Catherine Austen's Blog, page 15

Friday Fable: The Novelist and the Literary Journal that Paid $30

You may know the old story, “The Angler and the Little Fish:”

An angler spent all morning casting and reeling in the hot sun, dreaming about the bucketload of trout and walleye he might catch, how delicious they’d taste fried in butter, how his wife would welcome him home with kisses, how his neighbours would gossip about his fishing prowess, and even his grumpy old father would say, “A two-foot trout? Not bad, kid.”

But alas, the angler didn’t get a nibble all morning.

He was just about ready to eat his box of worms in desperation when he felt a tiny tug on his line and he reeled in a little rock bass. “Don’t kill me for one lousy mouthful!” pleaded the fish. “Throw me back and catch me in a few years when I’m big enough to impress someone.”

The angler considered this. He imagined walking home with the tiny fish on a line, how it would barely flavour a soup, how how his wife would grumble and his neighbours would joke and his father would mutter, “Not much of a fisherman, are you, son?”

Then his stomach growled and he said to the unfortunate fish, “If I let you go in hope of something bigger, I might starve.”

And the moral is: A fish on the line is worth two in the lake.  (AKA “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”)

That is a fine old tale. But if Aesop were a modern slave to the written word, he might have called his fable, “The Novelist and the Literary Journal that Paid $30:”

A writer spent all year polishing stories and submitting them to literary journals, dreaming about the Paris Review deal he might land, how his delicious words would glimmer from the pages of Glimmer Train, how his wife would exclaim, “Darling, you’ve been nominated for the Journey Prize!”, how his critique group would envy his anthologized pieces, and even his grumpy old father would say, “Two stories in The Fiddlehead? Not bad, kid.”

But alas, the writer didn’t get an acceptance all year.

He was just about ready to write some cheesy erotica piece in desperation when he got an email acceptance from an online journal he didn’t even remember submitting to. “Don’t sell that great story for $30 lousy bucks,” a writer-friend advised. “Wait for something more impressive.”

The writer considered this. He imagined announcing the modest publication credit on his website, how barely a dozen people would read it, how how his wife would say, “That’s not much money for something you spent a year on,” how his critique group would ask, “What’s the name of that magazine again?” and his father would mutter, “Not exactly Khaled Hosseini, are you, son?”

Then he thought about how moved he’d been by a story he’d read online a few years ago by some writer whose name he didn’t recognize in some journal whose name he’d forgotten.  And he thought, “What the hell. I’m only selling First North American Serial Rights. It’s not like I can’t republish this in a collection someday.”

And the moral is: A publication online is worth two in the imagination.

There are lots of good journals that just can’t pay well, and someone might find your story in one someday. If you’re not sure where to send your work, try these lists:

“A Writer’s Guide to Canadian Literary Magazines and Journals” on the National Magazine Awards Foundation Blog. The article is a bit out of date (November 2013) but it’s a great resource.
“Top 50 Literary Magazines” on the Every Writer’s Resource Blog. Mostly American publications, listing 50 of the very best.

To keep on top of the latest news for literary journals, here are three websites you might want to follow:

The Review Review. A hub for all things literary-magazine-wise. Lists a kazillion journals (mostly American) and reviews a bazillion of them. And it will send you news in regular emails like this one if you subscribe.
Quick Brown Fox. The blog of writing teacher Brian Henry, listing calls for submissions (mostly Canadian) from agents, publishers, and journals, along with other writerly posts.
Writing Career. Brian Scott’s website listing oodles of calls for submissions from journals, publishers, contests, and various fiction and non-fiction markets. He will send you a free biweekly newsletter of looming deadlines and markets if you subscribe.

With these links, you’ll have more markets than you could possibly saturate with one lifetime’s writing. So start racking up publication credits. Good luck.

And that’s my Friday fable. Have a great weekend.

Filed under: Friday Fables, short stories, writers' markets, writing Tagged: aesop's fables, literary journals, publishing, the angler and the little fish, writing

Thank you, BookFest!

It was a pleasure to be part of the 29th annual Vancouver Island Children’s Book Festival this year. I met hundreds of young readers at schools and libraries in the Nanaimo area during a week-long author tour that culminated in BookFest on May 2nd: a day-long celebration of children’s literature in which I joined with ten other authors and illustrators, along with drummers, puppeteers, face painters, booksellers, volunteers, parents, and kids of all ages. (Check it out on the BookFest website.)

