Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Escaping Barcelona misses

The Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities just announced this year's winners of the Dactyl Award for Literary Fiction. http://dactylfoundation.org/?p=3602 This years winners are  The Double Life of Alfred Buber by David Schmahmann, published in 2011 by The Permanent Press.  The second award goes to Cocoa Almond Darling by Jeffra Hays, self-published in 2011 on Kindle.

My novel, Escaping Barcelona, was not only one of the nominees, but it made it all the way to the finals. While it did not receive the award, it felt great to learn that my novel was one of three finalists.

I would like to congratulate the winners, and express my heartfelt thanks to all the readers who support contemporary literary fiction.


Thursday, December 12, 2013

The Silence Before Dawn

It's been a few years since I pulled my poetry collection, The Silence Before Dawn, out of print.

Recently, however, several readers approached me to express their interest in the forgotten book. Some asked me whether it was still available, while others were looking for an ebook edition of the work.

I would lie if I didn't admit that I'm rather pleased by this renewed interest in my poems. Poetry has always been a passion of mine, and although fiction became my main focus as the years went by, poetry still holds a special place in my heart.

While the print edition is no longer available, last night I dusted off the old files, and plan to take a fresh look at the poems. I may add a few more to the mix and release a new, updated edition within the next few months.

On the subject of ebook, however, I've decided not to release the poems in an ebook format. After some rather complicated reading, it appears that poetry formatting for ereaders is neither easy nor desirable. Various ereaders display the text differently and, since the intended line breaks, indents, and punctuation are essential in a poem, this is not something I'm willing to undertake. 

I wanted to acknowledge your comments, and express my gratitude for your interest in my work.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Cosmicomics - a review

CosmicomicsCosmicomics by Italo Calvino
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cosmicomics...my third Calvino. And there I was, the book freshly in my hand, thinking that I had a vague idea of what journey I was about to embark upon. I was wrong.

Borges messed with my mind. Calvino ripped it apart, fucked with it, and gave it back to me. So now, the final page turned and the cover slammed shut, here I am, contemplating what was it that I just finished reading. I know now not to wait too long - Calvino's stories have the tendency to sink deeper, to become more intriguing and less transparent as time progresses.

Cosmicomics defies classification. Part fiction, part science, part scientific theory, and part allegoric fables. He puts humanity in events before humans, emotions in a world without minds. The interactions between characters are phantasmagoric, as are the characters themselves, yet I can relate to all of them. In a way, the stories are profoundly human in their way of touching upon love - an unexplainable phenomenon given the settings.
Where Calvino shines is in the use of language. I can only imagine how beautiful this book must be in Italian, and I almost feel sorry for William Weaver for having to translate this (by the way, I find Mr. Weaver's translations of Calvino most excellent in terms of readability). Even in the mundane, he paints delightful images that spark imagination and bring strange worlds right in front of readers' eyes. The bits of science sprinkled within the text only add to this, rather than taking away from the text.

There were a couple of stories that had me laughing, especially The Light-Years and The Form of Space. Calvino masterfully played with real scientific facts and made them relatable by poking fun at mankind. What was truly amazing about this collection is that, rather than concentrating on facts (as Borges did), Calvino concentrated on characters and their interaction. This, especially, made the stories entertaining and universal.

Sorry for the short review, but I feel at a loss for words.

Cosmicomics is, undoubtedly, the most creative piece of writing I have encountered in my literary explorations. Highly recommended.



View all my reviews

Monday, December 9, 2013

Interview with Karen

My guest today is Karen, currently the " #1 Best Reviewer " on Goodreads.

About:

I am Karen - I have been on Goodreads since 2007. I work for nook right now, making booklists, but before that, I ran the fiction department at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square for about 13 years. I was an English major in undergrad, and I got my masters in library science, and I read and review like a machine. I can be found here, if I need to be found:

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/45618-karen

Now I will answer questions


Do you have specific genres that you review, and what is your favorite one?

Not really. My personal tastes are all over the place, but since I have a background/training in readers' advisory, I think it is important for me to know a little bit about all genres, so I will frequently read outside of my comfort zone. I am in a romance reading group here on Goodreads, because it is not a genre I know much about, so it gives me exposure to books I would ordinarily not pick up. But if you are asking me what is my favorite genre to review, well - that's easy. I discovered monsterotica a couple of years ago, and while it is frequently painful/hilarious to read, it is SO much fun to review. The breadth of material out there is staggering, and I love bringing it into the light of Goodreads. You're welcome, Goodreads!

On average, how many books do you review each month?

Well, before this particular month, when I have become too busy to do much of anything, I was writing a review every single day. It was part of my routine. A routine I hope to get back into, once holiday fever dies down a bit.

