Sarah Black's Blog: Book Report, page 18
April 30, 2011
April 27, 2011
April 22, 2011
The mighty power of POV!
Happy earth day, everyone. To celebrate at my house, we parked the truck and walked to school this morning- my son was not thrilled, I received many eye-rollings, and two blocks from school he ditched me, saying he was going to take a shortcut for students only. That was okay, I was on my way to the co-op and got some organic veggies for his supper. The co-op is in a state of flux and I found that the produce prices were wrong at the check-out- not for the first time. I felt a bit like a fool when arguing over the price of green onions, and finally told the cashier, "It's not the fifty cents I mind. I don't like to feel cheated!" I had to go outside and sit on the bench among the daffs and calm down. The silliest things...
I have an idea I've been working on for a new story- something different for me, a series with a private detective. It hasn't come into focus, though, until I figured out the POV. It seems like all these characters just rotate around in my mind, like they are circling that plate in the microwave, and nobody steps up and assumes command until I figure out the POV. For the last few years I've been keeping the POV on a single character, either third or first. I like the way this causes surprises, and the way I can explore the inherent mysteriousness of people, the way we can't really know people. Trying to put everyone's POV on the table tries to get around this conundrum, but I'm starting to like the way we can't predict how people are going to act. I think the new story is going to be called Anadarko Blues.
I changed the title of Marathon Cowboys to Death of a Grievous Angel, and the story's going to Dreamspinner. I like the story alot- very rich conflict. This next month Sockeye Love is coming out from Dreamspinner- it's a short novella, but just the right amount of story for that form- I really love this story. I haven't seen the cover yet, and have my fingers crossed. The cover is critical! What I asked for was the cover to show a pivotall scene in the story, so it has to be right- I'm sure the excellent Mr. Richmond will hit one out of the ballpark.
I have an idea I've been working on for a new story- something different for me, a series with a private detective. It hasn't come into focus, though, until I figured out the POV. It seems like all these characters just rotate around in my mind, like they are circling that plate in the microwave, and nobody steps up and assumes command until I figure out the POV. For the last few years I've been keeping the POV on a single character, either third or first. I like the way this causes surprises, and the way I can explore the inherent mysteriousness of people, the way we can't really know people. Trying to put everyone's POV on the table tries to get around this conundrum, but I'm starting to like the way we can't predict how people are going to act. I think the new story is going to be called Anadarko Blues.
I changed the title of Marathon Cowboys to Death of a Grievous Angel, and the story's going to Dreamspinner. I like the story alot- very rich conflict. This next month Sockeye Love is coming out from Dreamspinner- it's a short novella, but just the right amount of story for that form- I really love this story. I haven't seen the cover yet, and have my fingers crossed. The cover is critical! What I asked for was the cover to show a pivotall scene in the story, so it has to be right- I'm sure the excellent Mr. Richmond will hit one out of the ballpark.
April 19, 2011
Man-up camp
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/ne...
Malasia is sending gentle boys to mandatory masculinity camp- 'before it's too late!"
Malasia is sending gentle boys to mandatory masculinity camp- 'before it's too late!"
April 6, 2011
Motherhood is killing us!
I read this article about how mothers are under more stress, unhappier, suffer from more chronic illnesses, etc. Duh! Did they pay somebody to do that research? I could have told them for free! The article had this feel of, why would you make this choice that is clearly going to kill you painfully and earlier than your contemporaries? And the authors really had no clue, fumbled a bit with the old platitudes, but had no idea.
I know why people become mothers, and when I am just a bit less frantic and exhausted, I can make you a list. But the school just called, the kid broke his glasses. The optical shop has the frames in stock, $230.00, but the prescription is expired. So he will need an eye exam. $90.00.
Okay, it started with sex, if I can remember correctly, sex without birth control because I wanted to get pregnant. That much I remember for sure. The man in question was just happy to not have to wear a condom, and he didn't ask any questions. That I also remember clearly.
