Bluestalking

My interview with author A.J. Jacobs

In the beginning was the encyclopedia. Yea, verily. I looketh upon it with mine own eyes. And I saw that it was good. There was evening and morning whilst I readeth it. Then again, there's evening and morning pretty much every day (unless you live really, really far north). But I digresseth.

A score of months later (give or take, who can count), came the Bible. It was fruitful. It multiplied. It cracketh me up. It restoreth my sense of humor. I laugheth, as it led me to the path of righteousness. Or not.

Yea, verily, I did then contact A.J., and he doth reply. I asketh, and he answereth. And here it is, now, for thine own eyes. Enjoyeth.

BSR:   It's a little trite to ask you where on earth you come up with your book ideas, but where on earth do you come up with  your book ideas? What inspires (or possesses) you to embark on these incredibly ambitious projects?

AJJ:   Well, I love the idea of quests. But I'm not much of an outdoor person, so I don't see myself climbing K2 or doing the Iditarod race. So my quests tend to be intellectual or spiritual. Things I can do without getting frostbite. I also like taking things to the extreme. So I figure, if I'm interested in religion, why not go all the way - live the entire Bible - and see what works? And I love first-person writing. I love to read it and I love to write it. If it's done well, it can be like you're right there with the author on the journey.

BSR:  Out of all the trials and tribulations from your biblical year, what was the toughest thing you endured? And, by the way, did you get to keep the slave?

AJJ:   I'd say there were two parts that were the toughest. There was the attempt to avoid the little sins we all commit every day - the lying, the coveting, the gossiping. I live in New York and work for the media. So that was pretty much 75 percent of my day. The second tough part was trying to obey laws that will get you into a little trouble if you follow them in 21st century America. Like stoning adulterers. Or owning a slave. (For slavery, the closest thing I could find was a summer intern. He was great. But he had to go back to college.

BSR:   With three little ones at home and what I presume is a full-time writing job, how do you find time to write your books, much less do the extensive research?

AJJ:   I am having a tough time.

My sons haven't embraced the distinction between work hours and play hours. Right now, I'm working about 16 hours a day, and getting about two hours of actual work done, because my kids come into my office every three minutes to have an important discussion about bananas or Dora the Explorer. So I don't think I've mastered the balance yet.

My only trick is that I try not to waste a single second. I don't let my mind wander too often. If I'm going around the corner to get a bunch of grapes (as I had to do today), I try to have something specific to think about while I'm walking. A little project. Like, what headline an article should have. Or a list of people I'd like to profile for Esquire.

BSR:   Have you ever given thought to writing fiction, or actually, have you ever written fiction?

AJJ:   I've dabbled a couple of times. But I just don't think I'm built for it. Even in my reading choices I tend toward nonfiction. When I was young, I remember reading Tom Wolfe talking about how nonfiction - when it's written in a vibrant way - is more compelling than fiction. So that really influenced me. Then he decides to write nothing but fiction. So I don't know where that leaves me.

BSR:   What are you reading lately? Anything you'd recommend?

AJJ:   I wish my friends would stop writing good books. I keep feeling compelled to read them. My friend Jennifer Traig wrote a book about hypochondria called Well Enough Alone, which will be out later this year. Also, though he's not a friend, I'm in the middle of Alan Weisman's The World Without Us. I loved the description of Manhattan before people came in, plowed the hills down, and put up a Duane Read drugstore on every block.

BSR:   What on earth (or heaven) is next for you after a year spent following the Bible?

AJJ:   Well, my wife says I owe her after all I put her through with the encyclopedia and Bible projects. She's pressuring me to to The Year of Giving My Wife Foot Massages. But I'm not sure how mass the appeal would be. But I do want to do one more of the immersion projects.

BSR:  Finally, for someone whose writing ambition is to follow the same sort of path you have, what advice would you give?

AJJ:   I'm worried my advice will be stuff they've heard before. I don't have any huge original secrets like "use more umlauts." To me, the most important thing, I think, is just to generate ideas nonstop. Be an idea machine. Because rarely - especially when you're starting out - will someone assign you a book or a freelance article. You have to pitch relentlessly. And second, over-report. Especially if you're describing a scene. Write down every detail, even the ones that seem trivial - the sound of American Gladiators playing in the background, for instance. You never know what you'll end up using .

Blesseth thee, A.J. Jacobs. I hath enjoyed this very much. Verily, verily much, I say unto thee.

P.S.: This before/after will never stop crackething (?) me up.

An Interview with Literary Essayist (and endearing curmudgeon) Arthur Krystal

Do pop by BiblioBuffet.com and have a look at my interview with essayist Arthur Krystal. He's such a delight.

His latest book, The Half-Life of the American Essayist, is a read I'd recommend very highly to those who, like me, enjoy the literary essay.

If you care about literature and the fate of the literary essay make sure you "vote" for them via your pocketbook. It's  a genre that's imperiled at the least, possibly even endangered, and we don't need to lose any more of these gems than we already have.

Publishers aren't willing to risk much money on genres that don't sell boatloads of books. And these essays fall into that category.

We all know newspapers are cutting back their books sections, but you may not realize how difficult it actually is to get a book of literary essays published. Those who care about the fate of serious literature need to dig in their heels now, before we lose anything else we can't afford to.

And I don't think we can afford to lose the Arthur Krystals of the world.

