Literati

2015-10-30T18:30:00.000-04:00

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For my latest writing visit me at MsLake

What's Mine is Mine

2011-11-15T23:28:00.000-05:00

From the Financial times of London comes this delightful excerpt from the forthcoming Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books (Yale University Press) edited by Leah Price.
Writers including Claire Messud, Edmund White and Gary Shteyngart, talk about their (usually formidable) book collections, how they store them, shelve them, arrange them and whether or not they give away donate or (gasp!) throw away any volumes when things get out of hand. "I still mourn the books I chucked," admits Junot Diaz, for whom books competed in importance with food when he was young. Each writer gives a list of their ten favorite books.

Messud, who lives with the writer James Wood explains, "Certainly we both know at once which books properly belong to one or the other of us, and by the same token, know which books are somehow shared. I can’t explain how we know this, but as far as I recall, we’ve never disagreed about a single volume.."
Bibliophiles everywhere understand perfectly.

Interview: Alisa Valdes Rodriguez

2011-10-10T11:33:00.000-04:00

Dirty Girl on the Record
by Vivian Lake

Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez , a former journalist with the Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times, broke into the publishing stratosphere in 2004 with the publication of Dirty Girls Social Club at the dawn of the chick-lit movement.
Her story of six Latina American women's friendship and individual struggles to find themselves and establish careers became a a New York Times bestseller which launched her career as a novelist, but the chica-lit offshoot of chick lit. Seven novels and later, as the third Sucias [Dirty Girls] novel hits the shelves, Valdes-Rodriquez, also a columnist on Mamiverse.com, answered some questions via email from Literati about the new book, her upcoming Kindred series and the impact of the Cowboy, the man in her life, has had.

Q. What can you tell us about Saints of Dirty Faith: A Dirty Girls Social Club Novel?

A. This is the third book in the Dirty Girls Social Club series. It catches up with three of the six women from the first book, in their mid-30s. It's not chick lit, but sort of a romantic suspense novel.

Q. Which girl would you say is most like you?
A. Lauren. She is a grossly exaggerated version of me.

Q. What are the pros and cons of writing a series? Do you get sick of the characters?

A. If I were sick of them, I wouldn't still be writing about them. They're still speaking to me, so I still give them life. The good in writing a series is that so many people love and care about these characters already. The bad is that people like to invent futures for the characters themselves and can be disappointed in where you take them instead.

Q. What made you decide to fly solo with this book -- sans big publisher?

A. I am very intrigued by the freedom and control that new technology offers writers, and I wanted to explore it and see how it went. If it's a resounding failure, I won't go there again! It's all up to the readers now.

Q. How has the digital revolution changed publishing? There is no hardcover edition of Saints; do you think printed books will disappear?
A. There could easily have BEEN a hardcover version if I wanted to release it that way on my own. I chose to release it in paperback from the get-go to keep the cost down for readers during a recession. Printed books will never disappear. Most people who buy e-books seem to buy printed books as well. I think we'll see more people buying both, so they have the beauty and longevity of a paper book at home, and the convenience of reading that same book and hundreds or thousands of others on an e-reader that weighs a couple of ounces. E-readers are perfect for traveling, commuting, etc., but will never replace paper books in, say, the bathtub.

Q. What can you tell us about the Kindred series and what was the inspiration for it?
A. Oh, boy! I am so excited about the Kindred series. I truly feel this is the most innovative and interesting work I've done in my life, period. The books will launch in the summer of 2012, and hopefully the film will come out soon after. It's a teen series, but I hope all ages will read it. It's about ghosts, parallel universes, and the intersection between faith and science. It tells of a ghost boy who meets his soulmate in a living girl, and how they are able to navigate their different dimensions. I've honestly never been so excited or invested in a project in my life.

Q. Were you actively pursuing a film sale? What is working on the film like?
A. I wrote the Kindred series to be films. That was my goal from the start, to write both the books and the films. I am a co-producer on the film for the first book, TEMPTATION (the film is THE TEMPTATION OF TRAVIS HARTWELL). I'm also the screenwriter. So far, working on the film has been wonderful. My fellow producer Harris Tulchin is amazing. Willie Kutner, who has helped me polish the script, is brilliant. And our director, James Foley, is absolutely incredible as a talent, intellect, visionary and all-around nice man. I am super excited to enter the film world. It's somewhere I'd like to stay.

Q. Any chance Sucias will become a film?
A. Highly unlikely.

Q. If you were casting Sucias.....?
A. I don't even go there anymore. I've given up hopes for that project ever making it to the screen. It is under option with someone who doesn't get it, and there is a very good chance that she could own the rights forever, just to spite me. In the interest of my mental health, I simply have to let it go.

Q. Learning to Submit -- the title alone seems to take women's rights back 150 years -- tell us about it what inspired it.

The book will tell of my personal journey toward making peace with being a woman, and learning to trust and respect a man enough to let him take control in our relationship. I don't think every woman should do as I've done. I do know, however, that I am much happier in a traditional role than I ever was as the alpha in my relationships. It is just my personal journey toward peace and happiness in life and love. The book was inspired by my relationship with a conservative rural man I call The Cowboy, and all the wisdom he has shared with me.

