Elliott Turner's Blog, page 3
October 11, 2017
Four Great Books to Read
Marlena
This story is told by Marlena's best friend, who, as an adult living in NYC, recalls the years she (as a teen) lived in an economically depressed region of Michigan and became good friends with Marlena.
There's a wonderful sense of place - vivid details both about the area and the economic blight, and, sadly, the atmosphere of depression and rampant substance abuse. THere's alcohol. Crank. Doublewides. Bridge cards. And despair.
Marlena passed away tragically but not unexpectedly. The author and her brother and mother slowly climb out of poverty, but scars linger. Even as an adult, Marlena's friend grapples with addiction. Alcoholism is addressed in a very subtle yet powerful way.
Goodbye, Vitamin
This is a "restart button" type of bildungsroman. A 30 something woman has just had her engagement called off and realized her ex was/is cheating on her. To make matters worse, her dad is starting to suffer from Dementia.
She moves back in with her parents for a year to help take care of her father. The story is told in the first-person and each day gets an entry, but the pace is brisk and the focus is on her actions - not internal thoughts and feelings.
The ability to handle such heavy topics with a light touch and doses of humor was very impressive.
What We Lose
This is another first-person story about personal growth, but, here, the main character is half-South African "coloured" and half African-American. She grows up in Philadelphia and never really feels like she entirely belongs.
We see moments from her childhood, but the meat of the story is the sudden illness and death of her mother (she helps out as a caretaker) and then an unexpected pregnancy and unhappy marriage that needs to end.
The main character is very candid and frank about her feelings, so it's very easy to relate to her even if she makes a few questionable decisions and sometimes admits to a selfish urge now and then. There are also a few images and web page entries sprinkled about.
Sour Heart
This tome is a series of linked stories, and the common themes are family, growing up, and the "coming to America" aspects of being Chinese and immigrating to NYC.
Zhang writes very candidly about grade school and middle school experiences, usually in the first person. The lens is unflinching and the first two stories have some pretty gross scenes - children marvel at how their bodies are changing.
The dialogue is short, sparse, realistic, and often hysterical. The sense of personal growth and the most satisfying tale is the third one, about when an Uncle comes to visit the family from China for an extended period of time.
The family patterns feel a bit rote by the fourth story - manic mom, indifferent dad - but that serves to highlight a rewarding scene where the family finally goes on a road trip down South.
The last two stories - about visits from Grandma (who lives in China) and parents growing up in China during a time of great tumult - are stellar. The dialogue in the very last one is fantastic, along with the Eureka moment of personal growth for the protagonist.
This story is told by Marlena's best friend, who, as an adult living in NYC, recalls the years she (as a teen) lived in an economically depressed region of Michigan and became good friends with Marlena.
There's a wonderful sense of place - vivid details both about the area and the economic blight, and, sadly, the atmosphere of depression and rampant substance abuse. THere's alcohol. Crank. Doublewides. Bridge cards. And despair.
Marlena passed away tragically but not unexpectedly. The author and her brother and mother slowly climb out of poverty, but scars linger. Even as an adult, Marlena's friend grapples with addiction. Alcoholism is addressed in a very subtle yet powerful way.
Goodbye, Vitamin
This is a "restart button" type of bildungsroman. A 30 something woman has just had her engagement called off and realized her ex was/is cheating on her. To make matters worse, her dad is starting to suffer from Dementia.
She moves back in with her parents for a year to help take care of her father. The story is told in the first-person and each day gets an entry, but the pace is brisk and the focus is on her actions - not internal thoughts and feelings.
The ability to handle such heavy topics with a light touch and doses of humor was very impressive.
What We Lose
This is another first-person story about personal growth, but, here, the main character is half-South African "coloured" and half African-American. She grows up in Philadelphia and never really feels like she entirely belongs.
We see moments from her childhood, but the meat of the story is the sudden illness and death of her mother (she helps out as a caretaker) and then an unexpected pregnancy and unhappy marriage that needs to end.
The main character is very candid and frank about her feelings, so it's very easy to relate to her even if she makes a few questionable decisions and sometimes admits to a selfish urge now and then. There are also a few images and web page entries sprinkled about.
Sour Heart
This tome is a series of linked stories, and the common themes are family, growing up, and the "coming to America" aspects of being Chinese and immigrating to NYC.
Zhang writes very candidly about grade school and middle school experiences, usually in the first person. The lens is unflinching and the first two stories have some pretty gross scenes - children marvel at how their bodies are changing.
The dialogue is short, sparse, realistic, and often hysterical. The sense of personal growth and the most satisfying tale is the third one, about when an Uncle comes to visit the family from China for an extended period of time.
The family patterns feel a bit rote by the fourth story - manic mom, indifferent dad - but that serves to highlight a rewarding scene where the family finally goes on a road trip down South.
The last two stories - about visits from Grandma (who lives in China) and parents growing up in China during a time of great tumult - are stellar. The dialogue in the very last one is fantastic, along with the Eureka moment of personal growth for the protagonist.
September 11, 2017
The Bookworld "Hacks"
In the book world, getting your book labeled a "bestseller" and also being nominated for an award are pretty big deals. The bestseller label is basically a reinforcement loop - your book has already sold well, ergo it must be good, so now other people who like to read bestselling books will buy your book. And so on.
The award nomination process can also add some prestige to the author's name and give some post-publication buzz and press to the book. This can help that book itself sell a bit more, but also help the author land future work.
Yet to achieve these labels of distinction requires talent and luck and hardwork. Still, as hard as the gatekeepers work to filter out the good from the bad, sometimes something sinister happens. Things slip thru cracks. And the Guardian Books published two stories about folks that gamed the system.
