MoPo: Brian Dettmer

Brian Dettmer takes altering books to, well, an art form by actually carving into the books to reveal the art inside. It's really amazing and you just have to see it.

Per his wiki, Dettmer takes media whose content has ceased to be relevant and looks at turning it into new, relevant content.

This is such a beautiful idea because I love books. Although I do a lot of reading on-line, I can't ever imagine living somewhere without a library or physical books. Although MyGeek thinks altering a book is sacrilege, this technique of Dettmer's puts books in the category of beauty that I see them.

At the Packer Schopf Gallery, Chicago, IL.

Sandra Glahn Blog Tour

I am pleased to be able to host writer and friend, Sandra Glahn, on a Blog Tour for her new novel, Informed Consent.

I'll let Sandi describe the story herself:

Jeremy Cramer, the next Einstein of research, is a medical resident specializing in infectious diseases. While working on a way to revive water submersion victims, he makes surprising discoveries, while also living with massive guilt over incidental infections that occur (which he could have prevented). Even as his marriage teeters, his career continues to skyrocket. Then, with a few twists along the way, he finds everything he has fought for threatened by the most personal, most heart-wrenching, choices of all.

What I find most compelling is how far into the head of the main character, Dr. Jeremy Cramer, the story is written. As the reader you can see how his guilt controls his drive and decisions in a way in which he is completely blind. It's not just a straight forward, spectator telling of the story but also a psychological one. There's a low grade level of grief in which the reader follows Dr. Cramer, yearning for him to be absolved.

In the middle of Sandi's busy book touring schedule, I was able to ask her a few questions about her book and writing.

You have a lot of cultural diversity in your characters. What determines that?
I teach at a campus where more than 30 percent of our students are minorities. My niece and nephew are African American. One of my best friends is from Japan. So diversity is part of the way I think now. It wasn't as much an overt choice to include them as a natural one that reflected my own world.

Have you ever imagined who might play your characters if your book was made into a movie?
I've actually had contacts from a couple of movie producers (I'll believe it when they show me the money), but I don't dare let my imagination go this wild! On second thought, oh why not? We could start with Jeremy played by Sonjay Gupta from CNN and Devin played by Regina King (the wife of Will Smith's character in Enemy of the State).

Loved Regina King in Legally Blond 2!

How do you write your characters? Do you have to somewhat "be" them to write them or do you imagine them as people outside of yourself?
My characters are all conglomerations of characteristics I've noticed in others. There's no one-to-one correlation between a character and someone I know, but each character has something of someone familiar. Of course they also do reflect part of myself in that I can give them some of my desires and pet peeves and certainly my opinions! (I have plenty of those.)

Have you ever heard of National Novel Writing Month where you write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days?
I had not heard of it until you mentioned it. Wow. You go girl! I have never written a novel in less than nine months! More power to ya!

Yea. It's a crazy idea.

Part of the madness is to spill out 50,000 words non-stop and get the bulk of the story down and then go back and edit. How much editing do you do along the way of the writing process? Do you try to keep yourself from pouring over previous chapters?
I think this is key. The first draft is the hardest, and the way to get around writers block is to "turn off" the editor and just get it all down on paper/the screen. Let the creator (rather than the editor) rule before fixing anything if you can, and you'll move much faster. I go through seven or eight drafts before I send a manuscript to the publisher, but the most time-consuming is the first. I write a chapter and then edit it. I wish I could write in bigger blocks than that! Editing is necessary but it can really slow you down!

Yea! My editor just will not stay in his cage.

What was the word and page count for "Informed Consent"?
The story came to 342 pages in print. But I never think in terms of pages when I write, only words. I shoot for about 10K words per chapter. This book came to more than 95,000 words, which was over the count my publisher gave me, but once they read the ending, they let me keep most of the words I had. To make the ending as fast-paced as it is, the reader has to understand a lot of background.

I'm struggling with my story for NaNoWriMO! I haven't written fiction since high school. Any words of encouragement?
Let the creator out and don't let the editor's mind tell it, "That's dumb" or "that's crazy." If you still think it's dumb or crazy in a few days, you can nix what you wrote, but let that editor's mind run free for draft one. You'll probably end up having interesting dreams at night because the creative mind goes into overdrive. To me that's the great fun of writing a novel! You get to speak and worlds appear. Imagine how cool it must be for the Creator to have thought something and spoken it into being and instead of existing only on paper and in the imagination it appeared in solid form! Ex nihilo! You will get a tiny taste of how cool that must have been because you were made in the image of the Almighty. Enjoy yourself!

