Welcome to meryl’s notes blog (this here place you’re lookin’ at) in Plano, Texas. We’re honored to be a stop in Candace Coulombe’s WOW! Women On Writing Blog tour for the Coffee House Fiction Anthology 2010 and The Fifteenth Dame Lisbet Throckmorton Contest. We’re giving away a copy of her book, Second Grace: stories of fresh starts, second chances, and also running away. Read on to see how you can win.

About Candace Leigh Coulombe: Candace Leigh Coulombe is the author of Second Grace: stories of fresh starts, second chances, and also running away and Mercy Seat: a novella of love, loss, redemption, and hagiography. Second Grace won the Compilations/Anthologies category of the 2010 Beach Book Festival and an Honorable Mention in the 2010 San Francisco Book Festival, and an included story entitled “ScentEasy” won the 2009 Environmental Futures Writing Prize.

Candace works in Northern California full-time as a marketing communications specialist and part-time as a writer of short fiction, essays, and poetry. Her work has been recognized by the Sacramento and Elk Grove Public Libraries, NYC Midnight, the American River Review, and PEN Women. Listen to an in-depth interview or read her stories.

The Truth That Allows You to Lie: Using Historical Facts to Enrich Your Fiction by Candace Leigh Coulombe

Gentle readers and writers~

Like many literary women, I feel I was born in the wrong era. It’s through the escape of fiction that I enjoy other times. And, as a writer of flash fiction, I can afford to be capricious. I experience disparate eras, genres, and points of view that would be difficult to commit to, for a reader or writer, in longer forms.

Writing historical fiction isn’t just writing a period piece. You can take a known event or age and craft new characters, or take persons of note and craft new situations. Then, add elements of non-fiction, memoir, or fantasy.

We all need external influences for our work, or we’ll write about the same boy who broke our heart over and over again. My stories have three elements vying for the same little space: practical matters (word count, genre, location, object); inspiration (poem, painting, etc.); and theme. I don’t hold fast to “write what you know,” only to “write what you want to know more about.” So, some of my favorite stories were inspired by news articles. The glimpse of the true story -– the exoticism of a foreign land or time gone by -– makes me want to learn more. Inevitably, in the research, I encounter new ideas that enrich the story. The language should reflect a precise era, location, and social class.

I aim for accuracy, even when the narrative veers toward the fantastical. For example, I was given the task of writing a bus stop horror story. I’d read a news item about German convalescent homes that erected fake bus shelters as a bit of therapy. Around the same time, I’d read accounts of the Lindbergh kidnapping. I pursued a historical fiction-fantasy approach to the perpetrator’s fate in “Buses and Planes.” The characters and details of the Lindbergh affair are true; I’ve just imagined a different fate. There are very small things, some the reader may never know, like the smoke rings one of the characters blows that echo the rings on the real ransom envelope.

For “The Gulf of Aden,” I’d read an article about the precautions some cruise lines were taking when sailing through the eponymous passage, and I wondered what would happen if they didn’t take any. It’s a contemporary story about division of wealth in which the social-climber gets what she thought she wanted and finds it’s not really wonderful at all. But, the story wouldn’t be the same having read up on pirates or Cunard itineraries.

My two best resources are The Complete New Yorker and The New York Times archives. I love having access to a century of news, reviews, and advertising. I wrote “Phoning Arcadia” after reading a “Talk of the Town” column from 1927.

But, for any work, the truth in the details allows you to buy the lie that is the story.

Whether it’s romance, suspense, political satire -– anything, actually — stories aren’t derived from nothing. It’s an interesting obituary, lip print on a shirt or aching piece of music. Then, instead of placing that object in the story, you weave in a thousand details. Lipstick on a collar is almost never from a wife –- a universal story there. But what about laundry marks, collar stays, the faint scent of sizing?

Try to capture a little piece of history in each story. There’s so much beauty in the world. Let your curiosity make your stories replete with truth and beauty and readers will gladly join your adventures.

So, tell me, if you could take any historical event and craft a new ending, what would it be?

