We are new website. And more to come.

It's true. We are new Ben Tanzer website. We are also going to begin moving some of our blogging to the new site, and the rest of it to another site to come. We think it's all going to be awesome, though all we know for certain, is that it just might change your life, if only for a moment at that.

"The detail is beguiling." Repetition Patterns receives some kind words from The Short Review. That, and an interview.

We are quite thrilled, and most appreciative, to have received some very kind words about Repetition Patterns from The Short Review. They also asked TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer to do an interview and excerpts from both are below.

The review:

"Some of these stories might seem inconsequential. They're about tiny happenings or changes. People long for something, they grow up or move away. But the detail is beguiling, and often something dark or unusual is happening behind closed doors – the older sister who plays breathing games with the baby, the father who insists on giving visiting children a goodnight kiss, or the husband who sleeps with all of his neighbors' wives."

The Interview:

How did you choose which stories to include and in what order?

"It’s funny, I had the group of pieces I had written, and I had an order in mind, and then Jason Pettus from CCLaP got excited about publishing them, but still threw some out and re-arranged the order as he saw fit. I just sort deferred all that to him, which may say something about my desperation to be published. That said my understanding is that he draws on a Magic 8 Ball to make these kinds of decisions. Well, that and peyote."

TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer shamelessly rips off Blake Butler in an effort to hype Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine.

We think the title says it all, and it's true we have ripped-off, or if you prefer, paid tribute to Blake Butler in an effort to hype the one-year anniversary of Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine and the quite awesome $10 sale going at the Orange Alert Press. So, please enjoy, rinse and repeat.

Blake Butler eats Page 2 of Scorch Atlas from blake butler on Vimeo.

Guth. Pink. McClanahan. Tanzer? This Reading Will Change Your Life, so please join us July 24th for some Book Cellar reading love won't you?

Yeah, so, we have unabashedly been hyping the Scott McClanahan and his new joint Stories, so imagine how geeked we are to have the chance to read in support of him at The Book Cellar on July 24th at 7:00pm? Now, what if we also had the chance to read with the very awesome Amy Guth, writer, blogger, runner and one time guest of This Podcast Will Change Your Life and, and, the Sam Pink, author of I AM GOING TO CLONE MYSELF AND THE KILL CLONE AND EAT IT and the first writer ever published in This Zine Will Change Your Life. Well we are and we do and we think this reading may very well change your life. Meanwhile, if that isn't enough McClanahan for you, you can also see him on July 26th as part of the ongoing and quite killer Orange Alert Reading Series. Pretty nice, yes? Quite.

TBWCYL, Inc. spokesman Ben Tanzer talks about the truth. Well, that and hypes Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine. Check it out on YouTube.

The Blacksmiths for Literary Progress invade the annual Indie & Small Press Book Fair this coming weekend. For real. So, please go, cool? Thanks.

We wanted to let you know that The Blacksmiths for Literary Progress will have a table at the 21st Annual Indie & Small Press Book Fair this coming weekend in the New York City (details below) and will be featuring new books and zines (and possibly old lamps, used furniture, and rusted cutlery) from a number of wonderful writers including Brian Cogan, Mike Faloon, Tim Hall, Karen Lillis, Ken Wohlrob and TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer. There are also some free books to be given given away so please do stop buy, say hello and take home some damn good independent lit. Cool?

Time and Place

Saturday, December 6, 2008, 10 AM - 6 PM

Sunday, December 7, 2008 11 AM - 5 PM

Location

The New York Center for Independent Publishing

20 West 44th Street (between 5th and 6th)

New York, NY 10036

Our new short story collection Repetition Patterns - A story cycle is now live at CCLaP. For real.

We wanted to let you know that our new short story collection "Repetition Patterns - A story cycle" is now available from CCLaP Radiohead-style at the CCLaP Center. There are also a number of other goodies at this link and a description of the collection from CCLaP below. We look forward to your thoughts and hope that in some small, or maybe even large, way it changes your life.

"Dysfunctional suburbs. Dark thoughts. Crumbling relationships. Or in other words, just another day in the twisted world of author Ben Tanzer. In the experimental "Repetition Patterns," this two-time Chicago novelist creates his own fictional small town full of secrets and despair, with results that are partly Sherwood Anderson, partly Sam Shepard, and with a fair dose of Chuck Klosterman thrown in for good measure. A "pay what you want" eBook experiment in the style of Radiohead, the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography is proud to announce this as the organization's first-ever original title; new fans are bound to love the seedy pop-culture-laced style Tanzer brings to all his work, while existing fans are sure to see this as a new high point in a suddenly explosive career."

You're so VAIN. Yes we are.

We are quite pleased to announce that This Zine Will Change Your Life has won VAIN magazine's spring "zine fest" contest and in doing so not only are two of TZWCYL 's contributors, Corey Mesler and J.A. Tyler, being featured in VAIN's summer 2008 issue, which is out now, hand-made, and sweet, but air traffic controller Ben Tanzer has been invited to serve as a guest editor for the fall 2008 issue. Pretty, pretty cool. Many thanks to VAIN and many congratulations to our writers and the whole crew at TZWCYL, it's definitely a group effort and you guys all rock it.

How cool - CCLaP: Chicago Center for Literature and Photography turns One!

We are very excited to let you know that our good friend Jason Pettus of CCLaP: Chicago Center for Literature and Photography is celebrating CCLaP's first anniversary this week. Among other things CCLaP is holding its first social event at the Printers Row Book Fair this Saturday, June 6th from 4:00pm - 7:00pm here in Chicago at Kasey's Tavern which is located at 701 South Dearborn. Another thing CCLaP is doing is running mini-profiles of friends and likely social event attendees on its blog and so after tooling around this most excellent arts and culture blog we also invite you to take a look at the profile of TBWCYL, Inc, spokesperson Ben Tanzer. Its not clear to us whether it will actually change your life, but we here at This Blog Will Change Your Life are contractually obligated to hype Ben at all times regardless. Thank you as always for your understanding and we hope to see you on Saturday.

May include content which could be viewed as objectionable - Lucky Man rocks the Wordsmiths and receives big love in return.

Suffice it to say we couldn't have been more thrilled to see this notice posted by Wordsmiths in Atlanta prior to our Lucky Man reading during their "Story-time for Grown Ups" storytelling event last week. We also couldn't have been happier to see the killer turnout. And mainly we want to thank Wordsmiths and Russ Marshalek for their ongoing support. That said, despite getting stuck on the Marta in the not so cool 90 degree Atlanta heat, we had a great time reading at Wordsmiths' most excellent new store, are much appreciative, and for more details on the event, because you know, we like to be as humble as possible, we invite you to please take a moment to read Russ' dispatch on the Wordsmiths blog.

We're just saying that...

We know that what we are about to write is sort of maybe grandiose and even base. And we're not making any specific kind of accusation here, or even trying to insinuate anything. But there we were reading the current issue of the The New Yorker when we came across this humor piece titled Bad Dog by Larry Doyle in the Shouts and Murmurs section. As we read it, it frankly seemed kind of familiar to us. In fact, it reminded of us a humor piece that TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer published in THE2NDHAND some time ago. That piece was titled Daddy Dreariest, and while again, we're not trying to imply that we think, you know, that this is anything more than the most random of coincidences, we're just saying that...well, we're just kind of wondering what you think.