Do you accept unsolicited review requests, or do you only review books you select yourself?

I do, when I have the time. I get a lot of review requests on Goodreads, every single day. And with many of them I can tell that I am not the right reader for the book, so I will usually direct them to the readers' advisory group I have on Goodreads, where we have a thread for authors to promote their work, and members who are interested can contact the author for review copies or whatnot. But between the arcs I get at work, and Netgalley, and friends who are authors or publishers wanting me to read their books, my time is frequently not my own. However, right now I am reading a book that was a review request, so it definitely happens.

Considering the recent surge of self-published books on the market, what is your experience with self-published titles?

I have read some great self-pub/small pub books. I have also read some terrible ones. I do think it is exciting that it is now an option for authors - to get their stuff out there without all the hoops of traditional publishing. Although I would like to publicly suggest that before excitedly publishing your work, to just run it by an impartial reader. There are plenty of college kids freelance copyediting for beer money, and I think readers are more likely to take a self-published author seriously if the glaring grammatical errors and typos are cleaned up a bit, and your mom or husband is not likely to give you as honest a reaction as someone who doesn't know you. College kids work for cheap, and it will really make a difference.

As a reviewer, you have to state your honest opinions. Do you publish all reviews regardless of the rating?

I do, but because of my readers' advisory training, I try to cushion my blows a little, because I am well aware that even though the book might not have worked for me, there is someone for whom it will be the best book ever. So I try to be as objective and open-minded as possible, and try to adjust my review to address those people, although there have been times when a book has made me so angry that I had to let out my honesty, and I only felt a little guilty about it.

Is there any particular book or author that set the benchmark for you in a specific genre?

Good question. This doesn't really count as a genre, but I was really snooty about adults who read YA fiction for a really long time. This was all just reactionary jerkiness over the popularity of Harry Potter and Twilight, while authors I loved weren't being read at all, and it made me crazy. And I was really stubborn about it. And then I had to take a YA readers' advisory class for library school, and I started to see that in the contemporary YA market, there is a lot of really good stuff out there - sophisticated, well-written stuff that is completely unlike anything that was marketed for teens when I was young. And while this wasn't part of that class, when I read On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, I was blown away. It was a real eye-opener for me. And now I read plenty of YA, even completely silly stuff that is just fun instant gratification leisure reading. But I still haven't read any Harry Potter. Old habits die hard and all.

What was the catalyst for you to become a reviewer, and what keeps you going?

When I first joined Goodreads, I was totally inexperienced with social media. I am not on facebook, and I didn't understand the concept of social media at all. Goodreads was just a place to record the books I had read, for my own purposes. It was fun to shelve my books and it was just goofy booknerdy times. Then I started writing reviews just as a way to have conversations with my real-world friends. They were terrible - just in-jokes and short little nothings. But then, strangers started commenting on them. And then my bestie Greg got on the top reviewers list one time, and I was like - I want that!! So I started writing reviews that were more involved, because I get a little competitive with Greg sometimes. And then once I started really getting into the readers' advisory thing, I realized how helpful reader-response reviews could be for people, and I started taking it more seriously, and it became something of a mania and a compulsion. And here we are.

In your opinion, do you find the new titles original and creatively executed, or do you see more of a repeat of the same (think Hollywood's surge in remakes)?

I'm not sure I understand the question. I don't think there has been any real change in the ratio of creative-to-derivative titles in the publishing world. And maybe that is just because my tastes are all over the place, so I don't notice it as much, but there are always going to be mass market bestseller page-turners which are usually going to be fairly formulaic, and there are always going to be challenging and experimental books because there is a market for both of them. I think there is a lot more genre-blending going on now than ever before, with crossover genres like paranormal romance and urban fantasy kind of melding into something that appeals to both romance and fantasy readers, and I think that the burgeoning new adult market is blurring the boundary between YA and adult romance, but I think that while there are plenty of books out there that are appealing to readers precisely because they seem familiar and comforting in their sameness, there are still plenty of authors pushing the envelope for readers who are looking for the next thing.

What is the one review you are the most proud of, and why?

Oh, dear. I genuinely do not know. Probably not one of my popular ones. I like the ones that are fun more than the ones that are truly useful, because they remind me of the time when Goodreads was still very small to me, and I was just reviewing for a handful of people. I enjoy this one still:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/646926378

But I have far more useful reviews. I just can't really isolate which is the most shining example of my reviewing mastery, so let's just go with that one. Because it is fun. And I like having fun with reviews.

