Jeff Brings His Booklife to Seattle
As Omni readers know, our own Jeff VanderMeer, who usually posts from the Florida panhandle, has been on a typically hydra-headed book tour for his two new releases this fall: his latest novel, Finch, a hard-boiled tale set in his city of Ambergris, and Booklife, a guide to the writer's life in the early 21st century, with from-the-front-lines advice on how to survive in the new world of new media. Happily, as his fuzzy phone photo from last week confirmed, he made it to Seattle (twice!) and we were able to sit down for lunch at a pub near the Amazon offices (and meet in person for only the second time). At the end of the meal I risked what I'm learning is the ultimate buzz kill for any convivial author meeting and pulled out my beloved Flip camera to record a little of our conversation for Omni. But Jeff was game, and had some sharp things to say about a couple of my questions.
So while Jeff and Ann get all gussied up in New York for tonight's National Book Awards, here is Jeff talking about what a booklife really means in 2009. (Pardon the background pub chatter: we call that "atmosphere.")
My first question, after being somewhat daunted, as I'm sure some writers will be, by all the possible routes to getting your work out there he describes in Booklife--and having seen in practice how many of them Jeff uses, often in the space of a single day--was: do you have to be a whirling, multi-platform dervish like Jeff VanderMeer to live a modern booklife?
Then, taking from his comment that he had "laid bare" his own methods and writing career in Booklife, I asked if the new writer's life demanded that he or she erase the line between public and private life? How do you draw the line, when the culture demands that you erase it?
--Tom
Jonathan on November 19, 2009 at 05:39 PM
I love these videos. It's a pleasure to hear Jeff talk about the pitfalls of trying to do everything and the benefits of keeping some of yourself to yourself. I look forward to getting my hands on a copy of Book Life. I also look forward to getting my hands of Finch as well. Thanks for the post!