The Pleasure of the Text

In our very first podcast episode, numero uno, we talk about what can be achieved in 48 hours or a weekend to progress your writing forward. Please enjoy as we discuss the recommended coffee intake, available writing challenges, and the creative practices of other Writers.

Show Notes

In our very first podcast episode, numero uno, we talk about what can be achieved in 48 hours or a weekend to progress your writing forward. Please enjoy as we discuss the recommended coffee intake, available writing challenges, and the creative practices of other Writers.

Show Notes
 
"How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live." - Henry David Thoreau
 
Ernest Hemingway
Many works by the late Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) are considered classics of American literature. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954, “for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style” on 20th-century fiction. Some interesting facts on Hemingway: as mentioned in the podcast, Hemingway wrote standing up. He also survived two plane crashes, was an avid hunter and fisherman, and he loved polydactyl cats! If you happen to be staying in Regensburg, Germany, make your way to Hemingway’s (www.hemingways.de), where Shannen wrote some of her novel, Hemingway style, with absinthe. Hemingway’s works include seven novels, six short story collections and two nonfiction works. 
 
  • The Sun Also Rises
  • The Old Man and the Sea
  • A Farewell to Arms
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls
  • A Moveable Feast
  • Winner Take Nothing
  • The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway
 
George Plimpton
Widely known for his sports writing, the late George Plimpton (1927-2003) was an American journalist, writer, editor, actor, and the occasional amateur sportsman. Many of Plimpton’s works involved him competing in professional sporting events, and then recording the experience from the point of view of an amateur. He is also known for establishing the Paris Review, a quarterly literary magazine, founded in 1953, which published works and hosted interviews of some of the greats; Italo Calvino, William Faulkner, Vladimir Nabokov, Ernest Hemingway, Margaret Atwood, Dorothy Parker and Hilary Mantel, to name a few. Plimpton edited The Paris Review until his death in 2003. 
 
  • Truman Capote: In which various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career 
  • Paper Lion
  • Out of my League 
  • One for the Record: The Inside Story of Hank Aaron’s Chase for the Home Run Record
  • The Bogey Man: A Month on the PGA Tour
  • Shadow Box: An Amateur in the Ring
  • The Paris Review Anthology
  • As Told at the Explorers Club
  • The Best of Plimpton
 
Graham Green 
English writer and journalist, the late Graham Greene (1904-1991), was regarded as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Strangely enough, he developed a reputation as both a ‘serious writer’, working on Catholic novels, and what he called ‘entertainers’ or thrillers. He was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1966 and 1967; however, in 1966, Nelly Sachs and Shmuel Yosef Agnon co-won, and in 1967, Miguel Ángel Asturias won the final title. He was recruited into MI6 (Military Intelligence, Section 6, or SIS), the foreign intelligence service of the UK, by his sister Elisabeth in 1941, where he met and befriended Kim Philby, a secret Soviet Agent; Greene later wrote the introduction to Philby’s 1968 memoir, My Silent War. 
 
  • Brighton Rock
  • The End of the Affair
  • The Quiet American
  • The Heart of the Matter
  • The Power and the Glory
  • The Third Man and Other Stories
  • Stamboul Train (Orient Express)
  • Travels with my Aunt
  • The Ministry of Fear
  • Our Man in Havana
  • Graham Greene: Complete Short Stories
 
Joan Lindsay
The late Joan Lindsay (1896-1984) was an Australian novelist, playwright, essayist, and artist. Her most celebrated work, Picnic at Hanging Rock, written over a four-week period, is predated by her literary work, Through Darkest Pondelayo (1936), which she wrote under a pseudonym at age forty, then her second novel, Time without Clocks (1962). 
 
  • Picnic at Hanging Rock
  • Time without Clocks
 
Steven King
Described as the “King of Horror”, Steven King has published 64 novels and sold over 350 million copies, dabbling in multiple genres: horror, suspense, crime, supernatural fiction, science-fiction and fantasy. Acceptance of Carrie by publishing house Doubleday, set King’s career in motion. As we discussed on the podcast, and openly mentioned in Stephen King’s memoir and craft book, On Writing, King developed a drinking problem in the early 1970’s, and then later a drug addiction. Yet, since the 1980’s, he has quit all drugs and alcohol, and later acknowledged that he didn’t need substances to engage in the creative process. Notably, King donates roughly $4 million per year “to libraries… schools, and a scattering of organizations that underwrite the arts.” There are too many of King’s books to list, but below is a list of my favourites. Additionally, a new fantasy book, Fairy Tale, is on track for release on the 6th of September. You can engage with Stephen King on Twitter (https://twitter.com/StephenKing), or on his website (www.stephenking.com).
 
