Deep Content and Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins

I just finished reading Jess Walter‘s Beautiful Ruins. Not only was I completely enraptured by this book, but I will name it as one of the top 5 books I’ve read in the past year (2012 included). Why? Well, besides the beautiful turns of phrase (which abounded and still stick in my mind,) and besides the very human characters, and besides the beautiful setting and the literary allusions, and besides the fact that the book reminds me of some of my other favorite books: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres, The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver and A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, the book is also a really good example of what I call “deep content” and this is something I’ve been wanting to blog about for quite some time.

What do I mean by “deep content”? Well. There already exists something called “deep content” as it relates to search engines – basically it means, how rich is the content of the text you write on the internet. Quality of content. (Which usually for SEO purposes just means how often and in what variety you use certain keywords on a page.) But I want to take this one step further – as it applies to bloggers in general, and book bloggers in particular.

When I first started this blog I said that it wouldn’t be “just another book blog” that I would blog about books that moved me and that I wanted to talk about – the impressions they had on me rather than critiques. I also said that I always wanted to blog about books that led me to other books. And I also never want to blog about a book if it meant I was just repeating things that others already said. I feel like I need to actually have something NEW to say, something to add, something that makes the post my own, because otherwise, why the heck am I doing this?

And it came to me from lots of surfing around other book blogs (and seeing what I don’t want to do – and frankly, refuse to do, which is just copy and paste and post and repost stuff that’s already been said and said more eloquently and said again – no offense to any book bloggers out there, you’re doing a great job) but that I can only blog about a book if I REALLY REALLY care about it, or if I at least have something original to say.

I think that if blogs are going to survive in today’s day and age of information overload, they need to rise above themselves and provide what I call “deep content.” In Walter’s Beautiful Ruins, deep content is a multi-layered narrative that includes memoir and novel excerpts, play fragments, and intersecting lives. In a blog post, it might be – books that lead you to other books, music and/or movie clips, relevant clickable links, a Q&A with an author, a musing that the book led you to which made you possibly think different about humanity, and something which you, the blogger, can impart to the world. Something that you have to say, above and beyond the book you just read.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot since The Jerusalem International Bookfair, when I heard Naomi Alderman, Maud Newton, Mark Sarvas and Boaz Cohen all speak about their blogging experiences. One thing which both Maud and Mark spoke about was the fact that they won’t blog about a book anymore unless they are really in love with it. And I sort of feel the same way, I’m not going to blog about a book unless I can give it “deep content” – unless it has given me something to say to the world that perhaps nobody else has thought of yet, unless it leads me (and others) to more books. Unless I really have something to say that matters.

Beautiful Ruins didn’t lead me to other books, but it reminded me, deeply, of ones I have already read and loved. Beautiful Ruins led me to:

a. feel completely inadequate as a writer because it was so incredibly written

b. to think about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, and The Donner Party in completely different ways (just to even be able to put them in a sentence together is an accomplishment!)

c. to want to watch a bunch of old movies with starlets who are certainly “Beautiful Ruins” now

But the layering of memoir excerpts and novel excerpts and play fragments – that’s deep content. The layering of time periods and intersecting lives and countries and generations – of pop culture and reality tv with old movies and glamorous movie stars – that’s deep content. The juxtapositions of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, The Lacuna and A Visit From the Goon Squad – that’s deep content.

And so too, I hope, this blog post is too.

What have I accomplished?

1. introduced the concept of “deep content” and what it could mean for you and your blog and the types of blogs you like to read (I think all the best blogs do this, naturally, btw)

2. Led you to other books: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, The Lacuna and A Visit From the Goon Squad

3. Led you to other bloggers and authors: Maud Newton, Mark Sarvas, Naomi Alderman, Boaz Cohen

4. Explained to you the kind of books and blog posts I love and why I think that blogs are not dead, but the ones that provide deep content are the ones that will endure.

5. Hopefully caused you to think about how you might add deeper content to your own blogging.

6. Made you think about how much you really really NEED to read Beautiful Ruins NOW, with all its content – both beautiful and deep.

