There's only one person in the world for whom I'd post a picture of Coca-Cola on my blog: Sarah Hina. I mean, people. I'm a lifelong Pepsi loyalist. My allegiance to Pepsi comes before my religion, my political affiliation - heck, even my marriage vows. Do you perceive how much I love this woman?
Only slightly less do I love her debut novel, Plum Blossoms in Paris (Medallion Press). Now, you might think I'm biased, since I just posted a picture of The-Drink-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named for her. You'd be wrong. The horrid truth is that I didn't like Sarah at all when I first encountered her at Jason Evans' "Whispers" Clarity of Night contest (hey, there's another contest going on right now!)
Let's nevermind the whys and wherefores. Let's zoom ahead to the point that, feeling comfortable in the writing community of which we're a part, I ordered a copy of Sarah's novel to be supportive. And then, to be competitive with a slower reader friend and another mutual friend who'd already received hers, I started reading it. And about three hours later, I'd finished it.
Plum Blossoms in Paris is the story of Daisy Lockhart, med student and slightly type-A personality, who gets dumped by her boyfriend-almost-fiancee. Via email. After crying a while, she does what any self-respecting young twentysomething does: empties her savings and flies to Paris (with her supplemental oxygen). Where she takes in art, meets a boy, loses her preconceived notions and finds herself. And all of this is told in luxurious, melting and intelligent prose (Hina's poetry is "the best-kept secret on the internet.")
And Sarah herself? One of those melting and intelligent dearhearts without whom life would be colorless, tasteless, and void of meaning. Without further ado, I present novelist Sarah Hina.
Step #1
LIGHTNING ROUND
The Old Spice guy | <
Plum Blossoms author Sarah Hina |
Plum Blossoms in Paris will be officially released on August 1. Stay tuned for my review (5 stars) as well as an interview with Sarah. Also, check out the Flash Fiction contest (see below) to win your own copy!
coming in September
Paranormalcy will be released September 21. Win an ARC (see below) by dazzling the pants off Kiersten White!
I submitted to get born magazine on a Friday and by Monday kne
Blog: In Search of Giants (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: YA, Stephen Parrish, book bits, Add a tag
Book Bits are mini-mini-reviews of books that I either don't have time or inclination to review fully. However, I have read the entirety of the books I mention. If you've reviewed any of these books, leave your permalink in the comments so others can check out varying opinions!
Today's list includes books I want to recommend as particularly suited to your summer reading list. What books do you recommend?
A Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson
May 10th 2007 by Puffin (first published 1996)
Paperback, 416 pages
0142408662 (isbn13: 9780142408667)
rating: 5 of 5 stars
A romance to end all romances, set in Austria just before the war. If you've not read any of Ibbotson's YA romances, just know that my heart is beating a little faster simply thinking about this book. Read this, or any of her others (The Morning Gift, The Reluctant Heiress, A Countess Below Stairs, A Company of Swans). Then come back and thank me!
(first published 2010)
Hardcover, 352 pages
1416990658 (isbn13: 9781416990659)
rating: 4 of 5 stars
I kept waiting for Matson to flub up, to execute some unforgivable writing mistake. This is an author I really want to hate because the book is just that good and I wish I'd written it. Thank heavens, I get to read it. You'll want to, too.
Aurelia by Anne Osterlund
April 17th 2008 by Puffin (first published April 1st 2008)
Paperback, 288 pages
0142405795 (isbn13: 9780142405796)
rating: 4 of 5 stars
I came away with a crush on one of the characters, a respect for intelligent, fiesty, romantic, common-sense Aurelia, and a little bit winded from the twist at the ending I didn't see coming (I'm very difficult to surprise.) Also pick up Academy 7 by Osterlund.
Hardcover, 192 pages
0385736622 (isbn13: 9780385736626)
rating: 5 of 5 stars
I have to say, this was almost better than Holes. Yeah, it's just that good. Plus the best explanation of religion
Blog: In Search of Giants (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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(Made you look!)
His circle of writing friends have pitched in with some fun games and great prizes, including:
- winner's choice, any book (contest for sending people over)
- $50 Amazon gift card (book trailer contest)
- one tailor-made e-media kit inclusive of: a news release, a backgrounder and a bio for your book, business, whatever.
