Uptown Literati » Lit Talk

LitTalk: Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez On Aviar, Her Publishing Company, Aviar

Whitney — Mon, 17 May 2010 21:36:19 +0000

If there’s anyone, writer, editor or publisher, with the cred to reform the idea of mainstream fiction, it’s best-selling novelist Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez. Her first novel, The Dirty Girls Social Club, introduced the idea of chick lit with brown characters for mass consumption. Since then, she’s published six novels and a young adult series, optioned some of her books into television projects (more on that) and founded her own publishing company, Aviar.

Uptown Literati: What gave you the idea to start Aviar and what inspired the name?

Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez: My friend Jes Alexander suggested starting an independent publishing company together. I liked that idea. Unfortunately, her vision of a French company with no real area of specialty differed from my idea of a US company focused on mainstream commercial women’s fiction by women, many of them of color, who might otherwise be shunted off to what I call the low-rent neighborhoods in the major publishing houses. I began Aviar Books with that vision in mind, a place for us to come and write the way we wanted to write, with no expectations.

UL: What are some of the things that publishing companies you have worked with in the past have gotten wrong? How will Aviar do these things differently?

AVR: Aviar Books will make it clear to sellers and distributors that our books are not foreign or ghetto, they’re not about misery and minority-ness. They are fun works of mainstream fiction, period. They must not be segregated from the rest of the fun mainstream fiction. We are the new mainstream. We are not an afterthought, or a special section of the bookstore. We are the bookstore.

UL: You’re releasing two projects through Aviar. Have you learned any new things about the business side of books so far?

AVR: The first book we release is my seventh novel, The Clubhouse Diaries, July 19, 2010. The next book on the list after that is a collection of columns and essays by the very hilarious Starshine Roshell, who is like a better Dave Barry.

UL: How do you see Aviar changing the relationship between publisher and writer, if at all?

AVR: Aviar Books is going to be a publishing house run by writers, for writers. Writers will control every step of the process, from writing to cover design.

UL: What else would you like to tell people about Aviar?

AVR: Aviar has special meaning for me. One, it’s the phonetic spelling of my initials. But it is also a shortened version of the word aviary, which is a bird sanctuary. I see Aviar Books as a place for writers’ ideas to fly free, safe from prejudice and predators.

UL: Besides Aviar, are you working on any other projects right now?

AVR: I just sold a three-book young adult series called The Kindred to HarperCollins, and am working on a rewrite. I have a Christmas book out in November from St. Martins Press. My first book The Dirty Girls Social Club is being turned into a TV series by Ann and George Lopez. My YA book Haters is being turned into a TV series for TeenNick with Nick Cannon producing. I’m also doing stand-up comedy and have a gig in Oslo coming up. I’m at work on a literary novel under a fake name, too. Lots of public speaking, too. Never a dull moment.

We can’t wait! Follow Valdes-Rodriguez on Twitter, @alisavaldes, or check out her Web site.

–Whitney Teal

LitTalk: Music- and Dog-Lover John Levitt

Alyssa — Mon, 10 May 2010 14:46:51 +0000

John Levitt

John Levitt is the author of the Dog Days series, featuring Mason and his “dog-like” companion. He is also a musician, a former ski lodge manager, former police officer, and former mystery/thriller writer. John recently answered a few questions for SFFWorld.com:

1) You are one of those authors who has had more varied and colorful life experiences than most of your readers. How has your life influenced your fiction writing and what drew you to then write a fantasy mystery series?

I always wanted to be a writer when I was young, but I always assumed I’d be a literary writer. One day, after numerous short stories, I realized what the problem was – I hadn’t experienced anything and had nothing to say. I dropped writing and became a musician instead.

Then, years later, after some time as a police officer, I found myself telling “war stories” to my non-cop friends, who were fascinated. I realized that I actually did have something to say now, so I wrote a cop thriller.

