Pearl Luke's Blog: Pearl Luke's Book and Writing Blog, page 17
August 8, 2012
Aug 8, Short Story and Creative Writing Contests and Competitions
August 2, 2012
Aug 2, The Road to Keringet by Maggie Ziegler
Our giveaway this week, The Road to Keringet, by Maggie Ziegler, strikes me as a "must have" book. The honesty in this memoir, about everything from sexual conduct to mixed emotions, makes it a riveting read.
That a mother ask a daughter to write her biography is perhaps not unusual; but in this case, when that mother is herself both an intriguing woman and a professional writer accustomed to documenting rich, sometimes shocking details, and the daughter is as compassionate and insightful as Maggie Ziegler, the resulting story is outstanding.
This intelligent book records not only a mother’s fascinating story, but a daughter’s act of great love and devotion. This is the best book I’ve read all year!
When asked what readers might find most notable about The Road to Keringet, Ms. Ziegler responded: Readers tell me that they become very engaged with my mother’s story; they get interested in her and what happens to her. I like hearing this because it means I have brought her to life and also because she became compelling to me in a new way as I wrote the book. The detail in her writings, including the occasional recorded dialogues enabled me to enter into her story, and the inclusion of her own words in the book (letters, journal entries and other writing) enhances the readers’ relationship to her. I had a great deal of material to work with. In the process of writing she did seem more and more like a fascinating character in a complex drama and I often forgot that she was my mother.
To read more of this engaging interview, please visit Maggie Ziegler on The Road to Keringet.
Maggie Ziegler, a psychotherapist, has published her creative non-fiction and essays in literary journals and news magazines including Prairie Fire, Room, Other Voices, and Peace Magazine. She has also written on psychotherapy and published in professional journals and texts.
To read more about this book please visit The Road to Keringet, at BookClubBuddy.com .
Aug 2, The Road to Keringet by Maggie Ziegler: Enter today for a chance to win this book
Our giveaway this week, The Road to Keringet, by Maggie Ziegler, strikes me as a "must have" book. The honesty in this memoir, about everything from sexual conduct to mixed emotions, makes it a riveting read.
That a mother ask a daughter to write her biography is perhaps not unusual; but in this case, when that mother is herself both an intriguing woman and a professional writer accustomed to documenting rich, sometimes shocking details, and the daughter is as compassionate and insightful as Maggie Ziegler, the resulting story is outstanding.
This intelligent book records not only a mother’s fascinating story, but a daughter’s act of great love and devotion. This is the best book I’ve read all year!
When asked what readers might find most notable about The Road to Keringet, Ms. Ziegler responded: Readers tell me that they become very engaged with my mother’s story; they get interested in her and what happens to her. I like hearing this because it means I have brought her to life and also because she became compelling to me in a new way as I wrote the book. The detail in her writings, including the occasional recorded dialogues enabled me to enter into her story, and the inclusion of her own words in the book (letters, journal entries and other writing) enhances the readers’ relationship to her. I had a great deal of material to work with. In the process of writing she did seem more and more like a fascinating character in a complex drama and I often forgot that she was my mother.
To read more of this engaging interview, please visit Maggie Ziegler on The Road to Keringet.
Maggie Ziegler, a psychotherapist, has published her creative non-fiction and essays in literary journals and news magazines including Prairie Fire, Room, Other Voices, and Peace Magazine. She has also written on psychotherapy and published in professional journals and texts.
To read more about this book and enter the draw, please visit The Road to Keringet, at BookClubBuddy.com and follow the directions at the bottom of the page.
July 26, 2012
Jul 26, Stony River by Tricia Dower
I enjoyed the selection this week so much that I reviewed it myself for BookClubBuddy.com.
Exquisitely written, honest, and entertaining, everything in this disquieting story works toward a successful narrative. Equally evocative and insightful, intriguing thematically and symbolically, Stony River is an intensely satisfying read, like reading Margaret Laurence.