I would like to thank Karen for answering my questions. If you would like to learn more about her reviews, visit her profile here: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/45618-karen


Thursday, December 5, 2013

Revision - Coffee, Cigarettes, and Murderous Thoughts

Recently, I became aware of a couple of typos in the current edition of my short story collection, Coffee, Cigarettes, and Murderous Thoughts.

The typos have been fixed, and I'm currently working on uploading the corrected edition. If you are a reader who either purchased the book or downloaded it when it was offered for free, I would like to replace your copy with the corrected version.

While the typos are minimal in terms of their impact on the text, I want to stand behind my product. If you would like your copy replaced (either print or ebook), please leave a comment here or email me at: EMAIL with your preferred format, and either a proof of purchase or a picture of the book, and I'll get you a replacement copy at no cost to you. To make it up to you, I'd also like to offer you any of my other titles of your choice as an ebook.

Please accept my sincere apologies for this inconvenience.



 

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Interview with Gregor Xane

My guest today is author Gregor Xane. I met Gregor on Goodreads, where he actively reviews and participates in discussions.


About:

Gregor Xane has been reviewing books on Goodreads since March, 2009. He's posted 216 reviews so far (and ratings for well over 500 books). He's also the author of the horror novella Six Dead Spots. You can read his reviews here:

Goodreads Profile: https://www.goodreads.com/GregorXane
Blog: https://gregorxane.blogspot.com


Do you have specific genres that you review, and what is your favorite one?

I review mainly science fiction, fantasy and horror titles. I especially like books that combine elements from all three of these genres. But I'll review anything I read. I don't only read SF/F/H.

On average, how many books do you review each month?

I post around three reviews a month. I'm not a fast reader.

Do you accept unsolicited review requests, or do you only review books you select yourself?

No. But it's not like anyone's asking, either. If I did receive requests to review books, I'd likely turn down 99% of them. I'm very selective and want to read what I want to read when I want to read it. I don't want reading to feel like homework.

Considering the recent surge of self-published books on the market, what is your experience with self-published titles?

I've had good experiences with self-published titles. Like with any book, no matter how it's published, I do my research before I buy. So, I really don't have any horror stories to tell about woefully unprofessional self-published books. I think self-publishing is good for works that a trade publisher wouldn't touch. Ade Grant's The Mariner, is a good example of this. It's a well-executed dark fantasy novel, but the content is very extreme and the narrative is pretty unconventional. I likely would never have had a chance to read it if the author hadn't chosen to publish it himself.

As a reviewer, you have to state your honest opinions. Do you publish all reviews regardless of the rating?
Yes.

Is there any particular book or author that set the benchmark for you in a specific genre?

Clive Barker and Joe R. Lansdale for horror, China MiƩville and Jeffery Ford for fantasy, Philip K. Dick for science fiction, and Victor LaValle and Haruki Murakami for literary fiction.

What was the catalyst for you to become a reviewer, and what keeps you going?

A number of years back, I decided to start keeping track of what I was reading. Goodreads was easy to use. I keep writing reviews because I like books, and I like promoting them. Plus, since I don't like to write posts on my blog about my personal life, I can use my reviews as content.

In your opinion, do you find the new titles original and creatively executed, or do you see more of a repeat of the same (think Hollywood's surge in remakes)?

I don't have a problem with fiction that some might call formulaic. I don't read much of it. I think it serves its purpose as literary comfort food. Sometimes you just want to know exactly what you're getting. Is the market over saturated with certain kinds of books? Sure. Zombies are everywhere.

Out of all the books you've read, are there any particular books or characters that stayed on your mind?

Characters: Charlie Manx and Bing from Joe Hill's NOS4A2, Bunny from Donna Tartt's The Secret History, Jim from Jeffrey Ford's The Shadow Year, Anthony from Victor LaValle's The Ecstatic.

Books: The Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton (Horror), Last Days by Brian Evenson (Horror), Imajica by Clive Barker (Fantasy), Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente (Fantasy), The Silent Land by Graham Joyce (Fantasy), The Scar by China MiƩville (Fantasy), The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson & Robert Shea (SF), We Can Build You by Philip K. Dick (SF), Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith (SF), 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (Literary), Flicker by Theodore Roszak (Mystery/Suspense)

What is the one review you are the most proud of, and why?

I don't know. People seem to like my reviews of Stephen King's Doctor Sleep and John McNee's Grudge Punk. I think they both do a good job of letting people know exactly what they'll be getting into, should they decide to pick them up.

Doctor Sleep: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Grudge Punk: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I would like to thank Gregor for taking the time to answer my questions. If you would like to learn more about Gregor, please visit either his Goodreads profile or his blog:

https://www.goodreads.com/GregorXane 
 https://gregorxane.blogspot.com/