Steph Post's Blog, page 17
January 20, 2018
Would You Rather? The Next Best Book Blog
Today, I'm over at The Next Best Book Blog to answer some rapid-fire questions about my writing habits. Have a read!
January 18, 2018
Walk in the Fire- Top Ten Tuesday
Thanks to For the Love of Words blog for listing Walk in the Fire as one of the top ten book titles to look forward to for 2018!
January 16, 2018
Book Launch Party Time!
Today,
Walk in the Fire
hits shelves everywhere and I want to remind all my Tampa Bay peeps to come out to the Launch Party this Thursday, 7-9pm, at Inkwood Books (1809 N. Tampa Street) for an evening of beer, wine, a reading, a signing, good people and good times. Hope to see you there!
January 15, 2018
Coffee with a Canine
Today is all about Juno! Thanks to Marshal Zeringue for hosting me (and my adorable pup!) over at Coffee with a Canine.
January 14, 2018
Walk in the Fire in the Tampa Bay Times
So, so many thanks to Colette Bancroft and The Tampa Bay Times for this fantastic review of Walk in the Fire!
Steph Post’s Florida noir ‘Walk in the Fire’ a sizzling sequel to ‘Lightwood’
"Post has a real knack for creating a complex plot that maintains its drive through sweat-slicked settings that range from raucous Daytona Beach strip clubs to the kind of lonesome roads where nothing good happens." -Colette Bancroft, Tampa Bay Times
Steph Post’s Florida noir ‘Walk in the Fire’ a sizzling sequel to ‘Lightwood’
"Post has a real knack for creating a complex plot that maintains its drive through sweat-slicked settings that range from raucous Daytona Beach strip clubs to the kind of lonesome roads where nothing good happens." -Colette Bancroft, Tampa Bay Times
January 13, 2018
Walk in the Fire One of Lithub's Most Anticipated 2018 Titles!
So many thanks to Lit Hub for listing Walk in the Fire as one of their Most Anticipated Crime, Mystery and Thriller Titles of 2018. I'm floored and honored....
A relatively new author in the crime-fiction scene, her first book A Tree Born Crooked flipped my fiction world upside-down. This continued with last year’s Lightwood and I can’t wait to see what she does with northern Florida this time. – Bobby McCue, formerly of the Mysterious Bookstore
A relatively new author in the crime-fiction scene, her first book A Tree Born Crooked flipped my fiction world upside-down. This continued with last year’s Lightwood and I can’t wait to see what she does with northern Florida this time. – Bobby McCue, formerly of the Mysterious Bookstore
January 6, 2018
The Great 2018 Spring Book Preview!
Here we go, time for the Great Book Preview! As my own novel (
Walk in the Fire
) drops January 16th, it seems only fitting to take a look at some of the must-reads for the coming year. Many thanks to everyone who chimed in with the books they are most looking forward in 2018 and don't worry, this summer I'll rev up the list for the second half of the year. For now, here are the books I'm most looking forward to, January through July, with many readers' suggestions added in as well. So many books!! So much reading!! Yay!
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
Also!
Pain and Longing by D. Michael Hardy (January)
Red Clocks by Leni Zumas (January)
Life During Wartime by Thomas Pluck (January)
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn (January)
May by Marietta Miles (January)
Everything You Came to See by Elizabeth Schulte Martin (January)
Cut You Down by Sam Wiebe (February)
Sunburn by Laura Lippman (February)
The Hummingbirds by Ross McMeekin (February)
What Are We Doing Here? by Marilynne Robinson (February)
The Writer's Field Guide to the Craft of Fiction by Michael Noll (February)
Mercy Dogs by Tyler Dilts (March)
The Night of the Flood by E.A. Aymar and Sarah M. Chen (March)
Queen of the Struggle by Nik Korporn (March)
Panorama by Steve Kistulentz (March)
The Vain Conversation by Anthony Grooms (March)
High White Sun by J. Todd Scott (March)
The Barbarous Century by Leah Umansky (March)
Zombie Abbey by Lauren Baratz-Logsted (April)
Texas Two Step by Michael Pool (April)
Circe by Madeline Miller (April)
The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer (April)
The Ensemble by Aja Gabel (May)
How to Set Yourself on Fire by Julia Dixon Evans (May)
The Pisces by Melissa Broder (May)
Tinman by Sarah Winman (May)
Clean Time by Ben Gwin (May)
A Stone's Throw by James W. Ziskin (June)
Florida by Lauren Groff (June)
The Shortest Way Home by Miriam Parker (July)
In the Valley of the Devil by Hank Early (July)
What Remains of Her by Eric Rickstad (July)
The Family Tabor by Cherise Wolas (July)
The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon (July)
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
Also!
