Work has been unexpectantly busy already this week. Focus was required, long hours were spent laboring over Excel, extra eye drops were needed to keep my contacts from drying out, hyperbole abounded.
No blogs were posted though since I had to actually work.
My homework for the Denver Publishing Institute is supposed to arrive today (with any luck it will be there when I get home). I’ve been driving people crazy while I waited. Originally I thought it was supposed to arrive the week before last, and when it didn’t I shot off an email to the school. Did it go to the wrong address? Had the US Postal Service continued its war against me (which in the past resulted in a W2 arriving three weeks late with a hole punched through it, my insurance packet not arriving at the insurance company in time, and various letters of semi-importance disappearing into the ether)? What would happen if my homework didn’t arrive?
Really, how much time would I have to procrastinate?
Turns out that they hadn’t sent the package yet; it went out via UPS on Tuesday of last week. It arrived on Friday while I was at work so the UPS guy said he would try again today. My apartment manager also said he would keep an eye out for it, which is good because it is so very beautiful outside and I think a trip to the park or local coffee shop with outdoor seating is in the cards.
I just love to read in the sun and I want to cut down on my paleness. A girl who comes by my hair color naturally just shouldn’t be this white. It’s blinding. Plus I have to catch up on all the reading that I didn’t do over Memorial Day weekend.
So just for the sake of asking:
Read anything good lately?
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Book Girl Detective
I’ve been walking around with my blood splattered copy of Hearsick for the last couple of days. It’s elicited some interesting looks and comments from my coworkers. “Why does you book have a bloody hand print on it?” being the least of the questions.
The dark red blood spots and prints on the stark white cover are startling in appearance. Beautiful from a design standpoint, but not a common look for most books (it’s no wonder my coworkers notice and comment on it), but it got me thinking.
What is the first thing you notice when you see someone reading a book?
The first thing I notice is, hey, a book. Not an iPod or a Blackberry or a cell. A thing with words and pages, egad!
It doesn’t matter what the book is text/genre/manual, my interest is immediately captured. I try to guess what it is or catch a glimpse of the cover. I study the reader’s face, and watch how they react to the words they are reading. Is it funny or sad? Does the reader look bored?
Next I move on to the size and condition of the book. Hardback, trade or mass market? Does it look well-read and used or new? Is there a sticker that indicates where it came from?
When I was a bookseller this information was important, and I would use it to generate an order list or figure out how many people bought their books from my store. My MAX rides were lessons in observation and detection (not to mention filled with amusing sights from Portland life) and this book attentiveness (if you will) boiled over into my everyday life. Now it doesn’t matter where I am or what I’m doing, if I see someone reading I want to know what it is, I want to know why they’re reading it, and I want to know if they’re enjoying the moment.
That enjoyment is what keeps me from walking up and just asking, of course. Also why I try not to blatantly stare as it tends to freak people out and then they would get up and move, keeping me from figuring out what they are reading.
Anyway, my little book games aside, what is the first thing you notice about the book when you see someone reading?
The dark red blood spots and prints on the stark white cover are startling in appearance. Beautiful from a design standpoint, but not a common look for most books (it’s no wonder my coworkers notice and comment on it), but it got me thinking.
What is the first thing you notice when you see someone reading a book?
The first thing I notice is, hey, a book. Not an iPod or a Blackberry or a cell. A thing with words and pages, egad!
It doesn’t matter what the book is text/genre/manual, my interest is immediately captured. I try to guess what it is or catch a glimpse of the cover. I study the reader’s face, and watch how they react to the words they are reading. Is it funny or sad? Does the reader look bored?
Next I move on to the size and condition of the book. Hardback, trade or mass market? Does it look well-read and used or new? Is there a sticker that indicates where it came from?
When I was a bookseller this information was important, and I would use it to generate an order list or figure out how many people bought their books from my store. My MAX rides were lessons in observation and detection (not to mention filled with amusing sights from Portland life) and this book attentiveness (if you will) boiled over into my everyday life. Now it doesn’t matter where I am or what I’m doing, if I see someone reading I want to know what it is, I want to know why they’re reading it, and I want to know if they’re enjoying the moment.
That enjoyment is what keeps me from walking up and just asking, of course. Also why I try not to blatantly stare as it tends to freak people out and then they would get up and move, keeping me from figuring out what they are reading.
Anyway, my little book games aside, what is the first thing you notice about the book when you see someone reading?
Friday, May 25, 2007
Working on the chain gang
I’ve had this word document open on my work computer waiting for inspiration to strike in between phone calls. Part of the distraction has been the blood stained copy of Chelsea Cain’s novel Heartsick sitting next to me (Sylla nicely sent me a copy that was floating around her backroom). Part of it is that this is Memorial Day weekend for most people, while today is my “Monday.” And still another part is that my brain is just preoccupied with matters of horseracing, customer interaction, and the total disbelief that often fills my days here that people wager this much money on a sport they maybe only have a 33% (or 28% depending on where you look up the stats) of seeing some kind of a return on.
I think you have a better chance of picking out a bestseller (wasn’t there a story on that not too long ago in the Times?)…or maybe you don’t. Depends on your definition of bestseller, I guess.
Y’all seem to feel the way I do on TPO issue, which is nice to know. Almost all my purchases lately have been in the Trade size because it fits in my purse perfectly.
The Written Nerd has a wonderful write up on how she feels about book reviews on her site. Definitely something to check out.
Colleen of Chasing Ray zeroed in on the whole NBCC maggot fiasco with a well-written query about how the post got through in the first place.
And I wish that I could provide some of bookish thoughts to finish this off, but it’s five minutes ‘til I’m out of here and there’s a drinks at a friend’s house calling my name.
I’m sure I’ll be much more bookish tomorrow, or at least wrapped up in a book. Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend if you don’t get back here until Tuesday!
I think you have a better chance of picking out a bestseller (wasn’t there a story on that not too long ago in the Times?)…or maybe you don’t. Depends on your definition of bestseller, I guess.
Y’all seem to feel the way I do on TPO issue, which is nice to know. Almost all my purchases lately have been in the Trade size because it fits in my purse perfectly.
The Written Nerd has a wonderful write up on how she feels about book reviews on her site. Definitely something to check out.
Colleen of Chasing Ray zeroed in on the whole NBCC maggot fiasco with a well-written query about how the post got through in the first place.
And I wish that I could provide some of bookish thoughts to finish this off, but it’s five minutes ‘til I’m out of here and there’s a drinks at a friend’s house calling my name.
I’m sure I’ll be much more bookish tomorrow, or at least wrapped up in a book. Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend if you don’t get back here until Tuesday!
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Trade Paperback Originals...
I just got back from a lovely meeting with the own of Third Street Books (wonderful store with a great table selection and a mischievous store cat) in McMinniville, Oregon where I probably talked way too much and should have asked more questions. Next time. Next time (if she'll let me darken her door again) I'll be prepared and not half asleep. So apologies for this short post, but I wanted to know your thoughts on the subject of trade paperback originals.
Trade paperback originals are when a book is released in the Trade format without ever having been released as a hardback (normal chain of book command would be Hard to trade to mass market or Hard to mass market). Personally I like them because a.) I like the trade format and b.) I think it gives an author who might not necessarily get any attention at a hardback price point a chance to grow a following, but I would like to hear your opinion.
So, Trade paperback originals: like 'em, hate 'em, or had no idea what they were before this post?
I'll post some picture examples later.
