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EMERGE - New Authors - Jennifer Prado

• 2008 Sep 01

  
  

  Author Interview - Jeremy C. Shipp
  
  Author of Vacation
  Copyright 2007
  Raw Dog Screaming Press
  http://www.rawdogscreaming.com/
  
  Quick Synopsis:
  
  It’s time for blueblood Bernard Johnson to leave his boring life behind and go on The Vacation, a year long, corporate-sponsored odyssey. But instead of seeing the world Bernard is captured by terrorists, becomes a key figure in secret drug wars, and, worse, doesn’t once miss his secure American Dream.
  
  A review by Jesse Gordon:
  
  "On the surface, Vacation is about a disgruntled English teacher named Bernard Johnson who goes on Vacation (yes, proper capitalization) with an ex-student, once-male, now-female friend and discovers the world is not what he initially thought it to be. Okay. Simple enough premise--you see it all the time in various forms of literature (well, maybe without the sex change). Peel away that superficial layer, though, and you soon find yourself entangled in a labyrinth of spiritual testing and social commentary unflinchingly portrayed by Shipp's characters. In this world, society exists in two major flavors: the Tics and the Meeks, the former being the well-to-dos of the industrialized nations, the latter being the poor, the exiled. Using this metaphor, it quickly becomes obvious the Tics are our own pop culture, the pill-popping, credit-card-wielding, overfed, and over-stimulated masses who have been shielded from the terrible truths of the world in a sort of global propaganda scheme to bolster big business. The Meeks are, well, everyone else--a grassroots conglomerate of militants who have cleansed their bodies and minds of all social poisons. Somewhere in between is the Garden, an external haven lead by Noh, who seeks to seed truth back into the world, one mind at a time."
  
  The interview:
  
  Q: Hi Jeremy. It took me one paragraph to realize that this was going to be a wacky kind of novel, like a rated-R version of Norton Juster´s The Phantom of the Tollbooth for part-time grown ups. One of your reviewers refers to you style as psychological fantasy. Is that how you like to describe your work?
  
  A: Howdy hi, Jennifer. Thanks for the interview, and thanks for comparing my book to The Phantom of the Tollbooth. That makes me feel all warm, fuzzy, and fizzy inside (although the fizzy probably comes from the sparkling peach juice I drank earlier.) Anyway, when I’m writing, I try to free my mind of genre boundaries and conventions. I never think of any of my stories as horror or psychological fantasy or bizarro. I get published in magazines and anthologies that are looking for science fiction, fantasy, horror, literature (whatever that means), bizarro. I love all of these genres, and so no matter how my work is described, I’m happy. Personally, I just think of my work as (rather dark and strange) fiction.
  
  Q: Many of the themes in your story, like the meaning of the title Vacation, the need to understand and complete "assignments" and the need to reconnect with a deceased sibling, seem to take on mythological or allegoric elements. Can you explain further?
  
  A: In my books and stories, I like to create layers of meanings with complex interconnections. That’s how I see the world, so that’s how I write. Vacation may be about a character named Bernard Johnson, but at the same time it’s about humanity and civilization’s festering wound.
  
  Q: You made a choice for the story to be dialog-driven, can you explain why?
  
  A: Vacation is, on the one hand, a letter, but on the other hand (or hook, if were speaking in pirate terms), it’s an exercise in catharsis. Bernard’s an ex-English teacher, so this catharsis manifests, predominantly, in words. He unlearns his old life with words, and he learns a new one with words. Also, I really like writing dialogue.
  
  Q: Something that always interests me is the spark of life of a story. What was the first image, phrase, or character that you imagined that drove you to write the rest of the novel?
  
  A: It was an idea that sparked this story initially. I thought about how human beings can travel around the world, visiting numerous countries, and really only see their own home, over and over again. If people limit themselves to certain resource bubbles, they don’t get a clear picture of the global community. And so, the story exploded in my skull from there.
  
  Q: How did you find your publisher and how have you been promoting your book?
  
  A: John Lawson of Raw Dog Screaming Press has been a fan of my short stories for quite a while, and I’ve been a fan of Raw Dog Screaming Press for quite a while. I told him about my novel via email, and he said he’d like to read it. And so that’s where this all started.
  
  And for over a year now, I’ve been promoting my book almost every day. I create contests, fake interviews (with people such as the Devil), and I’ve tried mind control, but I can only seem to control eggplants at this point. I like to post a lot of free fiction on my website, which helps to promote my writing in general. Unless the person reading hates the fiction, in which case, I’m promoting other people’s writing.
  
  This November/December, I’ll be going on a virtual/online book tour, where I’ll be visiting blogs and doing many other virtual sort of things. It’ll be as fun as a firefly (and they're quite fun, really.)
  
  Q: Dude, I felt the So. Cal vibe. Can you tell more about where you live and write?
  
  A: I live in a very religious city called Loma Linda. I say “very religious,” because in almost every station of power here, you’ll find Seventh Day Adventists. The religious influence has even caused the mail not to come on Saturday (because that’s the holy day), but on Sunday instead. Yep, we get mail on Sunday. There isn’t much else to say about Loma Linda, except that it has a cool Farmer’s Market, and the hills are filled with rattle snakes and coyotes. I love hiking there.
  
  There are some cool places around. Riverside, Redlands, Idyllwild, Oak Glen, L.A. , San Diego, etc.
  
  We live in a Victorian Farmhouse that me and my family renovated (or rebuilt, more like.) It’s the third oldest house in the city, and it’s haunted. The ghosts are lazy though, so they don’t cause much damage. (Just the occasional dust bunny flinging.)
  
  Q: Do you have any other writing projects in the works?
  
  A: My short story collection, SHEEP AND WOLVES, is coming out this November. I also have a short film called EGG in the works, and an animated short film based on my short story, DOG. Currently, I’m working on a new novel entitled CURSED.
  
  Q: Would you like to post any links to websites that feature your writing?
  
  A: I most definitely would! Thanks!
  
  Here’s my officially official website (where you can check out some of my short stories for free):
  http://www.jeremycshipp.com/
  
  I’m also constantly posting new stories/blogs/ramblings on my MySpace page:
  http://www.myspace.com/jeremywriter
  
  Q: When did you first realize that someone was spiking your Fruit Loops?
  
  A: My pet coconut monkey told me, actually. He decided to tell me using interpretive dance, and since I can’t understand interpretive dance, it took me about three years to figure out what he was saying. For the longest time, I thought he was saying “fruit shoes,” and I didn’t own any fruit shoes at the time, so I was very confused.
  
  JP: Thanks, Jeremy for a fun read. I think you win the prize for an opening hook. I went from feeling sad to giggling in about 30 seconds.
  
  JS: Thanks very much, Jennifer! :)

  
  
  

  
  

  
  

• 2008 Aug 17

  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  Interview - Judith Jaeger
  Author of The Secret Thief

  
  
  

  http://www.behlerpublications.com/
  

  http://www.judithjaeger.com/

  
  http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Thief-Judith-Jaeger/dp/1933016280/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-0617112-4004047?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193274836&sr=8-1
  

  Synopsis: We all lie to ourselves. There are small lies, big lies and dangerous lies, like the one Connie Grey tells herself. Just out of college in the mid-1990s, Connie is convinced that her mother loves her, even as she endures constant emotional abuse and manipulation. This lie masks a much more sinister abuse that threatens Connie's life. The Secret Thief is Connie's journey to truth and, ultimately, her freedom and independence.

