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"I was vindicated. I'd solved even more of the mystery--Nancy Drew and the Case of the Homeless Girl ... 'I'm glad I found out. Knowledge is power, right?' If I only knew what to do with all this power I had."

That’s Janice Erlbaum writing about a homeless girl she befriended at a New York City shelter. Over the course of a difficult year, Erlbaum struggled to help this girl, uncovering some dark secrets along the way. You can read the results in her new memoir, Have You Found Her.

While fabulists like James Frey give the form a black eye, good memoirs are based on plenty of detective work, both emotionally and physically. Today, Erlbaum explains how she reconstructed the life of this troubled girl named Sam in her new book--helping us become better memoir detectives.

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

Jason Boog:
Your book incorporates letters, speeches, phone messages, and other archived material from Sam. How did you collect all this material and how did you turn it into prose? Any advice for using this kind of research in an active way, so our memoirs don't end up sounding like scholarly papers?

Janice Erlbaum:
Well, I’m hugely sentimental, and a little bit of a pack rat, so I tend to keep things like letters and cards, especially when they’re from someone very dear to me. So I had a manila folder in my files called “SAM,” into which I stuffed all her letters, drawings, and etc; I also had the few emails she’d sent me in an archive.

Continue reading...

“I'm in Washington Square Park wishing I could write a poem, the poem that would help. Poetry doesn't help, money helps. I know I don't believe that. What to do. Observe, observe, observe. It is my new mission to lay back and observe. Put less of myself out there and listen more.”

That's memoirist Janice Erlbaum writing a blog entry in 2005, reflecting on life changes that would ultimately bring her in contact with a teenaged runaway named Sam. (She had just finished her first book, Girlbomb.

Erlbaum would keep writing as she came closer and closer to this troubled girl, and that journey is recorded in her new memoir, Have You Found Her.

Today, Erlbaum explains how she ended up becoming a writer and how she supported herself over the course of her career--all the nitty-gritty detail that can help a fledgling writers think about their own lives.

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

Jason Boog:
While writing and living this book, you also maintained a freelance career. This can be a very difficult lifestyle for a writer. How did you hold your life together, both financially and emotionally, during those early years before your first book was published?

Janice Erlbaum:
Most of my freelancing involved my books, and my steady gig as a columnist for BUST magazine, and thank god for that – I’m terrible at pitching articles and drumming up piecework. Continue reading...

I'm setting a bad example. Over the weekend, I went to a quiet, hilarious dinner party with some close friends.

Unfortunately, I’ve been swamped with projects and I didn’t write a single word about this minor, yet entertaining episode from my life. Little details about my friends, our lifestyles and the soggy winter of 2008 will soon fade into oblivion.

That's why writers like Janice Erlbaum put me to shame. She keeps impeccable track of her memories, and has made journal-keeping an integral part of her life—a practice that produced two personal, intricate books.

Her most recent work is Have You Found Her, a look at Erlbaum’s caring, but troubled, relationship with a young runaway. This week, she’ll teach us how to preserve our memories and write better at the same time.

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

Jason Boog:
In the book, you refer to copying down dialogue and scenes in your notebook a few times. I can imagine you were doing this constantly. In your experience, what's the best way to record an experience you want to write about later? What's the best way to record intricate details and conversations without spoiling the actual experience?

Janice Erlbaum:
I am an avid journal-keeper and a fairly consistent blogger, so writing down things as they happen is part of my ongoing creative process, whether I’m working on a book-length project or not. Continue reading...

 

"The restaurant was reduced to a collection of inverted faces, of nudging and whispering as her laughter snowballed...she grabbed the bearded man's plate and smashed it over his head. Yolk slid down his face as he jumped out of the booth, knocking down his Coke. He slipped on the soda and collapsed on the floor. My mother smiled and turned to me. 'I'll see you at home,' she said, waving me away."

That's a mix of slapstick, madness and passion from Felicia Sullivan's new memoir. Today she explains how a talented editor helped Sullivan convert her troubled relationship with her mother and her own battle with addiction into an elegant book, The Sky Isn't Visible from Here.

