Sarah Langan's Blog, page 3

Q&A with Carmela Ciuraru, author of The Lives of Wives, Diesel Books Brentwood, April 27, 6:30pm –

Hi, folks! I’ll be in a Q&A with the great Carmela Ciuraru in person at Diesel Books this coming Thursday at 6:30pm. LIVES OF WIVES is fantastic. It’s going to be great fun. We’ll both be signing books afterward. Support your local indy.

-sl

Mom’s Night Out…. Or is it??

The above image is of a caladrius, a mythological creature said to eat the sins of kings 2000 years ago. The animal makes an appearance in my novel Mom’s Night Out.

I received edits from my editor at S&S for Mom’s Night Out and am set to implement them by April of this year. The distance between good enough and finished is a grand canyon, and I expect a great many late nights. I’m excited about these late nights. I love working toward something, especially when I can see what needs to happen. Hopefully life will cooperate with my schedule. More to the point, hopefully I’ll get better at arranging carpools and ignoring the small things that can wait.

We might change the title, as it’s about a lot more than a mom’s night out. Then again, it’s a catchy title. The story’s set in a walled-off community. A family has fought hard to live there in order to survive. But there’s these weird birds that wander the neighborhood, all treated with great reverence. And there’s this tradition called Hollow that the people celebrate. They say it’s not a religion… but it kind of feels like a religion. 

My Favorite Books, not all from 2022 –

In 2022 I kept a private journal of everything I read—about 55 books. As a writer, it’s my job to support other writers. It’s not my job to act as critic. I get mad when crap books get all the attention. I get despondent when great books are ignored. But publicly, I only ever say positive things. In a world where everyone has an opinion, and most of those opinions are employed as marketing tools rather than honest criticism, I keep the negative stuff to myself.

Still, as part of my job as a novelist, I need a place to distill and analyze my honest reactions. So, the journal.

Some things I learned from keeping this journal –

I prefer genre because it more often seeks to answer big questions. I give far more latitude to a book with world-building in the aftermath of peak oil than I do to a book about a lonely lady who inherits a dog from her former lover/professor. It turns out I still don’t care about your dog.* Also, did you know that Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale has cat murder? Please stop writing to me about the dog in Good Neighbors. At least I don’t murder the dog!

It’s very hard to find a perfect book. They’re incredibly rare. Sometimes the premise is great, or the characters, or the pace, but the ending doesn’t stick. Sometimes the characters feel totally real, but what happens to them doesn’t. I tried this year to learn from the good stuff, and from the false steps, too. My list of favorites are all fantastic books that everyone should read. But I have included my honest reactions to them, so not everything I say about them is positive.

My favorites of the year:

1) THE CANDY HOUSE by Jennifer Egan – If this book hadn’t been written by Egan, I think people would have gone bananas for it. But they wanted another GOON SQUAD. CANDY HOUSE is smart and challenging and even in single sentences, conveys great heart and compassion. It’s about the fracture of modern life; narcissism and alienation. Any chapter could have been a novel in itself, but Egan’s too ambitious for that. It’s worth a second read. And then go back and read INVISIBLE CIRCUS while you’re at it.

2) THE PALLBEARER’S CLUB by Paul Tremblay – Tremblay suffers from Egan disease. He’s so good that people don’t notice he’s good. They’ve become numbed to it. He ends his books correctly, keeps them tight, and they’re always about more than the subject. PBC is particularly ambitious, deserving a second read. It’s got notes of Nabakov in there.

3) THEY’RE GOING TO LOVE YOU by Meg Howrey – It’s literary but it’s about something! Our main here learns of her father’s illness and flies home to NY to see him before he dies. Through flashback, we learn what happened to rend their relationship. The backdrop is the world of ballet. It’s about love and acceptance despite and because of our flaws. The writing is beautiful.

