Monday, November 16, 2009
THE ZEROS


I try to stockpile possible story ideas, I keep a sort of running log that moves from month to month in my organizer. And one of my favorite ones is "One Night At A Rock Show". Like do a book, that is just a bunch of different characters, all of them going to a show, and all the stuff that happens, breakups, hook ups, getting in trouble, etc. I remember going to concerts with my friends in high school, and that is one version of it, and possibly the more commercial version, but I also love the indie rock version, which I could do better I think, and might have slightly more interesting characters.

Which makes me think of the ZERO's song, "Wild Weekend". The lyrics of which I'll want to include somehow:

It's gonna be a wild weekend
I just know it
I'm feelin' crazy
And I gotta show it


Friday, October 16, 2009
TEEN READ WEEK


Teen reading week is almost here. That would be October 18 to 24.

To celebrate I'm reading on October 20 at the Robertson Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. That's at 1719 S Robertson, in West Hollywood. It's next to the gas station at the corner of Robertson and Airdrome - it looks a bit like a grounded, green ship hull.

Oct. 20 is a tuesday, the reading is at 4 pm. (We'll stall a little so the teens can wander over after school.)

The best thing about it is: I'm reading with FRANCESCA LIA BLOCK. Of WEETZIE BAT fame! She is one of my most favorite literary artists of any genre. OH MY GOD, I love her weird cool beautiful elegant stories! And I've never met her before. So that will be super fun.




To help celebrate here's a little bit from my book Destroy All Cars, on the subject of teens.


MY LIFE AS A TEENAGER

Being a teen is an exciting time for a young person. It is the first stage of your life when you’re associated with a decade. You start off as a “baby”. Then you’re a “child”. Then you graduate onto the conveyor belt of decades. First it’s your “teens”. Then it’s your “twenties”. Then your “thirties”, your “forties”, your “fifties” and so on until you die.

People who actually are “teens”, think of the word as a bit cheesy, but they are still attracted to things that are marketed as “teen”. This is because they are curious what other people think “teens” are supposed to be like, what they’re supposed to do. They are not quite sure what a “teen” is, even though they are one.

Despite the cheese-factor, the word “teen” does help teens find each other. Certain channels on TV are for “teens”. At the book store there is a “Teen” section. At one vacation spot I know, there is a place called the “TeenZone”, where they have French fries and video games and picnic benches to hang out on. Teens like to “hang out”. Teens like candy, and lipgloss, and Skittles. They like heavy metal. Teen girls like shows about other teen girls having lavish sweet sixteen parties. Teen boys like blowing stuff up.

Teens, being younger than adults, are envied by adults. Teens have longer to live. They can goof around more. They don’t have as many cares and worries. Also they are cooler. They are better looking. They are better dancers.

But teens are also easily confused. They don’t understand the world. They get frustrated. They have special chemicals going through them that give them acne and make them sexually overactive. Teen boys masturbate frequently. They can’t help it. You can pretty much grab any teen boy and accuse him of being being a “masturbator” and you will be right. Do teen girls masturbate? No one knows.

Teens are at the beginning of life. For this reason one of the main characteristics of the teen is his or her inexperience. Teens spend most of their time learning to do things, how to study, how to hold a job, how to not get caught masturbating. But since the teen is so inexperienced there are often complications, problems arise and the teen is not prepared.


Sunday, September 13, 2009
DESTROY ALL CARS in the New York Times Book Review




Fun review of DESTROY ALL CARS in the New York Times Book Review this week. My favorite part:

James Hoff, the high school misfit at the center of “Destroy All Cars,” makes an art form of his bad attitude. When he’s not railing against cars or “The Lameness of People in General,” he’s fixated on his ex-girlfriend Sadie: “Other girls are CONSUMER AMERICANS. They are tedious and superficial, and at some point they will want to know what my problem is.”


Thursday, September 03, 2009
GIRL


I always thought my first book GIRL suffered a bit from having a not so great cover. Some may remember that one. It had a pink spine and a pink title and a weird black and white picture of a girl that appeared to be from the seventies though the whole point of the book was it's time and place, i.e. the northwest music world at the height of the Nirvana era.

Anyway, so then for years I begged the publisher to put a new cover on it. Which normally is out of the question, but GIRL kept selling, and went through numerous printings, so in that case, it seemed somewhat in the realm of possibility. But it never happened.

So then years later, after never getting anywhere with my letters and emails, a friend that taught high school managed to get a picture of a whole class of hers reading GIRL. I gave this to my agent, JODI REAMER, who had the brilliant idea to send it to the people at SIMON PULSE and bingo, I finally got my new cover.

And eventually, thanks to another high school teacher friend, I now have a new picture to go with it. (see below)


Monday, August 31, 2009
GIRL



Saturday, August 01, 2009
DESTROY ALL CARS: INTERVIEW






















This is an interview i did for a blog called Abe Lincoln's Hat. (http://lincolnshat.blogspot.com/)

The motto of which is: "Abe Lincoln used to store important stuff in his hat. Now I'm storing them there as well."


1. In Destroy All Cars, the book was focused on a boy named James Hoff. Were any of the specific things that happened to James actual experiences of yours?


