TRAMBLINGS. . .

Great interview with GEORGE PELECANOS. Completely agree with his take on the N-word in Tarantino films, particularly in PULP FICTION. The Crown Prince has always maintained that the JULES WINNFIELD character, as portrayed by SAMUEL L. JACKSON, would've busted somebody in the mouth for such careless usage. THE NIGHT GARDENER is the latest from PELECANOS. Thanks to SARAH for the link.

Nikki Finke has an interesting take on NINA JACOBSON'S FIRING over at Disney. FINKE references DAWN STEEL, a producer I worked for back in the 90s. Here's a PICTURE of Steel on the cover of her book, THEY CAN KILL YOU, BUT THEY CAN'T EAT YOU. I'd read the book before I moved to Los Angeles, I knew Steel's reputation, but it was still intimidating to meet her in person. IS THAT A GUN IN YOUR POCKET: WOMEN'S EXPERIENCE OF POWER IN HOLLYWOOD continues where Steel's book leaves off. It even includes her final years when she battled a brain tumor. Both are interesting reads.

Just got back from a hellacious trip to the Bay Area. The power blew in my mom's town and it was 101 degrees INSIDE the house. We were in a blackout from 4p.m. Saturday afternoon until 7 a.m. Sunday morning. I think I might have cried. Kobe was miserable but we all made it through. The drive home along highway 5 included three raging roadside fires and a blaze in the grapevine. I have never been so excited to see my own four walls in my life. Despite all the drama, I was able to get some writing done and even more editing. The book is changing once again but it feels more full-bodied and honest this time around. We shall see.

I also managed to read two new books while on the six hour trip. On the way up, THE BAD BOY'S WIFE by KAREN SHEPARD kept my attention from Los Angeles to Berkeley. Just loved it. The publisher did her no favors with that title (or the cover) but I urge you to look past both. Years ago, Shepard published one of my favorite SHORT STORIES in the Atlantic Monthly but this is the first novel I've read by this author. I just put in a request for DON'T I KNOW YOU and AN EMPIRE OF WOMEN at my local library.

On the way back, I jumped into KING OF LIES by JOHN HART. Southern murder mystery in the vein of John Grisham and Greg Iles. Perfect summer book. PAT CONROY blurbed KING OF LIES as well as BACK TO WANDO PASSO by DAVID PAYNE Payne wrote EARLY FROM THE DANCE which I've read twice. During my years at the WILLIAM MORRIS AGENCY, there was a huge push to get that book turned into a film but nothing ever came of it. Anyway, I just cracked open BACK TO WANDO PASSO. Here's an EXCERPT to help you pass the time.

In other news, the Author Q&A will resume in a couple weeks. From here on out, I'll post them once or twice a month. We still have some great folks coming up but with two deadlines the editing and formatting take up too much of my time.

Also, here are a couple cool new websites to add to your BLOGLINES.

INSIDE A BLACK APPLE is the blog of an artist that I found on another site. Her work is perfect for my nieces and the prices are beyond reasonable. I bought THIS for the 11-year-old aspiring writer in my family. And THIS for one of my best friends, my phone buddy.

EATING OUT. JAY MCINERNEY'S food blog for HOUSE AND GARDEN magazine.

I READ A SHORT STORY TODAY is the blog of a fella that reads a new short story every single day. Gotta love that.

And SCRIPT RADAR which tracks Hollywood script sales.

Lastly, my favorite mystery writer, JAMES LEE BURKE, has a new title, PEGASUS DESCENDING out this month. And GCC Author JENNIFER LYNN BARNES is on tour with her young adult novel, GOLDEN. She blogs HERE.

Until next time. . .

TRAMBLINGS. . .

Made the horrible mistake of wandering into a pet adoption website. Fell in love with THIS GUY. Don't look unless you have a heart made of stone. I emailed to find out more about his broken leg. Haven't heard back. But that face, are you kidding me? The Crown Prince refuses to look at the picture because he's a bigger softie than me so I might resort to guerilla tactics. You know, like using Gavin's face as the screen saver on his laptop. Or maybe I'll feature a different rescue dog on this blog every week. And if any of you guys go forward and adopt, email and let me know. I'll post the details once I hear back from the adoption agency about Gavin's leg. Don't you love that name?

Anyway, just finished reading CATHI HANAUER'S new novel, SWEET RUIN. Hanauer was also editor of the essay collection, THE BITCH IN THE HOUSE. Both were great reads. I've already mentioned Cammie McGovern's EYE CONTACT but I am really enjoying the book. Any actress worth their salt should snap this one up and find themselves a good director.

