Writers in my recently completed MFA program are writing about what we are writing. Read some others’ at these addresses:
Below is my contribution to the thread.
What is the working title of your book?
Corporate FIST
Where did the idea come from for the book?
My life in corporate America as it became twisted in my imagination.
What genre does your book fall under?
Fiction
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Kevin Spacey would play Paul Carlyle, an executive who isn’t quite meeting the standards set for him, and who is having an extra-marital affair. Julianne Moore would play Paul’s wife, Samantha who also works at the company as a manager within the technical department. Her reactive volatility gets her into trouble. Shannyn Sossamon would play Penny Borden, an HR manager who is friends with Samantha friend while having an affair with Paul. Scott Takeda would play Harikin Paulsen, the head of HR, who believes in survival of the fittest and is a key player in determining who is most fit to remain at the company. Steve Martin would play Barry Cotton, the CFO, who makes the corporate-wide decisions, and doesn’t care or take responsibility for those who are impacted.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Corporate FIST is a satire that shows how reasonable, educated, hard-working people behave within the economic, social and cultural underbelly of an old, increasingly unstable, Northern California-based corporation called Financial Institute of Spreadsheet Totals or FIST.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Self-published
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
It started as a short story, about 3000 words. The ideas kept coming and so, the writing continues.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Super Sad True Love Story, by Gary Shteyngart and The Time Seller: A Business Satire, by Fernando Trías De Bes
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I was inspired to write what might have happened when qualities of different people merged into one person and then interacted with another merged “person” in various work-related situations. It was fun to rearrange the pieces into something that entertained me. When I wrote it down, people responded positively, so I kept going.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Those who have lived within corporate culture may nod their heads in recognition of a life while laughing at an absurd turn of events. Hopefully they’ll end up laughing about their own lives. Those who have lived outside corporate culture will get a true enough, yet ridiculous view into a culture that may be going on all around them.
Next week, stay tuned for posts from these talented, up-and-coming writers:
Kuukua Dzigbordi Yomekpe was born in Ghana and immigrated to the U.S. in 1996. She characterizes herself as a memoirist, essayist, and writer of social commentary. She is the author of several essays and prose poems. Some of her essays have been anthologized in: African Women Writing Resistance (UW Press), Becoming Bi: Bisexual Voices from Around the World (BRC), and Inside Your Ear (Oakland Public Library Press). Her essay, “The Audacity to Remain Single: Single Black Women in the Black Church,” won the annual Marcella Althaus-Reid Award for best “Queer Essay,” and was anthologized in Queer Religion II (Praeger Publishers). Her essay, “Where Is Your Husband? Single African Women in the Diaspora and the Exploration of Sexuality” will be published by Palgrave McMillan. She s currently writing and living in Ghana, West Africa.
She has her hands in three projects currently: Musings of an African Woman, her blog which features a collection of personal essays about life as a queer, African, immigrant. She is also working on a chapbook that will chronicle all her love affairs over her 20-year dating history. Her memoir, The Coal Pot, a Culinary Memoir celebrating her Ghanaian roots, is currently on pause as she prepares to write a young adolescent novel for the Burt Award. Her blog post about The Next Best Thing will appear on https://ewurabasempe.wordpress.com/
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O'Baire writes poetry, novels often including poetry from the primary character, short stories and essays. Her work emerges from juxtaposed scenes, from conversations, fabulist fiction, dreamscapes, newspaper or magazine accounts, from her life intimately involved as a nurse with people who are severely injured or mentally ill. Since she is a member of a large, extended group of family and friends, she writes about her experience in an international group studying consciousness, being and existence. Some of her friends risk their lives bringing this knowledge of inner freedom of the spirit to countries that painfully indoctrinate their subjects. O'Baire currently lives in Northern California. Her blog post about her poetry collection Second Collection appears on http://mhobaire.com/2013/02/28/the-next-big-thing/
- Haldane C. King: http://haldanecking.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/the-next-big-thing/
- Lois Keaney Smith: http://loiskeaneysmith.com/2013/02/02/the-next-big-thing-perhaps-so/
Below is my contribution to the thread.
