Allison Larkin's Blog

Yes, we did adopt a new friend!

I had thought it was too soon after losing Stella — that maybe I needed to take some time to figure out who I am without a dog. But in these past few months, what I’ve figured out is that I’m a person who finds great joy in sharing my life with a dog. I’m a better me all around when I can be the best person to my dog.

And this dog — oh, this dog is magnificent.

She’s only six or seven months old. 25lbs and not likely to get that much bigger. The best guess is she’s an Australian Cattle Dog/Jack Russell mix, and that certainly tracks with her markings and behaviors. She’s goofy and attentive and loves to explore. She’s extremely eager to learn and we’re having a lot of fun teaching her. She loves super long walks and everyone we meet.

Our new friend spent a month at a shelter before @underdoganimalrescueca found her and got her into a loving foster home. We’re endlessly thankful to them for saving her and for choosing us to be her family. There are a few scratches on her face from her shelter days that are starting to heal and it will be interesting to see what those freckles will look like on that part of her nose when her fur grows back. Her foster mom gave her such good love and care and shared a lot of insight into what this sweet girl needs to be happy.

We’re excited to give her a full and happy life. She’s the sweetest dog I’ve ever met. Whatever she’s been through did not put a damper on her exuberance — she’s like a little ray of light. She doesn’t seem to answer to her shelter name, so we’re still looking for a name with sounds that make those great big ears perk up. (Well, relatively big. She’s tiny!) We’re thrilled she’s part of our family now. We’re going to have the best time working through all this puppy energy, and being her best friends forever.

Oh, friends!!! I am completely thrilled by this news: The People We Keep is a nominee for @bookofthemonth’s Book of the Year Award! (Fun fact: the award is called The Lolly, after Lolly Willowes, which was the very first BOTM selection in 1926!) Thank you so much, @rachelbilson for choosing TPWK for BOTM and making this possible! After all the time I spent fighting for this book — for April — to be exactly what my heart told me to write, I’m just so amazed and thankful to be on this list! I’m still overwhelmed by all the love you’ve all shared with me since The People We Keep came out through BOTM in July. It’s more than I ever could have hoped for to get to connect with so many readers this way. I’m deeply grateful for you, and all of your support and your beautiful pictures and heartfelt reviews. I know The People We Keep is on this list because of your support. Thank you. So very much. And if The People We Keep was your book of the year, I would, of course, be honored if you voted for me (& April) at BookoftheYear.com. And if you have friends who are Book of the Month members I’d love it if you’d pass this along to them too! Thank you so much!

 

Join us at Towne Center Books in Livermore for a morning of coffee and book talk!

Tuesday Sep 14 2021 11:00am – 12:00pm

Details here. 

I went to Ithaca College with Katharine Clark Gray. Even back then, her sharp intelligence and pure talent were clear and refined. I still remember sitting the dark theatre freshman year, completely astounded by her luminous performance as The Bride in Blood Wedding.

One of the best things about being a creative person and growing up around creative people is getting to see how their work grows and evolves, and how they navigate the world with that creative spirit. It’s a great joy to watch Katie bring her keen perspective and theatrical sensibilities to all of her creative endeavors, including the 2016 film, The Paper Store , which she co-wrote and produced. I’m obsessed with the podcasts she works on (the Isabel Allende interview she mentions below is one of the greatest things I’ve ever listened to — and I’m not being hyperbolic).

I’m so thankful to know Katharine Clark Gray and happy to have her back for 3 More Ws. You can read her original interview here. 

Thank you, Katherine!

~AL

When did you discover your creative calling(s)?

Both as a kid and like, every three years or so. I’ve been a writer since I was pretty small but the medium keeps changing.

When I was a kid I thought I was going to be a cartoonist. I drew a strip that was incredibly derivative of Calvin & Hobbes called “Kids Will Be Kids” that starred a girl and a full-sized mouse. That was my first stab at story.

