This site has tons of interviews with contemporary authors in RealAudio format.
Conducted by Don Swain, the interviews are well-done and roughly between twenty and forty minutes in length.
The good kind
Received this via IM from one of The Eight tonight:
[20:20] renamedforblog: damn dude
[20:20] renamedforblog: you’re such a bastard
[20:20] renamedforblog: I’m flying through your book.
By bastard he meant, can’t put down your manuscript and it’s keeping me from work, sleep and food. Interestingly, he is much further into the story than I expected any reader might be by this point, so far in that we’re meeting Monday morning for feedback review, ahead of schedule. That’s encouraging. Two other readers assured me they will make the 11/23/2005 deadline. And of the rest? Well, they remain at large, free of any pressure or influence from I. Unless they read the blog…
New Jersey: You got a problem with that?
Recently, acting Governor Codey squashed the state slogan. A little history about the fallen catchphrase. The last slogan many in the Garden State remember: “New Jersey and you. Perfect together.†That one went nationwide. Not a bad slogan, and loads better than the replacement the Governor ditched: “New Jersey: We’ll win you over.†Win, eh? That’s certainly the wrong verb. I see now why it had to go.
In what may be Governor Codey’s finest hour, he asked the people, and they responded. Here’s a partial list:
1) “We’re All You Need.”
2) “New Jersey Loves Somebody, Anybody, Everybody.”
3) “What’s It To You?”
4) “Big Hair, Big Heart, Big Fun.”
5) “Leave Your Heart in San Francisco & Take Your Wallet to New Jersey.”
Props to number five for being the most direct. Number three is the most representative of the Jersey ‘tude. As for number four, that’s nostalgia talking. Big hair days fell during the first Clinton Administration.
My favorite suggestion: “Most of Our Elected Officials Have Not Been Indicted.”
I love this place.
Read more about the controversy, and check some of the banned suggestions.
Crazy like Dickens
Fleshed out the beginning of A Time For Dying, which is running a hair under 3,000 words. It’s lots of fun letting the characters run the show instead of index cards.
There’s been a few changes to the story. While the basic ending makes sense, the more the protagonist reveals themselves, the more it suggests additional twists. I’m also surprised by the balance of dialog to narrative. Taking the reader inside the character without having them speak, or writing out how they feel has been a huge stumbling block. Dialog comes very easily, narrative much less so. This story taxes both tools equally.
A trick from Charles Dickens about dialog. Dicken’s was as much an actor as a writer, and made quite a lot of money performing his classic works on the stage. Inside his writing studio were five wall mirrors; each represented a different character. When a roadblock emerged, he stood before the related mirror and acted out lines, emoting through obstacle. Sounds insane, but I’ve seen it work. Even with just one mirror.