You’ll have to hurry to get this collector’s edition of the book with Brian McEntee’s name misspelled in it because future editions will be corrected. And if you want to hear a little more about kittens, I blogged about them here.
One day, while visiting a website I’m addicted to, I took the challenge it gave its readers to tell their life stories in six words. Typical of me, I typed in an answer, clicked SUBMIT, and later wondered what I’d written. You can see my impulsive act - along with entries from Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris, Jonathan Lethem and Richard Ford - in the book, NOT QUITE WHAT I WAS PLANNING: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure.
Please welcome Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser, editors of SMITH Magazine and the folks behind this weird and wonderful book!
Tell me about SMITH Magazine. How would you define what it’s about and who your readers are?
Larry: SMITH is like a rollicking backyard barbecue. There might be a few famous writers milling around, but they’re just in the mix among the whole group. People are swapping stories, telling tales, and then bringing them back home and repeating the ones that stuck to them the most. Our tagline, which we repeat like a mantra, is “everyone has a story,” and that more than anything defines what SMITH Mag is about. We believe that storytelling should be egalitarian, accessible, and fun. On the site we’ve both made the barrier to entry extremely easy, and also made a point of showing that your words can be published right alongside some of the best-known writers of our day. Our storytelling playing field is a level one.
Rachel: Another thing I like to point out about SMITH is that it’s about personal storytelling in the interactive media age. Our “stories” aren’t just text - they’re YouTube videos, photo essays, podcasts, and serialized comics. There’s never been a richer time for sharing your quirks and obsessions with likeminded people around the world.
You just did a big re-design of the site. Want to share some of the new bells and whistles?
Larry: The biggest change is we’ve had a number of community tools (shameless plug: lovingly built by Ben Brown’s XOXCO company) that have nearly overnight helped us move from a more traditional magazine (editors assign and edit stories; some pieces come in over the transom) to a real populist storytelling community (the gates are more open). The stories are driven by readers, but curated by professional editors. We’ve set up “story projects” so that readers can pick a topic, write a story, make a headline, add a pullquote, include a picture, a hyperlink, and add tags if they like. Then we feature the best stuff but let everything else have a place on the table. Readers have profiles - “these are the stories I wrote, these are my favorite stories I’ve read,” that sort of thing. We’re creating an uncomplicated but we hope high-energy spot to tell and share stories. Some of our storytellers will just get a thrill out of seeing their words out there for the first time. Others will get book deals.
Rachel: And there’s still editor-assigned content - features on people with unique lives and obsessions, interviews with published memoirists. It’s interesting and entertaining like any magazine, and it’s inspiration for our community.
Do you see advantages to writers being published online vs. in print? And do you think blogging and online publishing has changed the nature of writing?
Larry: I think a couple things are happening which feed into each other. The gap between the cachet of print and online is closing: being published on a well-respected online magazine, or solely on the web site of a print publication doesn’t feel second-tier at all. At the same time, we expect more of our bloggers - better writing, cleaner copy, few factual errors. What’s more, your writing of course gets much more exposure if it’s on the web - I think my father is the last person in America to still clip and mail articles.
Rachel: A lot our pieces really belong on the web - you can click through to find out more about the people involved, watch an embedded video, or comment and get a response. I’m also really unimpressed by the hand wringing over the web making us less literate. Granted, I judge people harshly for “u,” use impeccable punctuation even in text messages, and consider emoticons against my religion. But as a society, I think we spend much more time reading and writing than we did pre-internet, and that blogs, and even emails and instant messaging, have encouraged people to streamline their use of language for the better.
Give me some examples of pieces you think really define your magazine.
Larry: When you break it down, SMITH features three kinds of stories: Reader-driven stories like the six-word memoirs; hybrid pieces, like Writing the Whip, the diary of a working dominatrix, which is essentially an edited and well-written blog; then we have pieces that are more or less assigned and handled in classic magazine style. These range from a photo essays and interview with Leonard Nimoy about his photos of large women to excerpts and interviews from new memoirs like Felicia Sullivan’s, recently posted in “Memoirville” to ambitious serialized webcomics like Shooting War (which became a book this past fall) and A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge (now in its ninth chapter).
It’s all linked by what we call “the chicken’s-eye view” - the perspective from the ground up - the individual take on the micro and macro world around him. In A.D., we tell the Katrina story by following the lives of five un-famous people over the course of the year; and, what the hell, let’s tell that story in comic form and include podcasts and videos of the real-life “characters” because, well, we can. Our love of personal narrative pushed us to create a storytelling community. Then we used the tools readily available to us and anyone with a laptop and decent net connection to lead our readers into a world of storytelling I don’t think any of us knew was so possible just a few years ago.
Rachel: Basically, it’s true, it’s personal, and it all opens a window into a part of the world you may not have thought about before. Above all, it’s a story that inspires you to tell one of your own.
Tell me something about the two of you outside of your work at SMITH.
Larry: To support my online storytelling habit, I work part-time for ESPN mag, where I used to be an editor. I also freelance for other places whenever I can, but there’s not much spare time, and don’t expect there to be soon, but that’s the deal with a startup, a deal I’d make again. I live with Piper Kerman, a woman I met 12 years ago and married two years ago (and whose own life story is being published by Spiegel & Grau later this year; it’s a good one). We are the only married people in our thirties in Park Slope without kids, however I do have a mild pregnant women obsession.
I also love yoga, have my weekly hoops game, and traveling. I managed to combine those three passions in a recent freelance piece for Men’s Journal. An editor called me and said, “Hey, don’t you know basketball and yoga?” - a sentence I never thought I’d hear. A few weeks later I was in Bora Bora doing a piece on a yoga retreat for pro basketball players - that’s as good I can imagine in my life as a freelancer.
