I had an interesting interview with New York Times reporter Nicholas Kulish who was a war correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. His new book, Last One In is a great satire and comes out July 1st...
Here's a bit of our interview:
I caught up with Kulish and asked him a few questions about Last One In:
Noveltown: Have you been criticized for writing a comedy-drama in relation to the War in Iraq?
Nicholas Kulish: I’ve had some uncomfortable questions about it, without question. I think that people who read the book recognize that it’s a satire rather than slapstick. There’s a lot of humor, but at its heart this is a serious book. It’s also confined to the initial stage of the war, the gung-ho rush to invade. I find that to be its own, isolated event – different from the long hard slog of the last four years.
Noveltown: I’m guessing some real comedic experiences imprinted themselves upon you while you were embedded with a Marine attack-helicopter unit for the
Wall Street Journal. This one even made it into your novel as one soldier writes about March 13 2003: “In other developments, our “embedded media” person has arrived. His name is Nick Kulish, and he writes for the
Wall Street Journal. Seems like a nice guy – he’s about 27 and is getting the lay of the squadron. Some of our pilots initiated him last night… at about midnight, they all got dressed up in their gas masks and ran into his tent screaming “Gas Gas Gas!!!” Pretty hysterical – he jumped out of his rack with a wild look on his face, until he saw everyone busting up laughing in their masks and realized what was going on. One of the guys even got it on videotape for the rest of us to watch later.” Comments?
Nicholas Kulish: That’s some great sleuthing. I can’t believe you found that old blog post. The “gas attack” is one of the few remaining experiences of mine that was translated into the book. The first draft had more of that, but the pure inventions tended to be livelier and funnier than the based-on-real-life experiences. But that was the kind of seminal hazing experience that – video camera included – would be hard to top.
Noveltown: In your Book Review article, “Embed cred: how close is too close for embedded reporters?” you wrote some poignant thoughts: “When I contemplate the success or failure of the embed program, I think about those briefings in Qatar, at the Pentagon's press office, not the numbing recitation from the podium, but those moments when a questioner, with a newspaper or television transcript clutched in one hand, refuted a bit of stilted Pentagonese by saying, "But an embed with the 3rd I.D." or "ah embed with the 1st Marine Division reported ... " And that's why we were there.”
Now, how do you reconcile your real experiences and criticisms of the embed program with your own message about embeds that you relate to readers
Last One In?
Nicholas Kulish: Context is always important. That review was written at the peak of criticism of the program, when everyone was railing about the media manipulation, the co-opting of the reporters, the lapdog patriotic press. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have civilian observers going along with your military as long as it’s balanced with outside reporting from all sides. I always had a Heisenberg Principle theory that a company of infantry with a reporter was less likely to do something borderline knowing that the notebook, the camera and the microphone were around somewhere. I thought there were some issues with the embedding program and the rules, as well as the way a lot of the coverage went, but in general transparency and access are good. As far as “refuting Pentagonese,” I think it’s important to realize the difference between the politicians, the brass and the troops. The troops in my experience are bright, dedicated, impressive people. You can criticize the strategic decisions while backing the troops on the ground.
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Read the full article and get order information)
You have to scroll through the book talk to get to the social criticism part. But I raise some questions about Bakersfield trash in this article:
Read it and leave comments here or there, or just talk to your friends about trash over a nice latte.
- Nick from
Noveltown
I reviewed Slim the Drifter Trio's album
The Guilty Ten as promised.
Leave a comment on my article if you have any memories of Slim you might want to share. He was legendary in the Bakersfield music scene performing country music, but starting off years ago in punk/hard rock...
If you get a chance, follow the links to his songs, Dancehall piano and Atlanta. Great music.
http://www.nlbelardes.com/b...
Come to the LA Small Press Book Fair May 28th and meet us
MAY 28th: Meet Noveltown, learn about the Lords of Bakersfield, and pick up a free copy of our magazine...
