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07-17-09: Alan Cheuse on Writing the Textbook

Drama

'Drama' is where things get sticky, where the choices become limited and uncomfortable. For every piece you choose to include, others, perhaps many others seemingly just as worthy, must be left out. Drama is inherently a longer form and far more challenging to present. In a book you can only put words, but drama is as much about performance as it is about text. The text though, is the literature.

When I talked to Alan Cheuse about 'Literature: Craft and Voice, Volume 3: Drama,' my questions were queued up from the moment I picked up the book. How do you choose the best oh, 600 pages of drama since time immemorial? How do you bring to life the words printed on a page, how to you instruct a student to read and analyze words that are meant to be heard, not read? The reading experience is wildly different from the play-going experience. How do you use a textbook to help us understand the cornerstones upon which the immersive media that now rule our lives are based? We live in an environment that Sophocles could not even have dreamed about. How do you put him at square one for student who probably spent five years watching cartoons before even thinking about reading? You can hear his answers to these questions by following the link to the MP3 audio file.



07-16-09: A 2009 Phone Interview with Warren Fahy

"Fun" and 'Fragment'

Warren Fahy told me he had a very simple mantra stickied to his monitor while writing 'Fragment' — "Fun." That was the word he kept in mind at all times when putting together his multi-layered, ultra-monsterific novel, 'Fragment.' The book itself is so much fun to read, it's hard to assimilate the level of horror and violence while doing so.

Occasionally books will catch me off-guard, and 'Fragment' was one such book, a novel that kept upping the ante even when I thought there was no longer any ante to up. I gave author Warren Fahy a call to ask about the origins, the research and the bad shrimp dinner that seemed to be at the heart of this rather remarkable thriller. Once you've read the book — not before, check out the website (http://warrenfahy.com/), where some "webisodes" show some of the critters.

Turned out it wasn't a bad shrimp dinner at all, but rather the Movile Cave in Romania, where 33 previously unknown species were discovered in an ecosystem that had been cut off from the rest of the world for five million years. Add a glimpse of the Mantis Shrimp, and more research than you can shake an ecosystem at, and you've got a novel that is a hoot to read even when you're swimming in blood. But let Warren Fahy tell you the details at this linked MP3 audio file.



07-15-09: A Conversation with Jeremy Lassen of Night Shade Books

The Independent Press and E-Books; Jay Lake's Latest; Remembering Charles Brown

William Faulkner put it best. "The past isn't dead. In fact, it's not even past." This morning I spoke with Jeremy Lassen about the past and future. 'Ti a sad day in the world of genre fiction with the passing of one of the greats, a man who single-handedly seem to hold up the genre on his shoulders, Charles N. Brown, the editor of Locus and in a sense, the overseer of the science fiction genre.

As readers knows, I'm rather prone to find myself the victim of bonnet bees. This morning, having seen yet another appreciation of even just the bare mention of one of them thar Kindle thingies (what, the folks at Amazon never read Fahrenheit 451?), I began to wonder what the independent press was making of these things. Sure, I'm looking at Chris Anderson's Free as well, in the non-free, but ever-so-readable hardcover edition. If ever irony were to be crystallized, it might look like this. So I challenged Lassen to tell me what was up with Night Shade and e-books and free books, which led to a very nice discussion about the publishing business strategy.

We also talked about the upcoming release of the much-awaited sequel to Jay Lake's 'Trial of Flowers,' the soon-to-arrive 'Madness of Flowers.' Lake's a phenomenal talent with a spectacularly wide range of work, from the clockwork steampunk of 'Mainspring' and 'Escapement' to the baroque fantasy of the Flowers novels.

And finally, Jeremy and I talked about the sad passing of a genre giant, Charles N. Brown, the publisher and editor of Locus Magazine. To both of us, it's apparent that Brown was responsible not just for Locus, but in a sense, for the speculative/science fiction genre at large. Here's a link to our conversation.



07-14-09: A 2009 Interview with Novella Carpenter

"Part of farming is having the crop go to somebody else besides you"
Novella Carpenter

The back office at Capitola must be getting some sort of good vibe from all the great conversations I've had there. Novella Carpenter was no exception, but I must allow that I was glad she didn't bring any living poultry with her. Meat birds, as she calls 'em.

Novella Carpenter has a great story to tell you, and you should hear it as well as read it. She's just an enthusiast of the first order, and it comes across she speaks. But there's a great just-business-like edge when she talks. Sure, she loves what she's doing, but she makes sure that she and you don't forget why she's doing it. She's raising food, for herself and for her neighborhood. We talked about her animals, her neighbors and neighborhood and what each thought of the other. You can hear our conversation by following this like to the MP3 audio file.



07-13-09: A 2009 Interview with Carlos Ruiz Zafón

"I just write for people who like to read"
Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I tried to resist. 'The Shadow of the Wind' got so many reviews that were so good, and made the book sound good to me, that I let it pass on the first release. But when they sent me an ARC of 'The Angle's Game' and I laid eyes on the Subterranean Press edition of 'The Shadow of the Wind,' I caved, and damn I'm glad I did.

