Bookblog of the Bristol Library: How the Heather Looks: A Joyous Journey to the British Sources of Children’s Books by Joan Bodger

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: How the Heather Looks: A Joyous Journey to the Bri...:   Reviewed by Jeanne Many, many years ago, a fellow librarian encouraged me to read How the Heather Looks if I had any interest in chil...

SleuthSayers: Fooling the Professors; Schooling the Professors

SleuthSayers: Fooling the Professors; Schooling the Professors:   I recently came across the strange story of an unusual brand of criminal - a literary forger.  He committed his crimes almost two centurie...

Gravetapping: THE NICKEL BOYS by Colson Whitehead

Gravetapping: THE NICKEL BOYS by Colson Whitehead: This is review is for a book different from the usual fare at Gravetapping , but it is a marvelous and important novel that satisfies on eve...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Lit Stitch: 26 Cross-Stitch Patterns for Book Lovers ...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Lit Stitch: 26 Cross-Stitch Patterns for Book Love...: Reviewed by Kristin Lit Stitch is an excellent mix for anyone who loves books, and who is feeling a little crafty. Most of these ...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Fifth Avenue Story Society by Rachel Hauck

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Fifth Avenue Story Society by Rachel Hauck: Reviewed by Jeanne Five strangers receive an invitation to a meeting:   The Fifth Avenue Story Society.   The invitation is ano...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Sanditon by Jane Austen and Another Lady

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Sanditon by Jane Austen and Another Lady: Reviewed by Jeanne With the recent PBS airing of ”Sanditon” and a Book Bingo square I needed to fill, I decided to give Sanditon a ...

Patricia Abbott Reviews: WHAT IT MIGHT FEEL LIKE TO HOPE by Dorene O'Brien

Patricia Abbott Reviews: WHAT IT MIGHT FEEL LIKE TO HOPE by Dorene O'Brien

Do Some Damage: Take ‘Genre vs. Literature’ Out Back with a Shovel...

Do Some Damage: Take ‘Genre vs. Literature’ Out Back with a Shovel...: My reaction to the recent Book Riot article, 12 Mystery Novels for Fans of Literary Novels  by Heather Bottoms, was "Oh, dear God.&qu...

By way of the CRWROPPS-B list --- book fair seeks submissions: Texas Book Fair

Submissions for the 2017 Texas Book Festival are now open.
2017 Festival submissions are open January 9, 2017 – June 1, 2017.

http://www.texasbookfestival.org/submit-book/

The Texas Book Festival typically presents approximately 250 authors, from Texas and beyond, whose books are published in the year the Festival takes place. All authors who are invited to participate will be featured in a panel or solo session; the Festival does not feature authors for book signings only.

Please read all of the following information before submitting a book to the Festival:

How is a book considered?

To be considered for this year’s Festival, please send or have your publicist send us the following:

• Two copies of a finished book/galley/ARC/manuscript. Electronic submissions will not be considered
• A press kit with clippings, reviews,  author bio, marketing plan for the submitted book, and list of previously published titles.
• Topics which you are available to discuss.
• Information about your or your publisher’s ability to fund your own travel to Austin.
• Please mail these items to: Julie Wernersbach, Texas Book Festival, 610 Brazos, Suite 200, Austin, Texas 78701

When should a book be submitted?

We accept submissions of books January 9 through June 1 in the same year as the Festival. While we will consider books published up to 18 months prior to the start of the Festival, priority is given to books published within the Festival year.

Who decides which authors are invited?

An Author Selection Committee comprised of publishing and book professionals considers the submissions and chooses who will be invited. The bulk of invitations go out between the beginning of May and the end of August.

What types of books are considered?

While we review all books that are submitted, our main goal is to provide an excellent and diverse mix of literature for all visitors and participating authors featuring books from the following genres:

• Fiction — including all genres such as thrillers and Westerns
• Narrative nonfiction — history, biography, memoir, and essays. Nonfiction books are considered from a variety of perspectives that encourage and engage in fair, respectful discussions of history, figures and ideas.
• Graphic novels
• Cookbooks and food-related titles
• Poetry
• Children’s and YA literature
• Art and architecture titles
• Titles with a Texas focus and titles written by Texas authors

What types of books are not considered?

The Texas Book Festival focuses on the promotion of literature and Texas literary culture; books on the topics of self-improvement, how-to, or books strictly of academic or religious interest will not be considered.

Should a self-published/printed author submit?

