Back in the Saddle

It’s tough to get back in the swing after the holidays, isn’t it? January work deadlines seem to come fast and furious, and there’s that holiday sugar addiction to overcome. Therefore this post will just be a snap shot of the stuff up on my screen - stuff I think you should be reading, too.

First, there’s the Chicago Reader fiction issue, judged by the instructor of my current fiction workshop at Northwestern, Goldie Goldbloom. One of the stories chosen was “The Gentle Grift,” a revenge-oriented tale by my classmate Tim Chapman.

Next, because of my recent obsession with Downton Abbey, I stumbled across this Galley Cat post about a reading list relevant to the PBS series (Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Brooke, etc.).

For a little levity, I’m reading the McSweeeney’s piece about Paula Deen and pole dancing: “I’d like to teach you one of my very favorite pole moves: the Buttercake Spin. It’s such a pretty move, y’all—your legs are going to look just like egg-beaters fluffing through a bowl of cream cheese!”

Also up on my screen is a fascinating post up by Brainpicker about a “master plotting” book. “The art of mechanized storytelling, or what a cardboard robot has to do with melodrama and Law & Order.” And I’m saving this article about the literary history of word processing for my morning coffee tomorrow.

Good luck to all of you with your 2012 resolutions, and, if you’re anything like me, weaning yourself from that holiday-centric 10-cookies-per-day.