After that, I wrote a really terrible play I never showed anyone, because I’d read that David Mamet thought writers should put their first play in a desk drawer and never show anyone. (I’m no longer 100% positive that it was David Mamet who said that-? But that seems like a thing he would do.)

After that I wrote lots and lots of poetry, which (again) sounded like whichever poet I was reading at the time. Somewhere there’s a very incriminating file full of my Richard Brautigan Lite. Then by college, I wrote a play that Won A Contest and Got A Production and that was really all the validation I needed.

I should say: I used to think that a writer changing their medium was a big deal. All the writers I looked up to seemed locked into a single category. Neil Simon and Stephen King had totally different jobs. So the idea of going from, like, comic strips to screenplays seemed either wildly ambitious or hopelessly flaky.

Now of course, medium-hopping is not just accepted but encouraged, and I think that’s amazing. Because– it will sound hokey– every time I get to tackle a new medium, I discover my ‘creative calling’ all over again. My latest love is writing for audio, which started around three years ago. It’s total renewal.

Where do you do your best work?

Now? Home. These days I float between a small, adjustable standing desk, and a massive recycled-foam beanbag that’s way too big for our room. All day I vacillate between the least comfortable and most comfortable places in the room. Like being in a spa and going from hot tub to ice bath, over and over.

I used to be a dedicated public-place writer: coffee shops, coworking spaces, temping at the Law Firm of So-and-So… But at some point, finding the right public space got too exhausting/ expensive. So I had to sit with myself and reckon with why writing at home was so hard. I could say, “Oh, the TV’s too much of a temptation,” or “I can’t keep out of the fridge,” or “I keep wandering away from my work to do laundry.” And to be clear I still have all of those problems on occasion.

But I think it came down to needing a mindset shift– I needed to start thinking about writing as the thing I do, not what I do on the side. And then suddenly I got less itchy writing at home.

Who are your great mentors, inspirations, or guides?

The minute I stop answering this, I know I’m going to think of a million more and I’m going to be mad.

On a personal level, my forever mentor is Dr. Norm Johnson, professor (now emeritus) at Ithaca College. (You know this about me.) He introduced me to the truly weird, spiritual side of theatre: mask tradition and Laban and Lecoq and Lorca and Peter Brook and Per Brahe. I’m a total agnostic when it comes to God and religion but I still absolutely believe that masks have intrinsic personalities. Norm is like the in the Earthsea books– with the ability to both see, and identify, someone’s true nature. Though that character, if I remember right, was pretty boring and Norm is elaborately the opposite.

Professionally, one of my favorite current gigs is being on the Spark and Fire podcast team for WaitWhat. The show lets us talk to the most incredible artists about how they created one iconic work. The first episode I worked on was with Isabel Allende. I got to meet her (via Zoom) and listen to her for 90 glorious minutes. I have never, ever learned so much in one sitting. Every new person we interview helps me shake the Etch-a-Sketch of my own process. 

The “inspirations” list, a woefully small sample.

Danai Gurira’s plays The Convert and Eclipsed. An astonishing one-two combo of rage and humor and human messiness. They are near-perfect acts of feminism and anti-colonialism and I want everything I do to have at least 1/10th of the guts.Heroes of story structure: Trey Parker & Matt Stone, Dan Harmon. Every time I get bogged down by my own plot, I watch an ep of South Park, or Community, or Rick & Morty, and remember that actually, you can tell an EPIC story in 22 mins.I’ll watch anything Jordan Peele puts out. An-y-thing. He can take my money. This is not even the best part of his best thing but “I would’ve voted for Obama for a third term if I could” is the most brutally efficient takedown of whiteness.My most recent obsession was Robert Evans’ “After the Revolution” — it’s an audiobook broken into podcast-sized bites, as well as a free novel. Not highbrow exactly but very addictive, and Evans’ background as a conflict journalist gives him an understanding of civil wars in a way that’s hard to beat. I followed that story week to week like a junkie waiting for the dealer to show.Also in fiction pods, my friend Mac Rogers is the GOAT of audio drama (“The Message,” “Life/After,” “Steal the Stars”). His latest with Gideon Media is called “Give Me Away” and I’m very much on the hook, three episodes in. 

