Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Teaser Tuesday Two-fer: Secrets in Big Sky Country and Singing with the Sirens



I understood it now while Daddy called me his princess and why my older brother had felt so much rage and hurt.  I had been naïve to think I was special.
-- Secrets in Big Sky Country: A Memoir by Mandy Smith

Mandy Smith's bold memoir uses her own story of childhood abuse, betrayal, and abandonment to show that hope and, eventually, healing, can come to survivors. Mandy hopes that adults who were molested as children can read her book and know they are not alone.

Secrets in Big Sky Country is out this week. It is available on amazon or ask your local bookstore to order it!



There were many weeks like this, though -- weeks when we pushed past the fear and just spoke. Sometimes we read poetry, sometimes we wrote our own.
-- Singing with the Sirens: Overcoming the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Sexual Exploitation by Ellyn Roberts Bell and Stacey Ault Bell, published by She Writes Press.

Both Ellyn and Stacey are also survivors of childhood abuse. They were inspired to write Singing with Sirens after working with girls in the juvenile justice system. The book uses the stories of the young women, combined with those of the authors and other adult women, myth, and metaphor to address the journey from childhood exploitation and abuse to healing.

Read more about the authors of Singing with the Sirens and their book, here.



Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Monday, September 28, 2015

Mailbox Monday




Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

One great looking book came into my house last week:



The Patron Murders by Edwin Wilson. When New York art and theater patrons start dying in macabre ways, stage actor and amateur sleuth, Matt Johanssen, steps in to help the NYPD solve the mystery in Wilson's debut novel.

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Book Beginning Two-fer: Secrets in Big Sky Country and Singing with the Sirens



THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

I have two this week, because they share a theme:



Mill dust covers the worn leather boots at the base of the curtain that is my bedroom door. Lying in my metal-frame bed, I see the ghostly outline of my stepfather through its worn, flowered fabric.

-- Secrets in Big Sky Country: A Memoir by Mandy Smith

Mandy Smith's stepfather sexually molested her from the time she was three until she finally spoke out at age 14, only to be shunned by her family. Her courageous memoir exposes the prevalence of childhood sexual abuse and gives hope to survivors through her example of endurance and resilience.

Secrets in Big Sky Country is out this week. It is available on amazon or ask your local bookstore to order it!



We smiled as we heard the voice resonating from her cell: a soft, soulfull mourning filled with melody and pain.

-- Singing with the Sirens: Overcoming the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Sexual Exploitation by Ellyn Roberts Bell and Stacey Ault Bell, published by She Writes Press. The authors address the long term complex trauma that results from the sexual abuse and exploitation of girls and young women.

Both of these books are examples of the resources available to survivors of sexual trauma. Reading personal accounts, writing about their own experiences, and talking with other survivors can all be helpful means of healing.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Author Interview: Warren Easley


Warren Easley is the author of the Cal Claxton Mysteries, a series that began with Matters of Doubt, continued with Dead Float, and now continues with the newly released, Never Look Down. The series is published by the popular Poisoned Pen Press.

Warren recently took the time to answer some questions for Rose City Reader.



How did you come to write Never Look Down?

I need a compelling idea or visual image to get me started on a book. Once I have this, I work on the characters I imagine could be involved. I work hard to flesh these characters out before I start, but they tend to evolve as I get into the story. In the case of Never Look Down, I had this image of a young tagger up on a building late at night who witnesses a brutal crime and barely escapes alive. Once I wrote that scene the book just took off. I couldn’t write fast enough.

Never Look Down is the third book in a series. When you wrote your first Cal Claxton book, Matters of Doubt, did you have a series in mind?

Yes, I had it in mind all along to write a series, although I was pretty naïve about the snares and pitfalls involved! I think the trick in a good series is to have some key story and character arcs that extend across several books at least, and this takes careful planning and attention to detail. I had written three books in the series before I signed on with Poisoned Pen Press, but they wanted my third book first. I had to scramble to re-align a raft of details involving timing and story arcs to ensure consistency.

What is your professional background? How did it lead you to writing your Cal Claxton series?

I have a Ph.D. in physical chemistry. I wrote a lot of scientific papers and reports in a career that spanned R&D and international business but, of course, that’s a long way from writing fiction! But I was a closet poet and a voracious reader, especially of well-written mysteries. I always harbored a secret ambition to write fiction but didn’t act on it until I retired.

What do you admire most about Cal Claxton? What is his least endearing trait?

Well, there’s much to admire about Cal. He’s an everyman who feels great empathy for the most vulnerable among us and goes to bat for them. He’s recovering from a staggering personal blow, and he’s intent on building a new life for himself (and his dog, Archie) in Oregon. He’s a pretty good cook and fly fisherman, too. But the thing I most admire is his doggedness. He gets knocked down a lot, literally and figuratively, in the series, and he always gets up and re-engages. This is a trait we all need in life.

On the other side, he’s not very good with money, a trait that sends his neighbor and accountant up the wall, he’s not very good at saying no, and he has a habit of going it alone and taking risks.

Did you know right away, or have an idea, how you were going to end the story in Never Look Down? Or did it come to you as you were in the process of writing?

I don’t do a lot of outlining, which means I have to write to know what’s going to happen. I had absolutely no idea how this story was going to end, except for the fact that justice would be served and all the loose ends I created along the way would be tied into neat bows. I’m an equal opportunity writer, so just about any character in the book can turn out to be the bad guy. It’s a mystery for me, as well!

