Sunday, January 11, 2015

Jo Perry

Jo Perry earned a Ph.D. in English, taught college literature and writing, produced and wrote episodic television, and has published articles, book reviews, and poetry. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, novelist Thomas Perry. They have two adult children. Their three cats and two dogs are rescues.

Perry's new novel is Dead Is Better.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:
I read very little when I am engrossed in writing. Then, when the writing is complete, I binge on books.That might explain why I am half-way through a number of terrific books. Some fiction. Some non-fiction:

Roy Edroso's novel, Morgue for Whores, has a dark and hilarious opening involving a help-desk worker who wakes up to find dead people in his apartment. I can't wait to see how the help-desk guy figures out how to help himself, but I suspect things will get much worse before they improve for him.

I'm also reading A. Roger Ekirch's At Day's Close: Night in Times Past. We like to think that, despite the passage of time, certain aspects of human experience are always the same. The night hours, for example, and how we use and experience them. But for those who lived before artificial illumination penetrated the darkness, night was wild, subversive, very long, and involved two discrete sleep periods interrupted by a period of wakeful activity.

The other book is Andrew Solomon's The Noonday Demon: An Atlas Of Depression. This part-memoir, part history of inner darkness is––despite its topic––exhilarating because of Solomon's supple writing and the range of information he provides about this affliction.
Visit Jo Perry's website.

My Book, The Movie: Dead is Better.

Coffee with a Canine: Jo Perry & Lola and Lucy.

The Page 69 Test: Dead is Better.

--Marshal Zeringue