Highs and more highs – The Jerusalem International Book Fair

So I just spent the week at The Jerusalem International Book Fair. I met an incredible amount of people: authors, editors, agents, publishers. I went to cocktail parties and seminars, had meetings and drank coffee (waaaaay too much coffee…), I mingled and buzzed, drank waaay too much wine (both before and after the coffee) and learned so much about the publishing industry both here in Israel and all over the world. Trends and forecasts. Hot books and bestsellers. New genres and tv-tie ins. The digital marketplace. How ebooks and tablets are changing both the way we think and the way we read. I discovered that I should never shop for books after having three glasses of wine…

The damage:

Nathan Englander’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank“

Evan Fallenberg’s “When We Danced on Water“

Francesca Segal’s “The Innocents“

M.L. Steadman’s “The Light Between the Oceans“

Edmund de Waal’s “The Hare With The Amber Eyes“

And one in Hebrew: “Akiva’s Orchard” by Yochi Brandes

But in all seriousness.

The most amazing part of my week: all the people I met (editors, agents, authors) plus hearing Antonio Munoz Molina speak (when he received The Jerusalem Prize)

The most interesting part of my week: learning about the Israeli book market from Ziv Lewis of Kinneret Publishing, and Dror Mishani (author of The Missing File) of Keter Books

The most disturbing part of my week: hearing about the pay-as-you-go reading site “TotalBoox” – still not sure what to make of it

The most fascinating part of my week: Hearing Dr. Sheizaf Rafaeli from Haifa University talk about how our brains are changing as a result of the information overload, and how it’s not just books that are changing – content is changing too. And yet. We should not be afraid and embrace this change – it’s sure to be a wild ride.

The hardest part of the week: the exhaustion

The saddest part of the week: that it’s over and I have to go back to normal life now!

Part of me is glad the Jerusalem Book Fair only happens every other year. Not sure I could handle it once a year!

Night Swim – One Year Later and a Q&A

I read Jessica Keener’s Night Swim one year ago. The book arrived in the mail to my office and I was immediately intrigued by the cover and the story. I read the book in nearly one sitting – I could not put it down. At the time, I really wanted to write a review of the book, but life got hectic, as it tends to do, and I never got around to it. When I saw Jessica post recently on Facebook that she was celebrating her book’s 1-year anniversary with a 50-state Skype book-club blog tour, I realized that even though I read the book a year ago, so many things still stuck in my mind. And that made me think, wouldn’t that make a great blog post? To talk about a book one year later and specifically highlight the things that stayed with you. What higher compliment to pay an author than to be able to say: “I still remember…” Then I talked to Jessica about her experience of the past year and asked her some questions – Q&A is below after I record my thoughts about the book “one year later.”

So, this is what I still remember:

• Peter’s guitar, his chats with Sarah

• How a discreetly placed hand on the small of someone’s back at a party can mean so much, and be so striking an image

• Sarah’s mother who is not only described as sitting with a back as straight as a violin bow, but whose life and actions mimic the sound and sigh of the violin she can no longer play

• Sarah’s mother’s car approaching the intersection – the crash – I can still see that moment in my mind

• The house, which becomes a character in the novel – dark, heavy, sad, depressed in its own right

One year later I still remember these moments, and I suspect that if I remember them now, so vividly, I will likely remember them for many years to come.

I had the privilege of asking Jessica some questions about her novel and her experiences this past year.

One year later, what sticks out in your mind about this past year? What experiences have you had? What audiences have you spoken to? What moments stick out in your mind?

Overall, the experience of meeting and hearing from grateful readers has gone beyond my happiest imaginings. So many people from all over the country have expressed their love for Sarah’s story and struggles. What better gift for an author?  As for audiences, I’ve traveled the east coast from Florida to Maine speaking and reading at writers’ conferences, book festivals, independent bookstores, the Center for Fiction in NYC, eateries, book clubs, libraries and via Skype. Skyping is my newest love as it allows me to travel and speak to folks in California, Alabama, Georgia and other distant states—even countries—without leaving home. To celebrate Night Swim’s 1-year anniversary, I’ve initiated a “Skype 50 Book Clubs” this year.

What are your favorite scenes from the novel? Which ones do you think about the most often?

Oh, this is a tough question. I care about them all. I had fun writing the fish tank scene and the night swim scene with Anthony. The party scene and dinner scenes with Elliot and Robert are also favorites. I’d list others, but I don’t want to give too much away.

You’ve mentioned in some places that you started out as a poet. I find that often my favorite novelists were poets first. Do you still write poetry?

Poetry was my first love.  I’m a great admirer of it and I love to read it. Throughout the years, it’s held a place of high honor—a vital means of making sense of life, and a beautiful way to honor the magic of words. Though I haven’t spent time writing poems for many years, I labor over my sentences. I suppose that’s my way of keeping poetry present in my work.

