Aida Rogers Talks About her Next Big Thing

 

What is the working title of your book?

State of the Heart: South Carolina Writers on the Places They Love

What is the genre of your book?

Anthology of essays about places in South Carolina

Where did the idea come from?

I really was taken by the “My Kind of Town” series Smithsonian Magazine was running that featured writers from around the country describing the town/cities where they lived. I thought it might be interesting to narrow that focus from a town or city to an actual place, like a hiding place. Writers being thinkers, I thought their opinions would be interesting.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

South Carolina writers tell us why one certain place in the state is so special to them.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

It took about 2 and a half years to solicit,  gather, and edit essays, artwork and photos for the collection – and to get various stages of proofs back to the publisher ready for printing.

Who or what inspired you to write it?

Fascination with the topic itself, and curiosity about what different writers would say, and how they would say it.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

The anthology will be published by the University of South Carolina Press.

What other books would you compare this book to within your genre?

National Geographic published an anthology titled Heart of a Nation that included an essay by Spartanburg writer John Lane. John also contributed to State of the Heart. Heart of a Nation was about natural places in the country; State of the Heart was open to whatever different writers came up with—sports arenas and cafes, for instance.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

There are 35 essays, so I won’t try to do them all. Still, I’ll take some artistic license in terms of whether these talented souls are performing in this world or the next:

Brian Dennehy – Pat Conroy

Mary Steenburgen – Liz Newall

Diane Keaton – Ceille Baird Welch

Charles Durning – Billy Deal

Sissy Spacek – Robin Asbury Cutler

Geraldine Page – Dot Jackson

James Garner – Ken Burger

Alfre Woodard – Dianne Dinah Johnson

Andy Griffith – Kirk Neely

Jon Voight – Tom Poland

Teri Garr – Cindi Boiter

Donald Sutherland – Deno Trakas

What else about your manuscript might pique the reader’s interest?

Because I purposely didn’t suggest places to writers, I was very surprised by the places they chose, and the personal nature of some of them. Some writers chose to write about places that are no longer here, so younger readers will learn that when you erase a few decades from a place, you’re in some ways wandering through a foreign country. There is a lot of wisdom in these essays. Many of the contributors have experienced a lot in their lives, and through these essays, they honor people who have been very important to them.

The Next Big Thing by Don McCallister

 

Don McCallister talks about his Next Big Thing

What is the working title of your book?

Fellow Traveler

What is the genre of your book?

Literary

Where did the idea come from?

My experiences as a literal follower of the 60s rock band Grateful Dead, though through the lens of a latter-day, second- (or even third-) generation Deadhead.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Following the 1997 death of 60s music industry icon Rose Partland, two friends and acolytes of her Dead-like band, Jack O’Roses, must rebuild their lives.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Starting in late 2000 and for the next five years, I had a number of false starts and occasional abandonments of this project. I would go on to finish a first draft only after finally completing another novel that felt important enough to pursue, in 2005. For the next  seven years I wrote five other novels and a couple of dozen stories, but I’d occasionally re-visit Fellow Traveler, which was close to my heart, and eventually got it right enough to seek publication.

Who or what inspired you to write it?

The death of Jerry Garcia, my own last, disastrous Dead show (July 2, 1995 at the Deer Creek Music Theater outside Indianapolis), and the general curiosity I had about the sociological and multi-generation following that through the decades of their career grew and flourished around the band.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

The book is in print via Muddy Ford Press, available at their website, on Amazon and B&N.com. In addition to the print version there’s also a Kindle edition.

What other books would you compare this book to within your genre?

That’s a tough question. I will leave it up to readers to tell me what other novels the book recalls for them. From my own perspective, Fellow Traveler seeks to meld a Conroy-esque southern family drama and search for personal identity by the protagonist with a kind of didactic work aiming to enlighten laypersons about what is clearly a version of that complex and interesting Grateful Dead scene, in which at one extreme people abandoned entirely their straight lives to live on the road, while others, like me and the characters in the book, ‘worship’ their band in their own way, have sociological stratification, have ritual, have grief and pain over the loss of their musical icon. That’s a longwinded way of saying I don’t necessarily feel that Fellow Traveler is sui generis, but I think from that mix readers may see what a difficult proposition it is to pigeonhole FT as being like any other particular novel.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Maybe it’s because I just watched The Master, but I see Joaquin Phoenix as Aston Tobias Zemp, Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Brian ‘Nibbs Niffy’ Godbold, and Amy Adams as Aimee Pressgrove.

The Next Big Thing -- by Debra Daniel

Last Wednesday, local poet and creativity coach Cassie Premo Steele tagged me to write a blog post about my next big thing and this is what I came up with. As I was informed to do, I, in turn, tagged five other folks and asked them to follow the procedures set forth in The Next Big Thing meme, and I promised to publish their blog posts here. Well, a week has gone by and I'm delighted to have new blog posts from four of the five folks tagged -- fingers crossed on the last one, too.  I haven't read any of them yet and I have to admit that I'm pretty excited to see what my colleagues and friends are up to.

So over the next twenty-four hours Jasper will be publishing the posts that were generated in response to my tags. But we don't necessarily want this fun meme to end so soon.  We'd love to publish the posts of anyone tagged by the five people I tagged, too. Just send them to me at editor@JasperColumbia.com with "The Next Big Thing" in the title. And by the way, I wouldn't mind being tagged again -- I'm finishing up another really cool project that I'm itching to gab about!

Here's our first post from author and poet Debra Daniel.

What is the working title of your book? 

Woman Commits Suicide in Dishwasher

What is the genre of your book?

It’s mainstream literary.

Where did the idea come from?

I saw the headline in one of those grocery store magazines and my mind started to spin.  (Pun intended.)

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

First person interviews with Myrtle Graham’s family, friends and enemies attempt to explain and comprehend her bizarre demise while revealing their own secrets.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

I worked on the first draft for more than a year.

Who or what inspired you to write it?

I wrote the first chapter as a short story, but it seemed that Myrtle Graham herself inspired me to continue.  The rest of the story had to be told.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I’m hoping that Muddy Ford Press will love Myrtle’s story as much as I do and ache to finally make that woman come clean.  (Pun intended.)

What other books would you compare this book to within your genre?

I’m not sure I can compare it to anything out there.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Shirley MacLaine would be perfect as Myrtle.  Hal Holbrook as her husband, Hamilton.  Of course, Shirley could also play Madame Fouche, the ballet mistress.  Sally Field could play Ruth, the next door neighbor.  Uncle Joe would be Ed Asner.

What else about your manuscript might pique the reader’s interest?

The story spans time from pre World War II to the present.  As each person gives their interview, the pieces of Myrtle’s life fall into place until you hear Myrtle’s own agitation in the final chapter.