Trade paperback originals are when a book is released in the Trade format without ever having been released as a hardback (normal chain of book command would be Hard to trade to mass market or Hard to mass market). Personally I like them because a.) I like the trade format and b.) I think it gives an author who might not necessarily get any attention at a hardback price point a chance to grow a following, but I would like to hear your opinion.
So, Trade paperback originals: like 'em, hate 'em, or had no idea what they were before this post?
I'll post some picture examples later.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Winners of the Book Drawing
I meant to post the results of the drawing last night, but better late than never. I've drawn the names of the winners of the free books using the scientific process of asking my cubicle mate to pick a number for Sandi's novel and using the random number generated in the case of Gil's.
Can Miss Kate Wheeler (the Aussie in London) and Elsandra please email (bookseller dot chick at gmail dot com) your addresses to get your free books?
Kate, you've earned a copy of A Piece of Normal seen here in this oh-so (not) artistic shot:
And Elsandra, here's your book hanging with a chalk outline:
I've got some books to giveaway in the future, so thanks for letting me know that y'all are interested.
Can Miss Kate Wheeler (the Aussie in London) and Elsandra please email (bookseller dot chick at gmail dot com) your addresses to get your free books?
Kate, you've earned a copy of A Piece of Normal seen here in this oh-so (not) artistic shot:
And Elsandra, here's your book hanging with a chalk outline:
I've got some books to giveaway in the future, so thanks for letting me know that y'all are interested.
My own version of the Birds
I walked into my kitchen this morning, glanced out the window, and saw pigeons everywhere. There were pigeons on my windowsill and the neighbor’s. There were pigeons on my balcony and the fire escape. There were even pigeons sitting on the edge of the garage. There were pigeons all over the place, their little beady eyes watching as I moved around the kitchen packing my lunch, and I knew that they had come for me.
You see, yesterday I’d committed the ultimate pigeon insult—I’d taken an egg from a nest.
My nest robbing was a preemptive strike as a pigeon couple had finally succeeded in building a viable nest on my kitchen windowsill. Before the birds had always contented themselves with turning my balcony into a pigeon birthing community (making it impossible for me to use it as well as stinking up my office with the odor of pigeon droppings), but my sill with its downward slope had remained safe. This safety allowed me a window I could open in the summer, a way to create a cross breeze in my apartment.
Not anymore. Not with a permanent pigeon occupant—and the bird would be permanent occupant. If I’ve learned anything about pigeons and pigeon reproduction in the last few years of the balcony occupation, it is that pigeons breed year around.
Oh yeah, and they are not above using the young from one next to incubate the eggs of the next.
Baby machines, I tell you.
I’d had enough. It was time to make a pre-emptive strike. It was time to make sure that no baby pigeons started their lives on my windowsill. So I popped open the window, shoed away mama pigeon, and stole her egg (which went immediately into the trash). Sure I felt bad; I’m not someone that harms another animal very easily, but it had to be done. It was my stand against those feathered invaders.
And that stand was why there was a hit squad of said invaders waiting for me to leave for the garage at 6 am in the morning.
I made it through safely. No scratches or pecking or pigeon poop bombs. So maybe it was just a show of numbers, an empty threat.
Or maybe they were trying to lull me into a sense of complicity. Being all, “Look, silly girl, we’re just hanging. Just hanging out doing nothing and ignoring you. You won’t come to any harm today…but tomorrow? When our numbers double or triple? When you’re not paying attention? Oh yes, then…” [cue evil bird chirp/cackle]
Of course, there is one more option, one that cannot be ignored. You know, the one where I admit that I have an overactive imagination when I’m sleepy and am prone to hyperbole. That could totally be what’s going on here.
But if Hitchcock has taught me nothing else, it is that just as you write it all off as coincidence they will choose that moment to attack.
Know any books where nature has gotten its revenge in this manner?
P.S. I’m totally blaming the birds on why I didn’t post yesterday despite the fact I had the legitimate excuse of actually having to do some work at work. This morning that is obviously not the case as today’s post was brought to you by the fact that I’m only getting calls from people who aren’t eligible to bet with us.
You see, yesterday I’d committed the ultimate pigeon insult—I’d taken an egg from a nest.
My nest robbing was a preemptive strike as a pigeon couple had finally succeeded in building a viable nest on my kitchen windowsill. Before the birds had always contented themselves with turning my balcony into a pigeon birthing community (making it impossible for me to use it as well as stinking up my office with the odor of pigeon droppings), but my sill with its downward slope had remained safe. This safety allowed me a window I could open in the summer, a way to create a cross breeze in my apartment.
Not anymore. Not with a permanent pigeon occupant—and the bird would be permanent occupant. If I’ve learned anything about pigeons and pigeon reproduction in the last few years of the balcony occupation, it is that pigeons breed year around.
Oh yeah, and they are not above using the young from one next to incubate the eggs of the next.
Baby machines, I tell you.
I’d had enough. It was time to make a pre-emptive strike. It was time to make sure that no baby pigeons started their lives on my windowsill. So I popped open the window, shoed away mama pigeon, and stole her egg (which went immediately into the trash). Sure I felt bad; I’m not someone that harms another animal very easily, but it had to be done. It was my stand against those feathered invaders.
And that stand was why there was a hit squad of said invaders waiting for me to leave for the garage at 6 am in the morning.
I made it through safely. No scratches or pecking or pigeon poop bombs. So maybe it was just a show of numbers, an empty threat.
Or maybe they were trying to lull me into a sense of complicity. Being all, “Look, silly girl, we’re just hanging. Just hanging out doing nothing and ignoring you. You won’t come to any harm today…but tomorrow? When our numbers double or triple? When you’re not paying attention? Oh yes, then…” [cue evil bird chirp/cackle]
Of course, there is one more option, one that cannot be ignored. You know, the one where I admit that I have an overactive imagination when I’m sleepy and am prone to hyperbole. That could totally be what’s going on here.
But if Hitchcock has taught me nothing else, it is that just as you write it all off as coincidence they will choose that moment to attack.
Know any books where nature has gotten its revenge in this manner?
P.S. I’m totally blaming the birds on why I didn’t post yesterday despite the fact I had the legitimate excuse of actually having to do some work at work. This morning that is obviously not the case as today’s post was brought to you by the fact that I’m only getting calls from people who aren’t eligible to bet with us.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Taking over the world and other things on the agenda
We all have literary conventions or character quirks that we hate in fiction. Or maybe “we” don’t. Maybe I’m lumping y’all together with me. I know that there is at least one other person who agrees with me though because this friend has never been quiet on the subject of her vehement hate for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.*
First, some background on this friend (whom we’ll call Betty) is one of those super-genius people that should she ever spawn, her children will take over the world and make Brain (of Pinky and the Brain fame) look like a humble, unassuming type. No, should these—at this point imaginary—children take over, you’d better hope they like or you should go about getting out of here in a “don’t let the atmosphere burn you on the butt on the way out” fashion. Betty studied many things in our time together in college, but she wrote her senior thesis on Shakespeare. She knows the bard forwards and backwards and this breadth of knowledge has only reaffirmed the R&J hate.
Romeo and Juliet, in her opinion, were suffering from puppy love and not anything true or lasting. She just hates that is often referenced as the epitome of true love.
Which makes the fact that R&J were referenced at her wedding ceremony as an example of true and everlasting love all the more amusing. The original preacher who was supposed to perform her wedding ceremony had a heart attack the day before the wedding and the visiting preacher had to step in. Not only did Preacher #2 have an accent that made him sound suspiciously like the priest from the Princess Bride (Wuv, twue wuv), but he also felt the need to ad-lib. As Betty and her husband were sitting facing wedding guests, Preacher #2 began to address the group about their love, “Wuv everlasting and pure like the wuv of Romeo and Juliet…”
Betty was not amused.
