Book Review: House of Sand and Fog

Blogging friends, not sure how to check for plagiarism? I use Grammarly because copy-cats are lame. Just ask Zelda Fitzgerald, who is quoted as saying: "Mr. Fitzgerald, I believe that is how he spells his name, seems to believe that plagiarism begins at home."

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My extended family recently congregated at my brother’s beach house. They have a bookshelf that’s evolved into a book exchange and since I'd just finished Jodi Picoult’s Mercy, I left it there in exchange for Andre Dubus III’s House of Sand and Fog. The book cover didn’t necessarily entice me but it had street cred; it was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and #1 on the NYT bestseller list (it was also an Oprah's Book Club pick in 2000 but I don’t always see eye-to-eye with O.) so I decided to give it a try.

Overview

The book starts by introducing a once-respected former colonel by the name of Massoud Behrani. The colonel and his family have been exiled from Iran after the Iranian Revolution. He has not been able to establish a career in America so he works long hours at menial jobs to keep up appearances.

In the next chapter, we learn about Kathy Nicolo, a recovering addict, who is being evicted from her bungalow in the California hills—a home long owned by her family—because of a county bookkeeping mistake.

Their paths cross when Kathy’s house is put on auction and Behrani spends his life savings to purchase the house at a fraction of its worth. He views the opportunity as fortune smiling on him, and plans to flip the house as a means of establishing himself as a successful real estate investor/business man.

A third character, Police Deputy Lester Burdon, comes to Kathy’s house to evict her. Although Burdon is married with two young children, he and Kathy become romantically involved.

The forth main character in the book is the house itself. In fact, the entire plot circles around the bungalow. The characters get so caught up in their quest for owning the house that they lose sight of themselves, resulting in a set of circumstances that go horribly wrong.

The book is written in the first person, switching between several of the main characters. The use of a first person POV gives the reader a clear picture of what each character is going through on a mental and emotional level.

Cultural misunderstandings as well as exploring the married relationship between the Behranis and the desperate relationship between Kathy and Lester keep this book moving forward.

The Good
At first, it seemed obvious who the protagonist and who the antagonist were but as the book continued, the lines blurred. Dubus has a gift for presenting two completely different viewpoints; he transitions from chapter to chapter skillfully using precise language for each character, and lets the reader decide for himself. Sometimes I was seduced into an empathetic attraction to one character and a disgusting revulsion to another and then the tables turned and so did my sympathies. The author created a believable, involved psychological portrait of his main characters, shining a light on their gifts as well as their flaws.

The Bad

Oh the poor, pitiful ending. Listen, as a fiction writer I know how difficult it is to bring everything to a satisfying end but to call this ending unsatisfying is giving it far too much credit. I had a hard time accepting that this was the best Andre Dubus III could do.

A movie was made from the book, starring Ben Kingsly as Behrani and Jennifer Connelly as Kathy. Good casting choices, but I haven't seen the movie and I'm not sure I will. The story is dark and left me with a feeling of hopelessness.

Have you read House of Sand and Fog? I'd love to hear other opinions.  

How I Got Him To Marry Me: 50 True Stories

My friend Cherise wrote a book that I want to tell you about. It's called How I Got Him To Marry Me: 50 True Stories and it’s now available in eBook form at Barnes and Noble for Nook, Amazon for Kindle, and Kobo for the Kobo Reader. The paperback will be available April 1 through Amazon. The eBook should be on iTunes soon. 

Short Book Description:

He likes it. Now get him to put a ring on it! Learn from these 50 stories of women who have been there! You don't have to interview 50 married women to find out how they managed to get that ring on their finger. The author has done that for you. All 50 were married after 1990, so this is modern information for our changing times. Read and find out how you can get him to marry you and not just live together!

LIMITED TIME OFFER:
Please see the end of the eBook to learn how to claim a free paperback copy after you post an honest review! Limited to the first 25 reviewers at Amazon.com, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes. (226 pages in paperback.)

