Today, things are a llittle different. I'm always happy for varitey, so thanks to Libby and Matthew.
They start with bios, so I'll leave it up to them to introduce themselves. Take a look at their cv and you'll be impressed, most def.
These guys dance with each other. They take it in turns to lead, but are eaqually strong either way. I'd like to thank them for being here.
Libby Cudmore’s stories and essays have appeared in The MacGuffin, The Yalobusha Review, The Chaffey Review, The Southern Women’s Review, Sunsets and Silencers, Red Fez, Inertia, Xenith, Pop Matters, Pulp Pusher and the anthology Relationships and Other Stuff. She is a frequent contributor to Shaking Like a Mountain, Battered Suitcase, Celebrities in Disgrace, Hardboiled, a Twist of Noir and Thrillers, Killers ‘n’ Chillers, where her story “Unplanned” won a Bullet award in 2009 and was nominated for the 2010 Derringer award in flash fiction. Her work will also be featured in upcoming issues of Crime Factory, Connotation Press, Needle, The Midnight Diner (where she also serves as an editor) and the anthologies We’ll Always Have Chicago and Quantum Genre on the Planet of the Arts (with Matthew Quinn Martin).
Matthew Quinn Martin is a New York based writer. His original
screenplay Slingshot was made into a feature film starring Juliana
Margulies, David Arquette, Thora Birch, Balthazar Getty and Joely
Fisher. Slingshot had its premiere at the TriBeCa Film Festival, has
been featured on Access Hollywood, and is currently on DVD,
distributed by the Weinstein Co.
Matthew's prose fiction has been published (or is forthcoming) in
Transition Magazine, The Crossing Chaos Anthology: Quantum Genre on
the Planet of Arts, and Big Pulp (co-written with Libby Cudmore), The
Beat to A Pulp Anthology: Round One, Fallen: An Anthology of Demonic
Horror, JMWW, Death Rattle Magazine, Thuglit, MFA/MFYou Literary
Journal, A Twist of Noir, Eastern Standard Crime, The Oddville Press,
Aphelion, The Flash Fiction Offensive and The Midnight Diner (where he
is also an editor).
His screenplay A Very Good Year, featuring Dan Lauria (The Wonder
Years) and Gaius Charles (Friday Night Lights) was presented at
FilmFest New Haven. Other works of his have been produced by
NYCollective and The New Haven Theatre Co. In addition he has acted as
a consultant or ghostwriter on numerous projects for film and
television.
He can also be seen flitting around the margins of your TV set...most
notably in a recurring co-starring role on the first season of the JJ
Abrams created Fringe.
DANCING WITH EACH OTHER
Libby Cudmore, Interviewed by Matthew Quinn Martin
How do you organize your bookshelf?
By type. I have a large crime/mystery section, which is divided into NonFiction/Craft/Anthologies, then Chandler, Hammett, then my autographed books from people like Mike Kimball, Sophie Hannah and Vinny O’Neil, then a couple of vintage Damian Runyon collections that I can’t touch out of fear they’ll crumble in my hands. I’ve got a shelf of journals and more craft books and a shelf of non-crime autographed books by authors like Eric Bogosian, William Kennedy and my dad.
If you could wipe one book from the space-time continuum what would it be?
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. I hate that book and I wish I’d never been forced to read it. Coincidentally, it was also the 2nd favorite book (after The Long Goodbye) of a man who broke my heart, which makes me hate it even more.
What is the first book you remember falling in love with?
The Tainted Sword by DJ Heinrich. It was a Dungeons and Dragons novel that my friend Ann lent me in 5th grade. I thought Jo, the female protagonist, was the coolest character ever. She had red hair and wanted to be a knight even though she was a girl and girls couldn’t be knights and she went on adventures. She was my first feminist icon. There was also a vague sex scene at the end—to a ten year old, “he brushed aside a lock of hair that had come unbound during their passion” is pretty damn erotic.
If you could replace the word "book" with one other word to cover the
above three questions, what would it be? (but don't answer those
questions...yes, that's a rule)
Fictional Character
Ugly Famous Person
City/Town
Who would win in a fight, Walton Goggins or Han Solo?
Han Solo. I’m pretty sure Walton Goggins is a lover, not a fighter.
If they made a Libby Cudmore action figure...what accessories would it come with? and which ones would have to be purchased separately?
It would have to be a fashion doll so that you could change her clothes, but she’d come with 14 eyelet rose-print Doc Martens, a small plush triceratops, a tee-shirt with a bunny on it and a pleated black skirt. Her clothes would all be sold separately and would range from cut-up tee-shirts and skinny black jeans to vintage style swing dresses and pink go-go boots.