- signed copy of BAD ICE
- Texas care package
- a first chapter critique (up to 20 pages)
- a signed copy of Plum Blossoms in Paris (released Aug 1)
- a signed copy of The Note
- Autographed copies of the 3 Derek Stillwater novels--The Devil's Pitchfork, The Serpent's Kiss, and The Fallen
- One coffee mug created by a talented Nova Scotia artisan with a pound of Ooh La La! French Roast (or other blend) from Laughing Whale roasters.
Blog: In Search of Giants (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: author interview, Stephen Parrish, 7-step scoop, 7ss, Add a tag
Little can be said about Stephen Parrish; less should be. He was one of those chaps in the group of "serious writers" into which I stumbled about two years ago. His killer wit and strange attachment to improper spelling make him weirdly endearing.
Parrish's debut novel The Tavernier Stones was released officially on May 1. It's an intellectual's adventure story spanning two continents, Amish and Catholic religions, cartography, gemology and more math than I could ever learn. All without being stuffy or irrelevant.
You can learn important stuff about Stephen at some of his other blog tour stops (see below). For all the non-important stuff, here is my own interview with Mr. Parrish.
Step #1
LIGHTNING ROUND
- beer or wine? Wine, red, full of spice.
- Miss Snark or Evil Editor? Miss Snark. I just can't picture Evil Editor in stiletto heels.
- rich or brilliant? Brilliant, no question about it. If I think a girl is pretty, then discover she's an airhead, a strange thing happens to my perception: I no longer think she's pretty.
- clever or sincere? If you let me replace "sincere" with "authentic," then I choose it over clever. Be who you really are and I don't care if my jokes go over your head.
- celebrity crush: Cate Blanchett.
- a phrase you use often: "Don't make me come over there and sit on you."
- favorite movie: The best movie ever made, if movies can be ranked, is "Ben Hur."
TELL US about any of your weird writing habits or idiosyncracies. (ie, What’s one “thing” you need to write, the thing without which the creative juices would cease to flow?)
I have to have a title, even if just a working title, before I can write a single word. And I have to have a name for a character before I can make him do anything. Otherwise it's just a matter of laying down words, any words at all, to seed the composition. And a good way to pick up tomorrow where you leave off today is to quit in mid-sentence.
Step #3
TEACH US one or two of your favorite vocabulary words.
1. Boner. Being out of vogue makes it funny. Also, I was formally reprimanded recently for using it in business correspondence, so naturally I employ it every chance I get. Boner, boner, boner.
2. Brain, used as a verb, i.e., to brain someone, to strike him on the head. Francis Parkman liked this verb when describing one person attacking another from behind: "He brained him unawares." That such expressions have fallen out of vogue is one of the crises the English language faces in modern times.
3. Metaphysical. Nobody really knows what it means, but it sure sounds heavy.
Step #4
BOOK BLANKS
- The last book I fi
14 Comments on AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT 7SS: Stephen Parrish, last added: 5/6/2010Display Comments Add a Comment
Blog: In Search of Giants (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: contests, author interview, Stephen Parrish, 7-step scoop, 7ss, Tavernier Stones, Add a tag
- An Interview with Stephen Parrish
- A Review of Parrish's Debut Novel,
The Tavernier Stones - A Contest to Win
a New Copy of The Tavernier Stones
IN THE MEANTIME:
(Yes, seriously.)
Blog: In Search of Giants (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Facebook, Brendan Fraser, suzanne collins, Stephen Parrish, Kristin Cashore, Clarity of Night, Add a tag
The one thing I know about 2010 is that I will not, at least for the first few months, be accepting any books for review. I will still occasionally review the books I do read (acquired on my own). I will still comb my fellow book bloggers' sites for recommendations. If I'm going to pressure myself to do anything, though, it's going to be to write. Then y'all can review my book.
Ultimately, I rarely have success with resolutions. I end up completing exactly the opposite of that which I've set out to achieve. This year it's going to be different. This year I'm making a list of resolutions which can last the entire year, a list of things I want to accomplish that I know are within my grasp. (And....if by some strange, random chance I once again complete exactly the opposite....well, c'est la vie.)
