Daniel A. Blum grew up in New York, attended Brandeis
University and currently lives outside of Boston with his family. His first novel Lisa33 was published by
Viking in 2003. He has been featured in Poets and Writers magazine, Publisher’s
Weekly and most recently, interviewed in Psychology Today.
Daniel writes a humor blog, The
Rotting Post, that has developed a loyal following.
His latest release is the literary
novel, The
Feet Say Run.
WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:
WEBSITE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK
About the Book:
At the
age of eighty-five, Hans Jaeger finds himself a castaway among a group of
survivors on a deserted island. What
is my particular crime? he asks. Why have I
been chosen for this fate? And
It
would be an understatement to say he has lived a full life. He has grown up in Nazi Germany and falls in
love with Jewish girl. He fights for the
Germans on two continents, watches the Reich collapse spectacularly into
occupation and starvation, and marries his former governess. After the war he goes on wildflower
expeditions in the Alps, finds solace among prostitutes while his wife lay in a coma, and
marries a Brazilian chambermaid in order to receive a kidney from her.
By
turns sardonic and tragic and surreal, Hans’s story is the story of all of the
insanity, irony and horror of the modern world itself.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
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Thank you for your time in
answering our questions about getting published. Let’s begin by having
you explain to us why you decided to become an author and pen this book?
Sure.
I’ve certainly always been a daydreamer, and I think as I
got older that translated naturally into wanting to write. Also, my entire family besides myself are
either psychiatrists (father and brother) or psychologists (mother and sister),
so it feels like I had little choice but to either go mad or turn a little bit
thoughtful and introspective.
But there is also a craft and that took some time to
acquire. My early writing efforts have
thankfully been lost to the ravages of time.
As to how I chose this particular
book, had grown increasingly interested
in the idea of literary fiction that also made for a gripping page-turner. And I had this idea of telling a big, epic
tale of human tragedy - of cruelty and compassion and blindess and brilliance -
through a single, long life. Gradually, my
narrator, a German who had fought for the Nazis, began to take shape. I honestly never had a moment where I
decided, “I am going to write another novel.”
I just began poking around. And
then I was in too deep, immersed, and the only way out was forward – to borrow
a military metaphor.
Is this your first book?
The Feet Say Run is my second novel. My previous novel, Lisa33 was an avante-garde sex comedy set on the internet. I had received a large advance for it, but in
the end the publishing experience was quite disastrous. I wanted to get as far away from it as
possible. A harrowing war story set in
Nazi Germany was surely about as far from an internet sex farce as one could
get.
With this particular book,
how did you publish – traditional, small press, Indie, etc. – and why did you
choose this method?
This was published through a
small press, Gabriel’s Horn.
For years after my miserable experience with Viking and my
first novel, I ceased writing fiction entirely and even reading it. When The
Feet Say Run was completed, I had few connections left in the publishing
world. But I had posted a few poems to a
public website, and my publisher had read an admired them there. She emailed me and asked what else I wrote, I
sent her the manuscript, and she wanted it.
So that was that. It was an easy
decision.
In a way I feel I am one of the few writer to be
“discovered” twice, as Gabriel’s Horn was surprised to learn I’d already had a
novel out with major publisher.
Can you tell us a little
about your publishing journey? The pros
and cons?
Wow. I would love to write a book on this, to be
honest. But let me say a few more words
about my experience in the “mainstream” world.
I certainly had my share of rejection letters. In fact, in no time at
all, I had accumulated a stack that covered the entire spectrum of conceivable
reasons for turning down a manuscript – up to and including (this is true),
that my writing was, somehow, “too sophisticated.”What does one say to that? “How dare you! My writing is NOT sophisticated AT ALL!”
I went through novels and agents and eventually sent off my manuscript for Lisa33, a post-modern sex comedy set entirely on the internet. I soon got a call back from Bill Clegg, who was then already a big name in literary representation, and who was eager to represent it. He not only succeeded in selling it, but managed to get a bidding war going. Viking was the highest bidder, and the book sold for six figures – one of the largest sums that year for any unpublished writer. I quite literally jumped for joy, thought I was living my dream.
Yet from that moment on, pretty much everything that could go wrong did. My book was immediately caught up in politics at Viking. While my editor loved it, her boss evidently hated it to an almost equal degree, and wondered why Molly had spent so much to acquire it. The publication date got pushed out. The printing, the publicity, weren’t going to be that large after all.
Meanwhile my super-agent, Bill Clegg, gradually grew more and more remote and eventually flat-out disappeared. Nobody knew what had happened to him. And then Viking pushed the publication date back again. And then a third time.
It did finally come out, with
no publicity whatever, and quickly vanished into obscurity. As did I. The
beacon of fame swept right over me, illuminated me for a few delirious seconds,
and then moved on. The ultimate irony was
when my agent – who had once assured me I was going to be famous, published his
own memoir and landed on the front page of the New York Times. I read the review from my cubicle, back at my
day job.
What lessons do you feel you
learned about your particular publishing journey and about the publishing
industry as a whole?
I’ve gotten a huge amount of
perspective. I had dreamed of The
Algonquin Club, fascinating repartee with brilliant intellectuals, parties
among the literati. Of course, it was all
an illusion. My friends are the same
friends I have always had and cared about.
My family is still first in my life.
Most of all what I learned is this:
if you don’t love the process of writing, you shouldn’t be doing it,
because the reward, even when you supposedly “make it” is really a fleeting bit
of fool’s gold.
I am so proud of my new
novel. It is really miles better,
deeper, more intense, than the one I got the big advance for. And my expectations are so much more grounded. I just want people to try it and enjoy
it.
Would you recommend this
method of publishing to other authors?
I would definitely recommend a
supportive small press like I found.
This is been a fun, interesting, stimulating experience. If there are financial rewards at some point,
so much the better, but I am not depending on them.
Breaking in to the “mainstream”
world is even harder now. The industry
is a mess. I see the rise of indie and
small presses as a natural consequence, with a lot of positives, similar to the
rise of indie filmmaking and smaller music labels. It allows for more options for the consumer,
but also makes it hard for consumers to know what to choose. Which is where reviewers and bloggers have
their own role.
What’s the best advice you
can give to aspiring authors?
My advice is more about the
writing than about the publishing.
First, forget everything anyone has “taught” you about
writing. Nobody knows. There is no assembly manual. There is not carefully marked trail. You must find your own way through the wilderness. Second, be sure you truly love writing, and
not merely the idea of writing. Third, please forget, “write what you
know”! Worst advice ever. Write the book
that, as a reader, you would most want to read.
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