Alex George's Blog, page 11

Words of Wisdom from Ann Patchett

Last week a bought a Kindle.  I know, I know.

Now, I've been down this path before.  I wrote here about my brief and unfulfilling flirtation with a Nook, and this post shows another problem with e-readers generally.  I will never, ever stop buying books… but, well, let's be honest – there's a certain inevitability about it all, isn't there?  I'm going back to England for Christmas and New Year and I really don't want half of my allotted baggage weight to be books – especially since (because I can't do otherwise) I would also have to lug them back across the Atlantic after I'd read them.  And the Kindle really is very dinky and light and all that good stuff.

But perhaps the best reason for buying a kindle is that there is now material that is only being made available to people with e-readers.  Many authors are publishing their out-of-contract back catalogs for e-readers via sites like Smashwords, and of course – if this is your kind of thing - there is always the next self-published erotic vampire novel to get your teeth into (ba-boom-tish, I'm here all week, etc.)

One of the main reasons I finally broke down and bought my kindle was because I was desperate to read an extended essay called The Getaway Car by Ann Patchett, which is only available in downloadable format through amazon.  Patchett is probably best-known for her novel Bel Canto, which I read and enjoyed several years ago – although by all accounts, her new book, State of Wonder, is better yet (the – please note - actual book is sitting next to me as I write, and I am itching to start it.)

The Get Away Car, though, is something different.  It's part memoir, part rumination, part advice column.  Patchett offers up some of her personal memories and reflections on her career as a writer.  Anyone who is in interested in the creative process of sticking words down on paper should get their hands on it at once.  You'll devour it in one sitting.  It is absorbing, inspiring, funny, honest, modest, and – best of all – it's full of wise observations and advice.  Patchett writes about writing with refreshingly unsentimental candor.  Here are a few gems I pulled out more or less at random.  For each quote there were another ten I could have chosen.

First of all, perhaps the best metaphor for novel writing that I've yet come across:

"Novel writing, I soon discovered, is like channel swimming: a slow and steady stroke over a long distance in a cold, dark sea."

Next, an elegant description of the mountain authors have to climb every time they are confronted by the proverbial blank page:

"What I like about the job of being a novelist, and at the same time what I find so exhausting about it, is that it's the closest thing to being God that you're ever going to get.  All of the decisions are yours.  You decide when the sun comes up.  You decide who gets to fall in love and who gets hit by a car. You have to make all the leaves and all the trees and then sew the leaves onto the trees. You make the entire world."

This next one resonated with me especially:

"As much as I love what I do, I forever feel like a dog on the wrong side of the door.  If I'm writing a book, I'm racing to be finished; if I'm finished, I feel aimless and wish that I were writing a book."

And finally, perhaps the truest words of all:

"Writing is a miserable, awful business. Stay with it. It is better than anything in the world."

Thank you, Ann Patchett, for writing such a wonderful little book.  I'll be returning to it time and time again.  Very highly recommended.

News

Lots going on at the moment, so I thought I would give you all a very brief overview of recent developments.

It's hard to believe that it's now less than two months until A GOOD AMERICAN is published.  And there was me thinking this time would drag.  It has rushed by.

The goodreads galley giveaway that I talked about a while back ended, with an immensely gratifying 1,047 people taking the trouble to enter.  Congratulations to the lucky 25 winners!

There is presently another giveaway in progress – this time for signed galleys.  This one involves people writing to me directly to tell me about where their families came from.  I have loved reading the many, many responses I've received – people have been so generous with their stories, with interesting tales of journeys to America (and elsewhere) from all corners of the globe, some even with photos for good measure.  One of the characters in the novel says, "We all came here from somewhere," and here's the proof.

We're continuing to hear news about review coverage.  The novel was favorably reviewed last week in two of the book industry's major trade publications, Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal.  Last Wednesday A GOOD AMERICAN was featured on the blog of the BookPage website.  It was a wonderful, generous review.  I have an interview scheduled with BookPage on Friday for an author feature that will appear around the time of publication.

We also heard this week that the novel will be reviewed in American Way, the in-flight magazine of American Airways.  This is exciting news – an awful lot of people get on those planes during the course of a month, and they are the living definition of a "captive audience".

We are busy firming up dates for bookshop events in February and I will report back on those shortly.  I can tell however tell you that on publication day itself – February 7, 2012 (but you knew that, right?) I'll be doing an event at 7 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble in Columbia, Missouri.  Later that week I shall be taking off for far-flung places to visit a couple of independent bookstores of high repute, and I cannot wait.

