Lynn L. Clark's Blog: Writing in Retirement, page 9
April 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews: Value for Money?
Many regard the Kirkus Review as one of the top forums for book reviews, along with Publishers Weekly.
There's a well-written and balanced article on the ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors) website concerning the value of paying for a Kirkus review. The cost to receive a review in 7–9 weeks is $425 US. You can purchase an expedited review for $575 US that will be delivered in 4–6 weeks.
The author, Giacomo Giammatteo, points both to the pros (marketing tool; credibility in the publishing world) and cons (expensive and rarely results in increased sales) of a Kirkus review.
He also notes that Kirkus promises a review of 250-300 words, but that most of the review consists of a rehash of the plot with little to say about the book itself.
If you're interested in reading this article, it's available at http://selfpublishingadvice.org/publi....
Thanks to Giacomo Giammatteo for an interesting discussion.
There's a well-written and balanced article on the ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors) website concerning the value of paying for a Kirkus review. The cost to receive a review in 7–9 weeks is $425 US. You can purchase an expedited review for $575 US that will be delivered in 4–6 weeks.
The author, Giacomo Giammatteo, points both to the pros (marketing tool; credibility in the publishing world) and cons (expensive and rarely results in increased sales) of a Kirkus review.
He also notes that Kirkus promises a review of 250-300 words, but that most of the review consists of a rehash of the plot with little to say about the book itself.
If you're interested in reading this article, it's available at http://selfpublishingadvice.org/publi....
Thanks to Giacomo Giammatteo for an interesting discussion.
April 4, 2016
Book Giveaway for The Accusers
The Goodreads giveaway for paperback copies of The Accusers is now up and running. This is the link:
The Accusers is also now available on Kobo at https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebo....
Here's a brief excerpt from the book:
. . . Rebecca Anderson, affectionately known as Becca by family and friends, was a pleasant-faced woman, short and a bit plump, with curly grey hair. She was usually quick to smile, but today her expression was one of sadness. She turned on a reading lamp as she sat in her living room. It was February: the shortest, yet longest month of the year. The last rays of the winter sun had already died, and it was only 5 pm. According to the local news channel, there was heavy snow in the forecast.
Becca didn’t understand the depression she’d been experiencing lately. She’d lived in this house on Berwick Street for forty years and had raised three children here with the help of her beloved husband Jack, dead of cancer for five years now. She’d always tried to see the best in people and circumstances. . . .
She headed for the kitchen to begin preparing her supper. Her constant shadow, Mooch the cat, was nowhere to be seen.
He must be sleeping somewhere.
Becca pulled the cutting board from the cupboard and started assembling ingredients for a salad. She searched for the knife she always used to cut vegetables, but it wasn’t in the butcher’s block or the dishwasher.
Strange. I’m only sixty-five. I hope I’m not starting to get forgetful and misplacing things.
She selected another knife and began to slice the lettuce and tomatoes, trying to pinpoint when exactly this depressed feeling had started. . . .
Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud thump outside on the porch. Becca wiped her hands on a dish towel and hurried to the door. When she opened it, she found a note pinned there with her missing knife.Her hands shaking, she removed the knife and read the note.
You have been marked.
She spotted Mooch under the living room couch. The cat was hissing violently in fright, but there was no one to be seen on the street nor were there footprints in the crusted snow. . . .
The Accusers is also now available on Kobo at https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebo....
Here's a brief excerpt from the book:
. . . Rebecca Anderson, affectionately known as Becca by family and friends, was a pleasant-faced woman, short and a bit plump, with curly grey hair. She was usually quick to smile, but today her expression was one of sadness. She turned on a reading lamp as she sat in her living room. It was February: the shortest, yet longest month of the year. The last rays of the winter sun had already died, and it was only 5 pm. According to the local news channel, there was heavy snow in the forecast.
