David Abrams's Blog, page 30

Front Porch Books: May 2018 edition

Front Porch Books is a monthly tally of new and forthcoming books—mainly advance review copies (aka “uncorrected proofs” and “galleys”)—I’ve received from publishers. Cover art and opening lines may change before the book is finally released. I should also mention that, in nearly every case, I haven’t had a chance to read these books, but they’re definitely going in the to-be-read pile.


The Mercy Seat
by Elizabeth H. Winthrop
(Grove Press)

Jacket Copy: An incisive, meticulously crafted por...

Trailer Park Tuesday: Tin Man by Sarah Winman

If the trailer for Sarah Winman’s new novel Tin Man doesn’t reveal much about its plot, it certainly stuffs the viewer full of adjectives. Powerful. Remarkable. Exquisite. Perfect. The bar of expectation is raised to Olympic levels. Though I haven’t had a chance to read Tin Man (out today from G. P. Putnam’s Sons), my interest is indeed powerfully and exquisitely piqued. While the book trailer is poor on details, it’s rich in style. In particular, I love how it flows from one blurb to another...

My First Time: Lisa Romeo

My First (Disastrous) Writing Retreat
There is a key scene at the end of my book, Starting with Goodbye: A Daughter’s Memoir of Love after Loss , set at an acclaimed New England artist center, a place where I’d been awarded a grant and two precious weeks’ time to work in peace, away from house, husband, and children.

A few months before I applied to the center, where many writer friends told me they accomplished so much, I had completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in a low-residency program in...

Sunday Sentence: Articles of War by Nick Arvin

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.


He wandered the crowded, churned sand of the beach, watched the ships slowly come and go, watched the formations of Allied planes pass overhead, their multitudinous drone burrowing into his bones, their glinting wings and bodies like the crosses of cemeteries.

Articles of War by Nick Arvin

Friday Freebie: Daphne by Will Boast

Congratulations to Lisa Murray, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie: The Driest Season by Meghan Kenny.

This week’s contest is for Daphne , the debut novel by Will Boast released earlier this year. Here’s what Laura van den Berg, author of Find Me, had to say about the book: “Richly meditative and quietly suspenseful, Daphne breathes fresh vigor into timeless questions about love and risk―the unknowable cost of fully opening one’s heart to another. Will Boast writes beautifully about life’s d...

Sunday Sentence: The Duke’s Children by Anthony Trollope

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.


It is good to be beautiful, but it should come of God and not of the hairdresser.

The Duke’s Children by Anthony Trollope

Friday Freebie: The Driest Season by Meghan Kenny

Congratulations to Susan LaBelle, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie: Eat the Apple by Matt Young.

This week’s contest is for the new novel The Driest Season by Meghan Kenny. Here’s what Josh Weil, author of The Age of Perpetual Light, had to say about the book: “The Driest Season settled over me like weather: sweeping in, wholly immersive, charged with coming change. In clear-eyed, chiseled prose that perfectly captures her novel’s hard-worn world and the powerful emotions churning through...

The Stories Behind the Brick Wall

Maternal Mental Health: We Can Do Better by Ellen Notbohm
There’s always one.

In twenty years of genealogy work, I’ve seen it countless times. In every family’s tree, there’s one nobody will talk about. A disgrace best erased. The black sheep, the white raven. Bad apple, bad egg. Fallen angel.

In genealogy we call those zipped lips a brick wall. Too often, that brick wall is built with ferocious mortar and a shocking absence of context. That lack of context often comes with a ripple effect th...

My First Time: David W. Barbee

My Four First Times
The first time I got a book contract, it was for three books to be published by Eraserhead Press. I was beyond ecstatic, especially because I’d sold a hundred copies of my “New Bizarro Author Series” book. That series was like a trial run to see how well an author could not only write, but also promote their book, pretty much all on their own. The book itself wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever written, but it helped me earn that contract and prove myself. That first contract...

Sunday Sentence: The Flood Girls by Richard Fifield

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.


Of the two bars in town, Laverna proudly owned the one that served food and encouraged fighting.

The Flood Girls by Richard Fifield