Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Interview with Gayle Brandeis




LH: How did you get interested in writing?

GB: My parents read to me constantly when I was little; I taught myself to read when I was 3 and started writing poems when I was 4. Since my memories start at 4, I can’t remember ever not writing! Words have always been central to my life.

LH: What was your first success?

GB: I don’t know if this is a quantifiable “success”, but when I was 8, I wrote what I considered my first novel (it was about a 20 page thinly veiled knock off of The Secret Garden.) My teacher had a copy laminated and bound and put in the school library. Seeing my name in the card catalog gave me my first real taste of being a published author.

LH: That’s cool! I loved the card catalog, and can imagine what a thrill it was to see yourself in there. What kind of things do you most enjoy writing?

GB: Whether I’m writing poetry, fiction, or non-fiction, I enjoy writing the most when it surprises me, when a startling image comes out of nowhere, or a couple of unexpected words find their way next to each other and force me to see language in a fresh way. I love when my characters take me down unexpected paths, when the writing drops into a dark place I may have been trying to avoid.

LH: Do you have an agent? Tell us about your experiences with/without agents.

GB: I do indeed have an agent, and am so grateful for her. It’s wonderful to have someone who knows the ropes of the business and who can advocate on your behalf. I certainly would never be able to navigate the maze of a book contract on my own! My current agent is actually my third agent; I am still dear friends with the first two, and love all three women. I met my first at a poetry workshop; I found my second by reading the acknowledgements section of a book similar to my own, and the third one semi-recruited me (after the second one left agenting when her sock company took off like gangbusters.)


LH: Sock company? It’s pretty amazing that she left agenting because of that. What are your thoughts about marketing? Do you have any great tips on how to do it well?

GB: I used to really cringe at the idea of marketing—I used to be painfully shy, and very private, and wanted to only focus on the writing, not anything beyond that. I’ve since learned that a writer needs to be proactive if she wants to get her work out into the world. The best advice I have is to try to find creative ways to market that can utilize your writerly self—blog book tours, etc. And have fun with marketing—make a YouTube video, for instance, or turn your readings into performances. And always remember that connecting with readers is a joy and a gift, and marketing is one way to reach more potential beloved readers.

LH: If you could go back in time and start over, tell us one thing you have learned that would help you to succeed better/faster/with less struggle.

GB: If I could go back, I hope I would be less afraid, of both failure and success. I’d be more bold, more willing to put myself out there, less worried about what people might think. All things I still need to work on, but I’ve definitely made strides!


LH: Any other thoughts to share?

GB: Be true to yourself and your writing; write what you want to write, what you need to write, not what you think the market will embrace. The market is constantly shifting, but there is always room for passionate writing, writing that comes from the heart, the gut, that rings off the page with emotional truth. And don’t forget to bring your body into the process—it’s easy to get trapped in our heads as writers, but when we drop down into the senses and the sinews, we find such rich, vibrant, deeply lived material.


LH notes: Gayle Brandeis won the Bellwether Prize; her novel The Book of Dead Birds was chosen by Barbara Kingsolver for this award which recognizes literature in support of social change. Her new novel is Self Storage, and her book to stimulate writers is Fruitflesh. She teaches writing, most recently the master class in novel at UCLA Extension. See her blog at: http://www.gaylebrandeis.com/

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Interview with Deb Martinson



LH: Deb, how did you get interested in writing?
DM: Mrs. Garfield, my 9th grade teacher, wrote on my Eleanor Roosevelt term paper: “you already have style. You are a writer.” From birth I have been an avid avid reader. And from 9th grade till now, my writer self has evolved.

LH: What was your first success?
DM: Aside from Mrs. Garfield?
LH: LOL
DM: Well, I won an DAR essay writing award in 11th grade for an essay on the Cuban Missile Crises (first written for MR. Garfield’s history class—he gave me a B- on it.)
LH: Obviously lagging behind his wife in discerning talent!

LH: What kind of things do you most enjoy writing?
DM: Enjoy??? Well I love researching just about anything. And then, of course, I have to write about it. I’d sure like to try fiction and have 16 scenes written. But I don’t know about the rhythm and cadence of fiction—so I’ll have to learn.

