Omnivoracious

My Bookshelf, and Yours

As you may have noticed, the banner photo at the top of Omnivoracious is not just a generic bookshelf but, as you can see from the link below it on the right, mine. You can click through there (or here) to see an almost complete list of the books on the shelf. And better yet, you can submit your own bookshelf photo for us to feature in a coming week: just send the jpg to banner@omnivoracious.com.

But back to me--it's still my turn at the top! I picked this shelf not so much because of the books on it but because a) it's right by a window and gets the best light in my house, and b) it demonstrates, imperfectly, my bibliographic system, of which I am quite proud. How do you sort your books at home? I've tried plenty of systems (by author, by date of publication (cool but a pain to maintain), by color (big mistake--I put all the reds together and made myself queasy with all the colors that just barely didn't match)--but the basic one I've settled on for years is alphabetical by title. It's simple but capable of surprises. You always know where to file a book, and usually where to find one (unless you forget the title), but there's still a nice mix of randomness to the arrangement that makes me feel in control but not too oppressed by order. I especially like the juxtapositions that pop up by chance or by affinity: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas next to The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie, Middlemarch next to Middlesex.

Old Media Monday: Reviewing the Reviewers

New York Times:

• Sunday Book Review cover ("The Music Issue"): Geoff Dyer on The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross: "'The Rest Is Noise' is a work of immense scope and ambition. The idea is not simply to conduct a survey of 20th-century classical composition but to come up with a history of that century as refracted through its music.... With its key figures reappearing like motifs in a symphony, 'The Rest Is Noise' is a considerable feat of orchestration and arrangement. So much so that at times history itself seems bent on playing into Ross's hands."
• Stephen King on Clapton: An Autobiography by Eric Clapton: "Most A.A. meetings begin with the chairman offering his qualifications at the head table next to the coffee maker. This qualification is more commonly known in the program as the drunkalogue. It's a good word, with its suggestions of inebriated travel, and it certainly fits Eric Clapton's account of his life. 'Clapton' is nothing so literary as a memoir, but its dry, flat-stare honesty makes it a welcome antidote to the macho fantasies of recovery served up by James Frey in 'A Million Little Pieces.'"
• Stephanie Zacharek on Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me by Pattie Boyd: "'Wonderful Tonight' ... is a charming, lively and seductive book... Boyd seems like a real person who happened to be lucky enough to live shoulder to shoulder with rock deities. The prose is clear and unpretentious, and although she writes candidly about the pain her husbands' infidelities caused her ... this isn't a bitter tell-all screed."
• Jennifer Egan on Matrimony by Joshua Henkin: "Where coming-of-age novels tend to wave goodbye as their protagonists sally over the threshold to adulthood, Henkin hangs in long after that, tracking his characters for almost 20 years, into their mid-30s, when the weight of their adulthood can be truly felt. It's a coming-of-middle-age novel."
• Janet Maslin on The Snake Stone by Jason Goodwin: "To Mr. Goodwin's credit he manages to develop such a large and exotic cast of characters that the human intrigue in the series trumps its much-flaunted expertise. As it revels in Istanbul as a place 'positively overrun with mountebanks, schemers and dealers of every nationality, and none,' this sinuous novel corrals as many of these operators as it can and then sets them to work hoodwinking one another."

Washington Post:

• Michael Dirda on War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: "'Some day,' nearly all serious readers say to themselves, 'I really should sit down and start War and Peace.' For many of us, though, that day never quite comes.... But a fine new translation, especially one by the widely acclaimed team of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, offers an opportunity to see this great classic afresh, to approach it not as a monument (or mausoleum) but rather as a deeply touching story about our contradictory human hearts."

Los Angeles Times:

• Heller McAlpin on The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman: "'The Principles of Uncertainty' is an irresistible book, a graphic diary full of whimsy, worries, philosophical probing, offbeat observations and life-affirming enthusiasms.... Her paintbrush reveals as much agility as her mind, ranging from the flattened, childlike primitives of her dozen children's books to Matissean pink-infused still lifes and penetrating portraiture. Her draftsmanship is remarkable; she captures architectural interiors with the panache of a set designer."