My interview with Kim Powers, author of 'Capote in Kansas: A Ghost Story'

My recent interview with author Kim Powers is up over at BiblioBuffet. I think it turned out rather well, mostly because Kim's so charming.

I hope you'll swing by and check it out!

Guest Blogger This Week: Lisa Adams, co-author of 'Why We Read What We Read'

I'm thrilled to hand over my forum to Lisa Adams this week, co-author along with John Heath, of the recent wonderful book about current bestselling books and why people read them. Lisa will be guest posting on Wednesday and Friday.

To kick things off, here is an interview I conducted with Lisa. If this whets your appetite, you can visit her website and learn more about the book. The authors also maintain a blog featuring lots more updates on subjects related to books and reading. Check it out!

LG: What inspired you to write 'Why We Read What We Read?' What message do you hope readers will take away, after reading it?

LA: We wrote Why We Read What We Read because we were just plain curious about bestsellers and reading habits. We knew the titles of many bestsellers and had even read some, but we noticed that our own reading did not correlate very well with the official lists. (Man, has THAT changed!) What were we missing? What has America been interested in, and how in or out of touch were we? We really had no clue about the overall picture—the kinds of books people were reading, or how they tied together across genres. And what we found was so shocking, dismaying and hilarious all at once that we just had to share.

Mainly, we want readers to learn a bit about what’s going on out there in American bestsellers and have a fun time doing it. Most previous books on bestsellers have been scholarly and straightforward, but that just wouldn’t do for silly people like us. We wanted the book to be entertaining in its own right, so we had to go for spunky and irreverent. And we certainly hope people enjoy that.

Buried in the spunkiness, though, is a serious message: the way we are reading is actually pretty dangerous from a democratic perspective. When you have a whole society of people choosing to read books that attempt to deny/eliminate complexity and confirm what readers already believe, you don’t end up with a community that knows how to discuss or resolve real-world problems. It actually does matter if, how, and why we read.

LG: How long did it take to research such an ambitious, informative book?

LA: We started working on the book in spring of 2003. We were all gleeful and excited and so we began our research and wrote the first few chapters over a period of several months.

That’s about the time we realized we had made a serious mistake in writing a time-sensitive book. Our chapters were pure genius (we agreed on that), yet wicked people kept putting out more bestsellers, thus requiring us almost daily to alter our brilliant prose! We knew we had two choices: 1) finish the dang thing, or 2) spend our lives rewriting it.

Or did we? We opted for hidden choice #3: seeing if anyone was actually interested in publishing our book. When we got our contract with Sourcebooks, we had six weeks to write the last three chapters! We had tried to keep up with our reading, but Lisa still had to read something like 30 novels last December. And John had to read another book by Ann Coulter. It was insane, but at least it stopped the endless revising.

So, concept to publication, it took about three and a half years.

LG: Was it difficult collaborating on this project?

LA: After the first year it became increasingly difficult to work together, since we had each taken out a restraining order on the other.

No, seriously, it was so much easier than either of us expected. As writers we have different strengths, but they both work well in a silly, snarky book like this one. We knew the style and structure we wanted. So the collaboration was great. For each section, one of us would take a stab at a first draft, and the other would then edit. Sure, we had our disagreements over various words and passages, but one of us always managed to intimidate the other into submission. The collaboration worked because each of us genuinely appreciated what the other person brought to the book, and in the end it was better than it would have been had either of us gone solo.

LG: What's your background? How did you come to be so interested in the subjects of books and reading?

LA: No secret here: we’re just big nerds. We’ve always been book-lovers. John’s a nerdy literature professor, and Lisa is a nerdy writer and a nerdy writing instructor. Even our dog is nerdy, constantly pointing out passages in Marley and Me in a vain effort to prove she could be worse. We fantasize about having our own library all the time.

But we’re also fascinated by American culture. We kept hearing people talking at social events about the books they were reading, and we started to wonder how much their choices overlapped with our own and those of the majority of Americans.

LG: Which authors do you admire? What books have most shaped your life?

John: Although there have been numerous books, both novels and non-fiction, that have been influential, it’s more a matter of style and tone. The authors who first made me want to read, and especially write, were the great New Yorker authors of the 20s and 30s: White, Thurber, Parker, and Benchley, as well as the biting wit of Mencken. Clearly I’m hopelessly out of date, which is why Why We Read What We Read was such an eye-opener.
Lisa: I remember lying face-down on my bed as a kid, sobbing my eyes out because Mary—Laura Ingalls Wilder’s snotty sister, who happened to be my favorite character in the Little House on the Prairie books—had just gone blind. Though I had always loved books, I think it was at that moment that I realized how real they were to me. They’ve always been part of my life, my thinking. Nowadays I love just about anything that is both beautifully crafted and thematically compelling. The topic or genre isn’t as important as the construction of the language and the exploration of the characters and/or ideas.

LG: Is there anything you've read this year that's been particularly impressive, and that you'd recommend?

LA: Since we’ve mainly been keeping up with the bestseller lists this year, we probably haven’t come across too many hidden gems—but we quite enjoyed The Emperor of Scent by Chandler Burr (a surprisingly fascinating book about the science of smell).

LG: What sort of writing schedule do you keep? Are you disciplined about it, and how do you balance life and writing?

LA: Oh man. We wish we could say we write every day, but that’s not even close to true. The ironic thing is, as wonderful as it is to get published, the revisions, editing, and post-publication PR kind of suck up all the time and energy that you’d normally put in to writing. So that’s mainly what we’ve been doing this year. In general, we both have flexible jobs, but not a whole lot of spare time. We simply try to write as much as we can, taking advantage of the windows of opportunity that open. And, of course, we play the lottery.