What did you learn from writing Never Look Down – either about the subject of the book or the writing process – that most surprised you?

The tagger in the story is sixteen years old. I normally write my books totally in Cal’s voice, first person. This means we would only see the tagger’s story through Cal’s eyes. But the chapters involving the teen seemed flat, so I decided to try writing them in the tagger’s voice in alternating chapters. I wasn’t sure I could pull this off, and the fact that I did was a pleasant surprise! I have my youngest daughter to thank for helping me get the hang of a sixteen year old’s voice, and I also found inspiration in Bill Cameron’s excellent mystery, County Line.

Who are your three (or four or five) favorite authors? Is your own writing influenced by who you read?

I have so many! The top five would be: James Lee Burke, Tony Hillerman, Sara Paretsky, Michael Connelly, and James Crumley. Oh, and Elmore Leonard makes six.

James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux series set on the Gulf Coast in Louisiana inspired me to try my hand at fiction. His tightly drawn plots, flawed, vividly etched characters, and use of the Gulf Coast as a character in the books enthralled me. I wanted to try something along those lines in another beautiful, atmospheric setting—Oregon.

Do you have favorite mystery series you love to read? Which ones?

All the above authors write series. I loved Stieg Larsson’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series and Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe series, as well…

What are you reading now?

I am just finishing Connelly’s The Burning Room. Next up on my nightstand is Disclaimer, by Renee Knight, followed by William Tapply’s Outwitting Trolls.

What do you do to promote your books? Do you use social networking sites or other internet resources? 

In addition to the efforts of my publisher, I have an author site on Facebook and a website. I pen a monthly blog on writing and whatever else is on my mind. The blog appears on the 6th of each month on the above sites and on my publisher’s site, Poisoned Pen Press.

Do you have any events coming up to promote your book?

Currently scheduled book signings are:

• Sept. 26th at the Book Carnival in Orange, CA at 3 pm.

• Oct. 2 at Chapters Book Store in Newberg, OR at 5 pm,

• Oct. 10 at the Seattle Mystery Bookshop at noon.

What is the most valuable advice you’ve been given as an author?

From Anne Lamott—Get that shitty first draft down on paper…!

What is the best thing about being a writer?

Two things—first, getting to create your own world and populate it with interesting, unruly characters, and second, getting to know other authors, the most stimulating, fun, cynical, and astute group of people I’ve ever been associated with.

What’s next? Are you working on your next Cal Claxton book?

I just finished a complete draft of book #4 in the series, which has a working title of An Indecent Burial. It revolves around an infamous event in Oregon history—the flooding of Celilo Falls and the Native American village next to it with the completion of The Dalles Dam in the Columbia River Gorge. Cal is asked to find out what happened to a Native American anti-dam activist who disappeared when the flood gates were closed fifty years earlier, a stone-cold case that quickly heats up.

THANKS, WARREN!

NEVER LOOK DOWN IS AVAILABLE ON-LINE AT POISONED PEN PRESS (MULTIPLE FORMATS), AMAZON (IN KINDLE, HB, OR PB), OR ASK YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE TO ORDER IT!

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Teaser Tuesday: The Emergency Sasquatch Ordinance by Kevin Underhill


No puppet shows without a license. I imagine that the ban on unlicensed puppet shows in private homes is very rarely enforced, but the fact remains that performing such a show "in any house" would technically be illegal in Delaware[.]"

-- The Emergency Sasquatch Ordinance: And Other Real Laws that Human Beings Actually Dreamed Up by Kevin Underhill.

This book about strange-but-true laws is full of entertaining bits of political and legal trivia about oddball laws, starting in ancient times, but mostly focusing on laws in the United States.

It is written by a lawyer -- a lawyer who writes a legal humor blog -- but it is not written for lawyers. It would make a great gift for any political history buff or trivia fan with a goofy sense of humor.





Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Monday, September 21, 2015

Mailbox Monday



Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

My sister gave me a book last week and it looks great!



The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food by Judith Jones. Jones published Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and went on to become America's most famous food writing editor,editing the works of Child, James Beard, Madhur Jaffrey, and others.

This looks like just the thing to salvage my 2015 Foodies Read Challenge!

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Author Interview: Margaret Grundstein


In 1970, Margaret Grundstein dropped out of a graduate program at Yale to follow her husband, an Indonesian prince and community activist, to a commune in the backwoods of Oregon.

Margaret is now the owner and director of a preschool in Venice, California, and has a private practice as a psychotherapist in Los Angeles. But we should all be glad she decided to share the story of her hippie years in her new memoir, Naked in the Woods: My Unexpected Years in a Hippie Commune, published by OSU Press.

Margaret recently took the time to answer some questions for Rose City Reader. You can also listen to her recent interviews on KATU's AM Northwest, OPB's Think Out Loud, and Montana Public Radio's The Write Question.



How did you come to write Naked in the Woods?

Nine years ago a friend handed me the memoir Huerfano, by Roberta Price, which tells her story of leaving graduate school to live communally in rural Colorado. After reading Huerfano, I realized it provided one of the few depictions of the '60s and '70s that did not portray "hippies" as silly two dimensional characters. My thought was that my past communards and I should write of our adventure during that historic time as well.