LH: Do you have an agent? Tell us about your experiences with/without agents.
DM: Yes, I have an agent. Nat Sobel who is terrific and yet he’s made me cry (and I am not a weeper). I got Nat through connections and sheer luck. He is a first class editor and task master and a straight talker (hence the tears). I think some books require an agent to do anything with publishing. Academic presses don’t require an agent and are a whole different publishing experience. In University presses, editors don’t intrude much, nor do their marketers. But of course, writers can’t expect to make a dime in any event. And an agent expects to make lots of dimes. That’s the requirement. Nat likes me anyway, I think, though he sure hasn’t made much money off me!

LH: What are your thoughts about marketing? Do you have any great tips on how to do it well?
DM: No. I do have good advice. If you want your book marketed, hire someone on your own. Your presses’ marketers will do MINIMAL. I haven’t done this, and I regret it. Next time. . .

LH: If you could go back in time and start over, tell us one thing you have learned that would help you to succeed better/faster/with less struggle.
DM: I’d start earlier (had a whole family and other career first). But I really don’t regret starting late . . .success? It is all a crapshoot. Keep writing, trying to do better, experimenting, having fun with it. Expect struggle. Learn to cuss.

LH: Any other thoughts to share?
DM: “Worth the effort. “ I named a whole introduction that on my Hellman book—my agent had turned down flat my first intro and I had to start from scratch. I didn’t want to do it. I wanted Nora Ephron or Joan Didion to write the intro. Ha! I had to do it myself—and it was worth the effort.

LH: Thanks, Deb, I’m sure my blog readers will enjoy this one!

Friday, July 3, 2009

Interview with Jia-Rui Chong Cook


LH: How did you get interested in writing?

J-R C: I’ve always loved to read, so I think it was only natural to want to try writing. I wouldn’t say I love the process of writing, though. It’s often difficult and always humbling. But I am always delighted to have created something in my own words. I think I got interested in newspaper writing because of the adventure. To write the best story, you have to get out to the scene, and you often get to see things most civilians never see. You get to be curious and ask a lot of questions that would normally be considered nosy. Then you get to try to make sense out of it and tell it to your audience in the pithiest, most evocative way. I think deep curiosity about character and the unfolding events makes for really great writing. I am always turned off by writing that lacks an intimate knowledge of a subject or lacks a thorough thinking-through of what things mean.

LH: What was your first success?

J-R C: If you define first success as first bylined article in a major publication, I guess I’d say that happened in the summer of 1999, when I got an article on good vs. bad low-fat foods in U.S. News and World Report magazine. I just started as an intern at the magazine and an editor assigned me to work with another reporter on low-fat foods. That reporter was nonplussed, but said I could start making some calls. When I came back to her saying that some nutritionists I talked to said there were actually bad low-fat foods, she was impressed. She suggested I do my own article.

If we’re defining success as my first award, that would be the 2006 Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award from the National Association of Science Writers and National Press Foundation. (Link to announcement: http://www.nasw.org/mt-archives/2007/08/jiarui-chong-wins-evert-clarks.htm) It’s given once a year to science writers under 30. I won for four pieces – a story about Alaskan villagers on the lookout for bird flu (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-kipnuk22oct22,0,4438376.story), a story about the impact of bird flu on badminton, a story about recovering a lost text of Archimedes (http://articles.latimes.com/2006/dec/26/science/sci-archimedes26), and a story about the emerging human health risks from climate change (http://articles.latimes.com/2007/feb/25/science/sci-disease25). I was really excited about winning this award. I had only really started writing stories for the LA Times’s science editor in 2005.

LH: What kind of things do you most enjoy writing?

J-R C: My favorite kind of writing is narrative non-fiction. I love watching things unfold in front of me. I love having enough time with a subject that I can put the things I see in context and highlight the most meaningful bits. I love being able to write authoritatively in my own words, find my own analogies to describe something. This kind of writing is most similar to documentary filmmaking. Here is an example of one of my recent favorites of this kind: http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/25/local/me-marines25

LH: Do you have an agent? Tell us about your experiences with/without agents.

J-R C: No, I don’t have an agent.