LG: What writing projects are you working on now? What's next for the both of you?

LA: Prepare for a freakishly eclectic list!

Right now we are starting work on a vocabulary textbook for middle schools, to be followed by a romantic comedy screenplay. (Yes, two great tastes that go great together.) Then separately, we’ve always got various works in progress. John co-writes musical plays for elementary school classrooms and is working on a book about the ancient Greek tragic vision (fun stuff!), while Lisa is chipping away at her adult and juvenile fiction.

An Interview with Nora Coon, 19 Year Old Author

I'm not sure it gets more impressive than this. A 19-year old college student who has already published three nonfiction books.

I virtually "bumped into" Nora Coon while working on my doomed National Novel Writing Month project, which bit that dust kicked up by grad school. Nora very kindly agreed to answer a few interview questions for me. I find her a fascinating young woman. I think you will, too.

Check out Nora's Blog at: http://seegirlwrite.blogspot.com

   

1). Can you tell me, briefly, about the three books you've published? How difficult was it for a teenager to get into print?

Certainly.  I have three books published: It's Your Rite, Teen Dreams Jobs, and The Diabetes Game.  Both It's Your Rite and Teen Dream Jobs were published by Beyond Words Publishing (www.beyondword.com). 

It's Your Rite is a collection of girls' coming-of-age stories.  I put the collection together and contributed several parts.  Teen Dream Jobs is a how-to book that tells teenagers how to get a job that they actually enjoy.  The Diabetes Game was published by Rewarding Health (www.rewardinghealth.com). 

I suppose you could call that a more personal book - it's a book for teenagers with diabetes, about how to have a normal (i.e. enjoyable) life with diabetes.  I've had Type 1 diabetes (the kind that doesn't go away) since I was 11 years old, and The Diabetes Game was published in my senior year of high school.

I had, I think, a fairly unusual entry into the publishing world.  When I was 12, I attended a local writing conference in Portland, Oregon - the Willamette Writer's Conference (www.willamettewriters.com).  I signed up to pitch a book to Michelle McCann, who was then the Children's Editor at Beyond Words Publishing.  While she didn't accept the book, she invited me to pitch to her again, and later asked if I would like to intern (I had neglected to mention my precise age). 

After a good deal of legal maneuvering, I began interning at Beyond Words.  I spent nearly two years there; I was homeschooling at the time, so I had a lot of free time.  Shortly after I arrived, they asked me to write a piece for a collection they were putting together about kids traveling (Going Places).  That was the first time I actually got paid for my writing, though I'd had some poems published in (www.teenink.com) and won an essay contest.

I'd been interning at Beyond Words for about a year when my supervisor, the new Children's Editor, told me about a book they'd thought of - It's Your Rite, in its earliest stages - and asked if I'd be willing to put it together.  I said yes, and that was it.  A year later, I pitched Teen Dream Jobs to her, and she bought it.

2). What inspires you to write? What started your love of this profession?

It's tough for me to pin down exactly what inspires me - I just love to tell stories.  You could spin it as me being a control freak, or me being fascinated by human nature, or a hundred other things, but it boils down to a love of stories.

When I try to figure out what started my love of writing, I have to turn to my mother; I started writing around the age of four, which is before I have any real memories.  She could tell you any one of a hundred stories about the first time I wrote a story, but I'm afraid she's really to blame.  Since I was about three years old, she's been telling me all kinds of stories - simple ones at
first, about princesses who wished that it would stop raining, or girls who didn't want to take baths, and then more complex stories involving travels to "lands of adventure", as she called them.

Sorry, Mom.  It's all your fault.

3). How has NaNoWriMo helped your writing? What sort of piece are you working on, and do you hope to publish it?

NaNoWriMo gave me a kick that I really needed, back in my senior year of high school, and since then I've relied on it whenever I could use a boost.  It's the absolute lack of quality expectations that helps, I think - no one cares how good your writing is.  All they care about is whether or not you write.  This year I've dragged my mother into it as well, and she's absolutely loving it.

As for my piece this year - well.  How can I say this?  It was originally intended as an experiment to see if I could write high-concept literary fiction, and (surprise, surprise) I can't.  At least, not without tossing in drag racing, modern-day Malaysian pirates, pyromaniacs, and exotic dancers.  Last year's novel, though it didn't quite stick to the original plot, was a little more faithful.

When it comes to publication, my usual philosophy is "never say never", but in this case I'll go ahead and say: never.  I view NaNoWriMo novels as more of pressure cookers to see if the characters are any good - if they are, maybe I'll yank them out of their current plot and setting and stick them somewhere else.  My writing is generally very character-driven anyway.

Remarkably, the only NaNo piece that I'm seriously editing for submission is my National Novel Writing Day 2007 novel.  So far, about twenty pages are ready for viewing by the general public, and I'm pretty sure all of those were additions after I finished the first draft.

4). How many years have you been doing NaNoWriMo? Do you intend to keep participating, or do you think at some point it will have less relevance to your career?

This is my third year doing NaNoWriMo specifically; I also participated in National Novel Writing Day twice.  So far, I've succeeded once at NaNoWriMo (last year) and once at NaNoWriDay (the first time).  I absolutely intend to keep participating - I think that there's something incredibly freeing about not allowing yourself to worry about what you're writing, and simply writing instead.