What’s next? I’ve seen you mention a novel set in Hungary? How is that coming along?

I’m working on a novel that takes place in Budapest in the mid-1990’s and involves American expats– an elderly Jewish man who has come to Budapest in search of the truth about his daughter’s death; and a young, American couple who try to help him. It’s a story in which one’s moral limits of right and wrong are tested.

Night Swim is a novel worth reading. It is also a novel that will stick with you long after you’ve put the book down. Trust me. I know.

You can find Night Swim here

New Genres: City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte

I just finished reading City of Dark Magic by Mangus Flyte, and I must say that it was thoroughly enjoyable. Like a cross between a beach read,  a fantasy novel and a fun romping suspense/thriller. In truth, I have no idea how to even place it. Part Christopher Moore, part Katie Macalister, part Dante Club – and even a little of Jepp, Who Defied the Stars, I really have never read a novel quite like it.  I could definitely tell you that there were things that didn’t work for me: certain scenes that seemed a bit contrived, certain elements that were perhaps a bit implausible, but I’m not going to. Instead I’m going to tell you what I LOVED about the novel and why the bits that didn’t make perfect sense didn’t matter.

I loved the setting: Prague, with all its intrigue and rich history and architecture.

I loved the quest: old manuscripts, secrets, a love story (both modern and historical), a connection to alchemy and even The Golden Fleece

I loved the task: to catalogue artifacts looted from a royal family by the Nazis, Communists and history and restore them to their rightful owners on museum display

I loved the narrator: modern, spunky, super smart yet skeptical – she reminded me of a lot of what I call “accidental” heroines that you find in Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance

I loved the quirkiness: the dwarf, hallucinogenic toenails, awkward sex in public places etc.

Does it matter now what I didn’t love? I didn’t think so.

I think that City of Dark Magic is a new genre of genreless books. Books that have almost everything in them and therefore can’t be pigeonholed into anything. Bring on more Rom-Com, Thriller/Mystery, Fantasy, Historical, Literary novels please!!

 

 

The Rise of the Video Game Novel

So it’s an inevitable comparison: between Ready Player One and Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, in fact, it’s a comparison that is already being made across the web. Nonetheless, it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot and so I wanted to add my voice to the mix.

First, these are both books that I read recently and enjoyed tremendously. For one of the books, Mr. Penumbra, this was obvious and I sort of expected that I would. In terms of Ready Play One, it was completely unexpected. I’ll explain. First of all, Robin Sloan’s book has the word “bookstore” in the title. Ding! I’m already interested. Second, I was hooked from the first page (an immediate description of someone applying for a job in a narrow store-fronted mile-high bookshop in San Francisco) Umm. Yep. You got my attention. I have worked in bookstores in four countries, so yeah, I’m reading this book. But Ready Player One was not a book I ever thought I would be interested in. A book about video games? Not my thing. 80s culture? Yeah, I lived through it but don’t particularly want to go there again. I didn’t even understand the title until it was explained to me – that’s how few video games I have played in my lifetime – even though I am a child of the 80s and 90s. And yet. I loved the book.

Now, I’m not someone who can sit here and rattle off comparisons between these novels and others, because this is not a genre I normally read. I’m sure there are books out there (that I haven’t read) like Microserfs (I mean, how can you NOT mention Copeland here,) and the novels of Neal Stephenson (Ok, I’ve read some of his books,) which warrant comparison to Ready Player One, but to me the book was completely novel. Sloan’s book can easily be compared to books the The Club Dumas, with elements of the Da Vinci Code, a certain Umberto Eco feel, and even, I’ve seen people compare it to Haruki Murakami‘s work, I’m not sure I agree with that one. But still, the book defies comparison. Both of the books do. The only books I can think of to compare them to is each other.

So what does that mean? Do these novels mark the rise of a new genre? And what exactly would it be called? Techno-geek with touches of D&D, old-school 80s fantasy novels and culture, combined with the deep dark questions of where is technology leading us and what will happen when physical books are no more and we all live in virtual worlds? Because even though Ready Player One is post-apocalyptic, it is a story, like Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, about how we make sense of our current reality. The only reason Ready Player One makes so much sense, is because its plausible. As is Mr. Penumbra’s bookstore. The characters in both novels are real, humble, human, geeky, in other words, kind of like a lot of us, and technology and the internet gives them the power, to be larger and more powerful than themselves, to think in new ways, to think outside boxes and living rooms and even outside computer screens. I know this is going to sound cliche, but, in the end, both Clay in Robin Sloan’s novel, and Wade, from Ernest Cline’s novel, need to look within themselves for the answers. They are not super-heroes, but in going beyond their circumstances and their lives, and indeed in thinking out of the “box” that we all find ourselves glued to today (and I don’t mean TV,) they do become a form of hero, they get the girl, and they learn that technology and avatars and virtual reality don’t hold a candle to actual reality.

