Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Non-Fiction
Approximate word count: 25-30,000 words
Availability
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on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or
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Author:
Novelist
Lauren Baratz-Logsted’s family is full of authors. She has written numerous
books (I don’t have enough fingers to count them) aimed at adults, young
adults, and children. Her husband, Greg
Logsted, writes young adult novels. With daughter Jackie, the entire family
collaborates writing the Sisters Eight series, for kids.
For more,
visit Baratz-Logsted’s website.
Description:
“Just what
the title promises! Thirteen disrespectful interviews with authors, including:
Chris Cleave, Jon Clinch, Tish Cohen, Joseph Finder, Kristy Kiernan, A.S. King,
J.A. Konrath, Greg Logsted, Lisa McMann, Lynn Price, Lev Raphael, Adriana
Trigiana...and Lauren Baratz-Logsted - discover new favorites and see some of
your favorite authors, like you've never seen them before!”
Appraisal:
What is the
point of author interviews? I have a website where the majority of the new
content consists of author interviews from a standard list of questions, so I
better come up with a good answer, right? As a reader, knowing more about your
favorite authors could make you a bigger fan. (Isn’t this the same as all the
TV shows and magazines devoted to actors and entertainers? Aren’t authors like
rock stars to readers?) For authors we aren’t familiar with an interview can be
like an audition. While they’re trying to sell you on reading their book (the
author’s reason for doing the interview), you’re looking at how he or she words
their answers. How they express themselves in interview answers could
reasonably be expected to be the same as in their books. Do you like their
sense of humor or find them to be insightful? Or is their verbiage convoluted?
Other authors may enjoy author interviews for the opportunity to compare
experiences. However, coming up with unique questions if you’re conducting the
interview or, for the author, answering the same old questions without using
the same old answers is tough. Which is where this book comes in.
Baratz-Logsted
originally did these interviews for the defunct literary e-zine BiblioBuffet. The premise was that she’d
ask questions that are different and at times disrespectful. By shaking things
up with the questions, maybe it would get some different and more entertaining
answers as well. To give you an idea of what this means, here are a couple
example questions:
There have been several authors
who’ve turned out to be one-hit wonders. Margaret Mitchell and Harper Lee are
the two that spring most readily to mind. How about you – planning to be a
one-hit wonder, or do you have something else up your sleeve?
I see here that “The Dust of 100
Dogs” is classified as a Young Adult novel. Care to comment on why you didn’t
write it as a real book – you know, one for adults?
The answers
were (as they should be) more entertaining than the questions. One of my
favorite answers was J.A. Konrath talking about the worst review he’d ever
received. He ended with this comment:
Those who can’t do, teach. Those who
can’t teach, critique. Those who can’t critique well, work for “Kirkus.”
I enjoy
humor with a touch of irreverence, so this was a fun read for me. Prior to
reading these thirteen interviews, I’d read a book from only one of them
(Konrath) and heard of two others, Joseph Finder and, having this book in hand,
I’d also heard of Lauren Baratz-Logsted. (Yes, she interviews herself, and the
disrespect between interviewer and interviewee is shocking.) The acid test is
whether, after reading these interviews,
I am interested in reading books from some of those who were
interviewed. The answer to that is a resounding yes.
Format/Typo Issues:
No
significant issues
Rating: **** Four stars
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