Hold it, the school is on the phone again. Special Ed teacher. She thinks she can get him a work study job in a candy factory! His job skills planning course, two years now, has given us planned careers in video game testing and working in a candy factory. Somehow I keep thinking about that old I l Love Lucy episode, where Ethel and Lucy are in the candy factory, and the belts start moving faster and faster, and Lucy is stuffing chocolates into her mouth...Those places do carry insurance, right, when they have students? Should I check out our liability insurance?
Okay, where were we? Oh, right, motherhood is killing us. Well, I can tell you one good reason, and that is we are forced to eat mac and cheese and hot dogs for twenty years. A discussion at work found that the parents in the group could knowledgably discuss hot dog brands- quality and price- and those who were not parents were eating yogurt and strawberries, and couldn't even remember the last time they had eaten a hot dog! .
The article missed a significant stressor- when you say, "I told you to go to bed ten minutes ago" for the third time, the blood pressure naturally shoots up and puts potentially lethal stress on the coronary arteries. Ditto when he goes online to double check that an octagon has eight sides, since he isn't sure if you are correct, because you have been wrong before, and when you go to check on him, he is not doing math, but looking at anime-porn. And you hear yourself saying things like, "Get your damned octagon off that computer right now, buster..." But none of this really is the issue. After all, sons are not the only males we catch looking at porn when they are supposed to be doing something else.
I think the real culprit is the Terminator Eye. Remember in the movie, when the terminator looks out through his red eye, and everything is a grid, the world is mapped out, threats identified and neutralized- I suspect mother lions also have this Terminator Eye. It snapped into place over my field of vision about two hours after his birth, and I cannot survey a street, a plaza, a forest, a mountain, the sky, without identifying potential threats and planning how to neutralize them. I am prepared at any point to throw myself over his body and protect him from the shrapnel of an exploding asteroid. I know exactly my first moves in the event of an attack by a bear. I don't even bother with muggers and felons, because we make eye contact, just for one moment, and they find business elswhere.
I asked my mother when the Terminator Eye leaves. College, marriage? Mothers, you don't even want to know what she said. Let me just say, we're in it for the long haul.
I know why people become mothers, and when I am just a bit less frantic and exhausted, I can make you a list. But the school just called, the kid broke his glasses. The optical shop has the frames in stock, $230.00, but the prescription is expired. So he will need an eye exam. $90.00.
Okay, it started with sex, if I can remember correctly, sex without birth control because I wanted to get pregnant. That much I remember for sure. The man in question was just happy to not have to wear a condom, and he didn't ask any questions. That I also remember clearly.
Hold it, the school is on the phone again. Special Ed teacher. She thinks she can get him a work study job in a candy factory! His job skills planning course, two years now, has given us planned careers in video game testing and working in a candy factory. Somehow I keep thinking about that old I l Love Lucy episode, where Ethel and Lucy are in the candy factory, and the belts start moving faster and faster, and Lucy is stuffing chocolates into her mouth...Those places do carry insurance, right, when they have students? Should I check out our liability insurance?
Okay, where were we? Oh, right, motherhood is killing us. Well, I can tell you one good reason, and that is we are forced to eat mac and cheese and hot dogs for twenty years. A discussion at work found that the parents in the group could knowledgably discuss hot dog brands- quality and price- and those who were not parents were eating yogurt and strawberries, and couldn't even remember the last time they had eaten a hot dog! .
The article missed a significant stressor- when you say, "I told you to go to bed ten minutes ago" for the third time, the blood pressure naturally shoots up and puts potentially lethal stress on the coronary arteries. Ditto when he goes online to double check that an octagon has eight sides, since he isn't sure if you are correct, because you have been wrong before, and when you go to check on him, he is not doing math, but looking at anime-porn. And you hear yourself saying things like, "Get your damned octagon off that computer right now, buster..." But none of this really is the issue. After all, sons are not the only males we catch looking at porn when they are supposed to be doing something else.
I think the real culprit is the Terminator Eye. Remember in the movie, when the terminator looks out through his red eye, and everything is a grid, the world is mapped out, threats identified and neutralized- I suspect mother lions also have this Terminator Eye. It snapped into place over my field of vision about two hours after his birth, and I cannot survey a street, a plaza, a forest, a mountain, the sky, without identifying potential threats and planning how to neutralize them. I am prepared at any point to throw myself over his body and protect him from the shrapnel of an exploding asteroid. I know exactly my first moves in the event of an attack by a bear. I don't even bother with muggers and felons, because we make eye contact, just for one moment, and they find business elswhere.
