The Novel Road Interviews

James Hornfischer Interview

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 21:17:00 +0000

Think of the momentous events in the history of humankind and how they changed the course of civilization. Then consider that one of these events happened less than eight decades ago and many of the people who lived through this time of world upheaval, transformation and tragedy are still living. Now consider that the chance to talk and learn from these amazing people is slipping away with each passing moment.

My guest today on The Novel Road has written a number of bestselling books chronicling moments from this incredible time. He plucks a star from the long, dark night sky that was World War II and reveals it to us, as few authors have ever been able to do. James D. Hornfischer brings us to pivotal events through interviews with those who lived through them. The reader can feel the heave of a Navy ship’s deck and smell the smoke following the shattering din of her guns. It’s as if you are standing at a ship’s rail looking from the Pacific blue sky, down to the small green island erupting in flame and carnage, then off to the ocean’s horizon to an unseen foe. Then to the night, and the flashes and booms of great ships seeking each other’s end.

What I know about reading his books, is that at the turn of the last page of each, I seem to quietly utter the word…Damn

Now a bit about my guest from his website:

“James D. Hornfischer is the author of three books, most recently Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal."

"Hornfischer is the author of two other acclaimed works of World War II naval history: The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy’s Finest Hour and Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR’s Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors, both published by Bantam."

"Hornfischer’s writing career has grown out of a lifelong interest in the Pacific war. He has appeared on television on The History Channel, Fox News Channel’s “War Stories with Oliver North” and C-SPAN’s “BookTV.” A frequent speaker on the subject of the war in the Pacific, the U.S. Navy, and the experience of America’s sailors in World War II, he frequently addresses veterans organizations, youth and civic groups, and professional naval organizations on the inspiring stories found in his books."

"A native of Massachusetts, and a graduate of Colgate University and the University of Texas School of Law, Hornfischer is a member of the Naval Order of the United States, the Navy League, and was appointed by Texas Governor Rick Perry as an “Admiral in the Texas Navy.” A former New York book editor, Hornfischer is president of the literary agency Hornfischer Literary Management, located in Austin, Texas, where he lives with his wife and their three children.”

I am pleased to welcome bestselling author James Hornfischer to The Novel Road…

James Hornfischer

Me: Your book, “Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S Navy at Guadalcanal”, is an incredible look at the time and circumstances of the six month battle for a spit of land. How much did we learn about fighting the Pacific war from this battle?

Jim: How much the U.S. Navy learned about warfare at Guadalcanal is encompassed in a single statistic: Three sailors died in the seas around the island for every Marine who died ashore. Most World War II readers I talk to, even the well-informed ones, don’t know this. The greater the expertise of the reader, the greater the surprise. NEPTUNE’S INFERNO narrates the story of the road the Navy followed to master the ancient art of the ship-on-ship fistfight in the age of steam.

The book drives home the fact that Guadalcanal, not Midway, was the Pacific War’s turning point. In the seven sea battles that make up the campaign, America broke Japan’s will to fight. Midway was an important victory, delivered in a single day. But only at Guadalcanal—a sustained, bloody contest of wills—did the U.S. prove could match the Imperial war machine blow for violent blow.

Me: In doing your research, were you affected by the knowledge that the veterans you were able to speak to, are a part of our living history that is about to vanish?

Jim: I was. The window is closing on the age when historians can draw on the living experiences of veterans, meeting with them at reunions, hearing their stories, and watching them interact with each other. All three of my books have been informed by the living textures of their eyewitness. NEPTUNE’S INFERNO draws freshness and immediacy from its reliance on forty-six interviews with well-situated Navy men from the lowest to highest ranks, and dozens of unpublished or privately published personal accounts. Many of these interviews I conducted myself. Others are transcripts of interviews that writers haven’t seen or drawn from before. They’re the essence of my narratives.

Me: You get to go back in time to a place or event of your choosing. What would it be and why?

Jim: I’d use that time machine to transport myself back to early 1945 and have dinner with Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz. A courtly Texan with fine manners and a ferocious sense of will, he was the Pacific War’s essential man, as I write in the book. I’d ask him for his reflections on the tough decisions he made in the war’s early going, and ask him to project how the war would end. I would ask him his views on General Douglas MacArthur, and Admirals King, Halsey, and Fletcher. But I’d wait till he’d finished his third gin and tonic first.

Me: Admiral Hornfischer? Talk about your speedy rise through the ranks of the Texas Navy.

Jim: Thank you, sailor, that will be all. Interesting things tend to happen to you when you know your governor.

Me: World War II is a passion for you, and countless others. How hard is it to pull yourself back out of a subject you’ve written about and move on?

Jim: The process of researching a subject to death and then distilling that research into a readable narrative requires total immersion. I want my books to bring readers into their historical moments. That requires that I go there myself. That said, once my editor and I have finished beating those pages into submission, I’m very relieved to be done with it. It’s usually not until a book has been published in paperback that I’m willing to read it again.

Me: History appears low on the priority list of today’s youth. What can we do to change this?

Jim: Actually I’m not discouraged at all. My son and many of his 8th grade peers are utterly consumed with the history of World War II. That’s right where I was when I was that age. There’s never been more good documentary history shown on television. The caliber of new books seeing print remains high, and of course the old ones never go away.

Me: Publishing is going through an evolution right now. Talk about how this has or will affect you.

Jim: Aside from writing three works of World War II naval history, I’ve spent my whole career in book publishing, working as an editor in New York and representing authors as a literary agent, so I’ve seen this evolution from several sides. Publishers are under pressure not only from stagnant growth in the market for books, but technological innovations such as e-books too, which is changing the economics of the business. As a result, it’s getting harder for an author to get a contract with a major publisher today, and harder still for him to get a second contract if his first book doesn’t sell well. However, it’s also true that publishing is becoming “democratized” by the Internet and e-book publishing. It’s never been easier for an author with something to say to find people willing to hear it. Publishing without the support of a major house requires an author to be very entrepreneurial and audience-focused after the book has been released.

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A review of "Ship of Ghosts":

“Vivid and visceral…. Hornfischer masterfully shapes the narrative…. breathing life into an unforgettable epic of human endurance.” — USA Today

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Me: The way you pieced together your research, taking information gleaned from interview and official and private records, is remarkable. I’m curious how much you left out of your books? There had to be vast amounts of data and stories told to you that must have been wrenching to leave out?

Jim: Every interview I’ve ever done with a veteran yields nuggets that are interesting and publishable, but the discipline of building a readable book from a large trove of research always requires me to send a lot of good material to the proverbial cutting room floor. The process of revision is one of constant whittling and shaping so that the final product is as tight and compelling as possible. There is never room for everything.

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Praise for "Neptune's Inferno":
“Extremely readable, comprehensive and thoroughly researched.... In the end what one takes away from Mr. Hornfischer’s vivid and engaging account is a feeling for the uncertainty, complexity and extreme physical and psychological demands of war at sea in 1942.” —Ronald Spector, The Wall Street Journal

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Me: “Neptune’s Inferno”, “The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors” and “Ship of Ghosts” have great reviews and vaulted you into the ranks of authors Ambrose and Foote. When can we expect your next book?

Jim: My next project will be a departure from World War II and bring me closer to the modern era, but I’m not ready to announce it just yet.

Me: Your “day job”, as founder of Hornfischer Literary Agency, must make for an interesting personal tug of war. You have an impressive list of non-fiction clients and an impressive sales record. How do you balance your time between Bestselling author and agent?

Jim: A lot of literary agents I know go to Vegas in their spare time or spend a lot of time at bars. I write books. There are a lot of hours in the day. The time I spend writing sharpens the editorial reflex that I turn to the benefit of my clients, as I help them develop their book proposals.

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I'd like to thank James Hornfischer for doing this interview. He reminds us of our chance to learn first hand. All we have to do is ask questions and listen.

Robert Hicks Interview - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 19:56:00 +0000

Part 1

Only the very best authors can make history come alive. It takes more than sets of facts, dates or settings. It takes a style and voice that carries the reader to that time and place.

The author that writes about history revels in learning about the past. The author that writes historic fiction reveals it. They must, to give a character life as an individual, whether hero or common.

A special class of these authors don’t just use history as a setting, they take historical events and bring them alive. Through this uncommon breed of author, we are able feel both time and circumstance. My guest today and tomorrow is author Robert Hicks. He can transport you back in time like only a few historical fiction authors can. He is of that special class…

First a bit about my guest from his website:

“I was born and raised in South Florida. My parents filled our home with books. When I was sick and stayed home from school, my dad would give me volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica or Bartlett's Familiar Quotations to cuddle up in bed with, instead of a diet of TV. Books were held to be sacred and precious. Christmases and birthdays were always times of book-giving and book-receiving. One of the first books to have a lasting impact on me (beyond the Bible, which seems to have anchored every Southern home of my generation) was Richard Halliburton's Complete Book of Marvels. I still attribute my passion for travel and adventure to the nights I fell asleep reading of Halliburton's world-wide adventures.

Many of my lifelong favorites can be found on any seventh or eighth grade reading list of my time: C. S. Lewis' SPACE TRILOGY, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and ALL THE KING'S MEN taught me about the value of goodness and truth. MOBY DICK and LORD OF THE FLIES, taught me to read. Ayn Rand's ANTHEM made me think about what it meant to be an individual. All these were to impact my life forever.

In high school I discovered biography, reading books about Robert E. Lee, NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDER and the CONFESSIONS by St. Augustine to name a few. This passion for biography has continued through the years with books like Peter Guralnick's two-volume biography of Elvis; to a recent read, SURVIVING THE CONFEDERACY, about Roger and Sarah Pryor.

James Webb's FIELDS OF FIRE had a profound impact on me, since it brought me closer to the idea that I might be a writer someday myself. His most recent book, BORN FIGHTING, has taught me a bit more about myself through my cultural heritage. I struggled through William Faulkner's THE SOUND AND THE FURY in college, but once I was done, I was hooked on Faulkner forever.

While my taste ranges from Smith's VITRUVIUS ON ARCHITECTURE to John Ruskin's THE STONES OF VENICE, I can get hooked on poplar culture like anyone else and was absorbed enough after reading John Berendt's MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL to make the mandatory pilgrimage to Savannah.

Point is, my reading interests remain as encyclopedic as the books my dad left on bedside table so many years ago.

Cleburne at the
battle of Franklin

In 1974 I moved to Williamson County, Tennessee [www.historicfranklin.com]. Then in 1979 I moved to 'Labor in Vain,' a late-eighteenth-century log cabin on the edge of the woods, in a hollow near Leiper's Fork, Tennessee.

Working as a music publisher and in artist management in both country and rock music, my interests remain broad and varied. A partner in the B. B. King's Blues Clubs [www.bbkingbluesclub.com] in Nashville, Memphis and Los Angeles, I serve as 'Curator of Vibe' of the corporation.

Born out of my passion for this life – throughout all the ages, I'm a collector, by nature. I've collected since I was a kid. It began with fossilized shells from our driveway to rocks and leaves and baseball cards to books, 18th century maps of Tennessee, Tennesseana in general, Southern decorative arts and material culture, to Outsider Art. I am surrounded by collections. A friend says the next thing I bring home must come with a crow bar to get it into my cabin. My older brother once said that I'd "inherited more of the 'hunter-gatherer' genes than most other kids."

In the field of historic preservation, I have served on the Boards of Historic Carnton Plantation [www.carnton.org], the Tennessee State Museum, The Williamson County Historical Society, and the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts. [www.oldsalem.org/about/mesda.htm]”

I’m very pleased to welcome Robert Hicks to The Novel Road…

Me: I think you are a master of walking the line between fact and fiction. How hard is it to keep the story balanced with Historical fact? Where do you draw the line?

Robert: I guess I draw the line where the facts end. When I decided to write The Widow of the South, even though I probably know more about Carrie McGavock than any other person on earth, all I know about her could fill several pages. She never wrote about herself or her motivations. I could tell you every known detail about her life, but the real substance of her being was lost.

When I started out, all I really wanted to do was to tell the story about this forgotten battle and this forgotten woman. Despite the many books that "covered" the facts of the battle, historians had doomed the battle into the 'forgotten file.'

I believed Franklin and Carrie were worthy of becoming fiction. I wanted to tell a story about how ordinary people, caught up in this extraordinary event, were forever changed, transformed, damaged, made-whole and all the rest.

Recently, my editor told me that transformation and redemption are at the core of everything I write. I wanted to take offense, but, the more I thought about it, the more I realized she is right.

As much as I wanted folks to know about the Battle of Franklin, somewhere through the process of writing, I realized I wanted to do more, that I wanted to tell a story about how it transformed those caught up in it all -- How ordinary folks were redeemed -- How we can be redeemed.

I believe you can tell far more truth with fiction than you can with 'just the facts.' Isn't that what Shakespeare does? Historic Fiction can draw us into history as it weaves its story. But, more than that, unlike non-fiction, fiction is about us – the reader. It calls us, by example, to be better men and women, or, in the case of someone like Richard III, it gives us an example of who not to be.

Maybe the historians have it right. Maybe Richard III loved children – Maybe Macbeth had a good soul and Lady Macbeth loved to needlepoint. But the truth is Richard III, Macbeth – each and everyone one of them – are so lucky they had Shakespeare. With his pen, Shakespeare has breathed life into them down through the ages. Let the historians weed through it all, but they live on because of fiction.

Point of all this is to say, I am far less afraid, two novels later, about the issue of facts -vs- fiction than I am in failing to tell a good tale about transformation and redemption. I'll leave it to the historians to get it straight.

Me: John Bell Hood was emblematic, if not a metaphor, for the earnest will of the South during the Civil War. He, along with General John Buford of the North (who I’d love to see given his due one day) are mostly over looked. Who else would you like to see have their contributions brought to light?

Robert: There are a host of men and women who have slipped through the cracks of Civil War history. As much as Civil War historians seem obsessed to count generals on the heads of pins, they seem to have created a very selective history.

No one has ever asked me this and I’ve never given any thought to whom else. I guess I would begin with a fairer look at Longstreet. Maybe Arthur MacArthur?

I wrote about Hood because I was still eaten up with the Battle of Franklin and in the aftermath of Katrina, I wanted to write about New Orleans.

Carrie McGavock

Me: When writing about the Civil War, an author is almost putting their hand in a flame. I’m constantly amazed at the fervor of feeling generated by those still passionate of a war long gone from present relevance. What keeps these feeling so alive?

Robert: It is understandable that John Bell Hood would carry the scars of the Civil War with him for the rest of his life. After all, he had been there. He had lost men for whom he had great affection and respect. He bore the physical scars of battle – the loss of his right leg and the use of his left arm and, by 20^th Century legend; never-ending phantom pains tormented him for the rest of his days.

Like most who survived that war or any war, all he had lived through haunted him. Whether we have seen combat or only read about it, it is easy to understand why Hood and all those who served, on either side, were forever changed by the Civil War.

It’s our great national patricide. I am one of those who believe that the American Civil War remains the single most important defining event in our history. The truth is the Civil War not only redefined who we were, black and white, as a people, but also gave us the opportunity to do good and great things. I am not saying that we have arrived at our final destination as a nation or as a people. There is much that has been worked out, but there is still much to come.

I say all this to help explain why it all still matters to so many. I’m a Southerner. That means that my ancestors’ side lost. “We” lost. My family was not only played their roles in the war, but also afterwards, in rewriting history. I grew up, surrounded by folks who wanted to be sure that we got history “right.” We are told that history belongs to the victors, but truth is, it’s the vanquished that care.

Even 150 years after the war, I seem to be surrounded by folks trying to rewrite it all to make sense of what happened. Though I don’t agree with all they believe, I understand their passion. They go after me at times, as if they alone have the corner on history, but, again, that’s to be understood.

Me: Is it difficult to write dialogue for a historical character? How hard is it to prevent your own personality from seeping into the character.

Robert: You make every effort, but it’s pretty dang hard. It happens all the time. Some are more ‘me’ than others, but I am in a lot of them and would be lying to say otherwise. I should add that they are made up of others, too. Novel 3 is about Mariah, an African-American woman, who is made up of all I can know about the real Mariah and a lot of Minnie Nichols, the beloved maid of my grandmother when I was growing up. Mariah has very little of me in her, but others within the story are chocked full of my own struggles and fears, hopes and dreams.

Eli Griffin, the protagonist in A Separate Country has a lot of me within his makeup. Like I said, it’s pretty dang hard to not write parts of yourself into the story. I really should have taken that creative writing class when I had the chance.

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Part 2 tomorrow!

Downtown Franklin, TN

Robert Hicks Interview - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 19:55:00 +0000

Franklin battlefield

Part 2

Photo courtesy of
OakRidger.com

Me: This question, courtesy of Jeff Hall : “I'm a shortstory-ist. Writing a novel is like a crazy long marathon, only harder. How do you maintain a clear sense of that first passion that inspired you throughout a 200K word journey?”

Robert: Excellent question. Well, Jeff, you don’t always. There are those times when you are fresh and inspired and full of it all – when it all makes sense and really nothing can stop you and nothing can get in your way.

Then there are those days when you know that nothing you’re trying to say makes any sense whatsoever – that you need to give up and get a real job. But then you remember when you had a real job and that drives you back into the fight. Faulkner seemed to find alcohol a real help, but that doesn’t work for me.

At times, it’s like being caught in some high school Hell with homework – trig – for eternity. Then there is a breakthrough and it all begins to work again.

I wrote my first short story about three years ago and I have to tell you I found it a daunting task. You’re right; the good news was it didn’t take as long, but even then there was a bit of ‘Trigonometry-Hell’ getting there.

Just like that short story, at least the unknowns of the process disappear with the second novel. But the struggle to keep focused, to not run away throughout the process is always there.

Me: Lunch with you and any author (except Tasha Alexander) you choose, from throughout history or today, and why.

Herman Melville

Robert: Me being me, I have to wonder why the author I pick would ever want to eat with me? I’m supposed to pick someone to bother through lunch?

Okay, if not Tasha and with the promise that they won’t make it obvious they’re suffering through it all, I would have individual lunches with Shakespeare, Melville, Twain and Faulkner (sober). I don’t want them all together because I will be low man on the totem pole and will be at best a fly on the wall. I really would like some attention.

I chose Shakespeare because he has such a grasp of the entire gamut of the human condition. He lets us see into the strengths and weaknesses of the panoply of characters that make their way through his plays and in so doing to see both our own folly and ourselves.

Mark Twain

Melville and Twain, simply because one of them wrote the great American novel and Faulkner because I’m a Southerner. All of them because of the beauty and power of their words.

If I can only choose one it will be Shakespeare. Beyond what I could learn from him, I guess I would like to show him how the world has moved forward with time. I have a hunch he would be fascinated by how much has changed, how much remains.

I’m concerned that Melville would have little interest in our world and Twain would only see the darkness of humanity. Faulkner, well, like the other three, it’s a fan thing.

Me: The reviews for “Widow of the South” and “A Separate Country” have been beyond excellent. When can we expect your next novel?

Robert: I had hoped to have it finished by the end of December, but, alas, the best made plans…

So now I hope to have it finished by spring, then if that happens, we’ll most likely see it out March 2012. Don’t hold me to it, but that’s my best guess.

Me: A quote from your website: “Hicks is better at describing death and "the stink of war" than he is at life.” You immerse yourself more deeply in your subject than any writer I have experienced of late. How hard is it to pull yourself back out of a character you’ve written about and move on?

Battle of Franklin
Tennesee

Robert: With The Widow of the South it wasn’t that hard. I had lived with most of those folks in my head for so many years in my role and work at Carnton and with the battlefield at Franklin. I doubt Carrie will ever be too far from me. The fictional characters that populated her world in the story live comfortably with the real folks. They are all part of my world.

A Separate Country was completely different. Because it came about so quickly (within two years) and was born out of so much on the spot research of New Orleans and the folks, real or fictional, that I had little or no knowledge of before, when it was over, it was over. When I didn’t have to figure out what they were saying, how they would respond to their circumstances, they were no longer with me.

As much as I was happy to be finished, there was a real silence there. These men and women who I had lived with really were now gone.

The only thing I can even relate it to is the loss of my parents. I know that sounds pretty shallow, but I had lived with these folks through so much. I had seen them come alive within the story and now they were gone.

After a couple of weeks, I was too busy with the next steps in the process of editing and answering questions from my editor and agent to mourn over the loss of the characters. I had moved on. Yet, I really love those characters, even now.

Me: Publishing is going through an evolution right now. Talk about how this has or will affect you.

Robert: Anyone’s guess is as good as mine. I was asked by the folks at Ingram Book in Nashville to speak to about a hundred small publishers at their annual publishers meeting about the future of publishing. I was at a loss as to what to tell them.

We all know that these are precarious times for publishing and bookstores. That understood, I feel we will have to learn how to thrive within the world of social media and whatever other avenues are open to us with time.

My publisher has shown remarkable belief in what I’m doing and remains behind me, but what is the future? I wish I had a better, clearer answer for you. Heck, I wish I had a better, clearer answer for myself.

B.B. King Nightclub

Me: Talk about life experience. How important it is to an author?

Robert: For me ‘life experience’ is at the heart of it all as a writer, but then, again, I will be sixty this year. So how do I explain all the young, first-time novelist throughout history? Clearly, imagination, coupled with whatever our life experience has been, plays a huge role in it all.

As I’ve said, I am eaten up with issues of transformation and redemption and I think they are issues that come out of life experience. How these folks that populate my stories respond to each other comes out of my own experiences, even if I’ve never experienced what they’re going through.

Me: Tell us about your agent and why the match is perfect?

Robert: My agent is Jeff Kleinman with Folio Literary Agency in New York. Jeff has been there for me over the years. I could not have a better advocate with publishers, editors and all the rest. He works hard and is passionate about the books he works. He is insightful and has helped me in innumerable ways. I could not ask for more.

Me: History appears low on the priority list of today’s youth. What can we do to change this?

Robert: Simply write better historic fiction. It’s up to us and us alone to be sure that history, whether The American Civil War, The Revolution, WWII or whatever is relevant to this next generation. If we conclude it isn’t, it won’t be.

But if history does have any value as to who we are, what this nation is, good or bad, we must connect the dots for another generation. If there are lessons to be learned from history as we move forward, then we are going to have to be the ones to pass those lessons on.

Shelby Foote

In the end, the most important question to come out of all this is whether history is any longer relevant.

For if we don’t address it, here and now, and we continue to travel the same road then all we have been handed down will fade into the darkest crevasses of ancient history. That would be the greatest of shames.

Shelby Foote spent many hours explaining to me why I should be a storyteller.

For storytellers are the ones that pass on history, who keep history alive. Oh, we desperately need historians, but we are lost without storytellers.

That is why I write historic fiction. While I didn’t understand this when it all began, I now find myself in that long line of those who once huddled around the fire in caves telling tales to those who would listen about the giants that once roamed this earth.

Robert Hicks

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I'd like to thank Robert Hicks for his generosity of spirit and keen insights. A truly remarkable man, an amazingly gifted author and a keeper of history.

Stuart Woods Interview

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 19:53:00 +0000

Flash Interview:

An economy with words… Robert Parker had it. Elmore Leonard has it, and so does my guest today on The Novel Road. Even in an interview, Stuart Woods wastes little of his valuable time mincing words.

First a little about my guest:

Since his bio reads like a novel, I’m going to send you directly to his site to read his personal story. He’s been an advertizing copywriter (a la “Madmen”). Stuart is an avid sailor and pilot and so, so much more…

http://www.stuartwoods.com/html/bio.html

I’m pleased to welcome Stuart Woods to The Novel Road…

Me: Every character you’ve created, from Will Lee, Ed Eagle and Stone Barrington, to Holly Barker and Liz Barwick hold unique strengths, yet you allow enough flaws to keep them very human. Where do you draw a line on a Character’s perfection?

Stuart: Apart from the fact that no character is ever perfect, I never give it a thought.

Me: Your 30 year writing career includes 45 novels and two non-fiction books, most of them New York Times Bestsellers. Your ability to create new characters is astounding. Do you get “first novel” nerves when you release a novel with a new character?

Stuart: My first novel took eight years to write, and I had the writer's block peculiar to first novelists: the fear that the book would not be as good as I'd been telling my friends it would be. Since then, nothing with new characters.

Me: Elaine’s restaurant in New York City holds a special place in so many of your books. Is there a personal history behind this choice of rendezvous for Stone and Dino?

