{"id":10011,"date":"2012-09-15T13:29:35","date_gmt":"2012-09-15T20:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=10011"},"modified":"2012-09-15T13:29:35","modified_gmt":"2012-09-15T20:29:35","slug":"sam-lamott-was-a-no-show-but-anne-arrived-with-a-bouquet-of-bons-mots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/sam-lamott-was-a-no-show-but-anne-arrived-with-a-bouquet-of-bons-mots\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Lamott Couldn’t Make It, but Anne Arrived With a Bouquet of Bons Mots"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"the
Fans filled the pews for Anne Lamott.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Anne
Anne was there. Photos by BF Newhall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

When best-selling author Anne Lamott learned that her 19-year-old son Sam was about to become an unwed father, her reaction was, \u201cIt\u2019s all over. The baby will be raised in a shelter. They\u2019ll be on the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as soon little Jax Jesse Lamott was born in July, 2009, her grandmothering instinct took over \u2013 as did Lamott\u2019s instinct for turning life into art.<\/p>\n

She asked Sam whether he was OK with her writing about being a newly minted grandmother. He said he was delighted. Soon the book, Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son\u2019s First Son<\/em>, became a joint project.<\/p>\n

Their book tour earlier this year included a stop at Montclair Presbyterian Church in Oakland, CA, where more than 250 people \u2013 mostly women \u2013 showed up for the reading and book signing, which was sponsored by the bookstore A Great Good Place for Books<\/a> in nearby Montclair.<\/p>\n

I personally had been counting on getting a first-hand glimpse of Sam, the focus of Anne\u2019s earlier book, the best-selling Operating Instructions<\/em>, written during Sam\u2019s own first year of life.<\/p>\n

But Sam \u2013 a busy art student and now the father of 2-year-old \u2013 wasn’t there that night. A disappointment. The assembled fans had to settle for an evening of witticisms from the mistress of bons mots.<\/p>\n

About writing a book with Sam:<\/strong> They\u2019re still teenagers at 22. They just are. Getting him to finish it was like getting your kid to finish their term paper junior year.<\/p>\n

On writing:<\/strong> I do it every day, five days a week. I don\u2019t wait for inspiration. I don\u2019t believe in inspiration. If you want to be a writer, you sit down and write. But Sam, at 19, believed in inspiration . . . so I would give him assignments.<\/p>\n

(I\u2019d give myself assignments too. For example: \u201cJust introduce the characters.\u201d)<\/p>\n

How some of Sam\u2019s part of the book got written:<\/strong> Sam would call and start to say something amazing [about Jax], and I would say wait, wait, wait \u2013 and I\u2019d get a pen or a laptop.<\/p>\n

On being the young, single mother of Sam:<\/strong> Things are so much harder than the popular culture would lead you to believe. I wanted to wrap up the baby very carefully and leave him out for just one night.<\/p>\n

On writing about Sam when he was a kid:<\/strong> By the time he was 10, I cleared every story I wrote about him.<\/p>\n

On writing about family nowadays:<\/strong> I don\u2019t air the family laundry. I don\u2019t write things I would tell only a few friends.<\/p>\n

On writing about the baby\u2019s mother and her family:<\/strong> I showed it to Amy and her parents and said I will take [what they say] into consideration.<\/p>\n

\"Sam
Sam couldn’t make it. Photo \u00a9 Talena Smith & Ricci Nazareth-Silva<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What the younger generation does when they see you struggling with computers and remotes:<\/strong> They grab things out of your hand.<\/p>\n

On getting your book published:<\/strong> Think about an ebook. It\u2019s the wave of the future. The publishing houses are not the wave of the future. They are going under. If you sell a book for $10 on Amazon, you [the writer] get $5 instead of $2.<\/p>\n

Another thought on writing:<\/strong> It\u2019s like driving at night with the headlights on. You can only see a little way in front of you.<\/p>\n

Your writers group:<\/strong> The single most valuable thing you can have as a writer. Two or three people who will keep you honest.<\/p>\n

On being Sam\u2019s mother at age 57, going on 58: <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMom. There is something I want to talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s your pants. I think you can do better. I think you should talk to your friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Anne says Sam would have said if he hadn\u2019t been a no-show:<\/strong> <\/strong>\u201cI\u2019m sure half of you were dragged here by someone who likes my mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

On witnessing the destitution in India as an American traveler.<\/strong> It puts you in your place: You [realize you\u2019re only] responsible for what\u2019s inside your own hula hoop.<\/p>\n

On Jesus:<\/strong> Everything I\u2019ve written has ultimately been about faith. I came from an atheist family, but I\u2019ve always believed. My father was raised by Presbyterian missionaries. They didn\u2019t tell him they loved him and yet they preached this gospel of love.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t understand complicated theological ideas and, you know, I don\u2019t care. I could sit down with Ann Coulter (because that would be Jesus\u2019s way). She might think that I\u2019m a murderer because I believe in women\u2019s rights and abortion rights. But we could talk about Jesus.<\/p>\n

Get a glimpse of Sam and his art work courtesy of Ingrid Lockowandt.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"bookOperating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Son<\/em>, by Anne Lamott with Sam Lamott, Riverhead Books, 2012, $26.95 hardcover.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Anne<\/a><\/p>\n

Sam Lamott was too busy being an art student and the father of a 2-year-old to show up at a book signing for “Some Assembly Required,” the book he wrote with his mother, the best-selling author Anne Lamott. But Anne was present and had pithy things to say about writing — and being the mother of a 22-year-old father. Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[773,34,736,774,775,488,776,777],"class_list":["post-10011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-writing-reading","tag-author-profiles","tag-dont-miss","tag-memoir-books","tag-sam-lamott","tag-some-assembly-required","tag-the-writing-life","tag-unwed-father","tag-writing-tips-from-anne-lamott"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}