My Top 5's: Inspirations and Places to Write and [Dead] Writers
Grateful to Daneet Steffens for her review of THE RED LOTUS in the Seattle Review of Books ("As always, Bohjalian creates a mesmerizing tale, a timely socio-political-business story with human frailties, illusions, dis-illusions, and strengths firmly at its center."), and asking me for my Top 5s!
Here is the full review and my complete list of Top 5's:
The Quintessential Interview: Chris Bohjalian
In the opening pages of The Red Lotus (Doubleday) a nurse, Alexis, and a hospital administrator, Austin, meet kind-of-cute during one chaotic Saturday night in the ER. Well, apart from the bullet in Austin’s arm that is – and apart from the fact that in a Bohjalian book, the course of most things, including true love, rarely run particularly smoothly. Six months down the road, Alexis and Austin, still in their honeymoon phase, are on a biking trip in Vietnam when Austin goes missing. Alexis, a formidable woman who readily applies her ER nursing skills to deciphering the sudden mystery, quickly becomes the most compelling voice in this story: with each of her discoveries, the central puzzle both deepens and expands. As always, Bohjalian creates a mesmerizing tale, a timely socio-political-business story with human frailties, illusions, dis-illusions, and strengths firmly at its center.
What or who are your top five writing inspirations?
1) Riding my bike. I do so much writing while riding: I solve narrative arcs, decide who will live and die (and why), and sometimes stop and write whole scenes on my phone.
2) Reading. I always have two or three books going and they always inspire me.
3) Watching movie or TV series trailers. I watch two or three every morning before I start writing.
4) The dictionary. I love words: luminescent. Cerulean. Noctivagant. I always skim the dictionary before starting work.
5) Great streaming TV or a great movie. Breaking Bad and Mad Men changed my life. Now everything I write needs to be awash in heartbreak and dread.
Top five places to write?
1) My study in Vermont with my cat, Horton, in my lap, and my dog, Jesse, asleep in her dog bed behind me.
2) A summer day, resting at mile 35 on a 50- or 60-mile bike ride, typing feverishly into my phone as I inhale an omelette and a cappuccino for sustenance.
3) The Amtrak train between Albany and Manhattan, watching the Hudson River from my window.
4) A really good bar. I wrote the opening to The Flight Attendant and a bunch of key scenes in The Red Lotus in bars.
5) An airline lounge at an airport that has artery-clogging chunks of cheese and terrible crackers.
Top five favorite authors?
Nope. Forgive me. I have too many writers who are friends. But I will tell you that among my top five dead writers might be
1) Emily Dickinson (she even appears in one of my books)
2) F Scott Fitzgerald
3) Tom Wolfe
4) Patricia Highsmith
5) Howard Frank Mosher
Top five tunes to write to?
I write in utter silence. But five songs that can inspire me are:
1) "Stockton Gala Days” by 10,000 Maniacs, especially the live version
2) "Heroes” — in German — by David Bowie (I discovered it during the closing credits to Jojo Rabbit)
3" "Out of Time” by the Rolling Stones
4) "Hero” by Family of the Year
5) “I Was Here” by Beyoncé
Top five hometown spots?
1) The Lake Champlain Bridge that spans (surprise) Lake Champlain at a narrow point and links Vermont and New York
2) The Middlebury Marquis movie theatre. You watch flicks on couches, eat really good burritos, and drink really good margaritas.
3) The Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury. The place is historic: Robert Frost would sit in a leather chair and peruse the books he had pulled down from the shelves.
4) Monroe Street Books — imagine a used bookstore the size of a supermarket.
5) Shelburne Farms — a restaurant and bed and breakfast on Lake Champlain, originally the late 19th century William Seward and Lila Vanderbilt Webb estate. It’s gorgeous: the grounds were landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted. Even the “farm barn” makes me feel like I am visiting (warning, Game of Thrones reference, dead ahead) Winterfell.
Here is the full review and my complete list of Top 5's:
The Quintessential Interview: Chris Bohjalian
In the opening pages of The Red Lotus (Doubleday) a nurse, Alexis, and a hospital administrator, Austin, meet kind-of-cute during one chaotic Saturday night in the ER. Well, apart from the bullet in Austin’s arm that is – and apart from the fact that in a Bohjalian book, the course of most things, including true love, rarely run particularly smoothly. Six months down the road, Alexis and Austin, still in their honeymoon phase, are on a biking trip in Vietnam when Austin goes missing. Alexis, a formidable woman who readily applies her ER nursing skills to deciphering the sudden mystery, quickly becomes the most compelling voice in this story: with each of her discoveries, the central puzzle both deepens and expands. As always, Bohjalian creates a mesmerizing tale, a timely socio-political-business story with human frailties, illusions, dis-illusions, and strengths firmly at its center.
What or who are your top five writing inspirations?
1) Riding my bike. I do so much writing while riding: I solve narrative arcs, decide who will live and die (and why), and sometimes stop and write whole scenes on my phone.
2) Reading. I always have two or three books going and they always inspire me.
3) Watching movie or TV series trailers. I watch two or three every morning before I start writing.
4) The dictionary. I love words: luminescent. Cerulean. Noctivagant. I always skim the dictionary before starting work.
5) Great streaming TV or a great movie. Breaking Bad and Mad Men changed my life. Now everything I write needs to be awash in heartbreak and dread.
Top five places to write?
1) My study in Vermont with my cat, Horton, in my lap, and my dog, Jesse, asleep in her dog bed behind me.
2) A summer day, resting at mile 35 on a 50- or 60-mile bike ride, typing feverishly into my phone as I inhale an omelette and a cappuccino for sustenance.
3) The Amtrak train between Albany and Manhattan, watching the Hudson River from my window.
4) A really good bar. I wrote the opening to The Flight Attendant and a bunch of key scenes in The Red Lotus in bars.
5) An airline lounge at an airport that has artery-clogging chunks of cheese and terrible crackers.
Top five favorite authors?
Nope. Forgive me. I have too many writers who are friends. But I will tell you that among my top five dead writers might be
1) Emily Dickinson (she even appears in one of my books)
2) F Scott Fitzgerald
3) Tom Wolfe
4) Patricia Highsmith
5) Howard Frank Mosher
Top five tunes to write to?
I write in utter silence. But five songs that can inspire me are:
1) "Stockton Gala Days” by 10,000 Maniacs, especially the live version
2) "Heroes” — in German — by David Bowie (I discovered it during the closing credits to Jojo Rabbit)
3" "Out of Time” by the Rolling Stones
4) "Hero” by Family of the Year
5) “I Was Here” by Beyoncé
Top five hometown spots?
1) The Lake Champlain Bridge that spans (surprise) Lake Champlain at a narrow point and links Vermont and New York
2) The Middlebury Marquis movie theatre. You watch flicks on couches, eat really good burritos, and drink really good margaritas.
3) The Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury. The place is historic: Robert Frost would sit in a leather chair and peruse the books he had pulled down from the shelves.
4) Monroe Street Books — imagine a used bookstore the size of a supermarket.
5) Shelburne Farms — a restaurant and bed and breakfast on Lake Champlain, originally the late 19th century William Seward and Lila Vanderbilt Webb estate. It’s gorgeous: the grounds were landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted. Even the “farm barn” makes me feel like I am visiting (warning, Game of Thrones reference, dead ahead) Winterfell.
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Janelle
(new)
Mar 27, 2020 12:07PM
“awash in heartbreak and dread” lol! 😂
reply
|
flag