Becca didn’t understand the depression she’d been experiencing lately. She’d lived in this house on Berwick Street for forty years and had raised three children here with the help of her beloved husband Jack, dead of cancer for five years now. She’d always tried to see the best in people and circumstances. . . .
She headed for the kitchen to begin preparing her supper. Her constant shadow, Mooch the cat, was nowhere to be seen.
He must be sleeping somewhere.
Becca pulled the cutting board from the cupboard and started assembling ingredients for a salad. She searched for the knife she always used to cut vegetables, but it wasn’t in the butcher’s block or the dishwasher.
Strange. I’m only sixty-five. I hope I’m not starting to get forgetful and misplacing things.
She selected another knife and began to slice the lettuce and tomatoes, trying to pinpoint when exactly this depressed feeling had started. . . .
Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud thump outside on the porch. Becca wiped her hands on a dish towel and hurried to the door. When she opened it, she found a note pinned there with her missing knife.Her hands shaking, she removed the knife and read the note.
You have been marked.
She spotted Mooch under the living room couch. The cat was hissing violently in fright, but there was no one to be seen on the street nor were there footprints in the crusted snow. . . .
March 28, 2016
The Accusers
I'm very pleased to announce that my third novel, The Accusers, is now available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle format at https://www.amazon.ca/Accusers-Lynn-L....
The e-version for Kobo will be published shortly.
I enjoyed writing this story and, as usual, did background research so that I could blend history and fiction, as in my previous two books, The Home Child and Fire Whisperer and Circle of Souls: Two Novellas of the Supernatural.
What's it about? It's the story of three women and a young boy who stand together against an evil that threatens to consume them, their families, and their neighbours. It's also a tale of how unmitigated hatred and the urge for revenge can destroy ordinary lives. I think this is probably the most suspenseful of the books I've written to date.
This is the back cover blurb:
At first glance, Berwick Street is a quiet cul-de-sac: a safe place to raise a family and enjoy retirement. But in the dead of winter when most Berwick Street residents have already headed south to escape the bitter cold, something evil lurks in the coming snowstorm. A group of followers with specially-honed powers of destruction seeks final retribution for events that occurred more than four hundred years ago!
Aided by a teenager with precognitive abilities, an unlikely trio of women--Cassie, an introvert in her twenties; Rebecca, a sixty-five-year-old grandmother; and Mabel, an ailing octogenarian who has outlived her husband and sons--must face the coming onslaught. WHO WILL PREVAIL?
There will be a Goodreads giveaway in April, and the novel will also be available through the Early Reviewers program on LibraryThing. More about this in my next post.
The e-version for Kobo will be published shortly.
I enjoyed writing this story and, as usual, did background research so that I could blend history and fiction, as in my previous two books, The Home Child and Fire Whisperer and Circle of Souls: Two Novellas of the Supernatural.
What's it about? It's the story of three women and a young boy who stand together against an evil that threatens to consume them, their families, and their neighbours. It's also a tale of how unmitigated hatred and the urge for revenge can destroy ordinary lives. I think this is probably the most suspenseful of the books I've written to date.
This is the back cover blurb:
At first glance, Berwick Street is a quiet cul-de-sac: a safe place to raise a family and enjoy retirement. But in the dead of winter when most Berwick Street residents have already headed south to escape the bitter cold, something evil lurks in the coming snowstorm. A group of followers with specially-honed powers of destruction seeks final retribution for events that occurred more than four hundred years ago!
Aided by a teenager with precognitive abilities, an unlikely trio of women--Cassie, an introvert in her twenties; Rebecca, a sixty-five-year-old grandmother; and Mabel, an ailing octogenarian who has outlived her husband and sons--must face the coming onslaught. WHO WILL PREVAIL?
There will be a Goodreads giveaway in April, and the novel will also be available through the Early Reviewers program on LibraryThing. More about this in my next post.
