Month: June 2013

Book Q&A’s with Deborah Kalb

This is an excerpt of my interview with Deborah Kalb on her great blog Book Q&A’s. Q: How did The Marijuana Chronicles come about, and how did you determine which authors to include in the collection? A: That’s a two-part question, Deborah. The first part is easy. I was at a book party and was talking to Johnny Temple, the publisher of Akashic Books, and he mentioned that he was looking for an editor to do The Marijuana Chronicles, the third in his ongoing drug series. I immediately said I was interested. Not because I’m a pothead – I’m not – but I thought it would be a great project, obviously topical and that it would be fun to do, all of which turned out to be true. Read more…

Book Talk Interview with Kory French – Break Thru Radio

Here is a recent interview I did on Break Thru Radio with Kory French. The 1st half is about “me” and the 2nd half about THE MARIJUANA CHRONICLES. I thought is was going to be all about the book so I was a little unprepared for the personal questions but I did my best. The show has a long musical Intro and then another at the midpoint but you can skip past them. And you may have to hit “DJ Kory” when you get to the site. But have a listen and let me know what you think. Listen here: [audio:http://bak.jonathansantlofer.com/wp-content/uploads/book_talk_with_kory_french.mp3]

City Mouse Versus Country Mouse

I have always been a city mouse. Well, not always, but mostly. I was born on East 57th Street in Manhattan though my parents deserted the city for Queens and then LI when I was a preteen, but I couldn’t wait to get back. And I did. But then, like so many diehard New Yorkers I longed for escape, which I did on occasion and liked that too but always came back. I think mostly it was a quest for quiet, a rarity in NYC, and something I found when I bought a little house in upstate NY about eight years ago. An impulse buy. I swear. It was just after New Years and we were visiting old friends, the realist painter Catherine Murphy and her sculptor husband, Harry Roseman. I’ve known Cathy since we met at the art colony, Skowhegan, when I was 19. (Cathy says I looked like John Sebastian of the Lovin’ … Read more

Why Crime Fiction Academy Matters

About a year and a half ago Noreen Tomassi, the Director of Manhattan’s Center For Fiction, came to me with the idea of creating a place for crime fiction. A place where unpublished writers could come to finish the crime novel they’d started but stalled, where writers could be taught by really good published authors, could sit around a table with the best crime fiction writers of our time, people like Lee Child and Elmore Leonard and Laura Lippman, to name just a few, and a place to study and learn from classics in the genre. We did it because no program like it existed. There are writing programs everywhere, but not one that concentrates on crime fiction. In fact, few writing programs offer students even one class in crime fiction (and to those students I say, come take your classes at CFA and we’ll find a way to work it out with your school). … Read more