Omnivoracious

Translation as an Act of Love: Ursula K. Le Guin and Squaring the Circle

Acts of translation are often truly international efforts. In the case of Squaring the Circle: A Pseudotreatise of Urbogony, this is doubly true. Iconic writer Ursula K. Le Guin selected and translated 24 "Fantastic Tales" by the highly decorated Romanian writer Gheorghe Sasarma in this collection--but not in quite the usual way. Instead of translating from the original language, Le Guin translated initially from the Spanish edition of the book, La Quadratura del Círcolo.

Squaring the Circle, which consists of several short tales each set in a different fantastical city, is perhaps the author's most controversial book. First published in 1975, it fell afoul of Communist censors, who cut about one fourth of the collection. In 1983, as a result of continued censorship, Sasarman left Romania to live in Munich, Germany. Since then he has continued to write, but only published in Romania again in 1989 after the fall of the dictator Ceausescu. He is a potent reminder of the constraints placed on many writers of that era, especially in Romania, where repression was particularly acute.

Le Guin explains in her introduction that, for a while, the book "kept lying around in one place or another in my study." But gradually, the collection exerted an effect on her, as sometimes happens: "It's not rational, not easy to explain [this effect some books have]. They don't glow or vibrate...They just are in view, they're there... And even if I have no idea what it is or what it's about, I have to read it."

As she became absorbed in these tales, Le Guin realized she wanted to translate them into English. "I love translation because I translate for love. I'm an amateur. I translate a text because I love it, or think I do, and love craves close understanding. Translation, for me, is discovery."

Le Guin's "laborious" translation from Spanish into English was then checked against the Romanian original and a French translation. "Both were of use when my Spanish got stuck or I wanted to see the original wording (for Romanian is, after all, a Romance language, half-familiar even if unreadable by me)." The original Spanish translator, Mariano Martín Rodríguez was also of use, via email.

The result? A collection of quite beautiful and sometimes dark tales, sure to delight lovers of Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges—or aficionados of the work of Le Guin herself.

"We launched Squaring the Circle at the Seattle Library in mid-May," Le Guin told Omnivoracious. "The author's daughter came from Munich, his nephew from Canada, and the Spanish translator from Brussels, and we each read a story in English, Spanish, and Romanian. The audience was great. I think the high point was when the Spanish translator, reading the story 'Kriegbourg,' stabbed himself in the back, and bled to death (with my red scarf)."

As for Le Guin's favorites in the collection, she has several and found it hard to choose. "Maybe 'Arapabad' is the most beautiful single story, but I love 'Sah-Harah,' and 'Oldcastle.' And images haunt me--the greased slides in Vavylon, the doorways in Moebia..."

Squaring the Circle has been lovingly published by Aqueduct Press as an attractive small-sized paperback with copious geometric illustrations.

Graphic Novel Friday: the Old Weird

A few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to hear from China Mieville, the award-winning fantastical fiction author who currently writes an offbeat series for DC Comics, Dial H. Mr. Mieville’s writing can be difficult to pin down, but he is often classified under the genre of “New Weird,” and Dial H fits neatly into that realm. But DC isn’t only looking forward, as two recently published, significantly sized collections prove. These two works highlight the dark, charmingly awkward, and literary publishing that DC and its Vertigo imprint allowed to flourish in the 1990s. Like Mr. Mieville’s oeuvre, they defy easy categorization, so we’ll call them “Old Weird” for now.

Writer Pat Mills and illustrator Kevin O’Neill chose to follow the Watchmen/Dark Knight heyday with a bizarre, outright shocking superhero-hunting-superheroes story, entitled Marshal Law. As The Comics Journal recently noted, the whole thing eventually devolves into a Judge Dredd-esque tale of “Who polices the superhero police?” but for much of the new Marshal Law: The Deluxe Edition’s 480 pages, it’s a fascinating snapshot of where comics were after a sea change in the 1980s. O’Neill’s sharp-edged designs are housed in panels that feel more like frames to accentuate Mills’ wry, anti-superhero sentiments, but they cannot shake the “across the pond” nature of its storytellers. Unlike American comics, a significant amount of action takes place between the panels, leaving the reader to piece together the transitions. It makes for a read punctuated by staccato jumps, and O’Neill populates the pages with jokes, puns, and mildly offensive winks to anchor readers to the page. This is not a breezy read, but it’s a historically unsung one, especially for fans of O’Neill’s later collaboration with Alan Moore, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

The Patrón Way: A Conversation with a Marketing Pioneer

Most people assume that Patrón tequila has been around forever. But it wasn’t until 1989 that Ilana Edelstein’s late life partner, Martin Crowley, returned from Mexico with the “liquid treasure” which he, Edelstein, and co-founder John Paul DeJoria (also co-founder of the Paul Mitchell line of hair products), would grow into one of the world’s most recognized liquor brands.

Amazon.com spoke with Edelstein about her first book The Patron Way: From Fantasy to Fortune - Lessons on Taking Any Business From Idea to Iconic Brand, which details the story of Patrón’s rise and paints an intimate portrait of her role in the creation of an iconic brand.

 

What led  to your decision to write this book?

It’s been over ten years since I’ve been with Patrón. And after my time with Patrón, friends and foe—everybody—kept nagging me to write a book. But I just wasn’t able to go there yet, you know? The experience was still too raw with me. But I guess something shifted two and a half years ago: I bumped into a friend I hadn’t seen in years. We were updating each other on what we’d been doing and she said, “You should write a book,” as they all would say. And at that moment I said, “Yep, I am gonna write a book!”

 

You’re bound to reach an audience of entrepreneurs curious about starting businesses in the spirits industry. Do you have words of warning? Words of encouragement?

They would be words of encouragement. Those words are the same for any kind of business. Do your research, do your homework, then apply it. Cover your bases. Be thorough. Follow your own best sense. Everything we did at Patrón was approached with how we as customers would respond to it, how it would affect us. We just assumed everyone was like us. We were in our own little bubble, I will admit. But we are just humans at the end of the day. And [our marketing decisions at Patrón] affected people the same way.

 

What do you consider your greatest marketing contribution to Patrón?

If I have to choose just one? With Martin and I we never took ownership of ideas in the sense of “this idea is mine, this idea is yours.” So it’s hard to say. But one thing I brought, whether consciously or not, was femininity to a spirits brand that didn’t have that. Whatever promotions we did, we had as many females as males there. And we weren’t actually doing it on purpose. By accident, that’s what happened with me being involved. Martin was a bit macho, but he had a feminine side too. So he was able to embrace those things that I brought to the table. And he singlehandedly put me in touch with my creativity. I had no idea I was creative before that, which was pretty amazing.

 

If you were launching the Patrón brand tomorrow, and not the late 1980’s, how do you think the experience would be different?

When we were launching, we didn’t know how our competitors were doing. We didn’t know how the industry was doing. So we had to come up with our own way. So if we were doing it now with the same ignorance, we would probably just do whatever we felt the moment called-for, just like we did then. It might have played out differently because of the times. You know, we never followed a business plan! We were both business people, we had business backgrounds. The operations were set up in the normal way, but the marketing is what really set it apart. And that pricing—we priced the products so the distributors would be making a bigger profit. So it’s obvious why they’d want to sell our product over another one.

