Monday, March 11, 2013

CCLaP: História, História


Well folks, it's March 11th and do you know what that means? We have a book birthday to celebrate!




História, História: Two Years in the Cape Verde Islands begins its journey out into the big bad world today. This collection of creative non-fiction personal essays by Eleanor Stanford will break your heart while it lifts your spirits. It's an intimate peek into the life of twenty-something year old Ellie, a Peace Corps Volunteer who is stationed in the Cape Verde Islands - a cluster of islands off the coast of West Africa - with her husband. Ellie shares her struggles acclimating to the island lifestyle and the stress it puts on her young marriage; the nuisances of the Creole language; the eating disorder that she develops during her stay; and the students she teaches, who pull at her heartstrings. 


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The book is already pulling in some very thoughtful and lovely reviews:

Rebecca, over at Love at First Book, felt a personal connection to História, História - her cousin volunteered out of Peru for the Peace Corps and one of his sisters is currently with the Peace Corps in Madagascar. Rebecca had this to say about the book:

"Her writing was beautiful....It reminded me of ‘The Sex Lives of Cannibals.’”

Jennifer of The Relentless Reader felt Eleanor's struggles pulling her straight into the story, and a strong desire to travel to Cape Verde to explore the island for herself. She says:

“[A] small book that leaves a big impression....Melancholy and luscious.” 


Heather, at Between the Covers, wished the book had been longer. Of Eleanor's writing, she says:

“...she does a great job of writing about ... the people and culture of Cape Verde (and how an American woman fit or did not fit within that culture)...”


Ash of Bitches with Books created a specialty drink for the book's release and had this to say about  História, História:

"... It’s engaging, cultural and thoughtful, and in some ways very haunting..."


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Eleanor was interviewed about traveling on Ralf Pott's website Vagabonding:

"... living and traveling as a Peace Corps volunteer gave me a clearer understanding of the sort of travel I was interested in doing: that is, not so much traveling, as living in a place long enough to have an inside view of what it was like."


And she appears in a guest post, about why she wrote her book, in Superstition Review:

“...as I cast about for what to do next with my life, Cape Verde’s landscape and people and the intensity of my experiences there haunted me.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm really excited to be promoting Eleanor's book as first my "marketing director" project with CCLaP. It's certainly opened my eyes to a whole new world of writing - creative non-fiction is new territory for me as a reader. Though her collection is short, it packs such a powerful punch and will force you to take stock of your own life and your #firstworldproblems (as they say on twitter). Through História, História, Eleanor teaches her readers about the intricacies of Creole and the cultural nuances of small island life that we take for granted here. She also openly discusses the toll her experiences took on her, her body, and her marriage. 

Ellie and I met for the first time this week, grabbing a quick bite of breakfast with fellow CCLaP author Kevin Haworth, during the AWP conference. Incredibly sweet and lovely, I couldn't help but think to myself that I was sitting across the table from a woman who had experienced so many life-changing things, seen so many beautiful and heart-wrenching things, who had selflessly given her time and energy to another country... who was so wonderfully worldly... that at times it just blew me away. 

You can now purchase a gorgeous, hand-made hard cover edition of História, História on CCLaP's website. The book is also available for Kindle on Amazon.com





Look at those lovelies! I cannot wait to get my hands on one of those things! 

If you read it (whether in print or digital) and decide to share your thoughts, please link me to it so I can share it with the world! It'd also be cool to start a História, História meme, where, if you bought a hardcover copy, you take a photo of it out in the world somewhere and send it on over to us... I'll post every picture I get on CCLaP's facebook page!

Happy reading, everyone! 

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Where Writers Write: Sybil Baker


Welcome to another installment of TNBBC's Where Writers Write!

Where Writers Write is a weekly series that will feature a different author every Wednesday as they showcase their writing spaces using short form essay, photos, and/or video. As a lover of books and all of the hard work that goes into creating them, I thought it would be fun to see where the authors roll up their sleeves and make the magic happen. 





