The Next Best Book Club discussion

Guys,

Next month's Author/Reader Discussion novel is the awesomely deceiving Grey Cats by Adam Biles.

The wonderful people at 3 AM PRESS have given us the ok to give away 10 copies of the ebook (mobi and epub copies available) INTERNATIONALLY....

I loved this little guy and I know you will too. Comment on the blog to throw your name in the hat to win....

http://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.c...

Oh, that sounds great! I'm in!

I'd love to try it

A new read! Pick me! LOL

Looks awesome!

Congrats to the winners of GREY CATS, our Author/Reader discussion for March, featuring author @adambiles bit.ly/12gBSvO

If you didn't win, we would still love for you to participate in the discussion this March (and of course, copies are on sale, if you'd still like to read it!)
you can buy it here http://www.galleybeggar.co.uk/book-st...

LOL, three people with the name Anon won. Must be a lucky name. Well congrats to all the winners!
:).

Hmm.. it would appear those winners who prefered to remain anonymous won't be for much longer.. right Brian?

LOL... Thought it seemed like an odd name. Yes, it would make for a confusing discussion with three people using the same on screen identifier.
"Anon: I really liked how chapter 3 started in an action packed sequence."
"Anon: it really bothered me how chapter 3 began."
"Anon: Chapter 3? Sec... Brb... Oh, I must have missed that Chapter."
:). LOL

Are you guys and gals ready? Adam joins us on the 15th!!!

The perfect lead-in to our Author/Reader discussion w/ Adam Biles, which starts 3/15, just a few days away!!!
bit.ly/12zI1ED

Mapping the Metropolis - here he discusses the relationship of the city with his book.

Hear Adam read from his book - beginning at the 25 minute mark.

https://soundcloud.com/resonance-fm/1...

Let me take a moment to welcome Adam to the group!! (I'll be at work tomorrow when he joins us for the start of the discussion)

Adam,

I am so excited to have you here! Thanks for taking time to discuss your book GREY CATS with us. I can't wait to see what everyone thinks about it!1

I'm gonna go ahead and start things off with a question:

When you wrote Grey Cats, did you have the whole story figured out from the start, or did it show itself to you as you went along?

Hi Adam,

I'd love to know if you immersed yourself in Parisian culture to write the book, or is it a completely imagined idea of Paris?

How long did it take you to write this book? I loved how descriptive you were in the settings throughout. I noticed myself visualizing every location as I read as if I was a bystander in the story.

Hi Adam: I've never been to Paris, so just the few things I knew about it were from other books and hearing about my husband's trip there a little over a decade ago. Still, it "felt" like Paris, if that makes sense. The way it's built around the river, I've lived in other places like that too.

And yes, it did seem to have good momentum. I read it in three sittings, started on an airplane headed on vacation in Florida and once after midnight. But all done within a few days. It probably does read better if its within a short time period otherwise I think it might be a little TOO disorienting to reacclimate into the environment.

Hey Adam... Love those questions!

I've never been out of the country (unless you count Canada, which I kinda don't, hehe) so for me, the book was an experience in people and place. I really felt pulled into the scenery and situations that your characters found themselves in. Small details caught me up the most... the chair floating down the canal, the chipping away at the concrete under the bridge... the ashiness and darkness of it all.

I read it in a few sittings around the house... no super exciting story there :)

Hi Adam. One of the things I really enjoyed about Grey Cats is the way you engaged not only the geographic city but also the city of memory and imagination, and the ways in which Paris perhaps to a greater extent than most cities is layered with projected "versions" of itself more real to many people than the real thing. How conscious were you of those layers while writing the novel?

There were passages I read as you playing with them, such as Melina riffling through years of old posters, or the old men and rollerskating street gang who would be so at home in one of Queneau's novels, or the echoes of La Jetée I thought I heard at the end. But I wonder if I'm just projecting my own favorite versions of Paris onto yours here?

Oh I loved the posters scene, that was fantastic. Do you have an affinity for old posters yourself?

Hi Adam, i'm glad you ask that question because it's a good introduction to mine.

I'm Belgian, so France is just around the corner so to speak. I know the language and the culture very well (Paris itself I only knew a little). And obviously, being Belgian, i know Jacques Brel very very well.

When the book was released after winning the prize, was there a concern that the international audience might not understand everything as well? There are still quite some sentences in French, a lot of references to the culture etc. Was it adapted or is this the 'untouched' original version?

Secondly, i love the use of Ne Me Quitte Pas , the story and the song was such an excellent fit. Was the song part of the story from the start, or an good find later in the process?

I'm going to pass on question one Adam (mostly because I don't recall the specifics of the poster-reading part since i read the book so long ago!)....

But for questions two... I quite like it when the author keeps the narrator's identity or name a secret. It's not always necessary to know their name, and sometimes - as in the case with your novel - it helps maintain the feeling of anonymity that the city or setting lends to the story...

With the French, I could sorta get an idea of a good chunk of it because I know some Spanish and there's a little similarity, but yes, I will admit that sometimes I was a bit frustrated that I knew there were references and words I wasn't quite getting. Your book will definitely benefit from a reread, but first time throug, I did still really enjoy it.