If you've read this blog before you know I am in the habit of waiting until the dust clears to read a popular book. I like to give the author, and the book, a fair chance so if a book arrives on the scene with too much thunder and lightning I wait a couple months, sometimes years, before I crack it open. All that to say that I finally have THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY in my hot little hands. Chabon used "omniviellant" in a sentence which is a kick-ass SCRABBLE word. Speaking of Scrabble (to which I am addicted) I just found a club in my neighborhood that plays in a local park on Wednesday nights. Might be my new hangout since NO ONE will ever play with me. Last year, on the writers retreat to Joshua Tree, I got in a couple good games when the flash flood trapped us on the property but that was the last time.

A recent viewing of CAPOTE starring Phillip SEYMOUR HOFFMAN (lesser actors should run and hide when he's on screen with them) prompted me to order CAPOTE by Gerald Clarke. Big book that I may save for the next road trip. Alright, now I go back to writing, deadlines, searching for chairs.

UPDATE: While typing up this post I got an email from DOGS IN HEAVEN informing me that Gavin got adopted this afternoon. That is great news! I knew he was too cute and special to remain homeless. The Crown Prince is off the hook for now. For. Now.

Until next time. . .

TRAMBLINGS. . .

Thanks to DARCEY STEINKE for joining me last week. This week, GCC Author LAUREN BARNHOLDT is on tour promoting her latest novel, REALITY CHICK. You can read an excerpt HERE and track Lauren on her BLOG.

In other news, back in the trenches on the writing project. Got a major note (a good one) from the Crown Prince over the weekend that I am going to address right away. Can't believe I missed it but I did. I did a tremendous amount of research for both THE DYING GROUND and THE LAST KING, less so for this project which means I am operating outside my comfort zone. There is something about detail that makes me feel comfortable and confident when I sit down to write.

Speaking of sitting down, I am now on an obsessive hunt for a desk chair. Back in February I bought a big-ass TABLE - a dining table - to use as a desk because I like to stretch out my papers, note pads and books. I found my table on CRAIGSLIST for $25.00 which made me feel like I was on a special episode of ANTIQUES ROAD SHOW. I also got THIS BABY for $20 which made me feel like I'd hit the lotto. I cannot recommend craigslist enough when you're searching while on a budget. I've only gone over $50 once and it's the only purchase that I regret. I am actually posting it tonight to try and sell it. Anyway, I'm done with my search except for that perfect, elusive chair that exists in my head and nowhere else. I want something tall, elegant and comfortable because the chairs I have now are just too short. I work off a laptop so I have a little flexibility but now I'm at the stage where I need to spread out and make a mess. Anybody selling anything cool?

In the meantime, check out ON MY DESK. It's a photo blog where Artists, Illustrators, Designers and Creative Folk share what's on their desks. It's like looking into someone's mind. I'll post before and after pictures of mine as soon as I locate that damn chair. Until then, if you're a writer, aspiring writer, creative soul, send me a picture of your workspace and I'll post it on the blog.

Until next time. . .

TRAMBLINGS. . .

Greetings. Our guest author today is DARCEY STEINKE and I cannot thank her enough for being here. Enjoy!


1) When you wrote SUICIDE BLONDE, UP THROUGH THE WATER and JESUS SAVES what did you know for sure about each book?

With each of my books I feel a sort of emotional/atmospheric particle before I start. It's real to me, lucid and dynamic but also vague. It's a question or a sort of mystery, albeit a vivid one and I try and lean into that. I want to evoke paradox in my books through story. That's really all I have to go on at first. A feeling of wanting to communicate a certain tone, a particular way of being human.

UP THROUGH THE WATER was my first book and that came out of a sequence of stories about OCRACOKE ISLAND, a place I had worked summers when I was in college. Ocracoke had a sort of startling beauty for me. I worked the breakfast shift and so I would rise at 4 a.m. - in the dark - and ride my bike, this old red Schwinn with a wicker basket, around Silver Lake inlet to the restaurant. The people I worked with fascinated me. An old junkie was the prep cook and the chef, during the school year, was a Latin teacher. The other waitresses were all Coast Guard wives. A middle aged lady came in the morning to make the dinner deserts, Key Lime Pie and this thing she called THE FLOATING ISLAND, which was a piece of meringue floating in a raspberry sauce. She was probably 40, which seemed very old to me at the time, but she was extremely, electrically beautiful and sexy. My interest in her as well as life on Ocracoke was the beginning of that first book.