In non-book-related news, the biggest thing that has happened to me and my children in the past week is this:

Meet Theo.  (Short for Thelonious.  Spot the jazz nerd.)  He is a ten month old labrador/retriever mix.  He is utterly adorable – look at those eyes! – and we are all madly in love with him.  I will admit that it is sometimes a little difficult to focus on the next felicitous turn of phrase when he walks over and plonks his beautiful head in my lap and looks up at me.  I'm reminded of my favorite book dedication, by P.G. Wodehouse, who dedicated a book to his step-daughter, "without whose tender affections this book would have been finished in half the time."  Yep. That.

To Read, or Not To Read?

In my earlier post about my trip to the Midwest Booksellers' Association in Minneapolis, I mentioned that at the dinner hosted by Penguin on the Thursday night, there had been some spirited discussion between booksellers about what made for the best author events.  Certain booksellers felt that, as a general rule, authors should never read from their books at book signings.  It sounds counter-intuitive, but when you think about it, the idea makes a lot of sense.

For a start, listening to most writers (or indeed anyone) read out loud from a book is usually rather boring.  Secondly, people who make the effort to go out to an author event at a bookshop are looking for an experience that can't be replicated (or bettered) simply by sitting at home on the sofa.  So instead of just reading what they've already written, writers need to provide insight, anecdotes, background… all these things can enhance a reader's enjoyment of a book more than simply listening to the author declaim his or her own words.  Speaking for myself, I always enjoy answering questions during the Q & A session far more than the reading itself.

But don't take it from me.  The most vocal proponent of this idea in Minneapolis was Geoffrey Jennings, who works at the wonderful Rainy Day Books in Kansas City.  In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Geoffrey's mother Vivien, founder of the store, weighed in, echoing his opinion.  Rainy Day are renowned in the industry for the quality of their author events, so they really do know what they're talking about.

One of the best author events I've been to recently was by Eleanor Brown, whose best-selling novel, The Weird Sisters, I have raved about on this blog before.  Eleanor did read a small extract from her novel (actually "perform" would be a better description), but most of the evening was Eleanor chatting about the book, giving insights into her creative process, and answering a ton of questions from the audience.  It was both stimulating and highly entertaining.  Of course, when it comes to pulling something like this off, it helps if you're, well, Eleanor Brown, who is one of the warmest and most engaging people on the planet.  And this is one of the key points here: writers these days need to be able to speak eloquently and entertainingly about their work.  We can't hide behind the words on the page any more.

I'm going to be doing an author event for A GOOD AMERICAN at Rainy Day Books on Thursday, February 23 next year.  At least I have plenty of time to work out what I'm going to say!

I should note that not everyone at the dinner agreed with Geoffrey's opinion.  And indeed, in the WSJ piece, some event-planners do like authors to read something. What do you think?  Do you like to hear an author read from their work at events, or do you prefer just to listen to them speak?

Unplugging

I've just come back from a few days away from Missouri.  The children were not with me over Thanksgiving this year, and of course my family all live thousands of miles away, so there didn't seem to be much point hanging around. Turkey for one, sir?

So I took off, for a quick visit to Philadelphia – somewhere I'd never been before.  I had a wonderful time, loved exploring the city, and ate magnificently throughout.  (Top tip: if you want to eat really well, dine with a food and travel writer.  Or even better, with two.  They know all the best places and are always treated like royalty.  Thank you, Kayt!)

Prior to leaving I asked twitter whether or not I should take my laptop with me.  The answer was a unanimous no.  So, taking a deep breath, I left it behind.

And I am very glad that I did.

Without my laptop sitting in quiet accusation on the desk of my hotel room, I was able to relax and enjoy myself.   Rather than pecking desultorily at the keyboard, then, the time I spent in my hotel room was a guilt-free blast.  I raided the mini-bar, read a couple of books, and watched a boatload of rubbish television.  I hardly thought about my novel-in-progress at all.  Emails were read (I did have my phone) but every single one of them went unanswered.  (None was especially urgent.)  And it was all rather blissful.