What is the working title of your book?
Corporate FIST
Where did the idea come from for the book?
My life in corporate America as it became twisted in my imagination.
What genre does your book fall under?
Fiction
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Kevin Spacey would play Paul Carlyle, an executive who isn’t quite meeting the standards set for him, and who is having an extra-marital affair. Julianne Moore would play Paul’s wife, Samantha who also works at the company as a manager within the technical department. Her reactive volatility gets her into trouble. Shannyn Sossamon would play Penny Borden, an HR manager who is friends with Samantha friend while having an affair with Paul. Scott Takeda would play Harikin Paulsen, the head of HR, who believes in survival of the fittest and is a key player in determining who is most fit to remain at the company. Steve Martin would play Barry Cotton, the CFO, who makes the corporate-wide decisions, and doesn’t care or take responsibility for those who are impacted.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Corporate FIST is a satire that shows how reasonable, educated, hard-working people behave within the economic, social and cultural underbelly of an old, increasingly unstable, Northern California-based corporation called Financial Institute of Spreadsheet Totals or FIST.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Self-published
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
It started as a short story, about 3000 words. The ideas kept coming and so, the writing continues.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Super Sad True Love Story, by Gary Shteyngart and The Time Seller: A Business Satire, by Fernando Trías De Bes
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I was inspired to write what might have happened when qualities of different people merged into one person and then interacted with another merged “person” in various work-related situations. It was fun to rearrange the pieces into something that entertained me. When I wrote it down, people responded positively, so I kept going.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Those who have lived within corporate culture may nod their heads in recognition of a life while laughing at an absurd turn of events. Hopefully they’ll end up laughing about their own lives. Those who have lived outside corporate culture will get a true enough, yet ridiculous view into a culture that may be going on all around them.
Next week, stay tuned for posts from these talented, up-and-coming writers:
Kuukua Dzigbordi Yomekpe was born in Ghana and immigrated to the U.S. in 1996. She characterizes herself as a memoirist, essayist, and writer of social commentary. She is the author of several essays and prose poems. Some of her essays have been anthologized in: African Women Writing Resistance (UW Press), Becoming Bi: Bisexual Voices from Around the World (BRC), and Inside Your Ear (Oakland Public Library Press). Her essay, “The Audacity to Remain Single: Single Black Women in the Black Church,” won the annual Marcella Althaus-Reid Award for best “Queer Essay,” and was anthologized in Queer Religion II (Praeger Publishers). Her essay, “Where Is Your Husband? Single African Women in the Diaspora and the Exploration of Sexuality” will be published by Palgrave McMillan. She s currently writing and living in Ghana, West Africa.
She has her hands in three projects currently: Musings of an African Woman, her blog which features a collection of personal essays about life as a queer, African, immigrant. She is also working on a chapbook that will chronicle all her love affairs over her 20-year dating history. Her memoir, The Coal Pot, a Culinary Memoir celebrating her Ghanaian roots, is currently on pause as she prepares to write a young adolescent novel for the Burt Award. Her blog post about The Next Best Thing will appear on https://ewurabasempe.wordpress.com/
*~*~*~*~*
O'Baire writes poetry, novels often including poetry from the primary character, short stories and essays. Her work emerges from juxtaposed scenes, from conversations, fabulist fiction, dreamscapes, newspaper or magazine accounts, from her life intimately involved as a nurse with people who are severely injured or mentally ill. Since she is a member of a large, extended group of family and friends, she writes about her experience in an international group studying consciousness, being and existence. Some of her friends risk their lives bringing this knowledge of inner freedom of the spirit to countries that painfully indoctrinate their subjects. O'Baire currently lives in Northern California. Her blog post about her poetry collection Second Collection appears on http://mhobaire.com/2013/02/28/the-next-big-thing/
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