Tracks Author Featured at DC Conference

Conversations and Connections is a DC writer's conference organized by Barrelhouse, the Baltimore Review, and the Potomac Review. Held on April 16, 2011, with Steve Almond as the keynote, Conversations and Connections features editors from a mix of established and cutting-edge literary magazines and small presses. Our panels and craft workshops are led by writers and editors from a wide variety of styles and genres, all speaking to issues that will help you take your writing to the next level. Topics this year include flash fiction, experimental fiction, writing ethnicity, social media for writers, the power of repetition, the poetic sentence, the one hour MFA, and many more. You won’t want to miss the panel discussion, Debut Writers and How They Got There featuring Dylan Landis, Eric D. Goodman, Janice Shapiro, Robin Black, and moderated by Leslie Pietrzyk. Learn how first time authors got from slamming their heads against the wall to getting a book published. Your registration fee of $65 includes the full day conference, a book of your choice, a year subscription to a participating literary magazine, and one ticket to "speed dating with editors," where you'll get immediate feedback on your work. This conference sells out every year, so reserve your spot at Conversations and Connections today: http://www.writersconnectconference.com/word

Radio Reunion

One thing advance readers seem to like about Tracks is the balance of mood and character. One character innocent and lovable, another sleazy and loathable. One story light or funny, another heavy or sad.

Pull out your hankies. “Reunion” is one of the more melancholy ones.

An abridged reading of “Reunion” was recently featured on Baltimore’s NPR station, WYPR. Set to appropriately-themed music, the reading was broadcast on The Signal, a tour through Baltimore’s cultural landscape.

The podcast is available now. You can listen to the program at the following link. “Reunion” is about 40 minutes into the program.

www.wypr.org/sites/default/files/podcast_audio/signal021111.mp3

Or, if you want to go directly to the “Reunion” reading, you can listen to it here.



Grab a few tissues and enjoy a radio reunion today.

Finding the Font that Fits

Tracks author Eric D. Goodman contemplates finding the perfect font for his novel in stories:

As a writer, I may strike you as the kind of guy who thinks of fonts as key. On the contrary — although my head is usually full of words, the font they’re cast in seldom enters my mind at all.

That’s why it came as somewhat of a surprise when my publisher, Atticus Books, asked me if I had any preference regarding the font that Tracks would be typeset in.

How is it possible I’ve read these billions and billions of words and seldom given any thought to their font?

For my decades of writing, I've pretty much stuck to three fonts (or four if you include dot-matrix): Times New Roman, Ariel, and Courier (the last of which I haven't used in years and only then because it looked to me like typewriter print).

As it turns out, font happens to be something Atticus Books does think about. In fact, each of the book they’ve published, so far, has been cast in a different font. Now that’s something to get keyed-up about!

Over the past weeks I've spent some time reading about fonts, putting passages of Tracks into different fonts, and trying to figure out what fonts I like best.

It seems appropriate that a book be set in the a font that fits the mood of the story. Perhaps a story about an old newspaper man in an old-fashioned courier, or an absurdist comedy in comic sans, or a computers-take-over-the-world futuristic fantasy in a sans serif.

But in most cases, it’s a little difficult, finding the font that fits.

Regardless of what anyone likes, I think the number one factor is that it be easy to read. The best fonts don't call attention to themselves.

What’s your take on type? Do you have a favorite font?

Tracks Novel Website Launched

The release date for Tracks, a novel in stories, is still months away — June 30 to be precise. But you don’t have to wait to climb aboard. You can visit the new website dedicated to Tracks: www.TracksNovel.com.

TracksNovel.com has a number of stations. You can:

· Listen to stories from Tracks, as featured on NPR;

· Read excerpts from Tracks;

· See the press release and other Tracks-related news;

· Find out what others are saying about Tracks;

· Get the schedule of Tracks readings, signings, and appearances;

· Visit the Lounge Car or Tracks Blog; even

· Watch a Tracks-related video.

What are you waiting for? Hop aboard the Tracks website now!

www.TracksNovel.com

Savvy Verse and Wit's Small Press Celebration

Savvy Verse and Wit is a blog dedicated to literary and poetic works, including critiques, reviews, editorial hints, and insights. Not to mention interviews.

With March, Savvy Verse and Wit kicks off its celebration of Indie and Small Press Month by publishing an interview with none other than Atticus Books, publisher of Tracks.

Atticus founding publisher Dan Cafaro talks about Atticus books, Independent Book Sellers That Rock Our World, Book Blogger Central, and about the books he has selected for publication, including Tracks, a novel in stories.

Take a look at the interview at the link. And celebrate indie and small presses!

http://savvyverseandwit.com/2011/03/an-interview-with-dan-cafaro-publisher-of-atticus-books-in-maryland.html

Tracks Author Published in Pedestal Magazine

Have a fetish for good literary magazines? Then you may already be a regular reader of The Pedestal Magazine. If not, you should give it a read.

The Pedestal Magazine is available online, and it’s free. As an online magazine that actually pays for all its content, The Pedestal is a cut above some of the other online journals.

Goodman's story, “Fetishes,” was published in a recent issue of The Pedestal Magazine. The flash fiction appears in issue 59.

As guest fiction editor Charles Rammelkamp said in his introduction, it’s not easy to be put on this pedestal. “It goes without saying that the competition was stiff, with around five hundred submissions for only a few slots and so much good work; it was kind of like college applications at prestigious universities.”

Where’s the frat party?

Check out The Pedestal Magazine issue 59 online.
www.thepedestalmagazine.com/gallery.php?cat=419

Or go directly to “Fetishes.”
www.thepedestalmagazine.com/gallery.php?item=12183