IN THE WINK OF AN EYE
Published by BOSON BOOKS, a division of C&M Online Media, Inc.
Literary fiction (comedy; a sort of political cartoon)
This tale is about a revolution--a small, upstart, none-too-promising
revolution--that succeeds too well. A band of inept guerrillas in the Bolivain
backcountry has modest ambitions to take over the jungle-ridden province
of Santa Cruz, a place no one else wants. Before the story is half over a
shady German industrialist, with an obsession for big deals and big women,
devises a scheme to expand the revolt into a takeover of all of South
America. The President of the United States, for his own veiled purposes,
embraces that takeover for a vast Western Hemisphere plan. And through
the independent actions of a few irate citizens in Tulsa, New York, and
London, the plan unexpectedly snowballs into a wildcat world movement.
Kelly Cherry is the author of six books of fiction (most recently, The Society of
Friends: Stories, University of Missouri Press, 1999), five books of poetry, two
books of nonfiction (including The Exiled Heart, an autobiography, and Writing
the World, essays about writing and the writing life), five chapbooks, and two
translations. Cherry's short fiction has been represented in Best American Short
Stories, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, and The Pushcart Prize. For her
poetry she has received the Hanes Prize. She is Eudora Welty Professor of
English and Evjue-Bascom Professor in the Humanities at the University of
Wisconsin, Madison, and recently served as Eminent Scholar at the Humanities
Center at the University of Alabama, Huntsville. This spring she will be the
Wyndham Robertson Writer-in-Residence at Hollins University in
Virginia.
KW: What makes your work unique?
KC: Yikes! I don't know how to answer this. In some sense everyone's
work is unique, because no two people are alike. In another sense, we are
all likely to be more alike than we might want to acknowledge, as we are
enfolded in our time and place and share events and circumstances, not to
mention the predicaments of life, death, and consciousness. But you know
what I think? I think that a writer's task is to go so deeply into the self
that the personal is left behind in favor of the human.
KW: Do you feel there's a great appeal for this type of work in
mainstream society? Why?
KC: Oh. I see I should have taken a different approach to the first
question. Let's see: I think my work, even the darkest of it, at least my
work in fiction, is essentially comic. I mean as, for example, Dante is
comic. Do I think there's a great appeal for this type of work? Well, I
think there is in the long run, but maybe not in the short run. We human
beings don't like to take our problems too lightly. But in the eye of
eternity (and eternity keeps a sharp lookout in In the Wink of an Eye) we
may see the possibility of a transcendence that is also a relief. A comic
relief. (A reason for being grateful to BOSON for keeping my book in
print...)
KW: What kinds of reviews have you received for this work?
"Clever, witty, fast-paced, clearly written and funny."--Fred Chappell.
"Kelly Cherry, in her third novel, is pushing her considerable comic talents and
inventive genius into the dark recesses of Vonnegut country. What on the surface
is fable, farce and fantasy, has as its underside poignant insights into what makes
modern civilization a madcap satire."--Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.
"A most original piece of work....A very funny book by a gifted and
unconventional poet and novelist."--George Garrett.
"Kelly Cherry has produced another witty winner, a fast-paced, laugh-out-loud
tour de force set against the backdrop of--of all things--a Bolivian
revolution....She has proven again that in a time of robots, dirty deals and
multi-national power struggles, the creative imagination can still
triumph."--Milwaukee Journal.
KW: Was your book professionally edited? Why/why not? Were you
happy with the editing? Why/why not?
KC: The original editor, at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich wanted a title
change; the original title was The Revolution of the World. BOSON BOOKS
did not edit this work, as it is a reissue.
KW: What format is your book available in?
KC: Uh-oh, this question is too technologically advanced for me. I think
you use something called Adobe Acrobat, but I'm not sure that is a
"format." But the Boson Books site is very attractive and clear, and
anyone with just a few more cerebral neurons than I have will have no
difficulty understanding how to download their books. {NOTE: BOSON
BOOKS are indeed available in PDF download format or disks.}
KW: What made you choose this electronic publisher?
KC: It is an exciting publisher, one that saw the future a bit sooner than
almost anyone else and one that is bringing out a lot of excellent work.
Check out the fiction of Steve Vivian, for example!
KW: Did you try to sell this book/your work to traditional publishers?
What was the response? Why did you choose electronic publishing? Will
you attempt to sell this same book to traditional publishers in the future?
KC: In the Wink of an Eye was first published by Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich in 1983. It did not go into paperback. I would certainly love to
see it back in print, in cloth or paper, someday, and I see no inherent
contradiction in a book's appearing both in print and electronically. I am
delighted that BOSON has made it available to readers.
KW: Do you expect to make a profit from this book? Why/why not? If
your book doesn't make a profit electronically, will you submit other
books to e-publishers in the future? Why/why not?
KC: Ah. I don't expect to make a profit, ever. I used to want to; I don't
even think about it anymore.
KW: Please detail your promotional strategies. Have they been
successful or do you believe they will be?
KC: I don't have any of my own, but I am happy to report that BOSON has
been active in establishing links to markets (such as Amazon.com) and in
other ways calling attention to their splendid list of publications.
KW: Do you plan to branch out in any other areas? Please detail.
KC: I don't know what other areas exist. Do you mean print? I love
reaching readers and will continue to seize opportunities to do so--and
maybe some of those opportunities will occur in ways that, at this point, we
can't even imagine.
KW: Please give a word of advice for authors considering this route
themselves.
KC: Go for it!