Conquering Venus

Read 4/10/10 - 4/14/10
3 Stars - Recommended to reader familiar with genre
Pgs:255

Have you ever read a couple of books, one after the other, only to find that they are unintentionally linked to one another through subject matter and theme? Perhaps a character from your previous read has a similar affliction to the one you are reading about now. Or the characters visit the same locations. Maybe they have similar backgrounds and histories?

I love "book serendipity", and how utterly random and jarring it can be. And that is exactly what occurred while I was reading Collin Kelley's "Conquering Venus".

Prior to reading his novel, I had just completed Jeannette Katzir's "Broken Birds" (A story of Holocaust survivors and their family struggles), and a few before that - I was reading D.R. Haney's "Banned for Life" (A story that contained a character who suffers from Agoraphobia).

Not far into "Conquering Venus", we are introduced to Diane - an American teacher whose parents were Holocaust survivors. Though she is not very religious, we are reminded of her Jewish background and of the impact Nazi Germany had on her family life. Of course, this is not the main theme of the novel, but just one of those strange little coincidences that I enjoy stumbling across.

When we are introduced to Irene, we learn that she is suffering from the crippling, imprisoning fear of the outdoors - Agoraphobia. This is an important character flaw, as a significant portion of the novel hinges on Irene and her inability to leave her apartment. She mirrors a character by the name of Jim from "Banned For Life", who is also unable to leave his home due to the same fear.

While this has nothing to do with the review of Kelley's novel, I had to point out the sheer coincidence of reading books nearly back to back that were sent to me by the authors for review - and which were read in the order they arrived on my doorstep - and just how serendipitous it was.

"Conquering Venus" is an ambitious first novel that is quoted to be "grounded in reality...a mystery, a love story, and a journey of self-realization". It centers around Martin, a young American gay man, who is haunted by his ex-lover's suicide. It also centers on Irene, a much older Parisian woman afflicted with a debilitating fear of the outdoors, who is unable to move beyond the death of her husband. Both suffer from highly disturbing, foreboding, foreshadowing dreams of their lost loves, and - strangely - of each other.

Martin's best friend Diane is chaperoning a group of graduating teens on a trip to Paris, and she invites Martin along - hoping it will help him move past Peter's suicide. While in Paris, as Martin pines over David, one of Diane's students, Martin meets Irene, and they feel an immediate and startling connection.

Initially unknown to them all, Martin, Diane, and Irene share eerily similar pasts.

They are the keys that unlock each others secrets. Forced to face their pasts in order to truly live in the present, they extinguish their inner demons together, and aid the healing of old wounds.

Collin Kelley tackles heavy topics - what it is like to deal with the pressures and perceptions of being a gay man in today society, how we as humans deal with death, and the idea of having a soul mate or "familiar" from another life. Kelley uses dreams to capture just how deeply scarred his characters are, helping the reader to see into their past and to peek into their future.

Overall, an intense look at a world of which I was not overly familiar with. While I don't have much experience with Gay Lit, I do have a TON of experience with reading in general, and Kelley can certainly hold his own with the best of them.

Collin has quite a few collections of poetry, of which I am most definitely going to get my hands on, and is also the recipient of the 1994 Deep South Festival of Writer's Award for Best Play "Dark Horse". I have heard it mentioned that Collin is working on a sequel to "Conquering Venus". I would be very interested to see where he takes Martin and Irene next.

Author Guest Post - Jeannette Katzir

Having just finished reading her memoir "Broken Birds", I asked Jeannette if she would compose a guest blog for me, describing one aspect of the writing or publishing process for us. I felt this would be better suited for her and her memoir - and add a different level to my usual "author interview" post. Here is what Jeannette very thoughtfully wrote:

Why I wrote Broken Birds, The Story of My Momila

I wrote Broken Birds for the same reason I photograph things: to allow others to take a peek inside my soul.

When my mother died, almost 6 years ago, my world imploded. All the life lessons I had learned were thrown up into the air, and I was in pain. Writing allowed me a healthy avenue to go through the pain.

“Write everything you’d like to say,” I was told when I first began. The book was massive, but I said everything to everyone I had ever wanted to, and that felt great.

I began to write in almost a frenzy. . . anywhere and everywhere. While on trips abroad, I would take my manuscript and write and re-write in lieu of watching in-flight movies. While driving back from a photo shoot in a national park, I sat in the back seat and scribbled my thoughts.

Writing is liberating and the perfect medium to expel all the thoughts, feelings and questions one might have regarding any selected subject. In memoir writing, the biggest challenge is attempting not to have the book too jaded, but it is inevitable because the book is coming from you and out of your eyes.

Writing a memoir is a balancing act of reader interest and the personal project called Broken Birds. Objectivity is a long and difficult word. Parts of the book I feel are needed are carved down to make the information more palatable for the reader, while always making sure the flow is smooth.

Writers write because we have something to say– a story to tell–and because, tucked away between the vowels and consonants, you’ll find us.

Jeannette Katzir, Author of Broken Birds, The Story of My Momia
www.brokenbirds.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:As a child of Holocaust survivors, Jeannette Katzir's life has been a study of the lasting effects of war. Inspired by her own family experiences, Katzir has dedicated years to in-depth research of the impact of World War II on survivors and their children. (Author Blurb from "Broken Birds")

Broken Birds

Read 4/3/10 - 4/10/10
3 Stars - Recommended to readers familiar with genre
Pgs:375

Jeannette was kind enough to mail me a copy of her story - and a lovely matching bookmark as well! - and has waited patiently for me to read and review it.

Broken Birds, written by Jeannette Katzir, is the multigenerational memoir that documents the lives of two Holocaust survivors and the unfortunate, irreversible damage that inflicts upon their relationships with their remaining family members, their children, and their children's children.

