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We’re over the moon to have Gayle Brandeis visit TCBR. Gayle is a powerhouse mama, writer, activist, teacher, and all-around lovely person. We’re grateful to her for sharing her family’s favorite books with us.

"If you take a hot pin and stick it into amber, the smell of million-year-old pine resin floats out at you, fresh and alive. The pinprick of the word 'dad' was like that for me--it sent memories streaming, filling the air with old angers."

That's Gayle Brandeis writing about memory in her new novel, Self Storage, This Bellwether Prize-winning author has been our special guest this week, discussing how her manic first draft became this poetic novel.

Most of all, Brandeis taught us how to write about memory, exploring everything from storage locker auctions to Walt Whitman poetry. 

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a serialized set of weekly interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing...

Jason Boog:
You have the longest resume: writer, essayist, poet, actress, activist, dancer, and many other things, I'm sure. How do you balance writing and your other responsibilities? How do you drag yourself over to the computer after a busy day and begin to write? Continue reading...

"Paris Hilton's storage unit contents, which were auctioned off in 2005, much to the celebutante's chagrin, are now avaialable for viewing online for $39.97 a month. See how lucrative self storage auctions can be!"

That's our featured guest, Gayle Brandeis (at the website Mama's Ink), delivering storage locker facts in honor of her brand new novel, Self Storage. Her book follows an unhappy woman who buys and sells boxes full of other people's belongings from storage auctions.

Today, Brandeis shares her favorite books that she keeps in the self storage locker in her head--part of my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions.

In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a serialized set of weekly interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing.... 

Jason Boog: 
Walt Whitman haunts your whole book, and obviously inspired your poetic prose. Who are the writers you recommend we read to learn how to write more gracefully? Any advice for writing more lyrical prose?

Gayle Brandeis:
I always return to poetry to recharge my relationship with language. Continue reading...

"Whitman was a master at imagining himself in other skins. I am large, he said. I contain multitudes. He could see himself as a soldier, a slave, a mother giving birth, a blade of grass. That didn't come as easily for me--I'd always felt stuck in my own body, my own point of view--but with these roller skates, I got a little glimpse into the largeness he knew so well."

That's a mind-bending bit from Self Storage, the new novel from the Bellwether Prize winning writer, Gayle Brandeis. You would never guess that this quietly powerful novel was born in a single month.

Brandeis drafted Self Storage as part of the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a massive Internet writing exercise. As she explains today, sometimes these writing experiences can yield a published product.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a serialized set of weekly interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing...

Jason Boog:
This novel was born during NaNoWriMo. Can you describe your ultimately successful process of going from an empty notebook to a novel draft in 30-days? How did you turn that messy draft into the beautiful product that we read?

Gayle Brandeis:
I tried to follow Natalie Goldberg's sage advice—"keep your hand moving." Continue reading...

"Words for aspiring authors? Don’t forget to look to the small publishers or independent presses. Believe me, I would have loved nothing more than a large advance from a big publisher because I really want an Infiniti FX 35 and a trip to Paris along with granite countertops and distressed wood flooring ... That was not in the cards for me."

That's our featured novelist, Gayle Brandeis, blogging with her signature blend of humility and comedy.

In her new novel Self Storage, the whole story hinges on the imagined and real differences between an Afghani immigrant and an American woman. Brandeis handled that difficult contrast with a plucky social conscience that earned her the Bellwether Prize for an earlier novel.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a serialized set of weekly interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing... 

Jason Boog: 
How do you research and create such a rich, mysterious, but realistic character? Any advice for the fledgling writer looking to write about people from other cultures without being disrespectful or dishonest?

 
Gayle Brandeis:
I think writing with compassion is the key. Continue reading...
 

"I half-expected spirits to swirl out of the box, a' la Pandora. Angry ghosts, maybe the ectoplasm Noodle was so scared of. Instead, a vaguely floral smell drifted up, a surprisingly clean smell. I slipped my fingers into the gap between the cardboard flaps, and slowly, cautiously, spread them open."

That's a passage from novelist Gayle Brandeis' new book, Self Storage--giving you a taste of her evocative prose. The novel follows an unhappy woman who buys and sells boxes full of other people's belongings. She buys sealed boxes at self-storage auctions, purchasing containers with potentially magical, dull, dangerous, spooky or life-changing contents.

This week Brandeis--a Bellwether Prize winner for her socially conscious fiction--is our special guest in my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a serialized set of weekly interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing...

Jason Boog:
I know you've won a number of social and political awards for your writing. What is your favorite example of how your writing and your social conscience have intersected in the real world? How can a fledgling writer channel political or social passion into fiction?

Gayle Brandeis:
One favorite example—I was at a peace march in Washington, DC in September 2005. Someone asked me to write a few chants for our group (CODEPINK, a women's peace organization.) Continue reading...