4) HOUSE OF PAIN by Patrick Keefe—I’ve read all Keefe’s books, and this one’s his best. Perfect pacing, which is hard to do with nonfiction. It also felt very personal, as I know people impacted by the Sackler family’s policies. “Dopesick” makes a great companion. Danny Strong’s screenplay comes pretty close to perfect.

5) “Annunciation” by Lauren Groff, New Yorker Magazine, 2022. Groff is a master, even her mundane stories magnetic because they’re so utterly believable. I wasn’t into MATRIX, but the stories, oh, boy, can she write a story.

6) HOMEGOING by Yaa Gyasi – set in Africa and the US, this is an incredibly ambitious story about two daughters separated by the slave trade in the 1700s, and the journey toward reunification over the nine generations that follow. Very worth reading. The ending feels forced, and I’d have liked more character consistency, but these are quibbles.

7) BUILD A HOUSE WITH MY BODY by Violet Kuppersmith – likewise ambitious story of generations in Vietnam. It’s got a nice horror vibe. It goes on a bit long, and to the point where I begin to forget what’s happening, but the mood and writing are incredibly strong.

8) EINSTEIN’S MONSTERS by Martin Amis – this dude pisses me off because he makes my best of list every year. He’s too weird and good. I was haunted this year by “Insight at Flame Lake” in which a schizophrenic keeps a lonely diary. Amis can get trapped up his own butt sometimes, but when he goes for the heart, he’s very powerful.

9) THE CHOCOLATE WAR by Robert Cormier—The nice thing about having kids is that I get to re-read the classics. This one’s still perfect. Timeless. It benefits from being set in an all boys’ school. I like that I can’t accuse it of sexism because there aren’t any women. Read this book. Don’t sell the chocolate. Or sell the chocolate. I don’t know!

10) PET SEMETARY by Stephen King – another reread with the kids, along with Dead Zone, and both blew me away. I sometimes find that King meanders now, telling side stories that distract, but these two, lengthy novels are exactly right. The former is about the frustrations of fatherhood, and the dark side of wish fulfillment. But it’s also a critique of that wish and of fatherhood’s legacy—an anti-Updike. The latter is the best encapsulation of 70s turbulence I’ve read. We’ve got protesters and monsters and Jesus freaks and poor John Smith, caught in the middle. It’s a lesson on how to write about the world right now. King’s easy to ignore. And then you read him. His depiction of women in these novels feels more convenient to plot than to character.

11) KILLING MR. GRIFFIN by Lois Duncan – I liked it better this time than the first time I read it. Duncan describes hated English teacher Mr. Griffin as a man whose faults are also his charms. Someone who is hard to love, but loved by his pregnant wife nonetheless. The kids who get together in this story to kidnap and punish Griffin are drawn with equally fine strokes, making this story utterly believable and surprisingly heart breaking. Maybe Duncan’s best?

12) THE HANDMAID’S TALE by Margaret Atwood – Another re-read. Dystopia in which the country becomes a theocracy. Our main is a breeding slave, forced to carry children for the wealthy, and we learn through flashback that she once had a family that has been stolen from her. The world building is fantastic and like all Atwood, I can tell she had fun writing it, which makes reading it fun. I never felt close to the narrator, perhaps because she is so resigned to herself. The world happens to her. But it’s a fascinating world.

13) THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig – this book annoyed me the whole time, and yet I read it in two sittings. I hate bestsellers and pseudo-smart crap. I think the multi-verse is some nonsense a bunch of Hollywood hacks invented to harvest $ from people too terrified to admit that we’ve got one reality and that’s it, friends—we screw it up and it’s all the big black. That said, it’s smart and fascinating. It also sticks the landing. This isn’t easy. Finally, it’s charming and kind. Well done, Matt Haig. You beat me. I love that.