The first story dealt with the NYT bestseller label. A YA book, Handbook for Morals, attained this title in odd circumstances. First, the book had very few reviews from either large or small book sites. Second, after some digging, the indie stores that report to the NYT noted very odd "bulk purchases" by consumers.
Normally, bulk purchases are done directly with the book's publisher and at a discount. Nobody pays the full price for each individual book when buying, say, ten or more copies.
Interestingly enough, the author and book soon had a movie page with the label 'NYT bestseller" and the author was going to play a big role in the film. Thus, it looks like the author used third parties to buy a ton of books to then hope to recoup that money by selling the film rights to a NYT bestseller.
The irony, of course, is that often film rights getting sold (like say at auction) can create enough buzz to propel a book to bestseller status.
The second odd case is PEN's decision to drop a John Smelcer novel from a list of award nominees. Smelcer self-identifies as a Native American and his YA book "Stealing Indians" was nominated for an award.
And here's where things get kinda creepy. First, Smelcer has a pattern of getting blurbs for his books from recently deceased (famous) authors. He often lacks proof to substantiate his relationship with the author, and at least once the author's estate has asked for clarification.
Blurbing of course is an artform (both asking and giving) and an odd part of the bookworld. The Big English Language publishers believe wholeheartedly in the power of the blurb and often cover the backjacket with nice comments from fellow authors.
So, if you accept the power of the blurb, then the shady and possibly fictional blurbs are a big deal.
The other issue for Smelcer is that some people claim his book dwells too often in stereotypes of Native Americans also cast doubt on his claim to Native American heritage. This a super important topic and kinda beyond my own purvey of knowledge.
I have written about race and ethnicity in the LatinX community, and I pointed out the oddness of how America (the US) still likes to look at blood quantums as the ultimate test of identity. Smelcer at his site has claimed to have the necessary blood lineage to be Native American.
Yet, genetics aside, there's a concept of a racialized identity. For example, if you grew up in an affluent WASP suburb, went to private schools, and nobody ever perceived you as Native American and thus you did not feel the sting of those prejudices, then really how much of your identity is tied, formed, and shaped by that lineage?
Some big figures in the Native American community and book world are not convinced that Smelcer's is drawing from his own experiences in telling the tales of Native Americans. They smell insincerity and detect fraud. Or, at the least, somebody is overselling a tenuous link to a family heritage that has been neglected.
So, young & new authors, if you are keeping score at home, when publishing a book, you should (1) Invent a blurb from a recently deceased famous author, (2) Send lots of $ to intermediaries to buy copies at indies that first month after publication, and lastly (3) check out your ancestry to see if you have any grandparents or greatgrandparents that may have been historically discriminated against.
Then, don't try to give back to that community or be an active member. Instead, write stereotype-laden fiction.
The award nomination process can also add some prestige to the author's name and give some post-publication buzz and press to the book. This can help that book itself sell a bit more, but also help the author land future work.
Yet to achieve these labels of distinction requires talent and luck and hardwork. Still, as hard as the gatekeepers work to filter out the good from the bad, sometimes something sinister happens. Things slip thru cracks. And the Guardian Books published two stories about folks that gamed the system.
The first story dealt with the NYT bestseller label. A YA book, Handbook for Morals, attained this title in odd circumstances. First, the book had very few reviews from either large or small book sites. Second, after some digging, the indie stores that report to the NYT noted very odd "bulk purchases" by consumers.
Normally, bulk purchases are done directly with the book's publisher and at a discount. Nobody pays the full price for each individual book when buying, say, ten or more copies.
Interestingly enough, the author and book soon had a movie page with the label 'NYT bestseller" and the author was going to play a big role in the film. Thus, it looks like the author used third parties to buy a ton of books to then hope to recoup that money by selling the film rights to a NYT bestseller.
The irony, of course, is that often film rights getting sold (like say at auction) can create enough buzz to propel a book to bestseller status.
The second odd case is PEN's decision to drop a John Smelcer novel from a list of award nominees. Smelcer self-identifies as a Native American and his YA book "Stealing Indians" was nominated for an award.
And here's where things get kinda creepy. First, Smelcer has a pattern of getting blurbs for his books from recently deceased (famous) authors. He often lacks proof to substantiate his relationship with the author, and at least once the author's estate has asked for clarification.
Blurbing of course is an artform (both asking and giving) and an odd part of the bookworld. The Big English Language publishers believe wholeheartedly in the power of the blurb and often cover the backjacket with nice comments from fellow authors.
So, if you accept the power of the blurb, then the shady and possibly fictional blurbs are a big deal.
The other issue for Smelcer is that some people claim his book dwells too often in stereotypes of Native Americans also cast doubt on his claim to Native American heritage. This a super important topic and kinda beyond my own purvey of knowledge.
I have written about race and ethnicity in the LatinX community, and I pointed out the oddness of how America (the US) still likes to look at blood quantums as the ultimate test of identity. Smelcer at his site has claimed to have the necessary blood lineage to be Native American.
Yet, genetics aside, there's a concept of a racialized identity. For example, if you grew up in an affluent WASP suburb, went to private schools, and nobody ever perceived you as Native American and thus you did not feel the sting of those prejudices, then really how much of your identity is tied, formed, and shaped by that lineage?
Some big figures in the Native American community and book world are not convinced that Smelcer's is drawing from his own experiences in telling the tales of Native Americans. They smell insincerity and detect fraud. Or, at the least, somebody is overselling a tenuous link to a family heritage that has been neglected.
