Jonathan Carroll's Blog, page 23

CarrollBlog 4.21

I've started doing interviews with various Polish publications in preparation for my trip there in May. Here's one of them

1.You said once that writing a 300-page book takes you about one year. But we’ve been waiting for your comeback for 5 long years… [Could you please tell us why?]

The novel I’m working on now is very different from the ones I’ve done in the past—it has many more characters and the story I’m trying to tell takes place in more than one dimension. I’ve run into difficulties telling this story and had to cut and change many things along the way. That is why it’s taken longer to finish. But here’s a secret—one of the stories in my new collection is the first chapter of the book I will write after *this* one is finished. So hopefully the wait for the next one won’t be so long. Just remember what Hannibal Lector said in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS—“All good things to those who wait…”

2. To paraphrase the sentence from your blog - is your newest book addressed to anyone in particular?

The book about to be published in Poland is a collection of short stories I’ve written in the last few years while working on this latest novel. I do that often when writing a novel—take time off from the novel and write an original short story to clear my mind of the longer work. Then I can return to that larger work refreshed. That said, the story collection is not for anyone in particular but the new novel is addressed to, well, someone special.

3. I’ve heard that trips to Poland are always a treat. [What exactly do you mean by that?

Book tours can be boring and annoying. But I’ve never felt either when visiting Poland because the audiences there are enthusiastic, their questions are informed, interesting or witty and usually fun to answer. The courtesy and generosity of spirit extended to me each time I have been there is humbling. Also the Poles were really the first to read my books with great devotion and seriousness of purpose. For that alone I will always be grateful and glad to go to say thank you.

4.Do you have any favourite places in Poland?

One of my favorite things to do in the world is sit in the great square in Krakow on a sunny day and drink as much coffee as I can while watching the world go by. I particularly love the contrast in Krakow between the ancient buildings and the young beautiful faces of the many students there. A perfect combination. I have done it often and hope to do it more in the future. Also one of the greatest meals I have ever eaten was at Restaurant Bazanciarnia in Poznan. I’m hoping to do that again too in the future—more than once.

5.You are mainly known for novels and short stories. However, you post to your blog many poems by various artist. [What’s the deal with you and poetry?]

I taught literature for many years and have my advanced degree in both writing and world literature. Before I start writing every day I read poetry because when it is good, it reminds me to be vigilant and careful with what I write. As a result, when I come across poems I like very much I often post them either on my blog or Facebook page. Judging by the enthusiastic responses of readers there, people like these poems too.

6.You are not a fantasy writer, that’s for sure. But years ago someone said that if you’d been a Latin American writer with a three-part name, your books would’ve been described as magical-realist. Do you agree? Wouldn’t that be “impossible realism”?

Categories like that are for bookstores and literary critics. In my career I’ve been called a Magic Realist, a fantasy writer, a horror writer, a mainstream writer, a Slipstream writer… the list goes on and on ad nauseum. But the criteria is simple—is the book and the writer any good? If they are, it doesn’t matter at all what “category” you think they belong in..

7.Do you have a favorite time of the day to write?

Early in the morning when my mind is freshest and full of coffee.

8.Do you know/like any Polish writers? I’m asking because few years ago [in 2009] you were mentioned in

Stanislaw Lem’s biography, written by his son, Tomasz.

I taught Tomasz when Lem and his family lived in Vienna. Tomasz read and liked THE LAND OF LAUGHS and gave it to his father. Lem was the one who gave the book originally to Fantastyka magazine and then his German publisher, Suhrkamp. We became quite friendly when he was here and had a lively correspondence. He asked me to write the screenplay of his novel FIASCO. Both he and Tomasz were very supportive and generous. I’m forever grateful for what they did for me. As to Polish writers, I have read many of them from Szymborska to Lec, Herbert, Milosz, Bruno Schulz, Anna Swir, Halina Poswiatowska.. many others.

9.Biography is an enormously popular genre now. Have you changed your mind about your biography, or is it still just “Jonathan Carroll lives in Vienna”? There are many women in Poland between age 18 and 30 waiting, you know…

I think women generally like it more when you’re a little mysterious than when you tell them everything about yourself. I have always been skeptical of these writers who say things in their biographies like “Carroll was at one time a lumberjack, a racing driver, an undercover policeman, a champion scuba diver AND bartender…” It always seems like they’re only showing off. To me the best way a writer can show off, tell a reader who they are, and make them fall in love with you a little bit is by writing a good book.

10.Nowadays many authors use Facebook to keep in touch with their fan community. Do you even consider that?

I’ve had a Facebook page for two years and have a very large following there. It can be found under either “Jonathan Carroll” or “Jonathan Carroll writer”

11.Can you give us a teaser about what are you planning to write next?

One night five people, friends and strangers, share exactly the same dream.When they wake the next morning all of their lives are changed forever. There are great dogs but they don’t talk, gods appear but they don’t interfere (much), love triangles, and otherworldly complications but hopefully they’ll all work themselves out in the end.

12.One last question – imagine yourself in hell from „The Jane Fonda Room”; which room would you choose?

Federico Fellini films. He’s my hero.

