Lorina Stephens's Blog, page 57

Review: Ortona Street Fight

Ortona Street Fight by Mark Zuehlke

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Mark Zuehlke, with his clipped, factual, journalistic style presents the facts of one of Canada's little known, bloody struggles and triumphs of WWII, the Italian campaign.

Without fanfare or blatant patriotism, he illustrates the tenacity, one might even say insanity, of Canadian troops who, once again, seized and held a strategic objective.

If I were teaching WWII history in Canada, this is certainly a book I would incorporate into the curriculum. Well researched, well written, well done.



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Wrapped Pork Tenderloin and Pear Chutney

Yesterday was another kitchen therapy day, and on the menu were pork tenderloin and some lovely red Anjou pears. So, what to do with them? Here's what resulted, but alas no pictures this time.

Wrapped Pork Tenderloin
12 pieces dried tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
1 small chilli pepper
6-12 spears of asparagus, depending how large the are the spears, washed and tough ends removed
pastry, enough for a double crust pie
1 pork tenderloin, silver-skin removed
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400F.

In a food chopper or mortar and pestle, make a paste of the tomatoes, garlic and chilli pepper. Set aside.

Roll out the pastry into a rectangle, large enough to wrap the tenderloin, but not too thinly. You're looking for about 1/4" thickness. Spread the tomato paste over the pastry, keeping it fairly centralized. Lay the asparagus spears in the centre of the pastry, alternating ends and tips. Lay the tenderloin over the asparagus. Carefully pull the pastry and up and over the tenderloin, much in the way you would create a jelly roll. Pull in the pastry ends before sealing the edges. Sprinkle the top of the pastry with salt and pepper. Coarse salt in this case is lovely.

Place the roll on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast for 45-60 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown. Remove from oven and let rest for about 5 minutes before slicing into thick slices for service.

Serves 4

Pear Chutney
1 red Anjou pear, cored and cut into 1/2"-1/4" cubes
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 green onion, finely sliced
juice of 1/2 lemon (about 4 tablespoons)
1/2 cup natural, unflavoured yoghurt
salt and pepper to taste

Toss together first four ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Combine next three ingredients in a bowl; pour over the pear mixture, toss and serve.

Serves 4-6

Review: Thirty Years from Home: A Seaman's View of the War of 1812

Thirty Years from Home: A Seaman's View of the War of 1812 by Samuel Leech

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



As a reader I came to this autobiography from an historical perspective, not a literary, and thus should most historical accounts of this type be considered.

Samuel Leech, originally a sailor aboard a British brig, and later an American, during the Napoleonic and War of 1812, writes from a temperance and religious point of view some years after his experiences aboard ship. Some of the details are horrifying in their candour, of the floggings and abuse which formed daily life for the common sailor, of the starvation, privation and death. Perhaps most surprising of all was to learn about the details of what it meant to be flogged through the fleet, and that women indeed formed part of daily life for some sailors, even to the extent of giving birth aboard ship and the agonies that brought about to father, mother and child.

For anyone interested in the naval aspects of War of 1812, I would recommend this quick and fascinating read.



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Roasted Lamb Chops and Apple Pecan Salad

Seems I needed a little more kitchen therapy this weekend, inspired in part by some lovely shoulder lamb chops Gary brought home from a wonderful little Mennonite market in Teviotdale. So, Saturday evening we sat down to a delicious meal, Leonard Cohen's Old Ideas playing in the background, candlelight, and wine.

The recipes I concocted for our fare follow.

Roasted garlic and rosemary lamb chops
Apple pecan saladRoasted Garlic and Rosemary Lamb Chops
2 thick-cut shoulder lamb chops

MARINADE
6 cloves garlic
1/3 cup fresh rosemary leaves
1 fresh chilli pepper
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup olive oil

Finely mince together the garlic, rosemary and pepper; add salt and olive oil and combine well. You can also pound this in a mortar and pestle, or throw all the ingredients into a small chopper or food processor to obtain a coarse purée.

Rub the marinade liberally over the chops and allow to sit for about 1 hour at room temperature.

Preheat oven to 450F. Place a cooling rack on a baking sheet and lay the chops on the rack. Roast for about 20 minutes or until medium rare. You do not want to overcook the lamb as this will render the succulent quality of the meat tough. What you're looking for a slightly pink centre, nice crispy fat at the edges.

