• Tell your readers what is it about “an” author that you are most passionate about, that have you coming back for more from them, following their every blog post – literally blackmailing people to read their books?

• Who are some of your all time favourite authors?

• And what is it about them that makes you keep going back for more?

Be as creative as you want with this topic, use excerpt if you wish to convey the authors style, Use pic as necessary and make your readers see why you love the authors you do.

There are many authors whose work I love and whose books I read as soon as a new one hits the bookstore. So it was a little difficult for me to pick just one author to highlight. Given that this month is Women’s History Month, I finally decided on one of my favorite female authors who leans towards historical fiction in her writing, although her writing could also easily be classified as literary fiction as well.

Rose Tremain

Rose Tremain (b. August 2, 1943) is an English author who has won many awards for her writing. She has published 11 novels, 3 short story collections, and 1 children’s book.

I am slowly working my way through Tremain’s work and, so far, have loved everything I have read by her. I thought that the best way to share with you what I love about Tremain’s writing, is to share some of the books I’ve read by her, including some notable quotes from them.

The Colour (published 2003)

This was my first Tremain novel … and it blew me away. Set in New Zealand, the story centers around a newly married couple. I wrote in my review: ‘The inhospitable and breathtaking land of New Zealand seems pitted against these people almost from the very first when Joseph mistakenly builds his home on an exposed hill instead of the protected flats. Then one day Joseph discovers gold dust in the creek near his home and keeps it a secret from both Harriet and Lilian. It becomes an obsession which promises his redemption and one which will finally drive him to the other side of the Southern Alps where a Gold Rush is underway.‘

There are multiple themes in this novel: the power of nature, love and desire, materialism vs. inner contentment, and the connection between cultures. But it was Tremain’s characterization of the women in the novel which I loved the most.

Some passages which demonstrate the beauty of Tremain’s writing:

Better that we never know (she wrote to her father) what lies beyond the next hill. For the answer might come back “nothing.” And I confess that, having travelled across the world, I do not feel I would be content with that “nothing.” My habit of looking at the mountains has not gone away. They are so fine. I wish that I could paint a picture of them for you. And they Contain a mystery: that is what I feel. And I ask myself: Is the mystery they contain the mystery of my life? -From The Colour, page 168-

For a few moments, the sun disappeared behind a cloud, and in the shadow, nothing of it was visible, only the shingly mud and the herringbone imprints of the ducks’ feet. But Joseph knew that he’d seen something. He stood without moving, waiting for the sun to come out again. It returned and sparkled on the water, dazzling him. He had to close his eyes for a second, and when he opened them again, he’d forgotten the precise spot where the colour had revealed itself. Then he saw it once more, a minute patch of shining yellow dust. -From The Colour, page 57-

Read my full review here.

Music and Silence (published 1999)

Music and Silence won Tremain best novel in the 1999 Whitbread Awards. Set in 17th century Denmark, this incredible novel is told from multiple points of view including that of Kirsten Munk who was the manipulative and unfaithful wife of King Christian IV. This is, in part, what I wrote about this sprawling medieval  novel: ‘In Tremain’s competent hands, this historical novel becomes a symphony of romantic twists and turns, and a saga which encompasses all the excesses and political intrigue of royal life in seventeenth century Europe. Tremain explores such complex themes as order vs. chaos, love vs. hate, dreams vs. reality, and betrayal vs. loyalty – all through the metaphor of music and silence.‘

In Tremain’s talented hands, Music and Silence transcends the historical fiction genre and becomes an extraordinary work of literature. Here is an Tremain’s description of a waterfall – the Isfoss – which has frozen solid, and the way King Christian imagines the tiny crystals of ice forming in the roaring water:

They acquire thickness, length and weight. The water is transparent clay, moulding them, layer upon layer, and as the layers accumulate, the roar of the river has become muffled. The human ear has to strain to hear it. And then, in the space of a single night, it falls silent. -From Music and Silence, page 107-

Read my full review here.

The Road Home (published 2008)

The Road Home won Tremain the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction Award in 2008, and for good reason. This beautifully written novel is about 43 year old Lev who is forced to leave his rural East European town to seek work in London after becoming a widow and single father. This is a moving character driven novel about loss and identity. And it is the character of Lev who sticks with the reader long after the final page has been turned. In my review I wrote: ‘Dreams are the fuel for overcoming obstacles in this story of a man who must leave his home in order to find it again. Lev is a dreamer and a romantic. He is a character who readers want to see succeed, a man whose flaws are surpassed by his kind and vulnerable heart.‘

Although I loved the two previous novels enough to give them five star reviews, I believe The Road Home to be Tremain’s most accomplished novel which I have read. She writes flawlessly, with an insight into the human condition which touches the reader’s heart.

