Guest post with Karen White, author of On Folly Beach

After hearing all about Karen White on her more recent tours promoting "The House on Tradd Street" and "The Girl on Legare Street", and after my thoroughly enjoyable experience reading her recent book, "On Folly Beach", I was thrilled to have her come visit via a guest post on You've GOTTA Read This! In some of her visits to other blogs over the past months, I've been mighty impressed with this lady. Not only is she very personable, she is incredibly busy, cranking out about two books a year, but also juggles family life with kids, laundry and a social schedule, all in a very organized fashion. A woman after my own heart! Let's see what's going on with Karen today:

Right now I’m at the Southern Kentucky Book Festival surrounded by about 149 other authors and lots of lots of books and readers—two of my favorite groups. Seriously, it doesn’t get much better than hanging out all day with people who love to do what I love to do: read and write. If a group of chocolatiers or donut-makers showed up, I would know that I had died and gone to heaven.

I just came from speaking on a panel of five authors (myself included). The panel’s title was “Established Southern Writers.” I guess I never really considered myself “established” before—at least not before I sat behind my signing table and the stacks of my backlist books—all ten of them. I kind of felt like a glutton peering behind my teetering stacks. Granted, I have been writing for ten years and it did take me four years to write that first book. I’ve just learned to write faster now. Much faster.

My fellow authors are surprised that I write two novels a year. So was my family when I first told them that I had to stop cooking dinner because I needed the time to write. But it’s all been good. I’m a lousy cook anyway, and my time is better spent writing. I’m currently writing the third book in my four-book Tradd Street mystery series and, according to the reader letters I’ve been receiving, I need to write faster. After I push the ugly thoughts aside about my whip-wielding readers, I sit back with thankfulness. I’m thankful that readers are loving my characters and stories so much that they’re bereft when they’re away from them. That’s the absolutely best part of being a writer.

Am I a workaholic? Maybe. Although I suspect that when I’m offered a contract it’s more like a starving person going grocery shopping: I enthusiastically help myself without thinking that my time has other commitments (like doing laundry and raising children). But I love writing. Even more than writing, I love sharing my stories with readers. And it’s all working out. My next book, ON FOLLY BEACH (May 4, 2010) has been finished since last November, which gave me the month of December to celebrate the holidays with my family. My November 2010 book (FALLING HOME) is a re-write of an old 2002 release—it’s got a great new cover and a re-haul of the writing although the story and characters are the same. Re-writing a novel wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, but it was a lot easier than starting from scratch.

Still, by the end of 2010, I will have had thirteen books published in ten years. I’m no Nora Roberts, but it’s a lot of books. I didn’t plan on that, it’s simply been the natural progression of my career. I’ve learned how to write cleaner, sharper, faster, and, I believe, better. I’ve learned what to give up (cooking, television) so I have the time to do the things I want to do (writing, spending time with my family). Like everything in life that’s worth doing, it takes hard work and sacrifice, but the rewards are endless.

The perks are nice, too. Here at the festival there’s a famous children’s book author signing her backlist and her most current books. When my children (now 16 and 18) were little, I bought all of her books and read them to my kids, who can still quote lines from the books. I just earned major “mommy points” by getting them each a signed copy of two of their favorites. It’s no small feat impressing a teenager.

Tomorrow I have a long 5-hour drive back home. I’ve got a book on CD to listen to, and five hours of blissful aloneness before returning to deadlines and laundry. But it’s all good.


Doesn't it feel like you've just had a chat with an old friend? And her enthusiasm is infectious. She obviously loves what she's doing, and that shows in her work. If you haven't had a chance, make sure you check out my review of On Folly Beach!

Guest post with Cilla McCain, author of Murder in Baker Company

I'm very pleased to introduce you to the author of the riveting true crime novel Murder in Baker Company, Cilla McCain. Cilla is a full-time writer dedicated to topics of social injustice. She is with us today to share one specific example of the difficulties that face our servicemen.

Throughout the years it took me to write "Murder In Baker Company" my main focus was on military families as a whole. But the other day, I received a letter from a former soldier who is now in a Washington State Prison. He was a Sergeant in the Army and a nurse in charge of treating our wounded troops during and after the Iraq invasion of March 2003.

By his 2nd deployment in March 2005, he was addicted to the narcotics he started taking to mentally block out the trauma of deployment and treating the gruesome wounds of our men and women. It was so severe that he couldn’t eat food because the smell reminded him of burned bodies.

