Interview Roundup: Sgt. Rock Is Going to Help Me

• “Living legend of comics” Joe Kubert talks about the new Sgt. Rock story he’s writing for DC—and why his graphic novel Jew Gangster ended up with iBooks. Excerpts from both books are included.

• “Seattle’s best writer… is an Englishman” is the front-page headline trumpeting the Seattle Weekly interview with Jonathan Raban, admiringly described as “a backwater media critic chronically sought out by media monoliths” though, as former Amazon editor James Marcus points out in the piece, “he transcends the regional-writer rubric the way Faulkner did.”

• UK readers discover Sara Gran, who spills some of the beans regarding her new novel, Dope. Sara’s recently started a blog, too, where she writes about everything from reading Charles Portis to volunteering with the ASPCA in New Orleans.

• The American Booksellers Association’s Bookselling This Week gets personal with Laila Lalami, who admits that she moved to Portland for Powells. Hey, don’t think the Beatrices haven’t considered it, too…

18 November 2005 | interviews |

Amazon Likes Me More Than Bob Dylan!

Apparently The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane! has made Amazon’s Top 10 list for pop culture books. My tribute to ’70s Hollywood may lag behind the Beatles, Tab Hunter, Chip Kidd, hip-hop and Star Wars, but I’m ahead of Bob Dylan, KCRW’s Nic Harcourt (whose “Morning Becomes Eclectic” podcasts I get regularly), and the guy who took pictures of all his food.

If you want to find out more about the book, I was interviewed by S.T. VanAirsdale of The Reeler, an excellent NYC film blog. He loves the book, but not blindly, and his mild criticisms are well taken. Hell, if the worst anybody says about Stewardess! is that it’s overambitious, I’ve gotten off lucky!

18 November 2005 | uncategorized |