Category: Reader

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If Tigers Could Talk

Based on the recent rash of novels with “tiger” in their titles, one might think that tigers can talk, English that is.

Yesterday I saw the Disney movie African Cats. It was wonderful in a cinematography, nature-loving, awe-inspiring sort of way. It was also heartbreaking in a motherly, circle-of-life kind of way. Oh, my stars, no one has it harder than lions! Unless it’s cheetahs or gazelles or wildebeests or water buffalo. The only ones I didn’t feel sorry for were the crocodiles, but I’m sure, they too have sad stories to tell. The circle of life is cruel! My husband even felt sorry for me as a mother, because the movie was essentially about a mother lion and a mother cheetah and the struggles they go through to raise their cubs, and how they often have watch them die or leave them behind.

And this is a DISNEY movie? Well, it did bring back memories of Bambi.

But what I was thinking was, if tigers could talk all of us writers would be hungry, cold, and penniless. The big cats’ tales (not tails) were so difficult and sad that they put humans’ stories to shame.

Then again, if I was hungry, cold, penniless, and being chased by a full-grown male lion, I think I could tell a pretty heart-wrenching story. I’ll try to remember that thought as I work on my next novel. (Come to think of it, maybe that’s what Jonathan Lethem was thinking when he wrote Chronic City.)

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Conclusions, conclusions

Funny how timing works, isn’t it? A moment here, a minute there, and our whole lives could be different. Or, for instance, when people come into our lives and tell us something really valuable for where we are at that moment in time. How many snippets of advice have gone in one ear and out the other because the timing wasn’t right for us to hear it? How many people have we just missed meeting who might have become friends?

Yes, this is going somewhere.

Last week I had a phone consultation with Jenny Bent from the Bent Agency about my finished novel, On A Midnight Street. I’ve worked on it, off and on, for about 18 months. It’s complete and as polished as it’s ever going to be unless an agent/editor/publisher demands changes. (I should be so lucky.) After speaking with Jenny Bent, after she perfected my query letter, I was all charged up and decided I would send it out once more, to say 10 more agents.

Then I read a blog post by Allison Winn Scotch, about when to quit querying. I suddenly came to the conclusion that I was ready to move on because at this point, I couldn’t bear to do one more rewrite without the promise of publication. Even though my novel is “perfect”, even though my query letter is “perfect”, I’m movin’ on. I’ve written an 83,000-word first draft to my next book, Invented Lives, and that’s all I want to focus on now.

So, done. There it is. Close one book, open another. I am completely happy with this decision.
For now.

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Review: The Informationist, by Taylor Stevens

This is a great book, and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a tense drama. Taylor Stevens is an excellent writer, and her story was gripping through the final scene.  The story is extremely detailed, taking place mostly in Africa. Thank goodness I could flip back and forth from the novel in iBooks to GoogleMaps to follow along! A word of advice to future readers, you’ll have to concentrate to keep the names straight: Breeden, Burbank, Bradford, and Beyard are all major players.

The main character, Vanessa Michael Munroe, was intense, and Stevens did an excellent job of evoking sympathy for such a violent person. I was pleased with the ending in that she truly evolved. That was important to the success of the book. Stevens threw in a few red herrings that kept me guessing who the real “bad guy” was until very late in the story. I like that in a book.

Amazing that this is a debut novel. It was seriously cinematic; I could picture the action as it happened, although, if it becomes a movie, I’ll have to cover my eyes for the final scene from Africa! Whoa!

Well done, Taylor Stevens. Can’t wait for the sequel in December!

Four Stars. (I reserve 5 stars for the literary giants.)

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No More Reading?

Take me now, Lucifer!

Fire and brimstone; ridiculous action movies; The Simpsons (both the tv show and the sisters); lazy lounging people; obesity; ignorance; the end of the world… Ok, you get the picture.

Yesterday I got a taste of boredom, YES, boredom. And it was awful. Please refer to my post on 10/16/10.

My son, Elliott, has a saying: “The best movies come from books, but the best books would make bad movies.” His theory is that the best literature is quiet, slow to reveal itself, and wholly absent of car chases.

I have a saying: “Read books.” But maybe I should amend it to: “Take care of your eyes so you can always read books.”

