A.E. Pennymaker's Blog
August 28, 2020
Interview with Dame Agatha Christie
cue intense intro music
Pennymaker: *smiling broadly, turning to face the camera* Hello, and welcome to the Sporadic Interview with a Dead Author Blog. That's right. Everyone on the other side of the table has pegged it, and that is indeed part of the selection process, so please, let's just stop whining about discrimination against the living, accept that sometimes a line is drawn, and move on like adults, shall we? Yes? Yes. *clears throat* *touches hair*
*turns to face second camera* *smiling broadly again*
Last time, we had the rare pleasure of interviewing Edgar Allan Poe, whose writing has sparked the imaginations of countless readers across the world and spawned an award in his name, the Edgar Award. As you may know, this award is given to authors who have made great literary contributions, specifically to the Mystery genre. Our next interviewee took home that award in 1955. She was awarded the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master award that year as well, and she also holds the Guinness World Record for the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies. I mean... talk about longevity, she also wrote the world's longest-running play, The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End from 1952 until Covid-19 cut it off. With sixty-six novels, fourteen short story collections, and multiple stage, radio, TV, even graphic novel adaptations of her books and short stories out there, she is easily one of the most widely read authors in history. I give you, the one and only Queen of Crime, the Duchess of Death, Dame Agatha Christie, Lady Mallowan, lately of Oxfordshire, England!
guitar riff
camera pans left
Christie: *smiling* Oh, what a lot of bother, to say all of that.
Pennymaker: It's true, though. You've certainly put my own career into perspective. I stand in awe. It is because of you and women like you that women like me don't have to come up with masculine sounding pen-names... unless we want to. But that's beside the point. What I really want to know is, what got you started writing? That's always intrigued me, that moment when someone picks up a pen and the lightbulb turns on.
Christie: *laughing a little* Well, I'm not so sure about lightbulbs. I was homeschooled, as you might call it. I hadn't very much formal education, but did have a very wise and patient nanny, and quite a bit of time on my hands. My brother and sister were much older, so I was left almost entirely to my own devices. I found myself making up stories and acting the different parts. As I told that chap from the BBC in 1955, there's nothing like boredom to make you write. So by the time I was 16 or 17, I'd written quite a number of short stories and one long, dreary novel. By the time I was 21, I had finished the first book of mine ever to be published, the Mysterious Affair at Styles. That's how it began, really. I fell into the habit of using my imagination to fill in the gaps, as it were.
Pennymaker: *gives body of work the side-eye* *coughs lightly* Well, you managed to fill quite a few gaps, I'd say. So. With so many books under your belt, you must have spent quite a lot of time writing. When you were not writing, how did you pass the time?
Christie: For fun?
Pennymaker: For fun. Yes.
Christie: *leaning forward with a mysterious smirk* I went to the sea. There's a place I liked especially, called Blackpool Sounds. Right down on the cove in Devon. The bathing there is just the thing. And then there was my gardening. I also traveled, you know, quite a bit. Egypt, Iraq, that sort of thing. I may have been a quiet, peaceful English woman, but I got around.
Pennymaker: You certainly did. Did you know that all of the places you lived now have these little blue plaques, 'Dame Agatha Christie detective novelist and play wright lived here'?
Christie: *eyes widening* The things that fascinate the modern mind are really quite puzzling to me. Did you know I was criticized after I wrote my autobiography for not having a private life that played out like one of my stories? Can you imagine, always stumbling over a dead body, murderers lurking in every drapery, mysteries around every corner... It would have all been quite exhausting, although, I will admit it would have been much more interesting if I had somehow died in all those places... *squints slightly and focuses on a point somewhat above Pennymaker's head* *gets out small black notebook and a pencil* *sound of scribbling*
Pennymaker: Agatha, while I've got you here, I was hoping you could tell me how you came up with sixty different novels and so many short ... stories... Um... *purses lips* Dame Christie?
Christie: *distracted* One moment. *more scribbling*
Pennymaker: Did you, right now, start plotting a new —
Christie: Just one... more... moment... *scribbling*
Pennymaker: *turns to camera* *dazzling smile* I would like to thank the ITV Perspectives, "The Mystery of Agatha Christie" (2013) hosted by David Suchet for providing content and insight for today's blog post, as well as Agatha Christie's own An Autobiography, and Come, Tell My How You Live. *more scribbling in background* Apparently that will be all for today. Until next time, this is Anna Pennymaker with another Sporadic Interview with a Dead Author.
