Scott Semegran's Blog, page 7
July 5, 2022
Pictures of the Shark by Thomas H. McNeely
Pictures of the Shark by Thomas H. McNeely is a book of literary short stories about familial strife in the life of young protagonist Buddy Turner. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “A sudden snowfall in Houston reveals family secrets. A trip to Universal Studios to snap a picture of the shark from Jaws becomes a battle of wills between father and son. A midnight séance and the ghost of Janis Joplin conjure the mysteries of sex. A young boy’s pilgrimage to see Elvis Presley becomes a moment of transformation. A young woman discovers the responsibilities of talent and freedom. Pictures of the Shark, by award-winning Houston writer Thomas H. McNeely, moves from its protagonist Buddy Turner’s surreal world of childhood into the wider arenas of sex, addiction, art, and ambition. Appearing in the country’s finest literary journals, including Ploughshares, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Epoch, and Crazyhorse, shortlisted for the O. Henry Award, Best American Short Stories, and Pushcart Prize collections, the stories in Pictures of the Shark are gems that refract their characters’ complex relationships.”
In Pictures of the Shark, readers experience vignettes from Buddy Turner’s childhood in Texas, several from when he was a young boy spending time with his parents in Houston, and a few during his time in college in Austin. As a boy, you get the sense that Buddy is caught in the middle of his parents’ dysfunctional relationship. His parents need and desire for each other ebbs and flows erratically, and sometimes it feels as if he is set adrift. It’s hard not to feel Buddy’s heartbrokenness, but he is also an astute observer and often says or does things with both parents that are solely for his advantage. As a college student, we see how that familial dysfunction manifests into Buddy’s—now called Turner—alcoholism and abusive relationships. It’s a very sad turn of events for our protagonist whose attempts to self-medicate has disastrous effects for his girlfriends.
The stories “Pictures of the Shark” and “King Elvis” are standouts in this already excellent collection. There is a common refrain when someone reviews a relatively unknown author that states “this author should be read more widely.” But in McNeely’s case, this refrain is astute. McNeely is an astonishingly gifted writer.
I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. I would give this book 6 stars if I could, but 5 stars will have to do in a five-star rating system.
Buy the paperback on BookPeople.com: https://www.bookpeople.com/aff/scottsemegran_50399/book/9781680032710
June 26, 2022
Austin Liti Limits Episode 41 with KATIE GUTIERREZ is Out Now
Austin Liti Limits Episode 41 with debut novelist KATIE GUTIERREZ is now available! Watch my interview with Katie that we conducted remotely via Zoom because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Check it out now over at the Austin Liti Limits website. Or watch right here:
Katie Gutierrez Interview from Larry Brill on Vimeo.
June 8, 2022
Valleyesque by Fernando A. Flores
Valleyesque by Fernando A. Flores is a book of short stories that are psychedelic, satirical, and surreal. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “No one captures the border--its history and imagination, its danger, contradiction, and redemption--like Fernando A. Flores, whose stories reimagine and reinterpret the region's existence with peerless style. In his immersive, uncanny borderland, things are never what they seem: a world where the sun is both rising and setting, and where conniving possums efficiently take over an entire town and rewrite its history. The stories in Valleyesque dance between the fantastical and the hyperreal with dexterous, often hilarious flair. Swinging between satire and surrealism, grief and joy, Valleyesque is a boundary- and border-pushing collection from a one-of-a-kind stylist and voice. With the visceral imagination that made his debut novel, Tears of the Trufflepig, a cult classic, Flores brings his vision of the border to life--and beyond.”
Flores’ follow-up to his surreal novel Tears of the Trufflepig is the short story collection Valleyesque. These stories are all surreal, trippy, and some are quite funny. Sort of a mashup of Márquez, Burroughs, and Bukowski (these are high level comparisons), trying to pin down Flores’ actual style is difficult as it is wholly unique: the ultimate compliment for a writer. Many of the stories take place in the small towns of the Rio Grande Valley, but some are also set in what seems like Austin, Texas. The stories are filled with beautiful similes and metaphors which often transform into the actual settings of the stories; Flores does this beautifully and seemlessly. Some of my favorite stories are: The Science Fair Protest, Nocturne from a World Concave, The 29th of April, Nostradamus Baby, Ropa Usada, and my favorite You Got It, Take It Away. These stories are highly imaginative and utterly entertaining, my favorite book of Flores’ so far. If there is one negative of this book, then it is that it is too short. I could have lived in the world of these stories a little longer.
