Jamie Ford's Blog: Bittersweet Blog, page 3

It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's a New Book

Actually, it's all kinds of new things.

But, first and foremost, today is the release of Last Night, A Superhero Saved My Life. This collection of tales is the brainchild of Liesa Mignogna and includes essays by Leigh Bardugo, Neil Gaiman, Jodi Picoult, Brad Meltzer, Scott Westerfeld, and little ol' me. (Talking about losing my virginity, TMI?)

I also just had a short story called, The Dive, accepted into Montana Noir, which will be published by Akashic Books next year.

And best of all, I've heard more kvelling than kvetching from my illustrious editor at Random House regarding my new novel, which at the moment is called Prize & Consolations, but will probably be retitled by yours truly at some point in the not-so-distant future. (I'm ridiculously excited about this new book!)

Also, on a weird note, I'm taking a gander at Whispers of a Thunder God, a novel that I walked away from five years ago but is begging for an overhaul, so there's that.

And how have you been?

Oscars make you uncomfortable? Good

[image error] I have a love/hate relationship with Hollywood.

Because when my debut novel landed on the NYT bestseller list and stuck around for two years, I also landed my first film agent. She enjoyed my book. And she told me that she could easily sell the film option. But she also told me that a film would never get made—because my main characters were…Chinese, Japanese, and black.

I’ll pause to let that sink in for a moment.

***

Still with me? 

Okay, so was this agent racist? No, she was kind of awesome, actually. But she had the odious task of telling me, that by Hollywood standards, my baby was ugly.

I didn’t agree. So I signed with another agent. And in my search I found myself bouncing about Hollywood, spending time in very nice offices, with very nice producers, who all kept saying—and this is an exact quote: 

“How do we mitigate the financial risk without a white, male lead?”

Uncomfortable? Need to pause again?

***

I love the famously cantankerous writer, Harlan Ellison, and envisioned him leaping across the table and punching someone in the gullet. I imagined him lighting garbage fires in elevators and burning studios to the ground, then salting the smoldering ruins. I daydreamed as I grit my teeth and kept moving. 

And HOTEL was finally optioned, albeit briefly, to the founding CEO of Village Roadshow, a gentleman who was specializing in Asian markets at the time and who had helped finance Avatar and Marley & Me. I say briefly, because he passed away a year later (RIP Greg Coote).

So yes, there are opportunities in Hollywood. But they are buried in what Chris Rock so aptly described as “Sorority Racism.” And passive racism is still racism. Sins of omission, while not sins of commission, are still sins.

And to deny the racist, exclusionary, whitewashing reality of Hollywood is not just uninformed nonsense—it’s actually enabling this institutionalized behavior.

I guess what I’m saying is—if last night’s Oscars made you feel a tad uncomfortable—great! That means your empathy muscles are asking for a workout. 

You can do the easy thing and shut down those feelings, deny what they’re telling you, or you can put yourself in the shoes of Hattie McDaniel who was the first black woman to win an Oscar, but had to play a maid 74 times, or in the shoes of Dean Tanaka and Chloe Wang who had to change their names to Dean Cain and Chloe Bennett to find success—entirely up to you. 

I’ll pause again to let you think about it.

The Mystery Girl. Thoughts on race, fear, and religious freedom

[image error]The photo is by the great Dorothea Lange. Her Internment images were impounded by the US government. Most of these images ended up in the US archives, but weren't published until 2006. Lange died in 1965.In the front of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet there's a photo of a Japanese American girl. She was born in the US, but sent to an internment camp along with her family because they looked like the enemy. 

Now certain politicians are dismissing this injustice. They're vague-tweeting the idea that for the safety of all, perhaps we should be comfortable trampling on the rights of a few.

Do they REALLY believe this? I doubt it. It's political shorthand. It's reductive reasoning, designed to turn complex racial and sociological algebra into 1+1 = vote for me. 