This summer
Noveltown is busy growing and expanding. You'll read very soon how we've expanded deeper into the world of poetry with the likes of S.A. Griffin and Rafael Alvarado as poetry co-editors for our magazine. There's also some interesting partnership developments you might like that we'll tell soon. Later this summer we're releasing next issue of the Noveltown Review featuring the London Brutalists. Also late in the summer we'll be attending literary events, including the
Yosemite Writers Conference. But first...
This weekend we'll be in Santa Monica for a great Indie Literary Press event. We'll be on hand with Cardoza Muller Productions for a talk at 1:50pm.
2nd Annual Small Press Book Fair:
AN EXPANSIVE DAY OF WRITERS, POETS AND PUBLISHERS:
Monday, May 28th, 2007, Memorial Day
10:30 am - 6:00 pm
LOCATION:
The Church in Ocean Park
235 Hill Street, Santa Monica
Donation at the door suggested
10:30 am Opening remarks - James Maverick: host and M.C
10:50 am Red Hen Press - poets to be announced
11:10 am Robert Greenfield (KCTV Literary talk show host): "on small presses"
11:30 am Lummox Press - Raindog
12:05 pm John Harris - poet
12:20 pro Beyond Baroque Press - readers to be announced
12:50 pm Cahuenga Press - James Cushing, Holly Prado, Harry Northup,
Phoebe McAdams
1:05 pm Bougie Girl Press - A. R. Alexander
1:20 pm Blue Press - Lewis McAdams, Kevin Opstedal
1:35 pm Solo Press - Kevin Patrick Sullivan
1:50 pm Cardoza Muller Productions & Noveltown - Rafael Alvarado, Nick Belardes & Leo Victor Briones
2:30 pm Kalimat Press/Highborn Lady Press - Anthony A Lee
2:45 pm Half Shell Edition - Pam Ward, Claudia Handler, Brenda Yates, Scott Wannberg
3:05 pm Sybaritic Press/poeticdiversity – Rachael Kann & Brenda Patrakos
3:20 pm Vinegar Hill Press - Donna, Gebron
3:35 pm Lynne Bronstein—poet
4:05 pm Rich Ferguson – poet
4:20 pm Sacred Beverage Press - Doug Richardson
4:35 pm Rum Razor Press - reader to be announced
4:50 pm Fall Star Magazine - Matt McGee
5:00 pm Rattle - M. Bitting, D. Griffiths Stamos, G. Mittelbach, M. Margolis, M. Lopez, P. Aylsworth
5:15 New Editions – Kevin Clark
5:30 pm Zenitram Press – Brenda Martinez
5:45 pm Ex Macina Press – Peter Balaskas
6:00 pm Ink Pen MutationsPress – kalamity j
Take SM Bus #s 1,2, or 8, and MTA Bus # 33. Wheelchair accessible. Information? 310-828-3951. Schedule subject to change.
Includes readings, refreshments, and an enlightening day of learning about the significance of small presses to the history of Los Angeles. All welcome.
Proceeds go toward the social justice work of the Church in Ocean Park.
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www.noveltown.net
The LA Kings came into town recently to show their support of a new roller hockey facility opening up in Bakersfield.
There's more...
The Kings are having a two-day Inline Summer Camp in LA August 25-26, which is only $75 and includes 4 Kings game tickets... This is a great deal... Click for more info...
Or just contact me.
- n.l.
www.noveltown.net
We're partnering up with major universities from the West Coast and East Coast to showcase some of their professor/student writing talent. There's a full article on the way.
This is good news for Bakersfield and the Central Valley as it puts more focus on our area for making things happen in the literary world...
And thanks to The Californian's niche market magazine/website, Bakotopia for reviewing our literary journal flagship....
