One Girl One Novel One Interview

Monday I had an interview on a webTV talk show called CreateChatter.TV. Here’s a link to the recording if you missed the live show. I attended via skype and this was my first video interview.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7964260 

I was interviewed by CreateChatter.TV co-creator and host, Charissa Cowhart . She and co-creator Dannie have teamed up to bring us this online webcast that offers their guests an outlet to market their product, service, book – plus more – while creating a name for their brand. I don’t think they call themselves indies, but imo they have a great indie talk show.

And really indie can apply to any industry. It’s all about using technology to do for yourself that which you used to need a large company for. These two women decided they wanted to start a 30 min talk show. They had the kind of idea that used to depend on a television network, but now, with ustream and skype and a webcam, they can do it all themselves.

We live in an amazing world and technology has reopened the door to the American dream. And with the speed of technology and change these days, it’s hard to imagine what’s next. There was a time (really not that long ago) when an author needed to fill a room in order to talk to a group of people. But now, anything’s possible. I can be my own publisher. Dannie and Charissa can create their own talk show. And there are endless opportunities for people like us to find each other.

Many thanks to Charissa and Dannie for hosting my first video interview. It was a wonderful experience and a great reminder of what’s possible with a laptop and a camera. Check out their site http://www.createchatter.tv/ to find out how to follow CreateChatter.TV and its creators.

Now, back to event planning. Details coming soon re: my upcoming NYC book event. I’m super excited that the event is final and will be making a formal announcement soon. I’m coordinating with the venue publicist but for now you can save the date 7/17 – NYC.

ttyl

Wanda

One Girl One Novel Three Events

I’m very proud to announce three events in two very special places.  I’m taking a trip east in July during which I’ll be visiting my hometown of North Creek, NY and my former place of residence, Woodstock, NY.  Here are the details for those three events. I’m also working on an event in NYC, the other place I used to live, but the details of that event will be coming soon.

Wednesday July 21, 2010 – 6:30 pm

Town of Johnsburg Library

219 Main Street

North Creek, NY

 

 

Friday July 23, 2010 – 6:00 pm

Common Roots

276 Main Street

North Creek, NY

 

 

Saturday July 24, 2010 – 3:00 pm

VARGA Gallery

130 Tinker Street

Woodstock, NY

 

My plan was to do one event in my hometown, but somehow, one event turned into three and now it looks like I’ll be doing four events in eight days. I’ll be traveling up and down the Hudson River stopping in all the place I called home before moving to Los Angeles which makes this a very special trip.

At each venue, I will read from Sometimes That Happens With Chicken, talk a little about my experiences as an indie author, and answer questions from the audience. Before and after the reading, I will be available for book signing and there will be a limited quantity of books for sale at each event.  

Honestly, each of these venues has such deep meaning to me, I’m getting a little choked up trying to write this blog post.

The first two events, at the Town of Johnsburg Library and Common Roots, are both in my hometown which is nestled in the Adirondack mountains of northern New York State. The town of Johnsburg, which includes the hamlet of North creek, is small town on the banks of the Hudson river, in the middle of God’s country. And just to define small, according to the 2000 census the town had 2,450 people living on 204 square miles with a population density of 12 people per square mile.

I’m sure every author gets a special feeling when they visit their hometown for an event, but when you come from a place like my hometown it’s hard to describe the support such a community provides. Where I grew up I knew everyone. And everyone knew me. And for better or worse, everyone knew my parents. There was only one school for K-12 and I graduated with roughly the same 25 people I started kindergarten with. Half the town is related, and the other half has known each other forever, and whether it’s good news or bad news everyone pulls together to celebrate or support.

When I was growing up I couldn’t wait to leave, but now I feel endlessly fortunate for the seventeen years I spent in the Town of Johnsburg on the banks of the Hudson River. We’ll be celebrating Chicken twice in July and I’ll be the proudest Adirondack girl you’ve ever seen.

The third event I’m announcing here today is in Woodstock NY, another special small town I called home. I lived in Woodstock for five years and it was a very great time in my life. When I say I lived in Woodstock, people picture sex drugs and rock and roll, but what they don’t picture is a village of uber-talented people who all dance to their own tune. I was surrounded by amazing people for five years and those people got me through some really difficult times. And it was in Woodstock that I started writing Sometimes That Happens With Chicken. 

I didn’t move to Woodstock because it was a colony of artists, but I found myself in a little corner of the Catskill Mountains that simply exudes art. And in it I found my own artistic voice. I also found Christina Varga – the owner and artist behind the VARGA Gallery – my third very special event venue.

