Meet Luna Nightwyn and her 13-y. o. Protag!

Ronald: Hi, Luna and Crystal, I’m glad to have you on my blog. First off, like any good partnerships, I want to know how you first met.

Luna: Well honestly Ronald, I met Crystal when I finally sat down and started putting the idea for the storyline for my book Legend 13.

Crystal: Yeah, she was very indecisive at first too. She was going to start the first chapter with me, but later she went with my older brother Owen.

Ronald: Luna, tell me what would happen if Crystal weren’t listening.

Luna: Well, Crystal is only 13 and 14 in the book, so that happens more than you imagine.

Crystal: Hey Now!

(Luna glances over to Crystal and raises an eyebrow.)

(Crystal crosses her arms and sighs.)

Luna: It has led to a lot of my writers block over the past year.

Ronald: What do you like most about Crystal?

Luna: I like the fact that she is persistent and she isn’t afraid to let the reader know she is having emotionally weak moments.

Ronald: What would you say was the quality you like least her?

Luna: Well as a teenager, she makes some poor choices.

Crystal: Well, how would you react if the power went off everywhere? And as for Todd, we are not going there.

Ronald:  Crystal, how would you describe Luna?

Crystal: I like her. I mean she put me through many scary things. But I know she loves me.

Ronald:  Do you like being written by her?

Crystal: Yeah, because I know that she listens to what I think. If she had a scene in mind and I told her that I wasn’t going to do that, she asked me what I would do. It made several parts of the book waaay different. And she designed the Sap Sphere in Photoshop. How cool is that? I know her daughter Rosie who is 13, wants one and her book for Christmas. So Luna designed one on some website.

Ronald:  Luna, describe Legend 13 in a way that will appeal to my audience.

Luna: Legend 13 is about the coming prophesied date 12-21-2012. The date wasn’t originally set by the Maya people, but long before them in the age of magic. Long ago, a spell was cast to banish magic from the earth that had become contaminated by humans who used what was once a tool for self-serving purposes. This constant misuse tainted it and it became unstable. That is why for so many years people were tortured and killed in the name of magic, though today we don’t know why.

And of course the scientific community is left trying to figure out what is causing the black outs and strange phenomenon but as the year comes to a close they have to admit that there is more going on than first expected. Crystal and her family and friends then try to work together to prevent the veil from falling.

Crystal: You forgot about that secret society psycho that has been stalking us. He tried to shoot me!

(Luna looks at Crystal and shrugs.)

Luna: There are those who work against them, making their task even more dangerous.

Crystal: Understatement of the year.

Ronald:  Crystal, what you think about being fictional?

Crystal: Fictional? After all I went through, you’re going to tell me this all wasn’t real? AAaagghhh!

(Crystal rubs her hands over her face and tugs at her hair.)

Luna: Shhh Ronald, I didn’t tell her that.

Crystal: This is so not happening….

(Ronald turns to Luna as Crystal pulls herself back together.)

Ronald:  What in your life made you want to do this crazy thing of putting words on a page or in a file, and hoping someone cares?

Luna: The plot had been dancing in my head for years but then once the DSL modem went down for weeks and we had no T.V. or internet. I would write a bit then later my kids would come around and I would read it to them. They both loved it so I just kept writing. I ended up reading a bit to my older brother, and then he insisted that I write in a character to represent him. I figured if they all liked it, so much I might as well share it.

Ronald:  Now, Luna, tell me all about this book and prequels/sequels. – Spoilers can be left out. Crystal, you may interrupt, but I have the delete key!

Luna: There is definitely more. When I wrote the original outline, I had planned for a book two. There are so many more storylines I can go with it.

Crystal: What about Zachery?

Luna: What about him?

Crystal: Does he? You know?

Luna: No, I don’t know.

Crystal: Well he is one of the dragon people.

Luna: Yeah, and?

Crystal: Ugh! Never mind!

(Luna stares at Crystal a moment, shakes her head, then looks back at Ronald.)

Luna: Um, ok then.

Ronald: OK, Goofy stuff.

Ronald: Favorite piece of music or song:

Luna: River Flows in You by Yiruma.

Crystal: A Thousand Years by Christina Perri.

Ronald: Favorite recording artist or group:

Luna: TSO.

Crystal: Oh My God, I  love Trans-Siberian Orchestra!

Ronald: ROFL! Do you even KNOW how many people beside us know about TSO!!?

Ronald:  NY Times or Post?

Luna: Both, I like reading mutable sources.

Crystal: Internet, but if the power isn’t restored I don’t think either will continue to exist.

Ronald:  Wine, beer, or liquor?

Luna:  Liquor. I have an intolerance for beer it makes me sick, same thing with some wines.