I emailed several of the people involved, hoping to create a communal telling of a communal tale, each of us writing our own perspective. What I didn’t know was that I had no idea how to write and that most of the others had even less. What I did have was an ability to jump into a task ignorant of all it required. Ultimately the Rashomon approach failed as did an attempt to tell the story from two sides. Now I was on my own. By this time, several years into the project, I was hooked on the process. I loved sitting down after a day at work, pulling my chair up in front of my computer and keyboarding my way into another world. Parsing words, building phrases, getting lost in my story was mesmerizing. Once I started it was hard to stop, often writing late into the night even though I had obligations the next morning.

Nine years after that email to old friends, perfect strangers are reading my book. What a delight. The time had come for my generation to tell our tales and I wrote mine, one woman's account of an historic period. But like any memoirist, I have more to offer than events. What makes a story come alive is the meeting between the respective internal worlds of the reader and the writer. In Naked in the Woods I offer my inner most awareness to anyone who cares to open the covers of my book, sharing a level of intimacy we often have only with ourselves. By doing so I return a favor, as best I can. All my life I have been an avid reader finding solace and insight in the words of others. Each author becomes an immediate best friend, instantly accessible by turning their pages. Now it is my turn to make a deposit into the common pool of the written word. My book is a very small thank you to all those who shared their interior world, leaving me less alone in mine. With Naked in the Woods I am able, in some small measure, to give back. How good that feels.

You were going to get a master’s degree in urban planning from Yale. What made you give that up to join a hippie commune in Oregon?

In 1969, I was part of a group of radicals at Yale University trying to create a community where we could live in peace and innocence. Change seemed possible. San Francisco celebrated the Summer of Love, Martin Luther King taught us the power of nonviolence, and Woodstock was iconic before the mud in Max Yeager’s fields had dried. Then armored tanks rolled across the campus.

We advocated peace, ignoring the implications of our growing militancy as students occupied campus buildings, organized strikes, and demanded an end to the war in Vietnam and racism at home. Nationally, the civil rights movement shifted with the arrival of thirty Black Panthers at the California State Assembly flaunting rifles and shotguns to protest arms-control legislation. The country, watching on television, shuddered and looked to the locks on their doors and windows. Cities burned, assassins murdered Malcolm X and Reverend King and the National Guard, dressed like invading aliens in gas masks and goggles, killed four students at Kent State, injuring nine. This was revolution.

Swaying together singing We Shall Overcome was no longer enough. The tanks lumbering through my neighborhood, clanking down my street brought home the futility of confrontational tactics. We needed a new plan, one that was plausible and released us from the politics of mutual hate. If we couldn’t change the world, we would change ourselves and build communities, where, as the Beatles told us, All You Need is Love. In Vermont, New Mexico, Virginia and Oregon—any place where land was available and people sparse—students dropped out, looking for a more peaceful revolution. The back-to-the-land movement showed us a way we could love ourselves, each other and the dirt that fed us.

After graduation, my new husband and I, along with ten of our friends, headed west like generations before us. Our covered wagon was a Chevy van. We abandoned indoor plumbing, electricity, supermarkets and the benefits of our graduate Ivy League degrees for one-hundred-and-sixty acres in the backwoods of the Pacific Northwest, seeking the sweetness of childhood without sacrificing adult perks. “Freaks,” they called us, not far off the mark. We, in turn, felt anointed by God; that is, if God is love. Our adventure lasted five years, our quest timeless, with ripples that lap on the shoreline of the present. The future grows out of the past.

I wore my hippie status proudly, even defiantly. We had been raised to be good; to share, to see beyond race and income and to make the world a better place. Every childhood story, parental exhortation and moral parable set the mold; virtue and the search for it brought meaning to life. I was willing to risk everything for a chance to live from my better self, to experience the peace of love without sacrificing the thrill of adventure. My parents thought I achieved the good life with my entry into Yale. They were wrong. I found it naked in the woods.

What were you least prepared for when you moved to Greenleaf, your first commune? What about when you moved to the second property, Floras Creek?

When I moved to Greenleaf I was unprepared for living so closely with a group of other people. I grew to love it. Moving to Floras Creek was a different kind of shift. At Floras Creek there was nothing but 160 acres of remote, primal forest, with one drafty cabin, a hand pump, and each other. Persuaded by the dogmatic rhetoric of my husband, I abandoned career and cachet for the earth and each other. Then he left, seduced by the siren call of freer love. Now I had to choose. Could I make it as a single woman in man’s country and most importantly, did I want to? Was I still committed to the dream of a more utopian life? Yes, was my answer as I put my overachieving shoulder to the task of building a cabin; hand-sawing driftwood for the foundation, ripping boards from abandoned shacks for siding. This was home.

As some point, your story starts to sound less like Utopia and more like Lord of the Flies. What went wrong?

Nothing went wrong. The inevitable happened; our humanity caught up with us. We are all imperfect beings. Living together is hard. Marriages, nuclear families, roommates, all of these require communication and mutual agreement to thrive. Forging a union with a much larger group not related by birth and history is even more challenging, especially when old rules are thrown out and new agreements are not yet formed. Learning how to live as a community takes time, leadership, consensus and financial viability, or alternatively the heavy hand of brute force. Whether one lives as part of a tribe or as part of a contemporary nation, finding common ground is crucial. We were independent spirits, trying to live collectively, in peace and harmony with each other and the earth, outside of mainstream culture. Ultimately financial realities grounded in the larger world took hold. We didn’t fail. We tried. And sometimes that is enough. Our foot print remains.

