Up-And-Coming Writers

Bill Cotter :: Fever Chart

Bill Cotter is in the process of filing for bankruptcy. He outlines the intricacy and uncertainties of the complex process from his home in Austin, Texas, during our phone conversation. His financial woes are the result of a failed book restoration business. It’s complicated but he’s patient and explains the process thoroughly because I am interested to learn the finer details.

When I enquire as to what he was doing before taking my call, he admits to have just finished pacing around the room nervously sipping on ice coffee. Cotter confides, “[I was] talking to my girlfriend about what I should not say” This is his first interview. Ever. Had he not made that fact known, I would have been none the wiser. Cotter, for all his self-confessed hermit-like attributes, is a natural conversationalist. A natural penman too.

It’s safe to say that he fits into the struggling artist category; quite neatly in fact. I would think his situation quite dire if it was not for the fact that his debut novel, Fever Chart, is one of the best pieces of literature I have picked up in some time. It’s no stocking-stuffer –

Cotter admits his parents were a little shocked by some of the sex and violence and no longer plan to give it to their bridge friends – but it deals with some sensitive subjects with the tone of normality they deserve. I have faith it will be a grand success for Cotter.

Fever Chart, is a roller-coaster ride through insanity, sanity, absolution and mental – and for some in the novel, physical - oblivion. The novel was eight months in the writing, but a lifetime in the making. It tracks the protagonist, Jerome, as he journeys from the outside world into various institutions; none of which are ever left with the expressed permission of an overseeing medical expert, and many of which are based on Cotter’s own experiences in similar facilities.

You just can’t help but be awed by the work this Texan pens (types). Interestingly enough, considering the weight of the subject matter and Cotter’s fecund writing style, it is an easy read. Each sentence depicts its meaning fluidly. Each situation is delineated with an ease of clarity. Each character becomes a best-loved – or most despised – companion, and sometimes the twain do meet.

Almost unbelievably the book was less than a year in the writing. “It took about eight months to write. Then I tried to get it published for about a year – actually I tried to find an agent for about a year, and got rejection after rejection. I got a little discouraged by that and just stuck it in a drawer.”

Thankfully, after a time, Cotter reached back into the draw, dusted off the manuscript and sent it to McSweeney’s. A year later, in January of 2008, he received an email from the multifaceted publishing house saying they wanted to pick up the novel. Cotter recounts, “That was the most exciting moment of my life.”

by Kat Hartmann

Shady Cosgrove :: She played Elvis

'For reasons I cannot explain
There's some part of me wants to see
Graceland'

Paul Simon's lyrics inspired Shady Cosgrove to uproot her life, kidnap her Australian boyfriend, and busk across the United States. Her aim? To arrive in Graceland in time for the 25th anniversary of The King's death. Then she wrote She Played Elvis: a book, her first, about the adventure.

As the story of Shady's pilgrimage to Graceland unfolds, it becomes obvious that this is a book about more than a simple road trip for the author and her boyfriend.

“‘Graceland’, by Paul Simon is a song that captured Elvis and Americana so well,” Cosgrove tells me when we chat over the phone. “It was such an inspiration. It sounded really sexy to say that I would busk my way to Graceland, but it turned out to be bloody terrifying.”

It sounded pretty romantic to me: travelling on a Greyhound bus, on a shoestring, with your one true love. And Graceland! What an exciting destination. So tacky, so fabulous. Rhinestones and fried banana sandwiches…

This book shows that the reality is far more challenging. Imagine travelling for 24 hours straight on a crowded bus to arrive in a sometimes hostile city, tired, hungry and broke, and then to have to sing for your dinner. Then imagine this going on for two months. The experience would lose you a few rhinestones along the way, but that's the beauty of Cosgrove’s story.

Cosgrove and her boyfriend Scott encounter their fair share of hurdles during their big adventure. From being attacked by bedbugs, to stage fright, to trawling casinos for a free meal, the pair couldn’t even be helped by the help, even being manhandled by security guards.

She says it wasn’t easy. “It was a wild experience. The hardest stuff is when you're tired and hungry and you have to stay on the bus because you have no money for a hotel. That physical exhaustion, I don't handle that stuff very well.”

But giving up was never an option.

“I had these moments where the only thing that kept me there was pride. It was so scary to take that step. You're telling everyone you're doing it and then suddenly you don't have a choice!”

Scott, in the book, is Cosgrove’s calmer, more laidback sidekick. He is cool when she is hysterical, a rock when she is down, and her biggest fan, when there were none. And Cosgrove isn’t afraid to tell me that, “It’s like a 77,000 word love letter to Scott. The story is obviously about a woman in love with this man. This guy's a saint, he puts up with so much. He may be a simple guy, but emotionally he is very complex.”

