An interview with Author Leza Lowitz

by Greg H. (VOSTROMO)

LEZA LOWITZ has published more than fifteen books as an author, co-author, translator and editor. Her work has received international acclaim and won numerous literary and cultural awards. She has written for The Japan Times, Art in America magazine, and lectured at Tokyo University. She also runs Sun and Moon Yoga in Tokyo, where she has lived since 2003.

I met Leza in college, when two of the most striking eyes I’d ever seen turned out to be hers. Indeed, my unrequited collegiate crush on her led to some interesting times which are now part of underclass legend at Princeton – which is odd, since that’s not where we went to school. She is so accomplished, so polished, so able, that I’ve made her the sole beneficiary of my will, with the proviso that she must first voluntarily, and in front of witnesses, break a nail, stub a toe on the coffee table, or drop some kushiyaki on her sweater. Indeed reading her posts on Facebook only pisses me off, daily. It’s worth noting that Leza, for whom Japan is home and where her talents most flourished, first journeyed there in 1989, shortly after we met; could her wild success be in part attributable to a lack of Me? It is likely the answer is ever unknowable, but I, for one, choose to believe.

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Q:  Congratulations on the publication of your novel JET BLACK AND THE NINJA WIND. I understand it’s the first in a projected trilogy for YA readers. Can you get me Jennifer Lawrence’s phone number?

LL: I was going to ask you the same question. Actually, I was hoping you could hook us up with Sonny Chiba.

[Editor’s note: a representative for Sonny Chiba declined our request for an interview, noting that Mr. Chiba “has much better things to do with his time.”]

Q:  On your website LezaLowitz.com – itself unfairly well-designed – your bio notes that your husband Shogo Oketani is also a writer, and that as a couple you often collaborate. Is Hanebisho toilet tissue really worth the outrageous price?

LL:  Well, as you noted, we collaborate on writing. So you know, Hanebisho deluxe paper is out of reach. Luckily, though, Japanese toilets do almost everything for you. Really, the Yubari Kings are what set us back.

Q:  You have received many accolades and awards for your work, including the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award, The Bay Area Independent Publisher’s Association Award, the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award, a California Arts Council Individual Fellowship in Poetry, an Independent Scholar Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Copperfield’s Dickens Fiction Award, the Barbara Deming Memorial Award, the Japanophile Fiction Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award for Editorial Excellence, the Tokyo Journal Fiction Translation Award, and two Pushcart Prize nominations, and with your husband you also received the 2003 Japan/US Friendship Commission Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature from the Donald Keene Center for Japanese Culture at Columbia University. Where can I have my keyboard repaired, since the semi-colon is broken?

LL:  Can’t you fix it? I thought you could do anything, Greg! And when you’re done fixing yours, can I send you mine? My trackpad is broken. Maybe from the hundreds of queries I’ve sent out over the years. Even my trackpad couldn’t keep track.

Q:  We met in college, and I made no secret that I thought your poetry was already at a superior level not just to my own but to everyone else’s, and that if you decided to pursue a career as a writer, you would meet with great success. Indeed, I treasure the folder of typed originals I have – I read them anew every year. I don’t have a question here, I just wanted to let you know I’m keeping those, and there’s no use asking for them again.

LL:  That explains everything: all the poems I’ve sent out from the folder on my desk were yours, then. As for mine, they’ll come in handy with the first snows this winter. Make yourself a good bonfire, will you?

[Editor’s note: it is not clear whether Ms Lowitz’s remarks were intended sarcastically or not due to the poor quality of my eyeglasses. The total number of available pages of her poetry is 28, which would provide an R value of approximately 0.0000000004, equivalent to a 1/8” thick slice of wet tofu.]

Q: You’ve mentioned that what led you to Japan, which became your home and the center of your family life with Shogo and your son Yuto, was in part a childhood interest in martial arts and meditation. Why do you think Japanese vending machines, in particular, are more widely accepted than they are in the States for high-end products?

LL:  High-end meaning porno and panties? Or were you referring to Smart Cars, batteries, lettuce and milk?

