Closing Borders, Expanding Horizons?

This past month news broke that the national bookstore Borders had filed for bankruptcy. It wasn't particularly surprising news, but it was a bit sad. Many of the stores will be shut down, including my local Evanston store.

Evanston Borders: I took many a lunch break here. Also bought a really cool U.S. wall map for my cube.

The Borders bankruptcy is yet another stark reminder that the publishing world is changing. We're already seeing the impact of e-books and e-readers, but what does it all mean? Will the printed book eventually go the way of the dinosaur? And if so, what would the world then look like?

A friend from college, M. Clifford, has actually written a fun novel that touches and expands upon this topic. It's a work of dystopian fiction, titled The Book. The protagonist is Holden, an everyman who works as a sprinkler-fitter and also happens to love reading. But all he has ever known is "The Book," a digital reader provided by the United States government in a world where paper has been outlawed due to environmental reasons. However, as Holden soon discovers, the government has been editing the digital stories and feeding lies to the public for years. In order to expose the truth, Holden goes on a quest that puts his life - and others - in danger. (The Book made the Top 250 out of 5,000+ entrants in Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award and has received numerous rave reviews. One such review can be found over at Her Book Self.)

Interestingly enough, M. Clifford's The Book was the first book I ever read on an e-reader. It really got me to think about the future of e-reading, both the pros and the cons. But another aspect of the book that I enjoyed was pondering a paperless future. Is that really a possibility?

Of course, there have been various paperless predictions in the past. For instance, check out this 1975 BusinessWeek article titled "The Office of the Future." Here's an excerpt worth a chuckle:

Some believe that the paperless office is not that far off. Vincent E. Giuliano of Arthur D. Little, Inc., figures that the use of paper in business for records and correspondence should be declining by 1980, "and by 1990, most record-handling will be electronic."

There were many predictions in the late 1970s and early 1980s regarding the decline of paper. But the future proved to be quite the opposite. We use more paper today than ever before. However, as the aforementioned BusinessWeek article from 1975 also noted, sometimes predictions that seem obvious just take much longer than expected to materialize:

But there seem to be just as many industry experts who feel that the office of the future is not around the corner. "It will be a long time—it always takes longer than we expect to change the way people customarily do their business," says Evelyn Berezin, president of Redactron Corp., which has the second-largest installed base (after International Business Machines Corp.) of text-editing typewriters. "The EDP [data-processing] industry in the 1950s thought that the whole world would have made the transition to computers by 1960. And it hasn't happened yet."

As I mentioned earlier, seeing my local Borders close is sad. The publishing world is changing, and change is hard. But with new technology comes new opportunities. So I'll choose to believe that a better day is ahead, even if right now it's hard to see.

Book Review: Insomnia

Today I finished reading Stephen King's Insomnia. While I had been familiar with King's career, some media interviews, and a few movies, this was the first time I read one of his novels. Based on what I had heard about the book, my expectations were set reasonably high; and I'm happy to report that King exceeded them.

What immediately struck me with King's writing was his intriguing use of analogies when describing action, scenery, emotions, etc. This speaks to King's "voice" as a writer. He just has a knack for describing things. Not only can he paint a vivid picture, but he can do it in a thought-provoking manner. Over the course of the book, his wide range of knowledge really shines through.

In Insomnia, the protagonist is the 70-year-old Ralph Roberts who lives in the fictional town of Derry, Maine (also the scene of King's earlier work, It). After Ralph's wife dies of cancer at the beginning of the story, he starts to suffer from a type of insomnia called "premature waking." Every day he finds himself waking up earlier and earlier, absolutely unable to get back to sleep. Anyone who becomes severely sleep deprived will stop functioning properly as a human and might even start suffering hallucinations. When Ralph starts seeing strange things, he wonders if he's really seeing them or if it's the lack of sleep.

On a personal note, in the past few years I've come to better understand some of my own sleep problems. So the various discussions in this book about Ralph's insomnia really entertained me. 

Insomnia isn't known as one of King's scarier or more disturbing stories, but it still has plenty of suspense and will be disturbing at times. King does a fantastic job of setting the scene in Derry and building the characters. The town comes alive and feels real. There are a few psychos in the book and, true to their characters, their language can be some of the most vulgar you will ever hear. Also, a central theme to the plot is the political issue of abortion. So if that's a heavy topic you like to avoid, this story isn't for you.

The book is nearly 800 pages long, and I'm torn over how I feel about that. On one hand, yes there are times in the beginning and middle parts of the novel where it moves a little too slowly. And yes, King is able to get away with more tangents and long-winded descriptions because of his name (example: I read an article recently that said writers should just cut to the chase and not describe a person walking across a room to answer a phone, but in Insomnia there was one time when King did exactly that). On the other hand, King's attention to detail and ability to tell a long story is part of what makes him special as an author. Some details that might seem frivolous and a waste of your time earlier in the story could come full circle and help make the ending just a bit more satisfying. 