SUICIDE BLONDE, which is set in San Francisco, was my attempt to create that city anew for my own narrative purposes. When I lived there I was fascinated with Chinatown and some of the seedier bars around the TENDERLOIN. San Francisco is so physically beautiful, the Bogainvillia and all the flowers and the hills. I became fascinated with how that beauty manifested in a sort of androgeny. That was the first place I had seen drag queens on a daily basis. There too I saw Drag Kings, I remember seeing what I thought first were straight looking business men and then realizing they were women! It was fantastic for me. Very freeing. But also scary. SUICIDE BLONDE came out of wanting to communicate the way the city, with the fog rolling in at dinner time and the neon hotel signs and all the variety of human creatures, seemed both exciting and frightening to me.

In JESUS SAVES I was most interested in language and the talking animals that appear at the end of the book out of one of the characters imagination. Though none of my books are really what you would call realism in a straight forward way, I wanted JESUS SAVES to be able to go to other places besides the material plane, to sort of be able to fly off. One of the problems with realism is that it's only really interesting when the character is in extreme conflict, emotionally. Insanity is the best really for realism, as the writer feels they can finally cast off the material world and write lyrically or symbolically.

Also the summer I started the book two girls went missing, POLLY KLASS and another whose name I can not recall. But I was drawn to the cuteness of the imagery around the girls, the teddy bears and pink bunnies the rainbows and ponies and then the darkness of what happened to them. In JESUS SAVES, I got interested in the Mega church movement and suburban sprawl. It's my darkest book, the one most like parable.

2) To borrow a question from NOVEL IDEAS: CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS SHARE THE CREATIVE PROCESS, how did MILK "gather" for you? What was the seed of that project and how did you pull it all together?

I was working on a historical novel about the earlier SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH, and I had gotten stalled out. The leader of the cult which were the first seeds of the church, Father Miller, is my great-great grandfather. He predicted that in 1842 Christ would come down in the flesh. I did a lot of research but I could not get a feel for him, the extremity of his belief kept tripping me up. I decided to put that book away for awhile and work on what I thought was going to be an erotic novel. As it turned out MILK is as much about God as it is about sex, but this was not what I intended. I wanted to write lyric sex scenes but they kept taking on a sort of mystical feel. During the years of writing MILK, I had a growing interest in religion and divinity and this manifested as the book gathered.

3) Is there a single book that has influenced you more then others?

The Bible. My father is a minister. My grandfather was a minister and all my uncles are ministers. Even my father's two sisters married men who became ministers. I grew up in church and many of my first memories have to do with being both fascinated and confused by the language of the Bible. The New Testament was a puzzle and a delight for me with all the odd trippy things Jesus would say about your mother not being your mother and a rich man going through the eye of a needle. I love that the Bible is written in a very simple way, but is also so moving. It almost feels like its been broken up and put back together again. It is always - or the best parts anyway - held outside finite meaning. It seems to not know itself. Everyone talks about the Bible being definitive but I find the opposite, I find it like all religious text, held away from complete meaning. It is like life itself in that way.

4) Do your dreams influence your writing? If so, how?

I have been thinking about this lately, not that I have any direct examples. No image from a dream has gone into my work of late. I do think memory and dreams are connected though, and I use my memory, as all writers do at every moment. Not so much actual events as the tone and mood of events. I'll remember say sleeping on a pile of coats at a party that my parents went to when I was a child and I will sort of use that very dream like memory in something I am writing. I think there should be more parts of my books that aren't related directly to the plot, more details and surreal imagery. I think in narrative, meaning it should always be nuanced and never direct, more like it is in dreams and less like it is in say a television show. So I am all for cultivating dream influence.

5) Are you ever surprised by your books? Your characters?

Not one of my books has turned out anything near like I at first anticipated. I will usually have a very extreme idea of what I want to do. I will say to myself, sort of naively, I am going to write a book about Island Life (my first book) or I am going to write an erotic novel (my most recent) and the book I write is always so much more nuanced and more complicated then what I set out to do. This is a gift. This is where other realms come in, call it physiological or spiritual. I think in the writing of a book if you are open to what comes, this is where art is made, as its sort of co-created, you and the universe, or you and a part of you that is a stranger. I am not at all sure how it works, but I am always surprised by both the process and the final result.

6) What other artistic mediums influence your writing?