Win: For a chance to win a copy of Second Grace: stories of fresh starts, second chances, and also running away., please leave a comment at least 50 words long that answers Candace’s question. You have until 11:59pm on November 1, 2010 to qualify for the drawing. The unbiased and robotic Random.org has the honor of picking the winner.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Meryl Evans

Welcome to meryl’s notes blog (this here place you’re lookin’ at) in Plano, Texas. We’re honored to be a stop in Therese Walsh’s WOW! Women On Writing Blog tour. I first met Therese in Christina Katz‘s first ever #platformchat on Twitter. Since then, I’ve enjoyed getting to know her and learning from her and her Writer Unboxed site. Here’s a bit about Therese Walsh. (Stay tuned in this post if ya wanna win this book!)

About Therese Walsh

Therese Walsh’s debut novel was recently released by Random House (Shaye Areheart imprint). The Last Will of Moira Leahy is about a woman who lost her identical twin about a decade ago, but reconnects with her former life after purchasing an artifact from her past. Through interwoven narratives, we see Maeve Leahy as she was and what led to the tragedy with her sister, Moira. We travel with her in the present day as she unravels the truth about the artifact–who’s following her and leaving her notes — as layers of her past are peeled away and the course of her future is forever altered. Therese is also the co-founder of one of the Writer’s Digest best sites for writers, Writer Unboxed. You can learn more about her and her novel at her website: ThereseWalsh.com.

Developing Your Fiction Platform by Therese Walsh

In today’s world, platform is an important consideration for a debut novelist. Our technology-centered world is a noisy one, with so many things to do, to hear, to see, to read. What will set us apart? How will we gain notice? We’d all like to believe that our work will be enough to garner its due attention and propel us into a contract and then onto the NYT’s bestseller list. And it happens. To some. The rest of us have to work at it.

So how does a fiction writer go about developing a platform, anyway? Is it even possible? Yes, it is, and in several ways. Platform can be built broadly, as in the more widely you’re known, the greater the number of people you can potentially reach. It can be built specifically, through efforts you might make to tap into your core audience. And it can be strengthened subtly — almost unconsciously — as how you present yourself online says something about you and, through you, your writings.

Becoming Widely Known

This, from a recent Washington Post article:

(Many authors) “are actually selling their book long before they sell the book,” says Richard Pine, a literary agent for three decades and co-founder of InkWell Management. These people, he says, are establishing who they are and what they have to say and are building an audience years before they actually have a book on the shelves.

Kathleen Bolton and I started Writer Unboxed — a blog meant to empower other writers with craft posts and through interviews — in January of 2006, which marks the beginning of our online-platform effort. We became better known individually as the blog became more successful, and as we reached out to other writers, and as they mentioned us on their own sites, and as others linked to us, and so on.

You don’t have to use a blog, or rely on one exclusively, to get your name out there. Other avenues to a potential readership involve social networking efforts on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads and the like. The bottom line is that you should do something — and ideally you should do many somethings — to get your name out there. The more avenues you have to becoming known, the better for you in the long haul.

Finding Your People

Though becoming known on a large scale is important to your platform, it’s also a little like taking an ad out on PerezHilton.com: Yes, you’re reaching many, but only a fraction will care enough about what you have to offer to click through and buy your book. Honing in on the people who very likely will care becomes important.

Case in point: The Last Will of Moira Leahy is a book about twins — the story of one woman’s recovery following the loss of her twin, but also the story of this woman and her sister when they were young girls, and how they grew and changed and became separate. I knew that I needed to put forth an effort to become known by the twin community in particular, so I reached out. I sent galleys. I sent emails. I connected with people on Twitter. I waited to see if these people would choose to support my work. Luckily for me, most of them did.

I made a great ally in Shelby at Double Up Books, a bookstore dedicated to all-things twin. Shelby is not only carrying Last Will in her store, she truly believes in it and even tweets about it on occasion. I’ve gladly added her store to the buying options available on my website, and I buzz her as often as I can too. (Buy from Shelby!)