Some others that have stuck in my head:
THE HUNGER by Alma Katsu
DEPARTMENT OF SPECULATION by Erika Swyler
THEM by Jon Ronson
NIGHTBITCH by Rachel Yoder
SELF PORTRAIT WITH NOTHING by Aimee Pokwatka
CONFESSION by Kanae Minato
PROVINCES OF NIGHT by William Gay
THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE by Betty Friedan
KLARA AND THE SUN by Kazuo Ishiguro
SAPIENS, by Yuval Noah Harari
TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW by Gabrielle Zevin

*Generally, I don’t care. Specifically, of course I do. Especially if it’s a fat chihuahua named Steve.

I Love Science!

I like to imagine myself as tough, and in many ways, I am. Unhappily, this is not the case for my physical health, and never has been. I get sick when no one else gets sick, and it lasts longer. Every respiratory infection sticks to my lungs like they’re twin bowls of GLUE. I have been hospitalized, I’ve spent entire years of my twenties bedridden. It wasn’t fun! See Lois Larkin bedridden in The Missing – it came from somewhere!

When COVID first happened, I understood the importance of not spreading it to other people, and my obligations as a citizen, but I’m not sure I would have quarantined, if the government hadn’t imposed it, and had not the people around me taken it so seriously. I’m not an entirely sensible person. My husband quietly did the work, and at one point, on the phone with my dad, I suggested flying out to see him. His voice cracked and he said, “I don’t think you remember how sick you get.” My only explanation for this obliviousness is my own frustration with human frailty. My whole life, my body has called the shots, and I often rebel against it, as if trying to show it who’s boss.

Anyway, two years later, I went to StokerCon and didn’t mask like I should have, and got COVID. I knew I might get it, and my biggest worry was that I’d pass it on to my family/inconvenience our plans. I figured that it would probably be Omicron, and probably mild, if symptomatic at all. After all, I’d had three shots of vaccine and almost everyone I knew had it and they were fine.

I came home on a Sunday. I tested positive, and was symptomatic by Wednesday. I felt much worse on Thursday, and had one of those uh-oh-I-might-be-in-trouble-moments, as symptoms worsened. But then I called my doc, and got a script for the antiviral, and by the next day, I’d plateaued instead of getting worse. It’s Sunday, and I’m tired with a sore throat and that’s it. If the literature it to be believed, I may have a mild relapse, but it’s very unlikely that I’ll feel worse than I did on my most symptomatic day. Re: Long haul—who knows? I don’t! But I have a suspicion that my chances of contracting it are far lower than they would have been.

Maybe I would have been fine if I’d gotten it early on in the pandemic. I have no idea. But there is the possibility that masking, along with these vaccines and antivirals changed the course of my life. We live in unusual times. Every day, there’s a story of a shooting, of corruption, of violence and disease and end times. But I think it’s important to recognize the beauty that is science.

I am in no way trying to imply that this pandemic is close to over—from now on I’m going to be much more vigilant about masking. Still, I think of this miracle that is science, and the coldly beautiful scientific method, and am overcome with awe.

Notes from La-La Land – Spring Newsletter

Holly the May Queen Says Hello!

Dear readers,

Hi! And thanks for signing up. It’s been several months, and I was surprised and delighted to discover so many new subscribers. The above is the family pet rabbit, who here reminds me of Dani in “Midsommar.”

Along the writing front, I’m editing my next novel, MOM’S NIGHT OUT. I think you’ll all like it. I’m also working on something shorter, that I hope to have news about soon. Film adaptations continue. As soon as I have something to announce, I will be very happy to do it.

With Covid lifting, I’ve been getting out and seeing other writers, to my delight. I’ll be signing books and serving on panels at StokerCon in Denver this May. I’m also visiting lots of virtual bookclubs. So, if you have a bookclub you’d like me to visit, drop me a line.

Recommendations – I’ve been reading a lot. Some favorites are:

HOUSE OF PAIN, by Patrick Radden Keefe, nonfiction about the opioid crisis

HOME GOING by Yaa Gyasi, a splendid first novel set in Africa and America, spanning nine generations.