March 21, 2016
The Coming of Spring
March is a great teaser. Snows are melting; skies are blue. You could be forgiven for wanting to skip the month of April altogether to move directly into those lovely, warm days of May. For many, spring is the perfect season with neither the extreme cold of winter nor the severe heat of summer.
For me, this season is always welcome. The noisy Canada geese have been flying over our house for more than a week now, and before too long the frogs will be singing their serenades in the pond out back. The dogs are excited, and even the cats are venturing outside.
This is a good time of the year. A time, regardless of religious beliefs, to celebrate rebirth and renewal.
Happy Spring, everyone!
For me, this season is always welcome. The noisy Canada geese have been flying over our house for more than a week now, and before too long the frogs will be singing their serenades in the pond out back. The dogs are excited, and even the cats are venturing outside.
This is a good time of the year. A time, regardless of religious beliefs, to celebrate rebirth and renewal.
Happy Spring, everyone!
March 14, 2016
A Review of The Silent Wife
I was at first hesitant to read The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Hamilton because it had been compared to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, a novel that I disliked intensely. (I know, I'm in a minority!)
Hamilton was a Toronto writer who died of cancer before the book launch of her novel.
I finally ordered The Silent Wife for my Kobo and read it this past week.
What appealed to me most was the subtlety of the psychological analysis with clues given here and there to explain the protagonists' behavior. Although we're aware, for example, that Jodi is a control freak, we don't really understand why until much later in the novel because she does such an excellent job of suppressing events from her past.
Similarly, clues from Todd's past allow us to understand his current behavior. He is so afraid of becoming like his abusive father that he does not recognize his own philandering is a form of escape from the burdens of daily life, just as alcohol was the form his father's escape took.
There are flaws in the book, of course, but for a debut novel I thought it was very well-written. My main criticism is the use of coincidence as a plot device to bring the story to its resolution. But overall I enjoyed the novel.
If you're looking for a thriller, this isn't it, but if you like psychological suspense, it may be your cup of tea.
Hamilton was a Toronto writer who died of cancer before the book launch of her novel.
I finally ordered The Silent Wife for my Kobo and read it this past week.
What appealed to me most was the subtlety of the psychological analysis with clues given here and there to explain the protagonists' behavior. Although we're aware, for example, that Jodi is a control freak, we don't really understand why until much later in the novel because she does such an excellent job of suppressing events from her past.
Similarly, clues from Todd's past allow us to understand his current behavior. He is so afraid of becoming like his abusive father that he does not recognize his own philandering is a form of escape from the burdens of daily life, just as alcohol was the form his father's escape took.
There are flaws in the book, of course, but for a debut novel I thought it was very well-written. My main criticism is the use of coincidence as a plot device to bring the story to its resolution. But overall I enjoyed the novel.
If you're looking for a thriller, this isn't it, but if you like psychological suspense, it may be your cup of tea.
March 7, 2016
Truman Capote's In Cold Blood
I mentioned in an earlier post on the movie Capote (https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...) that I had purchased Truman Capote's novel to read. In the meantime, I watched the film version of In Cold Blood with Scott Wilson and Robert Blake and was impressed by the quality of the production.
Although Capote presents the stories of both killers of four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, it is obvious that his sympathies lie with Perry Smith, the abused and abandoned boy who grew up to be a drifter and dreamer and ultimately a murderer.
What I appreciated most in the novel that was missing from both Capote and the film version of In Cold Blood were the stories of the slain victims. Capote does a careful balancing act as he tells the victims' stories, while providing us with the history of the killers.
Especially poignant is the story of Nancy Clutter, the young girl murdered in the attack. In fact the novel ends with a graveside visit by Dewey, the chief investigator of the murders, in which he encounters Nancy's closest friend, who is visiting her grave while home from university. Several years have now passed since the murders, and the young woman tells him how she and Nancy had planned to room together at university. As she leaves the cemetery--the sun shining on her hair and highlighting the beauty and vitality of her youth--Dewey thinks of the slain Nancy Clutter and what might have been.