Presenting the Right Face: Yours

What kind of face do you present to the world, and does that face correspond with what you write? One of the best examples I’ve seen of matching a public face with published work is via thriller novelist JA Konrath. JA’s novels (e.g. Cherry Bomb) have been called “brisk and breezy” and laden with “offbeat humor.” JA’s personality is clear when you read his blog, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing — which, by the way, is packed with helpful information. His Facebook posts and tweets are also frequently hilarious. Brisk, breezy, offbeat humor – that’s JA, all right. He is the perfect poster child for his work.

Through online conversations at Writer Unboxed and elsewhere, I hope you’ve sensed my passion for empowering others. You’ve seen my posts on unboxed writing and the importance of polishing your prose. You know I love words and the occasional punny joke. You know I’m detail oriented and that I love a strong visual image. What you know about me sets up an expectation as to what you might find in Last Will — and, though I’m admittedly biased, I’d like to think it won’t disappoint you.

What are you doing to develop your fiction platform?

Write on, all!

Win: To win a copy of the book, please leave a comment at least 50 words long that answers the above question. Or you can write about twins, triplets, multiples. You don’t have to be a multiple. Maybe you had a good friend who was a twin. Or share how you feel about Kate Plus 8. You have until 11:59pm on November 18, 2009 to qualify for the drawing. The unbiased and robotic Random.org has the honor of picking the winner.

TV trivia and history fans who enjoy summer-style reading will quickly devour this story and its references to TV shows: past, present, and fictional. Lehmann introduces us to Daphne Wells, a TV lover who has the perfect job: museum curator at the Museum of Television and Radio.

Daphne meets Charlie, also a TV aficionado, who has written several unsold TV show pilots. As their relationship develops, Charlie works as an English teacher and has the opportunity to buy his grandmother’s house in New Rochelle. He decides to buy the house and propose to Daphne.

After the proposal, Daphne struggles with the thought of living life like Rob and Laura Petrie in the quiet suburbs of New Rochelle, leaving her love of city life in New York behind. The move would shorten Charlie’s commute, but lengthen Daphne’s. Throughout the story, we watch Daphne grapple with decisions regarding the wedding, the move, and her life with stable and “good man” Charlie.

A good novel has several dimensions and in this one, we learn of the special relationship between Daphne and her older sister Billie — a bond created by the death of both of their parents in a plane crash.

Meanwhile, we follow her life at the museum and learn about the themes behind each decade of television. Jonathan Hill, the book’s version of Steven Boccho or David E. Kelley and television producer of the hot and shallow TV show Supermodels, stops by the museum to look at film from a past TV show for inspiration as he’s run out of creative juice.

As Daphne and Jonathan get to know each other, Daphne hopes to link him with her sister, Billie, who is in a relationship with a married man. In reading about the interactions of the characters, Daphne compares her life to TV shows and lets them get in the way of tuning in to Charlie.

Daphne and Charlie are likeable characters who sometimes disappoint the reader with their imperfect human behavior. Most of the book explores the “compromise” relationship between Daphne and Charlie, the bond between sisters Daphne and Billie, and figuring out what will happen with Jonathan Hill.

The last part of the book feels rushed in an attempt create a conflict, resolve it, and work its way to the ending. The book might do better by condensing the interactions between Daphne and Charlie and prolonging the last bit of the book.

The story contains people with professions that only a lucky few can enter; the tie in to TV history makes the story different from your average escapist novel. I appreciated Lehmann’s attention to details that you won’t find in most fiction books — like a character using Spybot to clean the computer. Though it’s a small detail, computer users and TV lovers relate to the little things that enhance the story.

The minor faults don’t affect the reader’s enjoyment of the story, a textbook poolside read that takes only a few hours. I don’t read much fiction, and You Could Do Better satisfied my need to read a fantasy especially since I have an interest in TV history.

Lehmann is also the author of previously reviewed book, The Art of Undressing.

