FFW: More Day 3

So here's more from FFW 2010:

* Eugene Peterson Exclusive: For the first time in his life, he doesn't know what book he'll be writing next. I asked if that worried him. He kind of shrugged, "No." What's he writing now? "Letters."

* More EP: I was told incorrectly - he does have a cell phone, just no email.

* Memoirist Mary Karr, whose bestselling Lit has kept her on the road since November, said she's looked on as a moron for admitting to secular audiences that she became a Christian (much of what this book is about), then went on to say when she says she's Catholic, it's even worse.

* To achieve, like Hemingway said, that one true sentence while writing, Mary Karr prays for God "to let me know the truth I have to tell." That's a fabulous line.

* A panel admitted that Christian fiction is a sub-genre (Christian) within a genre (romance, adventure, etc), thus creating a kind of double-bind for writers to be constrained within. They also said that while certain rules of reality are being lifted, the one sure taboo is a "dark tone and mood." The supposed typical Christian reader (female through & through) supposedly won't support that.

* Good quote from the fiction editor of a lit journal: "Write what you want to know - then research it."

* Catholic Gene Luan Yang creates graphic novels, American Born Chinese being the first to ever be nominated for a National Book Award (against prose texts), said his parents told him, "Be friends with everyone, but when you choose your closest friends, you're choosing who you are." I'm going to start telling the prodigy that.

* Super agent Chip MacGregor ended his session with a hilarious story about the power of word choice (but don't ask me about it unless you're willing to feel uncomfortable), but started with the statement that Jesus' best friend on Earth didn't compare God to a symphony, ballet, or painting. Instead, to properly describe God, he compared him to "The Word." Now go write.

* BTW, he was yet-another guest who said, "I don't attend writing conferences, but I never miss this one."

* Yale law prof / novelist Stephen Carter (I ended up in his session by mistake & was so glad I did), noted that:
1. When the size of university libraries shrank, so did their number of advanced degrees.

2. Children seem to absorb print & computer screen stories with the same amount of comprehension, but when you ask imaginative or critical thinking questions (What do you think will happen next?), the screen readers get stumped.

3. Interest in anything written wanes quicker on a computer screen.

Thus, 'The purpose of a book is to challenge us and make us rethink even topics we think we know.'

Yeah, it was a fabulous day for spectacular quotes. I feel whole.