And while I'd like to think we're all smarter than that, we're also stuck with a 24-hour news Kraken that feeds on fear. That hectoring makes us wary of Muslim Americans. Or Sikhs. Or merely brown people with beards. And makes the idea of registering people because of their religious affiliation seem "reasonable" and "prudent."

That's disheartening, because not only do I have Muslim friends, but also my books have been translated into Arabic. 

It's confounding too, because if I were invited to Saudi Arabia for book events, I'd hesitate. Not out of fear, but because I wouldn't be able to keep my big mouth shut with regards to Wahhabism and women's rights. (I have four daughters and when they graduated from high school I suggested Pomp & Circumstance be ditched in favor of Ride of the Valkyries, so yeah, I'm biased too).

But...back to the Mystery Girl.

She's not a mystery to me, because I've had the pleasure of meeting her. I've enjoyed dinner with her family. Her name is Mae Yanagi and she's as American as can be. 

Like my ancestors and yours, her family came to the US to become part of something better. Not to infiltrate.

Think of this little girl the next time a politician suggests we begin registering people -- because freedom shouldn't be a mystery.

Black holes, dark matter, Amazon, and other mysteries of the universe

[image error]Ardent Amazon critic, Sherman Alexie, has books on display. Ironic photo by the Seattle Times.It's weird. It's mysterious. And it’s official. Amazon has opened an actual, honest-to-betsy, retail location in Seattle—a physical bookstore—the very thing that was anathema to all things Amazon for the last decade.

And no one knows quite what to make of it. 

When looking at photos of the new bookstore my first thought was of the Final Fantasy movies. The producers used the latest, greatest, state-of-the-artiest technology to create what was then deemed to be the most “life-like” animation ever. But the characters on screen, while beautiful and gorgeously rendered, lacked a certain spark. Their souls were missing. One reviewer called them “cadaverous.”

That’s how Amazon’s bookstore feels to me. It appears to be a data driven replicant of a bookstore experience. A facsimile—like Frankenstein’s monster. On the one hand, the sheer audacity and genius is amazing to behold. But on the other hand, you’re left wondering when this creation will break loose and start eating villagers.

And yes, I am colored by my personal experiences with Amazon.

That is to say, I sell a ton of books via the giant online retailer. (So...yay!)

But I also once created a tiny promotion aimed at supporting Indie Bookstores and was told that by doing so I had jeopardized my chances of being one of Amazon’s Best Books of the Month. (So...boo!)

And a year later I was curious about all things Amazon, so I flew to Seattle to meet with their head of publishing, who was quite wonderful and told me how much she loved working there. And then she quit a month later.  (So...huh?)

I guess that's a fancy way of saying that I have more questions than answers. Like you, I'm left wondering...why a bookstore?

Is it to find a physical presence for books from Amazon Publishing?


Is it to test drive/sell more Kindles?


Is it like sending in the infantry to mop up the retail battlefield that’s been crushed by Amazon's online cavalry charge? 


Is it just a PR stunt to further augment stock price?


Of has Amazon renewed its vows and actually fallen in love with printed books?

Who knows? I certainly don’t. And maybe Amazon doesn't even know. But either way, I’ll be making popcorn and watching curiously from the sidelines.

What’s your theory, wiseguy?

State of the Book Address

[image error]Found some graffiti that God would approve of atop the dome of Sacre Coeur.Hey, kids. Been a longish time since I've posted. Which means that I've either been writing, or traveling. Or in this particular passport-stamping instance, a bit of both.

I sent an early draft of the new book to my illustrious editrix long before the recent blood moon and she had tremendously wonderful feedback, which also requires tremendously strenuous rewriting. (Think Mt. Rushmore, but adding a different face and shorting the chin of Abe Lincoln and giving George Washington braces). The new book will undoubtedly be better for it, but these things take time. 

Speaking of time, I took a little time off to visit Paris. And while I hung out with authors Janet Skeslien Charles, James Grady, and the incredibly talented Aliette de Bodard (we went to Literary Boot Camp together back in 2006) I was really there for a mental palate cleansing before I dive back into my Seattle based book which has a new working title: WITH MY MEMORIES, I LIT THE FIRE. 

