INTERVIEW: Ellen Booraem - Journalist, Award-Winning Writer and Author of "The Unnameables"

Welcome to “Up Close and Personal.” For every interview I will be introducing a literary personality discussing their views and insights, as well as upcoming literary events around the world.

Today’s interview is with Ellen Booraem. She spent thirty years as a journalist, including ten years as the managing editor and award-winning writer for The Weekly Packet, a tiny weekly newspaper in Blue Hill, Maine.

After a three-year stint as managing editor of The Packet’s parent chain, she continued to win awards as arts and special sections editor for The Ellsworth American, the highly regarded county weekly. She served in that post for six years and continues to work for The American as a freelance reporter and reviewer.

She is a member of the Class of 2k8 with her debut novel THE UNNAMEABLES (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, was published October 2008). Her second novel, tentatively entitled Small Persons With Wings, will be published by Dial Books in 2011.

A native of Massachusetts and a graduate of Wheaton College, Ms. Booraem lives with her cat, a dog and with Robert Shillady who's a painter in the coastal Maine, town of Brooklin population 900, where they built a house with their own hands.

She blogs in a halting and sporadic way at http://ellenbooraem.blogspot.com/

E.I. Would you share some early insight into who you were as a teenager? What were you like? Please tell us more about Ellen Booraem -- the woman behind the former journalist, managing editor, award-winning writer and now an author?

E.B I was a hybrid: a bookworm/literary magazine geek who also was a baton-twirler. (How embarrassing.) The city newspaper gave me a column, writing about high school stuff, but I remember it as being pretty brainless. The editor was so demoralized I don’t think he replaced me after I graduated. My father (a former reporter) told me I didn’t have a nose for news and he was right…it took me years to develop one.

E.I. What is it about the art form of writing that enchants you the most?

E.B. Writing doesn’t enchant me much. It’s become more of an addiction—if I go for several days without writing anything I get ill-tempered, and eventually I stop being able to sleep nights. I enjoy developing the characters and doing the research, and revising the first draft. Revision usually is more fun than drafting, which can be scary unless you keep reassuring yourself that you can fix everything when you revise. I do love fixing things.

E.I. Many writers describe themselves as "character" or "plot" writers. Which are you? And what do you find to be the hardest part of writing?

E.B I’m definitely a character writer, and developing a plot is the hardest thing for me. When I get stuck, the characters get me out of trouble: I write character descriptions, explore what makes them tick, or write journal entries in their voices, and eventually all becomes clear. Or clearer, anyway.

E.I. How do you imagine the audience when you are writing? Do you have sheets of newsprint covered in a story boards all over your walls?

E.B My audience is me. Possibly me at age 12, but there’s not much difference. I write reams of notes to myself, many of them on my computer, others scribbled on scrap paper and pinned to a bulletin board or floating around on my desk. No sheets of newsprint or story boards—my office is way too small for that. It’s always a mess, too.

E.I. What was your biggest challenge in writing “The Unnameables”? How did you decide what level of details your reader will accept? Did you work them out in advance, or did they evolve as you wrote the story? How did you overcome these challenges?

E.B My biggest challenge in THE UNNAMEABLES was making it clear to myself how main character Medford’s journey related to the chaotic Goatman’s, or vice versa. My editor, Kathy Dawson (then at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, now at Dial Books for Young Readers), was a huge help, because she’s adept at asking the right questions to bring out what’s stuck under a brain cell someplace. The answers always turn out to be in your noggin—my goal is to learn how to find them myself without making Kathy do so much work. I think I’m getting better at it.

The details seem to bubble up as a I go along, and usually I think them up to entertain myself. I know I have too many if I get bored when I’m reading a chapter aloud to my writer’s group.

E.I. In “The Unnameables”, How much of Medford Runyuin is planned out in your head? How do you know where you will go next with your story?

E.B I knew Medford very well from page one, because I did a lot of thinking about his character and his problem before I started writing. I knew how the book would end, but had no idea how I’d get there. I would plan out a couple of chapters in advance but no more than that, and even then I got ambushed by events. One surprise was when Medford’s friend Prudy met the Goatman—I expected her to react one way, and discovered a couple of sentences beforehand that her reaction would be the opposite of what I’d expected.

E.I. If you were asked to read a page from “The Unnameables” is there one that you would personally select to share with your fans? And why?

E.B When I’ve done readings, I’ve assumed that no one has read the book and have tried not to give anything away. With those parameters, my choice would have to be when Medford first meets the Goatman—the Goatman has to be involved, because I like the way he kicks Medford off balance.

E.I How do you weave so many unusual elements of fantasy and information into your stories and yet you keep them so fast-paced?