Pain and Longing by D. Michael Hardy (January)
Red Clocks by Leni Zumas (January)
Life During Wartime by Thomas Pluck (January)
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn (January)
May by Marietta Miles (January)
Everything You Came to See by Elizabeth Schulte Martin (January)
Cut You Down by Sam Wiebe (February)
Sunburn by Laura Lippman (February)
The Hummingbirds by Ross McMeekin (February)
What Are We Doing Here? by Marilynne Robinson (February)
The Writer's Field Guide to the Craft of Fiction by Michael Noll (February)
Mercy Dogs by Tyler Dilts (March)
The Night of the Flood by E.A. Aymar and Sarah M. Chen (March)
Queen of the Struggle by Nik Korporn (March)
Panorama by Steve Kistulentz (March)
The Vain Conversation by Anthony Grooms (March)
High White Sun by J. Todd Scott (March)
The Barbarous Century by Leah Umansky (March)
Zombie Abbey by Lauren Baratz-Logsted (April)
Texas Two Step by Michael Pool (April)
Circe by Madeline Miller (April)
The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer (April)
The Ensemble by Aja Gabel (May)
How to Set Yourself on Fire by Julia Dixon Evans (May)
The Pisces by Melissa Broder (May)
Tinman by Sarah Winman (May)
Clean Time by Ben Gwin (May)
A Stone's Throw by James W. Ziskin (June)
Florida by Lauren Groff (June)
The Shortest Way Home by Miriam Parker (July)
In the Valley of the Devil by Hank Early (July)
What Remains of Her by Eric Rickstad (July)
The Family Tabor by Cherise Wolas (July)
The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon (July)
January 5, 2018
Book Bites: Leonard Chang, author of The Lockpicker
Book Bites: Short and Sweet Interviews for Readers on the Go
Today, I'm thrilled to bring you an interview with Leonard Chang, author The Lockpicker as well as writer for FX's Snowfall television series (and many of you may also know him as a writer for FX's Justified). I was lucky enough to speak with Chang back in 2014 to discuss his autobiographical novel Triplines and I've been a longtime admirer of his subtle, yet biting, style that always leaves the reader with a gut punch of wonder and emotion. Enjoy!
"...the restrained and exquisite writing gradually builds the suspense to the climax. Replete with details about picking locks and peppered with philosophical discussions, Chang's eighth novel is recommended for all readers of intelligent crime fiction."
- Library Journal
How do you handle writer’s block?
Luckily I really don’t get writer’s block. When I started writing I went through dozens and dozens of biographies of writers I admired, and in some ways I was putting myself through informal writing school with examples like Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, etc., offering me unintended guidance. What I got from them was the understanding that it’s always a process -- that we’re not striving just for a finished work but for the exploration to get there. Someone like Steinbeck, for instance, constantly talked about avoiding writer’s block by thinking not about the finished book but just working through it, not even to think about ending, ever. He in fact said in effect to “lower your standards” and know that the book will have to be rewritten and revised, no matter what. That liberated me as a novice writer, because I was no longer paralyzed by fear or criticism -- I knew I’d rewrite everything eventually, so nothing held me back. I’ve carried this feeling well into my professional writing career, so I can’t think of a time when I actually couldn’t sit down and start writing. I think about process, not product, and I have fun with it.
Have you ever given up on a writing project?
Sure, although nothing is truly ever given up or wasted, because sometimes I need to work through a project to get to the next one. My first novel, The Fruit ‘N Food , went through two completely different versions -- different characters, different locations, different stories -- before arriving at the third and final version, which was published. Does this mean the first two versions were wasted or given up on? I don’t think so. I needed to write those two versions to arrive at the third. Similarly, I’ve put aside projects because for whatever reason they weren’t clicking, only to pick them up years later, even decades later. One of my novels, Triplines, had at its core a story I wrote some fifteen years earlier that I never did anything with. Like the previous answer, nothing is wasted, nothing is for naught, because it’s all a process.
Do you have a set routine as a writer?