 

You mention in the book that one of the cornerstones of the brand marketing was the connection with celebrity. Would that still be the case if you were launching today?

Absolutely, if you have the ability to. We did, because of 1) living in Los Angeles, and 2) John Paul [DeJoria]. People follow celebrities; they think they know more, that they know the good stuff. And that’s why they’re paid millions of dollars to endorse products. Which we never did! When it’s an “organic” endorsement, it’s much…louder…I think.

Beyond Patrón, when you think of brilliant marketing campaigns, what comes to mind?

In its day, I thought Absolut Vodka’s Andy Warhol campaign was amazing. He did all these art bottles. It was brilliant. I also saw a brilliant billboard the other day. It was for Saab. It said something to the effect of, “Tired of German techno? Try Swedish Metal!” Isn’t that good?

 

The work of writing seems dramatically different than how I envision the work of marketing Patrón.

Very much so. Writing is very solitary, and at a desk. [Patrón’s ] marketing was everywhere else. And it’s certainly not solitary. Especially in the liquor business, it’s all fun! You’re out. You have your Patrón girls handing out sips. You know, it’s not hard giving away free booze! Everything that surrounds that industry is fun and celebration…there’s nothing better than marketing a consumable.

 

The Patrón Way is a business book, but the more I read, the more I feel this book is just as much an homage to Martin Crowley, your late life partner.

It absolutely is. Would I have preferred it to end a different way? Absolutely. But I wouldn’t change a thing. I had the ride of my life. I had the love of my life, which I don’t think I’ll ever replicate. I had the most amazing good fortune for 13 years, on every level. The business was intertwined with us. We were not separable, the three of us: [Crowley], me, and the business. [Our relationship] didn’t end well, but I was very sad when he died. He was a brilliant entrepreneur and an incredibly creative guy. If you met him, you might not have liked him, but you certainly never would have forgotten him. I’m not saying everyone didn’t like him, but you either took to that kind or you didn’t. This book is a big tribute to him.

 

-- Cody Shotwell

 

Dick Lehr: On Whitey Bulger and the Upcoming Trial of the Century

Today he's known simply as WHITEY -- the Boston gangster whose epic crime story has become the stuff of history. It's not just he's a stone-cold, hands-on killer (he faces 19 murder charges); or his longevity (he's now 83, and his underworld reign covered decades). He's made history because he brought the Boston FBI to its knees, corrupting FBI agents so they acted as his palace guard and protected him from rivals in the underworld and from other police agencies seeking to bust him.

Whitey Bulger has become America's most notorious crime boss because he's at the center of the worst informant scandal in FBI history -- and now, in June 2013, he finally goes to trial in federal court in Boston in a racketeering case that has attracted media from around the world. It's one of those rare legal spectacles -- a proverbial trial of a century -- where Whitey himself has promised to take the stand to explain his claim that the U.S. government promised him immunity against prosecution for his reign of terror in Boston and beyond, a brutal, blood-splattered legacy of extortion, loan sharking, drug trafficking, torture and murder.  The trial, expected to last throughout the summer, will take viewers into the heart of darkness, featuring Whitey's secret control of a band of Boston FBI agents.

Whitey's life story is told in our new biography WHITEY: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss the most comprehensive study of Whitey to date, covering his formative years as a boy on the streets of South Boston during the Depression; his bank-robbing years, which resulted in his only stint in prison, including Alcatraz; his role in the infamous LSD experiments in prison, backed secretly by the CIA; his rise to power in the 1970s with the help of the FBI; his sixteen years on the lam as a fugitive from justice and, finally, his capture in Santa Monica in 2011. It's all there, a biography that gives readers insight into the making of the monster and reveals the origins of Whitey's sense of invincibility and entitlement above the law.

And there's more. By chance, Whitey's saga will unfold this summer on a second stage besides the courtroom. It's the streets of Boston, where film star Johnny Depp will portray Whitey in BLACK MASS, the motion picture adaptation of our previous book about Whitey that incorporates material from our new biography. Barry Levinson, the Academy-award winning director, will be shifting his cast and crew around the city to capture Whitey's rise and fall for the big screen while federal prosecutors and Whitey's lawyers tangle in the courtroom over the mountain of evidence showing Whitey as calculating psychopath and cold-blooded killer.

--Dick Lehr, co-author of WHITEY: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss

YA Wednesday: "Gorgeous" Paul Rudnick

As a screenwriter, Paul Rudnick has some big hit movies under his belt and now he’s put his cinematic savvy to good use in his first young adult novel that we picked as a Best Teen book of May, Gorgeous.   In Gorgeous, Rudnick skewers Hollywood and our beauty-obsessed world with an over-the-top (in a good way) twist on the Cinderella story.  In Rudnick’s version,  Cinderella-–or Becky, in this case--is an unremarkable girl living with her obese mother in a Missouri trailer park who is offered the promise of irresistible beauty by the most famous fashion designer of them all (you’ll recognize the real-life inspiration).  What’s a girl to do? Say yes, of course…  

Gorgeous is great satire but it also asks the ultimate question--who are we when we take a hard look in the mirror?  Do we see ourselves as others see us, for better or worse?  And maybe living in the limelight doesn’t look so pretty to those under its glare...

I was curious about Rudnick’s choice to go from writing movies to writing for teens and asked him to share the story behind his story in the exclusive guest post below.

My mom struggled with her weight all her life. She tried every possible diet and stuck with the Weight Watchers program for years. She learned to weigh everything she ate on a little metal scale, but she hated the prepackaged dinners, which she said looked like frozen diapers. She finally lost many pounds and bought a skinny new wardrobe, but she eventually gained all the weight back. A few weeks before she died, I watched while she went through a box of photos of herself as a teenager and a young woman. She looked up and said, “You know, back then, I thought I was so ugly. But I looked great!”

It broke my heart, but then my mom laughed, because in my family, humor was essential. This was the inspiration for Gorgeous, my first YA novel. Women in particular are constantly bombarded with images of glamour and perfection, in magazines, at the movies, on TV and online. I’m also mesmerized by the dangerous glory of fashion, and about how designers can become modern-day wizards, promising impossible transformations. So I came up with Becky Randle, an eighteen-year-old from a Missouri trailer park, who receives a tempting and scary offer. Tom Kelly, a legendary and reclusive designer, will make Becky three dresses — one red, one white, and one black. And if Becky wears these dresses, she will become the most beautiful woman in the world.

At first I wasn’t sure where this idea might lead me: Should it become a book or a play or maybe a movie? I’ve written in all of these forms: I wrote the movies In&Out and Addams Family Values, and the novel I’ll Take It, which was based on the annual New England car trips I’d take with my mom and her sisters. We’d claim that we were going to watch the leaves change, but we were really hitting every outlet store between New Jersey and Maine.                    

After several false starts, Gorgeous came fully alive only when I began to write in the first person, in Becky’s own voice. That’s also when I realized Becky’s story was a YA novel. I’d been reading a great deal of YA, because the books are addictive and wonderfully entertaining. I’ve loved everyone from J. K. Rowling to David Levithan, Veronica Roth and John Green, all of whom have devoted and often global followings. There’s a good reason for that: Their books grab the reader and won’t let go.

