Thanks again!

The US paperback of Magic Lessons will be out in March 2007 (at the same time as the hardcover of the third book in the trilogy). The Australian paperback will be out this September.

Thanks!

His sexism though. Erk.

DeborahB: Thought you might like it.

Orhan thought he wanted to be a painter from the ages of 18-22. so he lived with his divorced mother in istanbul, painting.

when he was 22, he decided to be a novelist. so he continued to live with his divorced mother and write novels. and hang out in cafes, from what i can tell, but other little income-acquirement, from what i could tell. and he spent the next eight years living off his mother, before he published a book.

and we all know what income a first novel brings in.

and i wanted to say, get a job?

but Pamuk talked only of turkish men and western men who write — the only time he ever mentioned “women” was when he talked about the scarved women on the streets of Istanbul, and how Western Men are always interested in them.

oh, and how he wrote novels because of the aunt who told him “don’t break your toys.” so now he can break the toys all he wanted.

and then talked in general terms about “human rights” and the necessity of freedom of speech and noble things.

but come on — we’re all here in new york city, at a lecture for PEN on freedom of speech, as part of a world voices community, at the cooper union. we lined up for an hour to get decent seats. you’re preaching to the choir, here. you dont’ have to tell us that it’s necessary.

so .. i don’t know. i have independence issues.
but hey, i’m an agent. all i can think of is waiting all those years to drag the book out of him.

everybody else seemed to sigh and say wow, eight years before you finally sold a novel.
you poor struggling thing.
i wanted to say “eight years before you learned to write well enough to sell a novel.”
but no. when margaret atwood responded to this, she said “yes, me too, that agony of the first novel rejections. of course i was devastated at the time, but i realizes how bad it was now!

i mean, english isn’t his first language. but still, he seemed pretty okay with having eloborate conversations. and his books are supposed to be translated from the Turkish beautifully.
but it made me glad i hadn’t been able to purchase my name is red as i’d planned to, because i really didn’t want to read it anymore.

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*ok this is a justine blog, and i can admit i wrote this as “snot,” sniggered, and considered leaving it there. but i actually had something to say, so here. snigger.