This is Sybil Baker. She was named one of "today's strongest emerging talents in literary fiction and poetry" by the Huffington Post. She is the author of The Life Plan, Talismans, and Into this World. She teaches at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and is on faculty at the City University of Hong Kong's MFA program and the Yale Writers’ Conference. Recently she was a Visiting Writer at the American Writers Festival in Singapore, where she was awarded the National Critics Choice Best New Cross Cultural Literary Fiction and Poetry Writer of the Year. A recipient of Chattanooga's MakeWork Grant, she is Fiction Editor at Drunken Boat.




Where Sybil Baker Writes


Since my twenties, I’ve found it hard to stay put. I find that after a few months or years, I have the urge to move, whether is to a new apartment down the street or across the world. In 2007, I finally settled into a space, when I moved from Seoul to Chattanooga, and with my husband, bought a home.

Yet, it seems that I’ve transferred my peripatetic inclinations to my writing space, or rather lack of one. For a long time I used our kitchen table or couch, unable to commit to a specific writing space. Now after a recent bought of decluttering, I find myself with new writing options, yet still unable to commit to just one space.



My sentimental favorite writing spot is wicker and oak desk, which has been on my mom’s side of the family for a few generations. This desk has history and a story behind it, and since it’s in our guest room, I can write here when I need to be free of all interruptions.



But for practical reasons, I mostly write at a desk that has more space but little sentimental value. In my new novel, one of my characters is an amateur photographer, and one of my projects for the novel is to learn about photography and take my own photographs. I recently received a MakeWork grant to learn and develop my own photography skills, with hopes that I can use the photos in some way with the published novel. My little family desk is too small for the equipment I need for viewing and editing photographs. When I want to write or edit using the large monitor but don’t mind a few distractions (my husband’s desk is in the same room and a window allows me to watch the comings and goings of our neighborhood cats), I write here.

Since this is my primary writing space, I’ve surrounded my area with original artwork. My favorite piece is a green painting with a white chair painted by the author William Gay. I bought the painting when I was at his home interviewing him in 2011. It was the last time I saw him, as he died about seven months later. Another smaller painting is by a local painter, and I bought it because the work reminds me of Clyfford Still, one of my favorite painters. The fabric piece was by a former student who is an artist and the photograph is of a nameless Korean island, taken by a friend who is now a journalist in Afghanistan. These paintings inspire me in different ways to develop and commit to my own work.



Finally, when I’m writing out my first draft, I usually write by hand. This allows me to avoid the ever-present distractions of the Internet, and I find the rhythm of writing by hand allows me to get deeper into the piece, without the temptation of editing. Two years ago we found this chaise longue at a consignment store near our house, and I fell in love with it immediately. The Japanese pattern on it reminds me of my years living and traveling in Asia, and there’s a romantic notion of writing on a chaise longue that connects me to writers from earlier generations.

Generally I can write with some noise or music, depending on where I am in the draft. I tend to be able to edit with music, but often prefer silence when producing first drafts. Sometimes I listen to music to put me in the mood of the character, and in the case of my new novel, local Americana music will feature in the novel and as a CD, so I’ll be listening to more of that in the months to come.

I know that many writers have one desk or spot they return to again and again, but I find that I like options and choice, depending on my writing needs and mood. When in a pinch though I can write just about anywhere, coffee shops, hotel rooms, or libraries—any space that allows me the ability to leave the physical world and enter that of the imagination.


Check back next week. We've got Denis Mahoney showing off his writing space.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

The Things I Think I'm Doing at AWP

So...I'm doing it!

This is going to be incredibly strange, guys.

I'm packing up the car and heading out to Boston tomorrow, solo,  for AWP. Don't get me wrong. It's not like I've never gone somewhere on my own before. I braved it up and attended BEA all by my lonesome back in 2010 (I live 2 hours away so I drove in and out every day). And I've stayed at a hotel alone, for three nights, for a work conference. But staying at a hotel AND attending an event with just me, myself, and I is going to be weird. I gotta be honest.

Consider this your warning, Boston! I'm planning on making a nuisance of myself. This chick doesn't do "alone" well and she really, really wants to meet YOU.

So here's where you can find me, if you're so inclined (I'm begging you, come find me!):


Wednesday

I'll be arriving late afternoon, early evening, I think. I'm gonna be HUNGRY. Come out to dinner with me. Especially if you know Boston better than I do. (I've only been to Boston once, for work, so I'm pretty sure everyone on the planet knows it better than me).

