Magnus Flyte's Blog - Posts Tagged "penguin"
Magnus's Process
This originally appeared on a great blog called The Girlfriends Book Club (http://girlfriendbooks.blogspot.com).
Holidays With Magnus
Under normal circumstances, the business of deciphering and transcribing the latest communications of Magnus Flyte and fashioning them into a novel takes place in two locations. Meg Howrey lives in Los Angeles, and Christina Lynch lives in a small town in the Sierra foothills. We work as a relay team: alternating chapters, and with our own individual processes remaining as mysterious as the current whereabouts of Mr. Flyte. However, we are currently under a deadline set by our esteemed Penguins at Penguin Books for completing the sequel to City of Dark Magic. This necessitated a combining of forces so that daily quotas of writing could be met, and certain yuletide revelries could be observed. Accordingly, Meg packed stocking, libations, mud boots, and computer and traveled north to Chris’s home for the holidays. We are happy to report that the writing is going well, and the Yorkshire pudding turned out fabulously!
Even though we are now working in the same house, we have not deviated from our methods. Too much chatter spoils the soup. So the emails still flow. Below is an edited transcript, which might illuminate how the collaboration has been faring.
From: Meg@(email address redacted)
To: Chris@ (email address redacted)
You are very busy typing right now. Type, type, type. My, how very busy and productive you seem to be. However, I am sitting ten feet away and by using a series of reflective mirrors I can see that you are not writing your chapter. You are shopping for a new shower curtain. I like “Splash Home Tree Mocha Shower Curtain” the best. Do not order that thing with stripes you were just viewing. It will clash with the bathmat.
From: Chris@(email address redacted)
To: Meg@(email address redacted)
I realize it’s 9:17 am and we’ve only been working for four minutes (three if you count the trip to the toaster oven for one more slice of cranberry cake) but what are you thinking about for lunch? How about http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/foo... ?
I’d only have to make one little trip to the store.
C.
P.S. It would be more green to get the cream from the farmer up the road. Plus we could make a small detour to see the miniature donkeys again. Cream in Norwegian is “krem.” http://translate.google.com/#en/no/cream
It really wouldn’t take all that long if we left right now.
From: Meg@(email address redacted)
To: Chris@ (email address redacted)
Chapter going well. I should be finished by the evening. I apologize if there’s too much in the chapter about quail. Did you see the family of quail in your driveway today? Gosh, quail are fascinating. Wait. Are they quail? Quail is a funny word. Quail, quail, quail. It’s a good verb, too. “So-and-so quailed before her.” I don’t think I’ve ever made anyone quail before me. Meet me in the kitchen in ten minutes and quail before me? Just for fun? The chapter isn’t really going that well.
To: Meg@(email address redacted)
From: Chris@(email address redacted)
Look at that rain. Just look at it. I’m looking. It’s hard not to look at rain like that. The Latin word for rain is “pluvia.” Maybe we should go look for a rainbow. I think that would help our productivity. DH Lawrence wrote a book about a rainbow, and he’s pretty famous.
From: Meg@(email address redacted)
To: Chris@ (email address redacted)
No, I am screaming because I just saw your dog eat a gopher.
From: Chris@(email address redacted)
To: Meg @(email address redacted)
In Azerbaijani, gopher is “sünbülqıran.”
From: Meg@(email address redacted)
To: Chris@(email address redacted)
If I only wear a Helmut Lang dress while writing, can it be considered a tax write-off?
From: Chris@(email address redacted)
To: Meg@(email address redacted)
It’s 5:03. Chianti or Rioja?
From: Meg@(email address redacted)
To: Chris@ (email address redacted)
I like what you said on the hike this morning about the plot of the sequel. Suddenly, and for the first time, it all made perfect and complete sense. The character’s motivations were crystalline. The dramatic arc was like a jeweled rainbow. The plot twists were diabolically clever, and yet also revealed something incredibly profound and true and just and beautiful about human nature.
Can you remember what exactly you said? Because now all I can remember is that at very end we started talking about whether or not Paul Rudd would make a better boyfriend for you, or for me. And I’ve totally spaced on all that stuff about the plot.
From: Chris@(email address redacted)
To: Meg@(email address redacted)
Did you know that great frigate birds have the highest ratio of wing area to body mass? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fr...
I have a killer page and a half here. Break?
