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Live Chat with Kristopher Jansma

 Live Chat with Kristopher Jansma, THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS(12/19/2012) 
3:53
Nora - EarlyWord: 
I see some folks gathering for our live online chat with the Kris Jansma, author of THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS, coming in March from Viking. We’ll begin chatting at 4:00. While we are waiting to begin, here’s the cover of the book:
Wednesday December 19, 2012 3:53 Nora - EarlyWord
3:53
 Nora - EarlyWord
Jacket for THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS by Kris Jansma
Wednesday December 19, 2012 3:53 
3:56
Nora - EarlyWord: 
The book has been getting some pretty impressive reviews.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 3:56 Nora - EarlyWord
3:56
 Nora - EarlyWord
Wednesday December 19, 2012 3:56 
3:56
 Nora - EarlyWord
Wednesday December 19, 2012 3:56 
3:57
 Nora - EarlyWord
Wednesday December 19, 2012 3:57 
3:59
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Chat participants -- you can send your questions through at any time. They'll go into a queue, and I’ll submit as many of them as I can to Kris before the end of the chat. Don’t worry about typos – and please forgive any on our part.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 3:59 Nora - EarlyWord
4:00
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Those of you joining us today will be able to enter to win a boxed set of PENGUIN SELECTS -- ARC’s for six books coming out in the upcoming season. We will tell you how later.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:00 Nora - EarlyWord
4:00
 Nora - EarlyWord
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:00 
4:01
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Penguin encourages Today’s participants to leave their own reviews here -- http://bit.ly/YlMDLz -- or tweet a review using #PenguinSelects
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:01 Nora - EarlyWord
4:01
Kristopher Jansma: 
Hello everyone and thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me and Nora this afternoon! I work with a lot of librarians, so I know how busy many of you are at this time of year, but I’m glad we have a chance to talk a bit about The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:01 Kristopher Jansma
4:01
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Hey, Kris, thanks for joining us.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:01 Nora - EarlyWord
4:02
Kristopher Jansma: 
Hi Nora!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:02 Kristopher Jansma
4:02
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Kris, We’ve seen how others have described your book – how would you describe it?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:02 Nora - EarlyWord
4:03
Kristopher Jansma: 
Well, there are a lot of ways to describe The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards… I always have trouble thinking of where to begin. First, it’s a book about a friendship between two writers. But it is also a love story, and a journey around the world…
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:03 Kristopher Jansma
4:03
Kristopher Jansma: 
In many ways it is sort of a book about books. What makes us want to write them, and what does it cost the people who write them?

