Chronicles of a Book Evangelist

Author Interview & Giveaway: Kate Milford

Today I am very excited to bring you an interview with Kate Milford.  She is the author of one of my favorite books of all time, The Boneshaker, and her newest novel, The Broken Lands, will be released this September by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.  In addition, she is working on self publishing some really interesting companion novellas, which she is collectively calling The Arcana Project.  The first novella, The Kairos Mechanism, is currently a project on Kickstarter (please check it out!)  Needless to say, Mrs. Milford is a very busy person, and I am honored that she took the time to answer not just a few, but all of the questions I sent her.  Also, make sure to check out the giveaway at the end of the interview for a chance to win a copy of The Boneshaker!

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When did you first decide you wanted to be an author? When did start writing and when did you finish your first book?

Well, my mother still has the poster from when I was “writer of the week” in first grade, and I claimed I was considering that as a future career, so I guess we can date it to then. I know I’ve wanted to write for as long as I can remember, but I didn’t always know what I wanted to write. I wrote my first book about six years ago while I was really sort of struggling and in-between projects (I had been focusing on writing plays for a long time, but I was trying very hard to write a screenplay at that point). It took a full round of revision on that book and writing and revising another (the one that eventually became The Boneshaker) before I started to feel like maybe I could be good at it, but fiction immediately felt like a better fit for me; I like description too much for plays and dialogue too much for screenplays.

I found this post from you blog on your (lack of an) organizational process to be very funny as well as informative. Is there anything else you find particularly challenging in your writing?

Yes. I hate planning books out in advance. I’m dreadful at synopses. I always sort of feel like it takes about halfway through writing a book before I really understand what I need to know to figure out how it ends. Unfortunately, for completely understandable reasons, this approach seems to make everyone who isn’t me twitchy, so I’m learning to write synopses without grumbling (much). I guess, whether or not you actually utilize any sort of plan to write your books, it turns out that being able to plan is a critical skill, even if you’re only doing it to show agents and editors that you can.

Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work? Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way either growing up or as an adult?

I have no idea who I’d say my favorite author is, but one that was a huge influence growing up was Susan Cooper. I read The Dark is Rising like twice a year. It has such amazing atmosphere. But I love the way in which she took folklore and made it her own, constructing her own mythology while still allowing the source material to be (by the end of the series) recognizable.

I've noticed that a lot of the books you talk about really loving or having inspired you on your blog were books you've listened to in addition to/rather than having read. Likewise, the oral tradition of storytelling and stories within music feature prominently in your books. I preferred reading your books aloud and hearing them to reading them myself; there is a cadence to your prose that just seems to beg to be read aloud. Is this something that you have intentionally done?

Wow, that’s a great observation and a great question. You know, I actually haven’t listened to that many, but I have a particular fondness for ones that I’ve listened to; The Golden Compass springs to mind—the audio version of that one is SO GOOD. But most of the other books I’ve listened to are ones my husband’s read me during road trips (that’s how I discovered Chris Moriarty and Naomi Novik—Nathan read them and loved them and I wasn’t getting to them quickly enough, in his opinion). I adore that he does that, but it’s never occurred to me before that there might be a connection between my love of listening to Nathan read might have to do with my love of oral storytelling. I do love poetry and language—maybe the reason they have an “out-loud” cadence has to do with all those years trying to write plays?

Both of your books have what I would almost call reverence for storytellers. They are considered to be very important people for both the story as well as the communities to which they belong. You are clearly a storyteller yourself, but was/were there specific storyteller(s)from your youth that inspired that reverence?

My mom is an amazing storyteller, and so is my dad. My grandmother also used to tell all of us grandkids stories about the adventures of moonbeams who explored the galaxy. She used to make them up as she went along, the difficulty of which I have only recently come to appreciate. Also I have three best college friends who I still keep in pretty close touch with, and one of them (I’m looking at you, Holly) always used to make us tell bedtime stories when we’d sleep over. In fact, she still does it when we get together.

One thing I’ve learned: telling a story and making it up as you go along—that is flipping hard. I have exactly two stories I can tell aloud, and it’s only because I know them so well that I dare do it. I absolutely lack the capability to tell a story I’m making up on the spot, or to tell one I haven’t practiced.  It’s a skill that has to be developed, and it’s one that used to be much more widely cultivated. But I’ll tell you this—even though I only have two stories in my repertoire, when I tell either one to a group of kids, they are spellbound, and I’m not sure that’s due to my oral storytelling ability. I think it’s that it’s a means of experiencing a story that’s completely different to what most of them have experienced before.

I've learned from your blog and the Kickstarter page that you work in an indie bookstore. Do you think that also working at the sales end of the book industry -- and interacting daily with customers -- has changed or informed the way you write or present your writing?

It has a little bit, because I get to talk to parents and to kids about what draws them to books and what puts them off. Unfortunately, what I’ve learned has less to do with the way that I write and more about what I think about presentation. I say unfortunately, because I have very little control over how my writing is presented. I think the two most important things I’ve learned are that boys actually will read about girls, as long as the books don’t look like they’re only meant for girls, and that there’s a big disconnect between book designers and book readers.

I’ve been really fortunate in that the people who’ve been involved in designing the books I’ve written have made tremendously smart and savvy choices. I see so many amazing books sit on the shelf because the cover says nothing about the book, or the cover tells half-the book-buying population that it isn’t for them, or the cover looks like a ton of other covers on the shelf. I’ve been very, very lucky.