5). How tough is it balancing being a student and also a writer? How do you fit it all in?

It's very difficult sometimes - interestingly, it was actually harder to balance during high school.  That might have something to do with the fact that in high school, I was under contract for both Teen Dream Jobs (my freshman year) and The Diabetes Game (my senior year), which meant a lot of extra work.  I actually had to drop a course during my freshman year in order to finish Teen Dream Jobs, and was forced to opt out of a creative writing elective course in my senior year to get The Diabetes Game done. 

My first year doing NaNoWriMo was also my senior year of high school, and I just couldn't do it - I had a 13-page research paper on Chechnya due in early December, and I barely made it to 20,000 words.  I came dangerously close to failing geometry thanks to my penchant for writing during class, and to this day I probably couldn't tell you much about arcs and cosines.  I'm very lopsided when it comes to academics.

Now that I'm in college, I have a bit more freedom.  I still don't always fit it all in, and I'm embarrassed to admit that usually the schoolwork goes first.  My professors have been as understanding as anyone could expect them to be when I explain about NaNoWriMo, but I definitely struggle to fit everything in.

And then I'm left wondering why, since my Saturday nights still seem to end up free.  Poor time management, I suppose.

6). What writers do you admire? Which have most influenced your own writing?

I have a wide range of beloved authors, including Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Joseph Heller, Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Homer (yes, I admit it!  I loved The Odyssey!), Robin McKinley, Brian Jacques...as well as some favorite picture book authors whose names I can't recall.  As for my strongest influences, I think whoever I'm reading at the time tends to influence my writing.  After a Brian Jacques binge during fourth and fifth grade, my writing suddenly included a lot of highly detailed feasts and battles.  Interestingly, as I look back over that list, I realize that none of those authors write/wrote contemporary YA fiction, which is pretty much all I'm doing right now. I suppose it's more the style and less the subject matter that shows up in my writing.  Sadly, I haven't been able to do a great deal of extracurricular fiction reading since beginning college.  I did read one fantastic book, though, over fall break: The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak.

7). Aside from writing, what are your major interests? Speaking of major, what's your college major?

That's a tough one.  My major interests besides writing...reading, I suppose?  But that doesn't really count.  I'm a big soccer fan, though I was never much of an athlete myself.  Honestly, most of what interests me involves storytelling in one form or another - I love movies, television, books, and every once in a while I'll make a very poor clay animation film.  I'm afraid my brain is
permanently set in "story" mode.  Even when I go to art museums, I'm always drawn to paintings and sculptures that tell some kind of story.

As for my college major, that would be English.  We don't have a Creative Writing major here at Grinnell College, but almost every semester we have guest professors from the Iowa Writer's Workshop who teach writing courses.  I've considered a double major in English and History (since what is history but stories that happen to be true?), but I'm not sure I'm up to that level of
commitment.

8). What are your plans for the future? Is being a writer something you plan to put more effort into pursuing?

Absolutely.  There are plenty of uncertainties in my future - the largest being how I'll support myself - but writing is a definite.  I'd like to strike a balance between novels and nonfiction books, if possible.  Besides writing, I've come up with altogether too many ideas for my future.  Recent plans include: working as a travel writer and staying away from First World countries for a few years (I met a guy who did this while I was in South America), getting a pilot's license and flying down in the British Virgin Islands (the result of briefly flying a plane while staying in the B.V.I.), earning a degree in Library Sciences and being a children's librarian/working in the Library of Congress...  It's all pretty fluid.  No matter what else I do, I'll definitely be writing.

An Interview with Matt Raymond, Library of Congress

An Interview with the Director of Communications, Library of Congress

Thank you so much to Matt Raymond, Director of Communications for the Library of Congress. He took time out of his incredibly busy schedule to answer a few questions for me. Mr. Raymond writes the blog for the Library of Congress, in addition to his other duties.

LG: What do you see as the primary role of the Library of Congress? Aside from its sheer immensity, what is its most important function?

MR: The Library of Congress, as our name implies, serves the U.S. Congress and is part of the Legislative Branch. But we are also a remarkable resource for the public and the world, making our collections and programs available in 21 reading rooms and 22 million items on our Web site. The Library of Congress still exists in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson as a universal repository of human knowledge, helping provide the foundation of the informed citizenry, wisdom and human understanding that are necessary for the health of our democracy.

LG: What's available to visitors of the LOC? Is it actually a circulating library?

MR: One of the first questions people usually ask here is, "Where are all the books?" There are indeed millions of them, and generally they're most readily available and for use by the public in our various reading rooms if you have a "reader registration card," our version of a library card. We also participate in Interlibrary Loan with both domestic and foreign libraries.

Visitors on Capitol Hill can marvel at the Thomas Jefferson Building itself, constructed in 1897 in the style of the Italian Renaissance and considered by many to be the most beautiful building in Washington, D.C.

We also offer free events, such as author lectures, poetry readings and a wide variety of concerts, plus wonderful exhibits on the history and culture of our nation and world. The exhibits draw on our collection of 134 million items, which grows at a rate of 10,000 items per day, and comprise virtually every format—not just books, but also films, sound recordings, manuscripts, prints, photographs, maps--and they're found in roughly 470 different languages.