At first I was nervous to say that, because it's a bit of a cliche I guess, to write a debut novel about a would-be novelist! But at its heart, I think this is a book about people who love stories, and who wonder if people can really change or not, the way they do in stories.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:03 Kristopher Jansma
4:04
Nora - EarlyWord: 
The advance reviews have been pretty amazing [see above]. That must feel pretty great. Were there any surprises in what they said?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:04 Nora - EarlyWord
4:04
Kristopher Jansma: 
Hah, yes, many surprises...
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:04 Kristopher Jansma
4:05
Kristopher Jansma: 
I’ve been very heartened by the reviews so far. When I was writing the book, I really didn’t know if it would appeal to a wide audience or not. Because I’m an English professor, I had big ambitions to write something really literary, with this cagey narrator and all these nested stories…
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:05 Kristopher Jansma
4:05
[Comment From Lucy Lucy : ] 
Coming in a bit late but looking forward to the chat session.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:05 Lucy
4:05
Kristopher Jansma: 
but at the same time I wanted to write something adventurous that everyday readers, like many of my students, would sincerely enjoy. And I sort of believed that it should really be possible to do both things at the same time. And I think the biggest surprise so far has been that the book seems to have genuinely moved readers in both crowds, and that makes me very happy.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:05 Kristopher Jansma
4:05
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Hey, Lucy, Welcome!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:05 Nora - EarlyWord
4:06
Nora - EarlyWord: 
The advance reactions can be summarized with the word “inventive.” (Mira Bartok, author The Memory Palace, says your protagonist is “Houdini, Tom Ripley and Hemingway rolled into one.”) What were some of your inspirations?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:06 Nora - EarlyWord
4:06
Kristopher Jansma: 
That was such a great quote! Mira is one of my favorites, to be sure...
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:06 Kristopher Jansma
4:06
[Comment From Sue D Sue D : ] 
In my opinion with a beginning writer if the reader feels immediately comfortable and 'lost' in the writer's world, that is a major accomplishment.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:06 Sue D
4:06
Kristopher Jansma: 
And she's right on there. Tom Ripley is a terrific character, and one who was definitely in my mind as I wrote. I’m a big fan of both Patricia Highsmith’s original Ripley and of the interpretation that Anthony Minghella did in the film with Matt Damon…
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:06 Kristopher Jansma
4:07
Kristopher Jansma: 
I have always had a big thing for unreliable narrators – from the unnamed speaker in Henry James’s The Aspern Papers, to Holden Caulfield, and Ellison’s Invisible Man. The fun thing about writing this narrator is that he’s very different from my actual self. For one thing, I’m a terrible liar in real life, which might be why I love to write characters like this who can lie with impunity!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:07 Kristopher Jansma
4:07
[Comment From BethMills2 BethMills2 : ] 
Really liked the opening chapter--it pulled me into the story right away--and loved the way story circled back to the same setting at the end.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:07 BethMills2
4:07
Kristopher Jansma: 
Thanks Sue! I know I certainly got lost in it myself, and I'm glad that comes through to the reader as well!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:07 Kristopher Jansma
4:08
Nora - EarlyWord: 
You also mentioned some paintings and photos that inspired you,
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:08 Nora - EarlyWord
4:09
[Comment From Kelly C Kelly C : ] 
I just started reading the book yesterday in anticipation of today's chat, and I could not put it down. My to-do list was tossed aside!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:09 Kelly C
4:09
[Comment From Anne Anne : ] 
I am some intrigued by the narrator's voice that I am finding very hard to put the book down to get some work done.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:09 Anne
4:09
Kristopher Jansma: 
Beth - that's great to hear. I actually wrote that beginning very late in the process, trying to think of a way to frame it all... and I got the idea from another great book: The Madonnas of Echo Park, where the author, Brando Skyhorse uses a technique of that type of Author's Note, which is really part of the story.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:09 Kristopher Jansma
4:11
Kristopher Jansma: 
Kelly and Anne - that's great! People have been telling me their holiday shopping may not get done because of my book. I sure hope that doesn't happen!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:11 Kristopher Jansma
4:11
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Here's a question that came in advance from Audra --

