Storymusing: Upon a Once Time

 

The theme for our book club in February was “A Retelling.” They seem to be everywhere, particularly in Young Adult literature. I was able to pull a short collection of stories from my bookshelf at home called Upon a Once Time. Unfortunately, it isn’t one that would be widely available because it came from a Kickstarter by Todd Sanders of the Air and Nothingness Press. http://aanpress.com/ Though this book was a limited run and is sold out, they have quite a catalog of other books.

If you’ve never heard of such a thing, Kickstarters for books and games have become quite common. There’s a Kickstarter page devoted to “Publishing” which says “Explore how writers and publishers are using Kickstarter to bring new literature, periodicals, podcasts, and more to life.” The proposed projects run a fascinating gamut of fiction and non-fiction, including comics, art books, zines, and so much more. You can check it out at https://www.kickstarter.com/publishing. I’ve seen both new authors, anthologies of new and established authors, and even well-established authors creating projects through Kickstarter.

I thought the cover art for this book, by Serena Malyon, was incredibly lovely, giving the feel of a fantastical yesteryear very appropriate for fairy tale retellings. Malyon is a Canadian freelance illustrator and artist. Her site calls this piece “Tokens” and says it was worked in watercolour and gouache. Its colors are muted but the picture is detailed. You can view more of her artwork on her web site at https://www.serenamalyon.com/

It’s also nice that it was an anthology, showcasing 21 different authors. I love this way of getting to experience what different authors have to offer. I might like a couple stories, really not care for one at all, then find one that I absolutely loved! It’s a great way to find new authors to follow.

There was a Tom Thumb retelling set in space, Little Tom’s Reality by Rebecca E. Treasure, that caught my attention and the twist of it was particularly poignant to me. Tom is a small child never allowed to leave his living quarters because the winds would whisk him away. His home life is not pleasant though and one night he becomes desperate to see the outside so he sneaks into his mother’s spacesuit. When he opens the airlock, it is nothing like he imagined.

Diamonds, Toads, And… Pumpkins? by Melissa Mead was delightfully humorous and yet wretchedly realistic in how women have to sometimes put up with others deciding what their existence means and what they need. It reminded me a bit of a Sir Terry Pratchett story, whose long running Discworld series borrowed heavily from fairy tales and other fantastical stories. Excellent company to be in.

I always love a good golem story. I don’t know what it is about the idea that appeals to me so much, perhaps the alien-ness of experiencing the world as a clay person, not quite human, and often fumbling. The Rabbi’s Daughter And The Golem by Alex Langer did not disappoint as a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

If you can get your hands on a copy of this book, I highly recommend it. I still have the companion volume to read.

The theme for our book club in March is “Self-improvement” and I’ve been reading ahead. I quickly finished the audio recording of The Life-Changing Magic of NOT GIVING A F*CK: how to stop spending time you don’t have with people you don’t like doing things you don’t want to do by Sarah Knight. It’s a truly practical parody.  I’ve picked up another, more serious, self-improvement book and I’ll have lots to recommend in this area next month.

Book Review: Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang

 

Guest review by Tarren Young

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence:

An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution

by R.F. Kuang

 

Whose job is it to determine who is and who isn’t civilized?

It started with a bestie raving about the reviews. From that alone, I was amped up not with just a monstrous desire, but an unyielding need to read Babel by author R.F. Kuang. This fascinating book delves deep into the underpinnings of academia using an underlying magic, crackling like an unseen electrical current, to discuss colonialism in great detail.

Robin Swift is “saved” by Professor Lovell after his mother dies of cholera in Canton, China. In England, he is raised by Lovell and tutored until he is old enough to attend Oxford, where Lovell works. There, Robin meets his first real friends – Remy, Victoire, and Letty. As they learn the mysterious silver work that underpins the modern conveniences of the world they live in, the gross inequities that their work rests on are revealed and the four must make some hard decisions.

Babel, starting in the mid 1800’s, is at its core a fictional social commentary of the mindsets different classes of people held during that period. A sharp, but often jagged, line that cuts right into humanity itself. One class of people believe this, another believes that. Yet everyone benefits in some form from the academic brains and silver work, the magic that sits at the heart of Oxford, the Tower of Babel.

Even though everyone benefits, what happens at the Tower is like the old Vegas saying, “What happens at Babel, stays at Babel.” What exactly goes on at Babel? Who runs Babel? And as such, who truly benefits from Babel? What social class of people are reaping the benefits from the work at Babel?