I asked my mother when the Terminator Eye leaves. College, marriage? Mothers, you don't even want to know what she said. Let me just say, we're in it for the long haul.
April 5, 2011
A CLASSIC STORY OF GOOD AND EVIL
A Classic Story of Good and Evil by Sarah Black
This story has been available in print, and I’m very pleased to have it available through the Kindle store.
http://tinyurl.com/6j4tmyh
Blurb: Hutch and Dog are hot-shot Marine pilots, trying to get out of Vietnam alive. Dog wants to fly Apollo, and Hutch won't let anything get in the way of his dreams. But you can't always control what happens in a war, or what happens when brothers-in-arms fall in love.
Excerpt: A Classic Story of Good and Evil
The ground mist was thick, and the sticky mud, rank with rotting vegetation, was sucking at his boots. It was an hour before dawn. Between the dark and the rising mist, Hutch couldn’t see his way through the jungle, and he was making too much noise, crashing through the bamboo and elephant grass, trying to find him before they got to the river.
Daniel had been gone for five hours, captured, dragged off with a rope around his neck and his elbows wired together behind his back, a squad of NVA bringing him north to the prisons outside Hanoi. A Marine pilot, quite a catch, and Hutch could see again the broadcast that they had watched in the California desert before they deployed to Vietnam, CDR Jeremiah Denton, one of the senior POWs held by the North, blinking out the word TORTURE TORTURE TORTURE in Morse Code.
Hutch stopped, took a mouthful of water from his canteen. He was close. The NVA loved taking American pilots prisoner, dragging them through the villages, but they were going to have to do without Daniel. He could smell the river now, wood smoke rising from a campfire, hear morning sounds from the fishermen. Then he heard Daniel’s voice. “You’ve made a bad mistake, man. The Marines don’t leave anyone behind. And you don’t know my co-pilot, he is one crazed Marine killer, and he’s coming after me…” And Hutch could make out one of the NVA, peeing up against a tree three yards to his right, and then the K-Bar was in his hand…
“Wake up, Hutch.” Someone was shaking his shoulder. “Chill out, man. You’re okay.”
He opened his eyes, stared up into bamboo thatch. Bamboo? What the…? Then he rolled over and Daniel was smiling at him. His head was nestled in the pillow on his side of the bed, dark hair falling across his forehead, looking just like he had when he was twenty-three. Or very nearly.
“Nobody says chill out anymore, Dog. You’ve got to keep up with popular culture, with slang, or you’re gonna sound like an old man.”
Hutch sat up, rooted around on the bedside table. No cigarettes. Of course not. He hadn’t smoked for nearly forty years. But he felt the craving like heat in the middle of his chest, like he’d just had his last Lucky. He flopped back down on the bed, stared up at the thatched roof. “Where are we again?”
“Thailand.” Daniel slid his hand across Hutch’s chest until it settled warm and heavy over his heart. “Maybe we shouldn’t have come here. We’re too close. It smells too familiar. You aren’t sleeping good.”
Hutch sat up on the side of the bed again, gave Daniel his back. “Don’t fuss, Dog.” But his voice was gentle, and Daniel crawled across the bed, wrapped his arms around his chest and rested his chin on Hutch’s shoulder.
“You want to tell me about the dream?”
Hutch shook his head, smiling. “You ready for some breakfast? I wonder if this place can stretch to bacon and eggs.”
This story has been available in print, and I’m very pleased to have it available through the Kindle store.
http://tinyurl.com/6j4tmyh
Blurb: Hutch and Dog are hot-shot Marine pilots, trying to get out of Vietnam alive. Dog wants to fly Apollo, and Hutch won't let anything get in the way of his dreams. But you can't always control what happens in a war, or what happens when brothers-in-arms fall in love.
