For My Fiction Students

I'm going to check with the bookstore about getting the What If? book in. In the meantime, you might really want to consider ordering through Amazon.com. If you do it soon, you'll get it in plenty of time and, in the end, you'll probably get it cheaper. Make sure you look at the "used" selections, but also make sure that you are buying the second edition.

Hope that helps.

Mr. Van

Of the Novel

Well, Jim Daniels, author of Not Pets (short fiction) and Detroit Tales (short fiction) and numerous poetry collections, has just sent me a nice little blurb about my novel, Into the Desperate Country.

"Jeff Vande Zande's Into the Desperate Country captures the primitive pulse of a life on the edge. Against the backdrop of Northern Michigan, a taut drama plays itself out, pulling the reader along on its tight rope. Once the logical world of our daily routines falls away, what are we left with? Vande Zande offers no easy answers in this impressive debut novel."

Having read this, I'm sure you want to order the book now. Just send a check for $17.00 (covers shipping and handling) to:

Jeff Vande Zande
P.O. Box 2042
Bay City, MI 48707


Thanks!

Some Updates

Well, I've noticed that traffic to my site has been increasing, and I haven't been giving people much to read.

A few things going on.

On Wednesday, September 13, Ken Meisel and I will be reading at the Java Junction in West Branch around 7 p.m. Java Junction is this cool little coffee shop in the downtown. The people make it cool. What a great audience! Ken and I (both promoting new books) have been reading at the Java Junction for the last three or four years. It's only about a 50-minute drive from the tri-cities. Hope to see you there.

Sales of the novel have slowed, but I'm happy with where they are thus far. I've sold 81 (and the first one just sold on Amazon) -- so I guess the total is at 82.

Is that good for the two-month mark? I'm not sure.

Oh, and if you haven't, order my novel. Please.

Find ordering information in the blog entries below.

John Updike's Bech

As I'm trying to make my way through Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain (less than 200 pages to go -- not that I'm counting), I've also been reading John Updike's Bech: A Book. The book has some fun with what it means to be a writer in America -- or at least a writer in America in 1965. So, sure, the book is very dated, but still a fun read.

There is a great quote in the book which really captures what I feel is happening to American literature thanks to MFA programs and our hyperfocus on craft and style. In the book, Bech is talking to Petrov, a Rumanian, and Petrov asks Bech his opinion of some newer French novelists.

"It is tricks," Petrov said. "Good tricks, but tricks. It does not have enough to do with life, it is too much verbal nervousness. Is that sense?"

It's total sense to me, Petrov. It seems to me that so many contemporary writers that I read in literary magazines are playing tricks with words. They can style and craft things into a seeming beauty, but it's just tricks. The stuff of life often isn't there. Writers writing for writers. Where does it put writers? Well, it puts them in a weird place where they have little audience.

New Poem Accepted

Not sure if anyone pays attention to these posts, but I just learned today that Timothy Green, poetry editor at Rattle, has accepted another one of my poems. The last time Rattle took one of my poems, Ted Kooser came across it and accepted it for his newspaper column, American Life in Poetry.

As far as I can tell, Rattle is on the cutting edge of what's happening in poetry. Really, if you're into poetry, you should think about subscribing to Rattle. Check them out at www.rattle.com. Even if poetry isn't your thing, this magazine just might turn you on to it.

Promoting/Marketing a Book/Novel

Well, I gave it a try, and damn if it didn't work. This past weekend I sat at a booth at an art fair in my hometown, and I actually sold books. The whole thing was my sister's idea, and I was hesitant (mainly because space rental was one hundred dollars). But, I took a chance, and I ended up selling 17 copies of my novel, which more than paid for my booth space. Plus, I sold 6 copies of my full-length short story collection, 2 copies of my chapbook of short stories, and 7 copies of my poetry collections. I was pretty sure I was going to sell a few books because I knew that I would see people that I know. However, what made things really interesting was that I sold about 50% of the books to complete strangers. They would come up, talk to me for a little bit, and then say, "Sure, I'll give your novel a shot." Cool stuff, really.

So, I would recommend renting space at art fairs, especially if it's in your hometown.

Now, with the sales from the art fair, and some family-related sales, and some sales that trickled in from a mailing I did, I now have sold . . . 76 copies of the book.

Slowly but surely folks, slowly but surely.