As you were writing The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards, was there a particular scene or character that surprised you?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:11 Nora - EarlyWord
4:12
Kristopher Jansma: 
Great question, Audra. Actually, the book was really constantly surprising me. I wrote it one chapter at a time, but not always in order. So sometimes I would suddenly feel like I understood something new and important about the characters, and have to write a new chapter that happened before the others, to set that up...
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:12 Kristopher Jansma
4:13
[Comment From Lucy Lucy : ] 
Love the quotes at the beginning of each chapter. Nice setting of the stage...
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:13 Lucy
4:13
Kristopher Jansma: 
But two big questions I didn't know the answer to until the end were, one, if Julian would recover, and two, if the narrator really loves Evelyn/The Princess or if it was just a fantasy.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:13 Kristopher Jansma
4:13
Nora - EarlyWord: 
I agree with Lucy and noticed how many were about truth, which is clearly an obsession of yours.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:13 Nora - EarlyWord
4:14
[Comment From readingenvy readingenvy : ] 
So you are saying that even you don't know what to think of your unreliable narrator? Ha!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:14 readingenvy
4:14
Kristopher Jansma: 
Yes, that's very true (hah). As I was writing, I was grappling with a lot of questions about fiction. I'd heard so many people dismiss fiction as "made-up" and I really believed (and still do) that it can be more truthful than non-fiction sometimes.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:14 Kristopher Jansma
4:15
[Comment From Lucy Lucy : ] 
But 'truth' is at the center of the novel, so again, very apt quotes ...
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:15 Lucy
4:16
[Comment From Kelly C Kelly C : ] 
Reviewers have mentioned all the literary references woven into your book, but I think the reader can enjoy the story without catching all those references. (I must admit I'm not seeing them all but love the book anyway!) So it reaches a lot of different levels of readers.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:16 Kelly C
4:16
Kristopher Jansma: 
Thank you. Yes, those quotes really helped me figure those ideas out.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:16 Kristopher Jansma
4:16
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Kris -- The book is set in many different places. Does this represent your own love of travel?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:16 Nora - EarlyWord
4:17
Kristopher Jansma: 
Kelly - That was really important to me. I wanted people to read it and, if they didn't get some of the references, to still enjoy the book but also to maybe go and read up on the things they hadn't understood.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:17 Kristopher Jansma
4:17
Chris Kahn: 
I'm here now! Was watching on the site.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:17 Chris Kahn
4:18
Kristopher Jansma: 
Nora, yes, I do love to travel, as does my wife, and we both wish we had the time to do more of it! Since I was a little kid, reading has always been a mode of transportation, and that’s why I wanted to set the book in so many places. The more I travel, the more I feel the world connecting to itself – and that’s also something great books can do.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:18 Kristopher Jansma
4:18
Kristopher Jansma: 
Hi Chris, glad you could make it!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:18 Kristopher Jansma
4:18
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Had you been to all the places you describe?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:18 Nora - EarlyWord
4:18
Kristopher Jansma: 
Oh, I wish I had been to all those places! Unfortunately I haven’t… at least not yet! I have spent time in North Carolina, although I did not grow up there, and I have been living in New York City for the past nine years…
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:18 Kristopher Jansma
4:19
Kristopher Jansma: 
I did get to go to Ghana with my in-laws, who are both Professors and once spent their sabbaticals teaching at Kwame Nkrumah University in Kumasi. But I had actually already written the “Doppelganger” chapter before I went to visit them. All the research I did the hard way, online and in (several!) libraries. But once I got there I was able to check my facts and found, to my delight, that I’d gotten pretty close to the real sense of the place…
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:19 Kristopher Jansma
4:19
Kristopher Jansma: 
After I sold the book, my wife and I traveled to Luxembourg and I was able to check a lot of facts for the last chapter, but only after I’d already written it. I still haven’t been to Sri Lanka, but a friend of mine from college who has family there was able to help me with that chapter. And my in-laws took a trip to Iceland and I got to look at some of their pictures, so that helped with the Writers’ Colony chapter.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:19 Kristopher Jansma
4:19
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Ah, Ha! You hadn't been to those places ... that makes you a little unreliable yourself. What happend to "write what you know"?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:19 Nora - EarlyWord
4:20
Kristopher Jansma: 
Haha. You know, that is some advice that I have always found very limiting! I tell my students to write what they want to know.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:20 Kristopher Jansma
4:20
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Here's a photo of you in Ghana with your wife...
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:20 Nora - EarlyWord
4:20
Kristopher Jansma: 
Then you have a good excuse to go and learn something new!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:20 Kristopher Jansma
4:21
 Nora - EarlyWord
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:21 
4:21
[Comment From Lucy Lucy : ] 
It seems that 'the narrator just keeps getting caught up in his own lies and the stories to which they led.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:21 Lucy
4:21
[Comment From Kelley Tackett Kelley Tackett : ] 
I love the cover of the book. I would have picked it up regardless of the story. The cover is so visually appealing.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:21 Kelley Tackett
4:21
Nora - EarlyWord: 
It was a brilliant idea to turn the leopard’s spots into typewriter keys for the cover. [show jacket] Did the jacket go through many iterations?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:21 Nora - EarlyWord
4:22
Kristopher Jansma: 
Yes, there we are outside of Kumasi. Those children are students, part of an orphanage that my father-in-law was volunteering with. They really helped me understand a lot about Ghana.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:22 Kristopher Jansma
4:22
 Nora - EarlyWord
Jacket for THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS by Kris Jansma
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:22 
4:22
Kristopher Jansma: 
Yes! It is a beautiful jacket – I am so lucky that Alison Forner at Penguin had this idea for the typewriter keys / spots. It actually was the first jacket they showed me, and I couldn’t stop staring at it. I put it up on my bookshelf at home and it just fit right in. Then I went around to every bookstore I could find over the next few days and started taking pictures of it on the front table, with all the other books, and it just seemed perfect.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:22 Kristopher Jansma
4:23
Nora - EarlyWord: 
One of our participants sent in an advance question asking how involved you were with the jacket design.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:23 Nora - EarlyWord
4:24
Nora - EarlyWord: 
And it sounds like you answered that -- you just fell in love with the first design!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:24 Nora - EarlyWord
4:24
Kristopher Jansma: 
Well, I sent in a lot of images that had inspired me when I was writing the book, and the art department looked at those. But from there, they took off with it! I know well enough to leave it to the experts! :)
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:24 Kristopher Jansma
4:24
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Another advance question comes from Donna Zmrazek:

