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Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Authors With Heart, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 5 of 5
1. Urgent Message from Author Erica Orloff

Erica Orloff, autho


 Erica writes:

In this little corner of the blogworld, most of us are book lovers. Book lovers and writers, people who say, "I've been writing stories since I could hold a pen," or "I was the kid holding the flashlight under the covers and reading past bedtime." In this little corner of the blogworld, we've also watched out for our own.

Merry Monteleon
Merry Monteleone (Mom and More) and her family were in the midst of raging flood waters in Westchester when heavy rains hit Chicago. The contents of the downstairs of her house were lost, and though it's just "stuff" (lives were lost in the flooding), most of us can imagine how it would feel to watch photo albums and meaningful memories wrapped up in the "stuff" of our families . . . be carried off.

While big "stuff" can be replaced with insurance, Merry lost all her books, and a group of us decided to replace them--with Amazon gift cards, with books, with signed copies of books, with ARCs. We want to see the blogosphere flood her mailbox with good wishes and replace her library. If you love books and your TBR pile is as tall as you are, you know what they mean to her.

What can you do? Send books! Send Amazon cards! Reach out to your favorite authors and ask them to send her a signed copy! For her address or more information, contact:

[email protected]

She has three children middle school and younger. Their books were in their bedrooms and most survived, but it would be great to get some books just for them, too!

Namaste!

Erica Orloff
www.ericaorloff.com
www.magickeepers.com

www.ericaorloff.blogspot.com
www.demonbabyandme.blogspot.com

2 Comments on Urgent Message from Author Erica Orloff, last added: 8/4/2010
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2. In Which Allison Burnett Discovers I'm Easy

If you're a regular reader, you saw my quasi-review of undiscovered gyrl by Allison Burnett.  Don't forget to see the postcript in which I explain the Salinger comparison a little more, as well as a strange connection to author Saundra Mitchell.

undiscovered gyrl made me cringe, made me angry, made me confused, made me think.  I hate when reviews say that books "make you think."  It's as though being thought-provoking is the best you can say about it (as opposed to being witty, eloquent, well-paced, etc.)

I've vacillated from anger to awe, from being impatient to being impressed with Burnett.  I think I'd jump on any bandwagon that tried to convince me one way or another.

Well, Allison got to me first.

You can submit your review to the undiscovered gyrl site, which is what I did. About a week later, I received an email from Allison Burnett.

What can I say? I'm easy.  Authors receive more of my adoration than "celebrities," so to have one engage with me feeds my bookish narcissism. And Burnett's not only an author, but also a force in showbiz; his career includes screenwriting. (How much do I love that he wrote the script for this fall's FAME?!)

The end result, anyway, is that I am declaring myself a news-bringer, a non-neutral force in the viral marketing campaign for undiscovered gyrl. Behold, two videos made by famous people.

The first, directed by Zalman King (he co-directed 9 1/2 weeks), features Burnett talking to the camera about how much he loves Katie, the main character of undiscovered gyrl. The only part that bugs me is his claim that we've all felt like Katie, at some point in our lives. I have to beg out of that one, actually. And I think Holly would agree with me. The vid, however, shows Burnett at his charming writerly best, and it's definitely worth two minutes.



The second video was made by Jordan Alan, and stars his wife Amanda Righetti. I appreciate the attempt, but right away it's obvious that Righetti is too beautiful, too old, too poised, too old, too polished, too old to actually be Katie as she retells the first pages of the book. Still, Righetti is stunning, so watch anyway:



Well? What do you think?

Copies of undiscovered gyrl have gone out to Beth and to Lorna, so if you didn't get an ARC, at least reserve this book at your library. It's definitely something you should read before school starts again - awesome lunchroom discussion that makes you seem both smart and funny, sort of like Amy Poehler.

6 Comments on In Which Allison Burnett Discovers I'm Easy, last added: 8/9/2009
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3. ROSEY IN THE PRESENT TENSE by Louise Hawes

Rosey in the Present Tense Rosey in the Present Tense
by Louise Hawes

March 2001 (first published 1999)by Walker Books for Young Readers
Paperback, 144 pages
0802776035 (isbn13: 9780802776037)

4 of 5 stars

Rosey spreads her arms out like an airplane, then dive-bombs off the rock.


Franklin Sanders - lacrosse player, poet, teenage boy - loves Rosey Mishimi. When Rosey dies in a car accident, Franklin can't stop thinking of her in the present tense. When Rosey's spirit appears to Franklin six months later to help him move on, Franklin refuses to acknowledge any truth except that she is there with him. Is it better to be depressed or insane?