There was a period after I had my daughter Abbie, who is now ten, that I got very interested in visual art. I would take her, when she was a baby to galleries in NYC. It was a thing we both liked to do and I became fascinated with much of the art I saw during this time. Rita Akerman and the photographer GREGORY CREWDSON, both had a strong effect on me. I realized what I was doing prose wise was more like visual art, I was interested in the image and also how images related to one another. I am much more interested, as a writer, in image and detail then I am in character development and plot. So I saw things during this time that I identified with.

Having said this I am never really sure about the idea of influence. I think one does not always have much control over what one is influenced by. You can go around saying that your main literary influence is PROUST, but really it may be the copy of LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR, or FEAR OF FLYING that you found as a child on your father's nightstand. I think the things that move you are the things that influence you and it's hard to pick these.

7) Are their stories that you, or your family, have deemed off-limits?

This is a complicated question for me. I feel a writer writes out of their experience and so no part of that should be forbidden. You need to tell your story, it's in a writers very destiny to do so. But having said this I know I am very careful to be fair. In my new book, EASTER EVERYWHERE, I write about my daughter. But I have to say I would not write about her in any way that made her uncomfortable. I would keep private things private. It's a stewardship issue with her.

8) Do you have a writing ritual?

I have an office in the attic of my little house in Brooklyn. I have a thrift store lamp with a very pretty fabric shade. I think there are magnolias on it! And fringe! I have a desk, the same desk I wrote SUICIDE BLONDE on, I have had it for awhile. And I like to work best in the morning. I usually warm up by writing in my journal or writing a letter. I love to write paper letters, though usually I do not have time to do so. So I write a bit and then go at whatever I am working on. I feel very drawn to my work, I fight this off at times, but I feel I am nearly always leaning toward my desk.

9) Have you read anything lately that just knocked your socks off?

I have read several good books lately. I read FAT GIRL by JUDITH MOORE in one sitting on an airplane. It's an angry moving book, very very well written. I have been reading alot of memoirs and I have to say so many of them are not well written and not well put together. They are more reportage then art and so many are sort of canned emotionally. Others that have moved and amazed me though. . . BORROWED FINERY by PAULA FOX. The book is poetic and the tone, so hard to get in non-fiction, is perfect. I loved it. Right at the moment I am reading A FAN'S NOTES by FREDERICK EXLEY and I am amazed by the prose and the ideas about life in America. All these are raw, true books as good as any novel.

10) Name a character in your writing that is closest to you. How?

Many of my characters have been shades of myself. Jesse from SUICIDE BLONDE and Ginger from JESUS SAVES. I think Walter from Milk is for me the character I feel closest too right now. I feel his suffering and messedupness as very familiar. His longing for God and his melancholy. I feel close to him in these things.

# # # # #

The MISSISSIPPI WRITERS AND MUSICIAN PROJECT OF STARKVILLE HIGH SCHOOL.

KEXP features Darcey Steinke.

IN CONVERSATION, Darcey Steinke and RICK MOODY.

TRAMBLINGS. . .

Greetings, beautiful people. Big thanks to EMILY RABOTEAU for joining us last week. I loved her thoughtful answers.

I am happy to report that the archives have finally been fixed by BLOGGER. Now you can access all of the Q&A's I've done so far. Take a look, browse for awhile, check out what writers like ELIZABETH GILBERT, PEARL CLEAGE, GARY PHILLIPS, TERRILL LEE LANKFORD, MARITA GOLDEN, and T. GREENWOOD had to say. There are many more but I wanted to give you just enough to whet your appetite.

JOSHILYN JACKSON one of the first authors to participate in the Q&A has a new book out. BETWEEN GEORGIA is already a Number One Book Sense pick. Joshilyn blogs about touring at FASTER THAN KUDZU, and you can read an excerpt HERE. If you guys remember, Joshilyn's first novel, GODS IN ALABAMA opened with that great line, "There are Gods in Alabama: Jack Daniel's, high school quarterbacks, trucks, big tits and also Jesus."

Moving on. Years ago, while writing THE DYING GROUND, I spent months researching how drug-related crime transformed the Bay Area (specifically Oakland) in the late 80s and early 90s. One name came up again and again whether in the newspaper articles I read in the library, or in the personal stories told to me by people who'd grown up in and around the area. At one point, I even had this man make an appearance in the book but I took the scene out for many reasons. It's hard to explain, from a distance of twenty odd years, how mesmerized, terrified, enamored folks were with his exploits. Some even went so far as to wear T-shirts that shouted their devotion to him. It was wild. Anyway, imagine my surprise when I received an email from an associate of this man. I knew him only through larger-than-life stories and by a nickname that still gets Bay Area folks talking and telling stories. The email subject line included his real name so it took me a moment to put it all together. I called the Crown Prince and asked him to confirm the guy's real name. He did and then I read the email. Dead silence on the other end then a barrage of stories. I got another call that evening from a close friend (the real-life model for the Holly character in THE DYING GROUND and THE LAST KING) and he was curious about it as well.