Rachel: I also freelance write in time I don’t really have, and work at Housing Works Bookstore Café, an amazing nonprofit bookstore that raises money to fight AIDS and homelessness. It’s got all my favorite things - books, music, movies, wifi, coffee, and smart strangers to talk to. It’s a perfect counterpoint to staring at my iBook alone in my room for days at a time.
How did you come up with the idea of the six-word memoir, and how did that strange idea catch fire?
Rachel: There’s a literary legend that Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in six words and he came up with, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” We always liked that, but we’re living in a confessional, voyeuristic age, and doing memoirs seemed like the logical evolution. SMITH is all about telling your own story, so autobiography was a natural fit. It’s a fresh twist on a classic.
It caught on through the peculiar magic of the web - we partnered with Twitter, and their audience is people who like to write short messages and broadcast them. Then it was blogged to death and emailed around. In a few weeks, we had thousands of submissions, and we heard that teachers were assigning six-word memoirs to their students, families were trading them across dinner tables, and pet fanatics were writing them for their dogs.
Larry: It caught fire, we suspect, for a few reasons. Everyone has a story and everyone should have a place to tell it - for a year folks had been doing it at SMITH before we launched six words. But the six-word memoirs taught us a few things. For one thing, parameters are paramount - people appreciate guidelines. But I think the main reason people responded with such energy, passion, poignancy and humor to our six-word challenge is because we asked them. We said: Hey, we have Dave Eggers and Joyce Carol Oates’ six-word memoir, and you know what? We’d like yours, too.
Rachel: And the six-word format really lowered the bar to entry. People who might otherwise have said, “I’m not a writer,” or even just, “Who has the time,” said, “I can do that.” And once they started to, some of them couldn’t stop.
Did anything surprise you about the submissions?
Larry: The volume, for one. When we launched the six-word memoir as a challenge in November 2006, we had a solid growing, reader and writer base, but we weren’t such a huge site that we expected to get 15,000+ submissions in just a few months. From there, the intensity of so many of the memoirs took us by surprise - people really went deep in six words. This book is just over 800 of the more than submissions we received (and still receive on smithmag.net every day) and we could easily fill many more books without repetition or diminishing quality of the short, short life stories. So while we are huge believers in the power of storytelling, the power of just six well-chosen words really blew us away.
Rachel: I was most struck by the honesty. I couldn’t believe the things people were willing to say and attach their names to - that they didn’t love their spouses, regretted having their children, or even just how lonely they feel. I’m think people found it cathartic and somehow validating.
Having now worked to put a book together, what have you learned behind the scenes that you can pass along about editing, collaborating or publicity?
Larry: Your community are your best advocates. In our case, we have the SMITH community, but we have a brilliant subset of contributors to the book who are a truly passionate community. Part of the reason they’re so involved is that we kept them in the loop at every step. When we got a book deal for six-word memoirs, which obviously was not some huge deal, we had one request we insisted they abide by: every contributor gets a book. And 832 books is a lot of books, even for HarperCollins, which has been great to us. Each book represents an author, one whom we’re proud to have, and who seems proud to be a part of the book.
Rachel: Here’s my brutal honesty, in exchange for the honesty our contributors gave us: Editing a book like this is tons and tons of grunt work - at times we felt like our own interns. It’s dozens of spreadsheets and weeks of copy-pasting. It’s creating distro lists and mass emailing and answering the same questions a hundred times. Publicity is probably more work than making the book in the first place, and takes a whole slew of passionate people. If you collaborate on a book, at some point you’ll want to kill each other. And it is all so, so totally worth it.
Larry: And to some extent is chaos theory - we tried and are still trying everything. So it’s like: OK, let’s send out emails and snail mails to all the contributors. Let’s start a six-word Facebook group. Has anyone updated the MySpace page lately? Then we see that HarperCollins has created an ecard for the book - awesome, let’s get that going around. And while HarperCollins is trying to get us on The Today Show, we’re Twittering out one great six worder a day to our Twitter “followers”. So it’s a real mix of old school and new school, a professional PR team and complete guerilla style promotion.
But I don’t thing anything has gotten people more excited about what this book is all about, and how powerful six words can be than the video. One weekend SMITH co-founder, Tim Barkow, decided to take some of the memoirs and mess around. When he looked up 18 hours later, he had made this incredible video. We bought the rights to a catchy song for $25, synched it up, and voila, the six-word memoir video’s racking up views on YouTube.
And just to round out the insanity, when I see someone reading The New Yorker on the subway, I hand them a postcard for the book and say, “Hey, if you love storytelling, you’ll love this book; and lots of writers you read in that magazine are in it.” I’m sure I scare people, but I know that they would love the book if they pick it up. For $12, I hope they’ll at least find out if they do. That’s something like 2 cents a story, which is a little silly to think about, but, you know, we’re just are so excited about this little book. It’s a manifestation of everything we hold believe about storytelling: populist, accessible, fun, profound, and addictive.
Rachel Fershleiser has written for The Village Voice, New York Press, Print, and other publications. She’s SMITH’s memoir editor and lives in New York City.
Larry Smith founded SMITH Magazine on January 6, 2006, which was already National Smith Day. Most recently, he was the articles editor of Men’s Journal, and has been the executive editor of Yahoo! Internet Life, senior editor at ESPN magazine, and a founding editor of P.O.V. and Might magazines. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Wired, Popular Science, Men’s Health, Salon, and Slate.