I must say that what I perhaps found lacking in Ready Player One, which was abundant in Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, was book references. Anyone who was playing video games in the 80s and watching all those TV shows and movies that Cline mentions in the book, was also, often, reading classic 80s fantasy and Sci-Fi novels. Sloan touches on it in Mr. Penumbra, and to me it was one of the most endearing parts of the book – the idea that an author might encode or alter a version of his/her novel, the idea that the novels we write are works in progress that capture a reality of the world as we know it when we write the novel, but that that reality changes, and the power we as authors have to decide, or decide against, making a change or letting our work speak for itself.

My call? For the next great Ready Player One and Mr. Penumbra-style novel that is a homage to the virtual worlds we all grew up in between the pages of 80s books.

For me, it’s 80s Fantasy:
Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover, David Eddings’ Belgariad, Terry Brooks’ Shannara, Margaret Weis’ Dragonlance, Stephen King’s Dark Tower, Salvatore’s Forgotten Realms, Zelazny’s Amber Tower, Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionovar, Tad Williams’ Dragonbone Chair, Ann Mcaffrey’s Pern, Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, Charles de Lint’s Newford, Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, Raymond Feist’s Riftwar, Brian Jacques’ Redwall, Piers Anthony’s Xanth,and so many more: Mercedes Lackey, Stephen Donaldson, John Crowley, Robin McKinley, Tamora Pierce, Dianne Wynn Jones, Clive Barker, Tracy Hickman and…I must stop this list or I will be here all day.

Please add ones I’ve forgotten in comments!

And I call on someone else to make this list for 80s SciFi because I am not well read enough in that genre to list those worlds, though they are sister/brother worlds to the ones I listed above, and deserve an expert of their own to pay them homage.

I only wish I had the time and brain space to write it myself.

(Oh, and totally buy Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore in Hardcover – it GLOWS IN THE DARK!! Ready Player One is out in paperback.)

Poets as World-Processors — A Review of PLACE by Jorie Graham

PLACE by Jorie Graham

I will confess, I had not read much of Jorie Graham’s poetry until I picked up her latest: PLACE. Sure, I’d read and poem here and there, but not enough to say that I really had a sense of her as a poet. A few things struck me about her poetry right away – the simplicity of her words. Seriously. I’m sure nobody would call Graham’s poetry simple, because it is not, but if you look at any on word, at any one sentence or line, there are no complex words or images, no turn of phrase that makes you stop and repeat it – turn it around on your tongue a few times and say “I must remember this.” Rather, in Graham’s work, at least for me, it is the totality of the poem that you remember – the feeling it gave you, the entire picture it drew in your mind. There is also an ease with which she mentions God – sometimes capitalized, sometimes not. There is a familiarity there but also a lack of fear. God for Graham is as much a fact as any bird, and I envy her the ease with which she mentions and engages with the word, which for me is always heavy, weighted, fraught with meaning.

What I also remember: her structure. I don’t think I could write a poem in Graham’s structure even if I tried, and if I did it wouldn’t come across as authentic. But there is a certain way she writes, a certain way she thinks, that she somehow manages to get down on the page in her own way – her own cadence, and it works in a way that for most might come across as strained, or put-on. Graham’s structure is more than just authentic, it is another way of being, another way of thinking and processing the world. Which is indeed what all poets are – world-processors. I suppose novelists are too, but in a different way. Poets see the world differently and poems are their way of outputting data, and for every poet, that output is different in form and energy, because every poet’s processor is different. It’s why I read poetry at least, and why I write it. To see the world anew through someone else’s eyes, and to find a way to show my vision of a snippet of the world to others.