  • On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
  • It
  • Misery
  • The Shining
  • Pet Sematary
  • Salem’s Lot
  • The Green Mile
  • Misery
 
Michael Crichton
The late Michael Crichton (1942-2008) is most renowned for the Jurassic Park franchise, but, he has produced many other fantastic works, having sold over 200 million copies of his books worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. For those internally debating their choice of career, take a leaf from Crichton’s book (pun intended). Crichton received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, but never practised, instead choosing to focus on his writing. Crichton first started writing under the pseudonym “Jeffrey Hudson”, which was a reference to the 17th-century court dwarf and his own height (a towering two meters).
 
  • The Terminal Man
  • The Andromeda Strain 
  • Jurassic Park
  • The Lost World
  • Sphere
  • Timeline 
  • State of Fear
  • Dragon Teeth
 
Salman Rushdie
Sir Salman Rushdie’s work combines historical fiction with magical realism, often looking at migration issues, especially between Eastern and Western civilizations. Where to start? Rushdie’s second novel, Midnight’s Children, won the Booker Prize in 1981, and then won the Booker Prize for “the best novel of all winners” twice, both for the 25th and 40th Anniversary of the Booker Prize. If you hadn’t heard already, on 12 August 2022, Rushdie was stabbed on stage in Chautauqua, New York, where he was scheduled to deliver a lecture, More Than Shelter, focusing on “the United States as an asylum for writers and other artists in exile and as a home for freedom of creative expression”. What sparked this event was the publication of Rushdie’s fourth novel, The Satanic Verses. This book has been incredibly controversial: a fatwā was ordered by the Supreme Leader of Iran on the 14th of February 1989; on the 7th of March 1989, the UK and Iran broke diplomatic relations over it, and a failed assassination attempt on Rushdie in August 1989. It has re-sparked the conversation on free speech and literary censorship. Rushdie is recovering, and one of the best ways to support him is to buy his works. You can follow him on Twitter (https://twitter.com/salmanrushdie) or his website (https://www.salmanrushdie.com/).
 
  • Midnight’s Children
  • The Satanic Verses
  • Haroun and the Sea of Stories
  • Languages of Truth
  • Quichotte
  • The Ground Beneath her Feet
  • Victory City
  • East, West: Stories
  • Shame
  • The Moon’s Last Sigh
  • Luka and The Fire of Life
  • The Enchantress of Florence
 
John Irving 
Five of John Irving’s novels have been adapted into films, including, The World According to Garp, The Hotel New Hampshire, The Cider House Rules, a Prayer for Owen Meany and A widow for One Year, but he has produced other acclaimed works beyond these. I will let an excerpt from his own website, An Introduction to John Irving, describe him and his work: “Superior fiction asks three things of the novelist: Vigorous feeling for life as we live it. Then imaginative force, strong enough to subvert and rebuild unhindered. And then – but this is rare and so essential that we might call it the “reality principle” of fiction– shrewd sense to keep the first two locked in stubborn love with each other.” To read more, you can follow him at his website (www.john-irving.com), on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/JohnIrvingAuthor), or on Twitter (https://twitter.com/irving_john).
 
  • The World According to Garp
  • The Last Chair Lift
  • A Prayer for Owen Meany
  • The Cider House Rules
  • Until I Find You 
  • The Hotel New Hampshire
  • Setting Free the Bears
  • A Son of the Circus
  • The Water Method Man
  • A Widow for One Year
  • The Fourth Hand
 
Margaret Atwood
Reading is a rewarding experience, especially so when the work is Margaret Atwood’s. It’s truly rare to read a piece where you can feel the fun being had by the writer on the other end, and that was apparent all through Murder in the Dark, a collection of Atwood’s short stories, from vignettes, to much longer works. An acclaimed poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and teacher, she has now added environmental activist to the title, with the release of her 8-week virtual live course Practical Utopias in February 2022. If it opens again, I wouldn’t think twice about applying for a spot! Her novel, A Handmaid’s Tale, now on Netflix, frequently ranks as one of the most banned books in the U.S. This is what she had to say on that: “I had thought America was against totalitarianisms. If so, surely it is important for young people to be able to recognize the signs of them. One of those signs is book-banning. Need I say more?” You can follow Margaret Atwood on Instagram (@therealmargaretatwood), Twitter (@MargaretAtwood), Facebook (Margaret Atwood), or her website (http://margaretatwood.ca/). For a great podcast with Margaret Atwood, head to Tim Ferriss’s podcast, Episode #573 (https://tim.blog/2022/02/22/margaret-atwood/). 
 