Though some of the characters seemed to be a bit one dimensional, I feel they were portrayed that way to attest to the hierarchy hive mind of how specific social classes were viewed. Several characters seem to be more human, and that’s what this book really tries to address. Who is considered human, and who is below that status—in the mindsets of those different social classes.

Another facet of what this novel does — it seeks to understand, and deconstruct our understanding. It is an exploration to challenge preconceived notions of what the reader thinks they already know.

I willingly admit that this has been the most academic novel I have read since the early 2000’s when I was in college. And, if I’m being honest, it felt daunting at times. Some parts of the novel were fascinating, but it did not stop me from wanting to DNF (did not finish) the book at times. The one-dimensional characters fell into that consideration.

I did love learning more about a time and situation I only knew a hairs breadth about. And the later characters showed growth. There was witty and sarcastic banter! (Sarcasm may not be the high class of social acceptance for academia, but I do enjoy good sarcasm.) Despite the spots of tedium, it also seemed accessible. There were some thought-provoking twists one could not see coming that were appreciated as well.

However, in all of this, there is still something I can’t quite put my finger on about the book that made me not rate it a full four stars. (My overall rating on the book was 3.5/5 stars.) I have been wracked with it for a week, and I still have yet to come to a solid conclusion on why.

Even with this still niggling in the back of my brain, I am glad to have read it, to have learned, to challenge myself — to still think on it long into the early depths of the morning.

             

Review: Sweet Tea Witch Mysteries by Amy Boyles

 

Sweet Tea Witch Mysteries

by Amy Boyles

Well, shrimp and grits! This is a total fluff but it was just the right kind of fluff I needed to relax while driving during the holiday season. I didn’t have to focus too hard on it, just let the words wash over me.

Apparently there are 26 books in this series but Hoopla only has the first 5 on audio. Those 5 are pretty fun and a good enough series run for me. There isn’t enough depth to warrant reading more than that for me, at least not right now. I do wonder how the series has developed though, and might pick up some further along in the series at some point. I figure no writer is static in their skills and if this was good enough to enjoy now, it could get a lot better later on.

Sweet Tea Witch Mysteries are everything you expect in a paranormal cozy mystery. There’s witches and wizards, and as the series progresses there are werewolves, dragons, vampires, etc. Characters are larger than life, laugh out loud funny, and the reading gives them the perfect spin.

Pepper Dun doesn’t even know she’s a witch when the series starts but the author keeps you reading and laughing as the worst day of Pepper’s life unfolds. She loses her job, her apartment, and her boyfriend. (Sounds like a country song but it seems to me she isn’t losing much in any of those situations.) Strangely enough, she doesn’t seem too happy to find out that she’s a witch. I would be!

Then, after a wizard threatens her and a talking cat helps her escape, she sets out on the road to Magnolia Cove, Alabama. In Magnolia Cove she finds her long lost granny and a ready-made family of cousins, plus she finds out she has inherited a pet store.

One thing that confused me was how she was allergic to animals, and particularly cats, with all the big symptoms, trouble breathing, and itching, etc., but she just kind of gets over it. The writer could have at least had her grandmother create Pepper some kind of magical antihistamine. If she did, I missed it.

In book 1, she is accused of murdering the man who wanted to buy her pet store, which is pretty strange seeing as she wanted to sell it to him. She meets a handsome man named Axle and they have an instant attraction, standard stuff.

The series is a bit repetitive. There isn’t a lot of depth here, but it’s silly and fun. In book 2, her grandmother is accused of murder and in book 3 she receives a baby dragon but a magician tries to buy him and she ends up under scrutiny, again, for murder.

There are things that are trite and absolutely overdone in the type of book. It’s almost a reverse Scooby Doo where the main character IS supernatural.

However, I the southern setting and the idea of the witch owning a pet store for familiars. Her ability to read the limited thoughts of animals was a nice touch and useful in the stories.

The author did pick some unusual phrases to repeat for certain characters, like Pepper sort of sliding a shoulder down the wall in book 5. It gave me pause every time she said it. I think the author was trying to give her a character tag to repeat every time she was in a scene, but that one, along with some others at different times over the five books I read, just didn’t quite work.

Some people suggested that she must not be southern but I wouldn’t know it. She clearly loves all things southern as all her books are set there.

It’s a fun series and I’d give what I’ve read a solid 3 stars, maybe 3.5.