[Editor’s note: The interviewer, as well as paperbackswap.com and its representatives, disclaim all knowledge of, or experience with, porn vending machines in Asia. Anyway those DVDs don’t play over here. No, wait —]

Q:  You grew up in San Francisco, which is among America’s most beautiful cities. Why do people still love the Grateful Dead?

LL:  Who wouldn’t love to be on a long, strange perpetual trip? And the tie-dye doesn’t hurt, either.

Q:  Do you find it more satisfying to write shorter forms, like poems and essays, or longer forms like your novel? Is one easier than the other? If you need more space, feel free to use the back of this website.

LL:  Shogo was the one who really wrote Jet Black, so you’ll have to ask him. If I ever finish a novel on my own, I’ll let you know. I’m in the midst of writing one now about Berkeley in the 1970s. I’m hoping some of Jet’s ninja powers will rub off on me and lead me to the finish line.

Q:  In addition to your successful career as a writer, you teach yoga and meditation at your studio, Sun and Moon Yoga. How can one approach someone who plans to go out in spandex, or yoga pants, and tell them it’s not a good look for their body type, without seeming like a total a**hole and maybe losing her as a friend, which would suck because she has cable?

LL:  Well, we all know you have an exceptional sense of style. Whenever I get dressed in the morning, I ask, what would Havas do? And then I do the opposite. Except when it comes to footwear. You had me at Converse High Tops. Oh, sorry. What was the question?

[Editor’s note: it is not clear whether Ms Lowitz’s remarks were intended sarcastically or not due to the poor quality of my willingness to admit she may be on to something. Her inability to maintain the thread of questioning, however, is something for which I take full credit and wish to be remembered.]

Q:  In the short space we have remaining, tell our readers something about me that they might find surprising.

LL:  You’re very, very funny. Really. And I think I remember that you can cook, too.

[Editor’s note: it is not clear whether Ms Lowitz’s remarks were intended sarcastically or not due to the poor quality of my nonstick cookware. At this point in the interview I was asked to deposit another twenty-five cents, but demurred because New Girl was coming on. The connection was dropped.]

Thank you Ms. Lowitz for agreeing to put up with be interviewed by Greg! Best of luck with your new book!
Below are just a few of Ms. Lowitz’s books:

To read more about Leza Lowitz you can visit her website  www.lezalowitz.com

Interview with Author Robin Murphy by Diane G. (icesk8tr)

Diane: We would like to welcome Robin Murphy back to talk about her second book “Secret of the Big Easy”.

Robin: Hello Diane I thank you and Paperback Swap for having me back.

Diane: Did you publish this book in the same manner as Sullivan’s Secret?

Robin:  No, I self-published Secret of the Big Easy. I read countless blog posts and discussion groups on the subject and after a lot of soul searching I decided to test the waters and join the community of self-publishers.

Diane: Is it easier to promote a book the second time around?

Robin:  It was easier because I had laid the ground work for my author platform with the first book. The website was there, my social networking was set, and I had a year’s worth of blog posts.  But it still takes the same amount of “time” to promote both books. You approach previous blog tours you were a part of, and interviews, and then I reached out to a few new sites to share my stories. It is a time consuming effort but I created a timeline so I wouldn’t lose sight of what I really love to do, which is writing.

Diane: Your second book “Secret of the Big Easy” brings us to New Orleans. Any reason you picked New Orleans as the setting?

Robin:  Interesting story, well maybe not to everyone…my husband and I always wanted to visit New Orleans and I thought wouldn’t it be a perfect fit for a psychic and a ghost investigating team to travel to New Orleans. Talk about paranormal.  Then I received, at my day job, an opportunity to go to a great conference at…you guessed it, New Orleans. So, I was able to immerse myself into the heart of the French Quarter, and viola, Secret of the Big Easy was born.

Diane: How much time do you spend on researching the information like the rituals, paranormal events, etc. for your story?

