The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block

A tragic story of the devastation of a family by early-onset Alzheimer's Disease, which, in this fictional account, is inherited. Told from the dual viewpoints of a precocious teenager and an old man. The teenager is seeking answers to his mother's disease, as well as clues to his family and her past. The old man is striving to make sense of his life, and waiting for the return of his daughter. We find out quickly that the two are related, as are all the sufferers of this fictional version of AD. The novel alternates between the teenager's quest and the old man's struggles, while also including a fairy tale that they share, as well as a more clinical account of the origins of the disease.

The novel builds as both the teenager and the old man face problems of their own. The teenager's mother is institutionalized with AD, the old man does his best to hang on to what he has and await his daughter's return. The author does a good job of bringing the characters together and bringing the novel to a close.

The writing seems overwrought, especially in the emotional passages.  The more dramatic the scene, the more the writing needs to be simple and clear to convey a powerful message. The author seems to take the opposite approach, and I found it cloying and overly sentimental.

The fairy tale, which describes a culture where no one remembers anything and everyone is happy seemed particularly inappropriate for the subject matter. It's hard to believe that people under threat of developing AD would envision such a place as a relief from their disease - it seems more like a nightmare. It is memory that makes us human - without it, we are little more than animals.

While the author includes many of the more horrific details of AD, he consistently comes back to the idea that sufferers have moments of happy bliss, when they have forgotten everything. I have a close family member with AD, and have never observed this. It's a terrible way to die, as the inflicted person forgets how to read, talk, walk, swallow, breath. Memory loss is only a small part of AD., although the part most often observed and dramatized.

As a novel of love, loss, and family, I think the author has done a good job, especially since this is his first novel and he is young. But to make Alzheimer's such a central part of the novel I consider a mistake. Better to write an essay or memoir about AD and its devastating affect on a family, than to invent a fictional version of the disease and focus so much on the loss of memory.

Among the Missing by Dan Chaon

An excellent collection of short stories. Insightful, serious, but not maudlin or melodramatic. Safety Man and Big Me were my favorites, but they're all good. Highly recommended.

The Diagnosis by Alan Lightman

Instead of "Death of a Salesman" it's "Death of an Information Manager." I confess that I did not care for it very much. Perhaps I see my own life reflected in the protagonists. I have read more than my share of depressing books lately, and this one starts bad and just gets worse, ending with the death of the protagonist. The author draws a parallel with the Greek who pushed for the execution of Socrates and his principal character. I don't think he makes the case that well.

Another National Book Award finalist that I am not very impressed with.

Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

A Newberry Award winner, published back in 1976. A black family struggles to hold on to its land and stay together during the depression in Mississippi, in the face of white bigotry, prejudice, and racism.

This is an important book in the literature for young adults, and it deals with some difficult topics while teaching through example. I have to highly recommend it for those reasons.

But from a writer's viewpoint, it does have some problems. The ending seems unnecessarily abrupt, in that the denouement seems to be missing. I suppose there is a sequel. Also, the author relies heavily on adverb laden speech tags. Here's a list I compiled from just a few pages:

• replied grimly


• said absently


• questioned suspiciously


• described all-knowingly


• said morosely


• continued amiably

And so forth. Very out of fashion now, but not so objectionable once you get used to her style. Not something I would suggest a modern writer emulate!

The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson

Errol Flynn, his mistress, his illegitimate daughter and Jamaica.

It's gotten a lot of great reviews, but I didn't care much for it. It seems to be the synopsis for a novel, the outline, the summary. A good first draft. There is much missing that is needed to make it enjoyable to read. The prose stumbles, the omniscient viewpoint confuses. And it is overly long at almost 400 pages.

NaNoWriMo 2007

I've haven't posted much about NaNoWriMo this year, but yes, I have been plugging away at my new novel, Life Portraits (code name LP), under the disguise of a NaNo novel. And it has gone very well. Unlike past years, I have not been way out ahead of the word count, spewing less-than-stellar prose that is destined to be abandoned or rewritten. Instead I have been taking my time, doing plenty of thinking, trying to write a better product the first time through. What a concept. Maybe it will save me time in the long run.

And I think I have come up with a much better draft. I have reached the NaNo goal of 50k words in under a month. The novel is far from over. Actually, I am just getting into the complications in the middle section. Final word count might be as much as 120k, I think.

So I am still plugging away at it, and will be for another couple of months. But if you have never done NaNoWriMo, I highly recommend it.

Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates

Not a biography, but a fictional treatment of the life of Marilyn Monroe, from birth to death. Of course, Oates picks and chooses what to include and what to leave out, in order to make the point that she wants. It's a powerful novel, and somewhat difficult to read. Monroe, as portrayed by Oates, is one of those actors that is subsumed by the character she is playing. Dangerous psychologically for the actor, and in this case, dangerous for the reader. The author does such an excellent job that I found myself affected by Marilyn's story. So, yes, I've been very blue while reading this, although, thankfully, not suicidal!

Much of the novel is told in the stream-of-consciousness style also, which is another powerful technique to pull the reader into the life of the character.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Not quite as satisfying as, for instance, David Copperfield, although this is also a coming of age novel. I think the difference lies in the different view of class differences that Dicken's England held. Pip seems such a snob for most of the book, and that damages the readers feelings of sympathy for him.

The ending? I have read the alternate, sad ending, and find neither of them very satisfying. I wanted Pip to go back to the forge, alongside Joe, or even better, renounce all that class foolishness, and go off with Magwich.

But it's a great story, and don't let modern notions or my silly opinions get in your way of reading it.

Seek the Living by Ashley Warlick

Woman tries to cope with her dysfunctional family, her baby hunger, and her struggling marriage. The quintessential literary novel. Excellent writing, vivid and beautifully rendered. Strange characters that ring true. The weirdest Christmas and New Year's I have ever heard of, in life or fiction. Little to no plot, and minimal resolution. But that is what I have come to expect from a literary novel.

I also read her The Summer After June and I actually liked this novel better. The more I think about the protagonist of "June" the less I like her. Of course, there are some characters in this novel that are not very likable either, but I was more moved by this novel.

Jane Smiley at the Savannah School of Art and Design

Went to hear her talk last night. She is one of my favorite authors. In person she is smart, insightful, and inspiring. Also very tall, yet very feminine. She read from Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel and took questions. I was impressed.

The Summer After June by Ashley Warlick

When Lindy's sister June is murdered, she takes June's baby and leaves - without telling anyone where she is going or why. This novel is about the summer that she is gone. We know that Lindy goes back, since the novel actually begins with the ending, in the form of a five page prologue where the reader learns that Lindy is going home. In the rest of the novel she comes to terms with what she has done and learns about herself and others.

Definitely a literary novel - Warlick is more concerned with Lindy and the other characters and the choices that they make than with any plot - and that's OK. I actually went to a workshop on POV choices taught by the author at the South Carolina Writer's Workshop which was great. She's a wonderful writer with some great insight.

Report from South Carolina Writer's Workshop

Actually I am still here, with one more day to go, but I am pleased to report that I won third place in the short story contest with my story "Antlerless".

Also my agent critique went very well - she wants to read the rest of my novel!

having a great time - excellent workshops and inspirational speakers. Will report more when I get home...

South Carolina Writer's Workshop

I am off to the SCWW tomorrow morning at 0dark:30. This will be my very first real writer's conference, where I get to meet actual editors and agents. The schedule looks great, the faculty impressive, and the location excellent. Can't wait. Full report when I get back.

Novel by George Singleton

George Singleton is a nut and this is not a serious novel, and I mean that in more ways than one. The protagonist is named Novel (hence the title) and is writing his memoir and also the history of Gruel, South Carolina. Novel stumbles through the novel in an alcoholic haze - much of what he reports is questionable.

Singleton is the master of the comic short story  and this novel reads exactly like one of his stories, just, you know, longer. Non-sequiturs and lists of unrelated objects are his techniques. Yes, it is funny at times. At other times it is tedious. And there is no plot, really, just a sequence of opportunities to introduce humorous Southern settings.

I'm going to the South Carolina Writer's Conference this weekend, and he is one of the faculty. Hopefully I will get a chance to meet him in person and gauge for myself how crazy he really is.

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Forty years ago I read, for school, an abridged version of this classic. I seem to remember it was just the first few chapters, the tragic, yet still comic, account of Master Copperfield's childhood. I determined to read the whole thing, complete, unabridged, and I am so glad I did. Do yourself a favor, slow down your hectic life, attune yourself to the slower, politer, more refined pace of Dicken's England, and read the whole thing.

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Ethan Frome falls in love with his wife's caretaker, but it all ends in tragedy.

A little heavy handed from my modern viewpoint. The symbolism of the cat taking the wife's place while Ethan consorts with the caretaker is particularly obvious. And the commitment of the two to commit suicide? That's a little tough to swallow. It seems to me that the caretaker had other choices, if she was as pretty as Wharton implied. In other words, I don't think the novel convinced me that two had enough motivation to make the fateful decision they did.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

Two tailors, a landlord, and a student struggle to survive in India during the political and social upheavals of the mid 1970s. The cultural extremes of Indian society form a rich and varied backdrop for this novel. It's also very Dickensian, in that the characters lead lives of misery and disappointment, yet there are memorable characters and plenty of comic relief and dark humor.

But be warned - unlike Dickens, there are no happy endings here. And the events are horrific in nature - lynchings, murders, accidental deaths, oppresive poverty, caste ugliness, and so on. In fact, there are very few moments when the characters can be said to be truly happy. The two tailors go from miserable incident to miserable incident, yet rebound every time with humor and hope.  Only one character is unable to cope with the miserable world that he witnesses.