When I think about the depth of characters and the multi-faceted plot, I would feel uncomfortable labeling Insomnia simply as a horror story. As far as I'm concerned, it's action, mystery, drama, fantasy, and horror. It's a good story that shouldn't be boxed into one category.

Curiously, Insomnia has not been turned into a movie. In July 2007 there was news that Insomnia would become a movie, but there has been no news since -- except for one video where King is asked about it in November 2009 and says there are no plans for the movie. It would admittedly be a difficult movie to make. Aside from writing a solid screenplay adaptation of this complicated novel, they'd also have to make sure that the auras look real. But something tells me that a studio will eventually take the risk and make this movie.

Overall, I found Insomnia to be a worthwhile read. It was an entertaining story and gave me a better glimpse into the creative mind of Stephen King. For those of you who would like hear more from the author himself, below is a video clip of King talking about his work in general as well as his new book, Under the Dome.  

Are there any Stephen King fans out there? If so, feel free to let me know what you thought of Insomnia. I'd also be curious as to which is your favorite Stephen King novel.

Hair In My Coffee: An Interview with Kristin Russell

From a blog dated March 3, 2010: "When do you find time to write? This is the question I am most often asked. And honestly, I think because I don’t have very much time, I am more productive when I sit down. I might only have fifteen minutes to add to a scene, or come up with a topic. Right now, I have a client sitting in my chair with foils in her hair. I am writing during the thirty minutes her color processes."

Welcome to the world of Kristin Russell, a Nashville writer who runs the blog Hair In My Coffee with the tagline: "I'm a writer, hairstylist, wife, and mom. Balance is the goal, coffee a necessity." She is also the author of Recovering Ramona.

Kristin leads a busy life, and some of her recent adventures took her backstage with Roseanne Cash and Robert Plant at the Americana Awards. But she still has graciously found time for an interview here at Behind the Curtain as part of Book Blogger Appreciation Week. Below she answers ten questions about books, blogging, and writing a novel. Enjoy!

1) How long have you been blogging?

With Hair In My Coffee, about six months. I had a blogspot blog a couple of years ago, but wasn't very consistent with it.

2) When I first saw your blog, it made a good impression. It looks very professional, yet it still invites in the reader. In your work as a hairstylist you likely deal quite a bit with fashion and image. How involved were you with your blog's design and look?

Well, I am not very technologically savvy, so I hired someone to help me set it up. I knew I wanted something that looked very clean and simple, so we came up with the template together. My dad has gotten really into photography, and took all of the photos for the blog.

3) Your blog's name is "Hair In My Coffee." How did you settle on that name? And did you know that there's another blog out there named "Dog Hair in My Coffee?"

No, I didn't know about the dog hair one, that's funny! As a hairstylist, I always have hair falling off of me, which really grosses out my husband—one morning he said, "there's hair in your coffee!" And it just stuck for some reason.

4) How many books do you read in a month?

Depends on the month, but usually two to six. I work full time, and am also a mom, so it can be hard to find time.

5) What is your favorite genre and why?

I love character driven fiction. I also love really well-written memoir that is a story in itself, not a chronological account.

6) If you could meet any author, dead or alive, who would it be and what would you ask them?

Hemingway. I would just like to observe him for a day, go fishing with him and have a meal—see what came out of his mouth.

7) What is your favorite movie based on a book?

I can always watch Austen's "Emma", the one with Gwyneth Paltrow. I wish a lot of Cameron Crowe's movies were books first, like "Almost Famous", I would love to read that.

8) How did you come up with the idea for your novel, Recovering Ramona? Did the main idea pop into your head one day, or was it a process of working through different ideas over a period of time?

Recovering Ramona has taken many different forms, but it has always been the story of a mother and daughter who are distanced, and come together in the Joshua Tree desert. I think I've written five or six versions now. So yeah, it's evolved.

9) You blog about a wide range of topics in your life. One of my favorite posts of yours was when you talked about your identity relative to your father and son. For instance, in college you were uncomfortable when people would come up to you and say, "Oh, you're Pastor Smith's daughter!" And yet years later when your dad posted Facebook photos of your young son and he became a little celebrity in the community, you sometimes had people come up to you and say, "I know you, you're Finn's mom!" I liked that story because you revealed a variety of emotions, and it showed how you were maturing in your life. Overall, what do you hope to achieve through your blog?

I think the most important thing for me with blogging is to remain transparent. Of course, I hope people like my voice, and will eventually buy my books, but I just want to be honest. Some days it's profound, others it's silly, and that's just who I am. If I try to be someone else, it will come off false, and readers are too smart and have too little time for that. I just lay it out there, and see what resounds with folks.

