[Hi, folks!  You have already met thriller author Gina Fava as an interviewee on this website.  She has written two novels, The Race and The Sculptor, short stories, and is working on a sequel to The Race.   (Visit her website.  I also found some interesting articles on her blog I’d like to share with you.  Here’s the first one:]

 One of my favorite things about Cape Cod is looking for sea glass, those shards of broken glass lovingly smoothed by the ocean that wash up on the shore, painstakingly sought after and plucked from the wet sand with as much glee as if spotting gold.  [Note from Steve:  Gina had a nice picture of sea glass in her original post.  My apologies to her–I make it a practice not to include images, since text-only speeds up the loading in most browsers.]

Karen L. Day (YA Author of A Million Miles From Boston) wasn’t supposed to start my day with nuggets of knowledge, but she did it anyway.  Instead of combing the sand for sea glass, I was surprised to find that it just washed up into my shoe.

I’m attending the Cape Cod Writer’s Conference this week.  Cape Cod Writer’s Center of Osterville, MA is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its conference, and they’re pulling out all the stops with thrilling keynote speakers (Joseph Finder, Amy Caldwell, and Andre Dubus III), literary agents, manuscript reviews, and a plethora of writing and publishing classes.

(more…)

[For those on the East Coast of the U.S.—basically from North Carolina to Massachusetts—you have enjoyed, or are enjoying, the gentle caresses of hurricane Sandy + energetic cold front from the West + jet stream adding energy + astronomical high tides = wild banshee storm.  However, if you have power, you might be reading my posts this week, although I’m scheduling them early in case of I have to get out of Dodge myself.

Here’s the post schedule: today “Invisible Issues,” a post about the issues both parties have ignored; Wednesday guest blogger Gina Fava comments on last summer’s Cape Cod Writers Conference;  and Thursday I’ll on post an op-ed, “How the American Public Loses Elections.” Enjoy if you can.  I pray that you and your family are safe if you can’t—actually, I do that anyway, but I’m talking about that monster storm, of course.  There will be no post on Election Day.]

Mr. Romney has received much criticism for being short on specifics (my paraphrase:  we’ll make up those seven or eight trillion in tax cuts and increased defense spending by closing loopholes and eliminating deductions—just ask us after the election what they are).  Mr. Obama hasn’t been much better (my paraphrase:  give me another four years to complete my agenda—don’t fret yourself with the details).  The candidates’ five-point plans are jokes, bullets on a Powerpoint chart without any substance.  I’ve seen enough of that.

(more…)

#204:  Just released!  My sci-fi thriller Come Dance a Cumbia…with Stars in your Hand! completes “The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy,” a vision of the future that you will find troubling, inspiring, and astounding.  Survivors of the Chaos, the first book in the series, starts in dystopia and ends with hope for a new future on a planet in the 82 Eridani solar system.  In Sing a Samba Galactica, the second book, humans find friendly ETs there and battle unfriendly ones on another colony and Earth, but if you thought they and their ET friends would live happily in the Galaxy’s near-Earth space after the Singer saved the Swarm, you were wrong.

This novel shows why we always have to be vigilant against those whose thirst for power becomes an obsession.  The protagonists—the tough, brilliant, and beautiful Silvia Kensington, the old warrior Brent Mueller, bent but not broken, and others—serve as my Second Foundation; the villain—Dimitri Negrini, an evil genius—my Mule.  They become forged in fire by the events portrayed in the first two novels and their struggles in this one.  Action, suspense, and intrigue are found in this star-hopping modern sci-fi saga that combines elements of space opera with new perspectives on today’s problems.

The entire trilogy is available in eBook format on Amazon, Smashwords, and soon at other fine online retailers (B&N, Sony, Apple, etc), just as soon as SW distributes.  I guarantee you’ll have a good read with this trilogy.

(more…)

(Tim Young, Poisoned Soil, Harmony Publishing, 2012, ASIN B009EAV6VY)

Tim Young’s novel Poisoned Soil reminds me of some of Baldacci’s home-spun Appalachian thrillers.  It’s a story about greed, guilt, desperate people, and ethnic justice.  It’s a simple story that deals with complex issues.

