DIY MFA Radio

Hey there word nerds!

Today I'm delighted to interview journalist and statistician, Ben Blatt, about his new book Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve.

Ben is a former staff writer for Slate and The Harvard Lampoon who has taken his fun approach to data journalism to topics such as Seinfeld, mapmaking, The Beatles, and Jeopardy! His previous book, co-written with Eric Brewster, is I Don't Care if We Never Get Back, which follows the duo's quest to go on the mathematically optimal baseball road trip, traveling 20,000 miles to a game in all thirty ballparks in thirty days without planes. Blatt's work has also been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and Deadspin.

In his latest book, Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve, he offers a playful and informative look at what numbers have to say about our favorite authors and a wide range of books, from bestsellers and classics to guilty pleasures. He sets up a slew of original analytical experiments and uses big data to answer some of our most persistent questions about literature.

• The Adverb Question: Do great writers use more adverbs (or fewer) than their non-great counterparts? Should writers avoid adverbs altogether?
• Do men and women write differently? What does this say about our literary culture? His biggest finding is a sweeping disparity in male and female characters across all genres of writing: women write equally about men and women, but men write overwhelmingly more about men.
• Are books getting "dumber"? Blatt's findings show that the grade level of #1 bestsellers has fallen by two levels—from 8th grade to 6th—in the past 50 years. Although this might be worrying, it might not necessarily damning—simple can be good at getting a wider audience reading, and the trend doesn't mean that every book is being written at a lower level.
• What are our favorite writers' favorite words? Using text analysis and setting up his own original experiment, Blatt develops a lengthy list of our favorite author's favorite words. Among them: Nabokov's favorite word is mauve, Jane Austen's favorite is civility (of course it is), EL James's is murmurs.
• What makes a great opening sentence? When in doubt, keep it short. Of twenty of the "best opening sentences" in literature, 60% of them are short and 40% are long (when compared to the author's average sentence).

Ben Blatt is a former staff writer for Slate and The Harvard Lampoon who has taken his fun approach to data journalism to topics such as Seinfeld, mapmaking, The Beatles, and Jeopardy! His previous book, co-written with Eric Brewster, is I Don't Care if We Never Get Back, which follows the duo's quest to go on the mathematically optimal baseball road trip, traveling 20,000 miles to a game in all thirty ballparks in thirty days without planes. Blatt's work has also been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and Deadspin. He lives in Los Angeles.

There's a famous piece of writing advice—offered by Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, and myriad writers in between—not to use -ly adverbs like "quickly" or "fitfully." It sounds like solid advice, but can we actually test it? If we were to count all the -ly adverbs these authors used in their careers, do they follow their own advice compared to other celebrated authors? What's more, do great books in general—the classics and the bestsellers—share this trait?

In Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve, statistician and journalist Ben Blatt brings big data to the literary canon, exploring the wealth of fun findings that remain hidden in the works of the world's greatest writers. He assembles a database of thousands of books and hundreds of millions of words, and starts asking the questions that have intrigued curious word nerds and book lovers for generations: What are our favorite authors' favorite words? Do men and women write differently? Are bestsellers getting dumber over time? Which bestselling writer uses the most clichés? What makes a great opening sentence? How can we judge a book by its cover? And which writerly advice is worth following or ignoring?

Blatt draws upon existing analysis techniques and invents some of his own. All of his investigations and experiments are original, conducted himself, and no math knowledge is needed to understand the results. Blatt breaks his findings down into lucid, humorous language and clear and compelling visuals. This eye-opening book will provide you with a new appreciation for your favorite authors and a fresh perspective on your own writing, illuminating both the patterns that hold great prose together and the brilliant flourishes that make it unforgettable.

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/138

Hey there word nerds!

Today I’m delighted to interview journalist and statistician, Ben Blatt, about his new book Nabokov’s Favorite Word Is Mauve.

