"I reached the point where I was just kind of done with me."— Jeff Brown
Jeff Brown doesn't have the guru look. That's all good, he'd deny the guru label, and to an extent, it's not quite applicable. Still, he writes in the guru genre. You publish a book of spiritually oriented advice called 'Soulshaping,' and you've got to be ready for the kind of accolades that are two nudges south of stalking. It should surprise nobody however, that this Canadian ex-lawyer, whose first inspiration was a Canadian lawyer who advertised on TV, is a lot more down-to-earth than you’d expect.
Just as the grammatical implications of the similarities between the words "nuclear" and "unclear" should alarm us, the similarities between the words "warrior" and "worrier" should likewise amuse us. Brown calls himself a warrior spirit / archetype, but he was brought up in a fractious Jewish family environment, so there's a good deal of worrier in this warrior. That sort of neurotic, entertaining self-deprecation goes a long way when you’re dispensing life guidance in a book titled 'Soulshaping.'
I spoke with Brown in the back office of Gateways Books and Gifts about 40 minutes before the incense-laden air of the store induced a terrific coughing fit. Oh I'll cave, I probably would have had a coughing fit anyway and furthermore, if there's not some part of my soul responsible for my hack attacks, then it just isn't doing its job.
And Gateways is a superb book and gift store. It's got a huge, warm space with lots of books and all the accoutrements required by those embarking on a spiritual quest. If, as the Firesign Theatre suggests, there's a seeker born every minute, then they're in the right business.
I liked Brown's story, and his tone. He sets the pedestals aside and admits that whatever sort of solution you seek, you'd better include the real world. He's likes to make up words, like "enrealment," his take on enlightenment, since he found that getting close to reality didn't always involve sweetness and light. Not a surprise he was a lawyer.
01-28-10: Alan Beatts of Borderlands Books: Opening the Borderlands Café and the iPad
Borderlands' famous mascot Ripley the cat rests on the iMac.
Borderlands Books is one of the premiere bookstores in San Francisco, especially for genre fiction fans. If there's an author worth hearing coming through town, chances are you will them at Borderlands. Now, Borderlands has opened up a new café next door.
I gave Alan Beatts a call to find out just how hard this process was, since book stores have to be smart and innovative to stay in business these days. Beatts has a lot of luck on his side, most of it his making. He'd been a tenant in his building in San Francisco for a long time, he knew the owner, but still – we are talking about San Francisco, and the permitting process problems there are legendary. His story is great stuff, a fascianting tale of how booksellers are staying in business.
Of course, we also talked about the release of the iPad today, which may well prove to be rather apocalyptic so far as booksellers like Alan are concerned. He had some pretty strong thoughts about this, shocking almost. You can hear his vision of the present café and the future of bookselling by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
01-27-10: An Interview with Jeff Carlson at SF in SF on January 16, 2010
"The bad guys never consider themselves the bad guys"— Jeff Carlson
Some writers seem to be natural self-salesmen, and Jeff Carlson is a prime example. It's not that he's really trying to sell himself. It's that he doesn't have to. Carlson is just chock full of energy. He's the kind of guy who, if he wasn't a writer, would get told a lot — "You need to write a book, dude!"
Well, Carlson's taken care of that little non-problem by writing not one, not two, but three books, a nice taut trilogy in which he starts off by killing most of us. For a guy who deals out death like yesterday's newspapers (and today's, and tomorrow's for that matter), Carlson is irrepressibly cheerful in a way that is not cloying.
Carlson couldn't wait to pose in front of the Kung-Fu Panda, because that's as big deal in his house. He's got kids the right age, and to a certain extent he is still a kid that age himself. I think it's going to be hard for most listeners not to want to buy up his books when they hear this interview. His enthusiasm is, unsurprisingly for a guy who killed off humanity with a nano-tech plague, infectious. You can get infected by following this link the MP3 audio file.
01-26-10: An Interview with Nancy Etchemendy at SF in SF on January 16, 2010
"We told a lot of stories in the family." Nancy Etchemendy
I guess that quote can come as no surprise to readers. It is ever true that writers grow up in families that tell stories. Now, Nancy Etchemendy had a special talent and special circumstance; an easily-scared sister. That's a recipe not just for a writer, but a writer of horror fiction.
And accordingly, readers with good recent memories will note that Etchemendy's name has appeared on ballots for the Bram Stoker Award (which she won) and the "IHG" award, which she also won. I managed to sit down with Etchemendy at SF in SF when she appeared with Jeff Carlson, and to talk to her about her roots as a writer, as well as her inclinations to write both YA and horror fiction.
Jasper Fforde is relentlessly modest. That's not easy to pull off, but he manages to remain cheerful, sincere and most importantly of all, sort of goofy, even when he's discussing a dystopia that is happy, fluffy, well-dressed and terrifyingly stultifying.
His latest novel is 'Shades of Grey: The Road to High Vermillion Saffron,' and yes it is a distinct departure from the utterly original fantasy (?) — I'm not sure how you would pigeonhole books like 'The Eyre Affair.' Actually, I am sure. You'd point at them and say "That's by Jasper Fforde."