What is your favorite Chromeo song? (and yes you have to pick just one)
I haven’t heard Chromeo—I usually get my new music via mix CD.
What's the line-up of the ultimate rock band?
Danny Elfman—male vocals
Cyndi Lauper—female vocals
Tom Waits—percussion
Johnny Marr—guitar
Tina Weymouth—Bass
Do you know the way to San Jose?
What, do I look like Chewbacca?
Given a simple closed curve in the plane, can we always find four
points on this curve that are the vertices of a square?
Maths is hard.
Matthew Quinn Martin Interviewed by Libby Cudmore
1) What book do you turn to in order to combat writer's block?
For a general problem I'll either reach for the old standbys The Anatomy of Story by John Truby or Vogler's The Writer's Journey...if I'm stuck and working in a particular style then I'll reach for something similar to what I'm trying to write (currently that's stuff by Michael Crichton an Preston/Child)
2) What's the worst story you've ever read? (it doesn't have to be a published one)
I've always had a particular loathing for Kate Chopin's The
Awakening...and I realize this will preclude me from ever getting a
blurb from her but Anne Tyler's Earthly Possessions bothers me if only
because it promotes the type of static writing that comes out of a lot
of the MFA programs...and speaking of MFA programs (and the workshop
process) we got a lot of unreadable stuff there, but one excerpt I got
in workshop (title and author's name withheld to protect us all) was
so riddled with errors in grammar, spelling, syntax, facts and logic
that giving it on-the-page line edits would have taken a drawer full
of red pens. I elected to go with a structure only set of notes, but
the writer demanded (of the powers that be) that I act as a
copy-editor for it. The who episode left such a bad taste in my mouth
that it qualifes not only as the worst story, by as the worst
experiece I've had with a story. It was pure torture, which is ironic
because the story itself was about a girl who was half-angel and
half-fallen ange andl whose job description is basically to torture
whoever she wants for no apparent reason...all in the name of "true
justice." (watch, it's probably been optioned by Uwe Boll's company
with Kristanna Loken attached)
3) Where is your ideal place to write?
This is a tough one. I do like to get out of the apartment. I do a fair amount of writing in the American Natural History Museum (where I am a member) and Central Park as well. I also write on set quite a bit when I'm doing background work (my day job)...ideally, though, I'd like to have a quiet yurt set back far enough where no one will bother me...and it'll have a coffee maker and some magical internet connection that lets me get research done, but not go on Cracked.Com (too much)
4) Do you know the muffin, man?
At this time I can neither confirm, nor deny, any association with the muffin man. I am aware that he at one time, at least, resided at Drury lane. But as to his current whereabouts or activities, I can give no answer. However, I do have it on good authority that you cal still see his headless body stalking through the night in the muzzle flash or a Thompson gun (but that might have been somebody else now that I think about it)
5) If a film adaptation of one of your stories won an Oscar, in which catagory would it be?
Since they don't give Oscars for best Craft Services or Best Performance by an Actor in a Background roll...I'm going to go with one of the Best Supporting ones. Out of the big one's those always seem to be the ones that go to the folks who actually deserve it (Cuba Gooding Jr. notwithstanding)...Editing would also be nice.
6) There's a fire on your bookshelf! What three books do you save before your wife dumps water on everything?
That depends on the bookcase...so I'm going to go with the one to my left...and now that I look at it I don't think there's anything on it that I'd be willing to risk burning my fingers to save. I'll just go back on amazon...oh wait...change my mind here...there is a vintage copy of Day Keene's Strange Witness as well as an Ace Double of Keene's The Dangling Carrot backed with Norman Rosenthal's Silenced Witness (seems to be a real witness theme here) and lastly E.M. Nathanson's The Dirty Dozen (because for some insane reason that book's been out of print forever)
7) What do you intend to do with your stacks of NYT Best-seller cash when the Treasury Hummer delivers it to your door in bags of unmarked bills?
I have a heart attack...then I get better and buy everybody I know a moxie. Then I start building a teardrop trailer for the book tour.
http://recordofthemonth.blogspot.com/
http://www.matthewquinnmartin.com/
They start with bios, so I'll leave it up to them to introduce themselves. Take a look at their cv and you'll be impressed, most def.
These guys dance with each other. They take it in turns to lead, but are eaqually strong either way. I'd like to thank them for being here.