Stuart: I've been hanging out there since 1982.

Me: It's becoming more and more common among established writers to co-write. Why? Have you considered doing this?

Stuart: I am opposed to collaborating, because then you have to give the other writer half the money.

Me: You get to have lunch with any author, throughout literary history to present. Who would it be, and why?

Stuart: Mark Twain. Aren't the reasons obvious?

Me: Fan’s writing you about mistakes, typos and the like, in some of your novels. Just how obsessed are your fans?

Stuart: Many of them are obsessed about somethings; fortunately, they're not all obsessed about the same thing.

Me: Tell us about your agent and why the match is perfect.

Stuart: Because he's the best agent alive. The best is good enough for me.

Me: This question courtesy of Jeff Hall: "I'm a short story-ist. Writing a novel is a like crazy long marathon, only harder. How do you maintain a clear sense of that first passion that inspired you throughout a lengthy word journey?"

Stuart: I write sixty short stories, and they make a novel.

Me: The publishing industry in going through an evolution. How are these changes effecting you? Share your thoughts on what you think the future holds for authors.

Stuart: Yes, but I don't know how much yet. Ebooks are about 10% of my sales. Presumably that will go up, but who knows?

Me: You early life reads like a novel itself, expansive and well traveled. Talk about life experience. How important it is to an author?

Stuart: All I can tell you is, it's important to me. The others will have to speak for themselves.

Me: There is a trend to not let great authors die. They continue on through modern authors taking up the characters and continuing favorite stories (Von Lustbader continuing Robert Ludlum’s work). With your sailing background, any chance I could talk you into taking on Patrick O’Brian’s work?

Stuart: Not a chance, but if you can find somebody who can keep me alive, I'm game.

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I'd like to thank Stuart Woods for doing this interview.

Annie b. Copps Interview

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 20:43:00 +0000

Food is fine, but great food is, well… Really fine. Imagine a job that takes you to the great restaurants of the world. Think about cooking great meals with the world’s finest chefs. Having the iconic Julia Childs as your mentor and master chef Todd English nurturing your culinary career. Add to this talent, your education and your awesome personality. Now everyone, including TV shows, are asking you to display your talent.

Annie B. Copps, Food Editor for Yankee Magazine, is my long time friend and guest today on The Novel Road. She is one of the finest people I’ve ever met. Her blog, Eating New England, will show you that I’m not the only who thinks the world of Annie.

A bit more about Annie from her blog:

“Yankee food editor Annie B. Copps thinks about food more than most people. If she isn't growing, cooking, eating, or writing about it, she's talking about it. Not just how food tastes and what is the newest restaurant, recipe, or technique -- she's also entrenched in the politics of food and wine, as well as culinary history.

New England foods are her bailiwick, but Annie is a restless soul who has traveled to the souks of the Middle East in search of za'atar, observed the tuna auction at the Tsukiji market in Tokyo, pressed olive oil in Sicily, and roasted a goat in Kwa-Zulu Natal South Africa. No matter where she is, she always manages to make a friend and eat (and drink) well.”

I’m beyond pleased to welcome my friend Annie B. Copps to The Novel Road…

Me: I HATE YOU! Not really, but living in New Mexico and reading about your travels and gourmet experiences causes, shall we say… just a touch of envy. Now you have a cookbook, in conjunction with Yankee Magazine, to go with your regular appearances on the Today Show. How did you go from your humble beginning as a simple country girl in the rustic wilds of a Southern California beach community to where you are now?

Annie B. Copps

Annie: Sometimes I hate me, too. I just returned from a really great visit to Southern California, coming off a busy and beautiful holiday season and I am filled with boatloads of positive energy. I have a really good life. I don't make very much money, but I do get paid to eat and drink and that seems like a good deal right now.

And say, New Mexico has some great food... But to answer your question (be careful, I tend to be tangential--hereditary, I think... My Mom is nicknamed "non-sequester Nance." We don't use it very often because it is awkward. Mom is much quicker.), I have always loved food--cooking and eating. My family has always had great adventures, noodling around the country and around the world and for us, the food culture goes hand and hand with those experiences. My father spent time in Japan in the late 60's and he was fascinated by the food. We were living in Boston at the time and my parents had access to great ingredients, so we ate tempura and sushi at home sometimes. When the sushi wave hit, we were on it--like white on rice. (sorry!)

I worked in restaurants in college, the seminal experience was at Michela's, a restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Michela the owner is a real mentor and a visionary. Boston in the mid-80's, like a lot of places in America, had a good grip on red sauce based Italian (a lot of bastardized Sicilian cuisine), but she had gnocchi on the menu and Italian white wine and no meatballs. It was revolutionary. And Todd English was the chef. If you don't know who he is, Google him and smoke will come put of your computer he's such a celebrity now. Anyway, I stuck with Michela and Todd and they were both really open to letting me try on a lot of hats. Todd and his wife Olivia went on to open Olives. I hung around, then decided to go to culinary school--my original plan was to go to graduate school for a master's then PhD (in languages or comparative literature). I worked with Jasper White and a few others, then back to Todd. The story goes on and on, but I worked with Julia Child and almost finished my masters (in public health).

I found myself at Oldways Preservation and Chefs Collaborative, a food and nutrition think tank. We spent the bulk of our time in the Mediterranean, working with public health officials trying to preserve traditional food and agricultural ways. Our work is a major reason why you have more olive oil, nuts and avocados on the American table--but again I digress. I loved that, but found myself traveling more than even I cared to. Dumb luck got me a job at Boston magazine where I eventually became the food editor and then to Yankee where I have been for the last 5 years. The Today show is more dumb luck, but so far it has been SO fun and they are such an amazing team to work with--so professional and so kind.

Today Show Video with Annie? go here...

Me: If I started a rumor that your New Year’s resolution was to become a Fruitarian and never touch a glass of wine again, just how angry would you be?

Annie: I have been touched by rumor and innuendo before--I ain't scared of that! But if it were true, I'd be in sad shape. I really like wine, a lot. There would be measurable anger. If I were told I could never drink again, I think I am capable, but I would be really bummed out about it. Although, because alcohol IS such a part of my life and I am exposed to a lot of it, I take the month of August off from drinking--just to make sure I can do it and that the lines haven't become blurred as to where it fits into my life. So far it has been okay, I have survived wine festivals, birthdays, weddings and even family events. Though, I was in South Africa a few years ago, the last week of August and first week of September, I was pretty psyched that we were in wine country the second part of the trip.

Me: The best wine to use in cooking and why?

Annie: Hmmmm... it really depends on what you are cooking and what you really dig. A good rule of thumb though is cook with a wine you like to drink. Never ever use "cooking" wine, that stuff is doo-doo. Whatever wine you start with gets reduced and concentrated when you cook it, so whatever good or bad things about the wine will be more pronounced. It is cold here in Boston right now and I love braising this time of year (check out braising recipes at yankeemagazine.com -- was that a good segue or what?) and wine is great braising liquid. I tend to use Carlo Rossi "burgundy" for short ribs, beouf bourgogne, and lamb stew. It's drinkable and makes a great sauce.

Me: I make pasta that explodes. Pasta everywhere! What am I doing wrong?

Annie: Big Daddy, I think the issue is in your seal. I assume you are talking about stuffed pasta. If not, too much dy-no-mite, could be the issue. But seriously, if it is stuffed pasta, make sure you seal it with an egg wash (water and a beaten egg) and let it dry. If it is regular, then I suspect you are not kneading it enough (gluten, the protein in flour which gets activated by liquid, gives pasta structure and needs to be built up via kneading--longer answer is available). But keep making it!

Al Roker
courtesy of
themarthablog.com

Me: Al Roker… If he became a fruitarian, could he wait for the fruit to fall from the tree?

Annie: LOL. Al Roker is, speaking of Big Daddy, so awesome. He'd have a little kid on his shoulders pulling the apples right off the branches.

Me: When you walk into a restaurant, just how freaked out do the owner’s of the restaurants become?

Annie: I think they used to. I heard that when I was at Boston magazine, a few kitchens had photos of me (and other writers) in the kitchen so the servers knew who we were. I get treated well, with a lot of respect and I appreciate it. Fawning makes me nervous. I don't do too much critiquing anymore, but I do like to write about places where I have had a great experience. Additionall,y most people know what a big mouth I have and that I use social media.

Want to see Annie and Lobster? Go here - In this one Al Roker totally unraveled and lost his coconuts.

Me: Talk about your time with the great Julia Child.

Annie: So much to say. I miss her a lot. She was such an amazing and lovely person. I learned so much from her. She was a professional and diligent researcher. Very curious and funny. I worked for her in the production kitchen during the shooting of the PBS shows that were filmed at her home and then in her home office. She had a terrific full-time assistant, Stephanie Hersh, but I helped keep the machine running. Stephanie was a good friend to me, too. I loved that Julia was fully aware of how old she was, but she had no intention of not doing things because of her age. I could talk for days about her. What a big headed gift from God.

Me: I see an Annie B. Copps food show coming your way. If so, can I be a guest? We can make pasta…

Annie: Your mouth to God's ears. Yes... I think a p-asta show is a good idea--I'd love to be able to help people get over their kitchen hurdles with solid information. I kills me that kids aren't learning to cook anymore, because their parents only open cans or defrost. It really kills me. But I would love to do more TV, I get a real kick out of it and I think people like it--my own thing or a regular slot on the Today show would make me very happy and satisfed.

Me: This question courtesy of a fan with the screen name: Shelbottomus. “You never make Minnesota fine cuisine when you appear on the Today Show. Would you like my recipe for sautéed Lefse and Rakfisk?”

Norwegian food
courtesy of picses.eu

Annie: Shelbottomus Maximus? What an honor. I know, I know. I tend to do more New England-y food on the show as I come on as the Yankee magazine food editor, but if your fan would like to share with me some if her/his recipes, I'd be honored.

Me: Since this is a blog about writing and books, I guess I should ask you a question about the written word. When can we expect another great cookbook from you?

Annie: We'll do another Yankee "bookazine" soon--likely for this fall. I would love to write my own, though, perhaps a companion book for the TV show??

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I'd like to thank Annie B. Copps for her time and friendship. Maybe I'll send her some pasta? Between Annie and the ATF, I'm sure they could find a way to cook it...

Norb Vonnegut Interview

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 18:01:00 +0000

What better way to start December 28th!

The paperback release of a superb financial thriller, "Top Producer" is today. Not only is this an incredible novel, it will have you calling your broker just to "check"...Please welcome Bestselling author Norb Vonnegut to The Novel Road...

Today's visitor to The Novel Road, I count as a friend, which makes interviewing this vastly intelligent, funny and kind man something I've looked forward to for some time. I made him promise not to look at the interview questions till he finished the final edits on his next Bestseller "The God's of Greenwich" due out in April of 2011. (He peeked, which led to me showing him how NOT to answer the "two sentence Hook" question. Like I could answer it better than a bestselling author? I re-looked up hubris after I failed miserable to answer my own question)

Norb Vonnegut writes financial thrillers and blogs about money for The Huffington Post, Switzer in Australia and Acrimoney. Before turning to a career as an author, Norb worked in private wealth management as a stockbroker with Morgan Stanley, Paine Webber and other investment banks. It was there, knee deep in the business of finance, where he learned one absolute and irrefutable truth.

The people of Wall Street are characters. They're a ready mix of quirks and edgy humor. They speak in tongues, and their escapades make them the perfect fodder for irreverent fiction. Their behavior, so ordinary on Wall Street, can border on the bizarre anywhere else. You'll see what he means inside the pages of Top Producer, The Gods of Greenwich and his novels to come.

So after two decades in the trenches, he traded money management for writing thrillers about fictional stockbrokers, traders and hedgies. His villains are a blend of pure fiction and people he heard about or read about through the years. You'll find themes like friendship and betrayal in his novels, lots of backstabbing as he describes financial scandals and gravitate toward stories about underdogs who prevail against overwhelming odds.

You don't need a background in finance to understand what makes his characters tick or the mistakes they make. They're are no stock tips in his novels. But you might gain a few insights from a Wall Street color commentator (Norb) as you board a roller coaster ride of fiction that could be fact.

Norb graduated from Phillips Exeter in 1976, Harvard College in 1980 and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1986. These days, he and his family split their time between New York and Narragansett, Rhode Island. Norb is an avid cyclist and volunteer with the American Foundation for the Blind as a member of the Board of Trustees.

Norb Vonnegut

Me: Your novel, “Top Producer”, has gained you the reputation of being the “Grisham of financial thrillers”. I believe this reputation is not only well earned, but also well founded by your experience as a stockbroker and financial analyst for the Huffington Post. How hard is it to live up to your fans expectations? How does the pressure to deliver measure up to your days as a broker?

Norb: First and foremost, thank you for your kind words and for inviting me to be your guest on The Novel Road. It’s an honor to post here with so many talented authors.

Author versus stockbroker—these are two different worlds that converge, oddly, in ways readers might not expect. As an author, I work hard to deliver something special on every page. It might be that whoa plot twist from left field. Or an irreverent observation about day-to-day life. There’s always pressure to captivate readers en route to the last page.

Is it “hard”? You bet. Turning pages is a choice for readers, not an obligation.

When I was a stockbroker, clients charged me with protecting their wealth. The pressures of watching over billions of dollars had nothing to do with entertaining readers. The job was all about people—keeping their money safe from predators and bad markets and sometimes even from themselves. So where’s the convergence? I’ve been asking one question through both careers: What can go wrong? As an author, I control the answers and the outcome inside a fictional world of my own creation. I never had this power as a stockbroker, and sometimes events developed a life of their own. My real-life experiences are a fertile place to start fiction, which is good news for a novelist. Most of the time . . .

It’s scary when fiction turns into fact, as it did in Top Producer. Who would have guessed what happened on December 11, 2008—twelve months after I completed my novel and signed a two-book deal with St. Martin’s press? Here’s what SmartMoney magazine wrote last fall when they named Top Producer to their “best reads” list:

The story mirrors reality — in ways that may now surprise even its author, who finished the book before the economic meltdown.”

See what I mean?

Me: Social Media. Talk about its importance to the modern author’s success.

Norb: Social media is the new word of mouth. On steroids. The fastest way for authors to gain recognition is for their readers to “tweet” or “like” posts on Facebook. I often wonder whether Ernest Hemingway would tweet if he were alive today. I hope Mark Twain would have more followers than Lady Gaga or Paris Hilton, but that’s a tough call.

The power of social media, I think, is its simplicity. An author’s comment can zing around the world in seconds. See those Twitter and Facebook buttons off to the right. You’re doing writers a big favor whenever you click them. Two seconds and you make an impression that could take hours of talking with friends about a good book or an interesting interview.

This is an aside. But I believe the value of big voices—the richness of James Earl Jones, the raspy charisma of Bill Clinton, the world-hangs-in-the-balance gravity of Fred Thompson—will be lost as we move from sound bites to digital bites. It’s easier to comment on a blog than lock into an extended conversation.

Whatever. We are where we are, and social media is here to stay, evolve, and weave its way into the fabric of our lives. I recently converted my author website into a blog, because I like the conversation with readers.

If you have a minute, check out my breaking news on Bernie Madoff. One of his guards in North Carolina forwarded a photo of him in the prison yard. You’ll never guess what Madoff was reading.

Me: Your main character, Grove O’Rourke, is one of the best modern day protagonists around. He’s balanced in both savvy and humanity. Talk about finding this balance in your character?

Norb: Everybody loves underdogs. And like many others, Grove O’Rourke starts with the basics. He’s smart. He’s edgy—prone to blistering one-liners. He’s safe and approachable. People tell Grove stuff, because he uses their information in the right way rather than trading on it for personal gain. He’s a good guy, who always seems to be rescuing the people that cycle through his life.

But Grove is no superman. He has his own shortcomings. Plenty of them. He’s working through a personal tragedy. He’s has this sense of never fitting in. It’s been that way ever since his childhood. And as you will see in Top Producer, Grove’s profound sense of loyalty makes him vulnerable. Things go wrong when he helps friends and events spiral out of control.

There’s a little Grove in all of us. I think readers care about characters with foibles. It’s nice to see heroes work through problems—especially if they’re not faster than a speeding bullet or able to leap buildings with a single bound. Everybody has weaknesses, right? And I’ll confess, mine are power tools. If I have a drill in hand, there’s a disaster in the making.

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"If anybody can turn international finance and hedge funds into a riveting thriller, it's Norb Vonnegut. The Gods of Greenwich is a pure delight, racing relentlessly from the bedrooms of Manhattan to the boardrooms of Connecticut to the banks of Iceland. Bravo!"

– Jeffery Deaver

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Me: To the financial layperson, the financial world seems to be based on whim. The stock market can crash based on rumor or innuendo. What’s more, companies with no relationship to the rumor, fall simply because if brokerages sell one, they sell them all, furthering the fall and appearance of “no confidence” in the overall market. Are analysts over analyzing, putting too much faith in conjecture?

Norb: Okay, Doug, you’re touching on important issues—whim, innuendo, and no confidence. I worry less about “over analyzing” and more about dangerous investment techniques. Forget about playing the game. There’s a new breed of hedge funds that are “gaming the game” with uncertain consequences.

Some of these funds program computer “robo-readers” that scour the news and social media posts for words or emoticons indicating mood. Once they know how the world "feels," hedge funds can make lightening fast momentum trades. Buying when spirits are good and propelling the markets higher. Or dumping shares when the world is on the verge of an extended funk.

The thing about traders, though, is that they lay traps for one another. It’s been that way ever since the first market opened, and it’s behavior that I explore in my new novel The Gods of Greenwich. It’s probably easy to dupe robo-readers into buying, for example, with a computer code that spits out thousands of happy emoticons over social networks every few seconds. Tweet here and watch the market go up.

Whatever happened to value investing?

I’m old school. I like it when analysts scrutinize corporate balance sheets, cash flow, and profitability. It’s when the investors focus on how the game is played—and forget the basics—that I get scared. BTW, I’ve posted a video about “speed trading” on my blog Acrimoney. It will be especially interesting to anyone interested in the flash crash of May 6, 2010, which is a non-fiction example of how the game unraveled.

Me: Did you struggle with the amount of information you wanted to include, versus the amount that kept your novel moving at it’s blistering pace? How much information is too much?

Norb: I assume you’re referring to financial information. Less is more. I spent my career reading how financial securities work. And there’s one thing I know beyond any doubt. It’s people that make for a good story. It’s human interactions—the plotting and the scheming, the reacting to overwhelming events, the backstabbing and betrayal—that create the stuff of mystery, suspense, and a good cry. Nobody ever gets emotionally involved in a synthetic CDO, right?

I regard Wall Street and Hedgistan as background, not the story. The Gods of Greenwich, for example, is really about keeping up with the Joneses. Something we all understand. It just so happens my characters own hedge funds and are dying to join the Greenwich glitterati. Readers will disappear into a different world, and I hope, learn a little, laugh a little, and lose themselves in the story.

Me: Give me a two sentence “Hook” for your novel, “The Gods of Greenwich”.

Norb: Want to know what’s worse than going broke? Get in bed with The Gods of Greenwich.

Me: You get to have lunch with any author, from throughout literary history or present. Who would it be and why?

Norb: I probably change my mind ever five minutes. Sometimes the answer is F. Scott Fitzgerald. Other times it’s Ernest Hemmingway. Or it’s a working author like Carl Hiaasen, Tom Wolfe, or the writers I’ve linked to on the home page of my website. But when push comes to shove, I’ll go with Dorothy Parker.

I can’t imagine a better way to spend lunch than drinking wine with DP and listening to her zingers. She probably has the sharpest tongue of all time. I am so taken with her venomous wit, in fact, that I created a character with a DP backstory in The Gods of Greenwich.

It wasn’t hard mixing DP into a thriller about hedge funds. She was always weighing in on the subject of money. Here’s one of my all-time favorite quotes from her: “I don’t know much about being a millionaire, but I’ll bet I’d be darling at it.”

Me: This question, courtesy of Jeff Hall: “I'm a shortstory-ist. Writing a novel is like a crazy long marathon, only harder. How do you maintain a clear sense of that first passion that inspired you, throughout a 200 thousand word journey?”

Norb: It’s pretty simple. I write novels that are 100,000 words, give or take. That cuts the problem in half, right?

I don’t mean to be flip. My goal is to laugh or go ballistic while writing. (Sometimes it gets noisy in my office.) If I don’t enjoy what I’m writing, readers won’t either. That’s why I struggle to make every sentence perfect and pithy. Ponderous doesn’t cut it.

If I can turn a phrase that makes me happy, then I’m ready to test it on my editors—my wife first and then, if she’s okay with the draft, my editors over at Thomas Dunne/Minotaur/St. Martin’s Press. If the last word of every chapter is the most important word, then I’m telling the story the right way.

Me: If Norb Vonnegut ever writes a Non-Fiction book, what would the subject be?

Norb: Bicycling. My wife Mary and I once bicycled 1,500 miles through Europe. That was twenty-five years ago. But we’d love to do it again. Now you may understand why cycling is such a big part of Grove O’Rourke’s life in Top Producer.

There’s part of me that says write a book about professional cyclists during an extended race, like the Tour de France or the Giro de Italia. I’d like to make the sport come alive for non-cyclists—in much the same way that Michael Lewis writes about finance for readers outside of Wall Street.

The truth is, however, you don’t need to be a professional to love the sport’s adventure. I cycle regularly and would prefer to write a memoir about re-tracing our route from Copenhagen to the Loire Valley twenty-five years ago. Stuff happens on the road, and I’m sure there would be plenty of anecdotes.

Now that you have me fantasizing, let me put something out there. If any readers produce reality television shows and want to do something involving extended bicycle tours and a middle-aged guy who could stand to lose ten pounds, I’m your man.

Me: The publishing world is changing. Share your thoughts on what you think these changes may hold for authors, both successful and debut.

Norb: Clearly, the delivery system for books is the biggest change. Bookstores are finding new ways to add value, because they’re locked in something of a cage fight with electronic books. We have no idea how publishing will evolve. Today’s economics allow anyone to self publish and hope for a viral hit.

Editors are the one constant I see no matter how publishing evolves. As long as there are great books, there will be great editors. I think the key for all authors is to align with the best editors they can find.

********************************************************************

"This novel ponders the age-old ramifications of greed, but Vonnegut gives it a fresh timely twist."

– USA Today

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Me: A friend of mine gave me a question to posit to Ben Greenman of The New Yorker and short story fame: “How will literature change when 80 percent of all books are sold on e-readers?” How would you answer this question?

Norb: Tough question. What did Ben say?

Purists will wince at this prediction. But long term, I think novels will border on interactive experiences. Right now, we can click on words for instant definitions. We can fall in love with books and tweet passages from readers left and right. It won’t be long before we can click into videos. Brilliant, right?

As the processors grow more powerful on I-pads, Kindles, and Nooks, I think the exchanges between authors and fans will grow more complex. There will be more opportunities to entertain readers, which is what stories are all about. A click here or there, for example, might bring a personality insight into a character that’s not available in the main story.

Kindles and other devices, however, are still in their Jurassic Park stage. In The Gods of Greenwich, I list an email address—which is almost a dare to get readers to send a message. They’ll get a nice surprise in return. But this form of exchange is fairly basic. Fifty years from now, the back and forth will grow more sophisticated as technology continues to advance.

Don’t believe me? Who heard of Google ten years ago?

Me: Among your many talents as a writer, you write great short stories as well. My friend Jeff Hall was wondering: “As a short story writer, my greatest struggle is not deciding what to put in, but rather what to leave out. My 5K shorts typically start out as 12K novellas that I have to pare and trim ad nauseum. Do you find the process works best if you give yourself free reign and then whittle the result down to a manageable size? Or do you keep your stories focused and directed as they are birthed so that the initial product is of a workable size?”

Norb: I don’t think about stories in terms of size. Or in terms of chopping them down—even though “whittling” is always part of the process. My goal is to hook readers at the open (you can download the first chapter of The Gods of Greenwich on my website), ratchet up the tension in the middle, and then end with a killer finale.

The middle is the most difficult part to write, whether it’s a short story or 100,000-word novel. Peter James, #1 internationally bestselling author (Dead Like You), explains it best. He draws a line graph of “the middle” with three peaks, each one higher than the last. The goal is to introduce new events, each one turning up the heat in the story.

