I'm knee deep in novel work today, so I won't go on and on about bookstores or publishing or whatnot (except to say that I still don't like this idea I hear that full-price hardcover books are some sort of "bargain" when you know they'll end up discounted, remaindered, or in paperback soon enough. TWENTY-FIVE BUCKS! A quarter of a hundred! As an entertainment "investment"? If you can get the same reading experience for cheaper, why wouldn't you?)
But anyway, I'm going to keep it short and link to some debunking videos.
For example, have you heard about/seen the pantry ghost? Go on. Watch it.
Filling in for Lori today is our pal Victor Gischler, he of Gun Monkeysand Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse fame, who is also a burgeoning star in the comic book world with his unique take on The Punisher and one of Marvel's most popular characters, Deadpool. Look for his latest, Vampire A Go-Go, this September, and his next crime novel, The Deputy, in the Spring.
Last week, Gischler traveled across the country to Sad Diego's Comic Con, and this is his report:
People tried to warn me. San Diego Comic Con is like nothing else you’ve ever experienced. Holy cow, were they right. I tried to brace myself, but the only thing to do was dive in and tread water for as long as possible. Last Friday (July 24) was my first full day of comic con, and I flopped into bed about 1 a.m. My Marvel cronies were still going strong. I felt like a rookie wuss-boy.
A while back I made a conscious effort to diversify. I love stories, and I’ll always think of myself as a novelist, but I wanted to write other things too. I’ve written a screenplay on my own as well as the extremely neat-o PULP BOY with Anthony Neil Smith. I’m also working on a treatment for some cool Hollywood dudes.
And I’m trying my hand at comics.
I’ve been very fortunate to hook up with the great people at Marvel Comics who’ve let me jump in with Punisher, Wolverine and most recently Deadpool. It’s fun as hell.
Thus have I found myself at Comic Con in San Diego. There’s a pure energy here that I’ve never experienced at any other convention. I love the fearless folks who’ve turned out in some amazing and detailed costumes. It’s not just a comic convention, but a mecca for filmmakers and video game folks--just all kinds of stuff. I signed copies of Deadpool and Punisher yesterday, met with my editor and some hip movie producers/directors and managed to drink a few beers. Today I will shop for presents for the boy and wife.
Writers, if you’ve been thinking about diversifying, I highly recommend you get started. It didn’t happen for me overnight, but now that it’s happening, I couldn’t be happy. You never know where you’ll end up. Maybe on an elevator with Storm Troopers and Dr. Strange.
It's no secret that I'm a Harry Potter fan. I've now seen HP6 twice, although I am resisting my daughter's pleas to see the film one more time. I did have a couple of issues with the movie, mainly because they just didn't explain enough to segue into the next installment.
JK Rowling didn't have that problem. I re-read HP6 and HP7 after seeing the movie the first time, and I'm tempted to start at the beginning and re-read all the books in order. Because re-reading just the last two made me truly see that Rowling was a genius.
There are seven books in this series. Seven. Quite a few of them are 600 to 700 or more pages long. That's a lot of words, and as a writer I can appreciate the time that went into producing each one. But it's not just each individual book. These books are all interconnected, the storylines begin with the first book and are wrapped up in the seventh, seamlessly. Even the smallest bit of storytelling has a reason, and the reader finds out how as he reads through the series.
I've written a four book series and am embarking on another four book series. But I can't imagine writing a storyline that is so complex, that intertwines around other storylines and finally culminates in one of the most action packed books I've read. I have a little love interest theme that extends through my Annie Seymour series, that's the only thing that continues throughout the series. And in my tattoo shop mysteries, I don't even have that. Each book stands alone.
As I got to the end of HP7 and saw all the storylines coming together, resolving the initial problem presented in HP1, the pure brilliance of how Rowling put this series together hit me. And I wished that I could've written it.
If you're a writer, what book or series leaves you thinking, I wish I'd written that? And if you're a reader, what series has blown you away?
About a month ago, I made the greatest discovery I've made in a long time, and that discovery is hulu. In case you don't know, hulu is a website where you can watch all sorts of TV shows -- classic and new, plus even a few movies -- for totally free! All you have to do is sit through a couple of commercials. It's awesome!
Anyway, I discovered hulu and then I discovered Veronica Mars and my whole life changed for the better. In case you haven't heard of it, Veronica Mars was on the WB network a couple of years ago, and it only lasted three seasons and most people just think it was some teen soap thing like the OC or something but it is SO, so very not. It's genius.