E.B Details of fictional worlds come easily to me, possibly because I’ve spent so much of my life daydreaming. Pacing is a real problem, also something Kathy Dawson’s been trying to help me fix. My characters have a nasty tendency to sit around and talk when they should be up and doing. Again, I hope I’m improving with experience.

E.I. What did you find to be the hardest part of writing the book? What was your biggest challenge in developing the characters, “The Goatman” and Boyce? Did you work them out in advance, or did they evolve as you wrote the story? How did you overcome these challenges?

E.B Both Medford and the Goatman existed as visual characters before I got my hands on them. My partner Rob Shillady is a painter, and he’d made pictures years before that included a guy named Medford Runyuin and his side-kick, the Goatman. After he let me appropriate them, I changed them according to my needs: Medford got younger, stopped being Rob, and became a lot more like me, while the Goatman acquired hooves, a staff, and the ability to call the wind but not control it. I had a pretty good idea what the Goatman’s personality was like from the get-go—as I said above, the hard part was integrating him into Medford’s situation. Boyce came into my head as a whole person, too, although I had to work to understand why he treated Medford the way he did. I wrote myself notes about him, and a journal entry in his voice, and all that helped. And of course you do learn more about characters when you see them in action.

E.I. You are well known in the writing community as the former journalist and the award-winning writer. Do you sometimes ever feel pressure or insecure, or are you able to separate all that from your own creative process?

E.B Actually, I’m not that well known, which keeps the pressure off for the most part. I regularly feel insecure, but I’m used to feeling that way so it doesn’t inconvenience me much. When necessary, I get reassurance from my partner (who understands because he’s a painter, which if anything is worse than being a writer), from my writer’s group, and from my agent, Kate Schafer Testerman. Also from Anne Lamott’s BIRD BY BIRD, the single most encouraging “craft” book I’ve ever read, although Stephen King’s is pretty good, too.

E.I. Ms. Booraem, Thank you for contributing to my blog. It has been a pleasure for me to get to know your work a little better. Would you like to end your interview with a writing tip or advice for young aspiring writers?

E.B A Cape Cod friend of mine once accosted Kurt Vonnegut for writing advice, and he said, “Apply the seat of your pants to the seat of the chair.” That’s pretty much it. Schedule writing time every single day, and if you get “writer’s block,” write notes to yourself about your characters or the setting or what you had for breakfast until it goes away. Don’t feed yourself stories about why you can’t write today or how stupid it was to think you could write at all—everybody has those stories, and they’re hardly ever true.

Thanks for interviewing me—your questions were fun to think about. And good luck with the blog!

Photo of Ellen Booraem by Sherry Streeter

To learn more about Ellen Booraem please visit her web site
To purchase her book, please visit AMAZON and Barnes and Noble

INTERVIEW: International Bestselling Crime Writer, Poet & Musician, Known For His Lew Griffin Mysteries: James Sallis

Welcome to “Up Close and Personal.” For every interview I will be introducing a literary personality discussing his views and insights, as well as upcoming literary events around the world.

Today’s interview is with James Sallis. He is a renowned poet, critic, essayist, editor, translator, professor, musicologist and novelist. He is the author of more than two dozens volumes of fiction. He is best known for his Lew Griffin novels set in New Orleans. His biography of the great crime writer Chester Himes is classic book to read.

In addition he has written a critical work - Difficult Lives - examining the work of Jim Thompson, David Goodis and Chester Himes and a book on Jazz guitar and many more...

Critics agree that James Sallis, author of the Lew Griffin mystery series," may be one of the best mystery writers that most readers have never heard of.

Universal Picture has optioned one of his novels Drive and is now in production. Drive, is about a stunt driver on the run from a hit man, who enjoys a double-life as a getaway man for robberies. Golden Globe & Emmy nominee Hugh Jackman set to star in the movie.

Drive will be a Steve McQueen type role for Hugh Jackman, so fans can expect lots of chase scenes. Expected release date of the film is 2012.

Mr. Sallis lives in Phoenix, Arizona with his wife Karyn.

E.I. Would you share some early insight into who you were as a teenager? What were you like? Please tell us more about James Sallis -- the man behind the award-winning crime author?

JS: I always claim that I completely missed childhood, as I was holed up in my room reading, and utterly missed the Sixties, as I was holed up in various rooms writing. Like many who become artists of a sort later on, I was your prototypical geek. My wife would insist, rightly so, that I still am – but I’ve learned camouflage.

E.I. What is it about the art form of writing that enchants you the most?

JS: There is something about taking in the world, adding it to whatever is inside us, then putting the world back out there in such a way that we recognize it anew. Something about creating a space in which we truly come to inhabit the world; about making that bridge, that crossing, which exists for all of us, manifest.

