The following is a draft excerpt from my novel in progress, Housebreaking the Muse. In this passage I present my protagonist, Ray Burke, through the eyes Ubu Reformé, one of the novel's narrative entities. Ubu pays a visit on a more youthful Burke in "them punk rock days o' yore" when Burke headed up an…
Middle East Central Square – Excerpt from Housebreaking the Muse
The following is a draft excerpt from my novel in progress, Housebreaking the Muse. Here my protagonist, Ray Burke, in the midst of an unsuccessful job hunt, obsessed by the esoteric project he's undertaken to translate the complete annotated works of Dadaist-suicide Jacques Rigaut, and overwhelmed by the voices of French Dadaists and Surrealists who…
Craft Note: Embracing the Morning
For most of my adult life, and a lot of my youth, I've been a night owl. As a kid, I loved staying up on Friday and Saturday nights to catch Chiller Theater or The Ghoul. Then came "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert" and "Midnight Special" and "Saturday Night Live." Later, my punk rock inclination and…
Housebreaking the Muse: Excerpt
The following is a draft excerpt from my novel in progress, Housebreaking the Muse. The novel is haunted by the character of Jacques Rigaut, the French dadaist, gigolo, drug addict, dandy, and suicide. At irregular intervals throughout the novel, we listen in on the interior monologue of Rigaut on the the night of his suicide.…
Anastasopoulos and Milletti Talk Paul West on Word Patriots
The dynamic writing duo Dimitri Anastasopoulos and Christina Milletti join Mark Seinfelt this week to discuss the work of Paul West on Mark's Word Patriots program. Both Dimitri and Christina studied with West at Penn State in the 1990s. Dimitri is the author of the 2001 novel A Larger Sense of Harvey and Christina is…