Tag Archives: USC

LA Times Festival of Books!

Photo by Carolyn Kraft

It’s April again and that can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. My apologies to anyone looking for a post on whether or not creamed honey will finally be classified as an alternative fuel. (You’ll have to wait for my review later this year of the new Nissan Mecha-Grizzly.)

This post is about the 21st Annual LA Times Festival of Books, held last weekend on the beautiful brick and stone USC campus. Saturday was rainy and Sunday was sunny and both days were very well-attended. Here are some of the intriguing things the authors I saw had to say:

“Magical realism reminds us as human beings that there is hope and beauty out there.”

“If you believe along with the narrator that the [fantastical] things happening are true, it’s not magical realism. If you don’t, then it is.”

“Writers are often reacting to things that frustrate them about their other writing.”

“YA [literature] is so wide open. You can go anywhere you want. There’s no box you have to fit into.”

“When people have complimented me on my writing, they said it’s mysterious and cryptic and things are not explained. When people have criticized my writing, they said it’s mysterious and cryptic and things are not explained.”

“What’s cool about art is the exceptions.”

“I don’t really care what genre means. The work can take care of itself.”

“When you begin a novel you feel like a bit of a fraud. The more you do it the more faith you have in the viability of the world you’re creating.”

“I think about readers after the fact. It’s not what drives me to do the work. I don’t think it’s healthy to think about it.”

“Fiction, art, always has to be life plus.”

“Donald Trump is able to go for the jugular. It’s like he stole Jeb Bush’s lunch money, threw his shoes up on top of the school, and Jeb couldn’t handle it.”

“Disney told me, ‘We want a thriller, but nothing bad can happen.’ ”

“What’s special about this story? If I can’t find it, I don’t write it.”

“There’s no ‘Red Weddings’ in Middle Grade.”

“My narrator is the crotchety old man who lives inside of me.”

Photo by Carolyn Kraft

“Very rarely will someone buy your intentions. Finish the book.”

“The anxiety of not knowing where I’m going in a story is what drives me.”

“I wrote this [middle grade] book as a YA novel, but it’s not. My editor pointed this out to me.”

“Wonder isn’t about finding answers; it’s about being comfortable with the questions.”

“There are as many ways to be dead as there are to be alive.”

“Teenagers: Maximum personal responsibility with absolutely no personal power.”

“Some 17-year-olds are 13 in their heads and some 17-year-olds are 25 in their heads. And they have to hang out together.”

“The only thing worse than writing is not writing.”

“Every first draft I go through this question: ‘I don’t know how to do this.’ ”

“If you’re a young person and you have the choice between writing and having an experience, have the experience.”

WHO SAID THIS STUFF (in order): Sean McGinty, Shaun David Hutchinson, Peter Rock, McGinty, Rock, McGinty, Patrick DeWitt, Karl Taro Greenfeld, DeWitt, Greenfeld, Dee Dee Myers, Ridley Pearson, Soman Chainani, M.A. Larson, Tahereh Mafi, Larson, Chainani, Mafi, Leigh Ann Henion, Claire Bidwell Smith, Jeff Garvin, Jesse Andrews, Garvin, Don Calame, Aaron Hartzler

LA Times Festival of Books 2014 – What Struck Me

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Photo by Carolyn Kraft

Did you make it out to last weekend’s LA Times Festival of Books? Tell me about your experience. Go on. Which booths did you visit, which food trucks? What panels did you see, and how many books did you buy? Me: Upteen booths, zero food trucks, seven panels ranging from YA novels to Goodreads to literary agents to B.J. Novak talking about his debut story collection.

And only ONE book purchased.

Say wha? Yes, that’s correct, one book, but you pack the wallop of five books don’t you, Tenth of December, by George Saunders.

Anywho, what has become something of a spring tradition here on the blog, I’ve transcribed some of the comments that struck me from this year’s festival author panels, and a few conversational nuggets I picked up while traversing the USC campus. Enjoy:

“Ghost stories often wrestle with very poignant moral questions.”

“I’ve been trying to have a ghost experience for 25 years.”

“What is going on with me at the time I’m writing ends up in the book–as long as it rings true emotionally.”

“Walking plays a key part in my writing process.”

“I read all of my writing to my dog.”

“If you’ve written something that you think is as good as the writers you aspire to be, then it’s probably over for you.”

“As long as we have feelings we have potential for stories.”

“Every book is like starting over every time.”

