The Road to Somewhere: An American Memoir by James A. Reeves
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Uncategorized
Book Review: Field Notes on Science and Nature by Michael R. Canfield
Field Notes on Science and Nature by Michael R. Canfield
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Book Review: Dinosaur in a Haystack by Stephen Jay Gould
Dinosaur in a Haystack by Stephen Jay Gould
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Guest Post From No.1 Bestselling Author Vincent Zandri: So are You Indy or Anal?
Today I welcome bestselling author Vincent Zandri to the blog, but you’re probably not here to read my words, so I’m handing over to the master:
If I had a nickle for every time I got asked the question, “Are you a seat-of-the-pants kind of writer?” In other words, am I an “Indiana Jones” who just adventurously barrels ahead without mapping out my scenes ahead of time in the hopes of allowing my story to form naturally or what all the no-gluten-professor geeks at writing school call, “organically?” Or do you actually write up character sketches that include everything from place of birth to bathroom habits, and then map out each chapter detail for detail? The answer I give is not really an answer. “It depends on the book,” I tell them. “And it also depends on the character.” If I’m writing a book like THE REMAINS that’s intended to be stand-alone literary thriller that contains subject matter such as identical twins, modern art and autistic savants and that is also told from the P.O.V. of a women, you can bet your bottom ten-spot that I’m gonna plan it out ahead of time. I’m also going to do some meticulous research so that reviewers on Amazon don’t crucify me. In the end if I’ve done my job right and the writing is convincing enough, I just might have a bestseller on my hands. And THE REMAINS has been just that. A bestseller for over a year.
But if I’m writing a novel like one of the Dick Moonlight Serials, now that’s another story altogether. The Richard “Dick” Moonlight of MOONLIGHT FALLS MOONLIGHT MAFIA, and the forthcoming MOONLIGHT RISES and MURDER BY MOONLIGHT is a total train wreck of a guy. He’s got a little piece of .22 caliber bullet lodged inside his brain from a failed suicide attempt. The piece has lodged itself right beside his cerebral cortex causing him the occasional short term memory lapse and lack of judgement, especially under times of stress, which is usually always. He drinks too much, and he can also pass out at any time or even suffer stroke, coma and death. In a word, Moonlight has no clue if he’ll be alive from one minute to the next. So his relentless search for right over wrong is always an unplanned adventure. Since he narrates all of his own stories, I feel the best way to write his books is to do so by the seat-of-my-pants. And thus far anyway, you loyal readers of mine (you know who you are), have sort of fallen in love with the dude. And that’s a cool thing since he’s the character who is most like me. So what’s the best way for you to write your book? Remember when you’d ask you mom or dad what was for dinner, and not having decided on anything yet, they might ask you in return, “Well what do you feel like?” A lot of what we decide to put in our body is based not only on a craving but more so on what our bodies are lacking at that time. If we’re protein starved we want meat or chicken. If were worn out and carb poor, we want pasta or even pizza. It’s the same with writing. Listen to you body and your brain, but most of all listen to your gut. Not your gut mind you, but the gut inside your main character. Is he or she someone who will want to be guided and reigned in? Or is he or she someone who won’t plan for the next five minutes much less two afternoons from now? Just remember, writing is a personal venture and there is no right or wrong way to do it. There is only just doing it.Visit Vincent Zandri (that’s me!) at Amazon’s Author Central: (they asked me to say that!)
Vincent Zandri is the No. 1 International Bestselling author of the thrillers THE INNOCENT, GODCHILD, MOONLIGHT FALLS, THE REMAINS andCONCRETE PEARL. An MFA in Writing graduate of Vermont College, he has was a Stringer for The Albany Times Union Newspaper, and a contributor toNew York Newsday, Hudson Valley Magazine, Game and Fish Magazine, and more. His short fiction has appeared in many of the leading journals and magazines, Orange County Magazine, Buffalo Spree, Negative Capability, The Maryland Review, Rosebud, The Best of Rosebud, Lost Creek Lettersamong them. His novels, stories, and journalism have been translated into many foreign languages including the Dutch, Japanese, French, Russian and Turkish. A freelance photo-journalist, foreign correspondent, and Blogger for RT, Globalspec and International Business Times, he divides his time between New York and Florence, Italy.
For more on the author, go to WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM.
Book Review: Concrete Pearl by Vincent Zandri
Vincent Zandri is one hell of a writer. He’s the author of other thrillers such as The Innocent, Godchild and The Remains (my review of The Remains is here), but Vincent scares me, he makes me wonder where he gets his inspiration, if it’s as true to life as it seems; I’m worried!
Concrete Pearl twists and shocks from the first page to the last. The main character, Ava “Spike” Harrison, she got her name from impaling her foot on a six-penny nail on the first construction site she worked on, is about to have a very bad day.
