Quick Take Tuesday will be just that: two quick questions I toss at a writer, or someone of equal social standing, and the two questions they can lob back at me.
My first victim is Suzanne Rosenwasser, a writer, teacher, essayist, columnist and native New Yorker who has been an Atlanta peach for decades. Suzanne's essays and chapters from her novel-in-the-birth-canal can be found on her Scribd page and her column, entitled Believing in Boys can be found on The Good Men Project Magazine.
Q: I see you started a new Vlogon your website. That sounds like other female parts. Did it hurt?
A: Birthing the blog was a real neurological challenge. I blew a few cells for sure,and I’ll blame my mother who always said: “Would you jump off the Brooklyn Bridge because everyone else is doing it?” So I have an ingrained resistance to conformity. I am also a teacher, however, and know that life ends when we cease being students, so I listened. My new mantra is “Writers write, authors blog.” My short stories have been published on the iApp etherbooks, and I was among the top ten best sellers for a while. Now that kind of conformity works just fine for me. So conform to the digital revolution and download the app. My mother would approve: www.etherbooks.com
Q) Your vlog shows that you write in a beautiful room with a very old dog resting near you. I'd get nothing done if I were you. Do you write, or nap?
A) Well, I stare into space a lot and Jax, the old dog, naps. Sometimes I get on my stationery bike and ride myself into a daze. Other times I watch the buds evolve on the trees outside my window. When I’m staring out into oblivion I’m imagining Stirling Island, the protagonist of my almost-finished novel, Don’t Ya Know. I play the scene out and think about what the trees are doing to show off at this point in the story. Then, if I’m not cleaning up spilled coffee, and Jax approves, I write - everyday without fail.
TABLE TURN: OKAY, NOW YOU CAN ASK ME TWO THINGS, AS LONG AS IT DOESN'T INVOLVE POUNDS OR PANTS SIZE...
Q) Okay. Clari Drake is the insecure mother of a self-assured dwarf, the ditzy wife of a very tolerant man, the nightmare of an entire private school administration, and a capitalistic proletariat at heart. Why do readers identify with her so easily?
A) Why you'd be referring to my novel, "Finding Clarity: A Mom, A Dwarf and a Posh Private School in the People's Republic of Berkeley that anyone can read here on Scribd! Well everyone loves Clari Drake because she’s a nosy bitch and a shit disturber, which are her best character traits. No seriously, she loves her family and hates the beautiful people because she is not one of them. And she is trying desperately to figure out who she is and what to prepare for dinner. She is the everywoman and uber mother and she loves Weight Watchers.
Q) You’ve worked in the trenches of the news business in all sorts of resource-rich venues, like writing extensively researched pieces for the New York Times. In these cases, you had editors at your fingertips. How does it feel to be writing in a new environment where editing costs money and the publishing industry is in a state of flux?
A) I recently sent out my Finding Clarity manuscript to be copy and developmentally edited. The editor kept the book for 6 months and missed three deadlines until I fired her. But you know what’s the worst part? I used the expression “two gunmen on the grassy knoll” and she wrote in the margin: “I’m not familiar with this expression.” What a waste of time and money. But never fear. "Finding Clarity, A Mom, A Dwarf and a Posh Private School in the People’s Republic of Berkeley" will come to an electronic device in your lap soon. Or in your case, on your bike or in the chair Jax is hogging.
Thank you, Suzanne Rosenwasser. You are all woman. And all writer. And I hope you'll fill up my space, so to speak, on Friday by sending me an excerpt from "Don't Ya Know" for my Friday Feature.
My first victim is Suzanne Rosenwasser, a writer, teacher, essayist, columnist and native New Yorker who has been an Atlanta peach for decades. Suzanne's essays and chapters from her novel-in-the-birth-canal can be found on her Scribd page and her column, entitled Believing in Boys can be found on The Good Men Project Magazine.
Q: I see you started a new Vlogon your website. That sounds like other female parts. Did it hurt?
A: Birthing the blog was a real neurological challenge. I blew a few cells for sure,and I’ll blame my mother who always said: “Would you jump off the Brooklyn Bridge because everyone else is doing it?” So I have an ingrained resistance to conformity. I am also a teacher, however, and know that life ends when we cease being students, so I listened. My new mantra is “Writers write, authors blog.” My short stories have been published on the iApp etherbooks, and I was among the top ten best sellers for a while. Now that kind of conformity works just fine for me. So conform to the digital revolution and download the app. My mother would approve: www.etherbooks.com
Q) Your vlog shows that you write in a beautiful room with a very old dog resting near you. I'd get nothing done if I were you. Do you write, or nap?
A) Well, I stare into space a lot and Jax, the old dog, naps. Sometimes I get on my stationery bike and ride myself into a daze. Other times I watch the buds evolve on the trees outside my window. When I’m staring out into oblivion I’m imagining Stirling Island, the protagonist of my almost-finished novel, Don’t Ya Know. I play the scene out and think about what the trees are doing to show off at this point in the story. Then, if I’m not cleaning up spilled coffee, and Jax approves, I write - everyday without fail.
TABLE TURN: OKAY, NOW YOU CAN ASK ME TWO THINGS, AS LONG AS IT DOESN'T INVOLVE POUNDS OR PANTS SIZE...
Q) Okay. Clari Drake is the insecure mother of a self-assured dwarf, the ditzy wife of a very tolerant man, the nightmare of an entire private school administration, and a capitalistic proletariat at heart. Why do readers identify with her so easily?
A) Why you'd be referring to my novel, "Finding Clarity: A Mom, A Dwarf and a Posh Private School in the People's Republic of Berkeley that anyone can read here on Scribd! Well everyone loves Clari Drake because she’s a nosy bitch and a shit disturber, which are her best character traits. No seriously, she loves her family and hates the beautiful people because she is not one of them. And she is trying desperately to figure out who she is and what to prepare for dinner. She is the everywoman and uber mother and she loves Weight Watchers.
Q) You’ve worked in the trenches of the news business in all sorts of resource-rich venues, like writing extensively researched pieces for the New York Times. In these cases, you had editors at your fingertips. How does it feel to be writing in a new environment where editing costs money and the publishing industry is in a state of flux?
A) I recently sent out my Finding Clarity manuscript to be copy and developmentally edited. The editor kept the book for 6 months and missed three deadlines until I fired her. But you know what’s the worst part? I used the expression “two gunmen on the grassy knoll” and she wrote in the margin: “I’m not familiar with this expression.” What a waste of time and money. But never fear. "Finding Clarity, A Mom, A Dwarf and a Posh Private School in the People’s Republic of Berkeley" will come to an electronic device in your lap soon. Or in your case, on your bike or in the chair Jax is hogging.
Thank you, Suzanne Rosenwasser. You are all woman. And all writer. And I hope you'll fill up my space, so to speak, on Friday by sending me an excerpt from "Don't Ya Know" for my Friday Feature.
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