University of Houston student Zach Martin had been struggling with a literary story for years about a theater family unraveling in the middle of putting on a play. "I could never get the story to work purely as a written piece," he says. So he decided to adapt it to a new genre - that of graphic novel.

Tonight, from 6 to 8 at Alabama Song, 2521 Oakdale Street, several student writers will be celebrating the release of the first edition of Cougar Comics' Tier One, an anthology that's the product of professor Mat Johnson's graphic novel workshop.

Writers could illustrate their own work, or be matched with professional artists as part of this course of study, a joint effort by the university's Creative Writing Program and the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts.

Ted Closson participated in the class twice as a graduate student. "The workshops are an opportunity to make comics work. You write. If you're an artist you may also draw. If you're quick, it can be an opportunity to craft as many as two to three short works or a short comic and the beginnings of something longer. And the workshop is valuable whether you approach the class with a writing or an artistic focus. Mat works to show writers in the class how to think visually and to help artists understand the nature and pacing of a narrative. Even if you already have something of a background working with comics he has an inside perspective on the industry that is really priceless for those trying to see inside a publishing process."

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Photo by Joseph Capparella

Phillip Lopate is not a nice guy. At least, that's what he tells himself while he is writing. Lopate, a well-known essayist, teacher, and versatile scribe in general, came to Brazos Bookstore on Friday to read from his two new books, a collection of essays called A Portrait Inside My Head and a sort of how-to manual for writers called To Show and to Tell.

Lopate offered plenty of wisdom to the audience from his selection from the latter on "The Ethics of Writing about Others." He emphasized that writers have to be willing to offend when they write about those close to them. "If you plan to write about friendship, make a lot of friends because you're bound to lose a few," Lopate said. According to Lopate, a writer must learn to accept the sense of guilt from pain inflicted upon others through creative nonfiction.

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Barbara Davis Gallery

Mie Olise's new series draws inspiration from the Gowanus Canal, one of the most toxic waterways in the country.

The Gowanus Canal is barely two miles long and yet the lore surrounding the Brooklyn waterway is renowned. Decades of pollution from chemical plants and coal yards on its shores has made it one of the most contaminated bodies of water in the nation, and two years ago it was designated a Superfund site. At one point, it was even diagnosed with gonorrhea. Sadly, it's also a place where dolphins go to die.

For years, the area surrounding the canal has also attracted artists looking for cheap rents and the romantic inspiration that decaying industrial sites can bring. Mie Olise is one of them. Originally from Copenhagen, the painter currently has a studio only a few blocks from the canal, and her latest series pulls directly from the canal (literally, it turns out, too).

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"My Toothbrush" by Paula Gron

Contemporary craft artists have a habit of toying with functionality in an effort to separate what's art from what's craft or decorative items. The dynamic can get tiresome after you've seen one too many ceramic tools or aluminum blobs. But as CraftTexas, a juried exhibition at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, proves, there are still surprises to be had (spoiler alert!).

The biennial show purports to feature the best in Texas-made contemporary craft, and the 40 artists featured don't call that into question. They also provide some great variety, working in clay, glass, metal and wood, though the most striking pieces had wood in common. Paula Gron is a basket weaver by nature, but used her skills to concoct a wooden handle with found tree branches protruding creepily, chaotically from it like some alien takeover. For all its creepiness, it's not without a sense of humor -- the piece is called "My Toothbrush."

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The Houston Press is recruiting undergraduate journalism and communications students for its Fall 2012 internship program, and the deadline is fast approaching.

By "student" we do not mean "a student of life"; we mean "currently enrolled in college." There's no cash offered with this gig, only college credits.

Still interested? Read on!

Interns work directly with Houston Press editors. Depending on your skills and interests, interns cover pop culture, music, art, gaming, fashion, film, television, dance, celebrity news, politics, food, sports and trends. There's no grunt work involved. You'll work alongside Houston Press award-winning editors and reporters, contributing to both our print and online editions.

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Last night literary jack-of-all-trades Gore Vidal passed away at the age of 86 due to complications from pneumonia. The man had a 60-year career in literature, and was a noted liberal figurehead and pundit. And boy, could he turn a phrase. The New York Times turned in a wonderful and elaborate obituary of the man hours after his death.

