Book Talk: Best-selling Jamie Ford on writing that second novel

Jamie Ford admits he was taken aback by the runaway success of his debut novel "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" and was sidetracked for a while on his next work by the self-consciousness this produced.
But an invitation to write a story for a literary event led to the tale of an orphan boy who thinks he sees his mother in a movie, which grew into "Songs of Willow Frost", out last week.

Ford revisits historical Seattle in his story of William Eng, who travels through the Depression-era city in search of his mother Willow, whom he has not seen since she was carried half-dead out of their apartment when he was a child.

Ford spoke with Reuters about living up to a debut book that spent more than two years on the New York Times best seller list.

How did you come up with the character of Willow?

She definitely took some time. I looked at that time period. I began with the orphanage and began with the character of William. This was coming 19 years after a flu epidemic and it seemed like a really volatile time. To place a Chinese woman here ... I guess I always sympathise with characters who are caught between worlds. I'm half-Chinese. I either never feel Chinese enough or never feel Caucasian enough.

It just seemed as if there was a bunch of really interesting history and Willow was a great character to walk the reader through all that. Plus, the more I read about (actress) Anna May Wong, the more I felt for her being a Chinese woman who had dalliances with white men - producers, directors - but because of miscegenation laws she could never marry a Caucasian man and she was really shunned by a lot of the Chinese community.

For this particular book, what were some of the difficulties of writing and what were the joys?

One of the difficulties was, you know, the second book. Just trusting my gut. That was hard. When I wrote "Hotel" nobody cared. When I wrote this one there was suddenly a high level of expectation. The joy was that I'm happy writing. I love the process, I love the research. Occasionally something unexpected will happen and a new character will walk onto the stage. I'll feel "Oh, I've made a new friend today". My wife didn't read the manuscript until it was completed but I remember telling her those moments when I really liked this character and I feel terrible for what I've done to this character. You engage with them. In my mind, my characters have immortal souls - they're in some parallel universe, doing their thing. When they get to that point where they seem fully formed, it's a very joyful moment.

Did you expect "Hotel" to do as well as it did?

Yes, I expected it to be a tremendous success and I went out and bought a Porsche, knowing I could pay for it later. No, seriously, if I had sold 15,000 copies I would have been over the moon. My measure for success was to have someone buy it and like it that didn't share my same last name.

Did it make it harder to write "Willow"?

It did. You know, I wrote another book in the middle. I changed the process a little bit because I was a little wary. With "Hotel", nobody saw it until it was done. But when I was 100 pages in I showed (the other book) to my wife and my agent and got a lot of feedback. I left the door open and there were a lot of cooks in the kitchen and I ended up rewriting it for about 18 months. It just got to a point where it was all scar tissue. But in the meantime I would turn in a draft and then I would be researching the next book, which was this book. Once I read a couple pages of what I thought might be a good beginning to this book at the Humanities Washington forum, I showed those 12 hastily scribbled pages to my editor. She loved them and she said, if you'd like to take a break from the other project and pursue this, go for it. And I did. It feels as if I vented all that angst in that other book.

Any advice for aspiring writers?

When I have aspiring writers or students ask me for advice, I've told them to go to a garage sale, buy three really horrible out-of-print books, pay no more than a quarter apiece for them and force yourself to read them with a writer's eye. By doing that, you'll notice mistakes or quick, sloppy writing or whatever you notice. And you'll notice that in your own writing. I found that if you think Michael Chabon is a brilliant writer and that all you read is Michael Chabon, when you try to write, it's like trying to lose weight and only looking at beauty magazines. It's really discouraging. That doesn't mean you should read crap all the time but don't try to play Mozart the first time you sit down at the piano. Start with scales.

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'Doctor Sleep' was a challenge for Stephen King

Pop culture consumes authors, musicians and actors and quickly moves on. Only a few have staying power, and Stephen King is one of those rare figures.