When the wedding was finally over she stomped out of the church, practically threw her bouquet on the ground and yelled, “What? So I’m supposed to [bad word deleted because I’m at work] kill myself now!?”
Unlike Betty my biggest problem with R&J is not the puppy love passing for the true sort, but that the whole situation never would have taken place if people would have just communicated. It’s the same problem I have with Othello (although, I love Iago as a character) or any other piece of work that bases the momentum of the play on a situation that could have been rather easily resolved.
The Big Misunderstanding makes me cringe. I was flipping through a book yesterday, and as soon as I realized part of the plot hinged on the Big Mis, I started mentally composing a negative review. I hadn’t even really read the thing yet! There are books out there that have successfully pulled the contrivance off, but make the motives behind it believable, but those are few and far between.
So what about you, anything that turns you off immediately or tweaks the reading experience so much that it immediately downgrades the story? Betty and I can’t be the only ones like this.
*I apologize if I’ve told this story before, but I was reminded of it when I was dining with some friends last night and the topic of Betty’s wedding came up. Also, to be completely truthful, I’m still not fully awake despite the fact that I’ve been answering phones for two hours.
First, some background on this friend (whom we’ll call Betty) is one of those super-genius people that should she ever spawn, her children will take over the world and make Brain (of Pinky and the Brain fame) look like a humble, unassuming type. No, should these—at this point imaginary—children take over, you’d better hope they like or you should go about getting out of here in a “don’t let the atmosphere burn you on the butt on the way out” fashion. Betty studied many things in our time together in college, but she wrote her senior thesis on Shakespeare. She knows the bard forwards and backwards and this breadth of knowledge has only reaffirmed the R&J hate.
Romeo and Juliet, in her opinion, were suffering from puppy love and not anything true or lasting. She just hates that is often referenced as the epitome of true love.
Which makes the fact that R&J were referenced at her wedding ceremony as an example of true and everlasting love all the more amusing. The original preacher who was supposed to perform her wedding ceremony had a heart attack the day before the wedding and the visiting preacher had to step in. Not only did Preacher #2 have an accent that made him sound suspiciously like the priest from the Princess Bride (Wuv, twue wuv), but he also felt the need to ad-lib. As Betty and her husband were sitting facing wedding guests, Preacher #2 began to address the group about their love, “Wuv everlasting and pure like the wuv of Romeo and Juliet…”
Betty was not amused.
When the wedding was finally over she stomped out of the church, practically threw her bouquet on the ground and yelled, “What? So I’m supposed to [bad word deleted because I’m at work] kill myself now!?”
Unlike Betty my biggest problem with R&J is not the puppy love passing for the true sort, but that the whole situation never would have taken place if people would have just communicated. It’s the same problem I have with Othello (although, I love Iago as a character) or any other piece of work that bases the momentum of the play on a situation that could have been rather easily resolved.
The Big Misunderstanding makes me cringe. I was flipping through a book yesterday, and as soon as I realized part of the plot hinged on the Big Mis, I started mentally composing a negative review. I hadn’t even really read the thing yet! There are books out there that have successfully pulled the contrivance off, but make the motives behind it believable, but those are few and far between.
So what about you, anything that turns you off immediately or tweaks the reading experience so much that it immediately downgrades the story? Betty and I can’t be the only ones like this.
*I apologize if I’ve told this story before, but I was reminded of it when I was dining with some friends last night and the topic of Betty’s wedding came up. Also, to be completely truthful, I’m still not fully awake despite the fact that I’ve been answering phones for two hours.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Retirement in the Air (not me)
Is it just me, or is there retirement in the air? First Nadia Cornier retired her blog on May 11th and now Miss Snark announced her departure from the blogosphere this morning.
Cornier has removed her past blog entries and plans on pooling the best of the best together with handouts she written for various seminars and conventions to form an ebook she will sell on her site. Part of the proceeds will go to fund Absynthe Muse, a non-profit (that Ms. Cornier is on the board of) young adult writing community. She’ll also be updating and upgrading the Firebrand agency website and may return to the blogging world in some capacity via her official site (no guarantees though).
Miss Snark, on the other hand, is leaving her blog up with the archives intact for the use of snarklings new and old alike for the foreseeable future. Her email account, however, will be closed in the next couple of days and this will be the end of the crapometer.
It will be interesting to see if any other blogging agents or full time book bloggers follow in their path in the near future. Good luck on your next endeavors, ladies.
Cornier has removed her past blog entries and plans on pooling the best of the best together with handouts she written for various seminars and conventions to form an ebook she will sell on her site. Part of the proceeds will go to fund Absynthe Muse, a non-profit (that Ms. Cornier is on the board of) young adult writing community. She’ll also be updating and upgrading the Firebrand agency website and may return to the blogging world in some capacity via her official site (no guarantees though).
Miss Snark, on the other hand, is leaving her blog up with the archives intact for the use of snarklings new and old alike for the foreseeable future. Her email account, however, will be closed in the next couple of days and this will be the end of the crapometer.
It will be interesting to see if any other blogging agents or full time book bloggers follow in their path in the near future. Good luck on your next endeavors, ladies.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Contractual Obligations and Negotiations: Your Thoughts on S and S
I’ve been following the Simon & Schuster boilerplate contract change with some interest. On one hand I’m surprised that no publishing company had yet to try this tactic given that Print On Demand technology has been heralded as the next new thing (to replace the need for big brick and mortar stores even) for years now. While I’ve never believed that POD kiosks would replace the bookstore experience, the availability of the technology merges nicely with Chris Anderson’s long tail theory. Books previously unavailable because they’d dropped below the minimum number to stay in print would be available for immediate print and delivery through the POD system. You many not sell a thousand or more books at one time, but you could sell a thousand different books to one or two people* (the same idea can be applied to ebooks, which take up a minute amount of space to store forever).
It makes sense then why a publisher would want to maintain control of a title long after it has ceased selling in the thousands. Publishers make most of their income from the backlist titles, and through POD and ebooks, that list can now stretch back forever—a backlist that could make them money for no cost to maintain. No more curriculum changes forced on teachers because they can’t get the right book or students forced to wait on ILL to get the book they need. No more crying because your favorite author’s backlist is unavailable due to being out of print.
The downside to this is, as the Authors Guild states, is “if you sign a contract with Simon & Schuster that includes this clause, they’ll say you’re wed to them. Your book will live and die with this particular conglomerate.” You’re not guaranteed that your book will receive any more advertising (something you might be able to do if you took the project to another publisher) or availability to brick and mortar stores down the road. This also means you would not be able to use an electronic file as a free book giveaway on your site like Michele Albert did to help stir the interest in her newest series or sell her other ebook title through a distributor for just $1.50.
Whether or not you believe that offering free books to your readership helps boost sales is not the issue though, the issue is whether or not this contract takes into account both the author and the publisher’s rights when it comes to the source material. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on the Simon & Schuster debate: do you think (as they do) that the boilerplate change is being blown out of proportion, or do you find that it infringes on the author’s rights to shop their past material around elsewhere?
Do you think that this boilerplate change comes to early given that the use of POD technology is still not wide spread and there’s no guarantee that there won’t be something better that comes along later?