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

Jason Boog:
You said that you had a very close relationship with your editor while working on your memoir. Can you describe that in more detail? How did it work? How long did that revision process take? Any revision advice for fledgling writers?

Felicia Sullivan:
I am incredibly privileged and humbled to have a home with Algonquin Books. They're like an army in miniature, and my editor Amy Gash, its fearless leader. After turning in the first draft, we worked for over a year hammering down the structure, cutting sections, adding new chapters. At one point, I had cut out 90 pages and added 70 new ones. Continue reading...

That's author Felicia Sullivan reading from her new memoir, The Sky Isn't Visible from Here. While that spooky scene sounds perfectly rehearsed, Sullivan obsessed about the reading for days on her blog and in real life. 

Most writers are shy, strange people, and fear of public speaking is built into our DNA. Today, this Columbia University MFA graduate and Pushcart Prize nominee explains how she combats anxiety in her daily life.

Sullivan is our special guest this week, discussing the fine art of memoir in my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing. 

Jason Boog:
You gave a great reading at Barnes and Noble the other night, but you said in your blog that you were deathly nervous. How do you combat anxiety at readings? Generally, how do you control anxiety and fears in your writing life?

Felicia Sullivan:
Years ago a teacher of mine recounted her first Barnes and Noble reading where she ended up fainting on the way to the podium and woke to a sea of panicked faces. I nodded. Of course this would one day happen to me! How could it not?! Continue reading...

"SLS is premised on the not-so-novel idea that one's writing can greatly benefit from the keen sense of temporary displacement created by an immersion in a thoroughly foreign culture and street vernacular; that one's removing himself/herself from the routine context of his/her life, of one's own free will, tends to provide for a creative jolt, as it were by offering up a wholly new perspective, new angle of looking at the customary and the mundane."

Doesn't that sound amazing? 

That's a description of the Summer Literary Seminar program, a writing retreat that offers yearly fellowships for a few lucky writers. A few years ago, Felicia Sullivan won herself a trip to writing heaven through that program.

Following that experience, she just published her memoir, The Sky Isn't Visible from Here. Today she explains how that experience influenced her creative process, giving us a few fellowship leads as well. 

Sullivan is our special guest, part of my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing. 

Jason Boog:
You received a fellowship while working on this memoir. How did that help you in the writing process? Any advice for young writers looking for fellowships or support for their writing?

Felicia Sullivan:
I received the Tin House Conference fellowship for memoir writing. Continue reading...

Right now, thousands of fledgling writers are staring at their mailboxes. They'll be making one of the hardest decisions of their lives--should I get a creative writing MFA?

There is no easy answer, but I've made a hobby of asking published writers what they think about creative writing programs.

Today our special guest Felicia Sullivan shares her thoughts on the subject. This Columbia University MFA graduate just published her memoir, The Sky Isn't Visible from Here--and she has plenty to say about her MFA experience. 

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

Jason Boog:
Many of my readers are considering creative writing MFAs. What was your experience like? How did it help you? What would you do differently next time? Do you have any advice for writers thinking about these programs?

Felicia Sullivan:
I'm afraid that I won't be able to give your readers unbiased advice on MFA programs as my experience at Columbia was far from an ideal one. Continue reading...

"Sweaters, acrylic blankets, T-shirts, and dirty socks covered the floral couch. Cobalt glasses with scarlet lipstick prints, overflowing ashtrays bowls of rocks and a deck of playing cards were strewn over the glass coffee table ... Against one wall stood a large icon case with glass doors. Seven feet high, the walnut cabinet displayed swarthy-faced tribal masks with fat lips and dour expressions, crimson and sea-foam beads, a multitude of silver crucifixes, packets of powders and seeds, wax altar candles in red, yellow, and white, and a large portrait of a brown-faced Christ."

That's an intricate passage from Felicia C. Sullivan's new memoir, The Sky Isn't Visible from Here. Sullivan took a traumatic, crucial moment from her childhood and turned it into a spooky bit of family history.

Today, this Columbia University MFA graduate and Pushcart Prize nominee explains how she built that episode into a vivid scene. Sullivan is our special guest this week, discussing the fine art of memoir in my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions.