READ THE REVIEW
Lauren Baratz-Logsted takes Noveltown into her world of Vertigo and beyond - By N.L. Belardes
Lauren Baratz-Logsted. Hers isn’t an easy name to learn or write. Call me a simpleton. Yet, if you said her name these days, I’d know exactly whom you were talking about. She’s a regular commenter on LitPark, a regular on
myspace (She’s everywhere like a freakin’ ghost ninja), and a regular in the Noveltown Review with an article in the inaugural issue and a forthcoming article in our upcoming racier edition.
Her article, "The Working Writer: What Kind Of Writer Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?" is meant to help out writers who need the guidance to get successful. I know I need it. Who doesn’t need encouragement? I probably look forward to her next article more than anybody. On a personal level I’ve been through every emotion a novelist must face in the path of a hopeful literary career. I told writer Samantha Dunn recently, “Noveltown is built out of the lint of our pockets.” And so are most writing careers. It’s tough work. People like Lauren help us through the process of acceptance and understanding what it’s all about.
It’s what you learn from people that matters. And some writers, well, they just ooze with wisdom. That’s
Lauren Baratz-Logsted. I’m in dire need of picking her brain, cloning her brain cells, and injecting them into my own. I could use some of her writing prowess, her determination to succeed, and I’m guessing here, but some of her skills at being a perfectionist.
I recently finished Lauren’s book,
Vertigo. It's been getting mostly raves with
a few dissenters on Amazon. Love or hate
Vertigo, it’s masterfully written, a complete blend of historical fiction with erotic suspense. It takes skill to mimic culture and language, knowledge to provide historical detail, and ingenuity to delve such in a path of formulaic writing. Vertigo’s prim and proper language and spellbinding characterization of a corrupt novelist from yesteryear and his curious unsatisfied wife makes for a daring psychological journey into literary formula and storytelling.
Literary formulas aren’t bad. When done well there are purposeful twists within. They lead your mind down roads where the reader naturally stereotypes the outcome. If done well, as in
Vertigo, then such works have the ability to set up and shock the reader’s own expectations of where a story is headed. Sure, there’s a formula in
Vertigo. And Baratz-Logsted purposely strays. That’s a good formula story. Your mind goes one way, the story goes another. The reader gets fooled and thus should have a better time reading. Yet it’s still locked in a genre—the water rises along a yardstick of thought, drops, pushes back up in a swell of conflict, all within the range of the formula.
I won’t go on and on. Rather I’ll allow Lauren Baratz-Logsted to speak for herself.
Here’s Baratz-Logsted's interview with Noveltown:
Noveltown: How do you get away with writing both Victorian era fiction with erotic overtones and young adult novels? Aren’t you going to make granny librarians and young mothers angry at you?
Baratz-Logsted: To answer the first question, I get away with it simply by believing that if a writer is willing to work hard, and I am, she deserves to get the opportunity to stretch her writing muscles all over the place; that, and no one has asked me recently to change my name so they can “brand” me as a certain type of writer. As for the second question, I’ve been mostly lucky with granny librarians – oh, and by the way, as a former sort-of librarian, on behalf of all librarians everywhere may I slap you for that – and young mothers. I’ve also been very lucky with men, who mostly aren’t threatened by my books in the way some women are. I’ve had less success with ultra-conservatives, but you can’t please everyone and I perversely hope I never write the book that does. Honestly, if I don’t ruffle at least a few people, I’m probably not doing my job.
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Read the full article/interview)
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www.noveltown.net
www.myspace.com/noveltown
I haven't bothered to make any phone calls as to the validity of this story of a UFO over downtown Bakersfield.
For all I know, it's just a kid with a kite.
Click here for image, video, and previous blog from last week.
MUST R.S.V.P:
melody@noveltown.net
Noveltown to Hold Business/Media Mixer
to Promote New Magazine
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Bakersfield, CA - Noveltown has gathered some of the finest literary talent from across America in a new magazine with multicultural flavor. A business/media mixer premiering The Noveltown Review promises to show off cultural literary arts in
Bakersfield, CA, Thursday April 12th 7-10 PM at the downstairs bar in Benjamin's Restaurant, 1419 19th Street. Music will be sponsored by
Bakotopia.com.