E.I. How do you imagine audience as you are writing? Do you try to do character development, chapter outlines, various novel-related brainstorming? Do you have sheets of newsprint covered in a story boards all over your walls?

JS: First and last, I’m an improviser. I gave up writing the well-made story many years ago – about the time I began publishing. I tell my students it’s like throwing yourself off a cliff. If you encounter surprise and delight in the text, in what happens, that surprise and delight will communicate itself. For me, as a musician, it feels much like playing: You take the “head,” the melody, the chord changes, the rhythm, and you start poking at it to see what’s in there. I rarely know from page to page, paragraph to paragraph, where I’m going; or more properly, where this thing is taking me.

E.I. What was your biggest challenge in developing the character, John Turner & Eldon Brown in your book “Salt River”? Did you work them out in advance, or did they evolve as you wrote the story? How did you overcome these challenges?

JS: Let’s go back to your prior question. Cypress Grove began with the image you first encounter upon opening the novel: A man is standing in the woods listening to the sound of an approaching motor. That’s what I had, that image. And as I began to ask questions – who is this man, where is he, who is coming and why – the story began revealing itself to me, began unfolding. The image came as I was out walking. By the time I’d got back to the house, I had the first chapter in place, pretty much as you see it, creating further questions to be answered. It’s all about discovery.

E.I. If you were asked to read a page from “Salt River” is there one that you would personally select to share with your fans?

JS: I can’t think of a single page, but I’m inordinately fond of the final chapter; it still gets to me after all this time. I remember it coming in a rush as I sat there marvelling at how it pulled everything together – the relationships, the story line, the story of the town, the tone of beauty and sadness that I’d been working with the whole time. I wrote it with tears in my eyes – just as I wrote the final Lew Griffin novel. That time, when I met my wife at the door, she looked at my face and immediately said, “You finished it, didn’t you?”

E.I. How do you weave so much suspense and paranormal elements of information into your stories and yet you keep them so fast-paced?

JS: For one thing, I strive never to stray too far away from being, myself, a reader. As a reader, I want things to move, to happen, both internally and externally. I want a language that is so alive, so evocative, that it crackles as one turns the page. I want the world in my novel to look as close as possible to the world I see when I lift my eyes from the page. I want to make the world large again – to rescue both the reader and myself from what phenomenologists call dailyness.

E.I. Many writers describe themselves as "character" or "plot" writers. Which are you? And what do you find to be the hardest part of writing?

JS: I decry that distinction. We may be locked into Aristotelian thinking, where everything is A or non-A, but we can at least resist it – and certainly must, as artists given to reflecting a world of remarkable parallels, contrasts, conflicts and complexities. I’m a writer who tries, quite simply, to gather up as much of the world in my net as I can with each story, each sentence, each phrase. As for the hardest part, I’ll echo John Updike: The hardest part is getting my butt in the chair each day.

E.I. Mr. Sallis, you are well known in the writing community as a poet, critic, essayist, editor, professor, musicologist and novelist. Your writing has been published in notable publications in the US and other countries. Do you ever feel pressure or insecure, or are you able to separate all that from your own creative process?

JS: You know, in many ways I’ve led a blessed life as a writer. I received little attention for many, many years, just enough to keep me going, which allowed me to develop and write as I wished, to keep poking and whittling away at those few things I do well. Again and again, I came to editors who were in sympathy with what I was doing, and who supported me – people like Damon Knight and Mike Moorcock, Joseph McCrindle at transatlantic review, Bob Lewis at North Dakota Quarterly, Eleanor Sullivan at Ellery Queen’s, George Gibson at Walker. Most importantly, I owe everything to readers who, against odds, have found their way to my books. Bear in mind that I am not a particularly commercial writer. And I’m decidedly a quirky one.

E.I. What would you tell those authors considering applying to an M.F.A. program? In your opinion how important is it for a writer to have a writing degree?

JS: Though I’ve taught in an MFA program, I mistrust them and think of them as something akin to pyramid schemes. I do my best to dissuade students from such, asking if they might not better spend that time and energy actually writing. Hacking their way into the undeveloped territory where they will live.

E.I. Mr. Sallis, Thank you for contributing to my blog. It has been a pleasure for me to get to know your work a little better. Would you like to end your interview with a writing tip or advice for young aspiring writers?

JS: Get your butts in the chair.

Photo of James Sallis by Marshall J. Greer

To learn more about James Sallis please visit his WEBSITE

To purchase his books please visit AMAZON and Barnes & Noble

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

To my friends and readers,

Thank you so much for your enduring support and encouragement. I am very grateful.

I wish each and everyone a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving holiday.