Some other cozy mysteries I’ve enjoyed and reviewed - 

Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2022/11/storymusing-chillers-and-thrillers.html

The Vanishing Type by Ellery Adams https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2022/05/a-merry-month-of-may-multitude-of-book.html

Little Bookshop of Murder by Maggie Blackburn https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2021/07/book-review-little-bookshop-of-murder.html

Swamp Spook: A Miss Fortune Mystery by Jana DeLeon https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2021/07/book-review-swamp-spook-miss-fortune.html

The Nina Quinn Mysteries by Heather Webber https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2021/04/book-review-nine-quinn-mysteries-by.html

Death in Avignon by Serena Kent https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2021/07/book-review-death-in-avignon-by-serena.html

The Witchcraft Mysteries by Juliet Blackwell https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2021/05/book-review-witchcraft-mysteries-by.html

Death By Dumpling: A Noodle Shop Mystery by Vivien Chien https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2021/03/book-review-death-by-dumpling-noodle.html

Say Cheese and Murder: A Lemington Cheese Company Mystery by Michelle Pointis Burns https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2020/12/book-review-say-cheese-and-murder.html

Disappearing Nightly: An Esther Diamond Novel by Laura Resnick https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2020/08/book-review-disappearing-nightly-esther.html

 

Motherducking Magic by Michelle Fox https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2020/08/book-review-motherducking-magic-by.html

Book Musing: The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

 

Our Thematic Book Club chose “Inked” as the theme for November. Nowadays that generally has something to do with tattoos but, after thinking about what type of book I wanted to read this month and looking at the offerings, I used “Inked” to mean written and this one is tied to the Boston Public Library.

I listened to The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill, narrated by Katherine Littrell, through our Hoopla app.

The book opens with a letter to a novelist from an adoring fan, named Leo, as a prologue of sorts. It suggests that this fan has been corresponding with her for years. The relationship sounds erudite and friendly. “As for your enquiries about how my own book is coming: Well, I spent Friday at the library. I wrote a thousand words and deleted fifteen hundred.”  A piece of humor any writer could relate to.

Chapter one opens from the perspective of Freddie, a young novelist from Australia living in Boston. She is trying to write in the Boston Public Library and is finding it difficult to focus. She looks around at the people sitting at the same table she is.

One young woman “has divested her jacket to reveal full-sleeve tattoos on both arms. I’ve never been inked myself but I’m fascinated.” (I’d forgotten this character had tattoos, or “ink.”) She’s also reading a psychology text book. Is this a student or a patient? She is dubbed “Freud Girl.”

Across from her is “Heroic Chin” in a Harvard Law sweatshirt. (His name is Whit, she will soon learn.) “Handsome Man” (Cain) is also sitting at the table and she thinks he might just be a writer too.

“And then there is a scream. Ragged and terrified.”

People start murmuring, packing up to leave, but the security guards enter and demand everyone stay where they are until the situation is sorted out. (Very stagey, for my money. Reminds me of the plays I was involved in high school drama club.)

But it is effective as they sit down while a law student starts spouting off about illegal detention. There is some witty banter and the four introduce themselves. Finally the guards release them without having found the source of the scream. The four decide to get coffee together and the narrator reveals that one of the others is a killer, though she did not know it at the time.

This is, we learn, the book being written by Australian author Hannah Tigone, a mystery writer. We find this connection through another letter from Leo Johnson, the beta reader and fan. It turns out Hannah cannot travel to Boston to research her latest novel, because of Covid restrictions. Leo offers lingo at first and fact checking. Hannah also writes him into the story

Each chapter of Hannah’s book is followed by the latest correspondence from Leo, who becomes more and more invested in her novel, as Freddie’s story progresses. Eventually the reader realizes that Leo is, perhaps, a little too invested.

There are TWO mysteries-one for Hannah and one for Freddie. BOTH were engaging and kept this reader guessing. I had two suspects particularly in mind but found myself waffling between all four of the people who met in the reading room. (Yes, even the narrator at times. An unreliable narrator is an interesting story device, after all.) And also the next door neighbor character Hannah names for her pen pal, Leo.

The revelations just kept coming about all the characters. They were well spaced out and well placed in the plot to keep the story moving forward. The details of the Boston setting were highly entertaining.

I thoroughly enjoyed the layers to this story and look forward to more from this author.

