Two new essays

Another quick post just to note that I had two new essays published last week. 

First, this piece at The Review Review, in which I offer advice to writers on how to conduct themselves at readings when promoting their books. Here's a sample:

“A lot of these tips, I admit, come down to issues of personality. Your job is to just try to act normal for a couple hours. This is difficult for some people; if you’re an asshole, you can’t fix it, but you can at least try to hide it for a while. Some days, selling even a single book seems impossible. You need to do everything you can to improve the odds.”

Next, Miracle Monocle, the literary magazine from the University of Louisville, released their latest issue, which includes my travel essay, "The Least Authentic of All Experiences." It's a little longer than the travel essays I wrote on this site last summer, and it's about Italy, romance, authenticity, vanity, and a lot of other stuff. A sample of this one:

“ On this trip, we will see so many priceless artifacts that I will get tired of seeing them. Before this vacation, a friend described seeing the Pietà as one of the most moving experiences of his life, witnessing such a profound testament of love and beauty. I look at it for a long time and agree it is well-made, and then I look longer, wondering why I haven’t been moved in the same away. I take a picture and walk to the next sculpture. When we get to the Sistine Chapel, the woman in front of me falls to her knees in tears, and my first thought is: okay, we get it. You’re moved. And my second thought is a deep well of regret for being so cynical I would assume this emotional reaction is contrived. I want very much to be the sort of person who sees amazing art and falls to his knees in wonder, but this doesn’t seem like something you will yourself toward.”

News roundup

It's been a full week of book-related action, including a fun but exhausting trip down to Washington, DC for the AWP conference, where I met a lot of cool, supportive people who were very excited about reading the novel. Full details/links below: 

1) Research Notes at Necessary Fiction - In which I discuss my (probably not great) research habits as a writer, and specifically what I had to research to write The Young Widower's Handbook

2) Salon Author Questionnaire - A group Q & A with authors Cara Hoffman,  Sara Flannery Murphy, Jason Rekulak and Amanda Eyre Ward. Some fun questions in this one, including, "How do you contend with the hubris of thinking anyone has or should have any interest in what you have to say about anything?"

3) Huffington Post interview - Brandi Megan Granett asks a few questions about point-of-view, writing masculinity, and more

4) Radio Times interview - I linked this in my last post, but, I don't know, here it is again. A 50-minute interview about writing, teaching, grief, and a lot more. The very bad picture at the top of this post is of the control room at WHYY. 

5) Largehearted Boy playlist - for the great Largehearted Boy site, I compiled a playlist of songs to accompany this book, and talked a bit a bout how music influences my own work. 

6) Review at The Big Smoke - A really nice review by Joseph Edwin Haeger. A sample: “What is appealing about The Young Widower’s Handbook isn’t that it’s funny and entertaining, but that it is both of those things while being honest about grief. Even though it’s a sad book (I mean, what do you expect from the title?), it’s a book full of truths that speak to the full human experience, from happiness to sadness and everything in between.”

7) ADDED 2/14: I wrote a piece for the "If My Book" series on Monkeybicycle, in which I compare the novel to a variety of sights and sounds you'd encounter on a road trip. 

I have events coming up on 2/15 (3:30 at Temple U's Paley Library, and 7 PM at the Cherry Hill Barnes & Noble) and 2/23 at the Tirefire Reading Series in Philly. 

Quick updates

1. Last week, the literary journal JMWW published my short essay, "See You in a While." It's about drinking beer on my deck with my dog and trying to appreciate good things. It'll take you less than 5 minutes to read. 

2. Today, the lit website The Millions published a piece I wrote about how podcasts can build communities and change the way we discuss books. As I say in the essay, "Literary podcasts are like being part of a book club without the social pressure or the bad wine." I say more stuff besides that too. Read it here.

3. Booklist reviewed my book and said, "McAllister’s debut novel is at turns funny and touching, particularly in the vignettes sandwiched between the narrative, which delve into Hunter’s thoughts and feelings about his marriage and his wife. Expect comparisons to Jonathan Tropper and Nick Hornby." So that's a good thing.

4. I've been adding lots of events over the past week. Starting 1/21, I'll be making the rounds, with a bunch of stuff in Philly and South Jersey, but also events in VT, GA, Boston, DC, and hopefully some more places soon. See the full listing here, and check back for future updates.