Ask the Author: Edan Lepucki
Answered Questions (15)
Edan Lepucki
Thanks--I am excited because I was a write-in nominee! If I win, I will probably run down the street naked with an open bottle of champagne screaming, "I am triumphant! I am triumphant!" That's the only proper way to celebrate such success, right?
Edan Lepucki
Wow! That's wonderful to hear. Thanks for letting me know!
Edan Lepucki
Hi, Kristy! Thanks for your question and sorry for the delay in answering! There is now a discussion guide online for book clubs:
http://www.littlebrown.com/rgg/CALIFO...
I have answered the sequel question in a previous Goodreads question so please check out the other answers on my profile.
Thanks for reading my book!
http://www.littlebrown.com/rgg/CALIFO...
I have answered the sequel question in a previous Goodreads question so please check out the other answers on my profile.
Thanks for reading my book!
Edan Lepucki
Thank you for reading it! I just answered a question that is very similar to yours, so check out my Author Page for the answer. Thanks for the question!
Edan Lepucki
Thank you, Nicole! When I wrote the book I didn't think it would continue--I thought the ending was satisfying but unresolved: unsettling and exciting to ponder after the text ended. However, once I'd completed the draft, I began to imagine more from this ruined world; little images and ideas kept creeping into my consciousness. I'm currently writing a novel that takes place in the present day--and, man, am I glad to be out of this sad future for a while!--but I plan to return to the world of CALIFORNIA after that book is finished. I will say, though, that it won't be a straight-up sequel that picks up right where the first novel ended; instead, it will be a kind of companion story. I won't say anything beyond that, since much of it still a mystery to me and I don't want to talk the magic out of it...
Edan Lepucki
Hi, Alice! Probably as it is for you, fellow writer, stories come from all sorts of places: books I've read, conversations I've had (or overheard), moments I've experienced, songs I've listened to while crossing a bridge, people I've known; people I've wished to know; birds crossing my office window...and on and on and on. For me, the genesis of a story is sort of magical and ineffable. There is inspiration all around...
Edan Lepucki
The ghost town popped into my imagination while I was writing--I'm not sure where it came from, or why it stumbled into this book! It wasn't inspired by any particular place. When I was younger, however, I visited the ghost town of Bodie, and the images of abandoned houses really stuck with me.
Edan Lepucki
My biggest influences were probably the novel Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, which remains one of my favorite books and conjures a disturbing future dystopia; the movie Badlands, directed by Terrance Mallick (for its scenes of romantic/uneasy wilderness living), and an article in the New Yorker about Deep Springs College. Generally, though, the inspiration was all the anxieties I feel about the future: climate change, violence, the oil crisis, and so on.
Edan Lepucki
That is indeed my signature--it's an E and an L...I know it doesn't look like that, but I swear that's what I signed! I was indeed going quickly, but even if I signed slowly it would look that puny and illegible! Thanks for reading my book.
Edan Lepucki
Depends on how long the writer's arm is. :)
Edan Lepucki
What a funny and great question! I love to make eggs--what a wondrous food, able to take all these forms! I also really like Proper Bloke's Pasta, a recipe by Jamie Oliver: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pa...
(It's more that I like to eat it...)
I also really enjoy making big salads. Also, cheese plates (I once worked in a cheese shop).
I don't especially like to bake, since it requires such precision, and yet, that's the skill I gave to main character Frida in my novel California...
(It's more that I like to eat it...)
I also really enjoy making big salads. Also, cheese plates (I once worked in a cheese shop).
I don't especially like to bake, since it requires such precision, and yet, that's the skill I gave to main character Frida in my novel California...
Edan Lepucki
I've been interested in writing since I could read. I've loved to read for as long as I can remember, and my desire to write is part of that. I've wanted to write as a career for almost that long, too! It was a fantasy long before I put the work in and actually, uh, wrote anything. I dabbled in poetry in high school and turned seriously toward fiction in college, where I majored in English and Creative Writing. Studying with Dan Chaon was huge for me--he was so attentive and devoted as a teacher, and I wanted to return that with hard work. Ever since then, I have been focused on writing. Publishing my novel is, without exaggeration, a life-long dream.
Edan Lepucki
It felt...incredible, surreal, weird, wonderful, amazing! My husband and I were squealing and then speechless, squealing and then speechless. I am incredibly grateful to Sherman Alexie for choosing to talk about my book out of all the books affected by the Hachette-Amazon dispute. And, wow, Colbert--thank you for the bump!
I am proud and excited to be a #1 bestseller at Powell's. I visited the store for the first time last fall and bought a dozen books and basically just wandered around in awe. Powell's! Me! Together! I think my face just melted off.
I am proud and excited to be a #1 bestseller at Powell's. I visited the store for the first time last fall and bought a dozen books and basically just wandered around in awe. Powell's! Me! Together! I think my face just melted off.
Edan Lepucki
The novel went through about 3 revisions before it sold, and then another 3 or so afterward with my editor. But after a while the revisions start to blend together--some are big, but some are minor and I'm not sure they can count as real revisions. It took about 3 years for me to finish those first drafts, and then another year or so of revisions with my editor. Wooh! By the time the book comes out it will have been almost 5 years since the day I began the book...no one ever said novel writing was quick!
Edan Lepucki
Ooh...fun... I think someone like Greta Gerwig could play Frida. Ryan Gosling is probably too old to be Micah, but I think he would play the role wonderfully. Cal? I don't have any ideas!
Edan Lepucki
I've been the most productive and inspired at Ucross, an artists' residency in northeast Wyoming. I started CALIFORNIA there and returned for a second residency just recently to work on my new book. In regular life, I am best in the mornings--usually 9 am-12 pm is when I get my creative work done. It has to be the first task I tackle...otherwise, I put it off and put it off and I never do it. I am lucky enough to have an office now--it's wonderful to have the private space to work and think!
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