Hi Douglas, would you please consider to release The Enamoured Knight as an e-book? Also, I would love to read your novels and stories in Dutch but as far as I know only Marguerite was translated. I read Copula Spiders and the Erotics of Restraint, which are a huge help for me, can’t get enough 😊 so thank you. Because of you I discovered Juan Rulfo ❤️
Claudia, Thank you so much for your engagement with my work. Marguerite is the Dutch version of my novel Elle. Unfortunately, none of my other work has made it into your language. I wish I could do something about that, but it's mostly up to publishers to arrange translations. The same goes for ebooks. The Canadian publisher of The Enamoured Knight is almost, thought not quite defunct. The American publisher recently changed hands, and I really should get in touch and see where things stand with the book. (I have been busy working on a new project, and things get away from me.) Neither publisher ever did ebooks as part of their publishing program. But the book is still available through booksellers, I think. I'm glad you found my essay books helpful.
Your books are more than helpful because I have been struggling with my novel for over 4 years and a lot from what you wrote about your quest to become a good (great) writer seems familiar to me. I'm still not there but enjoying the whole process. Will buy Elle/Marguerite. Somehow I'll send you an e-mail about a publisher who might be interested, worth a try. Good luck with your new project (what is it about?)
This is great. I had so many of the same influences (and same personality traits). Another important influence for me was John Gardiner. And I remember Sean O'Casey writing, (as I remember) you must give up everything you can afford and everything you cannot afford. Seemed almost like a religious vocation, novel writing.I am still practicing but not yet sanctified.
That first paragraph is a relief to read--to know my own feelings resonate with such fine company.
Footnote #4 noted. I’m 1/3 of the way through your essay collections, plus have read through the available online versions and will continue to reference. Intimidated by your latest collection, but yes, will eventually get to it. Trying not to construct my creative coffin too soon.
I met Anna Porter once. Her memoir, The Storyteller: Memory, Secrets, Magic and Lies, has many similarities with my dad’s family history and the way it’s kept buried.
Milan Kundera. One of my favourite scenes is the first short chapter of his novel Immortality. When I recommended the read to a friend, she was disgusted by those same first paragraphs, spitting feminist nails, and refused to read further. I don’t care. I still love it for the moment, the narration, the emotions, and the ideas captured so efficiently. Should read it again…it’s been …decades since I cracked its spine.
Your phrase "creative coffin" made me smile. Not that I quite know what it means. (If we were sitting in the same room, I'd say, "I like that. What do you mean by it?") Kundera's unreconstructed middle-European attitude to women is difficult nowadays. I was just rereading Djuna Barnes's novel Nightwood. Same problem in a slightly different vein. An essentialist attitude to men, women, and Jews. It's fascinating to me that when I was younger it was still quite acceptable to begin a sentence "Men are..." or "Women are...", etc. Now it is second nature to me NOT to say anything remotely like that. On the other hand, I don't give up on the gnarly old unreconstructed writers either. They make me very conscious of the probability that someone in the future will find something wrong with all our contemporary certainties. In their errors, they teach us humility.
Creative coffin. Yes, a swift riff without sufficient context. I guess I mean that I have to believe I can do this. Creative writing. I have to maintain some degree of ignorance for just how difficult it really is. Otherwise, I will crawl into a creative coffin and my effort will die altogether. I could go on lamenting here…I’ll spare us.
A nod to the wisdom of those two final sentences in your comment, thanks for these. Very true.
Hi Douglas, would you please consider to release The Enamoured Knight as an e-book? Also, I would love to read your novels and stories in Dutch but as far as I know only Marguerite was translated. I read Copula Spiders and the Erotics of Restraint, which are a huge help for me, can’t get enough 😊 so thank you. Because of you I discovered Juan Rulfo ❤️
Claudia, Thank you so much for your engagement with my work. Marguerite is the Dutch version of my novel Elle. Unfortunately, none of my other work has made it into your language. I wish I could do something about that, but it's mostly up to publishers to arrange translations. The same goes for ebooks. The Canadian publisher of The Enamoured Knight is almost, thought not quite defunct. The American publisher recently changed hands, and I really should get in touch and see where things stand with the book. (I have been busy working on a new project, and things get away from me.) Neither publisher ever did ebooks as part of their publishing program. But the book is still available through booksellers, I think. I'm glad you found my essay books helpful.
Your books are more than helpful because I have been struggling with my novel for over 4 years and a lot from what you wrote about your quest to become a good (great) writer seems familiar to me. I'm still not there but enjoying the whole process. Will buy Elle/Marguerite. Somehow I'll send you an e-mail about a publisher who might be interested, worth a try. Good luck with your new project (what is it about?)
This is great. I had so many of the same influences (and same personality traits). Another important influence for me was John Gardiner. And I remember Sean O'Casey writing, (as I remember) you must give up everything you can afford and everything you cannot afford. Seemed almost like a religious vocation, novel writing.I am still practicing but not yet sanctified.
That first paragraph is a relief to read--to know my own feelings resonate with such fine company.
Footnote #4 noted. I’m 1/3 of the way through your essay collections, plus have read through the available online versions and will continue to reference. Intimidated by your latest collection, but yes, will eventually get to it. Trying not to construct my creative coffin too soon.
I met Anna Porter once. Her memoir, The Storyteller: Memory, Secrets, Magic and Lies, has many similarities with my dad’s family history and the way it’s kept buried.
Milan Kundera. One of my favourite scenes is the first short chapter of his novel Immortality. When I recommended the read to a friend, she was disgusted by those same first paragraphs, spitting feminist nails, and refused to read further. I don’t care. I still love it for the moment, the narration, the emotions, and the ideas captured so efficiently. Should read it again…it’s been …decades since I cracked its spine.
Your phrase "creative coffin" made me smile. Not that I quite know what it means. (If we were sitting in the same room, I'd say, "I like that. What do you mean by it?") Kundera's unreconstructed middle-European attitude to women is difficult nowadays. I was just rereading Djuna Barnes's novel Nightwood. Same problem in a slightly different vein. An essentialist attitude to men, women, and Jews. It's fascinating to me that when I was younger it was still quite acceptable to begin a sentence "Men are..." or "Women are...", etc. Now it is second nature to me NOT to say anything remotely like that. On the other hand, I don't give up on the gnarly old unreconstructed writers either. They make me very conscious of the probability that someone in the future will find something wrong with all our contemporary certainties. In their errors, they teach us humility.
Creative coffin. Yes, a swift riff without sufficient context. I guess I mean that I have to believe I can do this. Creative writing. I have to maintain some degree of ignorance for just how difficult it really is. Otherwise, I will crawl into a creative coffin and my effort will die altogether. I could go on lamenting here…I’ll spare us.
A nod to the wisdom of those two final sentences in your comment, thanks for these. Very true.