Here are my Resolutions for 2010:
1. Gain 20 lbs.
2. Lose patience with my children at least twice a day.
3. Set aside time to write and end up whittling it away playing around on Facebook.
4. Never respond to emails, inbox messages, or phone messages.
5. Eat my weight in junk food each day.
6. Read only garbage, like books written by Ann Coulter or people with names that end in "y."
7. Blog once a month. Never mention Stephen Parrish.
8. Wait until 2011 to read the third Hunger Games novel and the third Kristin Cashore novel. Ignore Quencher, Plum Blossoms in Paris, The Tavernier Stones and Paranormalcy altogether.
9. Refuse to have dinner with Brendan Fraser when he discovers my winning Clarity of Night entry.
10. Lose any interest in finding a cure for autism, or even in finding coping mechanisms to help those children and their parents.
Blog: In Search of Giants (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Pete Dudley, Precie, same-sex marriage, McKoala, Clarity of Night, Aniket, Co-Dictators, sarah laurenson, ChrisEldin, contests, writing, author spotlight, Ello, Stephen Parrish, Add a tag
Dear Betty,
You win. (Okay, Pete helped.) Rather nasty trick, there, invoking the Boss's name. You know I am powerless against the Co-Dictators of the Universe.
My entry to the current Clarity of Night contest is here. Or you can read it in the postscript. I keep hoping for one of those magical epiphanies that write themselves, 250 words of such depth and perfection that it reduces Parrish to tears. Sadly, no such epiphany occurred for this contest. I will jump cartwheels if only I can stay in the Forties Club (do not even dare to suggest that has anything to do with my age).
I've read but not commented on all the entries. Some, like this one, are way too profound for my summertime brain. Some (like Tessa's, and Sarah's are poetry: I stink at appreciating poetry.
Quite a few of my peeps entered: Merry, Ello, Chris, Aniket, wolfie, Paul, Pete, Parrish, J.C., Precie, Angelique, Dottie, Sandra, Absolute Vanilla, Surly Writer, Whirlochre. Am I well-connected or what? (Yes, I hobnob.)
My current favorites are da Boss's and Sylvia's and Tre'von's. I think. At least right now.
Not only is my Clarity entry not to the level I'd hoped, my word counts on the WIPs are lagging. McKoala's going to claw me soon, I'm afraid. I know your own poetry and Rumpelstiltskin writing is going well, even if I haven't left comments. I'm all-knowing that way.
I hope that your home ownership and kitchen remodelling are going well. You will certainly need to get ahead of things in order to fill the Boss's shoes when he's on leave. First thing you can do is raise my salary. Royalty needs bling, you know.
Do give my best to Mrs. Betty and to Zora.
Cordially,
the Queen
PS - I haven't mailed your books yet, but I also haven't forgotten.
PPS - Here's my entry:
Presage
by Aerin Rose
Twenty-two hours from San Francisco to Kathmandu. Four hours until the layover in Hong Kong. Caelin will have finished grading papers by then. She arches her back, stretching, then wiggles her toes, and catches the eye of the flight attendant.
“More, please.” She indicates the travel-sized wineglass. The remaining ruby droplets glisten in the spotlight of her reading lamp. The attendant nods from the galley.
“You realize that’s basically grape juice?” Chloe peers around the headrest as her business class bed reverts to its upright position.
“It’s a second growth Bordeaux and you know it, O Queen Food Critic,” Caelin retorts. “How’d you sleep?”
“Not well. Looks like fourteen bottles of questionable Bordeaux didn’t help you sleep, either.”
“Excited?”
“And nervous. What if she hates us?”
“Sweetheart.” Caelin strokes her wife’s cheek as Chloe unfolds the passport she’s been clutching. A little girl with dark eyes and copper skin gazes at them, unsmiling and unafraid. “She liked us well enough before. Any kid will hate her parents at some point. Let’s just focus on getting her home.”
The flight attendant materializes with the bottle of Château Cos-d'Estournel 1989, which streams like scarlet silk into the stemware.
“Like the orphanage is going to let her come home when you show up drunk,” Chloe teases, leaning close. Caelin smiles into her spouse’s black curls. Points of light play on the surface of her wine, casting images against the back of the seat in a rosy haze.
Blog: Summer Friend (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Happy birthday, Stephen!