The writing is superb, the setting highly detailed, the characters excellently drawn. But the fatalistic tone of the book is excessively depressing for me -- perhaps that is the difference in the cultures of author and reader. I found it very difficult to read, although I was never disappointed by the book, like I have been by other dark novels. Just depressed when I finished it. Only recommended for those with the strength of character to read it and survive.

Emma by Jane Austen

The original chick-lit novel. A modern reader really has to slow down and get into the right mood to read Austen. I don't think that Emma and her "lover" ever touched before they were engaged. When they finally make their hearts know to each other he holds her hand. She agrees finally to call him by his first name once and once only - on their wedding day.

Poor Emma, so misunderstood, so hopelessly inept at deciphering the intentions of the men around her. Hidden here, just below the surface but obvious to the modern reader, is the fact that the women of the period were really just the property of the men. Worshiped, provided for, protected, but still merely property.

Highwire Moon by Susan Straight

An illegal alien inadvertently abandons her toddler daughter when she is deported. The daughter goes through the foster care system and ends up with her white trash father. After twelve years the mother and daughter try to find each other.

There is no break in the unending misery of the characters in this novel. The author doesn't believe in comic relief, obviously. Fiction does affect the mood of those who read it - I was depressed and in a funk while suffering through this novel.

The author knows her craft and does write well, but in my opinion the novel has several serious flaws.

• The constant melancholy tone and the incredible string of bad luck for the characters required me to force myself to finish the novel.


• Every major character has childhood trauma that they harp on constantly. This has become such a cliche in literary fiction. The character of the daughter, for instance, cannot have a single thought without relating it to the fact she was abandoned by her mother. This became excessively tiresome.


• The non-ending ending is a disaster. The author takes us to the brink of getting the mother and daughter back together, and then lacks the courage to go through with it. Instead she opts for a pseudo-sophisticated non-ending. Does this make sense? Tell a story, but stop just before the ending? A story without an ending is not a story.

Sorry if I am being harsh, but after suffering through the misery of this novel, I really have to speak my mind. Not a big surprise that this was a finalist for the National Book Award - the more of those novels I read the less is my opinion of that award.

NaNoWriMo starts again

Signed up for the National Novel Writing Month again, a little reluctantly. I've done it the last two years without any real problem, but I wanted to take my time with the next novel, code named Life Portraits. I'm worried that I might not be able to stay focussed without the deadline of something like NaNoWriMo, so I think I will shoot for 50k words on the novel next month. That is really less than half of what I need for a first draft anyway.

Atlanta Rising by Frederick Allen

An intriguing and well-written book about the historical and political events in Atlanta from about 1946 to 1996. You get a real behind the scenes look at Atlanta's journey through the years of integration and wealth-building, with special emphasis on the political deal, successes, and miss-steps. Allen analyzes what happened and why it happened in easy to understand language and common-sense insight.

Primarily of interest to students of Atlanta history, it's also a great reminder of the way that politics works, a lesson that can be applied anywhere and anytime.  For instance, I learned how Jimmy Carter essentially rode the coattails of segregationist Lester Maddox to the governorship of Georgia, even engaging in race-baiting. Hard to believe, looking at the things he has done since. Or maybe not so hard to believe after all, since he has not proven himself to be above doing whatever it takes to get and keep power.

Research for new novel

Went to the main branch of the Atlanta library this afternoon to do some research for my new novel - code named "Life Portraits" or LP for short. Two of the characters lived in Atlanta beginning in 1955, and I needed a good way for them to meet. An incident at Tech in December of 1955 that I had read about in one of my history books sounded interesting, so I looked at the microfilm archives of the Atlanta newspapers to get the real scoop.

Atlanta Journal headline for Saturday Dec 3rd 1955 - "Tech Students Jeer at Capitol, Mansion". It seems that Tech got selected for the Sugar bowl that year, and word got out that the opposing team, the University of Pittsburgh, had a black player. Governor Griffin of Georgia pitched a hissy fit, sending a telegram to the Georgia Board of Regents that, by our standards today, would be grossly racist. Actually, by the standards of the time it was probably racist. Here is the some of the telegram - you decide:

"It is my request that athlete teams of units of the University System of Georgia not be permitted to engage in contests with other teams where the races are mixed on such teams or where segregation is not required among spectators at such events. The South stands at Armageddon. The battle is joined. We cannot make the slightest concessions to the enemy in this dark and lamental hour of struggle."

And so on and so forth. Remarkable what was uttered in public by politicians back then. And this was a telegram that he released to the papers.

Anyway, the Tech students reacted by throwing a little mini-riot. Two thousand of them marched on the capital and broke in, hung the Governor and burned him in effigy, and then tried to march on the Governor's mansion. They almost made it, but got turned back by police. Finally about 3:30 am they broke up, but not before three of them got arrested. Oh those wacky kids. In a couple of days the Regents basically laughed down the Governor, and Tech went to the game.

But it's a cool story. One of my characters is a female, trying to be a press photographer, the other can be a Tech student (they were exclusively male back then). An interesting way for them to meet.

Atonement by Ian McEwan

A touching novel, masterfully constructed. A thirteen-year-old girl witnesses events that she incompletely understands, and gives testimony that ruins lives. The novel is her atonement for her sins.

How long has it been since I got choked up reading a novel? It's a powerful story, and expertly written. A novel within a novel, since the principal character is writing an account of what happened in the form of a novel in order to ease her own conscience. It concludes with an epilogue that brings things into the present and wraps up the story, one of the few epilogues I have ever read that was effective. In a sense it reminds me of another excellent novel with a similar form, Margaret Atwood's  The Blind Assassin.

It does have a slow start - we are halfway through the novel before we get to the defining incident. Because of that I think I did not have a good sense of what kind of novel I was reading. Was it a comedy of errors? A romance? A coming of age? But that's my fault, my critical examination of the novel  as I read it, my desire to categorize other writer's fiction so that I can understand them. It's possible I missed the dark tone early which would have given me the clue. It's a tragedy.

Extraordinary novel, well worth a read.

Lulu copy of The Church of Hooks and Lures

Got the copy today of Rev 4, the one with the cover I designed. Didn't come out very well! There is a strange color cast to the photo. Probably my fault. The only good thing is that I can always fix it up and print another.

Where writer's write

I just wasted a half a day when I should have been working looking at the rooms where other writers write.  Mostly Anglo-centric as well - I had to resort to wikipedia to look up some of the authors I didn't know.

Mr. Spaceman by Robert Olen Butler

An alien abducts a busload of casino-bound tourists prior to revealing himself to humans at the Y2K celebration. A short novel of about 200 pages, written in Butler's unmistakable first person style. I'm a big fan of his short stories. He did, after all, win a Pulitzer for "A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain," but my favorite stories are those in "Had A Good Time."

This novel falls short, though, of being engaging or satisfying.  It doesn't really work as science fiction or speculative fiction - it is not nearly original or creative enough for that. The alien is the extra-terresstial of popular imagination - cat eyes, skinny body, green blood. And he is doing what does in the sensational tabloids - abducting humans.

It doesn't work as popular fiction either, for much the same reasons, and there is no "plot." I would expect it to be judged as literary fiction, but even there, in my opinion, it falls short. The only interesting character is the spaceman, and once we learn about his reluctance to do his "work," what else is there? The other characters all make cameo appearances in very short scenes.

The "theme," of comparing the alien to Jesus, the twelve passengers on the bus to his disciples, and his wife to Mary Magdalene, is obvious and not carried through. Even the old movie, "The Day the Earth Stood Still," which has a similar theme, did a better job of carrying through with the ending. Butler simply fizzles out and resorts to a non-ending ending.

I read this because I wanted to read one of his novels, to see how he handles the longer form. It's a very short novel. Perhaps he wrote it as a long short story? So I wasn't very impressed.

Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley

An exceptional book. An epic novel of horses and the people who love them, hate them, make their living from them. Yes, it is long, and sprawling, and there are lots of characters, but it is well worth the effort required to read it.

I especially enjoyed those sections from the viewpoints of the horses and the dog. Smiley did a great job imagining how they see the world and humans.

The Church of Hooks and Lures - update

I'm calling revision four done. Converted it to 6x9 format and sent it off to Lulu.com to get an actual paper copy in my hand. I don't sell it on Lulu, of course, since I am holding out for a actual agent and publisher. I use Lulu to get an economical hard copy in my hands. It costs $40 to print out at Office Depot, and $20 to get a copy shipped to me from Lulu. Of course, it is an actual book, single spaced, with my cover art, and not the double spaced, single sided manuscript format that has been the standard for years for submissions, but this is for my own use. And I love to hold it in my hands. Satisfies my book lust. Looks like an actual book, instead of a foot high stack of paper.

The cover is an actual picture of one of my grandfathers fishing. I think it's pretty cool. Of course, the novel is fiction, and not based on any actual persons. The usual disclaimer. Neither of my grandfathers would have done the things that the grandfather in the novel did. But if would be lying if I said I did not picture my grandfathers when describing some of the physical characteristics of the fictional grandfather in the novel.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Classic melodrama. I read it in high school, forgot it (mostly), and read it again forty years later.

Dickens ties everything up neatly doesn't he? And his need for moral justice is not to be denied: The servant of Lucy, in the final showdown with Madame Defarge, ends up killing (accidentally) the evil knitter. But the servant has to suffer for her part in the death of the Madame, so she ends up deaf. Now that is carrying moral retribution a little too far. And notice that Jerry cannot be the hero of that little scene, since he is a fallen man - a grave robber. How times (and novels) have changed.

New Stories from the South - 2006

Another great collection. There are some real gems here. My favorite - "Blue Knights BOunced from CVD Tourney" by Chris Bachelder - in which a sportswriter gets carried away and slides into the darker side of reporting. Very creative.