In writing this novel, Capote has created an account of a true-life crime in some of the most beautiful and poetic prose I have read in a long, long time.
In the end, the title of the novel is double-edged: In Cold Blood reveals the senselessness of both the original murders and the state-sanctioned hanging of the killers.
Although Capote presents the stories of both killers of four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, it is obvious that his sympathies lie with Perry Smith, the abused and abandoned boy who grew up to be a drifter and dreamer and ultimately a murderer.
What I appreciated most in the novel that was missing from both Capote and the film version of In Cold Blood were the stories of the slain victims. Capote does a careful balancing act as he tells the victims' stories, while providing us with the history of the killers.
Especially poignant is the story of Nancy Clutter, the young girl murdered in the attack. In fact the novel ends with a graveside visit by Dewey, the chief investigator of the murders, in which he encounters Nancy's closest friend, who is visiting her grave while home from university. Several years have now passed since the murders, and the young woman tells him how she and Nancy had planned to room together at university. As she leaves the cemetery--the sun shining on her hair and highlighting the beauty and vitality of her youth--Dewey thinks of the slain Nancy Clutter and what might have been.
In writing this novel, Capote has created an account of a true-life crime in some of the most beautiful and poetic prose I have read in a long, long time.
In the end, the title of the novel is double-edged: In Cold Blood reveals the senselessness of both the original murders and the state-sanctioned hanging of the killers.
February 28, 2016
Shirley Jackson and the Psychology of Horror
I had previously read Shirley Jackson's The Lottery as well as a book of her short stories, but I'd never read her classic, The Haunting of Hill House, until this past week.
The novel left me with mixed feelings. In some ways, I expected it to be much better. It is an ambiguous story with characters that are not particularly well-developed--with the exception of Eleanor, who is the key to the tale of inner horror unfolding before us.
I also believe it's a misnomer to call it "the greatest haunted house story ever written," as it's often hailed. Jackson obviously wanted to write a haunted house story and may have drawn her inspiration for the misshapen and foreboding Hill House from the real-life Winchester House (to which she alludes in the story). Hill House is menacing. However, the supernatural elements of the story tend to be disjointed, almost as if they were afterthoughts. To give one example among many, the doctor and Luke chase a dog that appears mysteriously in the house the first night but is never mentioned again in the story.
The Haunting of Hill House is more successful when read as a psychological exploration of horror in the vein of Edgar Allan Poe and Henry James. As an account of the disintegration of a susceptible mind, the story comes to life and clearly is deserving of its place as a classic in horror fiction. And Hill House becomes more than a haunted house: it serves as the external manifestation of a haunted mind.
If you'd like to read about the real-life Winchester House, please see http://wallsofnightmare.blogspot.ca/2....
The novel left me with mixed feelings. In some ways, I expected it to be much better. It is an ambiguous story with characters that are not particularly well-developed--with the exception of Eleanor, who is the key to the tale of inner horror unfolding before us.
I also believe it's a misnomer to call it "the greatest haunted house story ever written," as it's often hailed. Jackson obviously wanted to write a haunted house story and may have drawn her inspiration for the misshapen and foreboding Hill House from the real-life Winchester House (to which she alludes in the story). Hill House is menacing. However, the supernatural elements of the story tend to be disjointed, almost as if they were afterthoughts. To give one example among many, the doctor and Luke chase a dog that appears mysteriously in the house the first night but is never mentioned again in the story.
The Haunting of Hill House is more successful when read as a psychological exploration of horror in the vein of Edgar Allan Poe and Henry James. As an account of the disintegration of a susceptible mind, the story comes to life and clearly is deserving of its place as a classic in horror fiction. And Hill House becomes more than a haunted house: it serves as the external manifestation of a haunted mind.
If you'd like to read about the real-life Winchester House, please see http://wallsofnightmare.blogspot.ca/2....