intense musical score
end credits
Pennymaker: *smiling broadly, turning to face the camera* Hello, and welcome to the Sporadic Interview with a Dead Author Blog. That's right. Everyone on the other side of the table has pegged it, and that is indeed part of the selection process, so please, let's just stop whining about discrimination against the living, accept that sometimes a line is drawn, and move on like adults, shall we? Yes? Yes. *clears throat* *touches hair*
*turns to face second camera* *smiling broadly again*
Last time, we had the rare pleasure of interviewing Edgar Allan Poe, whose writing has sparked the imaginations of countless readers across the world and spawned an award in his name, the Edgar Award. As you may know, this award is given to authors who have made great literary contributions, specifically to the Mystery genre. Our next interviewee took home that award in 1955. She was awarded the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master award that year as well, and she also holds the Guinness World Record for the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies. I mean... talk about longevity, she also wrote the world's longest-running play, The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End from 1952 until Covid-19 cut it off. With sixty-six novels, fourteen short story collections, and multiple stage, radio, TV, even graphic novel adaptations of her books and short stories out there, she is easily one of the most widely read authors in history. I give you, the one and only Queen of Crime, the Duchess of Death, Dame Agatha Christie, Lady Mallowan, lately of Oxfordshire, England!
guitar riff
camera pans left
Christie: *smiling* Oh, what a lot of bother, to say all of that.
Pennymaker: It's true, though. You've certainly put my own career into perspective. I stand in awe. It is because of you and women like you that women like me don't have to come up with masculine sounding pen-names... unless we want to. But that's beside the point. What I really want to know is, what got you started writing? That's always intrigued me, that moment when someone picks up a pen and the lightbulb turns on.
Christie: *laughing a little* Well, I'm not so sure about lightbulbs. I was homeschooled, as you might call it. I hadn't very much formal education, but did have a very wise and patient nanny, and quite a bit of time on my hands. My brother and sister were much older, so I was left almost entirely to my own devices. I found myself making up stories and acting the different parts. As I told that chap from the BBC in 1955, there's nothing like boredom to make you write. So by the time I was 16 or 17, I'd written quite a number of short stories and one long, dreary novel. By the time I was 21, I had finished the first book of mine ever to be published, the Mysterious Affair at Styles. That's how it began, really. I fell into the habit of using my imagination to fill in the gaps, as it were.
Pennymaker: *gives body of work the side-eye* *coughs lightly* Well, you managed to fill quite a few gaps, I'd say. So. With so many books under your belt, you must have spent quite a lot of time writing. When you were not writing, how did you pass the time?
Christie: For fun?
Pennymaker: For fun. Yes.
Christie: *leaning forward with a mysterious smirk* I went to the sea. There's a place I liked especially, called Blackpool Sounds. Right down on the cove in Devon. The bathing there is just the thing. And then there was my gardening. I also traveled, you know, quite a bit. Egypt, Iraq, that sort of thing. I may have been a quiet, peaceful English woman, but I got around.
Pennymaker: You certainly did. Did you know that all of the places you lived now have these little blue plaques, 'Dame Agatha Christie detective novelist and play wright lived here'?
Christie: *eyes widening* The things that fascinate the modern mind are really quite puzzling to me. Did you know I was criticized after I wrote my autobiography for not having a private life that played out like one of my stories? Can you imagine, always stumbling over a dead body, murderers lurking in every drapery, mysteries around every corner... It would have all been quite exhausting, although, I will admit it would have been much more interesting if I had somehow died in all those places... *squints slightly and focuses on a point somewhat above Pennymaker's head* *gets out small black notebook and a pencil* *sound of scribbling*
Pennymaker: Agatha, while I've got you here, I was hoping you could tell me how you came up with sixty different novels and so many short ... stories... Um... *purses lips* Dame Christie?
Christie: *distracted* One moment. *more scribbling*
Pennymaker: Did you, right now, start plotting a new —
Christie: Just one... more... moment... *scribbling*
Pennymaker: *turns to camera* *dazzling smile* I would like to thank the ITV Perspectives, "The Mystery of Agatha Christie" (2013) hosted by David Suchet for providing content and insight for today's blog post, as well as Agatha Christie's own An Autobiography, and Come, Tell My How You Live. *more scribbling in background* Apparently that will be all for today. Until next time, this is Anna Pennymaker with another Sporadic Interview with a Dead Author.
intense musical score
end credits
August 18, 2020
Interview with Edgar A. Poe
cue intense intro music
Pennymaker: *smiling, turning to face the camera* Hello, and welcome to the Sporadic Interview with a Dead Author Blog... *clears throat* Yes, well, don't think too much and just go with it... I have to say that today's author is one of my all-time favorites, as much because of his approach to poetry and the short story as his rather fantastic life story.
Poe: *offscreen muttering* That is entirely Griswold's fault.
Pennymaker: *clears throat again* Our guest today is none other than the illustrious Edgar Allan Poe, lately of Baltimore, Maryland.
