Jenny Burman talks about 'Veronica Street'

Veronica Street's cover art, by Heather D'Augustine

The fifth chapter of Jenny Burman's new serialized novel, Veronica Street, posted today at our Native Intelligence blog. Jenny was recently interviewed about the book-by-blog by Los Angeles magazine. "Jenny Burman is a true Los Angeles writer—even if she lives 2,000 miles across the country," the piece begins. "For eight years Burman was a breezy, insightful correspondent at LA Observed. In February of 2013 her husband, R.J. Smith, a former senior editor for Los Angeles, took a job as senior editor at our sister publication Cincinnati magazine, and the pair moved to Ohio. Chicken Corner came to an end, but Burman's love for this sliver of Los Angeles did not."

Here's an excerpt from the interview:

Why did you decide to release Veronica Street this way?

I love writing in real time. I've been working on Veronica Street for a few years. I was in my second draft and I kept thinking, I wish I could just do it the way I did Chicken Corner. I dismissed it out of hand because that's not the standard model. Also, it would require rewriting because the pace wasn't made for serialization. It suddenly occurred to me that maybe I could do it that way.

I have four posts ready to go and I already see it changing. It's exciting because I always have the second draft to come back to if I decide that I've changed it too much. Knowing that, I have already started to re-envision one of the characters, someone that was going to be a minor character. And I've had a little bit of feedback so I can see what people are responding to. The pace is changing entirely. For better or worse, it's going to be more episodic.

Is the feedback you're receiving going to influence the story?

It might. If you sense what people are responding to then yes, it could make a difference.

Also noted: Both LA Observed columnists Mark Gold and Jon Christensen were interviewed today on KPCC about the water issues around the pipeline break near UCLA. Gold was on "Take Two" — he posted a column this morning faulting the DWP for its aging infrastructure — and Christensen appeared on "Airtalk."