  
  

  Connie Grey is a champion distance runner with a chronic stomach ulcer, a wry sense of humor and kleptomania. She is spending the summer with her grandmother in the fictional town of Green Hill, New Hampshire, helping to pack up the family homestead for a move. Connie is certain about two things: Her grandmother is her enemy, and her mother is her ally. But a family secret, revealed through the objects Connie finds in her grandmother's attic, proves that things aren't what they seem. As Connie reveals secrets about her relationship with her mother, she comes to a chilling understanding of what's at stake if she can't face the truth.
  

  ***

  
  Q: Hi Judy. I read your novel, The Secret Thief, in one sitting, which says a great deal about how you successfully created suspense and a sense of attachment between a reader and the narrator. Can you explain how you structured a story that is revealed gradually as a mystery? Do you work from an outline or write a full first draft? (Without giving away any surprises!)
  
  A: My process for The Secret Thief was quite mysterious actually. It was my learning novel. I wrote it as my master’s thesis for my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Goddard College, and when I started I didn’t know where the story would lead. All I knew was I had a young woman who was spending the summer with her cranky grandmother. That’s typically how my story or novel ideas start: a character who does this. And then I see where it leads. For The Secret Thief, I had this interesting thread of mystery to unravel for Connie and for the reader. The key, I think, was not to worry too much about when the reader would figure things out but when Connie would, because even if the reader knew things before Connie they would enjoy the anticipation of wondering when Connie would figure things out for herself. I tend not to work with an outline, because outlines just have bad associations for me of high school research papers—yuck! But I’ve since picked up a screenwriting technique where I use index cards to brainstorm scene ideas and then arrange the cards in an order that I think might work. This is a kind of outline, and it helps me break down the very large project of a novel into small, much less daunting bits. The key for me is to always leave room for the magic of writing—the surprises that, as the writer, I never know are going to come up.
  
  Q: Because of the inter-generational elements of a story about mothers, daughters and grandmothers, as well as, the psychological elements in the characterizations, I'm assuming you had to do research. Can you explain how you did this? Interviews, case studies?
  
  A: I find that the best kind of research is close observation of human nature. I’m very interested in how people act in their lives and why they act that way. In my opinion reading goes hand in hand with writing, and so I’m always reading two or three books, and I read a lot of psychology. For The Secret Thief, the books that had the most influence on the development of the characters include: The Drama of the Gifted Child, which examines the development of adults who do not receive unconditional love from their parents when they were children; Playing Sick?, which includes a lot of case studies of malingering, factitious disorder, Munchausen Syndrome and Munchausen Syndrome by proxy, a prominent theme in The Secret Thief (without giving too much away!); Sickened, a memoir of a survivor of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy; and I Only Say This Because I Love You, which examined the psychology of communication between parents and their grown children. I also watched a lot of documentaries about Munchausen Syndrome and Munchausen Syndrome by proxy. However, I still find that a healthy curiosity about people and what makes them tick, and especially about me and what motivates me, feeds my writing best.
  
  Q: I also enjoyed the connection between objects and memories, and the theme of the purging of these objects and memories in preparation for a move/life change? Did you create a box of objects to look at while you were writing? Or did you spend some quality time in an attic?
  
  A: Oh, there was actually little need for that since I am such an avid collector myself. I drew the focus on objects from my own collecting habits and connection to objects. I enjoy collecting different things. In the office where I write, I have a terrific collection of troll dolls, to which I just added a Viking troll purchased in Copenhagen, Denmark. I also have my Hello Kitty collection in my writing office and quite a hodge-podge of other objects. The rest of my family members are also collectors, so you can see where Grandmother’s penchant for collecting came from.I do keep a box of small objects, though, as a writing exercise kit developed by a writer friend. The objects are used as prompts for stories, just as in The Secret Thief every object Connie finds has its own story to tell her.
  
  Q: You mentioned in your press kit that your publishing experience was an act of perseverance. Can you elaborate?
  
  A: So much of trying to get published is getting rejected. To say the industry is very subjective doesn’t even begin to describe it, and the agents, editors and publishers are all looking for the next giant blockbuster and not necessarily at cultivating career authors who may make the same amount of money for them over twenty or thirty years. Add to that the fact that nonfiction is the hot seller right now, and it’s a very closed market for fiction writers. Getting published has become about finding the right person on the right day who is going to fall in love with your manuscript. And that means pushing through all of that rejection, not letting it get you down (which is pretty hard at times) and just trying all the time. That’s what I did and continue to do. My second book has been rejected all around and I am creatively spent on it at the moment, so I am moving on to my third project and hopefully that will catch someone’s eye. The important thing is the writing, to write because I enjoy the writing. Publishing is a good goal, and it’s certainly my goal. But if you’re writing just to publish, well, that’s a lot of work for a lot of rejection.
  
  Q: Can you also discuss how your background as a writing instructor, editor, and MFA student was important in your development as a writer/author?
  
  A: I’m always thankful for my background as an editor. I started out as a newspaper reporter at a very small daily—work I hated, but I highly recommend to anyone seeking a writing career. You learn so much writing for a newspaper. For the last 11 years, I’ve been working in communications in higher education, writing and editing publications. Both types of work have trained me to meet deadlines, to writing a piece and having to call it “done” because it needs to be printed, and how to edit my own writing, which isn’t easy to learn either. One of the questions I get a lot is “How do you know when your novel is done? How do you ever stop revising?” Well, because I have this background in editing and have always had to call a piece done so it can go to a printer, I’m pretty comfortable with coming to a third or fourth draft, feeling that everything really does make sense and is clean and at its best, and then calling it “done.” Earning my MFA was critical to my fiction writing career, because I really didn’t know how to write fiction very well before I went to graduate school. That was the whole impetus for going to graduate school for me—to learn to write a novel. That said, earning an MFA isn’t the path for everyone who wants to write. I just knew I needed more instruction. And teaching keeps me on my toes. I learn every time I teach, and I’m rejuvenated creatively and reenergized by my students’ work and enthusiasm. Teaching helps keep me going.
  
  Q: You made a choice to exclude profanity and sexuality from your story. Was that due to your intended audience or because you wanted to focus on the relationship between Connie and her mother?
  
  A: It was all driven by the characters and the story. The way Connie was raised, she wouldn’t be allowed to swear, and boys were out of the question. So, when she’s finally old enough to make choices about her sexuality, she’s paralyzed into inaction by her own shyness and ignorance. All three women are repressed in every way, and so it would not have made sense to have one of them swearing like a drunken sailor or one of them sleeping with every guy in town. The lack of profanity and sexuality, coupled with the coming-of-age themes of the story, happen to make it a good book for young adults, especially teen readers. But that wasn’t my intended audience. I was writing for adult readers. But the cross-over appeal is a great benefit to the way the story unfolded.
  
  Q: Did you contribute to the marketing strategy for promoting your book?
  
  A: Absolutely. I’m with a small commercial press, so I am very hands on with marketing my book. However, whether you are with a small press or a large publishing house, authors are expected to do their own marketing and book promotion. You set up your own Web site, your own book events at bookstores, libraries, schools, etc., your visits to book groups, outreach to teachers, colleges and universities, the media, bloggers like yourself. It’s a constant job, but a lot of fun if you can embrace it. This is another area where my professional background in higher education communications has been a benefit, because that work has involved a lot of marketing. So, I have some understanding of it and I’m not afraid of it.
  