Title: You Could Do Better
Author: Stephanie Lehmann
Publisher: NAL Trade
ISBN: 045121854X
Date: August 2006
Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
Cover Price: USD: $12.95 Amazon: $9.97

If you spend your book reading time on non-fiction like me, here’s an opportunity to read a short fiction that provides a nice summer read and an history lesson. I probably spent about two to three hours reading the book.

See’s story explores the culture and lives of the people living in 19th-century rural China. The book provides a history lesson in the form of a fictional story that centers around two girls from childhood through womanhood.

The richly told tale begins with the tradition of footbinding to keep girl’s feet small therefore ensuring they’re “marriageable.” I knew about the small feet, but not about the horrifying and vividly described process.

After reading the book, I researched the topics covered in the story and discovered the author accurately captured 19th-century China. Readers learn about arranged marriages, different classes (poor, rich, farmer, butcher), friendships, married life, education, the secret writing of Nu Shu and the infighting in the country.

At times, the characters come across as unemotional or mean and it’s true. Sometimes you like and sometimes you don’t like the central characters, but it’s a reflection of those times. Besides, if the main characters were always happy go-lucky and 100% likeable, wouldn’t that be predictable and dull?

The book starts a little slow, but picks up speed after the footbinding. Once it grabbed me, I was eager to finish it. I don’t have many opportunities to read fiction and with this short book, I had the opportunity to quickly enjoy a fictional story while learning more about the Chinese culture.

Title: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Author: Lisa See
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0812968069
Date: June 2005 (Reprint: February 2006)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 288
Cover Price: USD: $13.97 Amazon: $5.58

Time for the first MWTR Blog Tour stop with author Jean Hanff Korelitz who has a new book out: The White Rose. She’s a novelist who lives in Princeton, N.J., with her husband, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon, and their children.

I interviewed Jean Hanff Korelitz who kindly took the time to reply thoroughly and quickly. Jean is always happy to phone in to book groups reading the book. She can be contacted through my agent; just send an e-mail to: sgasst@wma.com and write “Forward to Jean Hanff Korelitz” in the subject line. Here is a book club guide for the book.

How did you get started in writing? Authoring your first book?

I’ve wanted to be a writer since the age of 7, when my 2nd grade teacher
convinced me that I already was one. I wrote poetry through college, and
in fact my first book was a collection of poems (The Properties of Breath, Bloodaxe Books, 1988), but my real wish was to write fiction. I wrote two novels in the 1980s and had the pleasure of watching them get rejected by every publisher on the planet.

I did have agents… three agents, to be exact, but having an agent is sadly no guarantee of getting your work published. When I wrote my third novel, A Jury of Her Peers, which was my first to be published, I changed agents once again and this time had greater success, but the book was a genre book — it was a thriller — and this meant abandoning my earlier idea of myself as a literary novelist.

It’s taken me two more novels to battle my way back from genre fiction. Typically, publishers like you to stay in one genre. Perhaps it’s lucky my thriller wasn’t more successful! If it had been, I’d probably have found it even more difficult to get my more recent books published.

Did you have an agent before publishing your first book? If so, how did you select the person and why did you decide to have one?

My first agent contacted me after reading my poems. My second was a highly respected literary agent I met while working briefly in publishing. My third agent was a young woman I also encountered through my publishing job. Two of these agents I decided to leave, mainly out of frustration at their not being able to sell my work (though I have gone on to do projects with one of them, and frequently refer writers to her.). The other agent dropped me, rather unceremoniously, but also understandably: he was ill, and I’m sure it was all he could do to continue working with the successful authors on his list.

When I decided to write a genre novel, I contacted a woman who was highly successful with commercial fiction, and sent her a letter that described the thriller I was writing. She liked the book but made me revise heavily before sending it out. She also sold my next novel, The Sabbathday River, to a far more literary publisher. Several years ago, she decided to close her business, but very generously found me a wonderful new agent, who sold my most recent novel, The White Rose.

Your book The Sabbathday River was shown on Oprah. How did that happen?