The pilgrimage was an emotional rollercoaster for Cosgrove, who felt like a foreigner in her own country, but on the other hand wasn't accepted as an Australian. In She Played Elvis, she is trapped between two worlds. “Am I considering myself Aussie or American? The whole journey was about not being an American anymore. But I am here and I open my mouth and I sound like an American. There are times when I would rather not, believe me.”

Throw in an eccentric mother, an estranged father and a series of larger-than-life characters, and you have a classic road trip adventure. But it's also a moving story of family, home, love and loss and of course, Elvis.

by Kristen Dagg

Eleanor Catton

As the youngest daughter of a librarian and a philosophy professor, it is perhaps not surprising that Eleanor Catton has chosen to immerse herself in the magnificent world of words. What may be surprising though is that the young author’s debut novel is all about a high school sex scandal – a potent issue with which she has not had personal experience.

Born in Canada in 1985, and making the trek to the greener pastures of New Zealand with her family at age six, Catton seems to have always had ink flowing through her veins. The composition of short stories as a child progressed to a strong interest in words and the performing arts through her school years, contributing to a journey that has certainly shaped the award-winning manuscript she currently has on the critics’ table.

The Rehearsal is a novel that delves into themes often left untouched by seasoned authors, let alone those striking out with their first literature baby. It follows the tale of two schools – one dealing with a sordid tale of desire, while the other produces a play based on the happenings affecting their disoriented peers.

Many commentators are excited about Catton’s bold debut, suggesting she brings something unique to the literary sphere, punching well above her years. And although she’s been recognised for her efforts with a burgeoning swag of awards including the Adam Prize in Creative Writing and the 2008 Glenn Schaeffer Fellowship to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Catton still scours the internet for reviews of The Rehearsal. The most common criticism of the work seems to be that it is all head, with little heart. Indeed, a postmodern work such as this, that deals with such a raw issue in a way that does not garner teary-eyed reactions, is sure to attract such comments. But then again, without the startlingly different approach to both the inherent themes and the structure of the novel, Catton would not be now jet-setting, stack of books in hand, successfully promoting her wares to the global reading population.

Given she’s currently just 23 years old, Catton’s future is one that those in the know are keen to follow. Word on the street is that she has a handful of exciting projects in the pipeline, including a story set in the fairly unchartered territory of the 1860s gold rush that occurred across the Tasman in her childhood stomping ground. And another venture, a short series of fantasy novels, may well bring her admiration of Watchmen creator, Alan Moore, to the fore.

Here’s hoping that her preoccupation with achieving positive reviews for her debut does not impact her ability to write what remains true to her, rather than alter her words to fit the mainstream mould.

By Liz Niland

Reif Larsen :: The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet

They're heralding his first book a masterpiece, like nothing you've ever picked up before, and his story itself a fairytale. The infamous Mr Stephen King has called it "a treasure" a book that "does the impossible" by combining "Mark Twain, Thomas Pynchon and Little Miss Sunshine". Many a moon before it hit bookstore shelves, it sent New York's top 10 publishing houses into a bidding war - as each one vied to be picked as the one to publish Reif Larsen's beautiful book The Selected Works of T.S Spivet.

Larsen, a mere 29 years old, lives in Brooklyn and is a graduate of Columbia University's prestigious MFA writing program. The son of two artists and a meditating, practicing Buddhist, Larsen knew early on his realm was in writing - but he also knew that he would forever be seduced by visual imagery, especially arrows, diagrams and graphs. Larsen's avid interest in imagery morphed into and tangled with his writing, and together with his obsession for cowboys, westerns and questions of ancestry, it formed the sturdy foundations of what was fated to become one of the world's best sellers.

What was it exactly that prompted this publishing house war? Well, basically, it's the work itself: startling, stunningly original, well-researched and intelligent, well written and, to top that off, amazing looking. Its looks derive from the adorable pictures in the margins (known as marginalia) that appear generously throughout the work. The marginalia are used to illustrate and support the goings on in the brilliant mind of the protagonist, 12-year-old Montanan genius cartographer T.S. Spivet, who maps his way through life in his own unique effort to understand it - documenting his thoughts and interpretations, his findings and his conclusions as he goes (which then cleverly appear in the sidebars for your viewing pleasure and contain vital elements of the story's plot). His boundless fascination with maps leads to maps of loneliness, of smells, of dinner table conversations, of train routes and of the resilience of memory, supplementing a tale of mystery, travel and adventure.

While you might be, as many would be (and as I pretty much am), insanely envious of Reif Larsen for obvious reasons, it's difficult to begrudge him for his success. While some may say his approach is a clichéd one, he seems like a pretty good guy; a really talented and fortunate one. It seems his heart is in the right place, simply wanting to make something enjoyable for people to read. He did all of the drawings himself and strongly believes in the future of books. Good luck to him.

FYI - it was Penguin Press who won the war, securing the honour with an offer of an advance just shy of a million bucks for T.S. Spivet: a sum as unique as the book itself for a first time writer.

T.S Spivet's official website is at www.tsspivet.com

By Hazel J Taylor.