It was at this moment – with Rudi halfway up the ladder – that he heard himself whispering to his friend, “Don’t look down…don’t look back…” and he felt that he suddenly understood why Rudi had brought him here and that the thing he had to embrace was the idea of perseverance. – from The Road Home, page 127 -

It was passages like this, which explore the meaning of friendship and hope within the context of Lev’s future, which made me truly appreciate Tremain’s writing.

Read my full review here.

Other books by Rose Tremain which I have not yet read, but hope to:

Novels:

• Sadler’s Birthday (1976)
• Letter to Sister Benedicta (1978)
• The Cupboard (1981)
• The Swimming Pool Season (1985)
• Restoration (1989) and the screenplay for the 1996 film
• Sacred Country (1992)
• The Way I Found Her (1997)

Children’s Books:

• Journey to the Volcano (1985)

Short Story Collections:

• The Colonel’s Daughter and other stories (1983)
• The Garden of the Villa Mollini and other stories (1987)
• Evangelista’s Fan and other stories (1994)

Rose Tremain’s newest novel, Trespass, is due for release this year. The product description on Amazon reads:

In a silent valley stands an isolated stone farmhouse, the Mas Lunel. Its owner is Aramon Lunel, an alcoholic so haunted by his violent past that he’s become incapable of all meaningful action, letting his hunting dogs starve and his land go to ruin. Meanwhile, his sister, Audrun, alone in her modern bungalow within sight of the Mas Lunel, dreams of exacting retribution for the unspoken betrayals that have blighted her life. Into this closed Cévenol world comes Anthony Verey, a wealthy but disillusioned antiques dealer from London. Now in his sixties, Anthony hopes to remake his life in France, and he begins looking at properties in the region. From the moment he arrives at the Mas Lunel, a frightening and unstoppable series of consequences is set in motion. Two worlds and two cultures collide. Ancient boundaries are crossed, taboos are broken, a violent crime is committed. And all the time the Cévennes hills remain, as cruel and seductive as ever, unforgettably captured in this powerful and unsettling novel, which reveals yet another dimension to Rose Tremain’s extraordinary imagination.

Have you read any novels or short stories by Rose Tremain? If so, did you enjoy them? Which were your favorites? If you have not yet read anything by this author, have I tempted you to do so?

Visit this week’s Weekly Geeks to link up your post and see who other readers highlighted.

Life Sentences by Laura Lippman
ISBN 978-0-06-112889-9
352 pages
Published by William Morrow/Harper Collins (2009)

Last year I read my first Lippman novel: What the Dead Know (read my review). I loved it. So when I saw that TLC Book Tours would be touring Lippman’s book Life Sentences, I knew I wanted to participate. Life Sentences is a thoughtful, character driven novel with a mystery (read my review) which will appeal to readers who enjoy mysteries, but also like literary fiction.

Browse inside the book.

A little bit about Laura Lippman:

Laura Lippman grew up in Baltimore and in 1989 worked there as a journalist for the Baltimore Sun. After writing seven books while still a full-time reporter, she left her journalism job in order to  focus full-time on fiction. The author of two New York Times bestsellers, What the Dead Know and Another Thing to Fall, she has won numerous awards for her work, including the Edgar, Quill, Anthony, Nero Wolfe, Agatha, Gumshoe, Barry, and Macavity. Learn more about Laura Lippman and her books on the author’s website.

I was thrilled when Laura agreed to write a guest post for my blog. Enjoy!!

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copyright Laura Lippman (2010)

Thank you, Wendy, for letting me hang out at your blog today. It’s an honor. I may be dating myself, but I’d like to start by invoking a song from Gigi. The singers are Honore and Mamita, former lovers.

H: We met at nine
M: We met at eight
H: I was on time
M: No, you were late
H: Ah, yes, I remember it well
We dined with friends
M: We dined alone
H: A tenor sang
M: A baritone
H: Ah, yes, I remember it well
That dazzling April moon!
M: There was none that night
And the month was June
H: That’s right. That’s right.
M: It warms my heart to know that you
remember still the way you do
H: Ah, yes, I remember it well.