Can you tell your life story in six words? Give it a try.
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Wednesday, the editors of Smith Magazine will be here to talk about the six-word memoirs they collected into a book called NOT QUITE WHAT I WAS PLANNING. Hope you’ll be back to join the conversation!
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Oh… and a reminder! Have you entered the Charles Shaughnessy Morning Song Writing Competition yet? I hope, if you haven’t, that you will today because it’s a fabulous opportunity to reach an entirely new audience with your writing. Also, any LitPark regulars who win the contest will win a prize from me!
Don’t know what this contest is about? Well, it was inspired by this song, written by LitPark guest, Robin Lerner and sung by LitPark guest, David Habbin. Listen to Morning Song, and think about some of the losses you’ve experienced in your life. Then write about one of those losses, with the emphasis being on anything positive you’ve gained because of it. Charlie explains this better here.
There has been one change to the original contest rules: the word limit is now 400 words. (You can read why the rule was changed over here.) If you entered when the word count was 200 and felt limited by that, you can enter again! The new deadline is March 17th, 2008. Rock out, guys. I can’t wait to award something all of you want to the winner!
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Oh, wait, for no reason at all (okay, okay, the real reason is to embarrass him), I am posting a photo of someone you regulars know very well… but maybe you’ve never seen him quite like this!
I am overwhelmed with gratitude. And speechless, for a change. So instead of sharing my thoughts from this week, I’m going to quote some of the people who participated in the amazing, world-wide LIAR’S DIARY Blog Day.
Today is the day that we, as a community of writers, show our support and encouragement for one of our own, Patry Francis, author of The Liar’s Diary. I remember how thrilled I was leading up to the publication day for my first novel. The idea of going from city to city and meeting people who had or would read my book was incredibly exciting, and I looked forward very much to that day in June. I cannot imagine what I would have felt if, after all the hard work writing the novel, editing it, meeting my publisher and publicists, and all the planning that goes into launching a novel, I discovered that I had cancer and that I would have to shelve all the plans that I had worked so hard for.
This is what happened to Patry Francis. I don’t know her personally, but I feel bound to her by our craft and by the deep and intimate love that we writers have for it. I am proud to be one of hundreds today to show support and encouragement for her. I urge you to visit her site and read her blog. And of course read The Liar’s Diary.
Health care professionals thought I had a mere two weeks to live. In 1999. I was so weak, I could barely lift my T-Square off my drawing table. When I attended my first and last book signing for “Chili-Chili-Chin-Chin,” the distance from my parking spot to the fairgrounds where my books awaited me seemed like the Long March. I needed to sit down every few steps in order to gather strength and breath. My voice—my “chi”—was a mere whisper.
The night I came home from the hospital to continue infusions at home, my great grandfather came to me in a dream and said I had no excuse to be in bed when I still had his story to complete. Today, nine years since that dream, I am my healthy self—new and improved ;) I am certain my deep desire to complete the manuscript kicked my body back on the path to life.
Patry, I know you have many more books to send out into the world. They are awaiting your return to vibrant health, stories that only you can tell.
Now that my legs are muscular and my voice strong and clear, I will be your legs and voice in helping you carry “Liar’s Diary” out into the world. I promise I will send emails to friends with the link to your webpage http://www.patryfrancis.com/ in the weeks to come. ~ Belle Yang, BABA: A RETURN TO CHINA UPON MY FATHER’S SHOULDERS
About two years ago, a galley of a debut novel called LIAR’S DIARY by Patry Francis turned up in my mailbox. I receive galleys all the time, and the author of this one was unfamiliar to me, so I had no reason to pay any special attention to it. Often I don’t have the time to even crack open the covers, much less read them. But this one had a seductive cover, and since I was headed up to Canada for a medical conference anyway, I threw the galley into my suitcase. A day later, sitting in my hotel room in St. Andrew’s, I started reading it. In straightforward but compelling prose, it opened quietly. No explosions, no murders, just a gnawing sense of domestic unease that grew more acute and more disturbing with every chapter. I was caught like a hooked fish and reeled helplessly into the story. I recall sitting in a seaside restaurant, my outdoor table facing the water, but my eyes glued to the page. The waitress who came to refill my water glass commented, “Wow, that must be a good book.”
Damn right it was.
I was delighted to give that book a blurb, and delighted to hear that so many other readers shared my opinion of it. Patry thanked me profusely and although we never met, we did exchange several emails. The book was released, Patry’s career as a novelist was launched, and I looked forward to seeing other books from her.
Then, on Patry’s blog, she recently revealed that her life had taken a sudden and devastating turn. She was diagnosied with an aggressive cancer, for which she had to be hospitalized. Although she’s home now, and her prognosis is good, naturally it’s her recovery that’s consuming her attention. Not the novel writing. Not anything as trivial as fictional stories and people who don’t exist.
She is coping with real life.
We writers often get so caught up in our fictional worlds that we forget our own lives and our own needs. It takes something like this — a real illness, a real crisis — to make us focus on what’s truly important.
Here’s to you, Patry. May you come back from this illness stronger than ever. May you go on to write many, many more books like LIAR’S DIARY. All of us — readers and writers alike — are rooting for you. ~ Tess Gerritsen, THE BONE GARDEN
I wasn’t really going to blog about Patry Francis today. I told myself that she had so many other amazing bloggers and writers in her corner, helping her celebrate and publicize the paperback edition of her book, The Liar’s Diary—what could I add to the discussion? In the grand scheme of things, my voice is very small. So I would sit on the sidelines and cheer for the important players on the field.