Long story short, according to the person writing on his behalf (he's been incarcerated for the past twenty years) he'd read both my novels and thought that I'd accurately captured the what/why/when and how of that time period, the motivation behind some of the action and the psychology of poverty in the harsher Oakland neighborhoods. It was flattering, to tell you the truth, especially coming from someone who'd lived the life I'd written about. I'll keep you posted but the email exchange was very, very interesting. Who knew a lil' ole gal from Alameda could make a man who struck fear in many hearts stand up and take notice. Life takes strange turns, doesn't it?

In other news, I got a package from a group of Minnesota high school students who'd read THE DYING GROUND as a class assignment. Their letters made me cry. Seriously. They were so heartfelt and personal that I just got overwhelmed. A few of the kids wrote to tell me that they were so excited to find out about the sequel to THE DYING GROUND that they threw a fundraiser/rummage sale in order to raise the money to buy THE LAST KING. Felt like Christmas.

In the meantime, check out this ride-or-die COVER for the mass market paperback edition of THE DYING GROUND. It goes on sale September 26th at the very affordable price of $6.99. I am thrilled that we're finally moving into the Mass Market Paperback arena. That cracks a whole new audience because they're portable, cheap and readers pass them along. Tell me what you think.

Oh, and before I forget, one of my reps called me Saturday afternoon to say that she loved the project I finished last week. Remember that I made my deadline which is no small thing for me. (Shout it from the rooftops). When I saw the Caller I.D. I knew it was good news. In Hollywoodland, agents/managers/lawyers NEVER make weekend calls unless it's good news. Or "special" news as the Crown Prince said. His response, and the response of three other friends, was "Damn, a Saturday call. Really." It was nice that she was so excited about the project because if you go back in the archives you'll read that she read my ass the riot act back in April. I got dressed down like I was a snotty-nosed, breast-fed little punk. The worst thing about it all was that I deserved it. I melted down, of course, but even in the middle of that special little freak out I couldn't even lie to myself about the fact that she'd told the truth. I was being lazy, I was flip about my deadlines, etc. etc. I had the vapors for one afternoon and then I got down to business. So, it felt good to hear her enthusiasm but the more sobering fact is that I recognize that it needs WAY more work than she thinks. Back to work for me and on to the next deadline, August 31st, which is the book deadline. Send good thoughts.

Finally, all is well in the world, PROJECT RUNWAY is back on the air. Enjoy.

Until next time. . .

TRAMBLINGS. . .

Hope you all had a nice week. We survived FOURTH OF JULY, or the Assault on Tramble House, as I like to call it. Our neighborhood sounded like a war zone. The dog was a puddle of nerves, so much so that he slept with me and the Crown Prince. Neither one of us are what one would call "petite" and Kobe is a solid seventy pounds. But, drum roll-please, I MADE MY DEADLINE. I climbed in bed at 7:45 a.m. after working straight through the night and it felt good to hit my mark. I'll keep you posted.

Now, on to the good stuff. EMILY RABOTEAU, author of THE PROFESSOR'S DAUGHTER, is our guest today and I cannot tell you how much I admire this woman as a person and a writer. Enjoy!


1) To borrow a question from NOVEL IDEAS: CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS SHARE THE CREATIVE PROCESS, how did BERNIE AND ME - the short story that introduced the characters in THE PROFESSOR'S DAUGHTER "gather" for you? What was the seed of that story and how did you pull it all together?

BERNIE & ME was the first story I wrote in graduate school. I was taking a workshop with the novelist, PAULE MARSHALL. The story drew a lot from my own experience growing up as a person of mixed race. I wanted to write about the burden and blessing of my perspective and I wanted to write the thing that wasn't there for me to read at the time I was struggling with issues of identity. At the heart of the story is the love the main character has for her older brother, with whom she feels a connection she doesn't feel with anyone else. In fact, her identity is completely wrapped up in him. He suffers a freak accident and by the end of the story she is left alone to come into herself. The ending of that story felt like a beginning to me in that she is left ripe to come of age, but I didn't really want to expand it into a novel (although Paule Marshall suggested I do just that). I wasn't sure I wanted to write so nakedly about myself. But I needed to write it. In some ways, writing this book was my own coming of age. My own public articulation of self. I felt invisible beforehand, you see.

