Fabulous Interviews: Laurie Notaro
The Idiot Girls Action Adventure Club by Laurie Notaro was the September 2006 title for the Library's Fabulous Fourth Fridays online book discussion. Ms. Notaro was unable to join in on the discussion last fall because she was very hard at work on her latest book, There's a (Slight) Chance I Might be Going to Hell. But, she graciously agreed to answer our questions about her about her life as a writer, current projects and how the Idiot Girls got started.
JCL: How did "Idiot Girls" start?
Notaro: Well, there never really was an official club or anything, it was just a Friday or Saturday night when my friends were walking from one Tempe bar to another and I'm sure we were a little tipsy and giggling and tripping and being dorky the way that tipsy girls do, and I said something like, "Well, aren't we the Idiot Girls' Action Adventure Club?" and it just sort of stuck. It seemed a perfect title for my first book, so that's what I used.
JCL: What/when was your first I.G. moment? What made you decide to start up a Yahoo! Group?
Notaro: My friend Kathy Cano Murillo, otherwise known as The Crafty Chica, told me it would be a good idea and wouldn't quit telling me to do it. So I did, and now we have a really strong, cool, fun community and I've met so many people. Sometimes it gets a little crazy, but for the most part, it's a lot of fun.
JCL: Tell us about your latest project?
Notaro: My latest project was novel that came out in May called There's A Slight Chance I Might be Going to Hell about a girl who moves with her husband to a very eccentric Pacific Northwestern town and has trouble making new friends. It's very much based on my own experiences of moving to Eugene, Oregon, and it was an incredible amount of fun to write. I really enjoyed taking fact and blending it with fiction, the options were limitless and that was such a thrill for me. It my regular work, I always know the beginning, middle and end because I'm traditionally a non-fiction writer, so it was great to really mix things up and play around with the plot. I loved it.
JCL: What are you working on now?
Notaro: I'm back working on a new non fiction book that will be out next summer. I'm glad to be back to non-fiction where I can concentrate more on the humor portion of the book, rather than figuring out the logistics of a plot and a variety of characters, but I hope to go back to fiction again after this new book is completed. This book will be somewhat of the real life version of my life in Oregon, but I saved quite a few nuggets that I didn't use in Slight Chance.
JCL: What are you currently reading and who are your favorite authors/genres?
Notaro: I am currently reading Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky and The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri. I really enjoy historical fiction--I love Geraldine Brooks and I've got the new book by Paulette Jiles next on my list. I don't read the same genre of books as what I write for a variety of reasons. It's really important to keep my writing voice as true as I possibly can, and some of the humorists out there are so good, how can you help but being influenced by them, you know? So I just don't read them. I buy their books, I put them on the shelf, but I don't read them. Maybe someday. I guess that's what I'm waiting for.
JCL: How has the Internet impacted your success (i.e. building readership, selling books, etc.)?
Notaro: Oh, certainly, the mailing list I've been building is strictly by email, people can email me from my website, I have an active myspace page and then there's the Idiot Girls' Yahoo Group, which is a very tight, very busy community and is filled with a bunch of people I really like. If it wasn't for the online capacities, my communication with readers would be difficult. But I do remember that it wasn't all that long ago that I would actually get letters and I would actually mail letters back. Stamps and everything.
JCL: What are your book tours like? Do you have a favorite city that you like to visit?
Notaro: I have a couple of favorite cities where the readers never, ever disappoint. I was very lucky and my tour was stocked full of my favorite stops this time around. Los Angeles is also a favorite of mine that I didn't get to go to this year, however, but hopefully it will be on the list next year. Book tours are an odd thing: if you like to eat alone, travel alone, wait for hours in airports alone and watch TV alone, it's paradise, and I actually do enjoy my alone time, so in that respect, it's very cathartic. But you're essentially in a different city almost every day and by the time you figure in travelling time, airport security time, dropping into bookstores to sign stock, and doing whatever media is scheduled for that stop, there is very little to no time for exploring or enjoying a city, and physically, it's pretty hard. The payoff is at the reading when the readers just rock and ask questions and everyone's so nice it's just like hanging out with old friends. That part--which is why you're out there in the first place--is the best. It's wonderful. But otherwise, a book tour is demanding and hard and tiring and I got home four days ago and haven't put a dent in the email I need to answer, the bills I need to pay or the attention I owe my dog and husband. So I have some catching up to do.
JCL: Do you let your Mom or Nana read your I.G. books? If so, what do they think of them?
Notaro: Oh, sure. They both read them. My mother isn't always so happy about the contents, but this is what I do for a living. I try to make people laugh about the mistakes I've made and bad experiences I've had, so I suppose that's a natural reactions. She tried to tell her friends that the portions about her in the book are made up, but they clearly aren't and I can back everything up with eyewitness testimonies from my father and sisters, so I really don't know why she even tries that route. I told her flat out, "If you don't want to be in the books, do what dad does: Go upstairs and be quiet," but the truth is that she can't help herself. She has no idea how funny she is. She just started an extensive collection of HOLIDAY SPATULAS and I'm not kidding. It's the biggest waste of money I've seen since her cupcake candles. Spatulas with Easter eggs on them. Christmas trees. Shamrocks. Little hearts. How can I leave something like that untouched? It would be simply irresponsible.
