Robert Jacoby's Blog, page 15
February 20, 2013
New interview and giveaway
My interview about my debut novel There are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes (along with a book giveaway) is up on the Get Lost in Fiction blog. Thanks, Crystal! I really appreciate your support. Drop by, read the interview, enter to win a signed copy of my novel. Get lost for a while. :)
February 16, 2013
Kirkus review of "Noah"
Finally! The Kirkus review of my debut novel There are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes is online. I'm pleased with its balanced and nuanced view of my work. The takeaway blurb is: "A confident, strongly voiced portrait of despair and the flickering light at the end of the tunnel."
Check it out! Leave a comment if you like, share with friends...
Check it out! Leave a comment if you like, share with friends...
January 25, 2013
Best Songs You've (Maybe) Never Heard of from Bands You've (Maybe) Never Heard of
I really enjoy discovering new music. Here's some I've found over the past year.
Alternative Rock and Post Rock in the 2000s
Easiest way to listen to a song is to highlight the entire line (in Google Chrome), right click mouse button, then hit "Search Google for [xxxx]"; this will open a new Chrome tab with the YouTube video in the top one or two search results.
Bar Clearing Good Times by Saxon Shore
Summer Feels When It's Bright by The Pink Snowflakes
Rocket by Working for a Nuclear Free City
No Joy by Ghost Blonde
The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack by Liars
Trailer Park by Windermere
Where the Ocean Meets the Eye by The Stratford 4
Sharron Apple by Airiel
Slow Burn by Hudson Bell
Postcard from 1952 by Explosions in the Sky
Chinese Letter by The High Violets
Coby by The Lilys
Sleeping Lessons by The Shins
If you like the music enough, remember to purchase it; support the artist!
Hope you enjoy!
PS: feel free to comment and add to the list
Alternative Rock and Post Rock in the 2000s
Easiest way to listen to a song is to highlight the entire line (in Google Chrome), right click mouse button, then hit "Search Google for [xxxx]"; this will open a new Chrome tab with the YouTube video in the top one or two search results.
Bar Clearing Good Times by Saxon Shore
Summer Feels When It's Bright by The Pink Snowflakes
Rocket by Working for a Nuclear Free City
No Joy by Ghost Blonde
The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack by Liars
Trailer Park by Windermere
Where the Ocean Meets the Eye by The Stratford 4
Sharron Apple by Airiel
Slow Burn by Hudson Bell
Postcard from 1952 by Explosions in the Sky
Chinese Letter by The High Violets
Coby by The Lilys
Sleeping Lessons by The Shins
If you like the music enough, remember to purchase it; support the artist!
Hope you enjoy!
PS: feel free to comment and add to the list
January 15, 2013
The tenth notebook
I just finished my tenth notebook. I was curious, I had to try to figure out how many words were in it. I calculated: maybe 90,000. I started September 2011. I went to the box to put it away with the others. As I've done on every other occasion, when I put away a finished notebook, I pulled out one of the old ones and flipped it open. Started reading. Flipped through more pages. It was from more than 20 years ago, before my first child was born. I wasn't liking what I was reading. The past was coming alive in a way I did not need it to, right now. I pushed it back into place. I set the newly finished notebook on top of the others and closed it up. Where they'll sit for many more months until I'm done with another 100-page notebook. Filling time, filling pages.
I have an idea of writing a memoir, using as background material these notebooks, where close to a million words now sit. I started in 1985, writing every day or every week; once, I remember, I took about 7 months off, but then came back to it. I could not deny who I was/am, and what I needed to do. No matter what others were telling me.
Don't let others tell you who you are; figure that out on your own. And rejoice in it.
I have an idea of writing a memoir, using as background material these notebooks, where close to a million words now sit. I started in 1985, writing every day or every week; once, I remember, I took about 7 months off, but then came back to it. I could not deny who I was/am, and what I needed to do. No matter what others were telling me.
Don't let others tell you who you are; figure that out on your own. And rejoice in it.
December 13, 2012
Interview on Indie Author Land
Check it out. My interview with Indie Author Land about my debut novel "There are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes" is up on their site now.
It's my first interview, and I enjoyed doing it more than I thought I would. They asked some interesting questions that really made me think about how to describe the book, how I wrote it, and why I choose to write certain passages the way I did. Oh. And they asked about the title, so if you're curious, you can find out how I came up with it.
It's my first interview, and I enjoyed doing it more than I thought I would. They asked some interesting questions that really made me think about how to describe the book, how I wrote it, and why I choose to write certain passages the way I did. Oh. And they asked about the title, so if you're curious, you can find out how I came up with it.
November 22, 2012
Listening to books
I have an account with Audible, the audiobook site. I bought myself a present in May (that's another story). The first book I downloaded was Virgil's The Aeneid. It was one of the "great books"--the Must Reads--I'd not read yet. So, I figured, I'd listen to it.
It's been an experience. I'm finding that I can't listen more than 40 minutes or so at a time. I have to really pay attention to grasp the words and the story. The language is very lofty, and, after awhile, I'll begin to lose hold of the story and just let the words wash over me. It's like watching Fellini's 8 1/2. Your mind wanders, in and out, past and present, then you 'wake up' and find yourself back where you started. But not. Not yourself again.
It's kind of like that.
The second book I downloaded from Audible was Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. I'd heard good things about this book but never read it. Now's the time, with Audible, I thought.
I listened to it in one day. Almost in one sitting. I had to buy a paper copy. I wanted to have it at hand so that I could pick it off my shelf and flip it open to any page to be reminded. Reminded of what? Reminded of life and how to live it. With dignity, and purpose, and responsibility.