Finally, my partner in all things is the clearest-thinking creative I know. Conventional wisdom is that inherently creative thinkers can’t process things analytically and vice versa, but he really can do both. You know how cows have four stomachs? He has at least two different brains, I’m convinced. He’s a writer/director, and my daughter’s an actor now, so he’s been helping her rehearse for auditions and roles. I watch them find all this invisible magic between the lines. It blows me away. 

 

Links

Website: uncomp.ninja

Twitter: @KatieGonzo, @UncompNinja 

Instagram: @UncompromisedCreative 

Film: The Paper Store starring Stef Dawson, Penn Badgley, and Richard Kind is available on Amazon, Tubi, and Vudu,

Upcoming work: 

The NYC theatre group Cherry Picking’s “The Last Zoom Supper,” plays August 30-31, online of courseNew seasons of Masters of Scale and Spark and Fire podcasts coming soon 

I’ve been a huge fan of Elizabeth Rosner’s work since we read The Speed of Light for the Titles Over Tea book club at the Greece Barnes & Noble when I lived in Rochester. We had such a great book discussion about the complex relationships and the legacy of trauma, and it’s one of my favorite book memories. When we moved to the Bay Area, I got to see Elizabeth Rosner read from her novel, Electric City, at Book Passage. She talked about the way she collects ideas for her book and it helped me refine my own writing process. 

In addition to writing achingly beautiful novels, Elizabeth also writes non-fiction and poetry, and takes gorgeous pictures. Her Instagram account is one of my favorites to follow, because her unique perspective and attention to detail comes through in her photographs the same way it does in her writing.

I’m so happy to have Elizabeth Rosner back for 3 More Ws. You can read her original interview here. 

Thank you, Elizabeth!

~AL

When did you discover your creative calling(s)?

When I was in kindergarten my mother was working on completing her bachelor’s degree, and she used to bring me over to her best friend’s house for an afternoon of babysitting in the form of art lessons. Saba was a painter. I remember huge pieces of blank white paper stretching out across the table, and our hands working side by side to draw flowers. I think that might have been the seed of it all for me, spending time in the house of an artist, my awareness of her vivid and passionate way of being, the kind of life I wanted for myself. Eventually, I found my own purest and most authentic creative expression was through words.

Where do you do your best work?

Being near water always seems inspiring (especially when I can see the water, and even better when it’s water I can swim in). I think that a flow state (literally!) gets activated inside me. On the other hand, I can also be terribly distracted by too much beauty (is there really such a thing?). So, after I’ve been blessed with immersion in water and beauty for a stretch of time, I might retreat to a very quiet space to reflect and compose. Silence is essential; even if I’m in the company of others, I need to be entirely separate from their sounds.

Who are your great mentors, inspirations, or guides?

Reading Virginia Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse was maybe the first time I imagined writing a novel of my own, and I still consider it a perfectly constructed book. Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the Family and Carole Maso’s Ghost Dance were also early role models for me, books that manage to be gorgeously poetic as well as intimate and revelatory. I feel tremendously moved and sometimes haunted (in a good way) by the dramatic work of Anna Deavere Smith, the music of Joni Mitchell, and the films of Terrence Malick. I’m honored and grateful for my friendship with Susan Griffin, whose books I admire so much and who has been a profoundly supportive mentor.

LinksWebsite: www.elizabethrosner.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizrosner/Twitter: www.twitter.com/@elizabethrosner Facebook: www.facebook.com/elizabethrosnerbooks  

 

 

Stacey Ballis is so cool. She’s the author of TEN foodie novels that are all packed with humor, heart, and the kind of food descriptions that will not only make you hungry, but convince you that you’ve suddenly acquired mad skills and can pop into the kitchen to whip up everything you’ve read about. And maybe you have acquired these skills. I learn something new from every one of her novels. And Stacey will give you the recipes. She’s even written a cookbook! 