I like Peter’s visual, which reminds me of roller coasters. It’s the kind of ride I’m trying to give readers. When they finish one of my stories, I hope they say, “Yikes.” Or something like that.

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Norb, Thank you for your time and incites. All the best my friend!

"The Gods of Greenwich is a fast-paced and satisfying locomotive of a financial-based thriller, Dominick Dunne meet Barbarians at the Gate. Vonnegut has opened the vaults of Greenwich's elite, and oh what secrets and schemes pour out!"

Andrew Gross, New York Times Bestselling author.

Diana P. Francis Interview

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 17:59:00 +0000

It’s a gloomy rainy day, or maybe there is two feet of snow on the ground. A quick look out the window makes the decision to be somewhere else, to dream of somewhere else - easy. A few steps to the bookshelf and your eyes begin to race across titles of books. In the back of your mind is the kind of day it is outside and how far you want to travel to make it go away for the day… There!

If it’s fantasy adventure you’re looking for, you reach for a Diana Pharaoh Francis. The book is well worn, from read after re-read, because those times you want reality to fade away aren’t as uncommon as you’d like.

My guest today, bestselling author Diana Pharaoh Francis, actually writes dreams. Based on her Amazon numbers, we are all going long on escape. Her newest book, “Crimson Wind” is flying off the shelves like a $2 iPhone.

Diana has the talent to draw you in with every word and her loyal fans are never disappointed.

Now a bit about my guest from her website while I pray for snow:

“I was raised on a cattle ranch in Northern California (outside a town called Lincoln which is now part of an enormous sprawl). I taught myself to ride a horse at the age of six, as no one had the time to teach me—they were all busy learning how to irrigate, how to cajole an angry bull into another field, how to pull a calf… Afraid of heights, and absolutely sure I was going to die, I managed to scramble up on the back of a very patient and lazy strawberry roan destrier, and plod off into the sunset.

After high school, I attended college after college, racking up a BA and MA in creative writing and a Ph.D. in literature and theory. My very patient and supportive husband traipsed across the Midwest and back to Montana for me (though my husband insists that he’s been running and hiding and I just keep finding him), where I now teach at the University of Montana-Western. We also have a son Q-ball, who in our humbly unbiased opinions, is the most wonderful son ever produced, and a daughter, Princess Caesar, who is the most wonderful daughter ever produced.

I have a fascination for the Victorians, weather, geology, horses, plants and mythology, I like spicy food, chocolate and cheesecake, and I have an odd sense of humor. (Or so I’ve been told. Often.) Incidentally, the Pharaoh is in fact my real name, and oddly enough, is of British origin.”

I’m pleased to welcome Bestselling author Diana Pharaoh Francis to The Novel Road…

Diana Pharaoh Francis

Me: Your academic resume is beyond impressive: Masters in Creative writing, Ph.d in Literature and you now teach at The University of Montana –Western. You wrangle cattle, raise a family… Where did you find the time to write all your novels?

Diana: Well, to be honest, I don’t do cattle anymore. It’s been awhile since I lived on the ranch. Now I wrangle children. And dogs. And students. Finding time is basically a matter of carving it out of every day no matter what, and having an understanding family who let me vanish into the office for the weekend or evening and fix me food and make sure the house runs and nothing floods or blows up. I don’t do that all that often, but near deadline time . . .

In the end, I have to manage my time and write whenever I have a chance. I don’t have a lot of hobbies because of that, and I definitely don’t get to read as often as I’d like. Over the years, I’ve made an effort to prioritize family time so that I don’t become ghost mom. It also keeps me sane and healthy. Relatively sane, anyhow.

Me: You have a love of history in literature. History appears low on the priority list of today’s youth. What can we do to change this?

Diana: History tends to be dry when it comes to classes. It becomes real when kids visit real sites and see where history happened. I know my son is excited about reading fiction set in important historical situations. I think fiction has the ability to get kids interested in all kinds of things, and it helps them get interested in reading non-fiction.

For me, I know that reading Dickens and Austen and Thackeray and Browning really helped make the Regency/Victorian periods more real. It shows the texture and reality of people in their cultures.

But in the end, any way you can, expose kids to history. I especially like living history museums and interactive displays of any kind.

Me: Talk about life experience. How important it is to an author?

Diana: It’s been crucial for me. Everything I write comes out of my experiences, though some of those are imaginary—experiences I’ve had reading or watching a documentary. But so much of what I’ve done has given flavor to my work, or given me plots and other details. For example, in Path of Fate, Reisil gets saddle sores when she first learns to ride and spends a lot of time on the horse. When I was a kid, I went on a long ride in shorts. I was using a saddle, which I never did—I’d grown up riding bareback and hated saddles. It wasn’t long before I developed a nasty sore inside my knee where the skin rubbed off on the leather. I was far from home and had nothing to cover it with, so it got a lot worse. That became fodder for Reisil.

On the other hand, in The Black Ship, my characters sail on a square rigged clipper ship. It’s the setting for pretty much the entire book. I’d never been sailing at all. So I went to Seattle and went sailing on The Lady Washington to see how the sails were actually raised and lowered and what it was like to be on a ship. Then I did a lot of research. But I needed that first hand experience to get it right.

There’s a scene in Crimson Wind where someone shoots a gun and the recoil sends it over their head. I had that experience shooting a .454 Cassul. It’s a cannon of a handgun. A friend let me shoot it and the recoil really does send it over your head.

Graham Greene said that every writer has to have a splinter of ice in his or her heart. What he meant was that writers, even in the middle of a horrific accident or a dreadful loss or something, keeps one analytical eye open to watch and record. Writers keep track of experiences and put them away to use in their books.

There are so many textures, smells, sounds, events and different scraps of life that make it into my books. Without them, I think the books would be plastic and boring.

Me: Publishing is going through an evolution right now. Talk about how this has or will affect you.

Diana: Well, for one, my books get electronically pirated a lot. That’s really stomach-churning to watch as people post my books for free on download sites. These people like my books, but aren’t willing to pay me for them. And it is me. Because I only earn on what’s legitimately sold. So when I see pirating, it makes me want to weep because selling books is what makes publishers want to publish an author again and so I’m always worried that my sales numbers will sink and I won’t get to publish my books.

Other than that, the economy and the changes in publishing are still causing issues and I’m still waiting to see what will happen. Unfortunately, Borders may go bankrupt or close, and it’s never good to see stores go away. Ebooks are becoming more and more popular and it isn’t yet clear how they will be priced or how authors will get paid. There are a lot of different models for that. The major issue for me as a writer is that people continue to buy books so that publishers will continue to sign me on to write them.

Me: Lunch with you and any author you choose, from throughout history or today, and why.

Aphra Behn

Diana: Just one? That’s too hard! If I get right down to it, though, I’m torn. One would be Aphra Behn, who was an English playwright in the late 1600s. She was also a spy. She was one of the first women to make her living writing. She was witty and smart and her plays are fun. One of my favorite passages is from her preface to The Dutch Lover. She wrote it after the play received criticism and she is scathing. Oh it’s a lovely piece of writing.

Here’s a little bit of it:

"Indeed that day ’twas Acted first, there comes me into the Pit, a long, lither, phlegmatick, white, ill-favour’d, wretched Fop, an Officer in Masquerade newly transported with a Scarf & Feather out of France, a sorry Animal that has nought else to shield it from the uttermost contempt of all mankind, but that respect which we afford to Rats and Toads, which though we do not well allow to live, yet when considered as a part of God’s Creation, we make honourable mention of them. A thing, Reader—but no more of such a Smelt: This thing, I tell ye, opening that which serves it for a mouth, out issued such a noise as this to those that sate about it, that 224 they were to expect a woful Play, God damn him, for it was a woman’s. Now how this came about I am not sure, but I suppose he brought it piping hot from some who had with him the reputation of a villanous Wit: for Creatures of his size of sense talk without all imagination, such scraps as they pick up from other folks."

Isn’t she wonderful? I would love to have written this.

My other choice would be Charles Dickens, and you know? Largely for the same reasons. He was also scathing and witty and with such a good sense of human nature and the world. I adore him and would love to have a few beers with him and listen to him tell stories.

Me: Has the immense amount of information available now, caused a lack of learning from the past, in favor of taking current definition as a less thought out reality?

Diana: I have no idea. I think that there is a deluge of information available now and it’s harder to be broadly read and educated, but I think that people can still think and reason and examine situations and make good decisions. I think they can still come to a good understanding of the world. I do think that politicians and corporations would prefer that people didn’t think—it’s much easier to herd sheep than thinking, reasoning people.

Me: You wake up one day and decide to write a Historical non-Fiction book. Give me the subject and overview of this dream book.

Diana: Oh that’s easy. I’d write about Emily Eden in India. She was the sister of the Governor General of India (pretty much the king of India for all intents and purposes) in the 1830s and 40s. During that time, a lot of things happened, including Queen Victoria taking the English throne. In India, Eden was a sharp and critical observer and at one point, she and her brother and sister and a huge number of people went “up the country.” A two year journey through India. I’d want to write about her and the politics of the period. It’s fascinating. She was also a novelist, and upon returning to England, she published The Semi-attached Couple and The Semi-detached House, both in a similar vein to Jane Austen.

Me: How much author editing is too much? Where should an author stop editing before submission?

Diana: When the book is good. The trouble is, how do you know if it’s good? Part of me thinks that it’s volume that tells you. The more words you read and produce, the more skills you have and a better barometer for understanding what makes a good story. Applying that to yourself can be painful, but oh so necessary. Feedback from a quality source is also good. Someone to tell you when things are or aren’t working.

But there’s a point where you have to stop and submit and start the next process. You move on because every project teaches you more and you become a better writer.

Me: Social Media. Talk about its importance to the modern author’s success.

Diana: I think that social media is only worthwhile if you like to do it because you like to do it. I think it’s obvious when someone hates twittering or facebooking or what have you. It’s not that fun to read when that happens and so doesn’t do anything for you as an author. I like to twitter and I like to keep a blog. I don’t know how interesting they are, but I do like them. It’s nice to have the chance in the various networking situations to talk to fans and fellow writers. Being a writer, especially in Montana, can be an isolating thing. So social networking can help keep me sane.

Or it can suck up all my time. So I have to be careful. But I do enjoy the interaction so much. How much impact it’s had on my success, I don’t know. But I don’t do it for that, so any positive effect is gravy.

Me: Tell us about your agent and why you two are the perfect match.

Diana: My agent is Lucienne Diver of the Knight Agency. She’s fabulous. She knows the business and she’s got the energy of a hundred Energizer Bunnies. Or a dozen cats on crack. She gets my humor (morbid and twisted) and shares it. She is a writer as well, so she understand what her clients are going through. She likes what I write and totally knows how to talk me off the ledge when I’m flipping out over something. She gives me feedback on my writing when I want it and she can be a bulldog when she needs to be.

******************************************

I’d like to thank Diana for her time, for her talent, and for a reason to throw another log on the fire, close the blinds and fade into another of her fantastic stories.

Jeff Somers Interview

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 05:15:00 +0000

   Readers respond to powerful stories, to inventive stories...to Jeff Somers stories. The power and pace he brings to the pages of his novels, marks him well as one of the foremost authors of his genre. His fans are legion. Viewers of his videos can't wait for the next appearance of a whiskey bottle, glass and guitar lead in.

   His wild sense of humor seems on the verge of breaking loose every minute of the day.

   Have I been looking forward to his visit to The Novel Road? Heck yeah! Having read his books, and watched his video, I can tell you Jeff Somers is pure entertainment.

I'm pleased to welcome Jeff Somers to The Novel Road

Me: A world gone mad, replete with post apocalyptic semi-dead in a land of midnight’s midnight… So you live in New Jersey?

Jeff: Oh! Jersey humor! I LOVE JERSEY HUMOR. Lord knows I never hear jokes about Jersey. I can see the tone you’re trying to set here: Erudite, sophisticated, worldly.

Not just living in New Jersey, I was born and raised in New Jersey. I currently live just 5 minutes from the literal spot of my birth, a sawdust-covered tavern floor where, legends say, a stain remains to this day, resistant to any type of detergent. I was also educated solely in New Jersey, first at overcrowded public schools, then at St. Peter’s There but for the Grace of God Academy, then at Rutgers University. Here’s something I wrote in a short story a few years ago about St. Peter’s There but for the Grace of God Academy:

In the fall my brother Yan and I matriculated into high school. Our parents maintained a long arm and enrolled us in St. Peter's There But For the Grace of God Academy, which was a pseudo-religious-slash-military establishment stressing Latin and self-mutilation. We awoke one fine September day to find the ancestral home surrounded by Jesuit Commandos, who piled us into an armored truck along with several other frightened boys. Yan and I cheered our fellow kidnap victims by singing The Sound of Music (Yan's voice indistinguishable from Julie Andrews') and we plotted a brisk escape from the truck; but once the rear doors were thrown open Yan and I were inexplicably ratted out by our fellows. My brother and I entered St. Peter's as prisoners, and spent our first weeks there being beaten on a daily basis by a burly priest named Father Hump, until we could speak perfect Latin, although we could no longer remember our own names.

St. Peter's There But for The Grace of God Academy was designed to instill in its charges a sense of discipline and a love of God. Towards the first goal, we were enrolled in classes such as Sewing Leather Sneakers for Nike Inc. and Kathie Lee Gifford Clothing Line 101. These classes taught us to be patient, to endure hardship, and to manage complex and minute tasks with broken and bloodied fingers. Towards the second goal, we were beaten unto insensibility, at which point we often hallucinated that Jesus came down from heaven to deliver us from our living hell, which certainly made us love him....until we awoke for Cooking for the Jesuits 101 at 5am the next morning, an advanced class that often resulted in failing grades and thrown food, at which point we started resenting Jesus all over again.

Yan and I look back on our years at St. Peter's There But for the Grace of God Academy fondly, of course, or at least Yan would if he had not perished in the Great Failed Escape of 1989 (or so I thought), in which thirty-one boys lost their lives attempting to tunnel under the fences surrounding the campus. His loss was doubly senseless, since we were set to graduate later that same year. Perhaps the looming specter of the final examinations (which are rumored to have cost more than one senior his life) had driven Yan to this extreme, or perhaps it was simply the girls academy situated across the way from St. Peter's, where nubile and uniformed young women often spent the hot afternoons washing cars in cut off T-shirts.

At any rate, I did manage to graduate with only a few broken bones and permanent scars in the spring of 1989, and as I said I look back fondly on my years at St. Peter's; so fondly that when I returned some years later to burn the place to the ground in a blaze so hot it liquefied windows in surrounding buildings for miles, I shed a tear or two as I sipped a strong Martini on an overlooking hillside. Or perhaps that was just the dry air and the heat.

So yes, I live in New Jersey. I know diners, I know traffic circles, I know the New Jersey Turnpike exits like I know my own skin. It is the greatest place in the world. Or so I imagine, as I’ve never left it.

Me: From essayist to dystopia, you’ve proven your versatility and talent. Give me the title and story line for a Jeff Somers YA novel.

Jeff: Let’s call it The Really Cool Kids who Drank and Smoked a Lot. It would involve an accidental homicide at an unchaperoned party, furtive attempts to cover it up and displace the body. The kids would swear secrecy and eternal silence, but one by one would start killing each other off as they get paranoid. In the end, one of the kids would survive, completely free of suspicion. As part of the marketing, we’d insinuate it’s actually autobiographical. We might have to kill a few people to make it look good.

Me: Avery Cates is a unique dystopian archetype. How did he evolve?

Jeff: Indiana Jones. Seriously. My brother and I had a long discussion once about how Indiana Jones was one of the best movie heros evah because he got his ass kicked. In a lot of action stories, the hero is just supernaturally capable. They take punishment and shrug it off and come roaring back, maybe with some dirt and blood painted on to make it look dramatic. It’s boring. We liked Indy because when he got beat up, he looked like he was getting beat up, and he had bruises and scabs. He looked like a guy trying desperately to avoid physical pain, you know?

So when I started working on The Electric Church all those years ago, I wanted the character to be tough and mean, but I wanted him to be human. He avoids pain, because that’s what people do. He’s tough and mean, but it’s only because he knows that any sign of weakness will get him killed. And he feels that pain, buddy.

That’s the key, I think, to Avery, aside from his father-son issues that keep manifesting as a doomed desire to save and protect people coupled with a conviction that things Used to be Better, you know? Avery feels that pain, and tries to run away from it.

Me: Hollywood and Jeff Somers. I hear your suggestion that Justin Bieber play Avery Cates in the film to come was shot down, though Sean Ferrell is still considering an offer to write the screenplay. Any other news on the film front?

Jeff's just finished custom home.
He designed it himself...

Jeff: Ferrell’s screenplay was bosh. He tried to go all Charlie Kaufman and wrote himself into the story as some sort of observing angel, floating around glowing or something—it’s unclear. He gave himself all sorts of funny lines commenting on the action, too. By page 350 of the screenplay it’s really just Ferrell sitting at a park bench chatting with the audience. It goes on for hundreds more pages. At one point he starts singing “Pennies from Heaven” while dressed as a clown in the moonlight. A CLOWN IN THE MOONLIGHT. Think about it.

My own casting suggestions involve me, playing mutliple characters. My emails and phone calls are no longer returned.

The news on the film front is that there is, in fact, still a film front to get news about, which is pretty damned exciting. I know they’re very close to a first draft of a screenplay. Beyond that it is blissfully out of my control, and I like it like that.

Me: Talk about the day you became a Wikipedia star?

Jeff: “Star” is perhaps a strong word. More accurately “The day I actually showed up on Wikipedia.”

Plain and simple, whining works. Every now and then I wake up wearing someone else’s pants and I stand in the bathroom, urinating, for about fifteen minutes, and I scowl at myself in the mirror (the whole bathroom is mirrored, for obvious reasons) and think, today I will see what I can get other people to do for me. This was one of those times. I posted on my Blog that I wanted a Wikipedia page. I’d created one for myself several years ago, back in the Wild West period of Wikipedia, but it had been deleted. So I began complaining.

People got right on it, but it was like that Monty Python bit from “Holy Grail”: They set up a page, but it was deleted for me not being notable enough. SO someone put up another page with more details and that was deleted. And then another, and another deletion, and then finally the fifth or sixth one stuck. I was pretty proud of myself for a while, then I saw this episode of Deep Space Nine, which is just as detailed as my own page: Damn.

Jeff: First of all, 200,000 words? Holy crow, man, what kind of books are you writing?

I’ve never had this problem. For me, stories are as long as they are. Sometimes I write 2,000 words, sometimes 80,000, but I rarely struggle to extend something. I tend to think that if you’re struggling to write your way into official novel territory, maybe what you’re writing isn’t a novel after all. What usually happens with me is I keep writing a story and then I get to the end, I check the word count, and then I decide what to call it.

One thing I think I do almost unconsciously is break the plot into sections and treat each one like a short story, in a way. It’s like that time you decided you were going to eat an entire bucket of fried chicken in one sitting: If you just keep going eventually your jaw locks up and you die of heart failure. But if you treat it like sixteen normal-sized meals, you’ve got a fighting chance!

As for inspiration, the answer to that question, no matter the context, is whiskey. Scotch, to be more specific. Glenmorangie 10-year to be even more specific in case anyone out there likes to mail bottles of booze to authors.

Me: Lunch with you and any author (except Sean) you choose, from throughout history or today, and why.

Jeff: Lunch with Ferrell! The mind boggles. I’ve seen the man drink. It’s disgusting enough. Who would want to watch him eat? He reminds me of BrundleFly.

Myself, of course, forming a stable time loop that in essence grants me immortality.

My god, I need to have a genie appear and offer me wishes. I would crush that scenario. I’d end up ruling the universe and the genie would be weeping in a corner, totally destroyed.

If I have to get all serious about a question involving the ghosts of dead writers, I have to ask if I can bring recording equipment with me, so I can steal ideas.

Me: Publishing is going through an evolution right now. Talk about how this has or will affect you.

Jeff: As an author, it hasn’t really. I haven’t been publishing long enough to gas on and on about the good old days. I used to write on a manual typewriter, but that was part affectation and part being born before computers were everywhere.

Well, I’m lying; here’s one way things have changed for me as an author: The long tail. I can think of dozens of writers I read when I was a kid in the 1980s who no longer have any presence whatsoever on bookshelves. Regardless of where they went career-wise, the books I read and loved 30 years ago cannot be found on a real-life bookshelf, and back in The Day that would be the end of it. People write books, try to sell them, and then fade away if they don’t sell enough.

Except today that isn’t necessarily true. There are so many options, so many sales channels. You can self-publish, re-issue your old books. People can find old copies of your books online pretty easily. We’re inching towards a place in history where “out of print” doesn’t mean anything any more, and that’s pretty amazing. I’ll bet there are a lot of writers throughout history who managed to put out a book or two and then faded into obscurity who would have been delighted to have the Internet around to keep their books available, or to publish new material if publishers were uninterested.

That, and the fact that my last publishing contract required me to wrestle a bear or forfeit my advance. This was new.

Me: Talk about life experience. How important it is to an author?

Jeff: It’s as important as anything else. I’m reminded of a quote from Laurence Olivier when he was working on The Marathon Man with Dustin Hoffman. Hoffman was a method actor playing a man who’d been awake for days bing tortured, so he’d stayed up for days straight prior to filing th scene to get some verisimilitude. Olivier saw him and said something along the lines of “My dear boy, why no try acting?” The thing about writing is, you are making shit up. I don’t care what you’re writing, unless it’s nonfiction, you are making shit up. Yes, writing what you know will capture honest details that will ring true, but generally speaking I don’t hesitate to write about things I’ve never actually experienced, because I can make up the details, you know?

Life experience is the ultimate inspiration. You go somewhere, you do something, it leaves marks on you, and one day you see something else and it clicks with this old memory and you have a story in your head. But never, ever forget that you’re a writer. You. Can. Make. Shit. Up.

Me: Tell us about your agent and why the match is perfect?lady psychiatrist

Jeff: Why? Did she make you ask that? Are you working for her? Is she having me followed again?

My agent and I are perfect because when I was sending out query letters a few years ago trying to entice an agent, she’s the only one who wrote back that my letter made her laugh uproariously. She then mentioned that my sample chapters had some “disturbing” copy-editing errors, but that she wanted to see the full novel anyway. I knew she was perfect.

Plus, when we meet to discuss business we meet in bars, and she buys me whiskeys until I fall off my chair. That’s how you run a writing career, folks.

Me: Talk about editing your work. What advice can you give other writers on the editing "Stop line"?

Jeff: I don’t edit much, honestly. I write one draft. I take that draft and stare in horror at the awfulness of it, then I do a line-edit. I read the whole thing over and revise as I go. That’s it. I stop. I’ll do more revision when I get feedback from people, depending on how good or bad the feedback is, and then I stop for reals.

I don’t think anything I’ve ever written has ever improved due to a third or fourth or whatever revision. I think the event horizon for diminishing returns in the revision/editing process is much closer than you think, and very quickly you are grinding the gears. I know people who have been working on one book for two decades. Is the 198th version significantly better than the 100th, or the 3rd? I doubt it.

So my advice: Stop editing, sooner rather than later.

Me: Give me a two sentence “Hook” for “The Terminal State”.

Jeff: Avery Cates gets pressed into the army, has augments implanted in his brain that allow people to control him, and then gets bought out of the army by the two men he wants to kill more than he wants to kill anyone else: Canny Orel and Wa Belling. Hilarity ensues!

Me: If Jeff Somers ever wrote a Non-Fiction book, what would the subject be?

Jeff: Probably "Stop Drinking Before You End Up Like Me". Or, possibly,

"Why Wearing Pants in Public is Largely Unnecessary".

Me: You have some great fans in your blog’s forum. The “Official Jeff Somers Thinks Too Much of Himself Forum”, how did it come into being?

Jeff: Well, one day I was sitting in my office, wondering if my hangover might be cured by a good old-fashioned forced-vomit, wondering where my pants were, wondering when, exactly, my office had come to reside in someone else’s house, and wondering, of course whether the people yelling and pounding the locked door to the office were friends or foes, it occurred to me that I did not have a forum where people could post about how cool I was. So I created one.

Creating it myself was a bad idea. The forum gets spambots constantly and has been compromised a few times, because I am lazy and incompetent. But no one else was volunteering to create one, so I took care of bidness, as they say. Hence the title of the forum, because, really, did I really think the world needed an online forum to discuss me? I dunno. Discuss.