Excerpt: A Classic Story of Good and Evil
The ground mist was thick, and the sticky mud, rank with rotting vegetation, was sucking at his boots. It was an hour before dawn. Between the dark and the rising mist, Hutch couldn’t see his way through the jungle, and he was making too much noise, crashing through the bamboo and elephant grass, trying to find him before they got to the river.
Daniel had been gone for five hours, captured, dragged off with a rope around his neck and his elbows wired together behind his back, a squad of NVA bringing him north to the prisons outside Hanoi. A Marine pilot, quite a catch, and Hutch could see again the broadcast that they had watched in the California desert before they deployed to Vietnam, CDR Jeremiah Denton, one of the senior POWs held by the North, blinking out the word TORTURE TORTURE TORTURE in Morse Code.
Hutch stopped, took a mouthful of water from his canteen. He was close. The NVA loved taking American pilots prisoner, dragging them through the villages, but they were going to have to do without Daniel. He could smell the river now, wood smoke rising from a campfire, hear morning sounds from the fishermen. Then he heard Daniel’s voice. “You’ve made a bad mistake, man. The Marines don’t leave anyone behind. And you don’t know my co-pilot, he is one crazed Marine killer, and he’s coming after me…” And Hutch could make out one of the NVA, peeing up against a tree three yards to his right, and then the K-Bar was in his hand…
“Wake up, Hutch.” Someone was shaking his shoulder. “Chill out, man. You’re okay.”
He opened his eyes, stared up into bamboo thatch. Bamboo? What the…? Then he rolled over and Daniel was smiling at him. His head was nestled in the pillow on his side of the bed, dark hair falling across his forehead, looking just like he had when he was twenty-three. Or very nearly.
“Nobody says chill out anymore, Dog. You’ve got to keep up with popular culture, with slang, or you’re gonna sound like an old man.”
Hutch sat up, rooted around on the bedside table. No cigarettes. Of course not. He hadn’t smoked for nearly forty years. But he felt the craving like heat in the middle of his chest, like he’d just had his last Lucky. He flopped back down on the bed, stared up at the thatched roof. “Where are we again?”
“Thailand.” Daniel slid his hand across Hutch’s chest until it settled warm and heavy over his heart. “Maybe we shouldn’t have come here. We’re too close. It smells too familiar. You aren’t sleeping good.”
Hutch sat up on the side of the bed again, gave Daniel his back. “Don’t fuss, Dog.” But his voice was gentle, and Daniel crawled across the bed, wrapped his arms around his chest and rested his chin on Hutch’s shoulder.
“You want to tell me about the dream?”
Hutch shook his head, smiling. “You ready for some breakfast? I wonder if this place can stretch to bacon and eggs.”
April 4, 2011
TOOTSIES!
Thanks to Night Owls for the great review of Tootsies-
http://tinyurl.com/5u5z7je
I'm very fond of this story, the starting point of my current obsession with hand knit alpaca socks. I just got a pair for my birthday- in the natural fawn color of the fleece. From Canada. For some reason, my favorite hand-knit socks have come from Canada.
http://tinyurl.com/5u5z7je
I'm very fond of this story, the starting point of my current obsession with hand knit alpaca socks. I just got a pair for my birthday- in the natural fawn color of the fleece. From Canada. For some reason, my favorite hand-knit socks have come from Canada.
March 20, 2011
Interview with Feliz Faber on the release of her new book, Desert Falcon
Sarah Black interviews Feliz Faber on the release of her new story, Desert Falcon, from Dreamspinner Press
Sarah: Your new story, Desert Falcon, has such an exotic setting. Can you tell us about it? Do you have experience yourself in this region of the world?
Feliz: In a way, the setting came with the main character. When I first met Hunter, I went looking for a place where he could have become as devoted to falconry as he is, and the first thing that came to my mind was Arabia. Falconry is an integral part of the Arabian culture; the Saker falcon was the Prophet Mohammed's favorite bird according to the Holy Qur'an. While researching for Desert Falcon, I chanced upon a female German veterinarian who leads a falcon clinic in Abu Dhabi, I think, and I knew immediately this was the place for Hunter. I thought about making him a veterinarian, but as it happens often with my characters, he put his foot down and refused, and thus became an ornithologist.
