10-05-10:Agony Colmn Live at Capitola Book Café October 9 : Graham Hancock & Jim Nisbet
Come join me this coming Saturday, October 9, for an Agony Column Live Show at Capitola Book Café, featuring Graham Hancock & Jim Nisbet in a conversation about ...well... Let's just say that the imagination will play a significant part in the proceedings. We'll start with a reading at 6:30 PM, then plunge right into a conversation, and invite the audience to join us. If you have any questions, send me an email.
Coming up in the queue, I've got Steven Kotler, Darin Straus, Adam Levin, Tim Powers, now that I've finally got all the books of his I wanted to discuss, SF in SF and more, more more.
09-28-10:Agony Colmn Live at Capitola Book Café October 2 : Martin Cruz Smith & Tony Broadbent
Come join me this coming Saturday, October 2, for an Agony Column Live Show at Capitola Book Café, featuring Martin Cruz Smith & Tony Broadbent in a conversation about how mysteries set in far-flung places and times illuminate our everyday lives. We'll start with a reading at 6:30 PM, then plunge right into a conversation, and invite the audience to join us. If you have any questions, send me an email.
On October 9, I'll be hosting Graham Hancock for an Agony Column Live Show at Capitola Book Café, where we'll discuss 'Entangled' and 'Supernatural.' He'll be joined by Jim Nisbet, author of 'Windward Passage.'
Coming up in the queue, I've got Monique Truong, Tim Powers, now that I've finally got all the books of his I wanted to discuss, and many more.
07-24-10:Incoming Update
"Creative work of value is possible on when there is resistance, either of the medium or from the audience at whome the work is aimed." -- Stanislaw Lem
Yes, I will be back, I hope to at least four days this upcoming week. Last week kept me quite busy; Monday I packed up my gear, headed to a hotel in San Francisco, where I ended up interviewing Brian and Wendy Froud in my super-tiny hotel room. It was a very interesting conversation that took me back — to the time of The Dark Crystal. That nightk, I recorded the Frouds for SF in SF; a nice, long, chat with Terry Bisson, then an informative Q & A. By the time I got back to my hotel room, it was nearly 10 PM.
A short twelve hours later I was at KPFA in Oakland, to interview Justin Cronin about his novel, the first in a trilogy, 'The Passage.' Over-talked and over-exposed as a "vampire" novel, it is much more of a post-apocalypse adventure in the vein of 'The Stand' and 'On the Beach.' To say the least, the conversation with Cronin and the trip to KPFA was "eventful." I'll leave it at that.
I came back to SF on Thursday, to interview David Mitchell about his novel 'The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet,' which also proves to be the first in a trilogy. I'll write more about that for the Monday Podcast / review next week.
I do appreciate readers' and listeners' patience. We have been having a time that can at best be called interesting, here in Aptos. The economy is to say the least, challenging. As ever, readers can help by emailing KUSP and asking to them to retain my show, which seems to be in continual jeaopardy of being pulled off the air. And write to your local NPR station, and ask them to contact me aout running my show on their schedule. This is the single best way to ensure that I can keep getting these interviews to you. Thanks again, folks.
05-10-10:Call for Email to KUSP
"Creative work of value is possible on when there is resistance, either of the medium or from the audience at whome the work is aimed." -- Stanislaw Lem
Thanks again to all those who wrote last time, your support is ever appreciated. I'm hoping now i can get my readers and listeners to support this website and podcast by writing to KUSP, the station that hosts my live radio broadcast.
I've been asked to cease and desist from broadcasting non-fiction interviews, because, I am told, they may confuse my audience. Readers and listeners know that my gating measurement for reading a book or talking with an author is not the genre or the subject, but rather the quality of the execution and the compelling nature of the authors I speak to.
While I do now and again receive emails from readers and listeners who would prefer I stay entirely in one realm or another, my hope is that even readers who greatly prefer one subset of writing can appreciate anything well-done, and occasionally, find that their own
05-19-10:What is Up with The AGONY COLUMN?
