I believe there are many, different reasons to read and some books prove worthwhile for unexpected reasons. Sometimes I read for specific information. Sometimes I read to share the experience of people like myself. On the other hand, sometimes I read specifically for the experiences and perspectives of people who are very different from me. And occasionally I read just because someone I know has something to share.
Initially, Aram Calhoun’s recently released novel, The Child and The Fury, got my attention for the last reason, but the novel is an interesting experiment along several lines.
Calhoun begins his novel by introducing a series of characters, each the focus of a chapter. These vignettes are often charming in a classic, straightforward way. Together they introduce two contemporary American families, one black and one white, loosely connected by an interracial marriage.
Ultimately he also introduces villains worthy of a melodrama.
Then he pulls all the threads together in a narrative cable clamp, creating an interesting story structure.
Calhoun plays with elements of science fiction as he introduces a “Black Light Gun” believed capable of singling out victims based on race. He reprises a piece of bleak ethnic history, the early 20th century fraud of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. And he experiments with an unexpected, entertaining proscenium drop late in the novel when he allows two characters to discuss some of the author’s storytelling decisions.
In this cross between a fable and a morality play, Calhoun also experiments with graphic treatment, using unusual spacing, underlining and italics to achieve various effects.
While not suggesting this novel belongs at the top of your reading list, I think readers who write will enjoy spending a few hours exploring the experiments of Aram Calhoun in The Child and The Fury.

ISBN 978-1-60264-410-6
Review by Janet Hale Tabin http://janetsweblog.blogspot.com/