But the good news is this: it is possible to write books for both boys and girls. This is what I want to do: I want to write about characters that anyone can enjoy, and anyone can look up to, no matter what gender they are. And that can absolutely be done, and I know that from what I see kids pick up off the shelf and what they tell me about their own reading.

All of your female leads are fiercely brave, smart and independent in their own ways while being completely different from each other. What were your thoughts while creating Natalie, Miranda, Illy and Jin? Did you set out to write role models or just interesting characters?

I just wanted to write good characters. I’m so glad that you included Miranda and Illy in that list, though. I adore both of them. You’ll see some fun moments with Miranda in The Kairos Mechanism, and she has some exciting things in store for her. I want her to be able to keep her girliness even as she learns not to let it hold her back from adventuring with Natalie. And Ilana Ponzi—she didn’t get nearly as much time in The Broken Lands as she deserved, but I love her so much. I think I might have to come back to her. I guess the whole thing is, I like to write characters that I can love, and that I think others can love. And I do love the boys as much as the girls—I adored Sam and Constantine and even Mike, who only shows up briefly in The Broken Lands.

I guess part of the challenge with the girls is that, when you’re writing historical fiction, you can fall into the trap of thinking that you have to either work within historical expectations or actively try to subvert them. But nobody’s personality is so simple that they’re completely either one thing or the other. A girl can be brave, smart and independent and still be a girl—by which I mean, Miranda can still love her dresses and hate to get them dirty even as she becomes more adventuresome. She doesn’t have to give that part of herself up. Jin can be independent and insist on taking care of herself and still decide to let Sam through her defenses—I sort of think she never lets them down, she just maybe lets him through.She doesn’t have to give up the part of her that wants never to have to ask for help. She just discovers that, for once, she wants to help someone else.

Random, only semi-related personal observation: I like being a girl and wearing heels, but I also love muay thai, and when I used to train I felt like my bruises were badges of honor. It might not have looked sexy to anybody else that I would walk around in dresses and heels even with splotches of purple on my shins, but I loved it.

I cannot even begin to describe how much I love Tom. I feel like I have actually met him or seen/heard a recording of him. What and/or who were your inspirations for Tom?

Well, certainly he’s inspired in part by Robert Johnson and Tommy Johnson, in that he’s a black blues guitarist who tells of having met the Devil at the crossroads. But he’s also inspired by my own brothers, both of whom are brilliant, mostly self-taught guitar players and who are capable of speaking with incredible eloquence through their music. My youngest brother has written songs inspired by Tom, andI think of him every time I write about how Tom sings. My older little brother is directly responsible for the fact that the string Tom gives Natalie is an E, that he wears the nails on one hand long for picking, and that he uses a bottle-neck slide.

Who is your favorite character to write?

Wowsers, that’s tough. Part of the reason that I know I can generate more novellas for the Arcana project is that I love them all so much. Oddly, though, some of my favorites to write are the villains.I particularly loved writing the scenes between Limberleg and Jack in The Boneshaker, and I adored writing High Walker in The Broken Lands. There’s something about writing villains that is just so much fun. And they’re challenging, too—some people don’t even like calling the antagonists of a book “villains”—but I love the difficulty of writing characters that are both entirely evil and entirely justified in their worldviews.

Both The Broken Lands and The Boneshaker hint at and include some pretty scary topics for middle grade/youngish young adult books -- death, illness, rape, abject poverty. They explore the ideas of good and evil but still have a very real level of moral ambiguity in most of the characters. I think it is both bravely and beautifully done. Again, is this something that you intentionally set out to do?  Or did the stories just evolve that way? Have you ever considered (or been asked to consider) toning it down?

Another really good question. They definitely just evolve that way, and my editor at Clarion, Lynne Polvino, is outrageously, wonderfully, brilliantly supportive. The Broken Lands had a bit more iffiness than The Boneshaker (I think), and I will admit that when I submitted it to Lynne and got the first copy back with editorial marks, I went straight to the first scene when Jin talks about her past. I was terrified that there would be all kinds of notes about cooling it on the implied childhood horrors, but Lynne was way more concerned with my crummy first-draft writing than with the potential dangers of what I was writing crummily. She is really amazing that way, and neither she nor my agent has ever asked me to tone it down.

I also held my breath when the youngest of my beta-readers read the manuscript. They’re (well, they were at the time) 9 year-old twins who read the book with their father at bedtime. I was very, very curious (read: panicked) to know how they reacted to Jin’s past, and how their dad reacted to the possibility of having to field questions about it. But it turns out I did something sorta right: I was vague enough about what had actually happened to her and specific enough about the foot-binding that was also part of her childhood that the girls focused on the trauma of the binding more than anything else.So I guess I learned this lesson: that it is possible to layer the dreadful stuff so that older readers can find it, and younger readers can focus on other, maybe slightly-less dreadful stuff that’s a bit more out in the open.

I guess, ultimately, the thing is this: everything that’s happened to any of my characters has been (I think) justified by the world in which they lived. I didn’t set out to write a girl with Jin’s specific history,for instance; but as I researched the world in which Jin would’ve grown up, her past emerged. Then I had to make sure that I did enough research to do that past justice.

Actually, I did tone one thing down that I can think of: those same beta-readers, when they read The Kairos Mechanism, thought that I had made an outright statement about what was going to happen toNatalie’s mother, and I hadn’t intended to be explicit about that in the novella. I had only intended to describe Natalie’s fears. So I did need to correct that, but it wasn’t because I didn’t think the kids could handle bad news; it was just because I hadn’t intended for them to read into it what they did.

