magdalenaball

returned to the States briefly and then emigrated to Australia (where his parents lived). So I now live in Australia on 66 acres of forest with kangaroos, lyrebirds, kookaburas, wombats and possums. Its fairly pastoral and a long cry from NYC! My life from 9-5 is incredibly varied and generally pretty chaotic. I have 3 young (2,5,7) children so I spend a lot of time caring for them, ferrying them to and from school, friends, and social gatherings, playing lego, dollhouses, and singing silly songs. In between, I have a job as an information manager for a large firm (I work part time from home, and everything I do is semantics in one form or another), and also write just about everything from reviews to poetry to fiction. My first novel, "Sleep Before Evening," is currently undergoing another major rewrite and then I'll be sending it out for a second round of submissions. I'm also working on a poetry book, "Quark Soup," which is about 3/4 finished. I'm hoping that both of these large projects will be ready to fly around October or so (so I can do NaNiMo for my second novel!).

Your website "The Compulsive Reader offers literary book reviews, author interviews, news and criticism. How long has it been in existence?

Magdalena: The Compulsive Reader has been going for nearly 5 years now (I can still remember when I got my first newsletter subscriber, not counting my mother, who was the real first one. I'm pretty sure that first sub is still with me, as is my mother!). It first opened it's virtual doors in late 2000 as a member of the Webseed network, and when Webseed folded, I became completely independent, finding my own host, setting up a content management system and copying in the vast number of reviews by hand. It was a big learning curve!

What inspired you to offer it to readers?

Magdalena: I had been writing book reviews for a website called Box Planet, which folded, and I found myself seriously missing my review copies (have to feed the habit - I'm really a compulsive - did I leave out reading in question 1? It's almost as natural as breathing to me), and also wanting to write reviews which is almost like a second reading. Also, as a reader, I found that there was a dearth of really well written, thorough, detailed reviews of literary fiction, which I personally love, so I started the site as a way to meet that need. I continue to be inspired by the strong and very literate community of like-minded readers, my incredibly erudite and well read reviewers, and the gratitude of writers. I love that the site offers a much needed service to small publishers and authors of books based on quality rather than hype.

Tell us a little about yourself. Where do you live? What do you do 9-5? Your writing background and other interests.

Magdalena: I had been writing book reviews for a website called Box Planet, which folded, and I found myself seriously missing my review copies (have to feed the habit - I'm really a compulsive - did I leave out reading in question 1? It's almost as natural as breathing to me), and also wanting to write reviews which is almost like a second reading. Also, as a reader, I found that there was a dearth of really well written, thorough, detailed reviews of literary fiction, which I personally love, so I started the site as a way to meet that need. I continue to be inspired by the strong and very literate community of like-minded readers, my incredibly erudite and well read reviewers, and the gratitude of writers. I love that the site offers a much needed service to small publishers and authors of books based on quality rather than hype.

How has it evolved over the years?

Magdalena: The site started as a one woman show, and ''m very glad to say that I now have about 15 wonderful reviewers. About 6 or so of these are core and have really set the tone and style of the site. It has also become more varied over the years, based on what readers tell me they want, so I do occasionally feature author interviews, literary film reviews, music which has a literary theme (for example, an operatic version of Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past"), and lots of poetry. Of course the community has grown - we now have nearly 6,000 subscribers to our monthly newsletter (growing by about 30 a day!).

Tell us about your reviewers and the role they play.

Magdalena: I'm so lucky to have the reviewers I do. They are all fantastic and there are quite a few different styles. I once even published a review written entirely in verse. Although I insist that all my reviews be thorough and detailed with a lot of specific information in them (they average about 700-1,500 words), some of my reviewers are fairly academic, and others take a much more 'common reader' type approach. I have English professors, bookstore owners and staff, and lots of professional writers. Full bios of my major reviewers can be found on the website. I also get quite a few one off submissions, or occasional reviewers.

What awards has the website won?

Magdalena: I've got my awards on display on the website, but some of the awards I'm particularly proud of are the now defunct (but very selective) Inscriptions Site of Excellence and the Book Review Cafe Outstanding Content Award.

What are your responsibilities?

