1. Create more, worry less. (h/t Diane Shoemperlen) 2. The market isn’t Stalin. Have fun writing. 3. The market is Stalin. Be subversive. [A]n invisible force was crushing him. He could feel its weight, its hypnotic power; it was forcing him to think as it wanted, to write as it
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A Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Eugenides Advice on Writing
To follow literary fashion, to write for money, to censor your true feelings and thoughts or adopt ideas because they’re popular requires a writer to suppress the very promptings that got him or her writing in the first place. When you started writing, in high school or college, it wasn’t
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Sea Plane and Reading
WWII military supply plane That is the interior of the sea plane that took me from Vancouver to Gabriola Island. As the only passenger, I got to sit in front. I thought the ride would be scary. Instead it was a stroll through the sky. A magical row below the
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: The Next Big Thing: What I’m Working On
Goddess Durga by Joydeep Thanks to Lauren B. Davis for tagging me on this great questionnaire for writers. I have to confess that I’m participating in this more because I want to hear what other writers are doing than wanting to write about myself–but I will do my best to
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
This is a beautiful, heart-breaking, and ultimately redemptive novel about an Ojibway (Anishnabeg) man’s journey from childhood in the bush to his undoing in residential school, experiences in the Native hockey league and in an NHL farm team, his subsequent alcoholism and recovery. It is a narrative as familiar as
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: More on Walmart
I dashed off yesterday’s post in haste and want to add a few thoughts. I’m not in favour of an economic model in which cheap prices depress wages (and working conditions), which require cheap prices, reinforcing the cycle. But what I am heartened by is that a subject which only
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Bestsellers – in praise of Walmart
Web of Angels is back on the bestseller list! And no small thanks go to…Walmart, which chose this literary novel about a mom with dissociative identity disorder as its featured book for July. In an opportunity to do good and right, Walmart hit it: literature meets mainstream right there. Bestsellers
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: ‘Small Damages,’ by Beth Kephart
“Dreamlike” is one word for Beth Kephart’s latest novel, “Small Damages,” in which an American teenager is exiled to Spain after she gets pregnant. Her percolating story emerges through Kephart’s lilting prose in that same hazy way you’d meander through the narrow white streets of Seville in the noontime sun
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Light and Lively Reading?
My new project, which I’m now about 8,000 words into, is something different from anything I’ve done before. It’s a light (and I hope smart) novel. I won’t say anything more about it for now, but I need some book recommendations. I’ve been reading serious literary fiction and my non-fiction
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Simply Reading: Web of Angels | Bookstack
“That must be a heckuva book,” the elderly man said. He stood before me, hand in hand with his lady friend, as they walked the boardwalk on an afternoon constitutional. “It definitely is,” I answered, emerging from my reverie. “I bet it’s a love story,” he said with a smile.
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Saving The Children | Tales from the Reading Room
Inside our minds great forces rage and collide and strange convoluted processes are developed in order to avoid internal obstacles and keep the status quo. Former versions of ourselves wander through the inner labyrinth, exerting terrific pressure on our decision making and often dictating reactions in illogical ways. We have
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: A Different Drummer
I just finished The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones, and found it delightful, which spurred me to tell you about how I came to it. I met Sadie Jones at the author series hosted by A Different Drummer Books. She and I and Liza (pronounced Lisa) Marklund were on the
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Fiction for Good Living
For a long time literary critics and philosophers have argued, along with the novelist George Eliot, that one of fiction’s main jobs is to “enlarge men’s sympathies.” Recent lab work suggests they are right. The psychologists Mar and Keith Oatley tested the idea that entering fiction’s simulated social worlds enhances
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: #8!
BookNet bestsellers: Canadian fiction in great company! Web of Angels hanging out with Why Men lie by Linden MacIntrye, The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak, Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan and Room by Emma Donoghue! | Quillblog | Quill & Quire http://ow.ly/aDxgZ Filed under: Literary, Personal Tagged: day brightener
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Sharing a Delightful Photo
This isn’t one I took, but I just have to share it with you. This is in my neighbourhood. In fact I may just walk past it this afternoon to crow (quietly of course)! Look at the picture and then I’ll point something out to you (other than the obvious).
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Most Unique Interview Ever
This week I’m guest blogging for the National Post. I decided that my first post should impart some of the wisdom I’ve gained with experience. For example, years ago before my first novel was published, I had a, let us say instructive, lesson in giving interviews to media: The technician,
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: From Grimsby to Winnipeg: Web of Angels Travels
If only I had a cell phone with a camera I’d have taken a shot of the view of the lake and the city skyline across from it yesterday evening. I was reading at the Casablanca Winery Inn, Grimsby, aka Ontario’s wine country. The Grimsby Author Series attracts a dedicated
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: My Favourite Spot for an Interview
I met Greg Quill (Toronto Star) at Faema’s, a coffee shop 5 minutes from my house. It’s on Dupont Street near the Jaguar dealership which is rumoured to be turned into a Target or Walmart in the next few years. It’s large, airy and bright with natural light from the
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Celebrating a Bestseller in the Best Way
Here’s what my children did yesterday. First a creation by H landed on my desk. Pen holder by H, click to enlarge The congratulations section swivels to reveal To and From, click to enlarge Then M cleaned the kitchen counter and stove top within an inch of its life, upon
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Web of Angels: Bestseller
This morning, after oatmeal (with maple syrup, a Sabbath treat), I was at my desk drinking coffee. Emails had arrived from my agent, editor, and publicist. After I read them, I walked downstairs to share the news with my family, weeping and scaring them in the process. “It’s good,” I
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