How easy is it for you to change back and forth between your writing formats (from blogs to short stories to essays to novel)?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:24 Nora - EarlyWord
4:25
Kristopher Jansma: 
Great question. I’ve always had a hard time with short fiction because I inevitably want to just keep writing more and more. I feel the same way when I’m reading short stories, to be honest—if it is a great story, I wind up wishing that it was a whole novel. When I’m writing a story, it’s sometimes hard not to get carried away. Sometimes they come out obscenely long, and then I have to cut them back down again, which is never easy…
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:25 Kristopher Jansma
4:25
Kristopher Jansma: 
Switching to non-fiction is also tough. It’s a lot harder for me to be direct about what I’m trying to say. With fiction, I can ease into it, but with non-fiction you have to come straight to your point. But as with fiction, I usually start by doing a lot of research, and then usually some idea comes out from whatever I’m learning about.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:25 Kristopher Jansma
4:25
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Donna also wanted to know how has writing a blog influenced your novel writing.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:25 Nora - EarlyWord
4:26
[Comment From Lucy Lucy : ] 
I liked that the texture of the spots/keys is different than the rest of the cover (except for the spot with the words 'A Novel"). Slick like the keys on a typewriter - very clever.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:26 Lucy
4:26
Kristopher Jansma: 
Tremendously! This is a little bit of a long story, but I think a good one if you can bear with me a moment...
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:26 Kristopher Jansma
4:26
Kristopher Jansma: 
For several years I was working hard on several novels that, for various reasons, weren’t quite working out. I was making endless revisions and doing rewrites, but I couldn’t get them to work. So in 2009 I decided that I wanted to get back to short stories. I hadn’t written one since leaving my MFA program. So I set up a blog online called Forty Stories and I told all my friends that I would be posting a new short story each week, for three weeks in a row, and then I’d take one week off to revise. And if I kept to my schedule I would have 40 new stories by the end of the year…
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:26 Kristopher Jansma
4:27
Kristopher Jansma: 
Because it was shared online, I felt obligated to meet that deadline each week, and it pushed me to search for material and to write about things I’d always avoided writing about. And if I was ever late, I knew that some friend would email me and ask where the new story was...
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:27 Kristopher Jansma
4:27
Nora - EarlyWord: 
While you are finishing your thought, I will announce how to enter our contest...
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:27 Nora - EarlyWord
4:28
Nora - EarlyWord: 
To enter to win a boxed set of PENGUIN SELECTS -- send an email right now to:

Catherine.Hayden@us.penguingroup.com

We will announce winners at the end of the chat.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:28 Nora - EarlyWord
4:28
Kristopher Jansma: 
And “The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards” was the 13th story I wrote for that project. Immediately afterwards I wrote “Anton & I” and then, off and on, that whole year, I wrote other stories and many of them ended up coming together to become the first draft of this novel. So to answer the original question, without that online process, I don’t think I could have written this book at all.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:28 Kristopher Jansma
4:28
Kristopher Jansma: 
(Thanks! That's the whole answer!)
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:28 Kristopher Jansma
4:30
Nora - EarlyWord: 
And an excellent one.

The promo of you book is making use of social media. For instance -- I saw this:

Snap a photo of your copy of TUSOL someplace & tweet it w/ ‪#leopardspotting‬ & we'll add it to ‪http://spottedleopards.tumblr.com ‬–

People have started responding
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:30 Nora - EarlyWord
4:30
 Nora - EarlyWord
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:30 
4:30
 Nora - EarlyWord
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:30 
4:31
 Nora - EarlyWord
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:31 
4:31
 Nora - EarlyWord
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:31 
4:31
Nora - EarlyWord: 
How is social media changing book promotion and how authors interact with readers?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:31 Nora - EarlyWord
4:32
Kristopher Jansma: 
Yes! You can take a photograph of your copy of the book anywhere interesting and if you tweet about it with the #leopardspotting hashtag, they will add it to spottedleopards.tumblr.com

