The Art and Making of The Dark Knight Trilogy

My friends and I went to see The Dark Knight Rises and were killing time in the bookstore next door when this caught my eye. Obviously, I had to have it.

I wish I had a coffee table worthy of this gorgeous book. Designed by the enormously talented Chip Kidd, this book is full of production skills, concept art, and comic book panels to give the reader a broader understanding of the work that went into producing The Dark Knight Trilogy. The images are supported by great interviews and insight from the cast and crew. It’s like having the DVD bonus features in book form.

The book is organized in such a way that the reader can pick and choose which part of the process they want to learn more about. My brother is a musician so I will definitely point him to the “Editing, Music, and Sound” chapter as part of my ploy to turn him into a famous film score composer.  My many writer friends will probably be more interested in the “Screenplay” chapter. I, of course, read the whole thing cover to cover because ZOMG BATMAN!

 As I took out my credit card to pay for this $45 book I muttered, “I’m going to regret this.” I don’t. The quality of the images and the breadth of information make this a Dark Knight keepsake I’ll hold on to for a long time. Every fan of the movies should get this book.

Salsa Nocturna by Daniel José Older

Confession: I had no idea what this book was about when I requested the ARC from Daniel José Older and Crossed Genres Publications. When I tried to figure it out, I came across the words “ghost noir” and was terrified. I put down the book and resolved only to read it during daylight. My fear was unwarranted, of course. Older’s book isn’t about ghosts; it’s about spirits. The fact that some of them are dead is minor detail.

Salsa Nocturna, the debut short story collection by Daniel José Older, treats the supernatural… naturally. The dead roam the streets of New York just beyond the perception of most people. In each story, Older explores what happens when the living and the dead clash.

Older’s writing is at once urban and lyrical; the musicality in his style befits the title. Most of the pieces are written in first person so the prose takes on the vernacular of the narrator. The characters are uniquely aware of the words they use: “Simpatico is the best word for him. It means nice in English but nice is such a pathetic word.” 

Because he is the primary protagonist, Carlos’s voice sometimes overpowers the others and it took me a few lines at the beginning of each piece to realize who was narrating. Otherwise the characters are well developed and realistic. Whether they are dead, alive, or otherwise, these characters struggle to find a place where they fit and end up finding each other. They blossom in their interactions and their banter is easy and playful. Jimmy reminds me of my own 16-year-old brother (who better not be doing anything that Jimmy does!)  and I'm Gordo and my cubano grandfather would get along swimmingly. As the stories progress, the characters bond through mutual acceptance and understanding.  They are kindred spirits in every sense.

My one complaint concerns the structure. The short stories were too interconnected to be read in isolation but too disparate to be read as a single narrative. As a result, when you read them all back to back, the short stories come across like episodic pseudo-chapters. As someone used to reading novels, I kept wanting more. Older introduces the reader to a colorful cast of characters, superimposes a supernatural realm onto New York City, and slowly increases the tension and conflict. Then, just before everything snaps, he stops. The book is over.

“…death isn’t the great equalizer it’s made out to be. Layers of hierarchy remain, interlaced by the tangled webs of power and privilege.”

 

But I suppose even this can be considered a plus. I was left desperate to know what happens next. If Salsa Nocturna is Act 1, it has done one hell of a job getting me pumped for Act 2.

 

Clearly I need buddies to discuss this with while Older writes the sequel. (If I say it over and over maybe he’ll do it.) So hurry up and pre-order Salsa Nocturna, and if you’re in the New York area go the launch party. Then come back and tell me what you think.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

In a previous post I mentioned Code Name Verity as one of the books I was most excited about in 2012. I talked about it so much that one of the agents I worked with brought it back from BEA for me!

This book far exceeded my expectations. I knew it would be sad (I’m proud to report that I did not cry that much—I was able to dab away the tears quickly) but I didn’t think it would so powerful. As heartbreaking as it was, this book tells a story of love and triumph. I cannot recommend it enough.

The two protagonists Verity and Maddie are strong women but they are not stoic and cold. They are vulnerable. They are flawed. They are afraid. Wein uses a list of their fears as a clever characterization technique. We see how these fears shape their responses to difficult situations and how their lists evolve as they grow.

"I am no longer afraid of getting old. Indeed I can’t believe I ever said anything so stupid. So childish. So offensive and arrogant. But mainly, so very, very stupid. I desperately want to grow old."

To tell the truth every character was nuanced and multi-faceted. I even found myself sympathizing with the Gestapo interrogator! (Don’t yell at me! Wein said it’s okay.) The characters (like the entire book, hint hint) are cloaked in subterfuge and are rarely what they initially appear to be.  

More than anything, this is a beautifully crafted book. Every detail is relevant (so read carefully, hint hint). Wein fits the characters, the plot, and the setting together like an elaborate jigsaw, yet each puzzle piece is whole on its own.  The hype is warranted, people. Go read this book.

ARCs are no fun

Whenever I mention how badly I want to read Throne of Glass, someone immediately points me to NetGalley to request an advance copy. But I don’t want an ARC. I’m more than happy to wait for the book to come out. 