Excerpt unique to my blog:

When I worked in the office back in Philly, my plebeian office job took about 8.5 hours a day. When I did my work online, it took four hours a day, at the most. Now, I've never been the type to know what to do with my free time, but I had so much of it now that I joined an anime fan group at a bar in Beijing. (I never go to bars, either.)
I befriended guys there who had similar interests. Now, keep in mind:
1) My American office salary of 42k equaled about 252k in China.
2) I'm not bad looking.
3) I was an intriguing ethnic anomaly there.
4) My employers said my productivity had increased, so they weren't nagging me to come back to the office. 

With those four points there, you have another recipe for my leaving Cordell. But again, I did not.

Many anime types, there as well as here, have unconventional interests. One of the girls made Chinese wedding dresses. They're nothing like the white mainstay frocks you see in the States. Chinese wedding dresses are short, sexy, and inspired by cartoons. All are white or in pastel colors. Plus, they're silk. It's cheaper to get silk there, so Mao-ling had a ton of silk garments.

"How come your stuff is so cute here?" I asked Mao-ling 

She looked at me like I was crazy.

I said, "Cute isn't big where I live. I think it's the strong, independent woman thing."

"It's always been," she said, "and people buy it. People buy it where you are, too."

"Really." I challenged.

Mao-ling is an artist and doesn't have much of a head for business. I'm very organized, but I'm really not all that creative. She and I split her design business 50/50. I set up store accounts on eBay and Etsy, and I got a few brick and mortar stores in Philadelphia to carry her dresses through a friend of mine in PhillyU's fashion program. After about six months, they were selling beautifully. I think the reason these clothes sell so well in the States is the same reason men like Asian girls: they're "cuter" and a bit more delicate, in appearance at least.

If you count the money I get from private clients, Chinese stores, and the accessories I sell online, I make about 20k more per year than I did with my regular job. I also saved about 15k from that my first few weeks. 

I am so much happier as a business owner than I was as a corporate desk jockey that I became a whole lot easier to get along with, and Cordell magically found a whole lot more time for me in his schedule.
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Want to read more?
Amazon.com <<< paperback, too after April 1, 2013

Barnes and Noble <<< paperback, too, but later than Amazon 
Kobo

iTunes Coming Soon!

Movie Review: Lincoln

We went to see the movie Lincoln, a Steven Spielberg film, over the holidays. The movie stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln, Sally Fields as Mary Todd Lincoln, Hal Holbrook as Lincoln adviser Preston Blair, James Spader as political operative W.N. Bilbo and Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens.

Of course I have to give props to the writers. Tony Kushner's screenplay was tremendous, and was partly based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.

Most of the movie takes place in January 1865, just after Abraham Lincoln was elected to his second term as president. It was during this time that Lincoln focused on pushing the 13^th Amendment through congress, thereby ending the Civil War and slavery, and uniting the nation.

My favorite thing about this movie: Lincoln’s love of words and storytelling, and how it all sounded coming out of Daniel Day-Lewis’ mouth. Brilliant. Abraham Lincoln often told awkward jokes, went on random tangents, quoted Euclid and the Bible and any other source that gave evidence to the lesson he was offering. 


Daniel Day-Lewis, who normally communicates in a deep baritone, used a high-pitched, reedy tenor voice in the film. Historical sources indicate that this timbre is close to the way Lincoln actually spoke. There were plenty of rambling monologues in the script and Day-Lewis kept my husband and I captivated with this soft, homey cadence.

The language and the delivery were magnificent.

Steven Spielberg did a remarkable job with his depiction of our 16^th president. This is one of the most authentic biographical movies I’ve ever seen.

If you love lyrical words masterfully woven together by some of the finest actors and actresses working, then I recommend this movie. If you love action-packed thrillers with car chases and exploding airplanes, then I do not recommend this movie.

Let me know what you thought of the movie.

Lord of the Rings Trilogy for Christmas

My nephew is a book lover. In fact, he's a 12-year-old bibliophile. Since he also loves video games and sports, I'm thrilled that he displays a sincere love of reading and books. He gets it honestly, he's from a long line of bookworms and bibliophiles but still, it's awesome that we're passing this passion for books along to the youngest generation of our clan.

I love it that I'm not buying him a video game or a DVD. No, I'm giving him books for Christmas. Not just any old books, I'm giving him a cherished box set of J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy. This set originated with my dearly departed Uncle, was passed along to me, and now I'm joyously passing it along to my nephew this holiday season. It seems right.