Let's be honest. I bought this book because Louise Hawes is Queen of Awesomeness. I knew I was predisposed to like it (especially since my nickname is Rosey). I probably would have reviewed it in a positive light no matter what.

Fortunately, this novel totally merits a positive review all on its own.

A quick little read (only 128 pages), Rosey in the Present Tense appealed to me in a variety of ways. Mostly, however, I loved the characterization of Franklin. It would be easy, I think, to show this adolescent boy and reduce him to a stereotype. Hawes, of course, doesn't take the easy route. Franklin is an honest human character, ageless in his experience of loss. Only a touch of teen angst infuses his actions. He's one of the best teen male characters I've read since Harry got his very first letter from Hogwarts.

I'd recommend this book for ages 12 and up (really up - all the way to adult), but probably not as a gift.  On one hand, this may be a book you want to get from the library. I'm not sure I'd read this book a second time: I know I will cry every time I read it, and I don't really need to cry that much. On the other hand, you might want a copy of your own. I find myself pulling it off the shelf to read snippets here and there, beautiful bits of Rosey's life and Franklin's devotion to her. 

3 Comments on ROSEY IN THE PRESENT TENSE by Louise Hawes, last added: 8/1/2009
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4. STARFINDER by John Marco

Starfinder: Book One of the Skylords Starfinder: Book One of the Skylords
by John Marco

May 5th 2009 by DAW Hardcover
Hardcover, 326 pages
0756405513 (isbn13: 9780756405519)

rating: 5 of 5 stars




Moth was flying his kite near the aerodrome when he heard the dragonfly crash.
Young Moth had grown up in Calio, the mountain city, dreaming of becoming a Skynight, one of the elite pilots who flew the fragile, beautiful, newfangled flying machines called dragonflies. To the north of Calio stretched the Reach, looking like a sea of fog that never ended. Flat and peaceful, the mists of the Reach flowed all the way to the horizon, and Calio loomed over this vast forbidding expanse like a sentinel standing guard.

There were numerous tall tales about the lands beyond the Reach, and Moth heard the wildest of them from Leroux. Leroux, had once been one of the legendary Eldrin Knights, had taken guardianship of the ten-year-old when Moth's mother died. At first, Moth had been expecially fascinated by Leroux's stories of the Skylords, but at the grown-up age of thirteen, Moth was becoming increasingly skeptical about the existence of these mysterious, powerful and frightening beings from beyond the Reach.

When Leroux died, Moth was faced with an impossible task: to protect Lady Esme, Leroux's pet kestrel. And protecting Lady Esme meant venturing into the forbidden Reach with his best friend Fiona, to find dragons, battle Skylords, and discover the secret hidden within the kestrel herself.

It would be easy for me to ambiguously rave about Starfinder. As I said before, I loved it. But I know that others found it lacking, so I thought I would specify what I loved, so that you can judge whether you might use the same criteria as I.

1. It's intelligent.
The tone of the book doesn't condescend to readers. The narrative might be a little slow for someone only interested in action, but the metaphors and literary elements are delightful for those who choose to identify them. The language is lyrical but not flowery, with lots of good SAT words sprinkled throughout, in only appropriate places.

2. It's original....but familiar.

The Hindenberg meets Fantasyland? Heck, yeah. I never expected, plot-wise, what would happen next. The characters were complex enough to keep me guessing. And the Reach itself is a magical land created wholly by Marco, rather than lifted from the idea of some other one.

While the plot and characters are original, Starfinder, for me, had the feel of so many of my favorite worlds and authors and characters: Narnia, Neverland, Naussica of the Valley of the Wind, Anne McCaffrey, Lewis Carroll, Howl's Moving Castle, Xena - to name a few. In other words, this story felt very comfortable, both exciting and familiar, and that added to its charm.

3. It's got heart.
Marco is careful not to reduce any of the conflicts in Starfinder to dualisms. There are many shades of grey, and the reader is given a chance to think about what his or her own response might be even as Moth or Fiona make theirs. There's a great deal of affection - parental love, friendship - without romance playing much of a role in this book (other than, for example, a husband-wife who are obviously fond of each other.) Whatever the emotions, Marco elicits them organically, without resorting to cliches for loss or joy or anger or exhilaration.