Sarah: He’s a strong character- very powerful and quite believable that he would put his foot down with you!
Feliz: As for my personal experience with this region of the world - no, I've never been there, although I'd really, really love to some day. Ever heard about Karl May? He was a German novelist in the late 18 hundreds, incredibly prolific (he wrote almost 80 full novels and countless short stories). He wrote "travel reports", pretending he'd actually been to all the places he described; his books were pure fiction but so accurate some of his fans in the 1950 could actually use them as travel guides. Many of those books are set in the Middle East. I grew up with them, read them over and over, immersed myself in his worlds. A decade later, I met a friend, a Persian (he never said Iranian!) whose parents had fled with the Shah. Through him I gained deeper insight into this culture, which I've come to deeply respect and love since.
Sarah: And Karl May did all that without the internet! He must have been a great reader. I have been a big fan of Persian poetry, which is intensely romantic. I read on your blog that you’ve lived all over the world. What were some of your favorite places? What do you particularly like about travelling and moving?
Feliz: Persian poetry is fantastic! I always regret that I never learned Arabic writing, let alone Farsi. Well, I've lived and worked mostly in European countries - Switzerland, France, Denmark, and about ten or twelve different places in Germany. I've traveled all over Europe, though, to Turkey and Australia. What's always the best thing about a new place is getting to know it, getting familiar with different people. A new place is full of immense opportunities, for everything - making new friends, learning something new, exploring new locations, habits, foods. My favorite places? Brittany, I think, especially Saint Malo and the Mount St. Michel. Such beauty! Brisbane - I didn't want to leave. Mannheim - a down to earth, cosmopolitic city that grounded me in a way no other place did.
Sarah: The main characters, Hunter and Hamid, are both falconers. What do falconers do? How did you get interested in falcons?
Feliz: I met my first falcon at a birdwatch show when I was little, and I was hooked immediately. I never got round to have a falcon of my own, but there's a professional falconer in my neighborhood who I can go hawking with, which I usually do once or twice a month in winter season.
Basically, Falconry is a way of hunting with tamed birds of prey. In the middle age, falconry was very common everywhere in the world; at times, even peasants got to hunt for fowl or rabbits with trained hawks. Modern falconers are mostly environmentalists, but falconry has a lot of uses even today, far beyond falconry shows or education. For example, falcons are used for biological pest control, keeping buildings free of doves, parks free of rabbits - and airport runways free of nuisance birds.
What do falconers do? Don't get me started! Caring for the birds, keeping them clean, healthy and entertained is almost a full-time job. The reward, of course, is having a companion who's with you all of her free will. They aren't pets at all, they always remain wild. Feeling a falcon's deadly claws on your wrist, and watching her fly - it's a feeling beyond description when she comes back to you although she doesn't need to.
Sarah: Is Desert Falcon your first story? What are your plans for your writing? Are you working on something now?
Feliz: Desert Falcon was the first story I had the nerve to publish, but it's not my first story - I've got about a dozen tales sitting on my hard drive that better never, ever see the light.
Actually, Hunter is one of the two main characters in my first "real" novel, City Falcon, which is unpublished as of now (yet, I hope - I've submitted it for publication only recently). Desert Falcon is Hunter's backstory, which turned into a Bittersweet Dreams short story almost on its own volition. As I said, Hunter is a rather strong - willed character; he quasi dictated his story to me during a single weekend, and I had to make very little alterations once I had written it down.
I'm currently working on the sequel to City Falcon (Hunter isn't quite done with me, for which I'm deeply grateful), which I've almost finished outlining.
Sarah: I’ve had a few characters like that- they just have some things to say, and I’m their scribe!
Feliz: I have another unrelated project, a story about a gay horseracing jockey, which I hope to finish sometime this summer.
Sarah: That sounds interesting. I was a big fan of Dick Francis when I was younger. I loved that whole world of horse racing. This book is short. Do you have a particular fondness for short v. novel length fiction? What are your thoughts on this?
Feliz: I don't have any preferences in regard to story length. Generally when I start writing something I have a vague notion what it's going to be, but I must admit, I never know for sure until the outline is done. I don't consciously plan to write a novel, a novella or a short story - the story lasts until it's told.