Q. How has your cowboy influenced your work?
A. My work is a reflection of who I am as a person. The Cowboy has influenced every level of my life, and I feel blessed for that. He's an incredible human being. Because of him, I have my popular parenting column on Mamiverse.com, and my new memoir. That is the only answer I need to offer to anyone who would say that the traditional role for a woman is to fade away; nothing could be further from the truth. A real man will help a woman to shine, and will have her back. To me, "submit" is merely a synonym for TRUST. So many of us raised in the 1970s have a kneejerk mistrust of men, an animosity toward them, and our relationships are antagonistic. The Cowboy is the first man I've known, other than my father, who is worthy of my complete trust.

Q. What do you mean by "submit"?
A. To submit is to yield to another, allow another person to have some power. In my own case, I am a very strong woman who has never trusted anyone enough to do this. To me, submitting to another person takes trust. I do not mean that a woman must submit at all times to a man. I mean that for any relationship to work, there must be times when you allow the other person to be in charge, to make decisions, to be wrong without you having to force them to be right. You cannot have two alphas in a relationship at all times and have it work. I was domineering in my other relationships, combative. That was because I didn't trust anyone. In The Cowboy I've found a man who is my equal in every way, and reliable, and strong. Submitting to him does not mean I let him boss me around. It means that he has my best interests at heart, and when he makes decisions for us they are compassionate and good.
I want to repeat that I don't think "women should be doing it." This is a personal memoir about MY life and what works for me, nothing more than that.

Q. You're very prolific, what's your writing routine like?
A. I am a single mom, so I write while my son is at school or, like now, at 4 a.m. because I have lots of errands to run today. I see writing as a job and I approach it with that sort of purpose. I write, on average, five or six hours a day.

..

Donate to the Occupy Wall Street Library - GalleyCat

2011-10-04T19:41:00.000-04:00

Donate to the Occupy Wall Street Library - GalleyCat:
Mediabistro's Galleycat posted an address where bibliophiles can send books to protesters to read during the chilly evenings. Our recommendation? Confessions of an Economic Hitman. Send books (and other supplies) to:

Occupy Wall Street Library

c/o UPS Store

118A Fulton Street #205

New York, NY 10038

'via Blog this'

NEWS

2011-09-24T14:00:00.000-04:00

HarperCollins to offer Backlist On Demand

HarperCollins has become the first publisher to cross the digital frontier and offer books to readers as print on demand products, reports Whattheythink.com .
From the time digital publishing became possible, we all knew the on-demand book was coming the only real question being how.

At launch, HarperCollins will work with On Demand Books, LLC, the maker of the Espresso Book Machine, to enable instant distribution of books that are not currently stocked in stores. With the push of a button, books can be printed, bound, and trimmed to a bookstore-quality, perfect-bound paperback book, with a full-color cover, in minutes.

Oooooh, baby! Welcome to the 22nd century.

NEWS

2011-09-21T04:03:00.001-04:00

Lost Cain Novel to be Published by Hard Case Crime

Up to no good: Barbara Stanwyck as the Dame and
Fred MacMurray as the Detective in Double Indemnity.

Hard-boiled crime fans everywhere are salivating over news that Hard Case Crime, the publisher devoted to publishing vintage and new pulp crime novels in the style 30's 40's and 50's was in possession of a previously lost James M. Cain novel.
Cain, of course was the god of the noir novel, whose work was immortalized in the classic films Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice and Mildred Pierce, among others. He died in 1977 in Maryland, but had lived in Hollywood throughout the 1930s and 40s when was hired away from the New York papers to write for films.
Literati reached out to Charles Ardai, the editor of Hard Case Crime, to get the scoop. Here it is.

Where was the manuscript discovered?

I hunted for it for years and finally found it, with the help of my film and TV agent, in the files of an old-time Hollywood agent, H.N. Swanson, who had represented authors like Faulkner and Fitzgerald and Chandler and Cain when they worked in the film business.

How was it authenticated?

Swanson handled Cain’s work, so he had extensive files on Cain, and there’s enough of a trail to make me confident that the manuscript is the real thing. It’s also got edits all over it in Cain’s handwriting, and the plot matches the brief description of it Cain gives in his biography.

When did Cain write it? Before or after titles that are in print?

After. It was the last crime novel he ever wrote.

How does it compare stylistically with his other work ?

It’s definitely Cain – no one else ever wrote quite like him. You’ve got the urgent, real-time first-person narration. You’ve got the young woman who’s willing to do anything – anything – to provide for her child. You’ve got the sense of economic desperation, the gap between those who have wealth and those who crave it. There are themes he developed in Mildred Pierce and ones from The Postman Always Rings Twice. But it’s not just a rehash of his earlier work, it’s a terrific new story and I’d defy anyone who picks it up to put it down unfinished.

How is the editing process affected when you don't have the writer to work with?

