(taken from postsecret.)

two bookstores that impressed along the way:

Kramer's in washington DC and mcNally Jackson in new york city.

back. and mark twain/ samuel clemens documentary.

sorry, long absence.

on sunday, 7 june 2009, arte will broadcast a documentary about mark twain's life at 22:00 CET. the film was made in 2004 by ken burns.

done with edit number three

am currently at 46.105 characters including spaces. still not much, but already 10.000 more than i had after the second edit. feel a little lost now that this round is over, but i need to pack and walk the neighbours' dog soon.

"it isn't what you're thinking. no, it's worse."

craig arnold is presumed dead from a fall now. (quote above from his poem incubus.)

word count ↑

ok, so i am still working on the third edit of my novella BUT i have completed its second part (of five) just now and already am at 30.795 characters including spaces. this is fantastic, as i was only at 35.000 for the whole thing after edit number two. i am planning to finish the third round by the end of this week, i.e. before i go on holiday to mainz, frankfurt, and washington DC. the idea is to let the manuscript ripen until i'll be back, and then to re-work it once more with a fresh mind. not sure how many more edits i'll need after the fourth, certainly one, if not two or three. but, like i said, i will keep you posted.

hilde domin documentary, sunday, 10th may, 3sat, 21.45 - 23.20

more information here.

(image by sushi who is also working for DIE FREIE LANZE.)

i have started the third edit of my novella today. as per usual, i previously confused counting 'characters including spaces' with the ordinary word count - only this time to my disadvantage. turns out, my second edit lacks many more words than i thought it would. we'll see how comfortable i'll feel about padding as much. the original draft of the piece was almost triple as long as the second edit is, but i'm very content i cut out all that crap for good reason. in the third round now, editing takes me about an hour per A4 page, depending on how much i add. i'm starting to get a little excited at this point. still loads of work ahead, though.

zehn seiten

i've been wanting to post this link for a long while now. my personal favorites are rafik shami, gernot wolfgruber and stefan beuse. it's also interesting to note how benjamin lebert's voice changes once he starts reading. michael stavaric and thomas meinecke are featured as well.

american award-winning poet craig arnold went missing on a volcano hike in japan three days ago. peter parolin, head of the english department where arnold teaches, explained this by saying "he feels the need to go to places that people don't go and come back and tell us about them," on CNN. uhm, i know for a fact that he used to write poems about very mondane topics, too. either way, if you're in japan and happen to spot him, please tell local authorities.

zurich, 15 may 2009

my favorite book shop in zurich, pile of books, hosts another poetry & songwriter night - this time featuring anne blonstein and bobby vacant. due to a limited number of seats, they will be playing two sets, the first one starting at 7:30 pm and the second at 9:00 pm. in any case, it is highly recommended to make reservations. admission is free, which is unusual for zurich, however, small donations would be very much appreciated.

i wasn't gon' say nothin'

but i've changed my mind due to the good progress i made in the past week.

i am working on my first novella.

[pregnant pause.]

and i am halfway through my second edit.

it's rather short overall, which is why i wouldn't want to call it a novel. after all, it's really only an attempt. but as this started off as a blog about my being a writer, i'd like to let you know how i proceed.

so far, i've managed to develop a story idea that has been around for a while - about a year or so - into a prose script i still enjoy working on. this is a good sign as it shows that the subject is deep enough to immerse myself in. it's a first person-narrative and there's still plenty of research to do, though, reading up on some history, looking at pictures and stuff. not necessarily because i want to incorporate everything in it, but to get in the mood for padding the draft somewhat later on. i do have a title in mind as well, which crossed my mind roughly a week ago and, in a way, drove the whole project home for me. even if it will eventually turn out to have been just a working title, having one at this point helps me focus on the essence of the text.

i am very excited about this. and happy, too, that i am finally, finally scripting. what is more, it feels good to tell you about this and to bring this blog back to its roots as a work log. having said this - i'll keep you posted.

(taken from postsecret.)
((if you're into that kind of thing, try this.))

publishing on demand

the UK invented books to go.

draft and rough translation

lese eure stimmen / stimmt
dass sie in stille verschwanden
die stille die immer ist / aussen an jedem gehirn
es sind nicht die stimmen / die stimmen
es sind eure pausen / die luftholgedanken
die hängen an zeilen wie jenen die
raus sind aus eurem gekopf / aufs papier.


read your voices / right
they are now silence
like silence that's / outside of every brain
they are not voices / right
they are your silence / the deep breaths
that stick to your lines like the ones
that are outside your brainness / on paper.

DIE ZEIT has an article on johannes jansen, whom i read with at kaffee burger last december.

edition suhrkamp has published his new manifest, as they call it, this january: Im Durchgang.

there's more on johannes' work in general, adorned by one of ann cotten's drawings, over at in|ad|ae|qu|at.

how to revise

harvard business publishing has suggestions on how to revise an email.

should you be more interested in learning how to revise prose, you should have a look at richard lanham's works: either the longman guide to revising prose (2006) or just revising prose (2000).

nora bossong reading in berlin

nora bossong is going to read from her second novel 'webers protokoll' on 17 april 2009 at STUDIO der schaubühne, Ku'damm 135, from 22:30 on. i haven't read that book, nor have i read 'gegend', her debut, but i do like her poetry, and am thinking that her readings might be worth a visit. as the attentive among you might know, i have been trying to translate her poem 'leichtes gefieder' before, but unfortunately to no avail (yet). cover charge for the LESbar reading is 5,- € and you can make reservations here.

ron winkler on criticism of 'lyrik von jetzt' (23 march 2009)

der metroprolet dug out this today. (more on ron winkler @ wikipedia.)