Just like everyone else, writers need downtime, periods away from the pressure of work.  But it's harder to achieve for us, because it's a different kind of a job that we do: there are no defined hours, no paid vacation days (and no health insurance, but don't get me started on that.)  It's more difficult to leave my writing behind me than it is for my legal work.  Of course, I'm only speaking for myself, but there is an irritating little voice in the back of my head which is eternally whispering: "You know, you could always go and write some more."  Sometimes the only way to shut it up it is to adopt draconian methods, e.g. leaving the damn computer behind.

While I was discussing this whole idea on twitter the night before my departure for Philly, Rebecca of The Book Lady's Blog told me about an annual tradition of hers: Fall Back Weekend.  It's a simple idea.  The weekend in autumn that the clocks go back, you go off-grid for the entire weekend.  No email, no internet, no telephone, no television, nothing.  Nary a single tweet.  (If you can get through the entire weekend without getting out of your pajamas, you get bonus points.)  I think it all sounds rather wonderful.  In fact, I'm not sure I'll be able to wait a year before I try it.

Anyway – here I am, back at my desk, feeling refreshed and ready to leap back into the creative fray.  Do you have any tricks you use to recharge your batteries or get yourself out of a rut if you feel things are getting stale?

Goodreads Giveaway!

If you read this blog, the chances are you're interested in books.  And if that's the case, may I humbly suggest that you join Goodreads, if you haven't already?  Goodreads is a great online community of readers.  It's like a book-centric facebook, but without all the annoying games, aggravating political inanities, and pictures of other people's puppies.  It's the largest book-related social media site on the planet, which means that you'll always find someone ready and willing to chat about whatever your literary interests may be, no matter how rarefied.

And if you do? Or if you already have? Please take a minute to look me up and become my friend – or, if you're really a glutton for punishment, become a, ahem, "fan".

Here's another reason to join.  One of the other cool things about Goodreads is that they give away lots of books.  You can probably guess what's coming next… my publisher is hosting a giveaway of 25 galleys of A GOOD AMERICAN.  If you are a member you can go here and click on the "enter to win" button.  You have until December 5 to do so.  Good luck!!

In other news, plans for events in February to mark the publication of the book are slowly coming together.  We are waiting for the final pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to drop into place and once that has happened I will let you know.  I also spoke with the wonderful Penguin publicity people on Friday and learned more about some of the media coverage for the book.   Reviews a-plenty!  It's all very exciting, and I will announce stuff here just as soon as I am able.

Happy Monday, everyone!

Galley Giveaway!

Loyal readers of this blog will know that the galleys of A GOOD AMERICAN have been out in the real world for some time.  The good people at Penguin have been taking those babies to the various regional bookseller tradeshows and sending them out to reviewers, booksellers, bloggers, media outlets, and other people of influence.  The response has been truly wonderful.  People have been incredibly generous in their praise and support of the book.  Some of the more stellar responses from booksellers were collected together and appeared in a banner ad yesterday on the Shelf Awareness Pro website and daily e-bulletin.

Ever since the galleys first appeared, people have been asking me where they can get their hands on a copy.  I tend to shrug apologetically at this – I was sent a handful, but have long since given them away.

Well, good news.  Yesterday Penguin launched a new competition on their website to give away 100 galleys.  All you have to do to enter the drawing is go here and fill in the form at the bottom of the page.  You have until a minute before midnight on November 20 – that's this Sunday night – to enter.  If you don't feel able to wait until February 7, now's your chance to get your hands on an early (and free!) copy of the book.  (A note to my English readers… unfortunately the competition is only open to US residents.)

Good luck!

Where Are All the Boys?

Recently the site Reading Group Guides very kindly did a giveaway of 100 copies of the galley of A GOOD AMERICAN.  They published the list of winners, and this list gave me real pause for thought.

Of the 100 winners, two were men.

Put another way (showing off my maths skillz here), 98% of the winners were women (unless there are a whole bunch of dudes out there called Amy.)  Now, I realize that the fact that the galley contest was run on a website devoted to reading groups may have skewed the numbers a little, since guys apparently don't go in for that sort of thing much (although I would like to know why not.)  But 98%?  Really?

All of which leads to the obvious question: where the hell are all the boys?

Now, the idea that women read more than men isn't exactly news.  When I mentioned this to a friend yesterday, she sent me this very interesting NPR article (a couple of years old now) which discussed some of the possible reasons why women read more than men, and suggests that men constitute as little as 20% of the fiction market.

The fact that there is a website dedicated to posting pictures of men reading books tells you what a rare breed male readers have apparently become.  It's all a bit depressing.

