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I thought I'd begin my blogging/writing journey by discussing how I got to this point. I figured one way of telling that story would be to go over some of the books that have become my favorites over the years. I must stress that I am definitely not as well read as I should be (tomes like Ulysses and Moby Dick residing idly on my shelf for a better day, etc) but have found, especially in the last decade, books that have shaped my writing self and blown away my reading self through the prowess displayed by these authors. I will later delve more into how I actually tried giving this writing thing a go, but that history kinda winds back and forth all the way to childhood, and is deserving of its own separate series of posts. (Also, I should note that this list comprises fiction books only; hopefully one day I'll get around to listing my favorite works of journalism/non-fiction as those are major interests, too. And feel free to add your own commentary/lists in the comment section.) Thanks for reading. jA_W (All images via Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons.)  Brave New World - Aldous Huxley I sadly was late to the game on this one, not reading Huxley's masterpiece until a few short years ago. But once I finished it (and was fortunate enough to read the additional Brave New World Revisited, which was included in my version) I was blown away by Huxley's use of technology and humanity to show us a world not so far from our own current predicament, with entertainment on tap 24-hours a day and "soma" provided in a hundred different flavors. The brilliant writer Neil Postman conducted a massive thought experiment with his work Amusing Ourselves to Death that postulated whether or not his current world (in the Eighties) was more like Huxley's blissed-out experience or Orwell's technology-driven neo-humanity of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Postman came to the conclusion that Huxley was far and away the closer vision, a contention that struck me anew after I finished the impressive volume (Revisited is an essay Huxley wrote thirty years on appraising his work's predictions). Huxley proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that watching humanity's peril at its own hand was nothing that would change throughout the course of the perilous 20th century, and sends huge messages toward today's internet-obsessed media landscape.  East of Eden - John Steinbeck I also am embarrassed to admit this was my first Steinbeck, having somehow missed The Grapes of Wrath and other classics in high school. But what a master-work to take in as the first! This generation-spanning magnificent chronicle of two families' journey in California around the turn of the century is an amazing work of literature, story and character. The book delves into the Biblical intertwining of the Trasks and Hamiltons and dives into the dark heart of American empire as the world changed in the first part of the 20th century. I'm reading Catch-22 right now, which is similar to East of Eden for me in that I can't wait to jump back into reading each night because it was so amazingly written. A true landmark of American literature.  To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee I won't spend too much time on this book, given that Lee's finally completed sequel has been exploding in the news lately. I don't plan on reading it anytime soon since I just read through this one with my wife about a year ago. Another classic I missed but greatly enjoyed on what was my first read-through, this is simply a story about America, told through the eyes of someone young enough to understand both the horror and the mindlessness of racism while still possessing a sense of wonder toward a wounded soul. This is THE story about growing up as a child in a certain period in this nation's history. My wife loves it so much she named one of her cats "Scout."  Sphere - Michael Crichton Conversely, when I probably should have been reading stuff like To Kill a Mockingbird, I was instead obsessed with the fiction of Michael Crichton. This one in particular, which came right before the hugely successful theme-park spectacle of Jurassic Park, was a story of terror under the sea. Scientists unearth some kind of alien device miles beneath the ocean only to find it already is kind of among them. I've probably said too much for those who might have interest in reading it, which like JP was also a big-budget Hollywood flick (and is, I'll admit, a decent adaptation) which came on the heels of Spielberg's disastrous interpretation of The Lost World. This science fiction story is a work of pure aquatic dread, and a mind-bender at that.  The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien Another monumental work from the Minnesota author, containing a bunch of short stories that promptly illustrate the horror and stupidity of war, in particular the Vietnam entanglement. An incredible collection which also showcases O'Brien's amazing ability to capture wartime dialogue among these bands of brothers, using it to describe the realities of war in another country.  The Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe There probably isn't a lot to say about this one that wasn't said when it was published in the Eighties, but it still sticks out to me as a moral parable of our modern times, given all the mendacity we've witnessed on Wall Street in the last decade. Wolfe's story is more of its place and time, but the major themes still have a lot to say about decadence and the meaning of power when it comes to racial relations in America's biggest city.  Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison I didn't get to this masterpiece until a few years ago, but what a doozey, and an amazingly prophetic one at that. Ellison's incredibly detailed tale about a young black man rising into the highest levels of the protest movement and then falling from grace (among other things) is a stunning American tale and remains searingly relevant in this day and age of Ferguson and Charleston.  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain Not much else to say about this American classic either, other than Twain has been a favorite of mine since middle school, and I eagerly await the time when I have a year of my life to spend grappling with reading his entire, recently-published autobiography. The premiere example of "how to tell a story well;" that this was just one of many other incredible stories is a testament to the pure, unalterable talent of Samuel Clemens.  Needful Things - Stephen King I would be remiss in advertising my second novel as a love-letter to the King himself if I didn't mention my favorite of his (many) works. While I have read a ton of this guy's books, and loved almost all of them, I'd have to say this morality tale about the darkness lurking behind small town Maine is my absolute favorite (also ranking high would be Misery and The Shining). Plus, he got to blow up an entire fictional town he created. What could be more fun than that?  Watchmen - Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
For the sake of brevity, I'll have to cut this list short and include only one graphic novel out of the many that I love (Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Year One come to mind, as does anything by Neil Gaiman, but there you have it). It's pretty hard to keep any other one than this utter masterpiece of comic history, which has come to define not only the next thirty years of comic book art direction and thematic elements, but remains a philosophical tale that dashed me away when I re-read it last year. For some reason I followed it up with the bitter pill that is Zak Snyder's risible, staid film adaptation (which struck me again as dull and facsimile) but there is no denying this book changed the comic book world, arguably for better and worse. And as a weirdo introvert myself, I find myself a kindred soul in the brutal genius that is Alan Moore.
