David Abrams's Blog, page 50

My First Time: Linda Kass

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 Linda Kass, author of Tasa’s Song , a novel that Amber Dermont (The Starboard Sea) calls “a lasting tribute to life during wartime, including the hardships and triumphs that define the true nature of grace and resilience.” Early in her career as a journal...

Sunday Sentence: The Kid by Ben Bradlee Jr.

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


“He is as loose as red flannels on a clothes line, but as beautifully coordinated as a fine watch when he tenses for action.”

Sportswriter Dick Cullum on Ted Williams
quoted in The Kid by Ben Bradlee Jr.

Friday Freebie: Orphans of the Carnival by Carol Birch

Congratulations to Martha Burzynski, Matthew Schlieper and Terry Pearson, winners of last week’s Friday Freebie: The Special Power of Restoring Lost Things by Courtney Elizabeth Mauk.

This week’s contest is for Orphans of the Carnival by Carol Birch. Keep scrolling for more information about the novel.

From the Booker short-listed author of Jamrach’s Menagerie comes the extraordinary, moving, and unsettling tale of a woman, branded a freak from birth, who becomes an international sensation but...

Giving Thanks for Books

At this uncertain and unsteady Thanksgiving, I am grateful for many things: family, health, a stable job, and the food I’m about to eat in T-minus two hours. Somewhere on that list, though, are the thousands of books which line my basement walls. They are my comfort, my inspiration, and my escape hatch (down which I frequently find myself sliding these days). Where would we be without the music of words?

Bookish recently asked several authors (including yours truly) to name the one book for w...

My First Time: Michelle Gilliam

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 Michelle Gilliam, a Registered Nurse and the author of Roman Rescue . She began writing poetry, flash fiction, and short stories in 2003, but it was the gargantuan task of a novel that thrilled her the most. She has three sons and spends her time with bio...

Sunday Sentence: Anthony Trollope by Victoria Glendinning

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


Mrs. Grantly deferred to Archdeacon Grantly at the dinnertable but spoke her mind beneath the bedclothes.

Anthony Trollope by Victoria Glendinning

Friday Freebie: The Special Power of Restoring Lost Things by Courtney Elizabeth Mauk

Congratulations to Diane Turner, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie: The Honor Was Mine by Elizabeth Heaney.

This week’s contest is for the new novel by Courtney Elizabeth Mauk, The Special Power of Restoring Lost Things . Here is what Scott Blackwood, author of See How Small, had to say about the book: “Can we ever let our children go? That’s the question that Courtney Elizabeth Mauk asks in her riveting novel The Special Power of Restoring Lost Things. Heartbreaking in its close observatio...

Front Porch Books: November 2016 edition

Front Porch Books is a monthly tally of books—mainly advance review copies (aka “uncorrected proofs” and “galleys”)—I’ve received from publishers. 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: many of these books won’t be released for another 2-6 months; I’m here to pique your interest and stock y...

Trailer Park Tuesday: Looking for Betty MacDonald by Paula Becker

Welcome to Trailer Park Tuesday, a showcase of new book trailers and, in a few cases, previews of book-related movies.




Before Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor took up a pitchfork on Green Acres , before Ma and Pa Kettle were down on the farm, before Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray went to the country for romantic shenanigans, there was Betty MacDonald and her chickens. As a newlywed, Betty followed her husband to Washington state where, on the Olympic Peninsula, they set about fulfilling his lif...

My First Time: Allen Morris Jones

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 Allen Morris Jones, author of A Bloom of Bones . Here’s what Mark Spragg (author of An Unfinished Life) had to say about the novel: “Allen Jones’s A Bloom of Bones is simply riveting. Always lyrical, often wise, filled with vitality, and the promise that...