Libby Cudmore’s stories and essays have appeared in The MacGuffin, The Yalobusha Review, The Chaffey Review, The Southern Women’s Review, Sunsets and Silencers, Red Fez, Inertia, Xenith, Pop Matters, Pulp Pusher and the anthology Relationships and Other Stuff. She is a frequent contributor to Shaking Like a Mountain, Battered Suitcase, Celebrities in Disgrace, Hardboiled, a Twist of Noir and Thrillers, Killers ‘n’ Chillers, where her story “Unplanned” won a Bullet award in 2009 and was nominated for the 2010 Derringer award in flash fiction. Her work will also be featured in upcoming issues of Crime Factory, Connotation Press, Needle, The Midnight Diner (where she also serves as an editor) and the anthologies We’ll Always Have Chicago and Quantum Genre on the Planet of the Arts (with Matthew Quinn Martin).
Matthew Quinn Martin is a New York based writer. His original
screenplay Slingshot was made into a feature film starring Juliana
Margulies, David Arquette, Thora Birch, Balthazar Getty and Joely
Fisher. Slingshot had its premiere at the TriBeCa Film Festival, has
been featured on Access Hollywood, and is currently on DVD,
distributed by the Weinstein Co.
Matthew's prose fiction has been published (or is forthcoming) in
Transition Magazine, The Crossing Chaos Anthology: Quantum Genre on
the Planet of Arts, and Big Pulp (co-written with Libby Cudmore), The
Beat to A Pulp Anthology: Round One, Fallen: An Anthology of Demonic
Horror, JMWW, Death Rattle Magazine, Thuglit, MFA/MFYou Literary
Journal, A Twist of Noir, Eastern Standard Crime, The Oddville Press,
Aphelion, The Flash Fiction Offensive and The Midnight Diner (where he
is also an editor).
His screenplay A Very Good Year, featuring Dan Lauria (The Wonder
Years) and Gaius Charles (Friday Night Lights) was presented at
FilmFest New Haven. Other works of his have been produced by
NYCollective and The New Haven Theatre Co. In addition he has acted as
a consultant or ghostwriter on numerous projects for film and
television.
He can also be seen flitting around the margins of your TV set...most
notably in a recurring co-starring role on the first season of the JJ
Abrams created Fringe.
DANCING WITH EACH OTHER
Libby Cudmore, Interviewed by Matthew Quinn Martin
How do you organize your bookshelf?
By type. I have a large crime/mystery section, which is divided into NonFiction/Craft/Anthologies, then Chandler, Hammett, then my autographed books from people like Mike Kimball, Sophie Hannah and Vinny O’Neil, then a couple of vintage Damian Runyon collections that I can’t touch out of fear they’ll crumble in my hands. I’ve got a shelf of journals and more craft books and a shelf of non-crime autographed books by authors like Eric Bogosian, William Kennedy and my dad.
If you could wipe one book from the space-time continuum what would it be?
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. I hate that book and I wish I’d never been forced to read it. Coincidentally, it was also the 2nd favorite book (after The Long Goodbye) of a man who broke my heart, which makes me hate it even more.
What is the first book you remember falling in love with?
The Tainted Sword by DJ Heinrich. It was a Dungeons and Dragons novel that my friend Ann lent me in 5th grade. I thought Jo, the female protagonist, was the coolest character ever. She had red hair and wanted to be a knight even though she was a girl and girls couldn’t be knights and she went on adventures. She was my first feminist icon. There was also a vague sex scene at the end—to a ten year old, “he brushed aside a lock of hair that had come unbound during their passion” is pretty damn erotic.
If you could replace the word "book" with one other word to cover the
above three questions, what would it be? (but don't answer those
questions...yes, that's a rule)
Fictional Character
Ugly Famous Person
City/Town
Who would win in a fight, Walton Goggins or Han Solo?
Han Solo. I’m pretty sure Walton Goggins is a lover, not a fighter.
If they made a Libby Cudmore action figure...what accessories would it come with? and which ones would have to be purchased separately?
It would have to be a fashion doll so that you could change her clothes, but she’d come with 14 eyelet rose-print Doc Martens, a small plush triceratops, a tee-shirt with a bunny on it and a pleated black skirt. Her clothes would all be sold separately and would range from cut-up tee-shirts and skinny black jeans to vintage style swing dresses and pink go-go boots.
What is your favorite Chromeo song? (and yes you have to pick just one)
I haven’t heard Chromeo—I usually get my new music via mix CD.
What's the line-up of the ultimate rock band?