This was pre-Internet, if you can imagine such a time, so I had a tremendous advantage. I knew all about police procedures, how cops actually acted and talked, forensics – all the stuff you can find today on the Internet. I even used an actual autopsy report with the name and description changed. Back then, it was a lot harder to write authentically unless you had some actual experience.

Then I quit writing again, for other reasons. But when I was a kid, I read every fantasy book I could get my hands on. So when the writing bug struck again, I thought, why not write a fantasy that’s also like a mystery – a cop type book with spells instead of guns, black magic instead of criminals. I didn’t realize that it had already been done, and in fact was rapidly becoming a recognized sub-genre, that of urban fantasy. I discovered Jim Butcher halfway through my first ms, and was both delighted to see there was a market, and appalled that I hadn’t got there first.

And I try to ground my stories in reality. So the things that are important to me, things I really understand, like music and dogs and the city I live in, naturally pervade my books. My experiences absolutely influence my writing in a major way, and even though my characters inhabit a fantasy world, most of them come from real life, in one way or another.

2) In Dog Days, the first novel in the series, we’re introduced to Mason, one of the rare number of people in the world who have magical abilities. Mason also has something even more rare – an Ifrit – a spirit familiar named Louie that takes the shape of an animal, in this case, a dog. Like yourself, Mason is a jazz guitarist and used to be an enforcer who polices other magic-users. He gets dragged back into that aspect of his life by violent events. Can you tell us something about how you came up with the concepts for the story and what led you to feel that having a sorta-dog was the right way to go?

I wish I could. Writers vary between those who have clear ideas and plot everything out, and those who have only a starting point and let it develop organically from there, and everything in between. I’m on the far end of the spectrum, towards the organic method.

I was going to give Mason a sidekick, but it never seemed quite right. But the idea of the dog was always in the back of my mind. My GF’s dog, very much like Lou in the book, has a habit of disappearing into the bushes on walks through the park, especially the overgrown wild areas. He simply vanishes. More than once, I’ll stand there calling for him, finally give up, turn to walk on, and trip over him because he somehow has managed to come up behind me without my ever seeing him, even though I’m keeping a sharp eye out. You know, like magic.

This gave me the idea of a “dog” as a sidekick who could slip between spaces, and the other attributes developed as I wrote his character until he became much more than a simple dog.

9) You’re developing the fourth book in the series to come out later this year, and you’ve indicated that it may be Mason’s last case. Please tell us you’re rethinking this decision, or do you have other plans for future projects in the works and can you give us hints about those?

Well, thanks for the encouragement. The ms for the fourth book is finished – more troubles for Mason and Lou, naturally. I honestly haven’t decided if there’ll be any more, although I’ll have to make up my mind soon. But I’d hate to write another book in the series only to have it lose the spark and disappoint readers,

I’m still interested in my characters’ lives, but I’m not sure if there’s that much more to say, and better to leave a series too early than too late. A possibility is one more, to wrap some things up.

A new series is another possibility, though I obviously couldn’t put a dog in it, and that would be odd after having Lou around for so long. And there’s also a YA book I’ve had in mind for quite a while but haven’t had the time to focus on. Kids and ghosts and some other things – but no vampires.

Read more at SFFWorld.com! And keep an eye out for the next book in the Dog Days series later this year!

-Alyssa Krueger

Photos: Authorscoop and Amazon.com: Dog Days

LitTalk: Lunar Exploration’s Elizabeth Moon

Alyssa — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:02:05 +0000

Elizabeth Moon’s latest book, Oath of Fealty, came out just last month, continuing her Lunar Exploration series. Science Fiction and Fantasy World spoke with her about writing and her influences:

SFFWorld: You’ve read SF/Fantasy since you were young, I believe. What do you think is the power of the genre? What attracts you now, still?

Elizabeth: Traditional storytelling values: interesting characters doing interesting things in a plot that satisfies the itch for Story. Beyond that, science fiction can present intriguing “what if?” scenarios, and fantasy can present “how did we get here?” scenarios.