Apple Pecan Salad
This is another variation on a Waldorf Salad and my Stonehouse Salad (which appears in my cookbook, Stonehouse Cooks). 

2 apples (Your choice of variety. I used Crispins in this case because it's what I had on hand.)
1 small onion
1 celery stalk
1/2 cup whole pecans
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese, of whatever variety you wish. I used a Danish blue in this case.
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup plain yoghurt
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon cracked black pepper

Wash, core and dice apples; place in a bowl. Peel and finely mince the onion; add to the apples. Finely chop the celery and add to the apple mixture. Toss in the pecans and cheese.

In another bowl combine the mayonnaise, yoghurt, salt and pepper. Pour over the apple mixture and toss liberally to coat. Serve on a bed of finely shredded greens.

The salad can be made ahead of time and refrigerated; the flavour improves overnight.

Serves 6

Review: The Moor's Last Sigh

The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Every time I read one of Rushdie's novels I come away enlightened and amazed, and certainly reading the literary masterpiece The Moor's Last Sigh is no exception.

Perhaps one of Rushdie's more accessible novels, the story follows a more conventional narrative, although to call anything Rushdie writes conventional is inaccurate. In this case the story follows a family history, that of the Zoigoby clan, which takes us into Jewish, Moorish, Spanish and Indian heritage, illuminating perfections and defects of the body, mind and spirit. There is very much a theme of isolation of spirit and intellect in this novel, of loneliness despite crowded and intimate environments. In conjunction with that Rushdie marries political unrest to to restless spirits, so that both microcosmic and macrocosmic time flow around and through each other, so that one has a sense of a ship tossed upon a boundless sea.

As always there is a fluid and adept use of language and phraseology that defies every literary convention, and in doing so creates breathtaking art. One comes away wanting to memorize phrases for their utter beauty and sagacity. But let it not be thought this is a novel only of high art, for certainly throughout the story Rushdie's irreverent and incisive wit prevail, so that at times I caught myself bursting into laughter.

I would have to say that if a person is new to Rushdie's work, The Moor's Last Sigh would be a perfect introduction.

Highly recommended, and certainly a novel that should be a staple in anyone's library.



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4-star review on LibraryThing for Shadow Song

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SmashwordsCame across this review of Shadow Song on LibraryThing this morning and thought I'd share, particularly because of the reviewer's validation of the First Nations aspects of the novel, given she is a member of the First Nations herself.


This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.Starting this book, I had no idea it would end up where it did. Lorina Stephens did a wonderful job crafting this book, taking us on a lifelong journey of little Danielle. While the actual historical event the book is based off has little to do with the story, it serves as a wonderful starting ground, a brainstorm-ready event that falls into place seamlessly.

While I did not quite understand the intensely deep hatred for Danielle, her family, and Shadow Song by the uncle—was he just an insanely bitter man? A hateful drunk driven by insanity to incessantly torment?—I allowed that to slip me in order to enjoy the other characters and their stories.

Stephens had some wonderful word choices that caught me off guard, wrote imagery that furthered the story rather than embellished, and built suspense with clever foreshadowing.

While some traditional, more conservative modern Native Americans may shake their heads at what some may see as an inaccurate description of their ways and the supernatural, I instead felt immense respect for the feelings and beliefs. As a young native woman growing without much guidance, the emotion behind the writing describes to me what my ancestors felt. Simply felt. That is something I cannot learn entirely on my own.

I spotted a few editing errors, but they did not take me out of the reading… too much. :)

I plan on adding other Lorina Stephens books to my collection as soon as possible! (  )    |   flagonbrien | Sep 28, 2012 | 

My novels as audiobooks

Heard from Gesine Kernchen at Iambik Studios earlier this week, regarding auditions for two of my books they're developing for audiobooks. We've settled on Sandra Gayer for Shadow Song, and Diana Majlinger for From Mountains of Ice.

Sandra has a wonderful English accent, perfectly suited to narrate Danielle's voice in Shadow Song. In fact, I was so moved by her inflection and expression that I was weepy by the finish of the audition.

Diana Majlinger's voice is a delicious melange of European accents, and her handling of Italian phrases and words is flawless. It was nothing short of delicious to listen to her read for her audition. Will be very excited to hear what she does with the entire novel.

Anyway, both novels are in production now. Not sure when they'll be done, but I'm sure Gesine will keep me posted.