This evolved out of that other story I told, about me going around taking pictures of the jacket in bookstores!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:32 Kristopher Jansma
4:32
Nora - EarlyWord: 
And, while we're at it, this is one of Kris's favorite leopard photos -- he just needs a copy of the book...
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:32 Nora - EarlyWord
4:32
 Nora - EarlyWord
A favorite photo of a leopard -- by Peet van Schalkwyk
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:32 
4:33
Kristopher Jansma: 
To me, it’s still very strange that I can follow writers I admire on Twitter – and hear them complain about their kids, or curse about the latest Yankee game. A friend’s father was telling me recently that when he was my age, his favorite writer was John Updike, and one day he was in the library and someone told him that Updike was coming to do a reading that afternoon. He told me he ran out of there as fast as he could – he was so terrified to meet his favorite writer. It’s almost like he didn't want to believe he was flesh-and-blood…
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:33 Kristopher Jansma
4:33
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Some questions and comments are backing up -- will begin posting those now...
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:33 Nora - EarlyWord
4:33
[Comment From readingenvy readingenvy : ] 
Oh, can you direct us to your blog? Will you continue this project?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:33 readingenvy
4:33
[Comment From Guest Guest : ] 
How interesting! I have an author friend who is doing something similar with his most recent novel - writing a chapter a week and posting it on his blog.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:33 Guest
4:33
Kristopher Jansma: 
And I get that. When I was growing up, I don’t think I really understood that writers were real people. I thought all the books already existed and I didn’t really realize anyone was making more of them. Then I got my first internet service, Prodigy, and joined a Piers Anthony fan group called “The Xanth Xone” (I was in 7th grade I think). And then one day Piers logged onto the site and started answering questions! It was very surreal. After that, I wrote him several actual letters and told him I wanted to be a writer as well, and he wrote back and gave me a lot of advice! So now I embrace it myself too, as you can see! And you can follow me on Twitter at @kristopherjans or on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/KristopherJansma
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:33 Kristopher Jansma
4:34
[Comment From Laura Laura : ] 
It's been interesting to watch his process (and his panic as he used up all the chapters he had already written).
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:34 Laura
4:34
Kristopher Jansma: 
One more thought on social networking... I really think the most incredible change is that, thanks to social media, readers and writers can connect to bookstores and other book-lovers so much more directly than we once could. So it really creates this genuine sense of community, which has always existed… we just never were so easily able to talk to one another until now!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:34 Kristopher Jansma
4:35
[Comment From Kelly C Kelly C : ] 
So where did you grow up? And did you always know you wanted to be a writer?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:35 Kelly C
4:35
Kristopher Jansma: 
I haven't been writing new short stories in the past few years, mostly because I've been busy with the edits to this book, but I hope to do it again in the coming months! My website is now at http://www.kristopherjansma.com
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:35 Kristopher Jansma
4:36
Kristopher Jansma: 
Laura - That's great! I think it can be really helpful. Writing can be so isolating... you have to be alone to do it and really focus, and it's nice to share it with a community of people who are going to support you and cheer you on. (And, as I learned the hard way, email you EVERY time you make a factual error!) :)
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:36 Kristopher Jansma
4:37
Nora - EarlyWord: 
You sent me a bunch of images that you said inspired you. I am impressed by how visual you are. I'm going to post a few, beginning with that great Washington Square photo. Please tell us about them.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:37 Nora - EarlyWord
4:37
 Nora - EarlyWord
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:37 
4:38
Kristopher Jansma: 
Kelly - I grew up in a small town called Lincroft in central New Jersey, which is near Red Bank, which sometimes people know as the place where the director Kevin Smith works and lives.