SFFWorld: How did you become a full-time writer? Was it an easy path or one that took determination and , dare I say it, stubbornness?

Elizabeth: Stubbornness. Definitely stubbornness. And desperation. We’d moved to a small town, my husband’s business was teetering on the brink, and there were no jobs I could afford the gas to drive to. However, the county paper needed a new stringer for the town. Their starting rate paid for gas to drive my column in (no internet in our area then) and extra typing paper and ribbons as I needed them. I realized that I could write something saleable and started looking for more markets–all nonfiction at first. Then tried fiction, very unsuccessfully for years. Covering the walls with rejection slips was not a cartoon, but reality. What I didn’t realize was that I’m a natural long-form writer, not a natural short-fiction writer. Once I let myself keep going on a story–The Deed of Paksenarrion began as a short story–everything fell into place.

SFFWorld: How important is ‘getting the details right’ to you? When does research stop becoming an obsession?

Elizabeth: Very important. Mistakes throw readers out of stories–they throw me out–so I try not to make them. Research is the natural activity of someone with a very large bump of curiosity (What do you mean obsession? It’s a necessity, like breathing.)

SFFWorld: In your experience, is a writer born or trained?

Elizabeth: Both. There are innate neurological differences that affect just about all human abilities, including writing, but we’re a species that develops culturally as well. Born storytellers have a natural ability, but it’s like a talent for jumping high or singing on key or visualising molecules interacting with one another: it must be nurtured, trained, and practiced to reach a useful level. Writers need to be exposed to storytelling–both oral and written and then they need to write, write, write, and write.

SFFWorld: Strong female leads: there’s a clear template there in much of your work, from Paks to Haris to Ky Vatta, and one that many, I think, have emulated since. Conscious or subconscious? Is it just easier for you to write female fantasy leads?

Elizabeth: When younger, I wrote mostly male leads because most of the books I enjoyed had male leads…however, none of those works reached publication. Even in the 1980s, when I first submittedSheepfarmer’s Daughter, the rejections from multiple publishers commented negatively about a woman writer tackling military topics and/or a woman soldier as the protagonist. This may have made me just a wee tad stubborn…though first post-Paks books of my own both had male protagonists (Surrender None and Liar’s Oath.) My then publisher wanted me to write military SF with a female protagonist (building on the success of the McCaffrey collaborations) so that’s how the Familias Regnant/ Serrano-Suiza books started. I actually enjoy writing both female and male characters (of my forty short pieces, twenty-four have a male protagonist) but every time some guy whines about my not writing enough stories about men (and it still happens occasionally) I find no reason to comply.

Check out the rest of the interview, with more on writing and publishing, on SFFWorld.com. And don’t forget to comment for a chance to win a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls!

- Alyssa

Photos: Elizabethmoon.com

LitTalk: Sarah Pekkanen, Author of ‘The Opposite of Me’

Whitney — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:00:47 +0000

We loved The Opposite of Me, Maryland-based author Sarah Pekkanen’s debut novel. The novel is a funny story of sisterhood with a message that is sure to resonate with anyone who’s ever contemplated a life change.

We spoke with Pekkanen about the motivation behind the book (Hint: Not any real life sibling drama) and plans for new novels!

Uptown Literati: How did you come up with the idea to write about Lindsey and Alexandra, fraternal twins?

Sarah Pekkanen: I’ve always been intrigued by the relationships my friends have with their sisters – it seems like such a rich, complex connection. There are so many threads running through the bond, like rivalry, love, jealousy, support… I’ve also read about twins who have such intense relationships that they create their own language – or feel pain when the other one is injured even if they are miles apart. But I wondered what would happen if two sisters were complete opposites, yet were constantly being compared because they were twins. How would that shape their relationship?

UL: In your bio it says that you used to be a model in D.C. and work in television…just like Alex. Do the similarities go any further?

