The Two Mikes walk with tender feet into author/listener Jesse Livingston's AThousand Lifetimes in an Hour. They get all meta on each other's asses and decide that it might be just fine to end the world . . . well just for the evening. Check the comments on episode 72 if you'd like a link to Jesse's audiobook.
COCKTAIL TIME!
The Black Squirrel
1 Shot Creme de Cacao
1 Shot Kaluha
I Shot Creme de Noyaux
I Shot Dark Chocolate Sauce
2.5 shots Half and Half or Cream
Shake with ice, strain into a martini glas and garnish with a nut of some sort.
End Music: In The Night Room.
Posts
6 comments:
Dear Mikes,
I just want to sincerely thank you again for reviewing the book. I finally got a chance to listen to the episode. I've been buried with work since it came out, and – if I'm honest – I may have been a little nervous to hear it; but I found the experience to be both delightful and hilarious.
I think you guys tend to sell yourselves short as reviewers. You may make fart noises sometimes, but the points you make pretty much hit the nail on the head:
1.) It's a messy novel which prosthelytizes quite a bit. It's also a very “young” work that experiments with various styles, some of which probably aren't successful.
2.) It's absolutely an amateur effort, inasmuch as I did everything myself – the writing, reading, recording, engineering, production, music, etc. The only editing it underwent was my own, with a few suggestions from my brother.
3.) It's quite a bit like an album of songs. I come from a musical background, and I think I approached it in exactly that way. One of you said that it's basically a “concept album,” and that's probably the best description of the style you could ask for.
I'm very proud of the book, and also very amused that you guys had opposite experiences with it. I think you found ways to discuss its merits and frustrations that were both positive and insightful. I especially loved the meta/meta thing; that was brilliant and spot-on.
One thing that I hadn't really thought about was the different experience that the audio version would provide, as opposed to the print version. I'm someone who literally can't focus when I try to read something in print, so I listen to all my books in audio format. Through various circumstances, I ended up losing the newer draft I read from, so I'm still in the process of going back through it to make sure the draft on my computer matches up with the audio. I'll send you guys a copy of the print version (as I should have to begin with).
If you're all right with it, I'd like to use some of your quotes to promote the book online, etc. Specifically, I'm thinking of: “It's better than Two and a Half Men.”
Joke! Seriously, though, I would like to quote you if that's all right.
Thanks for trying to wrap your heads around my writing. If this really is the one and only time you guys review a listener's book, then I'm doubly honored that it was mine. Your honesty and thoughtfulness is very much appreciated.
Jesse
One objection I have with the boo is all the characters sound the same to me. They do not do the same things but if you removed the names , I would never be able to tell the difference bettween them.
Well, they are supposed to be different aspects of one person's mind. Does that help?
Yes, please do release a text version. Mike's point about going back and making connections is dead on. And it sounds like a pretty dense piece (I only listened to the first two sections).
How awful that you lost the final draft! Wasn't it Hemingway who left a ms. on a train, never to be recovered? Or Thomas Wolfe?
A writer who can't focus on long pieces of text? You are one odd duck!
But then, horror writers should be, in my opinion. And your one-man-band obsessiveness, particularly, is to be applauded.
As are your quirky intellect and imagination, of course.
As I mentioned in my earlier comment, just slowing down would enormously help your reading performance.
Actually, I heard that Hemingway lost an entire trunk filled with unpublished writing! Gertrude Stein apparently convinced him it was a blessing in disguise. Also, Earl Mac Rauch once sold a car with an early draft of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai under the seat.
What happened with me was that I printed out a final version of the manuscript and then somehow lost the computer file. So, I've got the final version on paper, but not in digital form. I've gotta go through an older digital version and make all the corrections again.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. It nice to get people's reactions.
Post a Comment