That’s something, sadly, that I’ve had a lot of experience with. I worked closely with Donald Westlake on a number of books, but when the time came to work on Memory and the forthcoming The Comedy is Finished, he wasn’t with us any longer, so I had to draw on my knowledge of his tastes and preferences and how he felt about certain types of edits. It’s harder when I’m working on a book by an author I didn’t know personally, but I’ve done that, too, editing the last unpublished books of David Dodge, who wrote To Catch a Thief, and Lester Dent, creator of Doc Savage. In those cases, you read everything you can by the author and develop a sense of how he structured stories, how he used language, and you do your damnedest to be a good caretaker of his work. In the case of Cain, I’m probably one of the few people alive today who’s actually read every book the man ever wrote – I fell in love with his work at age 18 and tracked them all down, even the most obscure ones. So I’m well steeped in Cain’s work and can bring that to the editing process.

What is projected publication date?

We don’t have a month or day set yet, but it’ll be Fall 2012.

Who will do the cover painting?

Also not set in stone yet, but it looks like it will be Michael Koelsch, who did the fabulous paintings for Donald Westlake’s Somebody Owes Me Money and Robert Silverberg’s forthcoming Blood on the Mink. And we may even have a celebrity model posing for the cover painting – but we can’t say more about that yet…

Why I Just Want to Smack the "Woman in White"

2011-09-21T01:47:00.000-04:00

For years I've had this on my classics tbr pile but for some reason my attention always veered away. This summer the Wilkie Collins mystery moved to the top, and I dove in, eager for a good old-fashioned 19th-century yarn, my favorite kind.
I haven't been this disappointed since Anna Karenina, another doorstop of a novel which fails in every way except one, Anna, for whom Tolstoy has utter contempt and who only comprises about one-third of the aforementioned girth of the book (yeah go ahead, make my day. You know I'm right).
As I was saying, while The Woman in White works as a thriller (or "sensation novel" as it was called at the time of publication) I found some of it, particularly parts of the ending to be dreadful.
If you're going to take readers on a six-hundred page ride, you better give a good bang at the end, but here, you're left asking questions. Who is Percival and how did he meet the evil Count? I have no idea, and Collins apparently didn't think this was important. The bare bones of the central crime are explained, it's not the thousand percent solution that a book with this kind of longevity should have. Percival and the Count's true identities are never revealed and this is a major flaw.
Surprisingly, I thought there was an excellent balance of female characters -- the half-sisters Miss Fairlie fair and simple, Ms. Halcombe, plain and smart are cliches but balanced, and all the other women, especially the redoubtable Mrs. Catherick, the stone-hearted mother of the woman in white in the title, are portrayed with exceptional skill and clarity. The Woman in White herself, not so much. Of course her place in the story is to set up the mystery, but for some reason I find her annoying and whiny beyond measure. Every time she appears in the story instead of sympathy I just want her to get to the friggin' point before the bad guys show up. Of course she's doomed, but even that can't endear her to me. Oh well. And by all means if you think I'm wrong, feel free to comment. The Moonstone anyone?

To Browse and to Borrow

2011-09-13T07:59:00.000-04:00

photo by Caitlin Donohue for SFBG.com

I LOVE this story! Just when everyone is predicting the death of the book, one brave soul opens a lending library. You know, for a small fee you get to borrow books. How positively 19th Century! The San Francisco Bay Guardian reports on the miraculous existence of Ourshelves, which was born from one woman's love for international literature.

Our heroine is a fan of hard-to-find European authors. She points me towards a slim volume by Hungarian author László Krasnahorkai entitled Animalinside and speaks reverently of Scottish poet W.S. Graham. “He’s not even in print here,” she tells me disbelievingly.

Tucked in the back of art and antiques shop Viracocha, Ourselves started as a personal quest and quickly became a beloved project, evidenced by donations from the SF Public Library and the famously reclusive writer Michael Chabon, who let founder Kristina Kearns pick what she wanted from his personal collection. Vivre le livre!

2011-09-13T06:48:00.001-04:00

Bronte-mania
With two films based on Bronte novels set to premier soon, the talented sisters stand poised to dominate the cultural conversation this fall, a mere 150 since they died.
Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte have never really been "over" or out of style. Their spectacular talent left a legacy to be rediscovered generation after generation, and everything about their lives has fascinated readers from their first publication, notes Blake Morrison at the Guardian:

The public were enthralled from the start. Curious visitors began turning up in Haworth once the truth about Jane Eyre's authorship got out [Charlotte had used a pseudonym, Currer Bell], and the numbers grew with the publication of Gaskell's biography two years after Charlotte's death in 1855. Some came from as far as America. Local shops cashed in, selling photos of the family. Patrick took to cutting up Charlotte's letters into snippets, to meet the many requests for samples of her handwriting. Charlotte was the sister everyone wanted a piece of; the reputations of Anne and Emily took longer to develop. But the books kept selling and groupies kept coming to gawp. By 1893 aBrontë Society had been formed, and a small museum opened two years later.

