Shelfari

Amazon Asks: Leigh Newman, on Guns, Grizzlies, and Alaska

By Neal Thompson

Writing about her Alaskan childhood wasn't something Leigh Newman had intended. Not until the novel she'd been working on fell apart. "It was a flop novel," she said, and ultimately not fixable.

In something of a panic, she decided to try to craft a narrative about her adventurous, outdoorsy and difficult childhood, to recreate some of the stories she'd tell friends, the ones that would always elicit "you should write about that" responses. But it took that failed novel for her to finally feel ready to revisit those youthful days of soaring across Alaska in her dad's float plane, of remote camping, fly fishing, and hunting. And to write about her parents' divorce, which led to a back-and-forth, half-and-half life: private school in Baltimore with mom; summers and Christmas in Alaska with dad.

"Once I started writing, I couldn't stop," Newman said by phone. "So I knew I was on the right path." She also wrote a fantastic Modern Love column for the New York Times, about duck hunting with her father and husband, the response to which nearly crashed her Blackberry, "And I thought, 'Okay, now I have a book'."

The result, Still Points North--an Amazon biography & memoir Best Books of the Month pick for March--is a beautifully told tale of a gangly little girl who grows up with Jack London as a dad, confronting grizzles and gutting fish and, more than once, nearly drowning. "I grew up with the mistaken assumption that I'd grown up like everyone else," Newman said.

Still Points North is also a clear-eyed look at a broken family, at two people who should not have been together but who managed to provide their daughter with a lush, two-part life: wild and outdoorsy, bookish and refined. Newman ultimately makes peace with some of the previously unresolved details of her parents' split. And despite some rough times, she's grown to appreciate the many wonderful moments she experienced throughout her wildly unconventional childhood.

I asked Newman (who, as deputy editor for Oprah.com, knows a thing or two about books) a few questions about her book, what she's reading now, books that have influenced her life, and more.

What's the elevator pitch for your book?

A love
letter to an Alaskan childhood. Also known as: how to surviving grizzlies,
stalling planes, raging rapids and a courageous eccentric family that couldn't
quite keep it together.

Describe your book in one sentence? Or two?

Doing stuff
on your own is very Alaskan. Doing life all on your own is exhausting"¦ and not
very fun.

What's on your
nightstand/bedside table/Kindle?

Godforsaken Idaho by Shawn Vestal.

Favorite 3 books?

As I Lay
Dying (Faulkner). Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight (Alexandra
Fuller). Little House In The Big Woods (Laura Ingalls Wilder)

Important book you never read?

Don Quxiote.

Book that changed your life?

A Portrait
of A Lady. A woman who choose the wrong
life, despite all her freedom.

Book that made you want to
become a writer?

Hamlet. I
read it really young, on accident. I didn't what the hell it was. But I liked
the sound of it.

Favorite books as a
child?

Red Tag Comes Back by Fred Phelger. It's
a story about a salmon. My dad read it to me just about every night.

What's your most memorable author moment?

Having
everyone in the world think that the child on the cover of my book was not me
at age six, but my six-year-old son.

What talent or superpower would you like to have?

The ability
to read the instruction manuals with that come with Blu Ray players.

Best piece of fan mail you ever got?

A letter
from a woman convinced we had gone to summer camp together in the Alaskan
wilderness in 1969, before I was born. She described my camo pants, our work
detail felling trees and building roads. I liked her so much I thought I was
there.

Favorite line?

"Surviving
isn't living and once you've brushed up against the two conditions, you can't
pretend it's not a choice either way."

What's next for you?