And then I realized—how utterly un-Patry like of me. She is someone I deeply admire in part because she has insisted on putting forth her words and her vision—even when she was a working mother struggling to balance the needs of her children with her writing. Even now after the diagnosis she received—an aggressive strain of cancer.
Last year, she fulfilled a long standing dream and published her first book, The Liar’s Diary, a psychological thriller about how the friendship between two women exposes dark secrets at the heart of their lives and families. Throughout the process of getting the book written and published, Patry shared much of her experiences and wisdom on her blog, Simply Wait. Those of us who are still writing, still dreaming, still hoping, found a champion in her…someone who had some of the same limitations, the same (or more) responsibility, the same STUFF that makes up a life, and who still realized her dreams through her talent and her tenacity. She’s such a vital presence in our creativity community, always ready with encouragement, humor, wit, perseverence, and breathtaking writing.
Patry has shown me that it doesn’t matter about the size of your gift, or your audience, or your voice.
It just matters that you open your mouth, pour out your words, and sing.
So, everyone, go out and support this amazing woman and writer. Go buy a copy of the newly published paperback of The Liar’s Diary.
Today, while stealing time for some all-too-brief blogrolling, I kept encountering the story of Patry Francis. There certainly were a lot of people blogging about her, so perhaps you’re familiar with this story too now. But, in case you aren’t, you can learn why today (er, yesterday now, as it’s past midnight on Wednesday) is The Liar’s Diary Blog Day.
I’ve been thinking about Patry Francis all day, thanks to her friends and the perfect strangers who’ve agreed to write about her. She sounds like a wonderful person, and I wish her the best of health and many years of productive writing. Patry Francis reminded me of something that, just now, I really needed to be reminded of, and that is the nobility of the struggle to create.
We all have things we struggle through, and yes, it can be easy to both dismiss our own challenges or to grow them into monsters and then cower under the bed. I don’t have all the details of your struggles, and you don’t have all the details of mine, but they’re not really necessary, are they?
My point isn’t so much about keeping things in perspective as much as it is about remembering to keep up the fight–and encouraging those around us to do the same.
At the end of the day, we’re the only ones who can decide how to make our dreams come true while continuing to work day jobs, take care of our families, maintain friendships.
Patry proves it can be done. Patry proves it should be done. Today was about Patry’s fight for so many people, but, more than that, it was about everyone who struggles to type a line of dialogue that doesn’t sound fake or get a description down on the page that does justice to the image in your head.
So it’s not saving the world. (Except I’ve got a theory that says that it is, actually, doing just that on a small scale, every day. I can make these kinds of sweeping, arrogant statements, not because I’m a writer and I think my work is going to change the world, but because I’m a reader, and I’ve read books that have changed mine.) It’s not a waste of time, writer. It’s well worth the struggle.
I solemnly swore I wouldn’t buy any more books until I’ve whittled away at the bins of To Be Reads by my nightstand, but I’m bending that rule in honor of Patry, my own particular struggles, and yours, too. I ordered her book just now, and I’m bumping some things down the list so I can read it as soon as it gets here. The way I see it, Beowulf’s waited for centuries; it can hang out another few weeks.
And frankly, I don’t think I can stomach epic poetry right now–I’m in a liar’s diary kind of mood, you know? ~ Jennifer Duncan
This morning I sent out a mailing to the 4 or 500 people who read my political rants and forwards, only this morning, I urged them to buy Patry’s novel as a way of helping themselves and of helping her. I felt particularly good doing this, because I’ve been cranky of late about how a ‘virtual’ community is not really a community at all, and how much of the blather about the Internet is really self-congratulatory, and basically a very watery meal. A community brings you soup when you’re sick or buries you when you’re dead. They pick up your children from school when you can’t.
The deficiencies of the virtual community become stark to me when I consider that at this point in his Presidency, Lyndon Johnson was a broken man, unable to rule and exercise power, while George Bush, despite low double-digit approval figures, is still planning and conducting pointless wars and destroying the economy. The largest contributing difference to these two times is, to my mind, the internet and the unintended consequences of fragmentation. While we stay home, composing and forwarding political screeds, and blogging our asses off, the apparatus in Washington continues unabated.People are not “out in the streets”, or attending teach-ins, reveling in the visual affirmation of thousands of like-minded souls rubbing shoulders with them, demonstrating and practicing civil disobedience.
However, this morning, by linking Patry’s work to a far-flung community of disparate souls, by joining this conscious community effort, and by asking my “reader” friends to enter the world of Patry’s imagination, and support her , I felt the hard-and-fast line between virtual and actual communities soften and blur a bit. The blurring of hard and fast lines, reminded me, how in most cases, life presents itself as “both-and” and not conveniently as the “either-or” I try to bend it into. I’m grateful to Patry for being the occasion of that insight, and grateful to this community who have banded together to try and be of help to her. I’m grateful for the invitation (and occasion) to sit and re-think a bone-dry prejudice. A deep bow to all. ~ Peter Coyote, SLEEPING WHERE I FALL
You shouldn’t buy a novel because the writer has cancer.
You shouldn’t buy a novel because a writer is poor, or talented but unnoticed or has an abusive husband or lives in a besieged place.
You should only buy a novel because it’s good, and I know that Patry Francis’ novel ‘The Liar’s Diary‘ is good wrting and even better reading. I know because I read it and loved it and wrote about it a year ago when it was only in uncorrected proofs.
It’s a story of murder and love and betrayal (always a promising mix) but more than that, it’s a story with honesty and skill burned into every line.
