Even More Hint Covers, Chinese, Super 8

More covers by the University of North Texas graphic design students have been posted at their blog (here and here).

Last week I mentioned how the Dutch discovered Hint Fiction. Now it's the Chinese (and yes, they do plagiarize some of my original Hint Fiction essay without proper citation, and yes, they even rewrite Joe Schreiber's story "Progress" ... but also reprint it, so I guess that means it's okay).

I've mentioned before how I love movie trailers -- at least movie trailers that actually do their job and not give the entire movie away but instead give just enough to entice you to see the film. You know, a good hint. Anyway, have you seen the most recent trailer for Super 8? I have to say, this is going to be the biggest movie of the summer, without a doubt. Like a modern day Goonies.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImZIWlvACcU

Hint Don't Die

It's been five months since the Hint Fiction anthology was released, and the concept of Hint Fiction still continues to thrive. Graphic design students at the University of North Texas created book covers based on stories from the book. I've included one, as seen above, but check out the site for a few others. More should be posted later in the week.

The Dutch have discovered Hint Fiction, and they seem to like it.

Two colleges are running Hint Fiction contests -- Palm Beach State and Penn State York -- which are open only to students. Still, pretty cool, no?

And, as mentioned before, the Columbia Art League plans to have their Hint Fiction exhibit ready for this August.

But that's not all. There are other Hint-related things being worked on right as we speak (figuratively speaking, of course), and I plan to share more news as it becomes available.

Hint Cinema

Hint Fiction contributor and all around cool cat Adam-Troy Castro brought the existence of 5-Second Films to my attention, or, as he put it, Hint Cinema. Here's some background:

5-Second Films was created by Brian “Boss Man” Firenzi in the Spring of 2005, after being disappointed by so many 5,400-second films. The rules are simple: 2 seconds of beginning titles, 5 seconds of film, 1 second of end titles. If you take umbrage with these 5sfs running at an actual length of 8 seconds, we can only assume you’re no fun at dinner parties.

So these guys obviously weren't inspired by Hint Fiction (not like this film was), but as you can see below, the films are definitely an acquired taste, just like HF. Are they silly? Yes. Are they wacky? Yes. Are they films? Yes. Enjoy.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saqO_ZqX6uY

Also, this is your last reminder about the Hint Fiction event at the KGB Bar tomorrow evening at 7 pm. Yes, it's the same night as the Oscars, but not to worry -- I'll be keeping everyone updated about the winners, no matter how inane the category. So if you're in the area, be sure to come out and get Hinted! (That sounds dirty, but it's not.)

The Tale Of Two Covers

Remember back when I announced that the Hint Fiction anthology was getting a second printing? Well that second printing it out now -- has probably been out for awhile -- but I just happened to see some of the copies last week at AWP. And there are changes. Nothing too major -- just a few typos corrected on the copyright page -- but there is a difference with the cover. Here's the cover of the first printing:

Now here's the cover of the second printing:

Despite the obvious contract in color (and why the colors are different is beyond me; the actual printed books are the same color), notice any differences?

The wording of the first story, "Monster Love," is different. You see, the second printing's version is the preferred wording, at least on my end. We -- the publisher, the designer, myself -- had gone back and forth on the story. I didn't care for the personification of heart. I also didn't care for the "hairy fist" part, thinking it was too much for a story already titled "Monster Love." So I asked for the simpler version; the publisher agreed and everything was set to go with that version ... except somehow the wrong files got sent and the first version -- the "hairy fist" version -- was what was printed. But Norton, being the class act that they are, promised to change it for any future reprintings, and they did.

So what's the point? Well if the anthology continues to do well and gets reprinted again and again, that first edition with the "hairy fist" cover could be considered, in some circles, a collector's item. Just sayin'.

The AWP Post

Last week I was at AWP, but you knew that already. In fact, some of you probably saw me there. I probably saw you there. We probably talked. Or we didn't. Either way, it was a really fun time. I could do a breakdown of everything that happened -- or at least what I did -- but I won't. If you're that interested, check out my Twitter feed starting all the way back to last Wednesday. Basically, I met a lot of great writers I've known online for quite some time, and everyone was super friendly. There was a lot of talk about writing and publishing. There was also some drinking. Okay, there was a lot of drinking. Even some karaoke-ing as you can see from this picture:

I sang "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by the Charlie Daniels Band. And yes, by that point I'd had a drink or two or three or four.

Anyway, Friday was the Hint Fiction panel. It went very well, despite the fact that at the beginning I feared we wouldn't have enough material to fill the allotted hour and fifteen minutes; then, an hour later, I realized we didn't nearly have enough time for everything I had wanted to discuss. They put us in one of the smaller rooms that they had at the conference, so it was standing room only. In fact, there were even people standing out in the hallway listening.

Later the panelists -- Randall Brown, Roxane Gay, Michael Martone, Daniel Olivas, and myself -- as well as a few other contributors went down to the Norton booth in the book fair and signed copies of the anthology for awhile. Later Norton sold out of all the copies.

I'd said before that I would try to get the entire panel on video. It happened, though the picture quality isn't very good. The sound quality, however, is pretty decent, and that's all that really matters anyway. Because YouTube won't let you upload more than 15 minutes of video at a time, I had to break the whole thing up into 6 parts. So below you can view part 1; to view the rest, check out my YouTube channel.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4obfFNZ_Ao