I like a challenge, so I plunged right in. I wanted to see if I could write a YA novel that would both do Becky justice and reflect my own sense of humor. I showed the manuscript to a fifteen-year-old, and she approved, which was a huge relief. Teenagers, I know, are tough-minded, vocal, and passionate readers, and they have no trouble saying exactly what they think. Becky’s take-no-prisoners best friend is the always loyal and always outspoken Rocher, who sometimes wears a T-shirt that says, “I Hate You More.”

The best way to write a YA novel, I’ve found, is not to worry about any specific notion of what a YA book should be. I’ve tried to make Gorgeous as accurate, heartfelt, and as much fun as possible. I hope that readers will understand Becky and cheer for her, and swoon every few pages. And as for me, well, I’ve already started my next book, and it’s YA. --Paul Rudnick

Bestselling Fantasy Author Raymond E. Feist on Thirty Years of Writing

Not many authors can claim to have had a wide readership for thirty years, but that’s exactly the milestone fantasy writer Raymond E. Feist celebrates this year. Back in 1982, Feist wrote his first novel Magician, a story about an orphan boy named Pug who is thrust by a war into captivity in an alien world, only to rise to become a Master magician. That novel introduced readers to Midkemia and the Riftwars, an epic series of battles between Good and Evil. It also began a rather remarkable run during which Feist’s success has outlasted that of many of his contemporaries.

Fittingly, after twenty-nine books (authored and coauthored), Feist marks the thirtieth anniversary of the start of it all with Magician's End, the final chapter of the Chaoswar Saga and the climax of his Riftwar Cycle. Omnivoracious caught up with Feist to ask him about his career and his books.

What do you think has contributed to your longevity in the field?

I have no idea. If I did, I'd bottle it and sell it. I started out to write a "ripping yarn," and have a good time telling a story, and that's always been the prime motivation. So I guess I can say that multiple generations have decided to have fun with me. I know I get youngsters who tell me their parents gave them the books.

What are you most proud of about your body of work?

The longevity. I've been continuously in print in the English language since 1982, and there are not a lot of writers who can claim they've never had a book go out of print. It pleases me more to have people discovering me as a "new writer" more than it does to make a bestseller list.

How did you survive the rough patches? What carried you through?

I got a lot of support. I have some really good people in my life who took care of me during the crazy times. Writers tend to live in mental caves when we work, and we do need to get out and get some fresh air and sunshine now and again, and every once in a while someone needs to drag us out of that cave.

Do you have a favorite novel among your own work?

It's like kids, really. You love them all, but each is unique. Magician is my first born, so to speak, so it really is special in that respect. Magician's End is the other bookend, really, so it's special in a different way.

What, really, do you think has changed in the book culture over the last decade?

Tough one to answer. If I was to point to one important thing it's that younger readers are more attuned to the concept of content as opposed to a book as an objective item. They don't mind reading on a Kindle, Nook, iPhone, laptop, etc.

Did you do anything special to celebrate thirty years of Feist books?

Touring the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand, so I can visit with my readers. Then I come home and maybe take a week off and hang at the beach. When you live in San Diego you don't need to go far for a vacation.

What’s next for you?

I’m already working on King of Ashes, the first volume of a new series set in a new universe. I hope the readers find it as compelling as they did the Midkemian books.

What would you say to a writer just beginning now, based on everything you’ve learned over the years?

No one can teach anyone to write. They can help someone learn, so don't confuse those two things. The thing about writing is you have to practice, so write a lot and don't stress if it's isn't perfect the first bash. If you want to play piano, you practice. If you want to play piano well, you practice a lot. And if you want to play piano in Carnegie Hall, you practice hard for years. Writing's the same.

 

Writer's Blues: Bill Cheng, Author of "Southern Cross the Dog"

When eight-year-old Robert Chatham loses everything to the fast waters of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, he lights out across the country, a refugee seeking shelter with (and from) a Homeric cast of misfits, hucksters, and ne’er-do-wells: the ladies of a "hotel" of ill repute; a piano player whose talent for the blues matches his seemingly supernatural powers of healing; a close-knit clan of trappers, living in swampland itself marked for flooding, behind the wall of a WPA dam. Wherever he finds himself, Robert's gripped and propelled by his fear of the devil closing in behind. Cheng's novel fits comfortably in the tradition of the Southern Gothic, but such simplification shortchanges the power and originality of its language, the artfulness of its voice. Southern Cross the Dog is one hell of a debut.

Cheng took the time to answer a few of our questions about his book, the blues, and the origins of the phrase Southern Cross the Dog.

You’re from New York, and Southern Cross the Dog is about as southern as a book can get. What inspired you to write about that part of the country?

I started this novel as a kind of offering to country blues music. I wanted to be able to re-create in story the kind of experience I feel when I listen to someone like Son House, for example.  For me, the only way to do that in a way that felt sincere was to set it in Mississippi, during the era of the prewar blues. Set the book someplace else and at some other time, and it would've been like I was trying to get around something. And you can't do that if you want to write a book you’re proud of.

Your story begins 85 years ago at the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, moving through the early 1940s. Was there something about that particular era that interested you, something that you could build a novel around?

The Great Mississippi Flood was a great starting point, from a storytelling perspective. There's a largeness to it, and its impact shadows the characters throughout the book. For Robert and his family, the flood marks them in a way that's irreparable. The flood and the Mississippi River also occupies this amazing space in the music. There are so many songs about the river, about the levee camps, and about the flood. The idea first came to me when I was listening to John Lee Hooker sing and play "Tupelo." It's absolutely haunting.

How did you conduct your research for not only the finer details of the culture, but also the language of the period?

I think there’s a misconception about how writers research and how the research is used. Or at least, on my part, I don't think I do the work of going to a library for a long period of time, digesting the information, writing the book so that it is faithful to reality.

The small facts that open up the world of a novel are important and can be like manna to a writer, but the real value in research, in sitting with materials, is that the path of your research reinforces the writer's path through their novel. By which I mean, the way you direct your research tells you what it is you want your novel to be about. You're discovering the world of your novel, not the real world as it can be represented in a novel. 

But to answer your question, I read aggressively everything I could about blues and blues music. I listened to blues music for close to a decade before I started the book.

Southern—or Southern Gothic—is a literary genre in itself. Did you have any trepidation in stepping into such a rich tradition?

I didn't really think about it going in—which I think was lucky; it would’ve been paralyzing otherwise. Now that the book is done, I’m a bit cautious of comparisons that are being made now. They’re very complimentary and gratifying to hear, but they also saddle a young writer with a terrible responsibility.  Excruciatingly beautiful books have come out of this part of America, but I can't say sincerely that my name has any place next to giants like William Faulkner or Flannery O'Connor. 

Does one book set in the American South now make me a southern writer? Is it enough to admit me into one of the richest American literary traditions? It's one book. When it’s put to me that I "wrote a book about the South" I think on some level that's wrong. I didn't write a book about the South. How could I have? To me, the book is about something different. Something more.

That said, are there southern writers (or writers of the South) whose work you admire most?

