BSS #82: Kelly Link

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Author: Kelly Link

Condition of Mr. Segundo: At odds with his boyhood dreams.

Subjects Discussed: Coffee, the Turkish language, planting little clues within stories, real-life inspirations for fantasy, writing short stories vs. novels, the value of a gestation period, on being easily distracted, being thrown off guard, Link’s pattern-making impulse, Douglas Adams, board games, Cadbury Creme Eggs, breakfast cereals, childhood sense memory, depicting characters without backstory, zombies, having psychologists as parents, William Gibson, bookstores, Edward Gorey, self-publishing, Ben Fountain’s Brief Encounters with Che Guevara, review coverage, “literary” credibility, Scott Smith’s The Ruins, the “literary fiction” label vs. the “science fiction” label, Laura Miller and H.P. Lovecraft, taxonomies, Shelley Jackson’s illustrations, fonts and EC Comics, reacting to older work, “massaging” work, Clarion, George Saunders and New Yorker “fantasy” vs. genre fantasy, and “fictiony literature.”

EXCERPT FROM SHOW:

Link: I think that being easily distracted mirrors, or is the same thing in some ways, as noticing connections too easily. And that does mean that once you have, once you’re solidly at work on a story, everything you see around you, you can sort of pull in and use. Everything in the story you can sort of tie down to other parts of the story.

 
icon for podpress  BSS #82: Kelly Link [53:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

2 Responses to “BSS #82: Kelly Link”

  • Not a journal. (Except, now it is.) » Cleveland gets DeNiro says:

    [...] – Nice little story about another fave bookshop (we have so many…): Malaprop’s in Asheville. Which is very near Salsa’s. Ah, the food of the traveling days. Malaprop’s also picked Magic for Beginners as one of their faves of 2006. – Elsewhere: an interview with Kelly Link by Bat Segundo. (Download.) [...]

  • Edward Champion’s Return of the Reluctant » The Real Deal Roundup says:

    [...] Why the litblogosphere rocks: Kelly Link appeared on The Bat Segundo Show. In that podcast, there was a considerable discussion on whether or not “literary fiction” was as horrid a label as “science fiction.” Eric Rosenfield wasn’t satisfied with some of Link’s responses, but now he’s corresponded with Link directly to set the matter straight. [...]

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