So why did it take me two weeks to blog my thanks? Because I ended my BookFestivities with a three-hour drive to Tofino, where I went hiking, boating, sea kayaking, strolling on beaches, photographing starfish, annoying sandpipers, eating, drinking, and being merry and enjoying this view from my room at the Long Beach Lodge:

The Pacific Ocean at sunset as viewed from bed.

It took a while for a central Canadian like me to descend from that heavenly landscape and consider something like blogging as being worth one moment of precious life on this beautiful planet. (Meaning that, as it was a sunny 28 degrees celsius when I got home, I didn’t feel like working.) But now the VISA bill has arrived so it’s back to business. I have an annual report to write, a novel to submit, and a new middle-grade comedy to plan. So yeah, I should go write something now.

But thanks for such a wonderful time on the west coast!

That’s all for this Friday. Have a great weekend.

Filed under: authors, book tour, children's books, school visits Tagged: bookfest, children's books, Tofino, Vancouver Island Children's Book Festival, writers

Wonderful Workshops

Thank you to the 150 students from grades 4-8 who participated in��my writing workshops this week at the MASC Young Authors and Illustrators Conference in Ottawa. What a blast! I was so inspired by your��stories, your enthusiasm, and your willingness to share. Even the boring stories were entertaining. (I’m not name-calling. We wrote badly on purpose for a��final exercise because we were exhausted from writing awesomely.)

A huge thank-you to all the MASC staff, volunteers, and sponsors who made the conference such a success. (If you live in eastern Ontario or western Quebec and you don’t know what MASC is yet, check out the MASC website. It’s Multicultural Arts in Schools and Communities. The annual Young Authors and Illustrators Conference is one of MANY arts-related activities they��undertake to reach more than 100,000 students, teachers and seniors each year.)

The MASC 2015 authors and illustrators: Kate Inglis, Matt James, Genevieve Despres, Catherine Austen, Tim Wynne-Jones, Rina Singh, Sydney Smith, and Monique Polak

A big thanks and I sniffly “I miss you already” to the other presenting authors and illustrators I hung out with at the Conference, whose company��made every day a pleasure. You guys were just��as inspiring as the kids.

I’m going to pack up my inspiration and take it with me to the Vancouver Island Children’s Book Festival next week to (a) escape the snow that’s falling here at home, and (b) meet hundreds of other inspiring kids. I’ll��be visiting schools all week, talking to students in��grades K-5. Then I join ten other authors and illustrators plus��hundreds of young readers at the big Bookfest day-long celebration in Nanaimo on Saturday, May 2nd.

This year’s Bookfest will feature��authors Lucky Budd, Gary Kent, John Wilson, Terri Mack, Sarah Turner, Vikki VanSickle, and me, along with��illustrators Bill Helin and Kim LaFave and author/illustrators Mike Deas and Wallace Edwards. What a great line-up! (Read all about us and our books on the Bookfest website.) If you’re near Nanaimo on May 2nd, grab the kids and come on down to Bookfest.

If you’re not in Nanaimo on May 2nd, don’t despair. You’ll miss the Vancouver Island Children’s Book Festival but you can still get out and have fun with books. May 2nd is “Authors for Indies” day, when you’ll find some of your favourite authors working the floor of��their local independent bookstore. Check out who’ll be at a��store near you, then head out on May 2nd to��ask them which book they recommend.

And of course May 2nd is the first Saturday in May which means it’s Free Comic Book Day!��Yay!! Only 8 days to go!!! (Yes, I’m counting the days – and the exclamation marks. Because the only thing better than a free comic book��is a bunch of free comic books and a bunch of friends with other free comic books and an afternoon to hang out together and read them all.) Check out the nearest store where��you can find your free comics��on the Free Comic Book Day website.

So that’s a great week behind me and a great week ahead. The rest of May is going to be dullsville in comparison. Oh well. Maybe I’ll get some writing done.

That’s it for this Friday. Have a wonderful weekend.

Filed under: author talks, authors, school visits, What's New, writing conference, young writers Tagged: author visits, bookfest, children's books, free comic book day, MASC, MASC Young Authors and Young Illustrators Conference, Vancouver Island Children's Book Festival, writing workshops

MASC Young Authors and Illustrators Conference

Next week I’ll be��a��guest author at the��annual MASC Young Authors and Illustrators Conference, which runs from April 21-23 in Ottawa, Ontario.