A dog. Leonard,
my old friend, died last year. And it's time to get another big, stinky,
shedding, not-very-potty-trained animal in my life.

~~~~~

Finally, I asked Newman about the book's title, which is clearly a commentary on the continued pull of the 49th state on her life. "Still points north" comes from an unpublished poem by Elizabeth Bishop about her longing for the home she left in Nova Scotia.

Dear, my compass
still points north
to wooden houses
and blue eyes,
fairy-tales where
flaxen-headed
younger sons
bring home the goose

Amazon Asks: Leigh Newman, on Guns, Grizzlies, and Alaska

By Neal Thompson

Writing about her Alaskan childhood wasn't something Leigh Newman had intended. Not until the novel she'd been working on fell apart. "It was a flop novel," she said, and ultimately not fixable.

In something of a panic, she decided to try to craft a narrative about her adventurous, outdoorsy and difficult childhood, to recreate some of the stories she'd tell friends, the ones that would always elicit "you should write about that" responses. But it took that failed novel for her to finally feel ready to revisit those youthful days of soaring across Alaska in her dad's float plane, of remote camping, fly fishing, and hunting. And to write about her parents' divorce, which led to a back-and-forth, half-and-half life: private school in Baltimore with mom; summers and Christmas in Alaska with dad.

"Once I started writing, I couldn't stop," Newman said by phone. "So I knew I was on the right path." She also wrote a fantastic Modern Love column for the New York Times, about duck hunting with her father and husband, the response to which nearly crashed her Blackberry, "And I thought, 'Okay, now I have a book'."

The result, Still Points North--an Amazon biography & memoir Best Books of the Month pick for March--is a beautifully told tale of a gangly little girl who grows up with Jack London as a dad, confronting grizzles and gutting fish and, more than once, nearly drowning. "I grew up with the mistaken assumption that I'd grown up like everyone else," Newman said.

Still Points North is also a clear-eyed look at a broken family, at two people who should not have been together but who managed to provide their daughter with a lush, two-part life: wild and outdoorsy, bookish and refined. Newman ultimately makes peace with some of the previously unresolved details of her parents' split. And despite some rough times, she's grown to appreciate the many wonderful moments she experienced throughout her wildly unconventional childhood.

I asked Newman (who, as deputy editor for Oprah.com, knows a thing or two about books) a few questions about her book, what she's reading now, books that have influenced her life, and more.

What's the elevator pitch for your book?

A love
letter to an Alaskan childhood. Also known as: how to surviving grizzlies,
stalling planes, raging rapids and a courageous eccentric family that couldn't
quite keep it together.

Describe your book in one sentence? Or two?

Doing stuff
on your own is very Alaskan. Doing life all on your own is exhausting"¦ and not
very fun.

What's on your
nightstand/bedside table/Kindle?

Godforsaken Idaho by Shawn Vestal.

Favorite 3 books?

As I Lay
Dying (Faulkner). Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight (Alexandra
Fuller). Little House In The Big Woods (Laura Ingalls Wilder)

Important book you never read?

Don Quxiote.

Book that changed your life?

A Portrait
of A Lady. A woman who choose the wrong
life, despite all her freedom.

Book that made you want to
become a writer?

Hamlet. I
read it really young, on accident. I didn't what the hell it was. But I liked
the sound of it.

Favorite books as a
child?

Red Tag Comes Back by Fred Phelger. It's
a story about a salmon. My dad read it to me just about every night.

What's your most memorable author moment?

Having
everyone in the world think that the child on the cover of my book was not me
at age six, but my six-year-old son.

What talent or superpower would you like to have?

The ability
to read the instruction manuals with that come with Blu Ray players.

Best piece of fan mail you ever got?

A letter
from a woman convinced we had gone to summer camp together in the Alaskan
wilderness in 1969, before I was born. She described my camo pants, our work
detail felling trees and building roads. I liked her so much I thought I was
there.

Favorite line?

"Surviving
isn't living and once you've brushed up against the two conditions, you can't
pretend it's not a choice either way."

What's next for you?

A dog. Leonard,
my old friend, died last year. And it's time to get another big, stinky,
shedding, not-very-potty-trained animal in my life.

~~~~~

Finally, I asked Newman about the book's title, which is clearly a commentary on the continued pull of the 49th state on her life. "Still points north" comes from an unpublished poem by Elizabeth Bishop about her longing for the home she left in Nova Scotia.

Dear, my compass
still points north
to wooden houses
and blue eyes,
fairy-tales where
flaxen-headed
younger sons
bring home the goose

Meet the Surreal Seuss and Enter the Cat Behind the Hat Sweepstakes

By Editor

According to Entertainment Weekly, "There's the Dr. Seuss we all know--the one who counts fish and extols the virtues of unlikely breakfast items--but there was also a lot more to the man who penned the children's books we grew up on."

For sixty years, Dr. Seuss spent his nights working on a series of surrealist artworks, which he called his "Midnight Paintings." These paintings allowed him to go beyond the boundaries of commercial influences and deadlines, but during his lifetime he kept them under wraps, fiercely protecting them from the public eye. Yet he always intended to show them after he was gone, and The Cat Behind the Hat: The Collector's Edition is a peek behind the public persona into the weird and wonderful world of these Midnight Paintings.

Through March 31, you can visit www.facebook.com/ArtofDrSeuss and vote for your favorite Midnight Painting for your chance to win a framed limited edition Dr. Seuss canvas artwork, valued at $2,500--or one of five copies of The Cat Behind the Hat: The Collector's Edition, valued at $300.

The two competitors are "Incidental Music for a New Year's Eve Party" and "Raising Money for the Arts." "Incidental Music"¦" was originally published as a black and white center-spread in Judge Magazine in 1932, while "Raising Money for the Arts" was included in a charity auction benefiting the La Jolla Art Center, and was the one and only time Ted offered one of his Midnight Paintings for sale.