Kids can handle an incredible amount of angst. They already think the stakes for everything are life-and-death. I don’t worry about freaking them out, but I don’t want to freak them out gratuitously. I guess that’s the short answer.

Both books seem to deal a lot with the ideas of family -- biological and created -- and community and the different ways these ties influence who we are, who we become, and what choices we make when we come to the different crossroads in life -- physical and metaphorical. Is there a specific message in your novels that you want readers to grasp?

Absolutely—well, let me say that I absolutely intend to say specific things about families, at least. Itdidn’t start out as a specific goal; it arose naturally from the fact that I grew up in a family that was close and loving and supportive while still having its challenges. But now I’ve discovered that I love writing families. One of the things that happens frequently in kids’ literature is that the kid characters have to be separated from their parents in order to have their adventures. I really love challenging the characters to have their adventures while still being part of families that care deeply for them. Families come in all sorts, and the relationships that bind them can be totally different, but they don’t prevent adventure. In fact, they can be part of the most wonderful adventures—at least in my experience. But they aren’t always what you think they are.

Both The Boneshaker and The Broken Lands have such an incredible sense of place and time.  Likewise, the folk-lore/mythology/cultural memory within your books feels very familiar; comforting even when scary. The fact and fiction is often so entwined that I have difficulty pulling them apart. (It blew me away when I found out the gingerfoot/limberleg thing was real!) How much of the books is realistic and how much is your own invention?

That depends. I guess each book is different. All I can tell you is, the way I write books tends to be that I read, and I read, and I read, and then I make lists of things I’ve found that I think are cool or interesting or inspiring: historical things or mathematical ideas or (lately) even computing concepts. Then, little by little, the story comes together out of the bits and pieces.

I don’t have hard-and-fast rules about the ratio of accuracy to invention, except that I don’t like to ignore fact in ways that might cause someone to think I’d just made a mistake, and I don’t like to do anything that would diminish the book or the story if a reader was inspired to go and learn more about the historical moment or personality. For instance, one of the only real historical characters in my current books is the newspaperman, Ambrose, who’s based on Ambrose Bierce. It’s not tough to figure out who he is when you read the book, and while I’ve allowed him to be the character I needed him tobe for The Broken Lands, I tried to remain true to my understanding of him as a person and a writer.On the other hand, I did allow the historical gingerfoot to be more of an inspiration than a historical fact in The Boneshaker, and I did adapt a couple of real-world incidents and items for The Broken Lands (although I did feel like I needed to explain in the author’s note of The Broken Lands that I did that on purpose). So I guess it varies. I did feel a different level of responsibility for accuracy toward certain elements of Jin and Liao’s waidan in The Broken Lands, primarily because I was drawing on Chinese history and heritage and I didn’t feel comfortable messing with it in the same way I mess with other things (although I still messed with it a bit). On the other hand, I was perfectly at ease inventing a game played with prayer cards in which one character wins a round by playing cephalophores (saints that carry their own heads)against stylites (saints standing on pillars), with the idea that a thrown head could knock a guy off a pillar. Both kinds of saints are real, in the sense that there are actual saints depicted that way in real-world images, but the game is purely invented.

I did a series of school visits earlier this week in which I worked with the students to find weird historical things and use them as springboards to stories, and I said that I thought it was important to be able to let history inspire you, but then be able to let it go completely in order to find your story. Then you can go back and decide where you need accuracy and where you need imagination.

Finally, let's discuss your Kickstarter project. What made you, an agented and published author,decide to experiment with self-publishing? How has it been different from your usual process? What have been the biggest (or hardest learned) lessons of the experiment thus far?

Part of it is that I love when, as a reader, I discover connections between books, or find extra stories in a world that help to illuminate a story I’m immersed in. That’s what I want to do with the Arcana Project.I decided to do it myself because (bless them) publishers aren’t quite quick or agile enough for this kind of thing. Plus, since I’m only answerable to myself, I’m able to look at these novellas as a way to tie together books that might potentially be released by different publishers.

Every book I’ve got coming out, from The Broken Lands to the two books I just sold for 2014, is related in some way to the rest. Some, like The Broken Lands, are related specifically to Natalie Minks and Jack the Drifter;others are related only by virtue of being set in the world and sharing characters. (For instance, in The Left-Handed Fate, which is set in 1813, you’ll meet Jin’s uncle Liao as an eight year-old boy, as well as his father and half-sister). I kind of never stop thinking about what they’re all up to, and when. So the Arcana novellas can act as bridges between books, in addition to simply providing extra stories. The Kairos Mechanism, for instance, helps to explain how The Boneshaker and The Broken Lands are related.The two novellas I’m planning to release alongside the two 2014 books (The Left-Handed Fate and Greenglass House) will help readers to discover more connections: the connections between those two books, which take place in the same city (Nagspeake) in different eras, as well as their connections to The Boneshaker and The Broken Lands.

This kind of thing, while obviously a good idea for me personally and for the worlds and the readers, is going to involve cross-promotion between books that (in the case of the two 2014 titles) are going tobe released by different publishers. I think this is going to turn out to be good for everyone, but I don’texpect the publishers themselves to go wild about the idea. I don’t expect them to hate it, either; I just figure they’ve got enough going on promoting their own books without taking a chance getting involved with a project like this. I’m going to have to prove that it works. And I’m happy to do that.