Ben is a former staff writer for Slate and The Harvard Lampoon who has taken his fun approach to data journalism to topics such as Seinfeld, mapmaking, The Beatles, and Jeopardy! His previous book, co-written with Eric Brewster, is I Don't Care if We Never Get Back, which follows the duo’s quest to go on the mathematically optimal baseball road trip, traveling 20,000 miles to a game in all thirty ballparks in thirty days without planes. Blatt’s work has also been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and Deadspin.

In his latest book, Nabokov’s Favorite Word Is Mauve, he offers a playful and informative look at what numbers have to say about our favorite authors and a wide range of books, from bestsellers and classics to guilty pleasures. He sets up a slew of original analytical experiments and uses big data to answer some of our most persistent questions about literature.

• The Adverb Question: Do great writers use more adverbs (or fewer) than their non-great counterparts? Should writers avoid adverbs altogether?
• Do men and women write differently? What does this say about our literary culture? His biggest finding is a sweeping disparity in male and female characters across all genres of writing: women write equally about men and women, but men write overwhelmingly more about men.
• Are books getting “dumber”? Blatt’s findings show that the grade level of #1 bestsellers has fallen by two levels—from 8th grade to 6th—in the past 50 years. Although this might be worrying, it might not necessarily damning—simple can be good at getting a wider audience reading, and the trend doesn’t mean that every book is being written at a lower level.
• What are our favorite writers’ favorite words? Using text analysis and setting up his own original experiment, Blatt develops a lengthy list of our favorite author’s favorite words. Among them: Nabokov’s favorite word is mauve, Jane Austen’s favorite is civility (of course it is), EL James’s is murmurs.
• What makes a great opening sentence? When in doubt, keep it short. Of twenty of the “best opening sentences” in literature, 60% of them are short and 40% are long (when compared to the author’s average sentence).

Ben Blatt is a former staff writer for Slate and The Harvard Lampoon who has taken his fun approach to data journalism to topics such as Seinfeld, mapmaking, The Beatles, and Jeopardy! His previous book, co-written with Eric Brewster, is I Don't Care if We Never Get Back, which follows the duo’s quest to go on the mathematically optimal baseball road trip, traveling 20,000 miles to a game in all thirty ballparks in thirty days without planes. Blatt’s work has also been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and Deadspin. He lives in Los Angeles.

There’s a famous piece of writing advice—offered by Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, and myriad writers in between—not to use -ly adverbs like “quickly” or “fitfully.” It sounds like solid advice, but can we actually test it? If we were to count all the -ly adverbs these authors used in their careers, do they follow their own advice compared to other celebrated authors? What’s more, do great books in general—the classics and the bestsellers—share this trait?

In Nabokov’s Favorite Word Is Mauve, statistician and journalist Ben Blatt brings big data to the literary canon, exploring the wealth of fun findings that remain hidden in the works of the world’s greatest writers. He assembles a database of thousands of books and hundreds of millions of words, and starts asking the questions that have intrigued curious word nerds and book lovers for generations: What are our favorite authors’ favorite words? Do men and women write differently? Are bestsellers getting dumber over time? Which bestselling writer uses the most clichés? What makes a great opening sentence? How can we judge a book by its cover? And which writerly advice is worth following or ignoring?

Blatt draws upon existing analysis techniques and invents some of his own. All of his investigations and experiments are original, conducted himself, and no math knowledge is needed to understand the results. Blatt breaks his findings down into lucid, humorous language and clear and compelling visuals. This eye-opening book will provide you with a new appreciation for your favorite authors and a fresh perspective on your own writing, illuminating both the patterns that hold great prose together and the brilliant flourishes that make it unforgettable.

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/138

Hey there word nerds!

Today I am thrilled (pun intended) to have award-winning and bestselling author, Clare Mackintosh on the show.

