ANN PATCHETT ON WRITING NOVELS

Ann Patchett by Heidi Ross

Oh dear - this is so true:

'When I can’t think of another stall, when putting it off has actually become more painful than doing it, I reach up and pluck the butterfly from the air. I take it from the region of my head and I press it down against my desk, and there, with my own hand, I kill it. It’s not that I want to kill it, but it’s the only way I can get something that is so three-dimensional onto the flat page. Just to make sure the job is done I stick it into place with a pin. Imagine running over a butterfly with an SUV. Everything that was beautiful about this living thing – all the color, the light and movement – is gone. What I’m left with is the dry husk of my friend, the broken body chipped, dismantled, and poorly reassembled. Dead. That’s my book.' Ann Patchett

And the more 'hopeful' bit:

'The journey from the head to hand is perilous and lined with bodies. It is the road on which nearly everyone who wants to write – and many of the people who do write – get lost... Only a few of us are going to be willing to break our own hearts by trading in the living beauty of imagination for the stark disappointment of words.'

More here at Brain Pickings.

CHAPBOOK GIVEAWAY WINNERS

And the winners, as drawn by my lovely assistant, Finn, are:

Mary Lys Carbery - Ann Patchett's chapbook

Rachel Fenton - Mark Forsyth's chapbook

Congrats, dear, ladies.

Please send your addresses to me at nuala AT nualanichonchuir DOT com

LONDON RESEARCH TRIP PICS & GIVEAWAY

Between writing my novel-in-progress (NIP), nursing one chickenpoxed child, chasing one renegade mouse (caught and released) and various other shenanigans, I've been neglecting this blog.

I am also just back from London where I spent four days doing research for the NIP, which is set in Victorian London. I got back late last night after a flight delay, but it was a productive trip. There is nothing to match the thrill of going to an archive and being let handle documents that were signed by your characters. Or seeing new photos of them that make you look at them a bit differently. I'm grinning like a loon now thinking about all the valuable stuff I saw and did for the novel while in London. And I ate cake, oodles of it.

I did research here:

And while I was there I visited this pair, in honour of Wolf Hall:

Anne Boleyn

Thomas Cromwell

And these gents:

My main character liked to eat here so, naturally, I had to do the same:

Café Royal - window treats

Valrhona choc orange cake & tea

I also went to Kew to view documents - what an efficient, peaceful, wonder of a place the National Archives is:

 And while in Kew we ate in this lovely pub, where the halloumi on ciabatta was tdf:

Otherwise it was wandering, eating and even accidentally bumping into friend and fellow writer Kathleen Murray and her son across the road from here:

St Paul's Cathedral

Oh, serendipitously, we also stumbled upon the beautiful Royal Courts of Justice which feature in the NIP (which excited me no end):

And I found an Emily quote in the Bishopsgate Hall:

I bought books in Foyles refurbished place on Charing Cross Road:

Saw a grumpy kid off Brick Lane:

And an illusionist on Regent Street:

Plus iconic thingies, like The Gherkin:

I also bought two little essays on book shops, in chapbook form, to give away here, Ann Patchett's The Bookshop Strikes Back and The Unknown Unknown by Mark Forsyth. I'll post to anywhere in the world. Simply leave a comment and say which booklet you would prefer to win.

London was, as always, fab. I love the frenetic pace of it all, the mad Tube queues, the fantastic veggie food, the posh shops like Liberty, the abundant charity shops and markets, the beautiful Victorian square we stayed on, the Londoners who are so Londony they are almost like parodies of themselves. All of it is intoxicating, every time.

But it was equally lovely to be in my own bed last night, surrounded by silence, and to get back to the desk this morning armed with all I had learned about my characters, and their city. It proved a slow writing day (travel always distracts and unsettles me) but I'm hoping tomorrow will be more productive. Onward!

ANN PATCHETT ON HELPING OTHERS & HELPING YOURSELF

Writer Ann Patchett recently opened an independent bookstore, Parnassus Books, in Nashville, Tennessee (go Ann!). Patchett is, apparently, a  great supporter of emerging writers (good for her) and she had this to say in an interview on the One Story blog:

"Show kindness whenever possible. Show it to the people in front of you, the people coming up behind you, and the people with whom you are running neck and neck. It will vastly improve the quality of your own life, the lives of others, and the state of the world.

And while you’re at it, buy your books at independent bookstores and tell your friends to do the same because if we don’t take the lead, no one else will."

I agree with her and have been living by this 'helping' motto for ages. However I do meet a lot of writers who want to take but don't want to give. They bug me. But deep down, I realise, they are insecure and not much I do or say is going to change that. I have had my helpers who have given me work and opportunities and to whom I am really grateful, among them Patrick Cotter of the Munster Literature Centre and Gearóid O'Brien of Athone Library. So two men have helped me a lot but I make a personal point of helping other women writers as much as possible.

Ann Patchett's own mentor was Allan Gurganus and she said of him: "Allan Gurganus taught me how to write, which was extremely helpful. I tried to follow his example of hard work, though never came close to matching his sense of elegance and style. He was and is a very generous soul. I didn’t match him there either but he taught me a great deal. My favorite piece of Gurganus advice was that I must always steer the ship of my own career and not assume anyone else was looking after things as I would. If my name was on the book then I must agree with every aspect of it. This has been hugely important to me."

Steer the ship of your own career. It's so true. With Mother America out in a few weeks I have been busily setting up PR stuff in tandem with New Island. It makes for busy times (and no writing) but it's already starting to pay off. The busier I get with it all, the more offers I get (including out-of-the-blue ones). There is some sort of magic in the universe that rewards us (eventually). If we help others, we get helped back. Something like that anyway!