Monthly Archives: December 2009

Music Monday: I and Love and You

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When I first heard this song by The Avett Brothers, I was rocketed back several years. I used to live in Brooklyn, and when I lived in New York I was sad. Sad and lonely and aching and longing for something else. I know it wasn’t the borough (though New York City as a whole isn’t off the hook), and never in my life since have I lived in the same place as so many of my dearest friends. It was just the time in my life. It was during and after college, and I wanted to be home, but my own home wasn’t really mine anymore.

I also love the ambiguity of the line “Three words that become hard to say: I and love and you.” It’s such a sad sounding song, that I wonder if I am being too hopeful to read two interpretations into these words. Because saying I love you is hard at two specific times: the first time, and when you don’t mean it anymore.

Agent Appreciation Day

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Kody Keplinger has declare today agent appreciation day, which is an as yet unofficial holiday.

My agents is Sara Crowe of Harvey Klinger, and she is just amazing. Of course I am eternally grateful to her for finding me in the slush. She gave me my first taste of someone unrelated to me loving my characters, my worlds, and my words. I’ve had a pretty smooth road, but she’s been there to work out the bumps when they arise, all while making me feel as calm as a kitten with milk. She wears yellow dresses. She sounds like Terry Gross on the phone. She’s a New Englander, which means she’s very polite with a tough interior.

That’s why I appreciate her. Here’s why you should appreciate her: A Crowe’s Nest. It’s her group blog with her clients and offers a wealth of insider information on the business. If you’re not already a follower, you should definitely become one.

Thanks, Sara!

What is Art? Let’s Ask James Franco

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I love James Franco. I love everybody associated with Freaks & Geeks.

I also have been a longtime fan of General Hospital. I don’t watch it much anymore, but it used to be an after school ritual, and I can tell you the back story of just about every character. A friend and I were once in Balthazar in NYC (back when it was super trendy, and we thought we were so hip for going there even though all we could afford was a drink), and we saw an actor from the show, and we both got all giddy, and then laughed because if either of us had been with another friend, they wouldn’t have known what we were so excited about.

Anyway, James Franco and General Hospital have come together: he’s doing a guest star run on the show. Which, even as a fan, kind of blew my mind. Turns out, he’s calling it performance art. He says he’s blurring the line between high brow and low brow. The article definitely shows that he’s a smarty, which makes me love him even more, but I’m not sure I buy the whole performance art angle. I mean, he’s an actor. He’s acting. Just because it’s a soap, and he doesn’t normally do soaps, doesn’t mean it’s art. Even if it’s all meta and he’s playing an artist with the one-name moniker of Franco.

Coincidentally, the idea of what art is has been on my mind lately since it’s a key piece in my WIP. In the current draft, one character asks, “If you say you’re an artist, does that make you one?” If James Franco calls his work on GH performance art, is it? Does intention create art? Maybe. It doesn’t mean it creates good art, though.

I understand there’s more to this project. He’s already done a piece with single-named artist Carter called Erased James Franco, and apparently they are working together again. There will also be a guest spot on 30 Rock as himself. And all of this ties into a film they are doing together. I think I’ll reserve judgment until then. In the meantime, I’m going to go watch Franco on GH on hulu.

Google Wave of the Future?

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I really, really wanted a Google wave invite. Then when I finally got one, I didn’t know what to do with it. Some of the folks at the school where I work and I are going to try to think of something. In the meantime, though, the awesome and talented Kurtis Scaletta used it to do a group interview of a bunch of authors (specifically, Josh Berk, Steve Brezenoff, Jon Skovron, Sarah MacLean, Saundra Mitchell, Deva Fagan, and Laurel Snyder). I think most of them were there in real time, but I came late. And Kurtis was very nice to not point out that I put my answers in all the wrong places and what not.

One question I couldn’t answer was what book made me want to become a writer. I loved the other author’s answers, and some of those definitely inspired me, too (esp. A Prayer for Owen Meaney). I can’t point to one book, though, that was like a switch of a light. It was more the cumulative effect of reading wonderful books, and going to those worlds, and living through the author’s worlds. I wanted to create world’s and people like that, too, first for myself, and eventually for other people.

But I’m curious, writers, is there a book or author that made you want to write?

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