Celebrating One Year of LitChat January 24, 2010
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Topic of the Week: January 25-29, 2009
LitChat celebrates its one year anniversary this week. LitChat’s Twitter account was created on January 29, 2009 and on the same day we created a blog (www.litchat.net) to augment our web presence.
Notice in the tweet above that our first chats were held Monday through Friday. Early topics were discussions of what books people were reading, what books were releasing, and what books hit the bestseller lists that week. Three weeks of daily twitter chats proved too much and in the fouth week of chats we dropped to three days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The first author who joined regularly in the conversations was Kristy Kiernan (@KristyKiernan), who immediately understood the potential of #litchat for building literary community and promoting books. Kiernan went on to become the second author guest host on March 13, 2009.
We launched our first book-specific chat during the week of March 2, 2009, Current Events in Fiction–Novels that Mirror the News, inspired by the book Shimmer by Eric Barnes (@EricBarnes2). Barnes stepped in as the first guest host of #litchat on March 6, 2009. We learned how to archive chats in April, preserving our first #litchat on April 17, 2009 featuring poet Dobby Gibson (@DobbyGibson).
In a single year, LitChat has grown beyond expectations, creating a community of more than 5,000 people who read widely, who support literacy, and enjoy talking about books, writing and getting books into the hands of readers. Regular participants of #litchat include people from around the globe, many of them staying up late or rising very early to catch the chats.
We took our passion for books and reading into the holiday season with the creation of the LitChat Books Are Great Gifts campaign designed to promote book sales. The crowning achievement of this campaign was the first ever auction held live through Twitter that raised more than $1350 for The Reading Tree, a charity that recycles used books for placement into classrooms in poor schools across the globe.
This week in #litchat we’ve invited many of last year’s guest hosts to join us, including Kristy Kiernan (@KristyKiernan), Virginia Deberry (@deberryandgrant), Carleen Brice (@carleenbrice), Eugenia Kim,(@Eugenia_Kim), Luis Alberto Urrea (@Urrealism), Trish Ryan (@Trishryan), Maggie Dana (@maggiedana), Jag Bhalla (@hangingnoodles) and Kristina Riggle (@KrisRiggle) and Lauren Baratz-Logsted (@LaurenBaratzL). Join us to hear updates on where they’ve been, how their books have been received and what they’re working on at present. We hope you’ll join us on Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week to join in the conversation. Remember, LitChat is all books. All the time.
Founded by journalist and author Carolyn Burns Bass, LitChat was inspired by the successful #journchat founded and moderated by PR guru Sarah Evans (@PRSarahEvans).
Fictionalizing Real People January 18, 2010
Posted by litchat in fiction, historical fiction, literary fiction, weekly topics.add a comment
Topic of the Week: January 18-22, 2010
Stories told and written about historical characters have been around for centuries. Shakespeare shaped the way many people view the Roman Empire through his Julius Caesar and its offspring Antony and Cleopatra, not to mention the historical views of Britain he made through his Henry and Richard plays. Whether intentional or not, the use of real people in fiction can influence readers in the perception of actual events. Smart people sort the hype from the history, yet ideas and suggestions cling and shade our perceptions whether we want them to or not. This week in #litchat we’re discussing real people as characters in fiction.
Joining us on Friday, January 22 is Melanie Benjamin, author Alice I Have Been, a novel sweeping through the life of Alice Liddell, the real girl who inspired Charles Dodgson’s Alice in Wonderland books published under in the pseudonym, Lewis Carroll. Rumors of pedophilia on the part of Charles Dodgson have tainted the reputation of the man, yet the author remains one of the most brilliant writers of all time.
Written in a first person narrative from Alice’s point of view, the story reads as if penned by a Victorian woman of the era. Many theories have been raised about the relationship between Dodgson and the Liddell girls, particularly Alice. Benjamin takes a fresh and even controversial approach with Alice I Have Been. Guilt, wealth, betrayal and loss follow Benjamin’s Alice through a lifetime of merry-go-round ups and downs. Benjamin’s Alice reveals her penultimate secret–what everyone wants to know–in the final chapter. And it’s worth waiting for.
