{"id":4522,"date":"2011-06-30T10:15:03","date_gmt":"2011-06-30T14:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/?p=4522"},"modified":"2011-06-30T10:52:55","modified_gmt":"2011-06-30T14:52:55","slug":"an-expert-guide-to-life%e2%80%99s-fertile-streams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/2011\/06\/an-expert-guide-to-life%e2%80%99s-fertile-streams\/","title":{"rendered":"An Expert Guide To Life\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Fertile Streams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>by Vicky Dickson<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reader.100.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reader.100.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"reader.100\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-4092\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reader.100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reader.100-80x80.jpg 80w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nTo someone who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never tried to write for a living, the life of a novelist might seem idyllic. You get to pick your own hours, without anyone looking over your shoulder; you get to write whatever pops into your head. <!--more-->You can live wherever you want, in a 100-year-old house, for instance, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s surrounded by apple trees and a stream. Shared with a wife and a child, that life can even be magical.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4523\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4523\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/CraigNovaforReader.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/CraigNovaforReader.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"CraigNovaforReader\" width=\"200\" height=\"267\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4523\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/CraigNovaforReader.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/CraigNovaforReader-59x80.jpg 59w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4523\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Craig Nova<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nBut as Hillsborough novelist Craig Nova is quick to point out, that life, like every life, also comes with a price. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the price of never really being able to tell where you stand. Like Nova\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s The Good Son, the novel you write could be so amazing as to garner a review in the New York Times by John Irving describing it as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the richest and most expert novel in my recent reading by any writer now under 40\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d still have to write the next one. Which would take you 700 days, though the money from the publisher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advance would only last for 500. <\/p>\n<p>Even if, like Nova, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re good enough to be published by magazines like Esquire, The Paris Review, the New York Times Magazine and Men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Journal, you still have to take time off from one of your 12 novels to write those pieces. And screenplays too, because the money\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good \u00e2\u20ac\u201c though you might well find yourself producing draft after draft for a movie that never gets made.<\/p>\n<p>Then there are the agonies of the writing process itself, in which, as Nova says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re wrong so much of the time \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 sometimes you get there and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a desert.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the effort of producing maybe 70,000 pages of manuscript and knowing that most of it will never be read by anyone but you. And the day-to-day grind of sitting down to redo the previous day\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s seven or eight pages of writing before you even get to the next seven or eight you need to produce.<\/p>\n<p>Nova\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not so dependent on the proceeds of novel writing for his living these days, having been appointed the Class of 1949 Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at UNC-Greensboro in 2005. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a job he relishes, because he gets to see his students \u00e2\u20ac\u0153drunk on words.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s able to spend time with the Class of \u00e2\u20ac\u212249 (who were inspired by their undergraduate classes with poet and novelist Randall Jarrell to raise the money for the fellowship) and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153catch a whiff from them about how much things have changed\u00e2\u20ac\u009d over their lifetimes. He shares with those women his recipe for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best\u00e2\u20ac\u009d chocolate souffl\u00c3\u00a9. <\/p>\n<p>Though Nova could certainly rest on his laurels \u00e2\u20ac\u201c having both a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters under his belt \u00e2\u20ac\u201c he shows no signs of slowing down. He can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even leave what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s already written alone: Brook Trout and the Writing Life, Nova\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1999 autobiography, has just been re-released so that he could include some things he left out of the book\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first edition and address some things he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s learned in the intervening years.<\/p>\n<p>Nova has a gift for language that is both precise and powerful. He has a rare ability to connect with a reader\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s half-formed thoughts and perceptions, putting them on paper in a way that unearths profound truth. <\/p>\n<p>Like this: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When I am with a friend, I am a little different than I am with other people, and I only get to be this way when I am with this particular friend. \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 These people let you be more the way you want to be, just by being with them. The hard lesson \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 is that when one of these friends dies he takes some of you with him, if only because you discover, with a sort of amazement, that the person you got to be when you were with the friend who died is gone.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>He describes the ordinary in a way that fascinates, that inspires a reader to pay more attention: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blue damselflies were in the air, like needles of turquoise, their wings nothing more than filaments, and around them there were orange butterflies. Beyond them raspberries hung ruby-like in the shade. I saw blueberries, too, the end of each having a small shape like a crown. The accumulation of insects, the quick paths they described in the air (like the random path of memory or desire), made me confront what I was looking for, and why I came to the places where brook trout exist.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>In other words, Craig Nova is the sort of writer who acts as a guide to the meaning and beauty in human experience. Out of the trials and tribulations of a life dedicated to writing, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s forged a body of work that will endure.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lit Notes<br \/>\n<\/strong>Another North Carolina literary stalwart, Clyde Edgerton, is coming to town July 30 to read from his new book, The Night Train, at McIntyre\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on July 30 at 11 a.m. and Flyleaf at 6 p.m. Edgerton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s events are as enthralling as his books; you won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to miss this one.<br \/>\nThriller lovers should check out N.C.-native John Hart\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s upcoming readings at Flyleaf on July 16 and McIntyre\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on July 17, both at 2 p.m. The New York Times bestselling author will read from his latest, Iron Horse, which sounds like the perfect summertime read.<br \/>\nComing up next in Flyleaf\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Lunch with the Author series is Jimmy Creech\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discussion of Adam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Gift, the former Methodist minister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s memoir of his struggles with his church over its treatment of homosexuality. The July 8 event starts at noon and is free; bring your own lunch or call Foster\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Market to buy a boxed lunch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Vicky Dickson To someone who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never tried to write for a living, the life of a novelist might seem idyllic. You get to pick your own hours, without anyone looking over your shoulder; you get to write whatever pops into your head.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[319],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4522"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4525,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4522\/revisions\/4525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}