In April 2008, we will be reintroducing the Library to the public like never before in the Thomas Jefferson Building and online with a new experience for visitors. The impetus is the new Capitol Visitor Center, to which the Jefferson Building will be connected by an underground passageway, which we expect will significantly increase our on-site visitors. We will use cutting-edge technology to present history and culture in a fun, engaging and educational way, side by side with such original artifacts as the Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence, written in Jefferson's own hand, or the 1507 Waldseemueller Map, which is the first map to use the word "America" and is often called "America's Birth Certificate."

LG: Are there regular seminars or workshops available there, for library professionals?

MR: Yes, there are, for library professionals and educators alike. And as often as possible, we try to bring this kind of outreach directly into communities, and we are looking to our Web site to expand on some of these opportunities. The Internet has opened up new possibilities for the Library of Congress that are limited only by our resources and by human ingenuity.

LG: How long has the blog been operating? What's its focus?

MR: We officially launched the blog on April 24, 2007, which was the 207th birthday of the Library of Congress. It is tough to boil down the essence of this vast and amazing institution in a single blog with a single author, and a lot of helpers, but I try to act as a bit of a navigator for readers around the many events, programs and activities that are constantly going on here. Readership of blogs just keeps going up, and it's a natural way people expect to get information and, especially, to interact. Government and educational institutions clearly need to be a part of the vibrant dialog that is taking place on blogs.

LG: What's been the most memorable part of your job, since becoming Director of Communications?

MR: Wow, where to start? Every day is memorable in its own way, and every day there is the stimulation of learning or experiencing something new.

But one day that sticks out was when we showed some of our "top treasures" to a video crew. Some of those will be on display for visitors beginning next April, but at the time, it was a rare opportunity for me. So here I was looking at original drafts of, say, the Emancipation Proclamation or the Second Inaugural address, both in Lincoln's hand, and I was surprised at the emotional response they provoked in me. I hope it doesn't sound corny, but there was something very deeply moving about seeing such beautiful and important words, which changed the course of our history, written in the hands of the great figures who wrote or spoke them. Moments like that really help to connect past and present, and in unexpected ways.

LG: What's your background? Had you been working in the library field previously?

MR: I'm not a librarian by training, but about half of the Library's 4,000 employees are. My degree is in journalism, and I was a TV reporter for a few years coming out of school. I had previously fallen in love with Washington, D.C., so when I got the opportunity to move here and work in the Congress, I leapt at it. I worked there for eight years and then worked a few more years at USDA and UNICEF before coming to the Library. This is definitely a dream job, though.

LG: What do you enjoy reading? Have you read anything lately you'd recommend?

MR: We hold the National Book Festival every year on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and I have to say my favorite pavilion is History & Biography. I just read Michael Beschloss's book called "Presidential Courage." I'm a big fan of writers like him, David McCullough, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and others who can make history come alive in a very novelistic way. We tend to think of historical figures as these towering, infallible icons, so I am endlessly fascinated to learn about them more as actual people--what motivated them, how they suffered many of the same basic or mundane problems the rest of us do.

LG: Anything else you'd like the general public to know about the LOC and what it offers?

MR: Well, a motto we have used for a while is that we are "more than a library." This is not just some museum of the book, it is an active and dynamic place with a lot of great things to see and experience. We want visitors to come for the exhibits or for the aesthetics of the Jefferson Building, but we also want them to become lifelong learners and patrons of the Library of Congress, or their own libraries. The Internet is easily one of the most significant achievements in history, but it is quite breath-taking to think how much is in libraries that you cannot possibly find on the Web. There is a very big iceberg out there, and too many people see only the tip.

Check It Out!

Come check out my interview with author Roy Kesey over at my weekly BiblioBuffet column.

His phenomenal collection of short stories, All Over, was published by Dzanc Books, an independent press committed to making a real difference in the world.

Author Interview: Selah Saterstrom

Selah Saterstrom's second novel, The Meat and Spirit Plan, will be published next month by one of my favorite independent publishers, Coffee House Press.

I'm running short on adequate description to say how brilliant I think this novel truly is, so here's what Publisher's Weekly had to say (deleting what may be too much plot spoiler):

" This dark first-person tale of youthful initiation by Mississippi-born Saterstrom (The Pink Institution) follows a feisty narrator from public housing in a backward Southern town to the sodden grit of university life in Glasgow. The young, unnamed narrator of these detached vignettes falls into bad company as her drug-addict mother largely disappears and her older sister introduces her to sex and booze. ... Saterstrom's coming-of-age narrative is tough and unblinking, and the moments of clarity provide immense satisfaction. (Sept.) "

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Let me just add to this, the prose is breathtaking, as worthwhile to read for the quality of the writing itself as for the compelling story.

Selah was gracious enough to grant me an interview:

LG: What sort of childhood did you have? Were you the sort of child who lived a lot in your imagination?

SS: Growing up I had a whole slew of cousins and my childhood was filled with adventures and misadventures with them. Between us we had an extraordinary amount of imagination. We would stage plays and other "experimental" productions which could be quite ... interesting! We always practiced having a wonderful sens of humor in my family.

There was this way that our collective energy and applied imagination was able to disrupt the landscape into its more surreal versions. Surrealist writers have been important to me and reading them has taught me a great deal about the generative aspects of transgression, and how the dream - as a form of literature - makes it possible to break out of binary ghettos we may have set up for ourselves. When I think of my continued fascination with these things I think my childhood spent with cousins, how we were experimenting with other ways of knowing and engaging through our imaginations. Those times were great fun, never lacking in drama, and taught me a lot about the power of story.

LG:  Were you a big reader as a child? What were your favorite books?