2) What is a question that you've never been asked in interviews that you always wanted to answer in regard to your writing?

"Why do you write?" I recently heard WALTER MOSLEY say at a reading that he writes because he wants to be a writer. He likes the lifestyle. He has a persona - the trenchcoat, the hat. According to Mosley, the people who write because they have something to say are in trouble, because what happens after they've said it? They might become bankrupt of ideas. I panicked when he said that because I thought momentarily I might be in that camp. Then I thought hard about the matter. There are probably as many different reasons why people write as there are writers. Some people write to be seen. Some people write to be famous. Some people write because they find it fun. I think I write to figure out things I don't understand. To grow myself through problems. This means I am writing for the same reason I dream.

3) Is there a single book that has influenced you more than others?

When I was writing THE PROFESSOR'S DAUGHTER, W.G. SEBALD'S book, THE EMIGRANTS, had a big impact. He writes beautifully about the crippling effects of the Holocaust on the generations that follow. I wanted to do something similar in relation to a lynching, but I didn't want to write directly about the event because I knew I'd be diminishing its horror. So I went at it sideways, like he did, by describing the ripples in the pond, rather than the stone that created the ripples. I've been resistant about being called a black writer, because that is not all I am. I mean to say I am a writer and that my book is about more than race. But I think there is something common to a lot of writing by black folks, which is the testimonial impulse to write about the effects of history upon the present moment, a history which is largely ignored, or as TONI MORRISON says, about which we have a kind of "national amnesia."

4) Did becoming a published author turn you into a different kind of reader? How so?

I wouldn't say that publishing changed the way I read, but I would say that writing has. I am very conscious now about craft. This is also because I teach writing and I have to be articulate about the writing process. I coach my students to do what I do, which is to pin down what and how the author has pulled off a successful effect in an impressive piece of fiction and then to steal that effect. Not to plagiarize, obviously, but to mimic. For example, I just read CHRIS ABANI'S beautiful new novella, BECOMING ABIGAIL. It impressed me. I read it in one sitting. I couldn't put it down. It made me cry. It educated me. I thought, how did Chris do that? I realized he had focused exclusively on one narrative. He wasn't telling a story from multiple perspectives. Just one - Abigail's. This made the book, which was short, move like a bullet instead of a web. In terms of structure, he alternated chapters between Abigail's recent past in Nigeria, and her present, in London, where she has been enslaved in the sex trade. This made me understand the course of events. There was a very clear sequence, a tragic turning point, mounting tension and conflict, a liberating turning point. The language was poetic. Words and phrases were repeated like motifs in music. This made the book musical. I could go on, but I won't. What's important is that when I put it down I thought, I can do something similar. I can improvise on this theme. Being able to see the strings for what they are doesn't make the experience of reading any less magical for me. It makes me want to work harder on creating magic tricks of my own.

5) Do your dreams influence your writing? If so, how?

Yes. I have a very charged relationship to sleep and I take a lot of naps. I dream in narrative. There is a voice-over in my dreams. This voice is telling the story as the images spool out. For example, the opening of my short story, "KAVITA THROUGH GLASS," (included in BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2003 came to me in a dream. "Now that he had won a lifetime supply of colored glass, Hassan Hagihossein felt he could endure the vagaries of Ramadan."

Don't ask me where that came from. But I wrote it down with the image of colored glass in my mind and went from there. I also keep a dream journal. I notice that certain images and settings come to me again and again and again. Bakeries. Traffic cones. The ocean. I try to use these in my writing because I know they have some significance to my subconscious mind. And the extreme emotion of dreams - jealousy, bliss, terror, anxiety, confusion - that's the interesting stuff. That's where story resides.

6) What other artistic mediums influence your writing? Music? Film? Art?

I write to jazz. It helps free up my thoughts. In fact, I have a hard time writing without listening to jazz. My favorite artist is THELONIOUS MONK.

Thelonius Monk
Visitor from outerspace
Piano revolving

That's a HAIKU I wrote about him. It's obvious from his playing that he experienced time and space in a unique and bizarre fashion.

7) Talk about the differences in process when you craft a short story versus a novel.

