Book Cluuub! Book Cluuuub! Get Your Red-Hot Book Club Here!

       Okay, to be completely honest, the only reason why any of my friends last night could be called "red hot" is due to menopausal hot flashes. All of us are in our fifties and sixties. Some of us are generously padded. Our hair is naturally gray or silver.But the discussion did get spirited...

       We were there to finally discuss Freeman by Leonard Pitts Jr. This is an epic novel that I've recommended to perfect strangers in airports--it's that good of a book. I've given away two copies of my own and had to hit the Amazon and the Half Price Books gods for replacements. Rarely is there an epic novel. This is one, and it covers a period of history (right after the end of the Civil War) and from a perspective (an escaped slave) that is rarely told... and rarely told with such wonderful craftsmanship.

       Delicious food (I brought BLT soup) was part of the evening, along with great conversation and marvelous company. We are now tossing ideas back and forth as we decide what our next book will be.

       These are my suggestions for the group:

I've read this. In my opinion, it's Hosseini's best, especially if you're
looking for a woman's story.

This is another one I've already read. It's typical of Picoult. Lots of
research was involved in the writing, and there are some twists and
turns. It's a novel about the holocaust which will leave the reader in a quandary...

  

This is one I have not read yet. I bought a copy, intending to read it
(gently and carefully, abstaining from eating chocolate ice cream or taking a bath
or eating chocolate ice cream in the bathtub while reading it) so I could give it
as a gift to a writing friend, but ended up sending it without reading it. Shay--a rabid fan
of Emily Dickinson--loved it, so it comes with a high recommendation...

This was recommended by Shay as well. It begins with a couple of great lines.
"In love we find out who we want to be.
In war we find out who we are."
I've read several of Hannah's books--because of Shay--and enjoyed them. This one
is about two sisters in France during the war.

I saw this on Amazon. It looks good. Has anyone out there (who is reading this post) read it?

One of the women (a newbie in our group) suggested a Nora Roberts book. Who is this Nora Roberts? Egads! Doesn't she know Sioux don't do no romance-type novels? I did mention to her that I have a writing friend who has a romance book (the first in a set of triplets) that I'm going to read in May... but only because it's by Lisa Ricard Claro. Nora Roberts? No way.

Are there any other recommendations for our book club?

And if you're in the mood for some BLT soup, here are the ingredients, since I don't really follow a recipe. My husband makes it--he's added some of the secret ingredients--and he follows a recipe that he's created. Me? Not so much... Take the ingredients and adjust according to your tastes.

• fire-roasted tomatoes (made by Hunts, but you can also find them at Aldi's now)--at least 5 or 6 cans
•        chicken stock/chicken bouillon (we like "Better Than Bouillon" brand)
•     bacon--fry it til it's crisp and done, and then cut or tear or crumble it       into small pieces

•     romaine hearts lettuce

•     liquid smoke

•     grated parmesan cheese (this is a secret ingredient)

•   (sssh. Don't tell anyone about this secret ingredient) seasoning (I love a blend called          "seasoning for greens." I imagine you can get it at most spice shops.  I use it on just about everything, from scrambled eggs to mashed      potatoes to chicken and soups.)

The cheese is put in towards the end--to thicken it. Amazingly, parts of the lettuce stays crunchy even though it simmers in the soup.

It is not an attractive-to-look-at soup, but it is tasty. In fact, one of the women last night took her portion, blended it in the blender, and the end result: a scrumptious cream soup. 

Be Bold!

This quarter my students are working on opinion writing. They have to take a stand. They have to be bold and brazen and--on paper--cocky. At least that is my hope as they craft their pieces.

The cast of the 2014 Listen to Your Mother St. Louis show, and the best
kind of photo---one without me in it.


The writers (see the picture above) who shared their story had to be brave. Sharing each story--even the humorous ones--was risky. There were tales of becoming a single mother through invitro fertilization...of adopting children from another continent...of almost losing their baby...of surrendering their baby. With each story told, they shared a part of themselves, a part of their lives.

Of course, writers are not unaccustomed to writing, but the Listen to Your Mother shows involved performing before an audience... using a microphone... in non-Croc shoes. Okay, I could have done it in my ol' trusty Crocs, but I think the other oh-so-chic women would have given me grief.

