David Levithan’s YA novel, Every Day, harkens back to the show Quantum Leap. Remember when Scott Bakula would jump to a new person’s body every week, and have to live out their lives until he solved a problem?
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Avett Brothers 9-11 Virginia Tech Concert Review
“We tune because we care.”
Back in 2002, about to record A Carolina Jubilee, The Avett Brothers were hired as a wandering band during freshmen orientation at Virginia Tech. Nobody wanted to listen to them. They kept following people around trying to find an audience.
Seth and Scott told this story to their VT audience twelve years later, as if to say, “look where we are now.” In all the shows I’ve seen since 2007, the band has inflated and changed their style, but they have not lost what makes them who they are. I saw the same energy, passion and soul.
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Kirkus Reviews Takes on My Debut Novel
“Spot-on satire or earnest picture of youth in transition?…”
“Coy’s voice is strong and sure; he captures Neil’s voice and tone with specificity and confidence. However, readers’ tolerance for Neil and his impressions of the Nashville scene may strongly depend on whether they see the novel as a satire of the hip, ironic detachment and self-reflexive views of the millennial generation or an earnest attempt to capture their thoughts and hopes in the second decade of the 21st century. Those who see Coy’s work as being meant seriously will likely find the characters vacuous and talkative to a fault, and the thrust of the narrative will be greatly diluted. For those who see a satirical purpose to Coy’s prose, the narrative will likely carry more resonance, and the end result of Sedgwick and Oberlin’s relationship will have a particular melancholy weight, even when seen through the satirical lens.”
“A well-defined social milieu and articulate characters make Coy’s is it/isn’t it novel an interesting, if uncertain, experience.”
–Kirkus Reviews
[Bold emphasis mine]
You can find the full review here
New Poem—At Least I Tried
[My junior year in college I entered a poetry contest and won 2nd place. Fittingly, the title of the poem was “At Least I Tried.”]
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Quotes from a bad Grad School English Textbook
I now present to you samples from a graduate level English textbook, which I’m pretty sure were written by a high schooler:
“George Orwell was not a novelist.”
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Baby Turtles Hustling to the Ocean: Like Baptism
It was a Sunday morning. We were down at the beach before going to worship. A baby turtle had just broken through the sand after hatching and was making his way down the man-made path toward the ocean, helped by the guiding hand of a volunteer “turtle person.” My 3-year-old son watched with us and cheered the palm-sized turtle on as he scuffled.
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An Authentic Derivative is now available on Kindle!
An Authentic Derivative, my debut novel, is now available for Kindle!
You can go to Amazon now and purchase your copy for only $2.99!
Questions from my author AMA QnA
At 10:30pm tomorrow I will host a Reddit AMA!
At 10:30pm tomorrow night, I will host a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything)
in which I will answer questions about my debut novel, An Authentic Derivative,
which is available to purchase on Amazon.
Be there!
Press Release—Author pens novel about Nashville indie rocker, hipster following
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Author pens novel about Nashville Indie rocker, hipster following. Blogger Caleb Coy publishes An Authentic Derivative.
Blacksburg, VA –Having used the crowdfunding site IndieGoGo to generate the initial funds to self-publish, Caleb Coy penned a novel set in Nashville and centering around millennial hipsters.
“It was a learning experience,” says Coy, of the funding campaign. “My skill is in writing. I had never organized a fundraising activity of any kind before, nor had I much experience as a salesman.” After successfully raising $2,000, Coy published the novel, now on sale at Amazon.
An Authentic Derivative is the story of mythical Indie rocker Garrett Sedgwick, through the eyes of Neil Oberlin, the cynical graphic designer hired to sketch the musician’s next album cover. The task leads Neil to explore his anxieties about his own generation, over-educated millennials. Although Coy lives in Virginia, the story is set in Nashville, where many of Coy’s college friends now reside.
According to reviewer Stephano Mugnaini, the book “reads like the monologue at the beginning of a later Wes Anderson film, as edited by Salinger.” Coy not only crafted the story and its voice, but also worked with Nashville illustrator Bud Thomas to design the cover. Coy chose to self-publish in order to have control over his book’s art and presentation.
Readers can purchase An Authentic Derivative on Amazon, and follow Caleb Coy on his blog (calebcoy.wordpress.com) or on his Twitter (@CalebCoyGuard).
CALEB COY 
A summary of my reddit AMA:
Q: How long did it take you to write this book?
A: It took one summer to research it, one summer to write it.