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

Jason Boog:
One of my favorite scenes in your memoir is the time you spend with Lydia and Ursla (on page 90-91 especially). Your descriptions of action and attention to detail in that scene is really admirable. Could you walk me through, on a practical level, how you built the intricate details in that scene? How did you turn that memory into vivid prose, following your "line-by-line" writing style? 

Felicia Sullivan:
That's a terrific question! I am very much a line-writer, which makes the writing process incredibly slow, and sometimes painful for me, as I find that I'm constantly tinkering with words, and finding inventive ways to use (or bastardize) them in order to depict a particular scene or breathe life into a limp character. Continue reading...

That's Larry Smith describing how he dreamed up Smith Magazine a couple years ago. He co-edited the new Smith book, to the six-word memoir collection, Not Quite What I Was Planning, with his Senior Editor, Rachel Fershleiser

They've been our special guests this week, both in print and in web video. Today, Larry Smith explains how an up-and-coming microblogging company Twitter changed his magazine.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions (this week, each of our guests get two-and-a-half easy questions). In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:

Larry Smith: 

Twitter was a great partnership for us, and exemplifies a lot of the way we think. Soon after SMITH launched (Jan. 6., 2006) I became obsessed with telling stories from SMITH on mobile phones. Continue reading...

That web video shows just a few of the happy contributors to the six-word memoir anthology.

Writing anthologies and contests are tricky business. Editors comb through vast amounts of submissions, and it's hard to know what they are thinking. Most recently, Stephen King and Zadie Smith both bemoaned the state of short story submissions. Smith angered plenty of writers in the process. 

This week, Larry Smith (the unrelated founder of Smith Magazine) and Rachel Fershleiser (senior editor at Smith) are our special guests, giving us an inside look at how they created their six-word memoir anthology, Not Quite What I Was Planning.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions (this week, each of our guests get two-and-a-half easy questions). In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:

You must have combed through a bazillion memoirs while editing the six-word memoir book. How did you organize this huge mess of content and make the tough decisions about what to keep and cut? As an editor, which stories grabbed you the most?

Rachel Fershleiser:
Several bazillion, yes. Basically, for months I read through the backend of our submission-software every night and copy-pasted the ones that grabbed my attention into a spreadsheet. Continue reading...

That's the introduction to the six-word memoir collection, Not Quite What I Was Planning, where the editors explore the emotional range that they discovered in the thousands and thousands of submissions they received.

The book was edited by Larry Smith (founder of Smith Magazine) and Rachel Fershleiser (senior editor at Smith), and today they both explain how they manage and organize their writing projects. 

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions (this week, each of our guests get two-and-a-half easy questions).

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

Jason Boog:

Rachel Fershleiser: 

Today Larry tells us how he turned his network of friends into the collection, Not Quite What I Was Planning--using the magazine's community as a springboard for a book

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions (this week, each of our guests get two-and-a-half easy questions).

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

Jason Boog:

Larry Smith:

I've been in journalism for a while now, and I've always tried to treat people well, do the little things that as a freelance I've always appreciated: answer emails and return calls, grab that cup of coffee of quick beer with someone who wants advice. Continue reading...

How do you get your readers to interact with your writing? That's the 21st Century problem that all fledgling authors face. To help us answer that question, I brought in the experts.

This week Larry Smith (founder of Smith Magazine) and Rachel Fershleiser (senior editor at Smith) are our special guests, discussing their six-word memoir anthology and how they built an interactive storytelling community for writers.

They turned their community work into the collection Not Quite What I Was Planning, bringing together thousands of writers in a six-word storytelling project.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions (this week, each of our guests get two-and-a-half easy questions).

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

Jason Boog:

Rachel Fershleiser:

Most of what I learned about topics our readers love happened from editing The PopuLIST, a feature where we ask a question based on current events and ask for a 100-word story in return. Continue reading...

"The harijans up top [of the bus], who neither got to see that girl's incredible breasts, nor understand why they were flying through the air as the driver slammed the brakes at the edge of the ravine, which the bus did not go over, but the refrigerator did, taking all those chickens and bananas and rice sacks and wedding and funeral girts with it, and leaving behind it on the slope it door down sixteen shirtless brown men without an ounce of body fat between them but plenty, now, of broken bones."