Robert Olen Butler at the Decatur Book Festival

If Ferrol Sams was a pleasant surprise, Butler was a disappointment. I'm one of his biggest fans, actually. I love his short stories, and I am one of the few people who has watched all of the video where he writes a short story and we look over his shoulder - for hours and hours.

But in person? Not so impressive. He started by reading his theory of short short fiction versus poetry. Informative, well thought out, well written, but just a little condescending and arrogant. Then he read for the rest of the hour, his short shorts, published and unpublished. He didn't take a single question, alluded to his recent marital difficulties many times, and I had to question his choice of material several times. How arrogant must you be to write in the first person voice of Walt Whitman and Oscar Wilde?

In retrospect though, I probably knew he was like this. What kind of an ego must you have to film yourself for hours writing a short story, with the expectation that people like me will actually watch it? And I did watch it, and learned from it. But that doesn't alter my assesment of his personality.

Actually this is the first author talk I have ever been to where I was disappointed in the personality of the author. But he can still write, regardless of what kind of person he is.

Ferrol Sams at Decatur Book Festival

I wasn't prepared for how good a speaker he turned out to be. He had no prepared notes, no speech, didn't read anything, and talked completely by taking questions from the audience. His comic timing is perfect. In person he is a much better storyteller and comic than on paper. Wow.

Charles Frazier at the Decatur Book Festival

I went to the keynote address by Charles Frazier at the second annual Decatur Book Festival last night. Held in the impressive Presser Hall at Agnes Scott College, a timber-framed chapel complete with pipe organ.

Frazier is definitely low key. They chose a format where he was on stage with a book critic, and they sat in stuffed armchairs.  Definitely not as good an impression as, for instance, the talk given by Joyce Carol Oates at the Atlanta History Center, where she was on stage alone and standing at a podium.

This interview was targeted at readers, not writers, but I still gleaned a few interesting tidbits. The questions were about equally distributed between his first novel Cold Mountain and his new novel Thirteen Moons. I have not yet read his new novel, and it was a surprise to me that it was set around the Cherokee removal. If I had known that I would have read it earlier, since that is one of the events in local history that really interests me. Poor marketing?

• Frazier works slowly - a couple of pages is a good day for him


• He revises extensively. He said some passages had been revised twenty times.


• The pressure after the success of Cold Mountain was considerable. I can only imagine. He mentioned having to deal with the expectations of publishers.


• He didn't directly criticize the Cold Mountain movie, but did say he would have done some things differently if he had been able to. He was surprised, after seeing how movies are made, that any good movies are ever produced.


• Film rights have already been bought for Thirteen Moons.


• He writes every day. If he doesn't then he gets rusty.


• But he did not say that he is writing another novel. When asked that question he sort of danced around the answer.

Also present was a Cherokee translator who had translated part of the novel into Cherokee. They did tandem readings. Interesting, but a little bit of Cherokee goes a long way.

New Stories from the South - 2007

If you are serious about learning to write better short stories, you need to be reading these anthologies. There's no better way to keep track of what the best are writing and getting published.

Bad Week for Rejections

I go for months with no word on my submissions, and then the dam breaks and I get three rejections in a row. I can't lie and say it doesn't affect my mood. I sink into a funk and hate my own writing.

Here's my statistics at this point:

• 22 short story submissions.


• shortest response time: 5 days - Small Spiral Notebook


• longest response time: 217 days - storySouth


• rejections: 17


• still out: 4


• acceptances: 1


• acceptance/rejection ratio: 6%

The statistics for my first, fatally-flawed, never-to-be-published, novel are much worse, and I prefer to forget about it.

The statistics for my current novel, the one that I am modestly pleased with:

• queries: 7


• rejections: 1


• request for a partial: 1


• still not heard from: 6

The Half-Mammals of Dixie by George Singleton

A short story collection from a South Carolina author. Most of the stories are set in SC too. I'm headed to the SC Writer's Workshop in October, and Singleton is one of the faculty, so I'm doing my homework, so to speak.

Singleton is the master of the non-sequitur, in both dialog and narrative. That's his style, and you don't have to read far to encounter it. The stories challenge the reader to keep track of what is going on and what the characters are talking about, but that's part of their charm.

Southern topics, southern characters, and a creative imagination make these stories well worth a read.

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis

The story of Carol Kennicott, wife of a country doctor in a small town in Minnesota. Set around 1910-1920, Carol deals with the boredom, malicious gossip, and narrow-mindedness of the small town. Lewis later won the Nobel Prize for literature.

Carol is an exasperating character, at least by my more modern, middle-class values. Flighty, idealistic, and self-centered,  I just wanted to slap her and tell her to "snap out of it". I feel that you must have beauty within yourself in order to appreciate and find beauty in others and in nature. If you are bored with your life, look first at yourself for the solution to the problem, instead of demanding to be entertained and pleased by others.

Lewis did an excellent job of capturing the small-town culture though. I grew up in a small town of about 5000 people, larger than the Gopher Prairie of the novel, but small enough that everyone knew everyone else's business.  So many people spent so much time worrying about appearances. Lewis populates his town with a wide array of characters that exemplify all the problems of the small town, as well as the more noble characters, like the country doctor that Carol is married to.

Eventually Carol comes to terms with her problem, which is really a problem with her own personality more than anything else. I found her difficult to like, but the novel is exceptionally well written and worth the effort to read.

Agent Pitch - Elaine Spencer

On Saturday, two agents from the Knight Agency, Elaine Spencer and Deidre Knight, came to the Atlanta Writer's Club. I was one of the lucky ones to get to do an agent pitch. Basically I got eight minutes to interest the agent in my novel.

I was terrible, absolutely terrible. I tried to follow the advice of Miss Snark and  play it cool, engaging the agent in conversation instead of droning on and on about my novel. Didn't work, at least not for me. Maybe someone who is more outgoing could pull that off, but I was too intimidated. Elaine was as nice as she could be, and listened politely as I went on and on about my novel. Of course, I know the damn thing (The Church of Hooks and Lures) too well, so well that I cannot read it anymore and be surprised.

She did ask a couple of questions about a couple of the characters, and once again, I went on too long. I barely wrapped things up when time ran out. I fully expected her to say that it wasn't for her, or the agency - the usual polite way to say no to an author, and I would have understood. I certainly didn't think that I had made a good impression. But she surprised me by asking to read the first three chapters.

Later in the day, Deidre Knight gave a seminar on submitting to agents and her side of the business. Very informative. She is high-energy, engaging, and very funny. I could do a lot worse than to be represented by her agency.

But I refuse to get my hopes up.  Partials usually take nine to twelve weeks to work their way through the Knight Agency, so it will be Thanksgiving before I hear anything good, I'm sure. Of course, I could hear something bad much sooner than that. It only takes a few pages for me to decide if I don't like something - I'm sure they can do the same trick.

Watership Down by Richard Adams

An epic tale about ... rabbits. A small group of rabbits flees their warren based on a prediction of doom by a seer rabbit. They establish a new warren after a hazardous journey, fight a war over does, etc. etc. In short, everything that would be in a human epic is in this epic about - rabbits.

It's actually a lot of fun to read, although the first third is a little slow. The final scenes are as good as any human epic.

Book Count - 2007 (so far)

So far in 2007, I have read 61 books. Courtesy of the excellent database at librarything.

Book Count - 2006

I read 82 books in 2006 - at least those are the ones I kept track of. Courtesy of the database at librarything.

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence

The classic "banned" novel. Lady Chatterley, even though Lord Chatterley is paralyzed from the waist down (or because he is), takes a lover. In my opinion, if it weren't for the frank depictions of sex, this novel would have faded into obscurity long ago.

If I had to stick this novel into a category, I would say that is really polemical, not a romance. Lawrence seems to be trying to make a point about the plight of the workers. He calls them Bolshevists, which we would probably call socialism or communism. And considering how Britain has turned out, he was probably perceptive. Even the couple, with Lady Chatterley in one class and her lover in another, reflect the polemical theme. Leave out the sex, or describe it in a more off-stage manner, and that is really what we are left with; a commentary on the social problems of the age.

The sex scenes are frank, probably shocking at the time they were written, but compare them now to, for instance, "The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love" for a real shocker. And Lawrence really loves to use the exclamation point! But the  couple seems hopelessly self-centered by my own standards.

And the ending is particularly unsatisfying. Lawrence ends it with more petty allusions to sex, meant to shock it seems to me, but ultimately silly.

Horseman, Pass By by Larry McMurtry

An impressive short novel. I would be surprised if this is over 60k words. In that short span McMurtry tells a powerful story of the 1955 era Texas cattle country. Seventeen-year-old Lonnie tries to make sense of his relatives and friends as catastrophe grips his grandfather's farm.

This is the novel that the movie "Hud" was based on, although the novel and the movie are very different. There are more characters in the novel, and the figure of Hud is different. In the novel, Hud has no redeeming characteristics; he never tries to befriend Lonnie. The cinema Hud seems to be an amalgam of several of the characters from the novel. In addition, the cook in the novel is a black woman, and Hud accomplishes the rape that is only threatened in the movie. That's Hollywood.

Which is better? I think the movie gets the edge. In the novel Lonnie is coming to terms with everyone around him, in the movie the conflict is more clear, as is the contrast between Hud and the grandfather.

But they are both great - read the novel first, then see the movie.