I wanted to be a writer since I was in the 7th grade. My English teacher, Mrs. Inglis, was the first person to ever point out to me that there were people called writers who actually wrote books. As soon as I knew that, I was determined!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:38 Kristopher Jansma
4:39
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Let's go to the next question before we go on to the images...
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:39 Nora - EarlyWord
4:39
[Comment From Trisha Trisha : ] 
Are you on twitter as well?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:39 Trisha
4:39
Kristopher Jansma: 
Nora - That is a photograph by Imre Kertesz. When I was in college I took a class called "Landscape and Setting" with Jean McGarry, and she had us buy this book of his photographs and we wrote descriptions of the images in them. That one was my favorite, and years later it became the jumping-off point for the "Anton & I" chapter.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:39 Kristopher Jansma
4:40
Kristopher Jansma: 
Yes, my twitter is https://twitter.com/KristopherJans
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:40 Kristopher Jansma
4:40
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Here's another of your inspirations ...
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:40 Nora - EarlyWord
4:41
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Sorry! I seem to have lost it, but many of our readers will be familiar with Klimt's portrait.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:41 Nora - EarlyWord
4:42
Kristopher Jansma: 
Oh I think you want this one? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/Gustav_Klimt_046.jpg/300px-Gustav_Klimt_046.jpg
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:42 Kristopher Jansma
4:42
Nora - EarlyWord: 
That's right!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:42 Nora - EarlyWord
4:43
[Comment From Lucy Lucy : ] 
Does the phote by Kertesz of Washington Square have a specific name/title? Beautiful imagery and I can see the inspiration for the chapter
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:43 Lucy
4:43
Kristopher Jansma: 
It is the "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" by Klimt and yes, it is beautiful! It is in the Neue Galerie here in New York City and it is inspiring. And covered in gold leaf!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:43 Kristopher Jansma
4:43
Nora - EarlyWord: 
I think the following is in response to the Klimt painting -- has she spotted the character, Kris?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:43 Nora - EarlyWord
4:43
[Comment From Lucy Lucy : ] 
Evelyn!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:43 Lucy
4:45
Kristopher Jansma: 
Hah! Lucy, I can't say that exactly. But I can say that the museum has a very nice Austrian Coffee Shop which might be the inspiration for Ludwig's Cafe in the first chapter!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:45 Kristopher Jansma
4:46
Nora - EarlyWord: 
This is a HUGE question, but you opened it up, so I'm going to follow through. What have you learned about the nature of truth?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:46 Nora - EarlyWord
4:47
Kristopher Jansma: 
Nora - That is a big question!...
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:47 Kristopher Jansma
4:48
Kristopher Jansma: 
I think what I learned through writing this book is that truth can seem to be very subjective. It can appear to be malleable based on who is looking at it, and talking about it, and describing it. And this can be very frustrating. I think it can lead people, like the narrator in the middle of the book, to believe there is no such thing as truth at all...
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:48 Kristopher Jansma
4:49
Nora - EarlyWord: 
I did noticed that you didn't use one of the most famous quotes about truth and art -- "Truth is beauty..." and I wondered why.

Personally, i always found that one a bit of a cop out.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:49 Nora - EarlyWord
4:49
[Comment From Jennifer W. Jennifer W. : ] 
Late as usual, just wanted to say I'm excited to read Kristopher grew up in Lincroft....I lived in Shrewsbury as a child. My favorite part of the book was when the narrator became the journalism professor...just how awesome was that to be someone else for a while and be different.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:49 Jennifer W.
4:50
[Comment From Leah Leah : ] 
Do you think your characters have a different perspective on the truth from the beginning of the book to the end?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:50 Leah
4:50
[Comment From Lucy Lucy : ] 
Changes with each situation/encounter/etc>? It's not alwayws what it's cracked up to be? :-)
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:50 Lucy
4:50
Kristopher Jansma: 
but slowly, and through being honest about how he really feels about Tina, and Julian and the Princess, I think he sees by the end that there is such a thing as real truth, and that maybe we can't get straight at it sometimes, with words, but it is still there.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:50 Kristopher Jansma
4:51
Kristopher Jansma: 
Nora - that's Keats? Yes, I remember that one! I think, yes, there's just much more to the puzzle than that quote indicates.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:51 Kristopher Jansma
4:52
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Ah, right! That wonderful Emily Dickinson quote about telling truth but slanted.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:52 Nora - EarlyWord
4:52
Catherine - Penguin: 
Hey everyone! Thanks so much to all who entered to win a Penguin Selects Boxed Set. Loved all the enthusiasm! Here are the randomly selected winners in no particular order:

1) Laura K from Springfield Township Library
2) Sue Dittmar
3)Trisha P. from Oldham Co Public Library
4) Sarah C from Worthington Library and
5) Sue Marie Rendll

Congrats!