When he returned home for the second time, he was spiraling out of control and eventually committed armed robbery to get money for the mind numbing drugs he no longer had easy access to. He sent me the following piece of literature written by a Nez Perce Warrior Indian Elder (circa 1865). It is the most stirring account of PTSD feelings that I have ever seen and it is still absolutely relevant today:

They said I would be changed in my body.
I would move through the physical world in a different manner.
I would hold myself in a different posture.
I would have pain where there was no blood.
I would react to sights, sounds, movement and touch in a crazy way, as though I were back in war.

They said I would be wounded in my thoughts.
I would forget how to trust, and I would think that others were trying to hurt me. I would see dangers in the kindness and concern of my relatives and others.

Most of all, I would not be able to think in a reasonable manner, and it would seem that everyone else was crazy.

They told me that it would appear to me that I was alone even in the midst of the people, and that there was no one else like me.

They warned me that it would be as though my emotions were locked up, and I would be cold in my heart and not remember the ways of caring for others.

While I might give meat and blankets to the elders, or food to the children, I would not be able to feel the goodness of these actions. That I would do these things out of habit and not from caring. They predicted that I might do harm to others without plan or intention.

They knew that my spirit would be wounded.

They said I would be lonely and that I would find no comfort in family, friends, elders or spirits. I would be cut off from both beauty and pain. My dreams would be dark and frightening. My days would be filled with searching and not finding. I would not be able to find connections between myself and the rest of creation. I would look forward to an early death.

And, I would need cleansing in all these things.



Thank you Cilla, for doing your part in bringing these issues to the forefront, and being my guest today. It saddens my heart to hear of another human being suffering in this way, and pray that some day he will find peace.

A Guest Post with Wendy at Musings of a Bookish Kitty

Today is my third and final guest post at Musings of a Bookish Kitty, featuring my review for Testimony by Anita Shreve. This book was not an easy one to get through, but at the same time was hard to put down. I believe the overall experience of this book was heavily influenced by the audio production, and the cast of narrators that chillingly represented each of the characters in the story. Hop on over to Wendy's and check it out!

A Guest Post with Wendy at Musings of a Bookish Kitty

I'm back at it again! One of my earliest book reviews is being featured today over at Musings of a Bookish Kitty while Wendy is away on vacation. This review is very special to me, not only because it was one of my first (and only about three people originally read it!), but is one of my top books of all time. Go on over and take a look!

A Guest Post with Wendy at Musings of a Bookish Kitty

As most of you probably know, I started blogging late last October. For awhile, the only people who were reading my blog were my mom and my sister. So I was happy to share a few of my early reviews with Wendy from Musings of a Bookish Kitty while she is on vacation. Head on over to see my review of one of my all-time favorite books...

Guest Post from ds @ Third-Storey Window: The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly

Joining us from Third-Storey Window is ds, who was kind enough to share her review of "The Book of Lost Things". Ds is a relatively new blogger - she's been blogging since January - but you would never know it to read her website. I've been following her for about four months, and in this time have been so impressed with her book selection, her thoughtful and creative posts, and her friendliness. If you've not visited her yet, please take a moment to do so. I think you'll like what you see! And now, for her review:


John Connolly’s wonderful novel The Book of Lost Things is part fantasy, part Bildungsroman, part war story, part quest, and part homage to all of the stories we read or are read to as young children: fairy tales, folktales, legends, and myths. It is also a ripping good read.

David, a young boy living in London in the early days of World War II, loses his mother to a long illness. He is an imaginative boy, and she has filled his head with all kinds of tales, and they “came alive in the telling.” To escape the pain of her death, David loses himself in books. All too quickly, David’s father marries a woman named Rose and they have a son, David’s half-brother. London being dangerous and the flat too small, this newly created family moves to Rose’s ancient family home in the country, complete with ivied walls, creaking windows, an attic room filled with books that is David’s new bedroom, and a neglected sunken garden with a mysterious gap in its far wall. The locals tell stories of children who have disappeared, Rose’s uncle among them. The book-filled bedroom overlooking the garden that is now occupied by David had been his. Rose has purchased some books she thinks that David might enjoy; they have settled in amongst the uncle’s boyhood reads. David has brought along the volumes of old tales that were his mother’s favorites, and they too take their places on the shelves. But these books are dangerous. These books remind David too much of his mother. These books “recognize something in him...something curious and fertile.” These books begin to speak, first in a whisper, then more and more loudly, for these
stories were very old, as old as people, and they had survived because they
were very powerful indeed. These were the tales that echoed in the head
long after the books that contained them were cast aside....They were so old
and so strange, that they had found a kind of existence independent of the
pages they occupied. The world of the old tales existed parallel to ours, as
David’s mother had once told him, but sometimes the wall separating the
two became so thin and brittle that the two worlds started to blend into
each other. (p.10)

Then the Crooked Man appears. And David, grieving, confused, angry, and lonely, follows him through the gap in the garden wall.