So, young & new authors, if you are keeping score at home, when publishing a book, you should (1) Invent a blurb from a recently deceased famous author, (2) Send lots of $ to intermediaries to buy copies at indies that first month after publication, and lastly (3) check out your ancestry to see if you have any grandparents or greatgrandparents that may have been historically discriminated against.
Then, don't try to give back to that community or be an active member. Instead, write stereotype-laden fiction.
August 7, 2017
Four Books to Read
Hey friends,
I know this is an author blog so I'm supposed to write about writing or something, but here's the deal: NOTV is being submitted to a bunch of awards - some are national, others are regional. If NOTV gets longlisted come Spring 2018, I'll be sure to blog about it. Ditto for book festivals.
My second novel - in Spanish - is "concursando" an award in Spain, but there will be no news on that front for a long time. I'm also not allowed to try to sell the novel to other publishers as part of the award criteria, and the judging/evaluation has to be 100% anonymous.
I am a little under halfway down on a super large and long domestic novel meets travelogue that deals with three generations of a family: a decade living in Central America, and another decade living in rural Kansas. I know both these terrains like the back of my hand and it's fun to write something with a light pacing and moderate volume.
I also have some short stories I've written, but I usually scribble these, sit on them for a year to two, edit them again, and then see if they stink/are submittable.
SOOOOOOOOO, I'm reading more than I'm writing. And here are four good books you should check out:
1) Exit West
This was a relatively short, powerful story about a young couple fleeing their homeland during a violent civil war between religious militants and the oppressive government. Their trail of escape takes them to Greece, then London, and eventually California. They live in refugee camps and squat in shantytowns.
The trauma forces the couple into a close friendship as they witness horrors and grow to depend on one another, but their thread of passionate love unwinds slowly and then suddenly.
2) The Lucky Ones
This novel had a really neat structure: basically, the author showed the groundlevel horrors of the FARC's guerilla war to "liberate" Colombia. However, you see the war from the perspective of a FARC leader, a FARC prisoner, a pet rabbit, a middle class "hija de papy", and many others.
3) Salt Houses
This is an inter-generational family tale that starts in Palestine during the 6 day war as a family flees the violence. A brother disappears during the fighting and is never heard from again, leaving a scar a mile wide. The family lives in Kuwait, Boston, and finally Lebanon. They were always affluent, and conscious of how their privilege has shielded them but also drawn them to the West in a sense. This causes both external and internal conflict.
Each chapter is told from a different family member's point of view and the book is too humanist to get bogged down in the politics and passions that swirl around the 6 day war. You will be sad when the grandma dies. You will also feel what any family member does when a young male sibling starts to get brainwashed by violent strangers.
4) The End We Start From
This was a cool end-of-the-world spec fic story about motherhood. Basically, a young woman has a child at the worst possible time: global warming and rising sea levels have come to London, England. The family lives in their grandparents' house in the mountains, then they live in a refugee camp, then she lives on an island for a spell, before returning to a "revitalized" London.
During that spell, her father's child ran off. The vague details about the general setting - apocalypse - contrast wonderfully with the detailed excitement about watching her child grow and being a mother for the first time.
I know this is an author blog so I'm supposed to write about writing or something, but here's the deal: NOTV is being submitted to a bunch of awards - some are national, others are regional. If NOTV gets longlisted come Spring 2018, I'll be sure to blog about it. Ditto for book festivals.
My second novel - in Spanish - is "concursando" an award in Spain, but there will be no news on that front for a long time. I'm also not allowed to try to sell the novel to other publishers as part of the award criteria, and the judging/evaluation has to be 100% anonymous.
I am a little under halfway down on a super large and long domestic novel meets travelogue that deals with three generations of a family: a decade living in Central America, and another decade living in rural Kansas. I know both these terrains like the back of my hand and it's fun to write something with a light pacing and moderate volume.
I also have some short stories I've written, but I usually scribble these, sit on them for a year to two, edit them again, and then see if they stink/are submittable.
SOOOOOOOOO, I'm reading more than I'm writing. And here are four good books you should check out:
1) Exit West
This was a relatively short, powerful story about a young couple fleeing their homeland during a violent civil war between religious militants and the oppressive government. Their trail of escape takes them to Greece, then London, and eventually California. They live in refugee camps and squat in shantytowns.
The trauma forces the couple into a close friendship as they witness horrors and grow to depend on one another, but their thread of passionate love unwinds slowly and then suddenly.
2) The Lucky Ones
This novel had a really neat structure: basically, the author showed the groundlevel horrors of the FARC's guerilla war to "liberate" Colombia. However, you see the war from the perspective of a FARC leader, a FARC prisoner, a pet rabbit, a middle class "hija de papy", and many others.
3) Salt Houses
This is an inter-generational family tale that starts in Palestine during the 6 day war as a family flees the violence. A brother disappears during the fighting and is never heard from again, leaving a scar a mile wide. The family lives in Kuwait, Boston, and finally Lebanon. They were always affluent, and conscious of how their privilege has shielded them but also drawn them to the West in a sense. This causes both external and internal conflict.
Each chapter is told from a different family member's point of view and the book is too humanist to get bogged down in the politics and passions that swirl around the 6 day war. You will be sad when the grandma dies. You will also feel what any family member does when a young male sibling starts to get brainwashed by violent strangers.
4) The End We Start From
This was a cool end-of-the-world spec fic story about motherhood. Basically, a young woman has a child at the worst possible time: global warming and rising sea levels have come to London, England. The family lives in their grandparents' house in the mountains, then they live in a refugee camp, then she lives on an island for a spell, before returning to a "revitalized" London.
