Tara Lynn Masih's Blog, page 6

Beyond Paula Deen: Why Multiculturalism Has Failed Us and Why We Need an Intercultural Dialogue

We're getting great private feedback on our joint interview for Huffington Post. Samuel Autman and I take on the term multiculturalism and I discuss the importance of reading to increase empathy. So glad we haven't faced any flaming comments yet!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/samuel-...

I really believe we need to get children reading again, and reading books that will open their minds. Some school systems are doing this, but parents need to take up the slack and get their kids off the screens and into a book. Though ereaders are great ways to encourage them, too! I know more boys are reading because of them.

Chalk Circle Wins Silver in the Book of the Year Awards!

We end the year with a fourth award, and a big one. I love ForeWord Reviews and the work they do for us small press writers. Honored to receive a second BOTYA from them. Thanks to my publisher Wyatt-MacKenzie and the 19 talented writers in the collection!
Here is the full list of winners:

https://botya.forewordreviews.com/win...

Book of the Year Finalist

Very happy to announce that ForeWord Magazine has named The Chalk Circle as a finalist in its Book of the Year Awards. We find out end of June if it places. Congratulations to the 19 authors in the anthology, and to intro author David Mura!

https://botya.forewordreviews.com/boo...

From Flash Story to Film

I'm so thrilled to have one of my favorite flash stories turned into a spoken word film. Only five minutes long. Give it a look/listen when you have time. Since I didn't produce or narrate it, I can say it's beautiful, haunting, and well worth the little break. Up on YouTube, and easy access right here on my homepage:

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

How to Survive Rejection 101

I’ve been in the world of publishing for three decades now. I’ve seen friends’ and colleagues’ writing careers both blossom and wilt. Some never even break ground. What mainly separates the successes from the failures (or from those who give up)? It’s often, simply, an inability to cope with rejection. It isn’t that the successful authors are necessarily better writers out of the gate. They are the writers who are passionate about their art, who make the time to submit, and whose drive to publish and improve overpowers their depression at a lack of acceptance. So I offer some survival tips for the New Year, with glimpses into some well-established and emerging writers’ and editors’ experiences and techniques of coping with the big “R.” Thanks to Matt Bell, XJ Kennedy, Lise Haines, Abigail Cloud, Steven Pavlos, and Suzanne Kamata.

http://grubdaily.org/rejection-101/

A Christmas Memory: Capote's gift

“It's bad enough in life to do without something YOU want; but confound it, what gets my goat is not being able to give somebody something you want THEM to have.” --Truman Capote, from A Christmas Memory

If you haven't read this little story, even if you don't celebrate the holiday, I highly recommend it this season. It's a tiny, cheaply priced little book that will make great gifts, too, and can also be found on DVD, with the amazing Geraldine Paige as Capote's memorable aunt. First published in Mademoiselle magazine in 1956, this autobiographical story is what turned me on to details in writing, with descriptions of fruit cake weather, baking, and Alabama farm life. It's about memory, love, life and death, all in one brief telling, with one of the best opening lines ever: "Imagine a morning in late November. A coming of winter morning more than twenty years ago." For some, it's a tradition to read this every winter season. I'm going to start making it mine.

Behind the Cover Interview for Dog Star

I tried to post this Vimeo interview on my bio page, the second part of the Two Scrybes interview that began with Chalk Circle, but Goodreads would not let me upload a Vimeo video. So I'm forced to put it up in this blog. For anyone interested in the story behind the lovely cover, the search for the publisher, the production, and just general fun book convo, check this out if you have time.

http://vimeo.com/46489889

Let's Face the Truth: ALL Reviews Are Subjective

The Internet is abuzz in the book world about Giraldi's latest review of Alix Ohlin's novel and story collection. Why? Because I think the flaming culture that the Internet has allowed for is coming forth in reviews in such a way that the book world is not used to. We no longer have the rather staid lifetime reviewers who could skewer a writer's career with a few passive-aggressive critical comments. Now, an author is open to flaming comments from anyone. Whether on Goodreads or Amazon or the NYT. And we just have to live with it. We have to accept that ALL reviews are subjective in some way, that some reviewers may not even have read the book, and that a few may have a hidden agenda. That the new generation thinks it has a right to speak out rudely, cruelly, and hurtfully, under the guise of criticism. Safety behind the screen. What is surprising is that the NYT is opening itself to this sort of flaming review. I read the review (the link follows), and frankly Giraldi seems to have a good point and gives good supporting examples. What everyone is reacting to is the tone. The flaming torch he lit when he submitted his professional review to a professional magazine. To me, it sounds like he lost his temper. That the books drove him to that place that some of us editors get driven to when we feel something should not have gotten published or how the hell did the editors not edit this crap out? I've been there, felt that. Write it out, but don't hit send till you calm down and re-edit. There's a real person at the end of that review....

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/boo...

In-Depth Vimeo Interview for The Chalk Circle

Special thanks to Lara and Michael at Two Scrybes Media for their in-depth interview about the essays and idea behind Chalk Circle. I appreciate their glowing compliments about the book, how it made them think differently, and I especially appreciate their willingness to discuss the loaded topics of race and culture. If you have 27 mins. (or less, there's always that fast forward button), take a look and leave a comment on your reactions to what we had to say. It's a different experience to be interviewed this way, that's for sure! Fun.

http://vimeo.com/45683549

Mr. F. Scott Still in the Top 100!

Publishers Weekly compiled the Top 100 selling books this month. Among the sea of "Grey" and Grishams, what a wonderful site to see F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby coming in at #65. In 2012. Think about that....How powerful to be able to last as a bestseller for so many decades?

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/ni...