Jason Landry's Blog, page 10

Ask The Author on GoodReads

GoodReads has this great new section called, Ask The Author.  You can submit questions to any of your favorite authors if they have set up accounts on GoodReads. So, with that said, I will be taking questions all summer long about my book Instant Connections: Essays and Interviews on Photography.  Just visit their site and post a question. I will answer questions directly related to the book, but also questions on photography, running a gallery, being a collector, networking, building connections, your art brand, and mentors.

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In the Park with David McCullough

Last night, while out walking my dog, I ran into my neighbor author David McCullough. If you aren’t familiar with his books, a quick Internet search will give you a plethora of titles to choose from. His book John Adams is a fantastic read.

We sat on the park bench and had a wonderful discussion about books and writing, more specifically, writing fiction. He concluded by saying, “Follow your aspirations.” That’s all the encouragement that I needed to hear. Back to writing.

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Interview in Don’t Take Pictures magazine

Thanks Kat Kiernan for interviewing me about Instant Connections for Don’t Take Pictures magazine. Click on the link or the image below to read the interview.

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Summer Reading List

Well, summer is right around the corner for us New Englanders. The warmer weather gets us outdoors into the parks, onto our brownstone stoops, and to the beaches. Hopefully, if you’re like me, you’ll be bringing a book with you.

Two years ago when I was knee-deep in writing Instant Connections, I was reading a lot of non-fiction books: Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, Tina Fey’s Bossypants, Jenny Lawson’s Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, just to name a few.

This year, as I just started a new challenge––writing a historical fiction book, I’ve been reading and re-reading books in that genre to learn more about how authors tackle plot lines and building interesting and dynamic characters.

So, yeah, I’ve tackled all of Dan Brown’s books. They are easy to read and he tells a good story. William Martin is another favorite of mine. In the last year I have read his books Back Bay, The Lincoln Letter, and most recently Harvard Yard. His approach to writing gets you reading in the present day, in one chapter, and then in the next, you are reading about something that happened back in time.  The story volleys back and forth like this throughout the book.

As for me, I have finished some of the research for my new book and have about 10% of the writing started. For a historical fiction book, most average between 90-120,000 words, so I’ve got a ways to go.

In between my writing this summer, I have added these six books to my Summer Reading List:

The Ocean at The End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.

Tinkers by Paul Harding

Understories by Tim Horvath

Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

REMOTE by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

My Life in Heavy Metal by Steve Almond

The first two I’ve had on my shelf for a while, the third book is by a colleague of mine, the forth book I’ve started but need to pick back up, the fifth book I bought and will read because I liked their first book REWORK, and the last book I have also started but need to finish.

What are you reading?

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True Story: This really happened.

I was out walking my dog this morning and we were standing by a tree where she was checking her pee-mail. To the left, I noticed a young girl (a teenager) running across the street towards us being led by her puppy. As she approached, I was waiting for her to say, “Can my dog say hello?” Rather, I was taken by surprise when she asked, “Excuse me, is this the mailbox thingy?”, pointing to the image on the left, an electrical box.

I said, “ah, no, the mailbox is that thingy”, pointing to the image on the right.

She stood in front of the mailbox looking bewildered. First, she tried to pull on the center of the box where the mail carrier usually inserts their key to remove the mail. Then she continued to stare until I finally said, “A little higher”, where she finally found the handle tucked deep in the shadowy void and was able to place the letter in and then walk away.

Do kids still learn how to write in school?

Do they know what a letter is?

Is the only word that they understand with the word “mail” in it start with an “e-”?

I still enjoy receiving letters and postcards in the mail. I hope that the act of letter writing continues. As I have been doing research for a new historical fiction book that I’m writing, I have been reading the letters of John Adams and his wife Abigail. Writing was so different in the 1800′s.

Please help inspire a young child to write, and also, please bring them to their nearest mailbox and point it out to them. Let them pee on it too if it helps them to remember where it is.

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Scrivener for Writers

I wish I had this program when I wrote my first book!

This week I was out to lunch with author Tim Horvath and we were talking about a new historcial fiction book that I just started writing. I was explaining to him that it was difficult keeping all of the topics and ideas in order. He told me about this incredible program for writers that allows you to organize chapters, thoughts, notes––basically everything you need in order to organize and layout a book. It’s called Scrivener and you can download Scrivener through the Apple App store. I highly recommend it. Check out some of the videos on their site to see how it works.

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Rick Ashley via Huffington Post

Visit Huffington Post to check out my story, Photographer Rick Ashley: Altering Perceptions through Portraiture. This photographer has been photographing his brother-in-law with Down syndrome since 1975, and most recently has been working on a series of staged portraits with him.

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A Game of Baseball

Red Sox montage by Stephen Sheffield

It’s a full count––three balls, two strikes. You try to remember everything your father told you: “Keep your eyes on the ball. Check your stance. Set your feet. Bend your knees. Get the bat off of your shoulder.” This stuff wasn’t too hard to remember since my dad regularly umpired my Little League games.

The bat was now cocked and ready to connect. It’s a fastball. You swing with all your might. At the crack of the bat, a deep fly ball goes to left field and over the fence. Home run!

That’s how it always happened in my dreams anyway. I never got to hit a home run in real life. If life were like a game of baseball, you would hope for a home run scenario every time. But in reality, there are some curveballs, knuckleballs, change-ups and quite possibly some spitballs thrown into the mix to make things more challenging. But challenges are part of the game, regardless of whether you’re playing t-ball, Little League, or the Majors. Challenges can also take you off-course, but don’t let them. They’re usually building blocks for something greater––something too fast to see when they’re coming at you at ninety miles an hour.

A Game of Baseball, from the book,

Instant Connections: Essays and Interviews on Photography by Jason Landry.

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Instant Connections: The Video

Thank you Samuel Quinn for burning my book. This was an honor.

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Alexa Torre: Mexican Utopia

Visit Huffington Post to check out my story, Alexa Torre: Mexican Utopia. This photographer has been working on a project about her heritage and the traditional dresses of regions of Mexico.

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