Students in��grades 4-8 from eastern Ontario and western Quebec will be bussed and driven to the Canadian Aviation Museum to attend the Conference for one day each, taking a day away from school��for some hands-on learning through writing and illustrating workshops led by professionals in the children’s book industry.

The kids will enjoy a plenary session in the morning and a book signing session in the afternoon, where they’ll meet all 8 of the guest authors and illustrators. Sandwiched in between those events are the meaty bits of the conference: morning and afternoon��workshops in small, age-specific groups with the authors or illustrators of their choice.

So it’s a full day of writing and illustrating stories. Playing with ideas, developing characters, generating tension, figuring out what makes a story work, and just basically having fun with��the awesome power of creativity. Can’t beat that.

I was a guest author at the 2012 MASC Conference��and it was a blast but��this year promises to be even better because (a) I know what I’m doing this time round; and (b) two of my favourite authors will be there and I’ll get to have lunch with them:��Monique Polak and Tim Wynne-Jones.

Monique Polak

Tim Wynne-Jones

(They have 50 books between them. Good ones. Go read a few.)

I’ll soon meet the other authors and illustrators who are guest presenters this year: authors Kate Inglis and Rina Singh, and illustrators Genevieve Despres, Matt James, and Sydney Smith. (You can read all their bios on the MASC website.)��I won’t get to take their workshops, alas, but I’ll chat with them over morning coffee and that’s always fun.

Best of all, I’ll meet over a hundred young writers and share in their creative process for a couple of hours and get totally inspired while I motivate��them to write their stories as well��as they can.

That’s a better-than-average week, I’d say.

And that’s it for this Friday.

 

 

Filed under: authors, children's books, writing, writing conference, young writers Tagged: author visits, creative process, MASC, MASC Young Authors and Young Illustrators Conference, writing workshops

What are you Writing Now?

I went to��Laurentian Regional High School yesterday and spoke with Secondary I and II (Grade 7 and 8) students who’d been reading my novel, All Good Children, in class. The students were great audiences: attentive, informed and enthusiastic. They sent me��a long��list of questions in advance of my visit, and I tried to incorporate my answers into my presentation.

Being a lazy blogger, I decided to stick my��answers to their questions here, too,��as a handy already-did-that-work��series of blog posts. I’ll tackle one question��at a time to maximize my return on effort. Here goes….

Question #1. Are you currently writing any books?

Yes.��I am always writing MANY books. Too many. I’m drawn to the fun stuff — working out ideas, researching cool facts, drafting scenes, staring out the window imagining a��story come to life. And I’m put off by��the tough stuff — revision, submission, revision, submission, revision. I naturally get a whole lot of books past the starting line. I just don’t get too many to the finish line. (And sometimes that’s for the best– see my post on Good Ideas gone Bad.)

Here are a few works-in-progress that I hope to finish��sometime soon:

I love a good stalker story.

Can I Keep Him? A literary thriller for young adults about a pair of star-crossed lovers divided by trauma who may finally be getting together but nope, there’s an��obsessed young woman out to��ruin their lives, steal their stuff, publish their secrets, and maybe frame them for murder. (This one is written — overwritten, in fact — but it��needs a bit of spit and polish and lots of red ink to fix it up.)

The Bremen Town Musicians.

Bremen. A middle-grade novel re-envisioning��The Bremen Town Musicians, about four unwanted animals��taken in by a disabled young��magician��and her mother, whose��farmhouse is invaded by robbers. (This one has a skeleton written, but it’s��sadder than I want so I put it aside until summer, when I’ll be bouncy and optimistic and able to revise in a way that won’t make the reader want to give up on the world.)

A love story with a happy ending.

The Best Designs. A verse novel about a teenage single father and the image-conscious��design��student who falls in love with him. Everybody says they won’t last, but it’s hard to tell which one is too good for the other. (I’ve written a slew of poems for this one��but it’s incomplete and needs a happy ending.)

One crow. (Times three.)

Three Crows. Three short��middle grade novels that begin with��a lonely child finding and raising an injured crow. One comedy, one horror, one historical drama. Together saying something stunningly intelligent��about the ways we connect with��nature. (This one is plotted and many scenes are drafted but I haven’t written the stunningly intelligent bits yet. Alas.)

Scary campfire tales (new and improved).

Cabin Tales. Four kids tell ghost stories around a campfire and become the characters in a final scary story. Mwah hah hah. (This one is badly��drafted. I almost gave up on it but��I wrote a new horror story this week that’s awesome, so now I’m thinking I can make my draft��a zillion times better. How hard could it be, right?)