And Patry Francis, whose book, ‘The Liar’s Diary,’ comes out in paperback today, does have cancer, and is fighting it with every ounce in her body — just as she fought to write when she was a waitress on Cape Cod with three kids and no hope of ever being published. It’s an aggressive form of cancer but Patry is an aggressive sort of woman who won’t let this bastard win without a fight down to the mat.
If you’re in the market for a good book today, and it’s my way of thinking that everyone should be… every day, follow this link to Patry’s website or to the place on Amazon where you can buy ‘The Liar’s Diary.’ It sounds a bit odd and silly; but I want to help a good writer write more. We writers are seen by others as grasping and greedy, unwilling to write kind things about others’ books unless we’re sure those books won’t pose a threat to our own.
That’s not true.
Or it’s not true for many.
The very best writers have mighty hearts.
Most of them whom I know have an excess of compassion for others who serve this demanding goddess.
And so, today belongs to Patry. More than 200 other authors are mentioning her today, in their blogs, as well. I’m only one of them, but proud to be. ~ Jacquelyn Mitchard, THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN
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Now, many of you know I told Patry not to comment on every blog and every post because the whole purpose of this was to allow her to rest and focus on her health. But, okay, Patry has really wanted to say something to all of you, so here she is…
Talk about spinning heads! When I first wrote about my illness, I decided that if I was forced to drink an ounce of pain and trouble, the only answer was to counter it with two ounces of bliss. Little did I know that through all of you, I would consume a whole case of it. As a consummate daydreamer, I’m in awe of Sue, Laura, Karen, Jessica, Tish, my agent Alice, Sue’s agent, Dan, the folks at Backspace and Red Room and Circle of Seven Video and so many others who envisioned this day, pooled their resources and really made it happen. To them, and to all of you who have responded with such amazing generosity, I send a bottomless case of gratitude. Huge thanks and love to all of you. ~ Patry Francis
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Thank you.
I’ll see you Monday for a new Question of the Week.
Today, over 300 bloggers, including bestsellers, Emmy winners, movie makers, and publishing houses have come together to talk about THE LIAR’S DIARY by Patry Francis. Why? To give the book the attention it deserves on its release day while Patry takes the time she needs to heal from cancer.
Before I talk about this book, I’d like to tell you a story about how this extraordinary day happened.
First, you need to know something about Patry Francis.
What if you worked for years as a waitress and then went home at the end of the day to your husband and four kids, and in those rare minutes of free time, you dared to dream that one day you might write a book? This is the story of my friend, Patry - a story that leaves out years of false starts, revisions, and rejection slips. It’s a story that writers know intimately, though the details are different. Every one of us is well acquainted with the struggle of getting a story on paper, of honing it and believing in it enough to send it out, only to receive rejection, or worse, silence for our efforts.
Imagine, after many years, you beat the odds. You finish that book. You find that agent who sells your manuscript. Your dream is about to become a reality. But just as your book is due to be released, you discover you have an aggressive form of cancer.
Patry’s story struck such a deep chord with many of us, not just because she is our friend, but because those of us who know her or read her blog have relied on her company through the ups and mostly downs of trying to write and sell a book. She is our buoy. She has shown us time and again her great gift for shedding light in the dark. Even her blog post about her cancer showed this - in her greatest time of need, she was still somehow comforting all of us and showing us glimpses of joy.
On New Year’s Day, or thereabouts, Laura wrote to me, calling my attention to Patry’s publication date. “Perhaps we could do a ‘Patry Francis/Liar’s Diary’ blog-o-rama or carnival or something to promote the book?” she wrote. “I’m such an amateur at this stuff that I don’t know what’s possible.”
I didn’t give a moment’s thought to what we might try to pull off, or how; I simply said, “Yes! Let’s do it!”
It’s very important to me that Laura is recognized for her initial gesture - not just because she’s a great and generous woman, but because it says something about the strength of the heart over the kinds of power most of us are without. When you see the amazing outpouring of support and the high-profile people who joined this effort, remember it started with one small voice.
What began as a personal gesture of caring for a friend became an astonishing show of community - writers helping writers; strangers helping strangers; and most surprising of all, editors, agents and publishers, who have no stake in this book, crossing “party lines” to blog, to make phone calls, and to send out press releases.
This effort has made visible a community that is, and has been, alive and kicking - a community that understands the struggle artists go through and rejoices in each other’s successes. It’s a community made up of many small voices, but - guess what? - those many small voices can create some noise. So while today is for Patry, it’s also a symbolic gesture for all of you who work so very hard for little or no recognition, for all of you who keep going despite the rejections, and for all of you who have had illness or other outside factors force your art or your dreams aside. We are in this together.
Answering the question of what is more powerful—family or friendship? this debut novel unforgettably shows how far one woman would go to protect either.
They couldn’t be more different, but they form a friendship that will alter both their fates. When Ali Mather blows into town, breaking all the rules and breaking hearts (despite the fact that she is pushing forty), she also makes a mark on an unlikely family. Almost against her will, Jeanne Cross feels drawn to this strangely vibrant woman, a fascination that begins to infect Jeanne’s “perfect” husband as well as their teenaged son.
At the heart of the friendship between Ali and Jeanne are deep-seated emotional needs, vulnerabilities they have each been recording in their diaries. Ali also senses another kind of vulnerability; she believes someone has been entering her house when she is not at home—and not with the usual intentions. What this burglar wants is nothing less than a piece of Ali’s soul.
When a murderer strikes and Jeanne’s son is arrested, we learn that the key to the crime lies in the diaries of two very different women . . . but only one of them is telling the truth. A chilling tour of troubled minds, The Liar’s Diary signals the launch of an immensely talented new novelist who knows just how to keep her readers guessing.