Starfinder would make a great present for boys around ages 12 to 14 who like to read, or for reluctant boy readers ages 12 to 18. I wouldn't buy this for a girl unless I knew she was open to the strong female characters and didn't expect mushy romance. But everyone - everyone - should at least check it out from the library.

Starfinder book tour sponsored by TLC Book Tours.

9 Comments on STARFINDER by John Marco, last added: 6/13/2009
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5. AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT 7SS: Louise Hawes

I'm delighted to kick off Author Spotlight Week with an author I truly admire.  I've read one of her books and currently have three on order from B&N.

Louise Hawes was the person who inspired Authors with Heart.  When I started reviewing books, I sent the reviews via email to authors.  When I didn't ever receive responses, I quit sending them.  Then I posted my review of Black Pearls: A Faerie Strand.  A few days letter I received a lovely email from Louise.

This communication not only endeared Louise to me, but gave me the confidence to seek out interviews with other authors.  Granted, Cindy Pon and Stuart Neville, whom you'll also meet this week, agreed to do interviews so I would quit stalking them.  But others, like Julie Berry and John Marco, are direct results of my newfound faith in Authors with Heart.

While I'm pleased to offer you this interview with Louise, I also encourage you to check out her writing.  It's sensorial, intelligent, graceful....much like Louise herself.



Step #1
LIGHTNING ROUND
  • Mac or PC? PC
  • keep or toss?  I don't speak toss. I still have clothes I wore in high school!
  • aisle or window? Aisle
  • LA or New York?  Sorry, I'm not a city girl, not any city. I like my air without smog and my mornings filled with bird songs, not honking horns and squeaking brakes.
  • pen or pencil? Pencil for free writes, pen for contracts. The first need to flow, the second need to last!
  • Bronte sisters or Louisa May Alcott?  I read Jane Eyre every year. It's among my all-time faves; I even wrote a novel, Waiting for Christopher, about it!
  • cake or ice cream? I thought they were a set :-)
Step #2
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 like to work on more than one kind of project at a time. If I'm working on a novel, it's like R and R to take a "break" and develop a picture book. If I'm writing a short story, building a poem is a fun "vacation" and helps tighten my language at the same time. Each piece feeds and is nourished by the others. So if I get stuck on one project, I often find the solution by working on something else.

Step #3
TEACH US one or two of your favorite vocabulary words.
You're talking to someone who reads the dictionary for fun! I love the history of words as well as the music they make. One of my favorites I've worked it into several books is OTIOSE. It sounds just like what it means -- lazy, slow, useless. It can describe a river, a person, a mood. It comes from the Latin word, otisosus, meaning idle.

Step #4
BOOK BLANKS
  • The last book I finished reading was Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham.
  • I gave it unlimited stars.
  • One word to describe it is brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. (You said one word, right? But you didn't limit how many times I could use it :-)).
Step #5
Describe what you’re doing/where you are as you’re taking this interview. What project are you working on while you’re there?
I'm a Writer in Residence at an Arts Center in southern North Carolina. It's an elegant, historically preserved mansion with beautiful gardens, lovely writers' quarters named after NC writers (I'm sleeping in the Thomas Wolfe room, which comes complete with ghost :-)), a gorgeous sun porch (with WiFi, of course!), and blissful quiet everywhere. I'm working on a new novel and putting together a lecture for the July residency at the Vermont College MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program. Can't think of a nicer setting in which to work my buns off!!


Step #6
From the beginning of your writing career through now, what are one or two lessons you’ve learned – about the writing/publishing process, marketing, or, you know, just life in general?
We're in this together. No one can be objective about her own work; we all need readers (preferably other writers) whose eyes and hearts we trust to give us honest responses to our writing. A good writers' group is priceless!

I've learned over time that some of the roughest patches in my life have made me a better writer. I hope they've made me a better person, too. Hard times have a way of tenderizing us.

Step #7
GIVE US THE SCOOP. Tell us something about yourself that’s exclusive to In Search of Giants (ie, has never been publicized in print or podcast interviews.)
You mean besides the fact that I'm allergic to chocolate? (Weep for me...) Okay, here's a real scoop: I've just finished a story for a new graphic novel being put together with four other writers. Fallen Angels comes out with DC/Vertigo next year, and includes Holly Black on the writing team and the gifted fantasy illustrator Rebecca Guay, who did the gorgeous illustrations for my last book, Black Pearls, a Faerie Strand. I can't wait for everyone to see this project--it is amazing!!

Thank you so much for letting me interview you, Louise!

6 Comments on AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT 7SS: Louise Hawes, last added: 6/15/2009
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