Warmest Regards,

E.I. Johnson


"Thanksgiving is generally considered a secular holiday, and is not directly based in religious canon or dogma".
Author Unknown

INTERVIEW: Kristina Springer - Author of Young Adult Fiction

Welcome to “Up Close and Personal.” For every interview I will be introducing a literary personality discussing their views and insights, as well as upcoming literary events around the world.

Today’s interview is with Kristina Springer. Her debut novel, Espressologist, is about a 17-year-old teenager with an unusual talent. The teen, Jane Turner, takes people watching in a Chicago coffee shop, where she is a barista, to a new level. Moving from the sublime to the surreal, she explores her ability to "match make" by observing nuances in the way customers take their coffee. The premise is a clever twist, and perhaps social commentary, on the coffee phenomena, and the art of people watching.

Inspiration for the book came from Ms. Springer's personal coffee shop experience.
In fact most of the manuscript was penned while the author observed customers as they performed this seemingly benign ritual unaware that every flavor-adding-impulse was being translated into a greater meaning with life altering implications.

Ms. Springer has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Education from Illinois State University, and a Master of Arts degree in Writing from DePaul University. She lives in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois with her husband, and their four small children.

She is currently working on a new novel, My Fake Boyfriend Is Better Than Yours, which due for release in 2010.

E.I. Would you share some early insight into who you were as a teenager? What were you like? Please tell us more about Kristina Springer-- the woman behind the “Espressologist” novel that is being compared to Jane Austen’s writing.

KS I was silly mostly. I often had crushes on cute boys, I loved hanging out with my friends, I was in the swing choir (dancing and singing. We were so NOT Glee. Glee would have kicked our butts big time), I played flute in the band, I loved being in the musicals, and I worked part-time at a grocery store.

E.I. What is it about the art form of writing that enchants you the most?

KS I love seeing where a story is going to go! The first draft for me is always very freeing. And I love surprising myself too. Often when I reread something I wrote I'm shocked that I actually wrote it.

E.I. How do you imagine audience as you are writing? Do you try to do character development, chapter outlines, various novel-related brainstorming? Do you have sheets of newsprint covered in a story boards all over your walls?

KS I write for myself but I also write for my audience. I was a technical writer for years and with that you are always just writing for your audience-- never for yourself. So you need to constantly think about what their needs are. But with fiction you are mostly writing what you enjoy. I try to keep a balance of both. And regarding storyboards etc., no-- I don't really have them all over the walls or anything. When I outline (which I do more of now then when I first started writing) I just enter everything into a chapter by chapter outline in a word doc. And when I'm brainstorming I type out notes into another document (usually always cleverly titled notes.doc) or I write them down on post-its, backs of receipts, pieces of junk mail etc.

E.I. What was your biggest challenge in developing the character, Jane Turner and her friend, Em in your book “Espressologist”? Did you work them out in advance, or did they evolve as you wrote the story? How did you overcome these challenges?

KS I don't recall any big challenges when writing Jane and Em. And honestly this book sort of flew out of me. This was one of the times when I didn't outline or plan. I just showed up at Starbucks a few nights a week and wrote whatever I felt like at that time. And the words always came easily to me. There wasn't a time where I really got stuck or didn't know where to go next with the book.

E.I. How much of their life is planned out in your head? How do you know where you will go next with any of your characters?

KS Like I mentioned above, with this book I didn't pre-plan anything. In the first book I ever wrote (never published) I did do the character sketches with each character and I knew their whole lives. But with The Espressologist I learned about them as I wrote them. Of course now I love them and I can see their futures clearly in my head so who knows, maybe someday I'll write another Espressologist book.

E.I. If you were asked to read a page from “Espressologist” is there one that you would personally select to share with your fans?

KS Oh, that's a hard one! Maybe the first page to hook them and hope they want to read more. Or maybe halfway down pg 24 through to page 25 where Jane first gets the idea for Espressology.

E.I. How do you weave so much elements of information into your stories and yet you keep them so fast-paced?

KS I naturally write very fast-paced stories. So I just go with it and when I'm finished I go back and add in the needed details.

E.I. Many writers describe themselves as "character" or "plot" writers. Which are you? And what do you find to be the hardest part of writing?

KS I'm definitely plot driven. Once I get a story in my head I'm writing it as fast I can and then I go back and add in the quirks and details. I'd say the hardest part for me is revision. It always takes me awhile to see how something should be different or could be better.

E.I. Ms. Springer, you are well known in the writing community as a YA writer. Do you ever feel pressure or insecure, or are you able to separate all that from your own creative process?

KS I'd say I totally seperate myself from it. When I'm writing I'm just thinking about the story and getting it out onto the screen. Writing is my little escape so I'm not generally letting the rest of the world in while I do it.