Which one is your favorite?

Meet the Surreal Seuss and Enter the Cat Behind the Hat Sweepstakes

By Editor

According to Entertainment Weekly, "There's the Dr. Seuss we all know--the one who counts fish and extols the virtues of unlikely breakfast items--but there was also a lot more to the man who penned the children's books we grew up on."

For sixty years, Dr. Seuss spent his nights working on a series of surrealist artworks, which he called his "Midnight Paintings." These paintings allowed him to go beyond the boundaries of commercial influences and deadlines, but during his lifetime he kept them under wraps, fiercely protecting them from the public eye. Yet he always intended to show them after he was gone, and The Cat Behind the Hat: The Collector's Edition is a peek behind the public persona into the weird and wonderful world of these Midnight Paintings.

Through March 31, you can visit www.facebook.com/ArtofDrSeuss and vote for your favorite Midnight Painting for your chance to win a framed limited edition Dr. Seuss canvas artwork, valued at $2,500--or one of five copies of The Cat Behind the Hat: The Collector's Edition, valued at $300.

The two competitors are "Incidental Music for a New Year's Eve Party" and "Raising Money for the Arts." "Incidental Music"¦" was originally published as a black and white center-spread in Judge Magazine in 1932, while "Raising Money for the Arts" was included in a charity auction benefiting the La Jolla Art Center, and was the one and only time Ted offered one of his Midnight Paintings for sale.

Which one is your favorite?

2012 Philip K. Dick Award Finalists Weigh in on PKD and the Competition

By Jeff VanderMeer

The nominees for the 2012 Philip K. Dick Award were announced recently. The award is presented annually to a distinguished work of science fiction published in paperback original format.

Blueprints of the Afterlife by Ryan Boudinot
(Black Cat)

Harmony by Keith Brooke (Solaris)

Helix Wars by Eric Brown (Solaris)

The Not Yet by Moira Crone (UNO)

Fountain of Age by Nancy Kress (Small Beer)

LoveStar by Andri Snær Magnason (Seven Stories; translated by Victoria Cribb)

Lost Everything by Brian Francis Slattery (Tor)

The winner will be revealed tonight -- Friday, March 29 -- at Norwescon in Seattle. But before that happens, while the finalists are all in that space between, we thought we'd check in with them and get their thoughts on the award's namesake as well as their knowledge of the other nominees...

Amazon.com: Do you like Philip K. Dick's work, and can you share what's personal about being nominated for this particular award?

Ryan Boudinot: I have enjoyed Philip K Dick's work, yes. I read a bunch of his short stories in college, then in recent years discovered his excellent novel VALIS. I admire his imagination a great deal and have found the work of his I've read to be incredibly daring.

Keith Brooke: Yes, I'm a big admirer of his work. I have particularly fond memories of reading his novels in my teens. Books like a A Scanner, Darkly and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch made a huge impression: relentlessly readable but also a lot going on behind the scenes"”I liked that I was reading something that stretched my mind as well as entertaining it. My YA novel Erased (published under the pen-name Nick Gifford) was a deliberate attempt to do a very Dickian thing: establish the reader's trust in a
world and then peel that away a layer at a time with repeated
rug-pull moments where the reader must reassess everything they thought they knew.

Eric Brown: I love Dick's work. (I wrote the Penguin Classic edition's Introduction to his fantastic The Man in the High Castle). I like the way he writes about real people; how his heroes aren't super-heroes but people like you and me, with problems, weaknesses, hopes and desires. He's an amazing writer even if you consider merely his characterization.

On top of that there is what his novels are about: perceptions of reality and what it is to be human"”and the fact that he was writing, particularly early in his career, when sci-fi wasn't about these things. He's a hero. The PKD award is nice in that it celebrates where he came from"”the paperback original, the grunge end of the market. I like that.

Moira Crone: I do like Philip K Dick's work. I think he is one of the writers who will be read the most in the future, because explores the shifting understanding we have about reality now, in the Quantum era. He is before his time, he got it. The observer influences what he observes. We are catching up now with the questions he was asking. I would say the same about Ursula K. Le Guin, whose Left Hand of Darkness predicted the entire challenge of the fluidity of gender roles, fifty years before it was in the mainstream consciousness.

What is personal about this for me is that I have never written in this genre before and I had a lot of questions in the beginning about being accepted -- and many potential publishers were wary of this switch for me because they did not know how to market a sci-fi book. But I have found that sci-fi readers have embraced the book, and are incredibly enthusiastic and excited to talk to me about what I created and the worlds that other writers have engendered.

I am a total "newbie" in this world, and yet I got this far. Another thing that is personal is that I am being read by an entirely new generation than before, and I really love the energy of my new readers; they make me want to write in the genre more, to go for the sequel. Writing this sort of book in this age is very enjoyable, because you can have so much interchange with your readers.