And it didn't really bother me that we don't know his name.

Also, that is so great that your friend got to keep all those old posters. Would be a shame if they just went in the bin.

Was there a specific inspiration for the animal-elements in the story? I'd mention the characters I mean, but I am still working on coffee. ;)

Adam,

In regards to your first set of questions, I have yet to make it out to Paris so I can't attest to the accuracy of your setting but I can however assure you that I definitely felt as if I was on a roller coaster while reading your book. I feel the need to read Grey Cats again out of fear I've missed something substantial.

My initial question relates to some of your later questions and comments: I actually didn't feel bothered about not knowing the narrators name at all and didn't notice that it was really missing until you brought it up. Having said that, you mentioned that you had recently moved to Paris as a writer so I'm curious if the the narrator a depiction of yourself to some extent and does Melina represent someone you know or a personal experience or feeling?

About the pamphlets, I still haven't been able to pin point the relevance or importance of them in the novel and found when I was reading that it was an unusual addition to the story. Can you clarify or explain the importance of these pamphlets to the narrator and to the story?

I'll be back with more! In a bit of rush today.

Hi, I'm still reading the book, so let me get further in and I'll ask some questions later.

For me, I visited Paris once in a bit of a whirlwind two day tour so I still have a very vague perception of Paris and my idealist view of the city is still shaped by movies and romance :) So I had no real perception of Paris that could be negated by your Paris. Indeed yours was very similar to what I experienced so it was perfect!

As for reading the book, I read it in two days, on the train to and from work. This had a little bit of an effect on my impression of the book, as it was usually dawn/twilight and that gave the book a bit of an eerie prescence. I agree that it is best read all in a huge chunk, but I was happy with finishing it in a few days!

As others have mentioned, I loved the old posters described in the novel, I'm going to have to go searching about this a little more as I bet there were some fantastic pieces of art uncovered there!

i actually liked the fact that we never got to know his name. i think it adds to the mysteriousness of the novel. of someone going through the night to find something, or someone.

i also feel like i need a re-read. i felt like you sent me completely on the wrong path the first time around, and now that i know the ending i won't be fooled again. i did want to wait a couple of days though because i think i'll enjoy it better that way.


regarding the pamphlet i'm afraid i don't know Paris' history well enough to place all the events. if it's a quiz i would put the French Revolution and its guillotines next to the Spurting Necks of the Headless Kings but i might be wrong.

Hmm... maybe I should not read this and ask questions when I'm still waking up because right now I am also drawing a blank as to what I meant. ;)

Haven't been to Paris but love everything about it. I don't normally have issues with some bits in a foreign language, but I really feel like I missed some things with your book. I don't think context helped feel them out and translation engines don't work very well.
With that being said, no I definitely did not read in one sitting. I get thrown off when the story is log-jammed and that's what happened to me with some of the French. Hate to keep beating that dead horse, but it prevented the story from flowing for me, mainly because I was worried I was missing something.

I didn't find the French sections overly confusing, but I did wish that I'd had my mediocre-French-speaking husband with me on the trip to give me some clues, ha. It didn't feel "log-jam" to me, but I'm more of a "let's see where this goes" sort of reader.

So what sort of writing are you working on now? You don't have to be specific-- I know that sometimes being specific ends up determining what it definitely ends up NOT being!

The beginning of the book reminded me of the Woody Allen movie, Midnight in Paris - by that I mean the atmosphere and the feeling I got from the movie (which I liked, btw).

Adam, being an author usually means putting in time in front of your readers. That includes on-line, social media type events -like this one! - and in person events...

What are some of your favorite, and least favorite, ways you've promoted your book?

My main way of becoming interested in books (apart from review copies that are sent my way) is through reviews on sites I like (The Millions, The Rumpus, etc.) and less so about more typical "marketing" methods, like ads on Goodreads or something. Or maybe another writer I enjoy might mention a book they really like and that causes me to investigate.

I quite like Twitter for that reason, the conversations that can happen, and it doesn't so much feel like an insurmountable tide to me, but I definitely understand how others might feel that way.

I like word of mouth. Groups like this and goodreads lists in general take a lot of the agony out of choosing books to read. I like reading newspapers and the "what's hot right now" type reviews of books have often given me ideas on what to read. And let's not forget the all important cover, I'd say 80% of what I read is based on an intriguing cover! Even when I do all of my reading in electronic format, I still trawl bookstores for ideas and but the books from amazon etc based on interesting covers.

And by the way, I only just watched midnight in Paris, and I loved it!! But thankfully there weren't too many correlations between the film and your novel, Adam, there was a certain joviality and whimsy about midnight in Paris, that made it that little bit surreal and different I think.

Questions about your writing process because I'm always curious about these sorts of things: Are you a planner/outliner? Do you ever handwrite things first, or are you a sit at the desk and type sort of guy? Music or no music while writing?

Adam,

Thanks for your responses!