I’ve always inferred that the conceit of the song is that it’s pragmatic Mamita who is right about all the details, while it’s dashing Honore who has twisted everything. (“That’s right. That’s right.’) After all, he’s trying to charm her and she always gets the last word.

But – who says? When memories clash, how do we prove our case? Most of us just pile on more details, as if the vividness of a memory is proof. It’s not. It’s just proof that we are convinced of our memory’s veracity.

A few years ago, I was lamenting a lost sweatshirt, one with an insignia from one of my husband’s projects. It was lost in a taxicab in Ireland in 2006. On that detail, we were in agreement. But I said it had been embroidered with the name Project 2. (Forgive me for being vague. I am famously reticent about my somewhat famous spouse.) He said it was Project Previous. I said I was sure it was Project 2 because I wore it so often. He said that he would know better than I because it was his project, after all. We tossed details back and forth at each other. I remembered that the hem was frayed. He argued that established it was probably an older garment. I said that I didn’t get much swag from his work, which was why I had commandeered this particular sweatshirt. He said he wore it more often than I did. After all, he was the one who left it in the cab. We called the argument a draw.

A month later, he organized years of photos. There I was in Ireland. Wearing the mourned sweatshirt. And there was the Project 2 insignia, clearly visible. A better woman might have let it pass. I am not a better woman.

“OK, OK,” my husband said. “You win.”

“But it’s not about winning,” I told him. “We both thought we were right. In this case, I was. But that’s not important. What I want you to focus on is how sure you were, how adamant and impassioned you became. That proves that passionate faith in your memory doesn’t guarantee anything. If you can be wrong when you were so sure you were right, then isn’t there always the possibility that a memory is wrong?”

“Yes, but –” And he continued to argue, only this time the debate centered on why his error was understandable.

One of the hardest things a person can do is take a heart-felt memory and admit that it’s wrong, or riddled with invented details. Because if we are wrong about one memory, couldn’t we be wrong about all of them? And if we’re wrong about all of them – then who are we? That’s the story behind LIFE SENTENCES. A woman begins to pull on the threads of her life – and everything falls apart. It sounds terrifying, doesn’t it? But I’ve found that it also can be reassuring in a strange way.

And if you stop arguing based on memory, you’ll be amazed by how much time you save!

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I completely agree!! Thanks for visiting my blog, Laura. It’s been a pleasure!

Visit more TLC Book tours of Laura Lippman’s novel:

• Monday, March 1st: Raging Bibliomania
• Monday, March 8th: Thoughts From an Evil Overlord
• Tuesday, March 9th: Wordlily
• Wednesday, March 10th: Shhh I’m Reading
• Monday, March 15th: Booksie’s Blog
• Wednesday, March 17th: The Book Zombie
• Tuesday, March 23rd: I’m Booking It
• Thursday, March 25th: pages turned
• Monday, March 29th: Luxury Reading
• Wednesday, March 31st: Cozy Little House

Just Don’t Fall: How I Grew Up, Conquered Illness, and Made it Down the Mountain, by Josh Sundquist
ISBN: 978-0-670-02146-8
316 pages
Published by Viking/Penguin (2010)

I was delighted to get a copy of Josh Sundquist’s memoir Just Don’t Fall which was recently published in February by Viking (read my review). The book is heartfelt, funny and ultimately triumphant (and you can win a copy of the book – scroll to the bottom of this post to learn more). I was thrilled when Josh agreed to provide a guest post for my blog as a way to support my project Reading For A Cure. Let me first tell you a bit about him:

He survived childhood cancer and went on to ski as part of the 2006 United States Paralympic Team in Turino, Italy. He is a motivational speaker who has shared his story across the country for audiences which have included Fortune 500 companies, inner-city public schools, and the White House. He is a graduate of both the College of William & Mary, and the University of Southern California. Josh founded LessThanFour.org which is the biggest on-line community for amputees. All this by the age of 25! He currently resides near Washington, DC.

To learn more about Sundquist and his work, visit the author’s website. You can also find him on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

Below is a terrific Vlog by this charming and talented young author…ENJOY!!!

CaribousMom Blog from Josh on Vimeo.

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WIN A HARD COVER EDITION OF JOSH’S BOOK!