E.I. What would you tell those authors considering applying to an M.F.A. program? In your opinion how important is it for a writer to have a writing degree?

KS I think it depends on what you're going to do with it. You don't need a M.F.A. to publish a book. But if you want to learn more about writing and editing and publishing or if you want to teach someday then it's worth it. I loved my Master in Writing program just because I learned so much more than I ever imagined.

E.I. Thank you for contributing to my blog. It has been a pleasure for me to get to know your work a little better. Would you like to end your interview with a writing tip or advice for young aspiring writers?

KS Don't quit. If you're dream is to have a published book then you must always, always, always, push ahead no matter what. It's ok if 10, 100, 200, or whatever number of people reject you. Let it roll off your back and just keep trying. It really only takes one yes. And during that time that you're trying your writing will only keep getting better.

Thanks so much for having me!

To learn more about Kristina Springer please visit her WEBSITE
To purchase her books please visit AMAZON and Barnes & Noble

INTERVIEW: Environmentalist, Attorney and Author: S. Terrell French

Welcome to “Up Close and Personal.” For every interview I will be introducing a literary personality discussing his views and insights, as well as upcoming literary events around the world.

Today’s interview is with S. Terrell French, author of Operation Redwood. A novel about an eco-adventure modern day fantasy book for ages 9-12.

The book is about young people, who put so much on the line in defending the importance of preserving our natural habitats. Our hero is a twelve years old; Julian Carter-Li who lives with his wealthy, high-powered uncle and finds himself embarks on a campaign saving redwood trees.

The author spends her summer sailing and swimming in the Chesapeake Bay, and loves to run around barefoot in the forest as a child.

S. Terrell French, is a graduate of Harvard College. She moved to San Francisco to work with a environmental organization. She loves her job so much that she decides to attend Berkeley Law School and finds a company that practice environmental law. She and her husband have three children.

E.I. Would you share some early insight into who you were as a teenager? What were you like? Please tell us more about S Terrel French-- the woman behind the “Operation Redwood” novel?

STF I loved to read as a child and a teenager. There wasn’t as much “Young Adult” literature then, so I read a lot of classics and Russian novels. In high school, I also played sports, babysat, sang in the school chorus, and worked every summer in different jobs – camp counselor, research assistant, tour guide at a doll house museum. After college, I was able to explore the outdoors more, mostly in California and Alaska, where I spent a summer working for the Forest Service at Misty Fiords National Monument. As a lawyer, I have worked on environmental issues throughout California.

E.I. What is it about the art form of writing eco-adventure modern day fantasy book that enchants you the most?

STF I enjoyed the challenge of creating an adventure plot while keeping the characters and setting realistic. The real world is a fascinating place and setting a book here can teach you a lot. In writing Operation Redwood, I learned all sorts of interesting things about tree climbing, John Muir, logging, environmental activism, and the latest research on the redwood canopy. When National Geographic came out with its October 2009 redwood issue and television special, I was excited because I felt like all this amazing material was reaching a new audience.

E.I. How do you imagine audience as you are writing your YA novels? Do you try to do character development, chapter outlines, various novel-related brainstorming? Do you have sheets of newsprint covered in a story boards all over your walls?

STF My imagined audience is really myself, or my kids. I wrote the first draft of Operation Redwood in a very linear fashion. I would write one chapter, then plan out the next in my head as I was doing other things. I had only the most minimal outline. Of course, in the editing process, the shape of the book changed somewhat and chapters were rearranged or added (for example, the e-mail chapters).

E.I. What was your biggest challenge in developing the character of Julian Carter-Li, Danny Lopez and Robin Elder in your book “Operation Redwood”? Did you work them out in advance, or did they evolve as you wrote the story? How did you overcome these challenges?

STF The children in the book appeared in my mind mostly formed. The main character, Julian, I saw as a boy who is led, quite by accident, into an entirely unexpected series of adventures. Much of his motivation centers around his yearning for something different from his own somewhat lonely life with his mother and his terrible life with his uncle and aunt. Danny was, in part, a composite of my son’s very funny and warm-hearted friends. I didn’t have a lot of boys in my life as a child and watching these boys close-up – their humor, loyalty, imagination – was a novel experience for me. Robin, from her first appearance, I imagined as brave and fierce and a little superior.

E.I. How much of Julian’s life is planned out in your head? How do you know where you will go next with any of your characters?

STF I’m still working on that!

E.I. If you were asked to read a page from “Operation Redwood ” is there one that you would personally select to share with your fans?

