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Community » Canandaigua Reads! 2010 »
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Author Tony Earley visited Canandaigua on March 25th!
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Jim the Boy & The Blue Star
by Tony Earley Canandaigua Reads! and listens! Author Tony Earley provided insights into his craft and his inspirations when he came to Canandaigua to discuss Jim the Boy and The Blue Star on March 25th. The easy-going North Carolina native spoke to students at Canandaigua Academy and Finger Lakes Community College, sandwiched around a public presentation at Wood Library. Here's some of what he had to say: On his Characters: "I do not think I understood Chrissie any more than Jim did. You know, guys in high school don’t understand girls. They just don’t get it. Jim is in Love. It was that simple…and that complicated. Love is perplexing. Jim’s confusion in love is largely my confusion in love." "Probably my favorite character is Uncle Zeno. Jim is like me. I know his thoughts; that makes him a little boring to me." "Once I make up people, they sort of have minds of their own. After a while, characters become real people. I don’t even question where they come from. Characters that are meant to be in the book hang around. Those not meant to be in the book? They disappear. I’ve learned to trust that." "I have actual, physical, visual memories of my characters in places that don’t really exist. These characters seem to have their own agenda. So, I’m on a “need-to-know” basis with my characters." "You have to figure out a way to love the characters you hate. To make good fiction, you have to make evil be the decision of the character, not the author. So the character must be presented objectively." On Writing: "The story always comes first. Themes may appear, but I usually am not conscious of them until they appear." "Writing is long periods of self-loathing…followed by brief periods of typing. I enjoy the process of writing when I’m writing. But when I stop, the doubt comes back. I wish it [writing] was less personally frightening. What I like about it is that it’s difficult. Every time I start writing, I’m hoping I write “The Great Gatsby”. I haven’t done that yet." When asked about his working regimen: "Your question assumes that I have developed the discipline to write. Well, to the untrained eye, a guy lying on the couch thinking about his book looks an awful lot like a guy lying on the couch." "In college, there was a girl who totally ignored me. I sat behind her in one class and her hair fell on my desk. When I leaned a little forward thinking perhaps to touch it, the desk tipped forward, banged her chair and she turned around, glaring, “What are you doing!!?” That was the extent of our relationship. The moral of the story is that everything is material. Writers can use everything!" "Writing is a very selfish act. It’s hard to be a good father, good husband, good professor, and a good writer." On Success: "I know it’s changed my life. Suddenly, I had money. I went out, bought a Saab, and named it 'Jim the Car'." "My life got really noisy for a few years [because of the success of Jim the Boy]. It was more interesting than doing the actual work of writing. That partially explains the 8-year gap until The Blue Star. I really need to pick up the pace!" On the Next Project: "What I’m working on now is completely different. I’m tired of living in the land of declarative sentences." On Jim's Future: "I do think there’s at least one more “Jim” book. Jim and Chrissie married. She says something and he says, “What?!?” I tried to write it right after The Blue Star. I had it plotted in my head, but it wasn’t ripe. It’s like cracking an old car on a cold morning. It might run and it might not. But I will do another where Jim is back from the war." Advice to Young and/or Aspiring Writers: "All writers start out as imitators. So imitate good books!" "Publishing is easy; writing is hard. Everyone [in publishing] is actually looking for good things to publish. Young writers should simply concentrate on getting better. Writing is the only art form that people expect to be really good at as soon as they start. In music, no one’s good until they can play their scales. In writing, you need to “play your scales”; learn to write. My Best Advice: Lay bricks. Go to your room and lay bricks. Lay one brick at a time, you will eventually build a house." -----
Our thanks to Tony Earley for a great visit. If you haven't read and discussed Jim the Boy and/or The Blue Star quite yet -- it's time! The two novels form a nearly continuous coming-of-age story of a boy named Jim. Spare, intimate, quietly moving, Jim the Boy & The Blue Star reveal a very normal boy from southern Appalachia, raised by his Mom and three uncles, who sees his world slowly unfold around him, and the currents of his family's past and the wider world slowly ensnare him. From the Great Depression to the first distant salvos of WWII, the two books capture a life in its many small moments. "Exquisitely wrought...[author Tony] Earley delivers Jim's bittersweet coming of adolescence story with the pared-down, earthy lyricism of a classic folk ballad," says the Los Angeles Times. Both books are in circulation at Wood Library and available at Wegmans and other area bookstores. Canandaigua Reads! is a partnership of Rochester Writers & Books, Wood Library, Canandaigua's Community Reading Partnership, Finger Lakes Community College, and the Canandaigua City School District. This year, Canandaigua Reads! thanks the Canandaigua Rotary Club, Five Star Bank, The Page Foundation, Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Company, the Canandaigua PTO, and generous anonymous individual donors for special funding support. Canandaigua Reads! Conversations about things that matter by people who care.
Related Links:
- Community Events for Jim the Boy and The Blue Star
- This year's Canandaigua Reads! poster.
- Information on Tony Earley events in Rochester from Writers & Books
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