The prose also seems to be an all-American version of magical realism, that Garcia Marquez / Isabel Allende technique of making reality magical and magic real.  (Toni Morrison is another American author using the same technique, which actually started with Kafka.)  I won’t go into detail why this is true about Young’s book, but it sets the book above the norm and the bar high for anyone who attempts this.

(more…)

[Today’s interview is with new fiction writer Tim Young , author of the recently released Poisoned Soil, which I’ll review in this blog tomorrow.  (If you can’t wait, you’ll also find the review at Bookpleasures.)  I think you’ll find Tim to be an interesting fellow.  He certainly shows there’s life beyond the Dilbert cube.  Read on.]

1)  Why, how, and when did you start writing? I only began writing a couple of years ago when I wrote the personal memoir The Accidental Farmers. It tells the story of how my wife and I chose to leave country club living and corporate America to devote ourselves to producing food for ourselves and others.  Other than that, the extent of my writing had been for business purposes only. Unlike many authors, I never studied creative writing or even attempted to write fiction, not even a one-page short story. The first piece of fiction I attempted was Poisoned Soil.

2)  Did you publish the first book you wrote? Yes, and it was The Accidental Farmers. At this point I’ve written or co-written four books, two of which are business books that were published by McGraw-Hill.

3)  What is your biggest problem with the writing process. How do you tackle it?  My biggest challenge is determining character motive. I’m drawn to a sub-genre that I seem bent on creating, something I refer to as Agrarian Suspense. The stories I visualize all relate to the confluence of social unrest (domestic terrorism, Occupy, etc.), the dangers of industrial food (GMO, factory farms, contamination) and the effect of our actions on the environment. Clearly those are real  issues that sound a lot like non-fiction. My challenge as a fiction writer is to conceive a story based on very believable motives that is also thrilling and suspenseful. In the end, I want the stories to be a great read, of course, but I also want them to have resonance beyond the fictional world. Something the reader can take back to the real world with eyes that are a little more open.

(more…)

[Note to readers of this blog:  Due to the date of the presidential debate this week, I might not have an op-ed ready for Thursday.  We’ll see.  There will be one tomorrow to lead into the debate and, either Thursday or Friday, I will post a book review.  Good reading!]

Item: Dynasties….  I hate’em.  They’re generally associated with royalty, or greed, or privilege, or money…or all of the above.  Two irksome examples are political and sports dynasties.  Of course, the potential for a Romney dynasty is part of the national debate right now (although, at the level of state governors, it’s already established).  Mittens is an example of a pampered, spoiled, and out-of-touch member of the rich elites primarily because he’s a member of a dynasty.  But let’s consider some other examples.

Let’s talk about the Yankees first.  They definitely fall in the all-of-the-above category (well, maybe not royalty, depending on your definition).  The owners (I assume it’s the entire family now after that old curmudgeon died) are definitely in that famous 1%.  Moreover, almost every player is.  I loved the fact that old millionaire A-Rod sits out doing nada while his team wins their division.  He’s the most over-paid non-producing player in the history of baseball.  And these guys are Boring (that’s boring with a capital B).  With their budget, they should be winning every game.  Kudos to the Orioles for giving them a run for their money.  Yes, I’m a Red Sox fan, but not rabid about it.  I’m more a fan of anyone that beats the Yankees.  The latter are the quintessential sports dynasty.  (I’m sorry Derek Jeter is injured.  He’s A-1 in my book, especially compared to A-Rod.)

(more…)

#193:  Review of Malena.  Some readers might have noticed that I added Edgardo David Holzman to my list of up-and-coming authors for his Malena (see last Monday’s review).  If Edgardo never writes another book, this one still puts him high on the list of historical novelists.  I happen to love Argentina and its people but hate its juntas.  This is my common perception of most of Latin America.  Nevertheless, first and foremost, Edgardo wrote a good story—that’s what it’s all about.

