Roy Blount Jr. has played many roles in his life: writer, composer, actor, interviewer, musician and radio game show guest. But above all else, he believes writing is what he was meant to do.

Blount likes to write about things he is interested in doing. At one point he thought he would be a “triple-threat in sports” playing very well in three different sports. Short of accomplishing that, he is well known for writing about sports. “About Three Bricks Shy … and The Load Filled Up” (1989) is one of his better known sports books.

Blount is now fortunate to be paid regularly for writing what he wants to write about. He doesn’t go on vacations.

“I always go on assignment,” he said. He looks to “capture something lively.”

As for music composition, he says he writes songs that only he can sing, although Andie MacDowell does sing one of his songs in the Nora Ephron movie “Michael.” Blount sings in the all-writers band Rock Bottom Remainders, with such other literary luminaries as Stephen King, Dave Barry and Matt Groening.

Image by: Rock Bottom Remainders website

Talk of music brought us around to his latest book, “Alphabetter Juice: or, The Joy of Text,” a followup to his 2008 “Alphabet Juice.” Both books are about the sound and kinestheses of words, or as Blount explains, “how words move through your mouth.” He said he has always been interested in words and writing about them.

Image by: Author website

“Getting two books (on the subject) has been a pleasure,” he said.

Image by: Author website

Between “Alphabet Juice” and “Alphabetter Juice,” he wrote “Hail, Hail, Euphoria!: Presenting the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup, the Greatest War Movie Ever Made.” Blount described the book as similar to a director’s commentary on a DVD. He had the movie running on one monitor while his word processor was on another.

Image by: Author website

Blount is also know as a panelist on the NPR show “Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me,” heard weekends at 11 a.m. on KXJZ 90.9 FM.

Blount is married to Joan Griswold, an acomplished painter.

He has also been president of The Authors Guild. During his tenure he was spokesman for the guild in a dispute over the Amazon Kindle’s use of an audio translator without royalties to the author, persuading Amazon to eliminate the text-to-speech feature. The National Federation of the Blind then formed the Reading Right Coalition to protest the lack of access to audio materials. They chanted outside the Authors Guild offices in New York City: “We would have access sooner if not for Roy Blount Jr.”

With all his interests and his way with words, Blount’s California Lectures appearance in partnership with the Sacramento Public Library at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria should be a lively one.

Roy Blount, Jr. in conversation with Sands Hall      California Lectures
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 | 7:30 p.m.
Doors open at 6:00 p.m. Books available for purchase and book signing after the event.

LOCATION
Tsakopoulos Library Galleria, 828 I Street, Sacramento.

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