Oddly enough that title comes from a translation of a song in the 50s by French singer Edith Piaf. And sure enough, all over Paris we're hearing this broken-hearted ballad. So in the immortal words of Buckaroo Banzai, "No matter where you go, there you are."

Okay, back to my Batman pajamas and that whole writing thing. 

Au revoir. 

Go Set A Watchman should never have been published. Also, there is no Santa Claus. Sorry kids

Truth sometimes hurts, like a cinder block dropped on your head. But, sometimes it's needed. So here's the flat of it my friends--this book should never, NEVER, have been published. I'm not talking about changing the storyline, or the new and unimproved racist Atticus. I'm talking about trampling the wishes of an 89 year old woman.

Yes, this book is from Harper Lee and that's head turning for sure. And it's cool for fans and a windfall for booksellers. YAY, you! And for Harper Collins (no relation) it's like flying a fleet of B-52s over their NYC office and carpet bombing them with gold bullion.

But *rubbing forehead* that doesn't make it right. 

Here's what we know:

Up until she was 88, Harper Lee never wanted to publish another book. And fans BEGGED her for more. Publishers threw mountains of money at her. But she still said, no thanks. Her sister, Alice, was her attorney and gatekeeper, and in Lee's nursing home years, she saw that those wishes were honored. 


In 2011, Lee's agent Sam Pinkus, a representative from Sotheby's, Justin Caldwell, and an attorney, Tonja Carter, visited Lee's safe deposit box and discovered a rejected manuscript called GO SET A WATCHMAN. That book would later be rewritten and renamed TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.

(Side-bar: All authors have early trunk novels. We can't part with these books because we've invested so much time in them, but NO AUTHOR IN HIS OR HER RIGHT MIND WANTS THIS STUFF PUBLISHED. Leesha, if you're reading this, if I should fall off a cliff and die, please give that early manuscript a nice Viking funeral. Thanks!)

January 2012, Tonja Carter becomes durable power of attorney for Harper Lee. 


In 2013, Tonja Carter fires Lee's agent Sam Pinkus. 


Jump to 2014, three months before Lee's sister Alice dies, Tonja Carter "discovers" this manuscript. Harper Collins rocks the world by announcing they will publish this long lost book about an older Scout, insinuating that this is some kind of sequel. They know it's not, but hey, marketing. 


Three days ago Tonja Carter seeks to clear the air by saying she was not really there in 2011 and truly discovered this book last year.


One day ago, Sam Pinkus and Sotheby's both say she was there in 2011. Also, say "Liar, liar, pants on fire." I may be misquoting, but you get the gist. 


Today GO SET A WATCHMAN is released. Sales of the initial 2 million copy print run are projected to generate $40 million. The profits will go into a foundation run by (insert ominous Darth Vader music) Tonja Carter.

If you watch the PBS special by Mary McDonagh Murphy, we see a very old Harper Lee being presented with her "new" book. Curiously, they only show stills, not actual video. We also hear audio of Ms. Lee being asked, "Did you ever think you would see this published?" She answers, "Of course I did, don't be silly." 

In a recent interview on CNN, Mary McDonagh Murphy was asked, "Did you believe her?" Murphy couldn't really answer that question. And neither can the rest of us. We can only go by what Ms. Lee desired until she was 88, until her sister died, until a new attorney thought otherwise. 

GO SET A WATCHMAN is a priceless artifact. It's an amazing study in how an early, rejected draft can become a timeless classic. But I can't bring myself to read it. Sometimes when you pass a train wreck, you should just look away.

Hey, let's all talk about race. Wait, where are you going?

[image error]With Mat Johnson and Marie Mutsuki Mockett. Amazing how many halves can make us whole.I was at Mixed Remixed in LA this past weekend, a festival celebrating the mixed race experience in film, literature, music, and art. While at the same time the general public was reacting to the whole Rachel Dolezal thing. Yowza. What a cultural confluence. 

