Dreamers Interview Series – Parham Yazdy

This week ATUA is hosting Parham Yazdy, photographer extraordinaire.  Parham mainly does architectural photography.  You can see his stunning shots on his website.

Parham, you're the owner at Parham Yazdy Photography. Tell us a bit more about what you do. 

I do architectural photography and I'm also interested in travel, landscape and event photography. I've been in love with photography for  over 15 years.  When I finally studied commercial photography, it became my specialty.  I've been in a business for a few years.

Has photography always been a passion? Do you remember the first camera you received/bought?  

Photography became a passion for me at the first sight ! I fell in love with it when I was 14 and it forever remained my favourite hobby. My first camera belonged to my father; it was a Russian SLR camera called Zenit EM.  It was pretty old but it had a great lens and took sharp pictures!

What do you think, aside from technique and gear, makes a good photographer? 

Photography is all about seeing the details. A photographer needs to be able to convey his message through images.

Do you have a photographer you particularly admire? Why? 

My first guru in photography was one of the most famous photographer in Iran called Nasrollah Kasraian. He is an amazing photographer who has lots of travel photography books. I've always admired his pictures and his technique.

I noticed you take a lot of landscape pictures. Is portrait something you've ever considered? 

Yes and no! On the one hand, I prefer catching the moment and it works better when I take candid shots. It's amazing to see the real side of people and the result is always amazing ! On the other hand, I found out that posed portraits are not my thing. They don't feel natural to me.

What is your next goal as a photographer?

I'd like to expand my architectural photography business. I also plan on starting teaching photography.

What advice would you give to photographers and other artists trying to make a living from their art? 

Following your passion is always worth it.  Let the customers find you!

Our previous guest, Canadian author Christine Miscione would like to ask you: Two questions: How might you design a camera for someone who has no hands? And if you could invent a new type of lens that could do anything, what would it do? 

Today with digital technology it wouldn't be very complicated to do. It could be very small camera fixed on the person's glasses; the shutter could go off by saying "click!" 

As for the lens, it could be a super macro lens which could take close ups of the texture of leaves, for example. It would need to have a good depth of field and sharpness ! 

Our next featured guest is fiction author Kenneth Radu. What would you like to ask him? 

What are the steps of writing a fiction book? Do you just imagine the events as you go or do you plan first and write next ? 

You are a dreamer and would like me to interview you?  Drop me a line at stephanie.noel.writer(at)gmail(dot)com. I love meeting passionate people!

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Author Interview Series – Erin Grace – Giveaway winner and answers

Today I have the pleasure of revealing the name of the giveway winner for Erin Grace's Author Interview.   But before, I would like to thank Erin for answering all your questions. Here are her answers:

Maria Cardovà asked:

How long did it take you to write the book? 

Hi Maria! The first draft only took me a month – largely because I wrote it during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) – but at that stage it still didn’t have an ending. I let it sit for about a year, then I got to work on the ending.

Did you self publish the book or did you find a good publisher?

I didn’t self-publish, but I didn’t get a “big” publisher either; I worked with a small local  start-up. They gave me three months to finish the editing and proofreading. I probably should have asked for more, but I was so scared and excited that I didn’t want to lose the opportunity. So in terms of active writing and re-writing, I probably spent about five months. But chronologically, the book took well over a year from start to finish.

Kari Ploysa asked

Did your studies in Japan help you create or inspire you at all for your new short story?

Wow, lots of questions, Kari!   My time in Japan didn’t directly inspire the story, but there some subtle ways that Japan affected it. I find that my stories capture an emotional snapshot of who I was when I wrote them. When I wrote “Wright Brothers” I was still dealing with issues of isolation and reverse culture shock, which went directly into the character of Jeremiah. I also couldn’t stop thinking about the sexiness of creating a new life unfettered by old connections, which also worked its way into the book

Do you speak any Japanese?

I can, but I used to be better. I’m actually much better at reading Japanese than speaking it because I’ve spent the last several years translating for a Japanese music website.

How long did it take you before you realized you really were not a psychopath?

Hahaha, it luckily only took a few minutes!

Who other than Stephen King were your inspirations?

Chuck Palahniuk is a huge inspiration for me; I love all his books. I also love Kurt Vonnegut, especially the way he embraces the absurdity of life.

What inspired your newest book?

 The short story about the Japanese firebombing of the West Coast was inspired by a photo prompt selected for a writing group I’m in. The photo is a black and white of a young woman standing in a field with one hand over her face and the other holding a gun. The murder mystery was inspired by my mom. She’s always coming up with ideas for me but usually I’m not into them. (I keep telling her to write the ideas herself, but she never does.) This time she told me to write a British manor house mystery and I was about to dismiss it when I came up with an interesting twist. It’s been stuck in my head ever since!