  Q: I enjoyed the recommended links on your website. Do you have any other words of advice for writers and new authors? http://www.judithjaeger.com/advice.htm

  
  
  

  A: One thing I usually tell writers and people who want to write is try to write every day or set up a schedule for yourself. And I say this because I have found that with all of life’s other demands, it’s the only way anything gets written. There are too many other things to do besides write, so carve out that time for writing and keep it just for writing. And for new authors, make sure you are doing the book marketing and promotion. Get out there and shamelessly promote yourself, because it will impact your ability to publish your next book. Lately, I’ve had great luck with book events at libraries, and book groups are your best allies. Offer to join their discussion of your book and they will love you.
  
  Q: Where do you currently live and do you have any new writing projects in the works?
  
  A: I live in North Brookfield, Massachusetts, which is in the south-central part of the state. I am working on a new manuscript about four men who own a tattoo shop in Worcester, Mass., and are raising a baby girl. It’s led me to spend some time in a tattoo shop.
  
  Thanks, Judith Jaeger, for participating in this week's interview.
  
  Thank you, Jennifer, for taking the time to interview me and for sharing information about books and authors.
  
  Judith Jaeger, author of The Secret Thief
  Learn more at http://www.judithjaeger.com/

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• 2008 Jul 27

  Mathias B. Freese - Interview
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  Author of the short story collection

  Down to a Sunless Sea

  
  

  Copyright 2007

  Publisher: Wheatmark
  http://www.wheatmark.com/

  
  

  Back Cover Blurb:
  
  Down to a Sunless Sea plunges the reader into uncomfortable situations and into the minds of troubled characters. Each selection is a different reading experience--poetic, journalistic, nostalgic, wryly humorous, and even macabre. An award-winning essayist and historical novelist, Mathias B. Freese brings the weight of his twenty-five years as a clinical social worker and psychotherapist into play as he demonstrates a vivid understanding of--and compassion toward--the deviant and damaged.
  
  Q: Hello Matt. The foreword of your book reveals that the stories in this collection were written over thirty-five years, and while some have autobiographical elements, others may be drawn from your career as a clinical social worker. Can you comment on the sources of inspiration for a few of your stories?
  
  A: The stories were written discontinuously over the decades, while I was evolving, as well, as a writer. “Herbie” was my first published story and I was fortunate enough to be listed in Martha Foley’s The Best American Short Stories of 1974. I huddled next to Norman Mailer, one of my favorite authors, and I.B. Singer and Joyce Carol Oates, who I did not know. I was very green. To understand me is to understand that I believe that Canola oil poured over one’s tresses outdoors, preferably in an Edenic dell, makes you a writer. Existentially we make ourselves. Consequently I write with great feeling; it is who I am. “Herbie” is heavily juiced with Freud (I was not a shrink at the time). Oedipally, at the very least, and often misread, I may have been too subtle in describing the mother who essentially is a manipulator of the father and son.
  
  I made a pact with myself after many rejections that I would publish a book of short stories only if they had been published. So I set out to defer immediate pleasure for long term gratification – and so it came to pass. I am constructed in that way as well, for I ride the tortoise’s back as the hare-brained hare scoots by.
  
  A quick survey of some of the stories; some are mere fabrications such as the one about Arnie and “Mortise and Tenon,” “Juan Peron’s Hands,” “Alabaster,” et al. The one rooted in my experience beside “Herbie” – no I did not attack my father; but metaphorically the story speaks to issues I’ve had about my father’s weaknesses – is “I’ll Make it, I Think.”
  
  My cousin Howard suffered from cerebral palsy and had a tortured existence –with girls, with himself and with the world. I honor him. I pay homage to him. Some parts of the story are based on fact, for me to know, not you, and most of it is my empathetic expression to walk next to him, beside him.
  
  He died at twenty-one driving a cab, and because he had crippled hands he couldn’t control the wheel and went into a tree. He was the best from his family, a sweet, kind and very brave young man. I still miss him. In my novel, The i Tetralogy, I dedicated one of the novellas to him. His existence mandated he have balls!
  
  My short story collection, whose title “Down to a Sunless Sea” is inspired by a line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, “Kubla Khan,” is a Proustian exercise in memory, an attempt to make sense about my early years – and to no avail. So although my life has been a holocaust with lower case “h,” I try to make sense, knowing full well it does not. But like Sisyphus we go on. One final note: “For a While, Here, in This Moment” is my attempt to understand my daughter’s existence as a sufferer of CFIDS. She later took her life.
  
  Q: You also open the collection with a haunting quote from your other book The i Tetralogy:

  
  

  "The one unassailable truth I have learned...is that if I know me well enough, I know you pretty well, too."

  
  

  Can you elaborate on whether this is also your sentiment as a writer?

  
  

  A: Everything that I am, twisted to transcendent is revealed in the major work of my life, The i Tetralogy. I know it is a significant book. It has been called pornographic and holy. It provoked David Herrle, editor of subtletea.com, to write a 25 page essay about it.
  
  See http://www.subtletea.com/itetralogyreview.htm
  
  The ezine’s archive contains the original review. I must say that the book is extremely graphic and I urge readers to read the autobiographical essay at the end before venturing to read the book. I knew I had written something special when a psychology journal in South Africa published the essay in the back of the book in its entirety. So whether you read the book or not, dear reader, I know its worth; fame is a non-issue. As a publisher said to me, “You will become better known after you die.” I look forward to that; patrimony is all I seek, to give to my brethren, my children. The rest is farce.
  
  After that long-winded preface, I absolutely believe, to wit, that I can understand a Nazi by seeking myself out; indeed, I wrote Nazi “poetry” in the book. As the historian Goldhagen, has counseled, we are Hitler’s willing executioners. Doubt me. Read the headlines. Seek your interior self, and don’t quote Anne Frank to me, poor girl, whose work is not considered Holocaust literature for it was not penned inside a camp. We often “sweeten” the Holocaust and her book is used to do that. Horrific in and of itself.
  
  As a shrink I did not coddle patients; like Teiresias I had to tell Oedipus to lay off mom, no pun intended.
  
  If we grasp ourselves we can grasp the other. It is the source of literature; it is the literary web all writers use. It is a truism, to me at least, that I am part of a species that works the same across the globe. No big deal to know that.
  
  In the Tetralogy, in essence, I say, mene mene tekel upharsin. It is the writing on the wall. Translated from the Aramaic it means, “Thou hast been weighed and found wanting.” Now, go nosh on a bialy.
  
  Q: Down to a Sunless Sea was recently recognized with an award. Can you tell me more about this and other recognition you have received as an author?
  
  A: It won the 2008 Allbooks Review editor’s Choice Award. This is my second Allbooks Award, the first for the The i Tetralogy -- two years in a row. The collection recently received an Independent Publisher Excellence Finalist Award, named a finalist for the Reader Views Literary Award, as well as a finalist in the “popular fiction” category of the 2008 Arizona Book Award, sponsored by Arizona Book Publishing Association. I encourage writers out there to submit their work to contests; see the listings (by months) on Poets and Writers online. http://www.pw.org/
  
  I enjoy the serendipitous consequences of being reviewed on blogs – my book becomes a “giveaway,” reviewers strike up a personal correspondence with me, I read their works, they read mine. My son does all the covers for my books, talk about patrimony. He will be in every library I am in. What joy as a father! Like me, he is an artist and understands full well that the artist is never poor (see my essay on that for PMA on my site).
  
