-->
Of the various sub-sub-genres that currently litter the literary landscape, the Small Town With A Secret is one of my favorites, just because it is so American. But as I spoke with Melissa Marr about 'Graveminder,' I found the origin of the novel was anything but American. That wasn't the first or the last surprise in our conversation.
I met Marr at Bookshop Santa Cruz, and we started our conversation with her Wicked Lovely series. For those tempted to think that reading is a dying art, writers like Marr are the bringers of hope and joy. Marr has carved out a huge section of young readers and brought them into the world of supernatural fiction with her inventive version of the world of Faerie. As a long-time devotee to the work of Arthur Machen, I'm heartened to see this particular sub-genre exploding as well.
But the main course was of course 'Graveminder.' For a book that goes down very smoothly, it's a work that draws from an impressive collection of sources and resources. And one of the great joys of speaking with an author is to track down those sources and explore them for listeners.
My hope is that as listeners hear a conversation about where a book comes from, they'll be able to enjoy the book more whether they hear that conversation before or after they read the book. Just follow this link to the MP3 audio file of my conversation with Melissa Marr. And if you'd like to see a video, email me to let me know, because we are working on bringing video to the site.
06-29-11:Andrea Hairston and Pan Morigan Interviewed at SF in SF on May 7, 2011
"...I think it's real at the same time that's it's magic—" "Sometimes the stories that we tell are more real than a bunch of facts."
—Andrea Hairston and Pan Morigan
Keeping up with Andrea Hairston and Pan Morigan is almost like refereeing at a tennis championship. The subject moves back and forth with lightning speed and you'd better have your mic ready to move. As I sat down with them at SF in SF on May 7, 2011, I was still coming down from their performance. Once we started talking, I was no longer on a downward emotional arc.
Morigan and Hairston are enthusiastic about their collaboration. Morigan has to learn to play the banjo, and Hairston had to bring all her drama-teacher skills to apply to her own readings. Digging into the dual sources of this performance, the music and the book, was made much easier by two smart artists who knew how to talk about their art.
Hairston relied on family lives and research to drive her novel, while Morigan used her sense of naïve and native music to turn what is normally a twang into a keening, steel-guitarish tone. Alas, she's not playing the banjo, but you can hear her voice, as well Hairston, by following this link to the much-longer-than-usual MP3 audio file.
06-27-11:A 2011 Phone Interview with David S. Goyer and Michael Cassutt
Click image for audio link.
"It happened in a very circuitous fashion..."
—David S. Goyer
The technology required to get a good recording of a phone conversation is surprisingly sophisticated, because the technology behind the phones themselves is unchangeably rudimentary. These days, at least, you need something to digitally scrub your voice from the mix. And once you're there, you still need to hope for a good phone line connection. Phones have been around for over a hundred years. You might think that in the 21st century all of this seemingly simple stuff would be a done deal. It's not.
Fortunately, I have the NPR-approved telephone interview recording box, and better still, I had a crystal-clear line to the offices of David S. Goyer and Michael Cassutt. And technology is very much in one's mind when one has read 'Heaven's Shadow.'
For a book that seems ultimately quite bookish, full and satisfying, 'Heaven's Shadow' proves to have had a very un-bookish inception. I traced the very strange — but not unfamiliar — history of this collaboration with Goyer and Cassut, who both proved to be every bit as articulate and entertaining as the novel they wrote.
One of the reasons it is fun to talk to writers about their books is because they'll often talk about the books that inspired them. Goyer and Cassutt dropped some significant names; the sort of writers whose very mention taps wellsprings of reader emotion. This is no accident; Goyer and Cassutt are quite effective at doing this themselves.
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."