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So, as some of you may be aware now, I recently was given the great opportunity to become a full-time author/journalist. Ok, I say it that way to cover up for the fact that what this really means is I was laid off from my current form of employment. While that in itself is deserving of its own full post at some point in the (near) future, suffice it to say for now that yes it was unexpected and no I'm not worried. Does that answer your questions? :-)
I can't say much more for legal and other reasons, and won't be able to say much publicly about it for a long time, if not ever. But once the dust settles I should have more to say about some aspects of the situation, including our lovely system of "at will" employment here in Minnesota and why it's important for workers to have some advocacy when this type of thing happens. What is inescapable about the ordeal is that for the first time in seven years I no longer had a place to attend to at 8:00 AM in the morning on Monday, and the next four days after that. In some ways that was the most liberating thing I could possibly imagine. I really didn't like working there. Most people who know me have probably known that for years. I also maintain an irritating personal defect in which I personally can't see when the need for change is urgent until some other external factor detaches the scales from my eyes. In the case of my first novel, this was my wife Mary, telling me to finish the book while I was wiling my days posting nonsense about international affairs online in the stupid hopes that somebody would read it. In the current case, it was being laid off. My wife Mary tells me she detects a certain lightening of my mood, and I daresay I notice it as well. For the first time in my adult life, I've been given a chance to put my writing career first and let everything else become secondary. This had been the state of affairs for some time beginning with the release of my first novel last year, but I don't think I became aware of how true it ought to be until this all happened. I now realize that I have been given a gift (of time, opportunity, or whatever) through this, and despite the rather immediate need of financial security and all the grown-up fun that entails, I also get the time to spend working on my actual craft. So I can now spend days like I did today, writing in the morning and then working on the proofs for my second novel (shameless plug: Last Man on Campus releases September from North Star Press), and then doing some blogging about the experience in the afternoon and attempting some marketing at night. Suddenly I find myself with 8 hours of normally wasted time working at a job I detested being used toward the production of my art. While I do worry about entering the rat race to find some form of steady employment, what I really want to do with this opportunity is become the author I know I am. So this is why the somewhat-shuttering of my local journalism and the tumblr for a while, and my focusing on this blog at my actual website to tell the story of my writing career for those of you who like my work and are interested in it (you are out there, right?). I'll be sure to post updates about my upcoming book, post some excerpts, notate my upcoming signings/events in September, and basically talk shop about how I got to now for anyone who has interest in trying this on their own. I also hope to condense some of this stuff down into a talk that I could give to English classes at colleges or elsewhere for those who don't know where to get started. So, to that end - I hope to give out some tidbits from my current project which I began today, stuff like how to keep up the pace of your routine and how to continue on even in the face of discouragement and/or reading your work and going: "this is crap." I will also post on other topics of interest, as that tends to lead everywhere these days from jazz music to the Greek bailout scheme to the sheer comedic brilliance of Tim & Eric (ok, so I've been watching some Adult Swim on my unemployment break, so what. Williams Street knew comedy from day one of their programming. LOL) For those of you who would like to check this but don't want to bother with the hassle of going to my website, etc I will be posting this to facebook and Twitter, and also will (finally) be trying out an email newsletter, which I have been avoiding setting up like the plague for some reason, but have no excuse now that I have nowhere to be. Regarding my work, the current iteration can be found at my friend Aaron Shaffer's awesome local news and entertainment website, MinnyApple. While I am not writing anything there for the time being, I hope to do a follow-up article on the city's Multi-Modal Traffic Study in our neighborhood area by the end of the year. Previously I reported on traffic/safety and light rail issues. Signing off for this expressive installment, and hope to see you 'round these parts again soon. Stay tuned for more wild exhortations from the beyond by the (now, suddenly) full-time Author Man...! And as always, thanks for reading. jA_W Hello reading world.
This can be considered my "first step into a larger journey," to quote the great pre-prequel Lucas film Star Wars. While my previous forays into blogging/journalism have led to posting on WordPress (The Moderate), tumblr (Circling the Roundabout), Examiner.com, and now MinnyApple, this blog on my "official" website is an attempt to synthesize all of those various dialogues together and tie them all into my general writing universe, which includes two published novels and hopefully a few more to come. I also am beginning this journey head-on as an author first and foremost, having recently gone through some employment difficulties that have led to me not having a job at the moment (more on that in a later post). Therefore I feel it's time to start blogging here from the perspective of the full-time writer, illuminating my daily struggles to find work and also success for my books and journalism. To that end I hope to post here fairly regularly, as I take a break from the other locations to find my work and focus solely on promoting my new novel, which releases in September. Oh, didn't I mention that yet? Yeah it's going to be called Last Man on Campus, a supernatural horror story set on a university in Minnesota. It's a love letter to one of my favorite authors (Stephen King) and I hope to maybe even get some kind of series out of it. The book launches September 3rd and will be posting an excerpt soon, much as I did for Our Senior Year. That's all I have to say right now in this establishment of a new era. I don't want to say that this blog will focus on a particular subject other than to say it will be a chronicle of my life as an author/freelance journalist and will probably encompass most of what passes through my mind each day. For those of you who have been following my work for a while, I hope you enjoy this new ride. And for those of you just tuning in, welcome to my world. Thanks for reading. |
AuthorJohn Abraham is a published author and freelance journalist who lives in the Twin Cities with his wife Mary and their cat. He is writing a speculative dystopian novel and is seeking representation and a publisher. Archives
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