Thanks to Yen Cheong, Assistant Director of Publicity for Viking and Penguin Books, I will be able to offer TWO people a hard cover edition of Just Don’t Fall.

Want to be eligible to win?

Join Reading for a Cure, or sponsor a participant, or make a one time donation to the Pediatric Cancer Foundation (making sure to use the Reading for a Cure button on their donation site).

Once you’ve done ONE of those three things to become eligible, tweet about the giveaway (and come back to let me know you did it) and you can get a second chance to win!

Learn all the giveaway details on THIS POST. I will be drawing winners on March 5th…so you still have time to enter!

Many thanks to TLC Book Tours for inviting me to tour Paula Butturini’s new memoir: Keeping the Feast (read my review). I love books that center around food in foreign countries, and Butturini’s story of illness and recovery in Italy reminds us how the ritual of food is a symbol of survival.

About Paula Butturini:

Paula Butturini has worked in overseas bureaus in London, Madrid, Rome, and Warsaw for United Press International and the Chicago Tribune. She is now a writer based in Paris. To learn more about Buttuirini and her work, visit the author’s website. Listen to the author’s podcasts here. Read Buttuini’s Keeping the Feast blog.

About Keeping The Feast:

Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Publication Date: 2/18/2010
Pages: 272

A remarkable story, gorgeously told. We reflect, relish, grieve, and heal our way with Paula Butturini, who is wise about so many things – family and place; depression, religion, and love; the disastrous long-term fallout of a single bullet fired at a loved one; and the immediate restorative pleasures of an Italian meal. This book evokes life at its most serious and dire, and at its most mysterious and delectable. Read it, and be deepened and refreshed. – Krista Tippett, host of the public radio program Speaking of Faith -

I was really happy when Paula agreed to write a guest post for me. What follows is one of Paula’s childhood memories of her Hungarian neighbor and the amazing garden which produced the homegrown ingredients for stuffed peppers. Enjoy!

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Until I was nine, my family rented the sunny, ground-floor flat of a two-family house in a neighborhood of Fairfield, Connecticut, that had lots of Hungarian immigrants. Our Hungarian-born landlady, Grace Madaras, lived upstairs from us until she and her husband had a little house built next door at the front of their enormous vegetable garden.

I loved their garden in every season but winter, and when I was really young, I liked hiding among the plants where I wasn’t supposed to be playing in the first place. The garden produced all sorts of herbs and vegetables — like fresh, feathery dill and rows of red and white cranberry beans, whose foliage was big and lush enough to hide me if I crouched down low – that my own grandparents never grew in their Italian-style gardens. Every once in a while, greed would get the better of me and I would split open one of those enormous red and white cranberry pods while hiding among its leaves. I wasn’t interested in eating the beans; l just liked to look at them, in all their perfection, lined up cozily inside their pod. For some reason, they made me feel safe.

When our landlords moved next door into their new little house, it meant we no longer got to smell the wonderful aromas — so different from my mother’s Italian cooking — that would waft down the stairs when Grace was preparing the dishes her family used to cook back in Hungary. At some point though, Grace gave my mother her recipe for Hungarian stuffed peppers, sweet, green bell peppers from her garden that were filled with meat, rice, and onion, then simmered in a mild, glorious sauce made from tomato juice enriched with sour cream and fresh dill, straight from the garden.

To this day, I can still smell and taste this dish, and writing about it now, nearly fifty years later, makes my mouth start to water at the thought of it. I think the dill plant I have in a corner of my herb garden today stands there more in memory of Grace and my childhood than it does to flavor any of the dishes I use it for today. I wrote Grace’s recipe down on a file card when I set up my own household, and though I rarely make it, just seeing it in my recipe box makes me feel safe, like seeing those beans in their pod so long ago.

Grace Madaras’s Hungarian Stuffed Peppers

• 8-12 green bell peppers, depending on size
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 1 cup uncooked rice, cooked as package directs
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced and sauteed until soft in 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 eggs
• Salt, pepper
• Tomato juice
• Fresh dill
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup sour cream

Wash peppers and place them standing up in a deep kettle. Pour enough boiling water into the kettle to thoroughly cover the peppers, then let stand, covered and off flame, for 40 minutes. Drain pot, then using a sharp knife, cut a circle out of the very top of the pepper to remove the stem and a circle of pepper flesh surrounding it. Scoop out seeds, and drain well.