Self-published titles will only be considered if they meet the following criteria:

• The title is bound
• Printed copies can be available for our book seller to sell
• A professional has edited the work
• An established marketing plan has been made and is submitted with the title
• A functional author website exists

The consideration for self-published titles that meet the above criteria will be the same as traditionally published books, outlined above. For the 2017 Festival, we will not accept self-published titles that exist only in ebook format.

Questions?

(512) 477-4055 or bookfestATtexasbookfestivalDOTorg.

Crime Time : MAGGIE: A Girl of the Streets – Stephen Crane

Crime Time : MAGGIE: A Girl of the Streets – Stephen Crane: With no knowledge the expression gadzooks did or did not exist in the latter part of the 19 th century I presume here to employ the afore...

Crime Time : SOMETHING HAPPENED -- Joseph Heller

Crime Time : SOMETHING HAPPENED -- Joseph Heller: I'm just over halfway through my second reading of Something Happened but I'm already ready to write about it. This doesn't ...

Crime Time : THE DISCOMFORT ZONE -- "Jonathan Franzen"

Crime Time : THE DISCOMFORT ZONE -- "Jonathan Franzen": I have come uncomfortably near reaching a conclusion that "Jonathan Franzen" is the most ingenious, elaborately implausible hoax ...

Crime Time : LEAVING THE ATOCHA STATION -- Ben Lerner

Crime Time : LEAVING THE ATOCHA STATION -- Ben Lerner: One and possibly two good things came of my not knowing then that Jonathan Franzen had given Leaving the Atocha Station a two-eyebrows-up...

Guest Post: "Hamlet’s Tablet" by B.K. Stevens

Please welcome B.K. Stevens who has a few thoughts about the universal message that runs throughout mystery and literature……

Hamlet’s Tablet

By B.K. Stevens

Hamlet is full of mysteries. I don’t mean the death of Hamlet’s father. Since his ghost shows up at the end of Act I to reveal exactly where, when, how, why, and by whom he was murdered, the play’s not much of a whodunit. But Hamlet does hold other sorts of mysteries. For example, does Hamlet merely feign madness, or does he actually slip into it? Scholars and critics can debate that one until Hamlet’s too, too solid flesh finally melts—or is it his too, too sullied flesh? Scholars and critics can debate that one endlessly, too. Then there’s the mystery that puzzled me deeply when I first read the play way back in high school. When I eventually (I think) figured it out, it gave me some insight into why mysteries have such a strong appeal—and why they’re so important.

The lines that seemed so odd to me come near the end of Act I, right after Hamlet talks to his father’s ghost. The ghost says he was murdered by his brother, Claudius, who then married his widow and assumed his throne. Hamlet is enraged and shocked. Only hours ago, Claudius had spoken to him kindly, seeming so loving, so concerned—and all the time he was hiding this horrible secret. Hamlet reaches for his writing tablet, or “tables,” and says,

Oh villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!

My tables—meet it is I set it down

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;

At least, I’m sure it may be so in Denmark.   [Writing]

Shakespeare includes one of his rare stage directions to make it clear that Hamlet literally writes this insight down. He seems to want to emphasize its importance.

I didn’t get it. Hamlet’s supposed to be smart. The other characters think he’s smart, and his dialogue has been witty and quick. But he never before realized people can pretend to be nice but actually be nasty? That’s obvious—everybody knows that. Hamlet, though, acts as if it’s news to him, and he writes it down as if he’s afraid he’ll forget it. How is that consistent with his character?

The question came back to mind from time to time over the years, whenever I taught the play or watched it performed. And it came to mind again when I ran across a statement by Jim Thompson, the author of The Killer Inside Me and other hardboiled crime novels. “There are thirty-two ways to write a story, and I’ve used every one,” Thompson says. “But there is only one plot—things are not as they seem.” The first part of that statement struck me as playful: I doubted Thompson had actually counted up thirty-two ways of writing a story. The second part of the statement struck me as outrageous—and also as quite possibly true.

“Things are not as they seem”—again, that seems obvious, so obvious it hardly needs to be said, far too obvious to be the plot of every literary work ever written. I tried testing Thompson’s formula against everything from fairy tales to far more sophisticated works. Cinderella seems doomed to a servile, miserable life, while her stepmother and stepsisters seem completely in control—but that doesn’t stay true for long. In Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy seems thoroughly despicable, Mr. Wickham thoroughly honorable—but Elizabeth discovers the reverse is true. And Claudius smiles and smiles but proves a villain.

Could that really be the lesson all literature teaches us? Why should we need to be taught such a basic lesson so often? Why should Hamlet need to write it down in his tablet?