SS:  Reading was celebrated by the adults in my life when I was a child. Reading was never a stodgy thing to do. For example, it was sneakiness of the highest order for my sister and I to turn on flashlights after the adults went to bed and read Nancy Drew under the covers when we should have been sleeping.

My grandfather had a large library and taught us about the importance of reading and writing. His library was full of history, philosophy, psychology, religion and the classics, and we mainly read from this library, which meant as a child I read a great deal of Plato, Shakespeare and French writers such as Hugo, all of whom were great favorites. I don't know that I always understood what I was reading then, but it was when I began to love how language could flow and how it felt in the body.

LG: Have you always wanted to be a writer, or did you have a moment of epiphany when you chose that vocation? Or did it choose you?

SS:  I had early experiences that I look back on now as having divinatory significance about being a writer. What those experiences had in common is that they involved the act of seeing and the power of story to make available the logic of mystery - of uncertainty - as a way that made things bearable and known to the heart's experience.

As a child I once saw a relative's dead body and I remember thinking, "Well, after seeing that I can see anything." I had this overwhelming sense that this meant something important and that it was a kind of ethical responsibility to be willing to see what was there to be seen. What I did with that seeing was to write. I wrote my first story when I was around seven, and don't remember a time after when I didn't want to write (though sometimes I also wanted to be a ball-gown designer in New York City or a nun). I don't think anyone in my family is surprised that I'm a writer now. Did I choose it? Did it choose me? I have no idea. When I think back to early childhood experiences of writing I only remember that it always felt right, compulsory, very, very close.

LG: The narrator of The Meat and Spirit Plan is a very complex, incredibly intelligent young woman who's also very mixed up. What inspired you to write about her?

SS:  When I was working with "troubled" teenaged girls, I saw the uniqueness of their lives and their fierce intelligence, but I also saw correspondences in their experiences of the body. Futhermore, I saw correspondences between their stories and many of my friends' stories. I was also affected by other stories, such as the story of the sexual abuse and death of Hunter College student Ramona Moore.

As part of my research for this book I also interviewed women who had been sexually abused, and I realized that sexual abuse - something we tend to think of as the exception to the rule - really isn't the exception. I also work for SASA, a sexual assault advocacy, support, and response team, and the statistics that state one out of three women will be in some way sexually violated is alarmingly accurate and thriving.

Through this narrator - who has a variety of sexual experiences, some of which are violations and some which are not - I wanted to examine the cultural conditions around young people and the ways they come into their bodies. I was interested in how sometimes the moment of sexual awareness coincides with moments of sexual disempowerment or disembodiment. Of course there are a lot of reasons why this happens, but what interested me was the break-down in communication we have about bodies in our culture and how this plays out among teenagers and what happens when those teenagers grow up - how we all learn to celebrate our bodies, with their history and complexities, as adults.

LG: Mississippi has been the native state of some of the greatest American authors, including William Faulkner and Eudora Welty. What is it about the South, and Mississippi in particular, that makes for such a wealth of literary genius?

SS:  If only I could offer some insights to this question! I do believe that each region retains its own magical synergy and that this synergy is created by many details – from the kind of flora that grows in the region, the weather, the history of the region itself – the history that is retold and celebrated as well as the history that is not told, is not celebrated.

The way these details come together in Mississippi creates quite a synergy. One need only listen to the Blues coming out of the North Mississippi Hill country and the Delta to sense this. And I’d add, gospel music (such as The Mississippi Mass Choir).

Mississippi is a place of contradictions that bears them viscerally and with soul. As southern scholar Susan Ketchin has said, the Deep South is a Christ-haunted landscape - faith and doubt sit beside one another and this juxtaposition creates a hybrid energy which infests language with possibility. It is a story driven place, where everything has a story (and has a secret version of its story). Perhaps for obvious reasons I like Faulkner’s idea, “To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi.”

Mississippi is a place I love very much. It has certainly been a generous landscape in which to ruminate upon the complexities of the human condition as well as the human heart.

Thank you so much to Selah Saterstrom. It was a pleasure.

An Interview with Susanne Dunlap, Author of 'Liszt's Kiss'

When an author is very familiar with her subject matter, it shows. Author Susanne Dunlap's life has been dedicated to music, and her passion for that comes through so clearly in her writing.

Liszt's Kiss is a historical novel set in 19th century Paris, where art and music reigned supreme. It's a world peopled by the rich and famous, at the same time that the city was gripped by a cholera epidemic. Anne de Barbier-Chouant is a young musical prodigy, a girl taught her love of the pianoforte by her own music-adoring mother. But once her mother falls prey to the deadly disease Anne must turn elsewhere for support in her musical endeavors, as her father doesn't think it's a proper occupation for a young lady.

Fortunately for Anne, her mother's very good friend Marie d'Agoult takes it upon herself to continue her musical education. When Franz Liszt introduces himself to Marie she in turn leads him to Anne, the gifted prodigy. But it's not Anne that has his eye, and an interestingly convoluted romantic plot ensues, involving misunderstood meanings.

Meanwhile, in the background, a family secret looms large, and Anne's father struggles to keep that hidden, at any cost.

An Interview with Author Susanne Dunlap

1. What was it about Franz Liszt that captured your attention? What drew you to focus on him, and on this particular period of history?

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Franz Liszt is one of the most colorful characters in music history. He truly was the original “rock star” of music. He was handsome, romantic, and he took risks in his life and his music. It was very easy for me to imagine how it might feel to be a young woman and be completely enchanted by him as a man and as an artist.