Sarah: Tell me about you as a reader. Ebook vs paper? Any childhood favorites? What’s on your TBR pile right now?
Feliz: Oh, reading. Since I'm a voracious reader, I have bookshelves everywhere, my home office, my bedroom, the hallway, even the bathroom, all overflowing with books. Afraid to be buried alive under a bookalanche, my man applied the emergency brakes on my book addiction last year by giving me a Sony reader for my birthday. Which he bitterly regrets by now, though, since I haven't let it out of my reach ever since.
This is my chatty way of saying I've turned to almost exclusively reading ebooks recently, although I still buy and read the odd print book on occasion. On my TBR is Eden Winter's Settling the Score, Rick R. Reed's How I Met My Man, Kris Jacen's Wishing on a Blue Star, Ariel Tachna's Alliance in Blood and about a dozen others. It grows constantly *sigh*
As for childhood favorites: see above. My all - time favorites are Bengtsson's The Long Ships and Kipling's Kim.
Sarah: I love Kipling, too, and because of him, I have an unrequited love of India. Like your guy Karl May, I love reading stories where the setting takes me to a place I haven’t been before. It’s so easy for us these days to travel to new places via books- and for us writers, to research a new place well enough we can smell it and taste it. When I’m writing about a new place, I always try to make their cooking at home- so the house smells right while I’m writing. Though I never mastered New Orleans pralines and shrimp. New Orleans may have too many layers! You have a couple of dogs at home. Will you tell us about them?
Feliz: They're the joy of my heart. Sherry, the girl, is seven now, and Filou, the boy, is two. They're real clowns, cute, stubborn and hoggish. They get my backside off the computer chair and make me laugh, and there's no other creature that can love quite like they do. No matter how hard my day was, when I come home in the evening and they greet me with that unconditional, exuberant happiness - it's catching, comforting and incredibly beautiful. It's a pity I can't take them when I ride my motorbike!
Desert Falcon, available now from Dreamspinner!
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/stor...
Sarah: Your new story, Desert Falcon, has such an exotic setting. Can you tell us about it? Do you have experience yourself in this region of the world?
Feliz: In a way, the setting came with the main character. When I first met Hunter, I went looking for a place where he could have become as devoted to falconry as he is, and the first thing that came to my mind was Arabia. Falconry is an integral part of the Arabian culture; the Saker falcon was the Prophet Mohammed's favorite bird according to the Holy Qur'an. While researching for Desert Falcon, I chanced upon a female German veterinarian who leads a falcon clinic in Abu Dhabi, I think, and I knew immediately this was the place for Hunter. I thought about making him a veterinarian, but as it happens often with my characters, he put his foot down and refused, and thus became an ornithologist.
Sarah: He’s a strong character- very powerful and quite believable that he would put his foot down with you!
Feliz: As for my personal experience with this region of the world - no, I've never been there, although I'd really, really love to some day. Ever heard about Karl May? He was a German novelist in the late 18 hundreds, incredibly prolific (he wrote almost 80 full novels and countless short stories). He wrote "travel reports", pretending he'd actually been to all the places he described; his books were pure fiction but so accurate some of his fans in the 1950 could actually use them as travel guides. Many of those books are set in the Middle East. I grew up with them, read them over and over, immersed myself in his worlds. A decade later, I met a friend, a Persian (he never said Iranian!) whose parents had fled with the Shah. Through him I gained deeper insight into this culture, which I've come to deeply respect and love since.
Sarah: And Karl May did all that without the internet! He must have been a great reader. I have been a big fan of Persian poetry, which is intensely romantic. I read on your blog that you’ve lived all over the world. What were some of your favorite places? What do you particularly like about travelling and moving?
Feliz: Persian poetry is fantastic! I always regret that I never learned Arabic writing, let alone Farsi. Well, I've lived and worked mostly in European countries - Switzerland, France, Denmark, and about ten or twelve different places in Germany. I've traveled all over Europe, though, to Turkey and Australia. What's always the best thing about a new place is getting to know it, getting familiar with different people. A new place is full of immense opportunities, for everything - making new friends, learning something new, exploring new locations, habits, foods. My favorite places? Brittany, I think, especially Saint Malo and the Mount St. Michel. Such beauty! Brisbane - I didn't want to leave. Mannheim - a down to earth, cosmopolitic city that grounded me in a way no other place did.