I do. I’m definitely an early morning writer, and even when I’m working on a TV show I get to the office very early, writing not just for TV but also working on my own material -- novels, essays, stories. The mornings are when my subconscious seems to be just transitioning into the conscious, when the clutter of the day hasn’t yet accumulated in my head, and I feel free and open, and the page before me is receptive to whatever I want to write. A routine for me is important, especially when I’m working on longer pieces, because I’ve trained myself that in those early morning hours I’m in “writing mode” and my creativity is at its height. However, I am often called upon to write during all times of the day or night, especially in TV, when I may actually have to write on set with a couple hundred people waiting for me to re-write a scene we’re shooting in ten minutes. That’s a different kind of writing, but it has its roots in the same morning writing ritual, because I’m accessing the same kind of creativity, but it’s not as open and free -- it’s using the years of practice of writing to render a compelling and effective scene given the tools I have. But my most creative writing time is in the mornings, which, incidentally, it is now. I’m in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, having woken up at dawn, and am pecking away at this interview at this very moment.
What is the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?
Interestingly enough, the best piece of writing I received wasn’t about writing but about the writing life. One of my mentors, the late Oakley Hall, who had a long and varied career as a writer -- writing everything from pulp mysteries under a pseudonym, to bestsellers with Robert Redford adapting his work, to allegorical westerns nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction -- told me to live economically because the writer’s life is rarely consistent and you never want to be trapped to write solely for money. Even if you make a lot of money and it seems like it’ll never stop, it always will. This was reinforced when I did my self-study of novelists I admired, and I saw quite clearly how this trap hurt many writers. So, for example, when Fitzgerald was at his height of popularity, he was making over $30,000 a year (in 1920’s dollars, when the average household yearly income was $1800), and he spent it all on trips, cars, houses and parties, always ending up in debt. He then had to churn out stories for slick magazines to maintain his lifestyle, becoming more and more embittered and unhappy at this commercial writing. He never dug himself out, falling into alcoholism, and died thinking he was a failure. This was sobering to me as a young writer, and I never forgot it.
What single book has been the most influential to you as a writer?
I guess that depends on what kind of influence you’re talking about. I think the novel that was an epiphany of sorts -- the novel that affected me deeply and made me yearn to write something as pivotal -- was Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. I know all about the various criticisms against the book and Hemingway himself, but let me set the context. I was nineteen years old, having just dropped out of college and joined the Peace Corps. I was living in Kingston, Jamaica, trying to work in the most crime-ridden city in the western Hemisphere at the time. The coke wars made the homicide rate there insane. I was trying to write -- trying to be a writer -- and it wasn’t easy. I was lonely, sitting at what felt like a crossroads in my life, and picked up a worn-out old paperback of a novel called Fiesta (which was the title for some foreign editions of The Sun Also Rises), which was about ex-pats in Paris in the 20’s, also trying to write or at least trying to find a way of life with few models and understanding of how the post-world-war era was affecting them. Although I had very little in common with the characters, I felt like I had everything in common with the sensibility of the novel, and the writing was unlike anything I’d read before. I remember opening the novel after dinner and staying awake and reading well into the night, unable to stop. When I finished, I felt I had achieved some rare state of transcendence that had nothing to do with the ganja all around me or the gunshots in the distance -- I had found a work of art that I connected to, and truly understood what a novel could do to a receptive reader on a similar wavelength. I closed the novel, deeply moved, and literally pulled out a pad and pen, and began writing my first real short story -- not the juvenalia I had attempted before that. This was the beginning of my becoming a real writer, and I will always point to that novel as the inception.
Today, I'm thrilled to bring you an interview with Leonard Chang, author The Lockpicker as well as writer for FX's Snowfall television series (and many of you may also know him as a writer for FX's Justified). I was lucky enough to speak with Chang back in 2014 to discuss his autobiographical novel Triplines and I've been a longtime admirer of his subtle, yet biting, style that always leaves the reader with a gut punch of wonder and emotion. Enjoy!
"...the restrained and exquisite writing gradually builds the suspense to the climax. Replete with details about picking locks and peppered with philosophical discussions, Chang's eighth novel is recommended for all readers of intelligent crime fiction."- Library Journal
How do you handle writer’s block?
Luckily I really don’t get writer’s block. When I started writing I went through dozens and dozens of biographies of writers I admired, and in some ways I was putting myself through informal writing school with examples like Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, etc., offering me unintended guidance. What I got from them was the understanding that it’s always a process -- that we’re not striving just for a finished work but for the exploration to get there. Someone like Steinbeck, for instance, constantly talked about avoiding writer’s block by thinking not about the finished book but just working through it, not even to think about ending, ever. He in fact said in effect to “lower your standards” and know that the book will have to be rewritten and revised, no matter what. That liberated me as a novice writer, because I was no longer paralyzed by fear or criticism -- I knew I’d rewrite everything eventually, so nothing held me back. I’ve carried this feeling well into my professional writing career, so I can’t think of a time when I actually couldn’t sit down and start writing. I think about process, not product, and I have fun with it.