Yes, when i was a junior in high school i went through this "revolutionary" phase where I became interested in political writings (like The Communist Manifesto) and anything revolutionary through history. At the same time I developed crushes on these cool artsy girls that hung out at the library. so i went down to the library every night and drank espressos and sat around talking about revolution and philosophy with these girls. It was my favorite time in high school.


2. Following the theme of my last question, which (if any) of your characters were based on people you had met in real life?


James is based loosely on me. Nobody else is really based on anybody real. I never do that. Not by choice, but when you're making up a story, you have to make up the people. it's actually easier that way because characters in books can be more TYPES whereas real people sometimes do things you'd never expect and don't always follow their types.


3. As you said the entire book was really meant to be a metaphor. James had some very strong opinions about the environment and other things. Were any of James's opinions similar to yours?


yeah, on a really basic level his opinions are the same as mine, but of course I'm a grown up so I am much more rational and reasonable. James style is the most important thing to the book. He is having the classic problem that smart young people always have, which is that it is TOTALLY OBVIOUS to him that grownups are by their nature going to take the easy way out, because they are old and set in their ways. And also because they're not that smart and don't really know what's going on and just follow each other's opinions on things and rarely think for themselves. He's like Holden Caulfield in that way: he sees that people are basically phony and full of crap but he's just a kid, so what can he do?


4. Throughout the book James writes many reports for his English class which get better as the year goes on. He begins to understand more about how to write more fluently, and by the end he begins writing for a famous opinionated website. Was that anything like your writing experiences?


Yeah, of course he gets to be a better writer and he does evolve over the course of the book but he doesn't really change his outlook. And his essay about Karl Marx is his best "school"-type essay. so I don't know that he becomes a better writer. I think he is coming to grips with Sadie and that's why ON NATURE is really his most heart-felt moment. When he really expresses the sadness and pain he's felt throughout. usually he uses his pain to be funny. But in ON NATURE, he writes about his feelings in a really touching beautiful way.



AUGUST = FOOTBALL


When I was a teenager, August meant two things were right around the corner: football season and hunting season.

I know, how much of a redneck am I?

I can't really translate my hunting experiences into my books, or my current life really, but playing high school football is a pretty universal experience. If I was living in Portland right now I would be cruising by some of the various high school practice fields to watch the grueling August "Daily doubles" (two work outs in one day.)

I loved daily doubles. I loved everything about football. I loved practice. I loved tackling drills. I loved wearing the same smelly practice uniform day after day.

Both my grandfathers played big time college football. They were so awesome. They limped around in their old age. Their knees shot. Their faces like stone.

I loved running into people. the smashing, the crashing. But my favorite thing was receiving punts, going out for passes, defending against the pass, any play when the ball was up in the air and everyone held their breath and for a second there was this strange quiet, and this strange suspension of all action and then the ball came down and then CRASH everyone started getting crushed again.



NEW YORK


Heading back to New York for a quick stop and then up to the Cape. Ah New York. I stay connected to it by reading a lot of VICE FASHION DO'S AND DON'TS which is still my favorite magazine feature in the world.

I think these two are DO'S. But they might just as well be DONTS. I don't care. We are all winners here.


Sunday, May 31, 2009
"ESSENTIAL SUMMER READING: DESTROY ALL CARS"


Enjoyed this funny review from TEEN VOGUE of my new book DESTROY ALL CARS. It's fun to see which parts different reviewers pick out to quote. The "rioting strip mall goers" is one of my favorite parts.

"Some of the best lines in Blake Nelson's newly-released novel Destroy All Cars are descriptions of the gas-guzzling vehicles his seventeen-year-old narrator, James, so fervently hates: A friend's mother's SUV "has a huge metal battering ram on the front in case you need to punch through any walls . . . on the way home from the bowling alley" and "little metal grates around the signal lights, in case rioting strip-mall goers decide to attack you with baseball bats while you're signaling a left turn." But as much as I liked the humor, I thought that the real heart of the story was pseudo-nihilistic James's ongoing affection for his idealistic ex-girlfriend, Sadie. When she asks him to help save a local pond, he puts aside his default pessimism and pitches in--will James and Sadie get back together, or will James just get over it? I'm not telling, but I will say that you should definitely check out this book, from the author who wrote the source material for Gus Van Sant's 2007 indie Paranoid Park."


Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Publisher's Weekly Review


First book review, compliments of PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.


Publishers Weekly, May 25, 2009

Destroy All Cars Blake Nelson. Scholastic Press, $17.99 (224p) ISBN 978-0-545-10474-6
High school student James Hoff is a passionate writer who rants about everything from sheeplike “Consumer Americans” to the destruction of the environment. He also writes about his ex-girlfriend Sadie, who he feels is a lightweight when it comes to saving the world. While Sadie is involved in positive initiatives like community food drives, James prefers a more radical approach (“The automobile is the foundation upon which our unsustainable lifestyle is based. They must be DESTROYED. All of them. Even the cute ones”). His pugnacious determination is admirable, but even he admits uninspired (“The problem is I don't believe in anything”). James comes to realize that his nihilism, both personal and political, is ultimately alienating him from others and preventing him from reaching his potential. James's journal entries and the combative essays that he writes (and rewrites) for his English teacher make up the brunt of the narrative and demonstrate his eventual growth. Nelson (Paranoid Park) offers an elegant and bittersweet story of a teenager who is finding his voice and trying to make meaning in a world he often finds hopeless. Ages 15–up. (May)