Craig Laurance Gidney's Blog, page 63
March 31, 2013
Craig Laurance Gidney and Lisa Nelson reading in Philadelphia on April 6
Reblogged from Strange Alphabets:
Craig Laurance Gidney and Lisa Nelson are the authors respectively of Bereft and Drifting (both published by Philadelphia’s own Tiny Satchel Press, each is $9.95 pb).
Craig Gidney's new book from us is Bereft, which is about a young black gay kid and then there's Lisa Nelson's new book, Drifting, which is about a young girl who was taken away from her birth family…
Reminder: I will be in Philadelphia next Saturday for a reading at Giovanni's Room bookstore!!!!
March 27, 2013
Bereft gets a blurb from Tanith Lee. #tanithlee #blurbs
Bereft is…a very important book on a smaller scale; a passionate, angry, sorrowful book, full of humor… an extremely easy read that challenges, educates, warns and celebrates true freedoms. The writing is fluid, colloquial and entertaining.
–Multiple award winner Tanith Lee (Young Adult, Science Fiction, Horror etc)
March 25, 2013
“Bereft” Featured in the Advocate’s list of 16 Great Books to Read This Week #yalit #advocate
I’m excited and honored that Bereft is included in the Advocate’s list of 16 Great Books to Read This Week.
They write:
Bereft — the latest young adult novel from Victoria Brownworth’s fledgling and impressive Tiny Satchel Press — takes a brutally honest pass at a 14 year-old’s battle with racism, bullying, and homphobia and makes us look forward to the next book debut author Craig L. Gidney.
March 23, 2013
REVIEW: Cruel Pink by Tanith Lee. #tanithlee #immanionpress
Cruel Pink is the sixth book in Tanith Lee’s loosely configured Colouring Book Series. All of the previous books in this series explore both odd psychology and odd situations in mostly realistic settings. The stories can, and do leap into the paranormal, but that isn’t their focus. The theme of color, often in lurid hues, is the overarching motif of the series. The books share a distant kinship with other liminal and cross-genre writers like Chuck Palahniuk and Jonathan Carroll. Elements of crime fiction, ghost story, horror story and even metafictional conceits all parade through the narratives.
Cruel Pink might be the strangest of the books so far. The novel is a symphony of voices across various times, a style most recently and famously used by David Mitchell in his Cloud Atlas and Ghostwritten novels. The cast includes Emenie, a serial killer who lives in a post-apocalyptic future; Rod, an office worker in contemporary times; Klova, a young party girl living in a future society; and Irvin, a bisexual actor in the late 1700s. Each tells his or her story in conversational first person, and follows a day or a week in their lives.
(Mild Spoiler)
As the novel progresses, coincidences begin to appear. It becomes quickly obvious that all four personae live in the same house just outside of London, but in separate times. And every now and then, they catch brief, ghostly echoes with each other. Also, the color pink in some form appears in each of their lives.
The book has ‘mood whiplash,’ like the Mitchell novels. Emenie’s sections are suspenseful and full of horror. Rod’s pieces are full of contemporary anomie. Klova ’s monologues describe a glittering semi-utopia and have erotic undertones, while Irvin’s life is full of ribald anecdotes.
The final denouement slots into place, courting but never becoming outright bathos. Cruel Pink, in the end, examines, almost playfully, narrative conventions in genre, flirting with both parody and homage.
Cruel Pink is compulsively readable and full of Lee’s trademark lovely language.
March 21, 2013
Craig Gidney’s Interview with Out In Print!
Gavin Atlas interviewed me about Bereft and my other fiction for the blog Out In Print. Here’s a sneak peek:
GA: Because of the focus on angel statues and masks in Bereft, may I ask what do you have on the walls of your room? How does the art or design in your space affect your mood and your writing, if at all?
CLG: In my writing room, which doubles as a bedroom, there are a few framed posters. Two are by the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington and one by Max Ernst. Above my bed, a painting of a cobalt blue woman’s mask stares out above me. A row of glass paperweights sits on my chest of drawers. I must create in a sanctuary of sorts, I find. I turn on music when I’m writing—both the visual and aural art help submerse me into my fictional worlds. I also have to pick the right font to write my stories in!
Read the rest of the interview.
March 18, 2013
BOOK IMPRESSION: Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch
Jamrach’s Menagerie is a historical novel that reads like a classic boy’s adventure novel. It’s full of seafaring adventure and written in an antiquated poetic prose, reminiscent of Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson.
After an encounter with a tiger in the streets of London, circa 1880s, young Jaffy finds himself forever linked with naturalist and exotic pet dealer Charles Jamrach (a real life person). Jaffy starts as an employee of Jamrach, mostly mucking stables and caring for the wild creatures in the shop. Eventually, he signs up for mission to collect a Komodo Dragon for one of Jamrach’s clients. The novel mostly follows the events of that voyage, which range from wonder to pure terror. The novel almost becomes a literary horror novel, after some serious mood whiplash.
Birch captures Jaffy’s first person narrative perfectly. The sights and smells of London and the sea come vividly and sensually to life. While the secondary characters are kind of flat, it is more than made up for by richly descriptive world-building Birch does. The book maintains the sense of wonder you get from classic seafaring adventure texts.
March 17, 2013
An incisive review of BEREFT.
Here’s an excerpt from Chris Herrmann’s lovely review of BEREFT:
Ultimately the novel is about balances: between Rafe’s persona of the shy fantasy geek and the teenager inwardly deciding he might be gay, angry at the injustice around him, the spiritual beliefs of a Christian mother (symbolized by opaque angels) and the cultural beliefs of a father (symbolized by the mall kiosk Dan masks), the predators both virulently open and cunningly hidden in the prep school, and Rafe’s own decisions of balancing who he will become in his own life.
Read the rest of the review here.
March 15, 2013
Enter the GoodReads Book Giveaway Contest for a signed copy of BEREFT by Craig Laurance Gidney
Details about the book giveaway are here!
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Bereft
by Craig Laurance Gidney
Giveaway ends April 14, 2013.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
March 4, 2013
Scenes from the BEREFT book release party
The party was a success. Thanks to all who made it possible (particularly Thomas Drymon, who graciously lent his space (the gallery doris-mae) for the event.
Photo courtesy of Judy Ng.
Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Burka
March 1, 2013
Craig Laurance Gidney and Lisa Nelson reading in Philadelphia on April 6
Craig Laurance Gidney and Lisa Nelson are the authors respectively of Bereft and Drifting (both published by Philadelphia’s own Tiny Satchel Press, each is $9.95 pb).
Craig Gidney’s new book from us is Bereft, which is about a young black gay kid and then there’s Lisa Nelson’s new book, Drifting, which is about a young girl who was taken away from her birth family
The reading will take place at Giovanni’s Room on April 6, 2012 at 5:30 PM.
Location:
345 S 12th St
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
19107-5907
United States