Other than former (or current) hippies, who do you think would enjoy your book?

Naked in the Woods takes place in an historic period, speaking to those of us who remember and those who still seek. The future grows out of the past. Young families in Detroit, Los Angeles and the White House harvest dinner from their organic gardens. Portland has over 10 organizations to promote poultry raising at home, including one that offers a tour of 22 coops and a chance to meet the chickens. The longing to connect is timeless, even as teen-agers text and adults boast of 600 Facebook friends. We yearn to be in touch with the land, ourselves, and each other. Naked in the Woods speaks to the quest, the challenge of reaching for our better selves, both individually and collectively.

The audience for Naked in the Woods includes Millenials who are seeking their own path to a better future, those of us who lived in the '60s and '70s who want to remember our past, historians who seek first person accounts of this iconic period, feminists and gender studies scholars who are interested in the tale being told from the voice of a woman, and anyone who enjoys a good story well told. All of us have dreamed of a better life. This story is for you.

What did you learn from writing your book – either about the subject of the book or the writing process – that most surprised you?

My most powerful revelation is that writing is like a drug. Time disappears. Words flow. Phrases form. Fully engaged I slip into another world.

With writing, like most things in life, I have learned to trust my instincts, to keep my mind open to constructive criticism, and as they say in the Nike ad, "just do it."

Naked in the Woods is my first book, both written and published. Everything has been a surprise.

What kind of books do you like to read? What are you reading now?

I am re-reading Vivian Gornick’s Fierce Attachments and getting ready to start her newest book, The Odd Woman and the City. She is a brilliant writer; insightful, clean in her prose and clear in her ideas. I am also reading Ken Follett’s historical trilogy, Fall of Giants, which allows me to escape into a long well told story, week after week after week. Recently I finished The War Within by Bob Woodward. Before that I delved into Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, a perfectly faceted, tightly cut, gem of a book.

What is the most valuable advice you’ve been given as an author?

If you are bored reading your own writing it’s a sure sign your readers will be bored as well.

Be sure you know what you are trying to say and then say it. Muddy ideas are just that: muddy ideas.

Go deep. That is where we touch each other; the delicate inner spots that when shared remind us of our mutual humanity.

Do you have any events coming up to promote your book?

Yes! Click on the links for details:
What’s next? What are you working on now?

We're jokes; overlooked, bypassed, our less than shapely forms proof of your worst fears. You glance at our crenelated necks and spotted hands and think, if you think of us at all, as faded beings, passively waiting for the last bus to arrive, opening its doors with a sigh. Cut! Wrong picture! Rewind that tape. Here's the surprise. Inside this less than juicy body resides a fecund mind and a fluttering heart, not in need of defibrillation, but beating with the powerful rhythms of life. Yes that engine, 'love,' is still alive and well, actively flourishing, even now in what is supposed to be my dotage. My work in progress is a narrative non-fiction memoir, written as a collection of short stories, each of which explores a different aspect of love; intimacy, friendship, family, self, work, and sex in the life of a seventy year old woman. Every story stands alone, yet they speak to each other forming a unified whole. America's population is aging. Baby boomers are no longer babies but grandparents. Who are we, the newly old, blessed with longevity and health, clear minds, and adequate wallets.......or not. Like women who have learned from advertising to objectify themselves, we, the old, have learned to disparage our value.

My present work rewrites that story. Friendship, open and true, pulses with life, both in health and under the portal of death. A new man, still athletic and strong, the kind of good looking I thought relegated to my past, brings up erotic charges not dimmed by age. New bruises form and old ones reactivated as I bump up against loved ones, in that most tender of relationships, family. As a woman my body defined me. Who am I now as I fade even further into old age, almost genderless in the peacock feathered world of procreation? And work? What a love affair that still can be! Age does not condemn us to bleak vistas with palliative t.v. and golf. My synapses fire, ideas form, my inner world a rich landscape where I soar riding currents of creativity. No, not dead yet, my heart still beating, thoughts still thrumming, alive until I'm not, which blessed be me, isn't the story I have come to tell.

THANKS, MARGARET!

NAKED IN THE WOODS IS AVAILABLE ON LINE FROM POWELL'S, AMAZON, AND OSU PRESS, OR ASK YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE TO ORDER IT!

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Book Beginning: The Emergency Sasquatch Ordinance by Kevin Underhill



THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING


We don't actually have a copy of the laws enacted by Urukagina, who ruled the Samarian city-state of Lagash over 4,000 years ago.

-- From Part One, "In Ancient Times," of The Emergency Sasquatch Ordinance: And Other Real Laws that Human Beings Actually Dreamed Up by Kevin Underhill.

Kevin is the author of the popular and very funny legal humor blog, Lowering the Bar.  This book about strange-but-true laws is not written for lawyers, although some lawyers may realize it's a funny book.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Author Interview: Ellen Urbani


Ellen Urbani is the author of the newly-released novel Landfall, which takes place during Hurricane Katrina, and is now taking the fiction world by storm.

Ellen is in the middle of an ambitious book tour, but took time to answer questions for Rose City Reader.




How did you come to write Landfall?

When my first book, When I Was Elena, released in March of 2006, I was six weeks into a new and unexpected version of my life: freshly divorced, and on my own with a two-year-old toddler and an eleven-month-old baby. To say that it was an insane time is not hyperbolic, nor does it truly convey the whirlwind nature of traveling across the country on a book tour with little ones while juggling house sales/legal wranglings/relocation back in Portland. I can’t say I recommend such timing, but it did keep my mind focused enough on external events so as to prevent me from wallowing in more emotive concerns.

