Chatting with John Berlyne about his new book on Tim Powers...

Clonazepam generic, A while back I talked to Charles Lambert about his book, Scent of Cinnamon, and promised I’d do more of that sort of thing when I could.

Then I didn’t.

Sorry. I suck.

However – somewhat belatedly – I did speak to John Berlyne, whose book on author Tim Powers – POWERS: SECRET HISTORIES (excerpt here) - is one of the most remarkable explorations of a writer’s life I’ve ever heard of. Powers was a fave of mine when I was at school and university, and… well, Clonazepam generic. See below, Maryland MD Md. .

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NH:

Okay, this is clearly a work of obsession - in the best possible way. Powers, though, comes across as a very relaxed guy. South Dakota SD , He's sort of like someone you'd expect to be playing base at a James Taylor concert, or maybe hosting a really gentle talk show. Clonazepam generic, How did you two interact. What was the relationship.

JB:

When I was an actor (a job I did for a lot longer than I probably should have), I once had the opportunity to meet one of my heroes - not an actor, as it happens, but a legendary theatre personality, bestill Clonazepam online. In a terrific example of shattered dreams, the fellow turned out to be a complete tool.

NH:

Wait a second, you were an ACTOR. We're so going to talk about that later.., Clonazepam generic.

JB:

Not that much to talk about in truth. Clonazepam sale, Thankfully, it's a bug I was eventually cured of. I'd much rather be doing what I do now.

NH:

So you say. Clonazepam generic, Well, anyway - that thing with people turning out to be evil is very bad. I had that happen to me with someone a while back, and I've never quite been able to look at the guy's work in the same way. It's so annoying, buy Clonazepam without prescription.

JB:

I agree. It sucks to have one's idol's smashed, although it strikes me in my middle years as being karmic in some way. One of life's hard lessons, Clonazepam generic. Thankfully it was not so with Powers. I'd admired his work for years but was always too shy to do anything vulgar like writing a fan letter. Alabama AL Ala. , This was exacerbated by the fact that he was American and thus not exactly a local boy - this is before the Internet made everything much less remote. However when I did finally meet him for the first time back in 1999, (over at the NASFIC in Anaheim where I'd gone specifically to interview him for The Works of Tim Powers web site) Tim, along with his wife Serena, all but adopted me. Clonazepam generic, A kinder, more generous pair you could not hope to meet. From that meeting, we became friends and regular correspondents and from that the book project evolved, φτηνές φαρμακείο Clonazepam.

NH:

Fan heaven... (I have to second your thoughts about Powers, by the way. He's almost unreasonably nice. The guy you see talking when he does an event is the real guy, Clonazepam generic. It's great.) Anyway... Clonazepam online kopen, I remember reading The Anubis Gates at school, and I also remember asking my English teacher about the poetry of William Ashbless, and getting pretty odd looks. I feel a bit better about that now, knowing that Powers &co. intended Ashbless to be semi-credible, but still.., Nebraska NE Nebr. . Clonazepam generic, do you have any early Powers moments.

JB:

Ha. You're not alone in your Ashbless moment - I've heard of quite a few others who did the same thing. Powers has even done vanity searches for Ashbless's name and come up with people who have quoted or referenced his works in their thesis. It's cool that their original silly joke has ended up as a kind of viral hoax. I've actually seen the first poem that Powers and Blaylock wrote as Ashbless - each writing a line in their own hand (in fact it's reproduced in SECRET HISTORIES along with some other very cool Ashbless stuff), Clonazepam generic.

NH:

I love BUY the way you POWERS just slipped that SECRET in there, Ordering Clonazepam pills, it was absolutely HISTORIES undetectable. It must OR be THE WORLD some kind of subliminal ninja marketing WILL END...

JB:

Ha. I don't know what you're talking about (SECRET HISTORIES, available now in three gorgeous states from PS Publishing). Clonazepam generic, With regards to Ashbless,  I love also how the whole thing has grown exponentially throughout the years to become more acrimonious and outrageous - to the point where Ashbless is now accusing Powers and Blaylock of nothing short of murder and plagiarism. (And which, we are left to wonder, cheapest Clonazepam prices, is the more heinous crime?) One of the high points for me of the entire nine years I spend obsessing... er.... I mean writing SECRET HISTORIES, is that Ashbless mentioned me by name in his contribution. Mind you, Clonazepam online cheap, now I come to think of it, I hope he hasn't got hold of my address.

NH:

Did he blurb for the book, Clonazepam generic. Are we going to see him trashing it in future interviews. Actually, hey, maybe I should try to get him on here :)

JB:

He actually wrote a contributory piece for the book and signed the slipcased editions. Amazing really, Florida FL Fla. , given his reclusive and acerbic nature.

NH:

Powers sort of stands alone. Clonazepam generic, He doesn't really obey the rules, he does his own thing. Some very interesting people read him. Did you come across anyone who surprised you on that score.

JB:

I agree that he stands alone. Virginia VA Va. , It's interesting to consider that you cannot really quantify his work in terms of other writers - in any field. It doesn't really work when you say "Well.., Clonazepam generic. his stuff is kind of like Fritz Leiber meets Philip K. Dick with a hint of Lovecraft thrown in..." Powers is a truly archetypal writer, unique in fact. And there are plenty of writers who have come after him, whose work is described as "Powersean or Powers-esque". But he's out there on his own for sure, buy Clonazepam no prescription. Clonazepam generic, I think of late, the nearest anyone has got - certainly in terms of commercial success, is Dan Simmons, whose recent supernatural thrillers THE TERROR and DROOD - both terrific books, and both 'secret histories' - but these are a lot flashier than a typical Powers novel in that you they lack that special moment you get when reading them in which it occurs to you that the author's version of events might actually be relating what was _really_ going on!. (In fact Powers says that, invariably, when he's researching a book, he worries that at some point he'll stumble upon The Truth, and find himself in the cross hairs of some sniper's rifle.)