Maybe it’s because on one level, yes, we all know that appearances can be deceiving, that we need to think critically, that we have to look beneath the surface to find the truth. But we don’t believe it, not really. We don’t believe it because we don’t want to. We all like to think of ourselves as savvy, even skeptical, but we keep getting tricked again and again. We meet a charming person and want to believe we’ve found a true friend; we hear an inspiring speech and want to believe we’ve found a true leader. In our personal lives, in our professional lives, in politics, we keep forgetting that things are not as they seem. We keep being deceived by smiling villains.

Maybe that’s why literary works need to keep hitting us over the head with the same obvious message. Maybe that’s why Hamlet was smart enough to realize he needed to write it down in his tablet. And maybe that’s why we need to keep reading mysteries.

In mysteries, the lesson that things are not as they seem is front and center. The obvious suspect is probably not the actual murderer, the motive is probably not what it at first seems to be, and the method, the time of death, and just about everything else could also defy our expectations. Mysteries constantly remind us to stay alert, to question everything we see, to avoid making easy assumptions. And they don’t just preach that lesson: They make us live through it, again and again, as we share characters’ delusions and discoveries. In that way, mysteries act as a powerful antidote to the natural human inclination to accept the surface of things without digging deeper.

Mysteries can also offer us other lessons, of course, and so can other kinds of literature. At their best, they help us learn how to distinguish between the apparent and the real. But as long as they keep hammering away at the basic message Jim Thompson identifies, as long as they keep reminding us of the painful truth Hamlet writes down in his tablet, that’s probably reason enough to keep reading.

B. K. Stevens ©2016

B.K. (Bonnie) Stevens is the author of Interpretation of Murder, a traditional whodunit offering insights into deaf culture, and Fighting Chance, a young adult martial arts mystery. She’s also published over fifty short stories, most in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and has won a Derringer and been nominated for Agatha and Macavity awards. This year, Fighting Chance and one of her stories are both nominated for Agatha awards. www.bkstevensmysteries.com.

FFB Review: "CANNERY ROW" (1945) by John Steinbeck (Reviewed by Barry Ergang)

For this first Friday in 2016 Barry Ergang gets things started here for Fridays Forgotten Books. After you read his review, head on over to Todd Mason’s Sweet Freedom Blog for other reading suggestions as he is substituting for Patti Abbott again this week.

CANNERY ROW (1945) by John Steinbeck

Reviewed by Barry Ergang

Entertaining and informative though it is, John Steinbeck’s short, fast-moving, frequently funny but also poignant Cannery Row is not the easiest fiction to describe, all previous adjectives notwithstanding. More a portrait of a place, time and populace—the impoverished waterfront and (obviously) cannery area of Monterey, California during the Depression era, and the denizens thereof—than a conventionally-plotted work, it could stand as an exemplar of the “episodic” novel.  

As the author describes it in the opening sentence, “Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.”

The principal plot thread, such as it is, concerns the man known as Doc, who owns and operates Western Biological Laboratory, which supplies specimens of various kinds to researchers. Among the inhabitants of Cannery Row are Mack and the boys (Hazel, Eddie, Gay, Hughie, and Jones), local derelicts who have persuaded grocery/multifarious goods supplier Lee Chong to allow them to live in a local warehouse of sorts which he, Chong, has acquired. After fixing it up, “the boys moved in and the fish meal moved out. No one knows who named the house that has been known ever after as the Palace Flophouse and Grill.” And because over time Mack, the boys, and their friends conclude that Doc merits a reward of sorts, they decide a party at Western Biological is in order.  

Anything said beyond that regarding the plot would be a spoiler.

Intervening chapters include historical information about the area as well as anecdotes and vignettes about many of the other inhabitants of Cannery Row, among them Dora, owner of the Bear Flag Restaurant, the whorehouse of which she is the madame, and some of the women who work for her; Henri, artist and boat-builder who is not exactly what he seems; Mr. and Mrs. Sam Malloy, pipe-renters; and a considerable number of others.

Despite my advanced (read hoary) years, this is only the second of Steinbeck’s novels I’ve ever read, the first having been Of Mice and Men a few decades or so ago. As I hinted at in the first paragraph herein, and want to point out now as superbly written, it is well worth anyone’s time.