I had the good fortune of sharing a building with Christina and her gallery. I was already living in the building when Christina arrived with a bunch of paintings, a lot of glitter, a very loud voice and a small trail of paint that seemed to follow her everywhere. I saw her take a drab store front and turn it into a thriving art gallery and I’m sure I’ll get tears in my eyes when I see what she’s done since I left. The VARGA Gallery recently celebrated its 7^th birthday and despite the wretched economy, Christina has managed to expand the gallery. She is a tenacious business woman and a talented artist and I’m grateful our paths crossed so closely.

And when I’m reading at the VARGA Gallery, I’ll be sitting in the building where I wrote a large portion of Chicken. It will be a trip down memory lane and we’ll celebrate VARGA style that Saturday.

Now, I have get back to event planning, but first I would like to thank the people who have made these events possible. Those people include Caleb Eick and Susan Schmidt at the Town of Johnsburg Library; Christina Varga and Chloe Valentine at the VARGA Gallery; and Jake Hitchcock and Katy Smith at Common Roots. I would also like to thank my many Adirondack friends on facebook who have answered random questions and rooted for these upcoming events.

All of these events are free and open to the public so if you live in one of these two places, spread the word.

 ttyl

Wanda

Could The Pulitzer Go Indie?

Seriously. Could the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction go indie? That’s the question on my mind this week because Wednesday I sent four copies of Sometimes That Happens With Chicken to the Pulitzer Prize Board at Columbia University.

The Oscars have gone indie (more than once now) and Grammys go to indie artists left right and center these days. But The Pulitzer? Could the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction go to an indie novelist who runs her own publishing company from the comfort of her own living room with volunteer help and a shoestring budget?

Pulitzer Prizes are awarded each year in many categories. In the fiction category, the prize goes to a distinguished work of fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. In order to win, a work of fiction must be entered into the contest and of the entrants, three finalists (aka nominees) are selected. The number of finalists chosen each year varies slightly, but most years there are three. Only books published that year are eligible for entry and only one prize is awarded each year. And in the fiction world, there is no greater honor.

According to some of my fans, Sometimes That Happens With Chicken has Pulitzer Prize winning potential, but if you look at the list of publishers who owned the award winning titles between 2000 and 2009, you’ll start to doubt the Pulitzer Board’s indie potential.

• 2009 – Random House
• 2008 – Riverhead Books (a division of Penguin Group which is a division of Pearson PLC)
• 2007 – Alfred A. Knopf (a division of Random House)
• 2006 – Viking (owned by the Penguin Group which is a division of Pearson PLC)
• 2005 – Farrar (a division of Macmillan)
• 2004 – Amistad/ HarperCollins
• 2003 – Farrar (a division of Macmillan)
• 2002 – Alfred A. Knopf (a division of Random House)
• 2001 – Random House
• 2000 – Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin

But if you look at the 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner (and the finalists), you get the first hint that maybe, just maybe the Pulitzer could go indie…

The 2010 Pulitzer for Fiction was awarded this past April, and it went – surprisingly – to a “small book” from a “tiny publisher.” The book is called Tinkers by Paul Harding and according to what I’ve read, it was rejected by 20 publishers before it was published by a tiny university press called Bellevue Literary Press.

Let me add some perspective to my repeated use of the word tiny. Bellevue Literary Press is so tiny, it doesn’t even have its own wikipedia page! You can only read about them on the wiki page of their sister organization, the Bellevue Literary Review – a literary journal that operates out of Bellevue Hospital and is published by the Department of Medicine at New York University.

And among Tinkers in the finalists was Love in Infant Monkeys by Lydia Millet put out by Soft Skull Press. The Huffington Post called Soft Skull Press, “The literary version of a punk rock label,” so you’d think, maybe…just maybe…the Pulitzer Prize is more about quality than conglomerates.

As I explained my use of the word tiny, I must similarly point out what big, shocking news it was when Tinkers won. The headlines said things like:

• The Surprise Pulitzer Winner
• Move Over Random House!
• How A Tiny Press Published a Pulitzer
• Pulitzer Prize goes to a little book from a little publisher
• Tinkers by Paul Harding: The One That Got Away

And they haven’t stopped talking about it! Tinkers, and Paul Harding, and the Pulitzer Prize Board at Columbia University rocked the book world something fierce with the 2010 Pulitzer for Fiction.

And that got me thinking…Maybe the Pulitzer does have indie potential…

My favorite headline was “Move Over Random House!” but of course, Random House didn’t move over, they swooped right in and won a 7-publisher bidding war for the UK rights to Tinkers and they will be publishing Paul Harding’s second novel even though, most likely, at least one of Harding’s 20 rejection letters came from some division of Random House.

So maybe, just maybe, the Pulitzer Prize Board and its nominating jurors are ready for an indie novel by an indie author…I doubt it, but I suppose crazier things have happened. Since my entry is already in, there’s nothing left to do now except wait until April 2011 when they announce the winners and finalists in all categories.