Fforde's latest, 'Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron,' is a distinct departure for him, in that it is quite clearly characterizable, even if it is not easily recognizable, as science fiction. Once you read it, you'll figure that out, but going in, if you go in as cold as I recommend, which means ignoring the jacket flap, it seems very much like a ... Jasper Fforde novel. It's got a sweet first-person narrator and a friendly, romantic tone, even though it is positively bursting with weirdness. Fforde told me in our interview that in his previous novels, he'd used a lot of public domain characters, and he felt that he'[d sort of, well – cheated. Most of his readers would say otherwise, but it is tough to fight the relentless modesty. And Fforde is just the sort who can pull off an oxymoron like "relentless modesty."
Ah, but he told me that when he decided to write 'Shades of Grey,' he want to do what he called, "some proper novelling," a phrase that shall henceforth enter this language just as is. We talked quite a bit about the dystopian nature of the novel, which, for a charming, funny and entertaining novel is counter-intuitive. But then, we are talking about – and with – Jasper Fforde.
Here's the layout of this podcast. You're going to get three readings, two of which Fforde introduces in his own inimitable manner, and the third just rolled out without fanfare. Then you're going to hear an interview that lasts just a snippet over an hour. Generally, in the past, I've split such interviews and come the end of the week, I may wish I'd split this one, but count today as your lucky day and follow this link to the MP3 audio file.
New to the Agony Column
03-12-10: Commentary : Karl Marlantes Scales the 'Matterhorn' : World-Building in the Past
03-09-10: Commentary : Paul McHugh Meets 'Deadlines' : Murdering the California Coast
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Paul McHugh : "..the strengths of good writing go all the way, across all the genres..."
03-08-10: Commentary : Joe Hill Grows 'Horns' : Devil and Detail
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Joe Hill : "Eventually, the wicked and the unworthy will get their just desserts on the business end of the Devil's pitchfork."
03-05-10: Commentary : Henry Porter Calls 'The Bell Ringers' : It Takes The Village
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Four Books With Alan Cheuse : Thrillers! : Henry Porter, The Bell Ringers; Keith Thomson, Once a Spy; Jo Nesbo, The Devil's Star; Hennig Mankel, The Man From Beijing
03-04-10: Commentary : Jo NesbØ Earns 'The Devil's Star' : Rewind
03-01-10: Commentary : Adam Haslett Invests With 'Union Atlantic' : Abstract Power Abstracts Absolutely
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview With Adam Haslett : "With her, and with each character, how does the rhythm create a kind of musical argument?"
02-26-10: Commentary : Dan Simmons Heads for the 'Black Hills' : Unstuck in Life
02-23-10: Commentary : Adam Haslett Knows 'You Are No Stranger Here' : Stories from Strangers' Shoes
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Jedediah Berry Interviewed at SF in SF, February 13, 2010 : "...being at Small Beer has actually introduced whole worlds to me ..."
02-22-10: Commentary : Graeme Gibson's 'The Bedside Book of Birds' and 'The Bedside Book of Beasts' : A Feast for Your Mind, Your Eyes and Your Mind's Eye
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2009 Interview with Graeme Gibson : "Our common humanity, our common culture, will help make the connections."
02-19-10: Commentary : Ralph Waldo Ellison 'Three Days Before the Shooting ...' : One Book, Many Stories
Agony Column Podcast News Report : John Callahan and Adam Bradley and 'Three Days before the Shooting' : "I've moved through the phases of my own life, and I find those phases mirrored in the characters of this novel." — John Callahan "...capable of brilliance, eloquence and power; that's how I understand the second novel, as we see it in Three Days Before the Shooting, and that's certainly how I understand, and I think how Ellison understood, America." — Adam Bradley
02-18-10: Commentary : George Mann Scares Up 'The Ghosts of Manhattan' : Hard Core Pulp Action
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Speaking Frankly With Thomas Frank : From Tea to Shining Tea : "When I think about what I'm saying, it's so depressing..."
02-17-10: Commentary : Thomas More, Clarence Miller and 'Utopia' : Politics, Satire, Fantasy
02-15-10: Commentary : 'Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded' by John Scalzi : A Decade of Whatever
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni : "I have to work through the novel and then it comes to me, how it's going to end."
02-12-10: Commentary : Stephanie Merritt Becomes S. J. Parris : 'Heresy'
02-11-10: Commentary : Max Watman 'Chasing the White Dog' : Home-Made Hooch and Rebellion
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview With Sam Farr : : "The money came from Washington, but the uses for that money came from the local community."
02-10-10: Commentary : Anne Lamott Spots 'Imperfect Birds' : The Ties That Unbind
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Speaking Frankly: Thomas Frank on Re-Populism and Re-Launching The Baffler : "I have never seen 'populist backlash in a headline before."
02-09-10: Commentary : Douglas Clegg Returns to 'Neverland' : Is 1980's Horror Returning from the Grave?
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2009 Interview with David Drake, Part 2 / Complete : "I didn't have governor ... that is ... anything, endgame, was me killing somebody.""
02-08-10: Commentary : David Louis Edelman Completes Jump 225 : 'Geosynchron'