Yesterday, after working on my upcoming novel (The King Family) for five hours, I had my annual eye exam. (I still don’t need reading glasses. Thank you, Mom.) But they had to dilate my eyes, which left me unable to read for the rest of the afternoon. And, on top of that, there were NO good new movies out yesterday. (Surely you know by now we’re big movie buffs, my husband and I.) I was dumbstruck. Thank the digital gods that my husband had two episodes of Law & Order recorded for us to watch, otherwise who knows what we would have done… certainly nothing I could report here.

Perhaps the Boys Scouts said it best: “Be prepared; buy books on tape.”

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My Third MFA

“Thank you, thank you. Thank you all for joining me here in Costa Rica to celebrate the completion of my third MFA in Fiction Writing. The past ten weeks have flown by, and it is now time for me to return to Iowa. But, yes, I’d be happy to say a few words about my experiences.

“I remember, oh so many years ago, I believe it was 2007; yes, I was 45 at the time. I bought myself my first MacBook, in fact the one I still use today. Oh, those were wild times, only one son left in high school, the rest all in college, and boy did I feel free. Take one hour a day, I told myself, to sit still and begin working on my first novel, Any Day Now. Eighteen months later, I sent my masterwork off to agents, only to discover, “I had no hook.” But I didn’t care what they said, I had just completed
My First MFA.

“In those 18 months, I learned how to sit still. I learned how to write dialogue. I learned about voice and the arc of a plot. Any Day Now was undoubtedly naive and autobiographical (I’m sure it will be requested for publication once I’m famous), but it was good practice. It fueled me on to bigger and better things! By the time I put that sweet novel to bed, I was 60 pages into my second book, On A Midnight Street. I was unstoppable, writing almost four hours a day.

“Oh, I knew I still had a lot to learn, so I read Hemingway, Salinger, Highsmith, Wroblewski, DeMille, Brown, Proulx, Wolfe, Franzen, and many more. But most importantly, I bought and read, cover to cover (at least the good parts), The Portable MFA in Creative Writing by the New York Writers Workshop. What a wealth of knowledge! Aha, My Second MFA.

“But this, my friends, My Third MFA, is without a doubt, the most important one of all. In the past ten weeks, while finishing the first draft of my third novel, The King Family, I learned about the business side of creative writing. Let me tell you, it’s intense! Writing is a long, slow, solitary process, but the publishing industry is quite the opposite. Yes, I know, anyone can publish a book these days, but only a few can reach the top; I want The New York Times Bestseller list. That is my holy grail.

“This valuable/invaluable, sea-level education, well worth the sweat and isolation of being in Costa Rica I might add, will undoubtedly help me reach my goal. I will now share with you the most important lessons I’ve learned while attending

The Costa Rican/Thank-Gore-for-the-Internet School of Writing:

1) Publishing is a business with tough competition. The goal is profit. Go hard or go home.
2) The Industry is small. Get your name out there, and play nice.
3) Since not everyone follows Rule #2, the Industry can be brutal. Be prepared.
4) Social Networking is not an option, that’s how you play the game.
5) Twitterati are real people, so are Facebook Fans. Be entertaining and be grateful.
6) The transition from “friends and family” as fans and followers to “strangers” as fans and followers is a good thing, unless they’re creepy, which they might be. Beware.
7) Goodreads, Shelf-Awareness, Writers Digest, Query Tracker, GalleyCat, Publishers Marketplace, NYT Books, Paris Review, Kirkus – okay, I can’t possibly name them all – plus every agent and every major author who has any sort of a web presence… You must read every word put online by each of them every single day, and still carve out 6 or 8 hours a day to write. Also read every book in your genre that’s ever been published. I cannot understate the importance of this.
8 ) No one is going to “happen upon” your web site and make you rich and famous. If you want to be rich and famous, you must do the work to make it happen. If you don’t promote yourself, “they” will find someone else who does. Self-promotion is vital, now more than ever.
9) There’s no such thing as an overnight sensation. Even “New Artist of the Year Awards” go to musical groups who’ve been performing for years. Published authors are not born, they’re made, and it can take years. Be patient.
10) Karma is real. You heard it here first.