  • The Handmaid’s Tale
  • The Blind Assassin
  • Cat’s Eye
  • Alias Grace
  • Oryx and Crake
  • The Heart Goes Last
  • The Testaments
  • The Penelopiad
  • Murder in the Dark
  • Wilderness Tips
  • Good Bones
  • The Circle Game
  • Power Politics
             
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The late Coleridge (1772-1834) was an English poet, critic, philosopher and theologian. He was a member of the Lake Poets, a group of English poets in England who followed no single “school” of thought or literary practice; together, the members were considered part of the Romantic Movement. Romanticism is claimed to be a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, with creative works heavily characterized by the idealization of nature, suspicions over science and industry, clandestine literature, individualism, and a notable glorification of the past. As discussed, Coleridge was known for his meticulous and rigorous reworking of his poems, more so than any other poet. 
 
  • The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Other Poems
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Complete Poems
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Major Works
 
Harlan Ellison
If anyone warrants the name prolific in their careers, Ellison surely deserves the title. Before his death in 2018, Ellison wrote 70 books, 400+ short stories, 1000+ essays, dozens of TV screenplays and much more! An American author, he was known for being outspoken and abrasive, with a combative personality to boot, evening describing himself as “possibly the most contentious person on Earth.” On a particular dispute involving contract obligations, he once sent 213 bricks to a publisher via post, and to make a final point, a dead gopher… His work was influential in the New Wave speculative fiction space, a movement in the 1960s and 1970s characterized by a high degree of experimentation in form and content, engaging with complex concepts, such as utopia, surrealism, postmodernism and entropy. 
 
  • The Edge of Forever
  • Honourable Whoredom at a Penny a Word
  • The Deadly Streets
  • A Boy and his Dog
  • I have no Mouth, and I Must Scream
  • Stalking the Nightmare
  • Way of an Assassin
  • The Sound of a Scythe
 
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Numerous literary critics rate him as one of the greatest novelists in all of world literature; the late Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. Given the troubled political and social atmosphere of Russia in the 19th century, his works engage with the human condition under such conditions, and explores themes of religion and philosophy. Dostoevsky also dealt with censorship and book bans in his time; he was arrested in 1849 for discussing banned books critical of the Tsar, and sentenced to death. However, his sentence was commuted; he then spent four years in a Siberian prison camp. From rags to riches, Dostoevsky developed a gambling problem in his later life, at times needing to beg for money, but he eventually became one of the most highly regarded Russian writers. 
 
  • Crime and Punishment 
  • The House of the Dead
  • The Gambler
  • The Brothers Karamazov
  • Devils
  • The Idiot
  • Notes from the Underground
  • The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky
 
Neil Gaiman
Most people would have engaged with Neil Gaiman’s work in one way or another. The Sandman and American Gods have been adapted for TV; Stardust was made for film, and Good Omens, which Gaiman co-wrote with Terry Pratchett, was also made into the beloved TV series titled, you guessed it, Good Omens. Gaiman has a gift for crafting stories suitable for all ages; some of my favourites are The Graveyard Book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and, in addition, he wrote the English language script for the anime movie Princess Mononoke. To get a true sense of Gaiman beyond my mere words and for aspiring creatives, I highly encourage you to watch his Inspirational Commencement Speech at the University of Arts in 2012. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikAb-NYkseI). “A freelance life, a life in the arts, is sometimes like putting messages in bottles, on a desert island, and hoping that someone will find one of your bottles and open it and read it, and put something in a bottle that will wash its way back to you: appreciation, or a commission, or money, or love.” You can engage with Neil Gaiman on Twitter (@neilhimself), Instagram (@neilhimself), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/neilgaiman), or his website (https://www.neilgaiman.com/).
 
  • The Graveyard Book
  • Sandman
  • Coraline
  • Neverwhere
  • Norse Mythology
  • The Ocean at the End of the Lane
  • Art Matters: Because Your Imagination Can Change the World
  • Fragile Things: Short Stories and Wonders
 
Harper Lee
The late Nelle Harper Lee (1926-2016) won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for her best-known novel, To Kill a Mocking Bird. This book was inspired by racist attitudes in her hometown in Alabama, and the irrationally of adult attitudes towards race and class. She helped Truman Capote research the novel In Cold Blood, and it is contested how much she contributed to the writing. Harper Lee, quoted in Newquist in 1964, “I never expected any sort of success with Mockingbird. I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers, but at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways, this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I'd expected.” 
 
