Joseph Matheny interviews Nick Belardes, talking about his Twitter novel Small Places and his on-line magic realism piece Thick White Crust. (Part 2 of this interview here)
N.L. Belardes Fact Sheet:
Bio: N.L. Belardes is a journalist, blogger and videographer. He is the editor for a Bakersfield area news site start-up called Truxtun Avenue and is the former managing editor for an ABC news affiliate where he appeared on television twice daily to talk about the Internet. His work has appeared on the homepage of CNN.com and other news sites across America. He writes several media blogs, including Noveltown’s Paperback Writer and Nick 2.0.
His debut novel “Lords” is based on media and city corruption in the late 1970s. It was published by Noveltown in 2005. The Lords of Bakersfield are perhaps an even stronger urban myth in Bakersfield because of his book. He gets strangely related tales and hate mail even to this day.
He is currently serializing what he calls a Magic Realism Non-Fiction story titled “Thick White Crust” on L.A. Times Best-Selling Author Brad Listi’s TheNervousBreakdown.com
The story weaves dreams, ghosts and 9/11 predictions along with West Coast life before and in the months after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.
“Though it’s non-fiction based, the story is one of reality and dreams mixed with the horrors of 9/11 and the Mexican Day of the Dead,” Belardes said.
Belardes, who is a dual ethnic Latino added, “Dia De Los Muertos is a huge part of my life. I celebrate it every year. In a way, the book also celebrates my dual ethnicity by diving right into the death of my white mother and Mexican father. It’s like a roman candle is going off the entire time your reading. You’re not sure whether to feel burned or keep beneath the sparks of the storyline.”
Readers will get a sense of history and place by reading the chapters posted each week in what Belardes calls a Chicano story of renewal.
He also has an anti-corporate comedy fiction novel being sent out piecemeal on Twitter.com. The story is called “Small Places.”
Twitter Novel Interview on Social Media World: http://socialmediaworld.com/?p=189
More on Paperback Writer site: http://www.nlbelardes.com/blogger/2008/04/discussion-of-my-twittercom-novel-small.html
Homepage with relevant links: www.nlbelardes.com
Links cited in this podcast:
6 Comments
This was such a great podcast. I look forward to hearing the follow up in a couple of weeks.
BTW, I think you should leave your name to GPod….
Part 2 is edited an will be coming in a week or so.
I enjoyed this interview a great deal, and found the linked segment on border radio to be fascinating. I’m looking forward to part two.
(My vote goes to New Border Radio, though it is fun to tell people to listen to the g-spot…)
Ah, well the mothership would still be called The GSpot, however my segments which go by GPod radio, for like 4 years now, would change to New Border Radio, but so far you’re the only vote to do so.
Love this B. You are the twitter god of small things. Your interviewer was right, each post seems freshly crafted and not copied and pasted on. Kudos.
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2008/10/30/the-novel-by-tweet
Nick Belardes and Small Places on the Christian Science Monitor.
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