Nancy Kress: I first read Dick's The Man in the High Castle when it came out in 1962. I was fourteen, had just discovered sci-fi, and was baffled. This was such a strange book! I lacked sufficient knowledge of history to fully understand the changes that he was creating, but I was intrigued. And that is still the effect his work has on me: intrigue, occasional bafflement, and an enduring sense of the strange.

Andri Magnason: I would say that his early influence on me was mainly through films and ideas floating around and discussed by friends. My early influence was by reading too much folklore, poetry and mythology while reading science and trying med school. Other writers include Karel Capek, Bulgakov, Calvino, Borges, Vonnegut and Orwell, and Icelandic writers and poets. Brautigan had quite an influence on LoveStar. I was kind of imagining a world before [his novel] In Watermelon Sugar when I started writing, but that changed so much that I would not call it a prequel.

The nomination is very important, almost like an Olympic gold to me. I was a bit worried, looking over the endless pile of sci-fi, wondering what the real geeks would say about my book. I was not quite following the formula and genre rules that seemed to be dominating the scene. I wondered if my book lacked vampires or zombies or six volumes. I was also wondering if someone had already written my book without my knowledge.

Most importantly is that now I know that you can write some kind of sci-fi in a 1,000-year-old Viking language only spoken by 300,000 people and still be taken seriously and manage to connect to an audience in the large world (with the help of Vicky, my great translator of course).

Amazon.com: If you don't win, who do you hope does win?

Ryan Boudinot: I feel it's important to make the distinction that "I" have not been nominated for the award. My novel, Blueprints of the Afterlife has. I'll be genuinely happy for the author of whatever book is granted this award.

Keith Brooke: Oh, Eric Brown, without a doubt. We've been friends for years, and we've written a bunch of stories together (a new edition of our collaborative collection, Parallax View, is just out in paperback and e-book formats). Beyond the friendship, though, he's a superb writer and really deserves the attention.

Eric Brown: I hope Keith Brooke wins, period. His novel alt.human [as it's titled in the U.K.] -- Harmony in the States -- is better than my Helix Wars, and Keith deserves the award. He's a good friend and I was privileged to be among the first readers of the manuscript. If neither of us wins, then I hope Nancy Kress does. I haven't actually read her book, but I've read quite a bit of her work and admire it tremendously.

Moira Crone: Of course I would want to win. I won't say who I like the best"”I have only read about half the other nominees. I think that LoveStar and Lost Everything have very fine writing in them and I have found them wonderful. But I have not read Blueprints, yet, and some of the others. The range is exciting and all of them seem completely accessible to someone like me, who has read in sci fi but certainly not the whole genre.

Nancy Kress: I won't say who I think should win the award because I haven't read all the nominees, so it wouldn't be fair.

Andri Magnason: I have been reading Blueprints of the Afterlife the recent weeks and it is a very inspiring great book, kind of the type of books I tend to seek and find very rarely. It seems like the jury is open to experimental things and I appreciate that. So, I am quite honored to be nominated along with that book. I am currently catching up on the other books, as I have just finished a deadline for my next book.

Amazon.com: Can you give us a favorite teaser of a sentence from your nominated novel?

Ryan Boudinot: "The world was full of precious garbage."

Keith Brooke: "I opened my mouth to speak, to ask him what was going on, for I was suddenly sure that he understood far more than me, but then Pennysway began to unhappen."

Eric Brown: "After the row with Maria, which left him feeling sick and wishing he could retroactively edit his words, Ellis strapped himself into the shuttle's couch and prepared to take off from Carrelliville spaceport."

Moira Crone: "Now dear boy, so far, you have been very brave."

Nancy Kress: My nominated work is a collection of stories. This opening paragraph is from the eponymous story: "I had her in a ring. In those days you carried around pieces of a person. Not like today."

Andri Magnason: From the manifesto of LoveStar, the CEO of the LoveStar corporation..."To be content with having had an idea is like being content with having once had an orgasm, being content with having once eaten or drunk."

2012 Philip K. Dick Award Finalists Weigh in on PKD and the Competition

By Jeff VanderMeer

The nominees for the 2012 Philip K. Dick Award were announced recently. The award is presented annually to a distinguished work of science fiction published in paperback original format.

Blueprints of the Afterlife by Ryan Boudinot
(Black Cat)

Harmony by Keith Brooke (Solaris)

Helix Wars by Eric Brown (Solaris)

The Not Yet by Moira Crone (UNO)

Fountain of Age by Nancy Kress (Small Beer)

LoveStar by Andri Snær Magnason (Seven Stories; translated by Victoria Cribb)

Lost Everything by Brian Francis Slattery (Tor)

The winner will be revealed tonight -- Friday, March 29 -- at Norwescon in Seattle. But before that happens, while the finalists are all in that space between, we thought we'd check in with them and get their thoughts on the award's namesake as well as their knowledge of the other nominees...