Crystal: Is he kidding? I am only 14! (Again, Crystal, ROFL - my main character was a pass-out alcoholic by the time she was 15, but she still wound up being CEO of a big Mexican consulting company)

Ronald: Poetry or song lyrics?

Luna: I am not so definitive. And it depends on my mood.

Crystal: Luna writes poetry… She has a book of a collection she had written since she was 13. So Luna’s poetry.

Ronald:  Pizza or pâté?

Crystal: What is pâté?

Luna: I dunno…

(Crystal pulls open her laptop and googles it.)

Crystal: It’s a paste made of meat. Sounds like spam.

Luna and Crystal: Pizza!

Ronald:  How do we find your blog, email you, or buy your books?

Luna: I am on Amazon, and Smashwords, and hopefully soon Barnes and Noble. You can visit me at Nightwyn.com or my Book’s site Legend13.com. there are forms that you can email me right from these sites.

Crystal: There are links, videos, and neat stuff about the book on the Legend 13 site.

http://legend13.com

http://nightwyn.com

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Legend-13-2012-ebook/dp/B008ZND7MC/

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/259124

Sallie's Book Reviews and More: Interview with DM Yates, Author of Always

Sallie's Book Reviews and More: Interview with DM Yates, Author of Always

Magic Words, a Review

I like reading important stories. I like reading well-written stories even more. I even hope that 3 Through History (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/239509) is such a tale. When both needs are satisfied in one reading experience, I like to make it clear to as many people as possible that I have found a gem, a book that will live with the reader as a work of art and as a collection of memorable scenes and unforgettable characters.

Such a book it Magic Words, a meticulously researched historical novel by Gerald Kolpan (2012, Pegasus). The title is a complex play on words. By themselves, the magic refers to two magicians, an older and a much younger brother, who both used the same stage name and between whom there was bad blood boiling, both personal and professional, that extended to affairs of heart and bed, finally resulting in the murder that opens and closes the book. The “words” belonged to the protagonist and major character, Julius Meyer, whose rare gift for languages earned him the title of Speaker of the Ponca Indians, that tribe that was decimated in the Trail of Tears exile. As a phrase, the title captures the power that words, language,  and books have always had for Jews, and when this particular Jew, Julius, finds the Ponca, the phrase is transformed into a kind of prayer.

Kolpan sets himself a prodigious task. The mystery of the murder at the beginning is only solved at the end, and then in such a way that the reader is almost banging the book against the nightstand, demanding that three new questions be answered. So if this were a mere whodunit, it would stand up well. If it were the improbable story of the intrigue between two brothers, several assistants, and other figures of nineteenth-century hocus-pocus and illusion, the reader would be well-rewarded. But this narration informs us of a timeless revelation into what it means to be Jewish, discovered only by Julius One-Tongue Meyer after years of living at once an “egg-eater” and a Ponca: “Sometimes,  I imagine the Ponca are this tribe that was lost to me all that time ago – my people returned from wandering,” Julius tells his betrothed. Our wandering brings us closer to ourselves, if only we can recognize the lost tribesman from whom we were separated, literally or figuratively, so long ago.

Guest interview - The Fab Vallory Vance and her Main Character, Lena

Hi, Vallory and Lena I’m glad to have you on my blog. First off, like any good partnerships, I want to know how you first met.

Vallory: I should probably take this one. I was at an outdoor concert totally into the music and had a thought about what these guys, who had to the power to hold a crowd of thousands entranced, were like at home. I kept thinking about their wives and girlfriends and parents and kids. Ethan spoke to me first and then I met Lena.

Vallory, tell me what you would tell me if your character weren’t listening. Why do you love him/her? Hate him/her?

Vallory: I love Lena. I wish I could be her. Super-mom with a clean house and balanced meals and yoga and looking all cute!

What drives you craziest about him/her?

Vallory: I hate shopping and I have to envision outfits to keep up with her image.

You might know my son through his fictional avatar, Ezra the Dream-Traveller. He’s eleven-years-old. Would you introduce your character to Ezra – do it now, please!

OK, (character wakes up). 

ROFL!! Nothing like dodging a question by claiming that the questioner was asleep! 

Lena, welcome to my blog. I don't get a chance to talk to fictional characters often; perhaps that's why I wrote someone else's character into my latest novel. Now that I have your ears, how would you describe Vallory Vance? Do you like being written by her?

Lena Spencer: Vallory has her moments, but she can be a little scattered and is frequently late.

Each of you, tell me about a time when you had to share something with each other.

Lena: I shared with Vallory the importance of having a schedule.

Vallory: And I shared with Lena that the muse cannot be scheduled!

Now, how about a time when you had an argument.

