07-20-10:The Agony Column Live, July 10, 2010 : Alan Cheuse and Peter S. Beagle
"There are certain phrases I'm leery of using; one's "the creative process" and the other is "inspiration."
—Peter S. Beagle
"Habit is the best thing for you if you're trying to write prose."
—Alan Cheuse
Listen carefully. You'll hear it, partway through the show. Alan Cheuse tells us something rather important about modern American literature. He admits to reading science fiction, with an interest in the genre as literature. But he laments that few others in his position are. Remember, Cheuse has been a part of the National Book Awards, and more than a few other literary panels. It's nice, if a bit frightening, to know that he reads the genre, writers like Peter S. Beagle, who joins him.
Don't get the idea that the discussion was all that highfalutin' though. There's as much wallowing going on as there is philosophizing. I actually think in the shootout, wallowing wins. Because this is intelligent wallowing, and fun. I won't be broadcasting this one without a lot of beeping.
It's like sculpting an avalanche. Setting up The Agony Column Live Shows is a front-loading process. Read the books, first and foremost, know the material first and foremost. Sure, I've been doing that most of my life, but every show brings specific material and specific challenges. If you're talking to two writers, as I do, that's twice the challenge. Twice the reading. In this case, like six pages of notes, and I use 9-point Time Roman in two columns, to cram the most material into the least number of noise-making pages.
Then there's the scheduling. It's a nightmare. Get one person to some place, that's tough. Back and forth with the writer and/or the publicist, manager, you-name-it. Two writers? You can imagine the complications, the back-and-forths. Since starting on thius endeavor, I have some to understand just how hard both publicists and book store event planners have to work. Together, they take the puzzle pieces out of a box and toss them in the air just so, so that they fall to earth in a perfectly finished piece.
Finally, there's the event itself, moving the chairs (I help the fine people at CBC, getting the audio setup, making sure you press record. All of it, to lead to that moment when the avalanche begins.
And the writers start to talk. I put Alan Cheuse and Peter S. Beagle next to one another, and the effect was electric. They began to talk directly to one another, and to me, and to the audience. The conversation veered between sage observations of the writing process (not the phrase I avoided) and ever-descending observations that tended to involve language I could not broadcast. Now's your chance to hear that entertaining and edifying discussion, unbeeped, by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
07-19-10:A 2010 Interview with Phil Cousineau
"..then I'll look up all those words that were arcane..."
— Phil Cousineau
One of my fondest memories of my college years were the afternoons I spent in the parks with a six pack of beer, a book and a notebook where I used to record every word that I was the least bit unfamiliar with. After I finished reading a chapter of a book, I'd haul out a dictionary, look up the word and actually write down the definition in the notebook. Talking with Phil Cousineau brought back the memories of those afternoons.
My conversation with Phil Cousineau might not have come to pass if I didn't actually put together the Literary Events Calendar for my show on NPR affiliate KUSP. When I read the bit that Gateways Books and Gifts had about his book and who he was, I thought it sounded interesting. He turned out to be yet another writer I felt like I should have known about long ago; he'd worked with Joseph Campbell, had worked in television and made documentaries. He was clearly a substantial guy. Moreover, 'Wordcatcher' seemed to me to be part of a trend of books that celebrate language and reading. And his book was a lot of fun.
09-06-10: Commentary : Brendan Connell Tells 'Unpleasant Tales' : Close-up and Too Close-up
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Guy Gavriel Kay : "I'm telling myself you bloody well better figure out where this is going because you have to start heading there sometime around now."
09-03-10: Commentary : The Eternal Youth of 'Madame Bovary' : "To be simple is no small matter."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Bruckner Chase at Blue Ocean Film Festival : "...a breath to your right and look at the moonset over the Pacific, and a breath to your left and see the sun rise over the mountains..."
09-02-10: Commentary : Collecting Philip K. Dick : The Books That Launched A Thousand Films
08-30-10: Commentary : David Doubilet Captures 'Water Time Light' : Painting with Pixels
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview With David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes : "Everything people have always feared about photography comes true underwater."
