Suspend Your Disbelief

Recent Posts

Shop Talk |

Percival's Planet Launches Today

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

We’re pleased to announce that Percival’s Planet, the most recent novel by FWR Contributor Michael Byers, was released today. The book was inspired by the true story of the discovery of Pluto and takes place during the late 1920s. Told from multiple perspectives–a farm boy in Kansas who grinds his own telescope lenses, a young woman losing her grip on reality, a Harvard-educated scientist trying to work through Percival Lowell’s mathematical equations to find Planet X, and the heir of a chemical company fortune who’s decided to become a paleontologist in the hopes of establishing his own reputation–the novel explores […]


Shop Talk |

Recently on FWR…

by Anne Stameshkin

Here’s a roundup of the latest features FWR was pleased to bring you over the past two weeks: T.L. Crum reviews Michelle Hoover’s debut novel The Quickening: The Quickening follows the journeys of two Iowa families trying to build their lives amid the hardships of the Great Depression. Like Hoover, I’m a descendent of Iowa farmers, so I was interested in this story, curious to learn what my ancestors might have encountered as they built their farms in early 1900s, when so much was at stake and so little could be counted on. While there are subtle references to what […]


Shop Talk |

The (U.K.'s) Best Underground Lit Mags

by Celeste Ng

The UK’s Independent highlights their favorite new underground literary magazines “stemming from the edgiest enclaves of the book-loving universe”: Indeed, the editors of these fledgling organs claim that low budgets spur inventiveness. While Five Dials’ inaugural issue contained an 1852 letter from Flaubert to Louise Colet, the first in a series of “exemplar letters”, in more recent times it has juxtaposed articles on gangster rap with more high-brow fare. “It’s good to try to challenge the more established magazines,” says [Craig Taylor, author and editor of Five Dials]. “They don’t always deserve to be there. You need newer titles with […]


Shop Talk |

B-Movie Sparks Rick Moody's New Novel

by Celeste Ng

Adaptations usually go from novel to film (okay, unless you’re Dave Eggers, in which case all bets are off). But later this month, Rick Moody will publish The Four Fingers of Death—a 700-page novel involving a (fictional) novelization on the B-movie The Crawling Hand. io9 takes a closer look at the novel: It’s the year 2025, and the NAFTA bloc has fallen into such a perilous decline that we barely have an economy or a functioning society any longer, and we’re at the mercy of the much more powerful Sino-Indian economic bloc. A failed writer, Montese Crandall, wins the rights […]


Shop Talk |

If you were reading this on paper, you'd be finished by now.

by Celeste Ng

Perhaps our recent posts on e-books have you jonesing for an iPad or a Kindle. Or maybe they’ve made you nostalgic for a good old print hardback. Either way, here’s something else to consider: reading on paper is faster than reading on a screen. The Nielsen Norman group (no, that Nielsen) found that reading in electronic format was up to 10.7% slower than reading a paper book. Reports Macworld: Nielsen’s findings were based on the performance of 24 users who “like reading and frequently read books.” The subjects each read different short stories by Ernest Hemingway on all four platforms, […]


Reviews |

Concord, Virginia, by Peter Neofotis

by Dana Staves

The yarn-like stories that make up this debut collection recount the life of an imagined town in northern Virginia. Unlike a traditional collection, Neofotis chooses an oral storytelling method to structure these stories, utilizing the conceit that the narrator is not just the vehicle through which we are relayed the narrative but an actual character himself, one who sits down beside us to spool out poignant stories, juicy pieces of gossip, and far-fetched legends from his small town.


Shop Talk |

Why Buy the Cow: Part II

by Celeste Ng

Last week, FWR’s own Lee Thomas examined the economics of giving away e-books for free, pointing out: Free buys word of mouth, which may create the buzz needed to sustain a book long enough to find its audience. […] Many authors and publishing houses now regularly post a story from a new collection or a free first chapter as a way to entice while still protecting both profit and the value of the art. Author Jim Hanas is taking this model a step further by giving away copies of his e-book until Labor Day—directly. The One Story blog reports: In […]


Shop Talk |

Gatsby: The Video Game

by Celeste Ng

We’ve talked about video games and their relation to narrative before. But how about fiction as video game? Enter I-Play’s video game Classic Adventures: The Great Gatsby, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel. According to the game description, you can “Find the hidden items on your list triggering character dialogue and progressing the story,” “Recreate Fitzgerald’s famous prose, assemble your own library and earn trophies to share with friends on Facebook,” and “Complete unique mini-games: test your memory, put yourself in the author’s seat, or solve portrait puzzles.” Here’s a screenshot, complete with some landmarks from the novel: I-Play offers […]


Shop Talk |

The Book Trailer Goes Mainstream?

by Celeste Ng

You know a phenomenon has reached critical mass when it appears in the New York Times. And recently, the New York Times discussed the growing necessity—and, more often than not, awkwardness— of the book trailer: But in the streaming video era, with the publishing industry under relentless threat, the trailer is fast becoming an essential component of online marketing. Asked to draw on often nonexistent acting skills, authors are holding forth for anything from 30 seconds to 6 minutes, frequently to the tune of stock guitar strumming, soulful violin or klezmer music. And now, those who once worried about no […]


Shop Talk |

Library Love

by Celeste Ng

Lots of love for libraries recently. First, The Old Spice Guy (yeah, that Old Spice Guy) hilariously celebrates libraries in his typical stream-of-consciousness, non-sequitur fashion: (Confused? It’s part of a social media campaign in which the Old Spice Guy answers questions from fans, explains GalleyCat.) Next, a dead-on parody of the Old Spice commercial encourages students to study… in the library. The video was produced by the Harold B. Lee Library Multimedia Production Crew of Brigham Young University. Finally, NPR suggests that libraries might be the next big pop-culture wave (after cupcakes). After a Chicago Fox News segment suggested libraries […]




Literary Partners