JCL: What is your writing environment like? Do you have a favorite spot in your house where you like to write?
Notaro: It's a filthy, dirty, littered room in my house that I call an office but is really just an "Excess Stuff Repository" in my house. I have a desk in here, a treadmill, a TV, a painting easel, a drill press, a bed and a computer. I can only move in about two square feet in it, which is enough room to tunnel through to my chair, sit down at my desk and answer your email. I would like a clean office but I'm fooling myself. I've never had a clean office and I've never had a clean room for as long as I've been able to stand on my own two feet and shove things behind a door, under a bed or into a closet.
JCL :In We Thought You'd Be Prettier you said you were getting 10-15 dirty e-mails a day. We get a lot of junk mail here too and we were wondering if you ever thought of posting the e-mails on your Web site as a way to get them to stop? Do you think that would work or just encourage them!? How do you think we can get rid of spammers?
Notaro: I have Gmail now, and it filters my crap mail for me. It's glorious. Yahoo also does the same thing. I get approximately 1000 dirty emails a month wanting to make my who-see-whats-it more attractive for women, and Gmail just whisks them away like bad fruit.
JCL: How much of a transition was it for you to write fiction instead of nonfiction? What, if any, changes did you have to make in your writing style?
Notaro: It was a big transition, but one that I really enjoyed. It was like I had been cooking with pepper and salt for my whole life and someone suddenly opened up a spice cabinet. And certainly, my writing style changed a bit; there's a whole rhythmic thing that happens in non-fiction because I write in first person--you have to build, you have to pull back, you add, then subtract, you have to make the reader YOU. You have to make them understand why you do the things you do. With fiction, I didn't need to do that so much, I could explain motives and reactions with well, an explanation. I could control that universe as a whole. With non-fiction, I would say that I have way more of an objective, you really need to take the reader along with you, side by side, along tangents and hissy fits and melt downs. In fiction, my main character was much nicer than I am. She was much easier to deal with.
JCL: We looked all over your Web site but couldn't find I.G. t-shirts for sale. Have you ever thought of making some?
Notaro: Oh, I have. I did. It's a long story. I gave them away on tour one year. Maybe someday I'll make more, but if I do, who's going to take orders and cash checks and run to the post office and answer emails? Me. And if that happens, people are going to pay me money for T-shirts they might get in say, a year. And that's if I'm on top of things. It's just a beehive of hate waiting to be cracked open, and I can't stand anymore people hating me than they already have reason to, you know?
JCL: Do you have anything else you'd like to add? Comments? A plug for your new book, perhaps?
Notaro: Thank so much for being so nice and wanting to know about my books. You are wonderful.
JCL: How did "Idiot Girls" start?
Notaro: Well, there never really was an official club or anything, it was just a Friday or Saturday night when my friends were walking from one Tempe bar to another and I'm sure we were a little tipsy and giggling and tripping and being dorky the way that tipsy girls do, and I said something like, "Well, aren't we the Idiot Girls' Action Adventure Club?" and it just sort of stuck. It seemed a perfect title for my first book, so that's what I used.
JCL: What/when was your first I.G. moment? What made you decide to start up a Yahoo! Group?
Notaro: My friend Kathy Cano Murillo, otherwise known as The Crafty Chica, told me it would be a good idea and wouldn't quit telling me to do it. So I did, and now we have a really strong, cool, fun community and I've met so many people. Sometimes it gets a little crazy, but for the most part, it's a lot of fun.
JCL: Tell us about your latest project?
Notaro: My latest project was novel that came out in May called There's A Slight Chance I Might be Going to Hell about a girl who moves with her husband to a very eccentric Pacific Northwestern town and has trouble making new friends. It's very much based on my own experiences of moving to Eugene, Oregon, and it was an incredible amount of fun to write. I really enjoyed taking fact and blending it with fiction, the options were limitless and that was such a thrill for me. It my regular work, I always know the beginning, middle and end because I'm traditionally a non-fiction writer, so it was great to really mix things up and play around with the plot. I loved it.
JCL: What are you working on now?
Notaro: I'm back working on a new non fiction book that will be out next summer. I'm glad to be back to non-fiction where I can concentrate more on the humor portion of the book, rather than figuring out the logistics of a plot and a variety of characters, but I hope to go back to fiction again after this new book is completed. This book will be somewhat of the real life version of my life in Oregon, but I saved quite a few nuggets that I didn't use in Slight Chance.
JCL: What are you currently reading and who are your favorite authors/genres?
Notaro: I am currently reading Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky and The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri. I really enjoy historical fiction--I love Geraldine Brooks and I've got the new book by Paulette Jiles next on my list. I don't read the same genre of books as what I write for a variety of reasons. It's really important to keep my writing voice as true as I possibly can, and some of the humorists out there are so good, how can you help but being influenced by them, you know? So I just don't read them. I buy their books, I put them on the shelf, but I don't read them. Maybe someday. I guess that's what I'm waiting for.