Don’t go in this direction.

Insanity. Experimental YA fiction about a girl whose mentally ill sister was killed by a psychopath who’d been tried��for��former violent crimes and judged Not Guilty by reason of Insanity. (This is just a pile of research and ideas. So of course it’s my favourite. I can’t decide whether the narrator herself will “go insane” with thoughts of vengeance, but I’m leaning that way.)

I also have a bunch of picture books drafted – Puppycats, Ten Toes, Hibernation Blues – that are sitting in my outbasket, along with some new short stories that are good to go to various journals. I have to get off my butt and submit them to publishers. Because I LOVE��talking to young readers, and you can only get young readers if you have some books for them to read. So I’d better finish a few��more.��Like now.

I still have 39 questions to answer but that’s enough for this Friday. If anyone wants to tell me about their works in progress, their reluctance to let go of a story, their submission blues or their experiences raising orphaned crows, I’d love to hear it.

Have a great weekend.

Filed under: authors, children's books, school visits, writing Tagged: book ideas, creative process, publishing, revising

Radio Interview at Noon

The interview I did in Prince Edward County last month (last post) airs at noon today on 99.3 County FM. Lynn Pickering, host of “The County Writes…The County Reads” asks me about my background, my books, and my advice for young writers. Check it out.��(It’s on in 45 minutes. Just enough time to hide some eggs and stuff a turkey.)

Happy Easter!

Filed under: authors, children's books, writing Tagged: 26 tips for surviving grade 6, 28 tricks for a fearless grade 6, all good children, book promotion, children's novels, walking backward, writing tips

Hello, Prince Edward County!

I’ll be making my way southwestward next Tuesday to meet with elementary students in Wellington and Picton, Ontario. At the invitation of the Rotary Club of Wellington��and the County of Prince Edward Public Library & Archives, I���ll be helping the county celebrate Rotary Literacy Month.

Having been raised in Kingston, Ontario, you���d think I���d have visited Picton and Wellington a dozen times but no, this will be my first time there.��I���ve passed through the area en route to Sandbanks Provincial Park��with my family as a kid, and it���s possible we stopped in Picton for gas or camping supplies, but I probably had to stay in the car.

All I remember about those trips to Sandbanks is the Daisy May Sweet Shop where I first tried banana chips, a food I find repulsive yet attractive (���I���ll just try one���ew���maybe I���ll try one more���ew.���). I���m sure the shop had better sweets than banana chips (or else we wouldn���t have stopped there), but alas I will never know. Either the shop went out of business during recent decades or it never existed except in my imagination. Either way, it can���t be found online this afternoon.

But enough about candy. Back to books���

I���ll visit with CML Snider Elementary School students in Wellington, Ontario, on the morning of March 24th. The school���s ���Growing with Character��� theme for March is Humour, and I intend to bring some of that with me.��In the afternoon I���ll be at the Picton branch of the County Library, offering young readers “10 Tips for a Fearless Writing Life.” I���ll tell them everything I���ve learned about becoming an author, summed up in one hour and accompanied by phobia fun facts, grammar tips from Yoda, and a reading in a devil voice. Plus cute cat pictures.

The morning session is full and space is limited in the afternoon, but if you are in the Picton area next Tuesday, you or your class might be able to squeeze in. Visit the library website��for more information on this and other upcoming events.

After my talks, I���ll meet with local radio host Lynn Pickering to talk about books and cats in an interview for the community radio program, ���The County Writes���The County Reads,�����aired on 99.3 FM at noon on Sundays. I���ll post a link to the broadcast here (unless I make a complete fool of myself, in which case I���ll deny that it���s me speaking).

Until then, Happy Spring! And Happy World Storytelling Day!��The theme for this year���s international storytelling celebration is ���Wishes.��� So lend your ear or your tongue to a tale about wishes. Gather your kids, your parents, your friends, your family, and retell an old tale ��– from Aladdin��to the Monkey���s Paw��–��or make up a new one. (Once upon a time there was a little girl who wished for banana chips but then she tasted one and asked, ���Why would anyone do this to a banana?��� The end.)

That���s it for this Friday. If anyone can verify that there was ever a Daisy May Sweet Shop somewhere between Kingston and Sandbanks about thirty-five years ago, I���d love to hear from you.