The sequel to New York Times bestseller City of Dark Magic will be published by Penguin Books in December 2013, and may or may not feature Vienna, tortelloni, Mozart, gophers, Helmut Lang, and Great Frigatebirds. There will definitely be a shower curtain.City of Dark Magic
Holidays With Magnus
Under normal circumstances, the business of deciphering and transcribing the latest communications of Magnus Flyte and fashioning them into a novel takes place in two locations. Meg Howrey lives in Los Angeles, and Christina Lynch lives in a small town in the Sierra foothills. We work as a relay team: alternating chapters, and with our own individual processes remaining as mysterious as the current whereabouts of Mr. Flyte. However, we are currently under a deadline set by our esteemed Penguins at Penguin Books for completing the sequel to City of Dark Magic. This necessitated a combining of forces so that daily quotas of writing could be met, and certain yuletide revelries could be observed. Accordingly, Meg packed stocking, libations, mud boots, and computer and traveled north to Chris’s home for the holidays. We are happy to report that the writing is going well, and the Yorkshire pudding turned out fabulously!
Even though we are now working in the same house, we have not deviated from our methods. Too much chatter spoils the soup. So the emails still flow. Below is an edited transcript, which might illuminate how the collaboration has been faring.
From: Meg@(email address redacted)
To: Chris@ (email address redacted)
You are very busy typing right now. Type, type, type. My, how very busy and productive you seem to be. However, I am sitting ten feet away and by using a series of reflective mirrors I can see that you are not writing your chapter. You are shopping for a new shower curtain. I like “Splash Home Tree Mocha Shower Curtain” the best. Do not order that thing with stripes you were just viewing. It will clash with the bathmat.
From: Chris@(email address redacted)
To: Meg@(email address redacted)
I realize it’s 9:17 am and we’ve only been working for four minutes (three if you count the trip to the toaster oven for one more slice of cranberry cake) but what are you thinking about for lunch? How about http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/foo... ?
I’d only have to make one little trip to the store.
C.
P.S. It would be more green to get the cream from the farmer up the road. Plus we could make a small detour to see the miniature donkeys again. Cream in Norwegian is “krem.” http://translate.google.com/#en/no/cream
It really wouldn’t take all that long if we left right now.
From: Meg@(email address redacted)
To: Chris@ (email address redacted)
Chapter going well. I should be finished by the evening. I apologize if there’s too much in the chapter about quail. Did you see the family of quail in your driveway today? Gosh, quail are fascinating. Wait. Are they quail? Quail is a funny word. Quail, quail, quail. It’s a good verb, too. “So-and-so quailed before her.” I don’t think I’ve ever made anyone quail before me. Meet me in the kitchen in ten minutes and quail before me? Just for fun? The chapter isn’t really going that well.
To: Meg@(email address redacted)
From: Chris@(email address redacted)
Look at that rain. Just look at it. I’m looking. It’s hard not to look at rain like that. The Latin word for rain is “pluvia.” Maybe we should go look for a rainbow. I think that would help our productivity. DH Lawrence wrote a book about a rainbow, and he’s pretty famous.
From: Meg@(email address redacted)
To: Chris@ (email address redacted)
No, I am screaming because I just saw your dog eat a gopher.
From: Chris@(email address redacted)
To: Meg @(email address redacted)
In Azerbaijani, gopher is “sünbülqıran.”
From: Meg@(email address redacted)
To: Chris@(email address redacted)
If I only wear a Helmut Lang dress while writing, can it be considered a tax write-off?
From: Chris@(email address redacted)
To: Meg@(email address redacted)
It’s 5:03. Chianti or Rioja?
From: Meg@(email address redacted)
To: Chris@ (email address redacted)
I like what you said on the hike this morning about the plot of the sequel. Suddenly, and for the first time, it all made perfect and complete sense. The character’s motivations were crystalline. The dramatic arc was like a jeweled rainbow. The plot twists were diabolically clever, and yet also revealed something incredibly profound and true and just and beautiful about human nature.
Can you remember what exactly you said? Because now all I can remember is that at very end we started talking about whether or not Paul Rudd would make a better boyfriend for you, or for me. And I’ve totally spaced on all that stuff about the plot.
From: Chris@(email address redacted)
To: Meg@(email address redacted)
Did you know that great frigate birds have the highest ratio of wing area to body mass? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fr...
I have a killer page and a half here. Break?