SP: No, Alex is much more confident than me – and prettier! But I did use a bit of the background of my experience for her character. For example, once when I was in my early twenties I showed up for a mother-daughter shoot only to learn that I was the mother in the photo shoot! It was surprising but funny to me, since my “kid” was about ten – but I twisted around that real-life example into a more poignant scene for Alex, who glides through life on the strength of her looks.

UL: You have brothers. Did writing this novel make you happy for that fact or did you start to lament not having a sister?

SP: I actually realized that I wasn’t appreciating my brothers enough! I’d always idealized the idea of having a sister (she’d have reddish hair, be on the quiet side, and like Nancy Drew books as much as I did) but then one day not too long ago the thought hit me: What if I got a very different kind of sister – one who wasn’t nearly as terrific as my two brothers?

UL: I live in Silver Spring, so I loved seeing some of my favorite neighborhoods, like Georgetown and Takoma Park in this novel. How much fun was it to write about your hometown? Are there any other D.C.-based novels that you’ve read?

SP: It’s funny, but I was just interviewed by USA Today and the reporter mentioned there aren’t too many novels in my genre set in the D.C. area. I hadn’t thought about it before, but I realized it’s true! I loved writing about my hometown and giving cameos to my favorite spots and restaurants, and I’ve set my second novel (which I just finished!) here, too. It seems natural to write about a city I know well.

UL: The parents in the novel are hilarious! Did you intend for them to be the comedic relief, or did their role grow as you went along?

SP: Thank you so much! I adored the parents and really hope readers do, too. It’s funny, but my parents are slightly suspicious that the parents in my book are based on them, but other than sharing a fondness for Ikea’s low-priced breakfasts, there aren’t too many similarities. I love books that make me laugh, so I did hope the parents would provide some comic relief.

UL: How much of Lindsey’s struggles to create a professional and personal identity do you relate to? What made you want to have her first work in Advertising and then go into matchmaking?

SP: My identity has shifted quite a bit during the past decade, from newspaper reporter to stay-at-home-Mom to novelist, so I felt a kinship with Lindsey as she struggled to discover what she wanted to do with her life – and what she was meant to do. I like learning about new things, so I set Lindsey’s job in the field of advertising so I could have an excuse to call up advertising executives and ask them nosy questions!

UL: One of my favorite passages was Lindsey’s shopping trip, which instantly reminded me of The Makeover scene that you see in a lot of chick flicks. Was that intentional or was that just me?

SP: I didn’t specifically set out to write that scene, but I felt it was a necessary part of Lindsey’s transformation. Not because women need makeup to be pretty, but because Lindsey had always downplayed her looks, and having a makeup artist compliment her and take the time to look at Lindsey – really look at her — was an important part of Lindsey’s journey.

UL: What authors do you admire?

SP: Jennifer Weiner, for both her funny, smart books and for her huge heart. I’ve never met her in person, but hope to some day. I also love Marian Keyes and Emily Giffin [Enter to win Giffin's latest novel, Heart of The Matter, by leaving a comment on this post!].

UL: Do you have plans for future novels?

SP: Yes! As I mentioned, I’ve just wrapped up my second book, which doesn’t have a title. I hope it appeals to readers who liked The Opposite of Me! It’s the story of a woman who wakes up one day and realizes her husband has changed into a completely different person because of an incredible experience.

– Whitney Teal

Photo: Book Blogs

Lit Talk: Seth Grahame-Smith

Sarah — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:00:02 +0000

Seth Grahame-Smith is the best-selling author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies just released a new book last month, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The book is in the top five on the New York Time’s Best-Seller list as of this posting. His book is part of the increasing popularity of sci-fi and fantasy books. Wired‘s blog GeekDad was caught up with the author for an interview.

GeekDad: You’ve had your fingers in a wide range of entertainment related pursuits: TV producer, non-fiction writer, blogger, comic book writer and novelist. Are you developing a preference toward focusing on one of these areas, or do you see yourself remaining active in all?