And the winner of the giveaway is... Kari!  Make sure to send me an email at scbecauseican(at)gmail.com to claim your prize!

Thank you everyone for paticipating and be sure to come back for ATUA's next giveaway!  

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ATUA's Author Interview Series – Erin Grace

Today I have the pleasure of hosting author Erin Grace on ATUA.  Erin and I met in Japan where we attended Waseda University in 2003. We've been friends ever since.  I want to thank her for accepting to be the first of this series and to take time to answer my question in the midst of a family emergency.

The details of the giveaway will follow the interview.

 ***

The Indefatigable Wright Brothers is your first book, but I know for a fact that you always have stories brewing in your head. Where did you get the inspiration for this one?

I’m a very curious person, so I find myself reading a lot of weird Wikipedia articles. One day a few years ago, I was reading the Wikipedia article about psychopathy. The Cleckley checklist that I quote in the book was listed there, and after I read it, I thought, “Holy shit, I’m a psychopath.” After a few seconds my mind came back to me, and I realized that I’m probably not a psychopath (because a real psychopath wouldn’t have any kind of emotional reaction to that revelation), but the idea of a person becoming convinced of it on weak evidence really interested me. That’s how “Wright Brothers” got started.

Painter Chuck Close Once said, "Inspiration is for amateurs - the rest of us just shows up and gets to work." How do you "get to work?" Do you have any ritual or specific requirements to get the juices flowing?

I set a specific time to write – usually in the evening after dinner – and a specific amount of time or a specific number of words that I want to reach. Then I put on my headphones with some music that seems right for the scene or the character, open the file on my computer, and force the words out. Having my own “headspace” with music is the most important for me – I can work almost anywhere as long as I have the right music and sound-cancelling headphones. When the going gets really tough, I set small word goals with rewards (a glass of wine for 500 words, 10 minutes of TV for a thousand) to push myself the rest of the way.

Close is very right: you can’t just sit and stare at the screen thinking, “Goodness, I wish I could think of something!” Writing isn’t about being Rapunzel and waiting for Inspiration to gallop in on its snow white charger to save you. It’s about being Frodo, slogging through wet, cold, dirt, blood, fear, and anguish to reach something magnificent. It’s not glamorous, but when you get to the top, the view is incomparable.

Are you working on a new story at the moment?

Yes! It’s a short story about the Japanese firebombing of the U.S. West Coast during World War II. I’ve never been good at short stories, so I thought I’d take it on as a challenge – no more than 5 pages! (For someone accustomed to 100+ pages, this was a serious constraint.) I’ve finished the first draft, and now I’m letting it “gestate” before I move on to the rewrite. My next project is going to a murder mystery in the British manor house style – another personal challenge. I haven’t started because I’m still working out some kinds with the puzzle, but it’s going to happen soon!

One of the people you dedicated your book to is Stephen King. Is there a story behind this?

When I was 10 or so, Stephen King was my favorite author. Although I had a hard time grasping his themes and didn’t usually follow the “adult” scenes, I loved the imagery and the way he put words together to sound so visceral and terrifying. I wrote him a letter to tell him how much I loved his books, and asked if he had any advice on writing. I didn’t expect much, but what I got was beyond what I had hoped for: a small green notecard that assured me Mr. King had read my letter even though he couldn’t respond personally, and a very fat stack of photocopied pages that appeared to contain every single magazine article in which Mr. King had given advice on writing. This was before Google, obviously, so this was a wealth of advice that would have taken me years to pull together on my own. I was floored that he would treat some dumb girl from Kansas with that kind of respect. I already loved to write, but I redoubled my efforts, knowing that Mr. King was rooting for me. I swore that if I ever published a book, the very first one would be dedicated to him, since he was the one who told me in no uncertain terms that I could do it.

What has writing The Indefatigable Wright Brothers taught you about the creative process?

The biggest thing is that sometimes you need to do something dramatic to make your characters scramble. There’s a pivotal scene (I’m sure you’ll know which one if you read the book) in which everything changes for Jeremiah overnight. That scene came out of desperation – I’d been slogging through the writing for days, the characters were unmotivated, and I just wanted to chuck the manuscript out of the window. I initially wrote the scene because I needed something to shake things up a little, so I jumped at the most absurd option I could think of and I wound up loving it. But even if I hadn’t loved it, throwing that scene at the book would still have been important. Seeing how the characters react is an important part of learning who they are, which is an important part of writing about them. Also, writing is almost always a thankless, stressful process that makes you want to explode the planet with your mind. Since you can’t do it in real life, it’s relaxing and rejuvenating to blow up your characters’ world instead.

What is the one advice you would like to share with aspiring writers and creators?