I’ve also added Stephen Kinzer’s Overthrow to the recommended list of non-fiction titles.  Frequent readers of this blog know that I have mentioned this book on several occasions—I kept forgetting to add it to the list.  Error corrected.  This book offers thirteen case studies where the U.S. has overthrown legitimate governments, beginning with the annexation of Hawaii.  Our problems with Iran, Cuba, and much of Latin America can be traced to these heavy-handed policies.  Yes, indeed, we, as a nation, have blood on our hands.  Like Pontius Pilate, it doesn’t wash off easily.  Between Overthrow and Malena, you might develop a different perspective on American foreign policy.

#194:  Speaking of good stories….  Infrequently, would-be writers can find in Writer’s Digest (that damn apostrophe always seems to be in the wrong place) a few golden nuggets beyond the magazine’s money-making contests and obsequious attitude toward Big Six publishers, agents, and authors.  Ms. Elizabeth Sims often is the author of these nuggets.  I would like to recommend her article “How to Develop Any Idea into a Great Story” in the November/December issue.  While I can think of many ideas that don’t make a great story (we don’t need more paranormal romance novels about vampires, werewolves, or more YA tomes about boy magicians), this article, plus Elizabeth’s previous ones, with maybe my “The Eightfold Way” thrown in, are not bad ones for fiction writers to consider when writing and editing their books.

(more…)

(Edgardo David Holzman, Malena, Nortia Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-9842252-7-9)

Malena (1941) is the name of a tango with lyrics by Homero Manzi (Homero Nicolás Manzione Prestara) and music by Lucio Demare (this duo wrote two other tangos I like, namely Negra Maria from 1942 and Tal Vez Será Su Voz from 1943).  Malena is also the name of a character in Edgardo David Holzman’s fictional portrayal of some of Latin America’s darkest days—the Dirty War in Argentina from 1976 to 1983.  This novel uncovers the heart and soul of this beautiful and often troubled South American country.  Pick it up for a few cozy evenings to learn what happened during that period in Argentina; spend the rest of your life trying to forget it!  I read it cover to cover in three installments—you need to stop periodically and take a deep breath.

Fascism and genocide are often evil fraternal twins locked in an incestuous embrace—Turkey’s persecution of the Armenians, the Nazi holocaust before and during WWII, Argentina and los desaparecidos, Pinochet’s Chile, the ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia, and many other cases where human beings become monsters, torturing and killing thousands (millions in the case of Nazi Germany and Ottoman Turkey).  In the U.S., we take comfort that this has never happened here, yet our consciences should not be clear—we have let it happen elsewhere and, in some cases, been willing accomplices.

(more…)

Summary:

The sci-fi thriller Come Dance a Cumbia…with Stars in your Hand! completes “The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy,” a vision of the future that is troubling, inspiring, and astounding.  Survivors of the Chaos, the first book in the series, starts in dystopia and ends with hope for a new future on a planet in the 82 Eridani system.  In Sing a Samba Galactica, the second book, humans find friendly ETs there and battle unfriendly ones on another colony and Earth, but if you thought they and their ET friends would live happily in the Galaxy’s near-Earth space after the Singer saved the Swarm, you were wrong.

(more…)

As a special treat today, I offer you an interview with fellow thriller author Gina Fava.  A Buffalo, NY native, Gina lives in New England with her husband, Jamie, and their two children.  A writer of award-winning short stories, Gina Fava is working to publish two novels, The Race and The Sculptor, both suspense thrillers based in Rome, Italy.  She’s currently writing her next thrillers in both series.  She travels to Italy often to research first-hand the red wines that her characters imbibe.  An active member of MWA, ITW, and SinC, Gina’s a thrill-seeking bridge jumper, a Formula One racing fanatic, and a nut for blogging about skeletal recomposition.  You can learn more about Gina at her website.  Thank you, Gina.

1)  Why, how, and when did you start writing?

I started writing to entertain myself in grade school.  In high school, Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot blew me away, and his Night Shift short stories prompted me to write to entertain family and friends.  It wasn’t until I returned from studying abroad in Italy that I sent my short stories and feature articles out to the rest of the world.  I think I needed to experience life a bit before I realized that I had novels clamoring to get out too.

2)  What is your biggest problem with the writing process. How do you tackle it?

Characterization.  I love my characters from inception, but it takes some development in their infant stages until I grow close enough to them to appreciate their true personalities.

(more…)