Robin:  I spend a great deal of time researching for my stories. I feel even though I’m writing fiction, I need to have factual information and details because it still needs to be believable.  Readers are intelligent and you’ll lose them if you have certain information that’s not correct. You never know when you’ll come across a reader who knows something particular about a certain situation or scenario in your story. The minute they see the error, they’ve lost interest.

Diane: You bring the characters on a paranormal investigation with their local organization. Have you ever been on an investigation like this? This is something I would love to do!

Robin:  Yes, I finally got the chance to go on an investigation last October with a local paranormal group.  It was fascinating, exciting, and everything I had hoped it would be. In fact, I wrote a blog post here: http://robinmurphyauthor.com/robinmurphyauthor/?s=ghost+investigation describing the experience. This was the best decision I could have ever made because it gave me such an understanding of what really takes place for a ghost investigation. If you get the chance, go for it!

Diane: From having various experiences myself, I enjoyed reading about Marie struggling with her new abilities. Is some of this coming from your personal experiences?

Robin:  No, I haven’t had any personal psychic experiences. I think I have a sixth sense, something a lot of people have. I’ve read many books written by psychics and learned about their experiences which gave me the sense of how it can take over your life or scare you out of your wits. It may be a gift, but some feel it’s a curse.

Diane: Are you going to continue this series and have the SIPS team continue to travel to other cities?

Robin:  Yes I am.  My third book in the series, Federal City’s Secret being released this summer, has Marie and the SIPS team traveling to Washington, DC. It involves politics, the mafia, secret societies, and of course, murder.

Diane: Where is your book available?

Robin:  In all the usual venues, Amazon paperback and Kindle; Barnes & Noble paperback and Nook.

Diane: Thanks again, it is always a pleasure talking to you as we share similar experiences!

Robin:  Thank you, I so enjoy our chats.

Robin Murphy has generously offered a free copy of her new book,  Secret of the Big Easy, to a PBS member who leaves a comment here on the blog.

A winner will be chosen at Random.

Thank you, Ms. Murphy and Diane!

Interview with Author Elizabeth Crane by Greg VOSTROMO

ELIZABETH CRANE is the author of the critically-acclaimed short story collections When The Messenger is Hot, All This Heavenly Glory, and You Must Be This Happy to Enter.  Her work has been featured in numerous national magazines and anthologies, and been dramatized by Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater Company and National Public Radio’s Selected Shorts. Her first novel, We Only Know So Much, was published in 2012 by Harper Perennial.

Betsy, as I know her, is tall, quick-witted, sometimes loud, and once presented me with a profoundly beautiful, somewhat passive-aggressively threatening gift: a funny phrase of hers I’d admired, written in gold marker on an antique hacksaw blade, ribboned in pink. Shortly after receiving this she met the man who would become her [unfairly gifted] husband, Ben, so you’re welcome. She is also the circumstantial genesis of one of my now-signature comedy bits, where, on meeting a pregnant woman, I offer my hand and say, in a conspiratorial tone, I had nothing to do with it. If her career tanked tomorrow, there’d be that, so let’s all join in welcoming her and asking me to leave.

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Q: Congratulations on publishing We Only Know So Much, your first full-length novel. Previously you have published collections of short stories. I’ve written short stories myself, but not a novel. You think you’re better than me?

A: Thank you, and no, or at least not because I’ve written a novel. I kid I kid.

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Q: Much of your writing has an easy, conversational, hip style that readers can readily relate to. What were your SAT scores?

A: I don’t remember exactly, all I remember is that they were fairly average, and that that when I took them a second time I went up in Verbal and down in Math.  I figure the real life interpretation of this is that in the following decades I have continued to go up in Verbal while I can no longer perform any tasks relating to Math.

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Q: Your mother was an opera singer; your husband is an artist; you’re a writer. What’s your favorite item at Trader Joe’s?

A: Freaking meringues.  I am, at this point, fully addicted to them.  It’s almost nothing more than sugar in a pretty, puffy presentation.

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Q: The US covers for your collection You Must Be This Happy to Enter feature a striking gnome-like figure. Is this a veiled critique of North Korea?

A: If it is, it’s veiled even to me.