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Musically, Liszt was a little bit of a late bloomer compared to Chopin and Schubert. So his early life, when he first came to Paris, is not as well documented as later on when he was touring heavily and then when he settled in Weimar to teach master classes. I always look for the cracks, for the potential of a “might have been,” when I’m writing my historical fiction, and this early part of Liszt’s life seemed ideal.

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As to the time period, I’m a pianist myself, and there is no more wonderful era for the piano than the romantic one, which started roughly with Schubert in the 1820s and continued through the 19^th century. I was able to play out (excuse the pun) a little of my own fantasy of being around when the composers who were my heroes were alive.

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2. How much time did you spend researching the history in order to write this novel?

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That’s always a difficult question. I spent eleven years in graduate school studying music history and writing about music in a more scholarly way. I have been able to rely on that background research for quite a bit of the material of my books.

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But there’s such a difference between the research one does in a very particular field and the research one must do in order to recreate a period in history. Whatever I thought I knew, for instance, I was not really aware of the devastating cholera epidemic until I read more widely for the sake of the story.

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3. The main female character, Anne de Barbier-Chouant, is a very spirited young lady. Was she based on an actual historical figure, or is she entirely fictional?

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Anne is entirely fictional, but I hope true to the period. Her choices were limited. Yet as a member of the aristocracy she would have had a little more freedom and options than women in other classes. On the other hand, the strictures of society also placed expectations on her that a shopkeeper’s wife would not have had.

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4. What authors do you feel have most influenced your writing? Which authors do you admire most?

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Influence vs. admire. That’s an excellent question. I am a passionate devotee of Virginia Woolf, Henry James, and all the Bloomsberries.

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Then there’s F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Kennedy, Elizabeth Bowen—there are too many to list. But my writing is not like any of them.

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It’s hard for me to identify any definite influences. Perhaps Anya Seton would be a good example. Problem is, I’d never read any Anya Seton before my first novel was published!

I cut my teeth on Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers and am a huge mystery fan. I always love a book that keeps me turning the pages.

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5. Do you keep a strict schedule in your writing? How difficult is it to balance writing and the rest of your life?

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I do keep a strict schedule, which is based on the principle of writing whenever I have a spare minute. I set my alarm for 5:15 am and aim to be at my computer by 5:30. That gives me an hour and a half before I have to start getting ready for work.

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Which answers in part the other question. I have a very demanding day-job, but in a peculiar sort of way, I think it helps to focus me.

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That said, I always accomplish a lot over the weekend and when I go on vacation. I’m extremely fortunate to have a very understanding partner, who not only gives me the time and space I need rather than demand I pay attention to him, but also loves me to read aloud as I finish things. (It also helps that I’m an empty nester. I have tremendous admiration for the people who can write while they raise families AND work.)

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6. Have you always wanted to be a writer, or was there one defining moment when you made that decision?

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It’s taken me a long time to find my vocation. I was a musician first. I made a few attempts at writing (which I always enjoyed doing) in my 20s, when I gave up the idea of a career as a pianist and started working in advertising.

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Then I left advertising to go to grad school and I thought would have a career teaching music history at the college level.

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I didn’t really discover that I had inadvertently groomed myself to write historical fiction based on musical subjects until I found out how difficult it would be to get a job I could actually take (meaning in the northeast), even with the credentials of a Yale PhD.

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7. If you could no longer be a writer, what career would you choose to pursue?

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Well, since I’ve been through so many careers to get to this point, I might just throw my hands up in the air. And in any case, the only thing that would ever prevent me from being a writer would be some mental incapacity—which would make me unfit for any other career anyway. I could no more stop writing than I could stop breathing.

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8. What other projects are you working on currently? What's next for you after Liszt's Kiss?

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More musical subjects, of course! I have two novels simmering: one that takes place in the early 17^th century in Florence and Paris, and another in the late 18^th century in Vienna. The wonderful thing about music history is that I don’t think I’ll ever run out of stories.

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9. As a public library employee myself, I have to ask if libraries played a significant role in your love of books and reading. Do you have any early memories of the influence libraries had on you?

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I LOVE LIBRARIES. Did I say that loudly enough? Let me repeat myself. I LOVE LIBRARIES! If I could spend all day every day in a library, I’d be the happiest person on earth.

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When I was little, almost one of the first things I was allowed to do by myself (with friends) was to go to the public library. I don’t remember all the books I used to take out, but one or two: The Witch of Blackbird Pond, practically everything Mary Stewart ever wrote. I still remember the local library in Kenmore, New York , right across Delaware Road from the junior high school. I remember the children’s library on the lower level, and the adult library on the main floor. I can still see myself wandering there, an armload of books ready to check out.

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I developed a taste for rare books and manuscript archives when I was in graduate school. Days in the British Museum , leafing through Handel manuscripts, or in Vienna at the Staatsbibliothek with Mozart and Salieri’s works, and less well-known composers too.

I should stop now, before your readers start to think there’s something odd about me . . .

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Thanks so much to Susanne Dunlap, and to her publicist as well, for sending me a review copy of this book and arranging the author interview.

Author Interview: Jennifer McMahon

Promise Not to Tell: a Novel by Jennifer McMahon

Part ghost story, part coming of age tale, Jennifer McMahon's Promise Not to Tell was a book I found impossible to put down. It features a dual plotline, alternating between past and present. At 41, Katie Cypher returns home to New Hope, Vermont to care for her mother who's suffering from Alzheimer's. Ghosts from her past begin to crop up after a local girl is murdered in the same way Katie's childhood best friend was murdered 31 years before.