I don’t actually check it much, though I should, because I think the forum-dwellers enjoy provoking me into saying things I shouldn’t. I dive in once and while. I have organized my “Street Teams” via the forum; volunteers who get promotional stuff from me (stickers, bookmarks, etc) and agree to distribute them round the world to promote Cates when a new book comes out. That’s been a blast.

Sean Ferrell Interview

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 05:12:00 +0000

I have an incredible list of authors that are gracing The Novel Road pages with their wisdom and humor.

All, from the debut authors to the Mega-Successful, are so incredibly talented in the art of the written word.

My guest today, Sean Ferrell, offers me personally a chance to talk to an author whose work I absolutely admire and (please forgive my arrogance) you should too.

It’s rare to find anyone that walks the Literary line, to create a work of mass appeal. Sean is one of those rare people. His novel entertains, as well as carries the heart and mind from first word to last.

He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York

I’m pleased to welcome Sean Ferrell to The Novel Road and in case anyone is wondering… I’m a fan.

**********************************

Sean Ferrell

 Me: I’m a huge fan of your novel, “Numb”. Your short stories "Billy Echo" and "Building an Elephant", which won the Fulton Prize from The Adirondack Review, have a "Literary DNA" that shows itself in "Numb". Talk about your past work, and how it has helped build you into the author you are today.

Sean: The term “literary” gets a lot of flack and a lot of respect, depending on who is doing the talking. In my mind it's just another genre, one that a lot of authors could be placed in if there weren't such an overwhelming marketing desire to label a book once and be done with it. It is often a label put on a book when people don't know what else to call it. I know powerfully good mystery novels that are literary. I know literary novels that are wonderful mysteries. And sci-fi. And horror, and women's lit, and YA, and on and on. The fact that my novel doesn't focus more on an element like the mystery of Numb's past, or the science/medical causes for his condition, may lend weight to the idea that it is “literary.” But you also mention Billy Echo (which floats in a magical realist stream) and Building an Elephant (is it sci-fi, magical realism, I don't know) and I think the main thing they have in common with Numb is that I was concerned with how the story was told as much as telling the story. I think when a writer is equally concerned with how the story is told as much as the story itself, that is when you find “literary” writing. I am thinking of books that are equally concerned with word choice and language, with new turns of phrase and putting words together in a way that is “just so.”

I think of it in the way that the musician Robbie Robertson once described his approach to writing music. He said that it never occurred to him to take a standard blues progression and use it in his music. He said that he thought it was his job to come up with his own phrases and licks and that he was shocked to meet older blues musicians who happily admitted to using other people's inventions in their music.

Sunste Park, Brooklyn

And I think that all writers, to some degree, have the literary lurking in their writing. It's just a matter of scale, the amount of focus they give to the telling in balance to the story, and there are certainly those who push it so far to the telling that some readers think “literary means no plot.” But as I said, I've seen many a great “genre” book that was clearly written with one eye on plot and one on the telling. Right now I'm reading Lost Dog by Bill Cameron, and you can't tell me that his control of voice and masterful eye for details of life, and wonderful way of illustrating those details, isn't literary. I'm laughing at this right now, because I know that Bill bristles at the greater respect that “literary” types get. He'd probably slap me for saying he's got a bit of the lit-rah-chure in him.

Me: What was the first thing you ever wrote that told you “I can do this?”

Sean: My first holy-cow-comma-this-is-working piece was a short story entitled ,“The Phrenologist's Collection.” It was the last story I wrote while in graduate school, and it was the first that felt like it was really mine. Up to that point I had written a lot that felt forced. I was trying to write in a way that would be accepted and encouraged. I didn't trust my own voice. “The Phrenologist Collection” was the one that told me I was finding my voice.

Me: Give me a two sentence “Hook” for your Novel.

Sean: Numb is the story of an amnesiac who wanders into a circus and discovers he can't feel pain. This “talent” leads him toward celebrity and self-destruction.

Me: You show a tremendous connection to your subject matter, as evidenced by your crisp plot and characters. Talk about your characters and how they crystallized in your mind?

Sean: I live with my characters chatting in my head for a long time. A lot of what I write doesn't make the final cut, but it's necessary to know them. Numb started as a man telling me about his morning routine, his cleaning of new wounds and working to keep old scars from tightening up. Mal appeared when Numb walked into the circus. He quickly demanded attention and was angry when he couldn't get it. Hiko appeared when I began to think of her artwork—I worked my way backward to her, starting with her work and finding my way back to the woman who made it. Emilia... who doesn't long for a little bit of Emilia in their life? And who doesn't fear it? In the end I get to know them by not forcing anything out of them. I write to discover what they do, not to talk about what I think they did.

Me: You get to have lunch with any author, from throughout literary history or present. Who would it be and why?

Sean: This is a horrible question, because who can I leave out? I choose Pynchon because I'm sure he'd order the entire menu. No, I choose Vonnegut because I'm sure he'd order something that used to be on the menu and then point out that it's no longer on the menu and so it goes. No, wait, I choose Italo Calvino because he'd order something the restaurant didn't realize was on the menu. Or maybe Margaret Atwood, to see her order something that should be on the menu. Or Ralph Ellison, to watch him choke down something that should never have been on the menu. No, Hemingway, because he'd eat at the bar. Or Faulkner, just to have drinks.

Me: I read an interview you gave on Writers on Process . You had me wondering about how you wrote on the subway, in long hand?

Sean: Short answer: uncomfortably.

Yes, I used to do this. My process changed after I wrote my third novel. It had to because I was getting novels out but not in a format I could pass to my agent or editor. Having two-hundred thousand words in cryptic Seanskrit does me no good. Now I have a laptop that I work directly into. I still miss my longhand process. If I ever find a million dollars on the street I'll go back to it. That is an invitation for someone to give me a million dollars.

Me: Talk about editing your book. How did you know when to stop? What advice can you give other writers on the editing "Stop line"?

Sean: Keep going over it again and again, but stop before you lose your sanity. Put it down for a long time and come back to it later. Write another book before your final edit. Or don't. It's your book, you know what it needs. Be honest with yourself, especially the scary “I don't want to have to work on that part” stuff. The stuff that scares you is the heart of your work. Every book is different. Don't measure how much work this book will need based on how much the last one needed. Every writer is different. Don't measure how much your work will need based on how much your friend worked on their book.

Me: Tell us about your agent and why the match is perfect?

Sean: What can I say about Janet Reid that hasn't already been written on the men's room wall of the Old Town Bar? She laughs at all my jokes, whether they're funny or not. She knows when to kick me in the kidneys. She's not afraid to have one too many rounds. She is viciously protective of her writers. She is a better evaluator of work than she gives herself credit for. She is unafraid to do what terrifies me.

Me: This question, courtesy of Jeff Hall: “I'm a shortstory-ist. Writing a novel is like a crazy long marathon, only harder. How do you maintain a clear sense of that first passion that inspired you, throughout a lengthy word journey?”

Sean: If something feels like a novel and then partway through it loses steam and you feel like you simply can't get back to it unless someone puts a gun to your head, why are you working on it? Work on something else, come back, or don't. I stopped working on my second novel to write all of my third, and then returned to my second. I thought I'd abandoned it because I'd lost my interest, but I did return to it, refreshed, and churned out another thirty thousand words to finish it.

You will know when a story is a novel. I knew with Numb. Up to that point I had only written short stories, and I assumed Numb was another. Suddenly he was going into a lion's cage to wrestle a circus lion and I realized that when he got out he would be going somewhere else, that what would happen in the lion's cage was the beginning of his story, not the end, and I took a big gulp of air and said to myself, “Holy shit, is this a novel?”

Me: If Sean Ferrell ever wrote a Non-Fiction book, what would the subject be?

Sean: “How to be Unsuccessful at Avoiding Work: A Multi-step Program.”

Seriously, I think that if I ever wrote a book of non-fiction it would probably be something incredibly esoteric and academic involving nudity and Star Trek.

Me: The publishing world is changing. Share your thoughts on what you think these changes may hold for authors.

Sean: More heavy drinking, worry, stress, opportunity for self-flagellation. You know, more of the same, only with faster download speeds.

Me: I hear Jeff Somers has sworn off alcohol, become a vegan and that you and he can be found wondering the city streets at night singing songs from "West Side Story"... Care to comment?

Sean: You've got some of the details mixed up. While on a bender, Jeff was found on the West Side swearing. He was wearing nothing but a sandwich-board advertising a neighborhood cooperative organic garden project, of which he knew no details when questioned by police, referring repeatedly to his sandwich-board as his “wash-n-wearables.”

Seriously, Jeff is a talented and good friend, and if it weren't for our mutual restraining-orders against each other we would probably get into a lot more trouble together.

Me: Can you give me your “must read” list?

Sean: I shy away from “must read” as a phrase. The contrarian in me immediately responds to “You simply MUST read/see/eat this” with “I'd rather not.” This attitude drives my mother crazy.

So “must” read, no, but I will list some authors I've been enjoying lately. I already mentioned Bill Cameron. There's also Marcy Dermansky, Colson Whitehead, Thomas Pynchon, Jess Walter and that rapscallion of screen and stage, Jeff Somers.

Doug Merlino Interview

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 04:58:00 +0000

Book Launch Alert! In Stores January 5

Have you ever considered the last episode of a TV show? The show you followed, season after season, before it met its Nielson doom?

The story and characters just end.

In real life, our lives and events are seldom experienced alone. Friends, family or strangers in the background are misted in recall, but they are there. Then the personal scene ends…

Or does it really ever end?

My guest today on The Novel Road is the talented debut author Doug Merlino. His book, “The Hustle”, picks up where a time in his past ended, only to begin again. His view of the misted edges of memories are brought clear and crisp into today in the form of the stories of individuals that made up a time and place that was frozen in promise.

Doug paints a timeline vividly, in fact and circumstance, to unveil twists and turns, sadness and joy, conscience and tragedy. In stirring detail, he provokes thoughts we can each share and roads left untraveled. Doug shows there is no done and done, but days ahead for all who touch our lives.

A journalist and writer, Doug has contributed to or worked at news organizations including Slate, legal Affairs, Men’s Journal, Wired, The Seattle Times, the Budapest Business Journal and the PBS show Frontline/World. He received a Master’s degree in journalism and international affairs from UC Berkeley.

Originally from Seattle, he now lives in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City with his wife.

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“Merlino skillfully weaves the personal biographies with the biography of a city that relegated blacks to neighborhoods that were segregated and poor, to the margins of economic life, to public schools that were overcrowded and underfunded. The book’s precise focus enables troubling considerations of the role of race and class in America.” - Kirkus

**********************************************************************

I’m pleased to welcome Doug Merlino to The Novel Road…

Doug Merlino

Me: Your novel "The Hustle" is a great story as well as in depth article on social and racial stratification in Seattle in the mid-80's. Was it difficult to step back into your past when you researched "The Hustle"?

Doug: It ended up being a lot more difficult than I expected. Because my background is in journalism, my original approach to this book was in the manner of a newspaper reporter – I thought I’d go, find the guys from this mixed interracial basketball team, and write about them in an “objective” manner. The joke was on me. First, I found that reconnecting with people I’d known as a kid inevitably brought me back to that era and the feelings and insecurities I had as an adolescent, which I thought I’d long packed away. I also realized that trying to write this story from a detached, “journalistic” remove simply drained the life from it. These guys were my friends, and many have gone through hard times in their lives. If they were going to dig deep, I needed to make a reciprocal effort.

On a practical level, that meant exploring my own past. For example, I went to private school from 5^th grade through 9^th grade, and then left to go to public school. I always had mixed feelings about private school, but could never really articulate where they came from. As I worked through it while I was writing this book, I realized that my unease came from a fundamental split between my parents. My dad, who grew up in an Italian-American family in Seattle, never seemed comfortable with me going to school with a bunch of elite rich kids. My mom, on the other hand, didn’t have that history and always seemed proud that I had gained admission to what is generally considered the best school in Seattle. This split was then reflected in my school performance, which swung between stellar and abysmal. Once I started coming to terms with some of these facts about myself, my interviews with my teammates went to a much deeper level as well. But going back and analyzing your fourteen-year-old self is not always pleasant.

Me: Talk about the characters from your past. Were they all supportive of your project? Awkward moments?

Doug: The characters in the book are from two distinct groups – white guys who went to Lakeside, an elite private school in Seattle, and were from either the suburbs or the wealthy enclaves of the city, and black guys who grew up in Central Seattle. One guy, Eric Hampton, bridged both – he grew up in Central Seattle but began at private school in the 5^th grade, the only African American in our class of thirty-two.

I’d lost touch with every single guy – I started this at age 30, sixteen years removed from the team. I was actually surprised at how welcoming all the guys were, which I attribute to the impact the team had across the board. It left a mark on every single player, and I think there was a feeling that participating in this book was one way of moving forward what had been started in the 1980s.

To give one example that really shocked me, one of my teammates, John “JT” Thompson, had pretty much disappeared when I first started trying to find him. He’d been a very popular member of the team, but had gotten involved in street life soon after our season ended. I sent letters to a few addresses I found in his court records, explaining what I was doing and that I’d like to see him. He called a couple days later and was extremely enthusiastic. When we met, he told me that our mixed-race basketball team was a highpoint of his life, a time he felt part of a larger “family” and that people really cared about him. It was obvious he really wanted to feel some of that camaraderie that had been stripped from his life in the intervening years.

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“A thoughtful, perceptive, and moving chronicle of the journey from adolescence to manhood.” - Booklist

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Me: I've had a ton of authors for guests on the The Novel Road of late from the Pacific Northwest. It's the rain isn't it? Keeps you indoors writing, waiting for the skies to clear?

Doug: Yeah, there’s something about the place – water, trees, mountains, rain, and the oppressive grayness that drapes it about nine months a year – that seems to encourage introspection (grunge really does sounds like the Pacific Northwest put into music). There’s also mix of countercultural values – everything from lots of vegans to being the cradle of the riot grrl movement, and on and on – with the world-dominating ambition of companies such as Microsoft, Amazon.com and Starbucks. I think a lot of creative types from Seattle feel pulled between those two extremes and some ambivalence about both.

I actually have a really hard time writing anything decent when I’m in Seattle – I wrote this book while living in New York and flying out to Seattle to do research. I think I needed the distance, and I like the feeling of being just another writer in New York bringing his lunch pail to work every day and putting in the hours.

Me: You get to have lunch with any author from throughout history or today and why?

Doug: My first response is Martin Luther King, Jr., who was an amazing writer as well as being one of the greatest leaders our country has ever had. If I was choosing a pure “writer,” I would go with James Baldwin. His insights into the ways we as humans are motivated by submerged pain, pride and shame in novels such as Go Tell It on the Mountain, Giovanni’s Room and Another Country are just staggering. His essays are some of the sharpest, most lucid statements on race relations in this country ever put on paper. He always saw not only the impact of racism on African Americans, but the psychological toll it took on whites to maintain the delusion of superiority. I would love to hear his analysis on where we are with Obama in the White House.

Me: Talk about your agent and why you two are the perfect match.

Doug: My agent, Zoë Pagnanenta, is great for a number of reason – she represents writers with “serious” projects, avoids hyperbole, is extremely steady on the tiller, is a great sounding board for ideas, and she delivered this book into the hands of exactly the right editor.

Me: Give me a two sentence "Hook" for "The Hustle."

Doug: The Hollywood pitch would be Boyz n the Hood meets Dead Poets Society, they play basketball together, and then reunite twenty years later Big Chill style. Less facetiously, this is a book about a group of men from across race and wealth lines who were friends for a time as kids in the 1980s, and how those race and class differences inevitably played out in the trajectories of their lives.

Me: You are able to paint a vibrant timeline of how events coalesced, then over time deconstruct from the dream to reality. Thinking back to those days, can you name a personal tipping point when youth was substituted for concerted thought about what the future held for you and your teammates?

Doug: The first shock came in August 1991, when Tyrell Johnson, our shooting guard, made the front page of the Seattle Times. He’d been shot in the back of the head, dismembered, and left in a ditch in South Seattle. The headline asked: “What Went Wrong? Tyrell Johnson was Young, Black, Male – and Murdered.” Reading the article, which quoted the coach of our team, you could see that the reason Tyrell had made it into the paper was because he’d been involved in our team and one other local integration program. At the time, there wasn’t a good explanation for why Tyrell had been killed.

From that article, I knew that the high hopes we all had for the future at the time we played together hadn’t panned out for everyone. That never left me over the next decade, and I think it was the moment where it was settled that I’d find all the guys one day. It took a decade until I had the personal maturity to even begin tackling the project.

Me: Publishing is going through an evolution. How are these changes affecting you?

Doug: A lot of ways. First, I come from a journalism background and have seen the newspaper industry shrivel. Many of my friends and acquaintances have lost their journalism jobs. There are some interesting new opportunities opening in non-profit investigative work with places such as Pro Publica and the Center for Investigative Reporting, but the outlook for rank and file journalists isn’t good. We’re starting to see the seeds of some new types of online local journalism, but this transition is still in the early stages. We’re also seeing a lot of companies and non-profits launch websites with proprietary editorial content – they’re employing people with journalism skills and the work is similar but not the same as reporting for a newspaper.

As far as the future of book publishing – such as what e-books will mean, and if people are even going to read long narratives in the age of Twitter and streaming video – I haven’t heard anyone articulate a convincing vision for the future. I’ve been fortunate to land some ghostwriting projects, which I really enjoy. So, as a writer, I’m finding that there is demand for people who can effectively tell stories with a minimum of fuss. I’m trying to focus on advancing my craft as the business side is in such flux that it’s impossible to tell where it will be in a few years.

The exciting part for me is the ability that digital tools such as my website, Twitter and Facebook pages give for readers to interact with me and with each other. Already, before official publication, I’ve been getting a stream of e-mails from people across the country with observations and comments. I think it’s great that as authors we can now communicate directly with readers and hopefully encourage ongoing conversations on the subjects we write about. Circling back to James Baldwin, just imagine how amazing it would have been to read his Twitter stream.

Lakeside School

Me: Your thoughts on the School voucher and private school trend. Based on your exposure to both private and public schools, in which were you best served?

Doug: I think the voucher/charter school trend and the explosion in interest in private schools are coming from the same place – a deep unease about where our country is headed in an age of increasing economic globalization and competition in the digital, knowledge-based economy that’s now arriving. The privileged see private schools as a way for their kids to have access to the best education and the most opportunities possible. Charter schools are an admission that a wide swath of our society is not being served by an overburdened and sclerotic public system that seems slow to adapt to new challenges.

   I enjoyed having a “dual” school experience. The instruction at private school was great for analysis and critical thinking, and also learning about how some basic decisions get made in our society, and who makes them. The suburban public high school I went to after I left private school wasn’t bad, but not great as far as the level of teaching. It wasn’t that racially diverse, either, but certainly had a much wider range of economic backgrounds represented, so I was happy to broaden the range of my friends. My mom always said she thought I approached school as a junior sociologist, so I guess I probably would have found something of interest anywhere I went. If you have the personality of a writer, you are likely to always be a bit of an observer.
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    “Part history text, part sociological study, part memoir. The Hustle is more than just a book about basketball. It’s a book about America. It’s a book about the country’s past and present. It’s a book that you have to read.”
                                                    – Slam Magazine

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Me: Life experience. How important is an expansive life experience to an author today? Are we turning to Wikipedia research instead of going out and experiencing people and events first hand?

Doug: I love Wikipedia. It’s amazing to have all that (somewhat reliable) information there for the asking.

I still see myself primarily as a reporter though, and I firmly believe that going out and doing actual interviews is a tremendous privilege. You always learn things that overturn your preconceptions. For example, one character in The Hustle, Myran Barnes, has been in and out of jail for years on minor drug charges -- he’s been addicted to crack cocaine, and has been caught up in low-level busts in which he’s acted as the middleman in street deals. He is the type of person who doesn’t have a voice in public discussions, though people in his situation are often portrayed in movies and on TV shows. In the book, Myran emerges as an intelligent, very funny human being who has been mired in some severe struggles. He is very able to analyze his own situation and relate his own regrets and aspirations. As a writer, I want to give someone like Myran the space to tell his own story so we can perhaps move beyond polemics and statements of opinion to a point where we can see the complexity of the individual and be in a better position to analyze the way our society chooses to deal with low-level drug offenders in the same situation.

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I'd like to thank Doug for his time and talent in doing this interview. His book, "The Hustle" hits the shelves January 5th. Not only is it a great read, but how often do you get to catch a rising star?

John Lescroart Interview

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 04:34:00 +0000

Available Jan.5 2011

NOVEL LAUNCH ALERT!!
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The Novel Road is honored to be a part of the launch of a fascinating novel, by one of the most talented fiction writer of ours or any day:

Damage

by John Lescroart

There authors that just can’t help writing Bestsellers. They rule The New York Times, Washington Post, L.A. Times, USA Today, The New Yorker bestseller lists, some by reputation, others by hard work and sheer force of will.

Yes, talent is a must for these lions of modern literature. It’s what started their journey as authors, and makes readers yearn for their next work every year, and years again.

My guest today, is not only a member of this elite group of authors, he is one of the unique among them:

John Lescroart gets BETTER, year after year, at what he does. To make this echelon in the first place, you have to be great to a degree. John works tirelessly to exceed expectations, and does so to constantly dazzle his fans with rich characters and vibrant stories.

He should also be held as the model for how an author must be part of the business of publishing. His schedule is PACKED with appearances far into 2011, not just 6 weeks of publicity and out like many modern authors. I firmly believe the secret to being a successful author, now more than ever before, is connection with the reader beyond the story. John’s fans are legion because he is a part of the book you buy. He truly loves meeting his readers. John is both honored and humbled by his reader’s and does everything in his power to live up to their trust.

John Lescroart is launching his newest novel “Damage” in two days. Mark your calendar, set your pre-buy or eat lunch on the run January 5^th 2011. Because this book is going to fly off the shelves and tax the bandwidths of every bookseller in the country.

“Damage” story line:

The Curtlees are a powerful force in San Francisco, unscrupulous billionaires who've lined every important pocket in the Bay Area in pursuit of their own ascent. So when the family's heir, Ro Curtlee, was convicted of rape and murder a decade ago, the fallout for those who helped to bring him to justice was swift and uncompromising. The jury foreman was fired from his job and blacklisted in his industry.

The lead prosecutor was pushed off the fast track, her dreams of becoming DA dashed. And head homicide detective Abe Glitsky was reassigned to the police department's payroll office. Eventually, all three were able to rebuild their lives.

And then Ro Curtlee's lawyers won him a retrial, and he was released from jail.

Within 24 hours, a fire destroys the home of the original trial's star witness, her abused remains discovered in the ruins. When a second fire claims a participant in the case, Abe is convinced: Ro is out for revenge. But with no hard evidence and an on-the-take media eager to vilify anyone who challenges Ro, can Abe stop the violence before he finds himself in its crosshairs? How much more can he sacrifice to put Ro back behind bars?

Can you say #1?

"John Lescroart is one of the best

thriller writers to come

down the pike."
—Larry King, USA Today

Now a little about my guest…

    John Lescroart (pronounced "less-kwah") is a big believer in hard work and single-minded dedication, although he'll acknowledge that a little luck never hurts. Now a New York Times bestselling author whose books have been translated into 16 languages in more than 75 countries, John wrote his first novel in college and the second one a year after he graduated from Cal Berkeley in 1970.

    The only hitch was that he didn't even try to publish either of these books until fourteen years later, when finally, Lisa suggested taking a look at some of the old manuscripts and submitting them—she remembered reading and liking SON OF HOLMES. How about that one? There was one 14-year-old yellowed and brittle copy of the manuscript left in the world—in the basement of their best man, Don Matheson's, apartment.

    John submitted SON OF HOLMES to New York publishers—and got two offers, one in hardcover, within six weeks!

    He finished a novel, SUNBURN, that drew on his experiences in Spain. Since John didn't know anyone in the publishing world, he sent the manuscript to his old high school English teacher, who was not enthusiastic. Fortunately, the teacher left the pages on his bedside table, and his wife picked them up and read them. She loved the book and submitted it in John's name to The Joseph Henry Jackson Award, given yearly by the San Francisco Foundation for Best Novel by a California author. Much to John's astonishment, SUNBURN beat out 280 other entrants, including INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE, for the prize.