Sarah: The main characters, Hunter and Hamid, are both falconers. What do falconers do? How did you get interested in falcons?
Feliz: I met my first falcon at a birdwatch show when I was little, and I was hooked immediately. I never got round to have a falcon of my own, but there's a professional falconer in my neighborhood who I can go hawking with, which I usually do once or twice a month in winter season.
Basically, Falconry is a way of hunting with tamed birds of prey. In the middle age, falconry was very common everywhere in the world; at times, even peasants got to hunt for fowl or rabbits with trained hawks. Modern falconers are mostly environmentalists, but falconry has a lot of uses even today, far beyond falconry shows or education. For example, falcons are used for biological pest control, keeping buildings free of doves, parks free of rabbits - and airport runways free of nuisance birds.
What do falconers do? Don't get me started! Caring for the birds, keeping them clean, healthy and entertained is almost a full-time job. The reward, of course, is having a companion who's with you all of her free will. They aren't pets at all, they always remain wild. Feeling a falcon's deadly claws on your wrist, and watching her fly - it's a feeling beyond description when she comes back to you although she doesn't need to.
Sarah: Is Desert Falcon your first story? What are your plans for your writing? Are you working on something now?
Feliz: Desert Falcon was the first story I had the nerve to publish, but it's not my first story - I've got about a dozen tales sitting on my hard drive that better never, ever see the light.
Actually, Hunter is one of the two main characters in my first "real" novel, City Falcon, which is unpublished as of now (yet, I hope - I've submitted it for publication only recently). Desert Falcon is Hunter's backstory, which turned into a Bittersweet Dreams short story almost on its own volition. As I said, Hunter is a rather strong - willed character; he quasi dictated his story to me during a single weekend, and I had to make very little alterations once I had written it down.
I'm currently working on the sequel to City Falcon (Hunter isn't quite done with me, for which I'm deeply grateful), which I've almost finished outlining.
Sarah: I’ve had a few characters like that- they just have some things to say, and I’m their scribe!
Feliz: I have another unrelated project, a story about a gay horseracing jockey, which I hope to finish sometime this summer.
Sarah: That sounds interesting. I was a big fan of Dick Francis when I was younger. I loved that whole world of horse racing. This book is short. Do you have a particular fondness for short v. novel length fiction? What are your thoughts on this?
Feliz: I don't have any preferences in regard to story length. Generally when I start writing something I have a vague notion what it's going to be, but I must admit, I never know for sure until the outline is done. I don't consciously plan to write a novel, a novella or a short story - the story lasts until it's told.
Sarah: Tell me about you as a reader. Ebook vs paper? Any childhood favorites? What’s on your TBR pile right now?
Feliz: Oh, reading. Since I'm a voracious reader, I have bookshelves everywhere, my home office, my bedroom, the hallway, even the bathroom, all overflowing with books. Afraid to be buried alive under a bookalanche, my man applied the emergency brakes on my book addiction last year by giving me a Sony reader for my birthday. Which he bitterly regrets by now, though, since I haven't let it out of my reach ever since.
This is my chatty way of saying I've turned to almost exclusively reading ebooks recently, although I still buy and read the odd print book on occasion. On my TBR is Eden Winter's Settling the Score, Rick R. Reed's How I Met My Man, Kris Jacen's Wishing on a Blue Star, Ariel Tachna's Alliance in Blood and about a dozen others. It grows constantly *sigh*
As for childhood favorites: see above. My all - time favorites are Bengtsson's The Long Ships and Kipling's Kim.
Sarah: I love Kipling, too, and because of him, I have an unrequited love of India. Like your guy Karl May, I love reading stories where the setting takes me to a place I haven’t been before. It’s so easy for us these days to travel to new places via books- and for us writers, to research a new place well enough we can smell it and taste it. When I’m writing about a new place, I always try to make their cooking at home- so the house smells right while I’m writing. Though I never mastered New Orleans pralines and shrimp. New Orleans may have too many layers! You have a couple of dogs at home. Will you tell us about them?
