"An intimate glimpse into the lives of writers, runners, sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers." The New York Stories is TNBBC Top Reads of 2015, quite fine company and so Ludlow.

It really is Top Read, much appreciated, fine company, thrilled, and Ludlow, be still our hearts. Excerpt? Of course. Endlessly.

"We have the privilege of seeing some at their most honest and vulnerable and others as they make mistakes, come of age, regress in maturity, and carry forward hope that they will make better choices next time." 

The Single Stroke Seven.

Coming so soon it is. More here. Much more.

"Not a single moment that wanes or bores." The Lavinia Ludlow and TNBBC show The New York Stories some much appreciated review love.

For real. All of it. Excerpt? Word.

"The thing about Tanzer is that his writing is never irresponsibly fast-paced and disorienting. Instead, he uses the space as if it’s the last he will ever have—no piece is ever more than a couple thousand words, and there’s not a single moment that wanes or bores. Each story packs a straightforward and honest anecdote with situations most can identify with—growing pains, lessons learned through trauma, family issues, falling in and out of love."

"Imaginative and sobering." Orphans. Small Press Reviews. Sweet. Totally.

Quite sweet. Much appreciated. And drinks on us Small Press Review (and Lavinia Ludlow), many, whenever, and however, we next, and somehow meet. Excerpt? Word.

"Like most of Tanzer’s work, chapters are fast-paced, succinct, and contain no fat, dead ends, or draggy dialogue. Background details unfold naturally through flashbacks and stream-of-consciousness inner monologue, and paint a vivid image of Norrin’s internal struggles."

"An imaginative interpretation of a futile future." This Orphans Book Blurb Will Change Your Life, Part Five. Lavinia Ludlow.

“Tanzer combines contemporary issues such as debt, desperation for work, marital strain, and a man’s desire for family and normalcy with an imaginative interpretation of a futile future, where the United States is a wasteland and the only hope is moving the wealthy to another planet.” 
—Lavinia Ludlow, author of alt.punk and Single Stroke Seven

Writer in Residence. Day Three. alt.Ludlow.

Really. And totally. Here. Now. Yes.

"This story reads like a douche bag’s motivational speech to himself." The Terminator of Love gets Smalldoggies'd. And likes it. A lot.

So big thanks to the Smalldoggies and Lavinia Ludlow for that, and drinks, many, on us, when next we meet. Now excerpt, yes? Yes.

"In this piece, no one is innocent, and everyone has a sinister motive whether it’s to cheat or continue cheating, as if they lack the internal compass which regulates empathy and sound judgment. Tanzer manages to paints a vivid and rather graphic picture of just how ugly office politics can get."  

We are Durable Goods Issue 64.

We are also quite appreciative. And in some quite fine company yo. Big thanks to Aleathia Drehmer and the whole Durable Goods crew.

"It’ll take a swing at your thoughts on life and leave a lasting red mark." So Different Now gets Small Press Reviews'd. And likes it. A lot.

So true. And so appreciated. Big thanks to Small Press Reviews and the always awesome Lavinia Ludlow and drinks, many, on us somewhere, sometime, some how. Now, how about some excerpt? 

"Every story left me feeling intense emotions about the protagonist or his situation, weather it was victory, defeat, or a just plain, that totally sucks, and that’s what Tanzer does. He can evoke an intense reaction in his reader in a mere flash fiction piece. All the characters yanked at my heart strings in one form or another, I felt sympathy for them no matter how confused or fallen they were."  

Wherein we (among others) share three of our favorite reads of the year with TNBBC's The Next Best Book Blog and offer them to you as a preview for the more extensive, and yes, life-changing list of books and other pop cultural detritus we found ourselves immersed in during 2011 that we plan to post tomorrow.

Did that sound self-important enough? Great, we really wanted to nail the correct tone there. Enjoy. And big props to the Tom Williams, Lavinia Ludlow and dirty poet respectively for the stellar writing.

My Father's House gets some 2011 Top Ten Indie book goodness at the Book Case.