That’s ten months away and like I said, I’m doubtful, but it puts a whole new spin on things when your horse is in the proverbial race.

In this case, I had to put on my publisher hat and make a serious decision. As a publisher, it’s my job to enter titles into the appropriate literary contests. And when I wear only my publisher hat, I think it’s not impossible. My publishing company put out a novel that has already been compared to Hemingway, Salinger, Hitchcock and Burroughs. One reviewer said, “It blazes beyond what we have come to expect from modern fiction and stands alone as a brilliant and unique masterpiece.”

If I was the owner of a small literary press, and just a publisher, anyone would agree that it would be my job and responsibility to send that novel to the Pulitzer Board. But in reality the hats I wear are a metaphor and I’m not just a publisher.

I’m an indie author and most likely that will count against me in some way when the nominating jurors get to Chicken. I doubt they receive many self-published novels and for all I know it’s a big joke around the office when they do.

Either way, Sometimes That Happens With Chicken has been entered and this year, if it wanted to, the Pulitzer could go indie.

ttyl

Wanda

Thanks To Pens With Cojones

Check out my latest interview on the blog Pens With Cojones: Writing, Publishing And Living With Cojones.

http://www.penswithcojones.com/2010/06/sometimes-that-happens-with-chicken.html 

I was honored when blogger Mayowa reached out to see if I was up for an interview and I was impressed by the list of questions he sent. He asked great questions both about Chicken and about my indie publishing style. He challenged me several times by forcing me to be blog-concise on topics that I could go on and on about. And Mayowa gave me an opportunity to weigh in on the recently and frequently discussed topic of the current state of literary fiction.

What I wasn’t expecting, was his amazing introduction both of me and Sometimes That Happens With Chicken. It’s amazing to see real readers (and writers) excited about Chicken and about indie publishing. And with his wonderful imagery Mayowa gave us a taste of his own writing prowess. 

It’s been a pleasure collaborating on this interview and with Mayowa in general. We’ve had a pretty active interchange both about writing and about indie publishing since we started working on this interview and it’s very satisfying to share my experiences with other writers.  While some people are possessive of knowledge they have worked hard to obtain, I’m more than happy to share my endless research with others and hopefully save them a little time.

Thanks again Mayowa! There’s a theory that all an artist needs is 1000 true fans and I feel like I just got one fan closer.

ttyl

Wanda

One Girl’s First Interview

This week I had the pleasure of my first live interview. I was a call-in guest on Apocalypse VARGA – Woodstock’s grooviest arts, culture and media variety show. Hosted by gallery owner Christina Varga and artist Chloe Valentine, Apocalypse VARGA airs live online every Wednesday at 10pm EST from the Varga Gallery in renowned Woodstock, NY.

http://www.vargagallery.com/ApocalypseVARGA.htm

I called Woodstock home for five years and wrote a good portion of Sometimes That Happens With Chicken while I was living there. Christina Varga was a particularly well suited interviewer in this case because we were neighbors and she has witnessed my writing process up close and personal. She asked some great questions about my research process which at times includes very large outlines that cover entire walls.

We discussed how difficult it is to talk about a Chicken without giving away the surprise and I had an opportunity to tell Christina and Chloe’s viewers why I decided to take the indie path instead of the more oft walked path of traditional publishing. I shared the hour with TJay a wonderful musical guest who performed live on the show. TJay is an up and coming artist from Westchester, NY who blends blues, jazz, funk and rock into a truly unique sound.

I felt like I was back home in Woodstock even though I was attending the show over the phone. And there’s no greater pleasure than seeing an amazing artist thrive in today’s economy. The Varga Gallery recently celebrated it’s 7th anniversary and it hasn’t just stayed open – it’s grown. Christina Varga and the gallery she runs are at the heart of Woodstock which has always been an artists’ community. She’s an artist and a gallery owner and a generally passionate person who is always rallying the people around her for some cause or another.

I’m looking forward to visiting the Varga Gallery in person this summer where I’ll be doing a reading and book signing. If you’re ever in the Catskills, don’t miss the Varga Gallery even if you have to go out of your way to visit. Between Christina’s own work and the work of the amazing artists she digs up (like Chloe Valentine) the Varga Gallery never disappoints. And if you can’t get there in person, check it out online.

http://www.vargagallery.com/ 

Unfortunately, episodes of Apocalypse VARGA are not archived online but I have another interview coming up at the end of the month. I’ll be interviewed on CreateChatter TV live via Skype and will keep everyone posted on the details as the date gets closer.

Thanks again to Christina and Chloe! Now, I have to get back to event planning and finish my bio for the Pulitzer Prize entry form. More on that later…

ttyl

Wanda