With the release this week of "Doctor Sleep," his much anticipated sequel to "The Shining," the 66-year-old King continues to release and inspire new projects more than four decades after he first started to scare the bejeezus out of everybody. A stage musical he wrote with John Mellencamp is about to begin touring the country, "Under the Dome" was a surprise television hit of the summer and a film project based on his novella "A Good Marriage" is in the works as well.

"I always knew that if I hung around that I'd get hot again," King says with a laugh. "Sooner or later everything that goes around comes around. I just thought of guys like Billy Joel. I thought if Billy Joel can come back, I can come back."

With "Doctor Sleep," King revisits a grown-up Danny Torrance and the extra creepy best-selling novel that became a milestone film for Stanley Kubrick and Jack Nicholson. In this update, Dan is a recovering alcoholic and a mentor to a 12-year-old whose shining is stronger than his own.

King spoke with The Associated Press earlier this summer about how he approached the tricky task of writing "Doctor Sleep" and the home life that has produced two more literary voices:

Writing a sequel to a beloved book so many years later had to be tricky. How did you approach it?

When I went into it I thought to myself, if I do this I can probably never satisfy the expectations of the audience because so many people who read "The Shining," I got them while they were young and malleable, they were young adults, teenagers. I meet people all the time who say, "That book scared the s--- out of me," and I'll say, "How old were you when you read the book or saw the movie?" and they'll say 16. And if you were 16 then, you're probably 50 now and a little bit case hardened when it comes to scary things. I was curious. I wanted to see what happens to Danny Torrance, so I took my shot.

What do you think of the book now that you're done with it?

I like it. I think it's pretty good. I kind of approached it with the idea of it's a movie sequel where the story's supposed to be different but it's supposed to have the elements of the original that were successful, and I thought that's a real challenge. Let me see if I can do something that's really good, that has some of the elements that scared people in "The Shining" and create a story that's entirely on its own and that people could pick up and read even if they never read "The Shining" in their life. It was fun to take the shot.

That's going to be one of the literary events of 2013. Do you enjoy the attention of moments like those?

The short answer is no, I really don't know how to cope with that. I think one of the reasons writers are writers is because they're introverts basically. I'm pretty comfortable in a room by myself, creating stories. I don't have any sense that people are looking over my shoulder. It's a one-man game. When you write a book you don't have a whole team of writers in the way there is, for instance, on "Under the Dome" or some of the film projects that I've worked on. So I like that a lot. But I would be lying to you if I didn't say when you meet a big group of people that come to a reading or a talk or something like that, there's a certain validation. When they put their hands together, you say, "You know what? Somebody was out there the whole time and they were paying attention." That's a good thing and it warms you up.

You aren't the only King with a new book this year. Both of your sons, Joe Hill and Owen King, published novels last spring.

Joe knocked it out with "NOS4A2." I love that book. He's in his wheelhouse now. No question. Owen published his first novel, "Double Feature," in March and it's an entirely different thing. It's funny. It's fall on your knees funny, just roll on the floor funny, and that's a different kind of sensibility entirely.

In a past interview, Joe described his upbringing with Owen and their sister Naomi in idyllic terms with parents who encouraged reading and imagination. Was it really like that?

We all had our noses in books. And we lived way out in the country. There wasn't a lot in the way of TV the way that there is now with these satellite deals and everything. We were a little bit constrained there. We all loved the movies and I'd pick them up at school on Friday afternoon and if there was a Spielberg picture or something, we'd go to Portland and see "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" or whatever it was, and just have a blast. ... I used to get them to read me books on cassette tapes. I would pay $10 a cassette or something like that, and they would read me all kinds of stuff. And, of course, Joe has blocked out all of his memories of me chaining them up in the cellar and driving nails into their little legs and stuff.

World's longest-running cartoon to go digital in Japan

The world's longest-running cartoon is to go fully digital, its Japanese broadcaster said Friday, abandoning hand-drawn celluloid-based animation after a run of 44 years.
Fuji Television Network said episodes of "Sazae-san" aired from October would be produced entirely digitally. The

move will mean there are no hand-drawn cartoons left on Japanese television, according to the Association of Japanese Animations.