Seth Grahame-Smith: Ideally I’d love to keep doing it all. I love working in movies and TV ( my new show, “The Hard Times of RJ Berger,” premiers in June on MTV ). I love sitting in a room with nine guys trying to one-up each other’s fart jokes – just as much as I love sitting alone writing a gothic horror novel in the middle of the night, or being on set, or ranting about politics on a blog. At some point, I’m sure I’ll have a massive, massive heart attack. I mean an explode-right-through-my-ribcage heart attack. Either that, or wind up a lonely old man who neglected all the truly important things in life – crying out for some long-forgotten sled. But hey – till either of those things happens, I’m all smiles.

GD: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has to be the classic definition of a “surprise” hit. That’s not saying it wasn’t good, but that the book came more or less out of left field and seemed to catch the industry by surprise. Were you also caught off guard by this success, or did you feel you might be on to something?

SGS: No, I was totally caught off guard. We all were. My hopes for PPZ (just like all the books I’d written to that point) amounted to: “Please God…let it break even.” There were no illusions of selling a million books or creating a genre. There were no dreams of movies or graphic novels or Mandarin editions. There was only the certainty of epic failure that precedes every release date I’m a part of.

GD: Were you at all concerned about tackling a real historical figure this time around, especially someone as prominent as Abraham Lincoln? Messing about with Jane Austen’s fictional characters (as unsettling as that may have been to literary types) is one thing, but one of America’s most beloved presidents is potentially stepping on a whole lot more toes.

SGS: I was very concerned – especially since I’d experienced the wrath of a few of Jane’s staunchest guardians (to be fair, the vast majority of Austen fans are exceptionally cool and have embraced the book). When I was writing ALVH, I kept reminding myself: Hey, idiot – this guy’s on Mt. Rushmore, OK? He’s on the $5 bill. He literally saved our nation from self-destruction. DON’T make him look bad. And I tried my best not to. I intended vampire-hunting Abe to be the same brilliant, honest, idealistic self-made man he was in real life. Only a tad more violent.

GD: Tying together slavery and vampire culture was a clever and plausible way to explain the predominance of both during (fictional) Lincoln’s lifetime, but were you concerned that messing with such an emotionally charged part of America’s history carried real risk in terms of press and/or reader backlash?

SGS: Of course – just as concerned as I was with portraying Lincoln in a positive light. To be clear, the book doesn’t suggest that slavery only existed to feed America’s vampires. It was a pre-existing American evil that vampires took advantage of. It also points out that Abe was anti-slavery even before he knew that vampires were associated with it. And without giving too much away, the book begins and ends with a pair of speeches that touch on America’s shameful slavery past. So yes, I was very concerned with treading as lightly as possible, and paying respect to the real-life suffering of millions of slaves.

GD: You’ve already had some fun with George W. Bush (with Pardon My President…); what are the chances of Bush getting the Lincoln treatment?

SGS: Making Bush seem cool is beyond my capabilities as a writer…so no.

GD: When it comes to the concept of literary mashups, do you see the market expanding? You’ve established that there’s an appetite for combining horror with literary classics and horror with the historical biography, but is this an evolutionary dead end in the commercial market, or do you see it continuing to grow?

SGS: I think it’ll continue until readers collectively roll their eyes when somebody announces “A Creature in the Rye,” or “War and Peace and More War” (neither of which, to my knowledge, have been announced). I don’t think the mashup wave will last forever – but I’m rooting for it last as long as possible. Not just because I’ve written a couple of books in that genre, but because whatever gets people excited about reading books is a good thing.

GD: Balancing fatherhood and geek interests can be a burden. I was stockpiling LEGO Star Wars sets from the time my kids were images on an ultrasound, and waiting until they were old enough to allow me to legitimately open the hoard of bricks drove me a little crazy at times. Now we’re trading comic books, playing Rock Band together, building LEGO models and generally feeding off each other’s enthusiasm. What elements of your interests are you enjoying, or looking forward to enjoying, with your offspring?