Feliz: They're the joy of my heart. Sherry, the girl, is seven now, and Filou, the boy, is two. They're real clowns, cute, stubborn and hoggish. They get my backside off the computer chair and make me laugh, and there's no other creature that can love quite like they do. No matter how hard my day was, when I come home in the evening and they greet me with that unconditional, exuberant happiness - it's catching, comforting and incredibly beautiful. It's a pity I can't take them when I ride my motorbike!
Desert Falcon, available now from Dreamspinner!
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/stor...
March 16, 2011
Absurd U
Absurd U
I keep saying the word to myself, absurd, this is absurd, sometimes under my breath, sometimes out loud, and I love the way it rolls off my lips like a fat pink bubble.
I’m giving away all my books. I take them downtown and leave them on the benches and on the tables at the coffee shop, an absurd way to clean house, I admit. But it makes me happy. I’m holding my bag of books on the corner of Eighth and Bannock Street. When I’m done I’ll make a quick trip to the grocery store and pick up a couple boxes of Honey Nut Crunch with Almonds, on sale for $1.49. That’s a damn good price for cereal.
The kids sit in front of the coffee shop, dressed in black hoodies and skinny jeans, holding their cigarettes awkwardly between thumb and fore finger. Didn’t anyone teach these kids how to smoke without looking ridiculous? They didn’t have any role models in the movies. I wonder if they’ll take one of the books. Probably not. I bet they all have Kindles. Maybe the homeless guys will find something to read.
A van drives by, very slowly, while I’m waiting to cross the road, and the driver waves at me out the window. He’s pulling a trailer. He looks high, eyes wet and happy, and his smile is stretched widely under a thick white moustache. He has small, square teeth, and I can see them all. The van and the trailer are painted with a message that says Jesus U. Between the Jesus and the U are some fat random hearts painted bubble-gum pink, outlined in lipstick red. A man dressed like Buffalo Bill, long gray ringlets and white cowboy boots, pumps his fist in the air. “Teach it to the children, brother!”
The van goes four miles an hour down Bannock, and he waves at everyone on the street. People look back at him, wave and smile and those in business suits give him a courteous nod. Outside of town, in the foothills, a giant electric crucifix looks down on Boise, arms outstretched, bringing bright white light into the darkness.
I keep saying the word to myself, absurd, this is absurd, sometimes under my breath, sometimes out loud, and I love the way it rolls off my lips like a fat pink bubble.
I’m giving away all my books. I take them downtown and leave them on the benches and on the tables at the coffee shop, an absurd way to clean house, I admit. But it makes me happy. I’m holding my bag of books on the corner of Eighth and Bannock Street. When I’m done I’ll make a quick trip to the grocery store and pick up a couple boxes of Honey Nut Crunch with Almonds, on sale for $1.49. That’s a damn good price for cereal.
The kids sit in front of the coffee shop, dressed in black hoodies and skinny jeans, holding their cigarettes awkwardly between thumb and fore finger. Didn’t anyone teach these kids how to smoke without looking ridiculous? They didn’t have any role models in the movies. I wonder if they’ll take one of the books. Probably not. I bet they all have Kindles. Maybe the homeless guys will find something to read.
A van drives by, very slowly, while I’m waiting to cross the road, and the driver waves at me out the window. He’s pulling a trailer. He looks high, eyes wet and happy, and his smile is stretched widely under a thick white moustache. He has small, square teeth, and I can see them all. The van and the trailer are painted with a message that says Jesus U. Between the Jesus and the U are some fat random hearts painted bubble-gum pink, outlined in lipstick red. A man dressed like Buffalo Bill, long gray ringlets and white cowboy boots, pumps his fist in the air. “Teach it to the children, brother!”
The van goes four miles an hour down Bannock, and he waves at everyone on the street. People look back at him, wave and smile and those in business suits give him a courteous nod. Outside of town, in the foothills, a giant electric crucifix looks down on Boise, arms outstretched, bringing bright white light into the darkness.
Book Report
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