Dick Davidson Interviews Marshall J. Cook, Part 2

Q: Given the violent world we live in, what should a mystery writer do to keep the reader's attention when he/she sees murders every day on the news, and the writer is creating a whole novel about "only" one or two murders?
A: You can't outdo life for gore, violence, and inhumanity. I don't even try; that's one reason why I write so-called cozy mysteries. No matter what you write, though, I think you earn and keep the reader's attention by creating credible characters and giving the reader a reason to care about them. Shockingly, some of my favorite [mystery] novels don't have any murders at all!!!!
Q: When I write a novel, I try to add significance by framing it around events that might have "national news impact" and bring in the historical background behind what is happening now. This is my style, and it gives me confidence that the reader will learn something from my novel. What do you think about the importance of style and voice to an author?
A: I think they're important, and I'd add "attitude" and "way of looking at the world" to the list. That said, I think the writer should absolutely forget all about such things and just try to tell a story as truly and sincerely as he or she can. Your style and voice will emerge naturally out of who you are, your experiences, your passions, your convictions.
Q: Catherine Wallace has said that there are many more reasons to write than there are to publish. Given this point of view and the hundreds of thousands of books that are published each year in the U.S. alone, would you ever suggest to your students that they write novels or nonfiction and never even try to publish them?
A: My job is to encourage, nurture, and help them do what they want to do. I do stress, though, that the act of writing itself, for oneself, is inherently valuable and needs no further justification, including publication. Writing is communication, sure, but it's also therapy, self-discovery, exploration, mastery of skills and forms -- all very good things.
Q: I've always been fascinated by authors like Isaac Asimov, J. R. R. Tolkien, and J. K. Rowling, who created their own worlds. Then they determined the natural laws and relationships that controlled those worlds. Have you ever thought about creating your own version of reality in a book? Would you like to play God in that sense?
A: I've never felt called to write science fiction, in that sense, but I think every fiction writer creates his/her own version of reality, a whole world. You are in that sense the God of your own little universe.
Q: It has to be very frustrating to authors to see that anyone with a bit of celebrity or notoriety can get bigger contracts and sell more books than most professional writers. What do you think about "star power" in publishing, and what do you think about the quality of most celebrity books?
A: Two Different questions.
Celebrity "books": Most of them aren't books at all. They're a little scrap of the celebrity, like a signed picture, something of that person that we can have for our very own. In terms of the quality of the book: Aw, you know they generally aren't very good. You don't need me to say so. But the 'star power' writers -- Stephen King, Danielle Steele, Patterson, Clancy, all the rest -- I say more power to them, and thank God for them. If we didn't have superstar fiction writers, only the courageous small press publishers would publish any fiction at all. And the stars get folks reading novels, which they might not otherwise do at all. And finally -- some of those 'stars' write really good stuff. Lonesome Dove was a blockbuster; it's also a great American novel.
Q: You pointed out earlier that in the U.S. only about ten percent of the books that are published each year are fiction. With a nonfiction book, it is fairly easy to determine your (somewhat specialized) market and your platform for promoting it. I know people who have written novels that have appeal to a specific geographic or historical interest market. How do you feel about writing a novel to suit a marketing plan?
A: GOOD LUCK.
Q: What do you think about writing contests? Do they work better when everyone writes to meet a specific assignment, or are they best for assessing the value of already-published works?
A: That's not really an either/or, is it? They certainly both have value. (I think the ones with a specific assignment are more interesting and fun.) I've never been much for entering contests. (For me the 'contest' is "Do you want to publish this?") But I think they're great if they encourage writers.
Q: I know that you teach some writing courses online. Do you think that writers get more out of a short in-person course or a longer self-study online course?
A: Depends on the learner and the learning style, I'm sure. I love classroom/face-to-face teaching and had my doubts initially about online teaching. I've been amazed at how wonderful it is. You really can teach writing this way, and you develop relationships with your students that are in many ways deeper and more authentic than face-to-face ones. It's great!
Q: I think that the best way to learn how to write is to write. @@@Amen, Brother!@@@ While you are in the process, and when you are revising, you can apply skills and information you have picked up along the way. As an educator, do you think there are skills that should be honed before one tackles creative writing? Should a novice writer feel self-conscious about writing down his or her thoughts?
A: Should you learn your scales first and jump right in and try to play a song, right? I'm definitely of the second school of thought. Get in there and tell stories. You start figuring out right away what you don't know and what you need to know. It's organic.
Q: I was fortunate to have a great Creative Writing teacher back in high school. He said that the secret to any written work could be found in two words: unity and coherence. (HMMM. Nobody told William Faulkner, I guess.) Do you have any similar succinct keys that are favorites?
A: They aren't similar, but over 40+ years of teaching, I've got it honed down to seven words:
Pay attention.
Try stuff.
Don't give up.

According to the jacket notes on her newest collection, Alice Munro contemplated retiring with the 2006 publication of View of Castle Rock. Then 75 years old with a lifetime of accomplishment and well-earned recognition, she could hardly be faulted for taking her leisure. But for both fans of the writer herself and students of narrative craft, Munro's alternate decision brings Too Much Happiness.
Having built her reputation in short fiction, mostly set in the Canadian twentieth century, Munro took a significant departure in her 2006 collection: introducing elements of genealogy and memoir into her storytelling, she offered narratives that were almost but not quite biographical and autobiographical, several set outside Canada and in earlier times. The critical response was generally but not uniformly positive; some reviewers clearly judged these works below Munro’s usual standards.
With Too Much Happiness, Munro moves her work in two contrasting directions. The title story is actually a novella. Set in Europe primarily in 1891, it recounts history – the life of mathematician and novelist Sophia Kovalevsky. But Munro employs the language, devices and style of fiction or narrative to engage the reader well beyond any routine recitation of facts. The story begins on New Year’s Day with two lovers strolling in a graveyard, reflecting on a relevant superstition. The death of one or the other of this peripatetic pair is thus foreshadowed, leading the reader to seek the ‘who’ and the ‘how.’
The other nine stories comprising the collection return to the familiar territory of Munro’s earlier stories. With her still startling skill, she takes us through ranging tales of wondrous coincidences, troubling fears and impulses, love and shame.
Make time for Too Much Happiness!
ISBN 978-0-7710-6529-3
Reviewed by Janet Hale Tabin,
Blog: Tiddlywinks and Pick-up Sticks

Dick Davidson Interviews Marshall J. Cook, Part 1

Interview conducted by Dick Davidson, OCWW and www.davidsonbooks.com.