A few years ago, my daughter and I appeared on Oprah for a program about creating close ties with your children. My involvement grew out of a short article I did for O Magazine about something I do on my daughter’s birthday every year. At the end of the program, she kindly mentioned my novel The Sabbathday River. I only wish the book had been one of her book club choices! But alas, it was not.

How was writing a book for kids different from writing an adult novel?

A few years ago, I decided to try writing a children’s novel, and the result was Interference Powder. It was not as easy as I’d hoped, but it was a briefer process— about a year as opposed to the three years it usually takes me to write an adult novel. It was difficult to find a publisher, and I finally sold it to a small children’s publisher, Marshall Cavendish.

The book has just come out in paperback, and I really enjoy visiting schools where it is being read. This is especially pleasant in Princeton, New Jersey, where the novel is set, since the kids love reading about landmarks they recognize.

Adult Contemporary Fiction is probably the hardest area for an author to enter. How did you break into it? With so many fiction stories, how do you weave a story that isn’t like the others?

I actually feel that the secret isn’t necessarily finding a new story to tell, but finding a new way to tell an old story. That’s one reason I’m so fascinated by the ways in which a template text or story can be transformed: Jane Smiley’s use of King Lear in A Thousand Acres, for example, or Charles Frazier’s use of The Odyssey in Cold Mountain are two examples that come to mind.

Perhaps I feel this way because I’m not particularly good at making up stories — never have been — but using a template has enabled me to write my most recent two novels, The Sabbathday River (which makes ample use of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter) and The White Rose (which is a resetting of the Strauss opera, Der Rosenkavalier). Not that Hawthorne or Strauss would be at all amused! (I think Strauss in particular would probably turn in his grave.)

What is your favorite quote?

You’re probably going to think I’m very uninspired in general, because I don’t have a writing or even a general motivational quote. I’ve never really read any “How to Write” books, or if I have, I’ve forgotten them. I do have one quote on my wall, near my desk, from the late writer Simon Wiesenthal from his book The Murderers Among Us: “Slowly I learned that between white and black there were many shades of gray: steel-gray, pearl-gray, dove-gray. And there were many shades of white. The victims were not all innocent either… Every nation has its collaborators. We Jews had them too; we had perhaps fewer than other peoples, but we are not all angels.”

This is actually quite good writing advice in itself. After all, we may be interested in the ultimate struggle between good and evil, but when it comes to characters, purely good and purely evil is not terribly compelling. We need our villains to seem real to us, and our best heroes are always human and complex. And if we always insisted on Dudley Do-Right, we wouldn’t have Jack Bauer on 24, and life would be a whole lot less interesting.

How do fit in writing with all the other things you have to do?

I’ve been extremely fortunate, because I’ve never had to work in my writing around a full time job. Writing is my job, and while I could make a distinction between the magazine articles I write for a faster paycheck and the fiction which generates income only every five years or so, I’m certain I would have been far less productive if I’d had to hold down a full time job these past twenty years or so. Hats off to anyone who can do it!

I usually write during the day when my kids are at school, but I’m often doing about five other things at the same time. On the plus side, I tend to run out of steam after four or five hours, even when the writing is going really well, so I probably couldn’t use any more time even if I had it.

To someone who is really trying to squeeze in time to write, I’d say two things. First, keep something to write on with you at all times — a laptop if you have one, or a pad if you don’t. Sitting in a doctor’s office, which would you rather do: read a four year old magazine or spend some quality time with your own imagination? Second, don’t beat yourself up about the time you don’t have. There are plenty of writers who, for one reason or another, have plenty of time to write but don’t actually produce very much writing. You are not necessarily at a disadvantage for having less available time. Use the time you have and try to use it well.

What are your top five book recommendations and why?

Like almost every reader I know, I carry around a personal pantheon of books I adore. My list (be forewarned) is a little more eclectic than most:

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice. The mother lode. Also: the greatest chick lit novel ever written. Every time you read it you find yourself wondering whether Elizabeth and Darcy will manage to get together.

Chaim Potok, My Name Is Asher Lev. One of the most powerful novels about being an artist I’ve ever read.

Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping. A book so heartbreakingly beautiful I’ve never been able to reread it.

Fredrick Forsythe, The Odessa File. I warned you the list was eclectic. I absolutely love this novel, not only for the intense suspense and superb thriller structure, but for — yes, actually! — the writing.

Nevil Shute, A Town Like Allice. I recently reread this wonderful book and it was even better than the first time. It’s noteworthy that this classic novel of Australian life does not even mention the word Australia for the first 70 pages. (Hadn’t he ever taken a writing course and learned how to do things properly? What was he thinking!) You can’t help but admire how the novel skips from genre to genre — who would publish it today? Publishers wouldn’t know what to do with it!

Advice for aspiring authors

Fortunately for us, writing is something you can succeed at later in life. Unlike figure skating or ballet, where you’re basically washed up by your mid-twenties, you can write a spectacular book in your dotage — look at Frank McCourt! — so the dream, and, more importantly, the potential, never fades. In fact, you could argue that we’re more capable of writing an interesting book with every year we stay alive.

My advice to aspiring writers is to read voraciously, try to think critically about what you love in the books you love, and what you don’t love in the books you hurl against the wall. When you’re ready, write the book you most want to read, because it’s highly likely that the rest of us want to read it, too.

Thank you, Jean!

The story set in New York City begins as conservative twenty-something Ginger Levine moves back in with her uninhibited former exotic dancer mother, Coco. Though Coco is 43, Ginger finds men including her own boyfriend ogling over her mother. While Coco wears anything and everything that appears daring, sexy, and outrageous, Ginger goes to the opposite extreme, dressing plain and not sexy, and she doesn’t like to reveal herself even to her boyfriend.

Ginger begins a new venture as she starts cooking school partly paid for by her uninvolved and unemotional father. Of course, she meets Tom in class and can’t stop thinking about him, but the class ingénue has already claimed him. To make things more difficult for Ginger, the instructor verbally abuses her making her feel like a lousy student.

Coco no longer dances as she’s old by dancer standards. Despite her footloose and fancy-free attitude, she actually prefers the old style of exotic dancing before lap-dancing came along. She holds classes covering how to strip, dance, seduce, and generally feel good about being a woman. Ginger helps sell related wares at the end of class.

Her father’s wife passes away and he asks Ginger to help with her things. She sees it as an opportunity to get to know her father and her 13-year-old step-sister in spite of her mother’s warning not to do it. She learns a few things about her father and his other family during the process.

I relate to Ginger. I don’t want to be a chef, but I understand how hard it is to try to dress and feel sexy when it’s not your style. Women like Ginger hide their bodies and constantly doubt their looks, talents, or both. The characters in the story are diverse enough that a reader will connect to at least one of them.

Meanwhile, since Tom is dating another woman, Ginger gets to know a talented chef. This scenario ensures you don’t figure out who she ends up with, if anyone. So it’s not your typical, predictable chick lit. The only thing missing from the wonderful book is closure on the dead step-mother’s journal. Lehmann includes humor, conflict, and warm-hearted moments in her easy-to-read and pleasurable story. This is my first “summer” fiction and gets me off to a great start with my summer reading.

Title: The Art of Undressing
Author: Stephanie Lehmann
Publisher: NAL Trade
ISBN: 0451214110
Date: March 2005
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Cover Price: USD: $12.95 Amazon: $5.18

This is what happens after happily ever after. Kentucky Roses picks up where Dekker Malone’s first book, Nashville Gold, ended. Happily ever after isn’t quite the case when we re-enter the world of cowboys, jockeys, Payne, Skeeter, and Co. In the book, you meet the country music star, an achin’ jockey, a tired cowboy, and a nasty desperado who badly wants revenge.

Take a ride back into the beautiful Texas Hill country, experience the excitement of the Churchill Downs, and take quick stopovers in other cities. Malone, through his characters’ eyes, shows the reader why each one loves what they love and how they’re motivated by that love.

Sequels have the habit of starting a book by repeating details from the original to get people up to speed. Yes, the book helps jog the memory if you haven’t read the first in a long time, but Malone does it subtly throughout the book instead of wasting the first couple of chapters recapping past adventures.

