Jeffrey Ricker's Blog, page 35

#BookADay, Day 3: Something Blue

I typically don’t pick a book because of its cover. Which is not to say that I don’t love a beautiful book cover, either. More likely, though, I’m looking for a particular author, or a title that someone I know has recommended to me.

So, #BookADay’s Day 3 suggestion was a bit odd, I thought. “Blue cover? I have no idea.” I went upstairs and scanned the bookshelves and was kind of surprised that blue was not a more common cover color. However, I did find this one:

I fell in love with Pam Houston‘s writing when I read her short story collection Cowboys Are My Weakness. (For the record: they’re mine, too.) Sight Hound is very much a different sort of book: the story of a woman and her wolfhound who teaches her to choose love over fear. The novel is told through the points of view of Rae and Dante (he’s the dog), as well as a range of other voices, even Stanley the cat. In other hands this could have veered into the ridiculous. In Houston’s hands, it’s wonderful.

Check back tomorrow for Day 4—which is going to be another tricky pick….

#BookADay, Days 1 and 2

So, I’m a little late getting this started, but with a tip of the hat to ’Nathan Burgoine (whom I always seem to be tipping my hat to, but never without good reason), The Borough Press has put together this nifty list for the month of June to highlight a different book every day. And, since I a) love to read and b) don’t blog often enough, this is the perfect motivation to blog—and to talk about something other than me me me, which is boring boring boring.

So, since it’s June 2, I’m a day behind. Let’s get started.

1. Favorite book from childhood:

The first one that came to mind was Stuart Little. E.B. White is a hilarious writer, and this book really resonated with me as a kid. Maybe because it’s about a family’s son who’s not your typical kid:

Stuart Little is no ordinary mouse. Born to a family of humans, he lives in New York City with his parents, his older brother George, and Snowbell the cat. Though he’s shy and thoughtful, he’s also a true lover of adventure.

Stuart’s greatest adventure comes when his best friend, a beautiful little bird named Margalo, disappears from her nest. Determined to track her down, Stuart ventures away from home for the very first time in his life. He finds adventure aplenty. But will he find his friend?

I remember getting to the end of the book and hoping for a sequel, which never did come. Did he ever find Margalo? I really wanted to know.

2. Favorite bargain:

I’m in a really lucky position as a writer, since I get a lot of books for free. But, as everyone knows, the best bargain of all is the library. And one of my favorite books that I checked out from the library was The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller. It won the Orange Prize in 2012, and with good reason. It’s the tale of the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus, told from Patroclus’ point of view, and it’s beautiful and heartbreaking. I don’t know how many times I’ve recommended this book to people, but I’m recommending it again. Go read it now. You could even check it out from the library….

Grad school? #worthit

I met this young woman on my last day in Vancouver, my last day at the University of British Columbia, and my last day as a graduate student. My partner and I were walking out of the student union building—I think we were getting a Starbucks—and I stopped by a bench to take a photo of this #ubcgrad sign on the ground in front of us. I was having all sorts of fun thinking of ways to fill in the blank, most of them unprintable. (I decided on #debtridden. Also, #worthit.) We heard a really loud shout coming from the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, and then we heard it again. I think we both thought, “Kids.”

And then this young woman stopped in front of us and said (I’m paraphrasing here because my memory is not photographic): “Excuse me, but my parents are just getting into town for my graduation and my phone just totally died so I can’t get in touch with them….”

I got out my phone and was about to give it to her. “Oh, did you want to call them?”

She shook her head. “No, but I just had to tell someone. I just found out I got accepted to graduate school!”

I didn’t even get her name, but it didn’t seem important at the time. She was so excited that she was going to be attending York University studying sustainable city planning (I think that was the name of the program; it sounded fantastic) and was on her way to the airport to meet her family—literally, their plane had just touched down. But she needed to tell someone right now, and I was lucky enough to be the first person she talked to.

Me, a total stranger.

So I gave her a hug, then I gave her another one, and then she had to rush off to the bus loop to head to the airport and meet her family to tell them the good news.

If you ever by chance stumble across this: congratulations, girl. You’re going to change the world, and you’ll be great at it. Graduate school? Totally #worthit.

Paper work

I’ve tried to cram the last two years into this one red document box.

That’s an exaggeration, of course, but only slightly.

Last week, I had at least three stacks of paper sitting on my desk and on the bookshelf in my room. They were all the manuscripts with written feedback I’ve received from fellow creative writing graduate students in the various workshops I’ve taken at UBC. All of the stories, graphic novel projects, radio scripts, and novel excerpts that my colleagues read, considered, dismantled, and sifted through. And their thoughts on how I might make them better.

