April 2005
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In huge
swathes of the US, platoons of geese festoon lawns and golf courses, to the
outrage of many. How-to manuals on geese are all about management, not appreciation. But then I met Peep.
by
Barbara J. King
"I mean, once you get past the community-building that [slam poetry] certainly did do, and the sense of populism that it definitely embodied, it lost it's momentum for me because many of its parishioners didn't have a real sense of the traditions that all this was coming from. I think it's essential that poets know where they are coming from and have a real knowledge of their art, just like I want a plumber to know how the pipes work. And that's not elitist -- that's essential to doing anything well."
by
Daniel Nester
Fasman knew from the very beginning that the book he was writing would begin with al-Idrisi and his fictional reason for traveling to Estonia. From there it developed into a mystery that incorporated aspects of both mysticism and science all heavily steeped in history and geography. Make no mistake, one of the most significant aspects of Geographer is that it is an international book and not just by dint of the changing locales but by its very nature and flavor.
by
Colleen Mondor
"I think I’ve had quite enough publicity. I couldn’t get published until I was 43. And then I had more publicity than I could possibly want. So I feel I should use my name recognition for service, for art. That’s what I’m trying to do. I want to stay invisible. I’m on a crusade. This is authentically how I approach literature and art. It’s Italian, in a way. I do revere the artist, I do revere the art."
by
Daniel Nester
"There are Rebus walking tours in Edinburgh where a professional tour guide takes you around, but Rebus lives and exists in a real city. He lives in a real street, works in a real police station and he drinks in a real bar but I think people are terribly disappointed when they come into the Oxford because they want John Rebus. They don’t want me. They don’t want to see this quiet and well-adjusted guy sitting at the back table doing a crossword. They want the dark and dangerous, complex, damaged individual that is Rebus. There have been times when visitors don’t believe it’s really me. I’ve had to show them photo ID!"
by
Clayton Moore
It does seem to me that this is a, shall we say, very chilly climate to be releasing a film of this kind into -- the sort of climate in which most action movies are PG-13. On the other hand, I don't see how the movie could have been toned down and still retained the essential character of the book. Nor would Miller have stood for it, I think; much has been made of how he resisted selling the film rights until Rodriguez basically proved himself.
by
Karin Kross and Liz Miller
Following a hilarious reading from Shteyngart's novel, he was joined onstage by Jeffrey Eugenides, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of
Middlesex and
The Virgin Suicides, for an engaging conversation on such topics as their influences, the nature of farce, and the state of Shteyngart's native Russia today.
by
Gordon McAlpin
It’s not hard to understand why any writer would find a way to respond positively when asked by an editor if they have considered writing in a specific genre. And even though Margo had no ideas for the Missing Person series at the time of her reading, she was very excited at the idea of writing for young adults. In fact, Margo Rabb was the perfect person to approach with this idea because from a very young age she has dreamed of being a girl detective. Her creations, Sam and Sophie Shattenberg, are just the closest she has been able to get to achieving it.
by
Colleen Mondor
“Autism is a kind of way station,” she writes, “on the road from animals to humans, which puts autistic people like me in a perfect position to translate ‘animal talk’ into English.” But Grandin’s no pet psychic. For years she has worked with meat-packers, sometimes as a hired consultant for corporations like McDonald’s. Her goal, a humane death for the animals, requires that she see what the animals see, and feel what they feel.
by
Barbara J. King
"I have an aversion to labels without meaning. I may find the classification of subspecies like space opera or urban fantasy only slightly less unnecessary, but at least those catchphrases describe something about the fiction in question. If I pick up a story labeled 'urban fantasy,' there is a pretty decent chance that it will contain a city, some folkloric or mythological creatures, and be written by Charles de Lint. Likewise, space opera should have some vacuum and (not necessarily in a bad way) melodrama. But -- New Weird? To offset it from all the old and mundane? Or maybe this is an evolutionary process: was there an Old Weird? Did we somehow pass through Middle Weird on the way there and nobody noticed at the time? Any day now, we’ll move into the Post-Weird period and get boring again?"
by
Geoffrey H. Goodwin
"My friends say that while they’re away from their computers, their characters come up with these brilliant new directions in which to take the story. Not mine. They’ve had hot dogs and some Doritos and just sat there until I’ve gotten back. Until I start the engine again, they don’t do anything. I have a rule that I never write myself out. I always leave myself at a place where there’s someplace to go in a chapter, so that when I come back to it, I’m in the middle of something instead of having to start anew: I’m going to write until she gets to the restaurant or until she gets to the delivery room or until she gets to the fire station. Then I force myself to stop with something yet to be done."
by
Wendy Anderson