In a large mixing bowl, combine beef, pork, cooked rice, sauteed onion, eggs, two teaspoons salt, and freshly ground pepper to taste. Mix well, then stuff drained peppers with meat mixture. Placed the stuffed peppers upright in a deep pot. Pour enough tomato juice into pot to come 3/4 of the way up the stuffed peppers. Add a handful of fresh dill. Bring to a simmer and cook, simmering, for one hour. Toward the end of the cooking remove 1/2 cup of tomato juice and let cool. Thicken this cooled tomato juice by whisking in the flour and sour cream. Pour this mixture back into pot and mix well. Heat through but do not let it boil.

We always ate this dish — real comfort food — with mashed potatoes; I don’t know how it was served in Grace’s kitchen.

Contributed by Paula Butturini, whose book Keeping the Feast will be published by Riverhead/Penguin on Feb. 18.

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To see all the blog tours of Butturini and her book, visit TLC Book Tours for links.

I am a huge fan of Wharton, not just for her writing, but because she was a woman far ahead of her time. Wharton’s work (which includes more than 40 books including novels, short stories, poetry, and non-fiction) typically explores the morality of  the wealthy and elite, women’s rights, and the need for order in society. She was criticized for her dark portrayal of the upper classes which included revealing their moral decay and superficiality. Wharton won the Pulitzer Prize for literature for her novel The Age of Innocence in 1920, and became the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from Yale.

I was very lucky to be able to visit Wharton’s home in the Berkshires last spring. I met up with a group of book friends from Library Thing and toured the estate and gardens. You can read my extensive post and view the photos about that trip here. The photo to the right may be enlarged by clicking on it.

To visit all the fabulous Classics Circuit tours for Edith Wharton follow the links below:

• Tours from January 4 – 10, 2010
• Tours from January 11 – 17, 2010
• Tours from January 18 – 24, 2010
• Tours from January 25 – 31, 2010

I was very excited to receive a copy of Shanghai Girls from Random House as part of a TLC Book Tour. Lisa See is the New York Times bestselling author of Peony in Love, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Flower Net (an Edgar Award nominee), The Interior, and Dragon Bones, as well as the critically acclaimed memoir On Gold Mountain. I have read both of See’s previous historical fiction novels. I absolutely loved Snowflower and the Secret Fan, and enjoyed Peony in Love (read my review), so it was no surprise that I found Shanghai Girls an entertaining read (read my review). Learn more about See and her work by visiting the author’s website.

Perhaps the most interesting parts of See’s latest novel are her exploration of women’s issues in the Chinese culture from 1937-1957, and the discrimination which Chinese immigrants faced in the United States in the 40s and 50s. Readers who enjoy historical fiction and are especially interested in the Asian culture and immigration issues, will want to pick up a copy of Shanghai Girls.

About the Book:

Read an Excerpt of Shanghai Girls

Shanghai Girls on Amazon

Win a Copy of the Book

Random House has generously offered to give away a copy of Shanghai Girls to TWO lucky readers of my blog.

To enter the contest:

• Contest only open to U.S. and Canada (sorry!)
• Leave me a comment on this post and tell me if you have previously read See’s work and if so, which is your favorite.
• Make sure to leave a legitimate email address in the comment form.
• Entries close on January 23rd at midnight PST. I will draw TWO winners using Random.org on January 24th.
• I will email winners, as well as announcing them here on my blog. Winners MUST contact me with their snail mail (by responding to my email) within 7 days of notification or I will draw another name.

Thanks, and GOOD LUCK!

]]> http://www.caribousmom.com/2010/01/13/tlc-book-tour-and-give-away-shanghai-girls/feed/ 46 http://www.caribousmom.com/2009/12/28/tlc-book-tour-and-giveaway-when-she-flew/ http://www.caribousmom.com/2009/12/28/tlc-book-tour-and-giveaway-when-she-flew/#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 03:02:11 +0000 Caribousmom http://www.caribousmom.com/?p=6138

Many thanks to TLC Book tours, author Jennie Shortridge and Penguin Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review When She Flew (read my review). See all posts for this tour here.

A little about Jennie Shortridge:

Jennie Shortridge is a bestselling novelist with  four published novels to her credit: Riding with the Queen, (NAL 2003), Eating Heaven (2005),  Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe (2008), and now When She Flew (2009). Her nonfiction work has appeared regularly in magazines and newspapers, including Glamour, Mademoiselle, Natural Home, and others. The Seattle writer has been called “an accomplished and superior novelist” by the Statesmen Journal and “a writer to watch out for,” by the Rocky Mountain News.