I know it is mean to make you think on a Friday, but I want to hear your thoughts. Has S&S gone too far or simply made an informed business decision given the changing landscape of book publishing?
*I’m pretty sure someone else said this—and said it better—but I can’t for the life of me remember who I’m paraphrasing. If you know the source, let me know so I can cite the correct source.
It makes sense then why a publisher would want to maintain control of a title long after it has ceased selling in the thousands. Publishers make most of their income from the backlist titles, and through POD and ebooks, that list can now stretch back forever—a backlist that could make them money for no cost to maintain. No more curriculum changes forced on teachers because they can’t get the right book or students forced to wait on ILL to get the book they need. No more crying because your favorite author’s backlist is unavailable due to being out of print.
The downside to this is, as the Authors Guild states, is “if you sign a contract with Simon & Schuster that includes this clause, they’ll say you’re wed to them. Your book will live and die with this particular conglomerate.” You’re not guaranteed that your book will receive any more advertising (something you might be able to do if you took the project to another publisher) or availability to brick and mortar stores down the road. This also means you would not be able to use an electronic file as a free book giveaway on your site like Michele Albert did to help stir the interest in her newest series or sell her other ebook title through a distributor for just $1.50.
Whether or not you believe that offering free books to your readership helps boost sales is not the issue though, the issue is whether or not this contract takes into account both the author and the publisher’s rights when it comes to the source material. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on the Simon & Schuster debate: do you think (as they do) that the boilerplate change is being blown out of proportion, or do you find that it infringes on the author’s rights to shop their past material around elsewhere?
Do you think that this boilerplate change comes to early given that the use of POD technology is still not wide spread and there’s no guarantee that there won’t be something better that comes along later?
I know it is mean to make you think on a Friday, but I want to hear your thoughts. Has S&S gone too far or simply made an informed business decision given the changing landscape of book publishing?
*I’m pretty sure someone else said this—and said it better—but I can’t for the life of me remember who I’m paraphrasing. If you know the source, let me know so I can cite the correct source.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Free books! Free books for the Readers! (Now Closed)
Remember when I interviewed Gil and Sandi and said I had books of theirs to give away to people who commented (specifically one of those people chosen at random)? Well, perhaps it was a mistake of me to ask you to comment on interviews are that are, for the most part, already over and done with. Instead let me offer you a new forum. If you're interested in receiving a copy of Sandi or Gil's book, just comment below (or email me via the handy email address in the sidebar) specifying which one (or both despite the fact they are two very different books) and I'll add you to the drawing. I need to know if y'all are interested in this type of book giveaway so I should judge how (and if) I ask for books in the future.
So, just a reminder on the two very different books up for grabs, you have a choice of:
Aftermath, Inc: Cleaning Up After CSI Goes Home by Gil Reavill:
or
A Piece of Normal by Sandi Kahn Shelton:
So, just a reminder on the two very different books up for grabs, you have a choice of:
Aftermath, Inc: Cleaning Up After CSI Goes Home by Gil Reavill:
A crime writer who thought he could handle anything confronts the worst of everything. Violent and unattended deaths...suicide...forensics...viral pathology...crime scene myths...The stories behind Aftermath, Inc. are stranger than fiction, and utterly human and compelling.
Like most people, true-crime writer Gil Reavill had never actually experienced a fresh crime scene. That is, until he met Tim Reifsteck and Chris Wilson, owners of Aftermath, Inc., a company in the new field of "bioremediation." In the mid-80s, when a sea change occurred in the way biohazard clean-up was handled, no one in traditional cleaning or janitorial services would come within ten feet of a blood-spattered crime scene. Into this void stepped lifelong friends Tim and Chris, who filled a desperate need by founding their company. For the guys of Aftermath, no crime scene is too bloody to clean.
Aftermath, Inc. traces their history, introducing their clients and employees, and the cops, coroners, and detectives they encounter in their work. Gil goes on scene and works side by side with the Aftermath technicians. He tells the stories that led up to some of Aftermath's most grisly clean-up jobs, taking us on a journey through the suburban Midwest where the company is based, home to some of the quietest, calmest, most ordinary blocks in the world, which hide much darker undercurrents beneath.
The issues that the Aftermath crew members face on a daily basis range from the mundane (What's the best way to suppress the urge to regurgitate?) to the lofty (How does being exposed to death on a daily basis alter one's personal philosophy?). Reavill approaches his task with respect and compassion, taking as his mantra a line from the Roman poet Terence-- "Nothing human is foreign to me."
or
A Piece of Normal by Sandi Kahn Shelton:
At age thirty-four, Lily Brown has her life just the way she likes it. And what’s not to like? She’s got a great job as an advice columnist for the local newspaper, an adorable four-year-old son, and an ex-husband, Teddy, who still thinks she’s wonderful. She even lives in the same beach house where she grew up, with a great view of Long Island Sound and plenty of beach roses to smell.You've got until Saturday to comment. I have one copy of each book to give away.
So what if she won’t let herself date anyone until she finds a new girlfriend for Teddy, who happens to still be hung up on her? So what if she hasn’t changed a thing in her parents’ house, even twelve years after their tragic deaths? So what if it’s been ten years since she’s heard from her younger sister, Dana, who stormed out of the house in a rage when she was a teenager? Lily is fine.
But it’s funny how life has a way of upsetting even the most perfectly laid-out plans, and when one night Lily finds herself painting ghastly orange highlights into her lovely auburn hair, even she suspects that she’s been in something of a rut. And then, when her long-lost little sister shows up, bringing with her the fun and drama and hell-raising spontaneity Lily has missed, her life suddenly takes a turn for the unexpected.
To Lily’s chagrin, Dana’s energy seems to enthrall everyone, especially Teddy. As the tension between the sisters escalates, Dana reveals decades-old family secrets that she’s been burdened with all these years, and Dear Lily must heed her own advice about accepting life’s messiness and chaos.
With her trademark blend of sparkling wit and characters you can’t forget, Sandi Kahn Shelton tells a compelling and universal story of two sisters who learn what they need to let go of, and what they have to hold on to as tightly as they can.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
The 2006 Challengers Answered! (After a Year and Much Out-sourcing)
Remember way back in '06, when I challenged you to a book duel and y'all took me seriously and made with your lists? And remember how I made a few suggestions and then promptly did nothing else as I moved on to the next new thing, thus re-affirming my flakiness in y'alls eyes.
Well, guess what? I'm not the flake you thought I was. Nope. I'm just really, really slow.
That's right, I've kinda-sorta completed a list of suggestions for those of you who offered up you "five books that you loved." Which means that the one or two of you who submitted your lists and still read this blog with some sort of regularity now may have something to add to your reading piles (or now have something to disagree with me vehemently about).
But before you scroll down allow me a moment to explain why this took so damn long. First, my head kind of exploded when so many people took me up on my challenge. It's true. I thought I would get--at the most--five of you, and instead there were a lot, lot more. Secondly, I did try my damnedest to work on this while at the bookstore but funny things kept happening, like, you know, needing to work. So when I would come across a suggestion I would write it down on piece of paper and stick in in my pocket, then when I came home, instead of taking it out immediately upon returning home and recording the information it would stay there. It would continue to stay there, in fact, until I washed the pants and the little scrap of paper was then reduced to a little ball of unreadable mush that didn't do any of us any good.
So why didn't I work on it when I was home and unemployed? Good question. Probably because unemployment turned me into a little ball of unreadable mush, not good for much of anything. I need structure. I need something to drive me. I need that damn employment.