    Though SUNBURN wasn't to be published for another four years, and then only in paperback, the award changed John's approach to writing. He started to think he might make a living as an author, something he'd never previously believed possible for a "regular guy with no connections." He started paying for his writing habit by working a succession of "day jobs"—everything from a computer programmer with the telephone company, to Ad Director of Guitar Player Magazine, to moving man, house painter, bartender (at the real Little Shamrock bar in San Francisco), legal secretary, fundraising executive, and management consultant writing briefs on coal transportation for the Interstate Commerce Commission.

   John moved to Los Angeles and in the next three years finished three long novels, the last of them featuring a private investigator who shared the name Dismas Hardy (and very little else) with the man who would become John's well-known attorney/hero.

        Over the next seven years, John and Lisa were finally ready to start their family. During this time, John wrote several screenplays and published three more books while he held down a job as a word processing supervisor at a downtown law firm. He rose each day at 5:30 and went to a room they'd built in their garage, where he wrote four pages of his latest in two hours. Then he worked his nine-to-five, ate a bag lunch, and stayed downtown, typing briefs and pleadings at various other law firms until 10:00 or 11:00 at night.

    Finally he was publishing, but he wasn't making a living. And then in 1989, at the age of forty-one, he took a break to go body-surfing at Seal Beach. The next day, he lay in a Pasadena hospital. From the contaminated sea water where he'd been surfing, he'd contracted spinal meningitis. Doctors gave him two hours to live.

    John now looks back on his 11-day battle with death as the turning point in his career. He quit the last of his day jobs to move back to Northern California and to write full-time, with intense focus and a renewed dedication. The resulting books, richer in terms of theme and story, found a devoted readership and propelled him into the elite circle of bestselling authors—only twenty years to overnight success!

                                   **********************************************

I'm pleased to welcome author John Lescroart to The Novel Road...

John Lescroart

Me: Your passion and impeccable work ethic has brought to the height of the writing profession. How do you maintain this high level of productivity and passion?

John: I guess I’ve just realized that the way to keep the work front and center in my life is to treat it like a regular job that I’m just incredibly fortunate to have. I wasn’t able to make a living writing books until I was nearly forty-five years old, and once I got to that point, I didn’t want to ever let myself forget how badly I wanted this life and this career – it really had been a vocation from my earliest memories. So I just come into work every day, sit down and begin writing, and more often than not, something good starts to happen and I become involved – frequently, as you say, passionately involved – and keep going until a scene becomes fully realized. This process is almost always joyful, and spurs me on day to day to keep having fun and telling stories that feel like they matter.

Me: The schedule for your appearances in 2011 shows your relentless effort to expand your already impressive reader base, as well as take care of your fans that number in the 10s of thousands. Give me your views on the importance for an author’s physical presence in the marketplace.

John: I don’t think the value of an author’s physical presence in the marketplace can be over-stated. Many people write very good books, and thousands of books both good and bad are published each year, so that there is simply no way for anyone to read any reasonable percentage of them. So, human nature being what it is, people tend to read books by people they’ve heard of, and even moreso books by people they’ve met and like. There is a huge human element to the book business, as in any other business, and there is just no substitute for “pounding the pavement” and getting to know booksellers and your/their customers.

Me: Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky are iconic characters, with the “legs” to last for years. What makes a character successful enough to go beyond the story itself into a continuing franchise?

John: This is a great question because its answer is so counter-intuitive and even contradictory. The implication is that there is a “secret formula” for writing successful franchise characters, whereas the reality is that the exact opposite is true. There should be no template. Good characters become memorable because they are unique, not because they somehow fit a mold of other successful characters. The way to make people come alive on the page is to let them act in their own inimitable fashions. I never actually tried to come up with an idea of Dismas Hardy or Abe Glitsky. Rather, I simply put them on the page and had them start doing things – and it turned out that the things they did were interesting and novel, and continue to be. And just because they were once interesting doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily continue to be – it’s a constant challenge to keep the guys fresh and relevant, and believe me, they let me know it when I start leading them down a path that is redundant or stupid or not very creative. They still have the power to surprise me and my readers and this, I think, is the absolute key to a living, breathing, fascinating character. They do stuff, often cool stuff, we don’t expect, and so there’s always a strong desire to see what that stuff might be. And this keeps readers coming back to find out.

Me: How much author editing is too much? Where should an author stop editing before submission?

John: The basic rule is to stop when you’re done. Of course, this presupposes that you recognize when you’re done. But this is a very subjective thing. In my case, I’m very much a believer in the individual scene, and I have a very strong sense – and that is all it is, an artistic feeling – about when a scene is complete, about when its done its job about as well as it ever can. When there is enough punch and/or humor and/or character or plot development. There is a perfect arc and an exact, although indefinite, number of words for each scene. This is something that, as writers, we must learn to recognize on our own. In many ways, this is the key to successful writing in general. Recognize when you’re done, and when that moment occurs in each scene, stop. Do this with every scene, including the last one in the book, at which time your book is done as well.

Me: The Publishing Industry is facing enormous challenges in the not so distant future. A number of smaller Houses have closed, Literary Agencies are taking on fewer, if not more select clients. Paint us a picture of the Publishing Industry five years from now.

John: I don’t know how optimistic I can be about this. The industry is to a large degree very reactive and very afraid. I don’t see much risk-taking in terms of the kinds of books publishers are buying. Royalties, and even hard numbers of sales, are pretty much down across the board, and fewer and fewer young people seem to be buying books, or reading. All of that said, people have been predicting the death of publishing since Gutenberg. There is a deep human need for story, and for reading, and this gives one heart and hope. I think the physical book is under a huge onslaught from e-books from which it may not really ever recover, but the product, the stories, I believe, will continue to find a market and an audience.

Me: Talk about life experience. How important it is to an author?

John: Life experience is of course important to any author. How can you create believable characters and situations if you haven’t had some life experience to put real life in some sort of perspective? All this seems self-evident. However, let’s remember that everyone who lives, by definition, has “life experience.” It’s not necessary to have worked in twenty different jobs to understand what it is like to work. I’m not a lawyer and I’ve written many books about lawyers, for example, and about trials. Beginner writers are always urged to “write what you know,” but this leaves out the fact that we can learn to know new things. What’s needed is creative involvement in the things we already know, and an inquisitive artistic approach to those which we don’t. Life experience, then, is good, but the experience of creating life on the page is artistic, and is the more essential element of powerful writing.

Me: Give me a two sentence “Hook” for your just released novel “Damage”.

John: “Damage” is the book that asks the questions: “What if the system let the wrong man go free? What would it take to undo the damage?”

Me: If John Lescroart ever writes a Non-Fiction book, what would the subject be?

John: I believe I would like to write a John McPhee type treatment of a specific type of food. Salt has already been taken, as have several other items, but there always seems to be something fascinating going on in the food world – preserving fish, for example, comes to mind. Or pre-historic winemaking.

Me: Social Media. Talk about its importance to the modern author’s success.

John: I’m not really sure. I have a web page and a Facebook page and I try to keep active on both. So I’ve got a community of the book-buying public with whom I stay in contact, and I’m sure many of these people go out and get my books as soon as they come on sale. But it’s hard to get a firm handle on how the numbers of these people compare with those people who wander into bookstores, see the latest book, and pick it up more or less on impulse. I basically think that social media plays a role, and definitely contributes to that ever-elusive “word of mouth” that is so important to book sales, but that much of a writer’s long-term success is really a function of visibility in bookstores and reviews in national publications.

Me: This question, courtesy of Jeff Hall: “I'm a shortstory-ist. Writing a novel is like a crazy long marathon, only harder. How do you maintain a clear sense of that first passion that inspired you, throughout a 200 thousand word journey?”

John: Well, Jeff, again it comes down to scenes. Anyone who sits down to write a whole novel has got to be intimidated by the sheer massive size of the undertaking. On the other hand, almost anyone who wants to be a writer can sit down and whip out a page or two in a day. The trick is to only – or mostly – be thinking about the rather limited one- to five-page scene that you’re in the middle of. It’s very much a one step at a time endeavor. You write one page, then another, then that scene is done, so you start another one. You don’t ever “look up,” as it were, to see if you’re getting out of the forest; you’re just clearing one tree at a time, with the belief that the forest will end someday; and then one day you cut one more tree and you see the clearing and run for it. I like to remind writers that if they put down one page a day, they’ve got a book in one year. And if you can’t put down one page a day, maybe you’re not a writer.

Me: You show a tremendous connection to your subject matter, as evidenced by your crisp dialogue and characters. Talk about your research.

John: Research is essential. I don’t know much about most things I choose to write about. I find I get interested in a topic as a story idea – say, mercy killing, or non-profit charitable malfeasance, or HMOs – and typically I know zip about the details of these things, of where they fit into society, or how they function. So I start talking to people within these fields. I just call them up and ask them questions, and you’d be amazed at how many people love talking about what they do. Once I get a little familiar with the general stuff about any topic, then next I usually find that I can start asking more interesting questions, until at long last, usually after a month or two, I find I’ve reached a critical mass in terms of knowledge, in terms of the jargon of the topic, to the point where I’m comfortable starting to write scenes within this universe. As I go along, if the scenes stop “singing,” I often go back to the source and ask new, and more complex, questions, until at least I feel almost as though I’m the expert at whatever it may be. At this point, my characters and my dialogue sound like the “real” people who exist in these jobs or situations.

Me: How much of a gamble is it to create a new character? Do you get “first novel” release nerves when you unveil a new character?

John: I feel as though I create new characters almost every day. In my twenty-three books, I believe I may have created well over a thousand characters, from small bit-players to fully-realized major protagonists or villains. Characters just show up and populate scenes because that’s what a scene is, the interaction of characters. So no, I don’t get “first novel” nerves – I just try to keep people having fun and doing interesting things on the pages, and hope my readers enjoy them, too.

Gary Corby Interview

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 16:41:00 +0000

The Novel Road Interview: Gary Corby

Marked well, are we by the past. Stories and legends told again, then again. The teller tells by different eye, yet draws on history’s ground for reality. How many times do we see the Iliad told, applied to this time and place? Shakespeare cast both comic and tragic view, touching generations from centuries past till now and on into the next.

Looking for a different tale? You came to the right place.

My guest today holds his history dear. So much so that he has been able to make it come alive in his ingenious, fast paced Historical Mystery, placed in ancient Greece. His book is quite literally one you won’t want to put down, let alone ever lend.

Pericles

Gary Corby is the author of “The Pericles Commission”, a great “who dun-it” that will have you walking the streets of ancient Athens using the best blue screen in the world: Your imagination. You will run wild with rich detail that Gary provides and leaves you wanting more.

His background in Mathematics and Computers, added to autodidactic love of history has both grounded and qualified him to convey his rich historic message. His sense of humor? We’ll have to thank DNA, because it rises again and again throughout the book.

He’s traveled the world, and no doubt been asked to leave more than one of the world’s great museums at closing time. The rumors that he is searched each time he leaves the Louvre and the British Museum, I’m sure has no basis. But look at his picture! If that face doesn’t say “Guess what I just… Found”, then he is the jolliest man from down under that’s ever been… Did I mention he lives in Australia?

Gary Corby

Me: On your blog, I liked your observation, about how bizarre many events throughout history actually were. I often talk to people about events or opinions, in our current times, that they find unique or new, and point out historical references that prove their thoughts or situations have occurred before. Have you found this to be true as well?

Gary: Oh, definitely yes. Technology changes throughout time, but people never change. Love, fear, ambition, lust, anger, greed, cowardice and valor, intelligence and stupidity...those are the things that drive any society, and they're a constant.

Me: I think Nicolaos is an amazing character. You’ve wrapped him well in both time and circumstance. Talk about how you created his personality.

Gary: So many detectives are super-brains. I did the opposite. Poor Nico! His brother is a genius. His boss is a genius. His girlfriend is a genius. He's just this average guy, trying to get along. But he's the one expected to solve the riddles.

My choice was easy, because living in Classical Athens at the same time as Nicolaos were at least 12 world-class geniuses. One more amongst that lot would go unnoticed. But a normal person who has to get along with these brilliant and highly eccentric people...now that's a story. Nico's job is not only to solve crime, but to be our observer during one of the most critical periods in history.

Me: You hit the reader “sweet spot” in how you balanced the levels of historical fact vs. creativity. How hard was it to limit how much history you wanted include?

Victoria, Australia

Gary: Of all the tough research problems a writer faces, the worst of all is leaving stuff out. You'd think it'd be the other way round, but it isn't so. I could write a couple of pages on the drainage system of Athens in 460BC, but no one's going to read it. People want to read story, and plot, and characters. Technical description is called exposition, and the rule for writers is, Research = Exposition, and Exposition = Death. What you can do, though, is write about the consequences of your research. For example, I know in Classical Athens sewerage pooled in gutters running down the middle of the street.

Herodotus

When my hero Nicolaos is dragged off by a couple of thugs, something squishy which doesn't bear thinking about gets caught between his sandal and his foot, and he has to hop on the other foot while shaking the first to get it clear. A whole day's research on drainage devolved into two lines of book text about a messy foot. That's good, because a foot with poo on it is story and character, a treatise on drainage is not.

That's the right way to do it.

The wrong way is what I frequently catch myself doing. In every book I've written a few paragraphs of explanation about the difference between a chiton, a chitoniskos, and an exomis. And every book, I take those paragraphs out, because the explanation is exposition, and Exposition = Death. (If you're wondering, they're all different styles of clothing worn by Classical Greeks. I could tell you more, but that would be exposition.)

Me: Talk about editing your work. How did you know when to stop before you submitted?

Gary: I'm supposed to stop editing? Damn, nobody told me that.

Here's the rule: we all have the ability to read two versions of a manuscript and decide which is better. We have this ability to greater or lesser degree, but we all have it. When I reach the point where I'm unable to make a change that is definitely better than what I already have, then it's time to stop. It doesn't mean the manuscript is ready. It does mean I've written to the best of whatever ability I have. When I have more ability or knowledge, I'll attack it again.

The version of Pericles Commission that went into production was major revision 18.

Me: Historical based Mysteries have had a very loyal following. I got hooked after my first Barbara Mertz (Elizabeth Peters) novel. Which authors have had an effect on your choice of genre and why?

Gary: I adore Elizabeth Peters! Or rather her Amelia Peabody books, and the Vicky Bliss stories too.

Major influences...there are many:

The Flashman stories of George MacDonald Fraser, for the historical accuracy and the humor.

The Greek novels of Mary Renault, because they're the best novels of Ancient Greece ever written.

The Roman mysteries of Lindsey Davis, Steven Saylor, and John Maddox Roberts, because those three created the first mysteries set in the ancient world.

Ngaio Marsh, because she's the best of the writers from the hey day of traditional mysteries. If I can plot a book to her standard, I'll be more than happy.

Herodotus. For most people, The Histories is the world's first book of history; for me, it's a menu I can open at any page and find a new novel.

Thucydides. He could teach Machiavelli a thing or two about power politics. (In fact, he probably did.) His writing makes modern thrillers look bland.

Aristophanes. The greatest comic of the ancient world. Simply hilarious. I've tried to make the slapstick humor of my books approximate what the Greeks themselves saw when they went to laugh at the latest from Aristophanes.

Janet Reid

Me: Talk about your agent and why the two of you are a perfect match?

Gary: Talk about Janet Reid? That's like talking about a force of nature. I honestly had no idea how famous Janet was when I signed with her. Now I know. When industry-insiders ask me who my agent is, and I reply, "Janet Reid", there's always this short pause of respectful silence. Or perhaps it's sheer terror.

Janet is one of the most Internet-savvy of the agents, and to me at my distance, that is hugely attractive. I'm not sure which of us suffers fools least; probably me, because she has infinite reserves of patience and knowledge when it comes to publishing.

Me: This question, courtesy of Jeff Hall : "I'm a shortstory-ist. Writing a novel is like a crazy long marathon, only harder. How do you maintain a clear sense of that first passion that inspired you throughout a 200K word journey?"

Gary: I don't want to be annoying, but I've never had a problem! Perhaps it's because I don't outline. When a twist appears in the story, I'm as surprised as you are.

A novel is a series of scenes, and each scene is like it's own little short story. If you think of it like that, then writing a novel doesn't seem quite so daunting.

Me: Publishing is going through an evolution right now. Talk about how this has or will affect you.

Gary: They probably worried the same amount when Gutenberg invented movable type. All those out-of-work monastery copyists! The Death of Publishing! Etc etc etc.

I come from a background of doing high end software development. That's probably inoculated me against the future shock some people report. From my point of view, when I started to learn about the publishing industry, it was like I'd taken a trip back into the 1970s.

Publishing systems are currently struggling to reach the same state software was in during the 1990s, or maybe late 80s. I look forward to joining the current millennium, one day.

In passing, I would dearly love to replace the senior management of major publishers everywhere with successful executives from technology startups (for strategic decisions) and people who've run chemical plants (for operations management).

Me: I see you have returned recently from a promotional tour, your first of many no doubt. Talk about how you were brought into this process. How involved were you in the choices being made?

Gary: Book tours were a foreign land to me. I brought to it a level of cluelessness that was probably unsurpassed. Luckily for me, that literary agent we just talked about used to be a book publicist. Janet saved me!

Stores are understandably not keen to talk directly to authors they've never heard of. I can only imagine how many inappropriate requests they get. So you really need a publicist to make the initial contacts. In addition the stores need to slot in author visits to their schedules. I wrote a long list of places I would have loved to visit. Then we checked to see which stores in which places were interested and had free time. Then we had to condense this down to a schedule that made sense! The whole process is much, much more work than I would have imagined.

Sappho

Me: You get to have lunch with any author, from throughout history or today. Who would it be and why?

Gary: Sappho. She was considered the Tenth Muse by the Greeks, which tells you right there how brilliant she was, but alas her work is almost completely lost. I'd make sure I left lunch with a signed edition of her complete works.

Me: The reviews for the Pericles Commission have been excellent. Amazon Bestseller. When can we expect your next novel?

Gary: You're right, the reviews have been really excellent. (Says the author, modestly). I'm shocked!

The next major release is The Pericles Commission in Australia, which will be the first week of January. Then book 2 in the series, "The Ionia Sanction" releases in the US in either October or November 2011.

The Ionia Sanction is set in the province of Ionia, which these days we'd call the west coast of Turkey. The plan is a book a year. I'm currently writing the third book, working title "Sacred Games", set at the Olympics of 460BC.

Me: Give me a two sentence “Hook” for Pericles Commission.

Gary: "Nicolaos walks the mean streets of Classical Athens, keeping civilization safe from enemies both domestic and foreign." There you go, I did it in one.

Me: Talk about life experience and how important it is to an author.

Gary: Two scenes in the next book, The Ionia Sanction, actually happened to me. There's no way I could have written this series in my twenties, because it requires the ability to step back and see people from a distance. Perhaps I could have written different books, but not these ones. If I'd been writing books back then, they would have been science fiction.

It interests me, and I've remarked before, that authors seem to hit their stride later in life than other artistic types. I imagine the need for characterization, and the overriding need to have something fresh to say, drive that.

Gary's first royalty
advance

Tawna Fenske Interview

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 16:40:00 +0000

UPDATE: "Making Waves" by Tawna Fenske - Release Date Aug.2 2011

The Novel Road Interview: Tawna Fenske

I found a blog not long ago that made me laugh. So I went back, over the next few days, and my laughing continued, so much so, the blog made my morning read (between you and me, to make my morning read it has to be special). The blog name: “Don’t Pet Me I’m Writing” is a great way to start the day.

The thing is, I’m a guy and this blog is about Romantic Comedy. I’ve tried to shift the comments on the blog to Table Saws and Planers, but the women commenting act like I’m not there. They refused my insights into PVC and Duct Tape, though the author of the blog did seem to know her way around that magic, fix all tape. She even thought of uses that didn’t readily occur to me…

My guest on The Novel Road is author Tawna Fenske and quite simply, she cracks me up. Add to this the fact that she’s intelligent and writes humor better (in my opinion) than anyone at “Saturday Night Live” tells me the book world has a new Romantic Comedy star coming it’s way. In the interview, I liken her humor to Janet Evanovich, and I could see Tawna and the Great Evanovich co-writing one day, like their male author counterparts are doing in ever increasing numbers.

The problem will be: who will get the lead billing? Yes, Tawna is that good.

Curious? Let me prove it, but first, a little background:

A third-generation Oregonian who can peel and eat a banana with her toes, Tawna has traveled a winding career path from journalist to English teacher in Venezuela to marketing geek. She’s the author of the popular daily blog “Don’t Pet Me, I’m Writing” and a member of Romance Writers of America.

Her debut novel, MAKING WAVES, hits shelves August 2011 as the first in a trio of quirky romantic comedies from Sourcebooks, Inc.

Here’s a peek at her novel:

Juli’s lost count of the number of jobs she’s held, but she definitely never applied to be a pirate. Or a stowaway on a pirate ship. But when fate lands her on boat captained by Alex—a man whose unscrupulous boss kicked him to the curb after 20 faithful years—Juli finds herself in the middle of a revenge-fueled Caribbean diamond heist with a crew more suited to the boardroom than the poop deck. Alex didn’t plan to be a pirate, either. He just wants to recover his dignity, pension, and something resembling a normal life. But normal flies out the window when Juli enters the picture—a twist Alex wishes he didn’t find so exhilarating. But the two soon discover that while normal is nice, weird can be wonderful.

Please welcome, author Tawna Fenske…

Tawna Fenske

Me: Your comic sense is incredible. I see another Evanovich coming our way. What has had the greatest influence on your sense of humor?

Tawna: I'm probably the least funny member of my family. I grew up with everyone around me cracking jokes at all times—graduations, weddings, funerals—you name it, some relative could find a way to make it funny. I just happen to be the one writing stuff down.

Me: Favorite Stand-up comedian and why?

Tawna: Television isn’t really my thing. I don’t mean that in the “only a couple hours a night” sense—I mean that while there is a television in my home, I have no idea how to operate it. I’ve caught the occasional standup comedy routine that made me laugh (Jerry Seinfeld, Ellen Degeneres, Steven Wright) but since I have the attention span of an ADD mongoose on speed, I just don’t spend much time watching movies or TV or—hey, look…the cat needs brushing.

What were we talking about?

Artwork by
Monica Carretero

Me: Publishing is going through an evolution at the moment. How has this or will this affect you? New authors?

Tawna: Once upon a time, an author could live in a cave eating roots and avoiding human contact and still expect to have a successful career. Those days are long gone. Authors now need to be visible, interacting with readers on Facebook and Twitter and blogs and book tours. It’s not enough to be an author who writes a decent book—readers want to know what sort of cereal you eat and whether you prefer boxers or briefs.

I actually don’t mind this. My agent pushed me into the social media pool ten months ago, and I’m delighted with how quickly I’ve built a blog following that even includes a few people not related to me. I’m still a bit mystified by the whole thing—seriously, 1,000 strangers want to read about how I lost my rings in my underwear? But I’m happy about it (the blog following, not the rings) and I love interacting with readers and using that to gauge what they want. Social media helps me feel I can impact book sales in a small way without relying on my publisher to do everything. Don’t get me wrong, I love Sourcebooks and I’m thrilled they’re known for investing a lot to build authors’ careers. I just like the idea that I can contribute, too.

Me: Life experience in the writing process. What advice can you give writers on its importance?

Tawna: Er, I write romance, so is this a question about my sex life?

I’m sure there are plenty of people imaginative enough to dream up elaborate plots without ever leaving their sofas. I’m not one of them. Sometimes I’ll gripe to my husband that my creative well has run dry. “It’s Tuesday,” he’ll say. “When did you last leave the house?” If I have to think about the answer, I know I need to get off my butt and go find people to laugh at in the mall.

I travel a lot and have had tons of interesting life experiences, but I’ve found that just taking the dog for a walk gets my creative juices going. There’s something about fresh air and beautiful scenery and picking up poop in a little bag that stimulates me as a writer.

Stimulates. We’re back to the sex thing again, aren’t we?

They don't do Tupperware parties
in Oregon

Me: What was the first thing you ever wrote that told you “I can do this?”