The other benefit to doing it on my own is being able to do cool things like the reader-illustrated editions, and being able to do equally cool things like offering those editions free or pay-what-you-like.  don’t expect I’ll make much money off this project, and that’s okay. I’m hoping it will put me on the radar of tons of new readers and maybe that it will make enough money to do the next volume in the series without having to rely on crowd-funding.

But speaking of crowd-funding—the Kickstarter Campaign ends on June 9th! Until that time, even though we’ve met our funding goal, we can still raise money. At $7500, I can bump up the kid artists’ paychecks; at $9500 I’ll feel comfortable committing to the second volume of the series, and at $13000, I can commit to another reader-illustrated edition for that second volume. So please, folks who are reading, please go here and become a backer. There are SO MANY awesome rewards for backers, too, and I want you all to have one.

Oh, and I forgot—the toughest thing? It is really awkward to spend two months asking people for money. I am trying to maintain a modicum of elegance about the whole thing, to avoid being spammy or pester-y, and to avoid making people feel obligated. It is very strange, and slightly off-putting. But on the other hand, people have come out of the woodwork in support of the project, and that makes me feel better.

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Kate Milford is the author of The Boneshaker, The Broken Lands, and The Kairos Mechanism.  Originally from Annapolis, MD, Kate now lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband Nathan and their dogs, Ed and Sprocket. She has written for stage and screen and is a frequent travel columnist for the Nagspeake Board of Tourism and Culture (www.nagspeake.com).  When not immersed in Americana, folklore, and obscure and odd history, she spends her time messing about with photography, getting excited about bourbon and rye, and wishing she were as cool as Nora Charles.  You can also find her on twitter, goodreads, or her website, The Clockwork Foundry.

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NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!!

Kate is giving away one paperback copy of The Boneshaker.  To enter, simply leave a comment on this post.  For additional entries, tweet about the giveaway or mention it on facebook and post the URL in the comments section.  Giveaway closes on Saturday, June 9, 2012, the last day to contribute to Kate's Kickstarter Campaign.  Winner will be chosen via a random number generator (ie, my beautiful TI-89) and announced Sunday, June 10, 2012.  You can also enter to win an advanced copy of The Kairos Mechanism by visiting the GoodReads page.  Good Luck!

Weekly Forecast: May 28, 2012 - June 1, 2012

We have been dashing around like mad the past few weeks, trying to get the school year finished while desperately wishing we were picking berries or swimming at the river instead.  Even though I've still been reading, I've been a bit slow going on the reviewing side of things.  However, I am super excited to announce that Kate Milford (author of The Boneshaker, The Broken Lands, and The Kairos Mechanism) granted me an interview via e-mail that I will be sharing on Monday.  I was really impressed with a lot of what she had to say.  Plus she's giving away a paperback copy of The Boneshaker!

I will only be posting a few reviews next week.  On the list are Burn Mark by Laura Powell, Exiled by J.R. Wagner, and, for my Classics Challenge, Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy.  

I'm still holding off on acquiring new things to read as my list of books waiting to be read is miles long!  Hopefully, within a few weeks, I'll be reading away beside the river, eating way too many blackberries, and months away from our next grammar lesson!

To find out what other bloggers are reading, check out Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer's Sunday Post or Tynga's Reviews' Stacking the Shelves.  What are you reading this week?

Link Trove #14

 

It has been a rough month for people I admire -- especially authors and musicians; Robin Gibb from the Bee Gees, Charles "Skip" Pitts, Adam Yauch (MCA) from the Beastie Boys, Donald "Duck" Dunn (believe me, even if you don't know his name you love him -- try finding a good bluesy classic rock band that didn't use his skill with the guitar at least once), aviatrix Evelyn Bryan Johnson, Donna Summer, George Lindsey (better know in our house as Goober Pyle), Maurice Sendak, and also Jean Craighead George.  (It kills me that the only review I have written for her on this blog was from one of my least favorite of her books.)  Below are a few links concerning Jean Craighead George:

• From the New York Times.

• The Cybils blog.

• Open Road media put together a tribute video.

Listomania:

• This Mental Floss list of famous authors who couldn't spell made me feel much better.  My abundance of squiggly red lines and I are in excellent company.  (In fact, two of my favorite authors are on this list.)

• I also loved their list of 15 Vintage Photos of Librarians.

• I really enjoy seeing what books are on other people's shelves, so this Flavorwire article detailing what books were on some famous authors' shelves was right up my alley.

• I own entirely too many of these films released in the summer of 1982.

• What does it say about me that of these 10 YA books that supposedly scarred everyone for life, I've read (and own) nine of them and only found one to be creepy?  (And that was, of course, Lord of the Flies.  Seriously, who wasn't scarred by that one?) 

• I finished this list of 8 Things You Might Not Know About the New York Times Bestseller List and went, "huh."  Now I feel bad about pre-ordering books -- I'm sorry Stacia Kane.  (via Kelly at Stacked)

Interesting Miscellanea:

• Emma from Nose in a Book has a great guide to Vlogbrother Videos for fans of John Green (or those new to the Nerdfighters).

• Today is Towel Day, where Douglas Adams fans "around the universe proudly carry a towel in his honour."

• The rise in popularity of the steampunk genre is giving new life to old names according to the baby name site Nameberry.

• I am not sure if this review of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises was meant to be serious or funny, but I find it funny either way.  Fans of Hemingway MUST love Jerry Springer -- it makes complete sense!

• Take this test to find out how fast you read.