Until the 1990s many cartoons were created by artists working directly on celluloid, a painstaking process that meant characters had to be drawn in many different postures to give them impression of movement as the camera was repeatedly started and stopped.

Two decades ago, computer animations began to become widespread, slowly squeezing out the traditional method.

"Sazae-san", which first aired in 1969, revolves around the life of the Mrs Sazae of the title, a cheerful but klutzy full-time housewife who lives with her parents, husband, son, brother and sister.

The 30-minute episodes, which can readily garner more than one-in-seven Sunday evening viewers, tend to focus on tiny incidents in the family's everyday life and are dotted with seasonal festivals.

"Doraemon", a Japanese cartoon about a robot cat from the future that has a following across Asia went entirely digital in 2002. 

"Sazae-san", whose broadcast denotes the end of the weekend for many Japanese, began the switch in 2005.

Bangladesh Book Fair offers treat to bibliophiles

Bookworms in the city are in for a treat! More than 20 publishers from neighbouring Bangladesh are showcasing a rich diversity of novels, essays, short stories at the Bangladesh Book Fair here.

The third Bangladesh Book Fair, that began Thursday, is drawing book lovers to try 
oeuvre of around a lakh of books, with titles on Bangladesh Liberation War and the country's folk tales stealing the limelight.
"There are 28 publishers and books exclusively from Bangladesh," Kazi Moshtaque Zahir, First Secretary (Press) of the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata, told IANS.

Organised by the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission, Bangladesh Exports Promotion Bureau in collaboration with the Academic and Creative Publishers Association of Bangladesh, the week-long exposition will also bring intellectuals and literati (like Rabeya Khatun, Faridur Reza Sagar) from the nation as speakers in two seminars.

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Hair: buns and bobs, this season's star styles

With each new season come new in-vogue hairstyles. The fall/winter season announces a major comeback for the bob, which is already turning heads on runways and red carpets everywhere. Buns, which were sophisticated and elaborate last season, will remain stylish, but in more minimalist versions,
just like tie-dye hair color, which has become more natural for the fall.

Simple buns
A timeless staple of runway style, buns can take many forms. This season, they are simple, unfussy or even slightly messy. The Viktor & Rolf and Rad Hourani haute couture collections, as well as the Christian Dior ready-to-wear collection, all included quick and easy buns in their Fall/Winter 2013 runway shows for a very natural effect. This uncomplicated hairstyle matches the season's makeup looks, also stripped down and simple.

Bobs, the season's trendiest look 
Angled, short, structured or natural: the bob is huge this season in all of its forms, offering a style that is at once modern and retro, chic and uncomplicated. The trend has been amplified by a number of celebrities, including Rita Ora and Beyoncé, who have transformed their look with the season's hottest haircut. For the fall/winter season, French hair salon chain Camille Albane is offering its "Cheeky Bob," a structured cut, parted down the middle for an uncomplicated yet glamorous style.

Natural tie-dyed color

Lothmann, another French hair salon chain, is highlighting natural ombré hair coloring this season. The look offers a very subtle two-tone, sun-kissed look and is a perfect way to prolong the summer. Thierry Lothmann, the brand's director, explains, "The look is based on progressive layering of color from the middle to the ends of the hair without a clear and sudden separation -- you know, that horrible line that you sometimes see appearing to cut the hair in two." 