NaNoWriMo Winner = ME

It feels kind of silly to call yourself a winner when everybody that crosses that 50,000 word finish line is dubbed a winner. Still, I'll take it. It's been a long month. I managed to write the NaNo novel, keep up with my client deadlines and be there for my personal commitments. So yeah, even if there are hundreds of winners, I'll gladly wave the winner flag right alongside them.

The National Novel Writing Month stats are interesting.  
Number of words logged during the 2011 event: 3,074,068,446

Total collective word count for 2012: 3,144,450,256

That's a bunch of words! I bet some of them are even good. My own, however, are probably not. Not yet, at least. I'll fix all that during the rewrite. 

Coming up soon, I'm going to write a post about everything I learned by participating (nee, winning, haha) NaNoWriMo. Some of it is trivial and some is pretty profound. I just don't have to juice to write about it right now. I'm spent. 

In case you're wondering, yes. All in all, it was worth it.   

NaNoWriMo - Been there, done that, got the tee-shirt.

Closing In on NaNoWriMo

Four days. Four short days remain in November - National Novel Writing Month - which means I have four days to finish my novel.

What's that? How am I doing? Oh, thanks for asking.

Here are the specifics:

So yeah, I'm closing in on it. I made a commitment to put 50k words on the page this month, so I'm staying with it. 

I'm pretty sure that what I've written the past few days is crap. It may be salvageable crap or it may be editing room crap - that remains to be seen. But not anytime soon.  

For now, I will finish the book. Then I'll do what Stephen King recommends and put the manuscript in the drawer for a while. After some mental distance, I'll be better equipped to determine what to keep and what to scrap.

Right now, none of that matters to me. What matters to me is that I finish what I started, that I write 50k words during National Novel Writing Month.

I think I can, I think I can...   

NaNoWriMo and Me: I Got Nuthin

An alternate title for this blog post could be:
  

I Got Nuthin*

What I'm writing today is not worth reading. Sometimes it flows right out of me and other times every word is a struggle. Today the writing muses are not smiling on me.

Ah yes, the National Novel Writing Month takes place annually every November. This is the first year I've made the crazy commitment to write 50,000 words in one month. All-in-all, I'm glad I'm doing it. It's teaching me a lot about myself and my fiction writing.

The relationship I have with my story, my characters and my craft is all over the board. Sometimes I love my characters but hate my story, sometimes I love my plot but hate my writing, etc. - you get the picture. 

(And yes, I get that love and hate are strong <<and lazy>> words to use here but I told you that what I'm writing today is not worth reading.)  

Focusing on the positive, here are my stats:
- as of today I've written 30,742 words (some are good and some are pure crap)
- I have 14 days to write 19,258 more words (hopefully some will be good)

What do you guys do when you're in a rut and nothing you write sounds good? Keep tap, tap, tapping or walk away for a bit? I'm walking away for today. 

Before I go, let me share this funny NaNoWriMo video. 

What I have today: *noth·ing/ˈnəTHiNG/

Pronoun:	Not anything; no single thing: "I said nothing".
Adjective:	Having no prospect of progress; of no value: "he had a series of nothing jobs".
Adverb:	Not at all: "she cares nothing for others".
Synonyms:	pronoun.  none - anything adverb.  not at all - none - never - not a bit - not in the least

28,623 Words

28,623. That's how many words I've written since November 1st. Well, that's how many words I've written on my NaNo novel. I've managed to keep up with my client work and my general correspondences. Aaand, I've even managed to squeeze in a few blog posts. All-in-all, that's a lot of output for this gal.

I celebrate the fact that I'm past the halfway mark on NaNoWriMo. For a long time, 25,000 words seemed impossible. Now, an additional 21,377 words seems impossible.

The problem is, I don't know how my story is going to end. I have a vague idea but it's not clear. No, that's not true, I have no idea. I know how to write the story and I've finally figured out how move it forward but I'm still not sure where I'm moving it to.

For me, writing an ending is the hardest part of fiction. I've spent so much time writing non-fiction, which is easy to wrap up with a nice little bow, that I've lost the touch (assuming I ever had it).

Anyway, as long as my fingers keep up the clack, clack, clack soundtrack of my November then I'll be okay. I trust that the ending will come in due time.