  Q: Which authors have influenced your writing style?
  
  A: D. Kazantzakis who wrote Report to Greco, St. Francis, Zorba the Greek, The Last Temptation of Christ. He had the temerity to write a sequel, two volumes and in verse, early on in his career to the Odyssey and by all accounts, equaled Homer. Report to Greco is a great confessional, probably the best of the 20th century, often compared to Augustine. His prose is incantatory.
  
  Conrad’s, The N***** of the Narcissus, is the writer as genius, as if Freud penned a novel (that’s an idea for me to follow up with) so deep in its grasp of human behavior. Uncanny. So Kazantzakis for his prose and Conrad for dropping the bucket deep into the well of human behavior.
  
  Q: Where do you currently live? Can you describe your daily writing schedule?
  
  A: I live in Green Valley, Arizona, a kind of geriatric Disneyland. I am misplaced, planning my escape. I am from Brooklyn and Queens, New York, and I miss New York’s tap water straight from the Catskills, the bliss of a good bagel and the epiphany of a bialy; I miss dents on my back bumper and like the Inuit, I can describe perhaps five to ten different kinds of rain. Not here, in the land of the solar tungsten bulb and skin cancer. I miss shopping at 42nd street and Broadway at midnight and the fetid exhalations of the subway beneath my feet as they rise through the street grates. Enough!
  
  I have no writing schedule. That is for those who feel that conditioning is essential in life. I do not write 1,000 or 3,000 words per day as we hear all the time. I have no rules. I am free of MFAs and all that dreck. I write when I must, when it comes upon me. I am free of the craft because the craft is me.
  
  Q: So many of your stories contain dark elements, but a few like, "Arnold Schwarzenegger's Father Was a Nazi," contain a great deal of humor. How did you choose the stories that were included in this collection? Did you intentionally try to balance light against dark?
  
  A: As to the Arnie story, some readers are taken with my prescience; often we have that feeling with a shrink as if he or she is far-seeing. No, it is not that. The therapist, if any good, sees perceptively because it can be learned, to listen with the third ear. I simply thought ahead about Arnie and how like many immigrants he could read the possibilities in this land of plenty. I did read some information about a book dealing with his father’s past, and I extrapolated from there. I did the same for the story about Juan Peron, for indeed his crypt was broken into and his hands cut off. I called the Argentine embassy in New York and they confirmed the story and were at a loss that it did not get much air time in the States.
  
  In reviewing this story, readers often deny or block out the latent theme about Jews in Argentina. Eichmann was captured there and I know of one barber shop in Buenos Aires that has its walls papered with pictures of the Nazis; Goebbels, Hitler and the rest. Arnie’s past is shrouded in smoke and mirrors. I just went with it. Some readers don’t care for it. I’m going to go up the mountain and cry. I think that “The Chatham Bear” has its darkly humorous moments.
  
  All my writing is chiaroscuroed. Implicit in your question is conscious choice. I may proffer that it is the unconscious choices that often make for significant literature. Kafka writes “The Burrow” which influenced “Little Errands." The neurosis is mind-numbing, as this gopher-like creature seeks egress from underground tunnels. “The Penal Colony” is Poe with real substance.

  
  I read recently that Kafka would sit with his cronies and read his stories aloud and that they would laugh and laugh. Perhaps he was just having “fun.” In any case, he gave all of us this exquisite aphorism – “The meaning of life is that it ends.” Chew on that for the next month.
  
  Q: How did you find your publisher?
  
  A: After repeated rejections, I chose life. I self-published my book. Thoreau published 75 copies of Walden. I am encouraged. I have removed myself from the fray, how un-American.
  
  Q: Are you currently working on any new writing projects?
  
  A: If you go to http://www.mathiasbfreese.com/, I put up the first chapter in Gruffworld, a sci-fi fantasy I’ve been working on for decades. It is called “Covenant.” Queries for the Tetralogy, Sunless Sea, and Gruffworld are also there for perusal. Presently I’m working on Sojourner, which is a historical fiction dealing with a Chinese man who comes here during the Gold Rush. It is a philosophical disquisition of being and becoming, and the differences between both. The blog serves as a place for me to practice my craft, and there are stories and articles in full array. Go nosh.
  
  Q: Would you like to list any websites or links where readers can find more of your work?
  
  A: A remarkable and detailed review of the short story collection is at http://thefix-online.com/reviews/down-to-a-sunless-sea/.
  
  See this interview with David Herrle at http://www.subtletea.com/mattfreeseinterview.htm; excerpts are on my website.

  
  

  Derek Alger did an extensive interview with me: http://www.pifmagazine.com/SID/887/
  
  Finally Mayra Calvani reviewed the collection and did an interview. Go to http://thedarkphantom.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/interview-with-mathias-b-freese-author-of-down-to-a-sunless-sea/.

  
  

  If you Google my name for the Tetralogy, Sunless Sea, and Gruffworld, many pages come up for your perusal.
  
  Q: Final question, did you get a call from the governor of California? Or did he just knock your front door down?
  
  A: I fear Maria, not Arnie.
  
  Thank you, Mathias B. Freese for participating in this week's interview.

• 2008 Apr 12

  
  
  Book Release: A David Barringer Anthology (Jennifer Prado contributing author)
  Now Available for Pre-Order
  
  SO NEW PUBLISHING
  PO Box 3423 | Eugene, OR 97403
  James Stegall Publisher | www.SONEWPUBLISHING.com | james@SONEWPUBLISHING.com
  What Happened to Us
  These Last Couple Years?
  
  www.goodreads.com/book/show/
  2728091.What_Happened_To_Us_These_Last_Couple_Years_WHAT HAPPENED TO US THESE LAST COUPLE YEARS?
  
  
  WHAT HAPPENED TO US THESE LAST COUPLE YEARS?
  AN ANTHOLOGY OF EFFECT • EDITED BY DAVID BARRINGER
  
  “The working title for this anthology was The Bush Years, intended to refer to a time period rather than a subject matter. I wanted to know how events of the last several years affected your lives, changed the way you talked to your friends or family, depressed you, aggravated you, displaced you, bankrupted you, broke your heart, rendered you speechless and numb. Did the Patriot Act touch you? Did someone tap your wire? Was
  your house washed away? Were you laid off? Was your child left behind? What happened to you?”
  
  —Editor David Barringer, from the Introduction
  
  
  “Two years earlier, I’d hiked to the Lebanese-Israeli border to exchange cigarettes with gawky teenagers in IDF fatigues for a chance to look at Hizbollah positions through their binoculars. Helen had been to the border, too, on the other side looking in, or perhaps it was looking out. Had we glimpsed one another, tiny specks on the horizon?”
  
  —Joshua Gross, from his essay, “Killing an Arab, Loving an Arab”
  
  “Every time [my brother] leaves for a mission he gives things away. I suppose it is a natural tendency to want everything taken care of while one is away, but for him it’s more than that. He thinks he isn’t coming back. Before Kosovo he got rid of his clothes, before Korea his car, before Afghanistan his house. But this time is the worst. This time is Iraq, and he’s getting rid of everything.”
  