"The Noveltown Review is a new vehicle to promote literary arts. It's newsy and it's classy with a unique blog crossover aspect. Anyone published within the review is in great company. It will grow into its multicultural shoes. And it's a free magazine," says Noveltown publicist, Melody Saberon. "We want businesses to support this great cultural effort coming out of Bakersfield. So we're making the magazine available to them first."
The inaugural edition has articles by Cindy Wathen, author of Remembering Cesar. She's affiliated with Writer's Digest and the Yosemite Writers Conference. Riotous author of Futureproof, N. Frank Daniels is also on board as well as sultry author, Robin Slick, and big-time chick lit author, Lauren Baratz-Logsted who just released the historical fiction novel, Vertigo.
Fiction pieces within the Noveltown Review come from L.A. Times Bestselling author Brad Listi of
Attention. Deficit. Disorder fame, Susan Henderson, who runs
www.LitPark.com out of New York, and Conrad Romo:
Latino author out of L.A. who runs Hollywood's Hotel Café Tongue and Groove poetry readings. Brad Listi also runs the popular blog,
www.TheNervousBreakdown.com. Attendees can R.S.V.P. to attend the event by emailing: melody@noveltown.net.
The Noveltown Review will be distributed in Bakersfield, Fresno, Clovis, L.A., Hollywood, Baltimore, Atlanta, Philadelphia, London, and more…
Noveltown (www.noveltown.net) will soon be announcing the author of its next book in print, and is proud to be working towards leading the way in publishing in the Southern Central Valley… Noveltown's N.L. Belardes will be speaking at the upcoming Yosemite Writers Conference (www.yosemitewriters.com).
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“The Yosemite Writers Conference is the best I’ve seen. You’ll find a terrific selection of publishers, agents and writers from which to learn. The conference participants are bright, serious and ambitious. All this, taking place in one of the most beautiful places on Earth, makes the Yosemite Writers Conference a dazzling boost to writers of all levels.”
--T. Jefferson Parker
The
Yosemite Writer’s Conference last year was by far the most rewarding experience I’ve had as a writer. I was inspired. I learned so much about the publishing industry and about writing. I met and connected with so many wonderful writers and publishers including: Bonnie Hearn Hill, Cindy Wathen, Carole Sargent and Malcolm Margolin and so many more.
Noveltown’s own
N.L. Belardes will be speaking at this year’s Yosemite Writer’s Conference. I managed to get him to sit still long enough to answer a few questions about the upcoming conference.
Here’s the interview:
Noveltown: N.L. I hear that you are going to be speaking at the Yosemite Writer’s Conference in August. Are you planning on teaching everyone the ins and outs of maintaining a controversial media blog?
N.L.: For those of you who don’t know. I’m getting interviewed by
Matildakay. My hands are sweaty. Gulp. Oh, the conference? Blogging? Actually I will talk more about blogging in general, though media blogging will be included. I want to let people know how to get started, and how they can utilize their writing talents as a kind of community service rather than just an online journal. It will be a discussion rather than a lecture. We’ll talk about some of the leading blogs, what they do, and about myspace too.
I’m hoping by the time the conference comes that Noveltown will have 10,000 friends on
myspace, and that people I speak to will be able to build some of their own networks with Noveltown already having paved the way a bit.
In a way, myspace is where more of the writers, publishers, bookstores, poets and organizations seem to be congregating. They like blogs, but they love myspace. Though blogs are a cool tool that authors can use to gain web traffic and a potential loyal following.
We hope to literally be hands-on and help writers sign up from the conference.
Noveltown: What topics will you be sharing with the conference attendees?
