BitterSweet Blog

Right up there with burly, bearded men shucking crab on the high seas

Jamie — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:21:28 +0000

Vivian at the Wing Luke Museum tells me that there’s a new Famous Seattle Tour––which includes the houseboat from Sleepless in Seattle, the Sea Star from the Deadliest Catch, and the Panama Hotel, from some strange book...

I’m wondering if they included the home of Jimi Hendrix or Bruce Lee’s old jeet kun do school. Or the club where Ray Charles played his first paid gig? The list goes on.

Of thin skins and itchy twitter-fingers

Jamie — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:44:38 +0000

When it comes to reviews the late great Paul Newman said it best, “If they're good you get a fat head and if they're bad you're depressed for three weeks.” Which is why he didn’t read his press. And for the most part, I’m the same way. I have no control over reviews, so why bother? I do confess though to looking at my stars on Amazon once in a while, just to see which direction the compass is pointing. (So far there are 82 five-star reviews and 3 one-star write-ups. And I’ve been told one of those is a complaint about a book not arriving. Nice).

Interviews though, I do read, because I’m an active participant in the process and it’s always interesting to see how they turn out. And yes, I’ve been misquoted several times, but no one really cares, so I don’t get my knickers in a knot about it.

During one particular interview a reporter had great things to say about my writing, but also a few criticisms. Did I take it personally? Did I take his book in the back yard and riddle it with bullet-holes and mail it to him as Richard Ford once did? Nah. I understood that he was writing an article and not signing up for my fan club. And the next time I rolled though town we split a bucket of clams and had a great time. Some writers have notoriously thin-skins and I don’t want to be one of ‘em.

Which brings me to the Twitter dumpster-fire set ablaze last week by author Alice Hoffman, who was so incensed by a bad write-up in the Boston Globe that she tweeted the reviewer’s email and phone number, encouraging enraged fans to—do whatever enraged literary fans do—boycott their lattes? Hold book group sit-ins?

And through a twist of sweet, buttery irony, the critic that once so enraged Richard Ford—sending him to the backyard with a book and a loaded pistol, was (wait for it) none other than Alice Hoffman.

I say books and pistols at twenty paces settles it once and for all.

Tales from Minidoka

Jamie — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:18:58 +0000

I spent the weekend attending this year’s Minidoka Pilgrimage, an annual event that’s one part family reunion and one part return to the scene of the crime––and opinions and emotions ran accordingly. Nearly 150 people were there, including dozens of former internees and their families.

Minidoka is one of several “Sites of Shame,” funded by the National Parks system, along with other internment camps, like Manzanar, as well as a few Native American battlefields that U.S. history books have tried to forget.

It was a packed weekend, but highlights included:

Roger & Me. I’ve always been a big fan of artist Roger Shimomura, especially his work entitled: Stereotypes and Admonitions. It was cool to hang out and talk story with the man himself.

Where our people are. It was humbling to hear a talk by a Caucasian man who’s family moved from Seattle to Twin Falls when the Japanese American community was taken to Minidoka. His father was the head of the local Japanese Baptist Church and when his flock moved, he moved his family to Idaho so he could tend to their needs.

Something about Mary. Walt Woodward of the Bainbridge Review was the only editor during the 40s that spoke out against the Japanese Internment—directly in the face of charges of treason. His response, “Treason it is!” I worked at the Review right out of college and knew the story behind the story. It was a joy to meet Walt’s daughter, Mary, the author of the beautiful book, In Defense of Our Neighbors.

Darumas. During the closing ceremonies everyone made wishes and pinned small darumas to an 8-foot-tall replica of a guard tower. A daruma wish weaves its way through my new book so I took that as a portentous sign.

Justice Society. It was interesting to talk to so many people who were there because they felt called to the cause of social justice. Including a pair of Buddhist monks, one of which had retraced the steps of Harriet Tubman’s underground railroad. Walking from the U.S. to Toronto, Canada, traveling 10-20 miles each night––in the snow.

Karaoke at the Red Lion. And of course the hilarious, tragic and poignant irony of former internees singing the cowboy song, Don’t Fence Me In, was too good to miss.

Anyone speak Min Nan?

Jamie — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:22:48 +0000

I've been wondering how the Chinese version of HOTEL would be received. This early blog review of an advance readers copy is a good sign. I just wish I understood it. (I've been told it's a "thumbs up" from KJ, a prolific Taiwanese blogger).

The Bookcase: Wayzata, MN

Jamie — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:40:28 +0000

Just got back from Minneapolis where we had a great crowd at The Bookcase last night. Kudos to Jennifer for hosting, and especially to Bill, Lois, and the rest of their incredible book group. Why were they so incredible, let's see:

They have men in their group. A bit of a rarity, I'm afraid. Their group is actually a couples book group, going strong for 12+ years. Do their book selections skew along gender lines? Sometimes. But when they did a poll of their favorite books over the years there was a wonderful cross-pollination of reading tastes.