Thanks Sandi!

More on Sandra Glahn
Her Blog
Her Web Site
Her Fiction
Her Non-fiction

Book Recommendations

I did some reviews of books that I didn't particularly care for (1, 2, 3, and 4). Let me pass on some really good books I'd recommend. Some are old. Some are new.


Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
- Erik Larson
Vintage, February 10, 2004
Novel
I've always had a fascination with true crime stories. Currently I'm reading In Cold Blood (which I picked up as a result of watching Capote). What Larson does in this novel to me is just amazing. Not only does he give a detailed account of the inside story on the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, he interweaves this with the parallel event of the serial killer H.H. Holmes, who built himself a death hotel near the fair knowing he could pray on tourists. I thought I'd be bored with the accounts of the fair but, far from it! Extensive research, great writing and an engaging story.

Fahrenheit 451
- Ray Bradbury
Del Rey; Reissue edition, August 12, 1987
Fiction
This is the first Bradbury book I've read. It's like the first time I read Jane Austen. I can't get enough. At the local used book store I bought several more well known Bradbury titles. First published in 1953, it's is eerie how relevant and looming this picture of the future still is. A rudimental description of the story would say it's about censorship. The 50th anniversary edition I read included a very interesting interview with Bradbury in the back. Fahrenheit 451 itself has been subjected to censorship. Smart, efficient writing style.


Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality
- Rob Bell
Zondervan, March 2007
Non-Fiction
This is one of the clearest explanations of the beauty of yourself and a sexual and spiritual being that I've ever read. I love the way that Rob Bell looks at the world and the Word like a kid hanging upside down on the monkey bars - new perspective = fresh insights. I highly recommend it for your kids. They'll get it.

Quickie Book Review 4

A Million Little Pieces - James Frey

Reality TV heralds the promotion of posers and mediocrity. American Idol is the best example. Young people belt out tunes based on little to no experience or training outside of what they mimic in the latest fabricated pop star. But there are brief moments when a singer, musician, chef, or designer exhibits almost other worldly abilities by comparison. My Geek and I say, "they own it." They know their craft so well they play with it, taking it beyond what it has been.

I think Frey owns writing. I haven't read anything else of his but, in this novel, he plays with story telling. It's beyond simply crafting words, characters and plot. For example, he abuses punctuation and capitalization so effectively it's additive. I love the creativity in it.

As a modern day memoir, A Million Little Pieces is engaging and cohesive. It's about Frey's last chance. With an unbelievable lifetime of alcohol and drug abuse, Frey is at the point where he is going to die if he doesn't clean up. This chronicles the time he spent in rehab - for the last time.

When I read it, the controversy had already come out that parts of this non-fiction piece were not accurate. For most of the story, I didn't care. From what I understand, the details about an arrest and time served is greatly exaggerated. But this doesn't affect the story and is minor in light of other elaborate situations like getting extensive dental work without anesthesia and becoming friends with an influential figure in organized crime. And I'm o.k. if these are also exaggerated. Most autobiographies are perception anyway.

But when key events of the story may be fabricated to promote a specific idea or agenda, it's not o.k. It's obvious Frey has no respect for God or AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) . I don't have a problem with that. But I do have a problem if he has to lie about the events to prove his points about God and AA. Is it true that a priest tried to molest him? And does that undo God or just the priest? In the end, instead of validating that AA is a crutch and God a power trip, he completely invalidates himself and anything he has to say on the subject. As Dr. Martha Watson once wrote on one of my algebra test papers, "For Shame."

Quickie Book Review 3

Eaters of the Dead - Michael Crichton

"According to Crichton's afterword, this book was written in answer to the assertion by an English professor friend of his that there was no way to teach Beowulf and make it interesting."

I checked this book out on recommendation by Bruce Bethke but I've been wanting to read it ever since I saw the movie, The 13th Warrior.

This movie is wonderful. If you've never seen it, it's a must. And it's much better than the book but Crichton deserves kudos in a couple of areas. First, I think he brilliantly adapted the story of Beowulf into something that's interesting and exciting. I think all students should read the two together. Second, I like the way he developed the character of Ahmed, an exiled Arab courtier and basically the narrator of the Beowulf story. You can follow his arrogant conviction in the beginning to brotherly respect in the end. He grows as a man and as a human.