When not writing, she spends time in the community helping kids and adults learn to write better, and in 2006 co-founded (with fellow Seattle author Garth Stein) a collective of Northwest authors whose mission is to create “connections 
between writers, readers, librarians and booksellers to foster and support a passion 
for the written word.” In 2009, they pledged to undertake several community outreach initiatives, including:  panel discussions and writing workshops with all or partial proceeds benefiting literacy programs in the Northwest; the development of community “pocket” libraries in unconventional places; and book club events to encourage community support of local libraries and independent booksellers.

To read more about Jennie Shortridge and her work, visit the author’s website.

When She Flew and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder):

Shortridge’s 4th novel centers around a true story of a war veteran and his daughter living off the land in a forested park in Portland in 2004. One of the themes of the novel is the challenges faced by those people suffering from PTSD. In the novel, Shortridge dispels some of the myths surrounding this disorder…including questions around the ability to effectively parent.

I love novels which inspire me to learn more about a subject…and When She Flew motivated me to read a bit about PTSD. I was familiar with the disorder through some education I received as part of being a Search and Rescue volunteer…and in fact, had suffered a episode of PTSD myself following a search where I was part of the team who located a suicide victim. Fortunately, I received good support from people close to me and was able to resolve the psychological trauma I had experienced, although that particular search will always be with me.

The U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs defines PTSD as:

[...]an anxiety disorder that can occur after you have been through a traumatic event. A traumatic event is something horrible and scary that you see or that happens to you. During this type of event, you think that your life or others’ lives are in danger. You may feel afraid or feel that you have no control over what is happening.

Anyone who has gone through a life-threatening event can develop PTSD. These events can include:

• Combat or military exposure
• Child sexual or physical abuse
• Terrorist attacks
• Sexual or physical assault
• Serious accidents, such as a car wreck.
• Natural disasters, such as a fire, tornado, hurricane, flood, or earthquake.

After the event, you may feel scared, confused, or angry. If these feelings don’t go away or they get worse, you may have PTSD. These symptoms may disrupt your life, making it hard to continue with your daily activities.

PTSD is a medical diagnosis, established in 1980, defining symptoms that last at least a month after experiencing a major trauma.

The Gateway to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Information website provides some great national and international links to learn more about the disorder and to locate help or treatment if you are suffering from it. One site they linked to really caught my attention. Gift From Within is a non-profit organization which is dedicated to those suffering from PTSD, those at risk of PTSD and those who care for traumatized individuals. They develop and disseminate educational materials and other resources through their website, and maintain a roster of survivors who are willing to participate in an international network of peer support.

If you or a loved one has suffered from PTSD, I urge you to check out some of the resources available to you on line, or contact local resources for treatment.

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BOOK GIVE-AWAY of When She Flew:

To wrap up my tour of this book, Jennie Shortridge has graciously agreed to give away a SIGNED copy of When She Flew to one of my readers. To enter the contest:

• Simply leave a comment on this post by 8:00am (PST) January 5th.
• Make sure you include a legitimate email address so I can contact you if you win.
• I will draw a name sometime on January 5th and announce the winner here on my blog.
• This giveaway is open to the U.S. and Canada.

Good luck!!

I was delighted to receive Maud Carol Markson’s newest novel Looking After Pigeon for a TLC Book Tour. There was something compelling to me about a five year old girl finding her way in the world after being abandoned by her father…and the book did not disappoint me (read my review). I was equally delighted when Markson agreed to write a guest post for my blog. Do you wonder where authors find inspiration for their books? I do. And so it was with great interest I read Markson’s words about how her writing seeks to find the truth in human experience and how that experience is a reflected in her characters.

A little bit about Maud Carol Markson:

Maud Carol Markson is the author of the novels When We Get Home, and Looking After Pigeon. She has taught writing at University of New Hampshire and Cabrini College and now lives in California with her husband and son, and her dog Molly, who is her constant writing companion. She can be reached at www.redroom.com and www.goodreads.com. Learn more about Markson and her work on her website: http://www.maudcarol.com.

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Guest Post: Maud Carol Markson

Some writers find it very easy to write about themselves, but I am not one of those authors—I guess that is why I write fiction. And that is why I am submitting a somewhat modified version of the guest post that I did for Meg Waite Clayton’s 1^st Books blog.