Morrison examines the truth behind the "tortured souls" image the sisters were cast in and examines the history and trajectory of their fame, which was immediate and wide spread.
After Charlotte's Jane Eyre appeared, the publication of Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey, the Brontes became an industry through their talent and 150 years on, business is booming.

2011-08-14T14:59:00.000-04:00

Literati Loves...

Clicking around the net this rainy afternoon we landed on the luscious design blog Little Augury where we found this eye-popping dress.

We are SO excited about this dress! New York designers Zero + Maria Cornejo take the city's literary love affair to new heights with this Library Dress (our name) with which you can flaunt your love of the written word for all to see.

2011-07-27T13:53:00.000-04:00

King on Golding

The U.K.'s Daily Telegraph runs a piece by Stephen King on his discovery of Lord of the Flies, and the impact it had on him emotionally and as a writer. A wonderful appreciation of William Golding's masterpiece about what happens when a group of boys gets stranded on an island.

E-Books Accelerate Paperback Publishers’ Release Dates - NYTimes.com

2011-07-27T10:08:00.000-04:00

E-Books Accelerate Paperback Publishers’ Release Dates - NYTimes.com

The Times reports on the growing trend of publishing paperback books earlier than the usual year after the hardcover version of a book debuts, in part to compete with the e-book versions.

Do you think paperback books will eventually disappear?

Oprah Selects Novel By Kenyan Author - Mfonobong Nsehe - The Africa Chronicles - Forbes

2011-07-25T14:40:00.000-04:00

Oprah Selects Novel By Kenyan Author - Mfonobong Nsehe - The Africa Chronicles - Forbes

This is the second African author Oprah has selected as a book club pick. The first was the 2009 story collection Say You're One of Them, by Nigerian writer Uwem Akpan.

2011-07-24T15:19:00.002-04:00

Literati Loves...

The New York Poetry Festival, happening on Governers Island next weekend. For the first time ever, the city's poetry groups like The Poetry Brothel, Nuyorican Poets, Futurepoem and Warrior Writers among others will gather in one place to showcase and revel in the written/spoken word.
The event and ferry rides is free but there will be food vendors and craft vendors at the event, or you can bring a picnic with you. You will definitely need a blanket and sunscreen. Saturday and Sunday, July 30 & 31, from 12 -5 p.m. For more information or tickets to the pre-festival fundraiser ($10) at the Bowery Poetry Club, click tpsny.org

2011-07-22T18:46:00.000-04:00

Literati Loves...

Book Boxes!
These cute and functional boxes can be used to store valuables or papers. They come in three sizes (8.5", 9.5" and 10.5") and at under $20 each, they're the perfect combination of form and function for booklovers. Available at Pier1.com

2011-07-19T15:51:00.000-04:00

Got Book?

If you've got an idea for a whodunit rattling around your head, or are trying to write one but are stuck one way or another, the Mystery Writers of America has your back. The prestigious organization behind the Edgar Awards, has launched MWA University, which is dedicated to "giving back to the mystery community."
On August 13 they're holding a one day event where aspiring writers will be taught by established authors. Described as "not your grandmother's writing class," the full-day program is designed to teach participants the essential skills needed to write a novel, from the idea stage to the final editing. The focus is on the craft of writing.
The seminars will be available around the country. If there isn't one in your area ask your local MWA chapter to request one.

And when they say low cost, they're not kidding. $50 gets you a seat. For more information or to register (space is limited) click on the link above or call 212-888-8171.

2011-07-18T11:44:00.001-04:00

Drink in the City

Sherry & Narcotics by Nina-Marie Gardner (Future Fiction, 239 pp. trade paperback, $14.95 )
By Vivian Lake
This searingly authentic portrayal of a young woman's downward spiral is the best and boldest writing I've seen in a long time. First-time novelist Gardner pulls no punches with her prose. Her writing is so emotionally authentic and unfiltered you'll have to lie down to recover.

The first person perspective works brilliantly here to drop the reader right in the middle of a troubled young woman's self-delusional downward spiral.

Mary is a talented young American writer living in Manchester who's had some success as a playwright, but thanks to addiction, when we meet her she has given up serious writing and is writing term papers for money. She is lying to her family about her drinking (and occasional drugging), and has started a relationship with a man she is to damaged to assess properly. It quickly becomes apparent how bad thing are, and it's obvious that they're going to get worse.

Mary's two addictions are alcohol and Jake. Jake, a fairly well-known writer reached out to her and half-heartedly started a relationship. Mary's reaction is to hang on to him like a life-preserver, infusing him with all the love, generosity and good will she would want, but not realizing that the whole time, he's just standing there while she creates the relationship around him. You're wondering if she will ever realilze the truth about him, you'll wonder just how long she can remain deluded about him. Let's just say longer than any sane person could be.

Gardner paints such a wretchedly accurate portrait of the drug and alcohol fueled haze in which Mary lives, the pain she's trying to obliterate bleeds off the page.

