The Woolf

Ranging the literary landscape

Nuance Notes has transformed into The Woolf.

On moonlit nights, the Nuance gals pad through the literary landscape of Z端rich and beyond, pouncing on anything wordy and dragging it home to share with the pack.

Sometimes we howl.

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Welcome to the first edition of The Woolf.

In this edition:

In conversation...

Jill Prewett interviews Ann Söderblom, writer and publisher of Coffee Cup Philosophy (Lulu, 2012).

Sound bites Jill rounds up bite-sized pieces of writers' lives: Emma Donoghue, Helen FitzGerald, Christos Tsiolkas, Paulo Coehlo

The Lighthouse Illuminating the literary landscape.

Making Tracks Goings-on in Zürich and beyond.

Masthead:

Editorial team Jill Prewett Libby O'Loghlin

Nuance is a collective. So is the human race.

www.nuancewords.com

Occasional roving Lighthouse operator: “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.”

—Virginia Woolf

Liz Henry

Contributions always welcome.

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In conversation with Ann Söderblom Jill Prewett interviews a Swedish-born, Zürich-based, self-publisher

Image courtesy: www.söderblomdesign.com

Born and raised in the south of Sweden, Ann is a global mind who enjoys designing, meeting people, facing fears and having coffee. She spent three years in Barcelona before settling down in Switzerland where she currently works and lives. Ann’s book – Coffee Cup Philosophy – is out now. www.coffeecupphilosophy.com www.soderblomdesign.com

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One inspiring thought amongst many that I took from Coffee Cup Philosophy – if you want to write a book, you can, just by using ten minutes a day. When did you start your book and did you follow your own advice?

I started about three years ago and I didn’t write ten minutes a day, but an hour here, five minutes there, whenever I could in small batches.

Why did you choose the independent publishing route?

I’ve read a lot about book publishing. I follow an author called Seth Godin and I realised that if as an unpublished author I go to a big publishing house, I have no track record. So if I can show some sales and a readership, I might be in a better position to get a deal.

You’ve brought out your first book in hardback. Why not paperback or ebook?

Because a hardback feels like a real book to me.

But I’m thinking about ebooks for the future.

Who is your target audience?

Somebody who is not happy in their job, stuck in the 9-to-5 situation, who feels they want to do something that fits more to their personality, skills and interests. I hope I can suggest a way to break out of this social structure that we’re taught from a very young age.

You write to inspire others. Who inspires you?

I read a lot in the self-help, personal development area and also entrepreneurship. I mentioned Seth Godin but I also like Robin Sharma.

The 4-hour Work Week by Tim Ferris. Loving What Is by Byron Katie.

Where did the title come from?

I had different alternatives but I was designing a coffee cup and realised this ties into the book.

You can sit down with a blank piece of paper, remove distractions and think about your life.

Are you going the way you really want to go?

Designer, writer, inspirational speaker – who is the real Ann Söderblom?

I like to think unconventionally. There are a lot of ways to relieve daily suffering, by having discipline to work for your goals, but also not forgetting to live through the little things. Read in the sun. Have a cup of coffee.

Where can we buy the book?

On the website for now, but later in bookshops. But people can download the first 30 pages as a taster.

Image courtesy: www.soderblomdesign.com

www.coffeecupphilosophy.com

What next?

I’m planning some talks about the books. People everywhere are searching for a way to break free of the mould, but how will I find them? I’m still in the process of figuring that out.

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Sound Bites The Woolf has been talking to authors.

This month: an Irishwoman who lives Canada, an Australian who settled in Scotland, another Aussie with Greek heritage and a Brazilian with worldwide appeal.

Christos Tsiolkas The Woolf: I’ve just finished reading Dead Europe. You wrote that before The Slap and the structure in terms of voices, points-ofview and tone are very different. Didn’t you have 13 different voices in the first version of The Slap?

Christos: Yes. Part of getting to the narrative voices in The Slap came from the experience of doing Dead Europe. That novel works by alternating between Isaac’s story and an almost fable-like structure, which come from my father’s storytelling. He has a vampire in his village, for example.

His stories used to terrify me as a child. As I tried to find a voice to communicate these stories, I simply discovered the pleasure of writing outside my narcissistic self.

Helen FitzGerald The Woolf: What do your kids make of your work?

Helen: We often all sit around coming up with endings together.