  —Catherine Price, from her essay, “Closet”
  
  “Someone on the phone the other day called me a ‘survivor of terror,’ which seems to me now as it seemed at the time a convenient way for the speaker to separate the fact that I ate lunch on Wednesday the 31st of July, 2002, from the fact that, he, too, ate lunch on that day....”
  
  —Spencer Dew, from his essay, “Ordinary Images”
  
  “Ever since Ahmadinejad came to power, life has gotten worse. Everything is more expensive and there are a lot more incidents. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there is a new campaign called ‘Fighting against bad hejab.’ The first day that they put the new police on the streets, they caught me and my friend.”
  
  —Ghazaleh Etezal’s cousin, from Ghazaleh’s piece, “Kolli Boos, Lost of Kisses”
  
  WHAT HAPPENED TO US THESE LAST COUPLE YEARS?
  IN ESSAYS, STORIES, PLAYS, POETRY, ART, RECIPES, EMAILS, NOTES, AND PHOTOS,
  33 CONTRIBUTORS SHARE WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM.
  AN ANTHOLOGY OF EFFECT
  EDITED BY DAVID BARRINGER
  
  Catherine Price's brother went to war. Alison Morse went to Paul Wellstone's funeral. Ghazaleh Etezal emailed her embattled cousin in Iran. Spencer Dew survived a bombing in Israel. Joshua Gross dated a Lebanese woman. Paul Toth's son went to war. Nick Cottrell volunteered after Hurricane Rita. Lee Klein envisioned an apocalypse. Faruk Ulay became paranoid. Heather Kelley got sick. Carla Hagen lost her mother and kept a friendship alive. James Reeve drove across America. Jennifer Prado fled to South America. Maggie Shearon lost her job. Maggie Smith pined for green.
  
  CONTENTS:
  ESSAY “KILLING AN ARAB, LOVING AN ARAB” | JOSHUA GROSS
  STORY “BIRDS” | CLAUDIA SMITH
  ESSAY “CLOSET” | CATHERINE PRICE
  POEM “ALERT” AND “GREEN” | MAGGIE SMITH
  ESSAY “THE MAN WHO COULD LIFT A HOUSE” | NICK COTTRELL
  ESSAY “ORDINARY IMAGES” | SPENCER DEW
  STORY “THE THINGS WE KNOW” | GRANT PERRY
  EMAIL “KOLLI BOOS, LOST OF KISSES” | GHAZALEH ETEZAL
  ESSAY “AFTER THE SPECTACLE” | ALISON MORSE
  ESSAY “SANTIAGO’S GIRAFFE” | MAGGIE SHEARON
  ESSAY “THE DECADE OF MY DISCONNECT” | JENNIFER PRADO
  ART “WALLS ARE DEAF” | FARUK ULAY
  POEM “WE THINK THIS IS PROGRESS” | KRISTINA MORICONI
  NOTES “LET’S BREAK EVERYTHING WE CAN” | DERON BAUMAN
  STORY “THE MOLE WARS” | JIM MCINVALE
  STORY “DRAG” | STEVE HIMMER
  ESSAY “I TALK POLITICS ANY CHANCE I GET” | TONY R. RODRIGUEZ
  POEM “NEW ORLEANS,” “CASSANDRE” | DIANE GIFFORD-GONZALEZ
  RECIPES “WAR & OTHER KITCHEN DISASTERS” | PATRICIA CUMBIE
  STORY “SAILING TOWARDS THE SHIPWRECK” | JAIME CAMPBELL
  LOG “AMERICAN BLEND” | JAMES A. REEVES
  STORY “THE WHITMAN FOUNDATION LEAGUE” | LEE KLEIN
  POEM “WHEN THE WAR STARTED” | HEATHER KELLEY
  ESSAY “NOTES FROM A NEW ORLEANS DAUGHTER”
  | SHERYL ST. GERMAIN
  STORY “IOWA: A LOVE STORY” | MIKE INGRAM
  POEM “IMPOSTERS” | JOSH OLSEN
  STORY “BULLETS HAVE NO EFFECT” | JOHN H. MATTHEWS
  POEM “FEAR” | DAVE MORRISON
  LETTER “ISAIAH WASHINGTON OR GADGETRY 101” | KEVIN R. FREE
  STORY “THE CELEBRITY ORDERS ROOM SERVICE” | DAVE HOUSLEY
  PLAY “TAP CLASS” | HEATHER KELLEY
  STORY “OUR LAST TIME IN THE VILLAGE” | SHARI GOLDHAGEN
  LETTER “LETTERS TO DIANA” | CARLA HAGEN
  ESSAY “COLD FRONT” | PAUL A. TOTH
  
  
  SO NEW PUBLISHING
  PO Box 3423 | Eugene, OR 97403
  
  James Stegall Publisher | www.SONEWPUBLISHING.com | james@SONEWPUBLISHING.com
  Little Books, Big Ideas.
  
  Since 2001, we’ve published edgy, sexy, funny and furious work by writers who proved their mettle online.
  
  About So New
  So New is based in Eugene, OR. Our staff consists of a few very dedicated people who make books because they love making books. We use recycled materials, combine digital and handmade methods, and are always figuring out new ways to put words on paper. Each of our books is a unique production, so you always know you’re getting something special. What Happened to Us...? is no exception.
  
  DAVID BARRINGER is the author of the comic novel about suburban fatherhood, American Home Life (So New Publishing 2007). He has written for Emigre, I.D. Magazine, Eye Magazine, Playboy, Details, The American Prospect, Nerve, AIGA’s Voice, Epoch, The Detroit Free Press, The ABA Journal, Men’s Journal, and many others. In 2005, he published his first novel, Johnny Red (Word Riot Press), and his first book of design criticism, American Mutt Barks in the Yard (co-published by Emigre and Princeton Architectural Press.)

• 2007 Nov 16

  
  

  Shout Out from Julie Ann Shapiro - (Julie was previously interviewed by EMERGE - New Authors in September 2006 )

  
  

  
  

  Jen-Zen and The One Shoe Diaries - Modern Cinderella Novel is Getting Stellar Reviews
  Paperback Pre-orders Now Available

  
  

  
  Encinitas, California – Award winning fiction author, Julie Ann Shapiro announces the publication of her novel, Jen-Zen and The One Shoe Diaries from SynergeBooks.com and the advance reviews.

  
  

  
  In the novel a successful photographer is haunted by the memory of a girlfriend he lost and the connection he feels to her while photographing shoes. Jen-Zen and the One Shoe Diaries is a modern Cinderella story filled with love, lost shoes and whimsy.

  
  

  
  When given an advance copy of the novel the Executive Director of the Southern California Writers Conference, Michael Steven Gregory stated, “Haunting and hypnotic, Shapiro's debut novel will long linger in the reader's mind. JEN-ZEN illuminates the beauty to be found in the dark vacuum of unfathomable personal loss, and inspires. “
  
  In an upcoming review which will be published in the December issue of New Myths editor, Scott Barnes stated that,” This a singular book, original in voice, thoughtful in tone and that the shoes seem to be telling Brad something. Jen-Zen has had an accident and is trying to communicate from somewhere beyond. Can Brad use his photographer’s art to rescue his true love?”

  
  

  
  Synerge Books is now taking pre-orders for Jen-Zen and the One Shoe Diaries trade paperback which will be available in December. The ebook and CD-Rom version of the novel are now available from Synergebooks.com.

