The Kings and the Straubs: All in the Family

 

The Kings and the Straubs: All in the Family

A report from the event at St. Francis College, Brooklyn Heights, April 21, 2015

BIOGRAPHY

Last Tuesday, I attended an event held in Founders Hall at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights that featured Stephen & Owen King and Peter & Emma Straub. The event was co-sponsored by BookCourt, a bookstore where Peter Straub’s daughter Emma worked for several years.

Top 10 holidays in fiction

From James Salter to Lorrie Moore and Patricia Highsmith, novelist Emma Straub is our guide for a tour of the best-imagined vacations

Emma Straub
Wednesday 23 July 2014 13.58 BST

I've always liked taking my fictional characters on vacation. As in life, I think it shakes characters out of their routines, which in turn leads to more zippy interactions and conflicts and, yes, better sex.

Though the entirety of my new novel, The Vacationers, takes place on an American family's holiday in Mallorca, sometimes you only need a little slice of a trip within a larger book.

Here are some of my favorite getaways in fiction – they aren't all successful, of course, but a placid, happy trip rarely makes for compelling reading.