They go beyond the printed page. When this group read Ambrose's book about D-Day, they went to Normandy. A book set in Ireland was followed by a trip to the Emerald Isle. It was lovely to see a love of books become a lifestyle.

They knew the landscape. Forget that degree in English Lit, stick with a book group for 12 years and you'll be amazed at what it'll do to your literary horizons.

Plus, they were fabulous hosts--if you're reading this, I can't thank you enough.

Next stop: Minneapolis

Jamie — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:57:57 +0000

Tomorrow I'll be winging my way to the most literate city in American (though to be fair, Minneapolis is usually in a dead-heat with Seattle for that honor). I'll be giving a talk tomorrow night at The Bookcase in Wayzata. Hope to see you there.

The Amazon Kindle, helping rich white people read books since 2007

Jamie — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:08:05 +0000

When I was a wee lad back in art school there was always a certain kind of student that obsessed over photo-realism. Regardless of the medium: oil, gouache, pencil, ink, etc––their goal was to render an illustration as close to photo-real as possible. To which my response was generally, “Dude, that’s what cameras are for.”

Granted, the painstaking recreation of an image is labor intensive and requires a bit of talent. There's a lot of craft involved, but creatively it’s dead on arrival.

Which brings me to the Amazon Kindle.

I’m a technophile and an über-geek at heart. (I travel with a laptop, smart phone, iPod and a GPS). I want to like the Kindle, honest I do. But it’s just so…so…practical. It’s creatively inert. It’s not that I don’t like it––it’s just that I’m ambivalent about it. Whenever I see someone reading on their Kindle, I keep wanting to say, “Dude, that’s what books are for.”

I guess I just love printed words. I love how they feel, how they smell, the weight of them in my hand. And I never have to recharge them. But then again, I miss record albums with all their liner-note glory, so what do I know?

Author, Sherman Alexie recently had some scathing words for Kindle, calling the $400 device “elitist.” And who knows? Maybe he’s right. Because in other news, (I’ve always want to say that on camera), luxury hotels are now offering Kindles to guests.

Is the Kindle elitist? Yes...no...maybe?

Facebooked

Jamie — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:35:25 +0000

The other Jamie Ford. (Not me in drag).Interesting. Facebook has finally allowed users to select individual web addresses. So whereas my previous Facebook addy was something akin to http://www.facebook.com/3.141592653589793#/home.php?ref=home, now it’s simply, facebook.com/jamieford.

I was even able to jump on and snag my own fairly common name before all the other Jamie Fords out there, not the least of which is a Playboy model, though I think the term she uses is “fitness model.” You say to-MAY-toe, I say to-MAH-toe...

Anyway, if you’re on Facebook, by all means look me up.

By the time I get to Minidoka

Jamie — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:41:54 +0000

Like most writers, my personal neuroses are legion. One happens to be a nagging insecurity about writing about the experiences of other cultures. (How Arthur Golden, a white guy from Tennessee, got over this fear and wrote Memoirs of a Geisha, I’ll never know. Okay, maybe that degree in Japanese history came in handy).

So with HOTEL, I stuck with the point-of-view or Henry Lee, a young Chinese boy––a character I was comfortable writing. But I also had a healthy respect and reverence for those directly affected by the Japanese Internment, and I did my research. Which makes it incredibly satisfying to receive emails like these:

"It reminded me of so many things. My mother, age 92 and my father, age 88, both Nisei, were married in 1942 so they wouldn’t be separated when they were shipped to the camps. They first stayed in the horse stalls at Santa Anita Park and then were sent to Gila River, Arizona. In 1943, with the sponsorship of the American Friends Society, they left the camps for Chicago. Arriving in the winter, having lived in Hawaii or Southern California, they were ill prepared and knew no one. They wandered the streets looking for something warm to wear and a place to stay."

"The Issei are mostly gone and the Nisei still tend to not want to talk about their feelings or experiences so it is only through books like yours that my daughter can begin to build a real picture of what went on during that time."

Best of all was meeting a gentleman in Seattle from the Nisei Veterans Committee, who enjoyed the book and invited me to this year’s Minidoka Pilgrimage.

I’ll be there June 27-28.

*Reading glasses not included

Jamie — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:05:11 +0000

I forgot to mention that the LARGE FORMAT* version of Hotel is now available––with an alternative cover.

The trade paperback will have a cover almost identical to the hardback (with that lovely stripe at the top that reads New York Times Bestseller), but since a different publisher handles large print, they had a different interpretation of the cover.

Definitely aimed at a female audience, in a non-Fabio kind of way.