Most honored to not only have My Father's House selected by rock star book blogger Lori Hettler as a 2011 Top Ten Indie book release at the Book Case, but way thrilled to share the list with a number of writers we call friends and books we quite love ourselves, including but not limited to, the Ryan W. Bradley and Prize Winners, the Lavinia Ludlow and alt.punk, Steve Himmer and the bee-loud glade, Franki Elliot and Piano Rats, and on and on. Mass goodness. Check it out.

Bloggers. Novelists. Blogger/ Novelists. And the Alex Kudera.

TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Alex Kudera not only talks to The New Dork Review of Books about the novelist/blogger relationship, as well as, the supportive nature of the Indy writer community, but even finds a way to mention TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer, along with quite fine authors Steve Himmer, Charles Dodd White and Lavinia Ludlow, which more or less makes it our favorite Kudera interview of the day. Big thanks brother and now for some massively self-absorbed and maybe even life-changing, for us anyway, excerpt.

Greg: Do you think breaking down the line between reviewer/blogger and author is inherently a good thing? Why or why not?

Alex: I don’t see it as “inherently a good thing,” but I will say that the line is already broken; maybe it’s a dotted line indicating that passing is allowed? (For me, it has become exciting to see book bloggers become debut novelists.) In fact, novelists who also blog are the norm these days; if I’m not mistaken even big names like Rick Moody are blogging, and I believe that I’ve read it’s required by Moody’s publishing contract.

I see a lot of reciprocity within online writing communities, and there seems to be some sort of “you blog on me, I blog on you” expectation, and I’m very aware of a couple books I owe a read or blog to. For most of my life, I’ve experienced writing as a solitary act, but in the past year, I’m learning how to be a supportive part of the Indy book community — from active blogger-novelists like Ben Tanzer, Charles Dodd White, Lavinia Ludlow, and Steve Himmer (his Bee Loud Glade is also from Atticus Books).

"The writing is incredible," though, "I kept searching for some lightness." My Father's House gets Small Press Reviews'd. And likes it. A lot.

ARCs of My Father's House have started trickling out and with that there is the first review from the always sublime and incredibly thoughtful Lavinia Ludlow at Small Press Reviews. There is much positivity and that is appreciated, there is also the search for more lightness though, something we think is there, could be there, but is now a concern, and has us wondering how else the book will be experienced. We look forward to what is to come, however, and we are very thankful to Lavinia for jumping in first, drinks on us for sure, whenever, and wherever we finally meet.

"The writing is incredible, no surprise for a writer like Tanzer, and his storytelling ability has always been incomparable, but the incessant mention of grief, dying, wasting away, and the sheer hopelessness of his protagonist’s tortured soul overtook me like Mavericks’ surf."

A Nothing or Next to Nothing review intersection of sorts.

Excited for Nothing or Next to Nothing by TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Barry Graham we are. And when we see a rocking review of it by another TBWCYL, Inc. favorite, in this case the Lavinia Ludlow, even more excitement there is. Loads of excitement in fact. Waves. And buckets. Check it.

"Barry’s stories tend to read like bizzaro Twain or Steinbeck, but they seem believable because of his talent to write in grotesque detail. Some of his scenes made me shiver and crave a scalding hot bath with many bars of soap, maybe, to just wash out my eyes. But as vulgar as everything was, I think there’s a closet romantic lurking inside Graham’s rough-around-the-edges-tough-guy façade and it definitely bubbles up from the caverns of his subconscious and emerges in his writing."

"Like a series of precisely delivered suckerpunches." You Can Make Him Like You gets Small Press Reviews'd. And likes it. A lot.

Big thanks to Small Press Reviews and TBWYL, Inc. favorite Lavinia Ludlow for their most kind review of You Can Make Him Like You. Drinks, many, and bountiful, on us when next, and wherever, we meet.

"Tanzer has mastered the art of introducing characters, setting scenes, and building tension in a novel made up of flash-fiction-length chapters, following all those “editor’s dream” rules without being stiff or mechanical in his voice delivery. Among writers like Brad Listi and Tony O’Neill, Tanzer’s storytelling ability is something that I covet on a daily basis. I look forward to being bludgeoned again by his future publications."

This Book Will Change Your Life - alt.punk by Lavinia Ludlow.