Monster Magazines of the Midwest - 6pm : Then there's this. It's at the Back Bay Social Club, wherever that is. I might go. Sounds pretty rad. Is there food there, cause that'll take care of my HUNGRY problem.

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Thursday

9am (It's a toss up between these three)

Modern Fairy Tales(Anjali Sachdeva, John Crowley, Jane Yolen, Kelly Link, Kate Bernheimer) Authors who have written modern retellings of old tales will discuss the need for fables in modern society and the literary marketplace, as well as the writing process they use to go beyond archetype and tradition to create new tales.

A Capella Zoo (Laura Miller, Amelia Gray, Erin Stalcup, Mary Lou Buschi, Jack Kaulfus) A reading of the absurdist, uncanny, fabulist, cross-genre, experimental, bizarro, new weird, mythic, surreal, and fantastic.

It's Not the End of the World!  Poets Albert Goldbarth, William Greenway, and Dorianne Laux as they read their poems from the issue along with other apocalyptic work. The moderator, River Styx Editor Richard Newman, will discuss special themed issues and how writers can best submit their work to them.


10:30am (I'm leaning more towards the first one)

The State of Literary Publishing (Jeffrey Lependorf, Richard Nash, Daniel Slager, Julie Schaper, Max Rudin) A panel of distinguished literary publishing professionals discusses the latest challenges, innovations, and intrigues facing literary publishing today.

Being a Good Literary Citizen  - (Rob Spillman, Alan Heathcock, Emma Straub, Julie Barer, Matthew Specktor) An editor, agent, and two writers talk about the importance of being genuinely engaged with all aspects of publishing. Topics include using social media in a nonself-serving way, mentoring fellow writers and editors, helping literary organizations, and hand-selling books and magazines that have nothing to do with you.


12pm (Leaning towards the first one again)

Exploring Unconventional Strategies for Indie Lit Startups (Steve Westbrook, Matty Byloos, Carrie Seitzinger, J.A. Tyler, Skyler Schulze) Contributors to this panel discuss their recent experience of founding successful new journals, presses, and a reading series. As they examine how their efforts toward sustainability intersect or contradict industry lore, they offer strategies for developing alternative funding structures, distribution models, and marketing techniques.

Lit Writers Writing Pop Fiction(Ed Falco, Julianna Baggott, Lise Haines, Benjamin Percy) What exactly are we saying when we refer to a novel as literary or serious fiction, as opposed to popular or commercial fiction? Can clear distinctions be made? What do these commonly used terms—literary, serious versus commercial, popular—mean to writers? Is it possible to write a commercial novel that is also literary? Writers who have published literary works as well as novels that might be considered popular fiction explore these and other relevant questions.

Graywolf Press Readings(Sven Birkerts, Mary Szybist, Mary Jo Bang, J. Robert Lennon, Catherine Barnett) 

Cooperative Publishing and the Future of Small Press(Martin Woodside, Derick Burleson, Jacqueline Kudler, Chris Baron, Geoffrey Gatza) Representatives from Sixteen Rivers, City Works, BlazeVOX, and Calypso Editions discuss the role cooperatives have, may, and will play in the shifting publishing landscape. The panel explores how various cooperative models help reimagine ways for the 21st-century small press to thrive, sustain literary communities, introduce new writers, and keep great literature in circulation.


1:30pm

Red Hen Press Readings(Peggy Shumaker, Eloise Klein Healy, Katharine Coles, John Barr, Andrew Lam) 



3pm

Chapbook as Gateway(B.K. Fischer, Stephanie Lenox, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, Susana H. Case, David Tucker)  The recent popularity of the chapbook invites examination of the challenges and promise of the form, the opportunities it affords for emerging poets, its role as a creative bridge to the publication of a full-length book, and the renaissance of artisanal book-making.


THURSDAY NIGHT PARTIES!!!!!!!

Can't I clone myself and attend them all?