You will find yourself cringing, moaning, screaming at Mary as she drunkenly fumbles through work, relationships, and the danger she occasionally places herself in. The narrative is as addictive as its subject, compelling you to turn the page, get to the next horror, delusion, despair, and it is great writing that gets you to sit still for something you wouldn't want to witness in real life.

In spite of its dark subject matter, Gardner somehow weaves in comic moments, and writes a runaway train of a narrative which is as compelling as any thriller. And magically, she also provides a point of light, the possibility of enlightenment and redemption.

2010-11-25T06:40:00.005-05:00

Deja Clue

Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane
William Morrow/HarperCollins ($26.99 324pp.)
Review by Vivian Lake
Twice reading Lehane I've had to stop and skim back over what I've read to get my bearings. Once, at the jaw-dropping twist in Shutter Island (one of the best novels I've ever read) and now reading Moonlight Mile, to make sure I haven't missed anything, because situations seem to arise out of nowehere. Lehane's latest, a sequel to Gone, Baby, Gone seems to be written by someone else entirely.

Lehane's well-documented writing chops (he's also the author of Mystic River, which was made into an Oscar-winning film by Clint Eastwood) make Moonlight Mile doubly disappointing, because by now you expect him to blow you away.

That said, this was my first time reading a Kenzie-Gennaro story, which may have made a difference but shouldn't have. Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro are two detectives now-familiar to Lehane fans, but as all avid readers know, you should be able to pick up any one of a series of detective novels and not feel you've missed anything. As far as the history of the two investigators goes, the story is solid, the problems are all in the current story, which isn't that compelling or believeable.

Ten years after the heart-breaking case depicted in Gone Baby, Gone the young Amanda, by this time a high school student, disappears again. This isn't Patrick Kenzie's problem now because he and Angie are married with a four year-old daughter. He's working for a blue-chip investigative firm which specializes in protecting the powerful and rich from responsibility and accountability (by the way, that jerk in the opening scene? I so want to know what happens to him!).
The work turns his stomach, but the money pays the bills. And he needs the money. There's a mortgage to pay and a wife and child to support. Angie is in college finishing her degree and being a stay-at-home Mom (which is not exactly her thing).

Then Beatrice McCready appears in front of him one morning and asks him to find her one more time. Amanda has caused him enough grief and he simply can't afford to take a case that doesn't pay. But what happened last time still haunts him, and he decides to search for her.

What follows - drug addicts, Russian gangsters, stolen artifacts, and another missing girl - comes at you in a vacuum which isn't solidly grounded. The only authentic parts of the plot were Amanda herself and her motives, Beatrice her aunt and Patrick and Angie. Fans of the Patrick and Angie novels will no doubt enjoy this update, but if you're new to Lehane, try something else. The story does want to make you want to read Gone Baby, Gone as soon as possible.

2010-11-21T02:16:00.002-05:00

The Rise of the Ray-gunslinger

Space Westerns

By Stefan Slater
Contributing Writer

Mankind has been fascinated with exploring outer space for decades and also with the idea of one day, actually living on another planet.

Countless books, movies, TV shows, and games have been created to explore what life would be like for humanity in space. Oftentimes humanity is depicted as colonizing planets, meeting intelligent aliens, and discovering the secrets of the Universe – all from the comfort of advanced spaceships with sparkling white exteriors. Civilization and peace spread throughout the Universe, everyone dons a spandex uniform, and humanity is elevated to an even higher level of technological and intellectual understanding. Basically, mix a London Gentlemen’s club with lasers and green women, and you have a popular version of humanity’s potential future in space.

But what if that wasn’t entirely the case? What if life in space wasn’t glamorous and enlightening? What if, on the planets furthest from civilization, humanity was reduced to a pioneer existence, forced to eke a meager living amongst a harsh and unforgiving landscape? Well, that is what the sub-genre of science fiction known as Space Westerns, chooses to examine.

The sci fi sub-genre has its early origins with comics and books from the 1920’s, such as with Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D. or Flash Gordon. The protagonists in these stories were tough men guided by strong morals, who rode into towns (or in this case planets) on their rockets, to help the simple townsfolk fight off corrupt and evil men.

Many films use the concept of the Space Western, such as Alien (lone miners surviving in the bleakness of space), Battlestar Galactica, and even Star Wars. The anti-hero rogue, overbearing militant bureaucracy, the untamed wildernesses, and of course, the plethora of gun-toting bounty hunters are popular themes throughout the Star Wars Universe.

Many books also use life on the “Final Frontier” as a backdrop as well, such as Northwest Smith by C. L. Moore (a story about a smuggler and his experiences on unexplored planets), or Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future by Mike Resnick (a collection of western-style tall tales set in outer space). Michael Rubens’s The Sheriff of Yrnameer is a more recent example, as it follows the exploits of the misguided bandit Cole as he searches for the last “unsponsored planet” – a planet that is free from corporations and pesky brain implanted advertisements.

The ideal of the Space Western points out that even at our most technologically advanced state, we are still susceptible to the emotions that make us truly human. The problems and dangers that we experienced in the Old West can still hamper us even on far away planets in the distant future, no matter how advanced we believe we can become. The frontier never dies, it just moves, and it will always epitomize the best and worst that humanity can offer.