Clare spent twelve years in the Thames Valley Police Department, during which time she worked on criminal investigations. After leaving the police force in 2011, she worked as a freelance journalist and social media consultant before writing her bestselling debut novel I Let You Go.

She is the winner of two major international Crime Awards and for one of them, she even beat out J.K. Rowling's pseudonym Robert Galbraith to win. She is the Director of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival and lives in the Cotswolds with her husband, a police officer, and their three children.

• Balancing work and life and knowing how to give your best where it's needed most.
• How work and life can influence your writing, both in terms of the topics you write about and the detail you give to certain aspects of the story. And some not-so-obvious ways that your experience can filter into your storytelling.
• Suggestions for how writers can use more "detective thinking" in their own work, and build up those investigative skills that they can then apply to their writing projects
• What you do when you feel your story has two strong protagonists. We discuss my theory on protagonists and then about how two strong characters can serve as counterpoints for each other.
• Sharing bits about the antagonist, the villain, to enhance the reader's experience of the overall story. It's a tricky thing to pull off a slow build-up in a thriller without losing your readers.

Clare Mackintosh spent twelve years in the Thames Valley Police Department, during which time she worked on criminal investigations. She left the police force in 2011 to work as a freelance journalist and social media consultant. She is the winner of two coveted international Crime Awards: Prix Polar International, France's foremost crime fiction award, and The UK's Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award, beating J.K. Rowling's pseudonym Robert Galbraith to win. She is the Director of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival and lives in the Cotswolds with her husband, a police officer, and their three children.

Visit Clare Mackintosh online at claremackintosh.com, Facebook.com/ClareMackWrites and at twitter.com/claremackint0sh.

You do the same thing every day. You know exactly where you're going. You're not alone.

That's the nerve-tingling premise behind Clare Mackintosh's second novel I SEE YOU, already a #1 London Times bestseller in the author's native UK. Like Mackintosh's stunning debut I Let You Go, the book with the plot twist heard 'round the world that was picked as one of New York Times's "10 Best Crime Novels of 2016," her new thriller kicks into high-gear from the first chapter and never lets up.

When Zoe Walker discovers her own picture in the local newspaper's classified ads, she's shocked. A photo from her Facebook page accompanies a listing for a website called FindTheOne.com. All Zoe's efforts to discover what the ad means lead to dead ends. And then a second woman whose picture appeared in a similar ad is assaulted. When a third woman is murdered, Zoe's unease turns to fear and paranoia. The only thing the three have in common is their daily commute on the London subway system. Someone is methodically tracking down these women...and Zoe is next on the list.

The follow-up to the international phenomenon I Let You Go—a debut that sold more than half a million copies in the UK—I See You confirms Clare Mackintosh's growing reputation as one of the most accomplished crime writers at work today. Before turning to writing, Mackintosh spent twelve years as a detective and her police work informs her remarkably realistic, pulse-pounding thrillers.

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/137

Hey there word nerds!

Today I am thrilled (pun intended) to have award-winning and bestselling author, Clare Mackintosh on the show.

Clare spent twelve years in the Thames Valley Police Department, during which time she worked on criminal investigations. After leaving the police force in 2011, she worked as a freelance journalist and social media consultant before writing her bestselling debut novel I Let You Go.

She is the winner of two major international Crime Awards and for one of them, she even beat out J.K. Rowling’s pseudonym Robert Galbraith to win. She is the Director of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival and lives in the Cotswolds with her husband, a police officer, and their three children.

• Balancing work and life and knowing how to give your best where it’s needed most.
• How work and life can influence your writing, both in terms of the topics you write about and the detail you give to certain aspects of the story. And some not-so-obvious ways that your experience can filter into your storytelling.
• Suggestions for how writers can use more “detective thinking” in their own work, and build up those investigative skills that they can then apply to their writing projects
• What you do when you feel your story has two strong protagonists. We discuss my theory on protagonists and then about how two strong characters can serve as counterpoints for each other.
• Sharing bits about the antagonist, the villain, to enhance the reader’s experience of the overall story. It’s a tricky thing to pull off a slow build-up in a thriller without losing your readers.

