Novelizing

Russian writers not convinced by new Putin stage demonstration

vmramos — Sun, 20 May 2012 22:59:00 -0400

Russian writers not convinced by new Putin stage demonstration:

“The meaning of this stroll is to show that we didn’t like the way authorities treated us in the first days of Putin’s presidential term […] If that was the face of a new Putin we’ve been promised — we don’t want this. He can either change his ways or we will stay on the streets.”

Grigory Chkhartishvili, known by pen name Boris Akunin, quoted by The Associated Press, via The Washington Post (Washington, D.C., USA), May 13, 2012.

From digital age writers: e-books like pancakes

vmramos — Sun, 20 May 2012 22:51:14 -0400

From digital age writers: e-books like pancakes:

The push for more material comes as publishers and booksellers are desperately looking for ways to hold onto readers being lured by other forms of entertainment, much of it available nonstop and almost instantaneously. Television shows are rushed online only hours after they are originally broadcast, and some movies are offered on demand at home before they have left theaters. In this environment, publishers say, producing one a book a year, and nothing else, is just not enough.

Julie Bosman, The New York Times (New York City, USA), May 12, 2012.

Elizabeth Taylor, the writer...

vmramos — Sun, 20 May 2012 22:40:31 -0400

Elizabeth Taylor, the writer...:

Her preferences in fiction mirrored a life in which, as she acknowledged, “nothing sensational, thank heavens, has ever happened.” Favoring novels and stories true to her experience, she wrote “in scenes, rather than in narrative, which I find boring,” and preferred writing and reading books in which “practically nothing happens” and very little gets resolved—a fact that makes summarizing her books pointless and, well, boring.

Benjamin Schwarz, The Atlantic (USA), September 2007.

"If Kafka had been a woman, then Gregor Samsa would not have turned into an insect, he would not have..."

vmramos — Sun, 20 May 2012 00:01:00 -0400

““If Kafka had been a woman, then Gregor Samsa would not have turned into an insect, he would not have had to. Gregor would be Gretel and she would wake up one morning pregnant. She would try to roll over and discover she was stuck on her back. She would wave her little hands uselessly in the air.””

- Novelist Anne Enright in “Making Babies,” her memoir, as quoted by Dwight Gardner’s book review in The New York Times (New York City, USA), May 10, 2012.

Novelist Enright writes books in different places

vmramos — Sat, 19 May 2012 23:41:37 -0400

Novelist Enright writes books in different places:

I don’t write two books in the same place. I seem to have settled on a chair that I write. I’m very happy with it.

Anne Enright, interview with The Independent (London, UK), May 5, 2012.

Biography: Tolstoy was 'an indefatigable copulator'

vmramos — Sat, 19 May 2012 02:14:00 -0400

Biography: Tolstoy was 'an indefatigable copulator':

Before he married 19-year-old Sofya Bers, he made her read his diaries of debauchery. ‘I never got over the shock,’ she said, but for many years they were very happy. She made fair copies of his novels as well as bearing him eight children in the first eight years.

Peter Lewis, reviewing “Tolstoy” by A.N. Wilson, the Daily Mail (London, U.K.), May 3, 2012.

Satirical novelist David Bowman dead at 54

vmramos — Sat, 19 May 2012 02:07:00 -0400

Satirical novelist David Bowman dead at 54:

Mr. Bowman’s books — which almost never came to be after he was hit by a car in 1989 and suffered a brain injury — achieved a devoted following among readers who love highly allusive literary fiction in which plot, character and landscape are subordinated to the narrator’s absolute freedom of movement.

Paul Vitello, The New York Times (New York City, USA), May 3, 2012.

Writer: Prescribe romance novels to raise libido

vmramos — Sat, 19 May 2012 02:00:30 -0400

Writer: Prescribe romance novels to raise libido:

“My gynecologist told me that she ‘prescribes’ romance novels to her patients, to jumpstart libidos dampened by childcare, work and everyday stress,” Maher said. “I frequently sneak romance novels to friends for this very reason, and it works.”

Rebecca Rogers Maher speaking to Joanna Prisco, Carroll Gardens Patch (Queens, New York City, USA), May 3, 2012.

Buddhist novelist against Japan's reactivation of nuclear plant

vmramos — Sat, 19 May 2012 01:53:03 -0400

Buddhist novelist against Japan's reactivation of nuclear plant:

She described the government’s moves to restart two idled reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Oi nuclear power plant after the Fukushima nuclear crisis as “scary.” “I think they are acting strangely,” she said.

Story about Jakucho Setouchi in The Mainichi (Tokyo, Japan), May 2, 2012.

Carlos Fuentes made his voice heard

vmramos — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:33:29 -0400

Carlos Fuentes made his voice heard:

…it was mainly through his literature, Mr. Fuentes believed, that he could make his voice heard, and he did so prolifically and inventively, tracing the history of modern Mexico in layered stories that also explored universal themes of love, memory and death. In “The Death of Artemio Cruz,” a 1962 novel that many call his masterpiece, his title character, an ailing newspaper baron confined to his bed, looks back at his climb out of poverty and his heroic exploits in the Mexican Revolution, concluding that it had failed in its promise of a more egalitarian society.