There was no way I was going to be able to squeeze all of these stacks of paper into the three suitcases I’m packing with stuff to take home after graduate school. As it is, I’m rapidly shedding belongings—books, clothes, household items—and leaving with only what is, I hope, essential.

What that means for those stacks of paper is that I’ve been transcribing everyone’s comments as tracked changes into the Word files, and saving the last page of written comments that they (usually) included with their markups. What’s interesting about this is that it’s got me looking at their advice in a different way from how I’d viewed it before. Since I’m transferring everyone’s notes into one file, I’m starting to note the places where multiple people commented on the same issues. I’m seeing more clearly where they were thrown off by the same things. You see that and think, “Hmm, maybe that is a problem.”

Of course, I’m also coming across comments like “Mona is awful” from one reader and “I LOVE Mona!” from another. So, one’s mileage may vary.

I’m out of here in four days. It’s finally getting real.

Who’s going to be a Lambda Literary Emerging Writers Fellow? This guy!

With graduate school all wrapped up except for the part where I walk across the stage, I’ve been applying for all sorts of things and am hoping I’ll know sooner rather than later where I might land after this. I do know one thing for sure, though. Well, actually, two things: the first is that I’ll be back in St. Louis come June. The second is that for a week in August I’ll be in Los Angeles attending the Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices.

Wow.

I really have to thank friend and poet Leah Horlick, who strongly encouraged me to apply. She attended in 2012 and said it was a fantastic experience. It’s also been described as boot camp for queer writers, so I’m hoping that means I’ll also lose these pesky five extra pounds.

Oh, fine. Ten extra pounds.

Lambda has given me a partial scholarship to attend the retreat, but arts organizations aren’t exactly having the best of times lately (have they ever?), so it’s up to me to raise the balance of my tuition for the retreat. They’ve set up a crowdfunding page here to help with that. I’m planning to send everyone who donates a story—could be something that’s currently in process, it could be an old story that hasn’t seen the light of day in a while, but I figure anyone who throws a couple bucks my way deserves something for their generosity.

(Did I mention it’s also tax deductible?)

That’s What Friends Are For

Anyone who follows me on Instagram knows that, in addition to my deep and abiding love for my hometown bookstore, Left Bank Books, I am also a big fan of White Dwarf Books here in Vancouver. Not just a bookstore, they’re a science fiction and fantasy bookstore.

It’s like they created the business with me in mind, right?

Here’s Judd waiting for some attention from my friend Ruth Daniell.

Left Bank, as you may know, is also home to Spike the resident bookstore cat. White Dwarf, on the other hand, is home to Judd, the resident bookstore Bassett hound.

To say that I’m in love with Judd would be a slight understatement.

I confess, I’ve often gone into the store when I haven’t had a book in mind to purchase, but just wanted to go in and say hi to Judd. He is especially adorable when he waddles out from behind the counter and submits to a belly rub.

It also doesn’t hurt that White Dwarf is located just down the street from CocoaNymph, my favorite place to get hot chocolate, and around the corner from Grounds for Coffee, which makes the best cinnamon rolls I’ve ever had anywhere ever. Even if those two places weren’t in close proximity, I’d still stop in to buy books and pet Judd.

This is Judd getting some quality attention from my friend Francine earlier in the week.

This past weekend I went on a long run with my friends Keith and Katie D, and we finished up at Grounds for Coffee where we met up with our other friends Leon, Ben, Meggie, and Katie H and where, remarkably, I did not order a cinnamon roll. (I had a calzone.) We then went around the corner and most of them met Judd for the first time.

You know what else they all did? They went up to the counter and each ordered a copy of The Unwanted.

For the record, no, I did not cry when they all did that. I knew about it in advance, but nonetheless I was touched.

Even better? The owners of the bookstore remembered me because I’d been in to visit Judd and chat with them and to buy books. In addition to the copies they ordered for my friends, they ordered another copy to put on the shelf.

What’s one copy on a shelf in an indie store in Vancouver compared with the dozens of ebook copies and paperbacks that Amazon could potentially move? Maybe not much, and I won’t begrudge folks if they do buy a book from Amazon—maybe you live in a tiny tiny town (and I’ve lived in tiny tiny towns—let’s hear it for them!) that doesn’t have a bookstore or you’re overseas or your mom gave you an Amazon gift card and you have to buy something with it. But I like the idea of spending my money in my local community and the multiplier effect that can have on my hometown. And, despite my otherwise curmudgeonly nature, I do like knowing the people I’m doing business with.

So, if you’re in Vancouver and find yourself out by 10th and Alma, get a cinnamon bun at Grounds for Coffee, and then go around the corner to White Dwarf, say hi to Judd, and look for my book. If they’re able to sell that copy, it’d make my day.