Grub Street & Small Demons "Get Lit" - 6pm (Copley Square Hotel)
Anomalous, Tiny Hardcore, Rose Metal Press - 6pm (CCTV Studio)

Night of Presidential Fiction - 8pm (Sweetwater Tavern)
Curbside & Counterpoint - 8pm (Words & Music)

Apt Party - 9pm (LIR)

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Friday

10:30am (leaning towards the first one)

Start a Nonprofit in Your Own Backyard(Bao-Long Chu, Allen Gee, Janet Hurley, Lisa Murphy-Lamb, Jerome Vielman) This panel of founding directors and arts administrators will provide useful information on how to start a literary nonprofit. We will guide participants through the process of incorporating one’s passion into a viable project, working for public good.

The Geek in Me(Ethan Gilsdorf, Lizzie Stark, Peter Bebergal) Geek and fringe subcultures such as Dungeons & Dragons, Larping, psychedelia, punk rock, and comic books can be ideal portals through which to examine the self, construct narratives, and comment on the culture at large. In this session, three panelists whose books mix memoir, pop culture, and ethnography discuss best practices for breaking into subcultures conducting fringe culture reportage and using that research to tell powerful and poignant stories about the human condition.

Books in the Age of ReaderCentric Publishing(Buzz Poole, Lisa Pearson, Richard Nash, Matvei Yankelevich, Elizabeth Koch)  These panelists challenge the traditional models of books and publishing by embracing contemporary technological capabilities while also honoring traditions that remain central to the notion of a book, whether fiction, nonfiction, or illustrated. In doing so, they prioritize authors and readers.


12pm (leaning towards the second one)

Experimental Fiction Today (John Parras, Daniel Green, Alissa Nutting, Ted Pelton, M. Bartley Seigel) Editors, writers, critics, and teachers discuss recent trends in experimental fiction and how such work enriches the publishing landscape, the creative writing workshop, and the direction and function of literature itself. What are some of the more exciting trends in innovative fiction? What are the special challenges and rewards for writers testing fiction’s limits? How does fabulist work work? If all literature is innovative, what distinguishes the experimental from other types of fiction?

How to Build a Successful Kickstarter Campaign(Meaghan O’Connell, Benjamin Samuel, Mat Honan, Joshua Mandelbaum, Laurie Ochoa) Kickstarter moderates a panel of editors from Electric Literature, Words Without Borders, Slake, Longshot, and Tomorrow Magazine for an instructional and informational session on developing a successful Kickstarter campaign for your periodical or publishing project. We’ll walk you through the process step by step and discuss how to best represent your brand, set a fundraising goal, shoot a video, create rewards, engage backers, and promote your campaign.


1:30pm

Where Marketing Meets Development (Whitney Scharer, Stewart Moss, Daniel Johnson, Andrea Dupree) Representatives of renowned nonprofit literary organizations—The Writer’s Center, Lighthouse Writers, 826Boston and Grub Street—speak about the intersection of marketing and fundraising for literary organizations, and how development efforts can create community, promote an organization’s programming and services, and be innovative and fun rather than daunting.


3pm

eBooks and Indie Lit Publishing(Craig Morgan Teicher, Fiona McCrae, John Oakes, Amelia Robertson, Dennis Loy Johnson)  In this panel, sponsored by Publishers Weekly, indie press editors will discuss and debate what has and hasn’t worked in terms of e-book strategy and how digital changes the indie publishing world.


430pm

Bring Out Your Dead (Rebecca Makkai, Tea Obreht, Lauren Groff, Tim Horvath, Alexi Zentner) The ghost story thrives in literary fiction as well as the oral tradition, defying genre. How do we keep these compelling tales fresh? How do we frighten without resorting to cheap tricks? How do we navigate the borders between spirituality, science, doubt, and a reliable narrative voice? And why are we drawn to these themes again and again? Five writers introduce you to their ghosts and tell you how they summoned them.


FRIDAY NIGHT PARTIES!!!!!!!!

My Friday night needs some spicing up. Where will YOU be?

Ampersand, YesYes, Engine Books - 8pm (McGreevy's)

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Saturday

Wandering the bookfair for sure!!

10:30am

The Business of Publishing 1st Novels / Author and Publisher Perspective(Dennis Loy Johnson, Christopher Boucher, Emily St. John Mandel, Vanessa Veselka) Melville House copublisher and cofounder Dennis Johnson will lead a practical discussion of the publishing process with three authors in various stages of their literary careers: Topics will include: acquisitions, editing, big-house versus independent publishers, publicity, marketing, tours, social-networking, and the changing role of the author.


