Dispatches, thoughts, and miscellanea from writer Jon Konrath

Tag: writing

  • Bourdain

    Usually, these things don’t get to me. But for some reason, this one has. So Anthony Bourdain is dead. Suicide, hotel room, 61. I feel some need to extrapolate on this, front-loading this with a lede of what he accomplished or why this is so tragic, etc etc. I have no energy for that. You…

  • The Awl

    So it looks like The Awl is no more. Another blog bites the dust. The Awl started in 2009, originally some folks who left The Gawker and decided to do their own thing from their apartment in Brooklyn or whatever. It was a general culture blog, with emphasis on New York City, and a bit…

  • KONCAST Episode 10: Ryan Werner

    http://koncast.libsyn.com/episode-10-ryan-werner In this episode, I talk to writer, publisher, musician, and lunch lady Ryan Werner. He is the author of Shake Away These Constant Days, Murmuration, If There’s Any Truth In a Northbound Train, and Soft. He plays guitar in Young Indian and numerous other bands. He also runs Passenger Side books. Links from this…

  • KONCAST Episode 9: Timothy Gager

    http://koncast.libsyn.com/episode-9-timothy-gager In this episode, I talk to writer and poet Timothy Gager. He is the author of thirteen books of poetry and fiction, including his latest book of poetry, Chief Jay Strongbow is Real. He’s also the host of the Dire Literary Series in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Links from this episode: Timothy Gager: http://www.timothygager.com The Dire…

  • KONCAST Episode 8: Joshua Citrak

    http://koncast.libsyn.com/episode-7-joshua-citrak In this episode, I talk to writer Joshua Citrak. He is the creator and co-host of the podcast Hangin’ With Old Lew. We discuss: the Raiders and North Korean Juche; the nuclear war, wildfires, and hurricanes trifecta; the Elkhart connection; post-industrial Binghamton; the rise and fall of IBM America; the synergy between nuclear holocaust…

  • KONCAST Episode 7: Andrea Donderi

    http://koncast.libsyn.com/episode-7-andrea-donderi In this episode, I talk to long-time friend Andrea Donderi, a recent graduate of The MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. We discuss: the IU support center; the early web; knowledge bases and creating content; Jorn Barger and the invention of the blog; Gopher versus the WWW; the ChiNet BBS and other…

  • KONCAST Episode 3: Author Jeff O’Brien

    In this episode, I talk to Jeff O’Brien, writer of Very True Stories, Big Boobenstein, Byron the Barbarian, and Heart Shaved Box.   Links from this episode: Jeff O’Brien’s author page: https://www.amazon.com/Jeff-OBrien/e/B00B12WAM2/ Jeff’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/jeff.obrien.author I kept referring to a low-budget film director named “Ramirez” and blanking on his book name – Sorry, I…

  • This site is now twenty years old.

    What were you doing twenty years ago? I was living in Seattle. Working on the west shore of Lake Union. Working on two different books, but years from finishing either. I’d done a paper zine that had petered out after a half-dozen issues, and had a personal web site I’d been running for three or…

  • Surge Redux

    They relaunched Surge! I guess I wrote about this years ago (see Surge, Vault) when they half-ass relaunched Surge as Vault about ten years ago. I used to be extremely obsessed with different sodas. I also used to weigh 250 pounds and need thousands of dollars of dental work a year. Surge was like the apex…

  • Death of The NecroKonicon

    I made the decision to retire the print and ebook versions of my book The NecroKonicon, also known to many as “the glossary.” It was a bittersweet decision, but it’s not something I want available anymore. I unpublished the online version of the glossary about ten years ago, which was a tough decision back then.…