03-31-11:A 2011 Interview with Joe Mathews and Mark Paul
"...signature companies are beginning to hire much more aggressive people.." —Joe Mathews
"We allow people to write policies into the Constitution, to make them even harder to change..." —Mark Paul
It's easy to get caught up in the details. The details have damned and condemned California to a financial underworld in which the richest and potentially most powerful state is reduced to being a debt-ridden pauper. There's a virtue in understanding them, which is why a book like 'California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It' is so important. But when you have access to the authors, you have more than the details; you have their source.
When I got Joe Mathews and Mark Paul to come to KUSP and talk to me, I wanted to make sure my listeners got the gist of what they explained in the book, while still preserving the reading experience. This is a book that deserves to be both bought and read; both actions are essential to getting the most out of it. If you buy it, you have literally invested in understanding how government works. Once you make that investment, reading the book, actually inputting those words into your mind, one after another, really helps cement what the authors are talking about. It's a complicated picture.
03-30-11:Anne Harris Reads at SF in SF on February 12, 2011
"This is a transgender class-warfare romance."
—"Anne Harris"
Sometimes you get more than you'd expect from a single writer. In these days when YA fiction seems de rigeur, especially in the world of genre fiction, writers try to keep the channels clear, the visions straight. And thus, when Anne Harris appeared at SF in SF on February 12, 2011, those fortunate enough to attend, got not one writer, but three.
As Anne Harris, her novel 'Accidental Creatures' won the first Spectrum Award for a science fiction novel dealing with LGBT characters, themes and issues. Anne Harris subsequently published 'The Nature of Smoke,' 'Inventing Memory.' Not a bad resume for any author.
But there's more. As Pearl North, she wrote the YA novel 'Libyrinth,' a novel that is absolutely designed to appeal to readers by virtue of its premise; the main character is Haly, who hears the voices of books, and is drawn into a conflict with the Singers as a result. The newest book in the series, 'The Boy from Ilysies' is now out and a third book completing the trilogy is in the works.
Then, because two names are apparently not enough, as Jessica Freely she writes Friskbisket Blog she writes erotic romance ebooks. Clearly a very busy writer!
For this entry into the SF in SF series, Anne Harris reads as Pearl North from 'The Boy From Ilysies.' Then Anne Harris reads a couple of scenes as Jessica Freely from 'Amaranth and Ash,' which she describes as a "transgender class-warfare romance." Are you hearing the voices in your head yet? Better still, are you listening to them? You can hear voices from books by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
03-29-11:Terry Bisson, Ann Harris (aka Pearl North) and Lucy Jane Bledsoe at SF in SF on February 12, 2011
"...the people who go there, pretty much to a person, are passionate about their lives..."
—Lucy Jane Bledsoe
What do you get when you put an Antarctic explorer / reporter, a wildly outrageous blogger and a respected science fiction writer in front of three microphones? The short answer is, listen and find out.
And having given a long answer to a question nobody asked, I'm inclined to the short answer, but I'll give a bit of detail anyway. Bisson and Bledsoe and Harris jumped into a three-point conversation with lots more than three points. For all the guaranteed goodness at such a reading, the real magic happens when you put three writer together with a smart audience and let one question lead to another.
03-28-11:Jasper Fforde Live at the Capitola Book Café on March 12, 2011
You can always click on the image to reach the audio link
Ten Rules for Writing
When I first told Capitola Book Café that I had snagged Jasper Fforde as a guest for the March version of The Agony Column Live, they were concerned. "Are you sure you can keep up with him, Rick?" I was asked. "He's kind of like a stand-up comedian." "Kind of?" I replied. "He's smarter and faster than most comedians — and funnier." Left unsaid was, "That just makes my job all the easier."
And, as those who were there can attest, my job, as it were, was incredibly easy. It was really a joy to see Jasper again, and the standing-room-only crowd at the Capitola Book Café seemed to agree. I have to say that it was kind of like a peculiar version of a homecoming. And not least, because Jasper and I once again found ourselves talking about a Thursday Next novel.
For me the homecoming aspect is that Jasper Fforde's 'The Eyre Affair' was one of the incept points for this column ten years ago. In honor of the first place I found the book mentioned, I called up Michael over at Legends Books and ordered some Fforde limiteds. The joy of discovering a book like 'The Eyre Affair' was one of the drivers that has kept me writing, interviewing and podcasting for nearly ten years. I remember hesitantly approaching him at this first appearance in the US, and our many conversations since.
This time around, we talked first about his newest book, and the Thursday Next series. Even though he's been writing the series for ten years, he still manages to have a fresh approach. His comment on why he revised, as it were, Bookworld, is priceless.
05-16-12: Commentary : Mark Sundeen Pays Out 'The Man Who Quit Money' : Over the Edges
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Interview with Mark Sundeen and Daniel Suelo : "What would happen if we actually practiced this stuff?"-Daniel Suelo
05-15-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Clive Barker 'Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War' : Impure Life
05-08-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Clive Barker 'Abarat' : Reading in Color
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Phone Interview with Mark Sundeen : "...over the years, I had heard through my friends that he had stopped using money and was living in a cave..."
04-30-12: Commentary : Christopher Moore Follows 'Sacré Bleu' : A Story in Color
Agony Column Podcast News Report: A 2012 Interview with Christopher Moore : "...it often isn't efficient to tell a story in chronological order..."
04-27-12: Commentary : Lisa Lutz on 'Trail of the Spellmans' : Meta-Fiction is Fun
Agony Column Podcast News Report: SF in SF from February 11, 2012 : Panel Discussion Moderated by Terry Bisson and Interviews with Rudy Rucker, K. W. Jeter, and Jay Lake
04-26-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Emmanuel Carrere 'The Adversary' : The Enemy Within
04-23-12: Commentary : T. M. Luhrman Listens 'When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship With God' : Science and the Supernaturaly
04-18-12: Commentary : Gregg Jones Stirs Through 'Honor in the Dust: Theodore Roosevelt, War in the Philippines and the Rise and Fall of America's Imperial Dreams' : A Dream Of Today From Yesterday
Agony Column Podcast News Report: A 2012 Interview with Gregg Jones : "The Philippinos would welcome us with open arms and greet us as liberators."
04-17-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Caleb Carr 'The Alienist' : Subterranean History
04-16-12: Commentary : Richard Zacks Visits 'Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York' :The Wild, Wild East
Agony Column Podcast News Report: A 2012 Interview with Richard Zacks : "Roosevelt and Riis were out looking, and if they did find a cop, he was talking to a streetwalker."