It's been an experience. I'm finding that I can't listen more than 40 minutes or so at a time. I have to really pay attention to grasp the words and the story. The language is very lofty, and, after awhile, I'll begin to lose hold of the story and just let the words wash over me. It's like watching Fellini's 8 1/2. Your mind wanders, in and out, past and present, then you 'wake up' and find yourself back where you started. But not. Not yourself again.
It's kind of like that.
The second book I downloaded from Audible was Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. I'd heard good things about this book but never read it. Now's the time, with Audible, I thought.
I listened to it in one day. Almost in one sitting. I had to buy a paper copy. I wanted to have it at hand so that I could pick it off my shelf and flip it open to any page to be reminded. Reminded of what? Reminded of life and how to live it. With dignity, and purpose, and responsibility.
November 11, 2012
Sunday morning reading
I thumbed through my copy of 'Poetry and Prose,' a collection of works of Gerard Manley Hopkins. It's incredible, beautiful, and peaceful prose, his journals. Vivid, lovely descriptions of clouds upon fields, flowers blooming, and rain storms. He brings images to life with such subtlety and force in his poetry, too. I have not read him in too long. It's marvelous. Here's a sample from a journal entry:
"Sunrise at Chagford. There was a remarkable fan of clouds traced in fine horizontals, which afterwards lost their levels, some becoming oblique. Below appearing bright streaks which crowded up one after another. A white mist in the churchyard, trees ghostly in it."
"Sunrise at Chagford. There was a remarkable fan of clouds traced in fine horizontals, which afterwards lost their levels, some becoming oblique. Below appearing bright streaks which crowded up one after another. A white mist in the churchyard, trees ghostly in it."
November 8, 2012
My next two books
I'm still working on my next two books.
First, my next novel (working title is Dusk and Ember) is a prequel to my debut novel, There are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes. I have more than 50,000 words written, but a lot of it is still jumbled, on paper and in my head. I imagine it might take a year or more to sort through it all.
Second, my nonfiction book (working title Never Stop Dancing) co-authored with my friend John Robinette who lost his wife, Amy Polk, in a pedestrian traffic accident in Washington, D.C. in 2010. I interviewed John during the year after Amy's death, while he re-built his life with his two young sons. It's pretty harrowing stuff; and listening to John tell his journey helped me gain new perspectives on life, loss, and love.
You can read more at my website www.robert-jacoby.com or visit John's blog at http://hole-in-the-sun.blogspot.com/.
First, my next novel (working title is Dusk and Ember) is a prequel to my debut novel, There are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes. I have more than 50,000 words written, but a lot of it is still jumbled, on paper and in my head. I imagine it might take a year or more to sort through it all.
Second, my nonfiction book (working title Never Stop Dancing) co-authored with my friend John Robinette who lost his wife, Amy Polk, in a pedestrian traffic accident in Washington, D.C. in 2010. I interviewed John during the year after Amy's death, while he re-built his life with his two young sons. It's pretty harrowing stuff; and listening to John tell his journey helped me gain new perspectives on life, loss, and love.
You can read more at my website www.robert-jacoby.com or visit John's blog at http://hole-in-the-sun.blogspot.com/.
November 1, 2012
What's on my shelf, close at hand
What can you tell from a writer's nearest book shelf; I mean, what's closest at hand?
Besides the dictionary and thesaurus, I have, in order:
-The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
-The Bhagavad Gita (Easwaran)
-The Analects of Confucius: A Philosophical Translation
-Al-Quaran (Ali)
-Holy Bible (NIV)
-The Poems of Dylan Thomas
-There are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes (my own, yes)
-Suttree by Cormac McCarthy
-The Complete Book of Bible Knowledge
-The Road by Cormac McCarthy
-Lie Down in Darkness by Styron
-On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner
-The Art of Fiction by John Gardner
-Selected Writings, Hazlitt
-Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein
-Nobel Lecture, Solzhentsyn
-Revising Fiction by Madden
-Lolita by Nabokov
-The Craft of Writing by Sloane
-Kierkegaard, A Very Short Introduction
-Schopenhauer, A Very Short Introduction
-The Naked and the Dead, Mailer
-The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner
-Poetry and Prose, Gerard Manley Hopkins
-The Tao of Pooh, Hoff
-Naked Lunch, Burroughs
-Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor
-The Best American Poetry, 2007
-Blood Meridian, McCarthy
-The House of Breath, Goyen
-White Noise, DeLillo
-Aspects of the Novel, Forster
-The Corrections, Franzen
What's in your wallet?
Besides the dictionary and thesaurus, I have, in order:
-The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
-The Bhagavad Gita (Easwaran)
-The Analects of Confucius: A Philosophical Translation
-Al-Quaran (Ali)
-Holy Bible (NIV)
-The Poems of Dylan Thomas
-There are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes (my own, yes)
-Suttree by Cormac McCarthy
-The Complete Book of Bible Knowledge
-The Road by Cormac McCarthy
-Lie Down in Darkness by Styron
-On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner
-The Art of Fiction by John Gardner
-Selected Writings, Hazlitt
-Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein
-Nobel Lecture, Solzhentsyn
-Revising Fiction by Madden
-Lolita by Nabokov
-The Craft of Writing by Sloane
-Kierkegaard, A Very Short Introduction
-Schopenhauer, A Very Short Introduction
-The Naked and the Dead, Mailer
-The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner
-Poetry and Prose, Gerard Manley Hopkins
-The Tao of Pooh, Hoff
-Naked Lunch, Burroughs
-Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor
-The Best American Poetry, 2007
-Blood Meridian, McCarthy
-The House of Breath, Goyen
-White Noise, DeLillo
-Aspects of the Novel, Forster
-The Corrections, Franzen
What's in your wallet?