SGS: My son is 15 months old as I write this. When he turned 1, I sat him on my lap and tried to watch the original trilogy with him. I think we made it halfway through the opening crawl of “A New Hope” before he started squirming and crying. I was a real downer, you know? I mean, I took it personally. I’m looking forward to everything you mentioned: LEGOs, video games, Star Wars and so on. I can’t wait to introduce my son to Stephen King novels, too. You can do that when they’re like 6 or 7, right?

GD: I’ve often wondered how the likes of Pamela Anderson deal with some of their “back catalogue” of work when their children inevitably discover it. Any concerns about your 2005 book The Big Book of Porn… coming back to haunt you as a parent?

SGS: Hey – I embrace my pornographic past. If you were a struggling freelance writer and somebody said: “we’ll pay you to hang out on porn sets for six months, travel to conventions, go clubbing with the world’s biggest porn starlets, watch a bunch of dvd’s and write a funny book about it,” what would YOU say?

GD: Natalie Portman and Richard Kelly are reportedly working on a film adaptation of your book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Thoughts? Any place for Colin Firth in the movie (sorry, my wife made me ask that)?

SGS: Man…the ladies LOVE Colin Firth, huh? Yeah – Lionsgate is making the PPZ movie with Richard Kelly producing, Natalie Portman producing and starring as Elizabeth, and David O. Russell adapting and directing. Not too shabby if you ask me.

Lit Talk: Author Jonathan Safran Foer on ‘Eating Animals’

Whitney — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:56:00 +0000

Jonathan Safran Foer is known for acclaimed novels such as Everything Is Illuminated. Foer was an on-again, off-again vegetarian for years. But the birth of his son led Foer to ask: Was it right to feed his son meat? The result is Eating Animals, his new book on the moral, environmental and health quandaries involved. USA Today‘s Elizabeth Weise spoke with Foer.

USA: So should everyone be a vegetarian?

Foer: My book is not a case for vegetarianism. It’s a case against factory-farmed meat. Basically, that’s meat where animals are raised in enclosures, where they don’t get to see the sun, don’t get to touch the Earth, and they’re almost always fed drugs to keep them from getting sick or make them grow faster.

I think there are a lot of responsible conclusions one could reach (about whether to eat animals). There’s selective meat-eating (from responsible growers), there’s being a vegetarian.

The thing I can’t respect is the willful forgetting, the kind of people who say “I simply don’t want to think about it.”

USA: What was it that you found so morally problematic about factory-farmed pigs and chickens, the focus of your book?

Foer: The rule is animals in tiny cages where they can’t turn around, in just this very ordinary kind of misery. The just insane vastness of the industry, 50 billion animals that are factory-farmed every year. It actually just boggles the mind.

USA: What were your assumptions going in?

Foer: That raising animals for food had to necessarily involve a kind of carelessness or violence. And in the process of writing this book, I met a number of small farmers who aren’t that way. If my book has heroes, it’s some of these small farmers. I was surprised by how moved I was by those farmers. And how statistically negligible they were.

USA: How many are there?

Foer: I thought such farmers might comprise half or a quarter of American agriculture. In fact it’s significantly less than 1%. If there’s a tragedy in the book, it’s that those farmers are the exceptions. (In his book, Foer describes visiting small, boutique pig and cattle farms where animals are given ample space in conditions that at least attempt to allow them natural behaviors and social conditions.)

USA: What about people who can’t afford to buy expensive meat from small farms?

Foer: It’s exactly the opposite that’s true. Factory-farmed food is an elitist food; it’s a food that’s making hundreds of millions of dollars for CEOs of corporations at the expense of normal people. Yes, it seems cheap when we go to the supermarket, but that’s because we’re being lied to about the true costs. We pay for them in our health care costs, the destruction of the environment and our values. What we call cheap food is the most expensive food in American history.