(Side note: this complete lack of drive is something that I always feared would happen to me if I moved back home with my parents for any period of time and the reason I turned down the opportunity to do so on many occasions despite the fact that my bank account would have thanked me.)
Turns out that it doesn't matter what this employment is, just so long as it occupies one part of my brain so the other half is free to do and work on whatever it needs to. Since I'm stuck in front of the computer for long periods of time where I'm not answering phone calls or learning the facts about horse racing (don't do it. Just don't ever do it.), I've suddenly got time to work on other things. Book related things. Like interviews and book giveaways and recommendations!
I can finally complete all those things I've promised without feeling like I'm not using my time wisely!
Break out the champagne and the exclamation marks people, it is time to celebrate. The original lists are in plain text, the books with suggestions previously attached to them are underlined and the new suggestions are highlighted in yellow (or at least they were when I set up the document). I was going to go into an explanation for each suggestion, but then my head got explode-y again and I decided to let you do the equivalent of reading the back by giving you the Amazon link. Hope these work for you, I'm interested to hear what you think.
(Disclaimer: As stated in the original post "I reserve the right to recommend the same book multiple times" because that's how most booksellers operate. )
Image stolen from the Boss Lady who has other pictures of the cohorts and such for view if one scrolls down far enough on the side bar of her blog.
Well, guess what? I'm not the flake you thought I was. Nope. I'm just really, really slow.
That's right, I've kinda-sorta completed a list of suggestions for those of you who offered up you "five books that you loved." Which means that the one or two of you who submitted your lists and still read this blog with some sort of regularity now may have something to add to your reading piles (or now have something to disagree with me vehemently about).
But before you scroll down allow me a moment to explain why this took so damn long. First, my head kind of exploded when so many people took me up on my challenge. It's true. I thought I would get--at the most--five of you, and instead there were a lot, lot more. Secondly, I did try my damnedest to work on this while at the bookstore but funny things kept happening, like, you know, needing to work. So when I would come across a suggestion I would write it down on piece of paper and stick in in my pocket, then when I came home, instead of taking it out immediately upon returning home and recording the information it would stay there. It would continue to stay there, in fact, until I washed the pants and the little scrap of paper was then reduced to a little ball of unreadable mush that didn't do any of us any good.
So why didn't I work on it when I was home and unemployed? Good question. Probably because unemployment turned me into a little ball of unreadable mush, not good for much of anything. I need structure. I need something to drive me. I need that damn employment.
(Side note: this complete lack of drive is something that I always feared would happen to me if I moved back home with my parents for any period of time and the reason I turned down the opportunity to do so on many occasions despite the fact that my bank account would have thanked me.)
Turns out that it doesn't matter what this employment is, just so long as it occupies one part of my brain so the other half is free to do and work on whatever it needs to. Since I'm stuck in front of the computer for long periods of time where I'm not answering phone calls or learning the facts about horse racing (don't do it. Just don't ever do it.), I've suddenly got time to work on other things. Book related things. Like interviews and book giveaways and recommendations!
I can finally complete all those things I've promised without feeling like I'm not using my time wisely!
Break out the champagne and the exclamation marks people, it is time to celebrate. The original lists are in plain text, the books with suggestions previously attached to them are underlined and the new suggestions are highlighted in yellow (or at least they were when I set up the document). I was going to go into an explanation for each suggestion, but then my head got explode-y again and I decided to let you do the equivalent of reading the back by giving you the Amazon link. Hope these work for you, I'm interested to hear what you think.
(Disclaimer: As stated in the original post "I reserve the right to recommend the same book multiple times" because that's how most booksellers operate. )
The Challengers:
Marta:
A Confederacy of Dunces - O'Toole: Apathy and Other Small Victories or Breakfast of Champions: Kings of Infinite Space by James Hines
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter - Vargas Llosa
Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff – Moore
Decline & Fall – Waugh: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Persuasion – Austen: Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Being There by Jerzy Kosinski
Susan Wilbanks:
Gaudy Night - Dorothy Sayers (characterized by humor and mystery) Laurie R. King mysteries, Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, Boris Akunin's Mysteries, To Say Nothing of the Dog by Jerome K. Jerome, Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
His Majesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik: Wolf's Hour by Robert McCammon
In This House of Brede - Rumer Godden: Mr. Blue by Myles Connolly (admit that I cheated a bit with this and looked at the also bought on Amazon. After reviewing the different choices, Mr. Blue sounded very fascinating with its inclusing of a different religious aspects. Might also want to check out nonfiction biography, Mother Angelica.
Sharpe's Triumph - Bernard Cornwell
Guns, Germs & Steel - Jared Diamond: Collapse, 3rd Chimpanzee and anything by E.O. Wilson, or Black Bodies and Quantum Physics: Tales from the Annals of Physics
Penny L. Richards:
Octavia Butler, Kindred
Michael Berube, Life as We Know It
Anna Lanyon, Malinche's Conquest: If you're interested in reading more takes on Malinche, there's the new book by Laura Esquivel called simply, Malinche.
Lindsay Clarke, The Chymical Wedding
Lisa See, On Gold Mountain: Bound Feet & Western Dress by Pang-Mei Chang, Fifth Chinese Daughter by Jade Snow Wong
Interested in more historical fiction:
Stolen Tongue by Sheri Holman
Umberto Eco The Name of the Rose
Andrea:
Snow Wolf- Glenn Meade: John LeCarre Constant Gardener and others, Katherine Neville's The Eight.
The Sculptress- Minette Walters: The Halo Complex by MJ Rose, A Great Deliverence by Elizabeth George
Lonely Hearts- John Harvey
lost boy lost girl- Peter Straub
Geek Love- Katherine Dunn: Clown Girl by Monica Drake
Phineas Poe by Will Baer
Stolen Tongue by Sheri Holman
Cee:
1. Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver: Kingsolver's newest nonfiction--Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
2. Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
3. Doomsday Book - Connie Willis: The Necessary Begger by Susan Palwick
4. An Equal Music - Vikram Seth: Possession by AS Byatt
5. The Assassin Trilogy - Robin Hobb
Susan Adrian:
1. Seen by Moonlight, by Kathleen Eschenburg
2. If I Never Get Back, by Daryl Brock
3. Suspicion, by Barbara Rogan: The Uninvited (if you can find a copy) by Dorothy Macardle, or Shattered Silk by Barbara Michaels
4. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis: The Necessary Begger by Susan Palwick
5. The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper: Phillip Pullman His Dark Materials Trilogy
Robin Brande:
1. Polar Dream, by Helen Thayer: A Dream in Polar Fog by Yuri Rytkheu , Artic Dreams by Barry Lopez
2. Swimming to Antarctica, by Lynne Cox: Grayson also by Lynne Cox, about her adventures with a young whale when she was a child.
3. Road Fever, by Tim Cahill: Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon, not zany like Cahill, but a great travel narrative.
4. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
5. The Subtle Knife, by Philip Pullman
Christine Fletcher:
1. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
2. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
3. Nobody's Fool, Richard Russo: October Light by John Gardner
4. The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton: Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
5. Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
Because you are a fan of the classics:
Henry James' Turn of a Screw (very psychological) or Portrait of a Lady
Master & Margarita by M. Bulgakov
Web:
1) Lincoln's Dreams - Connie Willis: Kindred by Octavia Butler
2) Then She Found Me - Elinor Lipman: What Comes After Crazy by Sandi Shelton
3) The Easy Way Out - Stephen McCauly: The Zookeeper by Alex Maclennan
4) I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith
5) Joy in the Morning - Betty Smith
Diana P:
Arrow's Flight by Mercedes Lackey
Three to Get Deadly by Janet Evanovich
Dragonsquest by Anne McCaffrey
Face the Fire by Nora Roberts
Midnight in Ruby Bayou by Elizabeth Lowell
Allison Brennan's Trilogy The Prey, The Hunt, and The Kill
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
Covenants: A Borderlands Novel by Lorna Freeman
Hammered by Elizabeth Bear
City of Pearl by Karen Traviss
Janni:
1. A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Madeleine L'Engle
2. Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson: Good Girls by Laura Ruby
3. The Ice Queen, Alice Hoffman
4. Christopher Fry, The Lady's Not for Burning: Arcadia by Tom Stoppard (a play for a play)
5. Forgotten Beasts of Eld, Patricia McKillip
Beauty Sleep by Cameron Dokey
The Fallen by Thomas Sniegoski
Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper
Anything by Robin McKinley
Lady T:
1)Northanger Abbey/Jane Austen
2)The Ladies' Auxillary/Tova Mirvis: Joy Comes in the Morning by Jonathan Rosen (if you want to stay with themes of change in Judaism) or Ghost of Hannah Mendes by Naomi Ragen
3)Mammoth Cheese/Sheri Holman
4)Swan Song/Robert McCammon
5)Popco/Scarlet Thomas: You've probably already picked this up, but The End of Mr. Y by Scarlet Thomas came out in 2006
Heartburn by Nora Ephron (book not the movie)
Sue:
1. The Year the Music Changed by Diane Thomas
2. Come Like Shadows by Welwynn Wilton Katz: Ophelia by Lisa Klein
3. Dark Tort by Diane Mott Davidson: Dead Clever by Scarlet Thomas
4. The Goddess of 5th Avenue by Carol A. Simone
5. The Shelters of Stone by Jean M. Auel
The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Rodney Doyle
Katherine:
1. A Moveable Feast, Hemingway
2. All Didion: Day of the Locust and the Dream Life of Balso Snell by Nathanael West
3. All Chekhov (the stories, the plays): anything by Guy de Maupassant
4. Always Cheever, but never Updike: Nabokov or Apppointment in Samara by John O'Hara
5. My Phantom Husband, Marie Darrieussecq
Paul (whose profile is unavailable):
1. Tomcat Murr - ETA Hoffmann
2. At Swim-Two-Birds - Flann O'Brien: The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
3. Master and Margarite - M. Bulgakov: The Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf
4. Carmichael's Dog - R.M. Koster: Kurt Vonnegut's novels, TC Boyle
5. The Kiss of the Spider Woman - Manuel Puig: Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn
Poet of Tolstoy Park by Sonny Brewer
Anything by Mario Vargas Llosa
Beth:
1. World's End, T.C. Boyle
2. A Gesture Life, Chang-Rae Lee: Comfort Woman by Nora Okja Keller
3. Ex Libris, Anne Fadiman: Ruined by Reading by Lynne Sharon Schwartz
4. Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris: Bleachy-haired Honky Bitch by Hollis Gillespie
5. The Instance of the Fingerpost, Iaian Pears: Did you read Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose or Bombay Ice by Leslie Forbes or Season for the Dead by David Hewson
Goddess of Fifth Avenue by Carol Simone
Jmc:
1. Persuasion, Jane Austen
2. The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold
3. Welcome to Temptation, Jennifer Crusie
4. The Far Pavilions, M.M. Kaye: Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz (first in the Cairo Trilogy)
5. Living to Tell the Tale, Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited by Vladimir Nabokov
The Eight by Katherine Neville
Ms. Librarian:
The Gate to Women's Country, Sheri Tepper
Combat in the Erogenous Zone, Ingrid Bengis
The Once and Future King, T. H. White: Merlin Trilogy by Mary Stewart
On Basilisk Station, David Weber: Linnae Sinclair's Gabriel's Ghost
The Pride of Chanur, C. J. Cherryh: The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
Otterb (who shares a mind with Susan Wilbanks and should see her list):
The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Laurie R. King: The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin
Anything by Lois McMaster Bujold, favorities are Memory and The Curse of Chalion.
The Cloister Walk, Kathleen Norris: In This House of Brede - Rumer Godden
Pilgrim's Inn, Elizabeth Goudge
Liaden Universe books, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Michelle:
Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver
Possession - A.S. Byatt
Use of Weapons - Iain M.Banks
Acid Row - Minette Walters: An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears or Bombay Ice by Leslie Forbes or Season for the Dead by David Hewson
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
Alua:
Song for Arbonne - Guy Gavriel Kay: The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
Kushiel's Dart - Jacqueline Carey: The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop
Primary Inversion - Catherine Asaro
Hero and the Crown - Robin McKinley
Golden Compass - Phillip Pullman: The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper
Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear
Kate R:
1. Bartimaeus trilogy (it'll come out as one book some day)
2. Once and Future King TH White: See me telling everyone to check out the Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper
3. Bottom of the Harbor (essays about old NY) Joseph Mitchell: A Pickpocket's Tale or City of Eros by Timothy Guilfoyle or A Beautiful Cigar Girl by Daniel Stashower
4. October Light John Gardner: Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo
5. 100 Years of Solitude. Marquez
Because it is a mind trip and everyone should try a book where you can rearrange the sections and it comes with a set of instructions: Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar
I hope this works for y'all because I'm a wee bit smashed after putting this together, and flattened bookseller does not bode well for further productivity.
Image stolen from the Boss Lady who has other pictures of the cohorts and such for view if one scrolls down far enough on the side bar of her blog.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Piecing Together Normal: An Interview with Sandi Kahn Shelton
When Dorothy Thompson approached me about having Sandi Kahn Shelton on my blog, I didn't say yes right away. Not because I feared that Sandi was a horrible writer (she most definitely is not), but because I try to host people on this blog that I would legitimately read (or be interested in reading) even if I don't get a chance to read over their book before I give it away. So armed with a name and the power of Google, I did a bit of research on Ms. Shelton, and discovered a woman with the power to look at the trials and tribulations that families cause with the humor necessary to make it through those moments.
Dodie Smith once called families "the dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hears, ever quite wish to." They are our burdens and our loves, the sources of our deepest pain and our greatest amusement. In her books, Shelton acknowledges these lows and highs with humor and poignancy, making limoncellos out of life's lemons and offering up a perfect cool read on a hot day.
It's no surprise that her latest novel has been chosen as one of Target's Bookmarked selections and it's a pleasure to have Sandi join us today to talk about writing, families and books we love.
Bookseller Chick: Thanks for joining me, Sandi. Both A Piece of Normal and your first novel, What Comes After Crazy, revolved around families. How does Lily's relationship with Dana differ from Maz's relationship with Madame Lucille?
Like Gil, Sandi has offered up a copy of her new book if you're interested, so leave your comments below. I'll take comments on both interviews until Friday when I'll draw a name at random and send off the books.
Dodie Smith once called families "the dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hears, ever quite wish to." They are our burdens and our loves, the sources of our deepest pain and our greatest amusement. In her books, Shelton acknowledges these lows and highs with humor and poignancy, making limoncellos out of life's lemons and offering up a perfect cool read on a hot day.
It's no surprise that her latest novel has been chosen as one of Target's Bookmarked selections and it's a pleasure to have Sandi join us today to talk about writing, families and books we love.