Tipperary by Frank Delaney

Tipperary is historical fiction, with a little bit of a twist. The novel is wrapped by a modern narrator, who shares with the reader the life of Charles O'Brien, an Irishman who seems to have a talent for showing up wherever history is being made. He meets Oscar Wilde on his deathbed (and at the same time the woman who becomes the love of his life), the poet Yeats, James Joyce, various Irish politicians, is present during battles with the Irish Republican Army, and shelters IRA guerrillas. He restores Tipperary Castle while pursuing (sort of) the love of his life, who also happens to be the owner. It's an epic story, spanning decades, with the requisite ups and downs and twists and turns in the life of O'Brien.

But it is the use of the modern narrator to wrap the novel that I believe to be its principal fault. For the first two hundred pages the voice of that narrator is cold and indifferent, much like a non-fiction history book. Sections in the modern narrator's voice intrude on the story, offering little in the way of additional facts that I needed or even wanted. About halfway through the novel, the narrator steps out from behind the curtain and reveals a few facts about himself, but I never developed a real sense of who the character was, never felt a connection with him, and frequently wished that he would stop interrupting the flow of the novel. In the end, of course, the author ties together the narrator and O'Brien, in some revelations that are expected and somewhat trite. I wonder what the novel would have been like if the author had concentrated on the historical fiction, instead of using the device of the modern narrator?

There are also many historical "asides", and it is obvious that the author loves his subject; perhaps he loves it too much, since most of the asides have little to do with the story, and much to do with the history of Ireland.

I still think it is a good read, especially if you like the thrill of searching for hidden family secrets and the delayed gratification of a decades-long love affair.

Another Advance Reader's Edition

Received another ARE from Random House courtesy of Librarything.com. This one is a historical novel, "Tipperary" by Frank Delaney. In return I am to read and review, posting my review on Librarything and sending it to Random House.

So far I have only finished the first chapter. I've read plenty of historical fiction, of course. My favorite author in that genre is Geraldine Brooks. Well, Delaney is not in that class, but I am still very early in the novel. One thing that is puzzling is his use of a modern narrator (in third person) as a wrapper around the historical story. Puzzling and confusing. What is the purpose of that? The modern narrator doesn't seem to be contributing anything, and actually distracting me from the real story. Maybe things will improve as I get further into the book.

The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford

The first person chronicle of a deceived husband about his cheating wife, her lover, the lover's wife, and the lover's wife's ward. It has a nightmarish quality; the narrator is living a nightmare, so that's appropriate.

It's a little difficult for me to believe, since there are many mores and morals that have vanished from the culture and society I know. Of course now, no person is really ashamed of an affair, no one is ignorant of sex. So it takes some suspension of disbelief to be sympathetic with the narrator, to truly believe that he could be so easily fooled by his wife and her tale of a weak heart!

Ford does an excellent job with it though. At times I thought he was using an unreliable narrator. Could the narrator really be that gullible? Surely he was lying about his real feelings. But Ford handles it very well. My edition had a "dedicatory letter" by Ford that was little more than bragging, but I suppose he had a right to be proud of his effort in writing this novel.

A Passage to India by E. M. Forster

Forster's novels are meticulously crafted and designed. This novel examines the relationship between the British occupiers of India and the Indian natives. I confess that I don't know much about the period; some of the vocabulary of Indian words is unknown to me and I didn't feel like carrying a dictionary around to read the book. I suppose I should have, but it really ruins the enjoyment for me to have to look up foreign words. I had a similar problem with "Lolita" and it's French phrases.

As usual in Forster novels, there are some dramatic twists that, in retrospect, don't seem as unexpected or dramatic as they did on first read. "Howard's End" was the same. Also, any real action takes place off stage. Mr's Moore dies off stage. Fielding gets married off stage. The supposed assault and escape of Adela happens off stage.  What is his aversion to actually narrating action? Instead we have reflection dominating the novel.

And the meticulous design is just a little suspect. I feel, as I am reading the novel, as if I am being manipulated. I know that ever scene, every description, ever decision by the author, has been calculated to steer me in a certain direction. The wires are a little too obvious, like watching an old science fiction movie and seeing the thread holding up the spaceship.

Still, you have to read this, and his "Aspects of the Novel." There is much to be learned and emulated here.

Novel Status - The Church of Hooks and Lures

I think I am "done" with revision three of this novel - if it's possible to say that about any novel. In a sense, I have been writing this novel for three and a half years. It didn't reach it's current form until January 2007, though. Some of the themes and characters have been present in my writing for awhile. One of my first attempts at one of the characters goes back to one of the first short stories I tried to write.

I'm happy with the form this version has taken. It's more complex, while at the same time more focussed, than any previous incarnation. From the first chapter, the reader knows what the major conflict for the protagonist is going to be. By the time we are 10% into the novel, all the characters (that matter) are in place and their problems defined and the plot is ready to go. The climax takes place at about 85-87% of the way in, after which it collapses to a wrap up that is satisfyingly symmetrical with the beginning.

Here's a log line:

Whit is a seventeen-year-old fatherless white boy caught in a struggle with his controlling, bigoted grandfather. It is 1970, and the public schools in South Carolina are finally being integrated. Whit must choose: attend the white-flight private school, or the racially integrated public school.

 Of course, there is more left out of that blurb than is included, but that is the purpose of a log line. How about some meaningless statistics:

• Words: 110514


• Characters: 481877


• Paragraphs: 2657


• Sentences: 8594


• Sentences per paragraph: 3.2


• Unique Words: over 7100


• Words per Sentence: 12.8


• Characters per Word: 4.1


• Passive Sentences: 0


• Flesch Reading Ease: 84.9


• Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 4.5

I'm a little worried about that grade level - it makes it look like a kid's book. It's not, believe me. The vocabulary helps make up for it, though - over 7100 unique words.

I have an agent pitch on August 18th - the first time I have ever looked for an agent for this novel, and the first time I have ever been to a pitch session. I'm thinking of it as good practice...

Charles Dickens by Jane Smiley

An excellent little book. Smiley brings her insight into character and her knowledge of the novelist's art to bear on the life and works of Charles Dickens. She is one of my favorite novelists, as well as one of the best writers about the novel ("Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel"). She has refreshing and remarkable insight into Dickens's characters and inner life. Reading this has inspired me to go back and re-read the Dickens's novels I have read, as well as reading some I missed.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

I had a problem with this novel before it even got started, with the preface. Wilde makes some blanket statements that seem, a hundred and twenty-five years later, naive and short-sighted. Such as: "The artist is the creator of beautiful things" and "To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim." Wilde's novel is the most immediate contradiction to both these statements.

The novel is the story of Dorian Gray, a very pretty young man who has a portrait painted. He is subsequently corrupted by Lord Henry, who seems more than any other character to resemble Wilde himself. Lord Henry is a misogynist, an amoralist who takes great pleasure in corrupting others.

Dorian soon discovers, after causing the suicide of a young girl who loved him, that the portrait of himself reflects the changes in his soul while his physical appearance does not change. He embarks on a terrible lifestyle, corrupting and ruining others, eventually committing murder.

I don't think this novel has aged well, certainly not as well as Dickens or Austen. The parallel with Wilde's own life is uncanny, and I have to wonder why Wilde went down the path of self-destruction that he followed after writing this novel. Also, it must have taken a colossal ego to write this novel and then be a self-proclaimed pederast.

First Published Story!

My short story "Merle Littel" has been published by the literary journal "Slow Trains". You can read it here.

Look At Me by Jennifer Egan

A tale of two Charlottes, both with identity problems. The first is a model who has a horrific traffic accident, breaking every bone in her face. Reconstructive surgery leaves her attractive, but unrecognizable to her friends and acquaintances. The second Charlotte is the teenage daughter of a friend of the first, cruelly labeled by her friends, and going through a "coming of age" crises. Just about everyone in the novel is having problems of one type or another with who they are.

And that is part of the problem that I had with the novel. It seemed unfocused and rambling. There were a lot of characters and points of view - too many? It was a tiring novel to read, and I had to force myself to finish it.

From a craft perspective, Egan not only alternates between characters, but changes from first person to third person and back, something that is not quite as transparent and seamless as it should be. She starts with Charlotte the model in first person, then introduces Charlotte the teenager in third person, goes back to the model, this time in third person, introduces a confusing array of other characters in third person, and finally gets back to the first person narration of Charlotte the model. Confusing - and tiring.

And there is one character, the mysterious "Z", who is never tied up at the end. I hate dangling plot lines that are never resolved.

Other than that, there is a lot to be absorbed here - it was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

What can I say that hasn't already been said by hundreds of others? I've read them all now, and had a great time doing it. I am amazed at the people who attack these books because they are popular, or because of their content, or criticize the writing. What snobs. Suspend your disbelief, stop being so critical, and enjoy yourself!

I love how creative and inventive the author is. She has created a world that amazes and delights, peopled it with interesting characters, and spun a dramatic and engaging plot with big themes. In the last book of the series she delivers a satisfying ending that avoids the popular non-ending ending and the more popular "obviously there will be a sequel" ending. Bravo.

It is helpful, thought, to look at what I learned from the author about the craft, since my blog is about the craft of writing as well as reading.

• do not use all caps for shouting. This really annoys me.


• do not use stammering when characters are stressed.


• do not use funny accents for foreigners. A little dialect goes a long way.


• spare the adverbs. Too many, used too often, dilute their impact.


• don't wander. Stay focused. Get to the point.

I know the author must be relieved that it is all over. The stress must have been terrific. I hope she takes a long rest...

The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter

A unique, creative, outstanding book. It's a first person, serial protagonist novel. This technique is the same as William Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying". Slightly different here, since there is a narrator, who is writing a novel, and who appears at the beginning and end only. Every other chapter alternates between the other characters, in first person, as they each tell parts of the story.

The title explains it all. The novel examines the love lives of the characters. Not everything goes smoothly, just like real life. It is excellently written, imaginative, and a real pleasure to read.