When I heard that Zafón was going to be in town, I found myself in the wonderful position of getting to read his novels back-to-back, to immerse myself in his wonderful prose, his delightful cityscapes and his insidious, inventive narrative style. Zafon writes the sort of books that you just don't want to end.

I managed to catch up with him in his hotel in San Francisco. While I was setting up, I mentioned that I used to work at E-mu Systems, and then, for the next ten minutes we geeked out about the joys of the Proteus Modules (which he and I both still used) and the virtues of hardware with knobs and switches and instant sounds coming out of nice, neat one-rack space modules. It was only the beginning.

Zafón has a firm grasp on what he's doing with literature and why he's doing what he's doing. If you think his books are entertaining (that is, if you've read them, in which case you almost certain do!), then let me confirm that the man speaking about his novels is just as entertaining as are the novels themselves. You can hear our conversation, sans geek-out, by following this link to the MP3 audio file.



New to the Agony Column

04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2014 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 202: Kazuo Ishiguro : The Buried Giant

04-17-15: Commentary : Erik Larson Follows a 'Dead Wake' : Countdown to Destiny

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2014 Interview with Erik Larson : " "...said to have been found in the arms of a dead German sailor..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 201: Erik Larson : Dead Wake

04-15-15: Commentary : Peter Bell Reflects 'A Certain Slant of Light' : Strange Stories of Modern Scholars

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2014 Interview with Peter Bell : "...I looked up some of the old books..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 200: Peter Bell : Strange Epiphanies and A Certain Slant of Light

03-14-15: Commentary : Marc Goodman Foresees 'Future Crimes' : Exponential Potential

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It

03-01-15: Commentary : William Ury on Getting to Yes with Yourself: And Other Worthy Opponents : To the BATNA, Robin!

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with William Ury : ...he proceeded to shout at me for approximately 30 minutes..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 198: William Ury : Getting to Yes with Yourself: And Other Worthy Opponents

02-22-15: Commentary : Jennifer Senior Experiences 'All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood' : Reading Fun for the Whole Fambly!

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Jennifer Senior : "...it becomes a source of enormous tension once a baby comes along..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 197: Jennifer Senior : All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood

02-09-15: Commentary : Stewart O'Nan Looks 'West of Sunset' : Twilight of the Great

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Stewart O'Nan : "...we see him as a tragedian because is life is a tragedy..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 196: Stewart O'Nan : West of Sunset

02-04-15: Commentary : Armistead Maupin Maps 'The Days of Anna Madrigal' : Swiftly Flow the Years

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Armistead Maupin : "I could see what silliness was going on while it was happening..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 195: Armistead Maupin : The Days of Anna Madrigal

01-31-15: Commentary : Christine Carter's Path to 'The Sweet Spot: How to Find Your Groove at Home and Work' : Neurohabits

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Christine Carter, Ph.D. : "...a real tipping point..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 194: Christine Carter, Ph.D. : The Sweet Spot: How to Find Your Groove at Home and Work

01-23-15: Commentary : Jake Halpern Pushes 'Bad Paper: Chasing Debt from Wall Street to the Underworld' : Non-Fiction 21st Century Noir

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Jake Halpern : "...he goes to Las Vegas to this debt-buyers' convention..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 193: Jake Halpern : Bad Paper: Chasing Debt from Wall Street to the Underworld

01-19-15: Commentary : David Shields and Caleb Powell Assert 'I Think You're Totally Wrong' : The Power to Bicker

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with David Shields and Caleb Powell : "I read no book reviews any more; the level of discussion is really pedestrian." David Shields "I'm just saying it's a conflict of interest!" Caleb Powell

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 192: David Shields and Caleb Powell : I Think You're Totally Wrong

01-17-15: Commentary : Charles Todd Expects 'A Fine Summer's Day' : We Interrupt This Program...

Commentary : Charles Todd Engages In 'A Test of Wills' : The Politics of Passion and Policing

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2014 Interview with Charles and Caroline Todd : "...let them be themselves and sort it out..." Caroline Todd "...it's more on a personal level..." Charles Todd

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 191: Charles Todd : A Fine Summer's Day

01-13-15: Commentary : Rosalie Parker Unearths 'The Old Knowledge' : The New Old World

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2014 Interview with Ray Russell and Rosalie Parker : "I thought I'd write something for fun.." Ray Russell "..there was a side of me of that was interested in the strangeness..." Ros Parker

01-12-15: Commentary : Richard Ford 'Let Me Be Frank with You' : The Default Years

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2014 Interview with Richard Ford : "...most of our politicians are morons..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 190: Richard Ford : Let Me Be Frank with You

01-06-15: Commentary : Bessel van der Kolk 'The Body Keeps the Score' : Human Trauma

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2014 Interview with Bessel van der Kolk : "...being able to see what happens in the brain really helps us to understand certain things..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 189: Bessel van der Kolk : The Body Keeps the Score

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