Globe & Mail:

• Melanie Little on The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History by Katherine Ashenburg: "Rather than strangle the meaning from her anecdotes and examples the way my grandmother could wring every last droplet from a washcloth, Ashenburg is content to let the rich material she's amassed speak for itself. Reading this book, as a result, feels more like participating in a stimulating conversation than attending a lecture. And who doesn't like talking about the strange, telling hygiene habits of others?"

Times Literary Supplement:

• Carolyne Larrington on The Death of Socrates by Emily Wilson: "Wilson has written a sprightly and illuminating account of the events surrounding Socrates' execution by means of a self-administered drink of hemlock.... Wilson shows very clearly how Socrates' strangeness, his notorious ugliness, and his practice of a profession normally associated with foreigners, all combined to make him a troubling figure for the ordinary Athenian."

The New Yorker:

• Elizabeth Kolbert on Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future by Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran: "Carson ... and Vaitheeswaran ... are 'techno-optimists,' as opposed to the 'eco-pessimists' they sometimes deride. Yet their argument rests on an account of global trends that is nothing short of terrifying.... Were China and India to increase their rates of car ownership to the point where per-capita oil consumption reached just half of American levels, the two countries would burn through a hundred million additional barrels a day. (Currently, total global oil use is eighty-six million barrels a day.)"

--Tom

George R.R. Martin's Dreamsongs

New York Times Bestseller George R.R. Martin's Dreamsongs, consisting of collected fiction with copious story notes, is being published by Bantam in two volumes, the first now and the second in late November. Well before the success of his current heroic fantasy series, Martin was known for classic tales like "Sandkings," "Night Flyers," and "The Pear-Shaped Man." Having a selection of his stories in this two-volume set is an over-abundance of treasures. Fans and new readers alike should enjoy these sometimes horrific, sometimes moving, and always intelligent fictions. Recently, Martin took time out of his busy schedule to talk to me about Dreamsongs.

Amazon.com: How do you think you’ve changed as a short story writer over the years?

George R.R. Martin: Like any writer, I'd like to think I've gotten better. I know I've gotten longer.  In the early part of my career, I wrote nothing but short stories.  A novella like "A Song for Lya" seemed like an immensely long work to me, and I was so intimidated by novels that I did not complete one until six years into my career.  The me of 1972 would be astonished by these massive tomes that the me of 2007 is writing. Longer stories allow for more complex plots, deeper characterization, more nuanced examinations of the themes you're wrestling with, etc.  But there is something to be said for the clean, sweet simplicity of a good short story.  I wish I had the time to do more.

Amazon.com: Is this all of your published short fiction or did you leave some pieces out?

George R.R. Martin: This collection was intended as a retrospective of my career, so I wanted to include samples of all the different sorts of things I've written--SF, fantasy, horror, various hybrids of same, my Tuf series and my Wild Cards series, some teleplays from my Hollywood years, even some juvenilia from my days as a high school kid writing superhero "text stories" for the fanzines.  And of course it has all my award winners, and most of my award losers.  All of which makes it a huge collection, which is why Bantam is publishing it in two volumes.  Even so, we had to leave lots of stuff out. 

Amazon.com: “Sand Kings” was a huge influence on me as a young writer voraciously wolfing down story collections and fiction anthologies. It’s also clearly a classic story by this point. Did you have a sense when writing it that it was going to be something special?

George R.R. Martin: Heh.  Actually, no, not at all.  I talk about this in the commentary in Dreamsongs.  At the time I wrote "Sandkings" I was teaching at a small Catholic girl's college in Dubuque, Iowa. I did most of my writing over summer vacations, and during the Christmas and spring breaks.  The winter break in 1978-79 was especially productive for me, and I finished three stories in three weeks--"The Ice Dragon," "The Way of Cross and Dragon," and "Sandkings." If you had visited me the week after I completed the last of those, I would have told you that "Sandkings" was the weakest of the three.  I mean, I thought it was okay, mind you... but it was "The Ice Dragon" that I felt was really special. All three stories have done very well for me over the years, mind you, but "Sandkings" has become far and away the most successful short story I ever wrote.  It has earned me more than several of my novels, and until A Song of Fire and Ice it was the single thing that I was best known for.  So maybe it's true that an author is the worst judge of his work.

Amazon.com: Do you have a personal favorite or favorites in the collection?

