Jan Ellison

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Archives for December 2015

Dec 10 2015

The Mania of the “Best of” Lists

A Small Indiscretion has been included in the long list of 86 titles culled from the year’s finest fiction, a few of which will make the cut for the short list and be entered into Tournament of Books 2016.

I am thrilled with this news. I am grateful to whoever it was who placed me among so many authors I admire, and I am relieved not to have been overlooked. I am also dismayed that so many fine books are not on this or any other list; I am appalled that we look to lists to tell us who’s worthy, and who is not.

The post with the long list for the Tournament of Books 2016 asks readers to vote on their favorite work of fiction published in 2015, whether it’s on the list or not. Favorite, not best. That’s a step in the right direction. But when I asked myself that question–what was my favorite work of fiction published in 2015?–I was stumped.

Why? Because any book I read from beginning to end is my favorite while I’m reading it. If I’m drawn in by the voice, if I’m delighted by the sentences, if the characters feel human, if I even once pull out my pen to underline, then the book is worthwhile. And a worthwhile book will always be a favorite, because it has given me one of the most meaningful experiences of living, one unlike any other, the gift of being lost in a novel.

Asking me to choose a favorite book is like asking me to choose a favorite among my four children; they are all my favorites. Each has challenged me, surprised me, delighted me, disappointed me, made me laugh, made me cry, blessed me with immeasurable, and particular, joy.

We are a society that loves to compare, to rank, to win. There’s no way around it. But I would like to say to every single one of the writers out there who managed to pull off the improbable feat of finishing a novel and publishing it in 2015: You are a favorite. There are readers out there for whom your book mattered, not because it was the best book (there is no such thing as a best book, just as there is no such thing as a best child), but because it meant something to them personally; it moved them, it reminded them, it let them leave their own life for a little while and enter a different world. It gave them joy.

May you all have holidays full of novels and joy.

Jan

p.s. At the risk of an unforgivable duplicity: If A Small Indiscretion was the only novel you read this year (maybe because it was written by your best friend/wife/old flame/daughter/cousin/niece/neighbor), and it was a memorable reading experience, then by all means throw in a vote. That’s the equivalent of voting that your only child is your favorite.

http://www.themorningnews.org/post/vote-for-your-favorite-novel-from-2015

Written by admin · Categorized: Publishing · Tagged: A Small Indiscretion, compare, favorite child, mania, many fine books, Tournament of Books

Dec 02 2015

The Good, the Bad and the Mortifying of the Book Tour

The first question friends asked when I announced that my book was to be published was whether I’d be going on a book tour. I asked my publicist the same question. Her carefully practiced response was that Random House was very excited to orchestrate an extensive local tour, but they didn’t plan to send me anywhere outside driving distance (and they wouldn’t be paying for my gas). So much for the glamorous writing life.

The Good: Random House did arrange dozens of events and I read at Indie bookstores all over the West Coast. Friends and family came out and cheered me on and put me up, invitations rolled in from book festivals, writing conferences and charity organizations. Since January, I’ve chalked up nearly fifty events, with audiences ranging from 3 to 300, including stops in L.A., San Diego, Seattle, Bellingham, Missoula, Minneapolis, Boulder, Napa, Mendocino, Sacramento, and Burning Man. I’ve done 20 local book groups, and my book was picked by the San Francisco Chronicle for their members only Book Club, moderated by the paper’s Book Editor. I spoke at my kids’ school, my high school, and a school for disadvantaged youths in Newark, New Jersey. I’ve done virtual events and podcasts and radio spots and newspaper interviews. I overcame my fear of public speaking and learned that I love to talk to people about writing and literature. I lost ten pounds from the stress of it all. I made lots of new writer friends. I managed to get through it without a single case of bed bugs, all but one event was well attended, and my kids still more or less remember who I am. I learned that people still care about language and stories and authors and books.

The Bad: 
I gained back the ten pounds from the stress of it all. I got behind on writing and life. I worried about what to wear and spent too much money on new clothes. I missed home. At book festivals and conferences, I often had that adolescent feeling of being the newcomer, the only one who wasn’t reuniting with old friends. At a festival in Missoula, I had an interior room at the Holiday Inn with a window that looked out not at big Montana sky, but at the Book Fair at which my book was for sale. It became a perverse pass-time to watch potential readers picking the book up, reading the jacket copy, then putting the book down and moving on.

The Mortifying:
I was invited to do an event at a beer garden in Sebastopol. Random House put me up in a hotel. The hosting bookstore sent three booksellers who set up an elaborate display, including a huge stack of books, a custom poster, and a microphone and lectern in an alcove of the beer garden. A new writer friend and her sister arrived and bought books, and one other person sat down. We waited ten minutes, but nobody else came. Patrons of the beer garden looked at me curiously as I began to speak, figured out I was an author, and went back to their pints. The silver lining: there was beer, and afterward, the writer, Sere Halverson, stayed on and commiserated. We’ve remained friends, and we’re planning a joint event next year when Sere’s wonderful new novel, All the Winters After, is released. Rest assured, it won’t be in a beer garden.

Literature Lover’s Giveaway

“Advice for wives circa 1896: The indiscriminate reading of novels is one of the most injurious habits to which a married woman can be subject. Besides the false views of human nature it will impart . . . it produces an indifference to the performance of domestic duties, and contempt for ordinary realities.”
—Dept. of Speculation, by Jenny Offill

Congratulations to November’s book-bag-scarf giveaway winners, Kristen Spain and Julie Galvin.

December’s Giveaway is a signed copy of A Small Indiscretion along with four highly acclaimed novels from 2014:

  • Life Drawing, by Robin Black (my personal favorite novel of 2014)
  • Ruby, by Cynthia Bond (Oprah’s Book Club Pick)
  • Frog Music, by Emma Donoghue (Author of Room, now a major motion picture)
  • The Paying Guests, by Sarah Waters (short-listed for the Man Booker Prize)

The one thing to do on Sunday for a stress free week

I thought I’d share an essay I published on MindBodyGreen about transforming worry into action. It seemed to resonate with readers, as it was shared nearly 5,000 times. I hope some of you will find it helpful as the holidays approach and our frantic lives grow even more frantic: The One Thing You Need to Do on Sunday for a Stress Free Week.

Dept. of Speculation, by Jenny Offill

I devoured Jenny Offill’s second novel, Dept. of Speculation, in one day, and cried over it eating my lunch. A novel narrated by a novelist, other writers, especially, will love it for the liberties it takes with structure and point of view. Readers will love it for the vulnerability, wit and intelligence of its narrator as she unfolds, in quirky, richly drawn fragments, the story of a marriage as it moves toward a crisis point. Read the New York Review of Books review.

Written by admin · Categorized: Publishing · Tagged: book tour, Cynthia Bond, Dept. of Speculation, Emma Donoghue, Jenny Offill, MindBodyGreen, Robin Black, Sarah Waters, Sere Halverson, Stress Free Week, writing life

Featured Radio Interview

Jan interviewed by Mark Perzel


WVXU Cincinnati 91.7, The Book Club
March 25, 2016

Featured Video

Jan and other featured authors at the Pasadena Festival of Women Authors


Pasadena Festival of Women Authors
Pasadena, California, April 9, 2016

Featured Interview

Every Notebook, Photo, and Letter: Jan Ellison interviewed in American Short Fiction

Interviewed by Rachel Howell
July 12, 2016

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