Heidi Durrow, author of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky and William Todd Schultz, author of An Emergency in Slow Motion: The Inner Life of Diane Arbus.
Download audio.
(Broadcast date: Oct. 26, 2011)
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
"Despair" by Glen David Gold in The Santa Monica Review
But today, just now, in fact, I was knocked over by a piece in the Fall 2011 issue by Glen David Gold called "Despair." It was originally a talk he gave at Squaw Valley Writers Conference. I've liked Gold's writing since I read another essay by him in an anthology edited by Kevin Smokler that I wish I could remember the name of now. Bookends, maybe?
I want to tell all of the writers I know to read this essay. It's the last piece in the book. Gold talks about how the writing is the thing. The process is the most sacred part of anything we do. You've heard this before, but the sum of all parts of Gold's piece is nepenthean.
I'll back up. I've been writing a chapter on forgiveness for my memoir, Blue Corvair. The forgiveness chapters are short and are sprinkled throughout the memoir. For the current chapter, I started with a quote from a Melissa Bank story. One character tells another that to forgive, all you have to do is decide that's what you're going to do. No reason. You just forgive because you want to move on. I Googled forgiveness with the idea that the first entry that appeared would be the one I'd follow.
It was Wikipedia. Great. What's true, what's made up... I started reading. Forgiveness is good for the health and it's the most elevated was to be, from all religions' point of view. I felt dizzy, and lay down with the journal to finish reading "Despair."
Thank you, Andrew Tonkovich, for publishing Gold's talk, and thank you, Glen David Gold, for your defiantly great prose.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Podcast of Denise Hamilton on the show
Mystery author Denise Hamilton, who wrote Damage Control was on at the end of September. You can listen to the podcast of our conversation by clicking below.
Download audio.
(Broadcast date: September 28, 2011)
Download audio.
(Broadcast date: September 28, 2011)
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
tomorrow's show: Todd Schultz & Heidi Durrow
I'm excited to tell you about tomorrow's show. Todd Schultz, author of the Bloomsbury release, AN EMERGENCY IN SLOW MOTION: The Interior Life of Diane Arbus, and Heidi Durrow, THE GIRL WHO FELL FROM THE SKY, published by Algonquin, will be my guests (Weds. 26 October, at 9 a.m. PT).
Tune in at 88.9 KUCI FM if you're in Orange Co, CA, or listen online at iTunes/college radio or kuci.org.
Thanks for listening!
Barbara
p.s. Tickets have started to go fast for the Pen on Fire Writers Salon with Karen Karbo and Merrill Markoe on Nov 15. Visit penonfire.com/speakerseries. Be safe, not sorry (now, where did that expression come from??)!
Tune in at 88.9 KUCI FM if you're in Orange Co, CA, or listen online at iTunes/college radio or kuci.org.
Thanks for listening!
Barbara
p.s. Tickets have started to go fast for the Pen on Fire Writers Salon with Karen Karbo and Merrill Markoe on Nov 15. Visit penonfire.com/speakerseries. Be safe, not sorry (now, where did that expression come from??)!
tomorrow's show: Todd Schultz & Heidi Durrow
I'm excited to tell you about tomorrow's show. Todd Schultz, author of the Bloomsbury release, AN EMERGENCY IN SLOW MOTION: The Interior Life of Diane Arbus (williamtoddschultz.wordpress.com), and Heidi Durrow, THE GIRL WHO FELL FROM THE SKY, published by Algonquin, (heidiwdurrow.com) will be my guests (Weds. 26 October, at 9 a.m. PT).
Tune in at 88.9 KUCI FM if you're in Orange Co, CA, or listen online at iTunes/college radio or kuci.org.
Thanks for listening!
Barbara
p.s. Tickets have started to go fast for the Pen on Fire Writers Salon with Karen Karbo and Merrill Markoe on Nov 15. Visit penonfire.com/speakerseries. Be safe, not sorry (now, where did that expression come from??)!
Tune in at 88.9 KUCI FM if you're in Orange Co, CA, or listen online at iTunes/college radio or kuci.org.
Thanks for listening!
Barbara
p.s. Tickets have started to go fast for the Pen on Fire Writers Salon with Karen Karbo and Merrill Markoe on Nov 15. Visit penonfire.com/speakerseries. Be safe, not sorry (now, where did that expression come from??)!
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Tom Perrotta and Jane Mendelsohn
Marrie Stone interviews Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers and Jane Mendelsohn, author of American Music.
(Broadcast date: September 21, 2011)
Melissa Bank & Leah Hager Cohen podcast posted
Melissa Bank, author of the reissued Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing and Leah Hager Cohen, author of The Grief of Others.
Download audio.
Broadcast date: October 12, 2011
Download audio.
Broadcast date: October 12, 2011
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Jessie Sholl on writing memoir
Jessie Sholl, author of Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About her Mother's Compulsive Hoarding, and I talked a bit more after the show about writing memoir. If you listened to the show, you would have heard some of what's here. If not, here you go!
How did Dirty Secret come about?
After a particularly difficult period in terms of my mother’s hoarding, I joined a support group for children of hoarders; I was shocked by how much shame we all carried because of our parents’ behavior. After all, it wasn’t our shame to carry, nor was it our secret to hold. Yet we all did. I was between projects at the time, so I decided to write about hoarding. By writing about compulsive hoarding and getting the secret out, I hoped to lessen the shame and the stigma surrounding it.
At any point, did you have any misgivings about writing such personal stuff?