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Ranbir Kapoor to play a teenager in Jagga Jasoos

There's this thing about Ranbir Kapoor - Out in the open, there's a cheeky little kid aspect to him. That sense of fun and adventure is something I find appealing. At home, he is the shy type but always respectful to his guests and friends, attending each one of them. Now you really stop to ponder on the question - What really makes him a Besharam? The answer is his approach towards his movies, the desperation to be called the new superstar and his will to survive, come what may, never to be pulled down. For once you want to believe that Ranbir must've signed Besharam for his personal life would've spiralled out of control and his soaring professional career was in danger of imploding. Kidding! Ranbir has proved himself to be someone unique - he has managed to excavate the sensitive soul that lurks beneath a swaggering arrogance, both on and off the screen. This Kapoor lad only buys commitment. Here's how - his background - his own history, is way more important than what he can achieve as a professional. Mother is an actress, grandfather was an actor, director and a producer, father is an actor, grandfather's father was an actor, uncles are actors, cousin sisters are actors. Ranbir's seen all this and all that you can imagine in an actor's life. So he doesn't buy success. He doesn't buy failure. He only buys commitment. That commitment as of now is Besharam. 

You are in a league of your own Ranbir. But when you work with newcomers or actors one film old, do they sense of you over-powering them? 
I don't think I overpower my co-stars. With Pallavi Sharda and Amitosh Nagpal, both have a lot of experience in theatre and have faced the camera before. They are far more enthusiastic than one can imagine. They give more. They add more to the scene. They might not have the stardom that I have, but in a working relationship there is no stardom. It's only two actors working on a scene trying to make certain words on paper come alive. Stardom doesn't count there. What counts is your talent, your intelligence and your hardwork. I've worked with so many new girls - Nargis, Ileana, Shazahn, Sonam and now Pallavi. They are as hard working as Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra or Katrina Kaif. I hope Pallavi and Amitosh get the stardom and become established stars in the business and I'd love to work with both of them again.

You've worked with the Kashyap Bros. Bifurcate them please! 
I've worked with both the brothers. But the comparison is startling. Abhinav Kashyap likes to make happy, light hearted and entertaining films. Anurag Kashyap likes to make movies that are too personal to him - things that probably he wants to say or something to do with his personal angst. Abhinav's heroes are larger than life whereas Anurag's heroes are more in the world of the film that he's making. Abhinav's heroes sing songs and Anurag's heroes have to be content with background score (laughs). But at the heart of it, both are very honest to their job. They don't take it for granted and are very hard working. An actor like me wants to work with good directors because they make me a better and a bigger star. I am thankful to their parents to giving birth to both the boys.

Your house must be lying with scripts stacked one over the other. How do you manage to select the best one from the lot? 
Fortunately or unfortunately, since the last two years and the next two years to come, I am working with the same directors, apart from Abhinav and Anurag. I am working with Ayan, Imtiaz and Anurag Basu in their next movies. These are people I have had a successful working relationship with. Yes, I do want to work with new talent. When I worked with Ayan in Wake Up Sid, it was a very refreshing change. Unfortunately, I am not able to listen to any scripts right now and once I finish the run of these films, after a year and a half, I would love to work with new directors, new writers who get in new ideas.

Age no bar! But you are producing movies now. When do we see you turn producer for R.K. Films? 
My grandfather directed, acted and produced films when he was 21 years old. So there is no age bar for me to produce or not to produce movies. I am already 30 and I am producing a film with Anurag Basu called Jagga Jasoos. I have realised that I don't know if I really want to make films under our R.K. Films banner. It's synonymous with Raj Kapoor. It's his banner and his creation. I can't live up to his vision. I want to collaborate with directors as a producer and hence producing a movie with Anurag Basu. We are equal partners in it. It's called Picture Shuru. If I want to produce films with Ayan Mukerji, I will probably call it something else. I don't believe in this fact that I need to rekindle the R.K. Films banner. R.K Films is right up there in the 'Greats of Indian Cinema' and I wouldn't like to touch it or spoil it or take advantage of it. If I do something, I will create something of my own so that if my children are working in movies, they don't have to have anyone's shadow. Raj Kapoor is too big a name to have a shadow.

