Okay, back to the essential conference topics and shit like that.
It is Labor Day, and I am working.
Being a writer is not very easy at all.
Being a writer is not easy for me because when I am writing something, everything else in my life gets ignored or put aside. Like today, for example. The payoff is not terrific, either.
I have never cared about money. I know that is a ridiculous thing to say. Agents do not understand that kind of crazytalk. I only care about writing good shit.
I made a list of all the people who will be pissed off at me over this last book I've written. Well, not all the people, but a lot of them.
Here is part of my list:
People from Iowa, people from Minnesota, people from Delaware, people from Indiana, people who profit from war, people who smoke methamphetamine, scientists, chemistry teachers, Lutherans, Catholics, people who have trained circus dog acts, relatives of Ronald Reagan, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Calvin Coolidge, Chou En-lai, people who particularly like birds that talk, book banners, the entire Hollywood motion picture industry, the country of China, the country of Italy, the country of Canada, American pharmaceutical companies, Spiro Agnew, Rupert Murdoch, and Meghan Cox Gurdon.
That is just a partial list, off the top of my head.
If I end up getting whacked, it's probably going to be by some asshole with a trained circus dog act.
That said, I stumbled upon a most beautifully written review of Stick this morning. The review is written by a Young Person's Librarian in Pennsylvania, so... enough said. Librarians who write reviews are right up there with booksellers as far as people whose reviews matter.
The review is on a really nice blog called DogEar.
Anyway, the review is really well-done. It's like an honor to have a book reviewed in such a well-worded piece. Thank you, librarian at DogEar.
You can read the DogEar review of Stick here.
11 comments:
Just when it seems as though all is bleak with the world, along comes a librarian who puts it back right. Excellent review, and now I've got to add this book to my to-read list.
Glad that I didn't make your list and looking forward to the fallout..um...book! :-)
And that IS a fantastic review. Well-deserved.
Oops.
Um.
There is something about Nashville in the book, too. I forgot.
Ha! That's okay, it's probably true!
Now if you start ragging on Detroit, we're gonna have issues....
I beam with pleasure at the Librarian's Review, even though the only person who knows I am beaming is my dog.
Andrew, just go ahead and make a list of everyone you've pissed off with your writing, past and present. I am sure it is a long list, and this is the post you can put the title "Motherfucker" in.
We're teachers. We always work on Labor Day. Don't we?
I'm like six of those things on that list (one is from my past only, but I still count it). And I'm proud to say I hope I've pissed you off once or twice. I'm pretty sure I've made you happy, flattered, embarrassed or proud way more times, but we're friends. It can't ALL be cake.
Also, reading that review (which was like a legit review, not just a smoke fest) I felt like a tool. I mean I'm not saying my efforts at recommending your books to the people I know are ... pointless, but when you read something like that you realize ... I'm such a fucking poser, I need to give this shit up, smoke my teeth away, and work on engines and shit.
Oh Matthew, sorry to say there is almost nothing that ever pisses me off. Hmmm... I did not make fun of people from Georgia. I do not know if anything has ever happened there.
And yes, the DogEar review is quite scholarly, which is why I appreciate it most of all. It's sad how the most-read, most-weighted reviews (Kirkus, PW, Booklist. etc.) so frequently contain errors and try to cram profundity and wit into a paragraph, as opposed to using their platform to write reviews that really dig into the guts of a book.
I suppose it's our microwave, Cup-O-Noodles sensibilities that give rise to such schools of reviewing.
I still have a knot in my gut over the Booklist review of Stick. In a paragraph, that review was brilliant and got to the guts of the book. But you know what bothered me most about it? It began by saying something to the effect that I threw a curveball at my readers with Stick.
Maybe the reviewer had only ever read The Marbury Lens beforehand. It bothers me that people always expect the same thing, same thing, same thing from writers... and it especially bothers me that writers (mostly shitty ones) keep giving what's expected.
As far as the pitching analogy goes, and Matthew, I know has read all of my books, when have I EVER thrown to the same spot over the plate yet?
I will hang up my cleats before the next batter knows what I throw at him.
I think you know that, Matthew.
I really hope someone from Booklist checks this comment out. I might cup-check 'em next time they're up.
Hah! Okay. It's going to take another browser window for me to respond to this.
A responsible adult would probably email you. Please don't accuse me of being either of those two things (responsible OR adult).
So: I've really NEVER pissed you off? That's kind of a shame. I'm not going to say I've TRIED to piss you off, because I'm not that guy, but I was sure I had.
Anyway. This isn't about me. It's barely about you.
Oh, but before we go there, I promise there are 6, I think. I'll tell you later.
So. Yeah. Reviews and how they're weighted. This could be a long conversation. I could talk about how I don't personally read reviews, but then again my own book buying habits have taken such a turn in the last few years that really wouldn't mean shit, as an argument for or againt any damn thing. I could talk about my friends and the people they respect, but that's another bad example because I tend to gravitate toward smart people, and a lot of those mainstream high traffic review sites and publications (as high brow as they might seem) do not cater to those kind of people.
I think I have to accept that point is moot.
As far as your metaphor about reviews I don't want to admit to living in that world. My idealism says it can't be, that I won't let it be ... but on the other hand, I'm not stupid.
When it comes to Booklist, and all your books, and your pitching analogy, I have to say: I've read everything you've published (and ahem), and while I do see some common threads (which I'll discuss sometime privately, because I don't want to publicly project MY perspective onto your great works, and therefore color the experience for ANY other reader) there are so many not only unique aspects, but also new and never-before-done bits of story, plot, and character that I just can't quite fathom how anyone could claim one of your books to be derivative of another.
I can't even think of two that would work as an example exclusive of all the others. I mean, I suppose Ghost Medicine and The Marbury Lens have ONE similar character dynamic, but you can't possibly convince me that the experiences and the reactions are close enough to argue similarity.
Have I ranted long enough? Probably.
Don't I care? Probably not.
Should I?
Ask me tomorrow, when I'm making sense.
Also, shit. I had a point to make about compassion, anger, Buddhism and hate, but now it's lost off the tip of my tongue like so many buds rolled into a vega.
I would also moan and cry about not being FROM Georgia, and just having to suffer through living here like any dutifully oppressed member of the proletariat, but I know what you meant.
I talk too much.
Andrew, you're a damn good writer, but you're not good enough to piss off dead men. I'm just the messenger.
"It bothers me that people always expect the same thing, same thing, same thing from writers... and it especially bothers me that writers (mostly shitty ones) keep giving what's expected."
Drew, this has been the basis of my writing for almost a year and a half now. I've been writing novels since I was fifteen, and never had the idea of composing wildly different stories ever occur to me until I began reading outside of my own genre (which, at the time, was fantasy). Even then, I realized how few writers actually achieve what you and few others have, that is to provide us with stories, characters, and milieus that aren't practically carbon copies of each other. I don't want to treat my writing like algebra. Character A meets Character B, both cross Character X, who cancels out Character C (where the hell did s/he come from?), leaving only Character A and Character B to live happily together forever.
I'm glad to have discovered your books and your blog. They have both been transformative to my writing as well as to its goals.
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