What happens to David in that other world, the characters that he meets, the problems that confront him, and the solutions that he forms are the heart of the novel. Yes, there is a Woodsman; yes, stories are told, but each time with a slight twist; yes, there is a moral of sorts to each, for the chapters of the novel are laid out like the tales of the Brothers Grimm, which Connolly cites as one of his primary sources for The Book of Lost Things. Indeed, the final 130 pages of the book include a “Conversation” with Connolly; the original version of each tale “recycled” in the telling of David’s story; and Connolly’s own “psychoanalysis” of his young protagonist, a telling that would make Bruno Bettelheim very proud. (Bettelheim, along with Angela Carter, Anne Sexton, Robert Browning, and Mary Shelley, among many others, is included in the catalogue of sources that fed Connolly’s imagination while writing this book.) So there’s a bit of meta-fiction tacked on after “all that was lost was found again,” which adds some geeky fun and explication to the story, though nothing would be lost without it. David’s tale is powerful enough on its own.

One of my favorite--in fact, the funniest--chapters in The Book of Lost Things is Connolly’s version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. In it, the Brothers Grimm meet Walt Disney and drag him to a viewing of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” Here is David’s first encounter with one of Connolly’s dwarves:

“Mind where you’re going,” said the dwarf. He was about three feet
tall and wore a blue tunic, black trousers, and black boots that came up
to his knees. There was a long blue hat on his head, at the end of which
was a little bell that no longer made any sound. His face and hands were
grubby with dirt, and he carried a pickax over one shoulder. His nose was
quite red, and he had a short white beard...

“Sorry,” said David.
“So you should be.”
“I didn’t see you.”
“Oh, and what’s that supposed to mean?” said the dwarf. He waved his pick
threateningly. “Are you sizeist? Are you saying I’m small?” (p.122)

Can’t you just hear Michael Palin as that dwarf?

I gulped The Book of Lost Things down in two quick sessions. It is fast-paced, it is well-written, it is fun. At the point at which you finally think you have Connolly’s story all figured out (Yes, I know this tale, it’ll end like this...) he, like the Crooked Man who pops up to thwart or aid David to serve his own peculiar agenda, has a different trick up his sleeve, and it is very clever. Very clever indeed. The Book of Lost Things is as much a testament to the power of stories to shape us, as it is to the power we have to shape stories of our own. As David discovers--and Connolly states--we leave pieces of ourselves in the stories that we read, just as they leave their pieces in us. We just have to know how, and where, to look.

Connolly, John. The Book of Lost Things (NY: Washington Square Press, 2006). Including the compilation of original tales at the end of the book, it is 470 thoroughly engrossing pages.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Guest Post from C.B. James @ Ready When You Are, C.B.: Winter's Tales - Isak Dinesen

I am so happy to offer you this special treat today. Today's guest post is by C.B. James of Ready When You Are, C.B.. Many of you already know C.B. James...daddy of Dakota, the book-eating Basset Hound, exceptional blogger, the coolest middle school teacher ever, and host of Short-Story Sundays. He was also one of the first official followers of my blog (I'm not counting relatives, for whom following my blog was compulsory). He graciously agreed to participate in a guest post while I am away, offering a review one of his amazing collection of short stories, which will be posted at his site on 6/28. So without further ado...



The low, undulating Danish landscape was silent and serene, mysteriously wide-awake in the hour before sunrise. There was not a cloud in the pale sky, not a shadow along the dim, pearly fields, hills and woods. The mist was lifting from the valleys and hollows, the air was cool, the grass and the foliage dripping wet with morning dew. Unwatched by the eyes of man, and undisturbed by his activity, the country breathed a timeless life, to which language was inadequate.