  
  

  
  About Julie Ann Shapiro Julie Ann Shapiro is a freelance writer, novelist and short story author. Her fiction is best described as literary, quirky and in the magic realism vein. Julie is the winner of the 2006 Best Little Christmas Story Contest and received recognition as a Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2004. She has over fifty published short stories.

  
  

  
  For more information about the novel, Jen-Zen and The One Shoe Diaries visit Synergebooks.com http://www.synergebooks.com/ebook_oneshoediaries.html.
  

  
  

  Contact Information
  Contact Julie Ann Shapiro at julie@julieannshapiro.com, or at
  http://www.julieannshapiro.com/.

  Congratulations, Julie! Best wishes.

• 2007 Nov 15

  Thank you, Marcy Mendelson (Publisher, Editor, Producer, and Photographer - Root Magazine)
  for reprinting my Press Release for "Latina in Wonderland."
  
  http://rootmag.typepad.com/
  
  
  Thank you, Stuart Vail (Publisher, Editor of TheScreamOnLine.com) for adding me to your Book Shelf.
  
  http://www.thescreamonline.com/books.html

• 2007 Nov 10

  JENNIFER PRADO - Interviewed by SUSAN HENDERSON
  "Latina in Wonderland"
  Buy - Latina in Wonderland
  Comments from Readers

  
  

  Synopsis:
  Victoria and Alfredo move from the city to a Latin version of Wonderland and produce a juice called Liquid Passion that provokes unusual reactions in its consumers. Their twelve-year-old daughter, Honey, has a hummingbird living in her ear and possesses magical powers. Hungry for a story, an investigative reporter named Rigby Sloane, shows up and launches an international media frenzy. Honey and her pre-teen nemesis, John Firestarter,escape the chaos on her parents' farm and begin an underground journey, through an armadillo hole, on a quest to restore balance in the lives of their immediate families.

  Well, surprise. I'm launching a book of my own on Lulu.com and asked the very talented Susan Henderson to be my guest Blog Producer this week.
  

  Here are Sue´s questions:
  

  Q: I'd love to hear how this magical book came about. Was there a theme or an issue that nagged at you? Did the characters come first?
  

  A: Hi Sue. Thanks for being my guest interviewer. I’d feel funny interviewing myself (kind of like one step above talking to the mirror. Hey, girl in the mirror!) I grew up in a household that emphasized books and the imagination. My father is an English professor at Princeton University, an author of scholarly books, and wrote for a travel magazine (the one with all the glossy photos.) My mother is now a retired English teacher for a well-known private school and a photographer (my book’s cover image is one of her portraits.) My step-mother is a non-fiction author and journalist. My brother is a Ph.D candidate in Geography and one of the smartest people I know. So that leaves me: the dark sheep. Post-college, I took the business route and earned an MBA and currently work as a marketing strategist for Latin America. My first love is fiction. As a child, my television viewing was curbed and I was encouraged to read and invent my own entertainment. I liked Greek and Norse mythology and fairy tales about little people living in the walls of houses. When I was a teenager, I was an exchange student in South America and discovered authors who dabbled in magical realism.
  

  How this book happened, is really a chain of events. After college, I took the first job that allowed me to pay my outrageous Manhattan rent, and ten years later, I found myself with a career in international business. I secretly felt like an imposter. Here I was: a wanna-be author and liberal arts major who had gate crashed an exclusive country club. I had a lot of daydreams about living the artist’s life, but my Day Job took all my time and energy.

  Then, 9/11 happened and I watched it all go down from my office window, and decided I needed to make changes in a life that could end as abruptly as it did for many people that day. So, I made one of the great irrational decisions of my life (this one nearly topped getting married during my lunch break.) This time, it meant “quitting my job and writing that novel!” Quitting was fun (and frightening.) I left my job, my apartment, said good-bye to financial security and put my material possessions in my mother’s garage. Then, my husband and I moved to the countryside of São Paulo, Brazil and lived behind God’s back (aka: The Middle of Nowhere.)
  

  This would have been the perfect place to have a nervous breakdown, especially the part about not having a phone line or Internet service and feeling mighty small when I disappointed the other ranchers’ wives because I didn’t have any recipes to swap besides Mac and Cheese. But instead! One day, a hummingbird flew into our house and buzzed against the window, and waited for someone to release him. And, being a foreign woman in a new country where only my books spoke English, I discovered that somehow that hummingbird allowed me to return to the time of imaginary friends, and it was the image that spawned the short story, “Honey and the Hummingbird,” (published by Phoebe Kate Foster on DeadMule.com.) I expanded this story until it eventually became the Young Adult novel, “Latina in Wonderland.”
  

  The rest developed into a magical dream that I hope touches people and makes them re-evaluate what matters in this crazy life we live. Honey is the opposite of me. I was always a tom-boy who played sports and had dirty knees, while Honey is a girlie-girl. She’s the daughter I hope to have someday. The other characters were influenced by my rural surroundings. If you stare long enough at a green field filled with cows, you will imagine an entire novel. Believe me.
  

  Q: Tell me about some of the general themes and relationships in your book.
  

  A: There is the-miracle-of-birth theme and also the theme of what-happens-when -hipsters-decide-to-grow-up-and-become-parents. There is a let’s-go-back-to-a-Victorian-sense-of-innocence, when-people-didn’t-swear-and-carry-guns theme. There are the questions: can we better protect the planet and choose better leaders? There is a Latin, multi-cultural theme, since I’m an American writer who has spent a good portion of my life living and traveling abroad and experiencing other cultures. I’m trying to send dispatches back to the people with the TV off, who just might understand them. There is also a theme of both parental and pre-teen first love and the fear that these strong and unbridled emotions can generate. Also, there is a theme of: “can we transform ourselves?”
  

  In addition, this novel contains elements of “good and evil” and it asks how can we deal with them, and still be loveable beings? And of course, there is my blatant sub-agenda: “that this book will save the world and can we all please join hands and sing kumbaya.” (Was it obvious?)
  

  Q: I tend to write very realistically, so I'm fascinated by people who can leap into worlds that don't operate like ours. Talk to me about some of the magical realism in the book, and if you can, how you dream up these things.
  

  A: I have tried out many different styles. I can write bare-bones gritty realism, surreal fantasy, and urban chick lit. But I feel most myself, when I’m writing these modern fairy tales or fables. I try to look past our modern clutter to the future, and there I see images that are tied to our past: mythology and spiritual/quasi-religious themes.
  

  Maybe it's because I have spent so many years being serious (dealing with business people and their money) that magical realism allows me to escape into another world. I also studied filmmaking and screenwriting, so I have a tendency to see and hear a story when I’m writing it. I envision a storyboard and hear a song, like a composer. Sometimes there are gaps, so I go running and the gaps get filled when my brain relaxes.
  

  Q: Which authors have most influenced your writing? And who are you reading these days?
  