And now, here are Patry’s words, which I lifted off her blog: “Though my novel deals with murder, betrayal, and the even more lethal crimes of the heart, the real subjects of THE LIAR’S DIARY are music, love, friendship, self-sacrifice and courage. The darkness is only there for contrast; it’s only there to make us realize how bright the light can be. I’m sure that most writers whose work does not flinch from the exploration of evil feel the same.”
Ready to buy the book? Why not buy one for yourself and one for a friend? And if you like it, tell people!
Here are links to THE LIAR’S DIARY at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Powell’s. You can also buy directly from Penguin to save 15% (after you add the book to your cart, just enter the word PATRY in the coupon code field and click ‘update cart’ to activate the discount).
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A long list of thank yous.
You’re about to see a very long list of those who are taking part in THE LIAR’S DIARY Blog Day. I hope you’ll check out the links because some of these folks got very creative. For example, my friend, Aurelio O’Brien, made up these buttons and stickers:
Wow… to every one of you on this list! Thank you, so sincerely:
If I’ve accidentally left you off the list, or if you’ve just now decided to join us, drop a note in the comments section with a link to your blog. Every single voice counts!
My post will go up at midnight tomorrow, and you are more than welcome to take any text, photos, audio or video you like in order to make it easier to participate on the big day. Everyone who takes part will be linked to LitPark, and it is not to late to join us.
As a little surprise for Patry, a gift before the big day, here’s something she hasn’t seen this yet - it’s from her husband, Ted, who included in his letter this photo he’d taken of Patry at Skinner State Park, 25 years after their first date there.
One of the happiest days of my life was the day I met my wife, Patry Francis for the very first time. I had just moved to Northampton, MA after graduating from Penn State University and had stopped to eat lunch at a restaurant where she was working. It was love at first sight. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever set my eyes on and it took me about two months to get the courage to ask her out on a date. Little did I know at the time how she would transform my life from a shy, insecure, college grad into a happy and proud father and minister; a better and holier person. She has so many qualities I have tried to emulate and she continues to inspire me with her enthusiasm for life and her ability to enkindle others with her actions, as well as, words.
She taught me the meaning of compassion and has the ability to make everyone around her feel important no matter whom they are or what they do, especially the poor and least among us. She has been given a gift to see situations from the heart which she uses to help others bring out the best in themselves and no one is turned away who asks for advice or help.
She exemplified the meaning of sacrifice as she forfeited many years of her writing career to help support our family. Working the difficult and physically demanding job as a banquet waitress and raising our four children left her little opportunity to spend doing what she loved most, writing. She also put off her endeavor to get back into serious writing while I attended the seminary for five years. She never once complained always putting everyone else’s needs before hers, including mine.
In short, words can’t describe how lucky and blessed I am to have Patry as my spouse. She is a woman filled with love, peace, and goodness and every day I marvel and am amazed what an awe-inspiring twenty five years it has been to be with her. Of all the gifts I have been given in life, wonderful parents and sisters, four beautiful and talented children, the miracle of three special grandchildren (one more on the way), none have been greater than the day God introduced me to my beautiful wife.
Finally, I would like to thank Susan Henderson, Laura Benedict, Jessica Keener, Karen Dionne, Tish Cohen, Alice Tasman (the Best Literary Agent in New York) and *all of you* who are trying to help make Patry’s book a success. Yet again, we have been blessed to be part of such an inspiring community of talented writers and to witness the goodness and love that all of you have shown to Patry as she journeys through her difficult situation with cancer.
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See you at midnight tomorrow, and my sincere thanks to everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to help this dear friend and awesome writer! xo
I am deep into my second round of book edits, and I’ve been very busy helping to get things ready for THE LIAR’S DIARY Blog Day (which is Tuesday, January 29th), so I’m just going to give you a quick tour for the weekly wrap.
All of the public transportation I take funnels me through Penn Station.
I go through these doors all the time. Cars and cabs used to be able to pull up to the doors, but no more. Now there are enormous cement barriers to keep vehicles a good distance away.
Penn Station and Madison Square Garden are all in the same building, so if you time things just right, you can take a ride with a lot of drunken sports fans. This is not as bad as it sounds.
The thing you have to know about NY is that people are actually really friendly, but there are a lot of people and most are in a hurry, so if you walk slowly or stop to ask someone a question, you are going to make about 500 people late. You do not want to do that.
There are soldiers with automatic weapons everywhere in Penn Station. These guys are really nice and really bored so I always try to wave to them on my way to my favorite haunts.
My favorite stop inside Penn Station is Penn Books. Whenever I go there and browse the Literary Fiction and Staff Recommended shelves, I wonder if there’s enough time in my life to get through all the books I want to read.
I am not a health food nut, but I am totally addicted to the beet, celery and apple smoothie from this place. It stains your mouth a wicked red, so it’s something I’ll only get for the ride home.
I love the live music at Penn but rarely stop. Do you remember the story of Joshua Bell playing at the L’Enfant Plaza Metro Station? No one stopped for him either. (I’m told I quote this article too often, but it left such a big impression on me for a number of reasons. Read it if you get a chance.)