And yes, he was bisexual, but that's not even the most interesting thing about the guy. You can check out his plethora of novels, essays, articles and screenplays to see that. I say that that only gave him a better understanding of the human condition. Writers are supposed to get weird now and then.

In the wake of Vidal's death, I found this great clip of him and Norman Mailer -- who passed in 2007 -- verbally sparring on The Dick Cavett Show in 1971. It's a pretty prissy fight by today's standards, which is actually pretty charming considering that in 2012, this would have been an expletive-fueled exchange, with angry tweets afterward.

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Gabriel Garcia Márquez's productive writing stint has ended.

Gabriel Garcia Márquez -- the Colombian author of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera -- has hung up his pen/word processor.

Insert sad face here.

According to a report in The Guardian, Márquez's memory struggles, exacerbated by continuing treatment for lymphatic cancer, won't allow the 85-year-old to finish the second part of his two-part autobiography Living to Tell the Tale.

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"Wisteria" by Julia Barello

The Houston Center for Contemporary Craft's current show is inspired. "Interstitial Spaces" brings together Julia Barello and Beverly Penn in their first collaborative installation, and it's such a natural pairing that makes for a cohesive, rich, full show -- even with only nine pieces.

The two artists make skillful, sculptural wall works. Barello's materials of choice are X-ray and MRI films, which she cuts and dyes to look like delicate flora -- they seem to sprout from the wall, they're so textured and alive. Penn, meanwhile, takes real plants then freezes and casts them in bronze to capture every curl or twist. The resulting pieces have such a lightness to them it's surprising and impressive to find out that it's bronze.

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courtesy of Josh Alan and Drew Friedman

Drew (L) and Josh Alan Friedman, looking for trouble in the East Village, New York City, late '70s

The sons of writer/comic genius Bruce J. Friedman and model/writer/acting coach Ginger Howard, Josh Alan and Drew Friedman were raised in the artistic bowels of New York City. Josh Alan, a longtime contributor to the Dallas Observer, has a long and varied career as a writer and musician. He first appeared in Screw magazine, and eventually became the editor. Many of his pieces for Screw were gathered for his first book, Tales of Times Square (1986).

Friedman has gone on to publish several acclaimed works, most notably Black Cracker, an "autobiographical novel" looking back at what it was like to be the only white child in an all-black Long Island elementary school prior to the Civil Rights Movement and integration, Tell the Truth Until They Bleed (2008), a fabulous collection of Friedman's music journalism, and When Sex Was Dirty (2005). He also wrote extensively for National Lampoon and served as managing editor of High Times (1983).

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Bonus Tip: Shamelessly plug your own work whenever possible!

Recently I passed a personal milestone and finished my 1,000th blog entry for the Houston Press over the course of a four-year career. When you throw in print work I do here and for other publications, the total number of articles I've had published ranks closer to 1,200. It's a lot, and I collected a paycheck for every single one of them.

A lot of people ask me how I got into this gig, and I tell them the truth: bullshitted my way in. And while that is 100 percent how it went down, I've learned a lot at the hands of people who really do know what they're doing, and I thought this article might be helpful to aspiring writers who want to break into the world of monetary compensation for writing. At the very least, it will cut down the number of times I get asked this question.

1. Write something: It sounds basic, but a lot of the people who tell me they want to write have absolutely nothing to start from. Write a review of a movie you just saw, or your thoughts on a news story you read. I started with my submission in an essay contest to open for the Misfits. It was good enough for my first gig. Editors want samples to get an idea of your voice and how good you are.

2. Find a place to showcase your writing: You're not likely to walk right into a paying gig. I started off doing CD reviews for Space City Rock, which doesn't pay but netted me lots of free CDs and free tickets to shows. It's easier to break into places that don't pay because they have a hard time finding people. So if you want to be a food critic, find a food blog and ask to guest-spot, or if you're a political junkie, see if one of the millions of political blogs will let you take a stab at something. These are great places to build up a repertoire, and I owe at least some of my current position to a glowing recommendation letter from SCR's Jeremy Hart.

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