  A: Definite influences for this book: Isabel Allende, “Stories of Eva Luna,” Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” as well as, “Love in the Time of Cholera,” and Salman Rushdie, “Haroun and the Sea of Stories.” Also, Milan Kundera, Shel Silverstein, L. Frank Baum, Roald Dahl, C.S. Lewis, Clarice Lispector, Paulo Coelho, Julio Cortazar, Murilo Rubião, Moacyr Scliar, and Franz Kafka. Of course, just by my book’s title alone, there is an obvious tribute to the great Lewis Carroll. I'd like to think he gave official license for young people to search for their own personal rabbit holes in which to fall. Plus, beyond books, I’ve been influenced by the films of Luis Buñuel and Pedro Almodovar, as well as, the art of Salvador Dali. Plus, I read a lot of commercial novels and draw very geeky charts of the opening chapters in order to improve my understanding of pacing.
  

  These days, I read a great deal of new authors for my blog interviews and I’m very eclectic: my in-box right now has everyone from Hemingway to Atwood to A.S. Byatt to “Arabian Nights.” I’m a fan of Francesca Lia Block’s luscious modern fairy tales. Plus, I love David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs. Also, there is the totally non-famous, but incredible writer, Darby Larson, who I think is brilliant and fabulous. He makes me laugh and I wish someone would send “famous-brilliant, glitter dust” his way.
  

  Q: Describe to me the feeling you had when you finished writing your book and knew it was ready to send out.
  

  A: Well, Sue. When I finished, it was like, "OK. I have this precious little tree I want to plant. Where am I going to put it?"
  

  Q: When you imagine someone reading your book, what do you hope they experience?
  

  A: That a reader smiles, laughs, gets sentimental, cries and then ultimately feels uplifted. Plus, for this book, my author’s proceeds are donated to UNICEF, so I hope there is a sense of accomplishment and positivity.
  

  Q: How do you feel being in the driver's seat with promoting your book?
  

  A: It's scary, but it’s also what I know. I’m a biz lady, but this is more like finding a home for a pretty kitty I raised in a shoe box.
  

  Q: My advice to all book lovers is to tell people about the books they love because word of mouth is the number one way to sell a book. What makes you buy a book?
  

  A: Certain people who know me, and what I like, have gifted me with books. I’m always amazed that the books are such a good match for me. I’m a grazer: I love the bins at “The Strand" in New York City, and I’m sure if you are a young-and-up-and-coming author and winning awards, I’ll read you. Buzz alone, brought me to Zadie Smith and Jonathan Safran Foer, and I unabashedly say: I love you both. I’m constantly discovering new authors from my participation in Zoetrope.com and from the authors who write to me at this Blog.
  

  Q: Are you working on a new book now?
  

  A: Yes, I completely gutted my first novel, “Becoming Brazilian,” and tossed out the autobiographical “ick” factor, and the “new” novel is bigger, funnier, and more outrageous than I could ever imagine.

  
  “Becoming Brazilian” is about a young New York City woman who in one single day, loses both her job on Wall Street and her fiancé. She then uses her severance package to take a trip to Brazil, and the fun begins. It’s not magical realism. It’s gringa lit “on-the-road” and very funny, if I may say so.
  

  Thank you, Sue Henderson, for being my hostess-with-the-most-ess, and for being a super-talented blogger and author, and all-around nice and supportive person.
  

  Susan Henderson’s first novel, “Tap Root,” is forthcoming with St. Martin’s Press in 2008.
  

  Read more about Susan Henderson here:
  
  www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SusanHenderson

• 2007 Oct 28

  
  Press Release - Latina in Wonderland

• 2007 Jun 18

  On-Line Publishing Credits
  
  Essay About 9/11 - Restart of Writing Life
  
  http://www.thescreamonline.com/epiphanies/3-1epiphanies/prado.html
  http://towerofbabel.com/features/wtc/epiphanies/
  
  Translations of 9/11 Essay
  
  http://towerofbabel.com/features/wtc/epiphanies/spanish/
  http://towerofbabel.com/features/wtc/epiphanies/indonesian/
  http://towerofbabel.com/features/wtc/epiphanies/portuguese/
  

  Essay - Brazilian Carnival
  

  http://rootmag.typepad.com/root_magazine/2006/04/one_night_of_br.html

  Short Stories Published in On-line Magazines

  The Banker and the Buddhist - Mad Hatters Review
  

  http://www.madhattersreview.com/issue3/fiction_prado.shtml
  
  The Banker and the Buddhist was nominated for the 2006 StorySouth Million Writers Award, which honors the best online fiction of the year.
  
  http://www.storysouth.com/million_writers_award/2006/02/editor_nominations_for_million.html
  
  Honey and the Hummingbird - Spark of Life for Latina in Wonderland
  

  http://www.deadmule.com/content/word.of.mule.php?content_id=623
  

  Because I'm Pretty - Tower of Babel
  
  http://towerofbabel.com/sections/fiction/becauseimpretty/
  
  Van Gogh the Dog - Small Spiral Notebook
  

  http://www.smallspiralnotebook.com/Spring2003/vangoghprado.shtml

  I Loved Him First - Insolent Rudder
  

  http://www.insolentrudder.net/spring2006_I_loved_him_first.html

  Stolen Gestures - SN Review
  

  http://www.geocities.com/joseph_conlin/SNReviewSummer2003/0603jp.html

  Prickly Skin - Pindeldyboz
  

  http://www.pindeldyboz.com/jpprickly1.htm
  http://www.pindeldyboz.com/jpprickly2.htm

  No Purpose and Hurry Up - 2 Stories - Featured Author - Muse Apprentice Guild
  

  http://www.muse-apprentice-guild.com/spring_2003/jenniferprado-fiction-featured/literary_magazine.html

  Managing Desire - Word Riot
  

  http://www.wordriot.org/template.php?ID=24

  Convergence - Nuvein Magazine

  http://nuvein.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=181&Itemid=37

  Touch Therapy - Nuvein Magazine
  

  http://www.nuvein.com/fiction17/touch_therapy_final.html

  Fourth World Girl - Nuvein Magazine
  

  http://www.nuvein.com/fiction18/fourthworldgirl.html

  Sorte - Web del Sol

  http://www.webdelsol.com/InPosse/prado16.htm

  
  Translations of Because I'm Pretty
  

  http://towerofbabel.com/sections/fiction/becauseimpretty/yiddish/

  http://towerofbabel.com/sections/fiction/becauseimpretty/greek/

  http://towerofbabel.com/sections/fiction/becauseimpretty/russian/
  

  http://towerofbabel.com/sections/fiction/becauseimpretty/brazilianportuguese/
  

  http://towerofbabel.com/sections/fiction/becauseimpretty/spanish/
  
  http://towerofbabel.com/sections/fiction/becauseimpretty/italian/

  
  

  
  

• 2007 Apr 03

  
  CLAIRE CAMERON - Interview
  
  
  Blog Interview of the Week
  
  "The Line Painter" - HarperCollins, Canada - April 2007
  
  Author's Website
  
  HarperCollins-Canada
  
  
  Plot synopsis: from back cover of book
  
  It's 1:08 a.m. when Carrie's car breaks down on the highway somewhere north of Lake Superior. It's dark, the road is quiet, her cell phone is down, and she is alone. She took off from Toronto that morning, running from grief over the death of her boyfriend and unable to cope with the truth about the events that led to it. The relief Carrie feels as a truck pulls up soon turns to fear after its driver offers her a lift. Frank, her would-be rescuer, is a line painter, painting lines on the road "to stop people from being killed." But after Carrie gets in the truck, she starts to realize this will be the road trip of her life - a trip of terror, transformation, and forgiveness.
  
