April 6, 1966: Vince Flynn born.
Saturday, April 6, 2019
Friday, April 5, 2019
Q&A with Ann Weisgarber
Ann Weisgarber is the author of the new historical novel The Glovemaker, which takes place in Utah in the 1880s. She also has written The Promise and The Personal History of Rachel Dupree. She lives in Galveston, Texas. Q: How did you come up with the idea for The Glovemaker, and for your character Deborah?
A: It started with a vacation in Utah’s Capitol Reef National Park and an apple. The park service maintains the orchards that were originally planted in the 1880s by white settlers, and allows visitors to pick fruit during harvest season. The apples were ripe when I was there a few years ago, and as I climbed a ladder to pick one, I thought about the people who planted the trees.
Haunted by these questions, I bought a few books at the Visitor Center. One of the settlers was a married woman who owned 20 acres in her own name. Doing more research, I discovered that she didn’t have children and her husband had disappeared from public records. This woman became the inspiration for the Deborah character.
Q: What kind of research did you do to write the novel, and did you learn anything especially surprising?
A: The research ranged from reading a graduate thesis about Utah Territory’s marshals, to reading The Book of Mormon, to a hike in the snow in search of Floral Ranch, the hideout for men who attempted to evade arrest for having plural wives.
Q: The novel is set in Utah in the 1880s. How important is setting to you in your writing?
A: Setting is everything for me. It’s what I begin with. I’m drawn to the landscape and then I begin to think about the people who lived there and how the terrain and weather shaped their lives. The historical events that impact The Glovemaker could only have happened in Utah’s canyon country.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
Q: What are you working on now?
A: The next novel takes place during World War II in a rural Texas town where 4,000 German POWs were housed in a prison camp. That’s all I’m going to say since it’s early days and it’s subject to change!
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I live on an island off the coast of Texas, and I’m a fan of the Astros baseball team. My novel The Promise takes place on the island but as tempting as it is, I don’t see a baseball novel in my future. But now that I think about it, the German POWs did play baseball in the camp.
Deborah, many thanks for including me on your blog. It’s an honor and a delight to be one of “your” authors.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
Q&A with Michele Meek
Michele Meek is the editor of the new book Independent Female Filmmakers: A Chronicle Through Interviews, Profiles, and Manifestos. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Salon.com and MovieMaker Magazine. She is a filmmaker and an assistant professor in communication studies at Bridgewater State University. Q: How did you choose the filmmakers you highlight in the book?
A: It was incredibly difficult to narrow down the list of filmmakers to include in the book.
However, one of the constraints was that the filmmaker had to have a significant interview or manifesto in The Independent Film & Video Monthly between 1976-2006, since I was paying tribute to that magazine along with featuring the women filmmakers in the collection. So, that definitely narrowed down the list quite a bit.
Of course, any list like this is subjective, to be honest. I tried to choose filmmakers whose work, I believed, still resonated today, whether or not they were still making films now. It was more important to me that their work should be a prominent part of North American film history. These are the filmmakers whose films should be continued to be watched, taught, written about, etc.
Q: You write, "Many of the women in this book express the potential for increased opportunities and equal pay for women in the post-#MeToo era, but they also recognize the urgency to continue to advocate for equality..." What do you see looking ahead?
A: It has been invigorating to see the success of #MeToo, because the widespread discrimination and harassment that has been part of so many industries are finally being brought out in the open. I think that is definitely the first step for change.
I saw that The Wrap just reported that Hollywood will be releasing five times more films with female directors this year. This is great news.
That said, we still have a long way to go until we see equality in the industry. Even though five times more films is a tremendous boost, it still means only 18 percent of films from six major Hollywood studios will be female-directed. So we need to be glad for the gains we are making, but not accept less than full equality until we get there.
But I’m equally concerned with how we can re-examine our own film history, which has been traditionally quite discriminatory.
When you see a list like American Film Institute’s “100 Greatest Films of All Time” and there’s not one female-directed film on the list, it hits you—women have actually been making films since the invention of film, but their legacy is in danger of being forgotten. Looking forward is not enough. We also have to change how we look back.
Q: How did you decide which filmmakers you would write about for the book?