And many thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts and the Quebec Writers’ Federation for financial support��that allows writers to give presentations to��readers around the country.

 

Filed under: author talks, children's books, public libraries, school visits, writing Tagged: books, daisy may sweet shop, picton, prince edward county, rotary literacy month, world storytelling day

Spring Contests for Writers

I am back after��a 2-month blogging break, and I’m bringing the best intentions of posting��weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, or whenever I remember from this point onward.

(To those who wonder, “If I lay off��blogging and Facebook for 2 months, will I free up enough time to write a masterpiece?” my guess is “No, but you will reach the ‘expert’ level in Sudoku.”)

There’s a whole new batch of writing contests with looming deadlines��you should know about:

For young writers:

The Writer���s Trust of Canada is hosting a non-fiction student writing contest for pieces of 1,000-2,000 words. With cash prizes for students and their schools. Deadline March 31st, 2015. For details, visit The Writers’ Trust.
Alberta students in grades 4-9 can enter their short stories and graphic stories for the Martyn Godfrey Young Writers Award . Prizes includes books, author visits and e-readers. Deadline March 31st. For details, visit the Young Alberta Book Society
Aboriginal students��in Ontario can submit their creative writing to the James Bartleman Aboriginal Youth Creative Writing Awards. Up to six winners can receive this annual award of $2,500.��Deadline May 31st.��Learn more from��the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship.
Finish a story in 400 words to win the “ Next World Literacy Contest .” Open to Canadian students in grades 5-8. Deadline April 3rd. For details, visit World Literacy Canada.
The annual PBS Kids��� Writing Contest is on now, open to children��in grades K-3 in the USA. Submit your stories and illustrations through your local PBS station before April 10th, 2015. For details, visit PBS.
US students in grades 11 and 12 can enter the 19th annual�� Signet Classics Student Scholarship Essay Contest on GB Shaw���s Pygmalion. Deadline April 14th. For details, visit Penguin.
The Royal Canadian Legion has contests for youth (art and literature) every��year. Deadlines vary with local branches. Check out the national information on the Legion’s website.

If you’re a young adult just a tad too old to quality for the kids’ contests, try the��PEN International/New Voices Award. Open to unpublished writers aged 18-30 via submissions to their local PEN chapter. Deadlines (from now to��May 22nd) vary by country. Canadian deadline April 26th. For information, visit��PEN Canada��(or your national PEN chapter).

For adults of any age who write for children, the Helen Isobel Sissons Canadian Children’s Story Award is accepting submissions for just a few more days. Original stories reflecting global diversity written for young children (especially up to age 7, i.e., stories not chapter books) will be received until March 20th. For details, visit the PACE Canada website.

And that’s it for now. I hope to return��Friday with a fable.

Good luck!

 

Filed under: authors, contests, young writers Tagged: story contests, writers markets, writing contests

Writing Contests with Looming Deadlines

Attention young writers!

The Ottawa Public Library���s annual Awesome Authors contest is now accepting poems and stories from Ottawa-area youth aged 9-17. Deadline February 16th.��

Not in Ottawa? No worries.��If you’ve got your act together RIGHT NOW, you can enter the��Jessamy Stursberg Poetry Contest for Canadian Youth in one of��two age categories: junior (grades 7-9) and senior (grades 10-12). Winners receive cash prizes and publication in the League of Canadian Poets’ magazine, Re:verse. Contest deadline January 15th.��

If you can’t swing a submission in a week, you might still make it into the��River of Words environmental artwork and poetry contest for writers aged 5-19 anywhere in the world. (The US deadline was December 1st; the International deadline is coming up on February 1st.)

If poetry is not your thing, you could write an essay for the National Student Writing Competition, a contest open to��students in the US and Canada via their teachers. The deadline for student essays is February 18th ��but teachers must����register their classes by January 14th. Seriously. Tell your teacher to get a move on. This is a great teaching activity.

There’s a bit more time to get your teacher into Dupont’s awesome science contests for students in Canada and the US.��Take the Dupont Challenge for great prizes. Kids in grades 6-12 can submit science essays to this contest by��January 31st.��Kids in grades K-5 can submit science stories��by��March 1st.

Americans get extra chances to win:

The��2015 PBS Kids contest��is now open to young US writers in grade K-3.
Scholastic’s Kids Are Authors contest for US students in grades K-8, working with an adult Project Coordinator, has a deadline of March 15th.
The��Pets Add Life poetry contest for US students in grades 3-8 is on now with a deadline of January 31, 2015.