I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. I would give this book 5 stars.
Buy the paperback on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/152/9780374604134
June 1, 2022
TO SQUEEZE A PRAIRIE DOG is an International Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Club official selection for June 2022
My award-winning humorous novel TO SQUEEZE A PRAIRIE DOG is an International Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Club official selection for June 2022! To celebrate, the eBook is only 99 cents everywhere you buy books for the entire month. According to BlueInk Review's starred-review, "An amusing yet heartwarming romp... TO SQUEEZE A PRAIRIE DOG is an entertaining slice-of-life story that's humorous yet uplifting at the same time. By the novel's last page, readers will be longing for more." For the month of June, let's celebrate the healing power of friendship as depicted in my novel TO SQUEEZE A PRAIRIE DOG. Buy your copy today!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KXBL7FZ
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/to-squeeze-a-prairie-dog-an-american-novel
May 23, 2022
More Than You’ll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez
More Than You’ll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez is a suspense novel about a woman caught leading a double life after one husband murders the other. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “The dance becomes an affair, which becomes a marriage, which becomes a murder... In 1985, Lore Rivera marries Andres Russo in Mexico City, even though she is already married to Fabian Rivera in Laredo, Texas, and they share twin sons. Through her career as an international banker, Lore splits her time between two countries and two families--until the truth is revealed and one husband is arrested for murdering the other. In 2017, while trawling the internet for the latest, most news reports, struggling true-crime writer Cassie Bowman encounters an article detailing that tragic final act. Cassie is immediately enticed by what is not explored: Why would a woman--a mother--risk everything for a secret double marriage? Told through alternating timelines, More Than You'll Ever Know is both a gripping mystery and a wrenching family drama. Presenting a window into the hearts of two very different women, it explores the many conflicting demands of marriage and motherhood, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing someone--especially those we love.”
Gutierrez’s debut suspense novel is about a woman leading a double life as she is married to two men, one of which eventually murders the other, and the investigative reporter who becomes obsessed with her story. Gutierrez masterfully plots this slow burning story, showing the lives of both women in detail—what motivates and tantalizes them—leading to an effective plot twist and story reveal. The novel takes a while to get going, but ultimately gives a satisfying conclusion. Gutierrez does an effective job of showing the gray areas we all live in and that everyone is a combination of the good and bad choices they make. It can be difficult to pigeonhole the protagonists and antagonists in a story when their whole lives are revealed. What would lead a person to live such a deceitful life? As Gutierrez demonstrates, it’s complicated. Kudos to Gutierrez for writing in both English and Spanish in such a realistic way, as is the way in Texas. Bonus points for local landmarks and fixtures in Austin, San Antonio, and all the way down to Laredo, Texas.
I enjoyed this book and I recommend it. I would give this book 5 stars.
Buy the hardcover on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/152/9780063118454
May 17, 2022
Austin Liti Limits Episode 39 with MATT BELL is Out Now
Austin Liti Limits Episode 39 with author / professor MATT BELL is now available! Watch my interview with Matt that we conducted remotely via Zoom because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Check it out now over at the Austin Liti Limits website. Or watch right here:
Author/Teacher Matt Bell talks with Austin Liti Limits from Larry Brill on Vimeo.