• Would you like to enter a short story contest judged Elizabeth Wein, she who wrote Code Name Verity?  Well hurry fast, the last day to enter is May 5!

• Karen Chance has a sample chapter available from her upcoming Dorina Basarab book, Fury's Kiss, scheduled out this October.

Review: Precious Bones by Mika Ashley-Hollinger

Publilsher: Random House Children's Books

Publication Date: May 8, 2012

Goodreads Description:

Meet ten-year-old Bones, whose playground is the Florida swamps, brimming with mystical witches, black bears, alligators and bobcats. Bones' father, Nolay, a Miccosukee Indian, is smart and mischievous. Her Mama, practical as corn bread, can see straight into Bones' soul.

It's summer, and Bones is busy hunting and fishing with her best friend, Little Man. But then two Yankee real estate agents trespass on her family's land, and Nolay scares them off with his gun. When a storm blows in and Bones and Little Man uncover something horrible at the edge of the Loo-chee swamp, the evidence of foul play points to Nolay. The only person that can help Nolay is Sheriff LeRoy, who's as slow as pond water. Bones is determined to take matters into her own hands. If it takes a miracle, then a miracle is what she will deliver.

Review:

One of my favorite uncles growing up was my Uncle Joe.  He was big, larger than life even.  He could sing like Hank Williams.  He was a gifted storyteller who usually focused more on the quality of the story than the truth.  He had that quintessential southern accent -- smooth and warm, it would roll through you like good whiskey.  He could make a mean boiling pot -- with Uncle Joe, food went beyond nourishment and became an event.  He was an amazing and skilled hunter and fisherman.  And (as odd as it may sound coming from this nearly life-long vegetarian) it was partly his love of nature and animals that helped inspire my own.  He was a drifter by nature, unlike Nolay (see! I didn't forget the book!), because his roots were not a place but people.  Like a boomerang he always circled back to us.  Of all the stopping places he found, the one that lasted the longest in my memory was Alabama.  He fell equally in love with the swamp and the Gulf; and, for a man who seldom did such things, he could wax poetically about both.  Uncle Joe was also a lot like Nolay in that he always seemed to have something to prove -- to himself and everyone else.  He was fiercely protective of us, his family, both as people and ideas.  Somehow, after he died, we became a little less a unit and more a collection of people.  He had a temper, and he didn't always make the best choices.   But, like Bones, I didn't see that when I was a child.  All I saw was this amazingly smart man who could do anything except wrong.

These similarities, of course, made my immersion into Precious Bones both quick and thorough.  Despite my personal parallels that made this book particularly compelling, I think many readers will find it equally compelling without them.  Ashley-Hollinger writes with such evocative, eloquent beauty that it just sucks you in and won't let go.  The mystery is fabulous, but the biggest reveals aren't necessarily related to the mystery.  Precious Bones is also a luscious coming of age story, a story about seeing people as they really are and still accepting them.  

Oddly enough, my biggest complaints about Precious Bones are also some of the things I loved most.  I love that Ashley-Hollinger includes regional dialect.  I also love the sweeping descriptions of her surroundings.  There is such a sense of place in Precious Bones.  However, upon closer examination, her descriptions don't make sense in the context of Bone's first person narration.  Bones has neither the education and experience for the similes and metaphors used, nor the vocabulary to have described many things as she did.  As an adult I found the descriptions poignant and apt, but many would have flown right over my son's head without further clarification and definition.  Also, despite the fact that I agree with all of Ashley-Hollinger's "messages" within the book, they were not exactly subtle.  I would hate for that to be what turned kids away from an otherwise beautiful and interesting book.

And, for your listening and viewing pleasure, the song that played through my head for most of my reading -- Hank Williams Jambalaya:

Rating:

3.5 of 5 Stars

This review also appears on Goodreads; a review copy was provided by the publisher.

Review: Social Suicide by Gemma Halliday

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publication Date: April 24, 2012

Goodreads Description:

Twittercide [twit-er-sahyd]: the killing of one human being by another while the victim is in the act of tweeting.

Call me crazy, but I figured writing for the Herbert Hoover High Homepage would be a pretty sweet gig. Pad the resume for college applications, get a first look at the gossip column, spend some time ogling the paper’s brooding bad-boy editor, Chase Erikson. But on my first big story, things went... a little south. What should have been a normal interview with Sydney Sanders turned into me discovering the Homecoming Queen-hopeful dead in her pool. Electrocuted while Tweeting. Now, in addition to developing a reputation as HHH’s resident body finder, I’m stuck trying to prove that Sydney’s death wasn’t suicide.

I’m starting to long for the days when my biggest worry was whether the cafeteria was serving pizza sticks or Tuesday Tacos...

Review:

I really enjoyed reading the first book in Gemma Halliday's Deadly Cool series, and couldn't wait to start this one.  Halliday's writing is fun and fast paced and her characters are smart and engaging.  There is just enough depth to her books to be taken seriously, but they are quirky and light-hearted enough to be good "junk-food" reading.  Social Suicide came through for me on all of those points. 