CarrollBlog 4.20

Polish readers-- Here's the schedule for my trip there in May. Some changes will probably take place but this is the general idea:

May 9

LODZ

18.00 –19.30 – meeting with readers in Srodmiejskie Forum Kultury - Dom Literatury (address: ul. Roosevelta 17)

May 10

WARSAW

18.00 – 19.30 – meeting with readers in EMPiK JUNIOR (address: ul. Marszalkowska)

May 11

KRAKOW

18.00 – 19.30 – meeting with readers in EMPiK Megastore (address: Rynek Starego Miasta)

May 12

WARSAW

15.00 – 16.00 – signing at REBIS stand (no 300) at the Warsaw Book Fair

CarrollBlog 4.16

Just got word that the wonderful e-book company 'Open Road Media' is going to publish eight of my backlist. More news on this as it comes in. For all those of you who have asked about available Carroll e-books in English, you're about to get flooded, in addition to the ones that are already available. I'm excited.

Here's their website: www.openroadmedia.com

CarrollBlog 4.14

I had forgotten completely about this until I read PC's new memoir:

“On my first night in Vienna, Jonathan Carroll walked me over to the Danube, where we sat on a flight of steps leading down to the river. The dog walkers were out in force. Greetings were exchanged with small movements of the eyes, and the dogs sniffed one another fondly…Jonathan kept his eye on a woman at the next bridge. She was moving so slowly I thought she might be leading a dogsled pulled by escargots. After an hour, the woman walked in front of us, and she bowed her head in acknowledgment of Jonathan. With great dignity, he returned the gesture. To my surprise, she was walking two enormous tortoises, displaced natives from an Ethiopian desert. The woman walked them every night, and Jonathan was always there to admire their passage.

‘That’s what writers do, Conroy,’ he said. ‘We wait for the tortoises to come. We wait for that lady who walks them. That’s how art works. It’s never a jackrabbit, or a racehorse. It’s the tortoises that hold all the secrets. We’ve got to be patient enough to wait for them.’”

Pat Conroy

from *My Reading Life*

CarrollBlog 4.7

Hotmail wrote yesterday and said that my email account there had been hacked and misused by bad guys to send out ugly-mail to anyone who has written to *jscarroll@hotmail.com* If you receive a mail from "me" via that address, erase it. I'm sorry to those who were inconvenienced. The problem was solved and hopefully the real me is reachable again at that address.

CarrollBlog 4.6

I just received from Subterranean Press the first bound galley of my big story collection THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED A CLOUD, due out in June. Even in this early form it's a physically beautiful book-- almost six hundred pages long. If you haven't already ordered one and you like my work, do. The book pretty much sums up everything I've been trying to create for thirty years. It won't be for sale in the stores or at Amazon, BN, etc so order yours from: www.subterraneanpress.com

CarrollBlog 4.2

THE REAL WORLD

by Wisława Szymborska

The real world doesn't take flight

the way dreams do.

No muffled voice, no doorbell

can dispel it,

no shriek, no crash

can cut it short.

Images in dreams

are hazy and ambiguous,

and can generally be explained

in many different ways.

Reality means reality:

that's a tougher nut to crack.

Dreams have keys.

The real world opens on its own

and can't be shut.

Report cards and stars

pour from it,

butterflies and flatiron warmers

shower down,

headless caps

and shards of clouds.

Together they form a rebus

that can't be solved.

Without us dreams couldn't exist.

The one on whom the real world depends

is still unknown,

and the products of his insomnia

are available to anyone

who wakes up.

Dreams aren't crazy—

it's the real world that's insane,

if only in the stubbornness

with which it sticks

to the current of events.

It dreams our recently deceased

are still alive,

in perfect health, no less,

and restored to the full bloom of youth.

The real world lays the corpse

in front of us.

The real world doesn't blink an eye.

Dreams are featherweights,

and memory can shake them off with ease.

The real world doesn't have to fear forgetfulness.

It's a tough customer.

It sits on our shoulders,

weighs on our hearts,

tumbles to our feet.

There's no escaping it,

it tags along each time we flee.

And there's no stop

along our escape route

where reality isn't expecting us.

CarrollBlog 4.28

THIS POEM

by Elma Mitchell

This poem is dangerous: it should not be left

Within the reach of children, or even of adults

Who might swallow it whole, with possibly

Undesirable side-effects. If you come across

An unattended, unattached poem

In a public place, do not attempt to tackle it

Yourself. Send it (preferably in a sealed container)

To the nearest center of learning, where it will be rendered

Harmless, by experts. Even the simplest poem

May destroy your immunity to human emotions.

All poems must carry a Government warning. Words

Can seriously affect your heart

CarrollBlog 4.25

Our fifteen-year-old self is our harshest critic. All the things it thought we were capable of when it was in charge. All the obstacles it knew we'd have the power to overcome. The words "safe" and "average" would never be part of us or our vocabulary. We were too special, too strong. That young self was ready to be as inspired and ruthless as a conquering army over the rest of our days. And although since then we've grown to smile at (or scorn) the part of ourselves that thought bell-bottom pants were cool and we were capable of licking the world, something of that young soul lives on and watches, too often like a child ashamed of its parents. Only we are our own parents now and our own child. No one gets left behind; every part of us sits in judgment of the other.

CarrollBlog 3.17

The brand new audio version of my novel WHITE APPLES is now available from Audible.com. It's terrific-- no kidding.

Here's the link:http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?...