Literary Tastes
\n(arrived late)<\/p>\n
This was a session where various authors talked about their books. We were given signed copies of the books at the end.<\/p>\n
Amy Belding Brown, Flight of the Sparrow<\/p>\n
King Philip’s War
\nFound an account, and originally planned to just retell the Puritan woman’s story
\nHer individuality was cloaked in social hierarchy.
\nFirst war with Indians.
\nShe studied colonial life and Puritans. Wanted her historical novel to be as richly detailed as possible.
\nShe went overboard, because she loves research. Got to spend time in libraries!
\nFound good books about the Native Americans in the area.
\nFinally she writes a character.
\nHer writing process is very messy.
\nFor her, the big part of the enjoyment is discovering the story and characters as she goes.
\nDidn’t like the character. Then read that her account may have been heavily edited.
\nSo she put things in the novel that made Mary more likable. Gave her a native American friend, which got her thinking about the issue of justice.
\nUses a circular process in her writing, alternating between research and writing.<\/p>\n
Stuart Rojstaczer, The Mathematician’s Shiva
\nWhat happens when a famous woman mathematician dies.
\nHis debut novel — but that’s not true, it’s his first published novel.
\nWrote his first novel at 19 — then got a PhD in geophysics instead.
\nIn his 40s, his daughter urged him to write a novel with her, a father-daughter experience. Wrote about a crazy college president. He also thought it was bad.
\nIn his 50s, he started writing short stories and they were actually good. So he tried again. Based on an experience with a Hungarian mathematician when his daughter was 3.
\nShe dies with the solution to a million-dollar problem reportedly solved.
\nHis secret to writing — earplugs. He locks himself in an office until he has 800 words per day.
\nHe loves libraries. His daughter works in the Library of Congress.
\nGot interested in libraries because they let him look in the 4th grade library when he was in Kindergarten.
\nLearned how to be an autodidact in college.
\nMath library at Stanford is where he wrote his PhD.
\nAlmost all novelists are autodidacts.
\nWrote a song, “The Library” Can find it on spotify under Stuart Rosh.
\n20% of book was written in libraries — where he started before he found his dingy office.
\nIt’s been a book club choice because it’s at libraries.
\nWhatever it takes!<\/p>\n
Jo Walton: My Real Children
\nSurreal for it to be listed as women’s fiction — It’s science fiction.
\nA woman with Alzheimer’s who remembers two different versions of her life.
\nIt’s the close up story of one woman’s two lives.
\nGenre is a phenomenon. It’s the set of things a book is in conversation with.
\nSF & Fantasy are constantly in conversation with books across boundaries.
\nA bunch of crossovers with romance, comedy, etc
\nGenre is fun to play with.
\nSF likes to reach across boundaries.
\nIt’s relatively recent that people outside SF have started joining the conversation inside.
\nRecent successful in-genre crossovers.
\nWas a crossover with women’s fiction.
\nHer character’s personal and romantic decision has changed the world.
\nWomen’s Fiction is a reflection on the importance of women’s lives.
\nSF is historically a male-dominated genre, but this is changing.
\nStill often have the kick-ass woman protagonist — a woman in a male role.
\nRethink the message if you only show the same roles.
\nSF is the genre of changed worlds.
\nSF isn’t often interested in women’s issues. — marriage, parenting, families, divorce, getting older.
\nSF seems to demand an adventure plot.
\nAre women’s lives only important if they look like men’s lives?
\nThis book has two different versions of the last half of the 20th century.
\nWhen you write a crossover, the concern is that it won’t work in dialog in both genres. Getting a women’s fiction award has validated it.<\/p>\n
Ashley Weaver: Murder at the Brightwell.
\nWinner of the 2015 Reading List Mystery Category
\nShe’s also a librarian.
\nHer life of crime started early, and libraries have aided and abetted her all the way.
\nLoved mysteries all her life from Richard Scarry on!
\nAgatha Christie was her first murder, and from there there was no turning back.
\nGot her first job at a library. That was the year she wrote her first novel.
\nGot the character’s name in a dream.
\nHas an ideas file on her computer. If she likes them, they get their own document.
\n30s is her goto setting. — sophisticated, glamorous era.
\nTwo types of writers: Outliners or pantsers. She’s a pantser.
\nDoesn’t know who the murderer will be until toward the end.
\nShe got her good news when at the library.
\n2nd book is Death Wears a Mask.
\nShe got to catalog her own book.
\nLooking forward to seeing where her life of crime takes her next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Literary Tastes (arrived late) This was a session where various authors talked about their books. We were given signed copies of the books at the end. Amy Belding Brown, Flight of the Sparrow King Philip’s War Found an account, and originally planned to just retell the Puritan woman’s story Her individuality was cloaked in social […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[207],"tags":[357],"class_list":["post-27888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conference-corner","tag-alaac15"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}