The sequel to New York Times bestseller City of Dark Magic will be published by Penguin Books in December 2013, and may or may not feature Vienna, tortelloni, Mozart, gophers, Helmut Lang, and Great Frigatebirds. There will definitely be a shower curtain.City of Dark Magic
An interview with Magnus
Our publishers at Penguin have generously cited us as the “writers behind Magnus Flyte,” or made reference to Magnus Flyte as a pseudonym for “writers Christina Lynch and Meg Howrey.” We are not going to contradict them, but we generally prefer to think of ourselves as Magnus’s handlers. Or wranglers. Believe us, this is not always an easy task. The elusiveness of Mr. Flyte is legendary. We’re always thrilled, therefore, when an opportunity arises to sit down with Magnus for a conversation. By “sit down” we mean that we were sitting. We have no idea what position Magnus was in. Judging from the background noise we heard through the walkie-talkies, Magnus was in transit. He could have been flying his Piper airplane. Or rafting. Or playing a vigorous game of badminton in a Tibetan nunnery. In any case, he was amenable to answering a few questions. Below is the transcription.
Wranglers: Magnus, your novel, City of Dark Magic, has been called “genre-bending.” It’s a mystery, a thriller; it has science and history and music. Romance. Comedy. Time-travel. What are your thoughts of what makes fiction “genre”?
Magnus: Mystery, excitement, love, music, a twist, and a sense of humor: all good novels should have these things. All good short stories should have them, all good poems. All good graffiti. I once ate a risotto in Venice that had all of these things.
Wranglers: What do you think about the phrase, “guilty pleasure”?
Magnus: I prefer the phrase, “acknowledged naughtiness.”
Wranglers: The action of the book takes place in and around Prague. What about the city did you find so inspiring?
Magnus: The moment I first arrived in Prague, many years ago, I knew that I would set a story there. Form dictates content. The city is enigmatic and intimate and epic and very peculiar. Frankly, I am surprised that people are able to visit the city, and not feel compelled to write a novel. Perhaps the variety of affordable and tasty lagers has something to do with that.
Wranglers: Can you talk about the element of time-travel and history in the book?
Magnus: When I was a small boy, I stayed overnight at a 16th century Schloss in Austria. I remember lying awake in bed, looking up at the ceiling, which was painted with allegorical scenes, and realizing, in quite a profound way, that many, many people had been in this room before me. They had laughed, and cried, and loved, and hated, and wondered where they put their hat and whether or not there’d be pheasant for dinner. I sensed that while the trivial feelings might have passed into ether, the stronger emotions lingered. I felt that only my limited ability to perceive separated those events from myself.
Wranglers: We get glimpses throughout the novel of some of Prague’s most colorful characters. People like the astronomer Tycho Brahe. He seemed like a pretty interesting guy.
Magnus: Indeed. And he made all of his discoveries without the use of a telescope. Of course, he wasn’t always correct, but his work was significant. At the time he was working, the distinctions between the different branches of science were very thin. Something we have returned to in our own century. Modern neuroscience is deeply philosophical. The language of genetics is hilarious. 16th century alchemists would not feel terribly out of place today. Particularly in Northern California.
Wranglers: Moving on to the contemporary characters in the book. The heroine, Sarah Weston, is far from perfect. She’s got some skills, but she gets in a lot of trouble.
Magnus: She has many escapades. I have never met anyone who has told me that they wished they had had fewer adventures when they were young.
Wranglers: Sarah and Prince Max make an unlikely, but quite…dynamic couple. A few of their more exciting interactions take place in public places. As we head into the colder season, do you have any advice for the art of love in the great outdoors?
Magnus: This is a question I am asked constantly. As the temperature drops, time is of the essence, as some find sub-zero temperatures to be inhibitory. But this will not stop the passionate, who are willing to risk all for love and let the ski pants fall where they may.
Wranglers: The following question was posed to P.G. Wodehouse in a 1975 interview in The Paris Review: “You were very fond of spats, weren’t you? Tell me a little about them.” What would your answer be?
Magnus: Please let’s not discuss the sartorial dark ages we’re living in. Imagine the effect on our morale not to mention our economy if men were suddenly to re-embrace spats, gloves, hats, ties, vests, walking sticks, and pinces nez. I won’t go as far as powdered wigs, but really, wouldn’t that make a day at the office a bit less dreary?
Wranglers: Many writers are obsessed with their childhoods. Describe your childhood.
Magnus: A long time ago.
Wranglers: Are there characters from fiction, yours or others, whom you would like to have known?
I feel I do know them. They’re always staring over my shoulder. I can’t paint a watercolor without Charles Ryder criticizing my overuse of Winsor green. When I ended up in a Thai prison once over a slight misunderstanding, Joe Harman from A Town Like Alice got me through it. The other day in the supermarket Maigret put some very lovely lambchops in my cart. Good characters are a gift that stays with you.
Wranglers: What are you working on now?