1:30pm

Strategies and Tactics for Small Indie Nonprofit(David Rothman, John Barr, David Yezzi) This panel, featuring three speakers who have helped to direct and govern independent literary and arts organizations across the country, will address crucial strategic and tactical problems such as how to create a strong development program, how to build a mission-centered board, and how to retain strong leadership.


SATURDAY NIGHT PARTIES!!!!!!!

Literary Firsts - 530pm (MiddleSex Lounge)

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While I'm there, I also plan to get some face time with some of the writers I've been buddying up to over the years. Steve Himmer, Joshua Mohr, Ben Tanzer, Carissa Halston, Alan Heathcock, Justin Lawrence Daugherty, J Robert Lennon, Tim Horvath - I'm looking at you!

Also really excited to meet these amazing small press peeps - Atticus Books, YesYesBooks, Rose Metal Press, Curbside Splendor, Lazy Fascist Press, Midwestern Gothic...


So that's my AWP week, sort of. What panels will you be attending? Which parties are you crashing? Wanna hang out a bit? You know how to find me - @TNBBC!!


Friday, March 1, 2013

Book Giveaway: The Fridgularity

Since July 2010, TNBBC has been bringing authors and readers together every month to get behind the book! This unique experience wouldn't be possible without the generous donations of the authors and publishers involved. 

I'm excited to to bring you next month's 
Author/Reader Discussion book!



We will be reading and discussing The Fridgularity 


In order to stimulate discussion, 
Mark has agreed to give away 
10 eBooks (any formatand 2 print copies
 INTERNATIONALLY




Here is the Goodreads description:

Chill out. It's only the technological singularity. 

Blake Given’s web-enabled fridge has pulled the plug on the Internet, turning its owner’s life – and the whole world – upside down.

Blake has modest ambitions for his life. He wants to have his job reclassified, so he can join the Creative Department of the advertising firm where he works. And he wants to go out with Daphne, one of the account execs at the same company. His fridge has other plans. All Blake knows is he’s at the center of the Internet’s disappearance, worldwide economic and religious chaos, and the possibility of a nuclear apocalypse — none of which is helping him with his career plans or love life. 

The Fridgularity is the story of a reluctant prophet, Internet addicts in withdrawal and a kitchen appliance with delusions of grandeur.



This giveaway will run through March 8th. 
Winners will be announced here and via email on March 9th.


Here's how to enter:

1 - Leave a comment stating that you'd like to receive a copy of the book. 

2 - State that you agree to participate in the group read book discussion that will run from April 8th through April 20th . Mark Rayner has agreed to participate in the discussion and will be available to answer any questions you may have for him. 

 *If you are chosen as a winner, by accepting the copy you are agreeing to read the book and join the group discussion at TNBBC on Goodreads (the thread for the discussion will be emailed to you before the discussion begins). 

 3 - Your comment must have a way to contact you (email is preferred). 


GOOD LUCK!

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Where Writers Write: Eric D. Goodman


Welcome to another installment of TNBBC's Where Writers Write!

Where Writers Write is a weekly series that will feature a different author every Wednesday as they showcase their writing spaces using short form essay, photos, and/or video. As a lover of books and all of the hard work that goes into creating them, I thought it would be fun to see where the authors roll up their sleeves and make the magic happen. 



This is Eric D. Goodman

He has been writing fiction at the same modest desk for about 30 years. His debut novel in stories, Tracks, (Atticus, 2011) won the 2012 Gold Award for Best Fiction in the Mid-Atlantic Region from the Independent Publishers Book Awards. Eric regularly reads his fiction on Baltimore’s NPR station, WYPR, and at book festivals and literary events. He’s probably at the old pine desk right now working on revisions for his second novel. 





Where Eric D. Goodman Writes



I write in a number of places; I can write virtually anywhere. But at least part of every work of fiction I’ve written has been done at the same modest, pine desk that belonged to my father.

When I wrote my first draft of my first novel in a spiral notebook at the age of 12 and then transcribed it on an old PC in a forgotten word processing program called “Multimate,” I did so at my father’s desk: a pine desk he purchased for his first PC back in 1983.