  • To Kill a Mockingbird
  • Go Set a Watchman
 
Lee Child
Known by the pen name Lee Child, James Dover Grant is a British author famous for his Jack Reacher thriller novel series, which follows a former American military policeman (Jack Reacher) who wanders the US. After being made redundant from a corporate job, Child decided to start writing novels, stating they are “the purest form of entertainment.” After a prominent career following Jack Reacher through 26 books and counting, Child announced in 2020 that he was handing the reins over, not to his son (error on our part) but to his brother Andrew Grant. Want to know more about how Lee Child manages only to write a first and only draft? Read the article by Andy Martin, who follows him around during the production of Lee Child’s 20th novel in the Jack Reacher series here(https://theconversation.com/the-man-with-no-plot-how-i-watched-lee-child-write-a-jack-reacher-novel-51220 ). You can engage with the Jack Reacher series on Twitter (@LeeChildReacher), Facebook (www.facebook.com/LeeChildOfficial), and his website (www.JackReacher.com). Below are the first five books of the Jack Reacher series. 
 
  • The Killing Floor
  • Die Trying
  • Tripwire
  • The Visitor
  • Echo Burning
 
James Patterson
The starving artist doesn’t always have to be the accepted trope for an author, and it certainly isn’t for James Patterson. In 2016, Patterson topped Forbes’s list of highest-paid authors for the third consecutive year, with an income of $95 million. For perspective, his books have sold more than 400 million copies, covering thrillers, non-fiction, and romance, and he was the first person to sell 1 million e-books. James Patterson and Stephen King have an… entertaining relationship, but both have “a mutual respect – sort of.” In 2015, Patterson established the James Patterson Pledge with Scholastic Book Clubs to put books in the hands of young readers. Scholastic Book Clubs was one of the initiatives available within my rural school when I was younger, and it’s one of the reasons I’m such an avid reader now. Here here, Mr. Patterson! You can connect with Patterson on Instagram (@jamespattersonbooks), Facebook (www.facebook.com/JamesPatterson), Twitter (@JP_Books), and his website (www.jamespatterson.com/). 
 
  • Red Alert (co-authored by Marshall Karp)
  • Along Came a Spider
  • Liar Liar (co-authored by Candice Fox)
  • The Black Book (co-authored by David Ellis)
  • 19th Christmas (co-authored by Maxine Paetro)
             
Georges Perec
Perec (1936-1982) is a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist, and is a member of the OuLiPo group. Oulipo Group, you ask? Oulipo is short for French: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: "workshop of potential literature", or an even better description was coined by Raymond Queneau, Oulipo’s founder, who described Oulipians as "rats who construct the labyrinth from which they plan to escape." Oulipo was a group of French writers and mathematicians who sought to use constrained techniques to enhance their creative endeavours. Georges Perec was a notable member, as well as Italo Calvino. Perec wrote the novel La disparition, which did not contain the letter ‘e’ (which is an incredibly common letter in the French language). Just as impressive as Perec’s feat, this novel has been translated into multiple languages, also excluding common letters. It was translated into English by Gilbert Adair under the title A Void, which omitted the use of ‘e’, the Spanish version excludes ‘a’, whilst the Russian version excludes ‘o’.
 
  • Life: A User’s Manual
  • Things: A Story of the Sixties with a Man Asleep
  • Species of Spaces and Other Pieces
  • W or the Memory of Childhood
  • A Void
  • I Remember
  • An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris
  • Brief Notes on the Art and Manner of Arranging One’s Books
  • The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise
 
Writing Challenges Mentioned
Milwordy (www.milwordyformuggles.wordpress.com/about-milwordy/)
NanoWrimo (https://nanowrimo.org/)
 
The 48-Hour Writing Challenge 
Let us know what you achieved in your 48-Hour Challenge! Send us an email at admin@thepleasureofthetext, and we will make a mention of you in our next podcast.
 
 
 
 
 

What is The Pleasure of the Text?

Two friends obsessed with books and writing, we're Shannen and Gareth, and welcome to The Pleasure of the Text Podcast. Reading and writing aren't lonely pursuits, and The Pleasure of the Text lies in the shared imaginative space where readers and writers make meaning together. So tune in and join us as we talk about the books we love, interview remarkable authors, and discuss the writer’s craft.