John Haines, Author of Never Leaving Laramie -- AUTHOR INTERVIEW

John Haines was an adventure seeker from a young age. He biked through Tibet, kayaked the Niger River, and rode the Trans-Siberian Express from Beijing to East Berlin. His new memoir, Never Leaving Laramie (2020, OSU Press) weaves his travel stories with his philosophy of travel.

John talked with Rose City Reader about his travels, his work, and Never Leaving Laramie:

What lead you to write your memoir, Never Leaving Laramie?

I had time and a box of writing from over the years, usually for magazines, and detailed journals. Writing became another form of adventure, stringing stories into a thread for a book. I refer to the book as an "essayistic memoir" blending travel, culture, history and landscapes, mostly in places in transition, as I was.

Of all the trips you describe in your book, what was your favorite?

My favorite trip is always the next one. Beyond iconic places – The Potala Palace in Lhasa or the Great Mosque in Timbuktu – I value simple but durable moments: waking to dawn light in the Himalayas; sea kayaking on calm water off the coast of Hvar in Croatia after working in a war zone in Bosnia; walking alone on snow in a medieval Czech village remarkably undamaged by wars; and eating fish with water lily bulbs shared by the Bozo, a semi-nomadic fishing people in the Inland Delta of the Niger River in Mali.

You write about how growing up in the rural community of Laramie, Wyoming shaped your worldview. Can you explain a little about that?

Laramie is home to the only university in Wyoming, which gives it a continual cycle of student energy. It is surrounded by open space that begins on the edge of town and extends forever into the prairie, creeks and rivers, and mountains on the far edge of the high plains. The landscape serves as an escape for kids and eventually, inevitably, as a launchpad for wanderers into a wider world.

You had some amazing travel adventures and patched together a career around your travels before you went to work at Mercy Corps. Can you tell us about that transition?

I first heard about Mercy Corps when I was working in Central Europe and in Bosnia, and admired their predisposition for action and innovation. After helping to start an environmental bank in Portland, I joined Mercy Corps in 2002 to direct their domestic work. While there I worked on this idea to allow low-income people to invest in commercial real estate in their neighborhoods. In 2014 we formed the Community Investment Trust, a national project for Mercy Corps that puts real estate ownership into the hands of the BIPOC community, renters and first-time investors.

Who is the audience for your book?

People who are curious and have a taste for adventure, however large or small. I hope any reader will find something fresh in the stories of places in transition – from East Berlin to Bosnia, Tibet to Guinea – where the book moves. Themes of risk with beauty, pain, persistence and possibility flow through the book much as various rivers around the globe carry the stories.

In general, what do you hope readers will take away from your book?

I hope people have fun and relate to the elasticity of time and place that blends home with travel in the world.

What did you learn from writing your book – either about the subject of the book or the writing process – that most surprised you?

I can write watching sports while drinking a beer, but I edit in quiet with coffee.

What kind of books do you like to read? What are you reading now?

I read a range between creative fiction (anything by David Markson, for instance) and history (Michael Oren’s Power, Power, Faith, and Fantasy is amazing). I am currently reading Caste by Isabelle Wilkerson and Analogia by George Dyson, both of which take some time to absorb between chapters. I slip into reading the essays in Horizon, the final book of a favorite of mine, Barry Lopez.

What's next for you? What are you working on now?

I am committed to growing the Community Investment Trust into a national force, building replication from our successful East Portland pilot, to close the racial wealth gap throughout the US. I continue to write essays and am editing short stories I had mothballed.

THANK YOU, JOHN!

NEVER LEAVING LARAMIE IS AVAILABLE ONLINE IN PAPERBACK AND EBOOK.

Windhall and Princes of the Renaissance -- MAILBOX MONDAY

 

Two new books came into my house last week. How about you? Anything new?

These two new books are both from Pegasus Books and are vying for my attention:

Windhall by Ava Barry. Described as a "literary thriller," this debut novel finds investigative journalist Max Hailey trying to solve the cold case murder of a Hollywood starlet. 

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:

1940s Hollywood was an era of decadence and director Theodore Langley was its king. Paired with Eleanor Hayes as his lead actress, Theo ruled the Golden Age of Hollywood. That ended when Eleanor's mangled body was discovered in Theo's rose garden and he was charged with her murder. The case was thrown out before it went to trial and Theo fled L.A., leaving his crawling estate, Windhall, to fall into ruin. He hasn't been seen since.