USA: But is it realistic to expect that people will stop eating meat because of a moral stance?

Foer: Sometimes we take apart very big things because we come to terms with the ways they’re wrong. It’s easy to forget that we had slaves in this country until quite recently, we treated women as second-class citizens who didn’t have the right to vote until very recently, racism is something we’re still working with. These things that have been going on forever can change very quickly.

USA: What suggestions do you have for people who take your research to heart?

Foer: One way is to stop eating meat entirely. Another way is to say, “I don’t want to eat that kind of meat, but I still want to, so I’m going to seek out small farmers who raise the pigs and chickens outside.”

USA: What choice did you make?

Foer: Not to eat meat. It would be very hard for me to reject factory farming without not eating meat, because I don’t really have the time or energy or expertise to know where the meat comes from. (For those who have the time, Foer suggests buying at farmers’ markets from farmers themselves after visiting their farms.)

USA: Do you think eventually everyone will be vegetarian?

Foer: There’s a very good chance that there’s going to be a rejection of factory farming. I think that will happen in my lifetime. The trend has been away from meat. People are eating less meat every year.

USA: You’re a novelist. What responses have you gotten about writing a treatise like this one?

Foer: I’ve been very, very happy with the response I’ve gotten. Even if they say “I’m still going to eat meat, but you’ve given me a lot to think about.”

USA: Will you be doing more books like this?

Foer: No. Novels.

Text from USAToday.com. See the interview here.

Lit Talk: Melissa Hart, Author of ‘Gringa’

Whitney — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:58:00 +0000

Author Melissa Hart’s complex and dynamic childhood is the subject of her latest book, Gringa: A Contradictory Childhood. She spoke with The Urban Muse about the inspiration:

Urban Muse: Tell us about the inspiration behind Gringa.

Melissa Hart: Inspiration comes to me in the form of images–in the case of Gringa, I recalled a pack of Spanish flash cards that my mother had when we took language classes together at the local library. I couldn’t get one image–a line drawing of a disembodied ear–out of my head. Really, it was that flash card that provided the initial inspiration to sit down and write the first chapter. I’d told part of my story–about my mother coming out and losing custody of me and my younger siblings–in my first memoir, The Assault of Laughter. However, I didn’t feel that I’d written the story as eloquently or thoroughly as I could have, and so I set out to write it once more and expand upon it with more sophisticated prose and a greater sense of how the dissolution of my family affected me as a young adult. I’d also been reading memoir and fiction with recipes–Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, Diana Abu-Jaber’s The Language of Baklava–and as food provided comfort and intrigue for me as an adolescent, I structured each chapter around a key recipe.

UM: Was it difficult to write about events that are so deeply personal?

MH: It is difficult to write about personal events. After almost thirty years, I still have a lot of pain regarding what happened to my family. Many women with kids who came out during the 1970s and 1980s lost custody of their children, and most don’t want to discuss this. However, I think it’s a critical period of history that needs to be explored, and while I shed many tears during my writing of Gringa, I also feel confident that this book offers insight into LGBT families and their value. The hardest scene for me to see in print is the sex scene in “Young Americans.” I didn’t want to include it, but my editor thought it was important. It’s not erotic–more “theater of the absurd”–but I blush to think that my journalism students and my grandparents have read it.

UM: In addition to two memoirs, you’ve published a number of essays. Any tips on writing compelling essays? How is it the same (or different) from writing a memoir?

MH: Essay writing can be so much fun. It requires a lot less time commitment and research than a book-length memoir; however, many of the writing techniques are the same. You have to go into an essay with a compelling introduction, and the whole piece is guided by a thesis (that is, a topic and a point you wish to make about that topic). I think it’s important to include research, so that readers learn something about a subject, and you also need to include sensory details, stylish writing, vivid imagery, and a conclusion that really leaves people thinking. I get a lot of my ideas from what I’m thinking about or learning about at the time–for instance, I’ve just finished an essay exploring Jim Henson’s “The Muppet Show,” which was so important to my family in the 1980s, and which my three-year old daughter now adores. The trick was to make it personal, while exploring a universal truth and offering readers insight into the program and its influences on audiences then and now.