2010-11-20T23:33:00.000-05:00

The War Inside

Lipstick in Afghanistan

By Roberta Gately

(Gallery Books, Trade Paperback 304 pp. $15)

Review by Vivian Lake

A young woman without many options finds herself compelled by a photograph in a magazine to help the sick, the ill, the desperate and disenfranchised wherever they may be. This calling propels young Elsa Murphy, a girl from the gritty streets of Dorchester in Boston, to go to college, become a nurse and volunteer to work anywhere in the world she is needed.

This is also the story of Parween, a young Afghani who is vibrant, intelligent and ambitious, but because of where she lives will have a very different life.

Based on the author's experiences in Afghanistan and other war-torn nations, this novel serves both as witness and warning. While the fictional Elsa lands in Afghanistan shortly after the September 11th attacks, the author first worked there during the Russian invasion in the 1980s, which gives her a deeper knowledge of the area and its people than is seen on the evening news.

Roberta Gately talks about Lipstick in Afghanistan

video courtesy of Simon & Schuster

Elsa, who has never been outside of Boston, finds herself in the remote Bamiyan province of the country. "...Bamiyan seemed chisled out of some long-forgotten age where it had been frozen in time." There is no electricity or running water and food is cooked over open fires.

Elsa is provided with a small house and a cook and not much else. Bed is a foam mattress covered in fabric and water for bathing and cooking will be brought to her from a nearby well. Elsa barely has time to process this when she

finds out that head of the office has to go to another part of Afghanistan and that she will be in charge of the clinic in which she was to be a staffer.

Petrified but determined, she arrives at the small, overwhelmed hospital, meets the staff and begins her work steamlining procedures and learning as much as possible as quickly as possible so she can help the patients.

Elsa soon has a circle of close friends; Hamid her driver, Laila and Ezat, the doctors she works with, and Amina her chaperone (single women can't live alone in Afghanistan). She also befriends the American servicemen in the area, who give her their perspective of the area, which she finds at odds with the warm hospitable people she knows.

She also gets to know the vibrant people in the village - the Hazara - who fought and succeeded in getting the Taliban out of their village. They remain a threat, having taken over a village a few miles north, but for the most part, Bamiyan is free.

Woven through this story is the history of Parween, who has no freedom. Betrothed at age twelve against her wishes, Parween has to wear the veil, cannot go out alone, and can't go to school. Her soul rebels at the thought of the same future of childbirth, housework, fieldwork without end. Abuse from the husband or his family is often part of life for young wives. Parween sees her best friend packed off as a third wife to a wizened old man and despairs of her future.

How Elsa and Parween meet and how their friendship affects them both is the culmination of the story. Climax and parable, the book questions the future of a nation that shackles half its population in slavery, and how the simple act of friendship can open doors actual and spiritual, and can inspire heroism

2010-11-20T14:12:00.001-05:00

These Vampires Don't Sparkle

American Vampire -Review
By Stefan Slater

Let’s face it, the vampire is no longer feared. What once was an evil, blood-sucking demon from hell, has deteriorated into a brooding, sensitive pretty-boy who pines for romance and has renounced drinking the blood of humans. Dracula would be ashamed to call himself a vampire in today’s Twilight age.

Fortunately for the pale Transylvanian, the graphic novel American Vampire not only restores a bit of much-needed attitude and maliciousness to the vampire breed, but also adds a refreshing twist.

Written by Scott Snyder and Stephen King, and illustrated by Rafael Albuquerque, the plot of American Vampire follows the 19th century outlaw Skinner Sweet, and aspiring 1920’s actress Pearl Jones. Sweet is a ruthless, evil man, who rides with his posse across the American West robbing and killing whomever he wishes. Sweet eventually has a run-in with a group of Pinkertons, and during the ensuing struggle, is transformed into a vampire.

But Sweet is a very different kind of bloodsucker. He is the first vampire conceived on American soil, and unlike his European counterparts (more traditional Anne Rice vampires), he is actually powered by the sun. Thus from the origins of a spiteful bandit is born the new breed of American Vampires.

In the 1920’s, Sweet meets the innocent Pearl Jones in Los Angeles, where she is desperately trying to become the next big star. Unfortunately for her, Pearl falls victim to “Old World” vampire blood lust, and nearly dies. Sweet however, bestows upon her a gift – his blood. With it, she joins the new breed of vampires, and seeks her vengeance.

The concept of the American vampire is a wonderful thing; they are part outlaw and part movie star, they passionately despise their bourgeois brethren, they are self-destructive and extremely impulsive, and above all, they relish daylight! In short, they are everything that vampires are often shown not to be in popular culture.

The writing is top notch, as both characters are nicely developed. However, Stephen King’s writing gets to the point, while Snyder’s storyline tends to meander as he explores Los Angeles in the 1920’s. Even though this marks the first time that Stephen King has ever written a narrative for a graphic novel, his storyline far outshines Snyder’s. I found myself wanting to know what Sweet was doing next, who he was going to kill, and if he could ever be stopped. I grew attached to his character; yet, at the same time, I loathed him for his actions. Pearl unfortunately, felt like an entertaining side note on my journey of exploring the world of Skinner Sweet.

