Writing
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Coming Soon: A Goodreads Giveaway!
Readers, big news! I just signed up for a Goodreads Giveaway, which means that FIVE SIGNED COPIES of the paperback version of The Promotion will be given away FOR FREE to Goodreads members who sign up for the contest. That’s right, soon five lucky readers will be given the chance to immerse themselves in 105 pages of misery, obsession, and… Continue reading
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A History of Jacke in 100 Objects #10 – The Spitwad
Here’s something I’ve learned: teachers are human. They’re not superheroes or gods. Not saints or demons. They’re human beings, with flaws and weaknesses like all the rest of us. Don Ward was a fine man who taught high school biology to undeserving students in the same crumbling, run-down building for forty-three years. How bad was… Continue reading
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A History of Jacke in 100 Objects #9 – The Intersection
I missed The Lion King the first time around, but they re-released it for people like me. Parents with young kids looking to kill an afternoon at the movies. A new generation. “Jeremy Irons is in it,” my wife says, trying to generate enthusiasm. “Oh yeah. Him. And Randy Newman songs?” “Elton John. You know,… Continue reading
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What We Talk About When We Talk About Tormented Philosophers In Love
You can have your Samsons and Delilahs, your Romeos and Juliets, your Abelards and Heloises. I’ll take Kierkegaard and Regine. Whether in spite or because of the ominous journey ahead of her, Regine made an important decision, it seems, on the day of her departure: she sought out a strange man to whom she had… Continue reading
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A History of Jacke in 100 Objects #8 – The Burger Car
Home from traveling, I jump into the gray Corolla. I’ve been a Five Guys Dad lately, flying to Los Angeles for work and back home on weekends to take the boys to soccer and movies and the library and their favorite restaurant. It’s not an ideal way to parent, but what can you do? My… Continue reading
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A History of Jacke in 100 Objects #7 – The Keyboard
Every kid in school was afraid of the music teacher. The grownups didn’t understand this. Miss Steiner had been teaching forever – she had taught the grandparents of some of my classmates – and when she had been young she had apparently been kind and patient and not yet disillusioned. To us, though, she was impossibly old. And worse than… Continue reading
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Review of The Race: “Warm and Full of Life…”
“[A] delightful novella about politics, scandal, reputation and above all, the importance of love…” – mylittlebookblog Readers, it’s a very good day here on the Jacke Blog. My novella The Race has been reviewed by mylittlebookblog, and the results have had me smiling all day. I’m not sure which is my favorite snippet. Maybe the… Continue reading
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Stephen King, Great Guy
First things first: I’ve never finished a Stephen King novel. I’ve started a few, but in the end I’ve never really enjoyed the genre enough to submerge myself for hundreds of pages. I’m not trying to be hoity-toity about it (I’ll leave that to Harold Bloom), I”m just letting you know: I’m more or less… Continue reading
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Avoid Clichés. And Avoid Avoiding Clichés.
Look, John Jeremiah Sullivan gets a lot of praise for his prose style, and he deserves it. His 2009 piece on Michael Jackson is excellent. He’s a great writer! So I’m not just shooting aqueous creatures in a barrel when I call attention to this passage: Continue reading
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A History of Jacke in 100 Objects #4: The Sweater
My first few months at the University of Chicago were bliss. College! Great books! Stimulating conversations in the dorm cafeteria! At first it did not bother me that everyone around me was miserable. This, after all, was a place that welcomed misery. We thrived on it. And if you were feeling down, you could open the… Continue reading
Jacke Wilson 