She’s the boss of Harrison Construction, the company that was originally her beloved fathers, and now Spike’s the boss. She’s a tough, no nonsense character who will never give up, never roll-over. Harrison Construction already has a number of health and safety convictions, accidents that weren’t Spike’s fault but corporately the company takes the hit. Today it’s going to get a lot worse. Today asbestos is going to be found on the current work site. That work site’s a school. Worse; that work site is a school that still has children in it while the work carries on around them. Asbestos contamination might equal sick kids. Cancer. Dead. Kids.
The authorities shut the site down, Spike’s company is under suspicion of negligence, but Spike’s company sub-contracted the asbestos removal and now the removal company and the lab that verified their test results, have shut-down, they’ve vanished. Spike needs to find them and settle what’s happened and clear her name.
The characters are lifelike and believable, some are so believable that you’ll hate them, want to take them out yourself. You’ll feel for others, want to help them. All the characters make this book the more believable page, after page, to the last page.
Zandri winds the plot tighter and tighter, he squeezes his lead character to incredible levels. You wonder if she will ever sort out her problems as with each page a new issue raises its ugly head. As accusations of negligence move to accusations of murder, the author redefines the term “thriller”.
As you think Spike is buried deep, Zandri turns the plot in her favour, revelation follows revelation. You start to wonder just who you can trust. Is anyone innocent? Some are. Zandri manages to tie up a plot and leave the reader very satisfied. What happens to Spike? Well you’ll just have to read the book and find out for yourself.
At the start of this review, I questioned the author’s inspiration, why? Well simply because I did a little reading around, his blog, other reviews before I read this book. Vincent Zandri appears to borrow from his own life as part of his books. A character in the books’ son is born on Halloween, I understand that Zandri’s son is too, and Spike’s family name, Zandris son’s name. So then what is it that Vincent Zandri knows about the construction industry, it’s claimed that this a fictional story based on real events?
Whether this is true or not it doesn’t really matter, because Zandri is one hell of an author, and although he is well published and sells books, he’s probably not the household name of the likes of Patterson or Brown; Clancy or Child; but he deserves to be. Zandri deserves to be the author I see in the window of Waterstones as I walk down the high street; to be in the 3 for 2’s. The one that everyone is talking about, the one that is on bigger blogs than mine. That’s what he deserves, I hope he gets it, but either way I’m buying his next book, and probably the one after that. It’s rare to find an author that you want to read book after book, but Vincent Zandri is in that league.
5 out of 5 Stars – I Loved It!
Review Disclaimer: I received a free kindle version of Concrete Pearl to review as a part of Vincent Zandri’s virtual book tour. I have previously read his novels, and so am familiar with his work, but I have received no other endorsement for this review.
Come back tomorrow to read a post direct from Vincent Zandri himself.
Vincent Zandri is the No. 1 International Bestselling author of the thrillers THE INNOCENT, GODCHILD,MOONLIGHT FALLS, THE REMAINS and CONCRETE PEARL. An MFA in Writing graduate of Vermont College, he has was a Stringer for The Albany Times Union Newspaper, and a contributor to New York Newsday, Hudson Valley Magazine, Game and Fish Magazine, and more. His short fiction has appeared in many of the leading journals and magazines, Orange County Magazine, Buffalo Spree, Negative Capability, The Maryland Review,Rosebud, The Best of Rosebud, Lost Creek Lettersamong them. His novels, stories, and journalism have been translated into many foreign languages including the Dutch, Japanese, French, Russian and Turkish. A freelance photo-journalist, foreign correspondent, and Blogger for RT, Globalspec and International Business Times, he divides his time between New York and Florence, Italy.
For more on the author, go to WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM.
In Conversation With Alex Pruteanu, Author of Short Lean Cuts
It’s my honour to welcome Alex Pruteanu, author of Short Lean Cuts to the blog, and talk to him about his latest book.
My review of Short Lean Cuts is at the bottom of this pos.
Hi Alex,
Thanks for agreeing to do this Q & A on your book “Short Lean Cuts”, welcome to my blog!
Thanks for agreeing to do this Q & A on your book “Short Lean Cuts”, welcome to my blog!
So cutting straight to the questions then:
TW: Tell me a little about your book, what’s it about and where did the inspiration come from?
AP: Thanks for shooting off these questions, Alan. I appreciate you giving me the time and the forum to talk a bit about this. First of all, Short Lean Cuts is a novella…it’s quite compact, and that’s a good thing. The prose style is very short, very lean, very staccato and direct. I don’t think the style would’ve worked as well had this been a full on novel. I tried to create a style that reads a bit more modern, more fragmented…almost in a way that most people think in the 21st Century. The story is a confessional of sorts, or a manifesto that is being left behind by the main character; a narcissistic, hypochondriac, perhaps mentally unstable ex-academic who has decided to sell himself as a product in exchange for face-time/air time on television, and the documentation of what he believes is a sort of skewed or obtuse resolution to his life and his ambitions. It’s a satire examining issues like consumerism in the USA, self-importance, and the concept of exploiting ourselves and our lives in exchange for notoriety and press. I was motivated to touch on these issues by realising how the human psyche was being driven and pushed via social networks and outlets for exposure and/or expostulation–like “reality shows.”