What about the adults with pen in hand?

If you missed all those kids’ contests by, say, twenty or thirty years, don’t fret. There are writing contests for adults, too:

Ottawa Magazine’s Short Fiction Contest is open to local writers with a deadline of March 1, 2015.
The Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Contest is open to anyone who likes to write sci-fi. Deadline February 1st.
Highlights Fiction Contest is open to adult writers of stories for children. The contest is open all month, closing January 31st.
The Transitions Abroad Narrative Travel Writing contest is just about to close. This contest for professional, freelance and aspiring travel writers around the world has been ongoing since last April with a deadline of January 15th, 2015.
The Reader���s Digest poetry contest is open to US residents over 18. Deadline January 30th.

These are all contests with NO ENTRY FEES with deadlines coming up very soon.

(FYI, it’s best��to enter a contest early. Don’t wait till the deadline. The readers are sick to death of entries by then. They will approach your story with loathing. If you enter early, it’s like, “Hey, somebody got their story in already! Awesome!” If you enter in the eleventh hour, it’s like,��“Bloody hell, will they never stop?”)

There are oodles of writing contests you have to pay to enter. Those held by literary journals (e.g., The Malahat Review’s Long Poem Prize, open right now with a deadline of February 1st) usually come with a year���s subscription, which cancels the entry fee and makes it all win-win. Your favourite journal probably has an annual contest worth entering.

As for those contests with entry fees that don���t come with journals… I feel for those on the receiving end of any writing contest. But it just feels dirty to recommend that someone pay to enter.��So I leave it up to you to search those out, if you���re so inclined.

Good luck!

Filed under: authors, contests, writing, young writers Tagged: children's writing, essay contest, poetry, short stories, writing contests

Friday Faves (Book Recommendations)

I know it’s not Friday. My New Year’s Resolution this year is to be nicer to myself and others, so it’s awesome that I’m writing my Friday blog post when it’s barely Saturday.

Here are a few of my favourites among the books I’ve read of late:

Adult Fiction:

The Wherewithal by Philip Shultz

Just astoundingly great. So moving, so beautifully written, wise and unforgettable.��Desperately sad in its subject of violence and evil on myriad levels (it’s about a young man hiding from the Vietnam War��in the basement of a San Franscisco welfare office while translating the diaries his mother kept during��the Jedwabne massacre in 1941 Poland) yet it’s permeated by hope and goodness. Every poem resonates — this is what novels in verse should be. This is a book to be sipped slowly, many times over. Go buy it. It will break your heart wide open.

YA Fiction:

The Gospel Truth by Caroline Pignat

Another verse novel, this one for young adults. Beautifully written in multiple voices. Also sad in its subject matter — it’s about a young slave on a tobacco plantation — yet not despairing. Powerful and complex. If you like historical novels or verse novels, this one’s for you. Highly recommended.

Picture Book:

The Lion’s Share by Matthew McElligott

I loved this book about an ant invited to dine with the King of Beasts and his many greedy guests. The characters are so fully drawn, the humour is wonderful, the illustrations are engaging, and somehow it gets a math lesson in there. (The book’s subtitle is “A Tale of Halving Cake and Eating It, Too.”)��A great��original folktale for kids of any age. (The effect of the cake shrinking and the obligations expanding works in the story��whether the child gets the math or not. The math is just a bonus. It’s��not everybody’s favourite bonus — yay, I got math! — but it’s an extra for those not satisfied by fun alone and those��who feel they’re too old for picture books. Because you’re never too old for math, right?)

Non-fiction:

The Killer of Little Shepherds by Douglas Starr

It sounds macabre — this is a true crime story about serial killer Joseph Vacher who roamed France in the late 1800s — but it reads like a really exciting history lesson. (The subtitle is “The Birth of Forensic Science.” The author is a medical journalist. It’s not salacious, it’s fascinating.)��Intelligent, detailed, well-written. Anyone with an interest in the history of forensics, psychology, rural crime and detection might like it, as would anyone interested in psychopaths (and who isn’t interested in psychopaths?).��I don’t like fiction about killers, and true crime is usually too creepy and exploitive for my taste, but this book was great.

And that’s it for this day-after-Friday.

Nothing like starting a new year off with a good book.

 

Filed under: books, Friday faves Tagged: book reviews, gospel truth, killer of little shepherds, lion's share, wherewithal