Poe: *now on camera* *popping sounds of audio interference* How does this contraption work? *holds up lapel mic* More to the point, what IS this contraption? Some strange, unsightly spider, jaws that, pinching, perch it yonder, yonder upon my chest, *bends to follow mic cord downward* with one long and slender line that, from it, trailing, disappears under, under the... *muffled offscreen*...table...
Pennymaker: *strained smile* Mr. Poe?
Poe: *emerging from beneath studio table* *barely audible* I have plucked this strange beast out by the root, Miss. *drops unplugged lapel mic on the table* *tiny, serious smile* It will trouble you no longer.
Pennymaker: Oh. Ah. Thank you. We'll take a short break then, while I —
cue show's theme music
cue intro music
fade in on Pennymaker
Pennymaker: *smiling at camera* And we're back, with Mr. Poe as our guest writer, poet, and literary critic extraordinaire. Now. For my first question, Mr. Poe, I would love to know what your typical day looks like?
Poe: *silence* *somber staring into the camera* *takes flask from inside jacket pocket and unscrews cap* I pass my time by wandering the streets of Baltimore. Walking takes my mind off of things. Such dark things... *takes a sip, then offers flask across the table*
Pennymaker: *shakes head*
Poe: *shrugs, takes another swig while gazing vacantly into a middle distance* Tombstones. I read tombstones, mainly. Sepulchers. By the sea. *mumbles* Annabel...
Pennymaker: So! You have an interesting view on poetry, which was ground-breaking for your day. I've been dying to find out how you came up with your theories. Can you shed some light on what guided your journey as a writer?
Poe: *highpitched chuckle* Dying! You said dying.
Pennymaker: That was an unfortunate choice of —
Poe: Pedantry. I detest pedantry. There is a modern phrase you young people use. What is it? Keep it simple, stupid? I would, I believe, agree with that sentiment. Didacticism is the positive bane of poetry, and writing in general. If, by purpose, a poem must say a thing, let it simply say that thing.
Pennymaker: I see. So you would be —
Poe: As I mentioned in my Philosophy of Composition, (which, perhaps, you have read), nothing is more clear than that every plot, worth the name, must be elaborated to its denouement before anything be attempted with the pen.
Pennymaker: Ah. You're a plotter, then —
Poe: Yes. To quote myself further, I prefer commencing with the consideration of an effect. *pause to sip at flask* I say to myself, in the first place, "Of the innumerable effects, or impressions, of which the heart, the intellect, or (more generally) the soul is susceptible, what one shall I, on the present occasion, select?" Having chosen a novel, first, and secondly a vivid effect, I consider whether it can be best wrought by incident or tone- whether by ordinary incidents and peculiar tone, or the converse, or by peculiarity both of incident and tone- afterward looking about me (or rather within) for such combinations of event, or tone, as shall best aid me in the construction of the effect.
Writers don't always like to admit they do this, but I think it is the way will all those who put pen to parchment... Most writers- poets in especial- prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy- an ecstatic intuition- and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes, at the elaborate and vacillating crudities of thought- *gestures lazily with flask* at the true purposes seized only at the last moment- at the innumerable glimpses of idea that arrived not at the maturity of full view- at the fully-matured fancies discarded in despair as unmanageable- at the cautious selections and rejections- at the painful erasures and interpolations- in a word, at the wheels and pinions- the tackle for scene-shifting- the step-ladders, and demon-traps- the cock's feathers, the red paint and the black patches, which, in ninety- nine cases out of a hundred, constitute the properties of the literary histrio... *swigs from flask*
Pennymaker: *wide eyed* So... didacticism is... Nevermind. You would say then, that you plot first, then pants while you're writing?
Poe: *doubtfully* Yeeessss? I'm not familiar with all of your new phraseology.
Pennymaker: Ah. Pantsing would be the 'in the moment erasures and interpolations' and 'the tackle for scene-shifting,' etc. So, if you were to, say, compose –
Poe: *giggling* I can't. I am decomposing.
Pennymaker: *momentary pause* *wry face* True.
Poe: *laughs out loud* *takes long drink* *stops laughing* *frowns* *tips flask upside down, eyes it mournfully* *begins to tear up* Virginia is decomposing too. *sobs* She lived with no other thought than to love and be loved... by... by...
Pennymaker: *speaking over loud wailing offscreen* Well, that ends our interview. Thank you so much for tuning in. We'll be back at some point in the future with another episode of Interview with a Dead Author. Thank you. Yes. Have a wonderful day.
intense musical score
end credits
Pennymaker: *smiling, turning to face the camera* Hello, and welcome to the Sporadic Interview with a Dead Author Blog... *clears throat* Yes, well, don't think too much and just go with it... I have to say that today's author is one of my all-time favorites, as much because of his approach to poetry and the short story as his rather fantastic life story.