Graham’s poems meander. There is no straight trajectory to her thoughts. And her poems come off as almost unplanned, as somewhat stream-of-consciousness, but they are not that. Not at all. Graham takes our minds on a journey. She travels with us, but she is very deliberate in the path she takes and the places where she wants us to get to. Reading Jorie Graham’s poetry is about trust. It’s trusting that she will lead us by the hand and take us to a place we weren’t sure we wanted to get to. Often, halfway through a poem I found myself lost, wondering where I was, wanting to go back and start from the beginning, but wanting to trust that if I kept going I would find my way. And then, Graham even alludes to it herself. There is a poem,  “A BIRD ON A RAILING” where she beckons the reader “…go back up / five lines it is / still there I can’t / go back, it’s / gone, / but you -” and that’s where I began to trust her, not to need to go back at all.

And I think that is what Graham is trying to do in “PLACE” is to make the reader a little uncomfortable. To cause us to question where we are both in the poem and in our lives. Each of her poems contains space – and place, sometimes more than one place, and we need to trust that where we begin is not necessarily where we will find ourselves half-way through, and certainly not where we will end, though we might, just might come back to where we started, but different, transported. In a different place entirely, even if we haven’t budged an inch, we will certainly have been moved.

My favorite poem in the book was “END” in which she describes a gate on hinges and a chain, fog, and also autumn. Each and every sound and motion that she conjures and puts together in the poem came alive for me and I could see and hear every moment of the poem. The gate, the chain, the fog and autumn are all together and sometimes separately a violin, a hammering, a silent crowd, a held breath, boots in a field, a farmer, breathing and a dying animal. And the images repeat and circle in around themselves. It is a poem I will never forget.

You can check out this book of poetry here

My Year of Reading – 2012

Disclaimer: I did not make a list of books I read this year, but I am going to try to list them anyway, just for some kind of closure and because it’s interesting, to me at least. After some agonizing and scratching my head a bunch, this is what I’ve come up with. It’s by no means complete, and I will likely add more as I remember more. Also, this doesn’t include manuscripts I read for friends and clients, which is at least 10-15 more books.

Fiction:

1.The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

2. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

3. Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

4. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

5. Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

6. The Drowning House by Elizabeth Black

7. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

8. Vaclav and Lena by Haley Tanner

9. San Miguel by T.C. Boyle

10. The Obituary Writer by Ann Hood

11. Hope: A Tragedy by Shalom Auslander

12. The Middlesteins by Jamie Attenberg

13. The Sweet Girl by Annabel Lyon

14. The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson

15. Suddenly, A Knock on the Door by Etgar Keret

16. Threats by Amelia Gray

17. Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy

18. Triburbia by Karl Taro Greenfeld

19. The Age of Hope by David Bergen

20. The Memory Thief by Emily Colin

21. The News From Spain by Joan Wickersham

22. A Blessing on the Moon by Joseph Skibell

23. Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

24. An Extraordinary Theory of Objects by Stephanie LaCava

25. The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan

26. Be My Knife by David Grossman

27. Then by Julie Myerson

28. Amongst Women by John McGahern

29. A Boy by Lara Santoro

30. The Qualities of Wood by Mary Vensel White

31. Dark Currents by Jacqueline Carey

32. The Neon Graveyard by Vicki Pettersson

33. Dictation by Cynthia Ozick

34. Sorry, Please, Thank You by Charles Yu

35. Breed by Chase Novak

36. An Uncommon Education by Elizabeth Percer

37. The Archivist by Martha Cooley

38. City of Women by David Gillham

39. The Face Thief by Eli Gottlieb

40. About Schmidt by Louis Begley

41. Strangers by Anita Brookner

42. Carmen’s Rust by Ana Maria del Rio

43. Memories from Cherry Harvest by Amy Wachspress

44. The Book of Madness and Cures by Regina O’Melveny

45. The First Warm Evening of the Year by Jamie Saul

46. 50 Shades of Grey (Books 1 and 2) by E.L. James

47. The Mirrored World by Debra Dean

48. Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

49. Lover Reborn by J.R. Ward

 

YA Fantasy:

1. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

2. Furious by Jill Wolfson

3. Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey

4. House of Shadows by Rachel Neumeier

6. Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas

7. Wither by Lauren DeStefano

8. Evermore by Alyson Noel

9. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

10. Pure by Julianna Baggott

11. Jepp, Who Defied the Stars by Katherine Marsh

12. The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

13. Venom by Fiona Paul

14. Origin by Jessica Khoury

15. Poison Study by Maria Snyder

16. Ripple by Mandy Hubbard

17. Catherine by April Lindner

YA Fantasy and Skeleton Plots

I’ve been reading a lot of YA fantasy lately, as I am in the process of plotting a trilogy of my own. Hmmmm….if according to Virginia Woolf,’a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction,’ I wonder what a woman needs to write a YA Fantasy trilogy? Gold and a castle turret of one’s own – complete with draw-bridge and rabid dragon to scare off all intruders? (Would that keep out my kids?)

