05-08-09:
Agony Column Exclusive Podcast : Alan Cheuse, Three Books : Three Books by James D. Houston: 'Snow Mountain Passage', 'Bird of Another Heaven' and 'Where the Light Takes Its Color from the Sea'
It's been just three weeks since we lost Jim Houston, a writer I was privileged to call a friend. Alan Cheuse knew Jim as well, and it seemed to me only right that he and I share some of our thoughts on three of his books; 'Snow Mountain Passage', 'Bird of Another Heaven' and 'Where the Light Takes Its Color from the Sea.'
05-07-09:
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Peter Beagle Interviewed at SF in SF, Saturday, April 18, 2009 : "The more fantastic a story is, the more I try to ground it."
It’s always a pleasure to see Peter Beagle. He's a superb writer and reader, as the story he read at the last SF in SF shows. But he's also a natural raconteur, with an easygoing, rolling speaking style and, helpfully to me, a love of my NPR affiliate, KUSP, where he once worked as a DJ.
I have to admit that I was particularly taken by Peter's reading of 'Oakland Dragon Blues' at the most recent SF in SF. There was just something about his smooth combination of humor, surrealism and a sweet, intellectual fondness for the literary aspects of fantasy that really worked for me. We had a great time talking about his forthcoming books and his story. You can hear the interview by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
05-06-09:
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Dick Lupoff Interviewed at SF in SF, Saturday, April 18, 2009 : "The manuscript even disappeared"
The last time I saw Lupoff was at one of my earliest shows for KUSP, when I did the "Small Press Round Table" (/agony/news/2004/07-12-04.htm#071204). It may be almost five years, but it seems like almost nothing. For me, the signature Lupoff work is 'Lovecraft's Book,' from Arkham House, which, as it happens is a sort of bowdlerized version of a much longer work. But Lupoff's appeal and abilities are a lot larger than this. He and I talked about his trilogy of tales, 'Terrors,' 'Visions' and 'Dreams.' Reader DJB wrote to mention that some of the stories therein can also be found in the Golden Gryphon collections 'Claremont Tales I' and 'Claremont Tales II.' Little does anyone know that some of my earliest book-searching explorations involved riding my bicycle from Covina to Claremont (some 15 miles) to go to the incredibly exotic (at the time) "Claremont Mall," where I could find a Pickwick Books that just might stock some of those Bantam Adult Fantasy titles edited by Lin Carter, the ones I couldn’t find in the wire rack of my local Lucky grocery store. But in one of those great bits of luck we interviewers occasionally encounter, I even got Lupoff to talk on mic about his experiences in the stone age of computing, working with the punch card behemoths. You can wind back the clock by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
05-05-09:
Agony Column Podcast News Report : SF in SF Panel Discussion with Terry Bisson, Richard Lupoff and Peter Beagle, April 18, 2009
"Would you call these stories fantasy or science fiction?"
Talk about eternal questions! Once the writers have read their work at SF in SF, Terry Bisson gives 'em enough of a break to grab a drink, then sits them down and starts firing off the sort of questions that have no answer.
As you might expect the question of genre is indeed one of those questions that have no answer, but instead can summon forth a lot of commentary from writers who make their living selling genre fiction. For writers like Peter Beagle and Dick Lupoff, who write work that inhabits a sort of middle ground, the question of genre is indeed a tough question, and pertinent to their actual bottom line. Science fiction is not such a big seller, while fantasy is. To hear Beagle, Bisson and Lupoff duke it out over whether 'Oakland Dragon Blues' and 'T-Shirts' are fantasy, science fiction or something else entirely, just follow this link to the MP3 file.
05-04-09:
A 2009 Interview With Andrea N. Richesin, Karen Joy Fowler and Ann Marie Feld : "She has just said to me the words, I think, every mother in her wildest dreams or most terrified nightmares does not wish to hear, which is, 'I've decided to write a memoir...'"
Karen Joy Fowler, Andrea N. Richesin, &
Ann Marie Feld
...In this case, I'd signed up to talk to four writers. Alas, pretty early on, Joyce Maynard sent her regrets. I arrived at Capitola Book Café ready to interview three writers and was greeted by two; Karen Joy Fowler and Andrea N. Richesin ("Call me Nicki.") Anne Marie Feld, they told me was not going to be able to make it either. For me that was good news in that I was wondering whether I'd even be able to fit the four of us in that tiny office I use for interviews at Capitola Book Café. But it did mean a loss of variety in voices, and I had prepped for Feld. Which proved to be helpful, as she surprisingly showed up while I was standing there. And once again, I was glad I'd thought a bit about fitting four folks into that office.
Turns out it was pretty easy, and the interview was really wonderful. Fowler's often acerbic humor, Richesin's precision and Feld's warmth minimized my task. I barely had to nudge them to get them to talk. Feld spoke to her mother's mental illness, Fowler her daughter's independence and Richesin provided background, context and overview. All three were mothers of daughters, and you could sense the sort of mental telepathy, especially having crammed them in one small room. This (not surprisingly) turned out to be kind of an action-packed interview. You can get yourself in that small room by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
New to the Agony Column
02-01-12: Commentary : Stan Lee Splashes 'Stan Lee's How to Write Comics' and 'Stan Lee's How to Draw Comics' : Lessons in the Form, From the Master
01-23-12: Commentary : Sara Paretsky Nails 'Breakdown' : The Machine Stops
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Interview with Sara Paretsky : "Everything in a courtroom is a story; it's not justice, it's combating narratives."
01-18-12: Commentary : Téa Obreht Conjures 'The Tiger's Wife' : The Grammar of Vision
01-13-12: Commentary : Hard Case Subterranean Block : Not from Bob's Basement Tapes
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Phone Interview with Lisa Randall : "...there seems to be some evidence, especially from one of the experiments."
01-10-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Terry D'Auray Catches Lawrence Block and 'The Burglar on the Prowl' : "A show well worth the price of a ticket."
12-29-11: Commentary : My Life in the Bush of Books : Island of Vice by Richard Zacks, Iago by David Snodin, The Coincidence Engine by Sam Leith and The Dipatcher by Ryan David Jahn
12-21-11: Commentary : Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman : From the Seedy to the Sublime
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books with Alan Cheuse : 'Kill Bin Laden' ; Ryu Mitsuse, '10 Billion Days and 100 Billion Nights' ; Michael Crichton and Richard Preston, 'Micro'
12-20-11: Commentary : David Blackbourn Visits 'Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in a Nineteenth-Century German Village' : Externalizing a Culture Clash
12-15-11: Commentary : Ayize Jama-Everett Reveals 'The Liminal People' : The Powers That Be
Agony Column Podcast News Report : The Agony Column Live with Lisa Goldstein and Ayize Jama-Everett, and music by Fenyang Smith, December 10, 2011 : "... let's look at what happens if people have abilities that other people don't have ..."
11-28-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Scott Wallace : "Within months of first contact, these groups experience a huge die-off."
11-22-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Charles Frazier, Part Two : "It's not me telling you, there's this storyteller voice."
11-21-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Charles Frazier : "If we're going in the wrong direction, we could turn around and go back."
11-17-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Gianni Mola : "The only way you can learn, I told them, is to watch me cook it."
11-11-11: 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..."
10-31-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Colson Whitehead : "In the Apocalypse, somebody's gonna have to do the grunt work..."
10-17-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Russell Banks : "They are in a sense, permanently marked and thrown into this darkness..."