You know, there are days it's very hard and very depressing going the indie route. But then there are days when you get a five star review and someone really gets what you're trying to create, or something like the experience I've had so far with Iambik happens, and you think, yes, it is possible.

 

A response to Jeff Vitous

I came across a review at LibraryThing last week which, beyond it's disappointing rating, quite startled me with its inaccuracies, to the point I wondered which novel Jeff Vitous read, because it didn't seem to be From Mountains of Ice. Although I make it a policy never to respond to a review, I'm going to fly in the face of conventional wisdom to comment. Jeff Vitous' review is set off as a quote, my response in blue.

In the afterward, Lorina Stephens tells us how this book, her first in 16 years, made it to digital print. The wonderful thing about digital publishing is you don't need to be a pedigreed writer just to get consideration. The bad...nearly anyone can do it.

Not quite what I wrote, Jeff Vitous. I stated From Mountains of Ice was the first novel I'd written in 16 years. It was first published as a trade paperback, later as an eBook. I quibble, but if we're going to start splitting hairs, let's be sure we're making the correct comparisons.
As to my pedigree, while I don't have international fame, I have earned my way as a writer for over 30 years, primarily as a freelance journalist for Canadian national, regional and local periodicals. I also worked as an editor for a regional lifestyle magazine, now defunct, was wooed by several others, and am now publisher at Five Rivers Publishing. And before snorts of derision can be made about the publishing house, it should be noted it does not exist as a vanity house for the glory of Lorina Stephens. Quite the contrary. We presently have published 11 authors and 19 books, and have signed and will soon be publishing six more authors with another 32 books, all of which are most definitely not pulp, churned-out, manufactured dross for the masses. I invite you to take a look at our catalogue and amend your comment.

Pedigree, Jeff Vitous? Beyond writing reviews of books and war-gaming, I don't see a publishing background in your CV. I apologize, but perhaps I've missed something.

This is the third ebook I've read this year that was published by a small digital publishing company.

Once more, where does it say Five Rivers is a digital only house?

All have one thing in common: terrible editing! Do the majors have a lock on good editors?

A matter of opinion, I'm sure. I could easily point you to several novels published by major houses which have terrible editing. The Twilight saga immediately leaps to mind.

Or, and I suspect this is more the case, does these small publishers see editing as an obstacle to getting large volumes of content quickly to the market?

Hardly. A recent publication from Five Rivers, Mik Murdoch: Boy Superhero, was in editing for 18 months or so, with a total of three passes from the same editor, Robert Runte, who edited From Mountains of Ice, the novel to which Jeff Vitous takes such umbrage. Oh, and if we're speaking of editing, it's do these small publishers see editing as an obstacle, not does.

From Mountains of Ice is set in a fictional analog to medieval Italy. Having a fictional world with a real-world ethnic analog didn't work for me; I found it distracting.

 That's unfortunate. I suppose Jeff Vitous wouldn't like anything written by, say, the award-winning Guy Gavriel Kay, or Caitlin Sweet, or perhaps even any of the myriad Arthurian sagas. 

I remember advice from long ago that unless you are really really good at it, don't try writing accents. It's not that Stephens writes a lot of accents, but it naturally seems so with so many ethnic Italian names.

So, the complaint here is that the names aren't recognizable Anglo-Saxon white names? Jeff Vitous is correct, however, that I didn't write a patois in From Mountains of Ice. As he says, unless you're really good at it, like, say, Salman Rushdie (Then why speakofy such treason and filthy up my children's ears with what-all Godless bunk? -- The Moor's Last Sigh) then you should simply refrain. 

The second major problem I had was a reliance of narrative to move the story forward and define character relations in some cases. The narrator should not play such a prominent role...we should know by the action of the story and dialog between character what the emotional relationship between characters are. Here, we are told that simply that two characters have tension after long months of working together -- well, their story lines during these months were omitted altogether! So when they confront each other, it is without prior foreshadowing. These kind of issues compounded as the book wore on. In the end, you had the narrator telling us how deeply torn and emotional the characters were, but there was no precedence for this outburst. Character actions were largely contrived and baffling throughout the book.