Bonus, it turns out this is one of the books chosen by our Friends of the Library group for their Books Sandwiched In talks during the winter. I’m one book ahead already!

Storymusing: Chillers and Thrillers

 

Our Sticky Notes Thematic Book Club read “Chillers and Thrillers” for October. I read two. One, long and involved, the other short and sweet.

Ghostwritten : A Novel by David Mitchell

I absolutely adore David Mitchell’s writing. He weaves stories that cross times and distances with a virtuosity that I can only aspire to. And yet he does this by focusing on one scene at a time, picking out minute details to emphasize certain aspects of the image he wants the reader to focus on. With this book, he crosses the globe, hopping from one character to the next, with an imperceptible connection at first. It’s only as the story goes on that the connections become clear. There’s definite science fiction, and some supernatural elements, involved, but not at first. His writing reminds me a little of Haruki Murakami – lyric prose and tenuous connections.

Okinawa – 32 pages: A young male terrorist who has taken the name “Quasar” becomes embroiled with cult that orders him to plant a bomb on a subway train. He’s very denigrating of the “unclean” people around him as he describes his work. He escapes to an island and though he hears news about how his group has been discovered and how they are being broken up, he never once doubts the leader.

Tokyo – 30 pages: This section is a tad less depressing and more about love, both young and long term. 18-year-old Satoru works in a jazz album store, he’s the son of a prostitute who has been deported and an unknown, assumed to be wealthy, 18-year-old man. A young woman comes in with her annoying friends but she seems different. She comes back a week later and they connect. A businessman named Mr. Fujimoto frequents the shop and says “Since the gas attacks on the subway…I’ve been trying to understand . . . . Why do things happen at all?” He posits the only answer might be love. Sakuro says, “I’d rather be too young to have that kind of wisdom.”

Hong Kong – 44 pages: Neal is a foreigner working in Hong Kong who thinks he has a ghost in his apartment, and who takes up with the aggressive cleaning lady after his wife goes home to London. He has also given in to a scheme to make a lot of money which is very, very illegal.

“Unless you’ve lived with a ghost, you can’t know the truth of it. … It’s more like living with a very particular cat… For the last few months I’ve been living with three women. One was a ghost, who is now a woman. One was a woman, who is now a ghost. One is a ghost, and always will be.” Soon he may be joining the latter.

Holy Mountain – 40 pages: A young girl who works in a tea shack on the side of Holy Mountain with her father is raped by a warlord’s son. She bears a child which is sent to live with family in order to spare them the shame. She believes a tree talks to her as the years unfold, revolutions coming and going. It’s a hard life and riveting though sad.

Mongolia – 50 pages: Here we are introduced to a hitch-hiking presence in the body of a young man backpacking through Mongolia. “So many times in a lifetime do my hosts feel the beginnings of friendship. All I can do is watch.” The spirit transmigrates from person to person, seeking a story that marks the beginning of their memory. The presence transmigrates into a Mongolian named Gunga who realizes it is there and goes to a Shaman. They strike a pact.

Petersburg – 58 pages: In Petersburg, we hear a sordid tale from the perspective of a woman who has survived by debasing herself to men – or is she taking advantage of them? She has a man she loves named Rudi and they have been squirreling away money by stealing famous paintings and replacing them then selling the originals on the black market. They only have so much access to the museum because she is screwing the head curator. Then it all goes wrong when a Mongolian criminal comes into the picture.

London – 56 pages: Marco is boozing it up and sleeping around as he deals with the news that Poppy is pregnant. He reflexively saves an Irish woman from getting run over by a cab. Marco goes on to his job, as a ghost writer, then ends up on a wild ride of a night.

Clear Island – 62 pages: An Irish scientist who was saved from getting run down by a cab goes home to her family, as she waits for the American government to find her and insist she join them with the AI algorithms she has created. She could run, but she would have to keep running because they will stop at nothing to get her black book.

Night Train – 48 pages: My favorite chapter. Bat Segundo on Night Train FM has an odd caller, (though they’re all odd,) called “Zookeeper.”

Underground – Back to Quasar and his escape from the train he left the device on. Or did he?