THEM by Jon Ronson – nonfiction essays in which the author infiltrates conspiracy groups. Maybe funny, maybe mean? Hard to tell.

COME CLOSER by Sarah Gran – a very short novel about demonic possession, that’s horrific but also funny.

EINSTEIN’S MONSTERS, by Martin Amos – short stories for the nuclear, 1980s age, that are worth revisiting. Some are hard to follow, others both complex and heartbreaking.

I’ve also watched some stuff, and of that stuff I’d recommend –

THE SERVANT (1963) a very dark movie about the relationship between a gentleman and his servant, based on a screenplay by Harold Pinter.

DON’T LOOK UP (2022) a movie about two scientists who discover that an asteroid is about to crash into earth, but can’t get anyone to care. Audiences had mixed feelings- I very much enjoyed it. I think it hit too close to the bone for some people– the absurdity too close to what we see in the news. I get that- I hard a hard time with CATCH 22 for the same reason – to me it’s not funny, it’s horror. But I still love it.

PROHIBITION, THE DUST BOWL, and HUEY LONG – all Ken Burns docs that shed light on modern times, as they always tend to do. I’d start with DUST BOWL.

WHAT HAPPENED WAS (1994) dir by Tom Noonan – a chamber piece about a wincingly awful first date, that feels real and intimate. If you like wince-humor, you’ll like this.

THE INVITATION dir. by Karen Kusama – a story about violence and repression in La-La land, set in my neighborhood, and it’s spot on. I have an aversion to people who falsely justify behaviors and cultures that support these justifications (like Los Angeles), so this is up my alley. Be warned – lots of violence.

THE BABBADOOK (2014) – when I first saw this, I didn’t give it enough credit, because I’d written something very similar, that I hadn’t been able to get published. Envy! On re-watch, it’s fantastic. Horror, though, so if you don’t like horror, it’s not for you.

ERIN BROKOVITCH (2000) dir, Steven Soderberg -underrated classic that you can watch with the kids. DARK WATER tells the same story, in a more grueling, realistic way, but I love Brokovitch’s feminist spin. Feels like it’s in the same wheelhouse as JOY, another quiet classic.

The above is an illustration I made for MOM’S NIGHT OUT – set in a company town called Plymouth Valley

I’d like to ask a favor from anyone with an Amazon profile – though GOOD NEIGHBORS has very few one-star reviews, they’re all at the top of the page because they got a disproportionate amount of “likes.” I try not to attribute to malice what is more likely incompetence. Regardless, it can affect sales, when the first reviews everyone sees are all very negative. If you’re so inclined, please head to Amazon and “like” a positive (and preferably 5-star) review, so that algorithm changes. Click here to do that.

Drop a line if you’ve got comments on anything here, or want to see particular content from these newsletters.

That’s all I got. Thanks for signing up. More to come!

Until next time,

Sarah Langan

Events!

I’ve lost the ability to update my own events, or apparently run my website, or forward things to my able and saintly webmaster. Some people are good at multi-taking. Others are not. On that note–

I’ll be signing paperbacks at Dark Delicacies in Burbank today at 3pm PST! Stop by, or order a personalized copy for delivery.

After that, I’ll be at the second annual New York Ghost Story Festival, spearheaded by Dan Braum, with guests Angela Slater and Kevin Brockmeier. Amazing company! Check it out here.

Today I’m angry.

Some years ago, the FBI got in contact with me because I’d been put on an ISIS hit list. Apparently, this was a terror tactic. Large lists of American names were released online by foreign terrorists, and then the FBI was legally obliged to track us down and let us know.

The woman I spoke with told me she didn’t think it was a real threat; more likely, it was a way of draining the FBI’s resources from actually hunting down terrorists. She told me to call her if something suspicious happened. I kind of laughed, because this was Crown Heights, Brooklyn. But then I was nervous. And felt less safe. And never publicly told people, because I didn’t want to invite the wrong attention.