Vallory: I think this is it right now. As Lena and I have discussed, I’m not as organized as her. Therefore she has to cut me some slack. Jeez, I feel like Ethan!

Lena: Do you think that was…

Vallory, describe your novels in a way that will appeal to my audience.

I like to think I write sweet and sexy romances that allow the reader a fun escape.

Lena, what do you think about being fictional?

Lena: It’s very hard to explain. I’m pretty real to myself!

Vallory, I’m going back to that first question. Did you start the book with Lena, with the plot, or some other way?

Vallory: I think I started with the hero’s job and went from there.

What in your life made you want to do this crazy thing of putting words on a page or in a file, and hoping someone cares?

Vallory: I’ve always wanted to be a writer and finally at 40, I decided just to do it.

Now, Vallory, tell me all about this book and prequels/seuels. – Spoilers can be left out. Lena, you may interrupt, but I have the delete key!!

Vallory: Music for Her Soul is a contemporary second chance romance. Ethan Holden is returning after a 10 month European tour to reclaim the heart of Lena Spencer. And as you’ve seen if it’s not on Lena’s schedule, it takes a lot to it done.

OK: Goofy stuff.

Favorite piece of music:  I’m really into Ray Charles and B.B. Kings’ Sinners’ Prayer right now.

Favorite recording artist: The Purple One - Prince

NY Times or Post? Times

Wine, beer, or liquor? Wine – Pinot Grigio

Poetry or song lyrics? Song Lyrics

Pizza or paté? Pizza (but still love pate)

How do we find your blog, email you, or buy your books? You can find me on the Vallory V Blog, Smashwords and Amazon!

When We Danced on Water by Evan Fallenberg, a review

When We Danced on Water: A Novel

Dear Hitler:

If the word didn’t strangle me, I might thank you for creating a world that brought forth the legendary power and strength of my people. You yourself, through your propaganda film department, documented our ends, but you left it to masters of fiction like Evan Fallenberg to tell our stories of survival. You have created a universe of pain behind you. It’s not our deaths we rage against in the generations that follow; it’s the pain of the last three years, the last five years, the last twelve years, even, in the case of some of us, the last fifty or sixty years of our lives. You called us vermin; we looked our torturers in the eye and spat on them as we endured their blows.

Just ask Teo. Ask him, Herr Hitler, what he did the final moment of the War, when he escaped his six year slavery as the personal plaything of an obsessed monster, who rose to be your top Minister of Culture before this slavemaster was pressed into service as an increasingly overmatched lieutenant, Captain, Lieutenant General, and finally, escapee. Ask your Baron Friedrich von Sadistschafft how many boys he demolished on the way to his enslavement of potentially the best male dancer of his era, possibly even a rival to Nijinsky. Go to Israel, and ask Teo’s friend of his twilight, Vivi, whose life was dissolute, fading, even, at the age of forty-two, who met your survivor of Reichskutltursschafft and, fired full of passion, the holy twin of obsession, created legendary installations in defiance of everything you were and everything you twisted your people into becoming. Ask their child, conceived on the very last night of Teo’s life, the eternal tribute to the fact that you were defeated, whereas we were merely destroyed. From every destruction there are survivors, memories. From your defeat, a shame that no one nation could bear, not even one Germany.

We, the readers of Evan Fallenberg’s masterful tale, will feel the passion that Fallenberg nurtures, from the Teo’s first studio, the parks and balustrades of Warsaw, to the school in Copenhagen where he would emerge, ready to take over the Reich’s balletic imagination, to Teo’s capture, enslavement, and violation at the hand of the evil of this culture officer’s obsession. We will walk the streets of your Berlin with Vivi, the Israeli whose life, and passion, had fallen out of focus at the hand of another German, who could not shoulder your burden alone. We will feel the would that seared your city’s heart for thirty years. We will follow Vivi back to the streets of Tel Aviv where, through her association and eventual romance with Teo, discovered a wellspring of passion inside herself and went from coffee-shop waitress and dilettante to the artist to whom presidents paid obeisance. Finally, I call on your rotten bones to twist and cry out like the Biblical victims of Dathan and Abiram, wailing your apologies to the grave while Teo’s and Vivi’s son Nathaniel, “Given by G!d,” dances in some decades on your metaphoric and real grave.<br /><br />We, the survivors, their grandchildren, their neighbors and the descendants of their neighbors, read the words masterfully imagined by Mr. Fallenberg, and we give praise for passion, for it is passion that creates true art.<br /><br />You can watch Evan Fallenberg read from his novel When We Danced on Water at the PEN Written on Water festival at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-okE1VVvQI&feature=related

Girl, Unwrapped - A review by Ronald Fischman

I am almost as old as Gabriella Goliger. This may, in fact, be a disadvantage in reading and enjoying Girl, Unwrapped by Ms. Goliger, a long-term Canadian whose first novel has erupted on the world after fifty years of practice.  I am no stranger to memoir; my first novel is about 50% memoir. Neighter am I a stranger to Montreal, having hiked (and I use the term with full knowledge) the elevation from McGill up to the top of the mountain on which Toni Goldblatt, Goliger’s lead, spends her earliest years. The coming-of-age story of young Ms. Goldblatt seems as vital as the stories I hear from the college girls in my creative writing classes. The advantage that Goliger shares with us is the distance – a good thirty years – that brings with it the wisdom to choose just those moments that made Toni who she became.