That's a chaotic, hilarious set piece from novelist Tony D'Souza's new book, The Konkans.

This second-time novelist and freelance writer has been our guest all week, discussing everything from working with a literary agent to researching your novel.

For the conclusion of his interview, D'Souza discusses the fine art of writing action scenes. Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:

You have a real knack for describing how crazy events unfold in physical space-- a mix of propulsive sentences and slapstick. How do you write and re-write your climactic action scenes (like the escaped pig in The Konkans or the hero chasing a girl through a cornfield in Whiteman)? What's your advice for writers looking to write more action-packed prose?

"I was a creature set among them from the magical world of television. Even after a year, children would sit in a group on the dirt of my courtyard to watch me do the simplest things as though watching television still: sweeping out my hut, coughing from the dust, spitting, mending my sandals, sharpening my machete, taking a sip of water from my gourd."

That's an excerpt from Tony D'Souza's Whiteman--a fictional account of his time in Peace Corps Ivory Coast that ended when a civil war rocked his host country. Over the course of a long freelance career, D'Souza learned how to write in strange places with tight deadlines.

This week he's our special guest, talking about new novel, The Konkans. Today he tells you how to keep writing no matter where you are. 

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

Jason Boog:
In an interview in 2006, you said: "I wrote articles for The New Yorker, Salon, Esquire, and a slew of other places in airport and hotel bars while on tour, by the way. I've discovered a lot about myself this year. One is that I can write on the road." Could you elaborate? What did writing on the road teach you? Any advice for fledgling writers looking to strike out as a traveling freelancer?

Too many fledgling writers treat agents like fairy godmothers, expecting them to change pumpkin novels into princes. That desperation allows too many swindling faux-agents to flourish. 

Today novelist Tony D'Souza will tell you exactly how an agent can help you and exactly how they can't help you.

Over the course of his career, D'Souza has published Whiteman, a number of freelance stories, and his new novel, The Konkans. He'll explain how he traveled from Peace Corps to a writing career, despite a number of rejections from his agent.

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

Jason Boog:
Your agent has played a key role in your career. Could you explain how you located your agent and how you worked together over the last two books? What's your advice for writers with a first novel who are looking for an agent?

"The Peace Corps had constructed a mock Indian village [in Wisconsin], replete with shanties and stocked with educated Indian functionaries they had hired and flown over from Delhi to play the role of the poor and underserved. Acting the part of people they didn't even condescend to speak to in life, those high-caste Indian educators needed help from the American trainees..."

That's novelist Tony D'Souza describing a surreal Peace Corps training in the 1960's, something he never experienced, but used as a pivotal plot device in his new book, The Konkans.

His first novel, Whiteman, was a journey deep into a troubled African country where D'Souza served in Peace Corps, but his new book travels into brand new spaces. 

Today he gives us a long essay about characterization in my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
Your first book focused on a young man who lived a life very similar to your life in Peace Corps. This second novel dives into the lives of people very different from yourself. How did you imagine your way into the lives and thoughts of these unfamiliar characters--especially the middle-aged mother of the narrator and the Indian immigrant she secretly loved for years?

"Maxwell Street at that time was an open-air bazaar of second-hand electronics, knockoff designer shoes, food stalls, junk, and trinkets to rival any great market in the Third World, and the vendors and shoppers came from every corner of it. It was a carnival of simple commerce, people haggling over single pairs of socks in eleven languages."

That's Tony D'Souza describing an immigrant corner of Chicago in his new novel, The Konkans. During his writing career, D'Souza has traveled the world as a freelance reporter (writing for everybody from The Esquire to Outside magazine), taught creative writing, and served in the Peace Corps.

In his new novel, we follow the lives of a family of Konkans--an Indian ethnic group that converted to Catholicism centuries ago. Like that market, D'Souza's imaginary family contains a multitude conflicting, beautiful details.