The mystery was just as twisty and fun this time as it was in Deadly Cool.  Hartley was just as tenacious and smart-mouthed, and Chase was even more adorable.  Sadly, though, this book didn't satisfy quite as much as the first.  Deadly Cool felt fresh, whereas Social Suicide was occasionally a little too Deadly-Cool-Take-Two.  It made sense in the context of the story for Hartley to keep secrets from Raley in Deadly Cool -- what with trying to clear Josh's name and all -- but it just made bad situations worse for absolutely no reason in Social Suicide.  It was also reasonable to keep Chase at a distance in the first book; not so much here.  I don't understand why he wasn't a little more involved.  It all too often felt like a rehashing of ground already covered; and the plot and characters both suffered by not being allowed to move forward.  Also, the references to pop culture and modern technology that were so seamlessly woven into the first book felt a bit more clumsy this go around -- more like loaded name dropping than casual references.  

Even though it didn't quite live up to my expectations, I still had a great time reading Social Suicide.  I will keep the series in mind for those times I want a light, fun read with a smart protagonist and a good who-dun-it.  (Which I actually want quite often.)

Quotes:

"Geez, Mom, you make it sound like the police are always bringing me home." Which was hardly fair considering it had been at least a good fifteen hours since it had last happened. - pg 101

Rating:

3.5 of 5 Stars

Previously:

Deadly Cool #1 - Deadly Cool

This review also appears on Goodreads; a review copy was provided by the publisher.

 

Review: Dead Time by Anne Cassidy

Publisher: Walker & Company

Expected Publication Date: May 22, 2012

Goodreads Description:

When Rose was twelve, her mother and stepfather went out for dinner and never came back. Now seventeen, she lives with her grandmother and goes to school in London. She’s always wondered about her stepbrother, Joshua, whom she only lived with briefly and who was also relocated after their parents’ disappearance. When Rose and Joshua meet again, they find they have much in common, including a desire to uncover the mystery surrounding their parents’ disappearance . . . and a mutual attraction to each other. But when Rose witnesses the murders of not one but two of her classmates, she must uncover who is behind these violent crimes. And when she and Joshua discover that a much larger conspiracy is underway, both of their lives will be in danger. From international bestseller Anne Cassidy, this first in a fastpaced and romantic new mystery series will keep readers guessing.

Review:

Anne Cassidy's Dead Time has been an odd sort of beast for me to review.  I had a lot of different problems with it -- a few were a matter of taste, some are writing-style, others are problems with plot...suffice it to say they are many and varied.  However, I read it ages ago and still occasionally think about the mystery and what is going to come next.  Obviously, it wasn't all bad.  Since I've been struggled for so long with this review, I'm going to do it in lists:

The Bad:

• I get that the book is written by a British woman, and that we are two nations divided by a common language and all that.  I know that different slang words are used, that we phrase things differently, that we have different names for the same things, and that we sometimes use the same words to mean different things.  I get that, and read quite a few British books with absolutely no problem (google is your friend).  With that in mind...nearly every single conversation in this book had me scratching my head in confusion at least once.  I straight-up didn't get what the dialog meant at times, and the conversations almost always felt awkward and forced.  I think this is an issue with the writing and not an American/British thing.

• I am so sick of step-sibling forbidden romances being set up to create tension.  It isn't biologically incest, and when the characters weren't in a true brother/sister situation (a.k.a. they did not spend most of their lives in the same household with the same parents living every day as brother and sister), it doesn't even emotionally feel like incest.  It's a fake taboo meant to manufacture drama and it is getting old.  (This trend is your fault, isn't it Forbidden?)

• How old do you have to be to become a cop in the UK?  How old is Henry?  Because every single interaction between Henry and Rose is just creepy on so many levels.  Is he really close to her age, and are they quasi-asking each other out on dates?  Or is he older and trying to be a sort of big brother/mentor and just really missing the mark with how?  What is this?!?!  I am so confused about this character.

• Why is Skeggie helping them anyway?  Especially considering he started his sleuthing before Joshua knew Rose was involved.  Another character whose behaviour just doesn't make sense to me.  (Nor is his genius particularly believable, but that is an entirely different issue.)

• I am all for teenage crime-solvers; they make for fun mysteries.  However, these kids go beyond looking for clues the grown-ups have missed into full blown willfully hiding events and clues from police who are actually doing a good job.  I know this will make me sound crotchety and all, but I can't even count how many times I said to myself while reading, "For the love of...just call the cops already, will ya, kids?"  Then, after the cops get there, they lie.  A lot.  Very big lies.  

• Just how many clues can be magically given to them anyway?  I like my amateur detectives to be smart and work for their answers, not have them handed (or emailed) to them.

• None of the characters feel fully formed -- they are all flat as paper.

The Good:

• Cassidy set up a complex system of inter-related characters with different means, motive, and opportunity to have killed Ricky.  I genuinely wondered who would pan out as the murderer.

• I like that the murder mystery from the start of the book was neatly wrapped up and solved while the overarching series mystery/conspiracy involving their parents was just set up with lots of open questions.  (I like at least a little resolution within my mysteries!)

• The unanswered questions were interesting.  I care about the answers.

Why I Will Still Read The Next Book:

• As I said, I read it a month ago and I am still occasionally thinking about it.  I want to know what happens next.

Rating:

3 of 5 Stars

This review also appears on Goodreads; a review copy was provided by the publisher.

 

Review: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Publilsher: Egmont Press

Publication Date: February 6, 2012

Goodreads Description:

I have two weeks. You'll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.

That's what you do to enemy agents. It's what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine — and I will do anything, anything, to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.

He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I'm going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France — an Allied Invasion of Two.

We are a sensational team.