N.L.: I just asked one of the organizers, Bonnie Hearn Hill about that very question. I offered some panel topics. The conference organizers haven’t released all the titles of the panels… I’ll keep you posted. With that said you can expect industry tips from professionals, writing discussions by authors, and a lunchtime pirate table for any rebel writer wanting to talk shop with me and you, Matildakay. We might even have a flag this year.
Noveltown: Will you have a workshop on drawing bug
cartoons?
N.L.: No, but I will be peddling
The Noveltown Review at the conference and there’s a bug cartoon in there. When I listen to speakers I do tend to doodle lots of scavenger bugs. It’s a weird habit. If anyone asks at the pirate table, I will teach some bug drawing skills free of charge. I don’t do tattoos.
Noveltown: Will you be talking about
Noveltown and Indie publishing companies versus commercial publishing companies?
N.L.: Away from the panels, most likely those conversations will constantly take place. People do need to know Noveltown is searching for authors, about our magazine, and about Indie presses. We’re not setting out to bash commercial publishing. We believe in it. Our magazine captures the spirit of both worlds. But we also believe in the DIY universe. It’s all very much as if Luke Skywalker and a hip Yoda could chill with stormtroopers in a smoky cantina.
Noveltown: Are you taking your pirate gear and will you be attending any
swashbuckling pirate meetings again this year?
N.L.: Like I said, a pirate table is a necessity: somewhere you can speak your mind away from all the formalities of the event. Though I hope to sneak into some of the formal tables just to hear Bonnie Hearn Hill talk shop.
Noveltown: What products will you be taking with you and talking about at the conference?
N.L.: Wow, I could answer this so many ways using my lame attempt at comedy. In all seriousness, I will take a computer to show people the media blog and to help people sign up, the Noveltown Review magazine to show the print community side of what we’re building, and my book to promote how we do
books and to talk about the fact that we’re looking for an author or two to publish… oh and to promote my own writing some… I’m going to enter their book contest! Sounds fun!
Noveltown: How exciting! Thanks N.L. for a peek at what we have to look forward to at the Yosemite Writer’s Conference in August.
If you want to meet literary agents, publishers, editors, and authors, the Yosemite Writer’s Conference is the place to be.
If you want to learn about the many facets of writing in today’s literary world, the Yosemite Writer’s Conference is the place to be.
Whether you’re a published author or just realized that you want to be a writer, the Yosemite Writer’s Conference is for you.
Noveltown is going. Are you? Register now online at
www.yosemitewriters.com
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2007 Partial List of Presenters
Keynote Speakers: Steve Yarbrough and David Morrell
Literary Agents: Katharine Sands, June Clark, Irene Webb, and Jeffrey McGraw
Magazine Editors From: Sacramento Magazine and Visalia Lifestyle
Editors: Meg Bertini of Dream Time Publishing, Kate Gale of Red Hen Press, Susan Chang of Tar Books, Farrin Jacobs of HarperCollins, Brenda Knight of Weiser Books, Steve Mettee of Quill Driver Books and Word Dancer Press, Melissa Manloe of Chronicle Books
Authors: N.L. Belardes, Hallie Ephron, BJ Taylor and Ginny Rorby
Yosemite Faculty: Rik Bollman, Hazel Dixon-cooper, Bonnie Hearn Hill, John Koontz, Sheree Petree and Cindy Wathen
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Conference details
$370 Early Bird until April 15th
$380 April 16 to May 31
$390 after June 1
Registration fee includes: all workshop sessions Friday and Saturday, continental breakfast, two keynote luncheons and evening reception Friday and Saturday.
The registration fee must be paid in full by check or credit card in order to secure a space for the conference.
Registration fee does not include lodging.
The beautiful Tenaya Lodge is the official conference hotel. When booking your room, be sure to ask for the Yosemite Writers Conference rate of $189 per night. Call (559) 683-6555, 800-635-5807 or log on to
tenayalodge.com to reserve your room.
Consultation: Confer with any of the agents or editors at the conference for only $30 per session.
Visit
Yosemite Writers online for more details.
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www.noveltown.net
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