Category: Reading and Books

I wouldn’t mind squeezing Margaret Atwood (via ArtsJournal).

So this article #436 about how being a midlist author (not a superstar, not a complete washout) has been making the rounds lately. It contains all the usual grievences– that editors don’t edit anymore, that no one tells the author anything and that ultimately, you are responsible for the marketing and destiny of your book. Esteemed literary webloggers from Terry Treachout, MJ Rose, and a fellow named Duncan Merrell whom I wasn’t familiar with have weighed in with much more reasoned arguments than I could surmount.

Articles like this make me nervous and angry at the same time. For one, I can’t deal with writers seeing themselves as helpless victims in the publishing process. It’s self-indulgent, distructive and a gross misperception. When artists learn to empower themselves, to believe they belong because they say so out loud, we’ll hopefully be done with our own imagined martryrdom forever.

On the other hand, I will probably be a midlist author for the remainder of my career. I don’t imagine my books taking off in a way that assures me fame and fortune. I will probably always have to yank on my hustling pants, throw my megaphone over my shoulder and promote the heck out of my stuff. I can do it now (am looking forward to doing it now) because I am young, in good health, have no kids, and have a girlfriend who is understanding and has her own friends.

This will not always be the case. I won’t always have the energy nor the time to hype my books the way they will need to be hyped. I probably won’t always have family and friends who will want to listen to a song and dance every two years when another book comes out. Is this what it will take, forever? Most likely. I just if I’ll be able to for that long.

Seen at the SF Zine Fest yesterday afternoon (the panel went real well too)

Little Elegy: A zine of “tiny lit”, stories that are 100 words or less. It’s creator, Colleen Marlow, organized the workshop that I sat in on and did a fine job.

Constant Rider: Stories from the world of riding public transportation.

Media Whore: “Media from a Feminist Perspective”. Or as I put it, Bitch with snazzier binding.

Modest Proposal magazine: A Pheonix-based tabloid about stand-up comedy. Fine illustrations.

King Cat Comics: I just really like the name.

The fine folks at Microcosm Publishing: The top of the zine distro heap.

Good crop this year.

Readerville founder Karen Templer has published an excellent essay on how author websites best serve their purpose and when they often don’t. It’s up at MJ Rose’s new Publisher’s Marketplace blog on book promotion, an invaluable resource for both published and aspiring authors.

On the gravestone of W.B. Yates, in a little Irish town called Drumcliff, is this quote.

“Cast a cold eye, on life, on death.
Horseman, pass by.”

I was oddly moved by this. On the one hand, it seems almost cynical as if the very act of mourning is suspect. Don’t bother, pass day.

But I sat there in the sun and thought. Maybe it’s more about the limited time we have here and about letting it go when it’s gone. Maybe, if Yates speaking directly and not in verse he would have said this.

“My time here is up. Please don’t waste your life mourning mine. Mine is over. Walk on. Let me go. Pass by.”

I like that better. What do you think it means?

The New York Review of Magazines takes a long hard look at the business they themselves are apart of. Another fine product of the Columbia School of Journalism. Who knew (via Arts Journal)?

Dear Friends,

It’s all about Litquake for the next 10 days which is why were late to the party with this edition of The Smoke Signal. Read on…

SAVE THE DATE: Litquake, San Francisco’s largest literary festival rumbles into town next week, Thurs. Sept 18-Sun Sept 21. Over 80 authors including Dorothy Allison, Po Bronson, former Poet Laureate Robert Hass, JT LeRoy and Irvine Welsh will be reading at the main festival on Saturday and Sunday.

The festival begins with an opening panel on Thursday night entitled “Creative Demons: Writers Behaving Badly” that I’ll be moderating. I’ll also be reading as part of the Saturday Night event along with Irvine Welsh and JT Leroy. It’s an honor.

A complete schedule of Litquake events and all relevent details is here:

http://www.litquake.org

A complete list of authors reading is here…

http://www.litquake.org/2003/EventAuthors.html

Litquake is the Bay Area’s most exciting literary happening of the year. The main festival is entirely free and the remainder of the events are all under $10. It’s a must attend for fans of books, authors, and literature in the region. You won’t be sorry.

Also, should you live in the Bay Area and always wanted to right a novel, the fall semester of classes begins this week at A Clean Well Lighted Place for Books.

Fiction Writing with Donna Levin
10 Wednesdays, Sept. 17 – Nov. 19 � 6:30 – 9PM
$300 ($150 due at registration, balance on first class)

This class is designed for the serious writer – both novice and
experienced. Using student work as a springboard, Donna will
cover the essentials of craft: plot, character, voice, dialogue.
Students should be prepared to share their work. Includes one
private consultation.

Donna Levin has taught writing for more than 10 years.
She�s the author of
Get That Novel Written.