During that spell, her father's child ran off. The vague details about the general setting - apocalypse - contrast wonderfully with the detailed excitement about watching her child grow and being a mother for the first time.
June 22, 2017
Tejas Tour Funnery
Hey y'all,
going on tour can be fun, but also kinda rough. The first two weekends of June, I did events in Houston, Padre Island, San Antonio, and Austin. Some serious miles were accumulated on the family Honda Odyssey, but I also got to meet plenty of readers and cool booksellers.
Here is a post about said tour at the Night of the Virgin website with some images, videos, and fun anecdotes.
I also have/had a tiny letter leading up to the launch of NOTV. I updated it with a Tejas Tour post that is a bit more personal than the website stuff. There is only one more post on tap, for around November, so sign up at your leisure.
Lastly, again, yet again, I implore you to please shop indie. You can snag a paperback copy at Brazos' online store and they ship anywhere in the US. You can also get a signed copy from Bookpeople's online store and they ship anywhere in the world.
And, for folks on the fence, a new review of NOTV appeared at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Check it out here.
going on tour can be fun, but also kinda rough. The first two weekends of June, I did events in Houston, Padre Island, San Antonio, and Austin. Some serious miles were accumulated on the family Honda Odyssey, but I also got to meet plenty of readers and cool booksellers.
Here is a post about said tour at the Night of the Virgin website with some images, videos, and fun anecdotes.
I also have/had a tiny letter leading up to the launch of NOTV. I updated it with a Tejas Tour post that is a bit more personal than the website stuff. There is only one more post on tap, for around November, so sign up at your leisure.
Lastly, again, yet again, I implore you to please shop indie. You can snag a paperback copy at Brazos' online store and they ship anywhere in the US. You can also get a signed copy from Bookpeople's online store and they ship anywhere in the world.
And, for folks on the fence, a new review of NOTV appeared at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Check it out here.
May 18, 2017
Tejas Tour
Hey there readers and readerettes,
I have gotten some nice messages of people to the effect of: how can/should I get a copy of the novel. I covered this in a tiny letter, but am repeating it here.
The best way to get the book is, if you are in Texas, coming to one of my events this summer.
June 1st, I will be at Brazos Bookstore, in Houston, for the publication date-launch event. Starts at 6pm.
June 3rd, I will be at Paragraphs on Padre, a cool indie bookstore on Padre Island. If you live in the RGV, please come out and say hi! This event takes place on a Saturday, and starts at 1pm. We will probably be done in time to then catch the Champions League final featuring Real Madrid.
June 8th, I will be in San Antonio at The Twig, a rad indie store off the famous Riverwalk. This event starts at 5pm.
June 10th, I will in Austin at the always amazing BookPeople. This event will start at 2pm.
If you can't make the event due to work, family, etc, then order a copy (maybe even "signed") online and pick it up later. Support indie stores!
Okay, okay, so, say, you don't live in Texas. You can still buy books from those fine stores at their online shops and have them mailed to you. Also, you can go to Indiebound, find a nearby indie store, and request they get you a copy. The novel is distributed internationally.
If you absolutely, positively need a digital copy, then you can get them at iTunes and even Amazon. Pretty please preorder by at least one day to help my sales rank/game the algorithm.
I would actually prefer you convince your local library to order a copy of the novel than you buy it for yourself digitally, but, I get it, people like to own things.
I have gotten some nice messages of people to the effect of: how can/should I get a copy of the novel. I covered this in a tiny letter, but am repeating it here.
The best way to get the book is, if you are in Texas, coming to one of my events this summer.
June 1st, I will be at Brazos Bookstore, in Houston, for the publication date-launch event. Starts at 6pm.
June 3rd, I will be at Paragraphs on Padre, a cool indie bookstore on Padre Island. If you live in the RGV, please come out and say hi! This event takes place on a Saturday, and starts at 1pm. We will probably be done in time to then catch the Champions League final featuring Real Madrid.
June 8th, I will be in San Antonio at The Twig, a rad indie store off the famous Riverwalk. This event starts at 5pm.
June 10th, I will in Austin at the always amazing BookPeople. This event will start at 2pm.
If you can't make the event due to work, family, etc, then order a copy (maybe even "signed") online and pick it up later. Support indie stores!
Okay, okay, so, say, you don't live in Texas. You can still buy books from those fine stores at their online shops and have them mailed to you. Also, you can go to Indiebound, find a nearby indie store, and request they get you a copy. The novel is distributed internationally.
If you absolutely, positively need a digital copy, then you can get them at iTunes and even Amazon. Pretty please preorder by at least one day to help my sales rank/game the algorithm.
I would actually prefer you convince your local library to order a copy of the novel than you buy it for yourself digitally, but, I get it, people like to own things.
April 3, 2017
Ding ding!
Hey everybody,
I was really happy that hundreds of people entered into the NOTV signed ARC giveaway contest! I gave up LENT for Twitter, so this really speaks volumes about the coolness of the GoodReads community and interest in NOTV.
The winner was/is Katharine Adams of Florida. The signed copy of NOTV will be going out in the mail this week, and I'm really thinking about doing another giveaway sometime this year. A few other sites outside of GoodReads are interested, but we may do another one at GR just because the turnout was so cool.
Thanks again and we are less than two months until June 1!
In the meantime, Kirkus reviewed NOTV here.
Also, I am going on a tour of Texas in June and you can get details here.
I was really happy that hundreds of people entered into the NOTV signed ARC giveaway contest! I gave up LENT for Twitter, so this really speaks volumes about the coolness of the GoodReads community and interest in NOTV.