Review:

 It has been very interesting to see the reviews for Code Name Verity stack up.  Most have been either positively glowing, or the I did not finish/forced myself to finish this abysmally boring book type review; there isn't really much middle ground.  As a long-time fan of Elizabeth Wein I cannot say I am surprised.  I have long loved her books, but then I love historical fiction with an emphasis on the historical and a light touch on the fiction.  I like it Dragnet style -- you know, the names have been changed but the stories are real.  Tim O'Brien style real stories -- any of them could have happened, some of them did, and good luck figuring out which ones are which.  I have long since given up on accurately predicting who else will love Wein's books.  

All of the hallmarks I have come to expect from a Wein book are present in Code Name Verity.  Relentless attention to detail (both historical and otherwise).  Subtly laid clues that you only pick up on in retrospect ("How did I miss that?!").  An unflinching acceptance of the fact that even the most evil of human characteristics are still human, (the result of which have been some of the most interesting and nuanced "bad guys" I have ever read).  And, of course, the amazing heroines.  Women who are cunning and fierce and brave and do unthinkably difficult things because they must be done.  The women in Code Name Verity are, I think, her best yet.  Sometimes her heroines are a little too...much for me -- I admire them but don't always relate to them.  I had no such problem here.  ( In fact, I can't help but think that if I ever met Elizabeth Wein face to face I would be a bit in awe of her.  Is she as formidable and dignified and smart as her characters?)

Here are the reasons I love Code Name Verity.  First, it is epistolary with the action-y current parts told in first person (making it much more pressing) and the more pleasant history told in third person.  I think that was an absolutely brilliant idea on Wein's part for separating the past narration from the present.  It is about real things that real women were doing in the World War II.  (Yes, we did more than grow victory gardens).  Her history is spot on -- I know even Homer nods and all that, but I defy the casual reader to spot an inaccuracy that Wein herself doesn't point out in her notes.  It is a story told from an Allied perspective that still shows the Germans to be capable of the full range of human emotions and behaviours, not just the bad ones.  On a related note, Wein acknowledges all the different aspects of what was going on at the time, but she doesn't really play the sympathy card.  "Just the facts, Ma'am."  (Of course, the different ways that her crafty and unreliable narrator will present those facts can get awfully twisty!)  It is about air planes and flying and female pilots!  (I became obsessed with female pilots after Ezra Idlet gave me a copy of Beryl Markham's West With the Night one evening after a long discussion about great female characters in books.)  Finally, it's also a wonderfully written story of a beautiful friendship; they love each other so much that you can't help but love them for it.  Code Name Verity reminds me of nothing so much as Rick Yancey's Mostrumologist books.  It is not for everyone, and many of the things that make it so exceptional to its fans are what will turn everyone else off.  But, if any of those things sound appealing, this could end up being one of your favorite books ever.

Quotes:

"It's like being in love, discovering your best friend." - pg 68

"And I envied her that she had chosen her work herself and was doing what she wanted to do.  I don't suppose I had any idea what I "wanted" and so I was chosen, not choosing.  There's glory and honor in being chosen.  But not much room for free will."  - p138

Rating:

4.5 of 5 Stars

Other Opinions:

Emily from The Book Geek was not a fan.

Nor was Kelly from Stacked.

Chachic from Chachic's Book Nook really liked it.

So did Maggie Stiefvater

This review also appears on Goodreads; a review copy was provided by the publisher.

I'm On The Readventurer Today...

Doing a guest post for their series, "If You Like This, You Might Like That."  Stop by and say "hi!"

Weekly Forecast: May 14, 2012 - May 17, 2012

I've been having some TypePad related issues with my "Publish On" option: basically, it isn't always auto-publishing when it is supposed to do it.  I think I've figured out what was going on, but I am sorry about last week's reviews coming a little late, and will watch this week much more closely.  

Last night I finally broke down and read all the blog posts that had built up in my Bloglines since Tuesday morning, and looked at all the tweets I'd been ignoring.  Basically, I spent a few hours reading, a few more sobbing while my husband did his best, "there, there," and stayed up way later than I should have reading children's books. I didn't really want to write a whole new post  (I think I've said everything I can for the moment), but I do want to share a few great tributes, lists, and thoughts about Maurice Sendak.  I think it speaks to how amazing a person he really was that most of the tributes focus not just on what a gifted illustrator or author he was (and boy was he), but also on how -- even though they never met him -- Sendak became an important part of each of their lives.

• The New York Times wrote the best all-around obituary/tribute, if you're just going to read one.

• Stephen Colbert released some outtakes from his excellent interview in January that are a more touching, less grumpy.

• Sergio Ruzzier wrote a wonderful piece about being chosen for the Sendak Fellowship:

He is a very warm, sweet and witty person, but also very honest.  He told me what he liked in my books and what he didn't like. His main concern was that some of my choices were too safe and tame.  “You need to be brave,” he said to me... talking with him, while walking in the woods with his dog Herman, made me remember why I draw and tell stories. 

• Neil Gaiman talks about reading Sendak to his sister and daughter, and gets the New Yorker to unlock a comic of a discussion between Art Spiegelman and Maurice Sendak.  From the comic:

In reality, childhood is deep and rich. It's vital, mysterious and profound. I remember my own childhood vividly... I knew terrible things... but I knew I mustn't let the adults know I knew... it would scare them.

• The Diamond in the Window has a beautiful piece about finally getting that quiet night with a colicky baby thanks to Where the Wild Things Are.
  

• Laurel Snyder writing for The Jewish Daily Forward, has a lovely tribute to Sendak's unfailing honesty.  She said everything that I wanted to say, only better:

Sendak’s legacy is one of gifts and challenges: The challenge to be honest with ourselves always, to see our children as people and to trust them to survive, but also the challenge to find magic in the world, or to make it for ourselves.