I’m so happy to have Stacey Ballis back for 3 More Ws. You can read her original interview here. 

Thank you, Stacey!

~AL

 

When did you discover your creative calling(s)?

Well, depends how you mean. According to my parents, my career in fiction began nearly as soon as I had speech, as I elevated fibbing to an art form. “I didn’t take the chocolates.” Says the two year old with chocolate all over her face. My actual writing career started in second grade, when I wrote a poem entitled “Suppose I Were A Snowflake”, an existential piece about the self and winter’s dark hold on the soul, which ended up getting published in an anthology of the best creative writing of that year by Chicago Public School students, and when the paperback copy of “Freckled Fantasies” landed and I saw my name in print, the fire was lit.

Where do you do your best work?

On the computer. Oh, wait, you meant geographically. I work on the couch, with the computer on the ottoman in my living room. I thought this was because I did not have an office. Then we renovated our house and I got a really gorgeous office, which I made my perfect cozy retreat, beautiful antique desk, walls upholstered in moss green velvet to create a super quiet calm environment with no outside noise distractions, plenty of bookshelves. And promptly discovered I still just work best in the living room. Ooops. I do also do good work at our weekend place, which is where I go when I am up against deadline and really need to be able to work round the clock.

Who are your great mentors, inspirations, or guides?

My grandmother, MFK Fisher, Julia Child, Jane Austen feel like my spirit guides, and my circle of writer pals are all amazing mentors to me.  My husband is my inspiration and muse. And Eloise represents my singular goal of how to live.

LinksWebsite: http://www.staceyballis.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/stacey.ballis/Twitter: https://twitter.com/staceyballisFacebook: facebook.com/staceyballis1  Buy Stacey’s Books

 

 

 

I made it a goal to write really nice things about all the returning 3Ws interviewees, but I’m already stumped. I have written and rewritten this intro many times, and am not sure I’m any closer to matching words and feelings accurately. I’m not sure it’s possible. To say I’m a Glen Phillips fan is a ridiculous understatement. As a teenager in turmoil, Toad the Wet Sprocket gave me context for my feelings. I escaped into those songs and felt like they saved me.

Through Toad, a dozen solo albums, and side projects like Mutual Admiration Society, Remote Tree Children, and Works Progress Administration, Glen has continued to share his deeply thoughtful, evolving philosophies on the human experience. Not only do I love Glen’s music, I am grateful for the joy, comfort, and wisdom his songs have brought to my life for the past thirty years. “Whatever happens will be,” has served as my calming mantra since first hearing the song All I Want at fourteen years old. Glen’s latest solo album, Swallowed By the New comes with equally useful navigation: “To be swallowed by the new, whatever it may be.” 

I am also grateful to know that I am one of many who feel this way. To meet another Glen Phillips fan is to meet a kindred spirit. So, in addition to the gift of his work, Glen has given us the gift of each other. 

It is thrilling to have Glen Phillips back for 3 More Ws (original interview here ).

Thank you, Glen.

~AL

 

When did you discover your creative calling(s)?

I was an emotional, somewhat anxious kid. Music, acting and dancing were the things that gave me a place to put all that extra feeling and to feel calm and like the world made sense. The arts were a way to go into the scary feelings and find the beauty in there, where in other situations I would spend a lot of time trying to avoid them or distract myself. So it was always there. Not really a choice so much as a wonderful necessity.

Where do you do your best work?

There’s a balance between letting things flow and go in unexpected directions and in doing the nitty gritty work of critical thinking and editing. The best songs are a bit of both – too much flow and you don’t clean up the details, too much criticism and there’s not enough soul. So – the best work is when I show up not just for what the muses throw me but also for the detail work. It’s about being open and aware but also willing to work hard. Every word counts, every note counts.

Who are your great mentors, inspirations, or guides?