 

Arsenic and Adobo: A Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery by Mia P. Manansala

Lila Macapagal, a young Filipino-American woman, moves back to her hometown from Chicago in order to help her aunt and grandmother with the family restaurant. She gets caught up in the middle of a murder when her ex-boyfriend Derek, who had become a rather mean-spirited food critic, dies right in their restaurant. Complications? He was poisoned, a bag of arsenic laced rice is found in their kitchen, and a bag of money and drugs is found in Lila’s locker. Plus, the local cop seems intent on Lila as his main suspect. This was a delightful story, and the audio was a joy to listen to, allowing me to hear the correct pronunciation of names and words that I wouldn’t have otherwise known. Truly, the perfect cozy mystery, complete with recipes.

Story Musing: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: A Novel by David Mitchell

 

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: A Novel by David Mitchell

Our thematic book club’s topic for September was “Welcome Fall.” Sometimes I choose something that I’ve been wanting to read and sometimes I just browse through our digital catalogs for things that are available based on the theme. I do that particularly to find audio books I can listen to on my commute. This month it just so happened I found The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: A Novel by David Mitchell. I had previously read and loved Bone Clocks by this author.

Bone Clocks definitely had a more horrific feel for me than this story, but both had a fantastical epic story. As I started to listen to Jacob de Zoet, I realized I had picked up this book on audio once before and had a really hard time getting into it. This time, I thoroughly enjoyed it but I have to say, the title makes no sense. It’s a linear third person historical novel of a person who does not prolong his life in any way. Why a thousand autumns? I still don’t know.

 “Nagasaki itself, wood gray and mud brown, looks oozed from between the verdant mountains’ splayed toes. The smells of seaweed, effluence, and smoke from countless flues are carried over the water. The mountains are terraced by rice paddies nearly up to their serrated summits.”

Dejima holds a fascinating place in history just outside Nagasaki, as I learned both from this book and a little research after reading it. It was created by digging a canal across a small peninsula then building a long bridge, so it was linked but easily cut off and controlled. It was used as the only trading port for the Portuguese then the Dutch during the 200 years when Japan was largely isolated. It was designed to keep the foreigners from mixing too much with the people of Japan. Only Japanese citizens of a very few professions were allowed to go into Dejima, and the foreigners were not allowed onto Japanese land at all for about 200 years. It is now a national historic site.  (https://nagasakidejima.jp/english/history/ and https://www.japanistry.com/dejima/)

There’s a lot to recommend about this book. The history portrayed seems, from my limited reading, fairly accurate. There’s a fantastical and horrific element to it that becomes clear as the story goes on, but it is not described graphically at any point. The real life details, particularly surrounding the slaves lives, are more horrific at times. The detail of the time period, the humor of interactions, descriptions, the characters, the romance, the reality, the diplomacy — there’s so much going on here.

The story opens in 1799, near Nagasaki, at the House of Kawasemi the concubine, who is in labor, and it is not going well. Aibagawa is a mid-wife studying under the local Dutch surgeon, Dr. Marinus. Through the application of modern medicine, such as it is at that time, she pulls off what seems like a minor miracle, leaving the local magistrate in her debt.

After the delivery, we fast forward several months to the entrance of Jacob De Zoet as he transcribes the proceedings of the trial of one Daniel Snitker, Chief Clerk of the Dutch East Indies Company on the manmade island of Dejima, near Nagasaki.

Described as a pastor’s nephew, de Zoet is appointed the clerk in Dejima to check the books for inaccuracies and many men are implicated is shady dealings. Of course, honesty is not always welcome. Jacob is reviled by the men who served under Snitker — Arie Grote, with his wild tales and ready deals, Piet Baert, Ivo Oost, and Gerritszoon. They ably torment Jacob, who is not steeled against their tactics, but each has a tale to tell of how he came to be there, which is revealed in due course.

“Jacob considers telling Vorstenbosch about the scene at breakfast but sees nothing to be gained. Respect, he thinks, cannot be commanded from on high.”

There is also the matter of the De Zoet Psalter, a book of hymns, hidden in his room. It was supposed to be sealed up with all the other Christian artifacts in a barrel and surrendered to the Japanese government until they left again. If it is discovered, there will be hell to pay.

Jacob is pretty much just tolerated by the local people but he makes himself useful to the interpreters to whom he teaches a more full understanding of the Dutch language. Ogawa Uzaemon is one of these interpreters who plays an important role in the story.

Orito Aibagawa returns to the story, chasing a monkey absconding with and amputated leg. Jacob is besotted on first meeting her. He tries to befriend Dr. Marinus in hopes of making contact with her but is repulsed, at first.