An interview with Jennifer McMahon:

LG: Who, or what, influenced you most in your decision to become a writer? Have you always known you wanted to write?

JM: I wrote my first story, "The Haunted Meatball," in the third grade.  My teacher loved it and talked me into attending a summer writing course, where I started keeping a journal and never really stopped.  In junior high I read To Kill a Mockingbird, and thought, "Wow, I would like to be able to do that." I wrote a few short stories, and a really bad novel in high school.  By college, I saw myself as a poet, and I actually started work on an MFA in poetry after I graduated.

So I've always been writing and known I was a writer, I just wasn't sure anything would ever come of it. In 2000, I finished a novel, and decided to see if I could find an agent to represent me -- to my amazement, a well-respected agent loved it and took me on as a client.  I quit my day job to focus on writing full time (I was also building a house, so it wasn't quite full time).  Two agents, four novels and six years later, I finally sold Promise Not to Tell to HarperCollins -- it wasn't until that happened that I really believed I was going to be an honest-to-god paid writer. 

LG: What sort of writing schedule do you keep? What works for you to keep your writing on track?

JM:

I stay at home with my three year old, and my partner Drea works full time, so I write when and where I can -- I don't really have a set schedule.  If my daughter is contentedly playing by herself, I might get 15 or 20 minutes in.  When Drea or my mom is able to watch her for an hour or two, I take full advantage!   And I have learned to make very good use of what little writing time I have.  I do really well with deadlines, both from editors and self imposed, and this helps me keep on track.  I have a day planner that I use to make lists of everything I have to get done in a week.  Each day I look at the list to see where I'm at and what's next.  I'd be lost without it. 

LG: 'Promise Not to Tell' is a novel heavily influenced by the supernatural. What about this subject matter appealed most to you?

JM: I grew up believing in ghosts (I was totally convinced there was a spirit named Virgil living in my grandmother's attic) and with a love of scaring people.  My brother and I would have friends over for séances and stage elaborate "visitations" -- ghosts on fishing line, recordings of eerie voices in closets.  It worked every time, and it thrilled me to death.

When I began Promise, I had written three novels, two of which were being shopped around by an agent with very little success, and I told myself that the next book would be "the one". We were living in cabin deep in the woods of Vermont -- no electricity, phone, or running water, and a 1/4 mile hike up a steep hill.  Nights were sometimes pretty scary -- was that an owl?  or a woman screaming?  was the distant drumming a party?  or a cult in search of a sacrifice? -- and I had the idea that it would be a great setting for a ghost story.  I started re-reading authors like Stephen King and Peter Straub, thinking about what scared me.  Once I had my ghost -- Del Griswold -- I had to figure out how she had died.  She was murdered of course.  And who murdered her?  Why?  And so Promise evolved into a mystery too. 

LG: What contemporary writers do you admire? Have you read anything lately that you'd recommend?

JM:   A few writers I especially admire: Kate Atkinson, Anne-Marie MacDonald, Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, Ruth Rendell, Sarah Waters, Gillian Flynn, Denise Mina, Alice Sebold, Donna Tartt.  I've been reading a lot of good stuff lately, so it's hard to choose favorites.  I just read Laura Lippman's What The Dead Know and loved it.  In the crime/suspense genre, The Liar's Diary by Patry Francis was also great.  I just started The Dead Father's Club by Matt Haig, and it's fantastic so far.

LG: What's next for you? Are you working on another book?

JM:   I have a young adult book, My LaSamba Blues, coming from Dutton next summer -- it's about two misfit girls who fall in love.  I'm just finishing the edits on that one.  And another crime novel for adults coming from HarperCollins, also next summer (busy summer!).  It begins with a woman witnessing a young girl being kidnapped by someone in a rabbit suit.  That one is between titles at the moment.  Editing is about to begin on that one, and I think it's going to be great.

LG: Aside from writing, what sorts of hobbies, or pastimes, do you have? How do you spend your free time?

JM: Free....?  Time....?  Oh yes, I remember what that is!  Let's see,  I hang out with my daughter.  We go to playgroups, story time at the library, and do a lot of art projects.  I read whenever I can -- a wide range of stuff but lately I am loving crime fiction and mysteries.  One of the many wonderful aspects of being a published writer is that I am suddenly much more aware of all the great fiction that's coming out, and I want to read all of it!  I watch movies when I get the chance and particularly love a good horror flick.  I try to keep on top of the garden, but it's not easy.

LG: Finally, as a public library employee I'm compelled to ask, what role have libraries played in your love of books and reading?

JM: Libraries (and librarians) have been a tremendous resource for me throughout my life.   Growing up, I viewed the library as almost magical -- I could go in, pull a book off the shelves and be instantly transported to other worlds.  As an adult, libraries still carry a piece of that magic for me.  Anytime I start a new venture, be it putting in a perennial garden, taking up knitting, or deciding to write a ghost story, the library is always the first stop.  My daughter, who is three, has her own card, and we visit our two local libraries once or twice a week.  She is so happy to be able to pick out her own books -- she even likes returning them "so other kids can read them too."  It's wonderful to see her enjoying some of that library magic already!   

Photo by Paul E. Garstki

Jennifer McMahon's Website.