When I finally resettled myself, I determined that having weathered so many changes already I could tackle a few more, so I decided to leave my medical career and focus on writing. This change allowed me stay productive and intellectually stimulated while still being home with my children during their formative years. It was the most frightening thing I’ve ever done, as it required me to ask for help, accept support, and press forward toward an unknown outcome – none of which appeals to a Type-A planner/organizer like me.

It is really no wonder then, is it?, that in the midst of that moment I wrote a book that features single mothers and girls who leave behind everything they know to venture in the direction of novel – and requisite – possibilities, relying on the goodness of strangers and building community as they go. Landfall is, at heart, a story about chasing hope. In that way, it is as much about me as it is about New Orleans or a hurricane.

Did you know right away, or have an idea, how you were going to end the story? Or did it come to you as you were in the process of writing?

I hate surprises. I absolutely cannot tolerate them – in real life, or in my literary life, apparently.

I wrote the ending of both my books before I wrote the beginnings.

Can you recommend any other books about New Orleans, fiction or nonfiction?

There are many insightful, well-researched books written about Hurricane Katrina and its impact on the Gulf Coast; I list many of them in the Resource Guide at the back of Landfall and also highlighted a number of others in a recent piece for Literary Hub.

But the books that first sold me on the mysticism and history of New Orleans, which I drank up during my college years, were Anne Rice’s. While her Vampire Chronicles, featuring Vampire LeStat, brought her the most acclaim, I also relished The Feast of All Saints for its majestic descriptions of a city I grew to love.

Also, I feel compelled to mention A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, for it is perhaps the most lauded and acclaimed story set in NOLA. Yet I must admit it is one of the few books I have ever despised – so much so that I can’t even keep a copy of it on my bookshelves, for Ignatius repulses me to such a degree that I can’t share a home with him. Which is exactly how Kennedy Toole meant for me to feel, and it is what makes him such a revered author.

Who are your three (or four or five) favorite authors? Is your own writing influenced by who you read?

I have always been a sucker for the circus. Despite the political incorrectness that has plagued Ringling Brothers for years on end now, the circus still delights me with all the vigor it ever did, and no matter where I am in the world I will race to duck beneath the tent awnings and watch with glee as three rings come alive with color and magic and coordinated fervor. As much as anything, the circus influences my writing.

Those authors I most adore, whose skills I endeavor to emulate, are those who can set three separate rings to spinning in a coordinated fashion: well-developed characters in one sphere, a captivating plot in another, and wordsmithery in the third. Think Michael Chabon, Wallace Stegner, and Pat Barker: ringmasters all, whose love of precise language often forces me to reach for a dictionary with one hand while I flip their pages with the other, who possess a keen understanding of pacing and never forsake character in their storytelling.

Theirs is the greatest show on earth.

What kind of books do you like to read? What are you reading now?

When I am camping, I prefer smart and taut Scandinavian crime novels, for the act of adventuring alone in a dark forest is always heightened when one starts the trip a touch on edge.

In the midst of Oregon’s cold and gloomy winter, when it is pitch black outside by 4pm and a fire is crackling in the hearth, I prefer literary fiction; stories of people whose lives unravel in ways that make my relatives’ conflicts at holiday gatherings seem like simple fare.

When I am barefooted and the scent of fresh hay is carried to me on a mountain breeze, I prefer true-life adventure stories that remind me anything is possible with a stout soul and a Swiss Army knife.

When I am in a hammock: anything at all.

When I was pregnant: Disaster survival and storm survival books. (Had you asked me to explain during my childbearing years why I was drawn to such topics, I couldn’t have told you. Yet neither could I read anything else. These many years later, looking back, the metaphor is so obvious as to cue a laugh track.)

And today: the Ferrante series, I think. For I am beginning to feel left out of the party that is the Neopolitan saga.

You have a terrific website, facebook page, and overall social media presence. From an author's perspective, how important are social networking sites and other internet resources to promote your book?

In our present digital age, I believe all these things are essential to promoting a book. But I’d also say they are addictive, and can be complicit in stealing one’s life. Oddly enough, I find that managing the way my online persona interacts with the virtual world is the most vexing part of present-day publishing for me. I don’t think it is an overstatement to say the online universe is a whole new world, and I recognize that, for me, the building of boundaries and parameters within that world is necessary in order to allow my real and primary world – the one in which I exist with my children and new husband, the one in which I find time to pet my dogs and feed my horses, the one in which I volunteer in my community and consider writing again – to thrive.

You are in the middle of an ambitious book tour. Are you energized or exhausted right now?

Both. In equal measure. But more than energized or exhausted, I am grateful: to the people who helped make my book, to the people who read my book, and for the chance to live the life I chose. I do not fail to notice that mine is a very lucky life, indeed.

What is the most valuable advice you’ve been given as an author?

A gifted editor, Phyllis Hatfield, wrote in the margins of an early draft of Landfall: “When next you are tempted to write a word ending in –ly, please stop yourself. I can’t bear any more.”

I love her for that.

What’s next? Are you working on your next book?

I’m not sure what’s next, exactly. Which is to say I’ll try to keep being a good mother, a loving wife, a decent farmer, a happy pet owner, a loyal daughter and sister, an attentive friend, a world adventurer, and a documenter of my experiences. Maybe that will result in another book. But I’m not yet ready to place any bets in that regard.

