There is Hill William Book Trailer. It is weird and awesome. It stars the Scott McClanahan. There is dancing.

Scott McClanahan HILL WILLIAM Book Trailer from Holler Presents on Vimeo.

This Book Will Change Your Life - Crapalachia by Scott McClanahan.

Fact fiction fact fiction place fact fiction fact fiction family fact fiction West Virginia fact fiction story fact fiction love fact fiction fact fiction longing fact fiction fact fiction birth fact fiction fact fiction God fact fiction fact fiction dirt and stones. We don't know if the Scott McClanahan knows where the facts end and the fictions start. We don't know what's true and what's false. We don't know what is story or memoir. And Scott McClanahan may not know himself. But it doesn't matter. Scott McClanhan is in every story he tells, moving from tale to tale, and Crapalachia is just another tale in his ongoing effort to record a life. Still, it may bother you that fact isn't always fact and fiction isn't always fiction. To which Scott might reply, that everything is fact. Everything is fiction. And everything is not. We tell stories to entertain. We tell stories to heal and illuminate the things we hold dear that otherwise have no form or shape. We tell stories because we have to, and those stories change as we do, growing and morphing and becoming fact. So is Crapalachia truth? It is as true as anything else is, because what McClanahan knows is that truth is what we need it to be. He also knows that as long as there is a sliver of truth in a story, that story will speak to us. And so with that we offer you this. The Scott who claims to have written this piece of biography, and do note that it is a biography of place, not person, writes of digging up stones and dirt, putting them in plastic bags, and handing them out as he worked his way around the world. Why did he do this? So that the whole world would become the place he knows. All of it the same biography, all of it fact, and all of it fiction. He said it was magic dirt, and we believed him. We still have our bag. We keep it for luck. We keep it so that some of Scott may rub off on our own storytelling. And we keep it so we can be in the same place he is. That magic dirt is part of the story, his, and ours. It changed our life, and Crapalachia may very well change yours.            

So coming so soon. Part I. The Hill William by Scott McClanahan.

Crapalachia. McClanahan. Soon.

"Then Frog raised his hand and told the teacher, “Do you know that Charles Manson grew up in West Virginia? His mother was a prostitute in Clarksburg.” The teacher told him to be quiet. Everybody laughed. Frog told us again that it was true."

Hill William. 2013. Yo.

McClanahan. Two Dollar Radio. Crapalachia. Q+A. Goodness.

And it's all right here yo.

A Providence Charleston Cousins Taylor Books You Can Make Him Like You This American Life Nerves of Steel West Virginia podcast photo essay wrap-up.

Barry Graham, Ben Tanzer, Scott McClanahan and Angel Babies

We were Providence for the Cousins Reading Series with the William Walsh and Laura Cherry, as well as, Timothy Gager and Ray Charbonneau. We Were Taylor Books and You Can Make Him Like You. We were Nerves of Steel West Virginia with the Barry Graham, Scott McClanahan, Jay Hill and sublime Harold Ray. And now we are home, photo essay and Nerves of Steel podcast in hand. Rejoice. And enjoy.

Ray Charbonneau, Ben Tanzer and Timothy Gager

Laura Cherry and William Walsh

Taylor Books - Charleston, WV

Harold Ray

Jay Hill and Ben Tanzer

This Book Will Change Your Life - Stories V by Scott McClanahan.

Work. Travel. Read. More read. There you go. And there is reading, a lot, but not much travel recently, and no time to finish things when other things keep coming in and coming up, but then there are airplanes, and hotel bars, shuttles, and terminals, and there is read, and we are in West Virginia, and tomorrow night we will be Nerves of Steel with the Knabb and the Graham, and the McClanahan, and here in his home state, and so Stories V! had to be read, was read, and you know we love the Stories and Stories II, and if the former is comprised of McClanahanian near fables of a world we rarely visit or see on paper, and the latter more fable-like with its touch of mysticism and spirituality, albeit still McClanahanesque, Stories V! is yet something else, or not something else, but it is more personal on the one hand, a Scott that is more selfish, yet wanting and full of love. Or is it that we just know Scott better? Maybe? The Scott of these stories seems weirder though, which we like, because Scott does seem weirder than the guy we see reading or listen to on podcasts, and this weirdness is nice and humanizing, but again is this our own projection, or some need of some kind? Yes, maybe, sure, but then more than weird, these pieces feel like they are ready to be performed. And we know somewhere we read Scott talking about writing stories not for the sake of writing per se, but for the chance to perform, and that's how many of them feel, which yes, may be more projection. And so, why all this, this stream of consciousness, this riff and blurbage, because with Scott the question isn't whether the work is good, it is, always, or even maybe whether he's one of our best short story writers, he is, but making sense of what he does, story after story, as they blend together into one long narrative about a guy named Scott who we now think we know, and we might, because we know someone named Scott, and we know his stories, the ones he has shared anyway, and it's good, all of it, and it changes lives, ours, yours, his. Maybe. We think.