Anthony DePalma, The New York Times (New York City, USA), May 15, 2012.

Carlos Fuentes remembered as bold writer

vmramos — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:26:09 -0400

Carlos Fuentes remembered as bold writer:

Well, the American writers I know weren’t influenced by him line by line or even paragraph by paragraph because of the language difference, but I think he showed us just how big and inventive and bold and daring a writer could be, taking imaginative themes and tying them to everyday life of ordinary people.

Alan Cheuse remembering Fuentes in All Things Considered, NPR (USA), May 15, 2012.

Mexico's Carlos Fuentes couldn't write in Mexico

vmramos — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:22:14 -0400

Mexico's Carlos Fuentes couldn't write in Mexico:

“Mexico City, you know, first of all, there’s the altitude. Then there’s the air that is no longer clear. You have lunch from 3 to 6. Then you have dinner from 11 to 2.”

Carlos Fuentes quoted in report, Elizabeth Blair, NPR (USA), May 16, 2012.

Krasznahorkai only transcribing characters' voices in 'ecstatically long sentences'

vmramos — Sun, 13 May 2012 12:44:00 -0400

Krasznahorkai only transcribing characters' voices in 'ecstatically long sentences':

If I go on to consider my “ecstatically long sentences,” at first nothing particular comes to mind. Then, on reconsideration, I suspect that these long ecstatic sentences have no relation to theory or to any idea I might have about the Hungarian language, or indeed any language, but are the direct products of the “ecstatic” heroes of my books, that they proceed directly from them. It is not me but they who serve as narrators behind the book. I myself am silent, utterly silent in fact. And since that is the case I can hear what these heroic figures are saying, my task then being simply to transcribe them.

László Krasznahorkai in interview with Paul Morton, The Millions (USA), May 9, 2012.

Novelist Knode changes genre, is 'a recovering noir person'

vmramos — Sun, 13 May 2012 12:19:00 -0400

Novelist Knode changes genre, is 'a recovering noir person':

“I really believe now I have my laughter and fun platform,” she says. “I feel like the world’s not having much fun and for a long time that included me. I just want to write light but intelligent stuff. I feel like Wildcat Play is like that.”

Story by Eric Volmers, Calgary Herald (Calgary, Alberta, Canada), May 8, 2012.

Sendak was obsessed with 'how children survive'

vmramos — Sun, 13 May 2012 11:59:47 -0400

Sendak was obsessed with 'how children survive':

…his fascination with the inner life of children was undeniable, and he spent his life wondering — aloud and in writing — what makes them tick. In a 2002 interview with children’s book historian Leonard Marcus, he declared his life’s work: “The question I am obsessed with is: how do children survive?”

Story by Bonnie Rochman, Time (USA), May 9, 2012.

Unhappyness was 'a badge of endurance' for Sendak

vmramos — Sun, 13 May 2012 11:55:00 -0400

Unhappyness was 'a badge of endurance' for Sendak:

“He came from an unhappy background. He would talk about it often, as if it was a badge of endurance, kind of a championship that he won, to see how long he could survive his background, and a lot of that came out in his work,” said Heller.

Shazia Khan, NY1 (New York City, USA), March 8, 2012.

Sendak 'wasn't afraid to explore' children's dark side

vmramos — Sun, 13 May 2012 11:47:00 -0400

Sendak 'wasn't afraid to explore' children's dark side:

“He changed children’s writing, and American culture with it,” said Amy B. Jordan, director of the Media and the Developing Child sector at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. “He wasn’t afraid to explore the complex, dark, baffling side of children’s minds.”

Story by John Timpane, The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA), May 10, 2012.

Experiencing 'writer's block'? Take a break

vmramos — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:17:48 -0400

Experiencing 'writer's block'? Take a break:

You’re stuck? Don’t panic. Give the problem to your subconscious to figure out. Work on something else or don’t do any writing at all. Focus outward: the gym, a movie, dinner with your spouse, drinks with some buddies, walking your dog, home repairs, a car trip, gardening, working on your tan, cooking, going out, reading a new book by your favorite author — anything that will absorb you completely and make you feel good.

Lev Raphael, The Huffington Post (USA), May 1, 2012.

Víctor Villaseñor and his 265 rejection letters

vmramos — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:08:00 -0400

Víctor Villaseñor and his 265 rejection letters:

“The first 100 hurt. Every time I’d get a rejection, I’d fall apart. I’d get drunk and feel so hopeless. But after 100, it didn’t matter,” he said. By then he was in the grove and the rejections grew more encouraging.

Quoted in story by Georgia Pabst, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA), via re-print in Kansas City Star, May 2, 2012.

James Patterson to kids: 'I make more money than LeBron James'

vmramos — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:00:19 -0400

James Patterson to kids: 'I make more money than LeBron James':

“You have to have a dream; you have to have passion. And I strongly recommend you have a back-up dream. You have to have focus. Outline, baby. Before you write anything, outline.”

Quoted by Scott Eyman, Palm Beach Post (Palm Beach, Florida, USA) via re-print on Kansas City Stat, May 2, 2012.