George R.R. Martin: A bunch of them, for different reasons.  "Second Kind of Loneliness" was a breakthrough story for me, both personally and commercially.  "A Song for Lya" was my first novella, my first Hugo winner, the most ambitious story I had attempted to that point.  The aforementioned "Ice Dragon," which I still feel is one of my best crafted stories.  "The Hedge Knight," which introduced Dunk & Egg.  And "Portraits of His Children," which comes last in the book for good reason.

Amazon.com: Are you currently working on any short fiction?

George R.R. Martin: The third Dunk & Egg novella... although I've had to put that aside for the moment while I try to finish A Dance With Dragons.  I do intent to contribute a Dying Earth story to the Vance anthology [I'm co-editing], of course, and I have been noodling a few ideas for that one.

--Jeff

Marilynne Robinson: New Novel Next Fall

A little like the Red Sox, who waited 86 years to win a World Series in 2004 but took only three more years to win their next title (last night!), Marilynne Robinson, after a 24-year-gap between her first novel, Housekeeping, and her second, Gilead, is not making her fans wait nearly as long for her third novel. According to PW Daily, she's just signed with Farrar Straus Giroux, the publisher of her previous novels, to publish Home, which she has already completed, in September 2008. The title echoes her first book, but the story, apparently, is connected with the second, taking place at the same time as, and sharing some of the characters with, Gilead.

People who know me know I love Housekeeping as much as the Sox, and the Pulitzer-winning Gilead was a very worthy follow-up, so this news makes me so excited I want to do a Papelbon dance. --Tom

David Lubar: Taking His Halloween Weenies On the Road

Ever wondered why pigeons always poop in the park? Or why you should be nice to your math teacher? Award-winning children's author David Lubar serves up horrifying answers to these questions and more in his just-released The Curse of the Campfire Weenies, a follow-up to In the Land of the Lawn Weenies and Invasion of the Road Weenies. These witty, exciting, and hilarious books have been wildly popular--to the point that the publisher, Starscape, had a publicist dress up as a weenie at a library conference a few years back (see photo below, of Lubar posing with said publicist/weenie).

The hard-working Lubar has been doing events around the country, and we caught up with him long enough to ask a few questions about kids and his books.

Amazon.com: What're some of the best experiences you've had talking to kids at various events?

David Lubar: Basically, it’s an amazing experience to meet a group of kids who have read my books and are excited about them. I was never one of the cool kids in school, so it is somewhat surreal to be greeted this way. The fat kid who was really bad at sports, not much better at socializing, and rarely invited anywhere now generates excitement when he walk into an auditorium I think one of my absolute favorite moments was when a young lady in sixth grade held up a copy of Hidden Talents and said, “This book is da bomb.” I'm fairly certain that was a compliment. Earlier this year, I got to give the keynote at the annual conference for Mayor Daley's Book Club in Chicago. I spoke to 800 high school students who cared enough about reading to get up very early on a Saturday morning. I still might not be cool, but that day, and that group of kids, was definitely way cool.

Amazon.com: Do you learn anything from talking to them?

David Lubar: Yeah. There’s no better way to learn whether an anecdote is interesting than to tell it to an auditorium crammed full of seventh graders. Especially after lunch on the day before a vacation. The middle school arena teaches you the necessity of holding the audience’s interest, which is a skill that translates well onto paper. During question-and-answer, and through casual conversations, I also learn what parts of my stories and books they enjoyed and what parts weren’t as clear as I had believed. Kids are not shy about letting you know when something doesn’t work. This is as it should be. Above all, I’ve learned that reading is still alive and thriving in our schools and that books are here to stay.

Amazon.com: How has your writing changed since your first book?
David Lubar: I’d love to offer some major technique I've learned about narrative structure, or recount some great revelation about the role of epiphanies as they relate to unreliable narrators, but the change has come through hundreds of small lessons. I've been studying writing for more than 30 years, and I continue to learn and improve...I know I've gotten better at description, which is something I tend to avoid as much as possible. I think my ability to weave subplots through a novel has improved. I've kept the advice of Robert McKee (Story) in mind when it comes to structuring scenes, along with the advice of Orson Scott Card (Character and Viewpoint) on a number of topics, topping it off with the wisdom found in four shelves filled with writing books. Though I have to admit that I'm far from the perfect student. I can get sidetracked by ideas that aren't central to the story, or introduce more characters than necessary. And I still tend to overwrite my openings. (Though I now have the discipline to go at them with a razor.)