THANKS, ELLEN!

LANDFALL IS PUBLISHED BY FOREST AVENUE PRESS AND IS AVAILABLE FROM POWELL'S, AMAZON, OR ASK YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE TO ORDER IT!

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Teaser Tuesday: Never Look Down by Warren Easley

 

The tips of her fingers caught the block, but without enough purchase to arrest her fall. Her dad's favorite saying – gravity never sleeps – flashed through her head as she plunged downward.

-- Never Look Down by Warren Easley, from Poisoned Pen Press. This exciting series features lawyer sleuth, Cal Claxton, a former Los Angeles prosecutor now living and practicing in Oregon wine country.

In Never Look Down, Cal steps in to protect a young foster kid after she witnesses a murder. The twist? She saw the crime from 40 feet up, when she had climbed the outside of a building to graffiti tag it.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Mailbox Monday: The Man Who Wasn’t There by Judy Nedry



Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

I got one book last week, and I am very excited to read it:



The Man Who Wasn’t There by Judy Nedry. Available for pre-order, here. Out on September 23, 2015.

This is the latest in the Emma Golden mystery series, featuring an Oregon wine country amateur sleuth of a certain age. Here, Emma gets involved in the murder of one of Oregon's founding winemakers, found dead at the International Pinot Noir Celebration he established. What fun!

Read my review of The Difficult Sister, the second book in the series, here. Read Judy Nedry's author interview, here.

PORTLAND BOOK EVENT: Launch Party on Wednesday, September 23, at 7 p.m. at Annie Blooms Books in Multnomah Village, Portland, Oregon. Free and open to the public. Reading, signing, Q&A, and some stuff to nibble on. Everyone is invited.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Author Interview: Evelyn Searle Hess



After living for 15 years in a tent and trailer in the foothills of southern Oregon's Coast Range, Evelyn Searle Hess and her husband built a real house on their 20 acres. But they wanted their "better nest" to be off-grid, sustainable, and reflect the personal and community values they had developed during their years of camping life.

Her new book, Building a Better Nest: Living Lightly at Home and in the World, is the story of how they built their house and accomplished their dreams.


Evelyn recently took some time to answer questions for Rose City Reader:

How did you come to write Building a Better Nest?

My earlier book, To the Woods, was the story of our lives during fifteen years of camping. Though of course not without challenges, those years were rewarding in numerous ways: in new connection to the natural world, in growing self-knowledge, in improved interpersonal relations and, perhaps most importantly, in the kindling of gratitude for gifts of nature such as clean drinking water, that I had formerly taken for granted. When readers seemed to consider simple living a deprivation, I wanted them to know that, rather than a hardship, I found it to be an awakening and a joy. A wish to convey that message was my original impetus for writing Building a Better Nest.

But as I began to tell the story, it grew and branched and meandered like a river. A river and its watershed, because we don’t nest solely between walls. The ecosystem, the community and the planet all contribute, as we and our actions and attitudes also affect them. So that became the driver for the book. What kind of world do I want to live in? How can I be a responsible and effective organism within this tortured and wondrous biosphere? What models do I have in history and in my ancestry? What societal, economic and political roadblocks stymie cooperative sustainable living in each layer of nest? And finally, as climate and other environmental and social issues become increasingly dire, how can we not only lessen the impact, but also learn to live in the most comfortable and satisfying manner in a changing world? Building a Better Nest evolved chasing those questions.

What is your work background? How did it lead you to writing your book?

I have worked a variety of jobs, but primarily within the world of plants. For twenty years my husband and I owned a plant nursery and I designed gardens and often installed and maintained them. I managed commercial greenhouses, and for ten years ran the teaching and research greenhouses at the University of Oregon, where I also taught plant propagation. Watching plants grow, seeing their response to their environment and understanding their natural cycles and interactions with other organisms, all were important fodder for exploring wider connections in the natural world and our place in it.

Building a Better Nest is as much your memoirs as it is about building a sustainable, off-grid house in the woods – did you have any qualms about sharing so much?

I got through my qualms during the writing of To the Woods. That required a big psychological shift. Once I acknowledged that telling the story required an honest look within, the processing helped me accept my own flawed self. After making that leap, I didn’t mind sharing

Your book is beautiful, philosophical, and somewhat practical, but not technical. Who is your audience?

The audience is anyone who sees depleted resources, endangered species, economic disparities and the frightening potential effects of climate change; recognizes that society must change course, and that there’s no superhero to do it for us. Rather than being a manual (I’m no expert!) I hope Building a Better Nest will inspire discussion that may guide readers to find their own paths to building their personal and cooperative best nests.

Can you recommend any other books about personal home construction or living off the grid? Are any of them personal account like yours?

Charles Goodrich’s Practice of Home and William Sullivan’s Cabin Fever. I wouldn’t say they were either like mine or like each other’s, but both share personal stories within the framework of house-building, and both are definitely well worth reading.

What did you learn from writing your book – either about the subject of the book or the writing process – that most surprised you?

There were many surprises: that borax is anathema to ants; that a gopher snake with a body diameter of more than an inch could thoroughly enmesh itself in the three-quarter-inch grid of bird netting; that people were already arguing the necessity of sacrificing the environment to benefit the economy in the nineteenth century; that the brain is elastic and can continue to form new synapses and learn new emotional responses well into old age. But most surprising to me was my personal change through the research, observation and analysis, followed by the synthesis of writing.