It almost seems besides the point to go on about William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor or Cormac McCarthy. Their contribution to the world of letters will be felt from now until the last eye has fallen across the last word of the last book. But I would like to single out the late Larry Brown and the New York-born Peter Mathiessen, whose books are visceral and exciting and make me proud about wanting to write books.

What is the meaning of the phrase Southern Cross the Dog, and what is its importance to the novel?

Where the Southern Crosses the (Yellow) Dog is a place where two railroad lines—the U.S. Southern and the Yazoo Delta—cross in Moorhead, Mississippi. The place is referenced in blues music, and in my mind, it seems to reference a place of final rest and peace. A kind of coming home. Which is, in a sense, what I believe Robert Chatham wants.

Music—especially the blues—pervades the book. Was that a starting point or something that grew naturally? Do you have favorite blues musicians?

It was a starting point. It was more than a starting point. It was there before I even conceived of the book. It was there for years, settling inside of me, carving me up in quiet unknowable ways. 

As for favorite blues musicians, I have too many. Far too many. I think Lightnin' Hopkins might make it on top of the pile. Big Bill Broonzy, certainly. The problem with naming names is that I’ll always come up with another likely candidate for first place. I list a slew of them in my acknowledgments.

This is your first book—how long did it take to write? Was it a larger (or more difficult) project than you imagined?

About three years to get a first draft. During the editing phase, I think I cut about a hundred pages out of the book, and then fed some more pages back in. The book wasn't an easy book to write, certainly, but that’s part of the joy of being a writer. Solving problems. Working on sentences. Building worlds and populating them. Difficult is good. It keeps things interesting.

Are there more novels coming from you, and will they all be this dark? Are you interested in nonfiction projects, as well?

Hopefully there will be more novels coming from me. Knock on wood. And I hope they won't all be dark, but my writing does tend in that direction. I think I'm pretty light-hearted in person though. As for nonfiction, I like doing essays, op-eds, journalism pieces—that sort of thing. It's a different discipline, requires a different kind of thinking, but I like seeing what comes out. 

What are you reading right now?

The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly. It's also set during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, and it looks like it has a more central role in the book than it does in mine. I've only just started it, but it promises to be an amazing book.

See more Amazon Editors' Picks for May.

--Jon Foro

Nebula Award Winners Announced: Kim Stanley Robinson, Nancy Kress, and More

This weekend in San Jose, California, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America announced the winners of the Nebula Award, given for excellence in SF/F. Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312 won for best novel, confirming Omni’s prediction that Robinson was among the favorites. The full list of winners is:

Novel:
2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

Novella:
After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, Nancy Kress (Tachyon)

Novelette:
“Close Encounters,” Andy Duncan (The Pottawatomie Giant & Other Stories)

Short Story:
“Immersion,” Aliette de Bodard (Clarkesworld 6/12)

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation:
Beasts of the Southern Wild

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book:
Fair Coin, E.C. Myers (Pyr)

Robinson has often been considered a master of world-building, plot, and inspired exposition. In 2312 he created flawed, compelling characters and an intriguing vision of the future. Nancy Kress and Andy Duncan are perennial Nebula favorites, while the win for rising star Aliette de Bodard is her first—and a rare Nebula win for any writer not from the U.S. or U.K. Bodard was also up for best novella for On a Red Station, Drifting, available in book form.

Kim Stanley Robinson viewed through his Nebula Award

Gregory Bossert, whose fiction has appeared in Asimov’s SF Magazine, among others, attended the awards ceremony as a guest of Asimov’s editor-in-chief Sheila Williams at the Dell Magazine table. He reported back to Omnivoracious that the highlights included “Outgoing SFWA president John Scalzi's warm introduction of the Solstice Award posthumously to Carl Sagan, and Nick Sagan's gracious and inspiring speech accepting on his father's behalf,” with Ginjer Buchanan also winning a Soltice Award. Michael H. Payne, meanwhile, was given the Kevin O’Donnell Jr. Service to SFWA Award.

Bossert thought toastmaster Robert Silverberg was “wry and sharp-witted throughout, never more so than in his introduction of the Damon Knight Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement to Gene Wolfe. Wolfe’s acceptance speech was both funny and moving; he concluded by saying that as nice as the awards are, and as wonderful and strange the people in attendance, in the end there was no place like home, and for him, home was the books.”

In addition, Bossert found Aliette de Bodard's “shock and near-tearful joy at winning short story Nebula a delightful break from the banter of the Nebula veterans.”

Kim Stanley Robinson's acceptance speech for 2312 “deftly wrapped up the ceremony by returning to the respect and appreciation he and the assembled SFWA members have for newly anointed Grand Master Gene Wolfe and his works. This led to an un-staged and riotous standing ovation for Wolfe, and then a long evening of celebration.”

Gene Wolfe, David G. Hartwell, and Kim Stanley Robinson

Cheryl Strayed interviews Ru Freeman, "On Sal Mal Lane"

[Cheryl Strayed, author of the bestseller Wild, speaks with Ru Freeman about her new novel, On Sal Mal Lane, which explores the build-up to the Sri Lankan civil war through the stories of the families living side-by-side on a quiet street.]

Could you explain the name of the street, which is also the name of the book?

The street is named for the Sal Mal grove that cuts off the lane at its dead end and are found in all the gardens of the homes down that road. There is another significance to the Sal Mal tree - it is the tree under which the Gautama Buddha’s mother gave birth to him, and the four Sal Mal trees surrounding his bed turned white when he passed away, and it is also a flower said to be favored by the Hindu god Vishnu, and so it is rarely cut down. Further, the Sal Mal flower and its stamen and petals are shaped in a way that depicts people at prayer around the dome of a dagoba. It seemed fitting, somehow, to have this neighborhood nestled in the heart of a grove of such trees, such flowers.

Your novel is teeming with great characters, young, old, Sinhalese, Tamil. Do you have favorites among them?

My favorites are Sonna and Nihil. Sonna was, in fact, a very minor character in the first draft. He came and went very quickly, nothing very important happened to or because of him. Somehow, though, when I read aloud from this draft it became apparent that Sonna had a great deal of potential - within himself and as a character. He resisted being diminished in every revision; he just grew. Nihil was always the driving force behind this story, the inspiration for it, really. Together they embody what I am most drawn to contemplating: this drive we have to keep what we love safe, and the way in which we yearn for things we are rarely capacitated to deserve, earn, or keep.

At the heart of the novel is an unlikely friendship, between the young girl Devi and a neighbor, Raju, a misfit. What was the inspiration for their relationship?

Children. When I was first living in a very upscale suburb in NJ, I found that adults always assumed I was my light-skinned daughter’s nanny. They never even spoke to me, constantly looking past me to each other. Their children, on the other hand, never made this mistake. They were paying attention to the relationship, to the way I interacted with her. Children anywhere are usually able to see beneath the exterior, to the human being. In Devi’s case, she could see that Raju despite his mishapen body and social inarticulateness held only good intention in his heart.

The street, Sal Mal Lane, houses a really wide variety of people. Was your street like that in Sri Lanka? Is that typical of the country?