10) What are some of your other favorite book blogs?

http://blog.largeheartedboy.com I love that he writes about books and music, my two greatest loves.

http://thebookladysblog.com Her irreverence and honesty are quite entertaining.

http://bookmavenmedia.com/blog She is so plugged in to the publishing and book industry, and has maintained her passion for quite a long time.

I also learn a lot through Twitter. I follow the publishing houses, agents, and editors. And @rosannecash is always tweeting about books along with music. She is a true literary lover.

* * *

A big thank you goes out to Kristin Russell for granting me this interview (and for interviewing me on her blog). I have begun reading Recovering Ramona and hope to see that book in stores one day soon. In the meantime, Hair In My Coffee really is an entertaining blog. People should check it out!

Where I Was

Nine years ago it was a beautiful Tuesday morning much like any other, except that I was rushing around to get ready for a job fair. It was my senior year of college, and if I had learned anything since freshman year, it was that you don't wait until the last hour of a job fair to show up. In a market where there are plenty of good applicants, companies tend to close shop well before a job fair is officially over.

And so I was hurrying to get there early. After I had eaten a small breakfast, showered, shaved, and gotten into my best suit, it was time to start studying the companies again. I looked at the job fair's booth map and scouted where I wanted to visit. Time was slipping away from me as I double-checked to make sure that I had enough resumes and rehearsed in my head how to answer standard questions: "Why do you want to work for our company?" "What experience would you bring to this job?" "What has been your favorite college class?"

Finally I was off. Probably a little later than I wanted, but I was out the door and making my way across Lincoln Avenue onto Green Street. It was the same intersection where a few weeks later I would stand frozen and watch a black SUV turning left, only to have the minivan in front of it unexpectedly slow down. What for most cars would have been a simple case of applying the breaks hard and steering clear of the minivan turned into the SUV losing control, jumping the median, and rolling over a few times across oncoming traffic before landing next to a tree in the green grass. Fortunately the driver had his seat belt on and walked away fromt the accident. Nobody was injured. Although, I have wondered how it would have been different if I had been 50 feet farther up the sidewalk. My choice would have been to either "Run Forrest! Run!" or let that big black bowling ball pick up the spare.

But there was no crash today. At least not on Green Street. I kept walking and prepping in my mind. "Are you willing to relocate out of state?" "Where do you see yourself in five years?" "What do you like to do in your spare time?"

When I reached my destination, the Illini Union which is at the heart of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's campus, I marched up the steps with determination. My only goal was to come out of this fair with as many 2nd job interviews as possible. This, I figured, would give me the best chance at getting on the road to landing that all-so-coveted job upon graduation.

As I reached the top steps, I heard many voices plus one voice that seemed to trump the others. I entered the doors and saw hundreds of people gathered. This actually annoyed me. Is there some type of political speaker here? If so, I was in no mood for it. I weaved my way through the crowd, trying to get to the ballrooms where the job fair would be. But along the way I noticed that there was no speaker. Instead, there was a huge projector TV set up with some type of breaking news story on CNN. Okay, maybe I have a few seconds for this. I stepped closer and crowded in with everyone else.

A plane crashed into the World Trade Center? No, more than one. And the Pentagon? What's going on here? Now there's a plane down in Pennsylvania?

Information was coming fast and furious from the TV, but it was still hard to know exactly what was happening. It felt as though I were watching a movie. Was this really happening? And would planes be dropping out of the sky all day?

In that Illini Union crowd, I actually encountered a friend. As we spoke about these current events, which were yet to be labeled simply as "9/11," I knew in the back of my mind that this would be the first of many conversations about this day.

My memory of September 11, 2001, isn't perfect. I don't remember all of the details. I do know that I eventually pulled myself away from the TV coverage in order to visit the job fair. And I wasn't the only one. While the conversations at the booths were different from what I had been used to at other fairs (people were obviously talking about the attacks), the foot traffic was about the same. Students still wanted jobs, and companies still wanted to collect resumes.

Once I got back to my apartment after the fair, the magnitude of this morning's crimes against humanity started to sink in. The rumors of al Qaeda's involvement were confirmed, and that started to bring things into focus. Still crazy, but more focused. There were prayer vigils on campus, American flags started going up everywhere, and some fear still hung in the air. One rumor had September 22 as being the next attack because of the symmetry. Get it? 9/11 and then 9/22? That didn't make any sense to me, but I didn't completely rule it out until 9/23 came without incident. Fear didn't rule the day, though. People came together and showed bravery, kindness, and love. From the first responders to the people waiting in long lines to donate blood, Americans showed great unity on 9/11 and the weeks that followed.