February 22, 2016
Enola Gay
I've discovered now that I'm retired, I have a chance to read about historical events that I knew only from previous bits and pieces I had gleaned from various sources, mostly as an adolescent and young adult. For example, I knew virtually nothing about the preparations and reasoning behind the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. Therefore, I decided to order the book Enola Gay: Mission to Hiroshima by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, having previously read their work, Voyage of the Damned.
"Enola Gay" is the name given by Paul Tibbets, the pilot who bombed Hiroshima, to his plane. It was his mother's name. Throughout his life, he maintained his belief that the bombing was justified to end the war and minimize the casualties on both sides. (Many have since argued that the use of conventional weapons could have accomplished the same effect, while others suggest that the primary motivation for Japan's surrender was the Soviet Union's declaration of war on Japan and the invasion of Manchuria.)
Thomas and Morgan-Witts, who wrote their account in the '70s and did extensive research and interviews with both American and Japanese war survivors, present a balanced, objective account of the influences of the day and why Truman was ultimately persuaded that the use of the atomic bomb was absolutely necessary. His aim, as stated in historical documents, was to focus on the destruction of Japan's military to force the country to surrender. The reality, unfortunately, was that the majority of those killed in the bombings were civilians, including children.
There were high-ranking officials in Japan who wanted peace because of the desolation of their country, and contacts through diplomatic channels had already been established prior to the dropping of the two atomic bombs. But regrettably the Japanese ignored the directive of the Potsdam Conference that called for the country's unconditional surrender.
Thomas and Morgan-Witts switch between the U.S. preparations for the bombings and scenes of everyday life in Japan. The authors put a human face on the average Japanese civilian eking out a subsistence in the war-ravaged country.
Thirteen per cent of the American public wanted to annihilate all of the Japanese population. The Japanese, in turn, feared the Americans as "devilish murderers". But both the American and Japanese people were subjected to government propaganda. Many Japanese thought that their country was actually winning the war. (It was an offence punishable by death to listen to foreign news broadcasts.) On the American side, photos showing the devastation In Hiroshima and Nagasaki were censored and suppressed.
There's very little light, obviously, in an account of one of the most horrendous events of the twentieth century.
What the authors have succeeded in doing, however, is showing that when we think in black and white terms, there is sadly little room for compromise.
"Enola Gay" is the name given by Paul Tibbets, the pilot who bombed Hiroshima, to his plane. It was his mother's name. Throughout his life, he maintained his belief that the bombing was justified to end the war and minimize the casualties on both sides. (Many have since argued that the use of conventional weapons could have accomplished the same effect, while others suggest that the primary motivation for Japan's surrender was the Soviet Union's declaration of war on Japan and the invasion of Manchuria.)
Thomas and Morgan-Witts, who wrote their account in the '70s and did extensive research and interviews with both American and Japanese war survivors, present a balanced, objective account of the influences of the day and why Truman was ultimately persuaded that the use of the atomic bomb was absolutely necessary. His aim, as stated in historical documents, was to focus on the destruction of Japan's military to force the country to surrender. The reality, unfortunately, was that the majority of those killed in the bombings were civilians, including children.
There were high-ranking officials in Japan who wanted peace because of the desolation of their country, and contacts through diplomatic channels had already been established prior to the dropping of the two atomic bombs. But regrettably the Japanese ignored the directive of the Potsdam Conference that called for the country's unconditional surrender.
Thomas and Morgan-Witts switch between the U.S. preparations for the bombings and scenes of everyday life in Japan. The authors put a human face on the average Japanese civilian eking out a subsistence in the war-ravaged country.
Thirteen per cent of the American public wanted to annihilate all of the Japanese population. The Japanese, in turn, feared the Americans as "devilish murderers". But both the American and Japanese people were subjected to government propaganda. Many Japanese thought that their country was actually winning the war. (It was an offence punishable by death to listen to foreign news broadcasts.) On the American side, photos showing the devastation In Hiroshima and Nagasaki were censored and suppressed.