So this week I read: THRONE OF GLASS by Sarah J. Maas and WITHER by Lauren DeStefano

What I loved about THRONE OF GLASS (I read the galley): the heroine’s sparky (and a little snarky…) attitude, her relationship with Nehemia and the two men in her life (though I do think that both men could have been a bit more fleshed out as characters – I didn’t really leave the book with any sense of what they looked like), the castle and was extremely well described and the plot was convincing and had depth. The biggest compliment I can pay the book is that when it was over I was sad. I missed the characters and wanted to keep being a part of their lives – and that has happened very seldom in all my many years of reading experience and in all the hundreds of books I have read over the years. Like, if there had been a second book I would have bought it right away so I could keep reading. People are calling it a “Game of Thrones” for YA – which I can see, except, more of the characters would have to be fleshed out in their own right in order for it to really be that. It also reminded me of Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel series – which is perhaps a bigger compliment as I think that series is far superior to “Game of Thrones” (shh….don’t tell).

What I loved about WITHER: you can’t read WITHER without comparing it to Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale, but having said that, I loved the way DeStefano made the tale current and more accessible to today’s teens (and adults…). I found all three brides to be fully formed characters, I found her descriptions of the house and all the characters in it to be rich and vivid and full. I loved The Handmaid’s Tale – and I loved Wither too and neither one took away from the other in any way. I did want to know a little more about any of the children that were born to other wives in other houses – what their lives were like and how they lived. In general I found the concept fascinating – a world where everyone dies by the age of 20-24 and how that affects society, the way we perceive ourselves – a world where everyone is “forever young” but everyone dies. I will definitely read book two.

In terms of YA fantasy in general – it does feel like there is a sort of formula to it: main character/heroine is unsatisfied with life, she is spunky and strong and won’t accept the world she is in – she wants to fight and find a way out of her cage, there seems to always be some kind of overlord/evil character, an ambivalent second character in a position of power who you don’t know if you should hate or love (who is in his/her situation as a victim of circumstance too) and of course, there is a love interest. Usually a good female friend pops in there along the way – and a sister/brother who makes everything worth living for. I’m not trying to reduce it all to that – I mean, it’s a formula that works (just like the vampire romance / urban paranormal fantasy formula doesn’t stop me from loving and reading those books) and what makes each series unique is the incredible way that each author decorates her skeleton plot – and might I say that some of the decorations are pretty fucking incredible.

Q&A with “The Qualities of Wood” author, Mary Vensel White

Mary Vensel White’s debut novel The Qualities of Wood is part of a very exciting venture by HarperCollins into a digital-first imprint in conjunction with the HarperCollins slushpile website Authonomy. Mary’s book came out on January 31st at a special introductory rate, leading as an e-book and will eventually have a print run as well. Not only is the cover of this book visually stunning, but the book itself deals very much with the idea of art and visual perception – both in the way that it is written – so very lush with detail, and in the way that the characters grapple with their life circumstances. Things are not always what they seem in this stunning world that Mary’s created….or are they? Read this wonderfully rich debut novel to find out.

Mary – you have written a novel that is rich in atmospheric detail. Did you grow up in similar surroundings or have a country house somewhere in the woods?
In short, no! I grew up in the high desert of California. Sagebrush, Joshua trees, lots of dirt. A very sparse landscape. We used to travel to West Virginia to visit my grandparents in the summer, and the difference in scenery was always stunning to me. There were hills and lush trees and grass everywhere. I dreamed of living somewhere green. Many people find the desert quite beautiful, but I think part of us always aspires to something different than what we know.

I find that every writer has a starting point. Something that inspired them to write that first word. What inspired you to commit your first word to the page of this novel?
The initial inspiration was just that—the setting, the countryside. I had just moved to Chicago, my first experience in an urban surround, and as much as I loved the city, I sometimes craved open land and nature. The first image became the first scene of the book, Vivian’s small airplane touching down amidst fields of green.