Decades later, investigative journalist Max Hailey, raised by his gran on stories of old Hollywood, is sure that if he could meet Theo, he could prove once and for all that the famed director killed his leading lady. When a copycat murder takes place near Windhall, the long reclusive Theo returns to L.A., and it seems Hailey finally has his chance.

Princes of the Renaissance: The Hidden Power Behind an Artistic Revolution by Mary Hollingsworth. This new nonfiction book tells the history of the patrons of the art and architecture of the Italian Renaissance. It is a beautiful book, filled with color pictures or the art described.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:

The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was an era of dramatic political, religious, and cultural change in the Italian peninsula, witnessing major innovations in the visual arts, literature, music, and science.
. . . . 

A vivid depiction of the lives and times of the aristocratic elite whose patronage created the art and architecture of the Renaissance, Princes of the Renaissance is a narrative that is as rigorous and definitively researched as it is accessible and entertaining. Perhaps most importantly, Mary Hollingsworth sets the aesthetic achievements of these aristocratic patrons in the context of the volatile, ever-shifting politics of an age of change and innovation.

MAILBOX MONDAY

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house last week. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf.

 

The Bird that Sang in Color by Grace Mattioli - BOOK BEGINNING

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY

I'm here on Friday again, not Thursday evening. My apologies. It was another crazy work week. I.m going to try to schedule a few Book Beginning and other blog posts for upcoming weeks this weekend to get a jump on things. 

I hope your week is more calm than mine! What are you reading? Let's share the first sentences or so of the books we are enjoying this week. Please use the hashtag #BookBeginnings if you post or share on social media. 

Share your link in the Linky box below. You can participate with a blog or a social media account like Instagram, Facebook, or anything else that works. Or just leave a comment with your opening sentence and the name of your book.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

My book beginning is from Grace Mattioli's new novel, The Bird that Sang in Color:

What pictures will you have of yourself by the end of your life? By pictures, I mean drawings, not photographs. A picture is easy. A drawing is earned. 

I offer a longer excerpt than usual because I thought it was interesting. What do you think?

The Bird that Sang in Color came out last month. It is a brother/sister story about Donna Greco and her brother Vincent. Donna sought the conventional successes in life, compared to Vincent who was an artistic free spirit. The story follows their relationship from their childhood in the 1970s to the near present. Mattioli tells this heartfelt family story with finesse and humor.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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THE FRIDAY 56 

Another weekly teaser event is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice, where you can find details and add a link to your post. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book you are featuring. You can also find a teaser from 56% of the way through your ebook or audiobook.

MY FRIDAY 56

From The Bird that Sang in Color:

"Hey, I'm doing the best I can," Vincent said defensively.

"That's why you'll never be anything but a flub!" Dad shouted at him.

The Anglophile's Notebook by Sunday Taylor - BOOK BEGINNINGS

 BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

I'm very late with my Book Beginnings post this Friday! I forgot to post last evening because I went to visit my mom and sister for an overdue celebration of my birthday. The festivities made me forget my blogging duties!

Snow and ice pushed back our celebration by over a week, so it was nice to finally get together out at their house. After lunch, we visited Tony's Garden Center, where this blanket of primroses made our eyes pop.

So, better very late than never, please share the first sentence or so of the book your are reading this week. Share the link to your blog post or social media post in the linky box below. If you link or share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

My Book Beginning is from The Anglophile's Notebook by Sunday Taylor:

Claire Easton awoke suddenly rom a deep sleep, her mind in a tangled fog.

This new novel follows Claire Easton, a magazine editor from LA on assignment in England to research a book about Charlotte Brontë. It's part literary travelogue, part romantic adventure, and all wonderful entertainment.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please link to your Book Beginning post:

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THE FRIDAY 56

Another fun Friday event is The Friday 56. Share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your book, or 56% of the way through your e-book or audiobook, on this weekly event hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

From The Anglophile's Notebook:

Though today Carlyle is far from a fashionable figure, in the 1830s and ‘40s he was one of Victorian London’s foremost men of letters. A Scottish writer and historian, Thomas lived with his wife, Jane, a prominent essayist and famous wit, in a little house at 25 Cheyne Row, one of London’s best-preserved Georgian streets.

