The book trade, like so many other industries, is, it seems, "in crisis". I know not "seems" and crisis is OTT in my book.
If you want to do something in life... well, just do it.
Having made a comment about graphics on Crimesceneni, I have given a lot of thought to the visual aspect of blogs and why some of them are pleasant to look at. We are now so overwhelmed by iconography that blindness to contemporary images may be in sight. I find I often close my eyes, rather than look.
This is because wild colour schemes, images with the "wow" factor, shocking juxtaposition of themes and crazy fonts are now so prevalent in the public sphere that it is actually a relief to find something "ordinary" out there.
I have a vested interest in knowing more about the publishing world. It is not a monetary interest, more a projection into the future, when the years of photos I have accumulated will have become mementos of the past. Reading Proust on the subject of photography helps to find a pathway through all the issues that bedevil writers and artists at the moment. What sells may seem a crass question.
But it is important when it comes to marketing books.
Winterland by Alan Glynn"Winterland", by Alan Glynn
Mr Glynn very kindly sent me a synopsis of his book, which is categorised as a literary thriller
with noir over and under tones,
rather than as a gritty crime novel.
"It has elements of the crime thriller in it, but I wrote it simply as a novel.
The main character in the book is a young woman, Gina Rafferty, who refuses to be lied to.
Two deaths occur in her family on the same night and she refuses to accept that it was a coincidence.
Her pursuit of an honest answer leads her through the worlds of business,
politics and crime and to the unravelling of a dynamic in Irish life where people tell lies, cover them up, create all sorts of collateral damage over decades and never take responsibility.
One strand of the plot involves the construction of a high rise office building down in the docklands by a man who becomes Gina's nemesis or opposite.
One of the things I was trying to do with these two characters was create a simultaneous sense that 'the centre cannot hold' and that actually maybe, with adjustment, it can.
In an exciting abstract way I see an echo of that in your image."
Much has been written about the astonishing greed of the past fifteen years.
However, the Celtic Tiger did bring a sense of vitality to our lives and now
that we are in post-boom times, our artists are offering considered explorations of
what exactly seems to have happened and "where it all almost went wrong".
I am an optimist. I expect that Alan Glynn will manage to get the centre to hold
in his much anticipated novel.
I have read that Mr Glynn has regard for James Joyce, who seems to have settled into the role of venerable patriarch to the city's numerous writers.
Dubliners, whose city motto is "Obedienta Civium Urbis Felicitas"...
"Happy the city where citizens obey"..
are survivors. There is more to their story than the ones told through the moroseness of the many writers who chose exile rather than live in a place that did not suit their psychological needs.
Since the world of publishing is now a global phenomenon it is heartening to see writers living in our city and following its narrative as insiders at last.
Dublinia
posted by Tales from the Birch Wood. at 4:38 PM
3 Comments:
Blogger DaviMack said...
Congratulations on getting published, then! Cover art? Woo!
10/15/2009 6:56 PM
Blogger Cathy said...
Congratulations indeed! Will be looking out for the book and its cover.
10/16/2009 8:47 AM
Blogger Tales from the Birch Wood. said...
Thank you both.
It has been a dramatic few months and certainly a reason to focus more clearly on photography.
Cover art is very fashionable, it seems.
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