The winner was/is Katharine Adams of Florida. The signed copy of NOTV will be going out in the mail this week, and I'm really thinking about doing another giveaway sometime this year. A few other sites outside of GoodReads are interested, but we may do another one at GR just because the turnout was so cool.
Thanks again and we are less than two months until June 1!
In the meantime, Kirkus reviewed NOTV here.
Also, I am going on a tour of Texas in June and you can get details here.
March 8, 2017
Drafted
Hello hello,
it's so funny this publishing world as compared to, say, online writing. In the land of journalism and internets, I email an idea to an editor, he or she responds a day later, I spend a week drafting a solid first draft, and then it's filed and published within a few days.
Total turnaround time from idea to publication: maybe, like, two weeks? Of course, the equation is way different for reported pieces. My reported features actually take longer now because I'm a known "FOIA terrorist" whatever that means.
Basically, I have to fight tooth-and-nail now to get any records from anybody. Thus far, I've held off tapping my attorney buddies to file FOIA lawsuits for me, but that day is rapidly approaching. I will relish watching them sock cities and the feds for ten figure attorney fee awards all because some PIA officer decided to fuck with me.
But that's besides the point. Fiction.
I finished a solid first draft of my Spanish language novela, titled right now "Notas de Junior." I contacted and hired a cool dude from Mexico City to edit it pre-MS submission. His name is Leo and if you need a smart, reliable editor who speaks Spanish but has an English letras degree from UNAM, message me.
Sigh, I also translated a version for my agent to read before his (hopefully "yes") decision to represent me and take this puppy to market.
Yes, I wrote the first draft with my thumb and "notes" and iPhone, but I'm editing this baby on Google Drive, on PDF, and I even ordered a pre-gally printed version from BookPatch. It is on my desk alongside my ergonomic keyboard as I type this.
Now that I better understand how the book world works, I'm happy to wait a few years as my agent (hopefully) hits up about 5-15 publishers. Still, after 2-3 years, I'll be happy to go indie if we don't get any serious bites (Related: I'd rather go indie than be low-balled - fuck prestige).
The good news is my little bro lives just North of Barcelona, so he can be a courier and hand-deliver stuff to the major presses in Spain. The bad news is he always blows off my WhatsApp messages (shakes fist vaguely Eastward).
It's funny that the NOTV "my book is on sale" circus is about to get seriously started, yet...I'm kinda sorta scheming about other things....
it's so funny this publishing world as compared to, say, online writing. In the land of journalism and internets, I email an idea to an editor, he or she responds a day later, I spend a week drafting a solid first draft, and then it's filed and published within a few days.
Total turnaround time from idea to publication: maybe, like, two weeks? Of course, the equation is way different for reported pieces. My reported features actually take longer now because I'm a known "FOIA terrorist" whatever that means.
Basically, I have to fight tooth-and-nail now to get any records from anybody. Thus far, I've held off tapping my attorney buddies to file FOIA lawsuits for me, but that day is rapidly approaching. I will relish watching them sock cities and the feds for ten figure attorney fee awards all because some PIA officer decided to fuck with me.
But that's besides the point. Fiction.
I finished a solid first draft of my Spanish language novela, titled right now "Notas de Junior." I contacted and hired a cool dude from Mexico City to edit it pre-MS submission. His name is Leo and if you need a smart, reliable editor who speaks Spanish but has an English letras degree from UNAM, message me.
Sigh, I also translated a version for my agent to read before his (hopefully "yes") decision to represent me and take this puppy to market.
Yes, I wrote the first draft with my thumb and "notes" and iPhone, but I'm editing this baby on Google Drive, on PDF, and I even ordered a pre-gally printed version from BookPatch. It is on my desk alongside my ergonomic keyboard as I type this.
Now that I better understand how the book world works, I'm happy to wait a few years as my agent (hopefully) hits up about 5-15 publishers. Still, after 2-3 years, I'll be happy to go indie if we don't get any serious bites (Related: I'd rather go indie than be low-balled - fuck prestige).
The good news is my little bro lives just North of Barcelona, so he can be a courier and hand-deliver stuff to the major presses in Spain. The bad news is he always blows off my WhatsApp messages (shakes fist vaguely Eastward).
It's funny that the NOTV "my book is on sale" circus is about to get seriously started, yet...I'm kinda sorta scheming about other things....
February 23, 2017
Revenge of the Muse
Hello friends,
I am writing again. What can I say? Fiction, that is. I read some Spanish language novellas that moved me to move my pen.
The rule of writing is to follow your muse WHEN she strikes and then follow her WHEREVER she goes.
Thus, I am a writing shortish Detective novel set in Mexico City that will probably be about 75 pages. It has 25 chapters, is out of chronological order, and shifts narrator from scene to scene.
AND there are two cool things about it:
1) I am writing in Spanish. I have not written fiction in Spanish since I lived in Salamanca, so I'm having a blast! Because it's set in the DF, most of the players speak that gnarly (or nasty) Chilango dialect plus there are appearances from a Gallego and a Portenho for good measure.
2) I am writing this puppy on my phone. As in, "notes" on iPhone baby. It's funny - by having to thumb each word, I am taking extra pains to craft each sentence. With NOTV, I really just focused on plot and tried to get the story out ASAP, to then edit later.
Thus, friends, I know my silence worries a few of you. It can be ominously furious at times, no?
I highly advise all of you to learn Spanish though because I've already talked to a cool DF based editor for a pre-submission MS cleaning and my agent and I have zeroed in on a few Latin America (and Spanish) publishers.
The title of the novella so far is "Notas de Junior...."