Suzzy Roche: Writer, Singer, Songwriter -- AUTHOR INTERVIEW

AUTHOR INTERVIEW WITH SUZZY ROCHE

Suzzy Roche has had a successful career as a singer/songwriter, recording numerous CDs with her band The Roches, as a solo artist, and with her daughter Lucy Wainwright Roche. She turned to prose writing with two earlier books, a novel Wayward Saints, and a children's book Want To Be in a Band?

Suzzy's second novel, The Town Crazy, is out now from Gibson House Press. Find my review on this post.

Suzzy talked with Rose City Reader about her new book, new music, and authors who inspire her: 

How did your new book, The Town Crazy, come about?

I don’t know! Unlike my first book, which came out of a short story I had written, this one seemed to appear out of thin air. I simply sat down at the computer and started to write from a deeply unconscious place, much like dreaming.

The story is set in suburban Pennsylvania in 1961, in a Catholic community. What drew you to this time and place for the setting of your novel?

The novel takes place during a time when I was a young child. I don’t remember much of my childhood, just fleeting images. I was interested in exploring those shards of memory. Though all the characters are fictional, and the plot does not bear specific resemblance to my life, there is something of the mood in the book that reminds me of my early childhood. 1961 seems like another era these days. I was also often thinking of the poet Anne Sexton as I wrote the book.

What themes do you hope readers will find in your novel?

Themes of motherhood and marriage. Childhood terrors and cruelty. Religion, as it is used to control and shame people. Small town power struggles. And how art can flourish or be destroyed.

You have had a successful career as a singer and songwriter. How did that career lead to fiction writing?  

I’ve always been drawn to the idea of making something out of nothing. As an artist, you are always coming up against the very hard truth that no one is waiting for your work. You just have to sit down and do it. Writing is a solitary endeavor, and therefore can save an artist’s creative life.

What did you learn from writing your book – either about the subject of the book or the writing process – that most surprised you? 

What I’ve learned over the years about creating anything is to keep going, never quit, but don’t push. Creations have a way of taking their time. They are like living organisms that need shepherding. You have to listen deeply to the thing you are creating.

Did you know right away, or have an idea, how you were going to end the story? Or did it come to you as you were in the process of writing?  

In this case, I had no idea what was going to happen any chapter. I let the story play out in my mind like a movie.

Were books an important part of your household when you were growing up? 

My mother instituted a tradition called “Reading Hour.” Typically, it occurred while she made dinner. She’d put on classical music and we all had to sit in the living room and read. We moaned and groaned all the way through it. We were also busy writing our own stories.

Who are your three (or four or five) favorite authors? Is your own writing influenced by the authors you read? 

Larry McMurtry for his empathy, Elizabeth Strout for her biting wit, John Coetzee for his heartbreaking clarity, Meg Wolitzer for her vulnerability, Toni Morrison for her wild fearlessness. Just to name a few. Reading has so much to do with the frame of mind of the reader. Sometimes I revisit a book, and it hits me in a totally different way.

What kind of books do you like to read? What are you reading now? 

Right now I am reading Ronnie Gilbert’s autobiography because I am going to record it for Audible. She was a member of the folk group The Weavers.

What is the most valuable advice you’ve been given as an author? 

You can start with 10 or 15 minutes a day. Also, keep the adjectives and adverbs to a minimum and try not to overuse the words was or is. REWRITE.

What is the best thing about being a writer? 

You can live in an alternate universe.

You have a great website and are also active on Twitter and Facebook. From an author's perspective, how important are social networking sites and other internet resources to promote your book? 

I am very active on Facebook and I do have a website. Because my book is published by Gibson House Press, an independent press, I doubt anyone would have noticed it was there if I didn’t have a fan base. I am very interested in my readers and listeners. They have kept me alive when the rest of the world ignores me. But it’s a relationship that requires care and respect, like any other relationship.

What’s next? Are you working on anything new right now? 

I just released a CD with my daughter Lucy Wainwright Roche. It’s called I Can Still Hear You. It’s a beautiful recording. Between that and The Town Crazy I pretty drained right now. I don’t have an idea in my head. Always an unsettling part of the creative process. But the field must lie fallow. I hope I’ll be lucky enough to get lost in another project, but who knows.

THANK YOU, SUZZY!

THE TOWN CRAZY IS AVAILABLE ONLINE IN PAPERBACK AND EBOOK.