STF You can click on an excerpt of the book from the home page of my website: www.operationredwood.com. When I read at book stores or on school visits, I usually read the scene in Chapter 3 when Danny “improves” Julian’s first e-mail to Robin. The storm scene in Chapter 24 is one of my favorites, but I don’t usually have an occasion to read it.

E.I. How do you weave so much elements of information into your stories and yet you keep them so fast-paced?

STF I did a lot of research about redwoods for the book, but only put in information I found really interesting. In total, it probably doesn’t take up more than a few pages. I didn’t want Operation Redwood to be a preachy diatribe – kids are already pretty knowledgeable about and interested in environmental issues. In part, I was trying to write was a funny, fast-paced adventure -- who doesn’t like a page-turner? At the same time, the character of Julian really spoke to me, and the book is very much about his journey, his friendship with Danny and Robin, his exploration of what family means.

E.I. Many writers describe themselves as "character" or "plot" writers. Which are you? And what do you find to be the hardest part of writing?

STF I think I am probably a character writer, but in Operation Redwood there’s a lot of plot because I had my own kids in mind. Plot can be tricky in a modern, realistic setting but I was interested in writing a book where kids were engaging in the real world. I wanted to explore how people (including kids) find the courage to stand up for what they believe, where they get their information, how they sort out different messages and decide how far they’ll go.

E.I. Ms. French, thank you for contributing to my blog. It has been a pleasure for me to get to know your work a little better. Would you like to end your interview with a writing tip or advice for young aspiring writers?

STF Read wonderful writers and pay attention.

To learn more about S. Terrell French please visit her WEBSITE
To purchase her book please visit AMAZON and Barnes & Noble

FAVORITE OF THE WEEK: Bestselling Author and Journalist: Lauren Weisberger "The Devils Wear Prada"

Welcome to Up Close and Personal. Once a week, on a Sunday, a favorite author, journalist will be featured as ‘Favorite of the Week”. The article will give them more exposure and publicity about their work.

This week we choose Lauren Weisberger. Ms. Weisberger was a Vogue magazine's editor-in-chief's assistant of Anna Wintour from 1999-2000. Her first novel The Devil Wears Prada which was published in 2003, was a thinly veiled account of the hellish life of a fashion magazine editor's assistant. It was critically bashed, but it was a mega success and spends six months on the New York Times bestseller list.

The book provides a semi-fictional but highly critical view of the Manhattan elite’s obsession with materialism and fashion. The Devil Wears Prada, which exists in more than 4 million copies, became the Golden Globe award winning motion picture starring Oscar two time winner, Meryl Streep and Oscar and Golden Globe nominee, Anne Hathaway and was released by 20th Century fox in June of 2006. The Devil Wears Prada was one of the top grossing films of summer 2006.

Her second book, Everyone Worth Knowing was published in 2005 and is based upon the trial and tribulations of the New York City public relations world. Again she proved that she was not just a one hit wonder, with more than a million copies in print to prove it and was on the The New York Time bestseller list.

Chasing Harry Winston is Ms. Weisberger's third novel, which was released on May 27, 2008. The main characters are three best friend New Yorkers, Emmy, Adriana and Leigh, who are facing the horror of turning 30. In September 2008,it was announced that Universal Pictures had picked up the rights to the book.

Jennifer Weiner, Adriana Trigiani, Lauren Weisberger and fourteen other American women authors collaborated on a novel American Girls About Town. The anthology includes brand-new stories from America's best-known women writers. Benefiting from the sale of the book are Barnardo's, the UKUs largest children's charity, and America's Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Lauren Weisberger graduated from Cornell University and is now married to Mike Cohen who is also a writer.

Photo of Ms. Weisberger by Robert Deutsch

To learn more about Lauren Weisberger please visit her WEBSITE

To purchase her books please visit AMAZON and Barnes & Noble

INTERVIEW: International Bestselling & Award Winning Nonfiction Author: Anthony Flacco

For every interview I will be introducing a literary personality discussing his views and insights, as well as upcoming literary events around the world.

Today’s interview is with Anthony Flacco who won the True Crime category of the National Best Books 2009 Awards for his book, The Road Out Of Hell which is a real life events during 1928 in Los Angeles. "The Road Out Of Hell" is the untold story behind the movie Changeling.

Changeling was released in theatres in October 2008 starring Oscar and Golden Globe winner, Angelina Jolie and Oscar nominee and Emmy award winning actor, John Malkovich.

The film was directed by Academy award winning director, producer, Clint Eastwood.

Changeling, a dramatic recreation of the sex-driven child-murder spree in the late 1920s is told in a breathless you-are-there style that depends almost exclusively on dramatically recreated scenes.

The Road Out of Hell is not technically a thriller but has written an astonishing, spell-binding and mesmerizing book. It’s an incredibly historical non-fiction crime drama that demonstrates a mentally deranged human being.