“If you write every day and read every day, you open yourself up to stories unconsciously and consciously.”

“We can really only read the best stories as a child and adult simultaneously.”

“I don’t want to write stories for children that read like they were written for children.”

“I write books to deal with the problems that I have.”

“I don’t like being labeled ‘YA’. I don’t even know what a ‘Young Adult’ writer is.”

“You told the biggest possible story in the smallest possible way.”

“I write about teenagers; if they choose to read the books that’s great.”

“Getting the reader to love the character is the trick.”

“I didn’t wait until I was an adult to write for teens because I needed the emotional distance; I waited because I needed the skills.”

“Writing is self-seduction and I think it’s important to indulge that.”

“A combination of coffee and shame motivates me.”

“Steven Spielberg said it’s important to make your office the best place in your house so that you’ll always enjoy being there.”

“I’ll just give you my gun and when you find the food trucks fire off a few rounds.”

“Readers are the most sociable folk when they aren’t being antisocial.”

“Genre is the gateway drug to wider literature.”

“Raw denim jeans.”

“There’s a lot more to life than being a writer; being a dedicated reader is a great thing too.”

“A little bit of research goes a long way: an ounce of research can produce half a pound of fiction.”

“I met a writer who wanted to do a book about 1-900 numbers.”

“We want to hold you to your own best standards.”

Who said this stuff: John Boyne; Ransom Riggs; Francesca Lia Block; Jonathan Auxier; E. Lockhart; Rainbow Rowell; John Corey Whaley; Andrew Smith; B.J. Novak; a hungry, frustrated cop; Patrick Brown; David Kipen; Michelle Meyering; Betsy Amster; T. Jefferson Parker

Festival of Books 2013 – What Struck Me Part 1

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Photo by Carolyn Kraft

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is always a great time, and this past weekend’s event did not disappoint. And how could it, really, with two full days on the beautiful USC campus where books and authors reigned supreme?

If you were there I’d love to hear about your experience. In the meantime, here’s a sampling of what struck me from Day 1’s author panels and, in a few instances, my own casual eavesdropping on some unsuspecting festival-goers:

“The music of the writing has to marry the story being told.”

“It’s a fun challenge to describe something from another art form.”

“Hell yes it’s an antiwar novel!”

“There’s a reason why 19-year olds are crazy. Whipsawed between raging hormones and the most profound existential questions in life.”

“My process is creative floundering. With this kind of work we have to create our own problems. That’s why writers are crazy.”

“I went nuclear on my publisher not to have a headless woman on the cover.”

“You shouldn’t be taken less seriously as writer because of your gender.”

“Endings are hard. There’s a significant amount of psychological pressure when you don’t know how the novel is going to end. But it’s also thrilling.”

“Flannery O’Connor said that she liked a story that was like a sandwich she eats on a Thursday and makes her sick on a Saturday. It’s got to stay with you.”

“There is no time in the psychological.”

“When you’re looking for feedback on something you need a reader who will accept the story on its own terms, who won’t try to impose on it their idea of what a story should be.”

“Stuff: In the end it doesn’t mean anything.”

“The only you fail to make something better is by not trying.”

“We can’t help but remake ourselves constantly. Have to really work at being stuck.”

“Fortune-telling: Sometimes we want to invest someone with the authority to tell us what we already know.”

“You never know what in your life you’re going to use in a book.”

“Characters who are omnipotent ruin the hell out of your plot.”

“I like to be the writer, the reader, and the character simultaneously.”

“Isabel Allende said writing is lonely; it’s the response that reconnects you to the world.”

“You can visit a country by reading its folktales.”

“Why did they give the new Star Wars movie to J.J. Abrams? I know exactly what that movie is going to be, I don’t need to see it. They should have given it to someone like Eli Roth to direct.”

“The idea that terrifies you the most, that’s the story to write.”

“Writing is not a choice. It’s like I have no choice but to write.”

“Michael Bay is actually our greatest independent director.”

“A writer has to be willing to torture his characters.”

“A story is like a piano: a finite number of keys but an infinite number of melodies.”

“Writer’s block is really just the critical voice overwhelming the creative voice.”

Those quoted above include: a group of gently snarky USC students; Janet Fitch; Ben Fountain; Lauren Groff; Elizabeth Berg; Amity Gaige; Nalo Hopkinson; Gennifer Albin; Mark Frost; Cornelia Funke; Lauren Oliver; Lissa Price; Veronica Roth; Victoria Schwab