Can you give us an example or two of advice you wished you had before you started to build your own house?

I’m afraid that likely advice would have been along the lines of, “You’re too old.” Or “You don’t have enough money.” Or “You’re not clever, organized or hard-working enough.” And though those statements may be true, I’m grateful we didn’t hear them. Sometimes the only way forward is on unfounded hope. But I do wish that I had picked up carpentry skills at some earlier point of life.

What were you least prepared for when you moved to the Oregon Coast Range, before you built your house?

In a practical vein, the necessity of driving more than we would prefer. When we lived in town, we mostly biked and walked. In a deeper—perhaps spiritual—vein, I was completely unprepared to face my duplicitous (or at least divided) attitude. On one hand, I considered myself a self-confident person happily turning her back on convention, on the other hand, I had to acknowledge that I had confided in almost no one about my new life. Intellectually dedicated, I apparently harbored a sub-conscious germ of society’s condemnation of the appearance of poverty. I desperately feared—and rejected the idea of—pity.

What kind of books do you like to read? What are you reading now?

I tend toward non-fiction, but my taste is eclectic. I just finished Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna, preceded by two novels by local friends, Deb Mohr’s Great Day in the Morning and Chris Scofield’s The Shark Curtain. I am currently reading The Age of Empathy by Frans de Waal.

What is the best thing about being a writer?

Exploring the questions constantly running in my head.

What is the most valuable advice you’ve been given as an author?

Tell the truth—the deep truth, which sometime requires some probing. Be specific, but don’t use the first description that pops into your head.

What’s next? What are you working on now?

I’m working on a series of long essays concerning environmental issues addressed cooperatively by diverse, sometimes even historically combative groups. Exploring how people find common ground has been exciting. I’m also cautiously exploring the art of the short story.


THANKS, EVELYN! GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR NEW PROJECTS!

BUILDING A BETTER NEST IS AVAILABLE FROM OSU PRESS, FROM POWELL'S, ON KINDLE FROM AMAZON (OR PAPERBACK), OR ASK YOUR LOCAL BOOKSELLER TO ORDER IT!

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Book Beginning: Never Look Down by Warren Easley



THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING
It's hard to pinpoint when a story begins. Who knows when that butterfly flapped its wings, churning up the atmosphere enough to send a new tangle of events careening your way?

 

-- Never Look Down by Warren Easley, from Poison Pen Press. Cal Claxton is an ex-L.A. prosecutor now practicing law in Oregon.

This third book in the series finds Cal helping a 16-year-old graffiti tagger and urban climber after she witnesses a murder -- from four stories up the outside of a downtown office building.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Teaser Tuesday: Baker's Blues by Judith Ryan Hendricks



When he's gone, I sit down at the table with his empty coffee cup and chocolate smeared plate. I think I would like to cry, but my reservoir of tears is empty.

-- Baker's Blues by Judith Ryan Hendricks.

This is the third book in Hendricks' Bread Alone Trilogy, following Bread Alone and The Baker's ApprenticeBaker's Blues finds baker Wyn Morrison dealing with the unexpected death of her ex-husband and re-learning the lessons she first discovered when she opened her Seattle bakery.



Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.



Mailbox Labor Day!


Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

An interesting batch of books came into my house this week:



Never Look Down by Warren Easley. This is the latest in Easley's Cal Claxton mystery series featuring an ex-L.A. prosecutor now with a private law practice in Oregon. Here, Cal steps in to protect a 16-year-old street kid after she witnesses a murder.



The Lost Journals of Sylvia Plath by Kimberly Knutsen. A funny literary novel of academic life, a rocky marriage, and the bleak Midwest. My favorite!



Marie Equi: Radical Politics and Outlaw Passions by Michael Helquist, published by OSU Press. The first full-length biography of Equi, who was a doctor, progressive activist, and open lesbian.

BOOK LAUNCH in Portland on Monday, September 14 at 7:00 pm at the Oregon Historical Society.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

2015 Challenge: Vintage Mystery, Silver: INCOMPLETE



INCOMPLETE

Although I read eight books for this challenge, I failed to get BINGO. I read indiscriminately and can't seem to get a rw of six no matter how I try to make it work. Oh well! There's always 2016!

--------------------------------------------------

I'm signing up late for the Vintage Mystery Challenge in the Silver category.

Every year I sign up for the Vintage Mystery Challenge hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block. Last year was the first time I successfully finished, but I've always had fun and the challenge introduces me to authors I haven't read before (Ngaio Marsh and Micheal Innes, for example) and inspires me to read the old mysteries I love but never seem to get around to (Agatha Christie and Rex Stout, for example).

The original idea of the challenge was to read mysteries from the Golden Age of mystery writing, meaning those published prior to 1960. Bev added a "Silver" level last year for mysteries published between 1960 and 1989.

I signed up again this year for the Gold category, but here it is September and I haven't read a single qualifying book. So I decided to re-energize my mystery reading with this late entry into the Silver category. I've binged on five qualifying audiobooks in the last three weeks.

Like last year, there is a BINGO theme this year, which mixes it up a bit. You complete the challenge by filling in six in a row or the four corners and any other two. You can use one Free Space as a wild card to complete the bingo.


