Jacke Wilson

February 26, 2014

Who’s Cheating America: Lonesome Highway Edition

Ah, the joys of interstate travel! Europe may have trains, but we Americans have the I-system. The open road! Freedom! Purple mountains! Amber waves! And for those of us who love the wide-open feeling of hitting the road, there are all the little wayside restaurants and truck stops and lonely old gas stations. Selling Cokes Continue reading

Who’s Cheating America

cheating, cleveland browns, flying j, jimmy haslam

February 25, 2014

Small Press Shout-Out: Akashic Books!

Here we go! Back to Brooklyn for another small press shout-out. This week, we look at Akashic Books, which describes itself as a Brooklyn-based independent company dedicated to publishing urban literary fiction and political nonfiction by authors who are either ignored by the mainstream, or who have no interest in working within the ever-consolidating ranks Continue reading

Authors, Fiction, Publishing

akashic press, Arts, Literary fiction, noir series, Publishing, Small press

February 24, 2014

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love CreateSpace (Okay, Okay, I’m Still Worried)

Readers, you have been extremely patient. I know not everyone is on board with the Kindle or other e-device. Curiously, I’ve heard from a lot of people who once had a Kindle and have stopped using it. One wonders what the future will bring. In the meantime, I’m trying to make my books available to Continue reading

Authors, Fiction, Novellas, Publishing, The Race, Writing

Cover, CreateSpace, Spine, Text, The Race

February 23, 2014

What They Knew #27

“A wise reader reads the book of genius not with his heart, not so much with his brain, but with his spine. It is there that occurs the telltale tingle…” – Vladimir Nabokov Continue reading

Authors, Fiction, What They Knew, Writing

Genius, Nabokov, reading

February 22, 2014

Who’s Cheating America: The Overzealous Recyclers

We take care of the elderly in America! These are our beloved grandparents and great-grandparents. We want them to be healthy. We make sure they’re getting their medications. And they often need it! Thanks to miracles of modern science, different medications keep those brains sharp and those hearts beating. If you’ve ever been to a Continue reading

Who’s Cheating America

cheating, drugs, recycling

February 21, 2014

Popova on Lightman

Just when I get beyond my fear of falling into a black hole, along comes Maria Popova to throw me back into a cosmic tailspin. In the title essay of his excellent The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew, which also gave us this beautiful meditation on science and spirituality, Alan Lightman points Continue reading

Authors, Writing

cosmos, dark energy, lightman, popova

February 20, 2014

Fantastic Poem Breakdown: “In Memory of W. B. Yeats” by W.H. Auden

Taking a break from the Terrible Poem Breakdown series this week. Instead, we’re focused on Nina Martyris’s wonderful look at a classic poem by the great W.H. Auden. More than just a close read, Martyris’s essay provides what amounts to a biography of the poem in the hands of multiple poets: The poem was W. Continue reading

Authors, Terrible Poem Breakdown, Writing

auden, brodsky, eliot, heaney, Poetry, walcott, yeats

February 19, 2014

Who’s Cheating America: The Opera Lover

It’s a great American success story. A Cuban immigrant flees Castro, makes a friend in the U.S., and the two of them promptly invest in some little-known tech companies that make them indescribably rich. AOL? Yep. Ebay? Yep. Microsoft in 1979? Yep. Not a bad track record! What do they do with the money? Vilar Continue reading

Who’s Cheating America

cheating, Investment advisers, Opera, opera lover, Pavarotti

February 18, 2014

Small Press Shout-Out: Ugly Duckling Presse!

A presse! We’re obviously big fans of the extra e here at the Jacke blog. But there’s more than just creative spelling going on over at Ugly Duckling. There’s the logo (Toyota-like in its ability to combine the presse’s letters into a recognizable symbol). But none of that matters as much as the catalog. And Continue reading

Authors, Fiction, Publishing

Arts, Literary fiction, Publishing, Small press, ugly duckling presse

February 17, 2014

Jacke News: Another New Blurb!

Readers! I’m very excited to announce Blurb #2 for the cover of The Race. Things are really coming together now, and I hope to have a print version up very soon. In the meantime, here’s the blurb from the always trenchant Michael Janson: “The brilliance of The Race is in showing us that American politicians Continue reading

Fiction, Novellas, The Race

Blurb, cover design, Self-Publishing