VM has a cult following, and I am now a full fledged indoctrinated member. I won't go into too many specifics -- I don't want to spoil it. But I will say that in my opinion Veronica Mars is a fantastic crime series. It may feature teens, but like the YA books Jeff was talking about yesterday, it is as good or better than the best of its adult-themed counterparts. It's full of shocking suspense and rich complex characters, and FANTASTIC lines and more than once it has made me cry.
So, uh... I like the show.
In fact, I''ve been watching Veronica episodes on Hulu to reward myself for writing, and I'm halfway through the second season. Which leads me to the huuuge disappointment I experienced this morning when I went on to hulu to give myself a, um, pre-emptive reward AND THE WHOLE SECOND SEASON WAS GONE! To make way for the third! "I'M NOT DONE YET!!" I screamed at the computer screen. But to no avail. It ruined my whole day... until I realized that my friend across the street has the second season and I can borrow it from her. Yes!
But the point of my telling you this is, it made me realize how much the show means to me. When it comes to TV shows, I don't fall easy but once I do, I fall very, very hard. A few shows -- Six Feet Under, Breaking Bad and now Veronica I tend to get obsessed with, marking time between episodes, thinking about the characters as if they were real... even checking out the occasional message board. (Though I don't post! I just lurk I swear!) I love these shows, well, as much as books.
BTW, I just discovered Arrested Development on hulu? I feel another obsession coming on....
So when I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago, I picked up a book that I'd been wanting to read for awhile - Deadline by Chris Crutcher. It's a YA and I'm starting to agree with the sentiment that the YA novels currently being published are far and away better novels than what we are seeing in the adult market. I'm not sure what the reason for that is - I can think of a few - but I'm regularly finding that the YA novels I've read over the last six months are staying with me far longer than the adult ones. And I could go on for another hour about how dumb it is that these books are being marginalized by getting the YA label stuck on them, but I've got things to do around the house this morning so I don't really have the time.
Anyway - I picked up Deadline and hadn't started reading it until last week. Finished it yesterday. Holy Crap. It's the story about a high school kid who learns the summer before his senior year that he has a terminal illness and has only a year to live. Somewhat of a contrived set up and a little bit of a downer, you say? Uh...NO. This book was funny as hell and avoids every cliche you'd think would show up here. And at the end...I freaking cried. Now, I know what you are saying. "Jeff is a total pansy and cries all the time." "Jeff is a pretty tough guy and it takes a lot to make him cry." Well, no not really. But I rarely cry over books. Rarely. I'm not sure why, but they don't get me as teary eyed as movies or television. They move me - proabably more so - but just in different ways.
But this one? Whoa. I was a mess at the end. Even if you don't need a good cry, I heartily recommend this book. And if ever a book was done an injustice by being classified as a YA, this one is it.
What was the last book that made you cry?
Jeff
BABES IN JOYLAND
I first noticed my six year old singing this song about two weeks ago, but I didn't recognize it. Then we were driving to the store last week and it came on the radio and I think she knew 95% of the words. I now know 87% of the words.
I'm at the point where I don't even care if it's signed or not, that's still too much. I've heard people defend the price of new books and even say that relatively speaking, a book is a bargain considering what you get for a hardcover (many hours of entertainment! a beautiful package! A keepsake!), but it doesn't fly, especially when you love books and buy quite a number of them. Sorry, but I feel cheated when I know the damn thing will be remaindered within a few years, or will be a slightly more affordable paperback next year, or show up at a used store or Half-Price Books (which is possibly one of the best ideas ever in the history of business), or--and I finally realized how stupid I'd been for avoiding this recently--it'll show up in the library, and I can read it for free. Oh, glory!
Having been on the collector's side, as well as just a guy who likes the way they look, feel, and the ease with which they fill up so many shelves in my house, I used to pay full retail for signed copies of books by writers I had to read as soon as they came out. Couldn't wait. But I've been disillusioned over the past couple of years. Disappointed in my purchases. Trading in a lot more books when I realized that I absolutely can live without them, and that most of the people who visit my office or home don't give a flying monkey shit about the books I display. So, as much as I love books, I've unapologetically changed the way I shop for them.
What bugs me is how the industry, critics, and other writers try to make me feel guilty about that:
"Hey, you should shop in indie stores! They need us, so we need to pay whatever they ask to show our support!"