You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett

A collection of short stories, all dealing with either gay issues or people that are mentally disturbed. These should be classified in a couple of new genres: Gay Gothic and Psychotic Gothic. The stories are horrific, sorrowful, dramatic. The writing style is sparse and spare. The style may be the only one that works with subject matter like this. The more horrific the story the more sparse the style is a good rule for writers.

I "enjoyed" only one of the stories: "Notes to my Biographer". The manic excitement of the protagonist (a manic depressive off his medication) was infectious, and sad.

I particularly disliked "Divination", which bordered on maudlin trickery.

A little bit of this subject matter goes a long way. There is a fine line here, that the author risks crossing, and when he does, it turns me off.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley

Jane Smiley is one of my favorite authors. Reading her novels, though, didn't prepare me for the depth of her insight into the novel. As the title suggests, she examines how the novel fits into history, art, morality, psychology, and so forth, all with humor and vision. She also includes two chapters on writing your own novel, as well as an examination of the process of writing one of her own novels. She concludes with opinions of one hundred (and one) novels that she read while writing the book. I highly recommend it.

In America by Susan Sontag

The story of a Polish actress who comes to America, not to be an actress, but to live quietly in a commune-like setting with her entourage of admirers. She discovers she can't stop acting so returns to the stage.

I have to say I didn't care for it very much. Too rambling and unfocused. The "zero" chapter and the last chapter are confusing and unnecessary. What does the protagonist want? Where is her conflict? Other than coping with her life as a actress, where is the story?

And it won the National Book Award...

The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich

Why do I sometimes lose interest in a book partway through? Because I abandoned this novel at about page 150. It may be worthwhile to examine my lack of motivation to finish reading it.

The beginning was great, maybe too great. I had difficulty deciding which of the two characters, the fallen nun or the farmer, was the protagonist. They were both well written and engaging. I was fascinated. Then the random act of violence occurred - a bank robbery, in which the fallen nun was taken hostage. She gets shot in the head. I think she is dead - I have lost a protagonist. Then the slow-speed chase, which was totally engrossing, happens. The farmer chases the murderer. The farmer is murdered. I have lost both protagonists, but wait - the fallen nun is not dead, just forever altered by the damage of the bullet.

At this point I have been totally jerked around by the story and start to lose interest. Did it climax too soon? Did I lose trust in the author? Was it too difficult to identify which of the characters was the protagonist?

Then the fallen nun takes on the identity of a dead priest. Maybe I am being too literal, but why, over the next eighty or ninety years, didn't someone notice? Doesn't the church hierarchy check up on their priests?

I also got lost in the complex family stories of the native americans. Funny? Yes. Enough to pull me forward? No.

The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates

The best novel by Oates I have read, I think. I can quibble about the way she disposed of the wife-beating husband, but her story-telling instincts are probably superior to mine. And really, the story is about Rebecca/Hazel's life, and that is where the imaginative ending goes.

Compelling. Haunting. Morbidly satisfying.

Joyce Carol Oates Lecture - 6/19/2007

I was pleasantly surprised by this lecture, which was held at the Atlanta History Center and sponsored by the Margaret Mitchell House. What did I expect? I only knew the author from her books, which are dark, serious, sometimes violent stories of working class families. And from her picture on the rear covers of the books, which shows a woman with sad eyes and inclined head.

In person she was thin, tall, with the unmistakable sad eyes. Although approaching seventy, she didn't have a single gray hair. It was her sense of humor that surprised me. Witty, wry, and slightly morbid.  She was engaging and captivating.

She read from her latest novel, "The Gravedigger's Daughter", passages that I had already read, then took questions from the audience. The first question was the most interesting, about her method of working.

She envisions everything, similar to Robert Olen Butler's dreams. She called it pre-production work, similar to how a movie is made, essentially non-verbal. She does this while exercising, usually running. She imagines the novel or story in cinematic scenes while running. She used to do a complete short story in her head this way. At the desk she writes out these scenes in longhand; she writes everything in longhand. She then numbers the scenes to arrange them; structure is important to her. She said, "You cannot start a novel without pre-production."

An excellent "lecture", and an impressive author.

The River Wife by Jonis Agee

The River Wife
By Jonis Agee
Random House

 

This epic novel, by award-winning author Jonis Agee, chronicles the lives of four generations of women living on the banks of the Mississippi River in Missouri. They are all tied by marriage and blood to the French fur-trapper turned river pirate Jacques Ducharme. Covering the span of time from the 1812 New Madrid earthquake until the 1950s, the novel is wrapped by the story of Hedie Rails Ducharme beginning in 1930.

Hedie marries into the Ducharme family and is immediately taken with the house and farm built by the long-dead Jacques. She suspects her mysterious husband, Clement, of engaging in bootlegging and robbery, and when she discovers diaries written by the first wife of Jacques, Annie, Hedie is obsessed with her tragic life.

The novel alternates between Hedie’s story and the lives of Annie, the black slave Omah Ducharme, Jacques late-in-life wife Laura, and their daughter Little Maddie. All are touched by the dreadful deeds of Jacques and the fierce love he had for those close to him. There are many parallels in the lives of the women, especially the loyalty they develop for the men in their lives, often to their own ruination, and the love they have for the farm and house built by Jacques.

The attitude of the women is described succinctly by Hedie when she says, “It was love at second sight, the kind of love you feel coming down on you like a train, and you daren’t step out of the way, though you can feel it has your future happiness and unhappiness all on board.”

Agee’s depiction of the natural world along the frontier river is rich and varied. The naturalist Audobon even makes an appearance. Adding to the atmosphere is speculation about the hidden treasure of Jacques, civil war skirmishes, and visits by the ghostly figures of Jacques and Annie as they return to watch over the newer residents of the house on the banks of the Mississippi. The influence of Jacques’ life extends far beyond his grave.

In “The River Wife,” Jonis Agee has written a captivating and spellbinding novel that vividly portrays the dangers of blind love, a force that can ruin lives and reach beyond the grave.

 

Master Class in Fiction Writing by Adam Sexton

Subtitled "Techniques from Austen, Hemingway, and Other Greats". A fantastic book. I was in a slump and this book pulled me out of it. Excellent examples are used, and the author makes them easily understandable and informative. It inspired me to continue and read other examples of great literature and apply what I had learned from the book.

Rejection Blues

I've been feeling pretty down lately. I've gotten more short story rejections, enough that I was beginning to question my commitment. Why spend so much time trying to get better only to get rejected?

But last night I got a pleasant surprise. Last month I handed out two stories, "Christmas at Grandma's" and "Merle Littel" to my book club, with permission to read and criticize. At the meeting last night we discussed our two books, "Bastard Out of Carolina", and "The Secret Life of Bees", and  I thought that everyone had forgotten about my two stories. Our leader had, but one of the other members brought them up, and I was pleased to get some quality feedback from the members. They really liked both stories, I believe, and seemed to have excellent insight, so I know they read them carefully.

So my gumption is restored, at least for a little while.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

I just love Austen's novels, and to think they are two hundred years old. Once you get used to the mannerly language, they are delightful. True, there is very little action and even less description, but these novels are proof that characterization and an engaging plot are more than enough to engage a reader's full attention.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

What a pleasure to slow down a little to the rhythm of this novel. I read it as a companion to "Master Class in Fiction Writing" by Adam Sexton, where it was used as an example of characterization. Now, of course, I have to read "Pride and Prejudice"!

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

An excellent novel, that has all the qualities of a good novel. Why didn't this win any awards. It is better than every National Book Award winner and finalist I have read with the exception of "The Echo Maker". Politics, I'm thinking. The author is a doctor, and this is his first novel. He's not part of the "club", so he doesn't win an award.

And he follows a proven, time-tested, format for his novel, which makes it a powerful and dramatic story. It's a job well done.

Gorgeous Lies by Martha McPhee

An exasperating novel. The author has gone out of her way to construct something that destroys her story. Yes, it's literary fiction, and the characters are more important than plot, but does that have to mean that we have to abandon basic story-telling truths? She skips around in time, something that can be done while heightening suspense and story, but not in this case. The third act occurs in the middle of the book, not at the end, destroying the novel, in my humble opinion.

And she uses multiple viewpoints, including omniscient, third person, and first person. In many cases the pov character is not revealed for pages. There is no excuse for jerking around the reader like that.

A proven method of skipping around in time is to use "time streams". Each stream is followed chronologically, while still alternating between streams. The main stream should have been the youngest child as a young adult, dealing with the death of the father. The other streams of the father as a young man, the children as adolescents and so forth, are then alternated with the main stream, but preserve the integrity of that main stream so that the story is not ruined.

OK, so I'm on my soapbox. After reading almost thirty National Book Award finalists I am beginning to believe that this award is based on politics, not merit. I am certainly more impressed with the Pulitzers.

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

This author is similar in style and subject matter to Updike and Ford. That's elite company, and I know that a lot of people thing highly of all these authors.

So why is it that I can't stand their books? What's wrong with me, that I find them so boring and even distasteful?

The characters are boring, petty, self-centered, and selfish. After a hundred and thirty pages I would sooner watch old Seinfeld reruns than continue reading about these pitiful people. Of course, there is no plot. This is literary, character-focussed fiction. And my only interest in the characters is to see them get punished for being so insipid.

So I detest the characters, and there is no plot. There's also nothing else to keep me reading. No cleverness, no bit of mystery or suspense. There is a "theme", or message. At a hundred and thirty pages I can sense it looming out of the fog like the prow of an oil tanker about to capsize my small boat. Probably something about the dysfunctional family, parents that are still children, adults that never grow up, and the destructive nature of the consumer society. Blah.

So, yes, I had these same complaints about the "rabbit" novels by Updike and Ford's "Independence Day".