The hero a 13-year-old Sanford Clark, delivered in 1926 by his deranged mother into the hands of his homicidally sadistic uncle, Gordon Stewart Northcott, a pedophile and a murderer. For two years, Sanford struggles to survive the beatings, the abuse and the assaults on himself, to survive the same on other children, only they are murdered.

Mr.Flacco has published six books, among them are: A Checklist For Murderer, Tiny Dancer, The Last Nightingale, The Hidden Man, Published Your Non-Fiction Book and The Road Out Of Hell. The Hidden Man and The Last Nightingale are two of his historical novels dealing with the California during the early 1900’s.

E.I. Would you share some early insight into who you were as a teenager? What were you like? Please tell us more about Anthony Flacco -- the man behind the award-winning International bestselling nonfiction author?

A.F. Oh, man, E.I.—my teenage years? You’re going straight for the kneecaps right out of the box? All right, I’ll play, but you’ve tipped your hand—I’m going to have to keep a sharp eye on you…

In my teen years I was an amorphous mass of bewildered confusion, unfocused anger, and a fissile weapon of horniness packaged into a lanky class clown whom I would not wish upon any of my teaching friends today. Back then, the correct term for a child like myself with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder was “what an asshole.” I cringe to remember that time and have no excuse for it, other than to add that I grew beyond that place as fast as I could. My awareness of my limitations has always sharpened my hunger to learn.

E.I. What is it about the art form of writing that enchants you the most?

A.F. It’s as close as I will ever get to living the life of an alchemist, working in an arcane laboratory turning base metals into valuable things, employing secret methods of my own device while supervised by nothing more intrusive than the usual inner demons.

E.I. How do you imagine the audience as you are writing nonfiction? Do you have sheets of newsprint covering story boards all over your walls?

A.F. In today’s literary marketplace, issues of a book’s target audience are worked out at the publishing house before the contract is signed. Beyond that, I don’t find any value in visualizing the audience while I am trying to work, thank you, since my internal editor is given to savage fits of dissatisfaction and frequently chases me through sleep.

Speaking of sleep, I eagerly anticipate a reality show featuring a writer who writes for a viewing audience in front of his/her web cam. Insomniacs delight: real-time webcasting, fascinating as a bridge cam, only not as useful.

Considering today’s media world, I trot this out as an idea for a new reality show—miserable, tick-infested, flea-bitten idea that it is—and parade it before you to ask: can an idea as repellent as this one not happen? I say buy the all the stock that you can get in that sorry excuse for a television broadcast while the price is still low.

As for your question about story boards, I am very visual and love to cover every flat surface with relevant material. But I do find that the specific look of the working environment changes for every book. The amount and the kind of visual material is very much affected by the imagery of the story, its setting, time period, general climate, and its general social condition. The sound quality of my working environment is the most important thing to me. We all know what happens when you try to actually find some quiet time, but I need it to do my best work, and live where I do for the peace and quiet of it. I have lived and worked in the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City for most of my life, and I used to fight for a quiet corner and a few moments of silence. My sense-memory of that is one of literally drowning from the lack of silence.

E.I. What was your biggest challenge in writing “The Road Out of Hell”? How many years of research did you do, and how did you decide what level of details your reader will accept? Did you work them out in advance, or did they evolve as you wrote the story? How did you overcome these challenges?

A.F. All of those questions lead to one answer—I accepted from the very beginning that Sanford Clark’s story was a personal holocaust for one isolated boy, and that it was no different than the personal experience of the Nazi Holocaust in terms of its horror for the individual victim. Therefore, I knew that I had to write this story exactly as I would handle any story of the Nazi death camps, meaning that it is paramount to express the individual experience of confusion, terror, pain, uncertainty, desperation, and one’s frantic struggle to figure out how to mollify the captor in order to slow down the torment inflicted. I am convinced that you would fail to write anything truthful about such a phenomenon unless this deep level of honesty is employed. These are burdens upon the writer that go far beyond questions of accuracy. Journalism is the wrong tool for the job. It can’t tell the story unless it morphs into a narrative that employs a far deeper subjective experience, emotional turmoil, and a generally threatening level of writing. This is definitely not some memoir of an unhappy childhood and resulting addiction issues—such struggles fail to rise to a journey of recovery from sustained captivity under the evil of human nature at its very worst.

E.I. How much of Sanford Clark’s life is planned out in your head in spite of the great darkness of the story? How do you know where you will go next?

A.F. Since Sanford Clark’s life was over before I began my research, the facts of it directed the overall story arc. There wasn’t any planning needed at first beyond learning everything I could about him from multiple sources, in addition to the personal information that I got from his son, Jerry.