While I tend to walk past non-fiction novels while shopping, I do remain open to reading them when they are recommended, or gifted to me. It's true that I am a fiction lover through and through. But I am also a well-told story lover. And that is what Jeannette has to offer her readers - a well-told story.

What a challenge it must be to write the story of your life, and the life of your parents. When an author is telling a story from their own point of view, they run the risk of, at times, tainting it by their own emotions and personal recollections of the facts and conversations that occured. How difficult it must have been for Jeanette Katzir to tell her story, the Story of her Momila, how painful and draining, and how brave to write it all down and to allow the world the opportunity to critique and criticize it.

Jeannette managed to write her story in such a way that it reads like fiction - the chapters flow off the page, the details so sharp and the people so human - I had to remind myself that what I was reading was real. That the events Channa and Nathan (her mother and father) are described to have survived were real events, and that this story, all of it, is real.

Katzir lays it all out there. The fear those events instilled in her mother, the way the trama of being a survivor unintentionally soured how she dealt with "strangers" and unconventionally attempted to protected her children. The way the fear manifested itself - in her appearing "cheap" and not allowing anything to be wasted, stashing money all over the house, sheltering her husband from infidelity for fear that he would leave her for "someone better", and infusing doubt into every single one of her children when they tryed to make a better life for themselves. How living under those circumstances actually caused the one thing she feared the most to happen - her family began to fall apart.

Katzir describes how she and her siblings fought amongst themselves as adults, and mistrusted one another. Turned their backs on one another or teamed up against each other. She describes the life her father Nathan lived - hard working, peace-making Nathan - and how her mothers death dealt the final devastating blow to them all.

A painful and vivid picture of how the damage of the Holocaust and the reign of Hitler continues to make itself known generations later. And how Katzir and her family attempt to repair their broken wings, and move beyond the bitterness to a better life.

Author Interview w/ D.R. Haney

D.R. Haney is the author of "Banned For Life". He is an autodidact who is fearful of horses and has held a variety of interesting jobs: a model, a Wall Street waiter, a telephone salesman, and a contributor for zines and small publications. He spent 9 years writing Banned, published under Vancouvers And/Or Press, which was influenced heavily by his love for underground music and having survived a near fatal accident. I want to thank him for allowing me this opportunity to interview him. And for being such a warm and friendly conversationalist!


I understand from your GoodReads profile that you read "omnivorously". What was the first book you recall connecting with, and why?

Well, first, I should say that I used the word “read” in my GoodReads bio in the past tense. I used to read omnivorously, but I don’t have the time to do so now, particularly since Banned for Life was published. Promoting Banned, or trying to promote it, has proven to be a full-time job.

In any case, the first book I remember loving was Homer Price, by Robert McCloskey, about a boy growing up in a small town in Ohio. It’s really a collection of stories, and the story I liked best was about a doughnut machine that wouldn’t turn off. My second-grade teacher read the stories aloud, one by one, in class for a week or so. I was born and raised in Virginia, and there was Southern feeling about Homer Price, despite its Midwestern setting, and that may have been why my teacher thought the class would respond to the book. She was right, at least in my case.

What authors do you enjoy reading? Do you have a favorite novel?

There are numerous writers that I’ve enjoyed reading, but there aren’t many to whom I find myself returning. Norman Mailer would be one of them, and so are Kerouac and Flannery O’Connor and John Fante and Nietzsche; and I’d love to get around to those books by Milan Kundera that have so far managed to escape me. I’d also like to read all of Chekhov’s stories, as well as Leaves of Grass in its entirety, and to take another crack at Dostoevsky. I always regretted that I put down The Idiot.

Lately, I’ve been making my way through the diaries of Virginia Woolf. I much prefer her informal writing—her letters and diaries—to her fiction or essays. In the diaries especially, she brilliantly analyzes friends and acquaintances. Mailer, I think, has a comparable genius for character analysis, which may be what I most prize about him. His sketches of the Apollo 11 astronauts in Of a Fire on the Moon are superlative.

I’ve also recently returned to Faulkner. My friend Jeannie, learning that I’d only read Faulkner’s novels and never his short stories, sent me a collection of the latter, and it’s fantastic, as I should’ve known it would be.

My favorite novel? Celine’s Journey to the End of the Night. There’s a very high level of intensity in that book that’s sustained without a lapse from beginning to end, which is what I tried to accomplish with Banned, and I’ll go on trying to accomplish. But I don’t think Celine ever pulled it off again. I’ve read a few other books by him, but only Death on Layaway came close to Journey—close and yet so far.

If your house were to catch fire, which 5 books would you rescue, and why?

Here’s hoping my house never catches fire—and that goes for all houses.

Well, first, I’d have to save my copy of Kerouac’s On the Road, because of the enormous impact it had on me. The cover is now scotch-taped together, reflecting the number of times the book has been handled. I wouldn’t say, by any means, that On the Road is one of my favorite books, but it led to the discovery of my true favorites. Kerouac was, for me, a gateway writer.

I’d also save Shadows of the Sun, which is the diary of the Lost Generation poet Harry Crosby. He shot himself in 1929 in a suicide pact with a beautiful girl he called The Fire Princess: one of his many mistresses. He’s a fascinating character and the subject of Black Sun, a terrific biography by Geoffrey Wolff. Black Sun is still in print, but Shadows of the Sun is not. I love the design of my copy, which was published by the now-defunct Black Sparrow Press. Black Sparrow had a distinctive house style, design-wise. Their covers had a textile-like grain and bold, simple graphics.