Poe: *offscreen muttering* That is entirely Griswold's fault.
Pennymaker: *clears throat again* Our guest today is none other than the illustrious Edgar Allan Poe, lately of Baltimore, Maryland.
Poe: *now on camera* *popping sounds of audio interference* How does this contraption work? *holds up lapel mic* More to the point, what IS this contraption? Some strange, unsightly spider, jaws that, pinching, perch it yonder, yonder upon my chest, *bends to follow mic cord downward* with one long and slender line that, from it, trailing, disappears under, under the... *muffled offscreen*...table...
Pennymaker: *strained smile* Mr. Poe?
Poe: *emerging from beneath studio table* *barely audible* I have plucked this strange beast out by the root, Miss. *drops unplugged lapel mic on the table* *tiny, serious smile* It will trouble you no longer.
Pennymaker: Oh. Ah. Thank you. We'll take a short break then, while I —
cue show's theme music
cue intro music
fade in on Pennymaker
Pennymaker: *smiling at camera* And we're back, with Mr. Poe as our guest writer, poet, and literary critic extraordinaire. Now. For my first question, Mr. Poe, I would love to know what your typical day looks like?
Poe: *silence* *somber staring into the camera* *takes flask from inside jacket pocket and unscrews cap* I pass my time by wandering the streets of Baltimore. Walking takes my mind off of things. Such dark things... *takes a sip, then offers flask across the table*
Pennymaker: *shakes head*
Poe: *shrugs, takes another swig while gazing vacantly into a middle distance* Tombstones. I read tombstones, mainly. Sepulchers. By the sea. *mumbles* Annabel...
Pennymaker: So! You have an interesting view on poetry, which was ground-breaking for your day. I've been dying to find out how you came up with your theories. Can you shed some light on what guided your journey as a writer?
Poe: *highpitched chuckle* Dying! You said dying.
Pennymaker: That was an unfortunate choice of —
Poe: Pedantry. I detest pedantry. There is a modern phrase you young people use. What is it? Keep it simple, stupid? I would, I believe, agree with that sentiment. Didacticism is the positive bane of poetry, and writing in general. If, by purpose, a poem must say a thing, let it simply say that thing.
Pennymaker: I see. So you would be —
Poe: As I mentioned in my Philosophy of Composition, (which, perhaps, you have read), nothing is more clear than that every plot, worth the name, must be elaborated to its denouement before anything be attempted with the pen.
Pennymaker: Ah. You're a plotter, then —
Poe: Yes. To quote myself further, I prefer commencing with the consideration of an effect. *pause to sip at flask* I say to myself, in the first place, "Of the innumerable effects, or impressions, of which the heart, the intellect, or (more generally) the soul is susceptible, what one shall I, on the present occasion, select?" Having chosen a novel, first, and secondly a vivid effect, I consider whether it can be best wrought by incident or tone- whether by ordinary incidents and peculiar tone, or the converse, or by peculiarity both of incident and tone- afterward looking about me (or rather within) for such combinations of event, or tone, as shall best aid me in the construction of the effect.
Writers don't always like to admit they do this, but I think it is the way will all those who put pen to parchment... Most writers- poets in especial- prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy- an ecstatic intuition- and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes, at the elaborate and vacillating crudities of thought- *gestures lazily with flask* at the true purposes seized only at the last moment- at the innumerable glimpses of idea that arrived not at the maturity of full view- at the fully-matured fancies discarded in despair as unmanageable- at the cautious selections and rejections- at the painful erasures and interpolations- in a word, at the wheels and pinions- the tackle for scene-shifting- the step-ladders, and demon-traps- the cock's feathers, the red paint and the black patches, which, in ninety- nine cases out of a hundred, constitute the properties of the literary histrio... *swigs from flask*
Pennymaker: *wide eyed* So... didacticism is... Nevermind. You would say then, that you plot first, then pants while you're writing?
Poe: *doubtfully* Yeeessss? I'm not familiar with all of your new phraseology.
Pennymaker: Ah. Pantsing would be the 'in the moment erasures and interpolations' and 'the tackle for scene-shifting,' etc. So, if you were to, say, compose –
Poe: *giggling* I can't. I am decomposing.
Pennymaker: *momentary pause* *wry face* True.
Poe: *laughs out loud* *takes long drink* *stops laughing* *frowns* *tips flask upside down, eyes it mournfully* *begins to tear up* Virginia is decomposing too. *sobs* She lived with no other thought than to love and be loved... by... by...
Pennymaker: *speaking over loud wailing offscreen* Well, that ends our interview. Thank you so much for tuning in. We'll be back at some point in the future with another episode of Interview with a Dead Author. Thank you. Yes. Have a wonderful day.
intense musical score
end credits
