Barry Yourgrau writes, performs & attempts humor in multimedia. His early works A Man Jumps Out of An Airplane & Wearing Dad's Head are considered surreal classics. His book Haunted Traveller plays with imaginary travels. Fans know him too from MTV, NPR & the film The Sadness of Sex in which he starred. For kids (?) there's recent NASTYbooks series. South African-born BY lives in NYC, travels a lot. Has great nostalgia for years in LA. More info @ www.yourgrau.com & www.nastybook.com.
In more follow-up to my account of writing stories for cell phones in Japan, Ben Dooley at the excellent blog themillions just did a substantial freewheeling interview with me on the subject. A sample question:
The Millions: Do you think it could work in the U.S.? If not, what's different about Japan that makes cell phone novels/stories viable?
Ben did an earlier excellent piece on keitai novels (as cell-phone lit in Japan is called),in the wake of a recent NY Times article. He translated excerpts from some of the big sellers in the genre over there—the big sellers which sell in the millions.
And now the also excellent blog futureof thebook has done a fine follow-upabout themillions interview .
Perhaps the format is starting to catch some attention over here; it’s roared in Japan and elsewhere in Asia.
