Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Anita's "The Gathering" (Performed in class on 9/22/10)

HARP
Your most recent book, “Sane In The City” is in San Francisco bookstores now. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

EVA
All the stories revolve around the people living in the Nick Buena Apartments downtown.
HARP
Tell us about it.

EVA
It’s a 350-unit apartment complex located downtown.

HARP
Single Resident Occupancies…?

EVA
Well, yes and no. They’re like SRO’s because they’re small economy-sized apartments but the government provides minimal assistance. Like tax breaks--most of the residents are single adults with low incomes. (Make a quote on quote sign w/ both hands when saying “low”)

HARP
Students? Artists?

EVA
No. Mostly working adults with full-time, some part-time jobs.

HARP
Interesting. I know you used to live in San Francisco…

EVA
I did. When I first graduated from college, I lived in a similar type of building and even though I was tired all the time from working full-time, I always had ideas festering in my head…


HARP
You say festering? Why? Was that a difficult situation?

EVA
Sure. In college I served as editor for the schools literary magazine. And lots of kids wrote about city life. Although I had been writing about city life even before I started to review their pieces.

HARP
Wow. Okay...so what was it for you that pushed you to take on the subject that so many people were already writing about?

EVA
Well, it was only so many in the sense that it was a common theme amongst college students. But in real life, there weren’t any books out there about the realities of downtown living. Plus, I thought I had a rather unique perspective.

HARP
Can you tell us more about that?

EVA
I lived just feet away from the Bay Bridge. Sure, we had double-payne windows that minimized the noise, but sometimes you couldn’t help but want to open the window.

HARP
(Laughs) Right. You wrote, That Thing! That Bridge. It got some very good reviews. What are you expecting from this next book?

EVA
Well, naturally I’m hoping my circle of readers will expand. And I’m hoping that those who enjoyed my first book will pick up this latest one.

AUDIENCE I
I really enjoyed your first book. Especially how each character struggled with surviving in those difficult conditions. You managed to capture some original voices. I can’t want to read this next one.


EVA
Thank you. I worked especially hard on this latest book and tried to create even more characters that everyone could relate to as well.

AUDIENCE II
Yeah, I agree with what him/her. I can’t wait to start on this next book. Isn’t there are character who ends up playing for the Giants? Was that inspired by any real-life players? And are you a Giants fan?

EVA
(Laughs) Not until I started researching. A lot of my work comes from real life. There are some writers who say absolutely nothing comes from real life. And that’s something I’m thinking about too—as far as where I’d like to possibly take my work.

AUDIENCE III
Maybe venturing into science fiction?

EVA
I’ve thought about it. In college, I wrote some pretty descent sci-fi pieces. Jack London, one of my favorite fiction writers, wrote some pretty impressive sci-fi. He was born in San Francisco, in the same exact area where I used to live.

AUDIENCE I
Yes, right up from AT&T Park. On 3rd Street. There’s a plaque on the building that says he was born there. Of course the original building was wrecked in a fire.

EVA
Right. I’ve been there too.

HARP
(Gets up from seat)
We’d better start setting up the book signing booth. Since there aren’t too many people yet, we could probably continue questions from there. If you don’t mind. It’s all informal for now.


EVA
(Gets up from seat)
Sure.

1 comment:

  1. Notes from Roy:
    This is a good slice of life from this character's life as an author. I think it makes a good resource to know about her, and maybe find hints of conflicts and dramatic situations to follow up on. Things that spring to mind are her opinions about what other students were writing about the city. She seems to think that their writing was somewhat self-involved, while there are better stories for those who look around at the real lives in the city. This might be a fruitful vein to explore. It plays into the conflict she has with her publishers who want her to move on from the more realistic and gritty things that she's been successful with. She seems to have a wealth of stories about people she's lived near - the kind of people who's stories don't get told.

    Roy

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