Amazon.com: Do you like Philip K. Dick's work, and can you share what's personal about being nominated for this particular award?

Ryan Boudinot: I have enjoyed Philip K Dick's work, yes. I read a bunch of his short stories in college, then in recent years discovered his excellent novel VALIS. I admire his imagination a great deal and have found the work of his I've read to be incredibly daring.

Keith Brooke: Yes, I'm a big admirer of his work. I have particularly fond memories of reading his novels in my teens. Books like a A Scanner, Darkly and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch made a huge impression: relentlessly readable but also a lot going on behind the scenes"”I liked that I was reading something that stretched my mind as well as entertaining it. My YA novel Erased (published under the pen-name Nick Gifford) was a deliberate attempt to do a very Dickian thing: establish the reader's trust in a
world and then peel that away a layer at a time with repeated
rug-pull moments where the reader must reassess everything they thought they knew.

Eric Brown: I love Dick's work. (I wrote the Penguin Classic edition's Introduction to his fantastic The Man in the High Castle). I like the way he writes about real people; how his heroes aren't super-heroes but people like you and me, with problems, weaknesses, hopes and desires. He's an amazing writer even if you consider merely his characterization.

On top of that there is what his novels are about: perceptions of reality and what it is to be human"”and the fact that he was writing, particularly early in his career, when sci-fi wasn't about these things. He's a hero. The PKD award is nice in that it celebrates where he came from"”the paperback original, the grunge end of the market. I like that.

Moira Crone: I do like Philip K Dick's work. I think he is one of the writers who will be read the most in the future, because explores the shifting understanding we have about reality now, in the Quantum era. He is before his time, he got it. The observer influences what he observes. We are catching up now with the questions he was asking. I would say the same about Ursula K. Le Guin, whose Left Hand of Darkness predicted the entire challenge of the fluidity of gender roles, fifty years before it was in the mainstream consciousness.

What is personal about this for me is that I have never written in this genre before and I had a lot of questions in the beginning about being accepted -- and many potential publishers were wary of this switch for me because they did not know how to market a sci-fi book. But I have found that sci-fi readers have embraced the book, and are incredibly enthusiastic and excited to talk to me about what I created and the worlds that other writers have engendered.

I am a total "newbie" in this world, and yet I got this far. Another thing that is personal is that I am being read by an entirely new generation than before, and I really love the energy of my new readers; they make me want to write in the genre more, to go for the sequel. Writing this sort of book in this age is very enjoyable, because you can have so much interchange with your readers.

Nancy Kress: I first read Dick's The Man in the High Castle when it came out in 1962. I was fourteen, had just discovered sci-fi, and was baffled. This was such a strange book! I lacked sufficient knowledge of history to fully understand the changes that he was creating, but I was intrigued. And that is still the effect his work has on me: intrigue, occasional bafflement, and an enduring sense of the strange.

Andri Magnason: I would say that his early influence on me was mainly through films and ideas floating around and discussed by friends. My early influence was by reading too much folklore, poetry and mythology while reading science and trying med school. Other writers include Karel Capek, Bulgakov, Calvino, Borges, Vonnegut and Orwell, and Icelandic writers and poets. Brautigan had quite an influence on LoveStar. I was kind of imagining a world before [his novel] In Watermelon Sugar when I started writing, but that changed so much that I would not call it a prequel.

The nomination is very important, almost like an Olympic gold to me. I was a bit worried, looking over the endless pile of sci-fi, wondering what the real geeks would say about my book. I was not quite following the formula and genre rules that seemed to be dominating the scene. I wondered if my book lacked vampires or zombies or six volumes. I was also wondering if someone had already written my book without my knowledge.

Most importantly is that now I know that you can write some kind of sci-fi in a 1,000-year-old Viking language only spoken by 300,000 people and still be taken seriously and manage to connect to an audience in the large world (with the help of Vicky, my great translator of course).

Amazon.com: If you don't win, who do you hope does win?

Ryan Boudinot: I feel it's important to make the distinction that "I" have not been nominated for the award. My novel, Blueprints of the Afterlife has. I'll be genuinely happy for the author of whatever book is granted this award.

Keith Brooke: Oh, Eric Brown, without a doubt. We've been friends for years, and we've written a bunch of stories together (a new edition of our collaborative collection, Parallax View, is just out in paperback and e-book formats). Beyond the friendship, though, he's a superb writer and really deserves the attention.