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

Jason Boog:

The Konkans rests on a tremendous body of research into two centuries' worth of history. This was a new level of historical depth for you. How did you research this book, both historically and setting-wise? Which novels did you read for inspiration about how to write a book set against such a dramatic history?

Okay. We are going to take a week off from The Publishing Spot--a chance to go crazy with my novel, catch up on reading, and get out of the city for a little bit.

I hope you have a happy holiday, and I'll see you on January 2nd when they force us all to go back to work.

If you want some content, check out my favorite writing interviews from the last year or so: sci-fi wizard Brian Francis Slattery, pulp fiction hero Paul Malmont, scriptwriting memoirist Allen Rucker, novelist Min Jin Lee, and travelwriting madman Tony D'Souza.

If that's not enough, check out the 20 songs on my Best Writing Music of 2007 list. Instead of reading about writing tips, listen to these songs and WRITE SOMETHING NEW.

20. "Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe" from The Stage Names by Okkervil River. 

19. "Missed the Boat" from Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank by Modest Mouse.

18. "One Two Three Four" from The Reminder by Feist. 

17. "Chemicals Collide" from The Meaning of 8 by Cloud Cult.

16. "If The Brakeman Turns My Way" Cassadaga by Bright Eyes.

15. "Rehab" by Amy Winehouse from Back to Black 

14. "Like Castanets" by Bishop Allen from Broken String  

13. "In Our Talons" by the Bowerbirds from Hymns for the Dark Horse

12. "Up The Wolves" by The Mountain Goats  from The Sunset Tree    

11. "Forks And Knives (La Fete)" by Beirut from The Flying Club Cup

10. "What Light"  by Wilco from  Sky Blue Sky.

9. "To the Dogs or Whoever" by Josh Ritter from The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter.  

8. "Satan Said Dance" by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah  from Some Loud Thunder.

7. "Ultimate" by Gogol Bordello from Super Taranta.

6. "The Underdog" by Spoon from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.

5. "C Is The Heavenly Option" by Los Campesinos from The International Tweexcore Underground.

4. "Will You Return?" by The Avett Brothers from Emotionalism.

3. John Allyn Smith Sails by Okkervil River from The Stage Names.

2. Falling Slowly by Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová from The Once Soundtrack.

1. Flight 180 by Bishop Allen from The Broken String.

"[Why not] make the elevator a moving improvisational performance space, turning your elevator ride together into more of a theater-of-the-absurd type of situation. It may go something like this: 'Man, have you ever installed a door on the ceiling? Whew, tough work.' 'No, I never have ... just cabinet doors in dirt.'"

That's Jeffrey Yamaguchi, editor of the action-packed blog 52 Projects, inventing a new art form in his anti-business handbook, Working For The Man.

Today, I caught myself having the same kind of meaningless elevator patter on my way to the dayjob. This weekend, I'm going back to the writing table, just like you. Yamaguchi has some good advice for all of us.

This week he's our special guest on my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
Your book has plenty of wacky advice for keeping sane in an office, but I know you must have had some real-life struggles while writing this book. How did you balance your 9 to 5 job with this project? Any serious advice for how writers can write on the side without letting their day-jobs interfere?

Jeffrey Yamaguchi:
I used my own advice, and also failed at using my own advice. It’s a battle, you know, to balance the day job with the writing efforts. Continue reading...

"This is about taking the crazy cat person's enthusiastic aesthetic...you should do something very cool and totally overwhelming with your cube space. Make it the biggest something--whatever it s that you're into: stars, Bollywood, Charles Bukowski, UFOs, Sophia Loren, Dr. Seuss, surfing, Andy Warhol, knitting, Nikola Tesla, fancy hats, expensive boots, clowns."

That's Jeffrey Yamaguchi describing the most obsessive, anti-social ways to decorate your cubicle in his new book, Working For The Man. This week he released a series of office-related videos for the handbook, including this cringe-inducing feature :

Yamaguchi's book teaches creative types around the corporate world how escape the mind-numbing monotony of a dayjob. This week he's our special guest on my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions.

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

Jason Boog:
I'm sure this kind of book requires a special kind of revision. I'm sure your first draft had a much lower joke and comic ratio than the final product How did you revise your first draft into the hilarious final product? How did you add the layers of jokes and cartoons on top of your original draft?