Have you ever given up on a writing project?
Sure, although nothing is truly ever given up or wasted, because sometimes I need to work through a project to get to the next one. My first novel, The Fruit ‘N Food , went through two completely different versions -- different characters, different locations, different stories -- before arriving at the third and final version, which was published. Does this mean the first two versions were wasted or given up on? I don’t think so. I needed to write those two versions to arrive at the third. Similarly, I’ve put aside projects because for whatever reason they weren’t clicking, only to pick them up years later, even decades later. One of my novels, Triplines, had at its core a story I wrote some fifteen years earlier that I never did anything with. Like the previous answer, nothing is wasted, nothing is for naught, because it’s all a process.
Do you have a set routine as a writer?
I do. I’m definitely an early morning writer, and even when I’m working on a TV show I get to the office very early, writing not just for TV but also working on my own material -- novels, essays, stories. The mornings are when my subconscious seems to be just transitioning into the conscious, when the clutter of the day hasn’t yet accumulated in my head, and I feel free and open, and the page before me is receptive to whatever I want to write. A routine for me is important, especially when I’m working on longer pieces, because I’ve trained myself that in those early morning hours I’m in “writing mode” and my creativity is at its height. However, I am often called upon to write during all times of the day or night, especially in TV, when I may actually have to write on set with a couple hundred people waiting for me to re-write a scene we’re shooting in ten minutes. That’s a different kind of writing, but it has its roots in the same morning writing ritual, because I’m accessing the same kind of creativity, but it’s not as open and free -- it’s using the years of practice of writing to render a compelling and effective scene given the tools I have. But my most creative writing time is in the mornings, which, incidentally, it is now. I’m in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, having woken up at dawn, and am pecking away at this interview at this very moment.
What is the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?
Interestingly enough, the best piece of writing I received wasn’t about writing but about the writing life. One of my mentors, the late Oakley Hall, who had a long and varied career as a writer -- writing everything from pulp mysteries under a pseudonym, to bestsellers with Robert Redford adapting his work, to allegorical westerns nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction -- told me to live economically because the writer’s life is rarely consistent and you never want to be trapped to write solely for money. Even if you make a lot of money and it seems like it’ll never stop, it always will. This was reinforced when I did my self-study of novelists I admired, and I saw quite clearly how this trap hurt many writers. So, for example, when Fitzgerald was at his height of popularity, he was making over $30,000 a year (in 1920’s dollars, when the average household yearly income was $1800), and he spent it all on trips, cars, houses and parties, always ending up in debt. He then had to churn out stories for slick magazines to maintain his lifestyle, becoming more and more embittered and unhappy at this commercial writing. He never dug himself out, falling into alcoholism, and died thinking he was a failure. This was sobering to me as a young writer, and I never forgot it.
What single book has been the most influential to you as a writer?
I guess that depends on what kind of influence you’re talking about. I think the novel that was an epiphany of sorts -- the novel that affected me deeply and made me yearn to write something as pivotal -- was Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. I know all about the various criticisms against the book and Hemingway himself, but let me set the context. I was nineteen years old, having just dropped out of college and joined the Peace Corps. I was living in Kingston, Jamaica, trying to work in the most crime-ridden city in the western Hemisphere at the time. The coke wars made the homicide rate there insane. I was trying to write -- trying to be a writer -- and it wasn’t easy. I was lonely, sitting at what felt like a crossroads in my life, and picked up a worn-out old paperback of a novel called Fiesta (which was the title for some foreign editions of The Sun Also Rises), which was about ex-pats in Paris in the 20’s, also trying to write or at least trying to find a way of life with few models and understanding of how the post-world-war era was affecting them. Although I had very little in common with the characters, I felt like I had everything in common with the sensibility of the novel, and the writing was unlike anything I’d read before. I remember opening the novel after dinner and staying awake and reading well into the night, unable to stop. When I finished, I felt I had achieved some rare state of transcendence that had nothing to do with the ganja all around me or the gunshots in the distance -- I had found a work of art that I connected to, and truly understood what a novel could do to a receptive reader on a similar wavelength. I closed the novel, deeply moved, and literally pulled out a pad and pen, and began writing my first real short story -- not the juvenalia I had attempted before that. This was the beginning of my becoming a real writer, and I will always point to that novel as the inception.
December 29, 2017
Book Bites: Craig Pittman, author of Oh, Florida!