Eric Brown: I hope Keith Brooke wins, period. His novel alt.human [as it's titled in the U.K.] -- Harmony in the States -- is better than my Helix Wars, and Keith deserves the award. He's a good friend and I was privileged to be among the first readers of the manuscript. If neither of us wins, then I hope Nancy Kress does. I haven't actually read her book, but I've read quite a bit of her work and admire it tremendously.

Moira Crone: Of course I would want to win. I won't say who I like the best"”I have only read about half the other nominees. I think that LoveStar and Lost Everything have very fine writing in them and I have found them wonderful. But I have not read Blueprints, yet, and some of the others. The range is exciting and all of them seem completely accessible to someone like me, who has read in sci fi but certainly not the whole genre.

Nancy Kress: I won't say who I think should win the award because I haven't read all the nominees, so it wouldn't be fair.

Andri Magnason: I have been reading Blueprints of the Afterlife the recent weeks and it is a very inspiring great book, kind of the type of books I tend to seek and find very rarely. It seems like the jury is open to experimental things and I appreciate that. So, I am quite honored to be nominated along with that book. I am currently catching up on the other books, as I have just finished a deadline for my next book.

Amazon.com: Can you give us a favorite teaser of a sentence from your nominated novel?

Ryan Boudinot: "The world was full of precious garbage."

Keith Brooke: "I opened my mouth to speak, to ask him what was going on, for I was suddenly sure that he understood far more than me, but then Pennysway began to unhappen."

Eric Brown: "After the row with Maria, which left him feeling sick and wishing he could retroactively edit his words, Ellis strapped himself into the shuttle's couch and prepared to take off from Carrelliville spaceport."

Moira Crone: "Now dear boy, so far, you have been very brave."

Nancy Kress: My nominated work is a collection of stories. This opening paragraph is from the eponymous story: "I had her in a ring. In those days you carried around pieces of a person. Not like today."

Andri Magnason: From the manifesto of LoveStar, the CEO of the LoveStar corporation..."To be content with having had an idea is like being content with having once had an orgasm, being content with having once eaten or drunk."

Archer & Armstrong: Heroes, Humor, and History

By Alex Carr

As part of its relaunch, Valiant Comics is making a bid for "Call It a Comeback" publisher. In the 1990s, Valiant was very much a part of the comics boom, launching independent characters in the marketplace to great fan adoption. Like many of its contemporaries, however, Valiant suffered once the initial superhero bubble burst. But that was 20 years ago, and the market is a much different place, rife with opportunity and nostalgia. Enter Valiant Comics, again, with several throwback titles reborn into sophisticated packages.

One such title is the winning Archer & Armstrong, by writer Fred Van Lente and artist Clayton Henry. Fans of historical conspiracies and buddy-cop stories will love this one. Young Obadiah Archer is in search of his possibly immortal enemy, Armstrong, an ancient Mesopotamian who tried in vain to stop a prophetic Armageddon. The comic jumps from historical flashbacks to contemporary chase scenes. Archer's duties stem from a Biblically focused upbringing, and he leaves his tutors (all creepy eyes and smiles) with a singular purpose: destroy Armstrong. When he finds his archenemy, however, he sees an intoxicated cad, and before Archer can fulfill his purpose the two of them are captured by an order of nefarious zealots. Their true schemes shake Archer's resolve, and"”naturally"”Armstrong helps him escape. Readers can see where this is going: the two grudgingly band together to thwart the true evil, but it's the journey that makes the book so rewarding.

Van Lente writes punchy, ever-quipping dialogue as Archer and Armstrong banter between fisticuffs. Yes, there are a few anachronistic moments, where contemporary phrasing pops up in the historical flashbacks, but the book is full of punchy jokes and clever twists. Look for Van Lente's narrative boxes whenever Archer uses a new marital art or technique, or when Archer focuses on a particular weak point of his assailants"”both informative and funny. Henry's artwork is the book's highpoint"”his sharp lines, wide-open faces, and expertly choreographed fight scenes turn this story into one that is beautifully told. I've been following his work since Exiles, and he's at his best in Archer & Armstrong.

After this arc, Henry departs the book, but fans need not fear: Emanuela Lupacchino will handle pencils in the second volume (due in August), and she brings beautiful character designs, fluid action, and amusing facial expressions to her projects (see also Castle and X-Factor). 

You can't go home again? Nonsense. Archer & Armstrong revisits a fan-favorite duo and gives them new life.

--Alex

Drinks with Teddy Wayne, Author of "The Love Song of Jonny Valentine"

By Kevin Nguyen

A new interview series in which Amazon Editors meet authors at their favorite bars

The bar Angel's Share is hard to find. But hidden behind an unmarked door on the second floor of an unassuming sushi restaurant in the East Village is an elegant bar with a few cozy, dark-wood booths and a long menu of delicious specialty cocktails.

