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Why blog?

I've kept a very sporadic blog on MySpace over the last year and change, mostly just recording funny quotes from my friends and other random tidbits. I never really considered keeping a proper blog, mostly because it'd be so easy to slide into a routine of self-indulgent twaddle. It never occurred to me that keeping a blog would be a great way to spread the word about Mary Modern in cyberspace until one of the savvy marketing gals at Crown suggested it. So here we are.I'm not going to talk all that much about the novel, though, except to discuss the practical aspects of writing and publishing. I'm figuring that once this blog officially launches there'll be more than a few aspiring novelists coming across it, so I'd like to post the most practical advice I can come up with. (For now, read this. Bookmark it. Print it out and put it over your desk. The first time I read it that poem totally lit a fire under my ass, which is just what you need when you're in that initial phase of talking about wanting to write, but you're not really doing any writing...yet.)I like the idea of a miscellany. I'd love to be able to turn you on to cool but relatively obscure books; post photos (apart from what's already on my website) and reviews/essays of/on my favorite Irish accommodations, restaurants, and sights (and possibly even videos...we'll work on that); and for the more domestically inclined, we can share recipes and knitting patterns and suchlike.I've only been knitting for a little over two years, but it seems I do as much knitting as writing these days. I really dig the idea of eschewing mass production as much as possible, and one's wardrobe seems like the most natural place to start. Yes, I might drop $60 on yarn for a single sweater. But I can make it to my exact taste, and more importantly I'll never have to wonder if it was made in a sweatshop (the yarn definitely isn't). And if it falls apart, I know who to blame! It's such a terrific hobby, relaxing and productive at the same time, and I'm lucky to have a family who appreciates handmade gifts. And I enjoy checking out other people's knitting blogs--it's the best way to find cool new patterns, technical tips, and general inspiration. So on occasion I'll try to provide a bit of the same.I also want to keep posting humorous bits of dialogue. My friend Kelly B. used to keep a blog in which she sometimes posted such funny exchanges, and I've invited her to come back and blog here whenever she likes. Kelly is a naturally funny girl. Her improv group, No Laugh Track Required, is performing on Monday, February 11 at Caroline's--only the biggest comedy club in all of New York!Basically, if we think anybody might find it in any way useful or amusing, we're going to post it here.

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Art and Craft Art and Craft

The Boyfriend Sweater

I spent the first half of 2006 driving around Ireland doing research for my guidebook, and as you can imagine I met loads of characters almost every place I went. In Leenane I met Tom, an American artist in his sixties, who was at that time working as a handyman at Sleepzone Connemara. Tom had a serious case of wanderlust--and by "wanderlust," I don't just mean location-wise. He told me several stories about the women he'd loved and left, and I was struck by one story in particular. One of his girlfriends had knit him a sweater, and he continued to wear and treasure it long after he'd moved on. Eventually the sweater started to unravel, and he decided to send it back to her with a note asking her to fix it.Needless to say, he didn't get the sweater back.I don't know if I was more appalled or amused by the size of Tom's cojones, but his story got me thinking about the etiquette involved when one knits a gift for a significant other. The rule of thumb seems to be that the recipient should return the item if the relationship ends, but I suppose it depends on how amicable the break-up is. And is the garment a general symbol of your affection, or does it symbolize your feelings at the time you were making it?I see why you'd ask for it back (and I seem to recall Tom saying his ex-girlfriend had wanted him to return the sweater, but he liked it too much to give it up), but it feels a little like giving with strings attached--so I think I'd rather not make the sweater at all than give it with any sort of stipulation. Feel free to disagree with me here.

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Books and Creativity Books and Creativity

Post #3 weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I do sometimes worry about offending people though. The character I am channeling right now is bawdy and outspoken, and behaves in ways I would absolutely never. I make a brief foray into the so-called decadence of 1920s Berlin, and so my character refers to "sipping pink champagne with kohl-eyed nancies." Politically incorrect epithet aside, my stepsister's name is Nancy. Will she be offended?, I wondered as I wrote that line. I have a line about a town called Harveysville and how it sounds like "a hamletful of inbreds." There may be dozens of Harveysvilles across the country. If any of their inhabitants pick up this novel, will they be offended? I think about things like this as I write--along with the inescapable squirminess of making sexual references knowing my grandparents are someday going to read it--but in the end I know I have to ignore these worries or the story's integrity will suffer. That might sound a little pretentious, but what's the point in writing this character's story if I'm going to censor it? The new novel is written in the first person, and when a story is written in the first person you'll inevitably have some readers who think your beliefs are synonymous with your character's. Heck, they'll think so even if you write in the third person.While we're on the subject of offending people, I might as well note that it seems I have offended a few Republicans who didn't like the fact that one of the main characters in Mary Modern is a scientist who is vehemently anti-Bush. (She's from a clan of Massachusetts Catholics, so it's no real shocker, is it?) My editor and I did discuss toning down the liberal rhetoric in the novel, but ultimately I decided to follow my own character's advice: "Life is too short for subtlety." I noticed a review on Amazon that said this lack of subtlety "took the shine off a bit" from an otherwise fine novel, and that criticism is perfectly valid. But when people say my novel is "bad" just because they don't agree with my characters' political beliefs, well...that seems rather ignorant.So I'm not going to worry about offending people--or at least I'll try not to!

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Books and Creativity Books and Creativity

The "Amy Tan Vow of Silence"

When my friend Kate T. and I were in college and just beginning to write, we told ourselves we would subscribe to the "Amy Tan Vow of Silence." Kate had come across an interview in which Ms. Tan stated she never discussed anything she was working on until it was finished.

When one is just starting to write seriously, I think this attitude is crucial. It is not the time to be getting advice from your friends or family whether you've asked for it or not, and it's not the time to be hearing people say "I don't know, that sounds kind of silly. Why don't you write about X instead?" The only opinions you should be paying any attention to are those of your characters.

At some point you will meet a kindred spirit, hopefully more than one, whom you can trust to be both encouraging and tactfully and constructively critical. I found that I could unzip my lips once I'd met a few people who fell into that category in my M.A. program. My friend Ailbhe's comments and questions about the plot of Mary Modern proved really useful, and her enthusiasm got me even more excited about what I was working on. And of course, if I hadn't initially run the premise by Kelly I might never have written it in the first place (I was afraid it might be too weird or ridiculous to develop any further, but she told me to go for it). It was the same deal this time around: I had an idea I was excited about, but I also had a few reservations, but when I told Ailbhe about it she encouraged me to put aside my hang-ups and get on with writing it.

But in the very beginning I think it's better to button your lip. Until the thing has taken a definite shape in your head and you've gotten a good chunk of pages down, and until you've found a true-blue writing partner, I think a vow of silence is the way to go. Tactfully decline to respond to any questions you just don't feel like answering, and don't worry about offending people.

At this point, I have no qualms about telling my close friends what I'm working on, but it's when people I meet in passing ask me about the plot of my new novel, what it's called, and how I'm categorizing it, that I tend to freeze up. All I tell them is that it's literary fiction-slash-fantasy, like Mary Modern without the faux-science. I don't even tell people what it's called. For some reason I'd rather wait until I know when it's going to be published to circulate the title. Another consideration is that if I haven't yet told my mother, my agent, or my editor what it's called, I'm sure as heck not going to tell someone I barely know. Having said this, I'm certainly happy when people care enough to ask.

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