Barry Lyga's Blog: The BLog, page 29
August 5, 2015
WiRL: Bestsellers
This week
, we take on the New York Times bestsellers list. We have questions, people…
Some more talk about essays and writing classes. Is there a non-jerk way to self-promote? Why are the same books recommended over and over? Plus, Barry rants about the New York Times bestsellers list…and Morgan agrees!
August 4, 2015
Interview: USAToday
USAToday’s “Happily Ever After” blog interviewed yours truly, Peter Facinelli, and Rob DeFranco about After the Red Rain, including questions about the characters, the story, and cheerful topics like the end of the world.
July 31, 2015
Election Talk is Stupid (with a Graph!)
In the course of a well-deserved takedown of Donald Trump, the Huffington Post recently obviated its own coverage of the primary election campaign…as well as everyone else’s.
Look, it’s a known fact — uncontested — that primary election coverage has become more and more ridiculous in recent cycles, its tumorous, exponential growth a blight on our body politic. So I’m glad that the Huffington Post has — apparently without realizing it — sown the seeds of ending the charade that anything happening in electoral politics right now matters. At all.
In a story titled “Donald Trump ‘Has Never Been A Fan’ Of The Huffington Post,” Senior Politics Editor Paige Lavender and Reporter Ariel Edwards-Levy skewer Trump’s bombast and egotastic disgorgements. They do an excellent job at it, but in the course of doing so, they also point out how idiotic it is to be paying attention to the 2016 Presidential election at all.
A chunk of the story, in case you can’t be bothered to go check it out yourself:
As Lavender and Edwards-Levy point out, at this point in the election cycle, nothing matters. Chumps like Herman Cain and Rick Perry had sizable leads coming their way at a similar time in the 2012 cycle. (Go back to 2007 and recall that Hillary Clinton was inevitable, and the black dude with the funny-sounding name from Chicago didn’t stand a chance…right?)
If “so few voters [are] paying attention” and “Polls this early…should…be taken with a dose of skepticism,” then why the hell are we even taking those polls? And reporting on them? And talking about them? This article could be summed up as “Donald Trump is angry about our reporting, but our reporting doesn’t matter, so HAH!”
Why do our media insist on punishing us with an endless churn of meaningless crap every primary season?
Quite simply, it’s a case of “if you show it, they will come.” The past several cycles have bestowed upon us a clown-car’s-worth of political hacks, has-beens, never-weres, and flat-out lunatic chumps because the world is paying attention. Jackasses like Herman Cain and Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin throw their hats into the ring not because they actually think they can win, but rather for the publicity that accrues to the attempt, publicity they can then spin off into lucrative speaking gigs, book deals, and TV appearances.
But if we stop paying attention, they’ll stop doing it. And when I say “stop paying attention,” I mean that people like Lavender and Edwards-Levy and the rest of their ilk in the world of political journalism need to back the hell off. If you starve a ranting, right-wing fire of its oxygen, it will snuff itself.
Some people may find the absurdity of the primaries entertaining. Or may enjoy the schadenfreude of watching a political party slowly disintegrate itself. I say look elsewhere for your entertainment and your smug self-satisfaction.1 This isn’t a reality show with a predetermined villain, or a penetrating look into the life of a celebrity couple. This is the very serious business of the future of our republic. Sorry if it makes me a killjoy, but I don’t think our Presidential elections should be treated with the same care and attention to detail as, say, Brad and Angelina’s outing to get ice cream with the kids.
At this point in the process, there’s no sense caring about who’s doing or saying anything. On either side. Polls don’t matter. Debates don’t matter. Early next year, when the first primary ballots are actually cast, yes, then you can start caring. But unless you work for a candidate, turn off the constant baying of the political class, which earns big bucks by making you think any of this matters.
And speaking of that political class, well, two of its members just admitted that this whole thing is a charade, and a useless one at that. The media should shamefacedly step away from the crack cocaine that is pre-primary idiocy and focus on something important.2
Trump image via Flickr
Recall that it was only a generation ago that the other side was the one committing suicide by primary. The knife cuts both ways.Just as an example…
July 30, 2015
WiRL: Barry Hates Non-fiction
Another week, another episode of Writing in Real Life, the only podcast in the whole world (nay, the whole universe) starring my wife and me!
This week:
Vaccinate your kids. Thanks, grandmothers! Barry disses personal essays and remains a man of mystery. The submission process as quantum weirdness. What kind of writing class is the best for aspiring authors? Why Morgan married Barry. Plus: Morgan’s secret terror.
July 23, 2015
I Hunt Killers: Regrets?
Here there be spoilers for the I Hunt Killers series!