The news coverage of 9/11 was literally 24/7. And it was on more than just your standard world news outlets. It was covered by all news outlets. I recall going on espn.com shortly after 9/11 (maybe a day or two later) and every story on the front page was related to 9/11. Seriously, I couldn't find a non-9/11 story on espn.com. 

That's all history now. I got a few 2nd interviews from that fair nine years ago, but no job ever came of it. And yet I still remember walking across campus to the fair that morning, wondering how in a few months my life might change. Little did I know that it already had.

Whole New Worlds

Back in July I mentioned my plan to start reading more short stories. So in early August I picked up The Best of the Best: 20 Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction. It's a collection of short stories edited by Gardner Dozois. I've been reading through it at a leisurely pace, usually at night just before going to sleep or during lunch breaks at work. I'm about a quarter of the way through, and it's been an enjoyable read. I've had so much fun experiencing so many authors for the first time, as well as the wide variety of stories and styles. Each story has been an opportunity to enter a whole new world.

Also on my current reading list is Stephen King's Insomnia. While I'm very familiar with King's career and have always paid attention to his interviews, I actually haven't read one of his novels yet. Strange but true. I think part of the reason for this is that I tend not to seek out horror books, but a bigger reason is that they're so darn long. It's rare for me to read a 700-page book for pleasure.

For whatever reason, this summer I've been pulled closer and closer to finally reading a King novel. It started a few months ago when I was perusing the library and stumbled across Lisey's Story out on a desk. I read the jacket and flipped through it a bit. I thought about borrowing it, but I figured that if I were to read a King novel it should be one of his more well-known stories. Otherwise, I could envision this conversation:

Person A: Have you ever read a Stephen King novel? 
Me: Yeah.
Person A: Which ones?
Me: Lisey's Story.
Person A: Is that it?
Me: No, I haven't read It. Just Lisey's Story.

About a month later I had another close encounter with a Stephen King novel. I was at the library on a completely different mission, but as I went through the "What's New" section I came across Under the Dome. I picked it up, read the jacket, scanned the map of the town and the list of characters, maybe even read a page or two. Then I set it back down, unwilling to take a flier on such a long book that I had never known anyone else to have read.

And so when I heard about a week ago that M. Clifford was reading Under the Dome, I got curious and asked him for some Stephen King recommendations. And voila. On my next trip to the library I borrowed Insomnia. So far I'm on page 311 out of 750+. Right now I'll only say that I plan to finish. And who knows, I might do my best Her Book Self impersonation and write a book review. We'll see.

As ever, I'm trying to expand my horizons. And I'm also changing something about this blog today by activating the comments. I had left them hidden because I didn't like the idea of some stranger ripping my work. Constructive criticism from someone I know is fine, but the idea of being criticized by a stranger bothered me. But starting with this post, comments are open. My hope is for this blog to be more of a place to exchange ideas, as opposed to just me writing in a vacuum.

The Versatile Blogger Award

You might not realize it, but you're currently reading an award-winning blog. That's right, folks, I recently won the Versatile Blogger Award:

Many thanks to Lisa at Her Book Self for bestowing this honor upon me. It's really nice to be recognized every now and then.

As part of my duties for winning this award, I am supposed to state 7 random things about myself and then pass this award to 15 other deserving blogs. So here goes!

Seven random things? Well, one thing is that I sometimes like to keep myself shrouded in mystery. That's one random thing about me. I'll leave two through seven a mystery...

Now for passing this award along. Let's see... I could award Her Book Self with it, but she's already won it -- twice!

Another blog I'd like to give it to is M. Clifford, Author, but he also has already won it. Although, if you haven't already, you really should check out M. Clifford's blog. He's a very talented writer who I'm proud to have attended college with at UIUC, and I've been following his progress as an indie writer. He sets a great example with his passion for writing and promoting his work.

I really have to come up with 15? That could take a while. How about I just find one? Okay, one it is.

And the winner of the Versatile Blogger Award is... drumroll please... I said drumroll please... Behold! Witness the verbal clash of David Faroz Precht vs. the tentacles of the Internets!

I actually used to work with David at the American Academy of Pediatrics. He's since moved to Korea and launched a brand new web comic earlier this month. It's called Hancomic. Check it out!

And if you peruse David's blog, I think you'll agree that he's a versatile blogger. Congrats, David!

What's Next?

Recently I've been toying with the idea of writing a short story that is related to my novel. I'm kind of excited about it, but I still need to work out the details. And it won't be easy.

For what it's worth, the short story I'm toying with wouldn't involve my novel's main character. It would actually be based on a secondary character. That's probably why I'm having so much fun kicking this around. It requires a different mindset on so many levels.

It's also been a while since I've read a short story, but that's on my to-do list. Maybe I'll get to it this weekend.