Jacob is further rewarded for his honesty by being placed in a position of servitude to those who hate him. He is, generally speaking, a good guy, and he does manage to make friends over time, both with other Europeans and local people. How he does this is part of the curiously wonderful story.

After her father dies somewhat unexpectedly, her stepmother sells Orito off to temple that holds a terrible secret which only begins with drugging the women who go there as sisters. This is an incredibly simplistic explanation of this small part of the plot that has huge ramifications and tendrils branching throughout the story.

Each of the characters in the huge cast are well drawn and introduced at the appropriate time, so that the reader is not overwhelmed. The intricacies of the situation are well portrayed and as the plot unfolds, it blooms outward into a story of epic proportions told through well detailed scenes from several different perspectives.

The story progresses through various twists and turns until Jacob becomes proves why he deserves to be the title character.

This book easily encompasses a trilogy but is presented in one volume for continuity. I appreciate that as it provides a transportive experience.

The reading on the audio version bothered me a little bit as the characters often sounded from Great Britain rather than the people of Nagasaki. A larger cast would have helped the listener more fully envision the story. Or, perhaps, if the female actor had been Japanese, that would have been sufficient. Still, listening to it on audio in the car was vastly entertaining and took me on a long journey as the novel is huge, around 900 pages. The pronunciation of Dutch names was very helpful to this reader.

I really enjoyed this story and turned around to pick up another immersive tale by Mitchell for next month. I highly recommend his writing.

Book Review: The House on the Lake by Holly Hill Mangin

 

The House on the Lake

by Holly Hill Mangin

 

I had the pleasure of welcoming Holly Hill Mangin to our library recently on a visit from her home in France. She had grown up in the area and went to college regionally but then life took her to France where she now lives with her family and works.

Prior to her reading and author talk at our library, I had the chance to read her book. I was very impressed at the level of writing and editing from a fairly new author. It seems like even with books from long time authors in big publishing houses, there are a number of mistakes in every book, but I did not find that here. Her language was very fluid and natural too, a good balance of sentence structure which you might not notice but is very pleasing to the reader.

The story itself reminded me of Lois Duncan books of my teens, the young characters confronted with a spooky situation they must puzzle out. I can honestly say that out of all the possible outcomes I imagined for the book, the end was different and very satisfactory.

The story beings when Eve Beckett wakes up in a house on an island. How this could have happened is a mystery as she is terrified of water. The two caretakers cannot, or will not, shed any light on how she got there. As she talks with them, her mirror twin arrives in the kitchen, uncertain how she got there either. As Eve begins to explore the manor house, the mystery deepens.

At first the book reminded me a bit of The Haunting of Hill House as the house itself starts to take on a life of its own with rooms moving. There’s also the added mystery of the young man who represents the owners of the house and his brother who is there too. The young man seems okay but there is something sinister about his brother and yet Eve is drawn to him.

What unfolds is a mix of psychological thriller, young romance, and house mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to the sequel, which we are assured is coming. In fact, the author told us that the idea for The House on the Lake came out of a dream she had about exploring an old house and what she found in the rooms. As she wrote, she found she had two books in one and when she separated them out, that was when this book really came to life. The next book she plans to write will be from the viewpoint of the twin sister. I look forward to reading it!

We purchased one copy of the book for the teen section of our library and I gratefully accepted a second copy from the author for the adult fiction section. I hope some people will find it and enjoy it.

As every author knows, book talks are uncertain for any author. This was the first time Holly had done one so we corresponded a little about how to set it up and decided to do a fire side chat in our Reading Room at the library, where people might overhear and wander in.

This has its advantages and disadvantages. As she was reading, the conversations from the Circulation Desk were a bit intrusive but she did very well in maintaining her focus on reading. I can only hope it wasn’t too much of a distraction for the people who attended.

It seemed to me that a couple people who attended were old school friends of hers, and several were family members, as is not unusual. Serendipitously, two board members from another library had stopped in to see our library after giving blood nearby and decided to join the book talk, buying a copy of the newest book for each of them and one for their library. They contributed many questions to keep the discussion lively.

I also had a list of questions for the author about her writing experience and the book. One of the things I asked was about how she started writing. Many of us have the interest in writing but need some trigger to get us started and something to help us follow through. For Holly it was an author she had followed on Facebook. He had posted that he was looking for someone to co-write a book with and she responded. After some correspondence, he decided they would work well together and she co-wrote a book with him.

Holly has several other books available on Amazon and I look forward to reading them. I wish her well in her writing and publishing journey!