When I needed a desk for my first computer and Dad decided it was time for a new desk of his own, I inherited the modest pine. I’ve always planned to get a newer, nicer desk—a handsome cherry wood or mahogany goliath with room for lots of scribbled notes. But I can’t give up my primary writing desk.
The desk is kind of like the sofa in the old Cranberries CD; it has followed me around the world. I’ve written on it in California, Rhode Island, Japan, Virginia, Ohio, and for the past 12 years, in Baltimore, Maryland. The desk is tucked away in the little writing room of my home.

On and around my desk are a number of muses to inspire me as I write.  Here are a few of them.


When I was an exchange student in Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia, I spotted this Don Quixote statue in an art shop. It was a little pricey for me as a student, but I kept coming back to look at it. “It’s you,” my friends said. Finally, my Russian professor said I should buy it and always have it on my desk to inspire me. I did, and I have.


The candle holder was purchased in St. Petersburg, Russia, at a museum. It’s a duplicate of the dragon candle holder Leo Tolstoy used when he wrote by candlelight.

The wooden manuscript box was a gift from my kids on father’s day. It’s usually filled with notes, not manuscripts.

The glass paperweight is a handcrafted rendition of Venus made with ash from the 1980 Mt. St. Helen eruption. It was a gift from my family on my 40th birthday. It’s heavy, making it useful when the window’s open on a windy day.

 The fountain pen was handcrafted out of wood from the desk of former U.S. Transportation Secretary and San Jose mayor Norman Mineta. This had special meaning to me as I was born in San Jose.

My thesaurus and Strunk & White are always nearby … although lately I tend to find my sources online.


My favorite author, John Steinbeck, watches over me as I write. I picked up this woodcut at the Steinbeck Center in Salinas, right down the road from his boyhood home.


My writing studio is small, so a friend built in ceiling-to-floor bookshelves along one wall. That allows for a lot of books. Two of the shelves are filled with signed editions. The shelf also holds family photographs and trinkets I’ve collected over the years.

But the nucleus of the room is this modest pine desk. My dad’s been through a few desks since he gave this one up. Someday he might ask for it back.



 Next week, Sybil Baker shows off her writing space.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Indie Spotlight: Tara Ison



For most authors, writing a book is a labor of love. That heady, swoony sort of love - the intimacy of the words, the excitement of watching it all unfold, page after page, the certainty that it is the best thing you have ever written, the best thing you will ever write.


Today Tara Ison, author of A Child out of Alcatraz,  tells us how - as with all first loves - a little time and distance can add some perspective, revealing to us the imperfections within the text that we were initially too close to see, and yet... still find ourselves falling in love with our writing, all....over....again. 




Return to Alcatraz

My first novel, A Child out of Alcatraz, about a family living on Alcatraz in the 1940s and 50s while the husband/father works as a prison guard, was in many ways my first love. I invested so much into that relationship -- I researched the story for four years before I wrote a single word, I  dreamed about the world I wanted to both honor and recreate, the narrative structure, the experience of the characters, especially the mother and youngest daughter, whose story it really is (in this feminist re-interpretation of the Alcatraz myth.)
But I was terrified to actually write any of it down, as if I just wasn't ready for that kind of relationship, the seriousness of such a commitment. When I finally took the plunge, I wrote a first draft in six months: a heady, dizzying, passionate experience. I revised for another six months, then repeated the process with my editor – every word, sentence, paragraph, chapter, (every comma and semi-colon -- the fights I had with my editor over punctuation, the weight of the world resting on a single comma!) -- and I fine-tooth-combed the manuscript until I had it memorized. When the novel was published I did dozens of readings, until I could perform the entire thing virtually by memory; I felt like some ancient Grecian orator, letter-perfectly proclaiming the Iliad by heart.