Then there’s my copy Henry Miller’s The Wisdom of the Heart, which I’d save because it was a gift from my ex, Kerry, who died four years ago. Kerry was herself a writer—a playwright, and a good one, educated at the Yale School of Drama—and she gave me several books, but Wisdom is the only one in which she included a personal note.

Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! I’d save because I read it at my grandparents’ farm, and I always transpose events in Faulkner to my grandparent’s farm, where a Civil War battle occurred. I think of the farm, which I never visit now that my grandparents are dead, every time I pick up my copy of Absalom, Absalom!

Finally, there’s The Epic of Man, a kind of coffee-table anthropology primer that was published by Life magazine in the early sixties, and includes myriad photographs of ruins and relics, as well as illustrations of Cro-Magnon villages and Pharaohs holding court and the like. I stole The Epic of Man as a keepsake from my grandparents’ library around the time my grandmother died. I was mesmerized by the book as a child, not least because it featured so many naked women, so I’d save it for sentimental reasons, as with most of the books on this list.

But can I really only save five books? I own many worth braving the flames.

Writing "Banned For Life" was a long, personal journey for you. Tell me about the process. How closely does the novel reflect your life?

Well, spiritually, the overlap is significant. I felt a great deal like the narrator, Jason, as a teenager and at many other points in my life, but I wouldn’t say I felt like him always. Jason is more conventional, for want of a better word, than I am. If you met him, you might never suspect his background in punk rock and independent film and all the rest of it. He has an all-American quality that I lack. If he’d lived in Hollywood in the sixties, he might have picked up extra cash as a bit player in surfer flicks—that is, if he’d maintained a tan. Also, I’m more cerebral than Jason, and naturally inclined to rebel (as my parents will confirm), whereas Jason found to hard to rebel, at least in adolescence. He expressed his alienation passive-aggressively.

I lived in most of the same locales as Jason, and I was involved in the same scenes, but his involvement was greater in some cases, and vice-versa. As for the other characters in Banned—Peewee and Jim and Irina, and so on—they’re all, to one degree or another, hybrids of real-life people. Irina—Jason’s romantic Waterloo—is modeled most closely after a single, real-life counterpart, and even she’s not an exact replica.

In terms of the journey of writing Banned, I had the initial idea for it ten years ago, as I write these words, in April 2000. Then it took me a year to begin the book, after many failed attempts, and I moved to Belgrade, Serbia, where I could live cheaply, to write the first draft. I was pleased with the first draft, and naïvely thought there wouldn’t be much revision, but back in L.A., my adopted hometown, I joined a writers group, and that caused me to take a scrupulous look at what I’d written, so I revised and polished until April 2005, when I was sure I had a final draft. I even went out and celebrated with friends—meaning I got unbelievably drunk.

Still, no one had read the manuscript from start to finish, and once people did, I heard criticism I hadn’t expected to encounter, and spent two more years in revision. Then I worked with an editor in New York, who raised still more concerns, which led to another year of revisions. Then publishers read the manuscript, and though they demanded editorial control of a kind I wasn’t prepared to cede, I went through yet another year of cuts and additions bearing their comments in mind. In fact, I was making changes up until the last minute, after I decided to go with a friend’s imprint in Canada. I’m afraid I drove the poor layout guy crazy, with words or whole paragraphs crossed out in the galleys and their substitutes scribbled in the margins; arrows pointed every which way.

It was a nine-year process, all told. I never, ever anticipated that it would take as long as it did, but the book became more personal as I went along, since I was always adding details, sometimes culled from my life, or the lives of friends.

Of course it would’ve been personal anyway. Jason’s my boy, and his best friend Peewee is my hero. I love that kid.

Music is the driving force behind Jason and Peewee's relationship. What kind of music are you listening to right now? Which bands have had the most impact on you?

There have been so many!

When I was a teenager, I was interested in older music, the Beatles in particular. I knew everything about the Beatles, and still know a great deal, though I rarely listen to them now.

Later, like so many people, I was blown away by Nirvana, and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion was an important band for me, since I discovered them at a point when I thought there was nothing new worth hearing, being very out of touch with the underground. But in the spirit of my earlier comment about Kerouac and books, Blues Explosion was a kind of gateway band: because of my interest in them, I discovered Federation X and KARP and Drive Like Jehu and Girls Against Boys and Atari Teenage Riot, and many other great underground bands. And I still listen to most of them. I’m stuck in the nineties, I’m afraid, and I’m partial to music from the Pacific Northwest for some reason. I remember going to shows where I’d see some band I liked, and I’d walk up to them later and say, “Where you are from?” and they’d say, “Olympia.” It happened again and again.

But it’s not a hard and fast rule. Probably my favorite band is Sonic Youth, which is funny because for so long I couldn’t stand them. Unwound (from Olympia) is another favorite, and they were greatly influenced by Sonic Youth, as was yet another favorite, Die Princess Die. I was practically a de-facto member of Die Princess Die. They started in San Diego, but most of the guys ended up moving to L.A., which is where I got to know them. They were stellar. Even when I loved a band, there came a point where I lost interest in seeing them, but that never happened with DPD. Their shows were always electric, including their last two years ago. It was a drunken fiasco, but they still commanded attention, if only because you didn’t know what was going to happen next. You’d think, “How can this get any worse?” And then it would.

Describe your novel in 5 words.

Protagonist rediscovers erstwhile hero, disastrously.

What can we expect next from you?

I’m currently at work on a novel that I’m tentatively calling A Perfect Example. It’s about two brothers and their Cain-and-Abel relationship, though it doesn’t conclude with one killing the other, despite the occasional fratricidal impulse on the part of the “Cain” brother. It takes place over a long period of time, like Banned, and I hope it amounts to a portrait of American culture, as was my intention with Banned. But while Perfect will have lots of drugs and sex, there won’t be much rock & roll, so in that way it’s dissimilar to Banned. Also, the form is radically different, and there’s a thematic emphasis on vanity and changing definitions of masculinity, which weren’t pressing concerns in Banned, though they’re present, I think, in the margins.