A: I wrote three chapters for the book—I wrote the introduction and chapters on Martha Coolidge and Jennifer Fox.
I chose Jennifer Fox because I had interviewed her about 10 years ago when she was working on another project. I had no idea at the time that her film The Tale would actually be such a relevant fit for me.
My academic research has focused largely on “consent puzzles” or moments that portray consent in ways that make us as readers or viewers uncomfortable.
Her film The Tale is a perfect example—because Fox fictionalizes her own story, and in it, the girl she was insists that her sexual relationship with her adult male coach was consensual, while the adult she becomes knows it to be abuse. It is absolutely the most groundbreaking film on childhood sexual abuse that I have ever seen. So it was an honor to talk to her about The Tale and her other films.
I also knew I wanted to interview Martha Coolidge for a number of reasons.
First of all, she is an iconic director who directed both independent and Hollywood films, and there is so much to discuss in terms of her career. Her works are incredibly different from each other, but all interesting—Valley Girl, Reel Genius, Rambling Rose, and Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.
Second, she was the first—and still only female president of the Directors Guild of America, an experience that I was eager to learn more about.
And last but definitely not least, she has been a strong advocate for independent film—she even was one of the founding members of the Association of Independent Video & Filmmakers (AIVF), which created The Independent Film and Video Monthly.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: More than anything, I want to preserve the legacy of the women filmmakers in the book. Each of them has made beautiful and ground-breaking work, and I hope people who read the book will come away with a list that they will watch and enjoy.
I think the book can be appreciated by people on different levels—fellow filmmakers will learn a lot about the obstacles they faced and how they overcame them; academics will get a clearer context for some of the important works of the last several decades; and film fans will develop an appreciation for the creation of great works and discover some new ones along the way.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m actually working on a non-fiction book about failure, inspired by my participation in the first Mastermind Failure Club, which is a small group of like-minded creative people who meet regularly.
The group combines the concepts of a mastermind—incorporating peer creative and business support, accountability, and brainstorming—and a failure club—a challenge to pursue what you want to do despite the high likelihood of failure.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
Thursday, April 4, 2019
Q&A with Polly Rosenwaike
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| Polly Rosenwaike, photo by Michael Lionstar |
Q: Why did you decide to focus on motherhood and babies in this story collection?
A: Well, these things have significantly occupied my mind, my life, over the past decade. My daughters are now 8 and 5, and I’ve found motherhood endlessly fascinating and perpetually challenging.
The particular time during which a woman is seriously thinking about having a baby, experiencing pregnancy, and then becoming a new mother can be incredibly emotionally volatile and demanding, but the image we often get is of a beatific pregnant woman, followed by a shining, happy mama and baby.
I wanted to create a fuller portrait of some of the complexities of this stunning experience—stunning in the sense of both amazing and confounding.
Q: Over how long a period did you write the stories in this book, and how did you decide on the order in which they’d appear in the book?
The writing of them actually resembled a game called Snail’s Pace Race that my partner and younger daughter like to play on Saturday mornings. A bunch of wooden snails of different colors edge toward a finish line based on the throw of colored dice. They thus all move forward at an erratic pace—sometimes green is way ahead, sometimes pink is stuck at the starting line—until everyone finally gets home.
So each of my stories was a snail, and I kept throwing the dice, taking turns inching each one forward. I enjoy working on multiple stories at once; yellow looks pretty refreshing when all you’ve been seeing for a while is blue.
Because the collection has a chronology to it, the order didn’t require much deliberation. The first story is about a couple struggling to conceive, and then subsequent stories focus on abortion, miscarriage, early and middle pregnancy, postpartum depression, life with a new baby.
The book ends with a story about sleep training, which, if you’re like I was, you might not attempt until the baby is close to a year and you’re at your wit’s end trying to get her to fall asleep on her own.
Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: For a long time, I had no idea what to call this thing I was working on.
When I submitted it to agents, I’d settled on the tentative title of Baby Person. One of the characters, who wants to have a child, but is drawn to the idea of parenting an older kid rather than a baby, says, “I’ve never actually been much of a baby person.”
This is the sense in which I intended that title, to get at what it’s like to become a mother to a baby when you’re not really a baby person, as well as what it means to bring a baby into the world: a new person, and yet someone who doesn’t quite seem like a person yet.