Perhaps I can be forgiven for thinking Isak Dinesen was a 19th century writer. The opening passage from her short story "Sorrow-acre" quote above certainly sounds like 19th century writing to me, not something a mid-20th century author admired by Ernest Hemingway would produce. Isak Dinesen's writing seems world's away from the writing in "A Clean Well-Lighted Place," in fact, it seems a century away. Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) did not become a writer until mid-life. Born in Denmark in 1885, she married, divorced and ran a coffee plantation in Kenya until the early 1930's when the depression brought it to an end. This experience was the basis for her memoir Out of Africa. She returned to Denmark where she lived until her death in 1962. While she is a 20th century writer, she is also a writer in love with the past. The stories in Winter's Tale are set in the previous century which suits her formal, elegant writing style.

"Sorrow-acre" is set in the Danish countryside during the closing days of the manor system. A young man, Adam, has returned to his family estate to visit his uncle, the lord of the manor, and his uncle's new, much younger wife. Adam's cousin has recently died, making Adam the next-in-line to inherit the estate unless the new wife can bear his uncle a son. Much is at stake for the current lord of the manor. Should Adam decide to remain in Denmark the situation could become very difficult.

"Sorrow-acre" takes place over a single day. In the early morning one of the local peasants, an old woman, comes to the lord of the manor to plead for her son who has been sentenced to ten years in prison for a crime she says he did not commit. The woman insists that this will be the death of her as she has no one but her son to take care of her in her old age. The lord agrees that he will pardon her son if she can harvest the grain on the plot of land in front of them. The woman agrees without hesitation, though everyone knows the plot is too big for a single person, let alone and old woman, to harvest in one day. The lord of the manor insists that no one help the woman and stations his men around the field to ensure that no one does. The woman works steadily throughout the morning without stopping and soon it becomes clear that she may actually complete the task before nightfall. Everyone from the surrounding area abandons their work to watch the old woman. Adam and his uncle watch as well. Once, Adam understands that while the old woman may earn her son's freedom, she is clearly working herself to death, he abandons his uncle and Denmark and heads back to his new home in England.

Dinesen creates a different kind of heroic female in "The Heroine." The main character in "The Heroine" is Frederick, an Englishman who is studying in Berlin in the 1870's. When the Franco-Prussian War breaks out he is forced to join a group of refugees fleeing for France. He is arrested by the Germans in a border town and faces execution for espionage along with the priest, two nuns, a commercial travelers and the beautiful young woman, Heloise, who shared the hotel he was staying in. A German officer offers them all their freedom if Heloise will come to his rooms in the nude. She replies:

"Why do you ask me? ....Ask those who are with me. These are poor people, hard-working, and used to hardships. Here is a French priest," she went on very slowly, "the consoler of many poor souls; here are two French sisters, who have nursed the sick and dying. The two others have children in France, who will fare ill without them. Their salvation is, to each one of them, more important than mine. Let them decide for themselves if they will buy it at your price. You will be answered by them in French."

None of her party agree to the German officer's demands so they are all taken into the courtyard to be shot. At the last minute, the officer relents and gives them all a pass to return to France. Years later, Frederick meets Heloise again when he finds her performing on stage and in the nude. His conversation with her after the show sheds a new light on everything that happened with the German officer. Like the last few lines in a Henry James story, the ending forces the reader to see that nothing was as it first seemed.

Now, tell me, honestly, does this sound like the work of a 20th century author to you?

Guest Post from The Bumbles: The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

Please join me in welcoming Molly from The Bumbles. She has very graciously agreed to do this guest post for me while I am traveling. I've been reading and following Molly and Andy's blog for about six months now, and I can honestly say the day is not complete unless I have been entertained by them in some way. You may recognize their blog name because they are the host of the Monday Movie Meme that you see on my blog each week. They are also the world's biggest Red Sox fans, they are prolific readers, excellent photographers, music lovers, they love to travel (Molly writes for a travel blog)...Molly was even so kind to recommend the world's most comfortable shoe, which I promptly went out and purchased for my Poland trip. If you have not experienced their blog, please do so. Tell them I sent you! So on with the review...heeeeere's Molly!

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Clare Abshire has an interesting way of finding a husband. She meets him in a meadow at her childhood home when she is 6 years old….and he is 36. Except they are really only 8 years apart, so not as creepy as it sounds. This is all due to the wonders of time travel - something that Clare’s husband, Henry DeTamble, is afflicted with.