May 9, 2022
Hannah and Ariela By Johnnie Bernhard
Hannah and Ariela by Johnnie Bernhard is a novel of suspense about two women living very different lives that are brought together by tragedy. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “When Hannah, a seventy-three-year-old widow, finds the semiconscious body of a fourteen-year-old Mexican national in a ditch along a remote central Texas road, she has no idea someone is watching. Not until the girl's brutal attacker arrives at Hannah's door in the middle of the night, threatening not just the girl's but Hannah's very survival. Ultimately the question of justice for a victim of human trafficking and the woman who helps her lies in the hands of a biracial border patrol officer and an unconventional small-town sheriff. The I-10 corridor of Texas connects saints, demons, and victims as the ultimate question of life and death is decided by two strangers fate has bound together. They must make a hard choice in order to survive: either follow the law or follow their consciences.”
Johnny Bernhard returns with her fourth novel, a book of suspense and a family drama about two women living very different lives, one in Texas and one in Mexico, brought together by tragedy. Bernhard’s strength is showing the lives of both women, the relationships with their family members, and their lives in their communities. Hannah is a recent widow who desperately misses her husband and struggles to keep their ranch in order. Ariela dreams of going to the US and living a new, very different life. When Ariela is kidnapped by a sadistic trafficker, she finds herself living a nightmare and eventually ends up in a ditch on the side of the road where Hannah finds her. Bernhardt effectively shows the lives of both women and their relationship which grows through their common painful experiences, although the suspenseful elements of the novel could have been ratcheted up a little more. Ultimately, this is an affecting literary novel revealing a modern tragedy that is all too common in the southern border states of America.
I enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. I would give this novel 4 and 1/2 stars.
Buy the paperback on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/152/9780875658162
April 27, 2022
Refuse to Be Done by Matt Bell
Refuse to Be Done by Matt Bell is a book about the craft of writing novels and editing your manuscript. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “From lauded writer and teacher Matt Bell, Refuse to Be Done is encouraging and intensely practical, focusing always on specific rewriting tasks, techniques, and activities for every stage of the process. You won’t find bromides here about the “the writing Muse.” Instead, Bell breaks down the writing process in three sections. In the first, Bell shares a bounty of tactics, all meant to push you through the initial conception and get words on the page. The second focuses on reworking the narrative through outlining, modeling, and rewriting. The third and final section offers a layered approach to polishing through a checklist of operations, breaking the daunting project of final revisions into many small, achievable tasks. Whether you are a first time novelist or a veteran writer, you will find an abundance of strategies here to help motivate you and shake up your revision process, allowing you to approach your work, day after day and month after month, with fresh eyes and sharp new tools.”
Some say writing a novel is equal parts inspiration and perspiration, but Matt Bell has a very compelling argument that great novel writing is mostly perspiration through rewriting, revising, and editing, editing, editing. Having written seven novels already myself (plus my first attempt at a novel that went straight into the garbage) and working on my eighth novel now, I have to say I found Bell’s suggestions for writing and editing very intriguing, even downright inspiring. There is definitely an inspirational tone in this book that is above and beyond most writing craft books that I have read, mainly because writing novels is hard. It can be a long, grueling slog at times, so to receive that reminder that what you are doing when writing a novel is hard—and to congratulate yourself after certain milestones—is inspiring. His three stages of novel writing is very practical and I enjoyed thinking how his tips could work in my own process. For my last three novels, I did the work of outlining before I even started the writing process. Bells suggests to outline after the first draft is complete; let the inspiration lead the way, then organize later. Interesting! I’m considering doing this with my current work in progress.
March 29, 2022
Austin Liti Limits Episode 37 with C. MATTHEW SMITH is Out Now
Austin Liti Limits Episode 37 with author C. MATTHEW SMITH is now available! Watch my interview with Matt that we conducted remotely via Zoom because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Check it out now over at the Austin Liti Limits website. Or watch right here:
Matt Smith Interview from Larry Brill on Vimeo.
March 25, 2022
Austin Community College Literary Coffeehouse with Scott Semegran - April 11 at 7pm
Come hangout in Zoom and listen to me read some fiction and chat with Charlotte Gullick about creative writing! This is an amazing event in conjunction with the ACC Creative Writing Department and Malvern Books. RSVP below. I hope to see you there!
RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/319697126727124/
More info: https://malvernbooks.com/event/austin-community-college-literary-coffeehouse-5/