JCL: How has the Internet impacted your success (i.e. building readership, selling books, etc.)?
Notaro: Oh, certainly, the mailing list I've been building is strictly by email, people can email me from my website, I have an active myspace page and then there's the Idiot Girls' Yahoo Group, which is a very tight, very busy community and is filled with a bunch of people I really like. If it wasn't for the online capacities, my communication with readers would be difficult. But I do remember that it wasn't all that long ago that I would actually get letters and I would actually mail letters back. Stamps and everything.
JCL: What are your book tours like? Do you have a favorite city that you like to visit?
Notaro: I have a couple of favorite cities where the readers never, ever disappoint. I was very lucky and my tour was stocked full of my favorite stops this time around. Los Angeles is also a favorite of mine that I didn't get to go to this year, however, but hopefully it will be on the list next year. Book tours are an odd thing: if you like to eat alone, travel alone, wait for hours in airports alone and watch TV alone, it's paradise, and I actually do enjoy my alone time, so in that respect, it's very cathartic. But you're essentially in a different city almost every day and by the time you figure in travelling time, airport security time, dropping into bookstores to sign stock, and doing whatever media is scheduled for that stop, there is very little to no time for exploring or enjoying a city, and physically, it's pretty hard. The payoff is at the reading when the readers just rock and ask questions and everyone's so nice it's just like hanging out with old friends. That part--which is why you're out there in the first place--is the best. It's wonderful. But otherwise, a book tour is demanding and hard and tiring and I got home four days ago and haven't put a dent in the email I need to answer, the bills I need to pay or the attention I owe my dog and husband. So I have some catching up to do.
JCL: Do you let your Mom or Nana read your I.G. books? If so, what do they think of them?
Notaro: Oh, sure. They both read them. My mother isn't always so happy about the contents, but this is what I do for a living. I try to make people laugh about the mistakes I've made and bad experiences I've had, so I suppose that's a natural reactions. She tried to tell her friends that the portions about her in the book are made up, but they clearly aren't and I can back everything up with eyewitness testimonies from my father and sisters, so I really don't know why she even tries that route. I told her flat out, "If you don't want to be in the books, do what dad does: Go upstairs and be quiet," but the truth is that she can't help herself. She has no idea how funny she is. She just started an extensive collection of HOLIDAY SPATULAS and I'm not kidding. It's the biggest waste of money I've seen since her cupcake candles. Spatulas with Easter eggs on them. Christmas trees. Shamrocks. Little hearts. How can I leave something like that untouched? It would be simply irresponsible.
JCL: What is your writing environment like? Do you have a favorite spot in your house where you like to write?
Notaro: It's a filthy, dirty, littered room in my house that I call an office but is really just an "Excess Stuff Repository" in my house. I have a desk in here, a treadmill, a TV, a painting easel, a drill press, a bed and a computer. I can only move in about two square feet in it, which is enough room to tunnel through to my chair, sit down at my desk and answer your email. I would like a clean office but I'm fooling myself. I've never had a clean office and I've never had a clean room for as long as I've been able to stand on my own two feet and shove things behind a door, under a bed or into a closet.
JCL :In We Thought You'd Be Prettier you said you were getting 10-15 dirty e-mails a day. We get a lot of junk mail here too and we were wondering if you ever thought of posting the e-mails on your Web site as a way to get them to stop? Do you think that would work or just encourage them!? How do you think we can get rid of spammers?
Notaro: I have Gmail now, and it filters my crap mail for me. It's glorious. Yahoo also does the same thing. I get approximately 1000 dirty emails a month wanting to make my who-see-whats-it more attractive for women, and Gmail just whisks them away like bad fruit.
JCL: How much of a transition was it for you to write fiction instead of nonfiction? What, if any, changes did you have to make in your writing style?
Notaro: It was a big transition, but one that I really enjoyed. It was like I had been cooking with pepper and salt for my whole life and someone suddenly opened up a spice cabinet. And certainly, my writing style changed a bit; there's a whole rhythmic thing that happens in non-fiction because I write in first person--you have to build, you have to pull back, you add, then subtract, you have to make the reader YOU. You have to make them understand why you do the things you do. With fiction, I didn't need to do that so much, I could explain motives and reactions with well, an explanation. I could control that universe as a whole. With non-fiction, I would say that I have way more of an objective, you really need to take the reader along with you, side by side, along tangents and hissy fits and melt downs. In fiction, my main character was much nicer than I am. She was much easier to deal with.
JCL: We looked all over your Web site but couldn't find I.G. t-shirts for sale. Have you ever thought of making some?
Notaro: Oh, I have. I did. It's a long story. I gave them away on tour one year. Maybe someday I'll make more, but if I do, who's going to take orders and cash checks and run to the post office and answer emails? Me. And if that happens, people are going to pay me money for T-shirts they might get in say, a year. And that's if I'm on top of things. It's just a beehive of hate waiting to be cracked open, and I can't stand anymore people hating me than they already have reason to, you know?
JCL: Do you have anything else you'd like to add? Comments? A plug for your new book, perhaps?
Notaro: Thank so much for being so nice and wanting to know about my books. You are wonderful.
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