Lately I have been thinking that I need to approach writing novels the same way that I approach writing short stories. My first novel was really assembled out of short stories, like a quilt. It could just as easily have been marketed as a book of linked stories but the publishing industry believes novels sell better, so it was marketed as a novel. It had myriad perspectives and points of views, it skipped around in time and place. I had a few books in mind as I was putting mine together in this way - LOVE MEDICINE, GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN, THE SOUND AND THE FURY. Those books are all comprised of linked stories. But I think this is a common approach for the novice. When we are new at this craft we don't trust yet that one narrative line can hold the reader's attention. We don't have the confidence yet to focus on one story. We also want to show all of our magic tricks at once, perhaps to make a big broad sweeping splash. Maybe we bite off more than we can chew.

I am proud of THE PROFESSOR'S DAUGHTER. It was the best book I could write at the time that I wrote it, and I was very young when I wrote it. But I recognize now that it's an uneven mess. It's six novels in one. I knew next to nothing about plot and the only reason the book hangs together at all is because I had a good editor. The novel I'm working on right now is also a mess. But I'm trying to keep it simple. I don't mean lacking in depth, obviously, just in possession of a clear narrative arc. Writing a children's book helped me with this process. I spent a year and a half writing THE BIRD WHO SWALLOWED THE MOON, a picture book for 5-7 year-olds.

There is no room to hide behind lovely descriptive language in a book for children. They will squirm right out of your lap if you don't capture their attention. The conflict must be obvious and lead to action. The action must be swift and precise. This was hard for me to execute because I love language so much. I could write fifty beautiful pages about an ashtray but who would that serve? What I am driving at is that in a short story, the story is paramount. It should be so in a novel as well. Plot matters.

8) GRACE PALEY said, "Write what you know about what you don’t know." Have you ever applied that? Give an example.

She also said that dying was an art SYLVIA PLATH new absolutely nothing about. Which I think is true. Perhaps I've applied her advice in this way: I don't write from a place of wisdom or understanding, but from a place of questioning and compassion. For example, THE PROFESSOR'S DAUGHTER was born out of my desire to understand my father, who had been something of a mystery to me, and to forgive him for being emotionally absent. I turned my father into a little boy. I imagined what it might have been like to grow up in Mississippi under JIM CROW in the 1950s. Soon I stopped thinking of this character as my father. I started thinking of him as my son. Someone I wanted to protect. Then, something magical happened. He became his own character. He had his own life, which was beyond me.

I was writing a chapter in which he was being severely abused at the white school he'd been sent to integrate. The little white boys kept beating him up. They were merciless. And after awhile he told me, I don't want to be pitied. I'm not a victim. At which point he began to manipulate his situation to empower himself. I was barely writing. He was telling me what to write. He was that real.

9) Have you ever been "given" a story by another writer? Have you ever given one away?

Not consciously, no. But I take notes all the time. When people tell interesting stories, I write down details, expressions, snatches of dialogue. My journal is full of things like: "little girl with cracker crumbs in her pockets" and "In my days of hedonism I woke up on my fire escape covered in white ash without knowing how I got there."

10) Do you have a writing ritual? If so, tell us about that.

I try to write for at least three hours every day. I find I can't focus longer than three hours, though. On a very good day I do two three-hour stints with a break in between. I'll take a walk, meet a friend for lunch, take a nap, cook, quilt, see a movie or correct student work. On an amazing day I write for three three-hour stints, for a total of nine hours. Those days are rare. Usually they only transpire at an ARTISTS COLONY. I've done residencies at a few of these. They're a blessing. I'm able to be ten times more productive because there are absolutely no distractions. But if I'm working on something emotionally difficult then a nine-hour writing day, even with naps, is tough.

11) Have you read anything lately, specifically fiction, that just knocked your socks off? Share with us and give us the name of a writer whom you think has been ignored.

Folks should pay more attention to PERCIVAL EVERETT.

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THE EYE OF HORUS, a Raboteau short story published in STORYQUARTERLY.

An EXCERPT from THE PROFESSOR'S DAUGHTER.

Until next time. . .

TRAMBLINGS. . .

Greetings. Coming up for air on my deadline. I have to turn the pages in tomorrow morning. I've gone to bed at six a.m. for the past week which reminds me of being in college. I am back in Los Angeles melting in the stifling July heat. The new place is an oven. I'll have to fix that as soon as possible. And this neighborhood is way too fond of fireworks which means poor Kobe is a wreck. If he were human it would be the equivalent of a man cowering in the corner, babbling to himself and pulling out his own hair. It has been awful to witness an animal basically have a nervous breakdown. I've always hated fireworks but, now, I detest them. He doesn't seem to be getting any relief and vets are split down the middle on whether or not to medicate to help the anxiety. What's a mama to do? The Crown Prince and I just sit patiently on the floor with him and talk soft. His eyes are wild and he paces all night long. Yesterday, he wouldn't go outside AT ALL. At 4 a.m. I was still awake and it was finally quiet enough for him to venture outdoors. The neighbors, if they were still awake, got a first hand view of "writer as a hag" but I didn't care. I joked, while I was up north that I'd love to get photos of writers showing what they really look while on a writing jag. You know, like those tabloid stories, "Celebrities Without Make-Up".