As I've said before, I shop in plenty of indie stores. I love them. But what I buy from them are either personal recommendations of the shop owners or smaller press books that you can't find elsewhere easily. But if it comes down to ten extra bucks for a book at an indie, I'm sorry, but that's not cool. Ten bucks to make me feel better about saving a bookstore? Not if I can get James Lee Burke for forty percent off. Which brings me to...
"The discounts at the big stores are killing the industry!"
Maybe true. I can understand that. So the publisher's answer? Raise the price of the big event book to an even higher level since they know the majority of the readers won't end up paying full price for it anyway. Well...that sucks. Do I want the big event book? Sometimes I do, and in those cases, it would be really really really stupid to buy the full-price version as some sort of protest. Yes, I got my copy of Harry Potter and the Doomly Helios (and Yes, He Wins and Marries Ginny, Too, What the Fuck Did You Expect? PS - Snape Was a Good Guy) at Target for, like, eighteen bucks. So I paid two bucks more than Wal Mart, but nowhere near the asking price.
"But...but...but you're an author! Don't you want people to buy your books? Don't you want money?"
Yes, I do, but I hate this argument. It bugs me that I'm supposed to want people to pay top dollar for my stuff. I want readers to get the book the best way they can--indie shop, Amazon, B&N, used, library, whatever. Just get it. Maybe if the damned thing had actually made it into more B&Ns...never mind. I'm just saying that it's not fair to readers for me to expect them to make my work an exception. Thankfully, the paperback is out at the same time as the hardback, so there's some savings for you. On the downside, there's a warehouse full of unsold hardcover Yellow Medicinesand Hogdoggin'sout there, all of them depressed that they're orphaned, but refusing to accept they are worth anything less than the $24.95 tattooed on the book jacket. Would be sweet if those started filtering out and actually got read, eh?
"Amazon is evil!!!"
Sigh. Are they? When I was growing up, the Waldenbooks in the mall was a revelation. But then the Barnes & Noble in Mobile, AL, opened, and I was willing to drive forty miles whenever I could to see all those wonderful books! And in grad school , when I discovered Amazon, well, I knew the mall store, the indie store, and the Books-a-Million in town would hardly stock the stuff I wanted, but Amazon sent it right to my mailbox...and it was kind of cheap! Now I'm supposed to turn my nose at them when I've discovered all sorts of new stuff there just from browsing? When I know they'll have that small press book that I couldn't find anywhere else without waiting a couple of weeks for the local store to order it...at full price plus tax? Fuck you! Fuck you and your self-righteous, got-plenty-enough-disposable-cash-to-throw-around, trying-to-make-everyone-do-it-your-way-regardless-of-their-circumstances, pompous ass.
So? Make sense? Books cost too much. Publishers don't give a shit. Indie bookstores are hurting but can't budge on price, and I understand. But I'm supposed to feel bad if I buy cheaper books.
Well, I don't. I have bills to pay, a mortgage, dinner to eat, cats to feed, a wife to surprise with presents, and places to see. I have to be more selective, and to read all the stuff I want to, I can't pay full price for hardbacks anymore...and in most cases, I'll wait for the PB, and then find a discount on those too.
I'm not a collector anymore. For those who are, I just gave away some signed stuff to the Half-Price Books in St. Louis Park (a Minneapolis neighborhood).
And don't get me started on these new taller mass market paperbacks that cost ten fucking dollars. Are you shitting me? Ten dollars for a mass market plane/train/beach read? Mass market paperbacks should be shorter and should cost six bucks. Goddamn, things like his make me wish I'd been around writing Gold Medal paperbacks in the fifties and sixties like Donald Hamilton. He sold shitloads of those Matt Helms, all reasonably priced, and made bank. Now they want ten fucking dollars for a mass market. And someone's going to tell me I should be grateful to pay it, too, I bet.
You, dear friends: What else costs too much these days for no good reason? Any bargain hunters like me out there?
I've always said there's a reason print journalists shouldn't be on TV. At one point in my career, we had a reporter covering a high profile murder trial and CNN approached our managing editor to see if they could put the reporter on air to talk about it. The managing editor said no. His reason: '"We don't want him to be the face of the paper." Looking around the newsroom, we were hard pressed to see just whose face would do.