What is your take on eBooks and eReaders, as an author and as a reader?

I have mixed feelings about eBooks, which is probably true for most writers. It puts me in mind the old McLuhan thing—the message is the medium—and I’m surprised more people don’t realize how reading on a screen shapes and colors the experience—or maybe they do realize it, and they simply prefer the experience of reading on a screen. But I know, in my case, I don’t tend to concentrate as much as when reading a hard copy. I scan and skim, as the nature of the medium encourages. Staring at a light triggers a different brain wave than staring at something that reflects light—i.e., paper. There’s a hypnotic effect.

I’m sure many of us can agree that the culture has become increasingly superficial over the last few decades, and it can’t be coincidence that technology has become omnipresent in the meantime. There’s more and more emphasis on how things look, so that our most ballyhooed artists, aside from pop stars, are designers—in fact, pop stars often become “designers,” launching their own fashion lines. Meanwhile, as I understand it, fewer and fewer people are reading books (as opposed to online content), so, in that sense, I don’t much care how people are reading books—whether it’s on a screen or it isn’t—so long as they’re reading them at all. I just don’t want to see books as objects perish, as it seems to me our corporate overlords wish, with complicity on the part of the digital-happy public.

Some, of course, say that eBooks will simply coexist with paper books rather than supplanting them, but I think it’s still too early to call. But hard-copy newspapers and magazines are currently in a lot of trouble, as we all know, so that gives me pause when it comes to the future of books.

Do you currently hold a "day job"? If you had to choose a career, other than writer, what would it be?

I’m unemployed at the moment—rather desperately so.

In terms of desired careers other than writing, I’ve already had one of them: I’ve worked as an actor quite a bit, though not always happily so.

Meanwhile, if I didn’t think it were too late and too foolish a thing to do, I’d love to be in a band and make records and tour. I’m not talking about being a rock star; I’m talking about just being a guy in a van, eking out a living. Yet I know many people who’ve done, or tried to do exactly that, and almost all of them came to hate it. It’s a hard life.

What authors/novels/websites would you recommend to our audience?

Well, I always try to elicit interest in Mailer if I can, because I think he’s in danger of being forgotten—many of his books are out of print—and also because I’m afraid his oft-buffoonish self-promotion and reputation as a misogynist have proven a stumbling block for many. I can’t agree that Mailer is a misogynist. He devotes many pages in The Executioner’s Song to a sympathetic portrait of the central figure’s paramour, Nicole Barrett, just as he’s frequently diverted from Lee Harvey Oswald to his wife, Marina, in Oswald’s Tale. That, to me, says more about Mailer than any foolish remarks he made by way of calling attention to himself. His journalism is his good stuff. I generally don’t think much of his fiction.

In terms of contemporary fiction, I don’t read much of it, just because it’s so hard for me to find novels that really grab me, but I’d definitely recommend Greg Olear’s Totally Killer, which I devoured in a couple of sittings shortly after it was published late last year. It’s a thriller, with a healthy dash of black comedy, set in New York City in 1991.

Greg, like me, is a contributor to The Nervous Breakdown, which is an online literary collective. There are a number of outstanding contributors, some of whom have published books (including its founder, Brad Listi, and Jonathan Evison, who brought me to TNB), and some of whom so far haven’t (including Ben Loory, whose story “The TV” was recently published in The New Yorker, and Lenore Zion, who’s now putting the finishing touches on her first novel). I love TNB. I visit the site unfailingly every day, and would even if I weren’t a contributor. Check it out, y’all!



Here is an older blog where Haney posts his very own handpicked soundtrack for Banned.
Do yourself a favor, and pick this novel up. It deserves to be read! But don't just take my word for it (although shame on you if you don't!) - check out an excerpt and see for youself - Chapter one.

CityLit, Baltimore..Here I Come!

So, Sometimes I stumble across things accidently. Like author readings that I might have missed had I not been browsing Barnes and Nobles online. Or like the Book Bloggers Convention and BEA that I will be attending next month in NYC.

And most recently, Baltimore's CityLitProject, which is a one day long, free literary convention that is held at the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Thanks to my utterly awesome skills of persuasion, I have gotten my husband to agree to accompany me!

I have never been to a literary conference before, and I get uber nervous when I think about the BEA ... So I am really looking forward to this weekend trip out to Baltimore. It should warm me up nicely for BEA, as well as give me an idea of how to balance my schedule as well as balance all those free books I expect to get!

I can't wait to start sharing my book blogging business cards :)
This is going to be harder than waiting for christmas morning as a kid. I don't know how I will survive the week!!!

Are you going to be attending? If so, post me a comment... maybe we can meet up?

A Book Blogger Survey

I receive a daily newsletter from GalleyCat.com - It's full of great up-to-date publishing tidbits. Today, I saw a link to The Book Lady's Blog. they have created an anonymous survey for Book Bloggers like us in an effort to improve blogger/publisher relationships. Check it out. It's quick and easy. The survey is open until April 20th. Once it is closed, they will then survey the publishers.

Blog about this, tweet it, facebook it! Let's get as many of us taking this survey as we can!

Author Interview w/ Matty Byloos

Matty Byloos has quite a diverse work history: a teacher, an online marketer, a painter, a musician, and a writer. He has a website - mattybyloos.com - that exhibits his work, which are definitely worth checking out. Matty's first published collection of short stories is called "Don't Smell the Floss". Dark and seedy, Matty demonstrates his flexibility as a writer by exposing the uglier, stranger side of humanity. He was wonderful enough to answer the following questions for us.