1. Q: In your many years of teaching at University of Wisconsin, Madison, you have influenced many fledgling writers. Have you seen variations and trends over time suggesting differences in the kinds of people who write and their levels of proficiency?

A: More and more people are writing—and publishing—fiction now, which I of course think is wonderful. Proficiency is and always has been all over the place, but pretty much every student I interact with is scared and doesn’t think he/she is any good at it.

2. Q: The last figures I saw showed you as the author of 21 nonfiction books and 6 novels. I believe that your mystery series contains your most recent works. You were once quoted as saying, “I love writing. Fiction, nonfiction, grocery lists, doesn’t matter.” Do you currently consider yourself more of a novelist, and do you plan on more mystery novels in the future?

A: You’re missing the most recent, Walking Wounded: A Wartime Love Story, my seventh published novel. (And by the way, I never stop being amazed and thrilled every time a new book comes out.) I’m definitely focused on the novel now; it was always my first love. I’m hoping for a fifth book in the Monona Quinn Mystery Series, and I have a couple of other things rattling around inside.

3. Q: I have read that Murder Over Easy was based on the real-life murder of a diner owner. Do you recommend basing a mystery novel on an actual event, or do you think authors do better when they use their imaginations without being restrained by headlines? (One television series deliberately characterizes its plots as being “ripped from the headlines”.)

A: We do better when we aren’t restrained by anything in terms of material to write about. The first two novels in the Monona series were based on real events. Three and four are not. All four are total works of fiction, meaning I made the stuff up.

4. Q: You once recommended that a query letter sent to an agent or publisher should pitch a single novel except for the situation where you are writing a series. How would you handle the situation where you are pitching the second novel in a series to a different publisher than the one who issued the first volume?

A: Same process, but you of course mention the existence of the first book (which should help rather than hurt your chances with the second).

5. Q: What do you think about some of the new technical trends in publishing? Will economic trends, better editing, and quantities of titles guaranty eventual parity of POD books with traditionally published titles? Will the numbers game of E-book publishing make it very difficult for any one title to stand out?

A: I LOVE the new technology (and that from one who reveres the book as a holy object). POD and e-books have opened up publishing incredibly and made book publishing much more economical and less wasteful.

That said, it has made it tremendously difficult for any one title to receive any attention and find its readers. (The problem has shifted from getting published to getting noticed.) When I first started teaching, there were 65,000 books published that year in America (about a tenth of them fiction). The number is now 10 times that! (with the same ratio of fiction to non-fiction). Average sale of a POD self-published book is 147—but millions of people are selling them, so the so-called tail of the marketing dragon has become huge.

6. Q: As online book sales become increasingly important, do you think that publishers will do away with the free return policy for bookstores? If they do, what will bookstores of the future look like?

A: Great question.

I think in the not-too-distant future bookstores will have display copies only. When you buy a book, someone pushes a button, and a computer publishes a single copy of the book, your copy, at a regional distribution center. You get your book within a day or so, and there are no returned/remaindered books.

7. Q: What makes British mysteries so special? Is it history, environment, humor?

A: I think every country has lots of “special” mysteries and tons of not-so-special ones. To the extent that there’s a national outlook and a collective consciousness, the mysteries reflect this.

The Brits gave the world the cozy. America and the French gave it noir. Nobody does hard-boiled better than America.

8. Q: The new technologies of publishing make it relatively easy to create a new publishing firm. Would the emergence of many new small, specialized publishers be a good trend? How do you see publishing developing in the future?

A: We already touched on this a bit. Len Fulton (Dustbooks) has been tracking (and nurturing) small press publishers for four decades (God bless him). I join him in thinking that the little indies have been and remain the source of incredible vitality and experimentation in our literature. I love the fact that publishing is becoming cheap enough for many more to do it. This really parallels the advent of the computer in terms of making publishing more accessible.