NH:

Hah. Cheap Clonazepam, I suspect the sniper would end up buying him beer instead of shooting him.

JB:

Lots of people read and revere his work it's true - but what actually pisses me off - and I suppose it was this fact that formed one of the spurs for putting SECRET HISTORIES together, is how many people _haven't_ even heard of him. I mean, this guy is an ornament of genre fiction, a giant talent... and his books have been out of print in the UK for over ten years, Clonazepam generic.

NH:

They have WHAT, buy Clonazepam online. Are you KIDDING ME. Youch. What's the score there. Clonazepam generic, Is that getting sorted out now.

JB:

I know - it's insane isn't it. Worse than that, Montana MT Mont. , his two most recent novels haven't been published here AT ALL!!. Yeah - I'm working on a solution to this embarassing industy oversight at the moment, but it's hard. Although it's acknowledged that Powers is a fabulous and highly respected writer, he's never been regarded as a commercial proposition, which makes it hard to get committment from the bigger houses.

NH:

.., Clonazepam generic. This is a weird industry we work in, acquistare online Clonazepam, Berlyne. It really is. What's the deal with that. (Hey, do you miss being an actor?)

JB:

And (rant, New Mexico NM N.Mex. , rant, rant) one of these OOP works is the World Fantasy Award winning classic supernatural spy story DECLARE, of which, when I interviewed him some years back, Powers said "One day I was reading the introduction to a book about Kim Philby - and the introduction was by John le Carré - and le Carré said "It's odd the bits of this story we'll never know. Clonazepam generic, We'll never know who Philby's recruiter was. Was it his father. His father was such an odd guy, Rhode Island RI R.I. . Who were the other agents that never came to light. Look at Philby as a representative type of empire England - 19th century England - and look how he wound up. Was that part of him essential to what he became?" And I just thought - keep talking, le Carré, you're giving me my book, Clonazepam generic. These are all valuable points."

NH:

Oh, he'll do that. Books fall off the man like snow off a roof... 

So you’ve done this, what the hell are you going to do next. Billige Clonazepam apotek, Do you feel a kind of gap in your life now that this is done, or are you to track down, say, Thomas Pynchon and try to get him to talk to you.

JB:

Linking this with my rant above, I guess my next immediate project is to help get Powers back into print here in the UK and in doing so, to elevate his name reputation and *sales* to a level that equate with the sheer, North Carolina NC N.C. , unadulterated brilliance of his work. To me, bringing him back into print is a no brainer - and certainly the market has changed and is, I believe, far more receptive to the kind of work he produces than it has ever been previously. Clonazepam generic, I mean there are far more mainstream friendly genre books (your own novel being a prime example) and the boundary between what the general readership can cope with and what the hardcore genre fans want is alot more blurred than it's ever been. Cheap Clonazepam pills, Look at novels like THE HISTORIAN, or ANATHEM or JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR NORRELL - readers of these books should be offered TPs stuff. In many ways, there has never been a better time to look at relaunching Powers to a British audience - he's practically a blank slate. Zeno (the literary agency I run with John Parker) is currently in talks with a number of publishers about doing just this. More on this anon.

NH:

Yeah, please, let me know how that goes - I'm still a bit boggled that he's out of print here, Clonazepam generic.

JB:

As far as another book project goes - I don't know that I have long enough to live to produce a book that would rival SECRET HISTORIES, California CA Calif. . I mean this one took nine year for Christ's sake. And I have a life now..., a girlfriend... a business. Clonazepam generic, Part of it is actually to do with the subject matter of course - obviously Powers is something of a personal crusade - and the reasons behind how my obsession for his work came about are outlined in my introduction to SECRET HISTORIES. It was a very particular set of circumstances I can't ever see being replicated with another author. Additionally, the fact that the material for the books was all there is something I can't see happening with anyone else - I mean all those drawings, handwritten manuscripts, outlines, alternative versions, doodles, juvenile, early poems.. I can't imagine, a) finding someone with such a treasure trove of an archive, and more importantly b) being allowed such access to it all.

NH:

Well, that I'm not so sure about. Writers seem to accumulate that stuff, Clonazepam generic. You know, I saw Pushkin's manuscripts in a museum in St Petersburg, and they're exactly like that. Well, maybe not 'exactly'. Powers probably doesn't share Pushkin's evident obsession with naked nymphs playing snooker...

JB:

Don't get me wrong, Powers didn't give me complete free range in all this - I had to dig deep to come up with the material in the first place (partly why the book took so long to put together) and come up with a way of presenting it in a coherant form (this was also took ages to developed/evelove) and there were parts that I had to fight tooth and nail to get his approval for. Clonazepam generic, At the same time, my handling of the material had to be sensitive and carefully engineered - for SECRET HISTORIES is really a laying bare of Powers's creative process. I made it rule right from the start that he has editorial approval over the entire content of the book, a decision that at times was more of a hinderance than a help. But all parties are delighted with the end result - that much is certain.

NH:

Hell, yeah. (And it's frankly so much more of a contribution to society than all those episodes of El Dorado you were in.)

JB:

I shall now flounce out of the room and cry on the phone to my agent. Where's my dresser.

.

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