Why stay aloof from the social media? Your fans adore you. You should visit this world once. 
I know my fans want me on Twitter and Facebook but I wish I could. I want to connect to them personally. I want to connect with them through my movies that I do. I am a bit too shy and don't know what to say. I'm not politically or socially aware to speak things. The mystery of an actor dies I feel if I am too social. Throughout the course of my career, I would like to connect with my fans by the movies I act in, and hopefully in the future, direct. Twitter can always dis-balance an actor. If I have 1000 followers out of which 800 love me and 200 hate me. But I may not get a reality check on things. I might tend to believe them straight up. I think it's better to stay away from it as you are not affected by it and concentrate on my work.

What would be that one scene you'd remember Besharam for? 
There was a scene where I had to tie up my father and mouth such explicit words like - 'gendey, motey, etc'. I had to tickle him, gag him and do lots of banter. My father was so encouraging. He really enjoyed the scene. When the director called 'action' we went into our character more than our relationship. It's the best scene of mine.

Do you transfer yourself in a character more mentally than physically?
The roles I've done so far are coming of age, internalizing boys. Barfi and Rockstar were the only two films that required a lot of physical and mental change in me. Besharam is larger than life and such films are very hard for me to do. I come from a certain generation of actors who've grown up on more realistic movies and certain genre of movies. To do a Besharam you need to have a lot of self-confidence and self-belief. Playing a hero comes with a lot of difficulty for me. I am happy playing the underdog but Besharam is loud and over the top and mouthing corny lines. As far as physicality is concerned, YJHD was me, Rockstar and Barfi as I mentioned before had lots of physical attributes. When I do Jagga Jasoos, I play a twelfth standard boy from school. I'm playing a 17-year-old boy. So I have to undergo a lot of physical change there. 

John Abraham to produce a sports film

After winning critical acclaim for his last release, Madras Cafe, based on the Sri Lankan civil war, actor-producerJohn Abraham is now taking his interest in sports forward by planning to make films on football, motorcycling and boxing. "We are making a film on sports... Shoojit has 

quite a few ideas. The only thing I could reveal is the film is about football, it is based on that. We are still in development stage and we will make an announcement on it," John told PTI in an interview here.

"No, it is not a biopic on any sports personality but it is based on a true story. It is amazing, adventurous, commercial and will be fun to watch for the audience," he said.

There are other areas of sports as well that the 40-year-old actor wants to explore through films.

"Besides this, there are two-three films on sports as that is my area of interest. And one is on motorcycling, that we have started scripting, the other is in space of contact sports (meaning boxing, wrestling etc)," John said.

Ask him if he would be acting in these projects the reply seems affirmative.

"I don't know that yet. I think in all probability I will be the first choice for my own production for these films. Then we will look out for others," he added.

Post the success of his two home production films Vicky Donor and Madras Cafe John insists he will make sure the next film will be even better.

Madras Cafe was a spy thriller, which traced the political and military histories of the neighbours and covered the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Lankan rebel group LTTE's activities through the eye of an agent, played by John.

"The film did not have a typical Bollywood song, dance hero and it did half the business of a successful film. This shows there is audience who want to watch these kinds of films as well.

"This segment of audience will grow as the youth is getting more and more aware. I want to create that kind of new and entertaining cinema as a producer and actor," John said.

He says the audience has proved that they are open to see qualitative cinema.

By accepting Madras Cafe they have substantiated their liking towards this space of cinema... I respect the audience.

I have always said audience is my god father but today I feel they are hero of my films, he adds.

John also said that he is happy to see that the attitude of the film industry towards him has changed now.

"I think the film that began changing things was Force, then I had hit films like Desi Boyz, Housefull 2, Shootout at Wadala, Race 2 and now Madras Cafe. I think Madras Cafe has changed people's perception completely about me... it has done a completely 360 degree turn," John said.

"People look at me in a completely different light. I would like them to know that this is how I always was... it is only that I gave myself an opportunity as a producer to do it finally," he said.

The actor-producer is busy shooting Welcome Back and Dostana 2 and is also looking forward to begin his third production tentatively titled Hamara Bajaj. 

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