Yes, my street, also a dead-end though with guavas, not Sal Mal trees, was very much like this one. Most of the country except in the North where the Tigers (the LTTE), held sway, was - and is - thoroughly cross-pollinated. In those areas, through systematic slaughter of entire villages, the Tigers ensured that only Tamils, and only the poorest of Tamils (those unable to leave), continued to live in the North. Elsewhere we lived together, attended the same schools, so on. In some ways that was the true shame of what happened with the riots in July, 1983, this way in which all of that had to go on but the insides of people - their hearts, their minds - were transformed. We went on to live together and yet be suspicious of each other. To interact and play and attend each others religious festivities, births, deaths, marriages, and yet there came into being this reservation, something held back. That earlier time, before what happened, that is the true measure of peace and that is what the country is harkening toward again.

The children in the novel seem to have fairly free range. What advantages does that give you as a writer?

Well, it enabled me to follow them to places where they were not supposed to be! Devi, for instance, crossing the big roads that she is prohibited from crossing, the children rehearsing their band in a neighbor’s house, these were really interesting for me, as a writer, to accompany these children that way. As a child I did grow up in that way. We went wherever we wanted except at night. Somehow at night all the rules changed - I suppose it is the same here, too, with curfews and such. But in general there was a real fluidity to the conduct of our days, where we entertained ourselves as siblings and with friends, often doing precisely what we were not supposed to do. I climbed the roof with my brothers, stole fruits from our neighbors (because it was always better tasting when stolen than when freely given), and walked down the terrible big roads to buy hard red sweets with which to color my lips and pretend I was wearing lip gloss.

You write so well about childhood, and about friendships between adults and children. Was that easy material for you to write?

Sylvia Day Whets Our Appetite for "Entwined with You"--and More Crossfire

After naming Sylvia Day’s Bared to You a 2012 Best Book of the Year in Romance and devouring Reflected in You, we've been anxiously awaiting the release of the third book in Day's scorching Crossfire series, Entwined with You. To whet our appetites and make waiting for the book's arrival a little easier, Amazon Romance expert Alyssa Morris spoke with Day about what’s next for Gideon and Eva, her upcoming collaboration with Harlequin and Cosmopolitan, her all-time favorite romance novels, and much more.

Alyssa Morris: Now that you’ve had a bit of time to absorb the success of Bared to You, does it feel real? Or are you still surprised?

Sylvia Day: I'm still surprised! I’m glad I’m a veteran and that I’ve been publishing for close to 10 years, so I had some experience under my belt as far as dealing with it. But on the other hand, there’s no way to anticipate writing something that becomes a global phenomenon, you know. I don’t know about other writers--I didn’t even dream about anything like that. I always figured that it just happened to the Stephenie Meyers and J.K. Rowlings of the world. So, yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever get over being surprised that I had a series that struck such a chord.

AM: It just hit such a moment in our culture, where all of a sudden this is what everyone wants to be reading. It’s an interesting confluence.

SD: Right. We always talk about that, about right book, right time. Random House released Fifty Shades on the same day I self-published Bared to You, so talk about the right timing. Just… wow!

AM: Do you have a favorite moment in the Crossfire series so far? 

SD: You know, I really loved the weekend that Gideon and Eva spent in the Outer Banks. These poor guys. When they’re alone, they’re fine. Life is perfect when they’re alone. Unfortunately, they don’t get a lot of time alone. [Laughs] So I just love that. I love seeing them together away from all of the distractions and intrusions and everything else that’s going wrong in their lives.

I can’t talk too much about Entwined with You because it’s not out yet. And that’s so hard, because I so want to talk tabout it! But there’s more alone time with Gideon and Eva as we move forward in the series and they grow stronger, so I’m really enjoying that as a writer. 

AM: Can you tell us a little bit about what we can expect to see next for Gideon and Eva? And is Entwined with You the last book in the series, or it might continue farther?

SD: Yes. It’s definitely continuing, so I can say that for sure. I was not able to wrap up the entirety of the storyline into three books, and I was absolutely adamant that I was not going to try to rush or cram the third book to try to make it fit. And I was fortunate that my agent and my editor they both agree that it would be a big disservice to the series to not let it play out the way it needs to, so there will definitely be future books.

The first book was really the introduction to Gideon and Eva. That’s where we first become familiar with their flaws and their issues, which are of course very prevalent in the first book. The second book they were really apart most of that book. They were mostly broken up through that whole thing. It was very angsty and dark. The third book is very different. Eva’s in a different place. At the end of Reflected in You, Gideon has made a pretty large sacrifice for her. Her big issues had been insecurities, concerns about other people and other women particularly in Gideon’s life. It’s hard to have those sorts of fears and self-doubt after somebody makes a huge sacrifice, like Gideon did for her. So she’s in a much more stable place as far as her comfort level with the relationship and being able to accept the depth of his commitment to her.

Gideon, however--what he’s done, there’s a lot of ramifications. Not just externally, but internally. So as she grows stronger, he’s actually struggling with more. That said, she’s really the anchor for that relationship. She has been from the beginning. So with her being stable, it brings new stability to the whole relationship, and readers will see a lot more moments of calm and connection between the two than we have seen in the previous books.

An Evening with Dan Brown

How do you welcome an author who has sold 200 million books worldwide to New York’s Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center? Show the 2,000 fans in the audience where he lives, of course. At this launch event for Dan Brown's latest Robert Langdon thriller Inferno, Today Show host Matt Lauer introduced the author with a clip from an interview he conducted at Brown's home in Exeter, New Hampshire. This rare glimpse into Brown's life reveals that his house closely resembles his novels--full of beautiful old-world furnishings and secret passages hidden behind paintings and rotating bookshelves. (Imagine Tolkien creating a life-size replica of the Shire in his backyard.)

This turned out to be the perfect kick off to the evening, during which Brown opened up about his personal life and the road to his international success. Taking the podium, Brown talked about how his upbringing influenced the major theme of his novels: the conflict between religion and science. As it turns out, this tension manifested itself at a very young age. Brown's mother was the church organist and choir leader and his father was a math teacher. To illustrate their different beliefs, Brown held up the vanity license plates his parents had when he was a child: one read KYRIE (the Latin word for Lord) and the other said METRIC.

He thanked his parents for their lifelong support, noting that if you encourage your kids to pursue creative fields, you will either end up with a happy kid whose rent you'll be paying forever, or they will be popular enough to speak at Avery Fisher Hall and make fun of you.

Daniel Vaughn, Author of "The Prophets of Smoked Meat"

I think it's official: Daniel Vaughn has the coolest job in the U.S.

As the recently-named barbecue editor at Texas Monthly magazine, he explores the Lone Star state, in search of the best brisket, ribs, and BBQ joints. What started as a hobby (Vaughn was an architect who blogged at Full Custom Gospel BBQ, before landing the Texas Monthly gig) has become a career.

Vaughn visited Seattle to sign copies of his book, The Prophets of Smoked Meat: A Journey Through Texas Barbecue, the first book in Anthony Bourdain's publishing imprint at Ecco (a division of Harpers). At a sold-out Seattle Brisket Experience event, we talked with Daniel about his book and his passion for smoked meat.

[Our thanks to Jack Timmons and Seattle Brisket Experience, the folks at 1927 Events, and MoonGirl, for the tunes] 

 

Amazon Asks: Kimberly McCreight on family, yogurt, and Breaking Bad

Reconstructing Amelia is a media-fest of narrative, emails, texts and other bits a tormented mother uses to deconstruct her teenage daughter's life and figure out whether she did or didn't commit suicide. Climbing the charts, it's the first novel by lawyer-turned-author Kimberly McCreight, who knows a bit about motherhood angst and, well... villainy.