For more information on Lubar's books, visit his website. --Jeff

Old Media Monday (err...Sunday): Authors on the Tube

This week's author/newsmaker television appearances you might want to check out:

Monday, October 29th
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Michael J. Gerson, author of Heroic Conservatism: Why Republicans Need to Embrace America's Ideals (And Why They Deserve to Fail If They Don't)

Tuesday, October 30th
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Valerie Plame Wilson, author of Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House

The Colbert Report
J. Craig Venter, author of A Life Decoded: My Genome: My Life

Did I miss an appearance?  Give me a shout in our Comments section and I'll be glad to investigate.

--Dave

Weekend Reading List

Up late and looking for a good read?  Here are a few titles the Amazon.com Books Team is reading this weekend.

The Wheelman by Duane Swierczynksi - Daphne
Strange As This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake - Tom
The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History by Katherine Ashenburg - Mari
The History of the Snowman by Bob Eckstein - Dave

Any of those look good?  Give us a shout in our Comments title and we'll post more info next week. 

--Dave

David Michael Slater's Fun Books for K-5 Kids

Fun books for Kindergarten to Grade 5 kids are hard to find sometimes. David Michael Slater has written a good half-dozen, for Magic Wagon's Looking Glass Library: Seven Ate Nine, Ned Loses His Head, Missy Swiss, Flour Girl, The Sharpest Tool, and Comin' Through. There's a delightfully literal quality to some of them. Ned Loses His Head, for example, starts out as a story about a kid who is forgetful, and then becomes a wild romp when Ned does lose his head. Seven Ate Nine features talking numbers and, er, an unfortunate incident. A series of them, actually. Some of the other books tackle topics like being the new kid at school, wanting to be a hero, being the youngest (in this case, with talking tools), and how too many "cooks" can spoil a "recipe." It's very funny at times, and I can just see young kids giggling at the art and the situations.

Says Slater about his books, "The most enjoyable aspect of writing picture books for me is taking on the challenge of writing stories that will appeal to both children and adults. As the parent of a six-year-old, I know what it's like to have to read a book a few thousand times! It has been gratifying to hear back from adults who like the books as much as their kids."

All of the books are published in a handsome rectangular hardcover format with the art printed on the boards, schoolbook style. The art is lively and fun. And while Slater may cover some important topics for young children, he rarely preaches. Highly recommended for parents who are looking for good, wholesome, but never boring books for their kids. --Jeff

 

Heroic Fantasy Part II: A Discussion with Hot New Authors

Joe Abercrombie, Karen Miller, Brian Ruckley, and Brandon Sanderson are four of the new generation of fantasists currently putting their mark on the field. Today I'm posting the conclusion of my round table interview with them. You can read the first part here.

Amazon.com: What literary influences do you have that readers might be surprised by?

Joe Abercrombie: Off the top of my head and trying not to get too pretentious--Charles Dickens (for weird and wonderful characters and dialogue), Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (for how people really behave under pressure), James Ellroy (for shocks and surprises in both plot and character), Philip Larkin (for fearlessness, brevity, and withering cynicism). Okay, so that was pretty pretentious, but hey, I'd stick J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Moorcock, and George RR Martin in there with 'em. That's quite a dinner party, thinking about it. Then a lot of writers of history as well--let's pick out Shelby Foote for his Narrative History of the Civil War. But I'm a film editor by trade, and so I tend to find a lot of inspiration in film and television as well--everything from Manga, to Westerns, to Film Noir, to Cop Shows.

Karen Miller: Theatre, and Dorothy Dunnett. I'm a playwright, and I act and direct with my local theatre company. Theatre is psychological writing, and it's dialogue-driven storytelling. I think my love of theatre has really impacted on my style--which might explain my answer to question 1. Dorothy Dunnett was an extraordinary writer of historical fiction. Her six-book Lymond cycle, set in sixteenth century Scotland and Europe, really showed me what was possible in terms of creating character, revealing character, writing emotionally. The depth and richness of her work is magnificent. I'm not in her league yet, but it's something I'm working towards.