Tawna: I’ve been writing for my supper my whole life—first for college scholarships, then for newspapers and post-college marketing jobs. I even won my wedding by writing about how I wanted to get married at center-court at a Portland Trail Blazer game (why yes, I did tie the knot in front of 21,000 screaming fans and sweaty athletes). Fiction was a big switch for me, and I didn’t really take a stab at it until about eight years ago. I knew right away I’d enjoy it, but there was that initial moment of terror where I realized, “wait—you mean I get to MAKE STUFF UP?!”

Me: In two sentences, describe your current book or work in progress.

Tawna: I attended an event several months ago where authors got to meet with librarians and persuade them to stock our books. I was surprised at how often writers struggled to describe their work. The one-paragraph blurb you use for a query letter or a book jacket is very different from a conversational pitch. If you and I were sitting down for a glass of wine and you said, “tell me about your debut novel,” I’d probably say something like:

Alex’s sleazy boss kicks him to the curb and steals his pension, so he and three colleagues head to the Caribbean to intercept the boss’s illegal diamond shipment in the most dysfunctional pirate mission in history. Things get complicated when Juli – who’s supposed to be dumping her dead uncle’s ashes at sea—has an allergic reaction to seasickness pills and accidentally stows away on their boat.

Is that what you’ll see on my book jacket or my Web site? Nope, those blurbs need more detail. But the point of a two-sentence pitch is to pique interest—to make someone ask, “and then what?”

Me: How strict are you when it comes to staying true to your outline?

Tawna: Outline? What’s an outline?

I’m not a plotter. I may have some faint idea where a story is headed before I start writing, but I generally like to be surprised along the way. I was on the phone with my editor a couple weeks ago when she praised the cleverness of a certain twist near the end of my debut novel, MAKING WAVES.

“I didn’t see that coming!” she said.

“Me neither!” I replied.

There was this long pause where I could tell she was trying to figure out if I was being funny. I wasn’t.

I’m constantly figuring out plot points and character traits halfway through the book and then having to go back and layer them in so they feel like a natural part of the story instead of the product of too much Chianti.

Me: I have been offering a piece of advice lately regarding the… Gulp!... Query Letters. I’m telling new authors to avoid even learning about a query letter till their manuscript is complete. I’ve gone so far as asking a new author not to even look the term up till he’s done with his book. Do you agree or not? Explain

Tawna: Every author is different, so I try never to stomp my feet on my soapbox and insist “THIS IS HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE!” (Unless I’m talking to my husband, in which case I’m all about the stomping).

With that caveat out of the way, I’ll say that I’ve seen a lot of authors pour their heart and soul into a book without giving any thought to the big question, “what’s the book about?” or considering where it might fit in the marketplace. They type THE END and think their work is done—shouldn’t it be someone else’s job to sell the damn thing?

It shouldn’t. An author is his or her own best advocate for a story at any stage in the game, whether pitching to agents, editors, readers, or the drunk guy in the elevator. You set yourself up for heartbreak if you don’t at least consider the sales side before pouring everything you’ve got into a book. I’m not saying you should tattoo your query blurb on your right arm and your dream agent’s name on your left before you’ve finished the first chapter, but I am saying it will help you in the long run if you give some thought to your “hook” in the early stages of the game. You don’t need to craft query letters and make daily visits to agentquery.com, but it helps to have those things simmering in the back of your mind.

Me: Tell us about your agent and why the match is perfect?

Michelle is a great agent
but she lost the election to
the snarky Linda Grimes
who kicks puppies

Tawna: You know that thing I said earlier about tattooing an agent’s name on your arm? If I weren’t terrified of needles, I’d have a great big “Wolfson Literary” on my right bicep. I adore my agent.

Michelle Wolfson is actually my second agent, and in a way that’s what made me appreciate how amazing she is. She’s responsive. She’s smart. She’s ridiculously passionate about her authors’ careers. Even when we got socked with some of our toughest rejections, she always had a game plan and she never lost her enthusiasm for my writing.

Now that she’s landed me this wonderful three-book deal for my romantic comedies, she’s thinking ahead to what comes next and where we can both take my career in the future. Having someone with that sort of zeal for your work is invaluable. Having someone with the industry knowledge to actually make it happen is just plain orgasmic.

Me (sort of): What’s the #1 question people ask you since your three-book deal was announced?

Tawna: How did you decide to write romance? Depending on the tone of voice, there are three possible translations:

1\ Have you always been a pervert?

2\ Couldn’t write a real book, eh?

3\ Ohmygod I love romance!

I actually don’t mind the question, since it gives me a chance to be an ambassador for the genre. Romance fiction generated $1.36 million in sales in 2009 and was the largest share of the consumer market at 13.2%. It was the second top-performing category on the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly best-seller lists (outpaced only by movie tie-ins). The genre runs the gamut from Christian inspirational to uber-hot erotica, from historical to paranormal. I think some people hear “romance” and think “Fabio with a greased chest.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but that’s like hearing “animal” and only thinking “dog” instead of “dolphin” or “platypus” or “sucker-footed bat” or…well, you get the idea.

And yes—I have always been a pervert.

****************************************************

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Tawna for her time and to say “I told you so” to those who doubted my opinion about this truly funny lady.

Amy Minato Interview

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 16:38:00 +0000

My guest today on The Novel Road didn't just talk about chucking it all and leaving the hustle and bustle of society behind, she actually did it. Amy Minato chronicled her time of societal disconnect in her novel, "Siesta Lane"

A poet at heart, Amy rejected her life of consumption in her native Chicago to go back to nature—specifically, to a commune in Oregon, where she rediscovered herself.

She originally moved to Eugene, but that wasn't quite simple and green enough.

"But though a hip college town, Eugene is still a city where buildings obscure land," Amy writes in "Siesta Lane: One Cabin, No Running Water, and a Year Living Green.

My soul pinches and pinches at me until I search the classifieds for a way to live more rural ...."

Amy found a place in Rainbow Valley, about 10 miles west of Eugene, off a road called Siesta Lane. It was a cabin with electricity but no water and heat, on eight acres with some other cabins and a main house. Sort of private, sort of communal, and very rustic.

She loved it.

"I felt like stepping out of society and renewing my personal values," she said. "I wanted to live a more healthy lifestyle and create a life that was more grounded."

Amy didn't want to go all the way back to nature, though. She loves camping and
backpacking but is a social person who values a sense of community. She found that
on Siesta Lane and found while keeping a journal that she was able to develop her writing.

"Siesta Lane" includes poems, reflections, anecdotes about the year Amy spent in the cabins. She also cops occasionally to the pretentiousness of her mission, and laughs along with the reader at her attempts to be both environmentally-friendly and sane, considering the fact that she’s moved in with a bunch of strangers in a remote locale.

"It's really a call to live a simpler life," she said. "I wanted to see if I could pull it off. I didn't have any kids and I wasn't on some sort of career path -- I know not everyone can do that -- but it really worked for me."

One benefit of living at a slower pace in a rural setting is learning more about flora and fauna and the rhythms of nature. There are all kinds of birds and animals in the woods of western Lane County and Amy eventually has to face an ethical dilemma: What effect does an intelligent, aggressive cat have on the local bird population?

All good things must come to an end, and life in the cabin on Siesta Lane ended when
the property was sold. Amy fell in love and got married and became a poet and writer and teacher and mother. She lives most of the year in Multnomah Village, which she enjoys for its feeling of community within a city, and part of the year in Joseph, at the foot of the Wallowa Mountains.

There are more writing projects planned, more worlds to discover, but only one Siesta
Lane.

Jan Muir, a relative of the great environmentalist John Muir, lends her beautiful black-and-white illustrations to the book.

Siesta Lane is both a practical case study in living green, and the heartwarming story of a modern idealist who dives head-first into the fray and discovers just what it takes to live a year unplugged.

I'm honored to welcome Amy Minato to The Novel Road...

Amy Minato

Me: I became quite attached to the tenor in your writing style. Did you love of poetry influence your writing voice? If so how?

Amy: Poetry is my religion. When I read it, the best verses resonate within me like a temple bell.

Any creative writing I do is poetry, even when it’s not. Even when it’s a letter or a story or an essay. I’ll dust and shine the language until it reflects back even if it takes ridiculous long. (This is obsessive and unlike the rest of my haphazard personality. We are talking about a woman who can’t bear to follow a recipe and who makes a bed in 5 seconds.)

Me: Is there a backstory for your Siesta lane?

Amy: The story of the story of Siesta Lane stems from an eight year old girl dwelling every spare minute in a gnarly willow in the Chicago suburbs who grew into a woman aching for the limbs of her first love.

Me: Talk about the process of writing Siesta Lane?

Amy: My writing process is to stretch out on my bed with pillows everywhere, a cat purring on my back, clutching a bowl of snacks (snacks are key) in one hand and a pen in the other. Being supine tricks my subconscious into thinking I’m asleep, which coaxes it to wander the dark hallways of my mind until part of it stumbles out onto the paper. I do this for hours, not even getting up to stretch or answer the phone (woe to anyone who knocks on my door during the voodoo-writing time) and usually rushing late to pick up my kids with a weird glaze to my face, muttering nonsense

I wrote the book as a diary, a testimony, and as an investigation of this crazed urge to live near trees. Being awarded the apt-named Walden Residency in Ashland gave me the space to tinker with and shape Siesta Lane as a book. I scrutinized and murmured every word in Siesta Lane as I would a poem. It took a long time to write, longer to edit. It’s an expression of my soul finding home in an alien world. A book about pulling away from consumerism and chit-chat to live deep. Moving to Siesta Lane was a siesta – a contemplative rest in mid-life. I call it one woman’s search for Walden in the Pacific Northwest. A wealthy member of the literati shuddered after reading it, “It’s well-crafted, honey, but no one will read this. People just don’t want to wear secondhand clothes!” It’s different than other naturalist books in that I lived with nine other people! Quirky characters so fun to write about I’m trying fiction next.

Me: Tell us about your agent and why you two are a perfect match.

Amy: Janet Reid was my Glinda the good witch (as in Frank Baum’s version of the Wizard of Oz not as in Wicked). She believed in my book more than I did. She boomeranged it to publishers and never gave up. It took awhile for readers to be interested in voluntary simplicity. Now we all have involuntary simplicity because of the economy. Increasing awareness of global warming has folks accepting more lifestyle change. While the world caught up to us Janet stayed cheerful and optimistic. We’ve never even met but I worship her business card.

Me: You get to have lunch with any author you which, from throughout history or toady, and why?

Amy: Let me sit at an Indian buffet with Loren Eiseley. Or maybe not. I may faint or fuddle. My feeling for him as a writer mirrors my daughter’s giddiness over her favorite rock stars. Something about his incisive science, haunting lyricism and intelligent melancholy ripples my waters. I’m burning up here. Pass the chutney.

Me: Like you, I come from a state that suffers from preconceived notions of what it’s like. Most people think of Oregon as rainy with lots of tree, yet the state boasts a considerable desert. How much has the total geography of Oregon comes into play in your writing?

Amy: Oregon is my other religion. This land, that roams from fertile wet to austere alpine, and I have a twenty-year marriage yet I still swoon over its landscape. My new novel is again about the pull of a place. But instead of the fertile Willamette Valley the new one perches on the oblique corner of Oregon where I live whenever I can. I exist in Portland where we have work and my kids have school, but I rush home to bask in the blue mountains every summer, drag back to Portland dreaming of my return to the hypnotic beauty of Wallowa lake. It’s a curse like impossible love.

timoconnorphoto.com

Me: Can you tell us about your next novel? If so, when can your fans expect to it?

Amy: My new book, Green Gentian, centers on this desire for land that keeps and crushes us even while such desire keeps and crushes the land. Pearl, the central character, has been scraped and polished by her place. Zany based-on-true-but-toned-down-to-be-believable characters circulate the novel and bump each other like loose electrons. I hope to finish it by next spring, if it doesn’t finish me first.

Me: Life experience in the writing process.

What advice can you give writers on its importance?

Amy: I would tell a new writer to go toward mystery, to be draw into your life and puzzle it out in your work. You don’t have to change your external life like I did to examine your internal one, but you may need to look at it through a different perspective, clothed in fiction, plumped with philosophy or crocheted into poetry. If the idea of having the work you create published puts you into a cold sweat it might just have some truth in it.

Diana P. Francis Interview

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:22:00 +0000

Diana has the talent to draw you in with every word and her loyal fans are never disappointed.

Now a bit about my guest from her website while I pray for snow:

I’m pleased to welcome Bestselling author Diana Pharaoh Francis to The Novel Road…

Diana Pharaoh Francis

Me: You have a love of history in literature. History appears low on the priority list of today’s youth. What can we do to change this?

For me, I know that reading Dickens and Austen and Thackeray and Browning really helped make the Regency/Victorian periods more real. It shows the texture and reality of people in their cultures.

But in the end, any way you can, expose kids to history. I especially like living history museums and interactive displays of any kind.

Me: Talk about life experience. How important it is to an author?

There are so many textures, smells, sounds, events and different scraps of life that make it into my books. Without them, I think the books would be plastic and boring.

Me: Publishing is going through an evolution right now. Talk about how this has or will affect you.

Me: Lunch with you and any author you choose, from throughout history or today, and why.

Aphra Behn

Here’s a little bit of it:

Isn’t she wonderful? I would love to have written this.

Me: Has the immense amount of information available now, caused a lack of learning from the past, in favor of taking current definition as a less thought out reality?

Me: You wake up one day and decide to write a Historical non-Fiction book. Give me the subject and overview of this dream book.

Me: How much author editing is too much? Where should an author stop editing before submission?

But there’s a point where you have to stop and submit and start the next process. You move on because every project teaches you more and you become a better writer.

Me: Social Media. Talk about its importance to the modern author’s success.

Me: Tell us about your agent and why you two are the perfect match.

******************************************

I’d like to thank Diana for her time, for her talent, and for a reason to throw another log on the fire, close the blinds and fade into another of her fantastic stories.

Dan Krokos Interview

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 03:11:00 +0000

Cleveland

Who do you root for? Anyone? Has life so inundated you that you’ve stopped wishing the best for someone you don’t actually know?

New authors have an Everest-like climb ahead of them. They write with passion and heart. Then comes the time to see if their work will stand the many tests in the publishing process, and their days become times to hope and bleed with every e-mail in the inbox.

Finding someone, anyone, to believe in them enough to devote time and money to further their writing careers is both humbling and daunting. So what can separate a new author from the many?

Talent? Definitely the #1 way to get noticed. But what if an agent has five talented new authors and the resources to choose only one? What makes the one chosen different?

My guest today on The Novel Road is debut author Dan Krokos. He’s different.

He gained a bit of fame for a query he submitted to a powerful literary agent that blew her away. Query # 124 landed “The Shark”. Yet Dan will tell you that kind of fame is fleeting. There has to be a book. A REALLY, REALLY good book when the dust settles. There is. I’ll let you wait till the “two sentence Hook” question in the interview to find out about it

Here is where a debut author can add something to the mix. To do that, you have to be someone that others cheer on. People in the industry that want the author to succeed.

Dan Krokos earned respect with his talent, and friends by being funny, intelligent, reliable and a great guy. The interview that follows plays a bit on his friendships found, but don’t think for a minute that this is all there is to this truly unique and gifted debut author.

First, just a short bit about him…

One of Dan's many heros

Dan grew up in a suburb of Cleveland. He went to school to become a police officer until he discovered his love of writing. He worked at the same gas station for nine years. Dan used his work shifts to come up with ideas, then went home to write them after fifteen hour workdays.

He read voraciously as a kid, but stopped when he discovered things like Xbox and Warcraft. Then one day, a friend handed him Dragons of Autumn Twilight. It reignited his passion for reading. And the rest is history.

I’m pleased to welcome Dan Krokos to The Novel Road…

Dan Krokos

Me: Breaking News! Dan Krokos has told me he is the actual author of the brilliant novel “Numb” and the incredible Avery Cates novel series. Sean Ferrell and Jeff Somers are actually pseudonyms he borrowed from his gardener and plumber. Care to tell us more Dan?

Dan: When I first signed with Janet, she recommended I develop different facets of my personality. That way I could release books in many different genres. We decided “Jeff” would be the lovable but gruff author, a throwback in some ways to the pulp novelists of yore. People would debate if he was homeless or not. He would refuse to learn how twitter works, and routinely bomb people’s timelines. It’s been working great so far.

“Sean” would be the crazy literary type. People would wonder if he saved his urine in jars, that kind of thing. Sean and Jeff would argue publicly, but no one would physically see them together. The arguing came easy, as my personalities attempted to mesh.

They’re both equally popular, so I’m thinking about killing one off in the near future.

Sort looks like Dan...
with hair

Me: Your office/hall closet features a movie poster, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, cleverly scotch taped to the ceiling. You’re a Danny Kay fan?

Dan: I’m a fan of anyone with the same initials. Donkey Kong, Donna Karan, DMX, Denzel Washington.

Actually the poster is there because my father’s name was Walter. He had a secret life. I’ve never seen the movie.

Me: Tell us about the Dan Krokos Foundation. Why have you made it your life’s work to ban Scotch Whiskey?

Dan: You’ve got that wrong. The Dan Krokos Foundation works to ban Scotch-Brite. My dog ate a couple cleaning pads when I was a kid, and it died. Thanks for bringing it up.

Me: Lunch with you and any author (except Sean and Jeff) you choose, from throughout history or today, and why.

Dan: My gut reaction on this is Josh Bazell, because he wrote my favorite book of all time, BEAT THE REAPER. It is a masterpiece, I don’t care what Bill Cameron says.

But I have to say Charlie Huston. He’s inspired me so much I really can’t give him enough credit. I wouldn’t understand style, or voice, or dialogue if I hadn’t read his books. Every writer should. They’re real.

That’s not why I want to have lunch with him though. It’s because he’s cooler than any writer has a right to be. He’s got these tattoos on his forearms. He writes these blog posts that make you realize you’re an idiot asshole and he’s the coolest dude on the planet. He’s smart. I bet he’d have good stories. He also swears a lot.

I emailed him a few times, and he always replied right away with some words of encouragement and sage advice.

Me: Tell us about your agent and why the match is perfect?

Dan: This is very simple. Janet is everything a writer needs. She doesn’t coddle me. Writers are very flaky people by design. We live in a fantasy world for most of our waking hours. Janet realizes this, and she doesn’t put up with nonsense. She makes me better. She doesn’t sugarcoat it when I drop the ball. But she also knows when to encourage. With her in my corner, I know I’m safe. I feel like I can do anything.

She can also line edit a manuscript so well it makes me realize I actually have no idea what I’m doing.

Suzie Townsend

And then Suzie, who sold my YA on behalf of Janet. Suzie is like Neo in the Matrix. She can read anything and tell you how to fix it . . . and she’s always right. Ask anyone who has gotten an editorial letter from her. It’s scary. My books wouldn’t be the same without her.

Me: Give me a two sentence “Hook” for your novel.

Dan: A girl with no memory discovers she’s a genetically altered weapon of mass destruction and must uncover the truth of her identity in order to save her city. Bourne Identity with teens and sword fights and alarm pheromones and motorcycles and bioengineering.

Me: Publishing is going through an evolution right now. Talk about how this has or will affect you.

Dan: It hasn’t. Or if it has, I don’t know how. I just write books. Maybe that will change when my book comes out, but I don’t know. Oh, and since everyone is talking about ebooks, I’m all for it. Whatever gets people reading.

I guess social networking has become more important. I don’t really understand the concept. I twitter because I love the people I talk to. There’s a downside to it though. It seems like some people do it to trade favors. The whole thing reminds me of high school a little bit.

Then again, it’s really cool for the reader. I’m a fan, too, and it’s really cool I can talk to Duane Swierczynski on twitter, or leave a comment on Veronica Roth’s blog. Did I mention it’s really cool? Really cool.

Me: The City of Cleveland just gave you an award. I’ve seen people receive trophies, plaques and keys to the city, but never an award in the form of an ankle bracelet. By the way, why is the little red light on it flashing?

Dan: My lawyers have advised me to ignore this question.

Me: Give me the subject and overview of a Dan Krokos non-fiction book.

Dan: I hate research, unless it’s something I’m interested in. So it would be a book about burritos or Anna Torv.

Actually I get really obnoxious if I read non fiction. I have to share the facts I learn with everybody. I read a book about body language and for a week I was like “YOUR FOOT IS POINTING IN THAT DIRECTION BECAUSE YOU SECRETLY WANT ROB TO DIE.”

**These two questions were left on my porch with an empty bottle of Scotch and a pair of pants…

Me: How did the query process with your agent shape your writing?

Dan: Funny story there. I’ve seen you say you’re against this, but I actually worked on my query while writing the first draft of my novel. I wanted to make it flawless. It also helped me focus on the core of the story. I would come back to it, tweak a line, then return to my ms. It was a weeks long process.

I sent it to QueryShark when I was sixty pages into the second draft. Janet requested the manuscript, and I wrote as fast as I could. She read it and gave me some notes on the first two chapters. Those notes changed me forever. It was the first professional feedback I’d ever gotten. It showed me mistakes I was making, mistakes I still make if I’m being careless.

If she hadn’t done that, given me a chance to fix my bad habits, who knows where I’d be.

Me: Can all literature be improved with the inclusion of swords, or only some literature?

Dan: I’m actually writing a book right now with no swords. It’s terrible. I’m going to release it under the “Sean” persona.

I'd like to thank Dan Krokos for doing this interview and to tell him he's got another friend in his corner.

Christmas, Geocaching and the Great White Dog

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 23:04:00 +0000

Christmas, Geocaching and the Great White Dog

It makes no sense to pose. Being cannot be unless you’re moving. Blurred images are the norm, if not the rule.

I’m talking about my family this Christmas holiday. The rally cry of “Run, Shop, Run!” was common enough. My family is in constant motion when they gather. Everyone, except Calvin.

Watching the turmoil is a favored pass time. I have a running play-by-play going on in my mind. Nieces pulling on one of my frazzled sister’s sleeves wanting this or to explain why this is that…

The morning that gave rise to this story started out with warning signs. I paid no attention, not unlike the townspeople at the base Mount St. Helen’s when geologists came running out their hotel rooms yelling “It’s going to blow!” as they headed for their cars.

There were tremors, rumbles if you will: A trip to Catalina was put off by bad weather, the annual (sort of) golf tournament canceled for the same reason. I could feel tension building among my siblings and their spouses to conjure an event that would rival Minnesota Survivor parties or Photo Recon scavenger hunts. These ended as a favored family game when some of the camouflaged contestants climbed onto the roof of a J.C. Penny’s and the crowd below mistook them as snipers…Oops! Bail should be a part of Christmas, right? How the police look past the drunken, camouflaged contestants or how they got there… I think they were dumbfounded by the semi-coherent explanation of what they were doing, or feared the paperwork for booking twenty adults and children and ordering psych-evaluations.

But we must try to top past events, right?

Like the first shot of any war, no one knew who to blame.

The first shot heard round my family world that day was “GeoCaching”.

It came from within the crowd of twenty plus gathered in my mom’s kitchen in Laguna Beach, CA. All heads turned, looking for the source, but no one laid claim. All I know is the heads of the assembled started to slowly nod, first one, then another. I marked the silence as the idea was considered. Then murmurs followed as members of the group each started reaching for Iphones, IPads, and any laptop handy to search for the reasons why “GeoCaching” was a great idea.

I have to hand it to my family. The whole glass is half full thing comes to mind when an idea is sparked. Negatives are for the timid when the chance for a family adventure lurks just out of reach. We reach. Really, really reach. If that doesn’t work, we modify, modify. Then we expand and expand till the event becomes something Webster’s will offer as a definition of overkill and show a picture of my family, with everyone grinning, bleeding or grimacing in a way that looks like they’re grinning.

Five minutes after “GeoCaching” became the accepted course for the day, a small working group formed, which crowded around a computer for a few moments. The whir of a printer could be heard and pages of “The Christmas 2010 Amazing Race” came spewing forth. After a make-shift editorial team made fine adjustments(Now one half-hour into the creative process), this is what became the plan for the day:

Christmas 2010 Amazing Race

Rules:

Four Teams.

By draw of cards, the order of cache hunt will be determined.

Teams begin at Monarch Bay and proceed to Dana point Harbor to begin their quests.

Teams will be required to accomplish tasks along the way:

A Team picture is required with each cache as well as the following:

1\ With a firetruck

2\ R.H. Dana Statue

3\ Salvation Army Ringer guy (this description was by committee)

4\ Bowling alley

5\ Driving range (golf)

After the four Caches have been found in Dana Point Harbor, The Teams will proceed to a driving range. There they will purchase a bucket of balls and sequentially hit the balls.

