David Abrams's Blog, page 178

The Consequence of Richard Ford

Guest essay by Andrew Sottile

I was driving away from Boothbay Harbor along River Road, a windy, crowned cutoff, toward Damariscotta, another small township off Maine’s coastal Route 1. I’d called the bookstore there, which had the text I was after, a history of Maine’s lobster fishing culture, an acclaimed nonfiction narrative. Maine’s answer to The Perfect Storm, I figured. Or better yet, something like Into the Wild. I was going to be an adventure writer. This is wh...

Friday Freebie: Hemingway's Girl by Erika Robuck

Congratulations to Linda Sexauer, winner of last week's Friday Freebie, A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins.

This week's book giveaway is Hemingway's Girl , the debut novel by Erika Robuck.  The story follows an 18-year-old Cuban-American girl who goes to work as a maid for Ernest Hemingway in Depression-era Key West.  Here's a little bit about the book in a synopsis from the publisher:

When Mariella is hired as a maid by Hemingway’s second wife, Pauline, she enters a rarified w...

The Greatest Self-Published Book the World Has Ever Seen

On this day in 1843, a most blessed event took place.  What was to become arguably the most successful (and best-written) self-published book rolled off the presses.

Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Yes, but...

Trailer Park Tuesday: Magical Journey by Katrina Kenison

Welcome to Trailer Park Tuesday , a showcase of new book trailers and, in a few cases, previews of book-related movies. Unless their last name is Grisham or King, authors will probably never see their trailers on the big screen at the local cineplex. And that's a shame because a lot of hard work goes into producing these short marriages between book and video. So, if you like what you see, please spread the word and help these videos go viral.




This has been a hard week for our hearts and minds. ...

My First Time: Ellen Marie Wiseman

My First Time is a regular feature in which writers talk about virgin experiences in their writing and publishing careers, ranging from their first rejection to the moment of holding their first published book in their hands. Today’s guest is Ellen Marie Wiseman, author of The Plum Tree , which will be released next week from Kensington House.  Based in part on her family history, Wiseman's debut novel, set in Hitler's Germany, follows a young German woman named Christine who falls i...

Friday Freebie: A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins

Congratulations to Carl Scott, winner of last week's Friday Freebie, It's Fine By Me  by Per Petterson.

This week's book giveaway is the richly-praised debut novel by Scott Hutchins, A Working Theory of Love .  Here's the plot in a nutshell: Neill Bassett is a suddenly-single dude living in San Francisco after his Marriage From Hell ended in divorce. He works for a startup firm that's trying to come up with a program to give computers sentient feelings--i.e., make them more human-like. ...

Front Porch Books: December 2012 edition

Front Porch Books is a monthly tally of books--mainly advance review copies (aka "uncorrected proofs" and "galleys")--I've received from publishers, but also sprinkled with packages from Book Mooch, Amazon and other sources.  Because my dear friends, Mr. FedEx and Mrs. UPS, leave them with a doorbell-and-dash method of delivery, I call them my Front Porch Books.  In this digital age, ARCs are also beamed to the doorstep of my Kindle via NetGalley and Edelweiss.  Note: most of t...

The Spongy Wall of Death: "Moriturus" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Now comes the season of death: winter, with its stripped trees, long darkness, blankets of snow quiet as the grave.  This is the symbolism of nature that reminds us our time is short, our personal winter is coming.

In "Moriturus," the opening poem of her 1928 collection The Buck In The Snow , Edna St. Vincent Millay fought against her approaching death (which wouldn't come until 1950, when she fell down the stairs in her home).  Millay dismisses death with a flick of her hand, calling...

Trailer Park Tuesday: Thrill-Bent by Jan Richman

Welcome to Trailer Park Tuesday , a showcase of new book trailers and, in a few cases, previews of book-related movies.  Unless their last name is Grisham or King, authors will probably never see their trailers on the big screen at the local cineplex.  And that's a shame because a lot of hard work goes into producing these short marriages between book and video.  So, if you like what you see, please spread the word and help these videos go viral.




My vote for the most unique book...

My First Time: Jen Michalski

My First Time is a regular feature in which writers talk about virgin experiences in their writing and publishing careers, ranging from their first rejection to the moment of holding their first published book in their hands.  Today’s guest is Jen Michalski, author of the novel The Tide King (winner of the 2012 Big Moose Prize), the short story collections From Here and Close Encounters , and the novella collection Could You Be With Her Now  which is coming from Dzanc Books next month. ...