Big If by Mark Costello

One of those books that impresses the reader with the sheer amount of research needed to write it. Also the incredible insight into the characters. It is centered around a secret service team protecting a vice-president running for president, and the families of the team. Multiple POVs that alternate - you know the type.

Of course I was disappointed with the ending. It was another one of those "how am I gonna end this" endings. Lloyd should have been the catalyst at the end instead of the disgruntled programmer, which at least would have wrapped things up nicely. Ask yourself how much more satisfying that would have been? The man (Lloyd) who wrote the procedures for the secret service taking advantage of those procedures to take his own life? With the man that cuckolded him in the detail?

Other than that, it's well crafted and highly recommended.

The Heaven of Mercury by Brad Watson

Sometimes I read a novel and it is so good I just want to quit writing. I will never be able to write as well as Brad Watson. Some of the chapters could stand alone as short stories, they are that polished. I am even at a lose to describe why the writing is so good. I think that Watson is incredibly observant, for one thing, and is able to communicate that to the reader.

The "arch" of the plot confused me, I have to admit that. I would not have had the courage to skip around in time so much, or to bring a character back after death.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

What can I say that hasn't already been said? A great book. You have to admire his courage in writing it and getting it published.

Three Junes by Julia Glass

This might be the best National Book Award winner or finalist I have read. The skill of Glass is impressive. It's about love, family, and children. Don't look for an overarching plot. To write a book like this requires insight into characters and the ability to communicate that insight to your readers. Glass has the skill and talent to do both.

Three viewpoints are used: a father, his son, and a woman they both know. The complex relationships of these three people are examined from both the heterosexual and homosexual viewpoints.

My only nitpicks are that there are plenty of loose threads not tied up by the end of the novel, and the character of the son is not very likable. To me he seems self-centered and selfish, and I wasn't really pulling for him to grow up and get on with his life. The untied threads are only important in presenting a whole, tidy package.

And the novel is written in third person present tense. That's rare, because it is difficult to do well. Glass is an expert at it.

Blue Angel by Francine Prose

I first read her book on writing, and was so impressed I had to read one of her novels. This one was on my list to read, since it was a National Book Award finalist. It's a real literary page-turner, something that is rare. I love the writing, the characters, the plot, and especially the cover.

I didn't care much for the ending, but what could the author do? Any last minute change of fortune would have seemed trite and unrealistic, but I longed for some way for that detestable Angela to get punished. Oh well.

I also noticed quite a few proofreading errors, rare in a modern novel. I saw plenty in my foray into the old pre-computer Pulitzers that I bought used, but it's unusual in a computer written novel.

Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose

An outstanding resource for the writer. She confirms my technique of learning to write by reading as much as possible. Actually she is the first author I have read that says she reads while writing a story or novel, something that I do as well. Anyway, it's good to get some validation of my own process.

She does rely on some old classics in her examples, and she seems stuck on the Russian authors - but that is understandable. There is an excellent reading list in the back of the book that I need to incorporate into my own reading. There are a lot of classics I seem to have missed.

And it is obvious that I am not reading close enough. Prose has the ability to see the skill of the writer that I don't seem to have at this time. Hopefully I can learn!

Agent Pitch in August

For better or for worse, ready or not, I have signed up for an agent pitch in August. I get ten minutes in front of an actual literary agent to attempt to convince her to take me on as a client. Sixteen weeks and two days to get Church of Hooks and Lures presentable.

The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig

An excellent book. Not a prize winner, except that it was named a notable book by the ALS. It's deceptive too, since the ending was a surprise to me. That doesn't happen often, since I am such a jaded, experienced reader! The middle section might drag just a little, and the author makes a lot of the one-room schoolhouse setting, which borders on nostalgia. In fact, the little bits of nostalgia are the only detracting elements of the novel. I highly recommend it.

Beneath the Velvet Skies by Rusty Van Reeves

I had to read for this for my local book club. I didn't finish it - got in about 200 pages and gave up. It's a LuLu book, so I assume it is self published. It's a good starter novel, but definitely not ready for prime time, and not good enough to be published. Too many plot lines, too many characters, too many short scenes, bad dialog, and so forth and so on.

Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage

An intriguing, creative little book. The story of Firmin, a literary rat who learns to read by eating books. He has a better vocabulary and is better read than I am. It's dark humor, though, not suitable for children. One of the ALA's notable books.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner. I've read all the winners since 1947, so I can unequivocally state this is the first "speculative fiction" (aka science fiction) winner. McCarthy doesn't usually write sf. As sf goes, it is not as good as other post-apocalyptic novels I have read. He focuses on the relationship between a father and son as they journey down "the road", paring the rest of the story to the bone. We only get glimpses of post-apocalyptic life, and everything is ambiguous. There is no explanation or history that explains what has happened, the reader is left to imagine. The principal difficulties for the survivors are starvation and avoiding the cannibals that seem to be wandering about.

I can't write a book opinion without commenting on what I would have written differently. The focus for the father should be that he is trying to find a safe place for his son, since he is slowly dying. As written, they just seem to wander south. If the father had a goal of finding a group of people to take in his son before he dies - and he actually succeeds before passing away, the novel would be much better. As written, the father dies, and the kid gets lucky. Not very satisfying.

A Ship Made of Paper by Scott Spencer

An excellent book, insightful and sometime surprising. Not very satisfying to read. The main character is not likable - he ruins the lives of several people by indulging his ill-fated love affair. The thin plot stretched around that love affair is not very satisfying either. We go to the brink of disaster several times but never take that final step. And the ending is a non-ending.

But it's still a great book. Any changes to satisfy me would probably have made the book not as good.

First Place GWA 2006 Annual Contest

Actually first and second place in the Georgia Writer's Association Annual contest for 2006. Here is the announcement from Geri Taran:

Congratulations to all who entered GWA's Annual Members' Contest.

I am pleased to announce the winners, received yesterday. Please note that due to the limited number of entries, overall, and the fact that some members entered numerous selections, some individuals won more than one prize.  

Fiction
1st     Sam Smith for Ellis, not Elvis
2nd     Sam Smith for Merle Littel
3rd     Tom Pilgrim for Under Lock And Key

Essay
1st     Bobbie Christmas for A Pound of Bacon, a Ton of Courage
2nd     Debbie Unterman for Revelation
3rd     Bobbie Christmas for I am a Writer, By Golly

Poetry
1st     Gabriel Stauf for Heavy Tipper at the Grand Hotel
2nd     Gabriel Stauf for Mango Encounters
3rd     Jill Jennings for A Different Kind of Christmas

All who entered can be proud, however, as these were all excellent entries and we thank you for your continued support of Georgia Writers Association and all it represents in the greater literary community of Georgia. We hope that next year the number of entries will be far greater, even though it will make the task of judges far more difficult.

I wonder how many entries they received? I know that I sent several. Also it's interesting to see that they liked "Ellis,Not Elvis" better than "Merl Littel". I would have ranked them the other way around.

The results are encouraging, and they come at a good time - when I am about to start on a major rewrite of my current novel. A little acknowledgment  does help quite a bit.

Drop City by T. C. Boyle

Boyle is a great writer, and I've read a lot of his short stories. This novel is about a hippie commune that makes the move to Alaska after they are evicted from their California ranch. It's a good read, but in my humble opinion about 150 pages too long. The hippies are obnoxious, selfish, self-centered, childish, etc., and how many times can you read about them getting stoned?

More hippies needed to die in this novel. Only one hippie and one Alaskan died - not enough.

The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard

A National Book Award winner, so it has gotten plenty of praise elsewhere. My observation? All the action takes place offstage. Remove the direct action from the novel and it becomes a cerebral exercise.

David Fulmer Class Wrapup

This was the "Fiction Shop II" offered at the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta. Currently only the beginner version of this class is offered.

David is a mystery writer, and I had heard him talk to the Georgia Writer's Association before I took this class, so I had some idea what I was getting into. I had also read his novel "Jass". Since then I have also read "Chasing the Devil's Tail" and "The Dying Crapshooters Blues", so I was well aware of David's style and his abilities.

I had only taken online classes before. One, from the Gotham Writer's group, was excellent. The other, from Algonkian, was terrible. This was my first class in-person with other writers, and for me that was the most valuable part of the experience. Yes, I am painfully shy. Reading in front of the other students and the teacher was a good experience for me.

Did I learn anything new? Not really. Once you get past the basic or even the journeyman level, it is hard to impart anything new to a student. But it is all good, and certainly worth the money.

David also did a "critique" of up to twenty pages after the class. I sent him two short stories, about eighteen pages. He sent back a nice cover letter, and what I would call a copy-edit of the pages. I have to admit that was a little disappointing. The copy-editing is so subjective, and the suggestions were few. I was hoping for some overall comments about the stories. Did they work? Were they engaging? and so forth.

Overall though, I thought the class was great and a good use of my time and money.

Prince Edward by Dennis McFarland

I read this book carefully, with a critical eye, since one of my novels deals with similar subject matter - the desegration of the public schools in the South. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered this novel. I had already written a first draft of my novel before a writing friend said, "You know, that sounds very similar to 'Prince Edward'". Of course, if I am going to continue to work on my novel, I must read this one.

It's an excellent novel, well written and researched. The important question, for me, is whether my novel is sufficiently different from this one, and whether I can write a novel as good as this one. The answer to both questions is yes, I hope.

Prince Edward is told from the viewpoint of a ten-year-old boy, but it is really the viewpoint of an adult relating what happened to him when he was ten. It can be very confusing. The boy is naieve and confused ny the actions of the adults around him, yet the man (who is really telling the story) knows more than the boy. At times it was confusing and irritating.