The Teams will then proceed to Saddleback Bowling lanes, where each person will bowl one game, for a combined team score. The highest score will determine the headstart o the lead team for the final push for the Championship.

Lunch Break (Bowling alley food… anything to increase the chances of not crossing the finish line?)

Teams will proceed to the Mission Viejo Mall and collect the following treasures:

1\ cologne sample

2\ paper toilet seat cover (unused)

3\ Corndog stick

4\ Picture of team with Santa

5\ free cosmetic sample

Get pictures printed and return to Monarch Bay for final Cache clue. Go find the Cache.

Take picture of last cache log book and head to Mom’s house. First one to complete all task and arrive at Mom’s wins!!

All this in thirty minutes, with no real thought other than: Why Not?

I guess I should back up a bit and explain "Geocaching". The first documented placement of a GPS-located cache took place on May 3, 2000, by Dave Ulmer of Beavercreek, Oregon.

Boxes, mostly old ammo boxes or buckets, are hidden in different locations around the world. That right, I said world! In this country, there are over a MILLION caches hidden under everything from bushes to buoys (Yes, some you get to swim to find). You use the Global Positioning System (GPS) and clues provided online to track down a box full of knick-knacks. You take something from the box and leave something, plus sign the small log sheets in each cache.

No, I'm not joking. Go online and look. This "Geocache" thing is huge!

With the exception of Calvin, we all piled into rented Mini-Vans (Morrisons always pay for extra insurance when we rent a cars) and sped off to Dana Point Harbor. It had been raining for days, and I'm sure Budget Rent-a-Car and Dodge will be happy to know that a foot of mud on the road doesn't stop one of their vehicles. Curbs and parking space blocks don't stop them either.

The vans fanned out to different parts of the harbor. Parking in strategically planned places to enable not only return to the vehicle after finding a cache, but hiding the vans from the harbor police. A lady crossing the road, at the far end of the harbor by the yacht club, might have called them when she had to dive into a giant Aloe plant to avoid possessed Mini-vans speeding toward her... On the sidewalk.

The group I was in had a tough time finding caches. We searched in the bushes outside a restaurant, until the smell of food drew a few of us away from the hunt. We asked for a table by the window so we could point my sister Trish's kids to areas that looked promising. Being a loving uncle, I threw chunks of bread to my nieces when they emerged from a clump of seaweed. It bought me time too. The seagulls grabbed the bread in mid-air and the nieces took off after them like the birds owed them money.

The harbor hunt was cut short when one of the other group's members came in to say someone had dropped a rock on my mom's foot. The rock was being coached out of it's resting place by the dulcet tones of my mom. People like my mom are why we have things like the Pyramids. In fact a couple that could have been from Egypt heard her, mumbled something about Rah, and fled in the opposite direction. Anyway, at one point, one of her ~~slaves~~ grandkids let the rock fall on her foot as they levered it up.

So we all piled into the Mini-vans, and headed for South Coast hospital. On the way there, someone decided it was a good idea to check and see if there were any "Geocaches" near the hospital. Instant messages flew between speeding mini-vans. More caches had been found literally withing a 1/4 mile of the hospital emergency room door. As the van I was riding drove slowly by the emergency room door, another van screeched to a stop long enough for my mom to stumble out the side door. She stood there for a few seconds, yelled at the van containing her teamates, then limped toward the hospital door, swatting away the offered help of an orderly. I later learned she told the doctor to patch her up and call her a cab. It seems the entire time she was having her foot bandaged, she was using her I-Phone to find a Geocache...

Some teams headed for the driving range, some to the bowling alley. The more daring headed for the Mall and a Santa photo. There was an incident at a firehouse, but facts are sketchy. It had something to do with a nephew releasing a parking brake and putting a fire truck in neutral while the rest of his team posed for a photo with the friendly firemen. My team headed for the bowling alley late in the day in time to see my mom limping toward the pins and heaving a bowling ball two feet in front of her, then kicking it with her good foot (Should I have said "spare" foot?)

Tired, and wishing I'd never heard the term "Geocaching" we all headed toward home. The Mini-vans all arrived at about the same time. The huge crowd of family surged through the double front doors, then into the front room.

Calvin sat quietly by the fire and looked up at the returning mob. My family went quiet at the look on Calvin's face.

We all knew what he was thinking. "People are such idiots"

Calvin

Allison Pang Interview

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 04:40:00 +0000

Paranormal Romance is a growing genre. No news there. What does make the news is who is new and the way the quality of her work is raising the bar.

A marine biologist in a former life, Allison Pang turned to a life of crime to finance her wild spending habits and need to collect Faberge eggs. A cat thief of notable repute, she spends her days sleeping and nights scaling walls and wooing dancing boys....

Well, at least the marine biology part is true. But she was taloned by a hawk once. She also loves Hello Kitty, sparkly shoes, and gorgeous violinists. She spends her days in Northern Virginia working as a cube grunt and her nights waiting on her kids and cats, punctuated by the occasional husbandly serenade. Sometimes she even manages to write. Mostly she just makes it up as she goes.

I am pleased to welcome Allison Pang to The Novel Road

Allison Pang

Me: Paranormal is a hot genre. It’s also highly competitive. How important is having a publisher like Simon and Schuster in your corner?

Allison: A lot of it can depend on the support and enthusiasm the publisher has for the book (and there are plenty of indie pubs that adore their authors and give them as much support as they can.) Even within a larger publishing house like S&S there are different imprints – and each one can vary as to how they handle things like marketing and publicity, but the publisher needs to know the best way to market that particular book, whatever genre it happens to be. The key thing is probably going to be distribution. A larger publishing house like S&S is going to have the resources to get a book out there in places that a smaller publishing house might not.

Me: As a writer, clarity of idea is crucial to conveying a story. Some authors create a plot first, others create characters, then build a story around them. Explain your process and why.

Allison: I’m a panster at heart. I usually have a vague idea of how I want the story to end and that’s about it. Even in my more “detailed” outlines, I generally just have an objective I want to have accomplished – i.e. Main characters find a body under a bed in chapter X. (That’s about as detailed as I get. I don’t really care how they get there - I might have a couple of ideas for some characters, but usually I just throw them together in a scene and see what happens.) When I’m done, I smooth things out as I need to in revisions (or rewrite a bit.)

Me: You have four works in progress. Wow! How do you keep them separate in your mind?

Allison: Well, most of those were started before I sold – right now I’m only really working on the ones that pay me. But I don’t have any issue moving back and forth between them. Usually I’d work on one until I got stuck at some point. If it was something I would need to think about for a while, I’d backburner it and just slide over to a different story. I think part of this flexibility comes from playing in the Play by Post online writing games I’ve done for a few years. I’m usually running multiple characters in different settings (often at the same time), so switching between stories is very much the same.

Me: You’ve recently posted on your blog some of your marketing thoughts. Is it really ever to soon to start creating a buzz as a debut author?

Allison: Maybe not buzz about the fact that you exist or that you have a book coming out – but specific buzz about that book does need to be spaced out a bit or I think you run the risk of overexposure (especially if the release is a few months out.) Within the last few weeks before the release is when things should probably be geared toward heavy marketing – however, you have to remember that many of these blog tours and such are set up months beforehand, so a good plan is crucial.

Me: Talk about your editor and your experience in this crucial part of publishing. Did you mesh right away, or did it take time to get on the same page?

Allison: I was very lucky that Danielle and I meshed so quickly. I knew she loved the book and loved my voice and that helped quite a bit when it came to the revision letter. As long as I could explain my reasoning behind why certain things needed to be the way they were, she was fine with any decisions I made. In return, I had to trust her when she pointed out places that needed to be tweaked or rewritten. It’s an interesting symbiosis, but it’s fantastic when it works. (Plus, she sent me chocolate. J )

Me: Give me a two sentence “hook”, describing “A Brush with Darkness”.

Allison: I’m lousy at hooks. So here’s three sentences direct from the book that do pretty well:

I had a naked incubus in my bedroom. With a frying pan of half-cooked bacon and a hard-on. And a unicorn bite on his ass. Christ, this was turning out to be a weird morning.

Me: You get to have lunch with any author you wish, from throughout history or today, and why?

Allison: E. E. Cummings, simply because his poetry is about as close to perfection as you can get.

Me: Tell us about your agent and why you two are a perfect match.

Allison: She goes above and beyond for me, to put it simply. It’s a bit of a complicated situation as to how we got to work together and I won’t go into details about it here, but I can say that I’m truly blessed by our working relationship. For me, communication is key. No matter how busy Suzie is, she always manages to find a little extra time for me, even if it’s just to answer a quick question via email. She is a phenomenal resource and a tremendous person.

Me: Before you had an agent and book deal. Talk about editing your work. How did you know when to stop before submission?

Allison: I’m not sure any writer knows. You write until you feel like it’s the best you can write and then send it out. If rejections or critiques come back and they’re all fairly similar, then work on those parts. After my first round of rejections, I took a look at the manuscript with another critique partner and tightened it up some more and then sent it back out. I also had entered into a few writing contests on the hopes that it would final and I could skip the slush pile (and I did win several, one of which led me to an offer of publication).

Me: Can you tell us about your next novel?

Allison: It’s the sequel to A Brush of Darkness – I can’t really say too much about it at the moment without spoiling the first one, but it is the second of a confirmed series of three to be published in the next year or so.

Me: Publishing is going through an evolution at the moment. How has this or will this affect you?

Allison: The publishing world seems to be changing on a daily basis and everyone is affected in some way. It’s an exciting time with a lot of new opportunities and groundbreaking innovations – and a savvy author needs to be able to navigate these new waters with an open mind. As far as how it will affect me? Guess I’m just going to have to wait and see. J

Me: Life experience in the writing process. What advice can you give writers on its importance?

Allison: Well obviously life experience is important to some degree (that whole “write what you know, research what you don’t” adage is certainly true.) To be a writer, you do need to make a commitment to writing – whether that’s a certain page count or word count per day or some other method, but it’s also important to get away from the keyboard, even if it’s to avoid burnout. Experiencing things first hand can give your work a sense of realism that you might not be able to capture otherwise and inspiration can come from anywhere.

Lisa Desrochers Interview

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 04:39:00 +0000

The next, the next, the next... Who will it be?

My guest today on The Novel Road has earned
every right (and then some) to the title of:

"The Next Big Paranormal

Romance author."

Her novel, "Personal Demons", currently

climbing up sales lists, is garnering rave reviews

along the way.

Released in September of this year, the book is already being re-printed in 10 countries! What makes her book unique, besides crisp writing, great characters, and action seldom seen?

Well.... Actually who could ask for more, and if you do: Goodluck. "Personal Demons" has it all, and then some. First, a little about my guest...

Lisa lives in central California with her husband and two very busy daughters. It was her oldest daughter's love of books that first inspired her to write for young adults. There is never a time that she can be found without a book in her hand, and she adores stories that take her to new places, and then take her by surprise.

Growing up all over the country has inspired wanderlust and she loves travel, which works out well because she lectures internationally on a variety of health care topics. She has a Doctorate in Physical Therapy and maintains a full-time practice in California

*********************************************************

Please to welcome, Lisa Desrochers

Lisa Desrochers

Me: Your research ethereal for the most part. With the exception of locales and applicable science, where do you draw your event inspiration?

Lisa: My research for Personal Demons focused on angel and demon lore and hierarchies. The beauty of fiction is anything can happen, but I still wanted to ground my fictional heaven and hell in something that at least remotely resembled common belief systems. As far as the events that drive the plot, those all flowed organically from the characters.

Me: Paranormal Romance is a huge and expanding genre. Once the all but exclusive domain of vampires. Angels and demons are taking a large piece of this market. Are there any other directions within this genre you’d like to go?

Lisa: I have a WIP that focuses on magic, which is also well explored in urban fantasy. But this manuscript has a little different take on it.

Me: Sara Barnett and Michael Nathanson are your audio book readers for “Personal Demons”. Talk about a debut novelist’s part in choosing the readers and what is was like to hear your work performed for the first time.

Lisa: One of the funnest (funnily enough, that’s not an actual word in the English language…but I digress) things about this whole publishing process was listening to audition tapes and choosing my readers for the Personal Demons audiobook.

We got three audition tapes for each reader (Frannie and Luc) from Brilliance Audio. They came in on a Friday in July when we were leaving on a camping trip, so my whole family listened to them in the car and our choices for Sara and Michael were unanimous. I have to be honest and say that I laughed out loud several times while listening to the audiobook.

The actors are just that…actors. It’s a dramatic interpretation of my work, with the emphasis on dramatic. My demon, Luc’s voice is very mellow in my head. He’s pretty cocky, being a Creature of Pride, so he really doesn’t stress too much. Michael’s Luc gets a little more worked up over things than mine does, but overall, I think they did a great job.

Me: Paranormal is a hot genre. It’s also highly competitive. How important is having a publisher like Tor Teen /Macmillan in your corner?

Lisa: I joke that my editor helped me make Personal Demons into the book I thought I wrote. It’s really important to have a solid editor behind your work. Professional eyes see things differently. Tor has been fantastic about getting Personal Demons onto shelves in all the major chains as well as several indies.

Me: You have three books, "Personal Demons", just released and two in progress Original Sin and Hellbent, all will be on the market by May 2012. You have mounting foreign rights deals, 8 or 9 countries at last count, for “Personal Demons”. Has it all hit you yet, or have you been too busy to watch your star rising?

Lisa: It’s been pretty busy, mostly because it’s happened so fast. I had my one-year anniversary with my fabulous agent, Suzie Townsend, after Personal Demons was on shelves. As a matter of fact, it’s been just a year since it sold. (Dec. 22^nd) I wrote Original Sin in the two months we were on submission to agents with Personal Demons and have spent the summer in edits with that, and I’m in progress with Hellbent, as well being crazy with everything that goes into releasing a book. But…all that said, I have relished all the up moments, which include foreign sales. We released in Austrailia/New Zealand just after the U.S., and in Brazil last month. I have my German cover, and they re-titled it Angel Eyes. There are ten total foreign territories we’ve sold to.

Me: Talk about your editor and your experience in this crucial part of publishing. Did you mesh right away, or did it take time to get on the same page?

Lisa: Personal Demons sold at auction, and the primary reason we went with my seriously cool editor at Tor was because she was totally on my page with the manuscript. Every one of her revision requests made the book better. Both my revision letters for Personal Demons and Original Sin were pretty tame, and I love that she wasn’t afraid of Original Sin, which is much darker and edgier than Personal Demons.

Me: Give me a two sentence “hook”, describing “Personal Demons”.

Lisa: Frannie Cavanaugh is a good Catholic girl with a wicked streak and a unique skill set that has the king of Hell tingling with anticipation. She finds herself in the middle of a battle for her soul between Lucifer Cain, who works in Acquisitions for Hell, and Gabriel, the angel sent to protect her, and it isn’t long before Luc and Gabe find themselves fighting for more than just her soul.

Me: Tell us about your agent and why you two are a perfect match.

Lisa: Suzie totally rocks. Being a newbie, it was important to me to find a hands-on agent who had time to walk me through the process. At the time I signed with Suzie, she had just started agenting (now she’s kicking publishing butt and taking names) and she was very responsive when I had a question. She also has an amazing editorial eye and went through a round of revisions with me before we went on submission. But mostly, I chose Suzie above the other agents who offered on PD for no other reason than she loved my manuscript.

Me: Publishing is going through an evolution at the moment. How has this or will this affect you?

At Fine Print Literary
everyone works

Lisa: If you mean e-publishing, I think it’s great. Readers of physical books will either keep reading physical books or switch to e-books, but they won’t stop reading. And, a few people who weren’t readers might actually start reading because there’s cool technology now. So anything that puts books in hands in a good thing.

There are a lot of options for e-readers—self published and traditionally published books. I also think that’s great. As long as a reader knows the source, and therefore has realistic expectations, I don’t have a problem with them having choices.

Demon head
18th Century

Me: Life experience in the writing process. What advice can you give writers on its importance?

Lisa: I’ve heard writers joke that they had too happy a childhood, because they have nothing to write about. Honestly, other than shaping you as a person, and therefore influencing your writing indirectly, your own big life experiences don’t play much of a role.

It’s the little experiences I draw on more often—something funny my daughter said; a backed up toilet; watching different reactions to being caught in the rain. Silly things.

Me: You get to have lunch with any author you which, from throughout history or today, and why?

Lisa: Ooo! There are so many I’d choose. JRR Tolkein, Pasternak, Steinbeck. If you’re going to make me choose one, I’d have to say Emily Bronte, because Heathcliff so deliciously warped, and I’d love to know her inspiration.

Me: My recent interview with David Brown, of Atria Books, talked about the importance of having a social network to help promote your work. Talk about your personal efforts to “get the word out”

Lisa: If your book is one of the chosen few to get the “big push” from your house, it’s less important, but for most of us, I’m convinced it makes or breaks you.

I started a blog before I was even agented. As soon as my book sold, I started promoting it on my blog. Even thought I knew I wouldn’t have ARCs until spring, I started a monthly Debut Contest, where the winner had a choice of one YA debut off a list of four that I provided or a signed ARC of Personal Demons.

I’m shameless, I admit it. I would choose the four biggest buzz YA debuts I could find each month as the alternate choices to mine to draw their readers to my blog, and then I Tweet the heck out of it. Usually those authors, also being debut authors and wanting free PR, would re-tweet my tweets. I started out in my first contest in January with about 40 entries. That winner chose a book other than mine. From that point on, the contest grew every month until I was getting over 150 entries, and everyone from the Feb winner on chose Personal Demons. Anytime I’m near another author, I have them sign one of their books for me then I give it away with a signed copy of Personal Demons.

I’ve given away 20 signed books (only half of which were mine) in the last three months. My blog has grown to almost 900 followers and I have almost 1600 Twitter followers who look forward to my contests. I just ran my first ever Original Sin ARC contest in conjunction with releasing the cover. I recruited nine awesome bloggers who have supported me and Personal Demons for months. I let them release the cover and ran a contest on my blog. They all got between 50 and 100 comments on their post and I had almost 300 entries. People love free stuff.

****************************************

I'd like to thank Lisa for taking the time out of her busy schedule and wish her all the luck in the world... Wait a minute, she doesn't need luck. Her star is rising, and it couldn't happen to a nicer person. All the Best, from The Novel Road

Jeff Somers Short Story

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 04:35:00 +0000

His Rings Like Gifts

By Jeffrey Somers

   We all stared at the gun, leaking smoke, wondering who'd fired it, drumming up all this damned noise. Even though we could see it in his hand no one dared look at his face; then we'd know. Guessing was better and didn't we have bigger things to worry about: The smoke and the blood and the old man cold and immobile before us? The sinking lights around and the haggard rough-edged sound of our breathing spun away, the echoes elastic. It started to seem like we were waiting for him to get up and dance, grinning red and wet at us. I sighed smoke.

   He didn't twitch, much less dance, but Eddie did. He jittered back, one hand stapled to his mouth, and skated into the shimmering china closet. His eyes pulled away from his face, trying to break free. The crystal unicorns and stained coffee mugs holding him up clinked hazardously, but nothing broke. Ted slummed over and pulled Eddie up, favoring him with silent, roundhouse slaps and snarling, wordless abuse. I left the job to him and listened to the crackle of dust in the air.

   I put a hand on Will's shoulder, stopping him from his careful retreat, and gestured. He grimaced at me with his yellow teeth and tried to explain but I shoved him forward and he shut up.

   We each grasped a frilly arm or a slack leg, pulling the old man taut between us. Someone asked me if I wanted that rare and I barked an answer, feeling sweat pop out on my brow as we lifted him and started to shuffle for the door, staggered and clumsy. Steadied, we made our way to the back, our breath in each other's faces, red skin sheened shiny and wet from the rain outside. They all had their mouths open; they suddenly all looked like strangled pigs to me and I couldn't help but smile. That pissed Ted off, so I swallowed it and stopped looking at him.

   At the back door we heaved the old man out into the pour, following reluctantly with shovels in hand. We dug half-heartedly and conversation dried up, replaced by the clink clink of shovels, and slowly we were surrounded by dark mounds. Deep enough, we pulled the old man in with us; he landed in a jumble and I got mad. Take a fucking care, I snarled, wiping muddy sweat from my face with a worn, calloused hand. He was a fucking corpse and with his watery skin and butcher-paper eyes our good will was all he had left.

   After, we sat by the grave and smoked dried-out cigarettes to clear our lungs. The mist started to roll in on its dusty sock feet, making us nervous. Ted got all superstitious about death and it got us all a little creeped out, his slow pleading waver fading into the ground to set root until next time. With chummy slaps on the back we pushed ourselves back into our jackets and ties and headed back to the dim silent house and the gummy blood on the floor.

   We could hear Rachel upstairs testing her hangover and I offered my new fellows a drink of whatever she had left behind her. I pulled off my jacket and draped it neatly on one of the chairs, heading up with my hands in my pockets to show no harm intended. My new fellows were all making noise and it was better that way, I suppose; the thick sounds filling the rooms and rising, buoying me up on hot air and soundproofing. It was healthy to have a ruckus behind me.

   As I rose her perfume filled the cracks between the noise and I could feel her light steps as they trembled on the floor.

   Despite the low warning moans from below, she seemed surprised to see me.

   Whirling in a small confusion of skirts she pointed a cigarette at me and smiled; we'd done this all before, in different ways. Her lips were smoky and so was her hair, and as she nuzzled my ear she whispered slow, slow over and over. I always tried to be, but it didn't always work. I tried to tell her what had happened but she kept covering my mouth with hers, my arms with hers, my legs.

   We woke up early, all of us, and cooked up great slabs of bacon in the blood-streaked kitchen. We were dried-out and edgy, in loosened, stale clothes and caky faces which cracked in the light. I had her perfume all over me and it made me thickly ill.

   Eddie and Ted argued over the money, spitting crumbs at each other and sipping coffee. Rachel watched them tight-lipped and sharp-eyed. It was impolite, wasn't something you argued about. I had left bloody streaks on her pale skin and bruises on her smooth legs and they made her look demonic with her sudden cat eyes.

   We all got ready to leave; it wasn't our house, after all.

   It took a while to gather everything together, we had scattered ourselves and forgotten most of it. Rachel showered as we searched and came down wet and sweet and rubbed pink by towels. Suddenly, she was too clean for the place, too clean for us. We sat around her with unshaven cheeks and yellowed teeth, dirt and blood on our clothes and hands, pushing through wire-stiff hair. She stayed away from us, now that she was sober. She looked at me like I'd left a film on her, a sneering look. I didn't mind. She'd be drunk again that night and we'd be friends again.

   As we left, a guffawing group of new friends, she stood in the doorway and smiled brutally after us. I turned just in time to see her close the door, and briefly wondered if I'd killed the right one of them.

Bryan Russell Flash Fiction

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 04:31:00 +0000

Reunion

By Bryan Russell

The two naked men nodded hesitantly to each other. They stood in line, not wanting to move. Neither were entirely certain how to hold themselves, but fatigue dulled nervousness, and accumulated fear overshadowed shame. This nakedness was just one more thing. They tended to hold their hands in front of themselves, out of politeness. Their ribs were clearly visible in pale, taut skin, the bones arching toward each other,
meeting in the hollows of concave chests.

“Are you from Budapest?” one man asked.

“Yes,” a second man said. “And you?”

“Yes, I lived on Egyesules Street.”

The second man blinked, a light kindling in his eyes. “Is it so? I, too, lived on Egyesules Street. Out past the park.”

“We were near the boulevard. That’s where my home was. We had a beautiful garden.”

“Yes, yes, I know the area. That’s strange. Do I know you?”

“I don’t think so,” the first man said. “I don’t recall you, though I thought I knew most of the people on the street. Yes? My family was there for many years.”

“Mine, too. Mine, too. How old are you? I cannot tell in here.”

Everyone in this place became indistinct after awhile, features blurring, age creeping over each face regardless of years. Everyone here was centuries old, vast lifetimes washing quickly through their veins.

“I am thirty-five. And you?”

“I am thirty-six,” the second man said. “It’s so strange. I don’t recall you. And yet we must have seen each other, yes?”