So, that's how I'm doing. One guy in my writing group has already written over 75,000 words! How about you?

Write on, good people.

Winnie the Pooh on Loyalty

The word loyalty means different things to different people. That may sound harsh and you may disagree but that’s the way it has played out in my life. One could argue: then the person wasn’t really loyal. That’s true, and there’s the rub. There are times when you believe someone is loyal and you find out otherwise. There are other times when someone’s loyalty surprises you, in a good way. 

The word itself is not hard to define:  

Loyal is an adjective. Marriam Webster defines the word as an unswerving allegiance; faithful to a person to whom fidelity is due; faithful to a cause, ideal, custom, institution or product. Showing loyalty.

Loyalty is a noun, defined as the quality or state or an instance of being loyal.

There are many examples of true loyalty and mistaken loyalty in literature. One of my favorite examples of true loyalty in literature is the relationship between Winnie the Pooh and Piglet in A. A. Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh” books.    

Many authors have used Milne’s characters to illustrate a point (for example: “The Tao of Pooh,” “The Te of Piglet”). That’s because his genius is multilayered in its simplicity.

One of the messages that resonate with me is the way Milne’s characters—living in The Hundred Acre Wood—demonstrate the power and importance of loyal friends. Here are a few of my favorite “Winnie the Pooh” quotes that get right to the heart of what loyal friendship is all about:

~If ever there is a tomorrow when we're not together, there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart, I'll always be with you.

~Promise you won't forget me, because if I thought you would, I'd never leave. 

~If there ever comes a day when we can't be together, keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever.

~If you live to be one-hundred, I hope I live to be one-hundred minus one day, so I never have to live a day without you. 

~We'll be friends forever, won't we, Pooh? asked Piglet. Even longer, Pooh answered.

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This post is in participation with the Group Blogging Experience, and this week’s prompt is loyalty.  If you want to blog with us, go to the GBE2 Facebook page and request to join the group. Everyone is welcome.

Classic Pooh image courtesy of justpooh.com. The pictures are free to use for educational purposes and personal use.

Stephen King uses Social Media in New Ways

Regular readers of this blog know that I am a giant Stephen King fan. For aspiring writers, I highly recommend Stephen King on Writing. In fact, as I reread recent blog posts, it’s clear that I need to read On Writing again (for the 3^rd time).

I’m just finishing Lisey’s Story (Lisey's Story by Stephen King, a Review) and will start on Duma Key soon. Yep, I'm a fan.

There are countless reasons I think Stephen King is a master, most of which are writing related. But I also think he’s a free thinker, not bound by traditional convention. As the cliché goes, he thinks outside the box.

I don’t know much about Klout so this is not an endorsement. It’s very cool, however, that King is using social media to market his new story, Mile 81. He's also previewing his new book 11/22/63 in this same manner. Here’s the official press release:

Lisey's Story by Stephen King: a Book Review

Or, What's Keeping Me Up Past Midnight?

It’s been ages since I’ve come across a book that’s so good it’s kept me up past midnight. Past many midnights! Just to keep reading. I’m half way through Stephen King’s Lisey’s Story and I’ve been losing sleep since I picked it up.

Quick summary

The book is about the marriage between award-winning novelist Scott Landon and his wife Lisey. The story takes place after Scott’s death so it’s Lisey’s mind we get to explore. We learn about her troubled husband and their powerful relationship through Lisey’s memories and flashbacks.    

My impression so far

I can never say enough about Stephen King’s storytelling. His style is at once casual and compelling. He trusts his readers to stay with the book as he unveils the story in baby bites, at his own pace (which I believe is part of his mastery).

As an example, I didn’t start out liking Lisey—and Lisey’s Story is obviously about her. I wasn’t clear why someone as talented and complicated as Scott Landon would be drawn to her. If the story is about their profound marriage then I needed to know what the connection was. King kept me hanging on, slowly revealing nuggets, until I grew to understand.

The cool thing is, I don’t know if I understand what Stephen King wants me to or if I’ve layered my own life experiences over his story to reach my point of view. And it doesn’t matter, does it? King trusts me (his reader) to ‘get it,’ whatever that may be. And that, my friends, is what I call good writing.     

