If a job in a novel could be yours...

Would you take it?

Before we begin…

This week’s question builds on one posed by Janis Ian whose Facebook page is a delight for those who want to have some fun conversations. Here it is: beginning tomorrow, you will be forced to have the same job as the main character in the last book you read. What is the job? What is the book? And just how well do you think you’ll do in your new position? 

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First, thank you…

A huge thank you to Katie A., Paula C., Lisa M., Cathy S., Martha C., and John G. for coming on board as paid subscribers. I’m excited about where Spark is headed and I’m so glad for your support!

And now, what about that question?

When my husband shared the job question with me about ten days ago, I was half-way through Ed Yong’s book, An Immense World: How animal senses reveal the hidden realms around us. I was stymied. Would I be doing the job of any one of the researchers who were passionate about understanding the way an insect hears, or a bat uses sonar? Would I be one of those who would eagerly seize the opportunity to go spend weeks or months in an Amazon rainforest to record the songs of Eigenmannia, or the glass knifefish? Each chapter introduces experts and scientists in multiple disciplines who travel all over the world to gain more knowledge about how other species use their senses to navigate, hunt, mate, form communities – in other words, to live. 

Then I realized the one character who appears in every chapter is the writer himself, Ed Yong and if I were forced to have his job tomorrow, I would be thrilled. Then I would panic. He thinks about the questions that interest him and might lead a reader to see the world in a whole new way. Then he reads hundreds of papers and books, speaks and/or visits those conducting research before writing a book that, in the case of An Immense World, opens the natural world and the world of science to readers like me and renders it accessible, fascinating, and relevant to my life (I can’t walk my dogs any more without seeing the world in the various blues, yellows, grays that they see or wondering whether it is smell or vibration that draws Lily’s nose to a gopher hole.) The work requires levels of curiosity, discipline, and empathy that I’m not sure I could sustain. 

On the left is what I see. On the right is what my dogs see.

I have more to say about this book but I am still finishing the final two chapters. I need to sit with it a bit, go through all the notes I scribbled in the margin to rediscover what surprised me most, excited me the most, mystified me the most, and made me want to know more. I’m looking forward to sharing my takeaways from this book in a future newsletter.

In the meantime, I took a look at some of the books I read last year just to see what sorts of occupations were held by important characters. Here’s a sampling:

• Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin/ Game designer and developer

• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus/ Chemist - Host of Television Cooking Show

• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett/ Actress turned orchard owner

• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid/ Business consultant 

• Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson/ London nightclub owner

• Make it Stop by Jim Ruland / Undercover kidnapper specializing in rescuing clients trapped in rehab clinics operated by evil corporate owners

• This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub / Admissions director for a Manhattan private school

• Villa Triste by Lucretia Grindle/ Nurse and partisan during World War II 

• The Wrong End of the Telescope by Rabih Alameddine/ Physician working with refugees on the island of Lesbos

Of these, I am most drawn to the ones I can simply not imagine ever doing in real life: being a chemist (or a cooking show host), designing and developing games, an undercover vigilante responsible for rescuing addicts captured by an evil corporate healthcare empire. I can see myself as a nurse but I cannot see myself facing down the barrel of a gun and distracting the guard holding it long enough for fellow partisans and prisoners to escape. While I’m reading, though, I’m imagining it very well. I’m living it with the characters. I come out of the story knowing something I didn’t know before about ways people make money and make a life. I’ve had a chance to re-examine my life’s choices and see how what I did for work shaped me. 

What about you? Are you drawn to stories that feature characters whose work is similar to yours or wildly different? 

If you’re writing a piece of fiction, how do you decide what jobs to give your characters? How have the jobs you’ve done found their way into your stories? 

And if you’re thinking we’ve touched on work before, you’re right. Here is a link to Who are we without work? A flashback on the subject of work - it’s meaning in our lives and a look at “Bartleby The Scrivener.”

In their own voices: Anne Lamott, Amor Towles, Paulette Jiles, Nick Hornby and more

Author interviews can be a mixed bag. I love the good ones – the ones that illuminate a book I’ve loved by a writer I admire, the ones that let me into how these writers see the world and approach their craft. I love ideas. I’m lucky enough to live less than a mile from Point Loma Nazarene University, a small college that partners with local bookstores and hosts the annual Writers Symposium by the Sea featuring well-known writers from a wide range of ideas and genres.

The conversations are rich, thoughtful, and fun. I received this link a few weeks ago reminding me that they are all available online and I wanted to share them with you so you could watch or listen when you have time. Here’s a link to all of them. And here’s a look at the interview with Paulette Jiles whose novel, News of the World, was one of my first reads in 2024. It was amazing. I look forward to talking about it with you. 

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Lines that linger: let’s play 

Let’s play. Share a sentence from anything you’ve read (or re-read) this week along with the source. No need to add any context, the fun part is getting to see how it impacts others. Here’s mine:

“But now the news of the world aged him more than time itself.” - Paulette Jiles, News of the World

Now add yours!

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Welcome New Subscribers!

If you’ve just subscribed, thank you so much for being here. If you would like to check out past issues, here’s a quick link to the archives. Be sure to check out our Resources for Readers and Writers too where you will find links for readers, book clubs, writers, and writing groups. And if you’d like to browse for your next read, don’t forget to check out books by authors in our community at the Spark Author Page which will be updated with new names and books for next week’s issue. Another great source: the many wonderful reviews you’ll find among the #Bookstackers. 

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One more thing: Spark will go dark next week. We will be on a long-awaited visit to family and I will use the time to focus on them and to recharge the creative batteries. I wish you all a peaceful Memorial Day weekend and I’ll be back in your inbox on June 1.

Let me know how you are and what you’re reading. If there’s an idea, book, or question you’d like to see in an upcoming issue of Spark, let us know! Use the comment button below or just hit reply to this email and send your message directly. 

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Ciao for now! 

Gratefully yours,

Betsy

P.S. And now, your moment of Zen…letting go

Photo: Betsy Marro

Calling for Your Contribution to “Moment of Zen”: 

What is YOUR moment of Zen? Send me your photos, a video, a drawing, a song, a poem, or anything with a visual that moved you, thrilled you, calmed you. Or just cracked you up. This feature is wide open for your own personal interpretation.

Come on, go through your photos, your memories or just keep your eyes and ears to the ground and then share. Send your photos/links, etc. to me by replying to this email or simply by sending to: elizabethmarro@substack.com. The main guidelines are probably already obvious: don’t hurt anyone  -- don’t send anything that violates the privacy of someone you love or even someone you hate, don’t send anything divisive, or aimed at disparaging others. Our Zen moments are to help us connect, to bond, to learn, to wonder, to share -- to escape the world for a little bit and return refreshed. 

I can’t wait to see what you send!