Wear Your Politics

I've never been much for wearing t-shirts with slogans (or putting them on bumper stickers either), but after the events of last year, I think it's important to make a stand in any and every way I can. It horrifies me to think that people might be afraid of me because so many women who look like me--white, middle aged--voted for hate and exclusion and racism and bigotry. A t-shirt with this graphic on it is my first purchase of 2017. I will be wearing it to the local anti-inaugural march. You can get yours here.

In Sunlight or in Shadow

A few years ago I participated in Brian Lindemuth's "Short Story a Day" challenge for a year. I discovered a lot of new writers that way and it also gave me an excuse to re-read short stories that I'd always loved. I'd like to read more short stories in the coming year and I'm going to start with this colleciton. I'm intrigued by the concept but look at the lineup of writers--Stephen King, Megan Abbot, Joyce Carol Oates, Craig Ferguson!!!  In Sunlight or in Shadow is currently available in both digital and hard cover here.

Mary Kubica's Don't You Cry

I read for a living and one of the best books I read this year is Mary Kubica's novel, The Good Girl. I LOVED it. And I am delighted that she's written a number of books I haven't read yet. First up on my TBR queue is Don't You Cry, a psychological thriller that critics have (perhaps inevitably) compared to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. I liked Gone Girl well enough but I guessed the twist right away and I really didn't care for any of the characters--didn't think they were sympathetic. On the other hand, I liked the people in The Good Girl.

Way to be presidential (Not)

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump

Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don't know what to do. Love!

 

5:17 AM - 31 Dec 2016 

 

Seriously--this is the man who's going to be president in three weeks?
#SAD

Southern-fried fiction

I'm a fan of quirky stories about small Southern towns. I love Clyde Edgerton's work (particularly Floatplane Notebooks) and Eudora Welty's The Ponder Heart. One of my all-time favorite novels is Michael Malone's Handling Sin and another is Rita Mae Brown's Bingo (which I am dying to turn into a movie.)

I'm also a long-time fan of Fannie Flagg, whose book, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe was made into the movie with the abbreviated title Fried Green Tomatoes. (And how much did I love Kathy Bates in that movie?) She's got a new book out, The Whole Town is Talking.

Here's the sales pitch:

Elmwood Springs, Missouri, is a small town like any other, but something strange is happening at the cemetery. Still Meadows, as it’s called, is anything but still. Original, profound, The Whole Town’s Talking, a novel in the tradition of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and Flagg’s own Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven, tells the story of Lordor Nordstrom, his Swedish mail-order bride, Katrina, and their neighbors and descendants as they live, love, die, and carry on in mysterious and surprising ways.

Lordor Nordstrom created, in his wisdom, not only a lively town and a prosperous legacy for himself but also a beautiful final resting place for his family, friends, and neighbors yet to come. “Resting place” turns out to be a bit of a misnomer, however. Odd things begin to happen, and it starts the whole town talking.

With her wild imagination, great storytelling, and deep understanding of folly and the human heart, the beloved Fannie Flagg tells an unforgettable story of life, afterlife, and the remarkable goings-on of ordinary people. In The Whole Town’s Talking, she reminds us that community is vital, life is a gift, and love never dies.

Guest Post from Mark Rogers, author of Koreatown Blues

TITLE: Three Steps to KOREATOWN BLUES

By Mark Rogers

“As usual, I was the only white guy in the place.”

I had the first line of my crime novel KOREATOWN BLUES. From there the writing flowed; a series of 1,000 word days and a first draft in two months. But it took several steps to get to that first line.

#1

First, there was a solo stint in a one-room sublet in LA’s Koreatown that went on much longer than originally planned. The room had one window that looked out on a brick wall close enough to touch. I could stand it for a couple of nights at a time and then I’d have to escape. I took to going to a Koreatown nightclub a few blocks away. As far as I could tell the club had no name, just a plastic sign out front that said “Wine Beer.”

Inside, the Korean regulars welcomed me and yes, I was the only white guy, which was usually the case the months I frequented the club. They handed me a microphone within minutes of my sitting down at the bar and like that I was singing a karaoke version of “Yesterday.” Much like my protagonist Wes in Koreatown Blues, I began dropping in most nights for a couple of Hite beers and to sing a few songs.

My nights drinking beer and singing karaoke led to a one-sided romance with a Korean barmaid (I held up my side) and lots of glimpses into Korean culture. This served me well when I was writing KOREATOWN BLUES, while research filled in the missing bits.

Some wild things never made it into the novel, like the guy who insisted on playing the drums on my head with his chopsticks, until I raised my fist and called him outside; or the Korean who sang an impassioned version of the love theme from Titanic, “I Will Go On” and then at song’s end pulled out an envelope from inside his shirt: X-rays showing his inoperable lung cancer.

An Interview with Mark Rogers, author of Koreatown Blues

Mark Rogers is a writer and artist whose literary heroes include Charles Bukowski, Willie Vlautin and Charles Portis.  He lives most of the year in Baja California, Mexico with his Sinaloa-born wife, Sophy. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Village Voice and other publications and his travel journalism has brought him to 54 countries; these trips have provided plenty of inspiration for his novels and screenplays. His crime novel Koreatown Blues will be published by Brash Books, Feb. 2017; his mystery novel Red Thread is available from Endeavour Press. Drop into his Wordpress blogs Pissing on My Pistols and Mark Rogers – Author https://markrogersauthor.wordpress.com/ for news about upcoming books from him.

You’re a journalist. Did you start off with short stories or dive right in to fiction?

I started writing fiction in the fifth grade, which was the year I discovered the writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author of the Tarzan series. Reading was probably like a drug for me, a way to shut out the world. I’ve never been drawn to writing short stories, and didn’t write fiction at all for many years, until the 1980s, when I wrote the novella now titled “Night Within Night.” Other unpublished novels followed, as well as unproduced screenplays. Luckily, I found rewards in the process, since I had very little encouragement. This all changed last April, when I had four novels contracted in one month, from four different publishers. Some of these works had been knocking around for decades, while others, like “Koreatown Blues,” were written in the last year or so. That very first novella, “Night Within Night” will be published next year by London-based Endeavour Press. I’m very psyched to have made the transition from “writer” to “author.”

Most writers are readers, who are the writers who influenced you?

It’s a bit like an archeological dig, with the deepest layer being Edgar Rice Burroughs, up to Knut Hamsun and Henry Miller in my late teens, to Charles Bukowski, Charles Portis, Charles Willeford, and Willy Vlautin. I’ve come to enjoy a crisp, clean line, which is what I try to do in my own work.  Kaurismäki.

On the crime novel side, I’m a big fan of John D. MacDonald, Elmore Leonard, and Raymond Chandler. There are other one-offs that I cherish, like “The Hustler” by Walter Tevis, and “Fat City” by Leonard Gardner. I think I’m also influenced by film, especially the movies by Finnish director Aki