UM: Since you also teach journalism, what is the single most important thing that you impart to students each semester?

MH: I think the single most important thing I impart is that publication doesn’t have to be this far-off dream that one spends years pursuing. It’s something that can happen within a few weeks of learning a few crucial skills, such as constructing a compelling short essay and submitting it to specifically-targeted editors with a succinct cover letter. My Feature Writing 1 students regularly get published in places including The Washington Post, The Oregonian, Horizon Air Magazine, and High Country News. They’re amazed that editors are willing to publish their work, but why not, if they’ve worked hard at multiple drafts and submitted a polished piece?

UM: What books would you say should be required reading for aspiring essayists and/or memoir writers?

MH: I’m an evangelist for Sue William Silverman’s Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir [ed. note: Sue has also shared her insights on this blog]. It’s simply the most thorough and inspiring book I’ve found for memoir writers, regardless of the level of experience. And I regularly read and assign the “Best American” series to my students; in particular, I like “Best American Magazine Writing” and “Best American Essays.” I also really enjoy the writing in the literary journals “Creative Nonfiction” and “Fourth Genre.” They’re essential reading for memoirists.

– Whitney Teal

Zora Told Countee: Hurston’s Letter to Countee Cullen

Whitney — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:00:00 +0000

As part of their “American Masters” series, PBS published a letter from Zora Neale Hurston to Countee Cullen. Besides addressing the writer’s views on white liberals, segregation and Negro writers, it’s beautifully written and full of Hurston’s famous personality.

March 5, 1943

Dear Countee:

Thanks a million for your kind letter. I am always proud to have a word of praise from you because your friendship means a great deal to me. It means so much to me because I have never known you to make an insincere move, neither for personal gain, nor for malice growing out of jealousy of anyone else. Then too, you are my favorite poet now as always since you began to write. I have always shared your approach to art. That is, you have written from within rather than to catch the eye of those who were making the loudest noise for the moment. I know that hitch-hiking on band-wagons has become the rage among Negro artists for the last ten years at least, but I have never thumbed a ride and can feel no admiration for those who travel that way. I have pointed you out on numerous occasions as one whose integrity I respected, and whose example I wished to follow.

Head to PBS.org for the full text. Thanks to Dream Hampton for spreading the link via Twitter.

–Whitney Teal

Lit Talk Events: The National Book Festival Hits the National Mall

Uptown Literati — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:56:00 +0000

The Library of Congress’ annual National Book Festival rolls into town this Saturday, September 26th, 2009 on the National Mall.

A gaggle of authors forming the who’s who in literature, including children’s authors, poetry and prose writers, fiction and non-fiction authors, illustrators, and historical authors, will be present. To see which will be in attendance just take a scroll, and be sure to close your mouth once you get to the bottom!

Patricia Sullivan

Ann Kidd Taylor

David A. Taylor
Julia Alvarez

Junot Díaz

John Grisham

Katherine Neville

Jodi Picoult

Nicholas Sparks

Colson Whitehead

David Wroblewski
Mary Jane Clark

Walter Mosley

James Patterson

George Pelecanos

Ana Menendez

Azar Nafisi

and more!

To find out what time your favorite author will be reading or signing his or her book, click here!

The Library of Congress will also be unrolling its newest initiative–Read.gov–which will combine all the literary promotional material from the Library’s archive so that viewers have one specific location where they can find out about all the upcoming literary programs.

Date and Time:

Saturday, September 26th

10 A.M-5:30 P.M

The National Mall

Metro: Smithsonian

Hope to see you on the Mall!

–Nicole Crowder

Poster courtesy LOC Book Festival