Monday, September 3, 2012

Episode 51- The Traveling Writer with A.J. Hartley

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 We discuss the dangers of our relative countries of residence and chat briefly about our current writing projects.
We talk about the “sagging middle” of a novel – the difficulty of writing that tricky middle section.
We chat about interviewing characters as if they were really people and how some writers have Twitter accounts for their characters.
Alan’s dog is on Twitter: @ImAlsDog
Our listener gave us more details on the Harlan Ellison audiobook records and more. Here’s the comment in full:
Here is a link to what remains of the Harlan Ellison Record Collection (scroll to the bottom). I think they may have converted some/all to CDs ... http://harlanellison.com/herc.htm
Here is a link to many of Harlan's "spoken word" recordings:
http://www.islets.net/audio/audiolist.html
(Thanks Greg!)
We then go on to talk about the recent blow-up about paid positive reviews and the news about John Locke’s untold secret to success.
Here’s the blog post Alan mentions: http://www.alanbaxteronline.com/paid-reviews-hurt-paid/
We discuss the moral minefield around the ideas of reviewing and the different methods of getting reviews.
We have a chat with A J Hartley.
There’s some discussion of various football codes.
Then AJ catches us up on what’s been happening for him.
AJ goes on to talk about his latest foray back into the thriller genre, his new book “Tears Of The Jaguar”:
http://ajhartley.net/books-and-projects/thrillers/tears-of-the-jaguar/
AJ discusses his choice of location and the joys and methodology of his research. This leads to a discussion of ideas and what certain books are actually about.
AJ chats about one aspect of the novel, the Lancashire witch trials, which happened four hundred years ago this year.
What is it about this type of thriller that makes the genre so enduring?
We talk about the nature of traveling to inform your writing and understanding cultural variation.
AJ gives his traveling advice for writers.
Visit AJ at www.ajhartley.net

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