Receiving ARCs feels like being part of a secret club. You get early access to exclusive content and you have to be “chosen” to receive them. Of course I was enamored with the idea when I first learned about it—who doesn’t like being special?  But after being in the club for a while, I found that ARCs aren’t as fun as I expected.

As a blogger:

ARCs are incredibly expensive to make and are part of the marketing and publicity plan of the book. When a publisher sends them out they are expecting something in return, an ROI so to speak. Maybe it’s because I’m in the industry. Maybe it’s because I have seen a profit and loss chart and a marketing budget. For whatever reason, I am really self-conscious about being a loss to the publisher. I’m not the book editor at a major magazine. Even by blogging standards my stats are negligible.  So whenever I get an ARC I try to go above and beyond to promote it. It’s exhausting and it’s a lot of (self-inflicted?) pressure. I tweet as much as I can, I share info about the author/publisher on Facebook, and write fun, unique reviews*.  Luckily, I have not read an ARC that I disliked. What a nightmare it would be if I did! I am fueled by passion so I usually only review books I love or hate. My review of a mediocre book would be awful: “I got this book for free. It was okay, I guess.  I give it 3 stars. Read it if you want.” 

My blog is supposed to be a hobby not a chore, a respite not a responsibility.  Sometimes the ARCs are more hassle than they’re worth, for both parties. Has anyone ever bought a book because of my blog posts? I’m not sure. I probably would be more useful to the publisher if I just bought the book.

*Some bloggers have an “I’m not obligated to review every book I receive” policy, but I don’t. I find it a bit disingenuous since (unless you’re a really big deal) free books don’t just show up on your doorstep without your approval. Not writing a review is akin to not holding up your end of the deal.

As a reader:

Reading ARCs is lonely. The problem with exclusive content is that it’s exclusive. What’s the fun in reading a great book if you no one else can gush over it with you? I can’t be the only one who likes to discuss the books I read. (If I were there would not be book clubs.) You can’t really do that with an ARC. All you can say is “You’re gonna love this!” Well, that’s not true. You can post small quotes out of contexts but publishers may not like that and it just confuses everyone who hasn’t read the book. You can also try to gush with the author (via Twitter or Facebook. Yay technology!) but they have a totally different relationship with the book so the fellowship is not the same. So in the end you’re left all alone, twiddling your thumbs, trying not to post spoilers, all while wanting scream, “I wanna share mah feels! Why haven’t you read this book yet?!” Oh yeah. It doesn’t come out for another six months. Womp womp womp.

When Throne of Glass is finally on sale, I will go to a bookstore and buy it. If I love it as much as I think I will, I’ll write a blog post about it. Not because I feel indebted to the publisher, but because I want to share my passion with others. Then I will go on Tumblr and Facebook and everywhere else that fans congregate and we’ll use caps and exclamation points to discuss the merits of the book. And it will be awesome. No ARCs involved.

Interview with Tanis Rideout

Climbing to New Heights: Tanis Rideout discusses her debut novel Above All Things

(This article first appeared in On the Danforth magazine, Summer 2012)

Better known for her poetry, Danforth writer Tanis Rideout is making her prose debut with her novel Above All Things. The protagonist is what Rideout calls, “the last great British gentleman explorer.” In 1924, George Mallory and his team departed on an expedition to climb Mount Everest. By some accounts Mallory reached the summit, but he never came home.

Above All Things has two narratives: the rousing adventure of Mallory's climb and the patient domesticity of his wife. “[It became a] sort of a love triangle between him, the mountain, and his wife,” Rideout explains. The wife's narrative provides the best insight into Mallory's character. Her role helps to show a more personal and intimate side of Mallory and to cut through the hero mythology that surrounds him.

Rideout grappled with the fine line between fact and fiction when she wrote “Arguments with the Lake”, an unpublished collection of poetry about Marilyn Bell's swim across Lake Ontario. “I got an email from her daughter shortly after the poems were on the CBC. That sort of drove that home to me... There's a person out there and I've taken their name and something that they've done and proceeded to use it for my own ends... there is an anxiety and discomfort around that.”

When writing Above All Things, the distance of time makes fictionalizing Mallory easier but she still strives to be true to the character. “What I'm doing is fiction... I don't know these people and I won't know these people so they kind of have to take on their own life and sometimes in order to do that you have to turn toward fiction.”

Rideout's inspiration for Above All Things came when she worked at an outdoor equipment store after she graduated university. One of her co-workers was an Everest fanatic and showed her a video about Mallory's expedition. Rideout was instantly captivated by the physical and obsessive nature of the journey.

“What is it that makes a person do something that extreme and that dangerous and that physically impossible? ...You don't just decide to do it; you have to keep deciding to do it.”

“There's a similar drive around writing,” she added. “You have to be obsessed to bother.” It was that drive that kept Rideout going during the long process of getting Above All Things to the bookstores. After collecting documents and researching Mallory's life, Rideout wrote the first draft over the course of a summer six years ago. Three drafts and several revisions later, McClelland and Stewart picked up the manuscript for publication. With the book set to be in stores in June, Rideout can finally relax. “It's becoming a very real thing now... it's starting to feel like there will be a book as opposed to this stack paper that's been following me around.”