Please send me a follow-up email at catherine.hayden@us.penguingroup.com to let me know that you saw this and include your library's address so that I can send you the box!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:52 Catherine - Penguin
4:52
Kristopher Jansma: 
Jennifer - I know Shrewsbury well! And yes, the part about the journalism professor was a LOT of fun to write. It was so incredibly different from how I actually am in a real classroom!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:52 Kristopher Jansma
4:53
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Congrats to the winners! Thanks for enterting (and for joining us today).
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:53 Nora - EarlyWord
4:53
Nora - EarlyWord: 
We're getting close to the end of the chat -- I've been holding this question...
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:53 Nora - EarlyWord
4:53
Kristopher Jansma: 
(Leah, I hope I answered your question there in my previous answer! Great question)
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:53 Kristopher Jansma
4:53
[Comment From Wendy Wendy : ] 
Leopards seems to play around with a lot of genres and subjects. Besides literary fiction what story-styles appeal to you most?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:53 Wendy
4:54
Nora - EarlyWord: 
I'd add -- to that -- how about film and TV as a way of telling stories?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:54 Nora - EarlyWord
4:55
Kristopher Jansma: 
Wendy - I love detective fiction. I taught a class once on classic Hardboiled Detective novels from the 20s and 30s. I've tried writing in that style but so far it doesn't quite turn out right. Maybe someday! But I really admire writers who can do genres and make it literary too. My all-time favorite living writer is David Mitchell, who does that better than anyone.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:55 Kristopher Jansma
4:55
[Comment From Kelley Tackett Kelley Tackett : ] 
I love memoirs from "average" people - they have real problems.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:55 Kelley Tackett
4:55
Nora - EarlyWord: 
That leads us to what may be our final question -- what are you working on next?
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:55 Nora - EarlyWord
4:57
Kristopher Jansma: 
Nora - I am a huge TV addict, for better or worse. My friends always joke that I've "come to the end of television" because I can never find anything new to watch. But we are living through a real special time in the history of television. Shows like The Wire and Breaking Bad are doing things that only novelists ever tried to do before. They really try to provoke us and make us think. It's so much more than the easy entertainment that television was when I was growing up.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:57 Kristopher Jansma
4:57
Kristopher Jansma: 
Nora, well first let me say thank you to you and to everyone! I've really enjoyed this!...
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:57 Kristopher Jansma
4:58
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Thanks, Kris and thanks to all the First Flights members for joining us.

We hope you’ll enjoy recommending THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS when it is published in March. This chat is now available in the archive; tell your colleagues to check it out.

And, remember, Penguin encourages you o leave their own reviews here -- http://bit.ly/YlMDLz -- or tweet a review using #PenguinSelects
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:58 Nora - EarlyWord
4:58
Kristopher Jansma: 
Currently, I am very hard at work on my next novel. It actually also evolved out of some stories that I wrote several years ago, about some very different characters from these. Since I moved to New York City nine years ago, I wanted to write a whole novel that took place here, and so that’s what I’m trying to do now...
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:58 Kristopher Jansma
4:59
Kristopher Jansma: 
I can’t say too much about it yet, but I will say that it’s turning out to be a much longer book, and I’m really excited because so far it is all holding together very well. I think readers who’ve enjoyed The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards will love this one as well.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:59 Kristopher Jansma
5:00
Nora - EarlyWord: 
We're looking forward to it!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 5:00 Nora - EarlyWord
5:00
[Comment From Lucy Lucy : ] 
I agree. Who would have ever thought television could be creative again... :-)
Wednesday December 19, 2012 5:00 Lucy
5:00
[Comment From Sue Marie Sue Marie : ] 
Thanks for another great chat!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 5:00 Sue Marie
5:00
[Comment From Lucy Lucy : ] 
Thank You, Kris for chatting with and Thanks, Nora for hosting. Great fun! And HAPPY HOLIDAYS, everyone!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 5:00 Lucy
5:01
Kristopher Jansma: 
Thanks Nora! I can't wait to keep working on it! And thanks again to everyone who joined us! A very happy holiday season to all.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 5:01 Kristopher Jansma
5:01
Nora - EarlyWord: 
RIGHT -- thanks for the reminder, Lucy -- Happy Holidays everyone!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 5:01 Nora - EarlyWord
5:01
[Comment From Sue D Sue D : ] 
I appreciate everyone's efforts and thanks for a good discussion.
Wednesday December 19, 2012 5:01 Sue D
5:01
Kristopher Jansma: 
And don't forget to take some pictures of your copies! You can also email them to viking.marketing@us.penguingroup.com and we'll add them to the Tumblr page!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 5:01 Kristopher Jansma
5:03
[Comment From Trisha Trisha : ] 
Thanks this was great
Wednesday December 19, 2012 5:03 Trisha
5:03
[Comment From Colleen Lashway Colleen Lashway : ] 
Great story! Loved it!
Wednesday December 19, 2012 5:03 Colleen Lashway
 
 

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