Stories V. McClanahan. Trailer love.

Scott McClanahan STORIES V! Book Trailer from Holler Presents on Vimeo.

The TBWCYL, Inc. 2010 Top Ten Lists are coming. Here. Now. Books.

We will be Top Ten lists for the rest of the week, because really when you think about it, its time, like now, has to be, and today will be books. To be clear, well, straight up, we do not limit ourselves to books published in the year we are covering, just anything we read, we also readily embrace the fact that we are not objective, we virulently, even violently tilt towards indie releases, and to be honest, and we do believe in that, honesty that is, we are often influenced by the fact that the authors we dig may be acquaintances, or people we would like to be acquainted with, and/or based in Chicago the home of TBWCYL, Inc. headquarters. With that in mind, here you go, though please note, that despite all we just said, we are opening with a non-indie, non-Chicago author, and no, we can't totally explain that, but to say, this first one really knocked us out, big time.

(1) The Road/Cormac McCarthy

(2) Hush Up and Listen Stinky Poo Butt/Ken Sparling

(3) Stories II/Scott McClanahan

(4) Beautiful Piece/Joseph G. Peterson

(5) Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom/Mel Bosworth

(6) Slut Lullabies/Gina Frangello

(7) Working on a Dream - The Progressive Political Vision of Bruce Springsteen/David Masciotra

(8) Sweet Charlotte's Seventh Mistake/Cori Crooks

(9) Chasing Pigeons Make Me Feel More Powerful/Kendra Grant Malone

(10) Tales of Woe/John Reed

Some additional 2010 literary love sure to change your life (albeit in no particular order): One Damn Thing After Another/Tim Hall; When We Make Our Dinosaur/J.A. Tyler; We Know What We Are/Mary Hamilton; Old Men, Gods, And Monsters/Peter Schwartz; Twenty Stories/Kristin Fouquet; El Vocho: Love at the Twilight of Oil/Steve Lafler; Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago/Mike Royko, Charactered Pieces/Caleb J. Ross; Ryan Seacrest is Famous/Dave Housley; Red Ivy Afternoon/Mark Brand; Lambs of Men/Charles Dodd White; Some Identity Problems/Corey Mesler; The Sagging: Spirits & Skin/Jason Fisk.

Also, the two books we never quite got our hands on, but plan to, because not doing so is a terrible oversight and pains us to no end: Daddy's/Lindsay Hunter and Baby & Other Stories/Paula Bomer.

And, how about a 2011 sneak preview of sorts? A number of books have come in over the last few months just as our ability to make time for reading has slowed dramatically, so books we are geeked for as the new year is upon us (and again in no particular order): Cardboard Gods/Josh Wilker; Sophomoric Philosophy/Victor David Giron; Fight For Your Long Day/Alex Kudera; Cloud and Other Stories/Jason Jordan; Songs of Vagabonds, Misfits, and Sinners/Ken Wohlrob; Chasing the Runner's High/Ray Charbonneau; Mont-Saint-Michele and Chartres/Spencer Dew.

Finally, for your retro viewing pleasure:

TBWCYL, Inc.'s 2009 Top Ten Books List

TBWCL, Inc.'s 2008 Top Ten Books List

TBWCYL, Inc.'s 2007 Top Ten Books List

Winter Solstice Small Press Holiday Recommendations.

As previously noted here, the Karen Lillis asked us for three holiday small press recommendations and asked that we limit these books to releases from the last two years.
We stuck to releases from the last two years, but we did not stick to just three, we should have, and could have, but we did not and are happy to report that we were not admonished for doing so, which is always nice.

For a more detailed commentary on our part please do hit the Karen the Small Press Librarian post containing our recommendations, but for those of you who just cannot wait, here's our list, with apologies to many, many others.

(1) Big World - Mary Miller

(2) Hush Up and Listen Stinky Pooh Butt - Ken Sparling

(3) Grease Stains, Wisdom, and Maternal Wisdom - Mel Bosworth

Also, and, somewhat collectively:

(1) Stories II - Scott McClanahan

(2) The National Virginity Pledge - Barry Graham

(3) Songs of Insurgency - Spencer Dew

And finally, because this book just has not gotten enough attention:

(1) The Lost Episodes of Beatie Scareli - Ginetta Correli

This Podcast Will Change Your Life, Episode Twenty-Eight - Poetry in Your Toes.