While a writer-in-residence at UCROSS and ALBEE, I saw the ratty sweatpants, matted hair and questionable bathing habits of the writers and artists. A direct contrast to stage set AUTHOR PHOTOS but much more interesting. Anyway, Kobe and the Crown Prince are off hiking RUNYON CANYON which will hopefully calm the little guy down. I am so not looking forward to tonight when the big displays kick off after sunset. It's obvious we can't leave him home alone so, maybe, we'll go for a long drive down the coast.

My last week in the Bay Area, I was lucky enough to housesit for the Queen Mother while she was in CALISTOGA. (Queen Mother, by the way, is my blog nickname for the Crown Prince's mother). The house was quiet and it wasn't as hot as my own mother's house. I didn't leave once (I actually mistyped that as "didn't love once". Hmmm.) and I didn't see any of my girlfriends. Not quite sure why but this deadline feels a little do-or-die to me. I worked on the project, the book and I managed to write twelve pages of a short story that sprung from an idea I had while reading John Gregory Dunne's REGARDS. I like the story. I think it's funny but I put it away before I finished. Deadline. Deadline. Deadline.

I didn't see my girlfriends this trip but I did see the kiddies (nieces and nephew). Because I am not a parent, I forget that kids really listen to everything that you say when they're little. I casually commented that my little sister, L, had always been jealous of me. A random response to her voting against me on a movie selection. The kids laughed because I said it in this old lady voice I developed to make them laugh. The five-year-old, whom I've nicknamed Squishy, laughs harder than anyone else when I use the voice. Actually, she cracks up no matter what I do. She has a funny little laugh that makes me smile. Her cheeks turn bright red in response to a joke, her shoulders shake, but she doesn't make even the slightest sound. Cuteness. Anyway, four days later while we were playing a mean game of monopoly, she randomly asked, "Is Auntie L still jealous of you?" Cracked me up but made me remember to watch my mouth.

And the eleven year old, the one who wants to be a writer/director/fashion designer/karate instructor/ghost hunter, loves to listen to her aunties and grandmother gossip. I remember doing the same thing. I was a master ear hustler by the time I turned six and quite a few of those overheard stories have made their way into my fiction or this blog. Her mother, however, does not appreciate the nosiness and called her out on it. She was pretending to float in the pool but she was actually eating up every word we were saying. Finally her mother, my baby sister, looked her dead in the eye and said, "You can climb down Chelle's throat if you missed anything." She put her head underwater and my own mother commented that all four of us were mini versions of her. I agree except for the love of showy fabrics and wild prints. Also, when I queried Squishy about her doll collection she responded that "I still like dolls but now I am collecting money." Well, damn, who isn't!

In between writing fits I am watching the Sundance Channel's THE HOUSE OF BOATENG which features the charming, handsome, sophisticated OZWALD BOATENG as he tries to conquer the American fashion market. Good stuff. And I have to say that the man is his own best advertising. I also gave into VH1's SUPERGROUP. I have to admit, though, that seeing JOHN BONHAM'S SON as a grown-ass man made me feel hella old. Can't tell you why. Looking forward to ROCK STAR: SUPERNOVA becauseTOMMY LEE is a trainwreck I love to watch. Are ya'll noticing a pattern here? I also spent an entire Sunday watching HISTORY OF METAL and the HISTORY OF ROCK AND ROLL. Still devoted to RESCUE ME, ENTOURAGE, undecided on HEX (though I am watching) and sad to see that HUFF won't be back for Season Three. Am I mistaken or did the finale suggest that BYRD was showing signs of mental illness? We'll never know. And for those of you in the know, or those of you who'll admit to knowing, I think an Anna/Alcazar coupling has tons of potential. Any thoughts?

Lastly, could you pass the U.S. CITIZENSHIP TEST. I got all but two right which surprised me. I was a remarkably mediocre student in high school (except for English and Journalism) but, apparently, something stuck. And a big thanks to ANGELA HENRY for participating in the Q&A.

Until next time. . .