At what age did you start writing? Can you remember what your first story was about?

I think I took my book reviews in grammar school very, very seriously. Pages and pages of writing on things like *A Clockwork Orange* by Anthony Burgess that probably read more like fiction than a grade school report.

I think I took a stab at a short story towards the end of high school. I had this summer job working in a trade union in the motion picture industry, specifically at one of the main film labs in Hollywood. There were a couple of real characters there, especially in the shipping department, and they were always bantering about ridiculous experiences, probably blowing them all out of proportion. But I was a good listener, and intrigued. That first story was about a guy named Shithead Gary, who throws an old television in the back of his El Camino, convinces a co-worker to join him, and drives out to the desert to blow himself up.

A painter, a musician, a writer. Which came first? If it's possible to choose, which are you most passionate about? Which do you feel you
have to work harder at?

I think I'll have a different answer for this one every time!

Music feels like group sculpture to me, and I mean that in a way that should speak to the difficulties and nuances of getting a group of creative people together to work on one thing that exists in space. My experience of music has been very rewarding -- there is a real sense of freedom of expression, of immediacy, of trusting my gut with whatever part I come up with for someone else's material, or for a riff that I come up with that later becomes a song. But I'm a very independent person as well, and so the idea of a band being this unruly, ever-evolving thing, like a relationship or whatever, that's the part that makes it hard for me.

With writing, I feel like I can really get after an idea, write freely from an idea, and then use editing to go back in and analyze what's going on, try to make it happen more on purpose, change things around. I think both sides of my personality are represented nicely in writing, and maybe in a way that is difficult to get at for me with painting.

I do love to paint -- would probably argue for myself being a painter more than anything else if I had to put it down to one thing, but that might be shifting now. I don't do anything that I can't feel passion for, especially when it comes to creative pursuits. I think I have to work hardest at writing.

Describe your book "Don't Smell the Floss" in 5 words. How did you come up with the title?

Perverse. Probing. Baroque. Sensitive. Dangerous.

The title was just a phrase that came into my head -- and after picking it apart, it felt right to me. I think it's great to tell people to not do something, to not look at something or not think about it, because nine times out of ten, they immediately will. It's a weird part of human
nature. Like an inner rebelliousness or something, which I like to prod. Smelling the floss to me is like this impossibly visceral experience. It's unbelievable what the body is capable of making, the organic ugliness that can come out of us. I think there is something there that mirrors the
potentially awful behaviors we engage in as essentially socialized animals. All of this is intriguing to me -- those moments I think are where I've made camp for writing fiction. Dirty, visceral, ugly and possibly otherwise overlooked. There's a spot for me to feel comfortable being like an investigative reporter or something.

You recently toured to promote your book. What was that like? How have people responded to your book?

Still touring and about to get more aggressive about that, as so far, it's just been a limited west coast thing with dates in and around LA, and then up in San Francisco and Portland. I love to read to people, and if there is some sort of contemporary revival going on, sponsored by the good feelings people have about things like This American Life and the Moth in more mainstream venues, then so be it.

I think it's a lost art -- storytelling. I think that kind of sitting around the fire to listen to each other map out our collective histories is wonderful. I also am finding that on a practical level, getting one's book out to people is a really difficult proposition, and making an actual, personal connection is mandatory on some level. So you read directly to them, you talk to your audience, express gratitude for their ability to listen and their desire to be engaged by what you are making, and then people get a book. It's great.

I had my first experience last week of someone actually buying a book beforehand, and then bringing it to a reading to have me sign it. I was completely humbled.

Many of your stories contain dark, damaged characters leading sad, strange lives. Of the fourteen stories published in "Don't Smell the Floss", which are you most pleased with? Which story was the most difficult to write? Which stories resonate most with your fans?

Hmmmm... I'd have to say the pleasure of each story (and my problems with each too!) is quite individual in terms of my level of enjoyment and or comfort, and that seems to shift a lot depending on the day.

It's weird -- the stories, some of them anyway, date back quite a while, so there's a kind of ongoing process of discovery and re-discovery happening at any point for me. I love to read the character descriptions from "Conrad 'Connie' Borscht on Looking" -- those 2 actors feel very real and very close to me.

I'm happy with the weird poetics and strangeness of each of them and the pages dedicated to putting flesh on their bones. People seem to respond nicely to "...E. Leon Spaughy," the story about the Buddhist skunk who appears as a wandering spirit guide to the distressed and lonely copywriter. There are video pieces or slide shows that accompany many of the stories so far, and I've partnered with an artist named Josh Atlas to bring something different to my live readings (www.JoshAtlas.com). A different dimension, something tangential or metaphorical or at least visually compelling to allow me to read 20-30 minutes of text to a stranger without necessarily losing their attention.

I just read the "Brief History of the Tupperware Party" story for a podcast, and was very happy with that -- it was my first time reading it, and it felt very touching, this story about this sad, insecure Sasquatch-like figure trying too hard to be accepted and loved completely by his little wife. The dentist/jack-off-club/nativity bukkake story (that should be enough to make ANYONE want to read it, or you might actually be dead) is always a crowd-pleaser. For the video component, we actually got a group of dudes together to simulate some of the scenes. Cue riotous laughter and embarrassing here, please.

Are you currently writing anything? Are there any characters from "Don't Smell the Floss" that may make an appearance in future stories?

I am hard at work on a new book of short stories, all of which have been vaguely mapped out, a few of which have been completed. Something I didn't do with the first group of 14 was to get them published in journals and magazines before the book, so I'm trying to build some relationships there in order to get the work out in another way to a different audience before I go looking for someone to help me get out a second book.