“And so, my friends, in closing, to wrap up, with no further ado, here is the bottom line: The dictionary is available to all. Chose the best words; use them sparingly; do the work; then, maybe then, if you’re really lucky, you will dazzle and shine. And visit Costa Rica at least once in your lifetime.

“Adios, mis amigos. Adios, Costa Rica! Te quiero.”

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An Honest(y) Dilemma

Honesty is the best policy. Be true to yourself. Different strokes for different folks. The First Amendment gives us the right to say what we want.

As I write this entry into my blog, I honestly have a stomach ache because I’ve offended a fellow writer. (Guess I’ll never make it as a NYT book critic if I’m this much of a wimp.) I am a 48-year old mother of four, and a Libra (for whatever that’s worth). I’ve been called a “pleaser,” and I’m still not sure if that’s good or bad. The LAST thing I want to do is offend a person. That being said, I have my personal likes and opinions, as we all do. I also have a quick tongue and often regret what comes out of my mouth before I’ve considered how it will be heard. That’s one reason I’m a writer ~ I can edit and rewrite my words before I show them to people.

One of the supreme benefits of our world, at least and foremost in the United States, is that we are exposed to so much because of differing interests. I don’t go see horror movies, but they make millions of dollars off people who do. I don’t read Sci-Fi books nor books about vampires (although I did read the Twilight series to see what all the rage was about ~ and I read all four books because Stephenie Meyer has a knack for plot and making readers (me) sympathize with Bella). I prefer crime dramas on TV to sitcoms like “The Office”. I prefer mysteries and literature to Chick-Lit. But that’s my prerogative; that’s what our world is about.

However, social media is ubiquitous, and the impact and transparency of social media is game-changing.

My point is, I recently read Sara J. Henry’s debut novel, Learning To Swim. In my review on Goodreads, I called her book “a page-turner”, a “strong debut novel”, and said that she “did an excellent job at keeping the reader guessing “Whodunit?”, and I finished with “I thoroughly enjoyed the story”. However, I also said that “I found her fundamentals (i.e. syntax and vocabulary) to be rather elementary”. Unfortunately, it was this comment that apparently stuck out in Ms. Henry’s mind. I hereby and whole-heartedly apologize for offending Ms. Henry.

I am a writer, not yet “an author”. I have not yet had my fiction work published. I do not hold an MFA in English or Literature. Some people would say that I shouldn’t be able to critique work in a public forum without those credentials. Some would say that if I do, my critique should be dismissed. However, I am a voracious reader, and I have opinions. I have written two and a half novels (the first I shelved because I realized it was naive at best). The second I have submitted to agents, and gotten some nibbles but no representation yet, so I have rewritten and revised upon the feedback I’ve gotten from agents. My mother loved it (yeah, I know, but she does have a Ph.D. in Higher Education), another Ph.D professor of English at Ole Miss, Dr. Colby Kullman, had very high praise for it including “suspenseful”, the “characters come alive”, and it “by far surpasses any of their MFA’s first novels” ~ enough praise to keep me going through multiple agent rejections. Ironically, my own father “did not like it.” He told me that in person. He said it was “too raw” for his taste. (Perhaps I should have advised him that my bisexual, drug-using, unfaithful female character was in no way autobiographical before I gave it to him.) But enough about me.

In the world of the Internet, Twitter, Goodreads, etc., when a person puts their opinion online, it’s very likely that someone will either disagree or be offended. It happens everyday. I am sure that when my work (either my current book or a future one) is published, it and/or I will be criticized. I am under no illusion that everyone will like it in part or in whole. But that is “a supreme benefit” of living in America. I have to be willing to risk being hurt if I put my work out there.

Before writing full-time, I was an art dealer. I saw a lot of beautiful work, and a lot of ugly work. I, of course, only represented work that I thought was great art. Again, I have my opinion on what is “great art.” I was never a fan of Robert Rauschenberg, though he’s considered one of the greatest artists of the Twentieth Century. I also didn’t like A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan for the same reason I don’t like Rauschenberg: I thought their “ground-breaking originality” was gimmicky. Rauschenberg famously added “found objects” in his work (in the mid-50s put a taxidermied chicken in/on one work). Egan did an entire chapter in Power Point. I understand the “Power of the New”, but I don’t have to love gimmicks. Meanwhile, Egan and Rauschenberg (the latter posthumously) have laughed all the way to the bank, as they say.