If you are willing to treat The Time Traveler’s Wife like an episode of Lost, where you suspend all disbelief, stop trying to make sense of time travel guidelines, and let author Audrey Niffenegger take you along for the ride, you will discover a very passionate tale about the destiny of these soul mates and the strength that love can provide through all kinds of obstacles.

Not being a big fan of romance, or fantasy, I was leery of this book. However, it is not a mushy love story hidden beneath some sci-fi jargon as I had feared. The introductions to Henry & Clare are a bit awkward, but once the book gets going Niffenegger engages the reader so strongly with each of them individually that you watch them grow into a unit you can’t bear to see divided.

The book is told entirely from Henry & Clare’s individual perspectives, alternating back and forth between them and giving us the date and their ages at each point along the way. They are told in short sections which makes it easy to read in brief intervals. Niffenegger writes the male perspective equally as well as the female which always makes it easier to relate to the characters on their own terms. The time travel storyline works creatively to move the plot along by weaving pieces into the overall picture to fill in the blanks. And the separation that Henry’s time traveling causes highlights the conviction of their relationship - which is the true message of the book.

Henry & Clare do their best to create a normal life with their friends, their careers, and their family as Henry is constantly disappearing from their present. Sometimes he is gone for a few moments. Other times he is gone for days. They never know where time will bring him or for how long. But often he is visiting Clare in the past - her past - for his presence in it only becomes known to him in his future. Knowing that Henry has left her as she is now to be with her as she remembers him from her childhood is of some comfort to her. But their relationship could give separation anxiety a whole new meaning.

Through all the challenges time presents them, they never lose their passion for each other to the core. They know each other’s thoughts, feelings, actions, and needs so seamlessly. In fact, comparing your own relationship to that of Henry & Clare’s could make you feel very inferior. But then again, you probably haven’t known your significant other in their past, their present and their future, all at the same time. Sometimes that knowledge is dangerous, but Clare & Henry do whatever they can to persevere. After all, it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.

4 out of 5 stars

A guest post with Richard Aaron, author of "Gauntlet"

I am quite excited to introduce to you Richard Aaron, author of "Gauntlet". I am participating in his Pump Up Your Book Promotion blog tour, and tomorrow will be reviewing his action-packed debut novel.

To give us a peek into his thought process on writing an action thriller, Richard is going to explain how he keeps the reader engaged from the first sentence to the very last page. (Trust me, it works.)



It’s like fishing. You need to get the reader’s interest, have him nibble about a bit, and then reel him in. I’ve stood back in bookstores and watched the process when I’m doing a signing. The first thing you need is a good cover – anything that will make the customer pick up the book. Once they have the book in hand, you need a back cover that is loaded with quotes from critics as to how good it is. If you don’t have good quotes, you’re in trouble. The next thing is the front inside jacket fold, summarizing the book. You need to get the customer to read that. It should be full of hooks. THEN you get to the first line, or the first paragraph. It must engage the reader. Here is the first line of Gauntlet: “’So just how big a crater will it make if we blow up 660 tons of Semtex?’ Richard Lawrence asked Sergeant Jason McMurray.”

Here is the opening paragraph of the sequel (Counterplay): “Zak Goldberg was running for his life.”

You need something that will hit hard, and fast. I never even realized that this was a requirement until I found the first line I was going to use for Gauntlet. Then it all made sense.

You must also have, in the first few pages, an exciting event. It’s got to be BIG, or you’ll lose your reader (I’m told you have about 30 seconds to grab an agent’s attention, three pages to grab a reader’s). From there, quickly introduce other intertwining plot lines – I usually play with three or four. As the one story reaches a strategic or dramatic point, cut it off and move to another plot line. This keeps the reader on the hook. They desperately want to know what is happening to Turbee, or Richard, or whoever. But you’ve started talking instead about smuggling drugs across borders.

You have to give the protagonist a long and winding road. If he’s been given a whole novel to tell about his life, make sure it’s an interesting one! Don’t give him the easy way out, and throw a hard situation his way every couple chapters to keep him (or her) guessing. Theirs should not be an easy path to the climax.

Finally, the end should be as big as the beginning. I like to say that Gauntlet starts and ends with a bang, and I think the second novel is going to go the same way. It’s satisfying to the reader, and it appeases my very structured mind.

Thanks so much Richard! Everyone stay tuned for tomorrow's review!