ACWLP is on Van Ness at Turk in San Francisco
www.bookstore.com

-RECOMMENDED BOOKS-

I’ve been a fan of Sherman Alexie for since I heard a radio program about “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven”, his first collection of short stories that was the basis of the film “Smoke Signals.” I’ve since followed his career religiously, reading his newest book whenever I got my hands on it, which is something I rarely do with any author.

“Ten Little Indians” (Grove Press, $24 in Hardcover, 243 pp) is actually nine stories mostly about Indians living off the reservation and in major cities. It’s an artistic leap forward for Alexie whose tone here is loose and wearied. I’m about 2/3 of the way through and loving it. It’s the kind of book where you say “I’ll just read a few pages before bed” and then you look up and it’s dawn.

You many remember one of the stories “What you Pawn, I Will Redeem” debuted in the New Yorker a few months ago.

Get your own:

link

“Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books” by Paul Collins (Bloomsbury, $23.95 in Hardcover, 224 pp.) was passed along to me by an officemate with the suggestion that Paul Collins would be great for my anthology. I read it on two long airplane flights, to and from my brother’s wedding and loved every bit.

Collins, a writer with a thing for old books and obscure literature, his wife and young son were living in an overpriced apartment in San Francisco when they decided it was time to look for something more affordable. Hye-on-Rye is a tiny town in England with more booksellers per capita than any municipality in the world. To Collins, it seemed like a perfect match.

What followed is the family’s search for a house, tentative mating dances with their potential neighbors and piles and piles of books. Collins’s writing style is loose, smart and allows itself plenty of time for segues, some pointless but all of them fun. It’s the kind of book which is over way too fast and sends you searching for a hidden chapter, somewhere past the back cover.

A must read for any bibliophile. If you weren’t, would you be reading this?

Sixpence House:

link

“Portraits of Guilt” by Jeanne Boylan is the autobiography of perhaps the world’s most famous crime sketch artist. I put it on my Amazon wish list after seeing a segment about her on “Unsolved Mysteries.” My friend Matt get it for me for my birthday.

Boylan is best known for the sketches that cracked the Polly Klass kipnapping, the Oaklahoma City bombing and the now iconic Unibomber drawing. She ain’t much of a writer but her life story essentially spans every major crime of the last decade. And I’m into that sort of thing. Check my Tivo. Nothing but “Unsolved Mysteries” and “City Confidential” episodes.

Guilty!: link

-END RECOMMENDED BOOKS-

Remember friends. Litquake all weekend (www.litquake.org) mostly free, all cool. Don’t miss it.

Kevin

Written while listening to “Freak Out” by Chic.

Ah, the weekend of the San Francisco Library Booksale. Miles and miles of books at rock bottom prices. Could there be anything sweeter?

I got to go early this year since I joined the Friends and Foundation of the San Francisco Public Library. It’s great since you the selection hasn’t been picked over yet but not so great since everything is “full” price. See on Sunday, the last day of the sale, they try to unload inventory by marking everything down to a dollar. So while I got some great stuff, I probably spent more than I wanted to.

No matter. It’s pretty much pointless to strategize. The books are barely organized into only the most general categories. What you do find is largely a matter of luck.

Prize finds: A hardcover copy of Aimee Bender’s Girl in the Flammable Skirt, one of the best book I read last year that I had checked out of the library. Now I’ve got one of my own.

My friends Wendy and Min Jung were kind enought to accompany me. Amy and Erin met us there. I learned quickly that sale isn’t such a social outing, as everyone has their own browsing agenda and moves at a separate pace. It’s better to have brunch together beforehand.

Spent much of Sunday eve working a reading event for Litquake that served as a joint fundraiser for 826 Valencia, Dave Eggers writing-lab/pirate store project for kids.

Though the lineup was spectaular (Glen David Gold, Aimee Bender, Michael Chabon and Eggers himself to name but a few), our publicity was lackluster which led me to believe that we’d get a decent but not great turnout.

I worked the door and, how can I put this? Dave Eggers should run for governor of California. Or failing that he should run for Messiah. I think there’s an opening.

Not only did we turn away 50-75 people after we reached capacity but about a dozen waited patiently in the lobby to see if anyone left the crowded, hot auditorium at intemission so they could slip in. Among them were two adorable young women who didn’t recognize a single author on the bill but looked heartbroken when I told them they might miss Dave reading. They spent the first half of the show camped out on the front stoop like I did for AC/DC tickets 15 years ago.

If this is any indication what sort of place literature has in the minds of this generation, my book is off to a rollicking start. Oh and Dave Eggers should start a cult, while his got all this momenteum built up.

Run don’t walk to acquire some of the few remaining copies of All This is Mine, a beautiful little zine by a woman named Sugene. The issue I have (#9) has a key ring, several erasers, and a page composed entirely of letters. This is zine making on a whole other level, a Griffin and Sabine level where each book is a little bound work of art. In this case, they’re available for $5. Wow.