Jeffrey Yamaguchi:
The humor, I don’t know – there were not painstaking revisions to the jokes. I think maybe because this book was written in pieces over many years, that probably helped. Continue reading...

One of the main reasons I started this website was to ask the questions that I never had answered during graduate school.

I'm sorry if I sound like a broken record, but I think all fledgling writers need to know how published authors made it to their first book. I ask every writer a simple, crucial question: How did you survive the hard times, how did you balance your writing life and your day job?  

Today, I asked Brian Francis Slattery, a first-time novelist and editor who rocked the literary world with his trippy new novel, Spaceman Blues.

His answer will surprise and hopefully inspire you, part of my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
You have a day job as an editor. How do you find time and energy to balance your day job responsibilities and your creative writing side? How did you stay sane during those early lean years as a graduate student, writing this book with what I imagine was a pretty crowded schedule?

Brian Francis Slattery:
That's a good question. I'm not as disciplined about it as I should be; I just try to find time when I can. Continue reading...

"At an all night cockfighting tournament in Huehuetenango, to which I'd gotten a ride with a man in a black SUV who'd accidentally, intentionally let hundred-dollar bills fall from his pocket when he reached for his money roll to buy a bear, it seemed like half of the people there had been to the United States and back."

That's Brian Francis Slattery describing a real-life trip to Guatemala that inspired one of the most violent, vivid scenes in his novel, Spaceman Blues. Guatemala is one of my favorite places, and his travel writing nailed some dark and beautiful things about the country. 

This first-time novelist is my special guest this week, and today he discusses the research and politics of immigration swirling around his novel.

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

Jason Boog:
How did you convert your real-life travels through Guatemala into hallucinatory interludes in your novel? In other words, what's your advice for writers as they travel to new places, how can they capture the experience in a creative way like you did?

Brian Francis Slattery:
The parts that physically describe Guatemala I tried to do as accurately as I could; allusions to what happened during Guatemala's civil war are taken from what people there told me and from what I learned through reading about the place. Continue reading...

"They will return to Guatemala, to Ecuador, and buy land, a small fruit plantation, farm equipment, two delivery trucks, they will hire more men to work alongside them and prosper. And when they retire to a hammock on the coast, they will send mocking pictures to immigration authorities, the Guatemalan army, and the Ecuadorian government, financial statements with nasty drawings in the margins. You sold us out early, but we were better than that. See how you cut us short; see how we rose above."

That's Brian Francis Slattery writing about immigrant dreams in Spaceman Blues--a hybrid of science fiction, political science, and kung-fu special effects. 

This first-time novelist is my special guest this week, and today he tells us how he constructed his fantastical landscape without sounding like a guy playing one long game of Dungeons & Dragons.

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

Jason Boog:
While your book has a number of science fiction elements, it is firmly grounded in the contemporary immigrant scene in New York City. What inspired you to take these everyday communities and turn them into something fantastical? How did you research and write these vivid scenes set in immigrant community settings--especially the "underground economies" that captivated your imagination?

Brian Francis Slattery:
Well, issues dealing with migration and the informal economy are kind of an obsession of mine--continue reading...

Nobody writes subheadings anymore.

Think about 19th century English novels with the great chapter divisions that read "In Which Our Dashing Hero Meets The Damsel Of His Dreams And Loses Her To An Untimely Accident." I've loved the technique since I was a kid, and I don't even know if there is a literary term for these sub-titles.

So imagine my suprise when I read Spaceman Blues by Brian Francis Slattery, a first-time novelist who broke up his hallucinatory novel with helpful subheadings--a term we will christen "literary headlines." 

Slattery's our special guest this week, and today, he convened The World's First, Briefest Writing Workshop Dedicated Solely To The Art Of The Literary Headline. 

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

Jason Boog:
Why did you pick the form? How did you choose the names for the subheadings?  Any advice for writers looking to use this technique, any books we should read that exemplify the form?

Brian Francis Slattery:

I don't know if there's a term for it either.  Continue reading...