This was the bar that Teddy Wayne picked. He's the author of the novels Kapitoil and, most recently, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, which is a fictionalized take on the life of a pop star who closely resembles teen heartthrob Justin Bieber.

Over cocktails, I spoke with Wayne about the bar, Jonny Valentine, and the future of Justin Bieber.

---

Why did you pick this bar?

I've come here a lot over the years, sporadically. It has a really beautiful interior, the environment is carefully controlled and cultivated, and as I get older, I like loud places less and less and appreciate quiet atmospheres where you can actually talk. And there's no obnoxious noises or behavior around you. It appeals to me as I age, which is a good or bad sign.

Also the drinks are incredible--creative confections that are mixtures of strange and unique ingredients that are always delicious.

So what are you drinking?

It's called the Old Folks. It's a whiskey with a dusting of some kind of dry molasses, something on the rim, and some other stuff that's very tasty.

What inspired The Love Song of Jonny Valentine?

There's a direct inspiration: I used to tutor kids after school once a week, and in the fall of 2010, I saw a girl I was tutoring reading Miley Cyrus's book, Miles To Go, which is sold by Amazon. It's mostly pictures with a couple sentences per page. A friend a week later asked me, "Do you have an idea for a humor book we could collaborate on together?" And I suggested parodying Miles To Go or a similar a pop-star biography. Soon after I said that, I realized that this might make an interesting novel.

So, I started writing it as a novel. [My friend and I] abandoned the parody idea, but I kept on writing. And six months later, I was finishing the first draft.

So, why did you decide to do Justin Bieber instead of Miley Cyrus or Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga. Is Justin Bieber special?

I think he is special. I think he embodies the era of social media entrepreneurialism like no one else. Many of them have rags-to-riches stories, that's not new--even though Miley Cyrus was herself the product of a famous musician--but Bieber is this digital age marvel who rose from nowhere to become the most powerful single person on the internet, at least as a public figure. Alongside Mark Zuckerberg, I'd say he is the model of the Millennial entrepreneur.

You wrote a song for the book and performed it for The Morning News. Do you write a lot of music? And how far along were you in writing the book when you wrote the song?

In the middle of it; I didn't finish the song until after the book was finished. Then, I had all the verses lined up and could view it as a complete entity. As the book was coming out, I set it to some simple chords.

Is there sheet music available? Wouldn't that be fun, if people on YouTube were posting their own renditions of it?

It's not so complicated as to require sheet music. I had Alina Simone, who is a singer/songwriter and novelist, record her own version for The Morning News. Hers is much nicer and prettier to hear [than mine], but I'd be ecstatic if other people decided to take it and go somewhere else with it.
If you hear [my version]"¦ well, I shouldn't quit my day job, as the old saying goes.

Have you heard anything from Justin Bieber?

No. When he was hosting Saturday Night Live, we sent him some copies but nothing came of it. There's so much swirling around him that I doubt he's able to pay attention to every single thing that comes his way. I'm sure he's shielded from a lot of it, that he doesn't care about a lot of it, and something like this might not really register on his radar.

If he has read it, what do you hope he would say to you?

I hope he would tweet the Amazon link to all his followers.

I'd be interested to hear what he thought about the portrayal of the tensions between celebrity and his public and the difficulties of that.

James Franco has been tweeting photos of himself reading [the book]. I just read a Details magazine interview with [Franco] in which he says some things that are very similar to the things Jonny Valentine says or thinks. So, I think that's what he's identifying with.

I'd be curious to know if Bieber would as well. He's now letting loose more, rebelling a little more than he used to. He's expressing his true feelings in a way he's probably had to sublimate for years to maintain this bubble gum pop image. He's becoming an adult now. I wonder if he would endorse or ratify the sentiments in the book.

Where do you see Justin Bieber going as he grows up?

That's a tough question. I think he's managed well enough and he's ambitious enough and disciplined enough that--despite the recent mini-breakdown that's in the press--I think he'll be fine. He seems very directed--self-directed, not just forced into it by someone else. Something else: it might also be easier for a male celebrity at that age than a female celebrity, as well.

I think he'll do something similar to what Justin Timberlake has done, which is slowly shift away from performing into a producer role or acting--something that's not putting yourself in the center. At the same time, I think he's more musically inclined than Timberlake is. Music is in his blood. Timberlake is a performer; Bieber seems like he is a musician through and through. Maybe he will stay in it forever, for as long as he can, and do what he can with it.

So what's up next for Teddy Wayne?

I'm working on a lot of nonfiction. We're looking at film possibilities for [Jonny Valentine]. And [the screenplay is] something I'd like to adapt myself. And I'm thinking about a new novel, but it's a ways off from taking shape.