• And, finally, Flavorwire compiled a list of some of his best illustrations and quotes. 

I have nothing now but praise for my life. I’m not unhappy. I cry a lot because I miss people. They die and I can’t stop them. They leave me and I love them more. … What I dread is the isolation. … There are so many beautiful things in the world which I will have to leave when I die, but I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready.

Maybe I should have just created a whole new post after all?  Next week Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, Precious Bones by Mika Ashley-Hollinger, and Dead Time by Anne Cassidy will all be up for review.  There may be a few more, it just depends on how these last few weeks of school go!

My list of books to read for review is MONTHS behind at the moment, so I have basically stopped requesting anything new, and haven't went to the library in weeks.  However, I did get one beautiful, wonderful, shiny, fabulous book in the mail that I have already DEVOURED.  Yes, I am talking about my awesomely physical advanced review copy of Kate Milford's The Broken Lands.  I know I am basically starting to sound like a broken record here, but I really love Kate Milford's writing, so if you have not yet looked into her Kickstarter project, please do.

(And yes, that beautifully multicolored silk is the curtains in my living room, and I had to do some serious decoratorial negotiating with my husband to get them!)

To find out what other bloggers are reading, check out Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post or Stacking the Shelves from Tynga's Reviews.  What are you reading this week?

Maurice Sendak, 1928 – 2012

 

"And in and out of weeks"from Terrible Yellow Eyes (via Bookshelves of Doom)

Finding out Maurice Sendak had died on Tuesday morning was crushing for us as a family.  I still don't really have the emotional wherewithal to do him any sort of justice.  I have also been avoiding the internet all week because I wasn't really ready to read what everyone else had to say.  You see, he is not just one of the favorite authors in our house, he is one of the favorite authors in our house.  Of course, we all love Where the Wild Things Are.  (We even dig the movie.)  But it isn't our favorite -- we all have different favorites for very different reasons I would suspect.  My favorite is Brundibar.  I will explain why, but first a little background.  

I freaked out when I became a parent.  I went nuts researching every little thing during my pregnancy and the subsequent baby years -- and are there ever books for those years -- but it hit me when my son was about 18 months old that pretty soon I would be on my own.  The multitude of parenting books that would dicker over a few months difference in age for starting solid foods would soon give way to a vast array of...nothing.  I mean, yeah, there are a few books on parenting for older children, but they are primarily for children with a special need: gifted, troubled, ADHD, etc., etc., etc.  I felt lost in a sea of nothing.  I wanted to protect my son from the dark and scary things of the world, but I also wanted him to have empathy and compassion for people less fortunate.  I wanted to shield him from violence, but I wanted him to understand why, how and when things are worth fighting for.  How could this possibly be done?  Then I found one of my favorite quotes of all time:

"I said anything I wanted because I don't believe in children, I don't believe in childhood. I don't believe that there's a demarcation. 'Oh, you mustn't tell them that. You mustn't tell them that.' You tell them anything you want. Just tell them if it's true. If it's true, you tell them." -Maurice Sendak

If it is true, you tell them.  Tell them if it is true.  If he is old enough to ask the question, he is old enough to hear a true answer.  As a child I loved adults like Sendak because they respected the possibility of a child's intelligence.  That is not to say he thought all children were brilliant (listen to some interviews, obviously not.)  That is to say that he afforded all people, no matter what qualifiers might be tacked on, the same level of respect.  He didn't condescend.  If I wanted to be the sort of adult I respected as a child, I had to show my children that same respect.  Maurice Sendak helped my husband and I shape ideas that would become part of the core of our parenting practices -- how we operate as a family.

When my son was a little older I went back to school.  Toward the end I took a class that I both loved and hated, and that would eventually change me forever.  It was German-Jewish Writers with Dr. Hoyer, and there were nights where I would come home emotionally shredded.  Roo (my son) would come to me, wanting to know why I was so sad, and I wanted to tell him something...but also something true.  But how do you explain the Holocaust to a child, a young child?  You read Brundibar.  Then you talk about the history, the story, the sadness, but also the hope and how they are all interconnected.  We didn't go into every tiny detail, or even a lot of the big ones.  (Being truthful, after all, doesn't mean telling everything you know.)  But I was able to share a little of why I was so sad with Roo, a little truth, just enough for him to empathize.  As he has gotten older, we have discussed more of those little details Sendak has nested in the book -- the yellow Star of David sewn to their clothes or the Hitler-esque nature of Brundibar.

Since that initial reading my son has experienced a lot of personal loss -- he understands much more deeply now what it means to be gone forever.  As a family we like to talk about how sharing stories from and about people who are gone helps keep them alive and present in our memories and lives.  On Tuesday we scrapped our Language Arts lessons and instead we read different Sendak books in honor of his passing: some just illustrated by him, many both written and illustrated by him.  Lady A wanted Little Bear.  And my Seven Little Monsters/Where the Wild Things Are boy?  He chose Brundibar; maybe because he knows how much I love it, and knew that I was sad.  While reading Brundibar, Roo made a wonderful connection: "Brundibar isn't just keeping that musician and those kids alive anymore, mom, but also Maurice Sendak."  Stories within stories making up our lives.  I am sad that there will be no new stories, but I am grateful for the ones we have.  I know that in this household Maurice Sendak will be greatly missed, but he will also always be present.