Book Bites: Short and Sweet Interviews for Readers on the Go
Today, I bring you an interview with Craig Pittman- Tampa Bay Times reporter, author of Oh, Florida!: How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country and our resident guru on all things weird, wild and wonderful about Florida (mostly the weird stuff, though). If you've ever wondered why my hometown state is, well, the way it is, Pittman's Oh, Florida! can help you out. Or, at the very least, confirm your suspicions that we're all a little nutty down here in the Sunshine State...
"Oh, Florida! is hilarious, creepy, and sobering. Craig Pittman makes the compelling argument that all of America is being warped by Florida's off-the-chart weirdness, which we eagerly export. This book should be required reading for anyone who's ever thought about moving down here, with or without a concealed weapons permit."―Carl Hiaasen
What attracted you to the genre you write in?
I write non-fiction because my day job as a reporter means I'm constantly stumbling over great stories that are also true stories. People think of non-fiction as these great massive deadly-dull tomes, but writers have a lot more freedom these days to be quirky and down-to-earth when telling true stories. I structured The Scent of Scandal to read like a mystery, with short sentences, short chapters and a teaser at the end of each chapter. In Oh, Florida! I wove in bits of memoir and bad puns while telling stories about Florida history and culture.
Are there any writers you’re jealous of?
Yes, the ones who have the time and energy to produce two books a year.
Were they any parts of your book that were edited out, but which you miss terribly?
My original manuscript for Oh, Florida! was 100 pages longer than the one that wound up being published. My editor said she liked the material but the book was just too long, so I had to cut some things. Out went the Skunk Ape. Out went the guy who claimed he had a love affair with a dolphin. Out went a bunch of other stuff that didn't fit exactly with the theme of the chapters. Of course when I go out and talk about the book, there's always one person in the crowd who asks about one of the things I left out.
How do you handle writer’s block?
I think about my mortgage and my kid's college expenses. Clears it right up.
What piece of your own writing are you most proud of?
This year I wrote a story for the Times that I think is the definitive "iguanas pop up in Florida toilets" story. I interviewed a professional iguana trapper who has written a cookbook called Save Florida, Eat An Iguana. I expect to hear from the Pulitzer committee any day now.
Today, I bring you an interview with Craig Pittman- Tampa Bay Times reporter, author of Oh, Florida!: How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country and our resident guru on all things weird, wild and wonderful about Florida (mostly the weird stuff, though). If you've ever wondered why my hometown state is, well, the way it is, Pittman's Oh, Florida! can help you out. Or, at the very least, confirm your suspicions that we're all a little nutty down here in the Sunshine State...
"Oh, Florida! is hilarious, creepy, and sobering. Craig Pittman makes the compelling argument that all of America is being warped by Florida's off-the-chart weirdness, which we eagerly export. This book should be required reading for anyone who's ever thought about moving down here, with or without a concealed weapons permit."―Carl Hiaasen
What attracted you to the genre you write in?
I write non-fiction because my day job as a reporter means I'm constantly stumbling over great stories that are also true stories. People think of non-fiction as these great massive deadly-dull tomes, but writers have a lot more freedom these days to be quirky and down-to-earth when telling true stories. I structured The Scent of Scandal to read like a mystery, with short sentences, short chapters and a teaser at the end of each chapter. In Oh, Florida! I wove in bits of memoir and bad puns while telling stories about Florida history and culture.
Are there any writers you’re jealous of?
Yes, the ones who have the time and energy to produce two books a year.
Were they any parts of your book that were edited out, but which you miss terribly?
My original manuscript for Oh, Florida! was 100 pages longer than the one that wound up being published. My editor said she liked the material but the book was just too long, so I had to cut some things. Out went the Skunk Ape. Out went the guy who claimed he had a love affair with a dolphin. Out went a bunch of other stuff that didn't fit exactly with the theme of the chapters. Of course when I go out and talk about the book, there's always one person in the crowd who asks about one of the things I left out.
How do you handle writer’s block?
I think about my mortgage and my kid's college expenses. Clears it right up.
What piece of your own writing are you most proud of?
This year I wrote a story for the Times that I think is the definitive "iguanas pop up in Florida toilets" story. I interviewed a professional iguana trapper who has written a cookbook called Save Florida, Eat An Iguana. I expect to hear from the Pulitzer committee any day now.
December 28, 2017
Lightwood on Unlawful Acts Favorite Reads List
Many thanks to David Nemeth over at Unlawful Acts for listing Lightwood as a Favorite Read of 2017. Cheers!