Crichton wrote the book as if it were an ancient memoir written by Ahmed. This is an interesting idea but I don't think it adds to the affect of the book. If it did, I would not have noticed how halting the story was. All the footnotes were interesting but I felt like I was doing research and couldn't keep a rhythm to the story. The movie made Crichton's work powerful and beautiful.

Quickie Book Review 2

The Devil Wears Prada - by Lauren Weisberger

The love and fascination with this book has to do with two things: the rumor that it is based on a real person (Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour) and the romance of high fashion. Although it is great to fantasize about how much slave labor you'd be willing to do to receive a free pair of Jimmy Choo's, without a story and likable characters, you can't make a novel out of it.

There was no point at which I liked the whiny and immature lead character, Andrea. I'm sure at some point I was suppose to like her, either before, during or after her servitude to the job "a million girls would kill for". Although Andrea talked a lot about what she was feeling and wanting, about the job and her relationships, it really didn't add to the development of her as a character as much to set up the plot.

I got only slight enjoyment out of disliking the devil, Miranda. Most of the time I was just appalled at how silly and unlikely all of this was. There's something basic going wrong if I'm half way through the book and I'm wondering, "When is this going to end?" This is about the same time at which I did figure out the ending and realized how far I was going to have to go to get there.

The Movie was a slight improvement over the book. They changed several things. I didn't like that they made Christian a bad guy, that Andrea slept with him or why she ended up going to Paris instead of Emily. But Meryl Streep as Miranda and Stanley Tucci as Nigel each have a brilliantly written monologue that appears no where in the book. If I had the choice between the book and the movie, I'd pick the movie.

"That's all."

Quickie Book Review 1

Some of the books I listed back on Books Instead of Movies were really great. I'll save a post later for those. Others I don't want to spend a lot of time on so I'll post some quickie reviews.

The Da Vinci Code - This is really old news. As fiction and brain food, it was intellectually insulting. The characters are one-dimensional and inconsistent because they're secondary to the author's agenda and tedious sermonizing. There's nothing more derailing in fiction than preaching from the front row. I quit reading "The Lost World" when I hit an entire chapter, devoid of characters from the story, discussing the idiocy of Creation. If you can't convey your agenda smoothly in the story without preaching, write non-fiction. Others who have fallen into this trap are Orson Scott Card's Xenocide and the Left Behind series.

The movie had a stellar cast who did the best job they could with the material. There were moments in the movie that were supposed to be serious but came off awkward and comical which, I believe, encapsulates the book.

Books Instead of Movies

Forgive me readers. It's been three weeks since my last movie review.

There are two reasons why I haven't posted a movie review in a couple of weeks.

ONE, I haven't seen any good movies. As you can see by the sidebar, Children of Men was the last decent film I saw.

The French Connection really holds up well after 36 years and, according to many critics and myself, has one of the best car chase scenes ever made.

Click reminds me too much of the never-ending AI. It also proves that either Adam Sandler can't act (which I don't thnk is entirely true) or that he is going to have to work harder at finding a dramatic face we haven't previously seen and been expected to laugh at.

The second Pirates of the Caribbean barely holds up to the lowly standards of a sequal. Depp even appears to know how ridiculous his character is and appears to be mocking himself doing Captain Jack Sparrow - completely unlikable this time around.

TWO, I'm in my reading stage. I go through this a couple of times a year when I read voracisouly and see almost no movies. I am in one of those phases and I don't know when it might end. Movies aren't a particular draw for me right now. Even though I don't enjoy it as much, I will probably need to write book reviews for a few weeks to keep from losing you entirely.

The impetous for this was the postings on two writers' blog.

Sandra Glahn queried her readers to find out how many of the NYT top 100 they had read. I'm not overly concerned that I read books the NYT considers great but it did remind me of a couple out there I'm curious about:

• The De Vinci Code (Dan Brown)- read
• A Million Little Pieces (James Frey)- read
• Freakonomics (Levitt & Dubner)- to read
• The World is Flat (Thomas Friedman)- to read
• The Devil Wears Prada (Weisberger)- read
• Cell (Stephen King)- read
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Rawling)- read
• In Cold Blood (Capote)- to read
• Blue Like Jazz (Donald Miller)- to read
• The Devil in the White City (Erik Larson)- read

Then Bruce Bethke gave some recommendations for Christmas giving.

• Redwall (Brian Jacques)- read
• Eaters of the Dead (Crichton)- read

Others on the stack:

• Sex God (Rob Bell)- to read

I'll get some reviews up for some of these in the upcoming posts.