A Word with Anne Lyken-Garner

Anne Lyken-Garner is the author of How to Spend L£ss (downloadable here), and our regular non-fiction host on a Tuesday. Every week she shares wonderful advice based on the book, so, as we’ve been speaking to our novelists with books out on december 1st, we thought it only fitting to sit down and spend some time with Anne, getting to know about her, and her book. Here she is, in her own words:

1.      You say you’ve tried and tested the techniques in your book. Trying them out must have given you some great anecdotes

Yes, and a cupboard full of stuff which I had to remember the taste of. Trying different products is exciting, but I had to also remember the taste to be able to make a proper comparison. This was the hardest bit.

Poland

I was in a car with a Pole who knew all the words to the Moulin Rouge theme song. We swept over hills through fields of wheat white and starched in the heat.

Artur waved a finger in the air and sloped his shoulders to the rhythm just like Christina Aguilera in the video as he sang, “Touch of her skin feeling silky smooth/Color of cafe au lait,” in falsetto.

Sometimes we would pass these women standing in the trees not wearing much like refuges from a bygone day-glo era and he would slow a bit, roll down the window and shout, “Hey prostitute, how much for the two of us?”

This was inflected with a gesture in my direction.

Wine Glasses

She would never forget the day her father cracked. It was after an especially enjoyable dinner with friends of their family. The food had looked wonderful, and the wine with which they had been filled was one of the best that this young wine glass had experienced. The conversation around the table had been stimulating and the atmosphere warm and she had been especially proud of her clear, high notes as she had bumped into her five family members, complementing the ‘cheers’ of the diners perfectly.

            She thought back to the first time she had been released from the cardboard box, with the card dividers to protect herself and the other members of her family. The light had poured in as the box was opened. Her mum was the first to be selected by that human hand, at first a stranger to them, but in time as familiar as the plates and cutlery with which they shared many a meal. Her mum had not been her mum until that moment.

Fifteen minutes from the Golden Gate Bridge

The Dictators are playing on Potrero Hill.
It’s hot. I go and stand out back.
The only other person out back is a tall young guy.
Heavily tattooed and scarred and he’s smoking a cigar.

What’s your favorite number? he asks me.
Seven.
He holds up his middle finger.
There’s a seven tattooed on it.
He drives a cab.
He’s well read.
I guess he had a lot of time to read in jail.
Armed robbery, he says.
I don’t say anything, just stare at the busines card he presses in my hand.
That’s my beeper number, he says, you know, if you ever need a cab. Just put in the number seven. I’ll know it’s you.

Peace to all (except writers)

 

This article started out as a discussion on one of twitter’s #writechat sessions about character flaws. On Armistice Day I opened up a discussion on my blog that provided a huge amount of thought-provoking material. I’d like to thank everyone who contributed there, and hope that this article is more balanced as a result.

A fortnight ago, Marc Nash wrote a wonderful article, Pain, in which he posed the question whether it’s possible for writers to write a reader’s pain. It has, by dint of accident, the fascinating subject matter, and the quality of Marc’s thought, become somewhat programmatic for our recent works, and indeed will provide the introduction to the forthcoming anthology Thirteen Shadows Waiting for Sunrise. There has been some incredible discussion, some breathtaking writing, and some very deep soul-searching. But the question I want to consider now is, for writers, far more sinister and disturbing than writing pain. I want to know if it’s possible to write peace.

Meet the Authors

Last week you read the first chapters of our forthcoming novels. Now it’s time to say hello to the authors, as we ask them about their books and their writing, and let them respond in the inimitable, uncut Year Zero way:

Jenn Topper

Marcella O’Connor

Marc Nash

Daisy Anne Gree

 

Jenn Topper (29 Jobs & Million Lies)

1. How long did it take you to get 29 Jobs and a Million Lies to the point where you felt it was ready?
I was really bored at a job I just got out of grad school and had to sit and look busy. I wrote it in about 2 weeks. It was shit, because I was still young and angry and pissed that my Ph.D wasn’t going to happen and I had to get that corporate job. I futzed around and sent a few queries around and even met with a friend of a friend at an agency. Her feedback was lame–something about stringing together all the stories. I didn’t know what she meant, so I wrote a tiring prologue. What I realize now is that she probably thought it was unreadable and didn’t want to be honest. So about six years later after I had kids, a few more jobs, and a re-emergence of energy, I re-read it and thought it should go somewhere. It took about a month of a not very disciplined revision process to tweak it. I took out a few “fucks” and tightened up the language. But the lengthiest process was adding dialogue. I felt that it was misleading to include dialogue into a memoir because, frankly, I didn’t have transcriptions of conversations. But I got over that eventually. Dialogue really helped the stories–it humanized them.

Marcella O’Connor (Black Laces)

1. How long did it take you to get Black Laces to the point where you felt it was ready?

I never feel ready. I will be one of those writers sneakily editing my “complete works” if I get the chance.

2. If you walked into a crowd of people with only 10 copies of your book to give away, what three questions would you ask to make sure it went to the people who’d enjoy it most?

Do you read novels? Have you ever been accused of being a shit stirrer? Have you ever felt like an outsider?

Marc Nash (A, B & E)

1. How long did it take you to get “A,B&E” to the point where you felt it was ready?

It was very stop start over 8 years until I could figure out who the main character was talking to as an intermediary between her and the reader. The bulk of the book was in place within the first 18 months.
 
2. If you walked into a crowd of people with only 10 copies of your book to give away, what three questions would you ask to make sure it went to the people who’d enjoy it most?

Is this putative crowd gathered in a bookshop? In which case I’d have to 1) ask which local Radio Station DJ was doing a book signing to justify such a turnout? 2) Who here redeems their kids’ unwanted book tokens for cash and who just takes them and spends them themselves? – These aren’t related to seeing who should get my book, I’m just curious.

Daisy Anne Gree (Babylon)

1. How long did it take you to get Babylon to the point where you felt it was ready?

It was three different books before it became Babylon. I wrote books of poetry by both Daniel and his grandfather, and I made several videos to capture the feeling. 6 months in total, I guess.
 
 2. If you walked into a crowd of people with only 10 copies of your book to give away, what three questions would you ask to make sure it went to the people who’d enjoy it most?
 
a) Do you have trouble sleeping?
b) Do you fantasize about dying?
c) Do you feel the dread?