Payne and his buddy, Skeeter, have gone home to Texas to start their own stable for breeding and racing thoroughbreds. Despite a few troubles, the hard work pays off in the form of two contenders for the Kentucky Derby. What’s a cowboy book without the baddie? Red Phillips won’t let anything get in the way of his tracking down those who put him in jail. If you think Red is bad, wait until he encounters a P.I. who turns Red’s hatred into absolute vehemence. Hell hath no fury like a Red scorned.

Readers who can’t help but predict what will happen will be knocked for a mini-loop. Those predictions are prone to be off the mark. It was gratifying to see the story progress with unexpected curves. Just when you think it’s safe or to relax, a twist comes along to throw you off the racetrack.

Readers who encounter Kentucky Roses first can follow the story as if there were no other book. Those who enjoyed Nashville Gold are guaranteed to ride off into the pretty sunset again with the likable and not-so likeable characters. Once more, Malone has written an enjoyable and engrossing story that moves smoothly as silk.

Title: Kentucky Roses
Author: Dekker Malone
Publisher: Booklocker.com
ISBN: 159113160X
Date: June 2002
Format: Paperback
Pages: 312
Cover Price: USD: $17.95 Amazon: $17.95

Country music, horse racing, and the beautiful Texas hill country set the scene of Dekker Malone’s Nashville Gold. A surprised Payne McCarty hears country music’s hottest singer, Rusti King, singing the song he wrote on the radio. Payne and his horse jockey best friend, Skeeter, head to Nashville to the offices of Sure-Star Publishing to find out why they stole Payne’s song. Before he can get an answer from unprincipled publisher Roger Durwood, Durwood has Payne arrested and thrown into county jail, where he spends ten miserable days for assault.

Undeterred, Payne returns home to New Braunfels, Texas, where he writes songs and plays with the local band Nova-Scotia at Heidi’s Roadhaus owned by Casey, a strong, colorful woman. Since his music isn’t exactly lucrative, Payne supplements his income by working as a carpenter for Jerry. Ragina, Jerry’s daughter, who has known Payne for years, is crazy for Payne.

Other happenings to keep the story moving include a flood pulsing through the Texas town washing Payne’s Nashville troubles out of his mind. But when the band eventually finds itself invited to play at Willie Nelson’s 4th of July picnic and Payne meets the singer behind his song.

Meanwhile, Skeeter has his own problems dealing with Red Phillips, the crooked horseracing bookie who fixes the races and fuels the jockeys with drugs to keep them in racing form. Red is a powerhouse not to be crossed and even has the local law working with him at the races. With a character like Red, there’s bound to be a murder in the story to keep things hopping.

Dekker Malone has given the characters distinctive personalities that provide the book with its charm. Those who aren’t fans of country music and Texas cowboys should not write off the book. As a Texan, but no fan of country music, I appreciate laughing with the characters and was eager to know what happens next. We city types are constantly trying to prove we’re not all “cowboys” and “country,” but at least readers can get an inside look at the picturesque Texas country. Finishing the book leaves the reader wanting more of these likeable folks and happy to know that Malone has a second novel planned called Kentucky Roses. The book receives an old-fashioned Texas yee-haw to Dekker Malone for striking gold with his first book.

Title: Nashville Gold
Author: Dekker Malone
Publisher: Booklocker.com
ISBN: 1931391386
Date: September 2001
Format: Paperback
Pages: 281
Cover Price: USD: $15.95 Amazon: $15.95

This review covers two children’s books based on the movie of the same name: Kicking & Screaming: The Comeback Kids and Kicking & Screaming: My Dad, the Coach. The books target kids ages four through eight, use color photos from the movie and readable text for emerging readers.

In Kicking & Screaming: The Comeback Kids, the Tigers soccer team loses every game and have few skills to help them win. To make things worse, the dad who becomes coach knows little about the sport. Dad gets lucky because famous football coach, Mike Ditka, lives next door and agrees to help coach the team. After giving motivational speeches and putting the team through drills, the Tigers still lose games.