Danny Elfman—male vocals
Cyndi Lauper—female vocals
Tom Waits—percussion
Johnny Marr—guitar
Tina Weymouth—Bass
Do you know the way to San Jose?
What, do I look like Chewbacca?
Given a simple closed curve in the plane, can we always find four
points on this curve that are the vertices of a square?
Maths is hard.
Matthew Quinn Martin Interviewed by Libby Cudmore
1) What book do you turn to in order to combat writer's block?
For a general problem I'll either reach for the old standbys The Anatomy of Story by John Truby or Vogler's The Writer's Journey...if I'm stuck and working in a particular style then I'll reach for something similar to what I'm trying to write (currently that's stuff by Michael Crichton an Preston/Child)
2) What's the worst story you've ever read? (it doesn't have to be a published one)
I've always had a particular loathing for Kate Chopin's The
Awakening...and I realize this will preclude me from ever getting a
blurb from her but Anne Tyler's Earthly Possessions bothers me if only
because it promotes the type of static writing that comes out of a lot
of the MFA programs...and speaking of MFA programs (and the workshop
process) we got a lot of unreadable stuff there, but one excerpt I got
in workshop (title and author's name withheld to protect us all) was
so riddled with errors in grammar, spelling, syntax, facts and logic
that giving it on-the-page line edits would have taken a drawer full
of red pens. I elected to go with a structure only set of notes, but
the writer demanded (of the powers that be) that I act as a
copy-editor for it. The who episode left such a bad taste in my mouth
that it qualifes not only as the worst story, by as the worst
experiece I've had with a story. It was pure torture, which is ironic
because the story itself was about a girl who was half-angel and
half-fallen ange andl whose job description is basically to torture
whoever she wants for no apparent reason...all in the name of "true
justice." (watch, it's probably been optioned by Uwe Boll's company
with Kristanna Loken attached)
3) Where is your ideal place to write?
This is a tough one. I do like to get out of the apartment. I do a fair amount of writing in the American Natural History Museum (where I am a member) and Central Park as well. I also write on set quite a bit when I'm doing background work (my day job)...ideally, though, I'd like to have a quiet yurt set back far enough where no one will bother me...and it'll have a coffee maker and some magical internet connection that lets me get research done, but not go on Cracked.Com (too much)
4) Do you know the muffin, man?
At this time I can neither confirm, nor deny, any association with the muffin man. I am aware that he at one time, at least, resided at Drury lane. But as to his current whereabouts or activities, I can give no answer. However, I do have it on good authority that you cal still see his headless body stalking through the night in the muzzle flash or a Thompson gun (but that might have been somebody else now that I think about it)
5) If a film adaptation of one of your stories won an Oscar, in which catagory would it be?
Since they don't give Oscars for best Craft Services or Best Performance by an Actor in a Background roll...I'm going to go with one of the Best Supporting ones. Out of the big one's those always seem to be the ones that go to the folks who actually deserve it (Cuba Gooding Jr. notwithstanding)...Editing would also be nice.
6) There's a fire on your bookshelf! What three books do you save before your wife dumps water on everything?
That depends on the bookcase...so I'm going to go with the one to my left...and now that I look at it I don't think there's anything on it that I'd be willing to risk burning my fingers to save. I'll just go back on amazon...oh wait...change my mind here...there is a vintage copy of Day Keene's Strange Witness as well as an Ace Double of Keene's The Dangling Carrot backed with Norman Rosenthal's Silenced Witness (seems to be a real witness theme here) and lastly E.M. Nathanson's The Dirty Dozen (because for some insane reason that book's been out of print forever)
7) What do you intend to do with your stacks of NYT Best-seller cash when the Treasury Hummer delivers it to your door in bags of unmarked bills?
I have a heart attack...then I get better and buy everybody I know a moxie. Then I start building a teardrop trailer for the book tour.
http://recordofthemonth.blogspot.com/
http://www.matthewquinnmartin.com/
Hah! Cracking stuff from two brilliant writers! Love the supergroup!
ReplyDeleteGreat Caesar's Ghost! I thought everybody who even knew about Moxie(let alone what it tastes like)was dead. The twin pronged attack works very well -- especially since they know where the buttons are that provoke the best response from the other. The worst story, impossible to edit without a flame thrower piece evoked a really strong memory of just why I kicked the MFA driven, useless workshop, sterile halls of academia scene a ways back. Hm, Looks like you guys found the location of a couple of my buttons also. Enjoyed these interviews immensely.
ReplyDelete