The illustrations thankfully match the high level of writing in American Vampire. It is wonderful to see such a diverse setting come to life with such vibrancy. The colors and images are beautiful, and it makes looking at severed heads and disemboweled bodies an enjoyable experience.

The story ends rather quickly, but the journey is far from over. Both characters are left with extremely open endings, leaving the story to progress in whatever direction the writers choose. Overall, this vampire graphic novel makes me proud to be an American.

I give it 9 out of 10 ray guns.

2010-11-20T13:47:00.002-05:00

Literary News

And so it begins. The media circus which always surrounds a royal wedding. On the heels of Prince William's engagement, Simon & Schuster's Gallery books announced William & Kate: The Love Story by Christopher Andersen, the author of The Day Diana Died. Publication iis scheduled for February 2011.

Louise Burke, Executive Vice President and Publisher of Gallery Books, said "With another royal wedding imminent, this book will shed light on a relationship that has remained a mystery yet is a true love story. And there’s no one better to tell this tale than Christopher Andersen."
Bali brings to mind gorgeous unspoiled beaches, tropical weather, and romantic isolation, but literature? Not so much. Nevertheless The Japan Times reports, the annual book fest in the lush hills of Ubud involves more than lying on the beach with latest paperback.
"Mix a bit of paradise and lavish creature comforts, add a dash of cultural magic, stir with persistence and presto . . . Ubud has become one of the top literary festivals in the world," rhapsodizes the Times.
This year 137 authors from 128 countries participated and 183 panels were conducted, reports the Japan Times. Book now for next year's Writers & Readers festival, which takes place October 5-9 2011.

The fourth annual International Prize for Arabic Fiction has announced its long list of 16 titles under consideration for the prize. This year seven women made the cut (a record), and religious extremism, political and social conflict and women's struggles emerge as key themes, the center announced.
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction is awarded for prose fiction in Arabic and each of the six shortlisted finalists receives $10,000, with a further $50,000 going to the winner. It was launched in Abu Dhabi, UAE, in April 2007, and is supported by the Booker Prize Foundation and the Emirates Foundation for Philanthropy.
The winner will be announced at the awards ceremony in Abu Dhabi on Monday 14 March 2011, the eve of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.

Closer to home, The Black Writers Museum in Philadelphia opened its doors this summer, with a writing camp for kids and an exhibit on the writers of the Harlem Renaissance.
Supreme Dow, the founder and executive director of the museum, has funded the non-profit organization out of his own pocket and from the donations of others, reports Philadelphia Neighborhoods. Dow's plans for the museum include preserving and teaching the history of Black literature, and creating a place where it can thrive and continue.
“If we continue to teach about what has come before us it will inspire other writers to come about,” Dow said. “We want to be a hub for literary conversation so the next Zora Neale Hurston will walk through these doors,” he told Neighborhoods.

Google reached an agreement with Hachette Livre, the largest publisher in France, to scan thousands of out-of-print titles for its digital library project, reported The New York Times.
Hachette will determine which titles will be scanned and Google will be allowed to sell the titles as ebooks or other formats and will share the revenue with Hachette. The deal is unique among French publishers, most of whom have sued Google for copyright infringement, and differs from the proposed settlement with American publishers, under which publishers opt in or out of the digitization project with no control over which titles are scanned, reported the Times.

New York writer Victor Lavalle won the 2010 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence for his novel Big Machine, about a hustler who joins a group of paranormal investigators. The novel won the 2010 American Book award, best Sci-Fi Novel of 2009 and was named "most valuable novel of 2009 by The Nation magazine.

In Indianapolis, the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library and Museum has opened,showcasing a replica of the writer's office, his actual typwriter and
other personal belongings, as well as a library devoted to his work and criticism
of it.

Chinua Achebe, the world-renown African author turned 80 this week, reports the Guardian of Nigeria. "Achebe has helped not only to put Nigeria and Africa in general on the global literature map, his entire career has been devoted to a validation of the African aesthetics and experience," said the Guardian.
Achebe is currently teaching at Brown University in Rhode Island.

2010-10-26T02:16:00.000-04:00

Let the Steampunk Zombies Roll

By Stefan Slater
Literati Contributor
Dreadnought by Cherie Priest

Cherie Priest has written a total of three books (Dreadnought, Clementine, and Boneshaker) that take place in the “Clockwork Century.” While each book contains characters and references in the other books, they can still be read independently from one another without missing the overall plot or context of the story. The protagonists of these books are all women; they are strong, independent, and above all, willing to blow away a zombie head or two.

Vinita “Mercy” Lynch is working as a nurse in a war hospital in Richmond, Virginia, when she learns that her husband has died in a POW camp. Then she receives a telegram from her estranged father, who is dying in the frontier town of Seattle, and wants desperately to reconnect with her. With little else keeping her in Virginia, she embarks on the long and arduous journey to the distant Western Territories.