Funny thing is, I quite agree with Jeff Vitous statement that we should show not tell. However, the method employed in what he terms narration is a literary device easily to be found in say, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, in which Conrad continually tells us of the insane and cruel Kurtz, who we don't meet until the last pages of the novel. It's a device employed by Bram Stoker in Dracula. The device has also been employed extremely well by a myriad of modern writers. But, perhaps, given the consistently poor ratings Jeff Vitous offers from his LibraryThing podium, and the type of books he seems to prefer, it would appear a less subtle and more obvious narrative would better suit his tastes.
It would be interesting to see what Jeff Vitous might have to say about the above-quoted Salman Rushdie, or Rohinton Mistry (I bet he'd have a field day with him!), or Linden MacIntyre for that matter. Oh, I think he'd have his knickers in a right knot were he to read Giller-winning, The Bishop's Man. Lots and lots of narrative there with which to deal.

There are also fantasy elements in the story that seemed forced an[d] employed as a crutch as needed. The village truthsayer, Aletta, can always tell when someone is lying.

 How is that a crutch? Aletta herself admits it isn't so much magic as learning to read body language, to hear inflection of voice. All of what she does is well-researched psychology of the present day.

[I]t seems dead ancestors serve in an advisory role.

Again, I have to ask, why is that a crutch? Or any different from any of the belief paradigms of cultures past and present all over the globe?

Her husband, Sylvio, exiled brother of the prince, [...]

Sylvio is Carmelo's brother? Really? Wow. I don't remember writing that. Not anywhere in that novel. I didn't realize mentor is a synonym for brother.

[...]is a bowyer who crafts unique bows containing bones of the dead. Those dead speak to him as well.

 And the problem with that is?...

When Sylvio is summoned to his brother's court, he encounters a child prostitute who he enlists on a mission to Aletta, with instructions that Aletta is to look after her.

A mission? Sylvio gives the child (Passerapina) coin and tells her to go find his wife so that the child will be safe, to get her off the street, to give her a life. There is no mission. It is an act of compassion.

Surprise surprise, the dead talk to her too, and she becomes a protege of Aletta. By the end of the story, we find that it appears to be a special talent of anyone born with a genetic lineage to the country, much to the chagrin of would-be neighboring conquerors.

 Ah, so the problem is Jeff Vitous doesn't like the premise of the story, that the dead can speak to the living, that there is a race of people genetically capable of such a thing. How is that any different from vampire or zombie stories, one wonders? From Mountains of Ice wants to be an epic tale, Stephens fails on all fronts when it comes to developing that tale. Characters have no dimension. The history of this created world is undeveloped. Fantastical aspects are created and employed as convenience, not because they add to the story are inconsistently employed. I felt as if there was originally a much bigger story, and the author took it upon her self to cut it down to an arbitrary length. An author who knows the motives of the characters is not the best person to do such massive edits -- the end product still makes sense to the author, but not so much for other readers. ( ) | flag JeffV | Aug 24, 2012 |
Oh well. I guess Jeff Vitous just needed to vent spleen, exercise intellectual muscles, display erudition. As they say, can't please them all. Oh, and Jeff? Do me a favour, don't read novels outside your narrow view of the world and war gaming. And most especially don't read any of my novels. I guarantee you won't like them.

 

Review: Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

In this installment of Discworld, Pratchett explores religion and bigotry, and with a fairly weighted hand. One might even say with a 20lb sledgehammer. His usual wry and farcical sense of humour was lost under the weight of his indictment of organized religion and racial ignorance, and I couldn't help but feel he used the story as his own personal lectern from which to broadcast, and that frankly he just tried too hard with this one. All of that is perfectly understandable and within an author's right. In fact, I quite agree with Pratchett's condemnation. It's just that I couldn't help but feel he might have chosen a different vehicle; but then humour is such a personal and weird category.

Worth reading? Sure. But not one of the better crafted stories of the series, in my opinion.

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Review: A Laodicean: A Story of Today

A Laodicean: A Story of Today by Thomas Hardy

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



A Laodicean is a bit of a departure for Hardy, in that he deals with a contemporary time period, rather than a previous, although the subject matter remains true to one of his themes, that of people attempting to shrug off the yoke of religious and social convention. In fact, the entire tone of the novel is set in the title, as someone who is indifferent to these very subjects.

For its time it was a bit of a radical novel, putting forward concepts that contractual marriage was unnecessary and even outdated, and that organized Christianity had out-lived its relevance in society.

One has to wonder if, in fact, Hardy was a mysogynist, because certainly he doesn't cast women in a particularly good light, portraying them as flighty, inconstant and coy. Perhaps, though, this was a nature cultivated by middle to upper class society and considered the norm. Difficult to say from this historical vantage.

Still, very much a novel worth exploring.



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