I am writing again. What can I say? Fiction, that is. I read some Spanish language novellas that moved me to move my pen.
The rule of writing is to follow your muse WHEN she strikes and then follow her WHEREVER she goes.
Thus, I am a writing shortish Detective novel set in Mexico City that will probably be about 75 pages. It has 25 chapters, is out of chronological order, and shifts narrator from scene to scene.
AND there are two cool things about it:
1) I am writing in Spanish. I have not written fiction in Spanish since I lived in Salamanca, so I'm having a blast! Because it's set in the DF, most of the players speak that gnarly (or nasty) Chilango dialect plus there are appearances from a Gallego and a Portenho for good measure.
2) I am writing this puppy on my phone. As in, "notes" on iPhone baby. It's funny - by having to thumb each word, I am taking extra pains to craft each sentence. With NOTV, I really just focused on plot and tried to get the story out ASAP, to then edit later.
Thus, friends, I know my silence worries a few of you. It can be ominously furious at times, no?
I highly advise all of you to learn Spanish though because I've already talked to a cool DF based editor for a pre-submission MS cleaning and my agent and I have zeroed in on a few Latin America (and Spanish) publishers.
The title of the novella so far is "Notas de Junior...."
January 31, 2017
That Pinche Papelado
Hey y'all - I'm super stoked because two great book sites that I myself read have posted reviews of NOTV. I speak of ReadDiverseBooks and also The Book Satchel. If you are not following these sites, you should. I actually read them before thinking of submitting NOTV their way, and was honored Naz and Resh said yes.
For me as an author, it's always fun to see how my writing has impacted readers and other people. The transition from a blogger to a freelance journalist was a gradual one - years and years of typing away to a few loyal readers. I remember writing a guest blog post at The Run of Play that got mentioned and linked in an article at The Guardian, and Brian and I were both over the moon (or at least me).
Then Steve Busfield of the Guardian, thanks to Graham Parker, got in touch with me over Twitter and asked me to write for The Guardian. And I did. And I'd also written a few stories for Richard Farley at Fox Soccer. And now I have hidden my gmail email because I kinda get enough work offers as it is.
For fiction writing, though, the transition was pretty abrupt. I broke my leg in preseason for a lower-tier soccer club in the US, and had three months to kill on a recliner. At first, I enjoyed birding, but in a very white trash sense of the word: my wife put up a birdfeeder I could see from a recliner in the living room, and I watched Cardinals and pigeons and the occasional falcon (during the drought they came to our bird bath to drink at times).
I read Proust, and loved it. I listened to Kanye West, finally, and enjoyed it. And, inspired, I wrote NOTV's first draft in a hectic 2.5 months.
I chose both literary fiction and an experimental structure because for me, writing fiction is more about creation - emphasis on creative - than penning something that may sell. Lots of debut authors will submit a manuscript, get some feedback from agents, nix any creative playfulness with narrators or tone shifts, and then resubmit. I stuck to my guns.
I know the shift produces an effect on readers - my editor Peter hated/counseled against the head-hopping in Part III - but it accomplished my artistic goals. Structure mirrors plot, and readers feel dizzy as if they themselves were tipsy at the party. In Part II, Manny reads his old diary and experiences a bit of growth. In Part IV, we get very deep inside his mind as this happens - and, sadly, we don't like everything there is to see.
Of course, as a debut novelist, NOTV has flaws. After the ten months of editing, I honestly can only read a few select paragraphs in Part IV that I still find engaging. Turning off that creative part of me - killing Manny and NOTV and the process - was hard and emotional. At any moment, I could find inspiration and gleefully type a note or tweak in iPhone's notes and make the book 0.01% better. But I had to stop. There's only so much time.
I do want to talk about Manny's immigration status and how it was handled in NOTV.
Basically, based on my own life experiences - close family and closer friends who are undocumented - I tried to create as authentic a depiction as possible for Manny in particular. Keep in mind I lived in the RGV for four years and helped organize and empower low income individuals, largely undocumented.
The truth of the matter is that, so far at least, the US is not a Gestapo state with checkpoints where a person like Manny necessarily has to be constantly looking over his shoulder. Manny can't fly (hence the drive back to Texas from Cali), but he largely avoids the police and uses bogus papers to work. This is kinda the bread and butter for many undoc people's existence.
Manny does have one encounter with a police officer, and he is terrified.
The other issue is amnesty. In NOTV, in the future, some amnesty law is passed in the US and Manny gets a legal status. For you and I - likely college graduates with a knowledge of how things work - amnesty feels really, really far away right now. Getting a law passed also takes lots of work both at the local, organizing level but also in DC.
Still, the perspective of NOTV is Manny's. There are people in South Dallas I know who speak about Reagan's amnesty as if the clouds opened up one day, a tablet fell to the Earth, and suddenly everybody needed to bum $500 to get an attorney. Not everybody who is undocumented is an activist - many go about their lives and try to keep a low profile. Manny, sadly, is one of those.
I did pen a sub-story arc where Manny and Hector stopped in Arizona, attended some Dreamer protests, and had some romantic encounters. However, the arc kinda fell flat and was just a thinly veiled excuse to take potshots at a certain Sheriff up there who I find repulsive. It got nixed early on. Instead, Hector has some fun in TJ.
I also wanted Manny to marry Albertine because of his neurotic, irrational, and self-destructive desire to "control", not because he wanted to get papers.
Still, I don't want to deny the singularity of either Naz or Resh's reading experience. In a sense, the law "just changing" in a few paragraphs feels unjust and almost flippant - but, for me, that's truth. That's exactly how it feels to many in the undocumented population. Tomorrow, the US Congress "could" (very theoretical) pass an amnesty bill - or a Judge could find in favor of Obama's DAPA executive order - and suddenly, to a person like Manny, it'd feel like the sky had opened.