Like I said earlier, the characters from "...Connie Borscht" (Pygma Meadows and Clara Latch, Connie himself and Darby Ammon), I could see myself spending some extra time with them. Not sure, though. "...Dangersby" really reads like the very confusing end of a relationship, and I could see writing my way into more of that, backwards, I guess.

What book(s) are you reading right now?

A few more pages left to go in *Platform *by Michel Houellebecq, my second read of his. Essays from Kathleen Rooney (*For You, For You I Am Trilling These Songs*), finished up Kevin Sampsell's memoir a couple of weeks ago and highly recommend it for sure (*A Common Pornography*) -- it's one of the smoothest reads I've had the pleasure of picking up recently. Also have gems from the WB press on my pile and sorting through them, Paul Maziar's *What It Is, What It Is*, and Michael Roberts, *No More Poems About the Moon*. Both lovely reads. Picked up or traded for works by Tao Lin, Matthew Simmons, Matthew Stadler -- all very exciting to me and hard not to quit my job and just read all the time....

Which 5 books would you save if your house were to catch fire?

I gave my girlfriend a first edition, signed copy of an Anne Sexton book of poems for her birthday last December, and seeing as we will be living together soon, I'd definitely put that at or near the top of my list. It really is marvelous -- being able to give someone something so precious, and also being able to imagine the poet's actual hands holding the book, and a pen, and them signing it. Super freaky to me but amazing somehow. *The Loser*, by Thomas Bernhard. A large catalogue of Peter Doig's paintings, and another of Francis Bacon's paintings. For number five, maybe something sentimental. My copy of *Catcher in the Rye* from high school. I'd also have to cheat on the total amount and can imagine grabbing *Butterfly Stories* by William T. Vollman. That would be a must read over and over again.

What is your take on eBooks and eReaders, as an author and as a reader?

My take so far is just from the gut. I hate 'em. But I also don't have one, so on a technical level, my opinion is totally worthless. I get the convenience aspect as far as traveling is concerned, and having less stuff to carry, but whatever on convenience -- sometimes I think we make things a bit too easy for ourselves, maybe. I just tend to be a bit of a romantic, purist, traditionalist, etc. about the experience of the book as an object, not a file full of neatly organized 1s and 0s. The whole thing is special, and always will be, at least to me. Buying a book, the smell of the used bookstore, unwrapping a book for a present and reading a hand-written dedication, meeting a favorite author and getting a book signed, the object itself.... I guess I just don't think "progress" is always for the best.

What authors/books/websites would you recommend to your audience?

I read Big Other, The Fanzine and HTML Giant religiously. I also like The Nervous Breakdown, Dennis Cooper's blog, and a few others. I think my audience, if I have one, might be all over the map, so I'm reluctant to say that maybe there is a site or two that perfectly suits them. I'll be starting up my online magazine again after a few years of it being dormant. Maybe that one? Smalldoggies Magazine dot com is the address, and it'll be up and running in another month or so.

(Photo:Copyright 2009 Anela Bence-Selkowitz)

Zombies Need Braiiiiins

Read 4/4/10 - 4/4/10
4 Stars - Strongly recommended
Pgs:138

Oh my god was this hilarious! And disgusting! Many thanks to Ryan Mecum for making a copy available for me, even if it did show up months later (Gotta love the postal service, huh?).

Mecum does an amazing job telling the story of a man who awakens one morning to a world full of zombies looking for just one thing - human brains. Although, for the first part of the morning, he doesn't even realise what has been happening around him (Similar to the begining of the film "Shaun of the Dead" - great movie by the way!). The man then begins to chronicle his life, as he changes from human to zombie, in haiku form - poems with a 5-7-5 rhythm.

I actually read this out loud to my kids last nite. At times, I was laughing so hard I was forced to read the lines again so they could understand me. There were also moments where we were cringing and "Eeeewing" over the graphic parts.

Here's a taste of what you will find:

"I love my momma
I eat her with my mouth closed
how she would want it"

"She's always with me
especially if my gut
can't digest toenails"

"They are so lucky
that I cannot remember
how to use doorknobs"

"Little old ladies
speed away in their wheelchairs
frightened meals on wheels"

Mecum created a commericial/book trailer. Check it out:


Be sure to also check out Mecums Vampire Haiku, and my review of it here. I cannot wait for his next release, coming sometime this year - Werewolf Haiku!

The Life O'Reilly

Read 4/3/10 - 4/4/10
3 Stars - Recommended to readers familiar with genre
Pgs:266

Many thanks to the author, Brian Cohen, for allowing me the opportunity to review his novel.

This is the story of Nick O'Reilly, named one of the Top 40 Lawyers Under 40; partner in a well known long standing firm - just assigned his first pro bono domestic custody case as a result of the firms attempt to win some popular votes with the public. This is also the story of how Nick falls in love with the woman he is representing, jepordising everything he's worked so hard to achieve, and the chain of events that follow.

While I enjoyed the story and remained engaged the entire time, I struggled to connect with the writing itself. Cohen has a distracting habit of describing everything in painful detail. Every character, each time they appear, in head-to-toe detail, starting with their age and hair color/style, to their clothing and shoes. Every room a character walks into, from rug to furniture to wall hangings. While every novelist must introduce their readers to the world they have created, and the people who populate it, Cohen's style comes across rather loudly - breaking the flow of the storyline - almost "pausing" the moment to freeze frame the person and critique them, rather than allowing their presence to come across smoothly and naturally.

An example: "She was nicely dressed in a black pantsuit, crisp white shirt with the collars spread over the lapels of her jacket, exposing a pearl necklace, and black low heeled, open toed sandals. Dawn's beauty was striking, what with her straight, shining black hair pulled back, and a face, shaped by distinctive bone structure, that was natural and touched up with very little makeup around emerald green eyes."