"In a system of a million parts, if each part malfunctions only one time in a million, a breakdown is certain." -- Stanislaw Lem
On Sunday, May 9, the logic board and video in the computer upon which this site is created malfunctioned. In the course of the repair, it so happened that it was discovered that the hard drive was about to fail as well; everything was replaced. And so, a week later, I took up where I'd left off.
I rapidly discovered that something was still amiss; I was unable to access the external data drives where most of this work actually lives. Subsequently, I have been told that this is an indication that the replacement board is also bad. My time even creating this patch page, is limited.
I'm told I should be able to get my computer back in a week. We'll see just how applicable Mr. Lem's words are. In the interim, I confess that I can read email from my iPad, so email me with your concerns, requests and suggestions. Your listenership and readership is GREATLY appreciated. I may take a stab at doing updates from my wife's computer. I've been at this a while now, and I intend to continue. Thanks again!
New to the Agony Column
11-14-11: Commentary : Jeff Hertzberg, M. D. and Zoe Francois Make 'Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day' : Plan Your Exercise Regimen First
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Jeff Hertzberg, M. D. and Zoe Francois : "I end up making all sorts of pizzas with this crust."-Zoe Francois
11-11-11: Commentary : Karl Marlantes Knows 'What It Is Like to Go to War' : Battle of the Spirit
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Karl Marlantes : "...the way I "think" about things, with quotes around think, is I tend to write them down..."
11-09-11: Commentary : Peter F. Hamilton Engineers 'Manhattan in Reverse' : Short, Science Fiction and Mystery
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Nick Mamatas Interviewed at SF in SF on June 11, 2011 : "It's a first contact story where we don't even realize that we're the ones being first contacted."
11-02-11: Commentary : Sam Mogannam and Dabney Gough Shop 'Bi-Rite Market's Eat Good Food' : Before the Meal
Agony Column Podcast News Report : SF in SF Panel Discussion with Lisa Goldstein, Nick Mamatas and Terry Bisson on June 11, 2011 : "People got tired of all that realism." - Lisa Goldstein
11-01-11: Commentary : Martin Amis Lets Fly 'Time's Arrow' : Bringing Back the Archives
10-17-11: Commentary : Russell Banks' 'Lost Memory Of Skin' : Social Surrealism
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Russell Banks : "They are in a sense, permanently marked and thrown into this darkness..."
10-14-11: Commentary : Jacqueline Novogratz Exports 'The Blue Sweater' : Mind the Gap
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Phone Interview with Jacqueline Novogratz : "I'm sorry...I'm at the airport in Dubai, and it's pretty chaotic."
10-13-11: Commentary : The Business of Unreality : Novels Explore the Virtual World
Agony Column Podcast News Report : The Agony Column Live with Tad Williams and Deborah Beale : "Her style was different, our styles were very different."
10-12-11: Commentary : Mario Guslandi Reviews 'House of Fear' Edited by Jonathan Oliver : "Arguably the Best"
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books With Alan Cheuse : 'IQ84' by Haruki Murakami, 'Assumption' by Percival Everett, 'Zone One' by Colson Whitehead
10-10-11: Commentary : Lisa Randall is 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' : Science, Particles and Civilization
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Lisa Randall : "I gave it to religious people, I gave it to non-religious people and both were unhappy with what I wrote."
09-29-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Phone Interview with Russell Banks : "I don't find plotting all that hard once I have the characters in place."
09-28-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Meg Wolitzer : "I really think you need to respect the antsyness of kids."
09-26-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Neal Stephenson, Plus Live Reading and Q and A : "Here you're asking me to engage into more self-examination than is my wont..."
09-19-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Lev Grossman : "I'm gonna write it ... and if Viking doesn't publish it, everyone can just come over to my house and look at it on my laptop."
09-12-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with George Pelecanos : "...maybe somebody's trying to tell me to write a book about this guy Spero."