They change over time. I’ve learned a lot from the poets Mary Oliver and David Whyte. Tara Brach is a Buddhist teacher who’s helped me broaden my perspective, especially in the last year. There’s so many authors and musicians and teachers. It’s hard to list them all. So – back to a Mary Oliver quote: Attention is the beginning of devotion. The teachers I like the most don’t pretend to have everything worked out. The point of their teaching is the importance of staying in the moment, being open and aware, curious and conscious. It’s not mystical or magical, it’s just about showing up and then seeing if you can show up even more. It’s a lifetime of good, fascinating work.

 

LinksWebsite: http://www.glenphillips.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/glenphillipsmusic/Twitter: http://twitter.com/GlenPhillipsFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/GlenPhillipsMusicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/glenphillipsofficial

 

When I changed the number on this giveaway graphic over to a ONE today, I got the most fluttery bunch of butterflies I’ve ever had in my whole life. Next Tuesday — NEXT TUESDAY — this book I’ve been carrying in my heart for almost fifteen years will be on-sale wherever books are sold.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, to everyone who has pre-ordered this book or is planning to buy it or told a friend about it or offered me encouraging words. I’m so excited and deeply honored to get to share this work that means so much to me.Here’s one last pre-order giveaway before the big day. This one ends on FRIDAY at midnight PST.

Details below, but the short version of the story is: email your pre-order receipts to info(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)allielarkinwrites.com for a chance to win.

Preorder links: http://bit.ly/PeopleWeKeep

I’m giving away one Summer Reading Prize Pack with TPWK guitar picks, a custom soft-enamel mayflower pin, a signed one-of-a-kind bookplate for your copy of The People We Keep and signed copies of my first three novels — including a first edition hardcover of STAY.

Five runners up will receive a signed copy of Swimming for Sunlight.

If you’ve already entered one of the earlier giveaways, you are automatically entered. But if you haven’t yet, you can enter right now! Send your preorder receipts to info(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)allielarkinwrites.com.

Winners will be selected using a random number generator. You can enter more than once with additional pre-orders. Hardcover, ebook, audiobook and Book of the Month receipts are all eligible. Thank you so much to everyone who entered the previous preorder giveaways!

This giveaway closes on FRIDAY, JULY 30th.

Preorder links here: http://bit.ly/PeopleWeKeep Or order from your favorite bookstore!

VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR DATES: It will be a new experience to do a virtual book tour, and while I’m sad to miss seeing some of you in person, I’m excited to get to share this experience with so many of you who live far and wide. And I cannot wait to talk with @justjuliawhelan, @juliaclaibornej, and @thereseannefowler. I have missed them all so much. Hope you’ll tune in to one — or even all three.

8/3 – 5PM PST – Rakestraw Books “Live at Home!” with Allison Larkin in Conversation with Julia Whelan (narrator of The People We Keep) 

Julia Whelan is an actor, writer, and narrator of over 400 audiobooks. Recently named one of AudioFile magazine’s Golden Voices, she has won numerous other awards, including the 2019 Best Female Narrator Audie for Tara Westover’s Educated and a SOVAS for the performance of her own novel, My Oxford Year. She is also a Grammy-nominated audiobook director as well as a certified tea sommelier.

Tickets are free. Sign up here

Purchase The People We Keep from Rakestraw Books 

Purchase My Oxford Year from Rakestraw Books 

8/5 – 7PM PST – Chevalier’s Books Virtual Event The People We Keep by Allison Larkin in conversation with Julia Claiborne Johnson

Julia Claiborne Johnson is the author of the bestselling Be Frank with Me, a finalist for the American Bookseller’s Association Best Debut Novel Award and Better Luck Next Time. She grew up on a farm in Tennessee before moving to New York City, where she worked at Mademoiselle and Glamour magazines. She now lives in Los Angeles with her comedy-writer husband and their two children.

