| nautilus_1.m4a |
Dear Reader,
First off, the above file is as close as I can get to portraying what it feels like to channel new material from the mysterious ether that becomes, through a lot of shaping and hard work, fiction. I recorded it at five a.m. when I couldn't get back to sleep, but was too tired to get up and write. It's very strange, and oddly relaxing. Some of those images and concepts are bound for a novella I'm writing entitled The Nautilus. Richard the Pot-Bellied Pig makes it in.
I, John Babbott, am glad you're here. I'm a freelance and fiction writer. This site is dedicated to my fiction. (If you're interested in hiring me for freelance copywriting, editing, or content of any kind, see Professional Writing for a list of past and present clients, or just shoot me an email. Or use this contact form.)
My writing has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Enizagam, Quiet Lightning, and recently in The Mastheads Anthology.
I've been awarded three writing residencies:
Art Farm Nebraska in 2016, during which I edited much of my first novel and started a strange novella (to which I've just returned), and during which I caught lots of fireflies and watched lightning storms and sunsets like these from atop the best roof in the world.
The black triangular tiny house pictured above is where I spent all of July 2017 at a residency called The Mastheads. It was incredible. I hung out in a meadow with lots of ground nesting birds flying gyres around my house. I wrote the bulk of a novel I've since completed, entitled Topaz.
The Cloud of Destiny picture next to the tiny house is the view from Playa Summer Lake, a residency I attended in December 2017 in Lake County in Oregon (Lake County has the distinction of being the only county in Oregon with zero traffic lights.) I now have two things in common with Cheryl Strayed: we have both attended Playa Summer Lake, and we're both hugely popular and commercially successful authors. She's one of my biggest fans. Hi, Cheryl!
Just kidding—that last part's not true. But Cheryl Strayed did do the same residency, several years ago.
Unlike Cheryl Strayed, my two novels and one novella are both stranded in the bardo, commercially speaking, where they patiently await their next phase of existence.
In the meantime, I'd love for you or anyone else to enjoy them.
If you feel so inclined, you can tell me what you think, or just say hi, by using this contact form. I love that.
(What follows below are some thank-you's and mentions of past projects. If you want to read something, I suggest you head north, to the tabs, and click on something.)
...
Playa Summer Lake was incredible. Thanks to John Martins, Ellie, and every one of the other artists who made it so special, and so productive. Thank you, Curtis Bartone, for the print. Thank you, O Facilities Manager Whose Name I Can't Presently Recall, for the loan of those ice skates.
Tambourines and Elephants is looking for a home. If you like it, and know an agent who you think would too, I'm all ears. See Novels for an excerpt.
So is Topaz. See Novels for an excerpt. Many thanks to all the Mastheads wizards (I wrote the bulk of it while there), the city of Pittsfield, the National Endowment for the Arts, and my four co-residents for making it so singularly productive.
A short film is born! I Will Not Write Unless I Am Swaddled In Furs, a short-story-become-short-film collaboration with Wade Shotter and Jimena Murry of Finch Company (Auckland, NZ) is in the can. Next stop: Cannes. I think. A thousand thanks to Wade and Jimmy, to the New Zealand Film Commission, and to everyone who helped make it possible.
@fursfilm
https://www.boosted.org.nz/furs
Thank you, Nate Dern, for talking me up.
Much gratitude to Beenish Ahmed carrying this piece about Donald Trump and Robert Penn Warren's All The King's Men--featured on The Alignist.
I miss Art Farm Nebraska.
About Me:
I grew up in southern California and rural Vermont, environments that whetted my appreciation for the bucolic, the apocalyptic, and the weird.
Over the years I've taught middle and high school, lived in Sierra Leone and Chile and Thailand, worked in an ER, worked as a line cook, started a food truck, spent lots of time in mountains and on rivers, and (more and more) written fiction.
First off, the above file is as close as I can get to portraying what it feels like to channel new material from the mysterious ether that becomes, through a lot of shaping and hard work, fiction. I recorded it at five a.m. when I couldn't get back to sleep, but was too tired to get up and write. It's very strange, and oddly relaxing. Some of those images and concepts are bound for a novella I'm writing entitled The Nautilus. Richard the Pot-Bellied Pig makes it in.
I, John Babbott, am glad you're here. I'm a freelance and fiction writer. This site is dedicated to my fiction. (If you're interested in hiring me for freelance copywriting, editing, or content of any kind, see Professional Writing for a list of past and present clients, or just shoot me an email. Or use this contact form.)
My writing has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Enizagam, Quiet Lightning, and recently in The Mastheads Anthology.
I've been awarded three writing residencies:
Art Farm Nebraska in 2016, during which I edited much of my first novel and started a strange novella (to which I've just returned), and during which I caught lots of fireflies and watched lightning storms and sunsets like these from atop the best roof in the world.
The black triangular tiny house pictured above is where I spent all of July 2017 at a residency called The Mastheads. It was incredible. I hung out in a meadow with lots of ground nesting birds flying gyres around my house. I wrote the bulk of a novel I've since completed, entitled Topaz.
The Cloud of Destiny picture next to the tiny house is the view from Playa Summer Lake, a residency I attended in December 2017 in Lake County in Oregon (Lake County has the distinction of being the only county in Oregon with zero traffic lights.) I now have two things in common with Cheryl Strayed: we have both attended Playa Summer Lake, and we're both hugely popular and commercially successful authors. She's one of my biggest fans. Hi, Cheryl!
Just kidding—that last part's not true. But Cheryl Strayed did do the same residency, several years ago.
Unlike Cheryl Strayed, my two novels and one novella are both stranded in the bardo, commercially speaking, where they patiently await their next phase of existence.
In the meantime, I'd love for you or anyone else to enjoy them.
If you feel so inclined, you can tell me what you think, or just say hi, by using this contact form. I love that.
(What follows below are some thank-you's and mentions of past projects. If you want to read something, I suggest you head north, to the tabs, and click on something.)
...
Playa Summer Lake was incredible. Thanks to John Martins, Ellie, and every one of the other artists who made it so special, and so productive. Thank you, Curtis Bartone, for the print. Thank you, O Facilities Manager Whose Name I Can't Presently Recall, for the loan of those ice skates.
Tambourines and Elephants is looking for a home. If you like it, and know an agent who you think would too, I'm all ears. See Novels for an excerpt.
So is Topaz. See Novels for an excerpt. Many thanks to all the Mastheads wizards (I wrote the bulk of it while there), the city of Pittsfield, the National Endowment for the Arts, and my four co-residents for making it so singularly productive.
A short film is born! I Will Not Write Unless I Am Swaddled In Furs, a short-story-become-short-film collaboration with Wade Shotter and Jimena Murry of Finch Company (Auckland, NZ) is in the can. Next stop: Cannes. I think. A thousand thanks to Wade and Jimmy, to the New Zealand Film Commission, and to everyone who helped make it possible.
@fursfilm
https://www.boosted.org.nz/furs
Thank you, Nate Dern, for talking me up.
Much gratitude to Beenish Ahmed carrying this piece about Donald Trump and Robert Penn Warren's All The King's Men--featured on The Alignist.
I miss Art Farm Nebraska.
About Me:
I grew up in southern California and rural Vermont, environments that whetted my appreciation for the bucolic, the apocalyptic, and the weird.
Over the years I've taught middle and high school, lived in Sierra Leone and Chile and Thailand, worked in an ER, worked as a line cook, started a food truck, spent lots of time in mountains and on rivers, and (more and more) written fiction.