Recently, over on the BLog post about the ancient, alternate ending to I Hunt Killers that I unearthed from my hard drive, someone commented:
I thought that was a terrific question, so here’s a long-winded answer. 
First of all, I’m glad Alysa thinks that “everything came to a close beautifully.” At the risk of sounding egotistical, I am enormously happy with the end of the series. I think it clicked into place perfectly. As far as the ending goes, I have absolutely zero regrets.
I know that some people had wished for a specific moment or a cherry on top of a particular sundae. But I feel like the book ends when the main character’s emotional journey has crested. Yes, it might have been interesting to see Jazz actually turn over Billy’s journal to the cops or finally change the screensaver on his computer or have his first sit-down dinner at the Hall house, but… Those are easily filled in by your own imagination and speculation. I want my endings to give you the stuff only I’ve thought of. That’s my job.
So, no — no regrets about the ending.
But…
I do have two teeny, tiny regrets about the series, and they both pertain to Game.
The first is about Connie and her actions at the end of the book, when she goes to New York on her own. I thought I made it abundantly clear that she was doing this despite her own best judgement, that she felt she had no choice if she was going to help Jazz. On page 338, she gets proof that her mystery caller is close to Jazz. So she figures she had better play along if Jazz is going to survive.
But I guess I didn’t make it as clear as I’d wished. A lot of people thought Connie was acting stupidly at the end of Game, and while I intended for her to come across as headstrong and impulsive, I never, ever wanted her to seem stupid. Alas.
The second regret is that I didn’t type the words “To be continued” at the end of the damn book.
I mean, I knew the series was a trilogy, and the publishing world knew, but apparently no one else knew. And a whole lot of people assumed it wasn’t, that I was just jerking everyone around by ending the story on three brutal cliffhangers. I spent about a year getting emails, tweets, Facebook messages, and more, all boiling down to one thing: Is there going to be a third book? Please write a third book!
I was stunned. I couldn’t believe that anyone could think an author would be so cruel as to end a story like that and leave everyone hanging forever!
Anyway, I answered every single person who wrote to ask if there would be a third book, but I assume for every missive I got, there were a number of people who didn’t bother writing at all. I feel so bad that people stressed about this.
So, Alysa, there you go: My two regrets about the Killers series. Given that the trilogy weighs in at nearly 1350 pages (more than that if you count the prequels) and took five years of my life to complete, I can live with those two issues!
July 22, 2015
WiRL: Very, Very British
We get our English on in the latest episode of Writing in Real Life!
Our 25th episode! Barry’s wish comes true. A discussion of authors responding to controversy on social media. Building a community vs. an audience. Should authors be held to the standards of brands and celebrities? Should authors work on stories they abandoned in the past? Does easy writing equal good writing? Leia takes her first steps.
As usual, please subscribe, follow us on Twitter, and rate us on iTunes!
July 16, 2015
Swag, Swag, Swag!
It was a good week for swag at the Lyga house this week. Check out the coolness that arrived via my friendly postal delivery human:
Click to embiggen!
On the top row, from left to right, we have: S.T.A.R. Labs mousepad, Flash emblem letter opener (both courtesy of my brother’s trip to Comic-Con), an inscribed copy of Terry Davis’s amazing Vision Quest, and the Danish edition of Blood of My Blood.
Then, on the bottom row (again, left to right), we have the German edition of Blood of My Blood, the Japanese edition of I Hunt Killers, the Thai edition of Game, and a finished copy of After the Red Rain.
Whew! And that doesn’t even take into account the crap I ordered on Prime Day, which will arrive this weekend.
July 14, 2015
I Hunt Killers…Cheap!
Your Chance to Get Adrift
I have been proselytizing for Paul Griffin’s Adrift for a while now. I told you it was great. I pointed out its first starred review. I even insisted you watch an interview with Griffin himself.
Well, here I am again, this time telling you that Paul Griffin will be speaking on a panel at Books of Wonder on July 29 (the day after Adrift goes on sale!) with fellow authors Daniel Jose Older and Adam Silvera. The topic? “Only in New York.”
Three authors talking about stories set in the Big Apple. Seems like a good time to me!
Be there — July 29 at 6pm at Books of Wonder. Buy a copy, get it signed, make yourself a little happier.
Here’s a link to the event page. Now you have no excuse! Be there!
July 8, 2015
This Week’s WiRL: Oops!
Due to the fourth of July holiday, there’s no new episode of Writing in Real Life this week. We tried, guys, we really did. We brought the big microphone on vacation, even! But there was just no opportunity to record. *sad trombone*
If you like, take a listen at this condensed version of last week’s episode; everything you need in 78 seconds! We’ll see you next week!
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