But the agent who agreed to represent me was concerned about submitting it to publishers with that title. She was afraid people wouldn’t get it. Also, a friend told me that “Baby Person” made her think of an infantile-looking man with very small hands. Like in Boss Baby. That was no good.
I spent countless hours searching for the right title. I wanted it to hint at the collection’s themes, but not to be too on the nose. I wanted to avoid the sentimentality that often congeals around the images of mothers and babies. Hoping to steal someone else’s great idea, I pored over lines from poems, phrases from stories, quotes about motherhood.
Finally, combing through my own manuscript again, I lingered over a line of dialogue in the first story, “Grow Your Eyelashes.” When the narrator’s sister tells their mother that she and her husband don’t want to have children, the mother tears up and says, “You can’t know the joy until . . . You just can’t know it.” The daughter replies, “Look how happy I’m making you.”
It’s an ironic moment, of course—the daughter calling the mother out on her declaration of the joy children bring. Considering the statement in isolation, I like the oddness of the direct address: who would say this to someone? And it resonates with the collection as a whole. Children do bring their parents happiness, but there are a lot of other emotions involved as well, if we’re being honest about it.
Q: Who are some of your favorite short story writers?
A: Lorrie Moore, Lauren Groff, George Saunders, Jhumpa Lahiri, Helen Simpson, Anthony Doerr, Alice Munro, Edward P. Jones, Aimee Bender.
As fiction editor of the Michigan Quarterly Review, I’ve had the opportunity to select fantastic work by emerging writers to publish in the magazine. I can’t wait to see more stories out in the world by Anthony Inverso, Jai Chakrabarti, Onyinye Ihezukwu, Ally Glass-Katz, and so many others.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m working on some essays and feeling humbled by how tricky I find it to try to follow the thread of an argument, to be clear and sufficiently detailed about my own experiences and perspectives. I’m also stockpiling a bunch of books I want to read as research for my next fiction project.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Now I understand why writers thank their agents and editors so effusively in the acknowledgements to their books. After years of being on my own with my writing, it’s been amazing to have other people so dedicated to improving, supporting, and promoting it. Hooray for all the publishing midwives who bring books into the world.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
Q&A with Jennifer Sattler
Q: How did you come up with the idea for Dollop and Mrs. Fabulous?
A: My daughter Lili used to put on all of her dress up clothes at once and goofily walk around the house saying “Hello. I’m Mrs. Fabulous!” She had to find her way into a book.
I have two daughters and they have very different personalities. But they’ve always been close and good about figuring out how to have fun together. Plus, I’ve never done a book about sisters, which seemed strange to me!
A: I usually start with an idea for a character. I’ll draw them hundreds of times as different animals. I don’t make books about human kids because I want the reader to relate to the personality of the character and not their specific human characteristics.
After I have the character and the general story down I start to make a dummy. This is when it’s like a movie playing in my head. The words and images come simultaneously.
A: My kids are so different. A simple game might take a turn in a direction that one doesn’t relate to, but instead of thinking, “Well, I guess I have to play alone,” they would make it work for both of them.
This certainly seems like a lesson we keep learning all through our lives. Having girls, it’s always important for them to know that there isn’t a WAY to be a girl. There’s no script.
Q: What are some of your favorite picture books?
A: Hmm… some of my favorite picture books. That’s always changing. There are books I love as an illustrator: Pirate Girl, illustrated by Kerstin Meyer, On a Magical Do Nothing Day by Beatrice Alemagna, and I love Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Right now I’m finishing up a book that will come out the end of the summer called One Red Sock. It’s a picture book that’s also a color book. I’m really excited about it. It stars a purple hippo that I just love.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Although I’m most known for my picture books, I have a love for board books. I love how they feel in your hand. I love their immediacy and, ask any baby, they’re delicious!
Sleeping Bear Press has been publishing a line of Jennifer Sattler board books that have been so much fun to do! So far there’s Dirty Birdies, Jungle Gym, and Bundle Up! The latest comes out this summer. It’s a sound book called “Oink,Oink,Moo, Cock-a-doodle-do!”
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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