9. Q: There are genre mysteries, and there are mainstream novels that have mystery aspects to them. Do you think most mystery readers are specialists, or do you see a wider market for mystery writing in one form or another?

A: I think we pigeonhole novels and novelists, primarily because it’s a lot easier to market them that way. But there are and always have been writers who defy categorization and transcend genre. From Raymond Chandler to Elmore Leonard and James Lee Burke, we have mystery/thriller/crime novelists writing great literature.

And tell me Ernest Gaines’ Long Day in November is ‘just’ a kids’ book and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is “just” a young adult novel.

10. Q: Are the better mystery and mainstream novel authors formally taught techniques, self-taught through trial and error, or just born to the art?

A: I think folks are born with the inclination, desire, and even need to write stories. It may even be that the stories pick the writers instead of the other way around. And certainly, just as some folks are born with greater natural athletic ability, some are born with more natural facility with language than others. But I’d never try to discourage anyone anywhere from writing.

Some writers are products of creative writing classes and MFA programs. Many are not. Take Louis L’Amour, who jumped a freight and hoboed around the country at age 15 and taught himself by stopping at the public library everywhere he went. He became our foremost writer of westerns and a true expert on the west.

If I had to choose whether to close down the writing schools or the libraries, I would without hesitation choose the former.

Julia Child's Memoir and "Julie & Julia" New Movie

Only Julia Child could remember a restaurant visit 50 years ago and get the details right. In her memoir My Life in France, she recalls a visit to The Artistes restaurant in France, noting that it had "ten tables and 50,000 bottles of wine in the cellar." That's pure Julia.

The new movie Julie & Julia hits the theaters today. Before you see it, take time to learn the backstory by indulging in My Life in France, a memoir written by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme. As if a movie tie-in wasn't enough, this is also the 40th anniversary of Julia's cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It was that book that got young Julie Powell obsessed with cooking her way through Julia's repertoire, blogging about it, and landing an agent for a book deal and the new movie.

We foodies can't wait to see the film, starring Meryl Streep as Julia, but I promise you'll treasure it all the more if you slow down and start at the beginning. Here in My Life in France, Julia Child and Alex Prud'homme, her husband's grand-nephew, put together the extraordinary life of Julia Child, who learned to cook as a new bride in France, and never looked back. Alex, already an author, helped Julia, at age 91, write this memoir. Julia died August 13, 2004, when she was nearly 92.

Go back to 1948, when Julia's husband Paul worked for the U.S. Information Service at the American Embassy in Paris. Newly married, she joined him for the long journey to France aboard the SS America. French culture slowly won her over, leading her to explore its cuisine and take classes at the famed Cordon Bleu as she settled into a life of her own, far from her family and friends.

Before marrying Paul Child, Julia's early experiences with cooking closely parallel Julie Powell's early efforts to replicate Julia's work, as Julia says:
I would approach the stove armed with lofty intentions, The Joy of Cooking or Gourmet Magazine tucked under my arm, and little kitchen sense. My meals were satisfactory but they took hours of laborious effort to produce. I'd usually plop something on the table by 10 p.m., have a few bites, and then collapse into bed. Paul was unfailingly patient. But years later he'd admit to an interviewer, "Her first attempts were not altogether successful... I was brave because I wanted to marry Julia."

Peeking into Julia's life, I enjoyed learning of her daily pleasures, and reading the list of all the material she gathered to sum up a life's measure.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, published in 1961, was Julia Child's first book, and much of her recollections about writing and publishing will be of great interest to fellow writers. We all know the work that goes into our fine prose, but recipes, measurements, translation, graphics, and co-authors all make for quite a stew. On the final selection of the book's title, Julia's co-author declared she did not care for the title. "It's too late to change it," said Julia. "Knopf knew a lot more about books than we did. And they were the ones who had to sell it. So, in effect, tant pis." (So much the worse.)

