Yesterday Chapter 16 published “In Praise of Making Things Up” an interview by Sarah Norris with Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus, who will be reading in Nashville next week at the Nashville Public Library.
In one scene in The Night Circus, poetry - "snatches of Shakespearean sonnets and fragments of hymns to Greek goddess" - magically appears on the walls, ceiling and floors of a circus tent: an image that captured my heart and makes me want to meet its creator!
Being a big fan of Chapter 16 and of The Night Circus, I shared the article – and a reminder of the reading – on Facebook as soon as I read it.
“I can’t go that night,” a friend commented. “I’m bummed.”
“I’m not sure I can go, either,” I replied. And then, right there in front of three hundred and thirty something of my closest friends, I confessed the truth: “Really, I want to have dinner or coffee with her, not necessarily fight for a seat with a few hundred people to hear her read.”
I’m not a stalker. I’m not terribly averse to crowds, especially crowds of fellow book lovers. I’m not particularly desperate for coffee or contact with other writers at this very moment, although both those things are very important to me. And as a poet who performs her work, I certainly appreciate and enjoy readings.
But I’d like to sit down and talk with Erin, and here’s why: The Night Circus weaves a spell like few books I’ve read, and I’d love some personal insight into the artist’s soul that created that spell. I’m not sure I’m artistically capable, but I want to do in my own novel what Erin did so well in that book: suspend my disbelief, paint vivid images, entrance me, amuse me, satisfy me, and make me want to start reading the book all over again as soon as I’m done. That last one’s a tall, tall order, but I truly had that impulse as soon as I finished this book.
Of course folks are posting reviews of The Night Circus all over the place, including this one from Grammar Girl on how the book uses all three grammatical persons (I found the second person sections of the book particularly alluring). Silly as it sounds, I’m almost afraid to go back and analyze the book for myself, for fear of breaking the magic Erin so successfully creates.
Maybe I’ve got a case of literary laziness, but sitting down to chat would be so much better.
Erin, if you’re reading, I know you’ve probably got a full schedule for your limited time in Music City, so I’ve imagined what we might say:
You would tell me to get my novel (which is complete and has been through a couple of revisions over the years) out from under the coffee table, or off the shelf, or out of the sugar chest (I can’t tell you exactly where I last left the printed copy) and read it again. Two – or can it be three? – years is, umm, plenty long enough for me to have gotten some distance from it.
You would tell me to doodle more, to clip more pictures (or pin more pretty things on Pinterest), to go to more art galleries and antique malls. You would tell me there’s a visual artist within me, waiting to surface and influence my writing.
You would tell me to loosen up as a writer, to follow my instincts about adding more magical realism to my story. There are a few elements there already, but I realized while reading your book how much I love that sort of thing.
You would tell me that my dozen or so rejections are nothing – a fact I know, but it’s still good to hear that 30 rejections did not get you down.
You would tell me that success doesn’t begin to match the joy of creating. I would tell you I hope your success somehow makes it easier for you to create (like, it enabled you to quit your day job? Did you have a day job?)
You would tell me it’s been fun, but you’ve got to run. You’ll see me on my book tour. And then, like the rêveurs of the circus in your book, we would “embrace like old friends, even if [we] have only just met.” Writers are blessed to often make such connections, yes?
Thank you, Erin, for all the inspiration. I know your reading here in Nashville will be great. And if you do have time for coffee? DM me on Twitter. I’ll be there.
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Erin Morgenstern will discuss and sign copies of The Night Circus on January 26 at 6:15 p.m. at the Nashville Public Library, as part of the Salon@615 series.
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Update: I got this tweet from Erin:
@KoryWells Aw! This is so sweet & that is indeed more or less what I might say. (Not sure I’ll have time for coffee but I’ll let you know!)
If coffee works out, I’ll certainly follow up!
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