The straight forward dialogue between characters made this a relatively quick read. Cohen doesn't layer his language - he is clear, concise, and keeps the plot moving forward. He is not one to mince his words.

Not fully realising how the title ties in to the storyline at first, I will give you a heads up... Keep a box of tissues close!

By the way, is that not the most gorgeous book cover?!!

Banned For Life

Read 3/23/10 - 4/3/10
5 Stars- Highly Recommended
Pgs:416

Every once in awhile, I find myself reading a book that surprises me. A book that amazes me. A book that demands attention. A book that forces me to read it slowly, and thoroughly, in an effort to make it last. This is one of those books.

D.R. Haney's book was recommended to me by Greg Olear (author of "Totally Killer") - and I am so glad that he did, because had he not, I fear I may never have come across it on my own. And I want to thank Haney for mailing me a copy to review.

D.R. Haney spent 9 years of his life writing this novel - a chronicle of the life of fictitious punk rocker Jason Maddox and his obsession with Jim Cassidy, lead singer of Rule of Thumb, through the 80's and 90's.

But it is so much more than that. Banned for Life goes deep beneath the skin, exposing the raw ugliness of drugs, sex, and rock and roll. It's populated with people I can relate to, people with flaws and complexes, people who live and breathe and suffer and die. It's characters struggle to exorcise their inner demons. It's an unbelievable story written by a first time novelist.

Jason, the narrator of this faux memoir, is an emotional wreck. Oh God, is he a mess. From a very young age, Jason allows those around him to define him. No longer happy with fitting in or with following the rules, and itching for a way to break free, Jason befriends PeeWee, an outcast who has no intention of selling out to the crowd. He introduces Jason to the world of Punk Rock, and teaches him how to shed his preppy lifestyle for one that will allow him to express his inner punk and live like a true rock star.

When suddenly, in one fateful night, Jason loses his best friend, nearly loses his life, and makes the decision to lead a different life.

Broken into four parts, which encompasses four phases of his life, we meet the key players in Jason's life:
PeeWee - the match that lights this novel on fire. Fueling Jason's love for music and especially for the punk band Rule of Thumb, they start their own band and embark on a life filled with drugs, drinking, girls, breaking up, starting over, and an unhealthy amount of fighting.
Irina - a gorgeous Serbian woman stuck in a supposedly loveless marriage that he falls head over heels in love with. Theirs is a dysfunctional, emotionally twisted relationship.
Jim - the idol of his youth, lead singer of Rule of Thumb, and eventual agoraphobic poet. A needy, chaotic, abusive friendship that is doomed from the start.

Haney's novel is drenched in foreshadowing - He has perfected the "tease", dangling comments out there of the things to come, preparing us for each blow, dulling the impact of the punch but never taking away the pain.

I had to keep reminding myself that this was his first novel. The character development and intricate storyline was seamless. Not a word was wasted. The sentences flowed together, the dialogue was so natural. For me, this book is more like a work of art. Something to be felt as well as read. It passes beyond the eyes, takes up residence in the head.

Once I started, I knew I was not going to want it to end. It called to me every time I put it down. It begged. It screamed. I savored every moment of it, and I dreaded reading that final sentence.

Every once in awhile, I read a book that I think everyone else should read. A book that lovers of all genres can enjoy. A book that I wish I could buy for every single non-reader out there to prove to them what they are missing. This is one of those books.

If D.R. Haney releases a second novel, I will move mountains to be the first in line to buy it.

This is a very interesting movie trailer. Tongue in cheek, biting saracasm, I wish it were really coming out in the theater :)

Asleep Book Tour 2010

Good morning everyone! Welcome to Sally Weigel's Asleep Book Tour 2010! We are stop number 2 on a two week long blog tour where Sally will be promoting her new eBook "Too Young Too Fall Asleep", which was published by CCLaP. CCLaP's website has a list of all the blogs on the tour so you can follow her as she blog hops.

When I was asked to be a part of Sally's tour, I was absolutely thrilled. I had recently downloaded and reviewed her eBook. It's quite impressive knowing that she wrote it when she was still in high school.

Sally was kind enough to answer a few questions regarding her eBook, the writing process, and shared some personal stuff as well. Enjoy!

When did you first start writing?

SW: I started writing in middle school and never really stopped. Although, now that I think about it, I can trace back the hobby to second grade. I remember writing stories and sending them to my Grandpa. My Grandpa was managing editor of The Indianapolis Star, and published two novels after retired. He would type up my stories and bind them in a folder, as I paraded around telling everyone I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. This dream was quickly changed when I decided I wanted to be an Olympic gymnast in third grade.

What is the first book you remember reading?

SW: The first novel I really remember resonating with me was “The Mixed Up Files Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler”. I was an avid reader as a child and always had my head in a book, mostly chapter books about gymnastics or preteen novels but I reread “The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” countless times. I went to the Met in New York City for the first time this winter and still, all I could think of was the main character of that book having a sleepover in the museum with her younger brother.

Who was your role model growing up? Who is your role model now?

SW: I am the youngest of four in my family so growing up, I looked up to my older brothers and sister. Especially my oldest brother. He was a big hippie and always king to me so I copied everything he did. He gave me John Lennon and Joni Mitchell CDs in seventh grade, and I played them on repeat all through middle school. As I grew up, I definitely came into my own. I started reading and writing more seriously. In the beginning of high school, I got really into the beatniks, reading Richard Brautigan and Jack Kerouac, fascinated by a time where literature was influential in youth culture. Recently, I can’t help but admire every project Dave Eggers puts forth. Our society is getting less and less literary, and still, Eggers has managed to create a literary empire of sorts. Even if McSweeney’s is known for being pretentious, I still think it puts out really solid writing.