From the time I was told I would never grow up to be an elephant, I decided instead to grow up to be a writer (of course, to the adults who knew me, both probably seemed equally implausible). I wanted to be the person who wrote all those books I loved as a child, and all those books that kept my father engrossed every night so that when I talked to him he barely heard me. I wanted to be the writer of the books that filled my local library shelves. There I would walk once a week in the summer, and sit among the books, in the air-conditioned stacks, staring at their covers as if they could reveal the magic within. And then stacking up my selection of books to carry on the walk home, where they bumped against my side, reminding me with each step of what awaited me when I actually opened their covers and read their pages.

Books are still magical to me. I look at novels not as a means to escape from myself (although, happily, they often serve that purpose), but as a means to discover myself. As a young child, I discovered aspects of myself and my world in the characters of Harriet in Harriet the Spy and Julie in Up a Road Slowly, or Kit Tyler in The Witch of Blackbird Pond. As an adult, I cherished other favorites. It is not that the authors of these books are writing about me, or even about someone like me. What they are doing is finding some truth in their characters and in the human experience.

That is what I aim to do with my own writing. I wrote my first novel, When We Get Home (Bantam, 1989), when I was pregnant with my son and anxious about being a parent for the first time. It begins with the line: “In my family we are all disposable,” and it was that line that ran through my head over and over again until the character that speaks that line emerged. And then the rest of her family soon followed—the father with multiple divorces, the step-mother, the brother who flees from one relationship to another. Perhaps I felt that in writing about a family that disintegrates, I could keep my own family safe from a similar fate. And so far, it has worked.

In my novel, Looking After Pigeon (The Permanent Press, July 2009), it was another line that echoed: “My mother named her children after birds.” What kind of mother gives her children bird names? How does growing up with such a name make us who we are? In this novel, five year old Pigeon’s father disappears, leaving her to face a new life in an uncle’s house on the Jersey shore. My father never left me as a child, and I don’t even have an uncle, much less one who owns a house at the beach. My older sister never got pregnant. But like my character, Pigeon, I do find memory an “odd thing.” I call it selective memory: we remember what resonates most deeply for us. And of course, we all to some extent want someone to look after us. So although these characters are not me, the way they experience the world is me. They all in some way reveal parts of who I am. And hopefully reveal parts of my readers as well.

John Irving: On Writing

Joyce Carol Oates: On Writing Characters

Stephen King: How You Know When You are a Writer

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Danger of the Single Story

Many thanks to TLC Book Tours, Francine Prose and Harper Perennial for putting Goldengrove into my hands for review. I read this book the first part of this month (read my review) and was completely sucked into Prose’s beautiful writing and the story of Nico – a thirteen year old girl growing up in the wake of her older sister’s tragic death.

Goldengrove is about loss, grief and recovery. It struck me that readers who have lost a loved one from unexpected death, especially when that loved one is a child, might find this novel difficult to read. Below are a couple of links to organizations which provide support to individuals dealing with this kind of loss:

The Compassionate Friends

The mission of The Compassionate Friends is to assist families toward the positive resolution of grief following the death of a child of any age and to provide information to help others be supportive.

Today more than 600 chapters serving all 50 states plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico offer friendship, understanding, and hope to bereaved parents, siblings, grandparents, and other family members during the natural grieving process after a child has died. Around the world more than 30 countries have a Compassionate Friends presence, encircling the globe with support so desperately needed when the worst has happened.

Griefworks, BC

Griefworks BC exists through a partnership between Children’s & Women’s Health Centers of British Columbia and Canuck Place Children’s Hospice.

Griefworks BC facilitates access to bereavement support when and where it is needed.

Book Information:

Title: Goldengrove, by Francine Prose
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1 edition (September 8, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060560029
ISBN-13: 978-0060560027
Available wherever books are sold, including Amazon.

A little about Francine Prose:

Francine Prose is the author of fifteen books of fiction, including A Changed Man and Blue Angel, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and the nonfiction New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer. Her latest novel, Goldengrove, was published in September 2008. She is the president of PEN American Center. She lives in New York City.

Listen to Francine Prose on BlogTalk Radio (air date September 24, 2009)

To read more reviews of Goldengrove, visit the tour page on TLC Book Tours for links.