Travel. Read. Travel. Read. Rinse. Repeat. And in the case of alt.punk by Lavinia Ludlow, don't just rinse, scrub, a lot, compulsively, until your skin is cracked and peeling off. But in a good way. There are so many things to react to in Ludlow's debut novel, Hazel, the protagonist's rampant germaphobia, which at times left us feeling nauseous ourselves, a first for sure; the endlessly raw, and wrongly creative sex; the crushing, or is it, numbing drug usage and alcohol abuse; the commentary on mental health, music, and all things female; the snapshot of life on the road as a groupie, or is it girlfriend, of an indie band, but even with all that going on, there was a line near the end of the book that we responded to in particular:

"He peers up at me with bloodshot, shitfaced eyes. His belt tightened around his right biceps, there's a live syringe teetering between the pads of his jittering fingers, and a cigarette dangles limply in the corner of his mouth. "When did you start smoking?" I ask.

And we responded to this because somewhere in that passage is the essence of the whole story, a story that may or may not represent an entire incredibly over-educated and politically astute generations' ennui and lack of opportunity, lets call them Millenials, but regardless, is certainly a generation that seems to know all too much, and be all too jaded, yet still gets hung-up on something comparatively mundane if they consider it evil or corrupt, something we would add that has rarely slowed down most members of Generation X. In this passage its heroin use, and in another it could be something like fisting, yet somehow that's all fine enough, but cigarette use, now that's disheartening. There's a lot to explore there, here, and there's a lot to explore in this book, a debut novel in all the ways great debuts can be, like a brain dump that not only introduces just the right amount of flair and confidence and mastery of language, but still somehow also becomes a window into a slice of the world you don't quite know enough about, if you even quite knew it existed quite like this in the first place.

"Honest and real." 99 Problems gets some Ludlow Goodreads love.

Indeed. There is a most generous review of 99 Problems at the Goodreads from author Lavinia Ludlow and we are most appreciative. Drinks on us for sure whenever, and wherever, we finally meet.

"It’s every writer’s goal to become such a fantastical storyteller that the reader dissolves into the narration and lives through the story. Tanzer has managed to perfect that in his stories such as those found in 99 Problems. His narration is honest and real, relate-able. Certainly a great publication from Tanzer and CCLaP. Definitely worth checking out now."

Check it. Ludlow. Dogzplot. And the alt.punk.

There are a number of books we are looking forward to reading these days, Volt by Alan Heathcock, Daddy's by Lindsay Hunter and The Bee Loud Glade by Steve Himmer, among many, but there are few books we are as excited about as alt.punk by the quite stellar Bay area rocker and author Lavinia Ludlow, who happens to have just been interviewed at Dogzplot by another author who has a book coming out we are also much excited about, Barry Graham and Nothing or Next to Nothing. Nice how that all comes together, yes? Yes.

BG : For me, ALT.PUNK is a tale of brutally honest, fatalistic, twenty-first century American Naturalism. I can’t help but feel that Hazel’s entire existence is preordained, that her germophobic, socially inept personality and her narrow, semi-elitist world view were shaped well before she was conceived, and a job at Safeway and her frustrating habit of returning again and again to the same deadbeat boyfriends are all part of her inescapable destiny. Tell me why this is or is not a good assessment?

LL: You couldn’t have assessed the protagonist in a more anal, undignified, and dysfunctional manner. It was dead-on. I’ve always wanted to write a story about a bitter and jaded suburbanite putting down the unproductive complaining and taking action. My intent was to instill melodramatic teenage angst into a character that was well into adulthood, and put her in the middle of a dark-humored fast-paced entertaining novel. In this story, Hazel tucked balls into her big girl panties and got the hell out of her dead end lifestyle. Naturally, without meticulous planning, everything blew chunks in her face.

"Bravo." Cool, Not Removed gets Lavinia Ludlow'd. And likes it. A lot.

Big thanks to TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Lavinia Ludlow for her kind words on "Cool, Not Removed" at the Goodreads. Drinks on us for sure when next we meet.

"I liked the page by page story-telling. Ben has an amazing ability to convey a lot of information and emotion through very few lines. Bravo."