In a material sense, laws are just blots of ink on paper. They are rewritten, torn up, and changed daily.
Lastly, I am an admitted fan of irony, and, yes, Manny getting papers in the US to then move to Mexico for a lucrative job opportunity was also an irresistible sub story arc. Think of it as a "Chinga tu patria", even though I love both the US and Mexico - despite their particular flaws- and see no conflict between them.
For me as an author, it's always fun to see how my writing has impacted readers and other people. The transition from a blogger to a freelance journalist was a gradual one - years and years of typing away to a few loyal readers. I remember writing a guest blog post at The Run of Play that got mentioned and linked in an article at The Guardian, and Brian and I were both over the moon (or at least me).
Then Steve Busfield of the Guardian, thanks to Graham Parker, got in touch with me over Twitter and asked me to write for The Guardian. And I did. And I'd also written a few stories for Richard Farley at Fox Soccer. And now I have hidden my gmail email because I kinda get enough work offers as it is.
For fiction writing, though, the transition was pretty abrupt. I broke my leg in preseason for a lower-tier soccer club in the US, and had three months to kill on a recliner. At first, I enjoyed birding, but in a very white trash sense of the word: my wife put up a birdfeeder I could see from a recliner in the living room, and I watched Cardinals and pigeons and the occasional falcon (during the drought they came to our bird bath to drink at times).
I read Proust, and loved it. I listened to Kanye West, finally, and enjoyed it. And, inspired, I wrote NOTV's first draft in a hectic 2.5 months.
I chose both literary fiction and an experimental structure because for me, writing fiction is more about creation - emphasis on creative - than penning something that may sell. Lots of debut authors will submit a manuscript, get some feedback from agents, nix any creative playfulness with narrators or tone shifts, and then resubmit. I stuck to my guns.
I know the shift produces an effect on readers - my editor Peter hated/counseled against the head-hopping in Part III - but it accomplished my artistic goals. Structure mirrors plot, and readers feel dizzy as if they themselves were tipsy at the party. In Part II, Manny reads his old diary and experiences a bit of growth. In Part IV, we get very deep inside his mind as this happens - and, sadly, we don't like everything there is to see.
Of course, as a debut novelist, NOTV has flaws. After the ten months of editing, I honestly can only read a few select paragraphs in Part IV that I still find engaging. Turning off that creative part of me - killing Manny and NOTV and the process - was hard and emotional. At any moment, I could find inspiration and gleefully type a note or tweak in iPhone's notes and make the book 0.01% better. But I had to stop. There's only so much time.
I do want to talk about Manny's immigration status and how it was handled in NOTV.
Basically, based on my own life experiences - close family and closer friends who are undocumented - I tried to create as authentic a depiction as possible for Manny in particular. Keep in mind I lived in the RGV for four years and helped organize and empower low income individuals, largely undocumented.
The truth of the matter is that, so far at least, the US is not a Gestapo state with checkpoints where a person like Manny necessarily has to be constantly looking over his shoulder. Manny can't fly (hence the drive back to Texas from Cali), but he largely avoids the police and uses bogus papers to work. This is kinda the bread and butter for many undoc people's existence.
Manny does have one encounter with a police officer, and he is terrified.
The other issue is amnesty. In NOTV, in the future, some amnesty law is passed in the US and Manny gets a legal status. For you and I - likely college graduates with a knowledge of how things work - amnesty feels really, really far away right now. Getting a law passed also takes lots of work both at the local, organizing level but also in DC.
Still, the perspective of NOTV is Manny's. There are people in South Dallas I know who speak about Reagan's amnesty as if the clouds opened up one day, a tablet fell to the Earth, and suddenly everybody needed to bum $500 to get an attorney. Not everybody who is undocumented is an activist - many go about their lives and try to keep a low profile. Manny, sadly, is one of those.
I did pen a sub-story arc where Manny and Hector stopped in Arizona, attended some Dreamer protests, and had some romantic encounters. However, the arc kinda fell flat and was just a thinly veiled excuse to take potshots at a certain Sheriff up there who I find repulsive. It got nixed early on. Instead, Hector has some fun in TJ.
I also wanted Manny to marry Albertine because of his neurotic, irrational, and self-destructive desire to "control", not because he wanted to get papers.
Still, I don't want to deny the singularity of either Naz or Resh's reading experience. In a sense, the law "just changing" in a few paragraphs feels unjust and almost flippant - but, for me, that's truth. That's exactly how it feels to many in the undocumented population. Tomorrow, the US Congress "could" (very theoretical) pass an amnesty bill - or a Judge could find in favor of Obama's DAPA executive order - and suddenly, to a person like Manny, it'd feel like the sky had opened.
In a material sense, laws are just blots of ink on paper. They are rewritten, torn up, and changed daily.
Lastly, I am an admitted fan of irony, and, yes, Manny getting papers in the US to then move to Mexico for a lucrative job opportunity was also an irresistible sub story arc. Think of it as a "Chinga tu patria", even though I love both the US and Mexico - despite their particular flaws- and see no conflict between them.
December 7, 2016
Then there were six....
Writing a book is hard work. After doing two non-fiction books, I figured that a novel could be some imaginative fun. And a good chunk of The Night of the Virgin takes place in areas of the country I know intimately well - Houston and the Rio Grande Valley.