Brian Ruckley: I'm not sure exactly how surprising it is, but I've always read a lot of history books--everything from the prehistoric Stone Age through Rome and Byzantium to the British and American civil wars. I'd recommend it for any aspiring writer of fantasy fiction: one thing you quickly learn is that real world history is almost always more bloody, brutal, surprising and dramatic than what fiction authors make up. Little bits of all that reading show up throughout Winterbirth. The prologue has a scene that's an echo of the Spartans holding the pass at Thermopylae; one of my non-human races--the Kyrinin--is loosely based on a combination of prehistoric European and Native American cultures; there are hints of the Scottish clans and even of medieval Venice. 

Brandon Sanderson: Herman Melville. Moby Dick is an awesome work for a fantasy reader. The detailed world he creates might have been something from the real world, but it feels as alien and interesting to me as anything from an epic fantasy. I eat that stuff up.

Amazon.com: What are you working on now?

Joe Abercrombie: Editing of the last part of the trilogy, Last Argument of Kings, has just now finally been completed, so it's time to start something new.  In this case it's going to be a stand-alone novel with a simpler, more focused structure, called Best Served Cold.  You could term it a fantasy thriller, kind of a cross between Corum and Point Blank, and in case you didn't guess...It's about revenge.

Karen Miller: I'll be starting the third book in the Godspeaker trilogy. The first book is called Empress, and it's out in the US and UK next year, 2008. It's character-driven, again, but a lot darker than my previous work. The setting is more sweeping, not so self-contained as in the two Kingmaker, Kingbreaker books. It's a huge challenge, but I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Brian Ruckley: I'm working on the third and final book in the trilogy (book two, Bloodheir, is already done). I've always known how the whole story ends, but inevitably there are some slight surprises along the way, even for the author, in terms of how exactly we get there, who lives, who dies, all that fun kind of stuff. It's very satisfying to feel that you're drawing near to the end, and starting to bring all the various plot strands together.

Brandon Sanderson: I've recently begun a questionably-sane foray into the world of children's publishing. The first book, Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, was just released. Other than that, Mistborn 3 is done and turned in, as is the next book after it. (Not a Mistborn book, but a different setting.)

Amazon.com: Thanks! It's been a pleasure to talk to you.

You can find "outtakes" from this interview here. --Jeff

Where Are the Wild Things? Everywhere Dave Eggers Is

Usually the doings at the Frankfurt Book Fair concern books too far ahead or too far abroad to hit our radar, but one report did catch my eye this year. Apparently, not only is Dave Eggers adapting Where the Wild Things Are for the movies, as Paul noted yesterday, but for fiction as well. According to PW Daily, Ecco has acquired a novel from Eggers based on the Sendak book for publication in fall 2008, just when the movie's coming out, and thinks it will be "his biggest book" (which is saying something). My reaction: slight horror, mixed with curiosity. For one thing, adapting the original picture book for a movie seems natural (and I'm looking forward to it) compared to the idea of filling up that spare little story, whose brilliance in large part consists of what it leaves out, with words, words, words. How often can we read, as in the screenplay snippet New York revealed, "Max can't believe what he's seeing"?

And then there's the whole Dave Eggers/McSweeney's childhood infatuation. In this month's American Scholar, novelist Melvin Jules Bukiet laid waste to an entire borough with his piece on "Brooklyn Books of Wonder," the recent rash of fiction and memoirs (from Sebold, Foer, Krauss, Kunkel, and Goldberg, as well as Eggers and his McSweeney's/Believer empire) that celebrate wide-eyed youth (and a few oldsters) triumphing over trauma. The idea of Eggers, the presiding genius of this whole child-centered moment, diving into the ur-text of Zoom-era upbringing, seems so spot-on that it's in danger of imploding. It's like Norman Mailer writing on Marilyn Monroe: so deep inside someone's obsessions that it gets claustrophobic.

Or, possibly, he's found his great subject. Despite the well-known clairvoyance of bloggers, all we can do is wait a year to find out for ourselves. --Tom

About a (Young Adult) Boy

Does labeling a novel YA change the way someone writes--or reads--it? Nick Hornby's recent foray into YA fiction, Slam, was released by Penguin U.S. last Tuesday. The novel, which has received mostly positive--though limited--acclaim so far in the U.S., is narrated by Sam, a teenager who finds out that his ex-girlfriend is pregnant.

Hornby briefly talks about his inspiration for writing a YA novel in this Seattle Times interview. He says that writing the novel "didn't feel different" from writing his adult novels, and he was inspired by the teenagers who were coming to his readings (who apparently already liked his non-YA novels).