Oh! Before I call it a week, I just want to mention a strange something that happened to my son, Bach-Boy, who many of you know is not just a phenomenal little piano player but also scary-smart in math. [OOPS, HAD TO EDIT OUT SOME IDENTIFYING INFORMATION, SORRY] and now he attends a college math course two hours a week. Anyway, he was sitting in class at his normal public school when a letter was delivered to him from a very prestigious college. The letter noted an article in a newspaper that had mentioned him and said, ‘While it’s (WAY WAY!) early to think about college, we want you to consider our school and want you to know you can call anytime, etc. etc.’ When my son handed me the letter, which was of course all crinkled at the bottom of his backpack, we both just busted up laughing. Every day after school, Bach-Boy and I go on a walk together. That day, we talked about his excitement about the release of DIARY OF A WIMPY KID, 2 because, right now, that’s way cooler to him than going to college.
My guest today, Dan Passamaneck, is going to take a slightly different angle on this question and will give his five reasons why it’s important to notice what’s going on around you. If you want to add to his list, feel free.
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1. It’s interesting. Noticing things helps me through life’s boring moments. Every so often I’m stuck killing time. I may be commuting, on a layover, whatever - I’m just waiting for the next official “thing.” But if there are people around me doing pretty much the same as I am, somebody typically gets into an argument or has a strange quirk or is just somehow provocative. It’s fun to watch these people. It helps me pass the time. I see things all the time like this that I could never have imagined on my own; other things happen that are so incredibly hackneyed that I’m hesitant to write about them for fear of coming off as unimaginative. I also think that attentiveness makes my writing more interesting to read. I’m more confident as a writer when I’ve seen what I’m talking about with my own eyes. That confidence supports a more vigorous narrative, which makes for more interesting reading. At the same time, my world expands immeasurably when I keep my eyes open, and that in turn makes my writing richer and more varied. Finally, writing as clearly as I can about my day-to-day experiences life helps make it possible to share them with others as well. These events become part of another person’s life. Honestly, I think that’s pretty interesting all on its own.
2. It’s inspirational. What happens out on the streets is poetry to me. Yes, most of it is pretty awful poetry, but some of it actually turns out to be very moving. I’m regularly seeing things that make me feel compelled to start writing immediately, just so I don’t forget the details. Phrases and figures of speech come to my mind that have never occurred to me before, because I’m seeing things I’ve never seen and they demand an ongoing expansion of my descriptive faculties. I’m inspired thematically by the sheer range and intensity of things that happen all around me, and I’m inspired by the technical challenge of reducing these experiences in all their fullness to a static written format. The exercise of attentiveness has been inspirational for me on a personal level, too. All kinds of things I’ve noticed have moved me very deeply – both in positive ways, and very much otherwise. But they aroused something within me, encapsulating some shade of truth with such eloquence that writing about them almost felt like a spiritual act. When I’m writing like that, the words seem to write themselves. This is the most powerful form of artistic inspiration I have experienced.
3. It improves my writing. I consider this to be true both in terms of mechanics and in terms of resonance. On a mechanical level, training myself to notice things has (big surprise) sensitized me to new things to write about, coaxing me out of comfort zones and into areas that otherwise would not have emerged in my work. I don’t have to make things up, or when I do, they’re made up out of something that had been stuck on the tip of my tongue until I’d come back to it a dozen or more times. That evolving appreciation for the story makes the process of writing more enjoyable and more fulfilling for me. Events seem more meaningful and I find more to say about them. To me, this feels like better writing. I guess I’m open to alternate viewpoints on that one.
4. It’s just handy. Putting aside the almost tangible benefits that I derive from noticing things as a writer, it’s a useful skill to have in general. I can be really absent-minded sometimes, and noticing some random detail can help me later on to remember something of critical importance, like where the car is parked or how to get home after a party. This lets me come off looking like a hero, even if only on a very modest scale. Names, recipes, directions, the news… there’s just so much out there to pay attention to, even excluding all the things I might want eventually to write about. People are flattered if you notice what they’ve got on their office walls or on their desks. People are appreciative when you draw their attention to the special tray of good pastries hiding behind the counter at the coffee shop. The world is full of things worth noticing, large and small, for both practical and frivolous reasons. When I keep my eyes open I almost always see something that I’m glad, eventually, that I noticed.
5. It helps me write more meaningfully. I care about my impact on the planet, and what my country is doing around the world, and the significance of my work, and also about my next door neighbors and the stranger in line behind me at the post office. All these relationships ultimately connect to each other. When I’m able to keep them all in view and to gauge my own actions accordingly, I feel that I’m doing my best as a person and (if I’m writing at the time) as a writer. Noticing things, and then working them over until I’ve written them up properly, helps me to identify big themes in small events. That’s a good way for me to remain mindful of whatever is really going on around me, and incorporate it into my life as a whole and into my writing in particular. If I do it right, this holistic connection I sense between the small story and the big picture comes through to the reader and becomes something the reader can share with me – which is itself yet another connection, overlaid upon all the rest. I consider this to be “meaningful” writing: writing that says something sufficiently real to forge a relationship with the author and a change in the reader. Affecting these changes in the reader is one of my chief goals as an author. To these ends, I find that noticing isn’t just useful – it’s indispensable. Lucky for me, it’s become such an ingrained habit that I couldn’t give up if I had to. It’s too much fun and I get too much out of it. I like keeping my sensors wide open. It does take a bit of energy, but I find it’s really worth it.