Priest conjures an alternate history in which the Civil War has lasted for nearly twenty long years, and slavery is no more. There are airships, steam-powered robots, and fortress-like trains capable of leveling entire forests. Oh, and there are zombies: hordes upon hordes of flesh craving, gore-covered, rotting zombies.

Mercy’s journey through the war torn Border States is fraught with danger, and she barely makes it to the Mississippi River. In St. Louis, her trip takes a turn for the worse as she boards the only train headed out west: the monstrous Union steam engine known as the Dreadnought. It supposedly carries deceased Union soldiers to their final resting places, but Mercy learns that the Dreadnought also carries a mysterious cargo, which draws considerable Confederate attention, ranging from rebel bushwhackers to diabolical mechanized walkers.

Something far worse than outlaws awaits Mercy out west, and it could spell the end for not only those aboard the Dreadnought, but also the entire United States as well.

Priest does an excellent job of balancing Mercy’s mental and physical journey. The grief of losing her husband, as well as the painful possibility of reconnecting with (and then possibly losing) her long lost father.

Dreadnought carries a sort of Steampunk vibe, and because of that, it doesn’t seem unreasonable that there are robots or flying machines, as they are all defined by technologies that existed at that time. Discussing the zombies will give away some of the plot, but her reasoning for their existence is not unbelievable, and she easily places a horror element into a sub genre that very rarely has any.

The only flaw one may find with Dreadnought is that Priest creates such a fantastic world, but only examines a small portion of it. The book reads rather quickly, and will most likely leave the reader wanting to know more.
Dreadnought is an excellent read set in a unique world that is unlike most anything in Science Fiction today. Reading this novel will most definitely spur you to pick up another one of Cherie Priest’s books, just so you can revisit “The Clockwork Century.”
Authors after Dark has nominated Dreadnought for steampunk novel of the year.

Check out video below of Cherie Priest's interview with Science Fiction Book Club at the Dragon Convention in Seattle last month. She talks mostly Boneshaker but at about 3 minutes the talk turns to Dreadnought...

2010-10-25T23:18:00.004-04:00

Straight, No Chaser

It never fails. No matter what I've planned to read for this blog and how carefully I've penciled it in my to-do list, the minute I walk into a bookstore all bets are off. Anything could happen, and usually does. LeCarre's latest languishes on my nightstand because I found a spectacular anthology that I just had to read right away, and lucky for you, I'm going to tell you all about it.

Blood, Guts, and Whiskey (Kensington books, trade paperback, $14.00), is a collection of hard-boiled stories from the editor of ThugLit.com, Todd Robinson. Robinson curated these 24 tales of moral turpitude by 24 kick-ass writers, and, ladies and gentlemen, this is .44-caliber prose.
It's all here: Cynical anti-hero/heroines of dubious repute, murky pasts, dames up to no good, and use sex as a weapon, and enough violence so that the blood spatter brightens up the dark mood. The characters and scenes fairly jump off the page, immersing you so quickly the beer and desperation hit you like a wave of humid air.
Jordan Harper's Red Hair and Black Leather, the opener, sets the tone and starts this trip to the dark side where you'll meet a mobster with a bloody side job, a writer who discovers the darkness within, a couple of mobsters who run into trouble when someone flips the script on them, a shopkeeper at the end of his rope, and a mother who gives up her soul to make amends. That's just the tip of the iceberg. This is a stellar collection that won't disappoint.

2010-10-09T02:54:00.000-04:00

Mario Vargas Llosa Reacts to Nobel Win

The yearly speculation surrounding the Nobel for Literature is always frenzied and reaches a fever pitch as writers, editors and columnists from around the globe postulate and speculate, but the frenzy rarely, if ever, mentions the winner, and this year was no exception. The Peruvian novelist, who is admired and respected around the world, didn't make anyone's short list, although in South America he's afforded the same respect as Garcia-Marquez.
Below check out the video of the writer's press conference at Instituto Cervantes in New York yesterday reacting to the win. He gives statements in both Spanish and English.

Vargas Llosa's work is not only artistically beautiful to read (in the original Spanish), but spans a wide breadth of forms (journalism, plays, poetry novels, criticism) that demonstrates a powerful talent. One of his most powerful books, The Feast of the Goat is a harrowing account of the last days of the Dominican Republic's fomer dictator General Rafael Trujillo. In Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter he uses humor to weave the story of the beginning of his journalism career at age 15 and the start of his affair with his first wife, Julia Urquidi who was more than ten years older and related to his uncle by marriage.

Picador, a division of MacMillan publishers announced that they will immediately reprint 10 of the writer's titles in paperback to meet the expected demand after the announcement.
Vargas Llosa lives in Madrid, Spain and Lima, Peru. He is in New York for this year teaching creative writing and literature and Princeton University.

Check out this slide show of Vargas Llosa photos and the audio (in Spanish) of the first people to congratulate him, a radio station in Peru.