Author Steve Almond reviewed the book in last Sunday's L.A. Times and he believes Hornby adjusted his style significantly for the YA format. While he praised Hornby's writing in general, he criticized him for dumbing down his narrator, avoiding the topic of abortion, and generally talking down to his readers:

That Slam is supposed to be a young-adult novel only makes matters worse. It suggests that Hornby sees teens, and teen readers, as incapable of adding up those narrative twos, let alone grappling with complex feelings and issues. That's not just condescending, it's flat-out wrong.

I wonder if Almond's critique is tougher, and other reviews more forgiving, because of the YA label--as though adult readers of YA expect more or less from a book because it is YA. In fact, adult readers have compared Slam, favorably and unfavorably, to The Catcher in the Rye, a compliment to any writer, though this comparison probably would not have been made had it not been YA. It'll be interesting to see what the intended audience--actual young-adult readers, not reviewers and other YA authors--think of Sam as a narrator. --Heidi

Where the Wild Things Are: Where It's At

If you already know about the upcoming live-action "Where the Wild Things Are" movie (directed by Spike Jonze, with a screenplay by Jonze and Dave Eggers, and a cast including Catherine Keener, Forest Whitaker,  James Gandolfini, et al.), then chances are you've already freaked out over the sneak-peek production still that was floating around a few months ago:

Sadly, there hasn't been much news since then for those of us hankering to learn more about the beloved book's adaptation—until last week! New York Magazine apparently got their hands on the script. The verdict? It's "really, really good":

In transforming the 338-word story of Where the Wild Things Are into a 111-page screenplay, Eggers and Jonze have fleshed out the story not, unexpectedly, with wild plot developments, and not, thankfully, with densely packed pop-fiction references. Instead Where the Wild Things Are is filled with richly imagined psychological detail, and the screenplay for this live-action film simply becomes a longer and more moving version of what Maurice Sendak's book has always been at heart: a book about a lonely boy leaving the emotional terrain of boyhood behind.

Say no more. Can't wait. (And yes, it was already a movie. But that one was only seven minutes long. And it was animated. Thanks to YouTube, you can still watch it.) --Paul

Heroic Fantasy Part I: A Discussion with Hot New Authors

For awhile now, the heroic fantasy field has been experiencing a revival through the stellar efforts of authors like George R.R. Martin, Robin Hobb, Steven Erikson, R. Scott Bakker, and the godfather of modern heroic fantasy, Glen Cook. Now, another wave of re-interpretation and innovation is sweeping across the Fantasy field like an invading army--providing gritty, realistic, and complex storylines and characters, within the wider context of giving readers hours and hours of exciting entertainment. I thought it would be a good idea, then, to interview a few of the most interesting authors from this "next generation": Joe Abercrombie (The Blade Itself), Karen Miller (The Innocent Mage and The Awakened Mage), Brian Ruckley (Winterbirth), and Brandon Sanderson (The Final Empire and Well of Ascension). And, over the next year, I'll make sure to feature ever more of the new generation of heroic fantasy writers, including Patrick Rothfuss, K.J. Parker, and Daniel Abraham.

 

Amazon.com: What makes your take on heroic or epic fantasy different?

 

Joe Abercrombie: I try to write fantasy (emphasis on try), with all the grit, and cruelty, and humour of real life, where good and evil are a matter of where you stand, just like in the real world. I try to write characters with real contradictions, confusions, complexities, obsessions, and to put the reader right inside their heads. I try to leave world-building in the background and concentrate on the people and the interactions between them.

 

Karen Miller: My work is predominantly character-driven. Most of the action derives from the internal landscape, desires and psychologies of the characters, rather than huge external set pieces and sweeping vistas, as it were. Those tend to form the backdrop of my novels--what really interests me is the impact of events on a cast of individuals. How the big picture looks through the eyes of the people involved.

 

Brian Ruckley: The single commonest word used by readers to describe Winterbirth seems to be "gritty," so I guess that might be it. I tried to make my imagined world pretty realistic, in everything from its landscapes to its politics, its characters to its battles. This is fantasy in which no character is safe once the world starts to slip towards chaos, and where even the bad guys think they have good reasons for most of what they do

 

Brandon Sanderson: I'm the magic guy. (Hum. That sounds a little odd when I write it that way.) How about, "I'm the guy with the cool magic systems." I love the old epic fantasies, but I always felt like I wanted to understand the magic better. What exactly are Gandalf's powers? Why does this hero suddenly gain this ability at this time? I was a chemist my first year in college, and though I jumped ship to English, I retain my love of the sciences. I love magic that feels like a science, and have a distinct love for the old days of alchemy when magic and science blended together.

