His basic premise about how to tell a story is to "make me care." We watch, we read, we stay and listen because we care. And we care because there's something there that intriguing, or compelling, or touching. We want to know what happens next."Drama is anticipation mingled with uncertainty."

Now that's a recipe for sucess if I ever heard one.

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Tammar

See more of them here.

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Tammar

With whom are you hanging out with, so casually discussing art, literature and meaning of life, you ask? Why, none other than Junot Diaz. Do I look a bit star struck? Naw, not me. He gave an amazing talk last week and was kind enough to hang out afterwards with all of us admirers, staying relaxed and down to earth with everyone.

His talk was full of salty language that he used like a scalple to cut through people's expectations and shyness.

"I won't shame you," he promised a woman as he asked her to stand up in front of everyone (there were maybe 200 people in the room.) She hesitated. "I won't shame you." And he didn't. She had asked him what a couple of Spanish words from his book meant. She couldn't find the definition anywhere. Once she stood up, he said, "could the someone in the audience who knows what those words mean find this woman after my talk and tell her?" It was such a charming way to handle an awkward situation (and one imagines that the words were totally x rated since he had no problem dropping about a hundred f-bombs in an hour.)

It was a great evening and I'm reading his Pulitzer prize winning novel The Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao. And it's pretty wow, too.

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Tammar

MY NAME: MIRIAM ABBOT-LEVY

What are you listening to right now?  The Story by Brandi Carlile

What time did you get up this morning? 7 am

What are you reading? The Bride’s Farewell by Meg Rosoff. We might start running book reviews in the paper. I’m pushing Frank to say yes.
         
What was the last movie you saw?  I can’t remember, isn’t that horrible? Probably something lame with Mo on TV.

What did you eat for breakfast?  Oatmeal with honey and tea.

 
What food do you dislike? Fried food. Tastes great but…you know.

What characteristic do you despise? Meanness.

Favorite item of clothing?  Emmett’s leather jacket.

If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?  Japan

What did you do last night?  Nothing exciting. It’s a work night, so I went to bed early.

What are you afraid of?  Failing the people I love.

MY NAME:  ARDEN VOGEL

What time did you get up this morning? 5:27 am, but I think that was yesterday? I'm kind of thrown with jet lag. I haven't really slept in 29 hours.

What are you listening to? New Soul by Yael Naim. She sings in English, French and Hebrew, it's a pretty awesom mix.

Diamonds or pearls?  Pearls, I guess.

What are you reading now?  The Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward. Katie started me on the first book. It’s like crack, you read one and you’re addicted.
         
What was the last movie you saw?  The Holiday. Now I’m dying to do a house exchange.

What did you eat for breakfast? Granola, fruit and yogurt.  

 
What food do you dislike? Fishy fish. Anything over-priced.

What characteristic do you despise? Pettiness

Favorite item of clothing? A bright red dress I bought in Italy.

If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?  No brainer, Italy. 

MY NAME:    MAYA LAOR

What are you listening to right now?  The Idan Raichel Project

What time did you get up this morning?   10:30am, aka, the crack of dawn

Diamonds or pearls?   Diamonds   

What did you eat for breakfast?   Coffee, toast and jam

What food do you dislike?   Watery tomatoes! How hard is it to grow decent produce?

What characteristic do you despise?  Lack of sincerity

What are you reading? Counselor by Ted Sorensen. Justin asked me to read it.

Favorite item of clothing?  Leather sandals that Hen sent for my birthday. That woman’s got taste.

If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?   There’s no place like Jerusalem. No place. 

What did you want to be when you were little? A unicorn.

How are you today? A little anxious. Huge exam today. It's the reason I woke up at the crack of dawn.

The first person you spoke to on the phone today? No one yet, thank God.

Summer or winter? Winter. Especially snow. (I think she's blushing, but it's hard to tell over email.)

Hugs or kisses? Kisses.

Chocolate or vanilla? Are you joking? This is a question? Chocolate, of course.

Coffee or tea? Again, what's with asking the obvious? Coffee. Coffee. Coffee.

When was the last time you cried? I don't want to talk about it.

What are you afraid of? Losing the ones I love. I will never stop fearing that.

Arden promised to get her answers in soon...

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Tammar

You still have to wait a bit before you can read it (Dec 1, to be exact), but at least you can now feast your eyes on the cover. Do you like it? Doesn't it look like a hot, muggy summer? (It's supposed to.)

For the first time in my writing life, I actually lived in one place long enough to write about it and Florida wormed its way into the novel like a second protagonist. When you live somewhere that has man-eating sink holes, dog-eating alligators, and cement-eating termites, it's not something that just slinks by unobtrusively. No. It makes itself known. It takes over the plot like an invasive air potato (yeah, we have that too, and they look exactly like innocent potatoes laying on top of the soil, except they're poisonous.)

I can't wait to share Spoils with you (and the free e-novella, Debts, that will come before hand.)

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Tammar

For two days, that line played on endless repeat in my head until finally, to make it stop, I wrote a short story about a young woman named Miriam whom the angels call out. When I finished the story, instead of feeling better, I felt like I'd only started. That short story grew up to be Kindred. Phew, right? Nope. Normally, I would be finished. In my previous two novels, once I finished writing and editing the book I was finished with the characters. As much as I loved them, we were all ready to move on. Not Kindred. Two years after it first appeared, the darned image of a terrible being appearing to some unsuspecting fool still hadn't left. There was more left to say.

For those of you have read Kindred, I'm sure you can feel it too. I certainly got enough emails about it. There was more to Miriam and Emmett and Mo. I outlined an entire sequel, but for various reasons, I didn't write it. Instead, I wrote a different story: two very minor characters from Kindred have their own story told set in the same world where angels appear to unsuspecting individuals as the devil messes with their complicated sibling.  I've finished writing this book and it will come out this year, probably December, as the companion novel Spoils. More on that on a later post.

But in the meantime, there's this gap between where Kindred leaves off and Spoils picks up and the connection between Miriam and Emmett to Leni and Gavin seems so distant as to be almost invisible. So I decided to do yet another new thing. I'm writing a novella, a bridge between Kindred and Spoils that tells a bit about what happens to Miriam and Emmett, the Florida tea shop owner Natasha, and the critical link between Tennessee and Florida.

My first readers are now taking a look at it and I plan to post it for free by Fall, 2013. I can't wait to hear what you all think of it once it's out and I dearly hope you enjoy it.

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Tammar

Don't believe me? Look here. I love this voyeuristic view into writers' homes, but no, I'm not posting one of me, naked, reading the paper. Sorry, Hemingway, most of us can't rock that look like you do.

I think it's a hoot that Rudyard Kipling wears a safari hat at home. You know, just relaxin'. Though I have to admit that his bookshelves are remarkably tidy.

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Tammar

(Found here.)

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Tammar