Magdalena: Chief cook and bottle washer of course! I do everything - set up and vet (and edit, fairly lightly) all the reviews, determine the content, fix bugs, write and send out the newsletters, and I try to write about 3-4 reviews a month myself. I also deal with all review requests, determine the most appropriate reviewer, organize the review copies, manage the web site, come up with poll topics, answer queries, do website promotion/link exchanges, interviews, etc., deal with any bugs or irregularities on the site, upgrade the software and apply security patches when needed, pay all the bills, and pretty much anything else that comes up.

In the years you've offered the site, have you noticed any literary trends? Found any authors that rise above the others in their ability to present a novel which is highly descriptive, has well developed characters and a well thought-out plot?

Magdalena: The biggest actual trend is the increasing number of self-published novels. There are so many coming onto the market now, and as we've grown, so have the submission requests (I get about 15 a day). I don't discriminate at all against small publishers (I positively court them), and as far as I'm concerned, self-published novels are simply novels published by a small publisher. It's easy though for a self-published novel to skimp on things like editing or to be taken in by unscrupulous printers or even vanity presses, and we do get quite a few very poor quality books submitted. On the other hand, I've heard many people bemoan the overt commercialism of the literary world, and I have to say that it hasn't been my experience. The number of wonderful, innovative, gorgeous literary fiction novels continues to surprise me, and as a reader, I'm heartened by the many excellent first novels I continue to come across, by large and small publishers alike.

In terms of your publication credits, tell us about your contributions to the university journals and popular fiction venues.

Magdalena: I'm something of a "jill of all trades," and I like to balance my writing work. So if I've done quite a lot of technical writing, I might work on a story for a while, and then go onto to write some poetry on an esoteric topic, or even an essay. I'm always reading and writing reviews too, so I have quite a lot of material in general. I find that university journals tend to be particularly hungry for reviews and essays, and have published quite a few reviews of poetry books (along with my own poetry) with university journals like Drexel Online (from Drexel University in Pennsylvania), Harpweaver (from Brock University in Canada), or M/C Journal (from The University of Queensland). There are also a number of very fine fiction and poetry websites and journals that I tend to submit to regularly like Skive, Mocha Memoirs or Long Story Short. These journals are all run by very dedicated and classy people who simply love good prose and good poetry and will do anything to promote it. But I'm always submitting my work somewhere and it's hard to encapsulate everything published in a few sentences like one does in a bio - I keep track of everything in my full CV.

You've recently written "The Art of Assessment: How to Review Anything. It's logical that you wrote it to inform freelance writers about opportunities they may not have even considered. How much research was involved? What has the feedback from your readers been like?

Magdalena: I also wrote "The Art of Assessment" as a means to educate my own actual and potential reviewers (though my regulars have always been so good they didn't need a guide - new reviewers often welcome some guidelines though). I spent about a year on it, and did quite a lot of research, reading the few books on the topic (mostly classics like Virginia Woolf's On Reviewing), and lots of books on literary aethetics (I had a few dusty ones on my shelf from the University days) and snuffing out review opportunities for areas I wasn't that familiar with like mystery shopping and food reviewing. Feedback has been excellent, and since I mainly sell the book as an e-book, I'm able to incorporate input and suggestions immediately. I guess the one most often received comment I get is that the book is very clearly written and easy to follow (even with a "modern" attention span), and that is gratifying to hear, and certainly something I strove for.

What future projects will you be working on?

Magdalena: My own big projects at the moment are my first novel, "Sleep Before Evening," which I had finished, but on editorial advice, have decided to do another rewrite of, and my poetry collection, "Quark Soup" which is in progress, but nearing completion. Being an optimist I'm hoping that I'll be spending time promoting published versions of these in the future. My next novel, provisionally titled "Black Cow," is in outline form, and I'm hoping to do some serious work on that once "Sleep" is out of my hands. Since I'm afraid I rarely say no to interesting sounding collaborations, I'll probably also be working on various multimedia poetry projects (a little pet area of mine, albeit one in which I have serious limitations, and perhaps a collaboration on a book for writers with the publisher of Art. I've got a very small cookbook titled "The Literary Lunch: Recipes for a Hungry Mind," which takes passages from great literature that has food references, and turns that reference into an actual tested dish. I've had it on the back burner, but I'd love to resurrect it, expand it to a full size cookbook (there's a surprising amount of work, both research and applied, involved in this kind of cookbook), and submit it to publishers for consideration (and for some decent photography since that isn't my strong point!).