I didn’t at all while I was writing the book. That’s because I have a strategy for when I’m writing nonfiction: I just tell myself that no one is going to ever read what I’m writing, so I can write whatever I want. It’s very freeing. Also, I tell myself that if I go into territory that’s way too personal, I can cut it down when I revise.
Right before the book came out I had pretty major anxiety about revealing all of these parts of my life that I’d kept hidden for decades. Before this book I was not very forthcoming with personal information, even to friends. I was very private and quite shy. (I guess I’m still shy.) Anyway, I’ve been really pleased by people’s reactions to the book and there’s nothing in it that I regret including.
Did you feel a need to allow your relatives read your manuscript?
I did, yes. Especially my mother. I let her read it and said if there was anything she strongly objected to, that I’d take it out. Luckily for me, she said “it’s the truth. Leave everything in.” Also luckily for me, she really likes the book.
Did you work off an outline?
Yes. I first wrote a proposal for the memoir, which was extremely detailed – broken down chapter by chapter and within those, scene by scene. I also included three sample chapters; the proposal was 100 pages long and it was a great roadmap to have as I wrote the book.
You were recently on 20/20, on an episode about hoarders. How did this affect the sales of your book? And how did this opportunity come about?
To be honest, I’m not sure how it affected sales. I won’t find out the sales numbers for that month until March of 2012. What’s that expression? Oh right: publishing is glacially slow. There’s always the Amazon ranking, but that’s more of a general gauge and most of the time isn’t all that accurate.
The opportunity came about because one of the producers read and liked The New York Times piece from May, about how children of hoarders deal with their own homes when they become adults. She contacted me, and things took off from there.
Any tips you have for memoirists?
I highly recommend telling yourself that no one is going to read what you’re writing—even if your book has already sold and you know that someone will read it. It’s just an easy way to trick yourself into writing freely. I also did a lot of brainstorming ahead of time for scene ideas, always keeping in mind the focus of the book. Since memoir usually covers a specific topic or period of time (as opposed to autobiography, which is the story of a life), it’s really important not to veer too far from the focus of the book.
One last thing: a good memoir should be as compelling and as rich as a novel. You could have the most unusual topic and the loveliest writing, but story and plot are still crucial. You still need to make the reader want to turn the page, to see what happens next.
How did Dirty Secret come about?
After a particularly difficult period in terms of my mother’s hoarding, I joined a support group for children of hoarders; I was shocked by how much shame we all carried because of our parents’ behavior. After all, it wasn’t our shame to carry, nor was it our secret to hold. Yet we all did. I was between projects at the time, so I decided to write about hoarding. By writing about compulsive hoarding and getting the secret out, I hoped to lessen the shame and the stigma surrounding it.
At any point, did you have any misgivings about writing such personal stuff?
I didn’t at all while I was writing the book. That’s because I have a strategy for when I’m writing nonfiction: I just tell myself that no one is going to ever read what I’m writing, so I can write whatever I want. It’s very freeing. Also, I tell myself that if I go into territory that’s way too personal, I can cut it down when I revise.
Right before the book came out I had pretty major anxiety about revealing all of these parts of my life that I’d kept hidden for decades. Before this book I was not very forthcoming with personal information, even to friends. I was very private and quite shy. (I guess I’m still shy.) Anyway, I’ve been really pleased by people’s reactions to the book and there’s nothing in it that I regret including.
Did you feel a need to allow your relatives read your manuscript?
I did, yes. Especially my mother. I let her read it and said if there was anything she strongly objected to, that I’d take it out. Luckily for me, she said “it’s the truth. Leave everything in.” Also luckily for me, she really likes the book.
Did you work off an outline?
Yes. I first wrote a proposal for the memoir, which was extremely detailed – broken down chapter by chapter and within those, scene by scene. I also included three sample chapters; the proposal was 100 pages long and it was a great roadmap to have as I wrote the book.
You were recently on 20/20, on an episode about hoarders. How did this affect the sales of your book? And how did this opportunity come about?
To be honest, I’m not sure how it affected sales. I won’t find out the sales numbers for that month until March of 2012. What’s that expression? Oh right: publishing is glacially slow. There’s always the Amazon ranking, but that’s more of a general gauge and most of the time isn’t all that accurate.
The opportunity came about because one of the producers read and liked The New York Times piece from May, about how children of hoarders deal with their own homes when they become adults. She contacted me, and things took off from there.
Any tips you have for memoirists?
I highly recommend telling yourself that no one is going to read what you’re writing—even if your book has already sold and you know that someone will read it. It’s just an easy way to trick yourself into writing freely. I also did a lot of brainstorming ahead of time for scene ideas, always keeping in mind the focus of the book. Since memoir usually covers a specific topic or period of time (as opposed to autobiography, which is the story of a life), it’s really important not to veer too far from the focus of the book.
One last thing: a good memoir should be as compelling and as rich as a novel. You could have the most unusual topic and the loveliest writing, but story and plot are still crucial. You still need to make the reader want to turn the page, to see what happens next.
Friday, October 14, 2011
De-Cluttering
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Marty Smith to speak....
Martin Smith, editor-in-chief of Orange Coast Magazine, will speak about "Writing and Publishing the Personal Essay" on Saturday, October 15, at 11 a.m. (doors open at 10:30). The free event takes place at the Orange Public Library & History Center, 407 E. Chapman Ave., Orange, CA 92866. Sonsored by California Writers Club, Orange County branch, the event celebrates California Writers Week, designated as the third week in October. For more information: www.calwritersorangecounty.org.
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