Clare Mackintosh spent twelve years in the Thames Valley Police Department, during which time she worked on criminal investigations. She left the police force in 2011 to work as a freelance journalist and social media consultant. She is the winner of two coveted international Crime Awards: Prix Polar International, France’s foremost crime fiction award, and The UK’s Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award, beating J.K. Rowling’s pseudonym Robert Galbraith to win. She is the Director of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival and lives in the Cotswolds with her husband, a police officer, and their three children.

Visit Clare Mackintosh online at claremackintosh.com, Facebook.com/ClareMackWrites and at twitter.com/claremackint0sh.

You do the same thing every day. You know exactly where you’re going. You’re not alone.

That’s the nerve-tingling premise behind Clare Mackintosh’s second novel I SEE YOU, already a #1 London Times bestseller in the author’s native UK.  Like Mackintosh’s stunning debut I Let You Go, the book with the plot twist heard ‘round the world that was picked as one of New York Times’s “10 Best Crime Novels of 2016,” her new thriller kicks into high-gear from the first chapter and never lets up.

When Zoe Walker discovers her own picture in the local newspaper’s classified ads, she’s shocked.  A photo from her Facebook page accompanies a listing for a website called FindTheOne.com.  All Zoe’s efforts to discover what the ad means lead to dead ends.  And then a second woman whose picture appeared in a similar ad is assaulted.  When a third woman is murdered, Zoe’s unease turns to fear and paranoia.  The only thing the three have in common is their daily commute on the London subway system. Someone is methodically tracking down these women...and Zoe is next on the list.

The follow-up to the international phenomenon I Let You Go—a debut that sold more than half a million copies in the UK—I See You confirms Clare Mackintosh’s growing reputation as one of the most accomplished crime writers at work today.  Before turning to writing, Mackintosh spent twelve years as a detective and her police work informs her remarkably realistic, pulse-pounding thrillers.

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/137

Hey there word nerds!

Today I'm interviewing Dale Wiley, author and Missouri attorney, who has some fascinating credits to his name. For starters, he has had a character named after him on CSI, owned a record label, been interviewed by Bob Edwards on NPR's Morning Edition and made alternative fuel motorcycles for Merle Haggard and John Paul DeJoria. He is also one of the few people to who have met Ronald Reagan and Flavor Flav.

Dale has three awesome kids and spends his days working as a lawyer fighting the big banks. He has als0 written three novels and is currently developing two original scripted projects for TV: the gritty drama, The East Side with Andréa Vasilo; and the sitcom, Confessions of a Bunny Smuggler, with Fayr Barkley.

• The subgenre of metafiction, how it works to tell a story, and how it might not work, as well.
• Writers writing about writing for writers.
• Finding ideas and inspiration from the fact that the elements of story are, in fact, universal.

Dale Wiley is a Missouri attorney, who has had a character named after him on CSI, owned a record label, been interviewed by Bob Edwards on NPR's Morning Edition and made motorcycles for Merle Haggard and John Paul DeJoria. He is also one of the few people to who have met Ronald Reagan and Flavor Flav.

Dale has three awesome kids and spends his days working as a lawyer fighting the big banks. He has als0 written three novels and is currently developing two original scripted projects for TV: the gritty drama, The East Side with Andréa Vasilo; and the sitcom, Confessions of a Bunny Smuggler, with Fayr Barkley.

Misery meets Gone Girl, SOUTHERN GOTHIC is Dale Wiley's latest page-turner. Not since his incendiary thrillers, Sabotage and The Intern, has Wiley treated readers to his heady brew of hair-trigger suspense and dark secrets.