What's the elevator pitch for your book?

A page-turning mystery about parenting in the age of cyber-bullying, Reconstructing Amelia follows a mother as she tries to piece together the last troubled days of her daughter's life.

What's on your nightstand/bedside table/Kindle?

My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor, Going Clear by Lawrence Wright, and Flannery O'Connor's The Complete Stories.

Top 3-5 favorite books of all time?

The Hours by Michael Cunningham; While I Was Gone by Sue Miller; To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, Plainsong by Kent Haruf; The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

Important book you never read?

The Odyssey. I want to say that I'll read it soon, but now that I have children, I think that might be a lie. Perhaps, once they go to college.

Favorite book(s) as a child?

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. The story felt so huge and important even though I don't think I fully understood why. Unfortunately, my children don't let me read it to them because I always start bawling on page two.

What's your most memorable author moment?

I quit being a lawyer more than a decade ago to chase a dream. The road was much longer and darker than I ever expected, but I'm lucky to have so many amazing friends who helped see me through. I had dinner with one right after my book sold. When I shared the news, she shouted, jumped out of her chair, and burst into tears, pretty much all at the same time. She wasn't the only friend to cry when I told her either. The outpouring of love and support from so many people in my life has been nothing short of astounding. I feel so insanely fortunate

Getting the call from my editor telling me that I'd made the New York Times Bestseller List was another moment I'll never forget. Assuming it actually happened. I'm still half-convinced I hallucinated it.

What talent or superpower would you like to have (not including flight or invisibility)?

I think it may be more of a super-villain power, but mind-control. That's what I'd want. I promise I'd only use it for good, of course. To be honest, I can't imagine why everyone wouldn't want that. The power to make everyone think and, therefore, do whatever you want? Who wouldn't pick that? As it turns out, my family, that's who. Not only did they all give much more hero-ish answers, but now I think they're all sleeping with one eye open. Except for my older daughter. As she sees it, I already have that power. After all, I'm always making her do whatever I want anyway.

What are you obsessed with now?

Greek frozen yogurt. After claiming for years that it was disgusting, I'm now utterly addicted.

What are you stressed about now?

The end of Breaking Bad. I know they'll pull it off in the same flawless, breathtaking form with which they've executed the rest of the series, so I'm not worried about them. I'm worried about me. What am I going to do without that show? I guess I'll still have the yogurt.

What are you psyched about now?

Summer. I can't wait for late afternoons on the beach when the setting sun turns the whole world gold and there's salt on your skin and you've had way too many ice cream cones for no good reason. I'm looking forward to our family vacation too. My daughters are finally old enough to really travel, and we're taking them to France and England. I can't wait to see all of it again for the first time through their eyes.

What's your most prized/treasured possession?

My husband and my children. And, don't worry, I know they're not possessions. I mean not really. But they're what matters most to me.

Author crush -- who's your current author crush?

Can I have two? John Green and Flannery O'Connor. I so wish the three of us could go out to dinner.

What's next for you?

I'm a few hundred pages into my next novel. It's another dark mystery with a deep emotional core. I'm kind of obsessed with it too. That and, you know, the yogurt.

What's the last dream you remember?

I had a dream that my kids' hamster, Chocolate Chip, escaped from her cage. In the dream, she was about six times as large as she is in real life, which is exceptionally bad news because she's essentially an attack hamster. In the dream—I mean nightmare—we all had to escape from her by crawling out a window and down the fire escape. Which reminds me, I really do need to find a hamster tamer.  

Favorite line?

"We changed again, and yet again, and it was now too late and too far to go back, and I went on. And the mists had all solemnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me." Charles Dickens, Great Expectations.

What's your favorite vice?

Candy. I consume all kinds, often in huge quantities. In fact, I consider myself something of a connoisseur. However, if someone happens to stumble on my enormous secret stash, I always lie and tell them it belongs to my children. Of course, that has the unintended side effect of making me look like a terrible parent. But you can't have everything, can you?

What do you collect?

I love the idea of collecting and I'm completely fascinated by people who do. But I'm more of a purger myself. In fact, if there's a disorder that's the opposite of hoarding, I think I might have that.

Best piece of fan mail you ever got?

I heard from someone who'd read Reconstructing Amelia after a loss in his own family. He wanted me to know how the story had helped him process his own grief. It was the warmest, most lovely note, and, reading it, I so felt the love for this person who was no longer here. I was in tears before I'd even stepped away from my mailbox.

YA Wednesday: Marie Lu Talks to Rick Yancy About "The 5th Wave"

Rick Yancey's new book, The 5th Wave, sucked me in and pulled me under from the first page to the last with it's terrifying and thrilling story of an alien invasion like you've never seen.  We made it our Best Teen Books of May Spotlight pick, and past Teen Best of the Month author, Marie Lu (Legend trilogy)  is also a big fan.  In this Omni exclusive, Lu chats with Yancey about The 5th Wave, movies, and, of course, aliens.

Marie Lu: Everybody loves aliens--myself included! But in your opinion, how has Hollywood gotten the “alien invasion” idea wrong?

Rick Yancey: I understand that movies are made by humans to be watched by humans, and depicting anything less than total victory over the bug-eyed swarm would be a bit much to ask for. The simple and, to my mind, undeniable truth is that life forms thousands, if not millions, of years more advanced than us probably wouldn’t view humans as anything special, or at least nowhere near as special as we view ourselves. I think we would be more like pesky insects to them, which raises the question (from their angle): Can we coexist, like humans do with cockroaches, or should we simply drive the disgusting infestation from existence? So I don’t believe that, if they find us, it’ll play out anything like the stereotypical alien drama.

They won’t come to teach us anything (Contact) or save us from ourselves (Close Encounters, The Day the Earth Stood Still) or pluck leaves and go home (E.T.). And they’ll be smart enough and careful enough not to damage too much of their new home (Independence Day) and they will remember to take their flu shot (War of the Worlds).

ML: The 5^th Wave has been optioned for film, which is hugely exciting! Anything you can tell us about it?

RY: Under the terms of my contract, not much! I can tell you producers Graham King (Argo) and Tobey Maguire are on board, which is totally cool.

ML: Alright, the alien invasion is nigh and you're in survival mode. What would be in your survival kit?

RY: Toiletry kit (seriously, you’d want to keep yourself groomed. It grounds you. Also you better have a way to keep your teeth clean. You don’t want a bad tooth – check out Castaway if you doubt me). Basic first aid stuff, including penicillin and antibiotic ointment. A means of making fire. Solar-powered flashlight. A good hunting knife. A handheld mirror (to check yourself out and also to check around corners). A compass. Water bottle. And (speaking only for myself) enough medication to ensure an overdose in case the absolute worst comes upon me. If my end was inevitable, I’d make sure it was on my terms, not the alien bastards’.

ML: The five waves you outline in the book scare the bejeezus out of me. Which one frightens you the most?

