Run, Harry, run!

Lest we forget about Harry Potter for a few months --no books or movies are due out this year-- J. K. Rowling has graciously dropped some cryptic hints about the fates of some of the main characters. She slowly leaks out teasers and we all scramble to decipher her intentions. Damn her! She's a genius!

Angela Carter IS a Glam Rock Feminist. I can't think of a higher complement. The gorgeous writing, the slippery gender construction, the kinky and slightly uncomfortable sexuality, the imaginary worlds that operate just next door to reality: I am such a fan. I've been stumping for Carter for a decade now. Join me.

A perennial question for me is the role of self-publishing in the literary world. I don't see myself doing it, but here's my blog -- a kind of self-publishing, no? There's no question that when a book has been self-published I'm much less inclined to take it seriously, but I'm not sure that's fair. What do you think readers? I'm seeking opinions.

The Darlene's Best Sellers List for the week of 6/20-something

An unofficial --and completely unsupported by actual sales figures-- list of notable books coming through my checkout line last weekend at my Barnes & Noble:

1. Paul Coehlo's The Alchemist. We had a strange run on this yesterday and sold all the copies on the shelf. Someone must have mentioned it at church.

2. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. Definitely headed for the Best Sellers list. I'm going to have to read this one, I think.

3. The Alphabet of Manliness by Maddox. I confess I had no idea what this was until I asked one of the many pubescent boys buying it. He laughingly directed me to the website. Eww. I'll pass.

Conversely, I didn't sell one copy of Terrorist by John Updike. I figured with all the media attention the man could do no wrong right now, but NW Indiana doesn't seem to be cooperating.


Elsewhere, Hot New Thing Monica Ali (author of Alentejo Blue and Brick Lane) describes her writing process in The Washington Post. Ali describes giving in to the narrative pressure of setting and character, resisting the procrastinatory lure of too much research, and allowing characters to have their own voices. Yup. Heard it. Two moments do stand out, though. First, her description of how stories can evolve from a series of images is beautifully written. The second is this advice: "Research gives you the courage to make things up." Well said. I crave this courage. However, I have had the following slogan pinned to the wall above my computer for months: "No Research! Make Shit Up!" I can paralyze my work by looking for the knowledge and authority I mistakenly believe is necessary to "make things up". Anyone else have this problem?

Rejection, part one

Feeling blue about having your latest manuscript rejected? Don't. A reminder that publishing is a business, and not necessarily about art. Wait, Starbucks is going to publish books? Weird.

Check out Q&A 45 on Rejection Letters over at the EvilEditor's blog. Note to self: invest in quality hamburger flipper.

And in case you didn't follow the link in the EvilEditor's blog: hey, if Jane Austen got rejected, so can you! Say, "I am as good a writer as Jane Austen." Repeat as many times as necessary until you believe it.

A Terrible Miscellany

Poetry holds a strange place in the American consciousness. On one hand, we encounter poetry every day, however we don't refer to it as such: greeting card verse, lyrics to music for example. But say the word "poetry" to anyone without an arts degree and its as if their ears slam shut, as if poetry were somehow too difficult. With the exception of perennial favorites like Maya Angelou, Robert Frost,and Kahlil Gibran, the general public limits its contemporary poetry consumption to poets such as Matty Stepanek.

This morning, the Library of Congress announced its selection of Donald Hall for the nextPoet Laureate.

Donald Hall is an interesting choice. His writing is both very simple and very thoughtful--absolutely gimmick-free. He creates worlds with potent economy. Here is "Gold", for example. Also, as the NYT describes it, he is an "outspoken" member of the advisory board of National Endowment for the Arts who works to preserve the NEA's grants for artists.

In the past the position of Poet Laureate was largely honorary, but in recent decades, the Poets Laureate have worked to make poetry more palatable and interesting to the general public. I am especially fond of Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poem Project. Hall has said he doesn't quite know what his mission will be: "As for the rest of the job, 'I have a terrible miscellany of thoughts,' he said."

A community of debate

Ever since the appearance of the NYTBR's Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years, I have been mulling over its premise, promise and results, quietly trying to figure out exactly why I found it as perturbing as I did. I'm hardly alone. Almost as soon as the list was published, debate began. First there was the scandalized assertion of omissions: how could [insert author name here] not make the list? Then came the scrutiny of the list of judges: what influence did gender and race have on the results? But for me, the most potent indignity has been the homogeneity of the selections: six books by Philip Roth? three by DeLillo? (Essentially) four by John Updike? These are all great choices, but it bugs me, for lack of a better term, that with an entire panopoly of American literature at our fingertips, we came up with such an exclusive and repetitive list of books.

Over at Bookslut, Eryn Loeb has been thinking about the column too, and considering what motivates our futile compulsion to try and single out the "best" examples of works of art using vague criteria and uneven samplings:

"I guess the logic is that if we can all agree on the best movie of the past fifty years, or the top ten records, or the next manufactured pop star, these will stand as common ground for a culture largely lacking in it. Maybe the hope is that anointing the best of a particular medium will encourage a sense of community. But I doubt it’s as conscious as that."

Perhaps that explains John J. Miller's surreal list of "The 50 Greatest Conservative Rock Songs" in The National Review. I'm not sure rock music is really the unifying, community-building medium conservatives are looking for, though. (The Beatles?! U2?! THE SEX PISTOLS?!?!) Why not just stick with The 50 Greatest Investment Firms or 25 Tax Shelters of Note?

Do you have a platform?

I spent my Memorial Day weekend in St. Louis with my husband, baby daughter, and in-laws. I believe I was on the computer 20 minutes total during the 5 days: thus the lack of posts. It's refreshing, yes, but also harrowing to be out of the information loop for so long.

But, back into the literary waters for me. Today's offering is a posting from The New York Observer detailing an emerging buzz word in book publishing: "The Platform". They don't mean shoes. I'm planning to coast to literary super-stardom working my English teacher street cred and sassy "mom-hair" (as Buffy the Vampire Slayer calls it).

In other news, on Writer Beware's blog, a piece about the near-death experience of Absolute Write, facilitated by a crooked "agent" named Barbara Bauer. Thanks to her lack of foresight, her name is now connected irreversably with "Writer Beware's 20 Worst Agencies List", now zipping around the web. Hopefully Absolute Write will be up and running again very soon.

Edit: Absolute Write is up and kicking again after a move to a new server.