I was bothered by Vivian’s relationship with her husband Nowell. I think that author-spouse relationship is inherently problematic, but in their relationship it feels like something more. As a writer, I sympathized with Nowell, as a woman, he infuriated me. Was that your intention?
I would rather write a character that inspires a reaction, even if it’s fury! Married couples start out as two individuals but soon, they play off each other and their paths become tangled with the other’s, as it should be. The novel takes place after they’ve been at it for some time, this fusing of paths, and it’s hard to say what the nature of their relationship was in the beginning. But it has veered and they must decide the path for the future. I wouldn’t say I wanted Nowell to be infuriating, but I’m glad he inspired feeling. In the end, I wanted characters that were flawed and multi-layered, as people are.

One of the other major issues in the novel that Vivian grapples with is finding her place within the creative spectrum – figuring out what is “special” about her. I personally think that everyone has a creative space inside of them, much like Dot says, but Vivian seems content for much of the novel to just “be average.” What are your thoughts on this?
For me, the specialness or purpose in life is related to happiness. Because all human wants and needs are basically in service to a pursuit of happiness—the quest for knowledge, engaging in relationships, and creating art, we do all of this to find happiness. For some people, simply taking care of a family makes them happy and they don’t want much else. Others need to travel or learn; artists need to create. Vivian grew up in the shadow of two people who were very fulfilled in their pursuits, and Nowell has been distracted working on his writing. She has no idea what she might like to do, where she wants her life to go. This is a basic part of growing up, I think, and just being human.

There is so much art in your novel. Not just in the way that you paint pictures for us with your words, but also all of the paintings that keep popping up in Vivian’s mind. Do you yourself have a background in Art History?
I have a meager background, which consists of several courses in college, but I do consider myself a visually-influenced writer. Colors, layout, impressions of things—these are all important to me when considering how to “paint” a story on the page. And I’ve always felt that different art forms only enrich each other.

Well. Enough about the novel. Tell me something about you. I’m always interested in hearing about what books and authors inspired someone as I often find new reads that way myself! What books would you say had a significant impact on your life and work?
I’ve always been a huge reader. As a child, I loved the author Ruth Chew. She wrote what we’d call fantasy now, stories about kids coming into contact with some sort of supernatural force. A lot of them had witches. Through these stories, I learned that books can really do just about anything you want them to. Little Women was a lesson in characterization and structure, and as a young adult, Lolita just blew my mind. I read it every few years and it still has that effect. It’s not really a matter of the subject matter, although it is shocking, but it’s more the style of it, the verve, the voice. Life-changing, that book. Also a work of history called Imagined Communities, the basic premise of which is that nations were formed, in part, because people started to imagine themselves as a community. This is a very simplified statement of the book, but this idea—that our very history could be altered by our thoughts (again a simplification of my thinking)—this had a huge impact on my writing and still does. Lastly, The Qualities of Wood was very influenced by Winesburg, Ohio, a novel that employs a direct, simple style to relay universal truths and longings.

Do you write like Nowell? Secreted behind a sheet-curtain? What is your writing space like?
Well, I’m writing this as three men are sawing and hammering in our bathroom about ten feet away. I have four children. If I expected seclusion or quiet to write, I would probably never write a thing. I have an open desk, crowded with papers and empty mugs, with photos of my kids and husband all around, school calendars, coupons, etc., etc. I use two monitors for one computer and usually have a second computer on too. This speaks mostly to my organization and the fact that I have things on both hard drives and am always going back and forth to see where something is. My oldest son says “Why do you have so many computer screens? You don’t have that much to do.” Kids always keep it real.

I’ve read a few chapters of another novel of yours, “Fortress For One,” is that your next project? Or is there something else in the pipeline?
I finished the second half of Fortress in November of last year. I’m letting it stew for a while but am just about ready to dive back into it. I wrote notes on that book for over ten years, so once I sat down to write, it felt fully formed in some ways. I’m also working on a collection of interrelated stories, an experimental sort of project called Human Stories. The idea is that all stories are based on certain archetypal outlines (i.e. Boy Meets Girl, Boy Grows Up, etc.), but in modern times, these archetypes can be upended. I began the first story after reading the collected stories of Lydia Davis, who really is an innovator of form, a maverick. Oh, and I’ve got an idea for another novel brewing…

You can buy Mary’s debut novel here or here
And visit Mary’s website or blog to find out more.

The Dodo Bird Has Landed – Q&A with author Steve Stack

Steve Stack, author of “It is Just You, Everything is Not Shit” has come out with a new book, entitled “21st Century Dodos: A Collection of Endangered Objects (and other stuff).” Steve Stack also happens to have a (not-so) secret identity, as the publisher of The Friday Project, an experimental Harper Collins imprint. He joins me today on my blog for a little Q&A session, as part of the blog tour for his new book, and for some cake.