Surprise, surprise! A little birdie came and whispered in my ear. Stephen is one of my blogging buddies and if you've never checked out his blog, do visit. Don't be fooled by those tear-jerking Hallmark commercials Stephen posts--he also tears into politics and other controversial subjects and he does not back away from being specific! You might be uncomfortable; you might disagree; but you will definitely be made to think!
Plus, he plays with Barbies!
Blog: La Bloga (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: short stories, ucla fowler, francisco goldman, michael heralda, dominicana, rigoberto gonzalez, Add a tag
Annecy Báez. My Daughter’s Eyes and Other Stories. Willimantic CT: 2007.
Such a tightly knit story, I wonder what leads Annecy Báez to her subtitle for her 2007 “My Daughter’s Eyes and Other Stories”? Maybe a woman's life is an assemblage of chapters that, put together, eventually form a coherent body, but one at a time, each event is what it is.
Covering the period between 1972 when the narrator, Mia, is thirteen, and 2000, when Mia’s own daughter is thirteen and a half, seventeen stories trace her life as Mia stumbles her way to sexuality and coming of age, loving her child’s father, and watching her own daughter approach the age when Mia’s life bent its way.
Little Mia has no strong reason to resist the impassioned entreaties of teenaged lothario, Pito. But for at least one story, Mia doesn’t yield to her own curiosity nor Pito’s sales pitch. A few years later, Mia and her mother suffer a huge public blowout over a pair of sexy shoes for Mia’s 15th birthday. Báez begins to weave a cyclic theme here suggested in the title, the world as seen by the daughter through her mother’s eyes. Vice versa can prove as devastating to reader comfort with such intimate looks into this girl's growing up. The mother genuinely fears red shoes will lead to a daughter’s downfall to sins of the flesh. Much of her fear grows from frenzied coital flashbacks competing for the mother’s attention while she’s coming to terms with her daughter’s emergence. The dissonance between the daughter’s hopeful innocence and the heat of the mother's recent passion grows so tremendous, the woman faints. This story closes with a dapper Samaritan closing in on mother and her lithe daughter.
I tell a more lurid version, perhaps it’s the male reader of me. Annecy Báez develops the story of the women in Mia’s family with more subtlety, and a deft woman’s touch. These are the types of stories little girls should read as cautionary tales for certain inevitabilities of their next few years development as women. These are the types of stories little boys should read to walk away with keener insight into the way girls think. Some lessons here would be excellent preparation for the hurdles of courtship rituals. Then there are the assholes. Mix in the efforts of a good class discussion, and reading My Daughter’s Eyes might be one of the best reading experiences in a middle school or high school kid’s so-called life.
Báez’ compelling collection ends on a hopeful note, thankfully. Parental and sexual abuse permeate the story and there’s a suggestion of a ceaseless pattern and ritualized ignorance. But by 2000, a mother has learned her lessons. Her choices have been her choices; leave it to the reader to say they were bad ones. This mother has determined to deal levelheaded with her daughter, aware that a mother’s past need not define the changes a daughter must go through. This mother welcomes such changes, not shuns them. At only 176 pages, some readers will want to read it twice to let some of the points sink in.
My Daughter’s Eyes and Other Stories won the 2007 Marmol Award for First Fiction. Publication of this work, and a cash advance against royalties, recognize Annecy Báez’ accomplishment in joining previous winners include Sylvia Torti - The Scorpion's Tail, 2005, 2004: Mary Helen Lagasse - The Fifth Sun; 2003: Carla Trujillo - What Night Brings; 2002: Lorraine Lopez - Soy La Avon Lady and Other Stories. Marmol did not have a 2006 winner.
Sun., Jan. 13, 2008 2:30 pm
Griots in the Gallery: Aztec Stories
Experience the world of the Mexica/Aztecs through poetry, oral tradition stories, and ballads. Storyteller Michael Heralda shares the history, language, foods, and arts from an indigenous perspective. His performance is enhanced by traditional instruments made by hand, including Mayan Bubalek Gourd Water Drums and numerous flutes, shakers, and rattles,
offering plenty of opportunities for audience participation.
New Review in El Paso paper.
La Bloga friend, poet and critic Rigoberto Gonzalez reviews Grove Press' new release of Francisco Goldman's political title, The bishop's murder. Gonzalez concludes in his 1/6/08 El Paso Times review:
Goldman's skillful and energetic prose gives this exhausting real-life narrative a necessary push. The supplementary sources such as the index, chronology of events and "dramatis personae" are essential for keeping track of the multiple threads explored in this confounding investigation.
