News
In the Guardian, A.L. Kennedy perfectly describes what it’s like to read one’s work at the proof stage:
Proof pages – nearly the finished article, but not quite. They’re a good sign: they mean your book is almost done, almost ready to pack up its things, get published and amble out to meet the reader. But, then again, proofs are also a source of almost primal panic for the writer. If your proofs are awful, wrong, badly-spelled, oddly-italicised and otherwise dysfunctional, they are a very real demonstration of both your complete powerlessness within the editing process and your witless lack of talent within the writing process. They alarm, containing, as they do, all manner of peculiarities and absurdities which have been added by strangers for no clear reason, along with the plethora of screw-ups which are utterly your own fault. How did you miss that non-agreeing verb? Did you ever know what this final sentence means? Will that character stand up to even the most cursory examination? Why did you ever think this was any use? Can anything within the compass of your meagre abilities be done to remedy this papery hellsbroth of shit? You try to hope so – tinkering with and slashing at your proofs: these representing your final chance of day-saving activity, or even just salvaging a couple of decent paragraphs
After I finished checking my proofs for Secret Son—and I am one of those very annoying authors who wants to make changes even as the book is on its way to the printer—I had regular panic attacks about it. I lay in bed at night, unable to sleep, sometimes unable to breathe. But I have to say that, as time passed (six months, to be exact), I’ve started to let go. Alea jacta est and all that. I’m just enjoying the journey now.
I didn’t get a chance to blog yesterday because I was busy writing an installment for Money Walks, a serial novel that the Los Angeles Times is debuting this week. So the idea is to start a story and then let a group of writers each take turns telling a part of it. The first installment is by Mary McNamara; the second by Seth Greenland. I wrote the sixth installment, which will appear on Saturday. The final installment will be published on the eve of the Festival of Books.
In my class yesterday, we discussed “Tu Do Street” by Yusef Komunyakaa, which appears in his collection Dien Cai Dau:
Music divides the evening.
I close my eyes & can see
men drawing lines in the dust.
America pushes through the membrane
of mist & smoke, & I’m a small boy
again in Bogalusa. White Only
signs & Hank Snow. But tonight
I walk into a place where bar girls
fade like tropical birds. When
I order a beer, the mama-san
behind the counter acts as if she
can’t understand, while her eyes
skirt each white face, as Hank Williams
calls from the psychedelic jukebox.
We have played Judas where
only machine-gun fire brings us
together. Down the street
black GIs hold to their turf also.
An off-limits sign pulls me
deeper into alleys, as I look
for a softness behind these voices
wounded by their beauty & war.
Back in the bush at Dak To
& Khe Sanh, we fought
the brothers of these women
we now run to hold in our arms.
There’s more than a nation
inside us, as black & white
soldiers touch the same lovers
minutes apart, tasting
each other’s breath,
without knowing these rooms
run into each other like tunnels
leading to the underworld.
That line–we fought/the brothers of these women/we now run to hold in our arms. It gets me every time.
I’ve been busy doing some press for the novel and so haven’t had a chance to catch up on all things blog. Here, for instance, is a profile in The National newspaper (I am amused by my expression on the photograph. What does it mean?) And here is a radio interview Anouar Majid and I did for The Book Show in Australia, in which we talk about North African literature.
My new novel, Secret Son, comes out on April 21, though it should be on shelves a few days earlier than that. (You can visit Indiebound to find the independent bookstore nearest you.) I’ll be doing a rather extensive book tour to promote the novel, so here are the dates:
April 17 – Indianapolis, Indiana
April 25 – Los Angeles, California
April 27 – Seattle, Washington
April 28 – Portland, Oregon
April 30/May 1 – New York
May 4 – Boston, Massachusetts
May 6 – Washington, DC.
May 7 – New York
May 8 – Miami, Florida
May 14 – Riverside, California
May 14 – Los Angeles, California
May 18 – SF Bay Area, California
Specific details about each event can be found here. So mark you calendar! Bring a friend! Come say hello! If you can’t come to one of the readings, but would still like to have a signed copy, you can pre-order one from Powell’s.