With the help of KQED in San Francisco, I'm happily able to bring listeners even more Ian Shoales this week, in an effort to catch up and keep up with his entertainingly prolific output. I just hope he will be willing to let us run his stuff when he finally gets picked up by 60 Minutes, who clearly need him. 60 Minutes, the nation needs you!
03-08-12:A 2012 Interview with Val McDermid and Laurie R. King
Click image for audio link.
"I grew up thinking that all adult books had to have dead bodies in them."
—Val McDermid
Val McDermid is just as no-nonsense as any copper she might imagine — or write about in one of her novels, including her latest, 'The Retribution.' Her schedule in Santa Cruz was going to be complicated and mostly filled, but she was hanging out with Laurie R. King, who was kind enough to help Val arrange an hour over at KUSP, in the big meeting room where the three of us sat down to talk about Val's work and the mystery genre.
When I asked Val about how she got started reading and writing mysteries, she told me that when she was growing up, they had two books in her house; the Bible and Agatha Christie's 'Murder in the Vicarage,' also, to some, a sort of Bible. A very different sort, to be sure, but she was clearly raised right.
03-07-12 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read, Episode 34: Anne Rice, 'The Wolf Gift'
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Here's the thirty-fourth episode of my new series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. The podcasts/radio broadcasts will be of books worth your valuable reading time. I'll try to keep the reports under four minutes, for a radio-friendly format. If you want to run them on your show or podcast, let me know.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
The thirty-fourth episode is a look at Anne Rice and her new novel, 'The Wolf Gift'.
For all that I have avoided spoilers in my review of 'Defending Jacob,' in our interview, the author, William Landay, goes a bit further than I do. Not much, and he is careful to avoid them, but depending on how much you already know about the book, you may want to wait until after you've read it to listen. It is however, very much book written with the reading experience in mind.
In fact, Landay and I talked about the reading experience in general and with regards to his novel in the course of our conversation. Having spoken with lots of writers of late, I will say that Landay was particularly aware of the reading experience and how it differs from other experiences of story. There is indeed something that we do as readers that cannot be duplicated in movies or video games.
Landay was a prosecutor in the town of Newton, where the novel is set, and I was pretty surprised to learn that the setting was real; both in terms of the town and the office he once held. Landay takes the "write was you know" saw and chops down the forest in a manner that I though was pretty daring. To a degree, you can look at 'Defending Jacob' as a workplace tell-all. But I can't say with certainty to what degree!
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
