who it's for

Last month, I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with Susan Patron, the Newbery-winning author of The Higher Power of Lucky, at a dinner in Pasadena.

I’ve kind of been mulling over some of the comments Susan made in her inspiring speech that night, and now that the first galleys of in the path of falling objects are out, I’d like to talk a little bit about what she said.

Sorry if I get any of this wrong, Susan.

One of the things she spoke about was self-censorship… not just for the librarian who may be afraid to stock books that contain certain taboo subjects, or one who may hide Young Adult fiction in the adult shelves (don’t get me started on the whole YA thing), but also, to a broader extent, self-censorship and the writer.

Susan talked about why she writes… well, more specifically, who she writes for: Not her editor or the marketplace… she writes for herself. So I realized through her speech that writers who write for themselves frequently are also plagued by intense feelings of self-doubt.

Did I get the gist right, Susan?

At least, it made me feel real good to hear an author of her accomplishments say something like that. I was, like, wow… even she knows how I feel.

I thought about this because on a recent comment thread, I said that when I wrote in the path of falling objects, I didn’t think anyone would like it. I wrote it anyway. I had to. Couldn’t stop myself.

So, when initial reactions began coming in from people in the publishing industry, I was totally blown away. I was, like… really? and… why? And now that the first trickles of readers have gotten through the galleys and I’m hearing reactions from them… well, all I can say is I am totally blown away.

But I do mean that in a good way.

Sorry for the near-self-deprecation, and I'll shut up as soon as I say that I... well, forget it.

My favorite character from in the path of falling objects? Well, it's not Don (he doesn't say enough), and it's not the one most people would probably think... it's the kid who struggles with being good.

the allusion illusion

Okay.

Style.

One of the things I do in all my books is I throw some props out to great writers and great works of fiction and literature. Sometimes, I do this subtly... and sometimes it's right out there on display.

I guess English teacher or Lit professor types call this "literary allusion."

If you've read Ghost Medicine and in the path of falling objects, you probably picked these up (the former makes much more overt allusions than the latter). Obviously enough, here they are (in case you were wondering):

From Ghost Medicine: Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot and Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, both of which I read -- on my own -- when I was about 16, just like Troy, the main character in Ghost Medicine, does.

I won't go into why, exactly, the protagonists and story arcs of these novels are important to my work, but they are both books I think boys should read.

Now, in both those books, there are some very understated allusions to Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano. You'd have to be quite a fan of Lowry's and read my books very closely, but I do give props to that novel in both my first works. It may not be such a widely-read work, but it did make a big impact on me when I read it as a teen.

From in the path of falling objects, there are lots of literary allusions... and most of them are pretty obvious. Here they are (I think I'm putting them in their order of appearance):

Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn... obviously enough, as is Cervantes' Don Quixote, and L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz. And, near the end, there is a reference to my favorite all-time poem, The Emperor of Ice Cream, by Wallace Stevens.

If you've read in the path of falling objects, I bet you could go back and find that little bit.

I love that poem.

the hard sell

It's time.

I have to have "the talk" with my son.

Yeah... I know, he's fourteen. But next year, in his Advance Placement English class, they're going to make him read Kate Chopin's The Awakening.

So... to prepare him for the castrating effects of state-run literacy programs, I've decided to get him some summer reading for his edification. I'm stocking up on the following, which he has not read yet, and I'm sure he'll love:

The Crossing -- Cormac McCarthy

Under the Volcano -- Malcolm Lowry

Light in August -- William Faulkner

Carry On, Jeeves -- P.G. Wodehouse

Those should keep his manhood fairly well protected.

I know. Weird list.

I love those books, though.

Speaking of which, my pregnant friend Sarah -- who doesn't read this blog, otherwise she would have had some choice zingers for me yesterday -- sent an email to me and two of my friends, John and Casey, in which she gave my first unsolicited review of in the path of falling objects:

(That bastard Smith) hit the money with this book. I know you're jealous that he's letting me read it first. (Prick), I know you tried to cover it up by implying that my being pregnant had something to do with it. Don't really get it, though. Implying that I'm hormonal? I'm sure that wasn't your intent.

Regardless....I am FEELING this book. I actually don't like it when books are made into movies, but this is a movie-friendly book for sure. I totally dig the characters and the narrative style. I'm almost halfway done, so I'm really hoping the ending doesn't piss me off.

Oh yeah... I'd NEVER write a book with an ending that would piss you off.

Glad you like it, Sarah.

if it's tuesday, sarah must be pregnant

Randomness continues:

MY FRIEND SARAH is expecting.

She's also not reading anything at the moment.

She begged me for my only copy of in the path of falling objects.

I caved.

