Everything in its Place

I think like most avid readers I often wonder how the writing process works and what inspires authors to write the fabulous stories that they do. This seemed to offer the chance to gain some great insights direct from authors themselves. There are six episodes of 15 minutes each and for me they panned out as follows.

Episode 1 : William Finnegan who writes about his life as a surfer. He talked more about waves and surfing in general than any particularly inspirational place. I got more from the gorgeous noises of breaking waves from the soundtrack if I am honest, they would inspire anyone! Other than that this seemed a curious one to choose as the opener as it felt weaker than most of the others.

Episode 2 : Daniel Jose Older who writes paranormal novels. Here we are introduced to how he feels Brooklyn inspired his characters and stories and he definitely conveys his feeling for the place and how it inspired him.

Episode 3 : This one contains explicit content they say but not really very much. It features romantic novelist Kristen Ashley "whose Rock Chick series turns Denver into a raucous, freewheeling celebration of romance and sisterhood. " - don't ask me I really wouldn't know! Honest! I have to admit that lines like "I felt his God-given talent pressed against my belly" don't do much for me. However, Kristen's love for Denver did shine through and my lack of interest in her work didn't stop me enjoying hearing about it even if some of her fans did boggle the mind a touch and they did get given far too much of the episode.

Episode 4 : The most interesting to me as Viet Thanh Nguyen is the only one of the authors that I have read! Little Saigon, in Southern California, a suburb with a large Vietnamese population, the Vietnamese American Dream! Here possibly Pen and Place best meets its brief.

Episode 5 : Charlie LeDuff, a "participatory" journalist who highlights problems in his home city of Detroit. Quite a character and one whose passion comes through very strongly. LeDuff focuses on some tough issues and I found the stories in this one particularly engaging.

Episode 6 : Concludes the series with Natalie Baszile, author of Queen Sugar, explaining how her on-location research for a book she had spent six years writing was completed once the location was finally understood. This episode gave a very strong feel for how the place helped shape the book.

The journalists play a very much back seat role in most of the episodes relying on the authors themselves, other interviewees and the soundscape to carry the narrative. They're very unobtrusive which is a good choice for such short episodes. I don't think they fully met their brief in all of the installments, some seemed to be about the most interesting things they liked from their research rather than any consistent attempt to show how places inspired writers.

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22 people found this helpful

A feast for readers and writers

So much to enjoy and get into here: lots of different voices with fascinating outlooks and stories. I really enjoyed all of these.

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3 people found this helpful

interesting

I listened to this while commuting, which was a mistake because it deserved my full attention. I have to listen again when I'm not driving around hairpin bends

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1 person found this helpful

Fascinting literary insights

I thought this audible show was great. Please can I have some more? I’m the sort of fanatic reader who loves it when an author reveals where their ideas come. There’s nothing more delightful than picking up a collection of stories to find a little insight by the author after each one revealing how the story came about. It’s like biting into a delicious chocolate cupcake and finding a secret yummy caramel centre. Now, I really want a cupcake. Damn! I’m not familiar with any of the authors featured here. I found the episodes fascinating. I would love to see this become a regular audible show.

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