It’s always interesting to hear what someone says when they haven’t talked to someone in a long while…
Q: Hi Jim, it’s nice to hear from you. All is well here…I’m eagerly awaiting your book. Will it be published under the same title?
A: World Leader Pretend is still World Leader Pretend. Anticipated publication is Fall of 2006.
Q: I’m still working at __________, but trying to bake more and more. I want out of this publishing nightmare once and for all (sorry, but it’s the truth).
A: Can’t say I’m surprised. It’s a racket, isn’t it? Do tell more about your nightmare when you have some time to write. I’d love to commiserate. Also, what’s this about baking?
Q: My daughter is awesome and (as evidenced by my friendster photos) flourishing at an alarming rate. She’s articulate and has an intense sense of humor. Super smart (blah blah blah)…lovely. How’s your little one?
A: Ava is almost 3 now and she rules. She’s head-strong, imaginative, and thinks she’s a princess. Totally takes after her parents. At some point, I’ll post some pics on Friendster.
Q: So tell me what you’ve been up to.
A: It’s been a weird year for me. When St. Martin’s agreed to publish WLP, they made me promise to make significant cuts to the book “to make it saleable.” (i.e. they wanted to cut the page count to save printing costs) The cutting wasn’t easy for me, a) because I didn’t have any experience cutting material and b) because I didn’t really think it was good for the book to be cut down as much as they wanted it cut (from 600 to 400). I spent 5 months cutting the book down this summer in a way that I was satisfied with, which threw off my other projects and plans.Anyway, a couple weeks ago they asked me to cut it down MORE, and I’m trying very hard to behave myself and get it done.
Q: Are you working on something new?
A: Yes–when I can get away from WLP. I ended up trashing the book I was working on a couple years back when you were agenting me, and am working on a second draft of a second novel that explores–of all things–Christianity. The narrator (Barth Flynn) is a DIY comic book artist who discovers a sort of modern-day Hazel Motes (the main character in Flannery O’Conner’s Wise Blood) who’s been preaching to empty pews (literally) in a dilapidated church that he’s purchased.The crux of the preacher’s (Joseph Patrick Booker’s) teaching is that today’s Christians are the equivalent of the biblical Pharisees, and that the young activists who haunt the streets of Portland, Oregon are, in fact, the biblical equivalent of the first Christians.
Flynn makes a comic from his experiences with Booker. This comic ends up gaining some degree of popularity, and along with it, so does Booker’s church. The book explores this rise to fame, and in doing so, hopefully gives some insight into what religion, properly practiced, should actually be about.
Q: Do you have an agent?
A: Nope. I go back and forth, on an almost daily basis, about whether to seek one. My new project is really strong and on-topic, but there is a part of me that doesn’t want to let anyone else get their hands on it. I would almost rather publish 100 copies of it, and give those to friends, then sell a million, after the book was shaped by some nasty corporate entity to make it appropriate to public consumption.On the other hand, idealism is financially painful.
Q: How goes the t-shirt business for Andrea?
A: The silly shirts sell like hot cakes. They’re all over Brooklyn now.