Bookseller Chick: Thanks for joining me, Sandi. Both A Piece of Normal and your first novel, What Comes After Crazy, revolved around families. How does Lily's relationship with Dana differ from Maz's relationship with Madame Lucille?
Sandi Shelton: Oooh, that’s such a good question. Nobody’s ever asked me that before, and it’s fun to think about. First I’d like to say that I love to write about families, because I think that’s where the real power that shapes us lies…and where we learn the essential truth that we can both love people and want to kill them at the same time.
In A Piece of Normal, Lily is the “got-it-all-together” sister whose life is sooo comfortable and sweet—she’s an advice columnist who tells everybody else how to live, and in fact, is still best friends with her ex-husband. (She won’t find a new lover until she finds somebody for Teddy, too!) When her little sister, the flaky punk-rocker Dana, blows into town after a ten-year tiff, Lily realizes that maybe there are just a few tiny little details about life she didn’t always have a handle on: like—hello? How did she miss the Huge Family Secret that was always right under her nose? The relationship between the two sisters goes from bad to awful—but in that way of families, they have to learn what’s worth saving and what can be walked away from.
Maz’s situation—oh, boy! She’s an only child raised by an itinerant, many-times-married fortune-teller, and somehow in her travels to carnivals with her mom, she learned how to make a decent gin and tonic and how to tell which of her mom’s many husbands was likely to stick around, but she didn’t get the essential skills of life, like how to make a home. When her own marriage falls apart, leaving her with two little girls to raise—and Madame Lucille comes back to town with her latest husband, Maz’s job isn’t to figure out how to continue being in her mother’s shadow, it’s to figure out how to stand her own ground and not let the past overwhelm her.
B.S. Chick: Speaking of family, how do you handle the responsibilities that come from being a mom and a full time writer?
Sandi: Well…it took me SEVENTEEN YEARS to write the first novel, if that’s any indication of that little balancing act! No, seriously—writing a novel was what I got to do when all the other things were done: the costumes sewed, the dioramas set up, and all the carpools carpooled. I was working—still am actually—as a feature reporter and columnist, doing magazine articles, as well as writing three humorous non-fiction books about parenting, but my real dream was to write this novel! I simply could not put it aside and forget about it, and—hey, I just realized that it finally got finished when my last child got her own driver’s license! My advice to Mom Writers everywhere: get driver’s licenses for your kids!
B.S. Chick: You've written for a number of magazines during your writing career. Is Lily's job as an advice columnist based anything you've written/done previously?
Sandi: Actually, no. That question makes me smile, because I first realized Lily was an advice columnist when she came to me as a character who was soooo smug about her life. I mean, this woman really knows the secrets of life—she even tells other people how to live. I thought it would be fun to write about somebody whose own life is kind of falling apart around the edges, meanwhile she’s telling everybody else what to do…and I figured her advice column would change to reflect her greater awareness of her own foibles.
My magazine writing wasn’t ever advice-driven; it was mainly humorous essays about parenting, which later became books in some kind of magical way. The “advice” in my books and magazine articles (if it could be boiled down into one sterling sentence) would have to be: Muddle through as best you can, and remember that no one else knows what they’re doing either.
B.S. Chick: On your website you have a feature set up for book groups to contact you about answering questions via email or setting up 30-minute conference calls, is this a new feature? Do you have any interesting stories about readers using either of these services?
Sandi: Oh, this has been very fun! Mainly this has been through phone calls. Book groups contact me, let me know when they are meeting, and then I call them at the appointed hour. We chat about the book, I answer their questions, and I’ve loved doing it. People ask such insightful questions. Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we get all analytical about human nature and writing—it’s such a great way to connect with readers.
B.S. Chick: Your books, both fiction and nonfiction, seem to contain a humorous tone. Do you believe that a good sense of humor is necessary to get through day to day life?
Sandi: Absolutely! My first book was called You Might As Well Laugh and it’s a collection of columns I wrote for my local newspaper (for ten years), many of which appeared in Working Mother magazine’s Wits’ End column. When I started writing this column for my paper, I was a single mother of two kids working in an office in which NO ONE had any kids whatsoever. Many had never heard of children. They would come in to work after having played tennis, for heaven’s sake, or just having had great sex. I, meanwhile, wandered in after just having fought with a 3-year old about why she couldn’t drink her milk out of the soy sauce bottle! The thing was, when I started my column, I just wrote about all the tragic and annoying things going on in my house, and I swear I did not know it was a humor column until people started telling me it was funny. That’s when I realized that daily life, in all its awfulness, can only be handled by laughing about it—hopefully with other people laughing with you.
B.S. Chick: Since at one time I was a bookseller and this a bookselling blog, what books do recommend my readers check out?
Wow! That’s a hard question. I love so many writers. I love Jennifer Crusie and Anne Tyler and Alice Munro and Lolly Winston and Elinor Lipman. Recently I’ve discovered the writer, Haven Kimmel, who writes the funniest and most breathtaking memoirs about growing up in Mooreland, Indiana. (Her latest is called She Got Up Off the Couch.) For those who like essays, there’s a wonderful anthology about what parenthood does to a romance, called Blindsided by a Diaper, that has essays that will make you laugh and some that will make you almost want to cry. (Full disclosure: I have one of the essays. But I’m simply in awe of the ones in that book that are not mine.)
Thank you so much, Linsey, for letting me come on your site and answer your very thought-provoking and insightful questions!
B.S. Chick: No, Sandi, thank you. If you want to hear more about Sandi you can read her blog, or catch her at any of the following stops on her virtual tour:
May 1, 2007 - The Writer's Life
May 2, 2007 - Trashionista
May 3, 2007 - Julie Kenner's Writes and Wrongs
May 4, 2007 - Night Owl Romance
May 7, 2007 - Alison Kent's Blah Blog
May 8, 2007 - Kathy Holmes' Fiction With Attitude
May 10, 2007 - Over the Hill Chick
May 15, 2007 - Bookseller Chick
May 21, 2007 - Alyssa Goodnight's On the Writers' Road Less Traveled
May 22, 2007 - The Book Pedler
May 24, 2007 - Susan Wiggs' The View from Here
May 25, 2007 - Fiction Scribe
May 28, 2007 - Blog About Romance
May 29, 2007 - Gypsy Psychic
May 31, 2007 - Pump Up Your Online Book Promotion
Like Gil, Sandi has offered up a copy of her new book if you're interested, so leave your comments below. I'll take comments on both interviews until Friday when I'll draw a name at random and send off the books.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Cleaning up the Aftermath: An Interview with Gil Reavill
Crime is big in our country, not only on the streets, but on the television as well. Nightly you can watch a CSI or Law & Order spin-off or catch any of the many other crime related dramas such as NCIS, Close to Home, or Criminal Minds. While many of these shows deal with the law aspects, CSI and NCIS tackle the crime scenes in all their bloody, stylized glory--Hollywood's take on what the end of someone's life looks like. These shows never deal with the after though. Who cleans up those bloated, week-old bodies and suicide splatters?
To this question, author Gil Reavill has the answer. He spent time working with the men behind Aftermath, Inc. a company that cleans the remains from crime scenes and works to find the best way to get blood out of the sub-flooring--jobs traditionally left to grieving families and church groups. He chronicled this time in his new nonfiction novel, Aftermath, Inc, about which PW said:
Gil, the husband of former guest columnist Jean Zimmerman, was kind enough to join me today to answer questions about his book, crime dramas, and what kind of publicity do you do for a book about cleaning up after the dead.