By the way, there are still four copies of The Unwanted in each Left Bank Books location back in St. Louis. If you’re in town you should check them out, pick up my book, and say hi to Spike.

And if you’re not in town, they deliver.

’21 Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Started Writing’

7. But be vigilant about being a jerk. We all make mistakes – but it’s also frighteningly easy to become a taker, a user, a self-absorbed neurotic wreck, and not even know that’s what you’ve become. Don’t be too hard on yourself, but don’t assume you haven’t fallen into bad-colleague practices either.

This item in particular spoke to me out of Robin Black‘s list of 21 things she wishes she’d known before she started writing. Given my own propensity toward jerkiness, I’m always a bit pained when I see the tendency play out (or maybe I should say flare up) in others. Here’s hoping I can avoid it from here on out.

Check out the whole list and let me know which ones speak to you.

Jeffrey Ricker’s new novel ‘The Unwanted’

jeffreyricker:

Up until last month I was contest manager for the literary magazine PRISM international at the University of British Columbia. Very kindly, my successors have given a shout-out to The Unwanted on their website. Check it out—and check out the magazine as well. The current issue features the winners of the creative non-fiction contest.

Originally posted on PRISM international:

Looking for some good young adult fiction to read over the summer? Well, look no further than former PRISM Contest Manager Jeffrey Ricker’s The Unwanted!

Jeffrey’s second novel follows Jamie Thomas, who has enough trouble on his hands trying to get through junior year of high school without being pulverized by Billy Stratton, his bully and tormentor. But that’s before he learns the mother he was always told was dead is actually alive.

And she’s an Amazon.

Sixteen years after she left him on his father’s doorstep, she’s back… and needs Jamie’s help. A curse has caused the ancient tribe of warrior women to give birth to nothing but boys, dooming them to extinction—until prophecy reveals that salvation lies with one of the offspring they abandoned. Putting his life on the line, Jamie must find the courage to confront the wrath of an angry god to save a society that rejected him.

Prophecy? Adventure? Amazons? No need to invent an imaginary niece or…

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Don’t Dream It’s Over, or “My! My! Time Flies!”

I logged into my UBC student account this past weekend to find that my final grades for the year have been posted. (All A-plusses, I’m happy to report.) Along with that was a letter confirming that I’d completed all of the requirements for finishing my degree, which I’d get later this month.

In other words, stick a fork in me. I’m done.

Somehow, of course, I still have a boatload of work to do. For starters, I’m working my way through the pile of short stories I’ve written over the past two years and inputting all of my colleagues’ comments into my electronic files. Somehow, I can’t imagine putting all this paper in my luggage and hauling it back to St. Louis. Then there are a few more revisions to do on the thesis before I circulate it.

And then there’s that whole finding-a-job thing.

I’ve been going through all of the books on my shelves—the ones I brought with me, the ones I’ve bought in my time here, the ones that have otherwise wound up in my possession. Funny how this seems to happen wherever I go. Somehow, I’m going to get everything down to what fits in two suitcases. Otherwise, it’s being given away. (Vancouver friends, I might have some books you’d be interested in.)

How can it already have been two years?

Ignore bookstores and they’ll go away

I’m not surprised that the owner of Giovanni’s Books, Ed Hermance, sounds pretty disillusioned in this article reporting that the United States’ oldest LGBT bookstore is closing next month. If I’d been in business for almost four decades, I’d be down too.

When was the last time you went into a bookstore? Would you be disappointed if the next time you went, they had a going-out-of-business sign in the window?

A lot of my friends have asked me where to buy my latest book (that would be The Unwanted, and you can find a list of links right here—and that ends today’s blatant play for self-promotion!) and then they ask, “Where is the best place for me to buy it for you?” As in “Where do you, the author, get the most return on my investment in the book?”

This, of course, makes me love my friends that much more. And here’s what I tell them: do you have a local bookstore? Buy it there. Is there not one close by? Check Indiebound and see if there’s one you can order it from. (I usually recommend Left Bank Books in St. Louis because I have an outsize love for them, and Kris Kleindienst and company have been kind and supportive of my work. Also, Spike the store cat.) Here in Vancouver I recommend places like Pulpfiction Books or Kidsbooks. (Bonus: at Pulpfiction if you order a new novel that they don’t have in stock, they can often get it for you at up to 30% off.) I love those stores and want them to be sustained. It’s where I like to shop for books.

I also tell them that they can buy them directly from my publisher. That’s where I get the most bang for their buck (which sounded fine in my head but on reflection sounds a bit dirty).

In the end, though, I don’t think there really is a wrong place to buy a book. Heck, you don’t even have to buy it, and I’m not just talking about my own here either. Go to the library! These places are awesome! All the books! And free!

As the Doctor would say, books! Best weapons in the universe.