As I read Lisey’s Story, I can’t help but wonder how much of this book is autobiographical. Knowing what I do of King’s life (run—don’t walk—to buy Stephen King on Writing) makes reading Lisey’s Story more even more interesting.

At one point Scott says something to Lisey about feeling like nothing more than a jukebox, that people drop money in him and out pops a story. Wonder if Stephen King ever feels that way.  

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This post was written for The Writers' Post group on Facebook, and this week’s topic is midnight.  If you want to connect with other bloggers and join the fun, go to The Writers' Post Facebook page and request to join the group. Everyone is welcome.

N is for Neville Longbottom

You've got to admire J.K. Rowling's plucky Neville Longbottom. Of Harry Potter fame, Longbottom goes through a noble character arc, growing from a shy, clumsy boy into a brave Hogwarts defender.

Early in the Harry Potter books, Neville is plagued with misfortune. His hardships include:

• Displaying no magic skill as a kid (a Squib)
• Losing his toad Trevor on the train platform
• Nervously running across the Great Hall with the Sorting Hat on his head
• Being bullied by Peeves the Poltergist
• Melting Seamus Finnigan's cauldron
• Falling off his broom and breaking his wrist
• Receiving the Leg-Locker Curse from Draco Malfoy
• And more, but you get the picture

Yet, at birth, Neville was one of only two children referenced in Sybill Trelawney's prophecy about wizards with the power to stand against the Dark Lord. The other child was Harry Potter.

Check this out:
 
Lord Voldemornt: "You show spirit and bravery, and you come of noble stock. You will make a very valuable Death Eater. We need your kind, Neville Longbottom." 
Neville Longbottom:  "I'll join you when hell freezes over! Dumbledore's Army!"
— Lord Voldemort and Neville Longbottom at the Battle of Hogwarts

Not what you would expect from the introverted Longbottom. He artfully grew from a bumbling kid into a strong and confident wizard. 

True, the story arc is an important element of any plot. But a good character arc-for main characters as well as secondary characters-makes the difference between a series of happenings and a gripping human story. Neville Longbottom is a great example.

Sources: Harry Potter Wikia & the Harry Potter Books by J. K. Rowling   

Manuscript: Basic Submission Guidelines

The word manuscript has two meanings.

Originally, a manuscript was a book or other text written by hand, especially one written before the invention of printing. (Manus is Latin for 'hand' and scriptum is Latin for 'written.')

While still accurate, the word is more frequently used to describe a writer's text for a book, article, or other piece of written work before it is published.

Basics for submitting a written manuscript include:

• Good quality 8.5"x11" white paper (for the US)
• One sided
• Readable font
• Double spaced
• Indented paragraphs
• 1" margins (right and left/top and bottom)
• Header with your name/story title in the upper left and page number in the upper right
• No staples or binders

Basic manuscript submission guidelines can be found all over the internet. My best advice is to do your research. Most publishers and agents have manuscript submission guidelines available on their websites. Some have particular formatting guidelines specific to that publishing company. When submitting a manuscript, follow the directions to the letter. You do not want your manuscript rejected for a silly formatting mistake.

Sources: Encarta Dictionary, Literary Terms and Definitions

G is for Golden Books

I love books and I love to read. My parents fostered our love of books starting at a young age. Memories of them reading bedtime stories, before we could read them ourselves, fill me with joy. Dad was best at doing the different voices.

My love of words draws me to quotes. These are two of my favorites about the importance of parents reading to their children:

One of the greatest gifts adults can give - to their offspring and to their society - is to read to their children. ~Carl Sagan

If you want your children to be bright, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be brilliant, read them even more fairy tales. ~Albert Einstein

Once we learned how to read ourselves, birthday and Christmas gifts were usually books. My greatest treasure was my library of Golden Books, collected one at a time.

Golden Books, a Random House property, started with a simple brand promise: to offer quality books for children that would be available at a price nearly everyone could afford (25 cents), and sold where ordinary people shopped. That's fantastic!

Now in it's 69th year, Golden Books (aka Little Golden Books) is still going strong. I blame credit Golden Books for my desire to become a writer. You know what they say about writers and books... 

If you don't have time to read, you don't have time to write. ~Stephen King

Did you read Golden Books growing up? What were some of your favorite titles? 

Source: Golden Books Website