Don’t let your first draft get you down. Or your second, or your third. Earnest Hemmingway said that the first draft of anything is shit, but he failed to mention that many of the subsequent drafts are only minor improvements. Keep retooling and reworking, pounding out the dents and the kinks, then break out the sand paper in finer and finer grits until it shines. And make sure that you give yourself time between each rewrite to step back and ignore it for awhile so that you maintain perspective. Finally, if you reach the publishing stage, remember that Gaiman’s Law is a normal part of the writing experience: “if there’s one typo [in a book you just wrote], it will be on the page that your new book falls open to the first time you pick it up.”

Our next featured guest will not be a writer but an entrepreneur who quit her stable day job to fulfill her dream of becoming a full-time yoga teacher and massotherapist; what question would you like to ask her?

How, and how long, did you prepare to leave your job; did you have any support from friends and family; and how ass-clenchingly scary was it to begin despite the preparation and support?

***

Erin Grace is a freelance writer from Salem, Oregon. She graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Japanese Culture that mostly gathers dust. Her favorite color is green, her favorite ice cream is vanilla, her favorite book is Invisible Monsters. She wants desperately to re-meet Chuck Palahniuk to apologize for that little misunderstanding in Powell’s.

GIVEAWAY!

For a chance to win a digital copy of The Indefatigable Wright Brothers, leave a question for Erin in the comment section.  The best question will determine the winner (Erin gets to choose.)  You can also earn brownie points by becoming a follower of ATUA or by following me on twitter.  For the latter, make sure to let me know by tweeting #TIBWGIVEAWAY.  You have until Tuesday June 18th 11:59 ET to enter.  The name of the winner, along with the answers to all the questions, will be posted on Thursday June 20th.

Good luck!

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Review Wednesday – Erin Grace's The Indefatigable Wright Brothers

"I’m still too afraid to sleep with a psychopath in the room."

Jeremiah Meza, a ball shagger at the local driving range, has just been dumped by his girlfriend.  He normally wouldn't care but she left him with the one insult he can't get over; she called him a psychopath. After doing some research and worrying a lot, Jeremiah soon becomes convinced he is indeed in a psychopath.  This realization scares him until he meet Bonnie (Just Bonnie), who persuades  him he needs to take things to the next level. Now that he knows what he is, he should strive to become the best of them all.  What follows is a crazy adventure, only made possible by the (un)predicted fall of a meteorite.

The indefatigable Wright Brothers, Erin Graces' first book, starts with a bang,  We meet Jeremiah who is trying to handle his (ex)girlfried as she is breaking up with him.  Although he is presented as a somewhat insensitive boyfriend,  I immediately sided with him. Regardless of the trouble he was in, I grew fonder of him with every page.  I didn't like Bonnie as much.  In fact, I liked some of the other members of the brethren more than I did her.  I wish she hadn't taken the backseat of the story and had had a bigger presence in the latter part of the story. Nonetheless, I feel Grace has a great understanding of human emotions and  knows how to make them lovable and realistic without the need of extensive description.  The same goes for her settings.  I could easily picture the different places where the characters interacted.

The premise of the story is amazing, the idea being original and unusual ( to be quite honest, I had been expecting a story about the real Wright brothers.) I enjoyed it very much.  I felt however that I had been cheated of part of the story when, after the fall of the meteorite and the creation of the Brotherhood, the pace suddenly picked up to take the allure of a rocky-esque montage.  Although key information was provided, I would have liked to see the evolution of the group at a slower pace.  The book being fairly short, a chapter or two more wouldn't have hurt. Plus, it would have contributed to strengthen the relationships between the characters. This change of pace led also me to me utterly confused when we flashed forward and all the characters suddenly had codenames.  I caught on later, but some I still wasn't sure about, even as I reached the end of the book.  Speaking of which, the open ending couldn't have been more appropriate.  The reader can't help but wonder what will be Jeremiah's next move.

Grace's style is rich but simple. The language is accessible yet filled with little jems such as the opening quote of this review and as "We’re both a little dubious about our abilities to handle machinery larger than mechanical pencils." The book reads easily, which is great because you don't want to be hindered: the author keeps you wanting to know what is going to happen next.  The usage of first person narrative  was perfect for this story; a third person narrative would have dulled it greatly.

All in all, The Indefatigable Wright Brothers does a good job of showing the potential and talent of  author Erin Grace.  It is a novel bound to please anyone with a good sense of humour and a taste for the incredible.

Tune in tomorrow for an interview with Erin Grace and a chance to win a copy of the book!

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ATUA's first GIVEAWAY and INTERVIEW

Next thursday I'm very lucky to interview  Erin Grace, author of The IndefatigableWright Brothers.  Along with her book, we'll discuss her craft and other great topics.  Be sure to think of a question to ask her for a chance to win a digital copy of her book!

See you next week!

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