As for Ms. Henry, I honestly enjoyed her novel, and look forward to the sequel. It’s just that when I compare her debut novel to Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel, and Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day (the other two books I am currently reading), I find her fundamentals to be “elementary”. “Straightforward” or “undemanding” might have better choices. Perhaps it is wildly unfair to compare a debut novelist to some of the great writers on their masterworks. “Nothing is good or bad except by comparison.” I should be so lucky as to have a debut novel out there for people to critique.

Again, Ms. Henry, my apologies. I hope that everyone who reads this will buy your book and you will make lots of money off the controversy!

The flip side of the coin, one I will try to remember for the future: “The less said is the best said.”

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Gr8xpectations

If you’ve been following along, you know my husband and I spend the worst of winter in Costa Rica. Now spring is here and our days in this beautiful country are drawing down, but we haven’t lost our adventuresome spirit.

For the past two years, we have heard about a Farmers’ Market just twenty minutes from our home, so we decided to check it out. Have you ever been to CR? It is LUSH with bananas, plantains, mangos, pineapple, cantaloupe, rice, sugar cane, coffee, and more. Boy did I have great expectations!

That’s not really a surprise though, it’s the story of my life. Hell, Gr8xpectations used to be my email address ~ not kidding. I don’t think anyone has gotten their feelings hurt more than I have (at least it seems that way). I always hope for the best, give people the benefit of the doubt, and generally count on people staying true to their word. The older I get though, the more I understand how life really works. Soon I will be cynical, skeptical, and pessimistic like the rest of you.

Ok, so today. The Farmers’ Market? Should have been called a Farmer’s Market. No joke. One (American) lady had one basket with a few heads of lettuce and some cucumbers. That was it. I don’t even LIKE cucumbers! Apparently there’s a “real, local” farmers’ market on Fridays in “the city” but we missed it. Guess we’ll try again next year.

But, think about it. Don’t we all carry expectations with us to some degree as we go on vacation/buy a new book/go to a movie/order a nice meal? Sure we do. We hope and expect things to be fun, good, or entertaining, especially if we’re spending time and money on them.

So here’s what I’m wondering about:

Why is it that we’re more likely to be let down by a “good” book that isn’t “as great as they said”, and we really enjoy work that had low expectations? Same goes for movies like Little Miss Sunshine and Sideways. They were small films that had huge box office and critical success.

This is actually encouraging news for me. Since I don’t have an MFA, since I haven’t written a blockbuster yet, and I spent most of my working life as an art dealer, the expectations for my debut novel probably won’t be too high, except my own of course. I won’t be happy until I’ve written the best book possible, one that perhaps Charles Dickens would be impressed with. Or maybe William Faulkner. He once said: “The only thing worth writing about is the conflict in the human heart.” That is exactly what my novels are about.

Meanwhile, I’ve really got my hopes up for the Farmers’ Market in Des Moines; it’s enormous, plentiful, and only one block from our home. It will be great!

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Fathers, Sons, and Brothers

As you faithful followers know, when I’m not writing, I’m reading. I read novels and I read about writing. I read blogs and web sites and twitter and newspapers. Read, read, read, that’s what I do.

Recently I have found many articles (coincidence or a message?) about blogging. Everyone has advice about blogging, and some of it I actually think makes sense.

I’m not quite ready to sell advertising on this blog (though if you want to pay me money, I’ll surely take it), but apparently I’m supposed to refine my subject matter a bit. All this time I thought the blog was supposed to be about me. Nope, it’s supposed to be about my subject matter, my field of expertise! Who knew?

If I wrote non-fiction, say How to Deliver Your Own Baby to Save Cash (which I did once)(accidentally, not to save money), then I should blog about “The Importance of Having Clean Towels Handy at All Times”, or “Why You Should Wait Till After Your Baby Is Born to Clean Your Carpets”. But I don’t write non-fiction, I write novels.

The King Family is the story of a man who runs from his own troubles straight into those his father buried fifty years ago.

Aha! I should blog about Fathers, Sons, and Brothers.