In this twisted and delightfully disturbing novel, one woman learns the true price of making a deal with the devil. Lovely Meredith Harper is living a life of lonely indifference – shuttling between her beloved Savannah, Georgia bookstore and her empty house, pining after a dream of being an author that now seems out of reach. Publishers had resoundingly passed on her only novel, Red Ribbon. In spite of herself, she's haunted by her ex-husband's insult – that she'll never be a real writer, only a fan.

Everything changes when Meredith finds a red ribbon tied to the inside of her doorknob. No one in her life would do such a thing. There is only one possibility: Michael Black, her favorite author, who was the only person besides friends and publishers to receive a copy of her manuscript. But he vanished years ago and was even rumored to be dead.

Meredith races to uncover the truth behind the mysterious visitor, and her suspicions about his identity are confirmed. But how? Why now? Why her? And, most confusingly, why is Michael Black offering her a completely rewritten manuscript of Red Ribbon to publish under her own name?

Exploring the dangerous divides between fame, fandom, romance, murder, and possession, SOUTHERN GOTHIC fascinates until the novel's final breath. It makes the offer you can't refuse—and shackles you to the demons of your fantasies.

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/136

Hey there word nerds!

Today I’m interviewing Dale Wiley, author and Missouri attorney, who has some fascinating credits to his name. For starters, he has had a character named after him on CSI, owned a record label, been interviewed by Bob Edwards on NPR's Morning Edition and made alternative fuel motorcycles for Merle Haggard and John Paul DeJoria. He is also one of the few people to who have met Ronald Reagan and Flavor Flav.

Dale has three awesome kids and spends his days working as a lawyer fighting the big banks. He has als0 written three novels and is currently developing two original scripted projects for TV: the gritty drama, The East Side with Andréa Vasilo; and the sitcom, Confessions of a Bunny Smuggler, with Fayr Barkley.

• The subgenre of metafiction, how it works to tell a story, and how it might not work, as well.
• Writers writing about writing for writers.
• Finding ideas and inspiration from the fact that the elements of story are, in fact, universal.

Dale Wiley is a Missouri attorney, who has had a character named after him on CSI, owned a record label, been interviewed by Bob Edwards on NPR's Morning Edition and made motorcycles for Merle Haggard and John Paul DeJoria. He is also one of the few people to who have met Ronald Reagan and Flavor Flav.

Dale has three awesome kids and spends his days working as a lawyer fighting the big banks. He has als0 written three novels and is currently developing two original scripted projects for TV: the gritty drama, The East Side with Andréa Vasilo; and the sitcom, Confessions of a Bunny Smuggler, with Fayr Barkley.

Misery meets Gone Girl, SOUTHERN GOTHIC is Dale Wiley’s latest page-turner. Not since his incendiary thrillers, Sabotage and The Intern, has Wiley treated readers to his heady brew of hair-trigger suspense and dark secrets.

In this twisted and delightfully disturbing novel, one woman learns the true price of making a deal with the devil. Lovely Meredith Harper is living a life of lonely indifference – shuttling between her beloved Savannah, Georgia bookstore and her empty house, pining after a dream of being an author that now seems out of reach. Publishers had resoundingly passed on her only novel, Red Ribbon. In spite of herself, she’s haunted by her ex-husband’s insult – that she’ll never be a real writer, only a fan.

Everything changes when Meredith finds a red ribbon tied to the inside of her doorknob. No one in her life would do such a thing. There is only one possibility: Michael Black, her favorite author, who was the only person besides friends and publishers to receive a copy of her manuscript. But he vanished years ago and was even rumored to be dead.

Meredith races to uncover the truth behind the mysterious visitor, and her suspicions about his identity are confirmed. But how? Why now? Why her? And, most confusingly, why is Michael Black offering her a completely rewritten manuscript of Red Ribbon to publish under her own name?

Exploring the dangerous divides between fame, fandom, romance, murder, and possession, SOUTHERN GOTHIC fascinates until the novel’s final breath. It makes the offer you can’t refuse—and shackles you to the demons of your fantasies.   