TW: Now, reading Short Lean Cuts there are some quite hard scenes in there, and it’s probably not everyone’s cup-of-tea. Who should read your book and why or why not?
AP: The work does examine some nasty, seedy, fetishistic sides of ourselves, sure, but I’d say other than children under the age of 18, I don’t see any reason why most people couldn’t handle reading this book. I think we get to see enough truth in the novel to make some of us uncomfortable…but I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. I’ve personally never had any problems being pushed outside what I find comfortable whether in art, music, or writing…and often times I’ve appreciated the shove toward positions I may have thought too extreme or too shocking. I think it’s an artist’s job to move things forward, to progress. Nothing in this book, in my opinion, exists to merely shock for some kind of gratuitous value. Everything that happens has motivation and reason, I believe.
TW: You’ve been writing on your website (S)wine: ShortLeanCuts I think since 2007, tell me a little about how your writing has evolved from writing short fiction on the web to the genesis of Short Lean Cuts.
AP: In fact I’ve been writing in the online medium since spring of 2004, but my fiction site has undergone a few different name changes and maybe format changes. I initially wrote what became Short Lean Cuts in small bursts—individually-named stories, mainly due to limited amounts of time. But I also wrote with the idea of one day unifying the small flash fiction bits (each chapter could originally stand as its own short, flash story) into a larger whole. Each chapter appeared on my site as an distinctive piece in the span of one year in 2007. When I undertook the process of bringing everything together, I re-wrote each chapter and filled in what I thought were some blanks or some holes. At this point, I no longer believe each chapter could be plucked out of the book and stand concretely as a complete short story; everything is tied logically now, with every chapter propping up the theme of the book.
TW: Short Lean Cuts was available first as an e-book on kindle and nook. Did this sort of publishing make it easier for you to bring the book to market, and did it help to make the paperback edition a reality or did you always plan to have a print version?
AP: The process of bringing this book out to the public was blistering fast, when we talk about the general timeline of books being released. I think it was within four or five weeks of my decision to make this available that the ebook was on sale for the Kindle and the Nook worldwide. The tools available for e-publishing on Amazon and Barnes & Noble are amazing for authors now, and amazingly simple, as well. Indeed, my original idea was to release this book in paperback version, but I quickly changed my mind, seeing the trend, and sale of ebooks in 2011. And so I produced and formatted it for electronic devices and scrapped the idea of a paper product. But to my surprise, there was a big demand for the paperback version as well. I ran into a lot of people who preferred to have a ‘real product’ to hold and to leaf through, to carry, to bend, to underline or highlight. So I decided to publish that myself, as well. After investigating a couple of options, I decided to go with Amazon Publishers. And with the help of my wife, we produced and laid out the manuscript, and we designed the front and back cover, before Amazon approved the copy and manufactured the book. It wasn’t an overly complicated process, but we did make a few mistakes and had to go back to the drawing board a couple of times. Overall it was a brilliant experience and we learned so much from bringing this project to fruition.
TW: So what next? Is there a Short Lean Cuts #2 in the pipeline or do you have another project in mind?
AP: Well it’s funny you mention a continuation of this idea. I am in the process of outlining a probable spin off for one of the characters in Short Lean Cuts. The style of prose would be more in the “classical vein” and this would be a full on novel, instead of the short work that Short Lean Cuts is. And on the quite distant horizon there is a personal work called “Resident Alien,” which is currently undergoing some major changes in ideas and concept. That being said, unless something astronomically lucky happens with a major publishing house (I’m not holding my breath), all of my future projects will be independently produced and published. I love the process, I love the author royalties, and I love the editorial freedom. I am not forced to write under guidelines of a major corporation whose only goal is to make money. While I fully realize a book is a product like any other product, and it must sell, I am not willing to make the major concessions and changes that most Big House Publishers ask of their authors.
TW: When you’re reading rather than writing, what do you choose, and who are your favourite authors?
AP: I grew up idolizing Ernest Hemingway and what he did for the English language. As a teen, I was enamored with his sparse style, yet heavy emotion that somehow exuded from in between the lines. I was also enamored with his contemporaries: F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, and William Carlos Williams. Some of my favourite authors are Albert Camus, Kafka, Charles Bukowski, Ferdinand Celine, Raymond Carver, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Thomas Mann, and Jose Saramago. Lately, I’ve been enjoying very much the works of Yann Martel, Michael Chabon, and Chuck Palahniuk. I love the poetry of Anne Sexton and Dorothy Parker, and the plays of Lillian Hellman.
You can buy Short Lean Cuts:
My Review:
Short Lean Cuts by Alex M. Pruteanu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Electronic Scrapbook 