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Bio:
DANIEL PASSAMANECK is a California mensch. Born at the lull between the Baby Boom and Generation X, he grew up in the San Fernando Valley as the son of a professor of talmud and a children’s librarian. He started writing poems and jokes in the second grade and has been using words as playground and therapy ever since. He received a BA from Penn in communications behavior, took a year off as an intern for Knots Landing, and then attended Loyola Law School in Los Angeles for his JD. He then moved to San Francisco and practiced civil litigation for seven years before parting ways with the legal profession, citing unreconcilable differences. He transitioned to fundraising for a local animal shelter, and then moved to a position administering grant programs for the State Bar. “It’s a good gig. I give away money and everybody has to be nice to me.” Writing for his own gratification, he started blogging as an experiment and now has been posting essays, stories, recipes, poems, photographs and assorted fluff to his site, The Chucklehut, since 2002. A selection of these essays - true stories from public transit, the streets, and the stores - is being polished up as an anthology, so if you know a publisher who wants to get in on the ground floor, drop him a line. Dan lives within earshot of the San Francisco Bay foghorns with his wife Kelly, who is a guide dog trainer and instructor, and also with their son Zachary, who is unbearably cute.
What mode of public transportation do you take most often? And tell a story of one of those travels.
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Wednesday, Dan Passamaneck will be here. Dan runs the compassionately observant and heartwarming blog, The Chucklehut, and his book proposal called FELLOW TRAVELERS is about the people he observes while taking public transport around the Bay Area. Hope you’ll stop by and play Top 5 with him!
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Oh, and P.S., Today’s a great day to listen to this speech - both to celebrate how far we’ve come, as well as to consider the work we have yet to do.
It’s been absolutely killing me not to share this news. But I’m going to have the amazing Lance Reynald do the honors. I am so very happy for him, you have no idea! Here’s Lance…
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This week’s wrap seems such a hard one to start. It feels as though it’s such a long one coming, but it really isn’t. Still, I find myself floundering around looking for some point of origin for the crazy fortuitous journey to begin.
It certainly isn’t a secret around the Park that I really love our craft. In all it’s wild and crazy forms. Everything from some of the classics to the craziest and most random of the bloggers. I find inspiration, insight and some spark within most of it.
A few years ago I started tinkering around in Bloggsville. It gave me a place to explore my writing and get some feedback here and there from what I found to be a compassionate and understanding audience. Initially hidden behind a series of quirky screen names and odd profile photos I overcame a certain timid nature and used the medium to find my voice. The worlds of Journalspace, Blogger and a few others I can’t remember and long ago deleted acted as an incubator for the style of writing I find has become recognizable as my own.
Now, a mild digression moment here. When I started all of this wild blogging the literary world didn’t yet understand the medium or what role it might play. All the writerly magazines dismissed it as a waste of time. I even had a few friends that we’re writers tell me not to invest my time and skills into something that wasn’t the actual “ work”. As though they all adhered to this unwritten rule that they were a breed apart from the common blogger; the writing done in the medium something less than their efforts. This view is still a riddle to me. It’s all words and audience somewhere isn’t it?
Now, this is where the naysayers should pay a bit of attention. Back when I still had fewer than 50 friends over at MySpace my roll call included a collective of memoirists, a major imprint, a handful of talented writers, literary organizations and of course, Jenna Jameson.
They all said serious literature would never catch on in Bloggsville.
Hmm? (how serious are we talking.)
In April of 2006 I added my most valuable friend to that MySpace page. A friend that would help me find a novel in the random blogposts. A friend that would offer unwaivering support to an idea, a dream. A friend that would connect me to some of the most talented writers working with the craft today. The friend that would quickly move from a shared love of thunderstorms to having the affectionate nickname of “the wondertwin”.
It was the wondertwin that saw the very first copy of Pop Salvation. She gave me the push to take it from a few insane blogposts that left my readers mute into a novel length debut.
Certainly, there are a few people in my life that made the growth of the novel possible. But, Susan Henderson is the one that I’d credit with actually pushing me to limits of my own potential with this one. She’s the support that resulted in the book’s completion. That support isn’t just about our friendship, it’s about a passion for our craft. A friendship born in Bloggsville, with a steady foundation here on this page you’re visiting.
Working with friendships, taking chances here and there, taking heed some of the conventional wisdom and doing it my way anyway? Admittedly, I am a bit of a workhorse, and not a patient one at that. Susan can vouch for me there. She saw the first copy of Pop in early October and my worries about what it would do followed soon thereafter. We’re always our own worst critics though.
I don’t have the typical story with this one. I can’t tell you the tale of swimming in the slush pile and having a wall of rejection letters. I queried three agents informally via e-mail and sent along the first 40 pages. I didn’t hear back from a single one of them. Doubtful any of them have seen a single word. No contact is certainly no rejection. One thing I learned about my patience over the past few months; no form rejection letter means they haven’t even found the time to look at you.
I relied on friendship and the strength of my work here at the park to get my foot in a door. I’ve learned that there is a certain code, or compassion, among writers.
When we can, we help one another.
I’ve had a lot of help in the past two years.
I asked one of those friend’s what his advice was regarding how to send my little book out into the world. His response to my worries about the conventional wisdom,
“what’s to lose… at worst you’ll get a form letter back.”
Being ever the rule breaker and anarchist at heart, that was just the push I needed to do exactly what I wanted to do. Was that sneaking in the back door or just a bit of luck on the DIY approach I apply to most of my life? Who knows? It worked.
Pop Salvation ended up exactly where I wanted it. The imprint my gut told me would be the best home for it. Getting it there was through hard work, determination and the friendships built right here in the Park.
So, to all of you and especially to the Wondertwin, Thank You. I wouldn’t have done it without such a great bunch of friends and such a lovely playground.
Now, I’m off to bust out some edits and get this beast on the shelf for you kids in a year or so. I can’t wait to see what it all looks like then!
Photo credit: 
Photo credit: 
THE LIAR’S DIARY in paperback.
THE LIAR’S DIARY in hardcover.
