| Author | Message | ||
     Andrew Hook |
This thread is dedicated to Brian Howell, whose anthology, The Sound of White Ants will be published by Elastic Press on May 1st. If you want to leave a message for Brian, please do so here. Any specific comments/reviews on his forthcoming collection will continue to be posted on the feedback boards. | ||
| Brian Howell |
Thanks, Andrew. My first ever room, outside an online workshop. I have a curious piece of news/trivia? to get things rolling: I had never met the young lady who adorns the White Ants cover but I had the pleasure of running into her in a pub in Tokyo a few days ago. How? Not such a mystery. She's the girlfriend of a teacher colleague, who happened to be imbibing that evening after her return from a trip abroad. Still, a nice coincidence indeed. She looks smaller than on the cover. | ||
| Marie |
Hi Brian, haven't been on Zoe for a while. How're things? Must have felt quite odd, meeting the girl from the cover. | ||
| Charles Lambert |
I had a similar experience almost twenty years ago. A collection of poems of mine based on surface translations of Jean Genet had been published with the photograph of a rather baby-faced carabiniere on the front (the sex-uniform combination being dear to Genet's heart). I'd found the photo in a magazine, Espresso I think. About six months later, I was stopped just south of Naples by the same guy for a routine document check. Paul Auster would have something to say about this. | ||
| Andrew Hook |
The novel I'm working on at the moment features a woman in her 50's based upon someone I occasionally see from a distance near to where I live. One morning I was due to lunch with a friend of mine and he asked if I didn't mind someone else joining us. As you've guessed, this was her. The surprising thing was that after an initial "hello" she didn't talk to me at all for the next 15 minutes, and then left abruptly. Following which I mentioned to John that not only was she in my novel, she is also stalked and killed. He seemed to find this rather amusing! | ||
| nick |
I recently moved back to Manchester after living in London for 20 years. Among the introductions to friends of friends in London was one to the people who live in the big house on the end of the road diagonally opposite the road where we're renting a small house. We went round & knocked on the door one day and the woman who opened it seemed strangely familiar to me. But that can happen. You meet someone you feel vaguely comfortable with and it's as if you've known them for years. Her name was Julie and her husband was out, but she invited us in. While she was showing us around her house I asked her where she'd gone to college. Queen Mary College in the East End of London, she said. Me too, I said. We attended at the same time. When we dug deeper, we discovered we'd acted in a play together, a production of Vanburgh's The Relapse. Then her husband came home and he turned out to be my long-lost twin brother. OK, I made the last bit up, but the rest was true. Charles, have you ever read Steve Erickson? If you like Auster, you might like Erickson, who I think is the most interesting American writer around. | ||
| Brian Howell |
Thanks for getting this thread off to such a storming start. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw this! Marie - thanks, though I'm never really away from Zoe. It felt odd, but it was a colleague, and I knew I'd meet her some time, but I suppose I might never have, the way things sometimes go ... Charles - that is weird! Andrew - that's worrying (and weird). Nick - that is TOO weird - even without the false-bottomed ending. I was just looking at an Erickson in a bookshop the other day and am always intending to read him. Auster's Book of Illusions is currently blowing me away. As for most interesting American writers, there are so many, but Joseph McElroy and William Gaddis (big time) are definitely worth a look at. | ||
| Charles Lambert |
No, I've read nothing by Erickson. Any recommendations or should I just dive in? I like Auster a lot, though the coincidence business can get overdone - this is less evident in his own work than in that collection of true radio stories he edited, where you tend to go wow, wow, wow, yawn. It may be a dope thing? | ||
| Brian Howell |
Or, as Dale Cooper says: "When two separate events occur simultaneously pertaining to the same object of inquiry, we must always pay strict attention." But seriously, Auster has made a career out of the theme of coincidence, which is hardly original, but he pulls it off, book in, book out. | ||
| Andrew Hook |
Chat online to Brian Howell about his new collection of short stories, The Sound of White Ants at the Elastic Press chat room on Sunday 2nd May 2004 at 2pm Greenwich Mean Time. (Please note, this link may not be operational until the day of the launch) A few signed copies are still available for those interested. Email me first to reserve a copy. Best Andrew | ||
| SarahC |
Brian, sorry I missed your online launch. Major PC probs this end. But all sorted now, fingers crossed. Congrats on the book. Am looking forward to reading it. | ||
| Brian |
Hi, Sarah. No prob. I had some myself, which is unusal. But there is always here or the White Ants thread. Looking forward to your reaction. | ||
| Brian H |
If you're in Tokyo around the 22nd, walk this way: http://www.booksatcaravan.com/caravan.html | ||
| Mario Guslandi |
Brian, my review of "The sound of white ants" is now posted at www.thealienoline.net. I really enjoyed your book | ||
| Brian H |
Yes, thanks, Mario. What else can I say - except that I'm glad you liked it. | ||
| Geoffrey Maloney |
Brian It's a great collection. Finished reading it on the bus on the way home. Each story full of understated menace - about people trying to lead simple lives in a crazy modern world - searching for bizarre little freedoms amongst all the constrictions. Loved it. regards Geoffrey Maloney Brisbane, Australia | ||
| Brian_h Username: Brian_h Registered: 07-2006 |
Hi, this is just to say I have a website at MySpace, which I'll try to keep updated; hope you can pop by and become a 'friend': http://www.myspace.com/bshowell |