There are many loose threads not tied up, which drives me crazy. The author relies on an epilogue to finish up many things, but this is not very satisfactory. He also, it seems to me, sticks too much to actual history, instead of letting the story flow to a more natural conclusion. There are a lot of unanswered questions when the novel finishes.

There is a seperate plot about child abuse, a plot that seems more important than the main plot of desegregation.  In fact, I had to ask myself, "what is this book about?" The child abuse? The desegregation? The boy's efforts to understand why grown-ups lie? His dysfunctional family?

I also disliked the "info-dumps" that were given by the adult narrator. For instance, before we meet the black preacher, the author gives us his entire history, something the boy could never have known.

So yes, the novel is worth a read, but can I do as well or better? With a lot of work I hope I can...

Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins

A frustrating novel to read, for me, for several reasons. The author refused to use conventional punctuation for dialog. There are no quotation marks. Of course I have read novels written like this before, but usually the author takes great care to make sure it is still readable. That's not the case here, and it literally (pun intended) gave me a headache. The author also has great difficulty with her transitions, which is a mistake she should not be making. Many times I was confused by abrupt changes in time that the author didn't bother to prepare the reader for.

Well, enough bitching. I thought it was going to be a real, maudlin, tear-jerker, and for about two thirds of the novel it was. But in the last couple of chapters she redeemed herself. I can't rate it very highly though.

The Terror by Dan Simmons

A break from the literary fiction I've been reading for the last two years, this is a "horror" novel, at least that is how it is marketed. I think it is much better than the usual horror novel, although the only thing of that genre I have to read that I can compare it to is "Misery". There are a lot of gruesome descriptions  of death and dismemberment. I suppose that is required in this genre? I'm not sure that the descriptions added much.

There is also quite a bit of fantasy, involving Eskimo folklore and mystical beliefs. These are esential to the plot.

The novel is a cross between historical fiction and horror. It;s based on a mid nineteenth century polar expedition  that was trapped in the ice for three years, with the resultant, scurvy, stavation, mutiny, and ravages by a proto-polar-bear.

Rejection from The Chattahoochee Review

A form rejection for one of my short stories, "Spirito Sancto". Just one rejection of many.

Ideas of Heaven by Joan Silber

I had great difficulty getting "into" these stories. The writing is distant and detached. The technique is almost completly narrative. They seemed overworked, with forced images and the hand of the author visible everywhere. Even the characters don't seem particularly interested in their own stories. None of the writing was compelling for me.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Practical, reasoned advice for the writer. She points out the error of many of the assumptions that hopeful writers have.

Her style is to make almost everything a joke, though, which I found irritating after the first hundred pages. They are good attempts at humor, but I found them overwrought, or maybe just overworked.

The Dying Crapshooter's Blues by David Fulmer

The third Fulmer novel I have read, and his most recent one. This one moves from the setting of Storyville in New Orleans to 1920s Atlanta. The types of characters and setting really remain the same though. Crooked cops, flawed detective, rounders, gamblers, prostitutes, and blues singers.

I have taken a writing workshop from David, so I have some bias in his favor. He is an excellent writer and teacher.

My only problem with the novel, and I never got a chance to ask David about this, is that there is what I believe are unreliable narrators. He uses the point of view of the crooked cop and the girl who actually did the crime, without revealing their roles at the time. That's borderline "unreliable narrator", and it did bother me.

But otherwise the book is great and well worth a read.

Our Kind by Kate Walbert

The only book I have ever read written in second person plural POV ("we"). It starts out great, in what I thought was going to be senior-citizen chick-lit. It continues with the same style and wonderful writing, but the promise of that implied plot in the first chapter is never fulfilled. Instead it is an examination of women, or "our kind".

Madeleine is Sleeping by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum

The best thing about this book is the cover. It's another gimick book, sort of a cros between a children's book and an existentialist nightmare.

The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck

This won the National Book Award? It's a well-written novel, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't seem good enough to have won.

Short scenes, almost short-attention-span writing. Instead of making the novel fast paced, it seemed to jerk the reader around. Lots of details were left out. The war that is at the center of the novel made no sense when told this way. Why did they go to war? I still don't know, and I don't think the question was ever answered.

She does write a good scene, even if they are extremely short, almost flash fiction.

Run With the Horsemen by Ferrol Sams

I feel bad about having a low opinion of this novel, since Ferrol Sams is a local legend, and a really great guy. I go to a bluegrass festival every year in the Ferrol Sams auditorium in Fayette County. But, as a novel, this book doesn't really work. Sams is a great storyteller. Pick any chapter and you have a wonderful story.

Taken as a whole though, it lacks any overarching plot. It's a coming of age story that tries to emphasize the relationship (or non-relationship) between the son and his father. It falls short of being cohesive.

The narrator also intrudes. The "psychic distance" is great. I feel like Sams is standing beside me, telling the story,, shining a flashliht on the characters. that's not a good thing.

But, if you want a picture of life in the rural south between the wars, and you like great anecdotes, this is a good place to get those things.

Florida by Christine Schutt

A strange little novel, but written from the heart I think, or maybe from dreamspace. Very well done. Reminds me of the Optimist's Daughter in it's approach - not always easy to understand, and very little narrative or explanation. The essentials of the scenes are there though, and powerfully presented. She excels at producing the telling detail.

The Echo Maker by Richard Powers

A great novel. It has everything - plot, great characters, and setting. An excellent example of literary fiction.

As a writer myself (and I can't seem to read anything anymore without finding things to pick at) , I thought it was a little too long. There was a good deal of hashing over ground that had already been covered. It could have been a fourth shorter, I think. But who am I to criticize?

A lot of the enjoyment of the book comes from the suspense of the plot, and it is a subtle suspense. This is not a thriller by any means, but there is plenty here to keep pulling the reader along.

There is also a lot of science - medical terms, but it is handled skillfully and explained well.

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

The 2006 Booker prize winner, but I can't say that I was impressed with it. Omniscient viewpoint, with quite a distance from the characters, which kept me, as the reader, at a distance also.

A third of the book could be cut. Way too much detail in places. The tenth description of the setting is the same as the first - overdone. A little goes a long way in those cases.

There wasn't much to keep me reading either. No overarching plot device to direct my attention. Reading it got to be a chore.

Yet it won the big prize. There are also an embarrasing number of typos, usually extra consonants at the beginnings of words. I am certain the author did not intend those, they were not dialect, but in the narrative. I have no idea what happened, or who was at fault.

For a better treatment of the Indian diaspora, read the short stories of Jhuumpa Lahiri.

Had a Good Time by Robert Olen Butler

I can't say enough good things about this collection of short stories. Using antique postcards as inspiration, Butler produced some great work. The process of writing one of the stories is chronicled on the fsu website - fourteen two-hour videos...

Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski

A gimmick book. Clever but empty of content. It reminds me of a teenage girl playing with pretty fonts. The only impressive thing is the cover, and that was done by Jessica Grindstaff, not the author. How did this become a National Book award finalist?

Europe Central by William T. Vollmann

I just don't get this novel. I hate to say bad things about it, since it won the 2005 National Book Award, but I think it is deliberately obfuscated. It seems to me to be more of an essay than a novel. An 800 page essay with creative non-fiction chapters sprinkled around. The theme is "Europe:bad", or maybe "Fascism, Communism: bad". You really need to be an expert on the footnotes of European history to make much sense out of it. Definitely not recommended by me.

The March by E. L. Doctorow

An excellent book, in Doctorow's distinctive style. I read "Ragtime" long ago, but the author's style has not changed. There are a lot of characters here, but somehow Doctorow can pull that off, where in the novel "Trance" I was confused and bored.

The author has the skill to examine the complex motivations of his characters, and that is what makes the novel distinctive. He puts in the little classic twists and turns, and weaves everything together. My only nit-pick is that he does abandon some characters and never wraps up their stories, but they are minor characters.

A National Book Award finalist.

Fiction Workshop report

Had my third workshop with David Fulmer last night, and if I can survive this class it will be a miracle. Reading my writing samples, out loud, before the class and the instructor, makes me break out in a cold sweat. Mic-fright. Painfully shy. Wallflower that wilts in the public gaze.

But it's good for me. The class is great, David is doing an excellent job, the other students are supportive. I'll survive, I hope.

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

An excellent book, the Booker Prize winner. I've read a lot of prize winners in the last two years, and this one is one of the best. It's imaginative and complex, something that I always like, and the plot propels us forward, something that is usually lacking in literary novels.

I won't give any anything here, but part of the complexity comes from multiple layered novels. The viewpoint character is writing her memoir. There is a character inside the memoir writing a novel, and inside that novel a character is writing science fiction stories. This is all wrapped in Atwood's novel. Very creative. The most compelling mystery is how the novel inside the memoir came about - no spoilers here.

Highly recommended.

Trance by Christopher Sorrentino

My rule is that I give any book 100 pages to make a case for why I should read it. I gave this one 128 pages before I gave up. Why? Too many characters, too many viewpoints, and the raionale for the character's actions were not convincing. Some of the writing was strong, it's a National Book Award finalist after all, but I didn't care for it at all.

David Fulmer workshop - second meeting

Had the second meeting last night. We read samples of our writing. Everyone seems to be about the same level, although I think I am the only person working on short stories - everyone else has a novel. I have a novel too - actually more than one, but at this point I think a publication credit with a short story would do me more good.

Like most classes and workshops, this one has the usual problems: starting late, lots of chatter, and a little unorganized, resulting in running out of time. Some things never change...