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/136

Hey there word nerds!

Today's interview features Brian Meehl, author of four novels that have garnered several awards and starred book reviews: Out of Patience, Suck It Up, Suck It Up and Die, and You Don't Know About Me. His latest genre-bending novel, Blowback '07, transports readers back to 19077, a time when legendary coach Pop Warner, future Olympian Jim Thorpe, and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School's team the "Redmen" revolutionized America's most popular sport—football.

In a former incarnation, Brian was a puppeteer on "Sesame Street" and in Jim Henson films, including The Dark Crystal and he also wrote for television shows like "The Magic School Bus" and "Between the Lions," for which he won three Emmys. He lives in Connecticut and is currently working on Blowback '63 and Blowback '94, the second and third installments of the Blowback trilogy.

• Using history to inspire and inform your writing, and the wealth of ideas that come from true events that have come from the past.
• The importance of research in capturing details that help your story's world feels real.
• Using your research, your area of interest, and the specific idiosyncrasies of your particular topic to fuel your blog and platform building.
• Balancing close points of view with an omniscient narrator, the strengths and the challenges.
• Keeping your own growth and process in mind when you write. You're not going to publish everything that you write.

Brian Meehl has published four novels with Random House: Out of Patience, Suck It Up, Suck It Up and Die, and You Don't Know About Me. His books have garnered a Junior Library Guild Selection, a Blue Ribbon from the Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books and starred reviews in Publishers Weekly. In a former incarnation, Brian was a puppeteer on "Sesame Street" and in Jim Henson films, including "The Dark Crystal." His transition from puppets to pen included writing for television shows such as "The Magic School Bus" and "Between the Lions," for which he won three Emmys. He lives in Connecticut and is writing Blowback '63 and Blowback '94. For more information about Brian Meehl and his books, please visit www.brianmeehl.com and www.blowbacktrilogy.com.

It has become infamous for stripping children of their language and culture, but most people forget that the Carlisle Indian Industrial School also gave birth to America's most popular sport as we now know it—football.

In Brian Meehl's genre-bending novel Blowback '07; readers are transported back to 1907 where legendary coach Pop Warner, future Olympian Jim Thorpe, and the Carlisle "Redmen" change the game. Their plays and formations like the modern "spread" and "shotgun," have since become mainstays in high school, college, and professional football.

Clashing twins have one thing in common: an ancient musical instrument left to them by their mother. When Iris plays the strangely curved woodwind, the trouble begins: the school's star quarterback, disappears.

Transported to 1907 and the Carlisle Indian School, Matt, one of the protagonists, is forced to play football for Coach Pop Warner as the Carlisle "Redmen" revolutionize Ivy League football. His struggle to "play his way home" is complicated when he falls in love with an Indian girl.

Meanwhile, there are a cache of secrets that might help bring back someone very dear trapped in the past.

Blowback '07 launches a century-spanning trilogy to be continued in Blowback '63 and Blowback '94. Books two and three propel the characters to another illuminating past, and transform them in ways they never imagined.

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/135

Hey there word nerds!

Today’s interview features Brian Meehl, author of four novels that have garnered several awards and starred book reviews: Out of Patience, Suck It Up, Suck It Up and Die, and You Don’t Know About Me. His latest genre-bending novel, Blowback ‘07, transports readers back to 19077, a time when legendary coach Pop Warner, future Olympian Jim Thorpe, and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School’s team the “Redmen” revolutionized America’s most popular sport—football.

In a former incarnation, Brian was a puppeteer on “Sesame Street” and in Jim Henson films, including The Dark Crystal and he also wrote for television shows like “The Magic School Bus” and “Between the Lions,” for which he won three Emmys. He lives in Connecticut and is currently working on Blowback ’63 and Blowback ’94, the second and third installments of the Blowback trilogy.