With this in mind, when I was contacted by a local TV anchor when SACRED COWS came out, I panicked. I could barely run a news meeting. I had to take Xanax for my first book event. That whole thing about how the fear of public speaking is worse than death made me realize that being on TV is even worse than public speaking. But I agreed to do it. My girlfriend who works in film told me to wear a button down, long sleeved blouse in a jewel color. But I forgot about makeup. When I arrived at the studio, the producer looked me over, then asked, "Do you have lipstick?" I didn't. So she gave me hers. I didn't have the heart to tell her that my lips are barely nonexistent anyway, with or without color. Somehow I made it through, my heart pounding the whole time.
When I was asked back for SECONDHAND SMOKE, I brought my own lipstick and felt slightly less uncomfortable. I wore a different colored long sleeved, button down blouse.
And then I had a reprieve. No one wanted me on TV for the next two books, and I was perfectly happy honing my public speaking skills in front of a few people at the local library or bookstore. No cameras trained on me, and I learned how to be a little funny and make people laugh and want to buy my book.
But last month, I got emails from two local TV producers: one at our local Fox morning show and the other for a show called Connecticut Style on our ABC affiliate. Would I come on and talk about THE MISSING INK? The old familiar panic came back, but I rummaged in my closet and found yet another long sleeved button down blouse. I brought some makeup: lipstick and blush and powder. I felt a little more prepared. I hoped no one noticed that I wore the same outfit for both shows.
I wrote about being on TV in THE MISSING INK. The missing girl in the book was last seen at the tattoo shop, so Brett is interviewed by a TV reporter. She does not wear long sleeves. Or a button down blouse. That's because she's skinny and doesn't have white pasty arms even in July that will look rather large as the camera adds 10 pounds. She isn't any more comfortable about it than I was.
Have any of you ever been on TV? Tell us about it if you have. And if you haven't, do you think this is an experience you'd embrace?
And here's the video from the Connecticut Style show. Since it's on at 12:30 p.m., I'm not sure just who watches it:
Sorry for the delay in posting today -- I just got back from a week-long vacation in Vermont, and while I can't really say I'm on Vermont time (because that's the same time I'm on here in New York) I can defintely still say I'm on vacation time, so I'm gonna take that one and run with it. I did a lot of stuff in Vermont -- swimming, hiking, cheese-eating, talking, reading, movie-watching... (Including this incredible stinker on the SciFi channel -- now the SyFy channel. What the hell is that about? --- called Monster Ark, which I imagine was pitched as Raiders of the Lost Ark meets Alien, only the guy looks more like Larry Storch than Harrison Ford and the monster is some kind of giant flea that slaps people.)
I didn't write though. Not a damn word. And while I'd like to say my batteries are recharged and I'm raring to go, well... I mean, come on. It's taken me half a day to get this blog up. I've been trying to work on my book, but it's been slow going today, to say the least.
I'll get back in the swing of things soon -- I know I will. I have to. But I find that for me, writing is like any other exercize. It's much easier if you build up your stamina by doing it every day. Sluff off for a while -- even just a week, and the brain atrophies. You flab out. The work-out gets harder.
I have friends who come back from vacation invigorated, refreshed and raring to write. Sadly, though, I don't seem to be one of them.
Are you? When it comes to writing, does absense make your heart grow fonder -- or does it just make your brain get lazier?
I pulled out a manuscript over the weekend that I really haven't touched in about six months. I'm not disciplined in many ways, but one way that I am is that when I am done with a book, I truly set it aside until there is a reason to pick it up again. I learned early on that I would tinker to no end and that tinkering didn't necessarily improve things, it just served to burn off nervous energy more than anything and at times, I would tinker too much and it would start to screw things up.
Anyway, I pulled out this manuscript and read through the first few pages and came to a shocking realization - I couldn't remember much about the story. That was a new experience for me. Even on things I haven't looked at in awhile, I can usually recall most of the story fairly quickly after reading the first few pages. Not this one, though. I probably had to read through the first fifty percent of the book before it started coming back to me. And now I'm trying to figure out why. Is the book not any good? Was I occupied with other things when I wrote it? Am I just old? Where's my wallet? Who took my keys?
Does this happen to you? Do you forget about your manuscripts or do the details always stay with you?
Jeff
BABES IN JOYLAND
Two weeks ago when I was MIA, I was gonna post this in honor of Karen's new book. And then Alison said she was gonna, too, but was too technologically deficient to do so. So two weeks late, here is "Tattoo." I like the way the tattoos magically appear. Its sort of creepy, but also sort of cool. This is also the song Born sings to me every time he calls me.