Eat the Document by Dana Spiotta

Another in my National Book Award reading project; this one was a finalist. It's another of those novels plagued with uninteresting or annoying characters and an unsatisfying ending. There's too much drug usage and navel gazing by the characters for me to identify with them. Wasted lives, a lot like the novel "Holy Skirts". The character of the fifteen-year-old son is irritating and overdone, and he is, of course, very important to the book. That's one of the problems with literary fiction - the novels depend so much on character, since plot is ignored or abandoned. If your characters are not likable for a particular reader, then your novel suffers.

The Zero by Jess Walter

A creative book, which always gets my attention. The main character has PTSD from 9/11 and is experiencing gaps in his memory. Or possibly a multiple personality, and the only personality the reader sees is the good, but confused, one. He's attempting to solve a complicated mystery, and the confusing snapshots that he, and the reader, get are what drive the novel forward.

When I saw there were three parts I hoped something would change in part two - maybe a switch to the "bad" personality, but it didn't happen. As a result I started to get a little tired of the short-attention-span nature of the writing, but it was still a page turner, something that is rare in these literary novels. I highly recommend it.

First Class with David Fulmer

Had my first "fiction shop" with David Fulmer last night at the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta. It was the usual get acquainted first class, with some review of the basics. This is not a beginner class, but a workshop for those more advanced in their writing. Almost everyone is a novelist. I think a couple of other people had short stories, but no one as many as I have. Of course, I have novels too, and I need to decide what to focus on in the class. I'm pretty sure at this point in my non-career it would be more useful to have some publishing credits with short stories.

For next week, we prepare some writing samples for him to review. Setting, dialog, and backstory for a character. I gather we have to read before the class, instead of preparing multiple copies. Panic! Last night I was my usual quiet, painfully shy, wallflower. That is not going to change appreciably until I get comfortable with the people in the class, which will not happen in eight weeks, I'm sure.

Anyway, the first class was a welcome improvement over the Algonkian online class I took last last Spring. David Fulmer was professional, friendly, knowledgeable, focused, and obviously interested in helping us improve our writing. Totally unlike the sophomoric, unprofessional attacks by the Algonkian staff.

So I have high hopes for this class, and from what I've seen already I shouldn't be disappointed.

A Disorder Peculiar to the Country by Ken Kalfus

I admit to being baffled by the ending, which had the effect of ruining the book for me. The author totally changed actual history to suit the story he wanted to tell, which I guess is allowed, just annoying. And I don't trust his attempt to use 9/11 as a metaphor. It's supposed to be a black comedy, but I didn't find it very funny.

And what was up with the scene where the husband tried to be a suicide bomber? I had to go back and read it again, searching for the point where the author gave the reader a clue that it was a dream or a fantasy. Nothing. That is lying to the reader, something that I think there is no excuse for. After that, can I trust any other scene? No. How can I tell what is fantasy, what is dream, and what is reality in the book? I can't. Inexcusable, and very poor writing.
OK, so I had a lot of complaints about the book. I can't rate this one very high.

Veronica by Mary Gaitskill

Excellent writing, unsettling topic. Disgusting details of wasted lives. I bought my copy used, and it came with one of those clear plastic book covers, the kind that libraries use. I wanted to handle it only by the plastic cover, like a book condom, so I wouldn't get infected. Now if I could just disinfect my mind and get rid of some of the images she drew, but I am afraid they are deeply filed away and will pop back up at the worst times. So I don't recommend reading this unless you are of strong character.

Short Story submissions

I submitted "Common Ground" to storySouth and "Spiritu Sancto" to Chattahoochee Review today. One is an electronic submission, one is postal. The email submission is so much easier, but I suppose they get a lot more submissions that way, which may not be a good thing.

Usually takes at least a couple of months to hear anything from literary magazines. But, one of my resolutions this year was to keep my hook wet, so to speak. I can't let the month waste away without trying.

I'm using Duotrope's Digest to find markets and keep track of submissions. Sent them a donation as well.

Short Story Collection - Flip Flop Flap

Laurie compiled my short stories from 2005-2006, designed a book with some of my artwork, and got it published on Lulu.com. Looks pretty good. The intent is to give them away to family and friends, if I can find anyone that is interested. Not for sale, of course, since I am still holding out hope that I can get some of them published someday.

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

A serious, well-crafted novel that tells the story of a small village infected by plague in 1666, and their self-sacrificing decision to quarantine themselves to prevent the spread of the disease, a decision that led to two-thirds of the villagers dying. Based on a true story, the author covers all the responses of humans under such stress - abandonment of faith, religious fanaticism, witchcraft, guilt at being spared, profiteering. It's well written - I read it because I read her second novel, the Pulitzer prize winning "March". My only complaint is the ending. Once again, an author goes to great lengths to insure a happy ending, perhaps because there was so much unhappiness in the novel. The happy ending was fine, I guess it was the trip of the girl to a Muslim country that seemed so incongruous and unbelievable.

But for a first novel it's outstanding. I can see where she improved in the writing of "March".

New Writing Class

Signed up for a fiction workshop at the Center for Southern Literature at the Margaret Mitchell House. The leader is David Fulmer. I've been to a talk he gave for the GWA and have read two of his books. I'm looking forward to it, since I have taken a couple of online classes, and this is my first in-person class.

The Church of Hooks and Lures

The new working title for my latest novel. Changed from Devil's Walking Stick, since I totally eliminated the devil's walking sticks (a woody plant with big thorns) from the book. The new title is one of the chapter titles, and it will probably change again too, but for now, there it is. Nicknamed CHL.

Holy Skirts by Rene Steinke

A novel, not a biography, about the baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, a Greenwich Village "character" around World War I. She was ahead of her time - today she would be described as a moonbat, I think. In my humble opinion (which is what this blog is all about, right?) she wasted her life. She professed to be independent of men, but her identity was tied up in the men she married and bedded. Why call herself a baroness? Because of her third husband. Her life was one contradiction after another, and she made stupid mistakes and childish decisions. And the poetry, at least the poems that are presented in this book, are third-rate.

But the book is great and well written. Steinke has the ability, part talent and part hard work, of producing just the right image to illustrate her point. The subject matter is entertaining and provocative.

I thought the first part was almost "short attention span" theater - the facts of her  life before New York were presented in tiny snippets that left me disappointed. But the second half, in which the baroness develops her "life as art" persona, is much better.

The novel was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2005.

Chasing the Devil's Tail by David Fulmer

Not your typical detective mystery. It's much better writing than usual in this genre. The setting is colorful, turn of the century New Orleans and the birth of jazz. The characters are many and diverse, spanning the full range of the color spectrum that New Orleans was famous for.

The murder mystery almost seems secondary. The detective is strangely passive through most of the novel. There are no clues that I could find that point to the actual murderer, just suspicions. But the better than usual writing makes up for it somehow, although it might disappoint a fan of the genre.

Which makes me wonder why he didn't write a literary novel around these characters instead of shoehorning it into a mystery. But, he's published and I'm not! Actually, I have been to a talk by Fulmer and hope to someday take a class from him - he teaches a seminar at the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta.

Pulitzer Reading Project "finished"

Last night I finished the fifty-third work of fiction in my Pulitzer prize winning list. So I've read everything since 1947 in the fiction category, with the exception of a couple of works that I skipped. It's been a great journey, and I'm so glad I read some of these works. Check out the Pulitzer Reading Project page to see my list of lists as well as links to all my book opinions.

What's next? On to the National Book Award!

Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor

A massive novel, that requires strength and perseverance from the reader. Like those prisoners at Andersonville, only the strong will survive the depression of this novel. It's a admirable effort to deal with a difficult topic. Kantor's technique is to go into depth about dozens of characters. We learn about their ancestors, their childhood, their war experience in great detail, which has a lot to do with the size of this hefty tome. Focusing on only a few characters would have been sufficient for me, as a reader. The massive preponderance of "evidence" is overwhelming.

My greatest complaint is the total disregard by Kantor for proper punctuation. He is one of those arrogant authors that refuses to use quotation marks for dialog, and does not use commas to seperate strings of adjectives. Extremely disappointing, and it makes an already difficult novel more difficult to read. There is no excuse, in my humble opinion, for disregarding the rules and making it difficult for the reader.

This is the last of the Pulitzers that I ha decided to read. That's fifty-three that I have digested in one form or another. Please check my Pulitzer Reading project for the details.

Pulitzer Reading Project

I created a new page, linked from the "Reading" page, which contains my comments on the fifty-three Pulitzers I read this year. There are lists of lists, as well as links to every book opinion.

2006 wrap-up, 2007 goals

The good and the bad about my 2006 writing:

The worst: The Web del Sol fiction class I took. A waste of valuable time and money on a class that turned out to be sub-standard academically, run in an un-professional manner, and sophmoric in its critiques.

The best: I won first place overall in the Georgia Writer's Association  monthly contests for the year. $50 and an attaboy.

Highlights:

• The Pulitzer Reading project. I read over fifty Pulitzer prize winning fiction books, both novels and short story collections. Surely some of that reading has affected my writing?


• I wrote a lot of short stories, both for the GWA contests and because I wanted to.


• I finished the first draft of my latest novel, code named "Devil's Walking Stick". The title will change, as will a lot of the words, as I struggle to edit it.


• The Web site has really come together and been an excellent way to keep track of my reading and writing.

2007 goals:

• Take another writing class. I'll go back to the Gotham Writing Workshops, for a professionally run class this time. where I know I will get my moneys worth.


• Continue with the short stories by entering as many of the GWA monthly contests as I can.


• Devote time to getting a short story published. If I spent as much time polishing and submitting the stories as I do writing them I might be able to get something published. It's not as much fun, but it needs to be done.


• Edit the DWS novel.


• Continue the reading project, expanding it to include the National Book Award winners and runners-up. Also branch out and read as many new and noteworthy novels as I can find cheaply.


• Keep track of everything here and on my writing wiki.