They’re involved, although my son sometimes asks us to stop talking about murder at the dinner table. He’s a real prude and doesn’t even like swearing. So he won’t read my adult books until he’s fifteen. My daughter edits my YA fiction and gives very blunt feedback. She’s a great writer and maybe we’ll write something together one day.

Emma Donoghue The Woolf: Which was the book that changed your life?

Emma: Jeanette Winterson's The Passion taught me what should have been obvious, that I could be an out lesbian and a great writer at the same time.

Paulo Coehlo The Woolf: Interviews often show more of the interviewer than the interviewee. What question would you want to ask our readers, all of whom are writers?

Paulo: Writing is a socially acceptable form of getting naked in public. Are you taking off your clothes?

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The Lighthouse Illuminating the landscape

Distractions Useful dictionary that intuitively understands what you need. http://www.onelook.com No time to organise that novel? Keep your hand in and hone your prose with Flash Fiction.

Lively community of supportive writers. http://fridayflash.org/press/aboutfridayflash/fridayflash Stuck for inspiration? Fill in the backstory for some of these... http://www.textsfromlastnight.com/Texts-FromBest-Nights-Today.html

In response to The Woolf ’s call for some blogging adventures in the field, writer Renée D’Aoust sent us the link for her blog. http://bicontinental-dachshund.blogspot.com More about Renée and her memoir, Body of a Dancer, here: http://www.reneedaoust.com

Opportunities http://www.theliteraryplatform.com/about http://www.stylist.co.uk/books/getpublished/crime-fiction-competition

Books Inspiration We howled and applauded Elif Shahak.

An articulate, fascinating and personal approach to what stories mean. http://www.ted.com/talks/elif_shafak_the_politi cs_of_fiction.html

Blogging Adventures http://writebadlywell.blogspot.com Joel Stickley’s light-hearted blog: written badly, but well.

For the expats among us: Chris Pavone’s The Expats garnered an interesting review in the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/books/r eview/chris-pavones-the-expats-and-more-newnovels.html To read or not to read? That is the question.

Before – or after – you head to the movies, why not dip into The Hunger Games to find out what all the fuss is about. A YA block-buster with a powerful teenaged heroine. Interrogates contemporary themes around society’s thirst for entertainment, personal branding and the cult of celebrity.

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Mini-lit quiz Which Swiss author’s book is ‘a novella in twenty-four sentences’, inspired by the structure of JS Bach's The WellTempered Clavier?

Last issue’s answer: Michael Ondaatje, The Oronsay (Who sits at the cat's table and on which ship?)

Image courtesy: This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons.

Commons is a freely licensed media file repository.

Advertisement Professional graphic design and typesetting services for literary clients worldwide.

www.jdsmith-design.com Zürich, April 2012 /8

Making Tracks Goings-on in the city of Zürich and beyond

Readings

Good news for kids

This Spring, Kaufleuten maintains its high standards of guest writers with appearances by: • TC Boyle – 9 May • John Banville – 11 May • Arnon Grunberg – 22 May And a new edition of The Woolf will be out before then, but here’s your heads-up: • VS Naipaul – 21 June

Judy Blume’s books can now be found on ereaders.

Children’s Hour readings occur every first Saturday of the month at Orell Füssli’s The Bookshop.

The Paris Writers' Workshop Zürich Writers Workshop The third Zürich Writers Workshop will be held 18–20 May. Instructors include travel writer Diccon Bewes (Swiss Watching) and novelist Sam North (The Old Country). The workshop includes nine hours of instruction in either fiction or travel writing/non-fiction, an author reading and apéro at Orell Füssli’s The Bookshop, and a dinner at Haus Hiltl. www.zurichwritersworkshop.com

June will see a jam-packed week of writing workshops, afternoon panels, consultations with literary agents and writing coaches, and other great social events such as wine tastings, dinners, and readings. Workshops: Mimi Schwartz's Creative Nonfiction, Christopher Tilghman's Craft of Fiction, and Poetry and Children/Young adult. http://www.pariswritersworkshop.org

Wild about Wilde Geneva Writers' Group Workshops Geneva Writers’ Group have a feast of workshops throughout the year. http://www.genevawritersgroup.org/program/w orkshops

In May, Zürich Comedy Club present Oscar Wilde’s classic play “The Ideal Husband”.

Performance dates: 1st week – Wed 2, Thu 3, Fri 4, Sat 5 May 2nd week – Wed 9, Thu 10, Fri 11, Sat 12 May http://www.zcc.ch/idealhusband

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