Tricia Dower grew up in a New Jersey town much like Stony River, in an age when secrets crouched behind closed doors and it wasn’t “polite” to interfere in another family’s business. Children were left to decipher the meaning of adult whisperings and come to frightening conclusions. Her recollections of that repressive time informed the novel Stony River.
TRICIA DOWER was a business executive before reinventing herself as a writer in 2002. Stony River is her debut novel. Her short-story collection, Silent Girl (Inanna, 2008), was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature.
She won first prize for fiction in The Malahat Review’s 2010 Open Season Awards. Her short fiction has also appeared in The New Quarterly, Room of One’s Own, Hemispheres, Cicada, NEO and Big Muddy. A dual citizen of Canada and the United States, Dower lives and writes in Brentwood Bay, BC.
To read more about this book please visit Stony River at BookClubBuddy.com .
Jul 26, Stony River by Tricia Dower: Enter today for a chance to win
Exquisitely written, honest, and entertaining, everything in this disquieting story works toward a successful narrative. Equally evocative and insightful, intriguing thematically and symbolically, Stony River is an intensely satisfying read, like reading Margaret Laurence.
Tricia Dower grew up in a New Jersey town much like Stony River, in an age when secrets crouched behind closed doors and it wasn’t “polite” to interfere in another family’s business. Children were left to decipher the meaning of adult whisperings and come to frightening conclusions. Her recollections of that repressive time informed the novel Stony River.
TRICIA DOWER was a business executive before reinventing herself as a writer in 2002. Stony River is her debut novel. Her short-story collection, Silent Girl (Inanna, 2008), was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature.
She won first prize for fiction in The Malahat Review’s 2010 Open Season Awards. Her short fiction has also appeared in The New Quarterly, Room of One’s Own, Hemispheres, Cicada, NEO and Big Muddy. A dual citizen of Canada and the United States, Dower lives and writes in Brentwood Bay, BC.
To read more about this book and enter the draw for it, please visit Stony River at BookClubBuddy.com and follow the directions at the bottom of thepage.
July 23, 2012
Jul 24, Short Story and Creative Writing Contests and Competitions
July 18, 2012
Jul 19, Short Story and Creative Writing Contests and Competitions
July 10, 2012
Jul 10, Hard Currency: Enter today for a chance to win
July 5th BOOK GIVEAWAY at BookClubBuddy.com.
Like crime novels? Enter before midnight, July 10, 2012, to win Hard Currency by former Canadian journalist Steven Owad.
Steven Owad’s crime novels include Hard Currency as well as Bodycheck and Brother’s Keeper.
His short stories and poetry appear in U.S. and Canadian literary magazines, and his stage plays have been developed through the Alberta Playwrights Network and Davenport Theatricals (New York).
His first feature-film screenplay, Sons of the Fathers, won the 2011 Alberta Screenwriters Initiative.
As a journalist, Steven has published news, business and feature stories as well as more than 300 arts reviews.
He lives in Calgary, Alberta, with his wife Aleksandra and his daughter Sara. He can be found on the Internet at www.stevenowad.com.
To read about this book and enter the draw for it, please visit Hard Currency at BookClubBuddy.com
Jul 10, Short Story and Creative Writing Contests and Competitions
July 2, 2012
Jul 2, Book Giveaway for Magnified World Ends Midnight July 3, 2012
The Globe & Mail recently named Grace O'Connell one of Canada's "Fab Five--Canlit's hottest up-and-comers."
In her novel Magnified World, the protagonist, Maggie Pierce, has been symbolically dealt a very bad hand. Her mother commits suicide, her father is emotionally distant, close friends betray her, and psychiatrists prove inadequate both before and after she is institutionalized for suffering blackouts.
This is a novel about loss. With humour and insight Grace O'Connell explores what it means to lose those we love at a young age, and the lengths to which one might go to survive and carry on.
To read more and enter the draw before it closes at midnight July 3, 2012, visit www.bookclubbuddy.com/
Pearl Luke's Book and Writing Blog
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