Today, I had to keep my daughter home from school because someone on Instagram threatened to shoot up her school. That person has been caught, I’m told, so she’s now apparently safe.

I’m told this has been happening at schools all over the country. Online, anonymous threats, that is. We already know the shootings have been happening.

And I have to wonder some things:

1) Public School is the one of the few social equalizers. It is an unimaginative and tragic target. But all targets are tragic.

2) I fail to see the ways social network, social anything, have improved this world.

3) Why is there zero regulation? Why do these hundred-billionaires not have to pay for internal monitors? They shift the responsibility instead to the taxpayer, breaking the system.

Signing at Dark Delicacies

Hi, all!

It’s been a while. I see a bunch of new people have signed up. Nice to meet you!

I’ve been working on my next novel, Mom’s Night Out (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...) , and on the adaptation of Good Neighbors for television. If I have any good news, I’ll send it along. In the mean time, the work continues. Mom’s Night Out is due with my editor Loan Le at S&S on January 1. Exciting and daunting!

I have my first in person signing (possibly only?) coming up on December 18, 3pm at Dark Delicacies in Burbank, which brings things full-circle, as DD was where I had my first closed signing event, too. Click here (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2568/S...) to pre-order, so you can have you book personalized.

Please stop by. I’d love to finally meet someone who’s read the book in person!

I’ve got a talk coming up for the Main Line School Night on December 9, 1-2:30pm EST called, “Narcissism in American Culture,” You can sign up for it here: https://courses.mainlineschoolnight.o....

I got a booster shot yesterday, and am taking to day off to rest and watch TV. My daughter Clementine drew the above picture of me, and I love it. Clem has started playing bass guitar and it is the coolest sound to have in a house. I don’t know why all parents aren’t advised to encourage bass guitar instead of say, drums.

I’ve read a lot of book this year, often to provide blurbs. The standouts were:

Library at Mount Char, by Scott Hawkins

A Head Full of Ghosts, by Paul Tremblay

My Sister, the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Southern Book Club Guide to Slaying Vampires, by Grady Hendrix

I liked “Dope Sick” in Hulu a lot.

Favorite show of the year –

“I May Destroy You” on HBO

Perhaps you’re wondering why I didn’t embed my links. I’m wondering that too!

Sincerely,
Sarah

Notes on my fourth novel, Mom’s Night Out

I don’t usually post personal things, but it’s coming on the first anniversary of my mom’s death and I’m feeling sentimental.

I’ve been stuck in my next novel for about a week, trying to find my way through. Today, while driving my Daughter Clementine home from soccer practice, she asked me how I was doing. I don’t typically talk about my work with my kids, but this time, I told her that I was stuck and worried, because I know the sequel to Good Neighbors needs to be as good or better for my career to gain traction, but I can’t find the thing about it that I love anymore. And if you don’t love a thing and enjoy doing it, the finished product is never as good as it should be. She asked me about the plot, and I told her the distilled version, realizing right then, the problem in the book. I needed to cut out everything extraneous and shoot straight. In two minutes, my daughter had helped me solve my problem.

I told her this, and she suggested that I share more about my work in the future. That she likes my plots and likes hearing about them. I told her that I’ve avoided talking about my work with her and with her little sister. Because I spend so much of my life writing with my door closed, I have been worried that if I also talk about my writing, they’ll think it’s more important to me than they are. It is not. She told me that it’s my life. It’s me, and I should be sharing that.

I cannot express how touching this was.

When I first got pregnant, my parents were concerned that I’d give up writing. I’ve been known, if you’ve ever met me, to grouse about motherhood and its demands; the unfairness of this patriarchal system. In truth, having kids did set me back, career-wise. But it also changed me and made me a better person. It made me a much better writer.

I don’t know what I’d be without these girls. I just adore them.

Sarah Jessica Parker picks Good Neighbors!