"Seeing My First Novel out in the World Was a Shock," but Not to My Mother

By Chris Schluep

When we placed Edward Kelsey Moore's debut novel on March's Best Books of the Month list, Amazon Editor Mari Malcolm described the book as having many of the same "winning qualities" as The Help and Steel Magnolias, calling it "an utterly charming, often hilarious tribute to friendships." Readers seem to agree, as the book debuted on the New York Times best seller list this week.

What has the debut experience been like for the author? He tells us below.

The first time I held a copy of my novel THE SUPREMES AT EARL'S ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT in my hands I couldn't bring myself to set it
down. The morning that the book arrived by
overnight mail, I walked through the house, placing it on different surfaces. I had to see it in every room to prove to
myself that it really existed. Even
though the book had lived in my mind for years by then, actually seeing my
first novel out in the world was a shock.

My mother doesn't feel any such sense of wonder. Mom says, "I'm not surprised at all. It's just an extension of your talking. You know how you are. Since you were a baby,
you never wanted to shut up." My mother is
also one of the few people in my life who wasn't surprised when, after decades
as a musician, I became a writer. She
says, "I knew you'd get to it eventually.
It's always about the words with you."
Preacher's wife that she is, my mother also takes the time to remind me that
divine intervention is at work with all things at all times. "You know where all these blessings come
from, don't you?" she often asks me.

I've spoken often about how much THE SUPREMES AT EARL'S
ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT owes to the all-female after-dinner chats I eavesdropped on
when I was a child. Mom was a central participant in those
conversations and the novel's publication has meant an opportunity to talk with
her about those women, many of whom have passed away.

My mother says, "Auntie would be so proud," speaking about
my great-aunt Oleytha, the best storyteller I've ever known. Family lore states that when I was six months
old, Auntie astonished my mother and amused herself by getting me to repeat
simple words at her prompting, beginning a back and forth between us that would
go on for decades. A highlight of my
youth was hearing my great-aunt Oleytha recap the funerals she attended as a
Christian duty and for entertainment value.
Anyone fortunate enough to hear Auntie offer a review of a funeral that
didn't live up to her rigorous standards would feel inspired to produce at
least a short story in her honor. My
mother also insists that her sister Nanny would have loved the book. That's a safe bet because Aunt Nanny, one of
the funniest people I've ever known, found a way to squeeze joy out of any
situation. Talking to my mother, I am
reminded of Aunt Nanny's early passing, but also of how she spent her final
days being so incredibly funny that doctors and nurses came to see her, a dying
woman, in order to be cheered up.

In the short time since THE SUPREMES was released, I've
heard from some of the others who sit around the table after Moore family
meals. They are all less surprised than
I am that I've become a published author.
They remind me that I was a kid who always had something to say, and
then they offer stories to back that up.

Check out my website (www.edwardkelseymoore.com) and
let's keep talking.

Edward Kelsey Moore

March 2013

Sam Lipsyte Visits Seattle

By Chris Schluep

Sam Lipsyte is a writer who has been called "a literary rock star" and "a mordant jokester with a madman's imagination." And that was just in one sentence.

If you are unfamiliar with Lipsyte's work, Janet Maslin's recent New York Timesreview of his short story collection The Fun Parts would be a good place to start. She summarizes the humor, wisdom, empathy, and strangeness that defines his work; and she ends her review with the above-mentioned effusive sentence.

The Amazon editors fall decidedly in the Maslin camp. We'd already picked The Fun Parts as a March Best Book of the Month in Literature & Fiction when we learned that Sam Lipsyte was coming to Seattle, and we jumped on the chance to have lunch with him. We found him to be laid back and friendly (see accompanying post-lunch photo--Sam is wearing his Seattle plaid), the kind of guy who drops knowledge and jokes the way the Easter bunny drops colored eggs.

When you're talking to an author whose work has appeared in The Paris Review and The New Yorker, and when that author also teaches Creative Writing at Columbia, the tendency is to ask him a lot of questions about writing. One of the questions we asked was how Lipsyte's approach to writing has changed over the years. In response, he described a scene that might be familiar to some of you writers out there: in the beginning, he said, before he had kids and a teaching gig, he would wake up and drink a lot of coffee in order to get fired up to write; but then he would drink too much coffee and enter what a friend of his calls "the jo-hole," after which he'd have to take a nap to calm down, followed by waking up again, drinking more coffee, and getting four or five hours of writing done in the late afternoon or early evening.

A follow-up question was asked about how he approached writing now that his life was significantly more complicated. "I write when I can find time," Lipsyte said. Then he explained that a teacher of his had once stressed the importance of "checking in" with one's work every day, even if it was only for twenty minutes.

For more on Sam Lipsyte, see here and here.