Here’s an excellent interview from Poets & Writers with the agent, Molly Friedrich. It’s an in-depth view of the world from one of the best agents in the publishing business. Enjoy.
April 18, 2011
Kay Ryan wins the Pulitzer for her poetry
Just because she won the award, it doesn’t mean she isn’t a fine poet. She won the Pulitzer for “The Best of It: New and Selected Poems.” This is one of her poems:
THINGS SHOULDN’T BE SO HARD
A life should leave
deep tracks:
ruts where she
went out and back
to get the mail
or move the hose
around the yard;
where she used to
stand before the sink,
a worn-out place;
beneath her hand
the china knobs
rubbed down to
white pastilles;
the switch she
used to feel for
in the dark
almost erased.
Her things should
keep her marks.
The passage
of a life should show;
it should abrade.
And when life stops,
a certain space—
however small —
should be left scarred
by the grand and
damaging parade.
Things shouldn’t
be so hard.
“Things Shouldn’t Be So Hard” from The Niagara River by Kay Ryan, Copyright © 2005 by Kay Ryan. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
April 10, 2011
How to learn to learn to write
Two Girls Invent a Spring Day
(for Charlotte)
A mommy, a doggie, a soccer ball, and two three-year-old girls.
One kicks it to the other and she runs away as if chased by it.
One kicks it to her again and she jumps over it twice as it rolls.
The other, tired, says new rule: kick it to yourself so I can sit.
New rule: I kick the ball to the doggie and I sit, too.
New rule: you stand on your head. I stand on my head.
New rule: the doggie should stand on his head.
Look at the doggie and giggle. Look at the sky and giggle.
New rule: when the doggie runs away, I kick the ball at him.
New rule: you have to giggle when you run.
Uh-oh, Mommy calls. Kick the ball to the far corner so
she has to run after it. Laugh at Mommy as she kicks the ball.
Kick it back to the corner again. Laugh at Mommy again.
If I could imaginate like these girls, I wouldn’t
have to walk across a park to a library
to get a book full of it: I’d kick a ball. I’d run.
I’d stand on my head. And I would laugh at Mommy.
April 6, 2011
From Tesora: Ronan’s Puerto Rico fishing boat
This is the boat Ronan buys to flee Las Croabas after he is threatened by thieves. It’s seaworthy enough to sail along a coastline, but not enough to survive a storm at sea.
March 27, 2011
So . . . is your novel in the Young Adult category?
Is Tardy Son a Young Adult novel? This was asked my by another writer, Kimberly Elkins, after I told her about my novel. I had written most of it already and was on a final rewrite. I never did intend it that way, so I finished it with the same intention, but then took this test she gave me:
Test for “Tardy Son”:
Young adult literature has certain unique features which set it apart. Books for teens are often written in the first person and usually have:
• a teenage protagonist [ YES ]
• adult characters as marginal and barely visible characters [ NO ]
• a brief time span (the story spans a few weeks, yes, a summer, maybe, a year, no) [ YES ]
• a limited number of characters [ NO ]
• a universal and familiar setting [ NO ]
• current teenage language, expressions, and slang [ NO, HISTORICALLY SET IN 1958 ]
• detailed descriptions of other teenagers’ appearances, mannerisms, and dress [ NO ]
• a positive resolution to the crisis at hand (though it may be subtle and never in-your-face moralistic) [ NO ]
• few, if any, subplots [ NO ]
• about 125-250 pages in length (although many of the newer YA books are much longer) [ YES, 225 ]
• a focus on the experiences and growth of just one main character [ MAINLY, BUT NO ]
• a main character whose choices and actions and concerns drive the story (as opposed to outside forces) [ MAINLY, BUT NO ]
• problems specific to adolescents and their crossing the threshold between childhood and adulthood [ MAINLY BUT, YES ]
SCORE:
YES, YA = 4
NO, YA = 9
Conclusion? INCONCLUSIVE, BUT IT REALLY DOESN’T MATTER.
Is the writing good? THAT MATTERS.
March 11, 2011
Tweet Shakes Al Jazeera—no injuries reported
Quinn Norton just tweeted me that she saw one of my tweets on Al Jazeera news (something about Japan, I’m sure). I have a friend in Yokohama who’s been updating me on events: Renee Watanabe, her blog. Another aftershock happened, she said, at about 10:30 a.m. EST. Strangest form of being published I’ve ever heard. Prayers for Japan are being accepted from anywhere today.
March 7, 2011
A fine interview with Mario Vargas Llosa and the point-of-view of a donkey.
On Michael Silverblatt’s Bookworm radio show (KCRW) there’s a fine interview with Mario Vargas Llosa. They discuss how realist stories have supplanted magicalism in Latin American literature and the use of humor. They talk much about writing itself, and the point-of-view of a donkey. The link is: http://www.kcrw.com/etc/mario-vargas-llosa
davidkrancher.com 