There's very little light, obviously, in an account of one of the most horrendous events of the twentieth century.
What the authors have succeeded in doing, however, is showing that when we think in black and white terms, there is sadly little room for compromise.
February 14, 2016
Is This the Best America Can Do?
A recent cartoon shows Albert Einstein at a blackboard explaining gravitational waves. It has the caption: "I still can't explain Trump." (http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/opinion...)
Whenever I look at Trump, his pout makes me think that he misses his pacifier. (What, billions of dollars and a trophy wife aren't enough?)
But for all the rhetoric that Republicans will finally come to their senses and choose a viable candidate, Trump is still there, appealing to the worst in U.S. voters.
Even Ted Cruz, who is downright scary in his own right, wonders if we might wake up some morning to discover that Trump as President (shudder) has bombed Denmark because it's offended him.
Please, America, come to your senses.
This is the real world. It's not a Saturday Night Live skit.
Whenever I look at Trump, his pout makes me think that he misses his pacifier. (What, billions of dollars and a trophy wife aren't enough?)
But for all the rhetoric that Republicans will finally come to their senses and choose a viable candidate, Trump is still there, appealing to the worst in U.S. voters.
Even Ted Cruz, who is downright scary in his own right, wonders if we might wake up some morning to discover that Trump as President (shudder) has bombed Denmark because it's offended him.
Please, America, come to your senses.
This is the real world. It's not a Saturday Night Live skit.
February 8, 2016
Capote
I had the pleasure recently of watching the film Capote with the Academy Award-winning performance of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. (I should explain that I'm usually about five years or more behind in watching movies. The last one I saw in a theatre was The Simpsons Movie.)
Capote is based on the period in the author's life in which he was writing his crime novel In Cold Blood, an account of the murder of four members of a Kansas family in 1959.
Hoffman's exceptional, nuanced performance allows us to see the conflict between Capote the writer, wanting only to focus on the story, and Capote the human being, who develops a relationship with one of the killers, seeing in him a kindred spirit in their strong sense of abandonment as children.
Capote's real-life friend Harper Lee, the author of To Kill A Mockingbird, serves as his conscience in the film. After the two men are executed, Capote tries to reassure himself that he has done everything in his power to obtain the best legal representation for them. However, Lee observes that in fact Capote has always wanted the appeal process to end and the killers to be executed so he can write the final chapters of his book.
After watching the movie, I found a recording of Truman Capote reading one of his short stories. It's amazing how Hoffman, the consummate character actor, was able to reproduce Capote's speech patterns: http://www.mprnews.org/story/2009/12/....
I haven't read In Cold Blood, but I've ordered the book so I can see firsthand what Capote struggled for four years to write.
Capote is based on the period in the author's life in which he was writing his crime novel In Cold Blood, an account of the murder of four members of a Kansas family in 1959.
Hoffman's exceptional, nuanced performance allows us to see the conflict between Capote the writer, wanting only to focus on the story, and Capote the human being, who develops a relationship with one of the killers, seeing in him a kindred spirit in their strong sense of abandonment as children.
Capote's real-life friend Harper Lee, the author of To Kill A Mockingbird, serves as his conscience in the film. After the two men are executed, Capote tries to reassure himself that he has done everything in his power to obtain the best legal representation for them. However, Lee observes that in fact Capote has always wanted the appeal process to end and the killers to be executed so he can write the final chapters of his book.
After watching the movie, I found a recording of Truman Capote reading one of his short stories. It's amazing how Hoffman, the consummate character actor, was able to reproduce Capote's speech patterns: http://www.mprnews.org/story/2009/12/....
I haven't read In Cold Blood, but I've ordered the book so I can see firsthand what Capote struggled for four years to write.
Writing in Retirement
A blog on reading, writing, and the latest news in horror and supernatural fiction.
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