Your new book “21st Century Dodos” catalogs a host of modern-day items (134 at last count!) that have become extinct with the advent of more modern technology and the rapidly evolving society that we live in. While I found that many of the items were particularly British in origin, there was much that I could relate to – and indeed almost every item has a similar American counterpart – and I’m sure – a counterpart in most parts of the world. Everywhere you look, new technology replaces old technology at lightning speed, and the 4NonBlondes song “Bigger, Better, Faster, More!” has never been more apt. (And speaking of dodo-birds, 4NonBlondes has also gone off to that large dodo-oasis in the sky). I am honored to have had the opportunity to get a sneak peak at your book and to be able to ask you a few questions.

Well, I am delighted to be here, thanks so much for inviting me.

Your last book is described as somewhat of a guidebook to being happy – where did this new idea come from?

It had been brewing for some time and whenever I mentioned it to friends they would fire back with loads of suggestion for entries. Once I had over 100 I figured it was time to get writing.

I have always been nostalgic for days gone by so I guess this project was just a natural progression from that.

I’ve seen you refer to this as a “bathroom book”? I didn’t read it in the bathroom (maybe that’s because it was on my laptop) but still…is there something magical that happens if you read it in the bathroom? Some hidden message that can only be heard underwater – er…or the sound of a flushing toilet?

How can I put this politely? Most of the entries in the book are just the right length for a trip to the bathroom/toilet/rest room (depending on what you call it in your country.)

Everyone sort of knows it’s you…why the pseudonym?

Honest answer is that the last one sold pretty well so it made sense to keep Steve Stack alive. Originally we kept it quiet as it wasn’t really the done thing for a publisher to publish themselves but the then boss of The Friday Project really wanted to do the book, commissioned me to write it and it sort of took off from there.

In this book you detail so many “household” items that have “gone the way of the dodo bird.” What’s up next for extinction in your opinion?

Well, a lot of the entries in the book aren’t quite extinct yet so one of them is bound to be the next to go. I think it might be a race between VHS tapes and audio cassettes.

Are books an endangered species?

No. Even as someone who is involved in lots of digital publishing I still believe books are here to stay.

Is Steve Stack soon to be an endangered species? How do you find time for it all? As anyone can see, you are a devoted father, you blog about everything from music and books to movies and cake, you tweet constantly, you run a Harper Collins publishing imprint, you write books – and now, I heard a rumor – the new head of Authonomy? Do you sleep?

I sleep lots. And I don’t work Fridays. The secret is that you don’t actually have to do a lot of work to be productive. You just have to do the right work at the right time. And have great people working with you.

Can you share with us some things that in your opinion are not headed towards dodo-hood any time soon? An album/band you love? A book or two you’ve read and adored recently? A new author/book from your Friday Project imprint? A favorite Authonomy title?

Ooh, I’d love to.

I love the Swedish band Hello Saferide. Musically and lyrically they are leagues ahead of everyone else.

Florence and Giles by John Harding is one of the most enjoyable books I have read this year, it is really rather special.

And I am very proud of The Tiny Wife by Andrew Kaufman, a book I recently published. It is a beautiful little hardback with wonderful illustrations.

It seems from your blog that most of the books that you read and love are fiction – as are many of the books on authonomy – do you write fiction yourself? Got anything hiding in your drawers?

Nothing in drawers. Lots in my head.

A manual detailing the good things in life, an encyclopedia of extinct and endangered household items, what’s next?

I am toying with the idea of a book about the demise of the handwritten letter, something that does feature in the 21st Century Dodos. It would be part history, part appeal and part manual.

All good things in life must come to an end, as you have clearly shown us with your exotic collection of dodo-like items. Thank you for answering my questions and appearing on my blog. It’s been lovely.

It has, hasn’t it? Thanks for having me.

Now, for the most important part of the interview – cake! (A recipe, if you please…)

1 Purchase cake
2 Open box
3 Remove cake
4 Slice and serve with a cup of tea

You can find 21st Century Dodos: A Collection of Endangered Objects (and other stuff) here and as an ebook here

Yesterday Steve Stack visited Jonathan Pinnock’s Write Stuff where they discussed Marmite, low-slung jeans and disintermediation. Tomorrow he visits Claire Marriott at The view from my garret