Writing to you from Minneapolis today, after a signing at the great shop Common Good Books in St. Paul last night.
I'm not really good at being a snob.
I mean, I have strong opinions and I speak my mind about what I like and don't like, sure. But when I read some of the latest and supposedly greatest new voices in literary fiction than I'm supposed to hold in higher esteem than less important writing,I shake my head. I don't get it. Not to mention any names, but a lot of this feels lazy, and has this weird case of arrested development--people in their twenties and thirties writing really childish shit, interacting with each other online in some sort of strangely flat prose. I just don't get it, but they're building their own lit journals, their own magazines, and their own publishing houses.
I'm fine with "there's something for everyone", and I encourage as much variety as possible in literature, so this is more of me just being bewildered. If this is the future of literature, then I hope they keep going and ignore "ol' timers" like me. But I somehow doubt it is. I'm just waiting for them to grow up and do something truly interesting. Regardless of style, I just don't see any stories there.
That's what I'm getting at. I want to tell stories. I want to be told stories. I don't want to be "written at" by these people with their clever prose saying things like "well, my writing comes from a sense of boredom", constantly winking at the audience...or worse, winking at their friends who read this rather than letting the rest of us in on the joke.
Two types of popular going on here: 1) what's considered in vogue by the young literary crowd, which I'm a part of, although sometimes it feels like we're on different planets. I attend the Associated Writing Programs conference each year (for all the indie presses and university writing programs), and I've been surprised to see a rise in the interest in genre writing recently, but the sheer tidal wave of snobbery and self-importance still overwhelms me. But hey, it's their annual party. They can do what makes them happy. I just have a hard time navigating it sometimes. 2) The popularity that spurs on that tidal wave I mentioned--bestsellers. Commercial success. Thrillers, mysteries, romance, all the"popcorn books", "beach reads", "high octane" books. The books the mainstream public reads. Some literary authors make the break from the first group into the second, and that's always an interesting thing (and it seems those writers are a bit uncomfortable in the limelight).
Oh, it's never that cut and dry. People float and drift and get mislabeled, mishandled, etc. But over and over again, I hear how the 2nd group of popular writers are all just tossing off lightweight entertainments and will never have anything important to say, while the 1st group, toiling away in relative obscurity, are lauded as the one(s) who just might save literature. They are tapping into the consciousness of the next generation, and what they have to say is worthy of our attention, if only more people would listen!
(You know the feeling. Indie music versus popular music has the same sort of tension. What you're "supposed" to like pitted against what you're ashamed to like. I once endured awful humiliation because I told my too-cool-for-whatever-room-they-were-in friends that I liked the band Train--"Drops of Jupiter" and "Meet Virginia"--let alone my love of Sammy Hagar's tenure with Van Halen. They were listening to shit that I swear must've been recorded on a dare: "Who can Make the Silliest Sounding Songs that Grad Students Will Take as Gospel?")
Anyway, I've come around on my thinking about popular. That 2nd group? The Bestsellers? Fuck the what the literary crowd thinks. Bestselling writers are very very smart. They somehow know the right way to tap into a large audience and tell great stories. These are the stories people remember and pass around to their friends and family. They know how to keep your attention, regardless of the prose and the cliches. I'm telling you, however they do it, it's something special.
And it even carries over into music--yes, we all hate Nickleback...except for the millions who don't. And after listening to a few tunes, I can see it. I really can. And I'm sure they take what they do very seriously. They set out to write the best songs they can, and somehow they keep hitting the right notes. Same with the great bestselling writers. They put the time, the work, and the effort into crafting a book they're happy to share with the world (well, they say Patterson outsources, but other than him, yeah).
I'm jealous of them, and I admire them. I've been reading quite a few bestsellers this summer, just trying them out, and I'm finding great stories all over the place.
So if I had to choose between good sentences and good story in fiction, my first choice would be BOTH, of course. However, if the ruler smacked my hand when I reached for both, then I guess I'd have to go with stories. Pretty sentences can make me lift my eyebrows, nod, and say "That's well-written." But great stories can change your life.
So, you can hash this out in the comments, but I'm also interested in what some call "guilty pleasures". Go ahead and stand up, be proud to like Train or Sheryl Crow or James Rollins or even those godforsaken Michael Bay movies. Let them, and thus us, be guilty no more!
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