"You're asking me to get in the water with sharks?"
—Juliet Eilperin
Listeners to my show have probably heard, at one time or another, the literary events calendar. In theory, I should always already know what's coming up. I get the advance notices and read the emails, but that doesn't mean the information always "takes." Thus I found myself a couple of weeks ago putting together the "litcal" and when I looked at the Bookshop Santa Cruz page, hitting myself on the forehead.
I'd already scheduled an interview on Monday, August 15, and knew that I'd have no bandwidth to interview the writer appearing there, though the book sounded super-appealing and right up my alley. Juliet Eilperin, was appearing to talk about her new book 'Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks,' and apparently I was going to miss my chance to speak with her.
The phone rang mid-morning the next day, and the voice on the line said: "Hi, I'm Juliet Eilperin, the national environmental reporter for the Washington Post. Is Rick there?"
"There's always a potential price to pay with any kind of advances."
—Michael Harvey
When you read Michael Harvey's novels, his economy of style is particularly graceful and welcome. He has a real no-nonsense feel to his work that makes it easy to read and immerse yourself in his world. It should come as no surprise then, that when you speak with the man, you'll find he has the same approach.
I called up Harvey to talk to him about his latest novel, 'We All Fall Down,' which incorporates elements of the thriller and even the science fiction genres to help Harvey bring the traditional PI novel into the 21st century. It offers all the pleasures of his previous work and opens up whole new horizons as well; not just for Kelly, Harvey's detective, or Harvey himself, but also for the genre. It's crime fiction gene-spliced with disease fiction.
Harvey and I talked about his research into the "Terror 2000" report, which might have made a bit of a difference had it been read more thoroughly when it was first published. We also talked about smart clothing and black biology, which sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but isn't. It's a perfect case of the way in which William Gibson suggests that "the future has already arrived, only it isn't evenly distributed." This becomes a problem if you're on the receiving end.
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."