BOOKS READ

I haven't figured out yet what bingo spaces to cover.
NOTE:

Updated December 24, 2015

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Book Beginnings: Baker's Blues by Judith Ryan Hendricks



THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING



Of all the ways he could have died, drowning was the least likely.

-- Baker's Blues by Judith Ryan Hendricks.

This third book in Hendrick’s Bread Alone Trilogy finds baker Wyn Morrison in an emotion quandary, with her ex-husband dead, but Wyn the executor of his estate and forced to deal with one hot mess of memories and regrets. I want to make a weekend project of reading all three of the books in the trilogy.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Author Interview: Suzanne Jauchius



Suzanne Jauchius now has a successful career as a professional psychic, radio personality, and public speaker. But her life was a real mess for a long time, with five husbands before she was 40 and a family that demanded she deny her gifts and her nature. You Know Your Way Home is the story of her decision to live up to her potential.

Suzanne recently took time from her busy life to answer questions for Rose City Reader.


How did you come to write You Know Your Way Home?

It began as a journal for my grandchildren. Both of my great-grandmothers had some "abilities" that the family would never talk about. It wasn't until I began my professional practice that the stories came to me, passed down from cousins and other relatives. How I wished I'd known them or had their personal journals. So I decided it might be a gift I could leave my children.

Your memoir is intensely personal – did you have any qualms about sharing so much?

Not really. Having done so much personal work with my therapist years before helped me simply tell the story. As I wrote it, it actually began to lead me. I have had so many readers thank me for the courage to be so open and vulnerable in the telling of it.

Telling our stories is how we heal each other. Too often we feel isolated in our experiences, and memoir shares the experience of being fragile, scared, vulnerable, courageous and human. A common comment I hear from readers is that I have told their story too.

Your book is as much about finding your own voice and identity as it is about being a psychic. Please tell us more about that part of your story.

It is absolutely about finding my own voice, and I happen to be a psychic. Early in my life I was told to not see; that it wasn't "normal." So I began taking my cues from the outside world in an attempt to be acceptable. I zigged and zagged for the first 40 years until one day I just couldn't bear being the fake me any longer. I broke. Fortunately, with the guidance of an amazing therapist, my voice began to be heard.

Who is your audience?

This was possibly one of the most surprising aspects of my readers. Of course many are baby-boomers like myself who really relate to those times, but the men who've read it, who tell me that they never read but couldn't put it down! Those are the surprise.

What were you least prepared for when you went public about your psychic abilities?

The acceptance I received from people of all walks of life. Of course, there are still those who take a couple steps back when I tell them what I do. For the most part however is the acceptance. I would venture to say it is most likely because I have accepted myself.

Can you recommend any other books about psychic abilities or similar gifts? Are any of them personal account like yours?

My favorite is Natural ESP by Ingo Swann. It may be out of print by now, but it's the one I personally relate to in terms of "seeing." I also love all the Edgar Cayce work. His biography, There Is A River by Thomas Surgue, was very inspirational to me years ago.

As a psychic, you must encounter skepticism both from secularists who resist the supernatural and traditional religious believers. How do you respond to both?

My response is usually one of acceptance. I stopped defending myself years ago. As a wise woman once said, "What you think of me is none of my business."

What did you learn from writing your book – either about the subject of the book or the writing process – that most surprised you?

My biggest surprise in writing my memoir was how it began to write itself. After a month or so of writing, it took on it's own rhythm and flow. I was also amazed at how going back into the memories was actually like I was really there. I could see very specific details.

You have a terrific website and facebook page. How important are social networking sites and other internet resources to promote your book? How about your work as a psychic?

Well, as they say, social media is where it's all at right now. I resisted it for some time but recognize it's value today. People expect to be able to find you somewhere on the internet. What's very exciting about that is the amount of people from around the world who have read my memoir and are able to communicate with me on the web.

Do you have any events coming up to promote your book?

Other than my monthly appearance on the radio at 105.1 fm, I do have a conference I am part of on October 3rd in Lake Oswego. It's called Activating Happy, and features several speakers including therapists and neuroscientists, on the subject of happiness. I am honored to be part of this exciting event.

[NOTE: Typically, Suzanne can be heard on 105.1 fm, The Buzz, on the first Monday of the month from 4:30 – 5:30 pm. Upcoming Buzz: Monday, October 7th, at 4:30 – 5:30 pm and Monday, November 5th, at 4:30 – 5:30 pm.]

What is the most valuable advice you’ve been given?

Trust yourself.

What’s next? What are you working on now?

I am working on a sequel to You Know Your Way Home. It seems to be including my interactions with the "other side," something that has been happening for me since the death of my father in 2000. But it's too early in the writing process to know for sure!

THANKS, SUZANNE!

YOU CAN BUY YOU KNOW YOUR WAY HOME IN PAPERBACK OR KINDLE FROM AMAZON OR ASK YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE TO ORDER IT. 

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Teaser Tuesday: Exit Wounds



When I enlisted in the Marine Corps, I decided I wanted to be a Tanker. Unfortunately, that job is not open to women, so I changed paths and decided to become an engineer.

-- Exit Wounds: Soldier's Stories - Life After Iraq and Afghanistan, by Jim Lommasson, from the author's interview of Margo Ellis, who now works for the Department of Veterans Affairs as a Congressional Liaison in the Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs

Exit Wounds is a collaboration between Jim Lommasson and American veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan war. Lommasson interviewed and photographed 50 men and women soldiers about why they went to war and how the war has affected them and their loved ones.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.