[Note: at this point in the interview the polygraph to which the author is unknowingly connected (through a series of sensors hidden in the June 1984 copy of Modern Surveillance magazine which has previously been secreted into a small vault dug into the hotel room floor, over which the author’s chair has been placed) begins to emit a series of reactive trace patterns which are later examined by experts from the “MAURY” show. It is determined that these patterns are likely the result of acoustical pressure waves resulting from the loud knocking on the meeting-room door of the hotel day manager demanding to know why a vault has been dug into the hotel-room floor, and who authorized such a thing. To the best and most complete knowledge of the interviewer, HarperCollins Publishers, and the staff of the Riker’s Island Marriott Hotel & Suites, Ms Crane’s response to the question in question is unquestionable.]

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Q: Who’s been the biggest influence on your development as a writer? Hint: Is it me?

A: I’m not sure about the biggest, that would probably be my dad, who was a big cheerleader.  But to say something utterly un-ironic or funny, you were one of the first people to tell me — or who I heard, let’s put it that way — that I was smart.  And that helped a lot.

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Q: Is it true that you used a quote of mine in a short story which The New Yorker rejected? How many times did you resubmit it? Did you try anywhere else? Do you often give up that easily?

A: Ah, I believe you must mean “Out is better”?  Well, I didn’t resubmit it there because the rejection letter told me not to come back until I was no longer Havas-derivative.  As per usual, I’m not even sure what story that was in, but most likely it was published elsewhere.

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Q: Who are some authors you admire? Are they dog or cat people? They’re not fish people, are they?

A: The list of writers I admire is a long one, David Foster Wallace, Lydia Davis, Rick Moody, and George Saunders among them.  Wallace had dogs, I don’t know about the rest — well, Saunders has a dog, but I don’t know if any of these people have fish. It’s true, that could be a game-changer.

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Q: Your story “The Daves” from your debut collection When the Messenger is Hot has always struck me as depicting, in its way, the end of the world. Where did I develop such acute critical faculties?

A: You’re just more tuned in than the rest of the world to the fact that the world is ending.

[Note: at this point in the interview a wall calendar depicting the Mayan Temple of the Masonry Altars at Altun Ha appeared to fall from its point of attachment and slip behind a writing-desk. After the close of the interview an attempt was made to retrieve the wall calendar, but no trace of it was found. A similar mysterious event involving a large bath towel has been reported.]

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Q: Which is more important: spelling or punctuation?

A: Well if you were my student asking that question I would say don’t turn anything in to me if both are not perfect. Otherwise I’d have to write a book. Screw-ups on both can cause inordinate problems for a teacher — I mean reader.

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Q: Better kisser: Bill Maher or Charlie Sheen?

A: I’d sooner French kiss my dog than either of those.

[Note: Ms Crane’s dog, a French poodle, is named “Charlie Sheen.”]

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Q: Do you write when the spirit strikes, or are you one of those people that go to “the office” regularly and pretends to have a real job?

A: I have a real job, but it’s not in an office so my hours are flexible.  Anyway it’s a little of both, but I do make an effort to write most mornings.

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Q: You were an extensive journal-keeper before blogging became a thing. What’s your internet connection speed?

A: I have no idea.

[Note: repeated calls to Manny’s Ninth Avenue HVAC & Internet were not returned.]

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Q: After your husband recently received his MFA, your family moved to New York City. Is “Max Fish” still there?

A: Don’t you have Google?

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Q: What about “Sammy’s Roumanian Steakhouse?”

A: Sammy’s is still there and I think it’s open.

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Q: Do you have a favorite among your own works? Are you right?

A: I have a few favorites, but I don’t want to make the rest of them feel bad.

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Q: Finally, what advice would you give a young person just starting on a path as a writer: should they use the public wifi at Starbucks or at the library?

A: The library!

[Note: at this point in the interview the interview ends.]

To learn more about Elizabeth Crane, you can visit her website, http://www.elizabethcrane.com/

Thank you, Greg and Ms. Crane for a most enlightening interview!