Born to Holocaust survivors, Toni’s life goes off the greased rails of her parents’ expectations in the primary grades, when her mother brings home one pouffy, girly textile monstrosity after another. Young Toni, the epitome of tomboy, is as horrified by these creations as her mother is with the scruffy, dirty jeans and tops that she favors. Toni’s body further trumps her mother’s expectations, growing tall and rail-thin, like her father. Her expulsion from summer camp after her drunken pledge of eternal devotion and love for the music teacher, a woman, cement her status as a lost child for her poor mother. I almost feel sorry for Toni’s mom – almost.

This is how Goliger shines. I feel the spirit of the androgynous child. I feel the passion of her desperate crush on the music teacher, incredibly hot and barely old enough to be called a woman. I feel the need to connect, in Zionism, with an idea greater than oneself. I see the women, young and old, of Toni’s life through her emerging lesbian eyes, not my own.  There is only one beef I have with this excellent memoir. Goliger is of the “Hope-I-Die-Before-I-Get-Old” generation. It shows. Her protagonist lives 35% of this book as a child, and another 35% meeting her first crush and chasing her all the way to Israel. That leaves thirty percent of the book. I say that Goliger tried too hard to work Toni’s identity as a young adult lesbian in here, as if there wouldn’t be another book. Or could it be that the juice of Toni’s life is sucked dry by the time she is only 25? As “Girl, Unwrapped,” Toni is pretty well unwrapped and exposed by the time she ends her girlhood. As deeply as I bonded with Ms. Goliger’s character through her exodus from girlhood, I would have gladly read a sequel that revealed how this coming of age tale formed the young woman that I would have loved to come to know.

Best Book for Very Old (and some very young)

“Nothing, nothing I try, nothing I say, nothing I do, gets through to her!” How many times have we, the sandwich generation, heard this lament from our friends, our bridge partners, our work colleagues, or even ourselves? The problem is that our aged parents are confronted with the growing loss of mental capacity. Not being a clinician, I am not able to say what degree of self-awareness the increasingly demented family member retains, I know that the children or caregivers of elderly people facing dementia do not enjoy “The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”

So what do we do? How do we make the hours we spend with the elderly any form of a reward – or at least, not so punishing to our hearts and to our psyches? Music therapy is great, and we know that music makes a connection. In his new book, Blue Sky White Clouds: A Book for Memory-Challenged Adults (2012, Rainbow Ridge Books), Eliezer Sobel creates a storyboard of twenty-six evocative photographs in which the story ranges far, far beyond the four or five 48-point words captioning the picture.

When I first tried to use the book with a senior, I chose for one example the picture of a row of pines blanketed in snow, arising from a deep cottony landscape with the ever-so-common grey winter sky, rendered much more friendly by the black-and-white format. I was able to create a conversation about visiting a friend’s house for Christmas. My elderly friend selected one of the trees in the picture and imagined decorations. I know that I could have led an entire therapy session if that were my profession, using Christmas ornaments, gingerbread cookies, and candles, then going deeper into a patient’s own background to make deeper and deeper connections. My friend was able to read the caption out loud, and with the book open to that picture, remain engaged for  fifteen minutes. What a gift!

Because I am an older dad, I was able to test out another hypothesis. I have long known that the cognitive abilities of children far exceeds their reading level or even their linguistic capacities. Might the rich, real, pictorial stories rendered in Sobel’s book hold the attention of people at the opposite end of the age spectrum? My own daughter, at five years of age just beginning to read, was able to turn to any picture and with some help, read the caption. More importantly, the pictures evoked stories, coming out almost without prompting from a little girl who has suffered from expressive language delay. Ten minutes talking about a brilliant black and yellow butterfly on a purple and white iris.

I am suggesting, although I don’t have research to back this up, that these evocative, rich pictures of the great and small, the very old and very young, the tiny and the vast, reach in and touch the cognitive function and emotional processing of the very old and the very young in a way that is usually reserved for the music therapist. At 26 pages, the book is more than manageable to the reader, and offers the caregiver the opportunity to connect in a rich and vital way.