I AM STALKING YOU now, Sarah.

That was my only copy.

But Sarah needs a good boy book. She teaches English. She's having a boy, and has the unsavory habit of recommending books like The Joy Luck Club and Like Water for Chocolate to teenage boys.

I am not kidding.

SORRY IF THE BOOK GIVES YOU NIGHTMARES, Sarah, but you pleaded.

It's her first kid.

Welcome to boy.

NOTE: The books mentioned above are great books -- don't misunderstand me. They're just not always a good fit for teenage boys.

Update your reading list, SARAH.

SIDE NOTE: This is a first for me. Yesterday, the FedEx guy stopped by my house with a large envelope from Random House. It contained a very thoughtful handwritten fan letter from a listener of the audio version of Ghost Medicine.

I was totally blown away.

Also by the nice little note from Nevin Mays, the editor at Random House. Very thoughtful of both of them to actually take the time to get that into my hands. Of course, I keep things like this forever.

Thank you so much, Nevin and Rita for brightening my day.

ONE MORE THING... about my visit to the kids in Sandra Rayl's Creative Writing class. This comes up a lot, and it's one of my pet peeves. Formulas. Kids get them shoved down their throats all the time. How to write an essay: formulas (formulae?) for paragraphs... what kinds of sentences to use, and in which order. concretedetailcommentarycommentaryconcretedetail

Gah!

Get over it. This stuff hurts our kids.

The one I hear most frequently, that bugs me the most, is the commandment-like belief among the vast majority of writers today that sentences have to be short and punchy... nothing beyond subject/verb... and an occasional object... but that's it. Or an editor will HATE YOU.

Well... guess what?

You're full of crap.

Guess what else?

There's a sentence in in the path of falling objects that has 106 words in it. You may want to read it twice. You'll probably want to close your eyes and have someone read it aloud. I meant this book to be read aloud... which is why I am really looking forward to the audio.

Guess what (times three)?

There's an ENTIRE CHAPTER in that book with only 13 words in it, too.

And it's three sentences long.

CALCULATE THAT, literary Einsteins.

It can be done.

random mondayness

My eyes are blurry.

I've been reading so much. I spent Saturday and Sunday reading my advance copy of in the path of falling objects. Interesting experience. First of all, while having one book of mine on the bookshelf was cool, having TWO, in less than a year, is really something else.

And I enjoyed reading it, too. I felt detached -- like a reader, and not the author. But I did find three minor things I wanted to change: one, a typo (God! I hate typos); the second, a word I'd like to leave out; and third, a change in a punctuation mark. But that's it. Pretty clean.

And, like I said, I liked the book, too. I almost felt like I didn't know how it was going to end. Maybe I've been doing too much other stuff in between writing this one and finally reading it for the first time.

When I visited the kids at Newbury Park last week, one of them asked me if it was difficult to write my own stuff while I was reading something else. My answer was that reading is the second half of writing -- that writers have to read constantly. So, no, I said, I have no problem with reading a good book while I'm working on my writing.

But I'll qualify that. I can't write something new if I'm reading a project I've completed. There's not enough distance between myself and the voices in my own books, if that makes any sense. I kind of mentioned that in an earlier post about reading a manuscript I'd sent off to Kelly... and so now that I was reading in the path of falling objects over the weekend, I had to table my current project for a couple days.

Again.

Oh. And speaking of the weekend, this has happened to me now for two Saturdays in a row. I thought there was some catastrophic recession on. So, being the rational self-maximizer that I am, on each of the past two Saturdays I tried to take my wife out to dinner to some really nice (and pricey) places.

I figured I'd get a table.

No luck.

What's up with that? Every time I read the papers or catch a news broadcast, it's all economic doom-and-gloom, but just TRY getting a table in a nice restaurant on a Saturday evening and it's like the freekin Gilded Age or something.

And yeah... I have a background in economics, so this observation is purely anecdotal, but... jeez! I actually had to tip just to get a table the other night.

two weeks before the ides

Really, this is the part of the book journey that is the most fun: between the arrival of the first galleys and the release date.

There's something especially exciting about seeing a book you've worked on actually published and bound in its first incarnation... as an advance reader copy. But, as you can see, this ARC is particularly eye-grabbing, thanks to the edgy artistic styling of Rich Deas. That sounds like something you'd say about a lounge bar piano player, but... cool-looking design in any event, Rich.

Wait till you see his cover.

This is the second post of the day, and I'm keeping it short so I can proof the galley. So far, halfway through, I found one error and one word I want to strike out. So, pretty clean, I'd say.

The earlier post was a promo poster we had made for when I do author visits. We did a couple of them. I'm going to leave you with the one I like best:

in like a lion