The Weird Week in Writing: 20 writers under 40 and 10 writers over 80, a summer Must-Not Read list, and more Mark Twain

Freaky Friday—the latest from the weird and wonderful world of writing this week (followed, as always, by a prompt):Just Lick It! How to Order Everything You Love to Eat but…

Freaky Friday—the latest from the weird and wonderful world of
writing this week (followed, as always, by a prompt):

Just Lick It! How to Order Everything You Love to Eat but Never Gain Weight!
: In the midst of Summer Reading List season, one writer breaks down her Summer Must-Not Reads.

Poultry Promotion: Writer Sloane Crosley goes awesomely fowl and taps an artist to help promote her new book by bringing passages to life—with chickens.

By now you might have heard about The New Yorker’s list of 20 Writers under 40: But what about 10 writers over 80?

Time to go back to TV? Turns out the Internet is rotting our brains. The author of a new book on the subject explains why (and its intriguing impact on reading books and

Depending on how you look at it, we’re all just pawns in Clemens’ marketing game:As the HuffPo details, the elusive, time-capsuled manuscript that we envision for Mark Twain’s upcoming posthumous memoir isn’t completely the case. (But I'll still buy it.)

Shepard of the Strange:
In an interview/excerpt, filmmaker/writer John Waters (who has a new memoir out) riffs on Johnny Mathis, not fitting in, and even traditional burial.

* * *

WRITING PROMPT: Rear Window
Feel

free to take the following prompt home or post your
response (500
words or fewer, funny, sad or stirring) in the Comments section below.
By posting, you’ll be automatically entered in our
occasional around-the-office swag drawings (next one: we'll draw today, and announce Monday!).
If you’re having trouble with the
captcha code sticking, e-mail it to me at
writersdigest@fwmedia.com, with “Promptly” in the subject line, and I’ll
make sure it gets up.

You’re about to enter the restaurant when you happen to glance up at a nearby building—and see it happening through the window.

--

For all of your non-strange regular writing needs (even though our latest
issue technically features this sentence: “For amusement, a vicious
gunslinger repeatedly shoots at the feet of the town drunk and tells him
to dance, only to awaken his own true self and embark on a second
career as a vicious choreographer”) check out the latest issue of WD
magazine
, which features the

Top 101 Websites for Writers, a feature package on mastering genres, and an interview with Bird by Bird scribe
Anne Lamott.

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Zachary Petit is a freelance journalist and editor, and a lifelong literary and design nerd. He's also a former senior managing editor of Writer’s Digest magazine. Follow him on Twitter @ZacharyPetit.