This post is hard to write. It’s uncomfortable, and not a little embarrassing. No. More than that. It’s bloody humiliating. I debated whether or not I could ignore the situation entirely and pretend as if nothing had happened — Move along. Nothing to see here. — That, however, would have been neither honest nor productive, both of which are planks in the platform I use to run this blog.
And so, this post. Continue Reading »
Posted in Writing | Tagged creative writing, creativity hacker, editing, immerse or die, jefferson smith, making lemonade | 6 Comments »
A blog post has been going around lately, in which Hugh Howey (bestselling author and book industry watcher) attempts to debunk some myths about publishing. Specifically, he addresses the standard tropes that the fast growth of the e-book market is (a) materially damaging publishers, and (b) decimating the independent bookstore market.
His post (which is a good read) pulls together simple graphics from sources such as The New Republic, Bloomberg, and Harper Collins’ own PowerPoint slides, and lays it out clearly.
As evidence of the first item, Howey shows how the profit margins publishers enjoy from e-book sales is nearly twice the margin provided from hardcovers. Publishers’ profits are not on the MSRP of a book of course, but on the wholesale cost of the book. So, in the graphic I’ve linked to on the right, keep in mind that the 41% and 75% profit figures are based on the publisher’s share of the MSRP (which are $13.72 and $10.49, respectively). Continue Reading »
Posted in Books | Tagged books, creative writing, hardcover vs ebook, hugh howey, indie authors, publishing, publishing industry | 2 Comments »
Chuck Mangione’s Signature Hat
at the Smithsonian
My first master class was with Chuck Mangione, jazz composer and flugelhorn player par excellence. He came to my school, sat down with a group of student musicians, and attempted to speak to us about music, as a profession, and as a way of life. When it came time for the Q&A portion, one of the participants asked him, “Why the hat?” Chuck always wore a hat. It was his signature, his trademark, his brand.
His answer, in those days of personal dignity and privacy, was, “Next question,” which was his polite way of saying, “Don’t be a dick.”
I don’t remember much else from that master class, just Chuck, the hat, the question, and “Don’t be a dick.”
Since then, I’ve participated in many other master classes (mostly from musicians), and each time I strove to get as much as I could from the experience. It’s a rare enough event to be able to sit down with a master artist or craftsman and have a conversation. After that first time, I never wanted to waste the opportunity again.
So, last Sunday, when I had the opportunity to learn from Bruce Naftaly, acclaimed master chef and proprietor of Le Gourmand (formerly a restaurant and now a cooking school), I was determined to learn as much as I could… and not to be a dick. Continue Reading »
Posted in Food, Seattle | Tagged bruce naftaly, cooking, cooking classes, le gourmand, master classes, Seattle | 10 Comments »
I am a sucker for epistolary movies. Throw in ethnic food and cookery, and you’ll have me on toast points.
The Lunchbox (2013) stars Irffan Khan and Nimrat Kaur, and is the first full-length feature by director Ritesh Batra (who also wrote the screenplay and produced the film). Western movie-goers might recognize Khan from movies such as Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire, and The Darjeeling Limited, but most of his work–as almost all his co-star Kaur’s work–has been in Indian cinema.
The story is set in Mumbai, a place of contradictions and juxtapositions between old and new, modern and old-school. Ila (Kaur) is a young housewife who cooks a lunch for her husband every day and sends it to him using the city’s arcane but incredibly efficient lunchbox delivery service. One day, however, the lunch she prepares goes astray, and is delivered instead to Saajan (Khan), a middle-aged widower who works at an insurance office. Ila quickly realizes that her husband didn’t get the lunch she prepared but can see that whoever did get it, enjoyed it, and so in the next day’s lunchbox, she includes a note.
Thus, a correspondence begins, filled with food, secrets, dreams, and hopes.
Posted in Movies | Tagged epistolary movies, Irffan Khan, movie reviews, Movies, movies with letters, Nimrat Kaur, Ritesh Batra, the lunchbox | 9 Comments »
I’ve been thinking about “immersion” lately. A lot. It’s infected my daily thoughts, disturbed my reading, and stymied my writing.