It was so overdue. And what is it that was so overdue you ask? A podcast with long-time TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Jacob Knabb of course. We are calling this episode Poetry in Your Toes, though we were tempted to call it Flaccid, and Jacob not only brought along some friends, including the Barry Graham, Robyn Pennacchia and Kari Freitag, the first two of which starred with Jacob in the now award winning Fire Sale video, but he even takes some time to call out fellow West Virginian and TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Scott McClanahan on their respective positions on the West Virginianess of now long deceased short story writer Breece D'J Pancake. That said, we are all in agreement on the awesomeness of former West Virginia basketball star Kevin Pittsnogle, and to say this is quite good stuff overall, or that it is sure to change your life, well that would be quite the understatement indeed.

How about a crazy, freaking awesome, dude-laden, will quite possibly change your life Orange Alert reading at The Whistler this Sunday, April 18th?

Scott McClanahan. Sam Pink. Spencer Dew. Brandon Will. And TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer. Yeah.

This Podcast Will Change Your Life, Episode Eighteen - Lightning and Women. Redux. And Re-Release.

McClanahan. On the train. And in the rain. Episode Eighteen.

This Book Will Change Your Life - Stories II by Scott McClanahan.

First off, we just want to say that we are looking to go a little Lovelace today with what looks to be a multi-sectional and multi-photoed riff on Stories II by Scott McClanahan. This has happened once before when were in the immediate throes of the quite excellent Dear Everybody by Michael Kimball and it felt good, real good, and if it didn't actually change anyone's life, well it certainly changed ours.

And so here we are again. But here's the thing, writing about Scott's writing suddenly seems like a trickier thing to do then when we wrote about Scott's last collection Stories. We say this, because lately the stuff we've seen on Scott sometimes feels like it is wrapped-up in Scott himself and what he represents to whoever may be writing about him. We think he is as awesome as everyone else does, but our concern, is that what might get lost is discussing the quality of the work, and even the quality of his reading of that work, because of this potentially Dylan-like love of Scott and his Scottness. Now please note, we get it, we do, really, because we're there too, and we have probably abetted it, but we still want to fight it.

Which brings us back to the fantastic Stories II, which is fantastic for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is in comparing it to Stories. As we read Stories II, we were reminded of when we read the quite rocking When I Moved to Nevada by Jamie Iredell. We were clearly in Iredell territory, bars and chicks and the like, but as compared to the also impressive Atlanta, Jamie had found a way to expand this universe, making it less claustrophobic by embracing nature and the natural world. It was quite a feat and it should be celebrated as such.

Which brings us back to Stories II, a collection that exists firmly in McClanahan territory, a world where some guy named Scott seeks to not just make sense of the world around him, but embrace it for all it has to offer. Its a world filled with death and illness, dog's goiters, iconic kidney stones and adulterers being beaten to a pulp even as the narrator eats said adulterer's pizza and watches the aforementioned beating. And yet, here's the thing, Stories II is more than that as well, because in this collection Scott bends his stories further in terms of religion and ghosts, adding a layer of mysticism and spirituality that both enriches the stories and takes them from the near fables of Stories to actual fables, fables about a guy named Scott just trying to make sense of the weirdness, humor and sadness that permeates the world around us.

McClanahan madness.

There is much McClanahan happening out there right now and while we totally promise to read Stories II and report back soon, in the interim we thought we would offer you a review and stuff at HTML GIANT from the Sam Pink and an interview by Jen Michalski at the JMWW blog. We should add here, that we honestly believe that this ought to suffice for the moment, but if you in any way disagree you know you can always take this up with management. We're good like that.

The TBWCYL, Inc. 2009 Top Ten Lists are coming and today you get our Top Ten Books. No for real, you do. Just look below.

As there was much work travel and work furlough in 2009, there was much reading, hence we terribly excited to roll-out TBWCYL, Inc.'s 2009 Top Ten Books List, the first of our 2009 Top Ten lists, all of which we intend to post over the next couple of weeks. As with previous years, most of these books are from indie presses, which makes us happy, and many are written by friends, which makes us biased, though luckily, we love being biased almost as much as we love being self-absorbed. In terms of housekeeping, please note, that unlike our other end of the year lists, we do not limit ourselves to books published in 2009. Further, pretty much all of the following books were written about or blurbed here at This Blog Will Change Your Life, so, while we will keep the verbiage to a minimum today, we will be hyper-linking like there's no tomorrow. And who knows, maybe there won't be.