• Using history to inspire and inform your writing, and the wealth of ideas that come from true events that have come from the past.
• The importance of research in capturing details that help your story’s world feels real.
• Using your research, your area of interest, and the specific idiosyncrasies of your particular topic to fuel your blog and platform building.
• Balancing close points of view with an omniscient narrator, the strengths and the challenges.
• Keeping your own growth and process in mind when you write. You’re not going to publish everything that you write.

Brian Meehl has published four novels with Random House: Out of Patience, Suck It Up, Suck It Up and Die, and You Don’t Know About Me. His books have garnered a Junior Library Guild Selection, a Blue Ribbon from the Bulletin for the Center for Children’s Books and starred reviews in Publishers Weekly. In a former incarnation, Brian was a puppeteer on “Sesame Street” and in Jim Henson films, including “The Dark Crystal.” His transition from puppets to pen included writing for television shows such as “The Magic School Bus” and “Between the Lions,” for which he won three Emmys. He lives in Connecticut and is writing Blowback ’63 and Blowback ’94. For more information about Brian Meehl and his books, please visit www.brianmeehl.com and www.blowbacktrilogy.com.

It has become infamous for stripping children of their language and culture, but most people forget that the Carlisle Indian Industrial School also gave birth to America’s most popular sport as we now know it—football.

In Brian Meehl’s genre-bending novel Blowback ’07; readers are transported back to 1907 where legendary coach Pop Warner, future Olympian Jim Thorpe, and the Carlisle “Redmen” change the game. Their plays and formations like the modern “spread” and “shotgun,” have since become mainstays in high school, college, and professional football.

Clashing twins have one thing in common: an ancient musical instrument left to them by their mother.  When Iris plays the strangely curved woodwind, the trouble begins: the school’s star quarterback, disappears.

Transported to 1907 and the Carlisle Indian School, Matt, one of the protagonists, is forced to play football for Coach Pop Warner as the Carlisle “Redmen” revolutionize Ivy League football. His struggle to “play his way home” is complicated when he falls in love with an Indian girl.

Meanwhile, there are a cache of secrets that might help bring back someone very dear trapped in the past.  

Blowback ’07 launches a century-spanning trilogy to be continued in Blowback ’63 and Blowback ’94.  Books two and three propel the characters to another illuminating past, and transform them in ways they never imagined.

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/135

Hey there word nerds!

Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Sally Parry, the Executive Director of the Sinclair Lewis Society. She earned her PhD in American Literature (as well as 19th Century British Fiction and Medieval Literature) from Fordham University in NYC and wrote her dissertation on Sinclair Lewis (Sinclair Lewis: The Darkening Vision of His Later Novels). She is currently the Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Student Affairs at Illinois State University.

In this interview, we're going to talk about Sinclair Lewis' novel It Can't Happen Here. Originally published in 1935 as a response to the rise of Hitler and Mussolini in Europe, It Can't Happen Here has renewed relevance in the wake of Donald Trump's campaign and election.

In fact, sales numbers for this title have gone through the roof, with mass market sales up 2,611% over last year, and eBook sales have jumped 1,528%. Not only that, this book has gotten a lot of buzz in the media in the past year, and this momentum doesn't appear to be slowing down.

I'm excited to speak with Dr. Sally Parry about this book and the role that literature plays in politics and activism.

• Literature and activism, and how to
• Author intentions versus audience perceptions
• The social responsibilities of writers