RY: By far the 3^rd Wave: the super-virus developed by the Others from Ebola Zaire. I won’t go into all the details here – there’s plenty in the book – but if you’ve ever read The Hot Zone, you know what I’m talking about. A slow, agonizing, horrifying way to die. Your organs liquefy. Your brain turns to mashed potatoes. The other waves are terrible, but they’re quick.

ML: Can you give us a sneak peek at what we’re going to see happen in Book 2?

RY: Did things seem a little desperate in Book 1? They get worse. We still haven’t seen the depths to which the Others will sink in order to rid the Earth of the human infestation. And we haven’t yet seen the heights to which the human spirit can reach. Certain characters introduced in Book 1 will come to the fore--and others will face the ultimate test. The Others will give their answer to Cassie’s defiance. 

“A Curious Man”: Neal Thompson Talks Ripley with Sara Nelson

Leroy Robert Ripley was a brilliant oddball--a lonely, funny-looking kid who grew up to be a fabulously successful connoisseur of the weird, the fantastical, the gross. Amazon Senior Editor Neal Thompson channeled his own fascination with Ripley into A Curious Man: The Strange & Brilliant Life of Robert 'Believe It or Not' Ripley, one of our Best of the Month Picks for May.

Thompson sat down with his boss, Amazon Editorial Director Sara Nelson, to explain why.

An Interview with Dan Brown

The newest novel by Dan Brown (have you heard of him?) went on sale today. Here's a Q&A with the author of Inferno, a book that USA Today calls "as close as a book can come to a summertime cinematic blockbuster."

 

Inferno refers to Dante Alighieri´s The Divine Comedy. What is Dante’s significance? What features of his work or life inspired you?

The Divine Comedy—like The Mona Lisa—is one of those rare artistic achievements that transcends its moment in history and becomes an enduring cultural touchstone. Like Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, The Divine Comedy speaks to us centuries after its creation and is considered an example of one of the finest works ever produced in its artistic field. For me, the most captivating quality of Dante Alighieri is his staggering influence on culture, religion, history, and the arts. In addition to codifying the early Christian vision of Hell, Dante’s work has inspired some of history’s greatest luminaries—Longfellow, Chaucer, Borges, Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Monteverdi, Michelangelo, Blake, Dalí—and even a few modern video game designers. Despite Dante’s enduring influence on the arts, however, most of us today have only a vague notion of what his work actually says—both literally and symbolically (which, of course, is of great interest to Robert Langdon). A few years ago, I became very excited about the prospect of writing a contemporary thriller that incorporated the philosophy, history, and text of Dante’s timeless descent into The Inferno.

When you start on a new book, do you begin with the writing or the research? Do you enjoy doing one more than the other? 

Research definitely drives everything I do. Before beginning the writing process, I spend a lot of time exploring worlds in which I intend to set the book. In Angels & Demons, those worlds included Vatican City, particle physics, and the ongoing battle between science and religion. In Inferno, the worlds include Florence, Venice, the writings of Dante Alighieri, as well as a frightening new science that I believe has the potential either to save humankind or to destroy it.

Where did do your research for Inferno? How long did you spend on it?

Researching Inferno began with six months of reading, including several translations of The Divine Comedy, various annotations by Dante scholars, historical texts about Dante’s life and philosophies, as well as a lot of background reading on Florence itself. At the same time, I was poring over all the new scientific information that I could find on a cutting edge technology that I had decided to incorporate into the novel. Once I had enough understanding of these topics to proceed, I traveled to Florence and Venice, where I was fortunate to meet with some wonderful art historians, librarians, and other scholars who helped me enormously.

Once this initial phase of research was complete, I began outlining and writing the novel. As is always the case, when a book begins to take shape, I am drawn in unexpected directions that require additional research. This was also the case with Inferno, which took about 3 years from conception to publication.

With respect to the process, the success of these novels has been a bit of a Catch-22. On one hand, I now have wonderful access to specialists, authorities, and even secret archives from which to draw information and inspiration. On the other hand, because there is increased speculation about my works in progress, I need to be increasingly discreet about the places I go and the specialists with whom I speak. Even so, there is one aspect of my research that will never change—making personal visits to the locations about which I’m writing. When it comes to capturing the feel of a novel’s setting, I find there is no substitute for being there in the flesh...even if sometimes I need to do it incognito.

What kind of adventure will Robert Langdon face this time? Can you give us any sneak peek at the new novel?

Inferno is very much a Robert Langdon thriller. It’s filled with codes, symbols, art, and the exotic locations that my readers love to explore. In this novel, Dante Alighieri’s ancient literary masterpiece—The Divine Comedy—becomes a catalyst that inspires a macabre genius to unleash a scientific creation of enormous destructive potential. Robert Langdon must battle this dark adversary by deciphering a Dante-related riddle, which leads him to Florence, where he finds himself in a desperate race through a landscape of classical art, secret passageways, and futuristic technology.

What was the most exciting idea or story that you found in your research?

For me, one of the most exciting themes of Dante’s Inferno is the portrayal of pride as the most serious of the seven deadly sins—a transgression punished in the deepest ring of hell. The notion of pride as the ultimate sin dovetails perfectly with Greek mythology, in which hubris is responsible for the downfall of the archetypal hero. In mythology, no man was more prideful than the man who considers himself above the problems of the world…for example, he who ignores injustice because it does not affect him directly. This notion is reflected in a famous paraphrasing of Dante’s text: The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis. This is a recurring theme of the novel.

What made Florence the ideal location for Inferno?

No city on earth is more closely tied to Dante Alighieri. Dante grew up in Florence, fell in love in Florence, and began writing in Florence. Later in life, when he was exiled for political reasons, the longing he felt for his beloved Florence became a catalyst for The Divine Comedy. Through his enduring poem, Dante enjoyed the “last word” over his political enemies, banishing them to various rings of Inferno where they suffered terrible tortures.

Do you have a favorite place to visit in Florence, like a library or a museum?  

Every visit to Florence should include a trip to the popular highlights—The David, The Uffizi Gallery, The Boboli Gardens, and Il Duomo. In addition, there are a number of other locations that I find particularly inspiring. The Laurentian Library contains a breathtaking staircase by Michelangelo as well as archives of ancient manuscripts that are literally chained to their shelves. Palazzo Vecchio’s spectacular Salone dei Cinquecento is home to one of the great unsolved mysteries in art history, which remains an enigma to this day. And the Battistero di San Giovanni boasts a dazzling mosaic cieling that is said to have terrified the young Dante Alighieri and later inspired his enduring vision of hell. All of these locations make an appearence in the new novel.

The great detective in your novels, Robert Langdon, shares your birth date as well as your place of birth. What else do the two of you have in common?

Langdon and I both share a fascination with history, symbols, and codes, but this is where the similarities end. Langdon is far more daring and exciting than I am. He is, in many ways, the hero I wish I could be.

Drinks with Edward Lee, Author of "Smoke and Pickles"

An interview series in which Amazon Editors meet authors at their favorite bars.

Edward Lee's new cookbook, Smoke and Pickles: Recipes and Stories from a New Southern Kitchen (one of our Best of the Month picks for May), celebrates the chef's Brooklyn upbringing and his move to Louisville, Kentucky, where he opened his restaurant 610 Magnolia. Lee is also a multiple James Beard Award nominee and has been a competitor on both Iron Chef and Top Chef.