 

Amazon.com: What’s your favorite part of writing heroic fantasy?

 

Joe Abercrombie: Writing heroic fantasy that’s as un-heroic as possible. Trying to apply my black-hearted view of the world to the classic fantasy scenarios. Trying to use the cliches to blindside readers with the unexpected. That and the big-ass fight scenes, of course. You can’t knock a good swording.

 

Karen Miller: The research, because I pillage human history in order to create the social backgrounds of the places I'm writing about. There's something unbelievably endearing about reading a letter written on clay tablets four thousand years ago, in which a father chastises his son for going through his allowance so fast...And in which a son complains to his father, "How come you send my brother shoes and you don't send me any? You always liked him better than me!" Humans just don't change.

 

Brian Ruckley: Probably the fact that it allows you to paint on a big canvas, and tie lots of different elements into a single story. You get to do conspiracies and politics, huge battles and one-on-one sword fights, quiet scenes where characters learn about themselves and their world and dramatic scenes where magical powers are unveiled.

 

Brandon Sanderson: There is so much of this genre that hasn't been explored yet, and it's thrilling to be part of the new wave of fantasy writers. My favorite part of the actual writing would have to be world-building, specifically designing the magic that goes into my books.

 

Come back Friday for the conclusion to this roundtable discussion! --Jeff

Flushing Out the Lone Wolf: Denis Johnson Speaks

When I asked the folks at Farrar Straus Giroux at their BookExpo booth in June (with Tree of Smoke galleys stacked all around), whether Denis Johnson would be available for questions when the book came out, they said "No, he doesn't do interviews." I didn't really mind--as much as I like doing (and reading) author interviews, it's a little refreshing when someone declines to go on display and lets the book speak for itself. (Just don't tell that to the next author I ask to talk to...) And in the meantime, the book has spoken for itself--I liked it even better than I hoped to, and--hooray--many other people have too, putting it in our top 10 bestsellers for a healthy period and naming it to the National Book Award shortlist earlier this month. But when the NBA people came calling, Johnson graciously did agree to answer a few questions (in his own way). Here are a few highlights (via the subscription-only Publishers Lunch):

BAJ: How long did you work on Tree of Smoke?

DJ: Some of it's been around since the summer of 1982. Or maybe the fall. Once in a while over the years I gathered together my notes and tried to make sense of them. Last January I gave up the effort.

BAJ: What drew you to the story?

DJ: I have no idea.

BAJ: How does the book compare to other prose you've written?

DJ: It's longer and, despite what anybody says, more conscientiously plotted.

BAJ: Were there moments in your writing process where you worried the book wouldn't work? If so, how did you press on?

DJ: Well, I've never thought about this before, but now that you ask, it occurs to me I don't have much interest whether any of my books work or not.

Regarding his third reply, I should explain my earlier comment that the book is "nearly plot-free," because that's a little misleading. There are vast stretches of the book where its not clear how what is happening fits into the larger picture, but you always have the sense that it does fit in. And to the book's great credit and pleasure, it does, it does. Not in the sense that Johnson wraps everything up in a bow at the end, but that there are consequences, earned and appropriate if sometimes surprising and often ambiguous. And whether Johnson is interested or not, that meant the book "worked" for me. Although "worked" may be the wrong word--I'd prefer (and maybe he would too) something like "lived." -Tom

Call Me Jim...

One of the highlights of my career as an Amazon book buyer was getting to hold court with that charming raconteur Mr. James Lipton, on the occasion of the imminent publication of his delightful memoir, Inside Inside. Mr. Lipton ("please, my name is Jim") was kind enough to invite me and some colleagues to his tony Manhattan townhouse for cocktails prior to dinner at his favorite restaurant, Elaine's (where he has his own table, natch).  There's really no way to describe walking up the stairs to someone's living room and suddenly finding yourself directly in front of an original Hirschfeld drawing of your host (the only one ever done with color--for the blue index cards), a wall of Tony nominations on your left, and a lifetime achievement Emmy centering the mantle on your right.  Lord, how I wanted to touch that Emmy!  It was shining like a beacon, but it was fingerprint-free, so I resisted (but now I know how the Wicked Witch of the West felt when she was compelled to reach for those ruby slippers).