If I was searching for someone to blame, I’d have to pick Jefferson Smith and the “Immerse or Die” project he runs over at CreativityHacker, but since it’s been an interesting and illuminating intrusion, I’ll thank him instead.
Immersion is that willing suspension of disbelief a reader brings to each new book. Readers know that the people in my books are not real, and that the events within my pages never really happened. They voluntarily set aside their logical, common-sense disbelief in the truth of my tale as they dive into my books, swim through the worlds and words of my description, and give their hearts to characters I’ve conjured out of nothing but air and brash intention. This is the contract between us, reader and author: they agree to pretend for a time that my stories are real, and I agree not to burst their bubble. It is a trust that I, as author, must handle gently, because when it is breached, it cannot be rebuilt. Continue Reading »
Posted in Books, Writing | Tagged creative writing, immerse or die, immersion, suspension of disbelief, Writing, writing tips | 1 Comment »
I have a bone to pick with Horace Engdahl.
Engdahl is a member of the Swedish Academy (the folks who give out the Nobel Prizes) and this month, in an interview with French paper La Croix, he lamented that literature in the West is suffering because writers have become too “professionalized.”
Formerly, he opines, writers used to work as cab drivers, as secretaries, as waiters for a living. The work was difficult, but it fed their literary growth. Now, though, with grants and financial support, writers only have to write which, in Engdahl’s estimation, “cuts the writer off from society and creates an unhealthy link with institutions.”
This, from a guy who’s been a member of such an “institution” (i.e., the Swedish Academy) for nearly two decades, and probably hasn’t driven a taxi or waited tables in his life (he was a secretary for ten years…for the Swedish Academy. A-hem.)
Obviously, Engdahl believes that the only source for “litrachur” in the West is the legions of authors who are living the high-life on their NEA grants and their MacArthur fellowships. Those of us who work for a living outside our writing (i.e., the vast majority of us) are incapable of writing anything lofty enough to catch the notice of anyone of import.
For a laugh, though, try to guess just where Engdahl looks for literature in the East and in Africa. That’s right; he looks among those who work for a living outside their writing (though he worries about the future of their literary stars, too, hoping that the quality of work :will not be lessened by the assimilation and the westernization of these authors.”
I don’t disagree with everything Engdahl says–I see, as he does, a rise in the “faux-transgressive” (my phrase, not his) in Western literature–but by and large, his words really show the exclusionist attitude of the literary world. There’s literature, and then there’s just writing. And nothing written for a paycheck can be worth a literary dime.
I’d say something snarky here, just to vent my spleen, but The Observer’s associate editor, Robert McCrum, put it all too well:
“At face value, these comments are an odd mixture of grumpy old man and Nordic romantic. I’m not sure that the author’s garret is the guarantor of excellence.”
Oh, snap!
k
PS. For an English writeup on the topic, see The Guardian’s article here.
Posted in Books, Culture, Writing | Tagged creative writing, Horace Engdahl, nobel literature prize, nobel prize, Robert McCrum, Writing | 2 Comments »
Prosciutto. Capicola. Pancetta. Lonzino. Bresaola.
I’ve always enjoyed this kind of charcuterie, when it’s done well. In recent years, though, the quality of products in the shops has really declined. It used to be I could find decent prosciutto at our regular grocery, but now I have to go to high-end shops or specialty purveyors to find anything approaching decent quality. Prices, naturally, have skyrocketed as well.
I’ve always wanted to try my hand at charcuterie, but I didn’t have a cave to hang the meat for a year while it aged. Then, a couple of months ago, I heard about a product that allowed me to make charcuterie at home, in my fridge. Reviews were good, so I gave it a try.
Posted in Food | Tagged bresaola, capicola, charcuterie, dry aged meat, dry aged meat at home, foodie, lonzino, umai dry age bags, umai review | 6 Comments »
Kurt R.A. Giambastiani 