I'm going to err on the side of positivity here and say that Mixed Remixed was, and I believe I'm using the scientific term here: UTTERLY AMAZEBALLS. 

As a kid who grew up never feeling Chinese enough (because I didn't speak Cantonese like my dad) and never feeling white enough (because I ate stuff like chicken feet and dried cuttlefish that freaked out my Caucasian friends), Mixed Remixed was like Camelot. It was magical. Everyone had gone through their own weird, bi-racial journey. It was a giant, collective, beautiful validation. When author Mat Johnson said, "I am a racial optical illusion," we all said YES. When Fresno's Poet Laureate, James Tyner said, "I would walk with my people if I could find them," many of us shed tears.

[image error]I won the 2015 Storytellers Prize for Literature. The Daily Show's Al Madrigal won for Film & Television.But then circling the whole thing like a fanboy at a Star Trek convention was the spectre of Rachel Dolezal. The white/black elephant in the room.

I just feel sorry for her. I don't sense malice in her actions. Just a desperate (albeit deceptive) clawing for a comfortable place in the world. I understand that.

And I get the outrage. But Internet outrage is all pitchforks and pumped shotguns. It's like locking someone in an old stockade and letting villagers pelt them with rotten fruit. The act itself is ugly and tragic and is the opposite of healing.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had a big-hearted take on the matter. And attendees at Mixed Remixed definitely weighed in. Meanwhile I'm still looking at this spray-tanned train-wreck and looking for the love. What do you think?

Congrats to the Class of 2015. Now please, get off my lawn

School superintendent, Tammy Yaeger Lacey, warms up the crowd in a sweltering gym.

Last Friday I had the surreal pleasure of giving the commencement address at Great Falls High (where my wife, Leesha, went to high school).

Not wanting to give a normal speech, I decided to crowdsource all of my advice from Facebook and Twitter—creating a Top-10 list. It went over fairly well. And by fairly well, I think people momentarily forgot that it was 165° in the gymnasium. Or maybe the heat added a factor of delirium, thus making my speech more tolerable.

Speaking of speeches, folks have asked for a full transcript. Unfortunately, I don't write these things down, I kind of dance upon talking points as I speak. But, I do have the Top-10 list, so here 'tis with my commentary as delivered.

Top 10-Bits of Advice Crowdsourced from Social Media

When in doubt. Be kind. (Phhh, that’s kind of lame).
Be yourself but always assume that someone is recording you with an iPhone.
Remind them that just because they've graduated from high school that does not mean they are extra special. Actually, just the opposite. (Congratulations, you just accomplished something that everyone in this room has accomplished, so yay us!)
Please get a job. Any job. Because your parents are broke. (This one actually mentioned a name that I won’t share because I don’t want to embarrass anyone…especially you, Taylor).
For the love of God, don't rely on spell check to get you thorough life. (That quote was actually misspelled).
Enjoy your metabolism while you can.
Get off our lawns!
Christopher Walken was right, the world needs more cowbell.
You won't remember this speech; you just want to get to the all-night grad party. (Be safe).
According to Google, a middle class family spends roughly $240,000 to raise a child to the age of 18. If we assume a modest 8% return on investment, then these kids owe their parents approx. $259,000 dollars. I'm sure their parents will let them pay it off over 20 years. By the way your first payment of $1080.00 is due on July 5th (my math might be a little off). Good luck.

The crowd cheered for the metabolism one and especially the last one. Also, I had a cowbell and a drumstick hidden at the podium which came in handy for number eight.

A huge THANK YOU to: Jaye Wells, Rey Waltz, Briana Wipf, Jeffrey Henkin, Maryke VanBeuzekom, A. Cheryl Curtis, Jennifer Dues Bruggeman, Dee Dolores Leh, Helen Dowdell, and Lorna M. Fong.