I got the idea for my new book, "Partial Recall," while reading
from my memoir "Free Fall: A Late-in-Life Love Affair"
at Chaucer's Books in my hometown of Santa Barbara CA.
The Next Big Thing: A Blog Tour
Like everyone else on the day after Christmas, I’ve
turned my thoughts to the year ahead. 2013. It looks like a big year to me. The
very configuration — 2013 — radiates energy. 2012 has been a challenge. I knew
in advance that 2012 was going to be a year of tremendous sadness and loss. I
was not mistaken.
2013 will be different. It’s all about creativity.
In 2013 I’ll complete my current big writing project. I’ve decided to talk
about this work in progress in today’s blog posting. This coming-out blog is
not easy for me. In fact, few people know I’m working on this project, despite
the fact that I devote three to four hours a day on it. But, before I get into
my work in progress, I want to explain why I’m doing this.
A few weeks ago my friend, the author Susan
Oleksiw, invited me to participate in a blog tour called The Next Big Thing.
It’s a way for writers to talk about our works in progress or books we’ve
published. This blog tour is one more way to connect authors and readers. It’s
also, by the way, an opportunity for those of us writing these blogs to think
more seriously about our work.
Susan posted her Next Big Thing blog last week — http://susansblogbits.blogspot.com
— and provided her readers with a link to my blog, as well as the blogs of two
other writers she invited to participate.
This week it’s my turn. It’s my privilege to
connect you, at the end of this blog post, with three writers I’ve invited to
blog in this interesting exercise. They, in turn, will keep moving it forward.
Writers all over the nation, and perhaps the world, are participating!
The Next Big Thing format is always the same —
answer the following ten questions about our work. Here goes:
What is
your working title?
Partial Recall
Where did
this book idea come from?
I gave a reading in my hometown of Santa Barbara
CA in the summer of 2010. Lots of people showed up because I’d previously
published a large illustrated essay about growing up in Santa Barbara that ran
in the Sunday paper. The crowd was made up of forgotten friends and family.
They stood in line, waiting for me to sign their copies of my new book “Free
Fall: A Late-in-Life Love Affair.” Each one wanted to talk about the past, a
past I had largely forgotten due to childhood trauma. I began to see that I
could piece my life together if I could reconnect with old friends and family,
and write about it.
What genre
does your book fall under?
Memoir, just like “Free Fall,” though not quite as
erotic!
Which
actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
So, here I’m supposed to decide who could play me
at the ages of 5 through 16 or so. I couldn’t possibly say, but it would have
to be Mexican-American actors. Susan Sarandon could easily play my mother. They
are practically clones. My father? Antonio Banderas. He has the chops for this.
What is the
one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A surprisingly amusing coming-of-age story, set in
a crazy and burgeoning 1950s southern California, in which we see how violence
and deprivation can trigger lasting PTSD in children as well as wildly rebellious
natures.
Will your
book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I will send this book to my agent when I’m ready,
which probably means when I’m finished writing it.
How long
did it take you to write the first draft?
I write more than a chapter a month, but then I
continue to go back and rewrite as my voice becomes stronger and more like I
want it.
What other
books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Who or what
inspired you to write this book?
My book is made up of linked, stand-alone essays.
It has an unreliable narrator (me) because of the memory issues that go along
with PTSD. I review a book a week but haven’t come across anything like this.
But Lauren Slater has written similarly about lying and telling the truth. And
“Love and Fatigue in America,” an autobiographical novel by Roger King, was one
of my inspirations. I recommend his book wholeheartedly.
What else
about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
When I was growing up in Santa Barbara, I always
said, “I’ll never raise a kid here.” “Partial Recall” shows why, and quite
vividly. It was a time and place of tremendous but hushed racism and
perversion. It was already linked to Hollywood. Women like my mother were
getting facelifts and divorces and being groped by actors and priests. Kids
like me were left largely to their own devices. We did not lead lives of
moderation or safety. My first marriage happened when I was 5.
Next week, my creative writer friends, listed
below, will take up the keyboard and carry on with this “Next Big Thing” blog
tour. Thank you to my writer/artist friends who agreed to this and thank you,
readers, for checking us out.
Peter
Anastas is a Gloucester, MA writer of fiction and non-fiction. Please visit
his blog next week at http://www.peteranastas.blogspot.com.
Elizabeth
Marro is an author and journalist living in San Diego. Here is a link to
her blog: http://elizabethmarroblog.com/.
George
Courage is an illustrator and graphic artist who lives and works in Salem,
MA. See more at http://georgecouragecreative.blogspot.com/2012/12/i-was-recently-invited-to-participate.html.
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