As with any first love, I gave it my all, my heart, blood, sweat and soul, without any preconceptions or self-consciousness. I was a virgin writer; I had no experience of publishing or the publishing world, or any distracting lure of "expectation" -- who knew if I’d even finish it? Find an agent? Find a publisher? Who even cared? None of that was on my mind – my absorption in the novel was detached from reality, entirely pure in focus and intention.  It had all the innocence of first love – no embittered memories of rejection, of affections gained and lost, only the enthralling immediacy of the joyous moment at hand, of passionate devotion and open-hearted trust. Every word was new to me; every sentence I wrote and read was a discovery. My intimacy with my novel was the tender familiarity of a lover’s face, every freckle, every line – love is the exalting of the lover above yourself (well, first love, perhaps… ), and for years I abandoned myself to that novel, lived inside that world, the sound of seagulls and smell of salt from the San Francisco Bay. The complicated family dynamics and painful deteriorating of their hopes and dreams were more real to me than my own.

And then it ended. The book tour was over, reviews came and went, the book disappeared from store shelves -- to make room for younger, newer, fresher books -- my agent wanted my next novel, the friends and family who were so supportive of my Alcatraz obsession were, well, finally bored. I was devastated. Everyone wanted me to move on, get over it already. I knew they were right -- it was time for a new relationship, perhaps one made even better by some wisdom and experience, but it was so hard to let go of that first love, that first untainted, uncynical, unbaggaged innocence. I moved on; I wrote other stuff, and for fourteen years I have tried to enter into each new story or novel unfettered by longing or nostalgia, without pining for the “perfect” experience of that first book. You will love again, I told myself, and I have, but it has always been a different, more seasoned and tempered kind of love.

By the time Foreverland Press offered to bring A Child out of Alcatraz back into the world as an ebook, I hadn’t really thought about that old novel in years. A dim memory, that exuberant early romance. There’s a book-cover poster on my office wall, and a big cardboard box of hardcopies in a closet somewhere, and that’s about it. It was like receiving an invitation to a 20-year high school reunion. I thought of the young, uncynical, hopeful writer I once was, and smiled…

The process of a hardcover becoming an ebook involves lots of techno-speak and "format issues" I don’t understand, but eventually results in a digital manuscript that has all the words and sentences of the original in the right order, but is laid-out quite differently on the page. Foreverland Press was marvelous, and did virtually everything – but it was still my responsibility to proof the digital text, to re-read and make sure everything, every letter, word, comma, was, yes, still there, and survived the transformation correctly.
I’m actually not crazy about reading ebooks, so I was nervous about going through the novel again for that reason alone. But I had a bigger anxiety – how would it feel to revisit this first love? To sit down and spend the time getting reacquainted? To re-experience my story, my characters – would they be how I remembered them? Would I cringe, at the juxtaposition between my early wild passion and the more seasoned, critical reader of my own work that I am now?

Well, yes and no. As I read the digital manuscript, I was stunned at how much I'd forgotten about the novel, how distant and unfamiliar it now felt. That opening sequence I'd once thought was so compelling, so powerful... ? Looking back, I didn't capture the voice -- that of the youngest daughter, born on Alcatraz and trying to make sense of her strange world -- quite as brilliantly as I'd thought. Those nonfiction sequences of Alcatraz history, meant to thematically parallel the deterioration of the family? A little over-written, perhaps, they could have been edited down. The sexual experiences of the turned-teenager daughter? Wow, I'd written that a bit more explicitly than necessary, maybe. The device of the braided narrative -- alternating sequences of mother's story, daughter's story, Alcatraz history -- was that as effective (and clever) as I'd hoped, or, or, or... ?  Damn, I wish I could rewrite that one sentence. Take out that one clumsy adverb. Describe that character with just a little more compassionate insight. All the second-guessing I didn't do once upon a time, all the mistakes I made, all the flaws I couldn't see while in the passion throes of that innocent first writing, were there for the wiser, older, more critical me to reckon with.
Or... correct? It occurred to me that this was an opportunity to edit, revise, re-do. Return to Alcatraz, that long-ago first love, and make it all perfect. The new and improved A Child out of Alcatraz! Ah, technology!

I went back to the beginning of the file, prepared to make writerly corrections. This time, as I read -- re-read -- I did smile. What a haunting first chapter -- the little girl experiencing a critical, painful moment of revelation. Such vivid descriptions -- all that "information" really does inform the narrative, doesn't it, allow the reader to immerse herself in the sights and sounds and smells and reality of the prison, of life on Alcatraz, of mid-20th century San Francisco. The mother's mental and emotional deterioration -- I did cringe, but in empathy for her struggles, not in embarrassment. I found myself too caught up in the story -- scrolling pages almost impatiently -- to question any awkward adjective or misplaced comma. I felt enthralled, fully absorbed -- not as a writer, blindly forging ahead with her first novel, but as a reader, engaged in a story and characters I cared about, whose lives moved me, made me feel, made me think.