Magnus: I’m stirring up trouble here and there where it needs to be stirred. Evenings when I don’t run out of candles and the lions are quiet, I tap out a few pages of the sequel to City of Dark Magic, which is an equally rich stew of history, mystery, sex and science, all of which needs to lived before it can be described.
Wranglers: Given your earlier criticism of fashion, what are you wearing right now?
Magnus: Joie de vivre.
Wranglers: Magnus, your novel, City of Dark Magic, has been called “genre-bending.” It’s a mystery, a thriller; it has science and history and music. Romance. Comedy. Time-travel. What are your thoughts of what makes fiction “genre”?
Magnus: Mystery, excitement, love, music, a twist, and a sense of humor: all good novels should have these things. All good short stories should have them, all good poems. All good graffiti. I once ate a risotto in Venice that had all of these things.
Wranglers: What do you think about the phrase, “guilty pleasure”?
Magnus: I prefer the phrase, “acknowledged naughtiness.”
Wranglers: The action of the book takes place in and around Prague. What about the city did you find so inspiring?
Magnus: The moment I first arrived in Prague, many years ago, I knew that I would set a story there. Form dictates content. The city is enigmatic and intimate and epic and very peculiar. Frankly, I am surprised that people are able to visit the city, and not feel compelled to write a novel. Perhaps the variety of affordable and tasty lagers has something to do with that.
Wranglers: Can you talk about the element of time-travel and history in the book?
Magnus: When I was a small boy, I stayed overnight at a 16th century Schloss in Austria. I remember lying awake in bed, looking up at the ceiling, which was painted with allegorical scenes, and realizing, in quite a profound way, that many, many people had been in this room before me. They had laughed, and cried, and loved, and hated, and wondered where they put their hat and whether or not there’d be pheasant for dinner. I sensed that while the trivial feelings might have passed into ether, the stronger emotions lingered. I felt that only my limited ability to perceive separated those events from myself.
Wranglers: We get glimpses throughout the novel of some of Prague’s most colorful characters. People like the astronomer Tycho Brahe. He seemed like a pretty interesting guy.
Magnus: Indeed. And he made all of his discoveries without the use of a telescope. Of course, he wasn’t always correct, but his work was significant. At the time he was working, the distinctions between the different branches of science were very thin. Something we have returned to in our own century. Modern neuroscience is deeply philosophical. The language of genetics is hilarious. 16th century alchemists would not feel terribly out of place today. Particularly in Northern California.
Wranglers: Moving on to the contemporary characters in the book. The heroine, Sarah Weston, is far from perfect. She’s got some skills, but she gets in a lot of trouble.
Magnus: She has many escapades. I have never met anyone who has told me that they wished they had had fewer adventures when they were young.
Wranglers: Sarah and Prince Max make an unlikely, but quite…dynamic couple. A few of their more exciting interactions take place in public places. As we head into the colder season, do you have any advice for the art of love in the great outdoors?
Magnus: This is a question I am asked constantly. As the temperature drops, time is of the essence, as some find sub-zero temperatures to be inhibitory. But this will not stop the passionate, who are willing to risk all for love and let the ski pants fall where they may.
Wranglers: The following question was posed to P.G. Wodehouse in a 1975 interview in The Paris Review: “You were very fond of spats, weren’t you? Tell me a little about them.” What would your answer be?
Magnus: Please let’s not discuss the sartorial dark ages we’re living in. Imagine the effect on our morale not to mention our economy if men were suddenly to re-embrace spats, gloves, hats, ties, vests, walking sticks, and pinces nez. I won’t go as far as powdered wigs, but really, wouldn’t that make a day at the office a bit less dreary?
Wranglers: Many writers are obsessed with their childhoods. Describe your childhood.
Magnus: A long time ago.
Wranglers: Are there characters from fiction, yours or others, whom you would like to have known?
I feel I do know them. They’re always staring over my shoulder. I can’t paint a watercolor without Charles Ryder criticizing my overuse of Winsor green. When I ended up in a Thai prison once over a slight misunderstanding, Joe Harman from A Town Like Alice got me through it. The other day in the supermarket Maigret put some very lovely lambchops in my cart. Good characters are a gift that stays with you.
Wranglers: What are you working on now?
Magnus: I’m stirring up trouble here and there where it needs to be stirred. Evenings when I don’t run out of candles and the lions are quiet, I tap out a few pages of the sequel to City of Dark Magic, which is an equally rich stew of history, mystery, sex and science, all of which needs to lived before it can be described.
Wranglers: Given your earlier criticism of fashion, what are you wearing right now?
Magnus: Joie de vivre.