I’m sure you know by now, I have four sons and one step-son. I have a husband, a father, a brother, six nephews, an ex-husband, and even a male dog. And I, the lone female in my house, am the observer. I watch. I take notes. I “borrow”. I am continually and ever more deeply obsessed with the interactions of the male species, not always easy, rarely pretty.

Nothing fascinates me more, nor is more prevalent in my life, than my family. Ok, so I will try to blog more often about the interpersonal interactions between male family members ~ without revealing personal details. Don’t worry guys, you know I love you.

When I get really smart and brave, I’ll tackle mothers and daughters.

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Jumpin’ on the Bandwagon

Seems like everyone’s making lists this time of the year, doesn’t it? I was starting to feel left out and then I remembered, “Wait, I have a blog!”

Here’s my list of the novels I’ve read in 2010, undoubtedly incomplete, but I’ll do my best. (As soon as I post this, I’ll remember more.) Some I read as research for my novels, others for pleasure, most I liked, some I did not. I also read several non-fiction books, most on writing, but I’ll save that list for another day. There are also a handful of books I started but couldn’t/didn’t finish, most significantly Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao. Too much Spanglish for me at a time when I couldn’t take the time to decipher the true meaning of the story. I’ll get back to it another year, perhaps after another extended vacation in Costa Rica when my Spanish is better. Another good list would be to name all the books I’ve purchased but have not read yet. That list would probably be longer than this one… I no longer buy & hide clothes from my husband, just books!

And, without further ado:

Return to the Hundred Acre Woods (Winnie the Pooh), by David Benedictus & Mark Burgess
The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett
The Price of Salt, by Patricia Highsmith (of the Talented Mr. Ripley fame)
The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, by Stieg Larsson
Shutter Island, by Dennis Lehane
The Invisible Bridge, by Julie Orringer (the longest book with the fewest adverbs ~ amazing)
Close Range, by Annie Proulx
The Imperfectionists, by Tom Rachman
Exit Ghost, by Philip Roth
Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger (for the third time)
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, by Helen Simonson
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
Brooklyn, by Colm Tóbín
This Is Where I Leave You, by Jonathan Topper
I’ll Never Be French No Matter What I Do, by Mark Greenside
Union Atlantic, by Adam Haslett
Heat Lightning, by John Sandford
Dark Place, by Gillian Flynn
Bad Things Happen, by Harry Dolan
The Unnamed, by Joshua Ferris
The Postmistress, by Sarah Blake
The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
The Three Weissmanns of Westport, by Cathleen Schine
Dream House, by Valerie Laken
The Heights, by Peter Hedges
Top Producer, by Norb Vonnegut
In a Perfect World, by Laura Kasischke
The Odds, by Kathleen George
The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen (in progress)
Too Much Happiness, by Alice Munro (in progress)

And there you have it, for the moment. My son, Elliott, read 52 books this year and he maintained a 4.0 GPA his senior year at KU. He sets the bar pretty high! Maybe 2011 I can do better.

For now, happy holidays to all. And remember: READ BOOKS.

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A World Without Books?!

Take me now, Lucifer!

Fire and brimstone, ridiculous action movies, The Simpsons (the tv show and the sisters), lazy lounging people, ignorance, the end of the world… Ok, you get the picture.

Yesterday I got a taste of boredom, YES, boredom. And it was awful. Please refer to my blog post on 10/16.

My son, Elliott, left, has a saying: “The best movies come from books, but the best books would make bad movies.” His theory is that the best literature is quiet, slow to reveal itself, and wholly absent of car chases.

I have a saying: “Read books.” But maybe I should amend it to: “Take care of your eyes so you can always read books.”

Yesterday, after working on my upcoming novel (Left On Blue) for five hours, I had my annual eye exam. (I still don’t need reading glasses. Thank you, mom.) But they had to dilate my eyes, which left me unable to read for the rest of the afternoon. And, on top of that, there were NO good new movies out yesterday. (Surely you know by now we’re big movie buffs, my husband and I.) I was dumbstruck. Thank the digital gods that my husband had two episodes of Law & Order recorded for us to watch, otherwise who knows what we would have done… certainly nothing I could report here.

Perhaps the Boys Scouts said it best: “Be prepared; buy books on tape.”