LH: What are your thoughts about marketing? Do you have any great tips on how to do it well?

J-R C: When I am doing “marketing,” I feel as if I’m doing it on behalf of the LA Times. I want people to read my stories, but also to browse the Times and hopefully stumble on another story that interests them. I’m excited that the internet has made connecting to a potential audience that much easier. I have a Facebook page, where I often post my stories and stories by my colleagues that I like. I also have a Twitter feed (@jahree) that I update at least daily. I try not to insert too much of my opinion in these places, but I do give people reading my Twitter/Facebook posts something a little extra. It might be a funny comment a researcher made to me that didn’t make it into the story.

I also try to accept speaking invitations, even if they require a significant amount of work outside of my regular job. For instance, Zocalo, a group that organizes public lectures around Los Angeles, asked me to curate and moderate a panel discussion on veterans’ health issues at the UCLA Hammer Museum. (Link: http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/archives_2009.php?event_id=243). While the story that this panel was based on has not yet come out in the LA Times, I did have many people come up to me afterwards saying that they’re looking forward to the story.

LH: If you could go back in time and start over, tell us one thing you have learned that would help you to succeed better/faster/with less struggle.

J-R C: I love the clarifying power of writing. When I first started working at the LA Times in 2002, one of the best writers at the paper said that clear writing requires clear thinking. I’ve really come to believe that when troubled, confused thinking results in bad, confusing writing. It’s worth taking the time to step back and ask, “What’s really important here? How do these things fit together?” Of course, sometimes you don’t know that you have a gap in your thinking until you try to put words on paper and you get stuck. That’s good, though. Then you know what you’re missing.

LH: Any other thoughts to share?

J-R C: I think I’ve said enough!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Interview with Mike Foley


LH: Mike, how did you get interested in writing?
MF: At age 19, I read Kerouac’s On the Road and I was hooked. I’ve been writing ever since.

LH: What was your first success?
MF: My early success came while I was still in the creative writing program at Cal State Long Beach. I had several poems and short stories published in literary journals. My first short story was published at the University of Wisconsin, in their journal “Cream City Review.”

LH: What kind of things do you most enjoy writing?
MF: Short fiction or nonfiction profiles of individuals. I also like travel writing, although I don’t do much of it anymore. Film scripts can be fun too, but I prefer doing those in collaboration with other writers.

LH: Do you have an agent? Tell us about your experiences with/without agents.
MF: Yes, it seems as if I’ve always had an agent. My experiences have ranged from terrible to wonderful. Agents tend to be busy and some of them handle it better than others. My current agent falls into the “wonderful” category. He has been handling some screenplays for me, and he’s great.
LH: What are your thoughts about marketing? Do you have any great tips on how to do it well?
MF: Writers are expected to do much more of this now. Good networking with other writers or editors is essential. So I can recommend attending writer’s conferences, where you can meet many people in the industry face-to-face. There doesn’t seem to be any substitute for this. Meet people, talk about your work, and when you attend a conference, be sure to carry a few asmples with you.

LH: If you could go back in time and start over, tell us one thing you have learned that would help you to succeed better/faster/with less struggle.
MF: In the early days, I hated rejection so much that I would pore over a rejected manuscript and try to make changes so the next publisher would take it. Now I understand that work gets rejected for a variety of reasons and many, many times it has nothing to do with a work itself. If I were starting over, I would just give a rejected manuscript a quick read and then send it out again. I wouldn’t waste a lot of time worrying about it. That would free up time for writing other things.

LH: Any other thoughts to share?
MF: When it comes to writing, I still haven’t seen anything more valuable than persistence. Be persistent in writing and submitting. You have to write well, of course, but the more persistent you are, the better your writing becomes. Keep doing it!

LH: Can you tell us where to find some of your articles and your website? I know you work with other writers to help them improve/edit their work, and I have found your online courses, workshops, and input on my own manuscripts very valuable.
MF: You can find some of my articles at the Dream Merchant web site, although they aren’t designed to help writers. http://www.dreammerchant.net/
My web site is at: http://www.writers-review.com/
LH: Thanks for the insights into your life as a writer, Mike.