(1) Radiant Days/Michael A. Fitzgerald
(2) Stories/Scott McClanahan
(3) Big World/Mary Miller
(4) Dear Everybody/Michael Kimball
(5) Put Your Head in My Lap/Claudia Smith
(6) The Collectors/Matt Bell
(7) The Understory/Pamela Erens
(8) The National Virginity Pledge/Barry Graham
(9) When the Cats Razzed the Chickens & Other Stories/Mel Bosworth
(10) Conquering Venus/Collin Kelley

Some additional 2009 literary love (albeit in no particular order): Safelight/Shannon Burke, Full of It/Tim Hall, When I Moved to Nevada/Jamie Iredell, Bad Monkey/Curtis Smith, The Slide/Kyle Beachy, Sunlight at Midnight, Darkness at Noon/Hosho McCreesh and Christopher Cunningham, Some Things That Meant the World to Me/Joshua Mohr, Tranny/Steve Lafler, Fast Forward/Eric Spitznagel, You Must Be This Happy to Enter/Elizabeth Crane, Questionstruck/William Walsh, Talking Heads: 77/John Domini, Too Young to Fall Asleep/Sally Wiegel, Oh Baby/Kim Chinquee, One of These Things is Not Like the Others/Stephanie Johnson, The Complete Collection of People, Places & Things/John Dermot Woods, All the World's a Grave/John Reed.

And finally, for your retro viewing pleasure:

TBWCYL, Inc.'s 2008 Top Ten Books List

TBWCYL, Inc.'s 2007 Top Ten Books List

Some things we are digging as we prepare to briefly drop off of the grid.

Fact, we are sort of mostly briefly dropping off of the grid this week. And so we sort of thought we should leave you with some stuff to read and/or contemplate during our time away.

Yes, we're just good like that.

First off, Stories II from the most excellent short story writer Scott McClanahan is due out soon. This is quite good news. The dude is the bomb. We loved Stories. And yes we love him as well and we are not embarrassed to say so.

We would add, that Scott has also recorded a piece from Stories II for the fine crew at Apostrophe Cast and it should be heard, so why not listen to it? They are even throwing in an interview for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.

The Nick Ostdick has a new piece titled True Hair up on STORYGLOSSIA. Yes, that STORYGLOSSIA. Please feel free to consume it. And yes we love him too.

Meanwhile, for the record, feel free to assume that all writers, and publishers, referenced going forward are loved by the staff here at TBWCYL, Inc. We say, so we don't have to sound repetitive. We also say this, because how many times can you say love something before it grows stale?

This is a no stale zone. Cool?

There is a fine interview with Ken Wohlrob at Emprise Review.

And we have alternative cover and pre-order action for the Fox Force 5 collection from Paper Hero Press. Very good.

Robert Duffer has a most excellent piece on the most excellent Jason Behrends and Orange Alert at Time Out Chicago.

The Collin Kelley has a conversation with singer Vannessa Daou at soldout.

We get to learn Mel Bosworth's Best of 2009 at the Big Other.

The J.A. Tyler's novella Inconceivable Wilson from Scrambler Books is now available for pre-order. Nice.

The Pete Anderson has a series of wonderful short story reviews at the Pete Lit including pieces by TBWCYL, Inc. favorites Spencer Dew, William Walsh and the always something Kendra Grant Malone.

David Masciotra has a killer piece on the progressive politics of Tim McGraw at the Daily Yonder.

And finally, Tim Hall brings us new Uplift the Positivicals. Can you say, Santa on the beach? We thought you could.

This Self-Portrait Will Change Your Life, Week Forty-Eight - "Readings."

It is week Forty-Eight of This Self-Portrait Will Change Your Life, our most triumphant effort to post one self-portrait per week for one year and this week was filled work travel and readings in both Pittsburgh and Morgantown. It was big fun and we want to offer big thanks to Karen Lillis, Scott McClanahan, Savannah Schroll Guz, Craig Bernier, Jim McKay, the Te Cafe and The Bookshelf. We also want to be sure you know that one, you can follow this project in its entirety at the Flickr and two, you can see a self-portrait all your own right here at This Blog Will Change Your Life. Just hit us with one and we will take it from there. Really. We're good like that.

This Podcast Will Change Your Life, Episode Eighteen - Lightning and Women starring Scott McClanahan.

The Scott McClanahan came to town. See above. He read. He rocked it, all funny and low-key. And it was good Stuff. We also had La Guth working her Morrissey thing, the Sam Pink, discharging every possible image to ever enter his brain and TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer's mom Judy. See below. And if all that wasn't enough, there was polka and podcasting as well. Wait, did someone say podcasting? Indeed they did, because we podcasted with the McClanahan on the train and in the rain and now you get to listen to it. Yes, right now, go ahead. Will it change your life? We think so. Enjoy.