“So many years on the street. Playing as a boy. Playing football at the park. Many boys were there. Did you play?”

“Yes, I played. I wasn’t very good. If I looked up I tripped over the ball. If I looked down, everyone yelled at me for not passing.”

“I was pretty good, though not as good as my friend Bodo. He was a very good player. Very good.”

“I remember him!” the second man said. “Yes, he was very good. I remember that. I remember playing with him. What has happened to him, do you know?”

The first man looked away and said nothing. They were both silent for a time.

“You had a garden, you say?” the second man said. “I must have seen it. Walking on the street, I must have passed it by.”

“It was beautiful. I worked very hard on it. The garden was already very nice when we bought the house. I was struck by it. That is why I picked that house, I think. I had always liked the garden. Even as a boy, walking to play football. Isn’t it strange? You were there, too. Playing football. Walking past the garden. I think I improved it, though. The garden. I read a lot of books, taught myself. Every spring I would go out planting.”

“Yes, I think I saw that garden. A beautiful garden. Was there a little stone wall? Yes, a little stone wall. And beautiful flowers.”

“Thank you.”

A guard walked by and the men stopped speaking. Their eyes followed the guard. The whole line of naked men quieted at the passing of the booted feet. The bare feet of the naked men stopped their weary shuffling, still as mortuary statues.

The second man nodded slightly once the guard had passed. “I think I remember you. I didn’t recognize you at first, but I do now. Did you have an older sister? A sister named Myrta?”

“Yes, that is me.”

The second man opened his mouth to speak, but closed it, fearing the silence that would follow his question. He nodded, thinking of the street, the garden, the games boys played, the girls they admired. He could smell the roses, the blossoms on the little tree. “There was a tree,” he said. “You had a little tree, with blossoms. They smelled lovely.”

“Yes, that’s the place,” the first man said.

The second man wanted to ask what kind of tree had blossoms that smelled so sweetly. He knew little of horticulture. But the guard was returning and the whispered voices were silenced.

“Juden!” the guard yelled. “Jetzt, jetzt! Schnell, schnell!”

The line started moving, the naked men shuffling forward.

“It is good to see you again,” the first man said, his lips barely moving.

The second man nodded. “Sholem.”

“Schnell, schnell!” the guard yelled.

The naked men walked into the chamber. The second man was still thinking about the blossoms. What were they? He would have to ask. The memory of the blossoms struck him so sweetly, so keenly, the fragrant taste of them hanging in the air. They would fall in graceful arcs, spinning slowly down to new resting places, gathering in pale drifts amidst the insubstantial ghosts of old petals. Petals, a spring snow atop the green, green grass.

Bryan Russell Interview

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 04:27:00 +0000

The Novel Road Interview: Bryan Russell

     In the deep, unknown reaches of a land far to the North there is... Ok, there's a lot.

    But here, on The Novel Road, I bring you a glimpse of the heretofore unseen. You'll experience, first hand, a genius so vast it tickles the edge of madness. (just kidding about the madness part)

    This interview begins with a town. Actually it starts with a building... Well, if you want to be picky, it starts with what was in the building - A Bookstore

    On any given day, there was a line of intellectually gifted people, standing in the cold, holding Moosebucks coffee cups. They all wore glasses, occluded by chill fog, and many struggled to keep their pipes lit. The leather patches on the sleeves of Tweed coats, well worn. All carried umbrellas, mostly because they all thought it was cloudy when they left their homes, that personal fog there from the start of the day. They share tales of skinned knees from missing curbs. A scattered oath or two after a head bounces off the glass (from the general lack of depth perception) as each took their turn looking in the window of their ice bound Mecca... And for the person within.

   Ladies and gentlemen, Bryan Russell is here today, saving me you a trip North to the land of hockey, polar bears, beer and "Eh?"

   He is here, his store now a memory. Yet in his mind, his precious store will always be. Like many tales similarly told, a malevolent economy swept the spirit of 500 Ouellete Avenue, in Winsor, Ontario away.

Bryan’s love of the written word will always be. His talent for writing is remarkable. Enriched by his time surrounded by great works, he puts his hand to pen. His BA and MA in English and Creative Writing, as well as his Bachelor's in Education, along with a smattering and scattering of his writings published are building him to a new day.

   As far as The Novel Road is concerned, that day starts here. Why here and now?

   If you look at my guest lists, you will find authors with combined sales of over 100 million books. You will also find a select group of debut authors that, for one reason or other, I have come to believe will be successful due to the qualities found in their work. Everyone has an opinion on what makes for a great book.

Do I have a knack for seeing those that will step ahead of the pack? Maybe. Anyone want to argue the quality of Sean Ferrell’s work? I tell you now he is an author to watch as well as read.

   I have access to hundreds of unpublished writers. I picked only one to be here. He has no agent, no contract of any kind, and I tell you now. This is an author you will hear about one day.

May I introduce you to Bryan Russell…

Me: What was the first thing you ever wrote that told you “I can do this?”

Bryan: It was a Halloween story I wrote for my class in grade seven: an evil Halloween spirit breaks into my school and murders my classmates one by one. Luckily I was a well-liked and well-adjusted kid, and so wasn’t sent for psychiatric counseling. Plus, I murdered myself in the story, as well, and most gruesomely. No one gets away! Who needs happy endings?

Anyhow, my teacher selected my story to be read to the class. But the important part wasn’t that selection, but the response of my fellow students – they loved it. They were so excited, so interested in waiting to see who would die next, and how… there was something incredible about that response. That I hooked them into the story and they needed to know what happened. They believed in the story.

It was a profound experience for a kid. I think that confirmed for me the possibility of being a writer. Not just to write something, but to write something for someone – an act of communication.

Plus, people like getting murdered. Who knew?

Me: Favorite writing junk food?

Bryan: I don’t really tend to eat much when I’m writing… too lost in the world, I think, and food takes me out of that. I’m one of those tunnel vision people. I will drink, though. Straight whiskey. Oops, I mean coffee. Oh, wait, I can’t have that, either. Milk. Milk… wait, I can’t have dairy. Water. A cold drink of water. Yes, that’s what I have when writing. Preferably thawed from an iceberg.

Me: In two sentences, describe your book or work in progress.

Bryan: After killing his father in an argument, Japheth Tagori is sentenced to a life of service as a soldier in the Legion – yet he cannot escape his past, as the brigands who worked with his father (a smuggler) want Japheth dead because of something he’s forgotten he knows – the destination of a cartload of gold set to fuel a rebellion. The rebellion, though, is merely a diversion, as a war between empires looms on the horizon and Japheth finds himself a pawn in a dangerous game, manipulated by the mysterious Ghost King even as his enemies seek his head – and as Japheth seeks to understand his own identity as a soldier.

Me: How strict are you when it comes to staying true to your outline?

Bryan: An outline is an outline – it’s the book, in the end, that’s important. I always try to do what’s best for the story, and if that means diverging from the outline, then that’s what I do. And stuff always changes, for me, with all the subsequent drafts – sometimes drastically.

I usually have some main events and an ending that I hold strongly to – but even there, well, there are no sacred cows. Sometimes the red pen is hungry and will devour even the finest of original ideas.

Me: Lunch with you and any Author you choose, alive or dead, and why.

Bryan: I’d probably pick David Foster Wallace, though Tolkien would have to be in the running. I think they are the two writers who have influenced me most, and in different ways. Tolkien started it all – as a child, he got me into reading, and then writing. I consumed his books in endless loops.

Wallace was a little different – I read Infinite Jest when I was eighteen or so, and was blown away. “You mean, you can do that in a novel? Why didn’t anyone tell me?” A million new doors were opened by that book. I ended up studying a lot of postmodern writers, and used them as a springboard to all sorts of different things. And that sudden breadth of vision and understanding has been hugely important to me, and really helped shape me as a writer.

He died too young, sadly, and even though I never had an opportunity to speak with him, I did read David Lipsky’s Athough Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, which is a memoir of a road trip the author took with David Foster Wallace – and reading it is sort of like overhearing a long rambling conversation with Wallace. It’s as close as I’m ever going to get, anyway.

Me: I have been offering a piece of advice lately regarding the… Gulp!... Query Letters. I've told a new author to avoid even learning about a query letter till his manuscript is complete. Do you agree or not?

Bryan: I think both paths can work, though I lean toward not worrying about querying until the manuscript is ready. For some writers, doing it before can help – it can push you to clarify and focus your story, and keep that central conflict and drive of the story at the forefront. So, there are advantages. But there’s also a lot of risk. It’s very easy to get sidetracked and have all your energy flowing into writing a query, into endless angst and worry, resulting in a compulsion to dive headlong into the publishing world’s social media storm – sort of an online Bermuda Triangle for many writers.

Personally, I say write a great book – worry about the rest later.

Me: My favorite subject – Editing. Talk about editing your first book. Also, how did you know when to stop?

Bryan: Ha! The problem with my first book attempt (many long years ago) was that I didn’t edit it. Oh, I copyedited it, and smoothed sentences, and adjusted a few scenes here and there. But, really, I didn’t know how to edit, at least not for story, for structure and pacing and balance. Plot was a meandering construction, loosely understood.

It’s different now, where my novel has gone through many drafts and permutations. It’s vastly different from what I started with, and hopefully much better. And when to stop… damned if I know. It’s hard to change, I presume, once it’s in print.

Me: This question, courtesy of Jeff Hall : I'm a shortstory-ist. Writing a novel is like a crazy long marathon, only harder. How do you maintain a clear sense of that first passion that inspired you throughout a 200K word journey?

Bryan: 200K is too long! Sadly. My revisions would be much easier if that weren’t so. But, for me, I usually don’t start writing a novel unless I have a story idea that I know will carry me a long way. It takes a certain momentum to pull through a novel, page after page – the story needs a certain weight, a specific gravity. When that pull is strong enough, I simply can’t avoid writing the story. When it fills up my entire head, I know the story is ready to be written.

Me: You get a blank check to write about ANYTHING and guaranteed to be published. What would the subject be?

Bryan: Genocide.

Cheerful, I know. But I have a novel idea that won’t let go, even though I don’t think I’m ready to write that book yet – I’m not yet the writer I need to be. But in the future hopefully I will be, and hopefully I can write it – and hopefully it will mean a little something. In a sense, genocide is the dark shadow of the last century of human history. Writing this book would be my attempt to understand that shadow, to somehow try to come to grips with it. How do you understand human devastation? I’m not entirely sure you can, but perhaps the attempt is an important one.

I'd like to thank Bryan Russell for his time and energy

in doing this interview. Anyone wondering what

the artwork is about?Visit Bryan Russell daily at

The Alchemy of Writing

Joan Wolf Interview

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 01:40:00 +0000

I’m extremely honored to have author Joan Wolf as a guest on The Novel Road.

Joan has had 45 books published over the course of her 35 year writing career. The New York and the Washington Post Bestseller lists know Joan well. Her current passion, Christian Romance, added to a packed backlist of Historical Fiction and Contemporary Romance puts Joan in the ranks of some of the most successful authors around.

The first non-picture book she ever read was Black Beauty, and spent most of her childhood reading horse and baseball stories. As a teenager, she loved romantic suspense: Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, etc. As a young woman, she became a huge fan of Georgette Heyer and of Dorothy Dunnett’s "Lymond" series. She swears, "I must have re-read those books a hundred times". Thru the years, she found herself turning more and more to books of a spiritual nature. Gary Wills’ book "What Jesus Meant" has had a profound effect upon her life.

A former high school English teacher and Yankee's fan, she splits her time between working with her husband at their church's food pantry and writing.

Please welcome, one of the icons of the Romance Novel genre, Joan Wolf

Joan Wolf

Me: What was the first thing you ever wrote that told you “I can do this?”

Joan: My story is the tale of a desperate housewife. My husband and I had just moved to Connecticut with our new baby. I had quit work (that was what we did back in the day), I knew no one in my new town, and I was lonely and bored. I picked up a few books that were on the best-seller list (these were the days of Rosemary Rogers and Katherine Woodiwiss) and I read them. I had taught literature and creative writing to high school seniors for a number of years, so I thought, O'kay, I’ll give this a shot. I can work while the baby’s napping. It seemed a much more interesting project than cleaning the kitchen floor.

I set my book in the regency period not because it was about to become the hot new thing in romance publishing but because I was a huge Georgette Heyer fan and I knew both the historical and the social scene of that time. I had only the vaguest idea about what kind of a plot I might come up with. To be perfectly honest, I was surprised when I actually managed to write a whole opening chapter. I hadn’t written anything except term papers since the time I tried to write a book about a horse when I was a kid. Then I wrote another chapter, then another. Wow! I was a writer.

Selling the book proved to be a whole other story. I mailed it off to publishers on my own for almost a year, with no positive results. Once I even got my manuscript back with someone’s vacation pictures stuck in the middle. Finally some kind soul told me I needed an agent. I got the first one I tried and she sold my book (The Counterfeit Marriage) and got me a contract for two more. Interestingly, it sold to NAL, a company that had previously turned it down when I sent it on my own.

Me: Christian Romance is a rapidly growing market. What do you think has spurred the growth?

Joan: Christian Romance has always been popular in Christian book stores, but I think its surprising growth into the wider book market has been spurred by regular romance readers who just got tired of the heavy sex, vampires and werewolves that seem to populate most romance novels these days. I know I got sick of it, and that’s one of the reasons I turned to Christian romance. It offered me a chance to express my own faith while telling an emotionally and psychologically rich love story about human beings. The New York publishing houses are no longer giving women this kind of romance and these readers are discovering that Christian romance does. I think that’s why it is growing so quickly and I also think it will continue to grow as the word spreads: This is what readers are looking for in a love story.

Me: In two sentences “Hook” for your new book.

Joan: The book I have coming out in July from Thomas Nelson is called A Reluctant Queen, the love story of Queen Esther, and the title says it all. It tells the story of a sheltered Jewish girl who becomes the wife of the Great King of Persia, saves her people from annihilation by the evil Haman, and finds the love of her life in her exalted (but lonely) husband.

Me: How strict are you when it comes to staying true to your outline?

Joan: What outline?

Me: If you could have lunch with any Author you choose, from throughout history or today, what would you want to talk about?

Joan: I’m sure I should name someone exalted, like Shakespeare or Jane Austen or Dante. Well, maybe not Dante; I don’t speak Italian let alone medieval Italian. But, truthfully, I would adore to have lunch with Dick Francis. I have been a horse lover all my life and I’ve read every single one of his books - some more than once. Naturally, I’d want to talk about horses - and maybe writing (a little). I’m quite sure he was the most delightful man and I was truly saddened when I learned of his recent death.

Me: You have a love for Historic Fiction. I really enjoy your "time" in the sixth century. When did you come upon your love for the Arthurian Ideal?

Joan: When I was in high school Camelot was playing on Broadway and a boyfriend took me to see it for my birthday. Richard Burton played Arthur. I fell madly in love with him and thought Julie Andrews was insane to have looked at anyone else. After crying my eyes out at the theatre, I read everything I could get my hands on about Arthur. I read Mallory, of course, and the other medieval Arthurian tales, but what really began to intrigue me was the historical Arthur.

It sparked my imagination to think that a leader from deep in the dark ages could have left so strong an imprint that legends sprang up around him. That is why The Road to Avalon is set in the final days of Celtic-Romano Britain and I portray Arthur as the savior who kept civilization alive by turning back the waves of Saxon invasion.

Me: My favorite subject – Editing. Talk about editing your first book. Also, how did you know when to stop?

Joan: Alas, when I edited my first book I kept changing adjectives and adverbs until I thought I had the right ones. Now when I edit, I take things out. Adjectives, adverbs, sentences, whole paragraphs - gone forever. In truth, I rather cringe when I look at my early stuff.

Me: Tell us about your agent and why the match is perfect?

Joan: I have been very fortunate in my agents. Every one of them has really loved my books and has been committed to selling them. I would never have done as well as I have as a published author were not for excellent agents. My present agent, Natasha Kern, is the one who introduced me to the Christian Romance market. She’s been a huge help; I’m new to this genre and she knows just about everything.

Me: Heroes, have they gotten too perfect?

Joan: Every hero has to have a problem (an emotional or psychological problem, not a plot problem) he needs the heroine to help him deal with. A man who is sufficient unto himself is not the stuff romance is written about. He can be the most gorgeous hunk in the world, but he’s gotta have a flaw somewhere.

Me: If you got a blank check to write about anything and it’s guaranteed to be published, what would the subject be?

Joan: This is so easy for me to answer. I have been working on a book about Mary Magdalene that I just love. I have written the first two parts and my agent, Natasha Kern, is very excited about it. It’s a very different slant on Mary’s story, starting with her childhood and showing how the events of her life caused her to become the woman whom Christ regarded as one of his disciples.

I think women especially would love this book; it has a very feminist cast to it. I have become quite entranced with Mary myself, and I look forward to delving back into her world.

Me: The publishing industry is going through an evolution. How are these changes effecting you and what would you advise new authors to do?

Joan: Is it evolution or revolution? No one knows. All we know is that publishing will never be the same. This is good and bad. The old model of books shipped and books returned was ridiculous. There has been an increasing problem with shelf space in the stores - rows and rows of best sellers block out the chance for a new author to get a spot. The mid-list is almost gone. We just have to hope that what is coming will give new opportunities to new writers. I think it will.

************************************************************

Bryan Russell Flash Fiction

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 21:51:00 +0000

Reunion

By Bryan Russell

Short Story Saturday: Norb Vonnegut

noreply@blogger.com (The Novel Road) — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 17:01:00 +0000

Insider Trading: ‘Tis the Season

By Norb Vonnegut

After returning from three strip malls, Phoebe Jenkins kicked off her shoes first thing. Right there in front of the kitchen sink. She was exhausted from the holiday crowds—all the pushing and shoving, the occasional hip check or two. Her swollen dogs were screaming for a break.

   I’ll try again tomorrow.

   Phoebe sat at the kitchen table, afternoon shadows sweeping the room, rambling thoughts her only companion. She had not bothered with the overhead lights. She was too busy warming up and savoring her cup of coffee—one sugar, heaps of cream, piping hot the way she liked it.

  Tired or not, at sixty-six Phoebe was enjoying retirement. Sure, there were times when she missed teaching. She loved her eighth graders, even when they got out of hand.

   But truth be told—retirement gave her more time to shop. Daily opportunities to spoil her grandson rotten. Too bad today’s Christmas expedition ended in defeat.

   Bam, bam, bam came the knock at Phoebe’s door, reverberating through her modest home like angry thunder. The pounding burst a cache of happy memories that could have lasted well past her afternoon coffee.

  I have a doorbell, you know.

Phoebe cracked open the front entry, leaving the heavy chain in place. Crazy things were always happening in her neighborhood. And it paid to be careful. She eyed two men, their suits rumpled, their ties loose. They reminded her of Jack Webb and Harry Morgan from the old Dragnet series.

“May I help you?” Phoebe asked.

“I’m Agent Fletcher, and this is Agent Dixon.”

   He even sounds like Jack Webb.

   Both men flashed their badges, and Fletcher added, “We’re with the FBI.”

   “Is something wrong?” she asked, immediately forgetting the assault on her front door.

   “Are you Phoebe Anne Jenkins?” asked Fletcher. “Mother of Todd Jenkins?”

   “Is my son okay?” She grew anxious in that fraction of a second.

   “He’s fine, ma’am.”

   “Oh, thank goodness.”

   “We have a search warrant. Will you let us in?”

   “What’s this about?” Phoebe stammered, unhooking the latch.

   “We’re asking the questions,” snapped Fletcher. “Were you at the Staples on Tuckahoe Road this morning?”

   Dixon’s eyes darted round the room, soaking in the family photos. It was like he needed to touch everything in sight.

   “Why, yes.” She was growing more alarmed by the second. “How do you know?”

   “What was the nature of your visit?”

   “Nature of my visit,” Phoebe echoed, thinking cop talk sounded very serious indeed. “I was looking for my grandson’s Christmas present. Have you seen the toy helicopter that Staples is advertising?”

   “Did you speak with the manager?” Fletcher asked, ignoring the choppers.

   “I asked him for help.”

   “Help, Ms. Jenkins?”

   “It’s Mrs., may the lord rest my husband’s soul. And the manager told me they were ‘sold out,’ Officer Fletcher.”

  “It’s Agent Fletcher.”

“The store received one-hundred-and-fifty helicopters last week,” she said, trying to be helpful. “That means they’re selling twenty-one a day.”

“Did you tell your son?”

“Not yet.”

“But you planned to tell him?” persisted the agent.

“What’s this got to do with Todd?”

“We’re asking the questions,” Fletcher repeated. “Did your son pay for this info?”

“Why would he do that?” Phoebe felt herself growing defensive.

“Did you proceed to the Staples on Central Avenue?”

“They were sold out, too,” she confirmed.

“What were you doing at the Staples in Scarsdale?” pressed Fletcher. “That’s three in one day.”

“My grandson will be heartbroken if he doesn’t get that helicopter. But Scarsdale was sold out. Can you believe it?”

“Right,” acknowledged Fletcher in an odd tone, somewhere between empathetic and scoffing.

“Is Todd in some kind of trouble?”

“Do you have any receipts?” he asked, plowing forward, indifferent to her question.

“I told you. The helicopters were sold out. Central Ave. sold two hundred since Monday, and Scarsdale another two fifty over the last eight days.”

“Smells like channel checks.” Fletcher exchanged glances with Dixon, his face knowing, his voice full of accusation.

“Channel checks?” Phoebe wanted to help these men. They were FBI after all. But she didn’t like them. Not one bit. “I was looking for a toy. Not a television.”

“This is classic mosaic theory.”

“What’s this got to do with art projects?” she asked. “I was trying to get the skinny on helicopters.”

“You’re good,” Fletcher said, the cynicism clear in his voice. “No wonder your son’s hedge fund is so successful.”

“I still don’t understand what you want from me.”

“The game’s over,” he growled.

“What game?”

“You’re feeding inside info to your son,” charged Fletcher. “Numbers from one store. Numbers from another. They don’t sound like much. But put them together, and they add up to an unfair trading advantage. Did the employees say anything else about their store sales?”

“Just what I told you. They can’t keep those helicopters on the shelves.”

Dixon was holding a framed photo of Phoebe’s grandson.

“Can’t you please tell me what’s wrong?” she pleaded, snagging her grandson’s black-and-white from the agent’s hand.

“Let me paint the picture,” Fletcher barked with Jack Webb’s staccato inflection. “Your son runs a hedge fund—”

“He’s good at math,” she interrupted.

“You spent the last four hours at three different stores. You didn’t buy a thing. No receipts. Zip. But you spoke to the manager at each one. My agents say you were asking all kinds of questions. You’re throwing around inventory numbers left and right. And we think something’s rotten.”

“Oh my lord,” Phoebe exhaled. “Were you following me?”

“Let me ask you something,” demanded Fletcher, pouring it on now. “You like to shop, right?”

“What else is there to do?”

“She’s probably working for one of those ‘expert network’ rings,” observed Dixon, pursing his lips and shaking his head left to right.

“What ring?” Phoebe was confused.

“You’re an industry specialist,” Fletcher charged. “You better level with us. It’ll go a lot easier for you. And your son.”

“Tell me what to do,” she gasped, fear taking over, her voice rising. “I’ll cooperate. Anything.”

“Does your son pay you for this info?”

“He takes me to lunch.”

“Hah! I knew it,” the agent triumphed. “Do you use email?”

“Doesn’t everybody?”

“Okay that’s it,” Fletcher said, turning to Dixon. “Get the team in here now.”

Dixon hustled to the front door, full of purpose. Things were heating up. He whistled all loud and screechy through his front teeth. He signaled for reinforcements with his index finger.

A dozen FBI agents swarmed through Phoebe’s house. Armed with cardboard boxes, they packed up her computer and her answering machine. One agent—a young, earnest, living ad for talcum powder—snagged a takeout menu from her kitchen.

“I think we’ve got something here,” he informed Fletcher. “There are phone numbers scrawled next to the Hunan beef.”

Phoebe was stunned, speechless, her eyes wider than the saucer holding her cup of coffee.

“You need to come with us,” instructed Fletcher. “We’re taking you to White Plains for more questions.”

“May I get my shoes?” she asked, her voice listless, her demeanor beaten and zombie like. “My purse, too?”

“Go get them,” Fletcher instructed Dixon. “Make sure she’s not hiding anything.”