Tickets are free. RSVP here

Purchase The People We Keep from Chevalier’s Books 

Purchase Better Luck Next Time from Chevalier’s Books

8/10 -5PM PST/7PM Central – The Novel Neighbor Allison Larkin in conversation with Therese Anne Fowler Virtual Event | The People We Keep

Tickets are free, but you can add book purchase to your registration. RSVP here

Purchase The People We Keep from The Novel Neighbor

Purchase A Good Neighborhood from The Novel Neighbor

Therese Anne Fowler is the NYT and USA Today bestselling author of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald (adapted for television by Amazon Studios as Z: The Beginning of Everything starring Christina Ricci), A Well-Behaved Woman, and A Good Neighborhood. She is married to author John Kessel.

Photo credit: Sam Kassirer

I’m so excited to bring back the 3Ws interview series on this blog! Getting to ask creative people about their creativity is one of my great joys. So, in addition to bringing new artists into the mix with the original three questions, I thought it would be fun to check in with past interviewees and ask three more.

I believe when music is truly thoughtful and hits the right place in our soul, it shapes our perspective. Back in 2000, I ordered Mark Erelli’s self-titled album from a Signature Sounds catalog (doesn’t that seem so quaint now?) and had the pleasure of attending a live show when his next tour took him through Rochester. Since then, his music has brought inspiration to my everyday life and my work. So many of Mark’s songs made it onto my writing playlist for The People We Keep. His voice is singular and awe-inspiring. His songs don’t shy away from the grit of reality, and then they reach further to dig out a sense of hope.

I’m endlessly grateful that Mark shares his art with the world, and I’m thrilled to have him back for 3 More Ws. His answers are following, and you can find his original interview   here . 

~ AL

When did you discover your creative calling(s)?

I think my earliest creative calling involved drawing as a young boy. A lot of kids draw, I realize, but apparently I drew so much that when my parents ran out of magnets to hang new works on the refrigerator, they decided to literally wallpaper the entire kitchen with my drawings! As a musician, my real awakening came when I saw a young woman perform a Joni Mitchell song at a college first-years orientation event. I was inspired by her bravery, and truly moved by her performance. I remember thinking ‘I want to make people feel like she made me feel.’ I’ve been trying to do that ever since.

Where do you do your best work?

I have put a lot of energy and effort into eliminating pre-conceived notions of what I require to do my work. After a certain age, I felt that needing a particular kind of pen or paper, location, time of day, uninterrupted time of a particular length, or other requirements were just “excuses not to write.” It’s so hard—especially once you become a parent—to find the kind of unbroken vistas of free time to create that you enjoy was a younger person. So I like to think that my best work is done…wherever I happen to be doing it! That said, I do find airplanes to be particularly productive, because I can enjoy several hours of minimal distraction. It also helps to not have an instrument when I’m writing on an airplane, because I can avoid patterns and habits I might tend to unknowingly fall into when writing with an instrument.

Who are your great mentors, inspirations, or guides?

I don’t really have an actual mentor, but I kind of wish I did! It’s tough in music right now, because the industry part of it innovates and changes so frequently that were anyone to tell me they knew what I should do, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t believe them! I find most of my guidance and inspiration from my peers, singers and writers like Lori McKenna, Josh Ritter, Anais Mitchell, Peter Mulvey, Kris Delmhorst, Jeffrey Foucault and many, many more. I just love seeing what my friends do, how they continue to dig deeper and deeper in their work and exercise their craft at higher and higher levels. Much of what “my influences” might have accomplished was done in an industry framework that no longer exists. I find my peers—the ones currently wrestling with the vagaries of the modern music business and the latest trends in media consumption—are the ones that are the most inspiring to me and ever helpful as I find my own way forward.

Instagram: @markerelli

Twitter: @markerelli

Facebook: /markerelli

Website:  markerelli.com

Latest album, Blindsided, can be purchased in a variety of formats here: https://markerelli.bandcamp.com/

Jumping in again to share a video of Mark performing one of his beautiful songs that made its way onto my writing playlist for The People We Keep.   ~AL