However, good fiction takes a lot of research and fact-gathering! I had to mine the minds of friends in San Antonio, the Bay Area, and even parts of Mexico to get the details right. Anybody can pen a variation of "NYC is the bustling city that never sleeps", but I prefer to stare at a spec of gum stuck to a sidewalk. I want ludicrously small details that, when added up, paint a full landscape that you can see, smell, taste and touch.
Beyond craft, the process for bringing NOTV to life has taught me the other side of publishing: publicity. I have a writer pal who is a NYT bestseller, but has griped about the lack of reviews for a particular book. Authors (like me) do read reviews, and a bad one hurts (yet still helpful), but silence is even more damning.
And when you hear from a pal that a major publishing house just doesn't have the PR plan or execution to get the word out effectively, it made me think: Round Ball Media probably could have printed a nice and tidy version of NOTV last July.
Instead, for about four months, it's been an all-hands-on-deck effort to try and place ARCs with cool sites (that I myself read and a few I've written for) and soon also hopefully get advanced copies to cool indie stores (many of which I've shopped at for years). Many of you are perplexed and maybe frustrated, but believe me - this stuff takes a lot of time, thought, and effort.
Especially as a debut novelist, getting folks in the book world to notice you and take you seriously is a process. I had to cut my teeth in the journalism world by blogging for years, so I know there's no shortcuts or easy hacks. You just gotta put yourself out there, find people and sites and places you think you clique with, and see what happens.
I'm really, really excited to say that I've sent ARCs to Mumbai, India, Mexico City, Mexico, England, Austin, Texas, Brooklyn, NY, Los Angeles, CA, and all around North Carolina. I've found rad sites interested in a copy, and just a reply to my (or my publicist's) emails is a huge boost of confidence.
The next chapter is sending out copies to cool indie bookstores in Texas (NOTV is distributed by Ingram FYI). When I was a kid in Kansas City, I littered around Rainy Day Books with my dad on Sundays after Mass; I've always loved indies and shopped indies when possible. Again, though, all you can do is send a copy, a nice letter, and have your publicist call to follow up.
The rest is in the hands of either a higher power or shit luck. I figured that NOTV would either be a slow-burn or no-burn novel because it is odd, weird, and has some places early on where a reader can fall into a DNF ditch. But for folks that have read it from start to finish, the feedback has been positive and downright flattering.
The very first review includes mentions of Joyce and Fitzgerald! As an author, if you write something that brings to a reader's mind those two gents, you are on the right path. Nobody has said they could predict the big twist in Part III and everybody has found the ending very satisfying.
So, friends, enough back-patting and being boisterous. Only six months to go. It seems like a long time, but, with all the publicity obligations, will pass for me (and my publicist) in the blink of an eye.
For you, my friends and readers, I know not everybody is into the Tiny Letter thing, so the NOTV website is up and running. More content is on the way, and check it out here.
However, good fiction takes a lot of research and fact-gathering! I had to mine the minds of friends in San Antonio, the Bay Area, and even parts of Mexico to get the details right. Anybody can pen a variation of "NYC is the bustling city that never sleeps", but I prefer to stare at a spec of gum stuck to a sidewalk. I want ludicrously small details that, when added up, paint a full landscape that you can see, smell, taste and touch.
Beyond craft, the process for bringing NOTV to life has taught me the other side of publishing: publicity. I have a writer pal who is a NYT bestseller, but has griped about the lack of reviews for a particular book. Authors (like me) do read reviews, and a bad one hurts (yet still helpful), but silence is even more damning.
And when you hear from a pal that a major publishing house just doesn't have the PR plan or execution to get the word out effectively, it made me think: Round Ball Media probably could have printed a nice and tidy version of NOTV last July.
Instead, for about four months, it's been an all-hands-on-deck effort to try and place ARCs with cool sites (that I myself read and a few I've written for) and soon also hopefully get advanced copies to cool indie stores (many of which I've shopped at for years). Many of you are perplexed and maybe frustrated, but believe me - this stuff takes a lot of time, thought, and effort.
Especially as a debut novelist, getting folks in the book world to notice you and take you seriously is a process. I had to cut my teeth in the journalism world by blogging for years, so I know there's no shortcuts or easy hacks. You just gotta put yourself out there, find people and sites and places you think you clique with, and see what happens.
I'm really, really excited to say that I've sent ARCs to Mumbai, India, Mexico City, Mexico, England, Austin, Texas, Brooklyn, NY, Los Angeles, CA, and all around North Carolina. I've found rad sites interested in a copy, and just a reply to my (or my publicist's) emails is a huge boost of confidence.
The next chapter is sending out copies to cool indie bookstores in Texas (NOTV is distributed by Ingram FYI). When I was a kid in Kansas City, I littered around Rainy Day Books with my dad on Sundays after Mass; I've always loved indies and shopped indies when possible. Again, though, all you can do is send a copy, a nice letter, and have your publicist call to follow up.
The rest is in the hands of either a higher power or shit luck. I figured that NOTV would either be a slow-burn or no-burn novel because it is odd, weird, and has some places early on where a reader can fall into a DNF ditch. But for folks that have read it from start to finish, the feedback has been positive and downright flattering.
The very first review includes mentions of Joyce and Fitzgerald! As an author, if you write something that brings to a reader's mind those two gents, you are on the right path. Nobody has said they could predict the big twist in Part III and everybody has found the ending very satisfying.
So, friends, enough back-patting and being boisterous. Only six months to go. It seems like a long time, but, with all the publicity obligations, will pass for me (and my publicist) in the blink of an eye.
For you, my friends and readers, I know not everybody is into the Tiny Letter thing, so the NOTV website is up and running. More content is on the way, and check it out here.
