fucking-tastic. Keep a look out. He'll be popping in sooner or later.
Good to hear I'm not a lone voice in the wilderness. I'm eating through Dermaphoria right now and he impresses me with each new chapter.
Bronco,
First, thanks for the kind words re my essays on the craft. I've gone back and forth about compiling all of those essays into a book for a variety of reasons. As it stands right now, I'm leaning away from that for a variety of reasons, mostly having to do with avoiding the cluttered marketplace of "how to write" books. Additionally, my career owes a very deep and happy debt to the Cult/LitReactor crew, so I'm inclinded to just keep everything I've done thus far as proprietary material for everyone here.
That said, all of those essays will, I'm confident, eventually migrate over here to the LitReactor site, both the articles I've made available to the general public, as well as the lectures I wrote for paying workshop members (there's some overlap with one or two of those). I'll ultimately defer to Dennis on this, but like I said, I'm confident they'll all be here in due course. I also hope to write one or two new articles for the LitReactor public, and/or add some new material to my workshop lectures, but that remains to be seen.
With that in mind, I'll post something in short order, asking for a general idea of what some prospective workshop participants are looking for, in order to get some direction for new course material.
And regarding the third novel, the good Doktor is correct. It's almost complete (and it's been "almost complete" for a year now... that last ten percent is like the stretching hallway in a bad dream), but I'll be looking for an agent with this one, with an almost 100% certainty of moving to a new publisher. That said, yeah, even if it's in the bag tomorrow, it likely won't see the light of day for a year. But I've been rather prolific of late, and I've several short stories in the pipeline, with more to come.
I'm reachable here (and Facebook, and the Velvet, and...) and will do my best to keep up with things during the hectic days of the LitReactor launch. But I do ration my daily internet time, in order to get words on paper, so bear with me if I'm slow to respond.
Thanks again,
-Craig
Hey, Dennis... this is my first forum reply. Do I get a badge, huh? Do I? Do I?
Check your email, Craig. You already got one! ;)
Fantastic. Grats on the badges, and thanks Craig for responding so quickly! We'll all be patient with the lecture notes, essays, and new book.
Doesn't LitReactor just Rock folks?
Fuck yeah, it does.
I'm going to make the unscientic claim that any thread addressed to a specific author has a 50% chance of being answered by said author.
They will either comment on it, or they won't.
I think that makes the odds 50%, right? Here I come Vegas!
Hahaha, the title of this post makes it sound like Bronco is an irate fan who had a bad experience with Craig and is complaining to a friend.
I bought my Craig Clevenger three days ago and it's already broken! I can't even get a refund!
I love that Craig just answered this with a thread.
Thanks, y'all. And indeed, yeah, this site fucking rocks. You guys did such a beautiful job balancing broad functionality with a minimal yet distinct design (is it me, or does that sound like I'm describing wine...?), which tells me that you did a shitload of work to make it look so clean and effortless.
Anyway, yeah, as promised (and mentioned above), I've posted a new thread soliciting course input from everyone. Have at it.
Cheers,
-Craig
P.S. For the record, it's the day of the LitReactor launch, and I already have more badges than Dennis. Ha!
This. Will. Not. Be. Tolerated!!!
My Craig Clevenger is running around the house knocking over all the vases! This is nothing like the product description!
What IS the deal here?
Dennis: I have more friends in my profile, too. Hee he...
Phil: Try shutting your Craig Clevenger down, waiting thirty seconds, then rebooting. If that doesn't work, do a factory reset (check your manual for specifics). Let me know if that helps.
Honestly guys, loving the site. Been a fan on the Chuck one for years but this thing looks like a whole new level of cool
I, for one, would like to know who is letting their Craig Clevenger use the internet. What if it manages to make contact with the other Craig Clevengers and they start some sort of take over. Hm? What then?
I propose everyone who has a Craig Clevenger should set him to work writing. It's what he does best.
If I start a thread for Will Christopher Baer, will he answer? I seriously want to start stalking him if he doesn't release another book soon. Godspeed was supposed to come out years ago.
Better not talk of stalking people around here — plus you probably wouldn't manage; he's really hard to track down.
So what is this Craig Clevenger and where can I get one?
It's a bit like a, I dunno, a word generator. But it doesn't work the way the box says.
You talk to boxes? But yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what everyone on here wants to be, kinda.
It's pretty odd, usually when I get into reading new(to me) authors I learn about the person first and watch readings. Looking back at this thread again, I now read Craig's posts in his voice.
Haha, thought I'd share.
the contortionist handbook is one of my fave reads for yrs,thx craig,its nice to see you are on this sight and helping out us who dream of writing such a twisted masterpiece as you have done....props to everyone out there,my first day on this sight and im excited
Why do I keep imagining that on-top panda gazing into a mirror and flexing its bicep?
Just bought Contortionist and look forward to plowing through it this weekend.
Ya know the old joke... A guy low on money ask a hooker for a blowjob, says he only has $10, she offers him a penguin.... When he's almost, ahem, done, she gets up and runs off - leaving the guy waddling like a penguin.
I feel like a I had a penguin with the Contortionist's Handbook tongiht, and it was sad. I was reading, close to the end, page 199, what felt to be a great spot for the climax to really be building, I turn the page, and NOTHING! Defective book - ARGGH!! 21 missing pages!
I feel empty like Daniel's script bottles, no refills.
The Deal with Clev is he is signing the World Touring Warmed and Bound
then sending it down the coast to Anthony David Jacques.
Buy it.