About the Sinclair Lewis Society:The Sinclair Lewis Society was formed to encourage study of, critical attention to, and interest in the work, career, and legacy of Sinclair Lewis. The Society works to facilitate a broader discussion of his writing among scholars, critics, teachers, students, book collectors, and readers everywhere.Members of the Sinclair Lewis Society receive the bi-annual Sinclair Lewis Society Newsletter. We encourage scholarship concerning Sinclair Lewis, and we have provided a bibliography of primary and secondary sources concerning Lewis on our scholarly works page, as well as transcripts from an exclusive interview with Richard Lingeman, author of Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Street. We also meet every few years in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, Lewis' hometown, for conferences and usually in connection with the annual Sinclair Lewis Days.Sinclair Lewis Bio:Harry Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) was born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. His childhood and early youth were spent in the Midwest, and later he attended Yale University, where he was editor of the literary magazine. After graduating in 1907, he worked as a reporter and in editorial positions at various newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses from the East Coast to California. He was able to give this work up after a few of his stories had appeared in magazines and his first novel, Our Mr. Wrenn (1914), had been published. Main Street (1920) was his first really successful novel, and his reputation was secured by the publication of Babbitt (1922). Lewis was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith (1925) but refused to accept the honor, saying the prize was meant to go to a novel that celebrated the wholesomeness of American life, something his books did not do. He did accept, however, when in 1930 he became the first American writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. During the last part of his life, he spent a great deal of time in Europe and continued to write both novels and plays. In 1950, after completing his last novel, World So Wide (1951), he intended to take an extended tour but became ill and was forced to settle in Rome, where he spent some months working on his poems before dying.

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/134

Hey there word nerds!

Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Sally Parry, the Executive Director of the Sinclair Lewis Society. She earned her PhD in American Literature (as well as 19th Century British Fiction and Medieval Literature) from Fordham University in NYC and wrote her dissertation on Sinclair Lewis (Sinclair Lewis: The Darkening Vision of His Later Novels). She is currently the Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Student Affairs at Illinois State University.

In this interview, we’re going to talk about Sinclair Lewis’ novel It Can’t Happen Here. Originally published in 1935 as a response to the rise of Hitler and Mussolini in Europe, It Can’t Happen Here has renewed relevance in the wake of Donald Trump’s campaign and election.

In fact, sales numbers for this title have gone through the roof, with mass market sales up 2,611% over last year, and eBook sales have jumped 1,528%. Not only that, this book has gotten a lot of buzz in the media in the past year, and this momentum doesn’t appear to be slowing down.

I’m excited to speak with Dr. Sally Parry about this book and the role that literature plays in politics and activism.

• Literature and activism, and how to
• Author intentions versus audience perceptions
• The social responsibilities of writers

About the Sinclair Lewis Society:
The Sinclair Lewis Society was formed to encourage study of, critical attention to, and interest in the work, career, and legacy of Sinclair Lewis. The Society works to facilitate a broader discussion of his writing among scholars, critics, teachers, students, book collectors, and readers everywhere.

Members of the Sinclair Lewis Society receive the bi-annual Sinclair Lewis Society Newsletter. We encourage scholarship concerning Sinclair Lewis, and we have provided a bibliography of primary and secondary sources concerning Lewis on our scholarly works page, as well as transcripts from an exclusive interview with Richard Lingeman, author of Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Street. We also meet every few years in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, Lewis' hometown, for conferences and usually in connection with the annual Sinclair Lewis Days.

Sinclair Lewis Bio:
Harry Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) was born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. His childhood and early youth were spent in the Midwest, and later he attended Yale University, where he was editor of the literary magazine. After graduating in 1907, he worked as a reporter and in editorial positions at various newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses from the East Coast to California. He was able to give this work up after a few of his stories had appeared in magazines and his first novel, Our Mr. Wrenn (1914), had been published. Main Street (1920) was his first really successful novel, and his reputation was secured by the publication of Babbitt (1922). Lewis was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith (1925) but refused to accept the honor, saying the prize was meant to go to a novel that celebrated the wholesomeness of American life, something his books did not do. He did accept, however, when in 1930 he became the first American writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. During the last part of his life, he spent a great deal of time in Europe and continued to write both novels and plays. In 1950, after completing his last novel, World So Wide (1951), he intended to take an extended tour but became ill and was forced to settle in Rome, where he spent some months working on his poems before dying.

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/134