Gil: Among other measures, the owners of Aftermath (the company) are putting up a billboard beside a Chicago interstate that will be seen by a quarter million people a week. That’s a first for me. Gotham has promised a “killer marketing campaign.” There’s an understandable concern about public reaction to the subject matter. There are those who can’t get enough of it, and those who can’t handle any of it.
To this question, author Gil Reavill has the answer. He spent time working with the men behind Aftermath, Inc. a company that cleans the remains from crime scenes and works to find the best way to get blood out of the sub-flooring--jobs traditionally left to grieving families and church groups. He chronicled this time in his new nonfiction novel, Aftermath, Inc, about which PW said:
In this grisly, swaggering tale of gut-churning crime scenes and the men who clean them up after the forensics team is done, veteran true crime scribe Reavill (Beyond All Reason: My Life with Susan Smith) holds nothing back. From descriptions of crimes ("The fusillade of bullets tore through Johnson's body.... Blood, bits of flesh and bone fragments exploded everywhere") to hepatitis C "bleed-outs" ("All four walls of the bathroom looked like someone had taken a blood hose and turned it on them"), Reavill grabs the reader by the throat and doesn't let go. He follows the techs from Aftermath, Inc.—a bioremediation outfit in suburban Chicago—as they make the rounds of shotgun suicides, multiple murders and meth lab cleanups; dealing not only with the gross-out of the work but trying to stay sane doing it. While some black humor seeps in around the edges, Reavill mostly depicts a cadre of low-key, hardworking men doing a horrible job with respect and compassion. The narrative pace flags a bit in the last 50 pages when Reavill tries to connect Aftermath's work with larger moral issues, but otherwise, if anything can get CSI watchers to flip off the tube and pick up a book, this is it.
Gil, the husband of former guest columnist Jean Zimmerman, was kind enough to join me today to answer questions about his book, crime dramas, and what kind of publicity do you do for a book about cleaning up after the dead.
Bookseller Chick: Thanks for joining me, Gil. You've been a journalist, screenwriter, ghostwriter and the co-author of a parenting guide, how was writing Aftermath Inc different from your other projects?
Gil Reavill: In ghostwriting, which I’ve done a lot, I have a real sense of personal concealment. I’m not “me”; I’m the author to whom I’m giving voice. This is true to some degree in journalism and screenwriting as well. As a writer, I’ve always fooled around with voices and masks, with assuming other identities and characters, probably due to chicken-shit insecurities, false and otherwise. I’ve never been immersed in a subject to the degree I was working alongside the techs at Aftermath. At the same time, I’ve never been exposed personally in my writing to the degree I am in this book. I guess the two things — immersion and exposure — go together. Because I was immersed, because working with the techs remediating crime scenes had such an immediate intensity, I didn’t have any option but to wear my emotions on my sleeve. Going into the project, I wanted to appear hard-boiled, cool (in the Marshall Mcluhan sense) and “objective.” I wanted to be Hammett’s Continental Op. But I discovered I was totally unable to front in that particular way. I found the material too challenging. I needed to process these intense, jittery personal experiences through my writing. There wasn’t any other choice. I had to be me, to paraphrase Sammy Davis, Jr. So the experience of Aftermath was different from my other writing in the sense it brought me out somewhat from behind my protective journalistic smoke screen.
B.S. Chick: Once upon a time I thought I could hack it as a coroner, but having read some of the crime scene descriptions in your book I'm pretty sure I would have lost my lunch on the first day. What compelled you to follow along with Tim, Chris and their crew on their jobs?
Gil: I did lose my lunch on the first day! Literally! I come from a rationalist, humanistic background. In theory, what I was encountering — death, blood, the muck of mortality — was the most human stuff there is. So in theory, I should have been able to handle it. I could have merely accompanied the crews as a passive observer. That’s what they expected. But I felt to do the experience justice I had to strap on a respirator, climb into some Tyvek and work alongside the people who do this for a living. A line I quote in the book is from the Latin poet Terence: “Nothing human is foreign to me.” I’ve paid that line a lot of lip service in my life. Aftermath was my chance to measure my commitment to it. And as it turned out, there is quite a damn bit that is human and utterly foreign to me. You live and learn. Or at least, you live.
B.S. Chick: Was there any point where you wished you hadn't?
Gil: Plenty of times. You know that old Tooter Turtle cartoon? “Help, Mr. Wizard! I don’t want to be a crime-scene clean-up guy anymore!” I often had that feeling, “Get me out of here.” Not only because of the gore, either. Some of the scenes I encountered had a wrenching commonness to them. Up close, some lives and most deaths seem sucked dry of all romance. It’s disheartening.
B.S. Chick: How was what you experienced different from what we see on the TV crime dramas like CSI or Law & Order?
Gil: It’s the difference between the city of Orlando and Disney World. A crime scene on TV is a pretty stylized thing. Advertisers don’t want directors to get too graphic. So you see a pile of blood here and a smear of blood there. A real crime scene is a lot more chaotic than that. Blood makes it around corners and bounces underneath doors; body fluids drip into the subflooring. Hitchcock has a line: “In films murders are always very clean. I show how difficult it is and what a messy thing it is to kill a man.” On the other hand, one thing I liked about going out on jobs was measuring the differences and similarities between the world of Gil Grissom and the world of Aftermath. I’d ask myself, How might Grissom handle this? But it was mostly just a mildly amusing game. Grissom is a character played by an actor. Like most of prime-time television, shows such as CSI or Law & Order give only the most perfunctory of nods to reality.
B.S. Chick: Congrats on the great review from PW, but like Paul Bresnick I've got to ask: can anything get CSI-ers to turn off the television?
Gil: I’m a great believer in the book. You can pick up a copy of Aftermath, Inc. at JFK, fly to the west coast, and finish it by the time you land at LAX. I guarantee my book will twist your mind around in ways that the inflight movie just can’t do. I would also have no objection at all to anyone reading my book while they are watching CSI. During the commercials! There are so many! There will always be a solid core audience of reading devotees. Plus an editor friend of mine told me, “Publishers can always count on the gore fans.” I’m a great believer in the book, but I also have a couple of blogs, a MySpace page on the way and some virals on YouTube. No sense in not hedging your bets.
Gil: Among other measures, the owners of Aftermath (the company) are putting up a billboard beside a Chicago interstate that will be seen by a quarter million people a week. That’s a first for me. Gotham has promised a “killer marketing campaign.” There’s an understandable concern about public reaction to the subject matter. There are those who can’t get enough of it, and those who can’t handle any of it.
B.S. Chick: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Gil. What I've read of your book has been really interesting (I would even call it great, but given the subject matter that seems a bit inappropriate), and I'm kicking myself for offering up my copy as a giveaway. Still, a promise is a promise, so here's y'alls chance to get a free copy of Aftermath, Inc. Just leave a comment about this interview, answer whether or not you think CSI-ers will ever turn off the television, or ask a question of Gil (or hell, even myself) and I'll enter your name into the drawing for this brand new (only slightly read) copy of Gil's book.
If you still find yourself fascinated by all things Gil, visit his writing blog, and the website of Aftermath, Inc or check some of his other books j(those without a link are no longer available):
Hollywood (Compass American Guides/Random House)
Manhattan (Compass American Guides/Random House)
Beyond All Reason (Kensington)
Raising Our Athletic Daughters (Doubleday)
Smut (Sentinel/Penguin USA)
Ruthless (Simon and Schuster Spotlight Entertainment)
Aftermath, Inc. (Gotham/Penguin USA)
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