Ditka has an idea. He introduces the coach Dad to two kids who work in their uncle’s butcher shop. Soon enough, the team learns the new kids play well and begins winning games. The coaches tell the boys to get the ball to the two kids and let them take care of the rest.

Kicking & Screaming: My Dad, the Coach begins with Sam’s grandfather trading him from the first place Gladiators soccer team to the worst team in the league, the Tigers. Team doesn’t have a coach. So Sam’s dad steps into the coaching role and recruits two talented players who lead the team to its first win. Soon, Dad becomes all about winning just like his father, Sam’s grandfather.

The story is similar to The Comeback Kids except it focuses on Dad’s coaching and his growing desire to win while sacrificing teamwork. The Comeback Kids highlights the team and the road they take to start winning games.

The books, like the movie, won’t be classic. They’re somewhat awkward as the author has the challenge of translating the movie into books for easy readers. They teach about competition, good sportsmanship and teamwork. The two books are much alike, so one or the other would be enough if you want to invest in an average children’s book.

Though Meryl was a competitive athlete while growing up, as a parent, she’s appalled by what’s happening in kids’ sports and how parents have become obsessed with their children excelling. Hey, remember, “Fun?”

Title: Kicking and Screaming: My Dad the Coach
Title: Kicking and Screaming: The Comeback Kids
Author: Catherine Hapka
Publisher: Harper Kids Entertainmnet
ISBN: 0060772557 (My Dad, the Coach)
ISBN: 0060772549 (The Comeback Kids)
Date: April 2005
Format: Paperback
Pages: 32
Recommended ages: 4 – 8
Price: Cover: USD$3.99 Amazon: $3.99 (Dad)
Price: Cover: USD$3.99 Amazon: $3.99 (Comeback Kids)

This was a most unusual book telling the story of a family of four on a quest for God, order, or something that makes sense. Eliza, the nine-year-old daughter is looking to achieve something extraordinary to catch her parents’ attention. Aaron, the nerdy, teen son is looking to get closer to God. Miriam, the mother is distant and attempts to follow her heart’s desire in the collection of stolen objects. As the father who dotes on his son, Saul is the glue that holds the family together despite his own quirks.

The reader is taken on a journey with the Naumann family learning about each member’s psychological and spiritual urges. Expect a few surprises while uncovering the thought process behind the characters. The first half of the story moves slowly, and then picks up speed in the latter half.

Eliza finally stands out by winning the spelling bee and working her way to the National Bee in Washington, DC. Despite not supporting her at first, Saul becomes involved in her quest for the National Bee championship and discovery of Jewish mysticism. In the process of helping her, he abandons his son. In turn, Aaron begins studying Eastern religions to find a way to recapture the closeness he felt with God when he was a bar mitzvah.

As interesting it is to read about Abraham Abulafia’s writings that outline a formula for achieving high order thinking, it’s unbelievable that a now ten-year-old would work toward this thinking as she learns spelling words under her father’s tutelage. This aspect of the book gets too heavy and difficult to believe.

A lawyer and kleptomaniac, Miriam is looking to find the perfect world or as she calls it, “perfectimundo.” Having tragically lost her parents while in college, something about her indicates she has never been closed to anyone. Perhaps, when she first meets Saul, she experiences closeness. Instead, she displays a greater love for her stolen objects than her family. It’s not clear what is driving Miriam’s actions, psychological or otherwise.

In the end, the book has taken us on an unrealistic and highly spiritual journey with no real closure. It was an unusual and different kind of story that had even greater potential than was realized. It’s not to say that the book should have had a predictable plot or a “feel good” ending. Goldberg has written an unpredictable story with plenty of surprises. Expect plenty of questions and no absolute answers.

VITAL STATISTICS
Title: Bee Season
Author: Myla Goldberg
Publisher: Knopf
Publication Date: 2001
ISBN: 0385498802
Format: Paperback
Pages: 288
Price: US$13