An avid reader all her life, Benjamin firmly believes that a lifetime of reading is the best education a writer can have. While attending Indiana University—Purdue University at Indianapolis, Melanie performed in many community theater productions before meeting her husband, moving to the Chicago area and raising two sons. Writing was always beckoning, however, and soon she began writing for local magazines and newspapers before venturing into her first love, fiction. As Melanie Hauser, she published two contemporary novels.
By incorporating her passion for history and biography, Melanie, now writing as Melanie Benjamin, has finally found her niche writing historical fiction, concentrating on the “stories behind the stories.” ALICE I HAVE BEEN is her first historical novel; she is currently at work on her second, also to be published by Delacorte Press.
Follow her on Twitter: @MelanieBen
Getting the Scoop January 10, 2010
Posted by litchat in chick lit, weekly topics.1 comment so far
Topic of the Week: January 11-18, 2010
What would you do to get what you’ve always wanted? Would you out a friend in the closet to get a promotion? Would you write a derivative trendy novel to get a book deal? Would you sell your father’s prized collection of Marvel Comics to fund a breast augmentation? This week in LitChat we’re discussing Getting the Scoop–What would you do to get a story (or the thing you’ve always wanted).
In her novel, Spin, author Catherine McKenzie takes you on a fast-paced journey of self-discovery in this wickedly candid and genuinely funny story of a woman who must make a Sophie’s Choice for her career. McKenzie’s protagonist, a 30-year-old journalist named Kate, blows an interview for her dream job at a trendy music magazine when she shows up hungover from a bender the night before. All is not lost when they dangle a second chance at the spot if she goes undercover in a posh rehab lodge to get the scoop on the latest celebrity party girl. 
What Kate learns about herself while in rehab drives the character development, and though the ending is fairly predictable, the battle of scruples and schemes within Kate and how she triumphs will make Spin one of the hottest beach reads of 2010.
Catherine McKenzie was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, where she now works as a litigator. When not serving on many professional associations, she sits on the board of the Montreal Children’s Library and Bishop’s College School, and teaches part-time at McGill University’s faculty of law. Spin is her first novel. We hope it’s not her last novel.
Translations January 4, 2010
Posted by litchat in historical fiction, literary fiction, multi-cultural fiction, translations.add a comment
Topic of the Week
Peter H. Fogtdal
Welcome to a new year with LitChat. Later this month (January 25-29) we’ll have a one-year anniversary week with a reunion of guest hosts who’ve helped make #litchat a fun and informative place to spend an hour every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
This week in #litchat we’re discussing books that have been translated from one language into another. Literary translation isn’t just changing words from one language to another, it requires the ear of a linguist and the compositional mastery of a writer to ensure the author’s original voice shines through.
On Friday, January 8th, Peter H. Fogtdal, well-known to #litchat followers as @danish_novelist, joins us as guest host. Peter has written 12 novels in Danish. Three have been translated into French, two into Portuguese, one into English, The Tsar’s Dwarf (Hawthorne Books).
According to Peter, the translation of The Tsar’s Dwarf by Tiina Nunnally completely captures the rhythm of his writing in the Danish language. The Tsar’s Dwarf is the story of Soerine, a deformed female dwarf from Denmark, who is given as a gift to Tsar Peter the Great. Smitten by her freakishness and intellect, the Tsar takes her against her will to St. Petersburg, where she becomes a jester in his court. There, she lives a life that both compels and repels her. In this inhospitable milieu, Soerine’s intelligence and detached wit provide her some small measure of protection — until disaster strikes in the shape of a priest who wants to “save” her. You can read the opening chapter excerpt here.
Peter is at work on his 13th novel, this one he’s writing in English.
Peter won the Francophonian Literature Prize in 2005 (Le Prix Litteraire de la Francophonie) for Le Front Chantilly (Flødeskumsfronten). He splits his time between Copenhagen, Denmark and teaching literature at Portland State University in Oregon. He maintains an award winning blog DANISH ACCENT that people with bad taste find funny, http://fogtdal.blogspot.com (Peter’s words, not LitChat’s).
Twitter: @Danish_Novelist