Where did you get the idea for "Too Young to Fall Asleep"?

SW: The idea sprung from a short story I wrote when I was a sophomore in high school. The story was about a young man serving in WWI and coming back injured. The whole time, he reminisced on a conversation he had with an anti-war protestor before going into the war. I changed the time frame so the story would deal with the current Iraq War. Then, my editor suggested it would be interesting if the protagonist were a young, female like myself. I didn’t necessarily jump on this idea just because I thought a young, wealthy, white suburban protagonist would come off as a whiny girl who finds fault in her very safe, stable hometown. Although, I am hoping I brought more dimension and complexity to Catherine, the main character of the novella.

What was the writing and publishing process like? Are you currently writing anything?

SW: I have been writing short stories for the last year. I have many in progress and many finished that I am trying to publish. Publishing is such a disheartening process but my work with CCLaP has definitely encouraged me, even when I get countless rejection emails. Writing the novella was a lot more structured than anything I had done before. Rarely did I map out a piece of work, and having done that now, I can’t imagine just jumping into a piece of writing without a plan. Actually, the editing process took much longer than the writing process, which is how it should be I think. Even now, it takes me a year to finish a short story. I can write the first draft in a week, but won’t deem it complete until countless revisions and reorganizations of the story are done. I always liked Hemingway’s response to an interviewer when he was asked what stumped him with the revision process. He responded, “Getting the words right.” It’s true, it takes a long time to get the words right.

What book(s) are you reading right now?

SW: I’m reading contemporary, local authors. I just read Kyle Beachy’s “The Slide”. Next on my list is Don De Grazia’s “American Skin” and Michael A. Fitzgerald’s “Radiant Days”. This summer I plan on tackling strong, female authors such as Toni Morrison and Virgnia Woolf. I am a female writer who almost always reads male authors, and I want to change that.

Which 5 books would you save if your house were to catch fire?

SW: “Franny and Zooey” by Salinger, “Dharma Bums” by Kerouac, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera, “The Grapes of Wrath” by Steinback and a collection of Calvin and Hobbes comics.

Are you currently working, and if so, what do you? Besides become a famous author, what would your dream job be?

SW: Yes, I currently work as a nanny, and I am also on DePaul’s literary magazine Threshold. In terms of a job after college, I want to write, work in publishing or teach. In addition to my passion for writing, I am also passionate about environmental issues. I could see myself taking time off after college, working with a National Park or possibly going to the Peace Corps.

What authors/books/websites would you recommend to your audiance?

SW: I would recommend reading “Franny and Zooey” in light of J.D Salinger’s recent death and mostly because I think “Franny and Zooey” taught me everything I know about becoming a writer. Also, I had the chance to hear Stuart Dybek read this year and since then, I have become obsessed with his fiction. When I read his work, I am in awe at first, then severely jealous. I just wish I could write stories like him.

Hey Good Lookin'

If you happened to visit my blog at all throughout the day today, I apologise for the mess. It went through a lot of trial and error before becoming what you see now - The new and improved TNBBC blog!

I owe it all to the greatest, most wonderfulest, super smartest IT guru in the entire world, Tina. She has the patience of a saint, and makes HTML and Hex codes and Javascript not seem so intimidating.

I am braving the world of tech-speak and tech-type slowly but surely, and while I can now confidently change color codes and manipulate image sizes, I realise I have only just begun the long and frustrating road towards mastering coding a webpage.

It's fun and interesting, and something I am determined to understand and conquer. And who knows, if I study and work hard, I may just be able to do just that!!!

R.I.P. "A Grave Surprise"....

After a long day at work, I relaxed on the couch with my current read while the kids watched TV and the puppy lounged around. It wasn't long before my eyelids refused to obey my commands, and I fell asleep.

I awoke around 11:30pm, to find both of my boys out cold on either end of the sectional, and the puppy licking my face. I rubbed my exhausted eyes, sat up and stretched, and stifled a scream as I took in the horrible scene before me!

My unread copy of Charlaine Harris' mass market paperback "A Grave Surprise" had been massacred! The front cover was torn into three slobberly pieces. Every single page, eaten clean through on the top right side, shredded and sprinkled all over my living room rug.

My hands frantically searched around for my current read (please, please, please be in one piece, please be in one piece, THANK GOD it's in one piece!), as I came to terms with the fact that the book was beyond all hope of saving. I fell to my knees and collected it's disfigured body, silently questioning how this could have happened.

It had been piled up with the two other books of the series on the middle shelf of my TBR bookshelf. It must have somehow fallen down, onto the floor, and into the reach of my puppy while I was lost in my peaceful slumber. No other books around it seem to be disturbed, so I quickly dismissed foul play.

Poor poor book. How awful it is to die a puppy breath death, having never been read! To leave this world having never felt the touch of human fingers lovingly stroking your pages, to never know the feel of a bookmark nestled between them... What a sad, lonely way to go. I am sorry I was not there to save you. I am sorry I did not hear the pained Riiiiiipppppp of each page as my puppy took the corners into his mouth and tore them.

What I am most sorry for is the fact that you are the second book of the three book series that I own, and that I will now be forced to replace you. Please do not hate me for purchasing another copy. It will never mean the same to me as you once did. It's a weakness of mine, that I wish I could ignore, but I simply can't stand to have an incomplete series.

RIP "A Grave Surprise".

The Book Blog Hop

Are you on the lookout for some new lit-blogs? Jennifer at Crazy For Books is hosting a Blog Hop. Hop on over to her site to see the rules for signing up. I've visted a few of the blogs that are listed there already, which I may never have found on my own....