My Life in France is a true delight, but it is also a study in marriage. Julia and Paul Child were an amazing team. You'll observe how they both adapted for each other through travel, relocation, jobs, and her booming career, and how much he helped and supported her efforts, even doing photos and sketches for the first cookbook. What resonates most for me in My Life in France are the great relationships Julia Child had over her lifetime, how much she hurt if a friendship faltered, her love of food, and her true love of France as her spiritual homeland.

ISBN 978-0-30747-485-8

Reviewed by Helen Gallagher, http://www.computerclarity.com/, http://www.releaseyourwriting.com/

An Eldercare Resource

Hammond's Ride Guide is a useful reference for those who are facing the need to give up their driving privileges because of their age or medical condition. It is equally suitable for those who are looking to support elderly relatives who are facing the live-without-driving situation. The book offers listings and notes about organizations dedicated to assisting the non-driver as well as suggestions for how to seek and interface with volunteer drivers who may be friends, relatives, or helpers from a religious institution. This slim spiral bound volume is the personal effort of Everett Hammond, an octogenarian with a background in a transportation company. The specific resource data will be valuable for someone facing the need to live without driving, but I found the cheerleading aspect of the book equally useful. Mr. Hammond emphasizes the need for a positive outlook and quotes a variety of people who have successfully faced this ordeal. This is a specialized book for a specialized situation, but it makes a positive contribution to eldercare.

ISBN 978-0-615-25735-8 http://www.hammondsrideguide.com/

Reviewed by Richard Davidson, author of Lead Us Not into Temptation (Volume I of The Lord's Prayer Mystery Series) and DECISION TIME! Better Decisions for a Better Life. http://www.davidsonbooks.com/

When a reader buys a book or magazine, he or she is usually motivated by an interest in the content of the work. The buyers think of themselves as purchasing the work of a writer or writers.
The price of a book or magazine, however, includes the costs of paper, ink, binding, transportation and so on. Payment to writers is a very small part of total cost.
Book and magazine buyers, though motivated by the content, pay mostly for the delivery of the content, though they arguably care more about the content than the delivery method. You could reasonably say book buyers agree to pay for the delivery of content in order to get the content they want. No problem.
But as readers and other audiences moved to the Internet for content, an odd thing happened. While most Internet users pay to use the Internet, they do not expect to pay for content. Whether ‘content’ is an article to read, a video to watch, a game to play or social network to tap, users do not expect to pay.
This is one, but only one, of the puzzles and paradoxes Chris Anderson (Editor in Chief, Wired magazine) explores in his recently released book, Free, subtitled The Future of a Radical Price.
Interestingly enough, Anderson notes, it turns out there are plenty of potential creators who are only too happy to provide free content in return for the simple pleasure of attracting an audience – in return for other people’s time and attention. This leaves content creators who want or need to make a living with the challenge of discovering or inventing ways to convert ‘free’ into ‘funds.’
Anderson explores a large number of business models for doing just that – for converting a free offer into a revenue stream.
Of course, the Internet is not the first technology to challenge the economics of content delivery. Anderson reviews the history of radio and television, both in the U.S. and elsewhere.
He also explores a wide swatch of other economic history and some economic theory.
Taking the reader for a quick spin through Price Theory, Anderson reminds us that, in a competitive market, the price of a product or service approaches its marginal cost. If you took the class, you'll remember more about rising marginal costs (reflecting scarcity) than falling marginal costs (the economics of abundance). But don't worry: Anderson is focused on the latter and gets us all up to speed pretty painlessly on the dynamics of abundance.
Free is entertaining, challenging, thought-provoking and informative.
It is also available ‘free’ as an abridged audio book at www.hyperionbooks.com/free. Your price? Your email address and the time and attention you will spend downloading and listening to chapter after chapter. For my time and money, I’d rather buy the book!
ISBN 978-1-4013-2290-8
Reviewed by Janet Hale Tabin,
http://janetsweblog.blogspot.com/