There's plenty of evidence of the phenomenon closer to home, too.  Of all the people good enough to write a pre-publication review of A GOOD AMERICAN on the goodreads site, only one has been a man.  And yes, almost all of the people who have put the book on their "to be read" list are women.  I also realized, thinking about all this, that in the past several months, precisely two men have posted comments on this blog.  (Thank you, Terry and Christopher.)  Does this mean that no men read this blog?  Well, I don't think so.  I think they just choose not to comment.  Which is fine, although I'm curious as to why that is.  Now, I realize that asking readers to post a comment on a blog explaining why they don't post comments on blogs would appear to be an exercise in futility, so instead I shall make this simple plea: if you're a bloke, and you're reading this, please wave at the rest of us from the comment box.  Are you there?  Or just shy?

And if anyone else has any theories about why men appear to be so reluctant to read novels, please do share.  (I'm skeptical about the "mirror neurons" theory in the NPR piece.)  Have you experienced or witnessed a similar gender divide?

Only Connect

Very early one morning a few weeks ago, as I was sitting down for my daily writing session, I saw a tweet from one of my closest friends, with a link to a YouTube video.  Now, this friend and I, we go back a long way.  And because I love this friend, and because he has probably the most refined musical taste of anyone I know, I clicked on the link.   Imagine my surprise when a performance by James Taylor, of all people, popped up.

But if that was surprise, it was nothing compared to my astonishment when, an hour or so later, all I'd done was to click "replay" again and again and again.

Not one word was written that morning.

I am not a James Taylor fan.  A vague awareness of "Fire and Rain" was the extent of my knowledge of his work until that morning – so I hadn't heard this song, "Shower the People," before.  But its simple beauty forged an immediate and profound connection with me, and I've been unable to get it out my head ever since.

When Taylor stops playing his guitar at about the 3:30 mark is the goosebump moment for me (I'm getting goosebumps as I type this, just thinking about it.)  There's just singing.  All you hear are unadorned human voices – Taylor, the chorus on the screen behind him, and the audience.  Taylor is bringing all of these people – strangers, for the most part – along with him on his journey.  What strikes me again and again is the strength of the connection he's made, through the words and music that were inside his head.  All of those people, singing together, as one.  It's just beautiful.

Whether you're a songwriter or an artist, a poet or a novelist, what you yearn for is to forge that connection with the person you're trying to reach.

And although watching this video still makes me a little sad, I'm glad beyond words that my friend posted it.  It reminds me of the exquisite power of song to reach deep into each of us and winkle out raw emotion, often when we least expect it.  Beautiful music can beat down the most obdurate of emotional defenses.  I can bury my feelings away and try and inoculate myself against feeling too much of anything, but a perfect song can still crack me open and make me cry like a baby.  It connects with me, engages me; it makes me feel .  And in doing so, it reminds me that I'm alive.  And isn't that, in the end, what all art should do?

Enjoy the music.

DIY Book Trailer

Last weekend the kids and I discovered a new website, xtranormal, which is a brilliant place where anyone can make movies simply by typing in dialogue and having characters speak it.  I have seen several extremely funny videos made this way, including this one about writing a novel which I posted a while ago.  Author Laura Zigman has made a whole series of extremely funny films, which I recommend highly.  Here's a good place to start.

The kids enjoyed playing about with the site.  My son likes making complicated stop-motion movies with his ipod touch – he can spend hours in his bedroom animating soft toys and other things and making them do strange things.  I guess that's better than watching another re-run of iCarly, right?  Here's an example.

Anyway, I could see my son's eyes grow bigger as he played about with xtranormal as the possibilities blossomed and multiplied in his head.  I went off to take a shower, and by the time I came downstairs again, he and his sister had come up with this.  All their own work – they come up with the concept, the script, the execution – the lot.

I don't know if there will be an official book trailer for my novel – nobody has said anything to me about it – but that question has been rendered somewhat moot.  Because how, really, can you do better than this?!?

I love my kids.

English Accents

One of the reasons why I never contemplated a career as a litigator when I re-qualified as a lawyer in the United States was that I had visions of my delivering elegantly-crafted closing arguments only to have the jury look at each other and ask each other quietly what the guy with the funny accent had been talking about.

And here is the proof that all my suspicions were dead-on.  This, ladies and gentlemen, is what people hear when I open my mouth.  Now you know why I wasn't allowed to audition for my own audiobook.