In regards to your question about book marketing. I personally can't stand most of the promoting or advertising that's done on Goodreads or other related sites. There's often polls directly related to a books that's being promoted and I've even had authors try and add me as friends just to promote their book. Those methods just don't work well for me. I never pay attention to them. What gets me interested in a book are people's reviews, recommendations, learning the author's journey or experience while writing the novel or an opportunity such as this! TNBBC has given me so many opportunities to read books I may have never come across or read to begin with. When this discussion came up, I read the summary of the story and I was intrigued with it and wanted to be a part of the discussion that would follow it.

So I look for books in 3 ways: browsing directly through a bookstore, reviews and recommendations on Goodreads, giveaways and discussions.

Danielle

"That said, I do believe it changes the way in which we write, the rhythm too. Sometimes, when I'm having trouble with a section, I'll take a notepad to a library and try to work it out by hand. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't...."

That's sort of why I asked. I know that in some ways, people pretty much are 90% computer, unless you're Neil Gaiman, who handwrites all his first drafts. For me, I go back and forth. Sometimes my brain doesn't want to cooperate staring at the computer -- or I'm more easily distracted by the siren call of the internet -- and I need to handwrite things first. Particularly if it is later at night. I try to get myself off the computer before 10pm, otherwise I don't sleep well (or worse than usual, anyway). But I think you're right, that it changes up the rhythm enough that your brain is able to approach work from a different way.

I can totally see Tom Waits working for pre-writing music for your book, by the way. Tom Waits is just good writing music in general, I think.

What sections did you find more difficult to write? Or were there scenes in your book that came surprisingly easily?

Always nice when that happens, when it comes easily.

Hey everyone, great conversation happening here! Get those last minute questions in... we're only a few days away from the end of the discussion.

Adam,

How long have you been writing and how long did it take to start making a living as a writer?

Thanks,
Dani

Also what brought you to Paris in the first place?

What is your favorite book? Or a Top 5, if you can't narrow it down.

Sara wrote: "What is your favorite book? Or a Top 5, if you can't narrow it down."

Relatively in line with Sara's question, though perhaps not really the same thing: which books do you think influenced you the most as an author?

Adam,

Thanks again for your feedback. I find it admirable when people pursue what they love even with the known risks. One, that I don't know if I could do myself. Reading and writing have always been a few passions of mine and I was never quite bold enough to pursue anything with them outside of a Bachelors degree.

I do plan on recommending Grey Cats to a few of my literary friends!

That is a hard question that Sara asked you! I would have had trouble narrowing that down too! However, Don Quixote is one of my absolutely favourites as well, (Blackadder too).

I've really enjoyed this experience; it's nice to get to know the person behind the words.

Sincerely,
Dani

Adam wrote: "Q: So what sort of writing are you working on now? (Sara)

The difficult second novel. Hopefully it'll be done this year. Subject-wise it's about as far removed from Grey Cats as you can get. Styli..."

I like to get my recommendations from reviews at Goodreads and Amazon. Also, I browse at Barnes & Noble and get ideas there and also from the library. I have so many books at home, with bookcases in EVERY room except the bathroom, that I can NOT buy any more "paper" books. So now I buy e-books only/usually, but the library is my first choice (free!). Friends also recommend books to me all the time. I am quite the reader; my goal is to read 150 books this year (I read 145 last year) and I read almost everything.

I would love to write a book but I have no idea what I'd write about. As a writer, how do you get your inspiration/ideas? That's what's stopping me. Maybe since I have no ideas, I'm not really a writer :(. And how do you publish? Did you self publish? I'm just so amazed how people come up with their ideas for their books and put it all together, especially when it's a mystery. The ideas are just so good!!

"Mischievous question Sara! What's yours? It's such a difficult one. Even five is next-to-impossible. That said, I will try and name a few that leap to mind."

Somewhat predictably as a person who spends a great deal of time thinking about music, Top 5 lists are something that roll around in my brain quite a bit, and so one of my favorite books is High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. That would probably be #2.

My favorite book is Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon. It's not like it's a terribly ambitious book, or even excellent in the same way his The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is, but it's one I reread probably once every other year. There's something very honest about it that I enjoy.

#3 The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. Her writing is so dark and interesting. I love it. Her Ripley books are all among my favorites, but I reread the first one a lot.

#4 Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter -- a recent addition, since it just came out, but as a former Spokane resident, I've been a fan of his for awhile, and this book is just perfect. I still need to get my mitts on his latest, a short story collection.

#5... See, #5 is always the hardest on the list... Part of me wants to say Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell because I basically wanted to eat it after I read it, it was so good, haha. And then another part of me wants to go with Just Kids by Patti Smith because I want to shove it into everyone's hands. So let's just say they tied!

Hey Adam, Thanks so much for hanging out with us. I've really enjoyed reading your replies to our questions. You were a great discussion guest :)

I, too, am a bit shocked about the Goodreads acquisition. I'm not a fan of Amazon at all... big corporate doo-doo's taking over the world and ruining everything that was once indie and good and pure squeezes my heart muscle. But I've heard from the Goodreads guys and they swear the Goodreads team is staying in tact and still in full control.

That being said, I can see how having the power of Amazon now lends these guys all of the power and money to do the things they mightn't have been able to do without first securing funding.

I'm going to sit back and watch what happens this year. Only time will tell....