Mr. Lipton (alright, I'll use Jim from here on out, but it just seems somehow wrong) was sitting at his desk (and yes, he really does have stacks of blue index cards everywhere--he even let me hold the Halle Berry cards) working on his next show.  Throughout his townhouse there is something to remind you that almost nothing happened in show business in the last half century that he didn't have a hand in.  Really, the man is like Forrest Gump with a Mensa membership.  Personalized note cards in Lucite display cases fill a whole table and every wall is covered with pictures of Jim with every famous person you can imagine--from Lucille Ball to Eminem.  I really wasn't aware how extensive his resume was; he's so much more than a TV host.  He's a director, choreographer, writer, producer, and actor--and he's got the Playbills, photos, posters, and awards to prove it. 

We were then joined by his lovely wife Kedakai, a former fashion model and current real estate mogul (and, fun fact, the model for Ms. Scarlet in the board game Clue), and were whisked away to Elaine's.  Elaine herself (brassy, colorful, larger than life yet down to earth), resplendent in a set of massive earrings she had custom made from two World Series Rings (a gift from George Steinbrenner) made her way to our table.  Jim regaled us with stories about his past, his friends, his show, his successes and failures.  I even shared with him my horrifyingly embarrassing story of my failed tenure as a student of the Lee Strasberg Acting Studio back in the 70's.

All too soon it was time to leave.  We said our goodbyes, and Jim went back to his townhouse filled with a lifetime of show business triumphs--and that Emmy!  He gave me his contact info and told me to look him up the next time I'm in town. That poor man doesn't know what he's in for.  I'll touch that Emmy yet!

--Terry Goodman, as told to BTP

Ben Templesmith and the Spike TV Scream Awards

So I'm watching the Spike TV Scream Awards for SF/Fantasy/Horror, at first because nothing else was on, and then because they actually have to put their hands into a glass box of scorpions to pull out the envelope with the winner's name on it, and I nearly fell out of my seat when the Best Comic category comes up and 30 Days of Night by Ben Templesmith and Steve Niles flashes across the screen...and then proceeds to win.

If you've been living in a cave, you may not know that 30 Days of Night is now out as a major motion picture--and that Ben Templesmith is an amazing artist.

Of course, if you liked 30 Days of Night, you should check out Wormwood, Gentleman Corpse, Templesmith's latest project. Involving tentacular terrors, fungus, and, er, a gentleman corpse, this graphic novel is by turns funny, horrifying, and always brilliantly illustrated. The art has the color range of a strobing squid, in a good way, and there's a definite grand guignol feel to it all.

As for the Spike TV Scream Awards, I recommend them highly, having finally seen them. There's something to be said for an awards show that includes appearances by Harrison Ford and Ozzy Osbourne and Quentin Tarantino (inexplicably shouting "Do we share the same fungus?" over and over again) and Kevin Smith and Bruce Campbell (entering with the immortal line "Has Dame Judy Dench ever sat in a pile of intestines for seven hours?"). It's got a healthy sense of camp--kind of the anti-Academy Awards. Not to mention, plenty of scorpions. Expect more from Ben Templesmith about upcoming projects in the near future. In the meantime, check out this fascinating interrogatory with the man, from the cult site Skull Ring.

-Jeff

Monovoracious

I must admit that I currently do not live up to our new books blog, Omnivoracious.  While I devour books each week, my reading realm is hardly deserving of an "omni" prefix.  I have nothing against other genres, but my selections always seem to gravitate towards nonfiction titles.  True, I absolutely loved The Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao, but it was merely an island of fiction amid an ocean of nonfiction.

Life after Wao has seen me consume The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs, The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson, The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, 1776: The Illustrated Edition by David McCullough, The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman, and Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks.  I honestly do want to broaden my fiction horizons, but with a bio on Charles Schulz and Alan Greenspan's memoir on deck---where does one find the time?

To quote the 20th century poet, Popeye, "I yam what I yam", and clearly what I yam is a nonfiction junkie.

--Dave