© 2016 Barry Ergang

 

Examples of Derringer Award-winner Barry Ergang’s work can be found at Smashwords and Amazon. His website is http://www.writetrack.yolasite.com/

Literature vs genre is a battle where both sides lose (The Guardian)

Literature vs genre is a battle where both sides lose (The Guardian)

5 Incredible Debut Novels

5 Incredible Debut Novels

2014 FFB Review Roundup

Fridays mean Friday’s Forgotten Books hosted by Patti Abbott. While it is a new year, I thought today a look back was worth doing. Below, organized by the month, you will find the FFB Reviews that Barry, Patrick, and I did over the course of last year. The list does not include the numerous links to FFB things at the blogs of Randy Johnson, Bill Crider, and others. So, grab a beverage and whatever you use to make a reading list and start working on your reading plan for 2015……

January

Bones of the Rain: A Blue-Eyed Indian Mystery by Russ Hall

Baby Grape and Huskey by Thom Rodgers

The Floating Lady Murder by Daniel Stashower (Barry Ergang)

Cover of Snow by Jenny Milchman

The Remake: As Time Goes By  by Stephen Humphrey Bogart (Barry Ergang)

February

The Last Refuge by Chris Knopf

The Tattoo Murder Case  by Akimitsu Takagi / Translator Deborah Boehm (Patrick Ohl)

The Corpse in the Car by John Rhode (Patrick Ohl)

KIRINYAGA: A FABLE OF UTOPIA by Mike Resnick (Barry Ergang)

March

BAR-20 by Clarence E. Mulford (Barry Ergang)

In The Best Families by Rex Stout (Patrick Ohl)

The Perfect Defective: A Novella by Clark Casey

Artie And The Long-Legged Woman by Jan Christensen

April

Too Late For Tears by Roy Huggins (Barry Ergang)

A Patchwork of Stories: 9 Tales from Sunny Side Up to Over Hard  by Kaye George

Fast One by Paul Cain (Barry Ergang)

The Education of H*y*m*a*n K*a*p*l*a*n by Leonard Q. Ross (Barry Ergang)

May

The Feedstore Chronicles by Travis Erwin

Strange World: A Biff Bam Pop Short Story Anthology  compiled by Andrew Burns, JP Fallavollita, David Sandford Ward and Corina Newby

The Ugly Princess: The Karlathia Chronicles by Elizabeth Burton

THE BRAT by Gil Brewer (Barry Ergang)

The Last Horseman by Frank Zafiro (the Thrilling Thirteen collection)

The Dream Walker by Charlotte Armstrong (Patrick Ohl)

June

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino (Patrick Ohl)

The Last Call: A Bill Travis Mystery by Gorge Wier

NIGHT SQUAD by David Goodis (Barry Ergang)

Cop Hater by Ed McBain (Patrick Ohl)

July

Red¸ White, And Blue Murder: A Sheriff Dan Rhodes Mystery by Bill Crider

Not Sleeping, Just Dead by Charles Alverson (Barry Ergang)

The False Inspector Dew by Peter Lovesey (Patrick Ohl)

The Death of Laurence Vining by Alan Thomas (Patrick Ohl)

August

The Man Who Turned Into Himself  by David Ambrose (Barry Ergang)

The Merry Hippo by Elspeth Huxley (Patrick Ohl)

Drum Beat-Madrid by Stephen Marlowe (Barry Ergang)

The Singing Bone by R. Austin Freeman (Patrick Ohl)

The Zebra-Striped Hearse  by Ross Macdonald (Patrick Ohl)

September

The Religious Body by Catherine Aird (Patrick Ohl)

The Toll House Murder by Anthony Wynne (Patrick Ohl)

A Vampire Named Fred by Bill Crider

A Werewolf Named Wayne by Bill Crider

October

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz (Patrick Ohl)

Walking The Perfect Square  by Reed Farrel Coleman

A Painted House by John Grisham

Patterns In Silicon: A Lea Sherwood Mystery by Maureen Robb

Texas Vigilante (Ellie Taine Book Two) by Bill Crider

November

Short Stories of Earl Staggs by Earl Staggs (Barry Ergang)

The Devil’s Bones by Larry D. Sweazy

Kings of Colorado: A Novel by David E. Hilton

Four of a Kind: Four Tales of Mystery and Suspense editor Douglas Quinn

December

As Tough As They Come edited by Will Oursler (Barry Ergang)

Too Late To Die by Bill Crider

Protectors: Stories to Benefit PROTECT editor Thomas Pluck

The Sinatra Files edited by Tom Kuntz and Phil Kuntz (Barry Ergang)

That was our efforts for 2014. Next week Barry kicks off the 2015 FFB Reviews……so stay tuned.