We went to hear Elmore and Peter at our local bookstore. These two, and especially Elmore, know how to put on a good show. For one hour, Elmore, coaxed by his son, relayed how he began writing, anecdotes about the movies made from his work, his ten rules for writing, etc.Never once did this man in his eighties show signs of having done this a million times and being bored with it. And not once did his very gracious son, show impatience with how little attention was directed toward him. The crowd, which would have been ten times the size, if the bookstore had thought to even place a poster in their front window, grew over the hour and I was relieved to see some of them were buying Peter's book too.
A good time was had by all. Especially me. Who have you seen do this sort of thing especially well?
13 comments:
I saw James Ellroy at Angel Hall on the U of M campus in 2002 and he knows how to do it up right. My mother used to take the family to the Cap Cod Writers conference and I recall seeing Mary Higgins Clark speak, as I recall she had style and grace, and a sense of humor. I recall getting the sense that she knew that she was lucky and that it was her readers who had given her all she had.
Elmore and son Peter Leonard will be appearing with Loren Estleman at the AADL on Thursday night, and I will be around here for that.
Wish I'd been there!
I did not know his son was a writer too. Wow. The things I don't know embarass me.
His son only has two novels and the first was just two years ago.
I felt bad that when the FREEP reviewed his book, they also reviewed Estleman and gave him a much better review. He actually remarked on it and I bet you'll hear about it at the library.
Yes, Paul. I wish you'd been there too.
I've seen Robert Asprin mesmerize a large crowd with folksy anecdotes about Isaac Asimov of all people. This was many years ago, about thirty, and he seemed rather shy about his own work.
Good presenters of their own work/lively chatters-up:
Harlan Ellison, when he's on, which is most of the time in public
the late Ed Hoch
...it suddenly occurs to me how infrequently I've been in the presence of people doing an extraoridinary job with this, since I've been in attendance of such things so infrequently...
I've only been to one (1) CF convention, for example, and not too many more similar events dealing with fantasy, sf, fanzines, and contemporary mimetic fiction...
Here's your odd factoid for the late hour, as I head off to feed Alice's cats: Harley Jane Kozak, whose THE FAVOR I watched this afternoon while waiting for my ibuprofen to kick in, was the initial choice to play Karen Sammler on ONCE AND AGAIN, but withdrew because she became pregnant...her role went to the similar looking (and similarly beuatiful, if even thinner) Susanna Thompson, perhaps best known previously as a STAR TREK "Borg queen"...which is a pretty roundabout way of noting that Kozak probably makes a good showing at readings and such, too. Also that Thompson is going to be in an interesting-sounding series this fall, but I'm too ibuprofened to remember which, or even it was actually interesting-sounding. Also, THE FAVOR ain't too shabby, if unsurprising...one of the films caught in Orion's collapse. Plays like a very high-grade Lifetime comedy.
Yes...an announcement of some sort may have made me crawl out from under my rock to see this great writer.
I love humility! It bothers me when writers (or other 'artists') affect that bored "you are bothering me" air...or the "oh geez, not this again *big heavy sigh* --
Ian Rankin was particularly good dressed in a kilt and standing on a spiral staircase in an independent bookstore that has a reputation of beiing very welcoming to authors. He was surrounded by a crowd of adoring women looking up at him. Michael Connelly was very laidback for a much smaller crowd in the same store. Also saw Richard Ford and Leif Enger do a dual presentation. Found Enger more forthcoming than Ford, but maybe because he was promoting his first novel after writing several baseball novels with his brother. Ford showed more interest when I was the last in line to get his latest book signed and asked if he would sign some of his earliest work. Think I was surprised when I produced a first of The Ultimate Good Luck. W.P. Kinsella spoke at the college where I worked years before he hit it big with Shoeless Joe and did a fine reading followed by a discussion with communications students. I missed him speaking a few years later in the same bookstore mentioned above, but gather it wasn't as pleasant an experience.
My absolute favorite was Tobias and Geoffrey Wolfe (sp?) and Jeffrey Eugenides was great. I've seen some pretty bad ones too, of course, which I don't need to mention.
I just saw George Pellecanos at the Poisoned Pen this past Thursday and was absolutely blown away by him. He was subdued but very relaxed and entertaining.
I also saw Ellroy when he was touring with his second collection of essays and stories, he was entertaining as hell
Barry Eisler can be great and energetic. Unless he is totally worn out from a couple weeks on the road, in which case he is great but subdued.
JA Konrath has worked hard at entertaining the crowd on the times I have seen him.
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