The bar he picked was KGB Bar, a barely lit dive bar with a certain Soviet charm. But I learned that KGB Bar is also a venerable writers' haunt, known for hosting literary events almost every night of the week. In fact, when I met up with Lee, there was a poetry reading going on, so the bartender gave us plastic cups for our drinks and headed for the stoop outside, where we talked about the book, bourbon, and his new baby.

---

So why'd you pick this bar?

For me, it was a number of reasons. It was the bar I used to frequent when I was in New York. It has a lot of nice memories for me, probably spent a couple of nights here sleeping on the banquette in the corner. For me, it represents an old school New York, back when people drank really hard and smoked really hard. It was an awesome place. Right out of college, I started working at a literary agency, so there were some writers that introduced me to it. I don't know if they still do now--it was fifteen years ago. But a lot of writers used to hang out here. So, it was just a great place to get drunk but also to trade ideas, and there were a lot of interesting people who were hanging out here--a fermentation tank of interesting people. What little memories I do have of here are fond memories.

What are you drinking?

I'm drinking bourbon on the rocks, Knob Creek.

Is that your go-to?

It's not, but they don't have anything else here.

One thing I like about this bar is that there are no mixologists. You don't come here for the drinks, you come here for the booze. There's a difference: they don't make cocktails, they serve drinks.

Where would you go for a nice cocktail in New York?

There are tons of places: Pegu Club, Pouring Ribbons, Please Don't Tell, for nice mixology drinks. But sometimes you just need a stiff drink.

Exclusive Photos and Reading List from Dan Brown, Author of "Inferno"

Dan Brown's Inferno goes on sale today, and the author was kind enough to send Omnivoracious some exclusive content related to what will undoubtedly be another mega-best seller.

The first part of this post is a series of photographs selected by the author, accompanied by book excerpts related to the photos. Together they reveal locations in the book, along with classic Dan Brown-esque details, the kind of details that make his books so readable.

At the bottom of this post is Dan Brown's suggested list of additional reading materials. Maybe this is the year you'll read both Infernos-- Dante's and Dan Brown's. Enjoy. 

"As Langdon continued on toward the elbow of the square, he could see, directly ahead in the distance, the shimmering blue glass dial of the St. Mark’s Clock Tower— the same astronomical clock through which James Bond had thrown a villain in the film Moonraker."

 

"The Tetrarchs statue was well known for its missing foot, broken off while it was being plundered from Constantinople in the thirteenth century. Miraculously, in the 1960s, the foot was unearthed in Istanbul. Venice petitioned for the missing piece of statue, but the Turkish authorities replied with a simple message: You stole the statue— we’re keeping our foot."

 

"Amid a contour of spires and domes, a single illuminated facade dominated Langdon’s field of view. The building was an imposing stone fortress with a notched parapet and a three-hundred-foot tower that swelled near the top, bulging outward into a massive machicolated battlement."

 

"Langdon found himself standing before a familiar face—that of Dante Alighieri. Depicted in the legendary fresco by Michelino, the great poet stood before Mount Purgatory and held forth in his hands, as if in humble offering, his masterpiece The Divine Comedy."

 

Dan Brown's Suggested Inferno Reading List:

•     The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno

•     The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil

•     Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King

•     The Lives of the Artists Volume 1 by Giorgio Vasari, translated by George Bull

•     The Book Of Symbols: Reflections On Archetypal Images

 

Check back with Omni later today for a video and Q&A with Dan Brown.

Sunny Days and Summer Books

With warm weather finally setting in and the end of school just over the horizon it's finally time to start thinking about all the books we want to read this summer.  Will this be the year I finally read Dante's Inferno?  Maybe it will be Dan Brown's new book, Inferno, or maybe both...  My summer reading plan (because, yes, I have one..) is to mix it up with books that I meant to read, but didn't, and the best of the new releases, so I'm going to hit our Summer Reading store for ideas. If you need some ideas, too, below is a sampling of our Editors' Picks for readers of all ages during (at least in Seattle) the best months of the year.  What books do you want to read this summer?

Best new books (for adults) to read this summer: 

Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen: Hiaasen is back at his wickedly funny best in a new tale about greed, corruption, and comeuppance in Florida--and the Bahamas--thanks to a cast of characters that includes a Bahamian voodoo witch, a kinky coroner, and a very bad monkey.

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini: The bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations.  Can lightning strike a third time? For Hosseini, it does.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman: His first novel for adults since Anansi Boys, an imaginative and poignant fairy tale about childhood, memories, mystery and magic.

Editors' Picks for Kids and Teens to read this summer: new books you won't want to miss and some favorites from years gone by.

Books for Kids: 

Paperboy by Vince Vawter (ages 9-12): In this coming-of-age novel, an 11-year-old boy living in the segregated South throws the meanest fastball in town, but talking is a whole different ball game. One summer can change a life, and for this young man a paper route brings a run-in with the neighborhood junkman, a bully and thief, that puts his life in danger.

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (ages 8 and up): Winner of the 2013 Newbery Medal, Ivan is a gorilla who lives a predictable life making art for the visitors to the Exit 8 Big Top Mall from behind glass walls, but everything changes when a new baby elephant arrives and he sees his world through her eyes. 

Pete the Cat: The Wheels on the Bus by James Dean (ages 4-8): Pete the Cat has quickly become a beloved new picture book character and this time he brings his groovy, laid-back style to a classic. As always, singing is required.

Books for Teens:

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey (teen): The Passage meets Ender's Game in an epic new series where aliens arrive on Earth and it's nothing like you've ever seen before.  Don't let the young adult category fool you--this one is nearly impossible to put down whether you're 14 or 45.

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen (teen): Luke is the perfect boyfriend: handsome, kind, fun. He and Emaline have been together all through high school in Colby, the beach town where they both grew up. But now, in the summer before college, Emaline wonders if perfect is good enough.

Divergent by Veronica Roth (teen): Summer is the perfect time to start a new series and if you haven't read Divergent yet, put this one to the top of the list.  The first book of a dystopian trilogy filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance, it all comes to an end this fall with the third book, Allegiant.

BookExpo America Bloggers Conference

Bloggers ahoy! On Wednesday, May 29, the BookExpo America Bloggers Conference will connect fellow book bloggers, authors, and publishing industry professionals for a fun day of discussions and panels about the book-blogging world (including complimentary breakfast and lunch).

Session topics include:

• Adult & YA Editor Insight panels
• Insider Secrets from Book Blogging Pros
• Taking Your Online Presence Offline
• Blogging Platforms
• Extending the Reach of Your Blog Online
• Book Blogging & The “Big” Niches

Will Schwalbe, who has worked in publishing (most recently as senior vice president and editor in chief of Hyperion Books) and is the author of The End of Your Life Book Club (an Amazon Best of the Month pick, might I add), will give the opening keynote. The closing keynote will be given by Randi Zuckerberg, the CEO and Founder of Zuckerberg Media, a new digital and traditional media and production company, and Editor-in-Chief of Dot Complicated, a modern lifestyle newsletter and blog.

Learn more about the Bloggers Conference, including how to register, at the BookExpo America website.