Last March I drank a bottle of whiskey and woke up the next morning with a fiction blog. [Read more]

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Michael Kimball
   Luna Digest, 3/9
   Fictionaut Faves, 3/8

Never, would I ever go so far as to say I favor one group over another. Never would I do that. I would tell you that the Second Tongue Fictionaut Group includes members whose first languages are but are not limited to Italian, Spanish, German, Chinese, Greek, Dutch, French and Malaysian. [Read more]

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Kirk Farber
   Luna Digest, 2/16
   Fictionaut Faves, 2/15

When I think about HyperText from a New Media standpoint, I can’t help but nod toward the Infrarealists, the Flux Movement, old h4x0rz, new ways of communicating writing, and David Foster Wallace. In a story, if a word which can be clicked on is linked to another porthole of information, our conscious is re-directed to that footnote. The question then becomes is HyperText a means of distraction, or a means of elaborating on information? [Read more]

Recently:
   Line Breaks: “Pink” by Terese Svoboda
   Fictionaut Five: Jen Michalski
   Luna Digest, 2/9
   Fictionaut Faves, 2/8

I think fiction can learn a lot from the DIY indie-punk aesthetic. I’m a big fan of thinking of short stories as mp3s…. There was a conversation on the Pank blog and HTML Giant about how in music DIY and essentially “self-publishing” is ok, but in literature it’s not…. That’s where I think something like Fictionaut can help out. It’s a huge community to post a few stories (play a few songs) and see how the crowd responds. [Read more]

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Gina Frangello
   Luna Digest, 2/2
   Line Breaks: “The Line” by James Robison

I am calling on all Fictionauts to check out the January challenge and to step up. [Read more]

Recently:
   Line Breaks: “We” by Mary Grimm
   Fictionaut Five: Susan Tepper
   Luna Digest, 1/19
   Fictonaut Faves, 1/18

Opium Magazine has started a group on Fictionaut and I like asking Todd questions so I thought I would bother him via Google chat. I also like seeing him person because he is very good-looking and always wears a suit, and has a girlfriend who is not me. Taken, ladies, he is taken. [read more]

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Jim Ruland
   Luna Digest, 1/12
   Fictionaut Faves, 1/11

Nicole Elizabeth: Hello Gary. I was thinking we’d do a craft talk specifically on first

lines. One of the groups you are Admin of at Fictionaut is the “First Lines We Love”

outfit. It seems to be a great forum for writers to get together on the web and discuss other works they’ve loved, been inspired by, and want to share. How

did the idea for the first line group come about? [read more]

Recently:
   Line Breaks: “Shopgirls” by Frederick

Barthelme
   Fictionaut Five: Mike Young
   Luna Digest, 1/5
   Fictionaut Faves, 1/4

“I couldn’t stop thinking about how fun it would be to imagine stories behind things like a Formica Dinette standing upright at the bottom of the East River around 16th St, and the grand piano dredged from the harbor, and the dead giraffe found by the Army Corps of Engineers, and the fleet of Good Humor ice cream trucks that comprise an artificial reef off Rockaway Beach.” [read more]

Q (Nicolle Elizabeth for Fictionaut): The metadata in the spaceship tells me Matchbook is our most “happenin” group currently. What’s the deal here, you bribing people?

A (Edward Mullany): We’re excited about the way Fictionaut is establishing itself as a place for both writers and groups of writers to read and discuss literature in an atmosphere that is positive and serious. [read more]

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Matt Bell

   Luna Digest, 12/22
   Line Breaks: “Fragment from an Untelevised Revolution” by Rick Moody

“The little guys have to get started somehow. From day one, I’ve wanted the publication to reflect content that ignores names and biographies and looks instead at quality. When I read submissions, I jump straight to the content and read the bio afterwards. What good is having a journal that publishes only big names, only to promote them further? There is plenty of excellent writing out there from writers no one has ever heard of. And for anyone who looks down their nose and asks who those people are, I would respond that they are the potential future of literature.” [read more]

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Bob Eckstein
   Luna Digest, 12/15