E.I. If you were asked to read a page from “The Road Out of Hell” is there one that you would personally select to share with your fans?

A.F. I like to start at the top of Chapter One and read through Sanford’s unwilling departure from home and continue well into the road trip, until right about the time that young Sanford finally realizes that there is something very wrong with Uncle Stewart.

I invite all of your readers to listen to my audio reading of Chapter One on my website, www.AnthonyFlacco.com Just click on the book cover shot of “The Road out Of Hell.”

E.I. The media had once said that if “The Road Out of Hell” had come out in 1966, it might have been the most controversial book in America. That’s because in 1966 was the year Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood came out. What can you say about that?

A.F. I think it’s probably a good idea to stay away from such observations, other than to say that I am always grateful for enthusiastic readers.

E.I. What do you find to be the hardest part of writing “The Road Out of Hell? How do you weave so much suspense and elements of information into your stories and yet you keep them so fast-paced?

A.F. I focused this story on the internal life of the boy Sanford Clark, tying each moment of the story to his personal experience of the event. Readers will note sometimes his reactions are visible to other characters who can see and react, but most often his reactions are things he keeps invisible, for his own safety. In that sense, he could be sitting alone in a chair in an empty room, but the description of his experience of that moment could be filled with stress and a chaos of tumbling emotions. This is because his condition is one of being continually presented with more than he can handle and of being violently overwhelmed by it all. He sometimes experiences the flow of time as “flying by,” even nothing is happening. The reader’s sense of speed comes from that. If they are engaged by the story as I would hope them to be, it will often feel as if it is moving fast only because it felt fast to him at the time it happened. This imparts the feel of motion without the need for chase scenes and gun battles.

E.I. Mr. Flacco, you are well known in the writing community as the International bestselling nonfiction author who won the True Crime category of the National Best Books 2009 Awards for your book “The Road Out Of Hell.” Do you ever feel pressure or insecure, or are you able to separate all that from your own creative process?

A.F. I believe you are referring to sort of doubt demon that causes a major chunk of writer’s block. The old 2:00 a.m. of the soul. I can tell you that in my experience, the most effective way to deal with the million subtle doubts that can ride in on neurosis, is to perform the healing with an axe. Ignore the countless complex knots and cut through entire bundles of strands with simple and uncomplicated will power. I found a Nike ad in a magazine that was so good I cut it out and framed it, and it now sits on my desk directly in my line of sight. It is a plain sheet of white paper with three handwritten lines, using three different types of handwriting, and the simple message is: “Just do it. Just do it. Just do it.” More often than not, the thing to do is shut up and write. Fix it later if you need to. Re-writing, if the Old Testament is to be believed, is of Divine origin; consider the Flood.

E.I. What would you tell those authors considering applying to an M.F.A. program? In your opinion how important is it for a writer to have a writing degree?

A.F. If you have a passion to write and to approach writing as close to the state of the art as possible, then you have simply got to get yourself into a situation conducive to that process. This means that you must be where your commitment to writing is understood and supported. You must be where there are positive examples to learn from and to inspire your planned growth. You need to have access to constructive feedback from other writers who share a level of dedication similar to yours.

So if an M.F.A. program is something that will provide those things to you, then chase it like a dog goes after a car’s rear tire. Get into that program. But the thing is, it has to be a situation that causes you to get the writing done. Avoid literary theory like a major carcinogen. It is little more than art appreciation via autopsy. You need to produce a regular stream of pages that are either competitive on their own or which serve the purpose of raising your skill level toward better writing in the future.

The degree itself is of little value unless you plan to teach at the high school or college level, in which case an MFA may serve you well if you have attended a reputable graduate program. But whether in the academic environment or the literary marketplace, the beautiful tyranny of the writing life is that the work is either done or it is not done. Everyone has reasons not to write and nobody has the time. The writers are the ones who find time anyway. The simplicity of that is as bracing as Witch Hazel on a fresh cut. So please go for a degree if—but only if—the process of qualifying for that degree helps you to actually get your writing done.

E.I. Mr. Flacco, Thank you for contributing to my blog. It has been a pleasure for me to get to know your work a little better. Would you like to end your interview with a writing tip or advice for young aspiring writers?

A.F. FELLOW WRITERS – Consider how many of today’s historical writings were done by people who had no idea their work would survive them. That said, how can you know that your writing won’t someday be among theirs? The world needs to hear from you whether it knows it or not. Write it down! Write it down! Write it down!

Mr. Anthony Flacco's photo by Goan Vindaloo

To find out more about Anthony Flacco, please visit his WEBSITE

To purchase his books please visit AMAZON and Barnes & Noble Books