"The Art of Political Murder" is also the art of investigative reporting. Goldman works hard to examine even the smallest of details that contributed to this high-profile case, which became a defining moment in reconnecting a wartorn country to its long-threatened notion of justice.
La Bloga welcomes guest columnists, news, ideas, reviews, opinions, recipes, and appropriate
stuff. Our newest La Bloga bloguera, Sunday's Ann Cardinal, joins us after a string of warmly welcomed guest columns. If you've something to share, send an email to a La Bloga bloguera bloguero, click here, or leave a comment below. The only comments we don't welcome are those that go "grate column. Check out my desert acreage site at nowhere.com". Sabes? Hay les wachamos until next Tuesday.
@Aerin: You might as well drink sugar syrup instead of Pepsi. Coke rules (not specifying powder or liquid :P) Beer trumps everything though.
@Sarah: Seems I'm the only one around who liked Kirk over Picard.
Wow, I've managed to upset both of you. :)
So Aerin, you didn't like Sarah, han? I mean I hate her too, for she never makes a mistake in writing. Not even a typo or a missed period. Its almost inhuman. But thats all there is to it. But whats the scoop with your story. *brings popcorn* Give me some dirt.
This is a terrific interview. Thank you both.
Add one more vote for Coke.
Sarah's writing is so good, I'm going to have to tone down my review so it doesn't sound like hyperbole.
If I'd known there were so many heathens (ie, Coke people) who visited this blog, I'd have restricted access ages ago.
Well, you people are here now, nothing I can do about it.
Aniket - I will save that story for another popcorn party.
As a true Texan, I'm a Dr. Pepper man myself. Well that, Big Red and Shiner Bock Beer.
And I didn't like Sarah at first either. Okay I liked her, what's not to like, those eyes done me in, but I will admit to be a pang or two of jealousy.
I love the way you interview Aerin.
Aniket - it got to a point, with Aerin and me, of hair-pulling and bitch-slapping. You'd have loved it.
Richard - you and Aerin have spoiled me for the rest of the tour. Truly outstanding questions all around.
Steve - thanks. I'm already blushing.
Aerin - I bet Old Spice Guy drinks Coke. Actually, in looking at his pecs in that pic again, I bet he drinks Diet Coke. And I bet he smells real nice while drinking it.
Thank you for this. It's more than I deserve. Now go kick some ass on that CoN entry, woman.
Travis - Dr. Pepper?
I don't even think I know who you are anymore.
@Sarah: See thats what I'm talking about. I want those kinda details. Who gave whom a black eye?
Travis and Dr. Pepper. Go figure.
It's like finding out that John Wayne liked to wear frilly pink underwear. :-)
Dr. Pepper is the soft drink equivalent of frilly pink underwear?
Not here in Texas my friend.
10, 2, and 4 be damned.
Here in the Lone Star state DP reigns supreme as the only major drink invented withing the borders. And if you ever make it down near Waco stop in at the factory in Dublin and have a real DP with pure cane sugar. They are far superior to the commercial variety in stores that uses corn sweetener
fantastic interview, aerin. why don't talk show hosts ask questions this interesting?
and great answers, sarah. though i first read "funereal" as "funreal" - like fun+unreal. but - no.
what is funreal, though, is imagining you exclaiming "geez louise! that would puke a hound bitch from a gut wagon!" i don't even know what that means but find it supremely entertaining.
and, for the record, when it comes to coke vs. pepsi - if you can tell which one it is, there isn't enough bourbon in it.
I drank some Dr. Pepper in Travis's honor, and now all I can see before me are the whole bunch of you wearing frilly pink underwear.
Is that normal for a newbie?
Joaquin - Geez Louise, you're funny.
I moseyed on over from Jason's blog to check you out and found a wonderful interview that really engaged me. I fell in love with Sarah from your interview not because of her book (which I haven't read but will) but because she knew what "resistance is futile' is and there was even a picture of Jean-Luc! :::squeals all around:::
In all seriousness, thank you for commenting on my story (Synesthesia) over at Clarity of Night. I appreciate your insight and really supportive words!