October 2023
And we're back! An interview with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, and a new regular feature of the newsletter
What’s New
And we’re back! I skipped a month (or two, what is time) in the post-publication of The Hurricane Blonde (an instant USA Today bestseller, if you haven’t heard!) but we’re here again.
I was interviewed by noir queen Barbara DeMarco-Barrett (more on her below!) for her podcast, Writers on Writing. I shared drafting tips with Writer’s Digest. And The New York Times reviewed my book!
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett is editor of Palm Springs Noir (Akashic, 2021), which she also contributed a story. Her first book, Pen on Fire, was a Los Angeles Times bestseller. Her writing has appeared in Coolest American Stories 2022, USA Noir: Best of the Akashic Noir Series, Inlandia, CrimeReads, Antarctica Journal, Rock and a Hard Place, Crossing Borders, Poets and Writers, and The Dark City Crime & Mystery Magazine. She hosts the podcast, Writers on Writing. More at penonfire.com.
What tabs do you currently have open on your computer? Feel free to share as many or as few as you like.
Enchilada sauce – Tastes Better from Scratch, Gotham Writers Workshop Teachers Center, Birmingham Pen Company Fountain Pen Ink, and Webinar Registration for Zibby Books 2023 Fall Books Preview.
Where do you go to refill your creative well?
I take 50 minute to an hour walks most mornings. That helps. I interview authors for my podcast (Writers on Writing) and that rejuvenates me. I listen to podcasts I like (The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, Writers Routine, Storm of Suspicion, Desert Oracle). I knit. I bake sourdough. I read—a ton. Reading often inspires. Live readings—now that we can be completely social again—gives me ideas.
Last night I went to WordTheatre in L.A., which was great, and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books has been a perennial that never fails to inspire in some way. And freewriting….I have a accountability writing group on Zoom and every Friday we do freewriting and useable nuggets most often appear.
Tell me about the last internet rabbit hole you went down.
Ink! I love my fountain pens, which I often use for first drafts, and I love ink. I must have a few dozen bottles of ink. I’m obsessed with finding the perfect blue ink, so lately/daily I visit Birmingham Pen Company and salivate at their ink swatches. Crazy.
What have you learned about your process of writing now that you didn't know when you first started?
Get that first draft down, no matter how bad you think it is. Don’t try to perfect it till you have the draft. Often, for me, final drafts can bear little resemblance to the first draft.
What would you like to shamelessly plug?
May I shamelessly plug two books? One is my first book, Pen on Fire: A Busy Woman’s Guide to Igniting the Writer Within (Mars St. Press/Harcourt). It’s been known to get writers going again. And Palm Springs Noir (Akashic, 2021). Publishers Weekly said, “Not a dud in the bunch,” and I agree!
What do you think people would be most surprised to discover you're obsessed with?
See above!
What are you craving to see (or see more of) in books, movies, tv, or other art?
At the moment, with the Writers’ Guild of America strike going on, it may be a moot point, but I would love to see more noir-themed series like the new(ish) Perry Mason. Diverse cast, moody, based in L.A.—I love it.
Backlist of the month
I’m introducing a new feature this month: recommending a backlist title I’ve read recently (which I’m defining as published before 2021). Social media often gets wrapped up in the newest, shiniest book, forgetting there’s a whole treasure trove of booklist titles that need new readers.
Recommending: The Pillow Friend by Lisa Tuttle
Year published: 1996
Listen: When Amy Gentry writes a love letter to an author, and then recommends this book to you especially, you fucking listen. And I’m so glad I did! The Pillow Friend is a beautiful, surreal book about desire and the power and problem of wishes come true and what it means to be a woman who loves (imperfect, mostly terrible) men. It’s about the compromises you make with yourself when you attach to a certain dream—and then that dream becomes your life. It’s got danger, and myth making, and would probably be called “speculative” now, although in 1996, I think it was more likely shelved under science-fiction, or weird fiction.
To tell too much about the plot would be a disservice to the book, and to you, the reader, but if the idea of a porcelain doll who whispers mysterious fragments of a conversation late at night, a horse ready to commit murder for eternal love, and a deep dive into the esoteric wells of artistic creativity appeal, find a copy.
And if you want to catch a conversation Amy moderated between Lisa Tuttle and Kelly Link, you can find it here.
My open tabs
Bob Kolker on how the police were so wrong for so many years on the Gilgo Beach killer. And the how is mostly: truly stunning incompetence and corruption.
Tis the spooky season, so if you’re looking for a quick dose of horror, LitHub has compiled a list of 20 spooky stories you can read online for free (including offerings from twin loves of my life, Ray Bradbury and Kelly Link) (and Carmen Maria Machado and Angela Carter and Octavia Butler and many many more).
Did you know that a beer flood once killed eight people in London?
Reading up on Marjorie Cameron, occultist Los Angeles artist. I’d encountered Cameron before tangentially when researching Kenneth Anger, and because she was the wife of Jack Parsons, a rocket scientist, occultist and friend to Aleister Crowley, and a man who died in a home rocket explosion (that may have been murder?).
Was the Hope Diamond cursed?