08-25-10: Commentary : Vendela Vida 'The Lovers' : Reading and Revelation
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A Live Reading and Interview with Vendela Vida At Bookshop Santa Cruz : "...there was an owl that came into this place we were renting one day..."
08-24-10: Commentary : Jeff VanderMeer and 'The Third Bear' : Absurd Is as Absurd Does
08-20-10: Commentary : Joe R. Lansdale Takes 'Deadman's Road' : Deader Than Thou
Agony Column Podcast News Report : On the Phone with Vendela Vida : "You do all this background information, most of which never makes it into the book."
08-19-10: Commentary : Gary Shteyngart Tells a 'Super Sad True Love Story' : Retro-Prescience
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Gary Shteyngart Live Reading and Interview at Bookshop Santa Cruz : "...please like me, this will make up for Hebrew school if all of you like me.."
08-18-10: Commentary : Mark Pilkington Unleashes Weapons of Mass Deception : "ECM+CIA=UFO"
Agony Column Podcast News Report : David Corbett and Barry Eisler for The Agony Column Live at Capitola Book Café, August 7, 2010 Q and A : "This is NewSpeak."
08-16-10: Commentary : Howard Norman Asks 'What is Left the Daughter' : The Past Always Rises
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Howard Norman : "I'd wanted to write from the beginning an epistolary novel; this is just an epistolary novel that's consisting of one letter."
08-12-10: Commentary : James O'Neal Copies 'The Double Human' : Proceeding into the Future
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Barry Eisler and David Corbett Live at Capitola Book Café on August 7, 2010 : "If anyone thinks it's absurd that the government might assassinate the founder of WikiLeaks, it's quite a bit less absurd than I wish it were".... — Barry Eisler
08-11-10: Commentary : Joe R. Lansdale Takes Huck Finn to 'Dread Island' : "Classics Mutilated"
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Barry Eisler Reads at The Agony Column Live on August 7, 2010 : "...they'll pick up that angle and run interference for us..."
08-10-10: Commentary : David Corbett Asks 'Do They Know I'm Running?' : Crossing Borders
Agony Column Podcast News Report : David Corbett Reads at The Agony Column Live on August 7, 2010 : "These Families are making incredible sacrifices..."
08-09-10: Commentary : David Mitchell and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet : The World is Ever the World
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with David Mitchell : "The periodic table of the human heart is still the same now as it was then."
08-06-10: Commentary : Tim Powers Sails 'On Stranger Tides' : History, Fantasy and the Reality of Reading
08-03-10: Commentary : Robert M. Price Spins 'The Tindalos Cycle' : Terrorize, Horrify, Repeat
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A Short Chat with Gary Shteyngart : "...the technology is outpacing our ability to absorb what it is doing to us..."
08-02-10: Commentary : A Second Tour Through 'The Passage' : Sending Characters into Time
07-30-10: Commentary : Subterranean Press and Robert R. McCammon Wake at 'The Wolf's Hour' : The Time Before Cheese
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books with Alan Cheuse : Allegra Goodman, 'The Cookbook Collector,' Noam Shpancer's 'The Good Psychologist' and Elie Wiesel 'The Sonderberg Case'
07-28-10: Commentary : Rule Britannia, In Space 2 : En Route, RJ Frith and Peter F. Hamilton
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Brian and Wendy Froud at SF in SF on Monday, July 19, 2010: Q & A : "The people you deal with at the publishers ... if they last the end of the week, you're lucky."
07-27-10: Commentary : Rule Britannia, In Space : UK Space Opera Demonstrates Excess is Not Enough (Part one, the Arrived)
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Brian and Wendy Froud at SF in SF on Monday, July 19, 2010 : "Well, I thought if I do faeries then nobody's going to say that I've got it wrong."
07-26-10: Commentary : Brian and Wendy Froud Seek 'The Heart of Faerie Oracle' : Cards, Books and a New Perspective