  Claire Cameron has created a unique portrait of Carrie, a young woman whose actions are driven by grief and shame, her personality a beguiling combination of naivete and street-smarts. Frank is equally sharply drawn, his flashes of humour and tenderness disguising the wreckage within. Written in spare, unvarnished prose that brims with menace against the forbidding backdrop of a northern landscape, The Line Painter takes us on a riveting trip down a twisted road of memory and redemption.
  
  
  Hi Claire. Thanks in advance for appearing in this week's interview space. I read "The Line Painter" yesterday in one sitting, and admit that I kept bracing myself for the worst to happen. The tension in the story, as well as, the pacing of a dialog-driven structure, really kept things moving. Since the book is soon to be released this month, I don't want to give away any plot elements and ruin a future reader's experience. Due to these considerations, I'm going to focus on your background as an author and the techniques you applied while writing this novel.
  
  
  Q: My first question, I understand from your biography, that you are currently based in Canada, but until recently worked in London, and also have a young son. Did the writing project come first or did this transition in your life provide the time and space to complete this project?
  
  
  A: The transition in my life did everything it could to try and stop me. But, getting a novel published, like having babies, isn't something you can necessarily plan. I signed with my agent when I was about 5 months pregnant. She wanted me to do a big revision and I decided I needed to get it done before the baby came. I will never forget writing the last part of that draft--I had to stand up to type because I was so huge.
  
  
  Q: In the opening, you have a brief author's statement that says "'Hearst'(the town) is real, but the story is made up." I'm always curious about the origin of the creative spark that launches the story in the author's mind. Your website mentions that you wrote music about a "line painter" before your wrote this novel. Did the inspiration come from this music or is the story inspired by what can happen when a woman travels alone: a collective "worst-nightmare scenario?"
  
  
  A: I have travelled alone a lot. The first time I did, I bought a van and drove across Canada. One day, I was driving and got stuck behind a line painting truck. I was watching the paint go down and thought it looked like a satisfying job, because the line was so crisp and clean and all you do is drive all day. That was when I first got obsessed by the idea of line painting.
  
  I was living in London UK, over 10 years later, when I wrote and recorded the song 'Painting Lines'. The song was horrific (because I can't sing or play the guitar), but I still loved the idea, so I started to write.
  
  
  Q: I have a feeling that whenever a young female author writes about a character who happens to be a young female, like Carrie, the obvious question comes up: do you feel "close" to Carrie or is she a character who has a "psychological make-up" that is very far removed from you, and did that distance make it easier for you to tell her story?
  
  
  A: I do feel close to the main character, Carrie, but she isn't me. She is impulsive and does things that I would never do (but have thought about doing.) That's what made her interesting to me.
  
  Similarly, I feel close to the line painter, Frank. My husband says, after living with me for 10 years, that I'm a lot like him. Those who have read the book will understand that this is not really a compliment.
  
  
  Q: I enjoyed that you were able to tell two stories at once: Carrie's flight from a recent personal tragedy and her conflict with a man who may be trying to help her or may actually want to hurt her, as well as, the reconstruction of the events and people in the life she has left behind. Sometimes a dual approach, can seem slightly schizophrenic, but I thought you skillfully placed each flashback in a space where Carrie had the opportunity to be thinking about her past. It seemed effortless, but was it difficult to create this effect?
  
  
  A: Nothing about writing is effortless for me. I find it painstaking. But, pacing is something I try not to overthink. I write intutively first, kind of line you might drum a beat for a melody if you were writing a song. This is how I find the heart of the story. Then, I rewrite endlessly and try to tuck in all the ends.
  
  Q: I also liked the incorporation of the phone messages left in Carrie's voice mail from concerned friends and family. They also help to heighten the novel's tension. Did you write these sections in the first draft or decide to add them later?
  
  
  A: The voice mail messages were in the book from the start. I wanted to give the reader background without breaking the tension. As the plot developed, I ended up changing the messages a lot. They are short and sharp, so every word had to be just right.
  
  
  Q: I have a question about the bear that appears in the story. I also noticed from your biography that you have worked with Outward Bound. Have you had your own run-in with a bear or some kind of dangerous animal?
  
  
  A: Well, yes. But, it wasn't when I worked for Outward Bound (unless you count the scorpians I used to find in my shoes.) The bear in my book is a mix of two different experiences.
  
  
  The first was when I was hiking on my own near Canmore, Alberta. I was a two day walk from my van when I rounded a bend into an alpine meadow and saw a Grizzly bear in the distance. It looked over at me. I immediately backed up, but that took me back around the bend, so I could no longer see the bear.
  
  
  I decided to drop my pack, as it had all my food, and climb a tree. This is, argubly, a pointless thing to do. If a Grizzly wants to get you out of a tree, it probably can. I sat in the tree for hours, unable to see the bear and unsure about what to do. When I finally got the nerve to come down, the bear was gone. I kept walking and never saw it again. Later, when I was telling the story, I could see a lot of humour in the situation. I was scared to the bone and the bear, as with most in the wild, couldn't have cared less. When I remember it, I can almost picture the bear looking at me and shrugging. It was such a big deal to me, but nothing actually happened. It was an adventure I manufactured in my head.
  
  
  The second was during university, when I planted trees to make money around Hearst where the book is set. Treeplanting is something a lot of Canadian students do, you work 11 hours days, planting saplings and get paid by the tree. Our camp happened to be in an area where the park service released black bears, from down south, that had grown accustomed to garbage as a food source. I wasn't there at the time, but a few of my friends had a bad run-in with a bear that was sick and desperate. Three of them ended up in a tree, with the bear snapping at their boots. It was a close call.
  
  Q: I'm always curious to know about a writer's path to become a published author. How did you find your agent and publisher?
  
  A: My agent plucked my book from her slush pile. I knew some of the authors she represented and queried her. I still feel quite lucky that my writing struck a chord with her that day. She has a great reputation and I'm sure that being represented by her helped me to get a publishing deal.
  
  Q: What are the plans, post launch, in terms of marketing the book? Is the focus on Canada first or is it a global approach (or simultaneous approach to the entire English-speaking market?)
  
  
  A: It is Canada first, but only because the book hasn't been picked up in the US or UK. If it does well in Canada, it may get published elsewhere, but you never know.
  
  
  Q: What were some of the easiest scenes to write and which ones took more effort? Was your editor helpful in giving you a nudge when you needed it?
  
  
  A: Writing is never easy for me (unfortunately), but I would say the dialogue, especially between Carrie and Frank, came fairly easily. I had a clear picture of both of them, so writing their banter was satisfying.
  
  My editor steered clear while I was writing a draft, but had really helpful comments after. She asked a few questions that I couldn't really answer. I used these as a jumping off point for the rewrite.
  
  Q: Claire, this is going to be a busy month for you. Do you have anything you would like to announce in this forum: upcoming readings or future projects?
  
  A: I am doing some signings at Husky Truck Stops. If you happen to be driving around Ontario near the end of April, keep an eye out for me.
  
  My up-to-date schedule is on my website - Claire Cameron's Appearances
  
  "The Line Painter" is in Canadian bookstores on April 7th. For those in the US and elsewhere, it can be ordered on Amazon.ca.(they ship anywhere)
  
  Amazon Canada
  
  Thank you, Claire, for participating in this week's interview space, and best wishes for a successful launch of "The Line Painter."
  
  Claire Cameron