So, I didn't change a word, a comma, not a single thing. I love this novel. I loved revisiting this first love of mine. Not because it is "perfect" -- it certainly isn't! -- but because it reminded me of the fearless, open-hearted, un-baggaged young writer I once was and hope to still be, it allowed me to return to a time and place of passion and trust and honesty and pain, all the things we often learn -- as we age, as we "grow" -- to guard ourselves against as both writers and people. All the necessary stuff of writing, of reading, of life.


Set in the '50s and '60s, A Child out of Alcatraz paints a searing and compelling portrait of the downward spiral of a mother and young daughter. When the father takes a job as a prison guard, the family moves to The Rock, and soon the isolation and harsh living conditions become a metaphor for the dysfunctional family, forcing each member to escape in their own way.


About Tara Ison
Tara Ison is also the author of the novel The List (Scribner, 2007), Rockaway is forthcoming from Counterpoint/Soft Skull Press, and the short story collection Ball to be published by Red Hen Press. Her short fiction, essays, poetry and book reviews have appeared in Tin House, The Kenyon Review, The Rumpus, Nerve.com, TriQuarterly, Black Clock, Publisher's Weekly, The Week magazine, The Mississippi Review, LA Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, the San Jose Mercury News, and numerous anthologies. Tara is also the co-writer of the cult movie Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead. She is the recipient of many awards, including a 2008 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship and a 2008 COLA Individual Artist Grant. Ison received her MFA in Fiction & Literature from Bennington College and is currently Assistant Professor of Fiction at Arizona State University. For more information, visit www.taraison.com

Saturday, February 23, 2013

The Fight Song Blog Tour Wrap Up


All good things must come to end! 

As our tour for the book grinds to a halt today, let's look back at all of the wonderful people who helped us spread the word and jumped at the chance to show the book some love:

Day 0: We kick off the tour with a little introduction.
Day 1: Pop Queenie give it an official kick off with Joshua's Mix Tape and her own Top Five Fight Songs.
Day 2: Finds Booked In Chico and Joshua Mohr discussing milestones!
Day 3: Comes back around to me for a peek at where Joshua Mohr writes.
Day 4: Is hosted by Heather of Between the Covers... it's an exclusive audio reading from Joshua Mohr.
Day 5: Amy from The Insatiable Booksluts pits two of Joshua Mohr's novels against one another in a DEATH MATCH - Which one won?
Day 6: Bitches with Books have given Coffen his own cocktail!
Day 7: Finds Rebecca from Love at First Book discovering Joshua Mohr's quest for happiness.

Then the ladies give way to the men.....

Day 8: Is in Ryan W Bradley's hands as he interviews Joshua Mohr.
Day 9: Brings another interview, this time by Benoit of Dead End Follies.
Day 10: Sets up a podcast between Managing/Founding Editor Justin Lawrence Daugherty and Joshua Mohr.
Day 11: Ben Tanzer gives a little reading of Joshua's book.
Day 12: The last stop belongs to Steve Himmer with a final interview.

What an incredible line-up, huh? I hope we knocked your socks off with our creative topics and interview skills! Where else are you going to find a two-week blog tour like this one?!

Heart-felt thanks to SJ, Erica, Heather, Amy, Ash, Rebecca, Ryan, Benoit, Justin, Ben, and Steve for doing such a kickass, flawless job during the tour. And a huge punk-rock, hard-core thanks to Joshua!! Without them, and without Joshua's willingness to work hard behind the scenes, bending to their every whim these past few months (that's right, MONTHS), none of this would have been possible. 

I hope we have done the book proud, and sent some of you scurrying over to Joshua's blog to check out all of his books and purchase yourself a copy or four. 

Connect with the book on Goodreads. And come back to tell us what you thought of it... We'll be here waiting...

(If you enjoyed this book tour, or added the book to your TBR pile because of our blog tour, we'd love for you to mark TNBBC as the "person who recommended"  the book to you on goodreads!)