Many thanks to Jessica Standifird for running this interview at Blue Skirt Productions and for organizing the Blue Skirt reading at Glyph Cafe & Arts in Portland.
BSP: Any advice to writers out there on how to jump those hurdles?
JR: The world owes you nothing, but it’s not out to get you either. You are your own worst enemy. The sooner you figure out the ways you sabotage your work, the better.
I’ll be reading at Mia Lipman’s Lit Fix in Seattle on Thursday September 18 at 7pm at the Rendezvous with a ton of great writers, including Susan Rich, Kelli Russell Agodon, Jay Ponteri and Jenny Hayes with musical guest Jon Frum. The event gets the stamp of approval from The Stranger.
Many thanks to John Wilkens at the San Diego Union-Tribune for this kind review of Forest of Fortune in a round up of recent noteworthy books by San Diego writers that also includes the incomparable Drusilla Campbell.
Ruland mixes in some Native American mythology, some knowing nods to reservation politics, and a frightening wildfire as he rockets this sometimes weird but often wonderful novel to a close.
When I announced my West Coast tour last month, I know a lot of you were scratching your head. Alaska? Really? Some guessed my trip had something to do with Giving the Finger, and while I’ve been looking for a reason to come back to Alaska since my visit to Dutch Harbor in December of 2012, this trip has nothing to do with crab fishing or reality television.
So what brought me out here? About a year ago, a filmmaker named Tom Trainor reached out to me. Before going on a trip to shoot a TV series in the wilds of Alaska, he picked up a copy of Big Lonesome at Title Wave, a massive used book store in Anchorage, and became enamored with my short story “Kessler Has No Lucky Pants.” He wanted to know if the film rights were available. We talked for a bit, I gave him the green light, and he was off.
When Forest of Fortune came out, Tom invited me to come up to Anchorage and do a reading and shoot a cameo for the film. How could I say no? On Sat. Sept 12 I read at Cafe del Mundo to an audience of the cafe’s patrons and staff, and Tom’s talented and amiable colleagues in the uber-collaborative Anchorage film community, including Beth Skabar, the film’s Director of Photography and Kevin T. Bennett, one of the lead actors.
If you are familiar with Kessler, you know it’s not the kind of story that screams “Make me into a movie.” Its question and answer format, i.e. a catechism, presents significant challenges for telling the story. I’ve seen clips and its astonishing. I can’t wait to see the finished product.
While I was getting ready for the reading, it occurred to me that Kessler, a beleaguered office temp is a proto-Pemberton, one of the protagonist’s of Forest of Fortune. There’s a clear line between Kessler the unlucky office worker and Pemberton the ad man whose bad decisions have boxed him into a corner.
So what role will I play in the film? I don’t play any of the versions of “Jim” that appear in the story. That would be too meta. I wouldn’t even call it a role, more like a cameo. Like the kind Hitchcock was famous for, only creepier. Much creepier….
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
My conversation with Josh Mohr at The Booksmith on Thursday, September 11 at 7:30pm was named an Editor’s Pick at Flavorpill. The event will be held at 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco. We’ll have a conversation about haunted Indian casinos and the people who can’t stay away from them.
Last night I had the opportunity to meet with Josh Mohr‘s students in his Noir class at the University of San Francisco.
We talked about elements of noir (I like Josh’s breakdown: fatalism, cynicism and morality better than mine: slick, brutal, weird), what makes a good mystery, my shame over having never read Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, and, as always, the unspeakable horror of the literary life. Good times!
This week I’m taking Alice, Pemberton, Lupita and the rest of the gang from Forest of Fortune up the coast to San Francisco, Anchorage, Seattle and Portland. Check out my events page for readings, book signings and miscellaneous mayhem.
Many thanks to Leland Zaitz who sent me this striking cover from a pulp published in the 1930s with the same title as my novel. What’s going on here? What are they doing with that poor chap? Who was Pierre Quiroule? Why is the skull wearing a red eye mask? Is that the Forest of Fortune off the starboard beam? So many questions…
Many thanks to Todd Taylor at Razorcake for shooting this video from the Forest of Fortune reading at Avenue 50 Studio in beautiful Highland Park, California on August 18. THe art on the walls behind me is by Sergio Teran. Here’s the disposition:
Intro: 00: – 4:45
Reading: 4:45 – 16:25
Q&A: 16:25 – 26:11
And, no, I have no idea what is going on with my hands during the Q&A.
This was a nice surprise. Book Soup’s best sellers for last week.