Here are my Crocs (the tear in one keeps getting bigger, but they're still serviceable)
and the shoes I did end up wearing to do the show.

           People everywhere are doing bold things. Coming out with new books--Shay just had one and Lisa is about to debut her first of a set of "triplets." Writing outside of their box--Lynn--who is working on a gorgeous picture book, even though she doesn't think of herself as an artist (she most definitely is). Pearl is bold every time she steps outside during the winter months (which in Minnesota, I guess, stretches from September to May). There are friends and acquaintances all over the place doing things and stepping out and taking risks... and every day they continue to do it.

         My original post title was going to be 400 vs. 1400. I'm trying to adopt the mindset that 400 words (or even 200 words) a day is better than nothing. If I don't have a large span of time to write, can't I write in small snatches here and there? Should I only write if I think I can get a couple of thousand down? Otherwise, it's not worth the effort? Short pieces (800-1200 words) come out in a couple of sessions, but slogging through a longer piece (like a novel) is not so easy-peasy.

        I would be grateful for any words of advice... any kind words about my Crocs (they look worse than they looked in that photo, if you can believe that)... any words of encouragement that St. Louis will have three more snow days (icy roads = school closings)... or anything else you want to lob my way.

        

Surprise!

       This weekend I finished Jodi Picoult's Leaving Time. In fact, I got up an extra half hour early to finish it... on a Saturday morning... when I had a 7 A.M. workshop to present at... it was that good.

       Around 30 or 40 pages from the end, I was a bit confused. Not terribly, but just experiencing a slight sense of disequilibrium. What is going on? I wondered.

        However, I soon understood--I was going around a major twisty-turn that Picoult had crafted like the talented pro that she is.

         Read Leaving Time. You won't be able to predict the ending until you get there (I almost guarantee it).

        And if you want to find out more about the elephant sanctuary in Tennessee, go here.

          What surprise have you been "gifted" with lately? (It could be a pleasant surprise--like, "Wow, Radar wasn't digging this time," or it could be not so pleasant, like "I'm amazed my arm can be pulled out of its socket several times a day when I walk the 73-pound puppy and I haven't experienced permanent damage yet.")

A Good Book is Hard to Find

        This the kind of book that makes you want to have a reason to spend a long time in the bathroom... the kind of novel that makes you not mind getting stuck at the tracks while a never-ending, slow-moving train clanks by... the kind of story you're going to miss when you read the last line on the last page.

        Okay, I admit it. I'm not finished with it yet. I'm somewhere between two-thirds and three-fourths of the way through it. However, only one of Picoult's novels was a disappointment to me, and I didn't like that one from close to the beginning, so I'm fairly confident this will be wonderful til the very end.

       It's part mystery (a mother has been missing for ten years) and part elephant journal. If you love elephants, if you hate circuses (because of the animal acts), if you'd like an insider's view into an elephant sanctuary, this is the book for you. Picoult did research at the Tennessee sanctuary (there's only one other in the U.S.--it's in California) and in the wild in Botswana. If you read it, you'll learn a lot about how elephants grieve...and what wonderful mothers elephant mamas are.

      Below is a link to a page that includes an interview with Jodi Picoult about the book. 

      And since I'll be finished with this book soon, what are some recommendations for my next one?

Silver Bells? Silver Linings?

          Sometimes bad experiences have a "silver lining." Sometimes you only have to look at things from a different perspective to see the positive side of things.
      
        I had a story rejected by Chicken Soup for the Soul (a Christmas anthology) a couple of years ago. In fact, I had two of them rejected. Okay, to be honest, the ones that don't make it don't ever get a rejection notice. You just end up never hearing about them. In this instance, no news is bad news... After all, I like to increase my odds. If I send in three stories, I get the chance to get disappointed three times. But I also think they might get so tired of reading my stuff, they'll occasionally accept one just to shut me up.
       
           Yesterday I submitted one of those Christmas stories again. I had completely revamped it, took out some details and fleshed out others. Today, I reworked a story I submitted to CS's "Hope and Miracles" collection. They passed on it, so perhaps a warmed-up second helping of the same tale--completely rewritten--will be a tastier treat. I'll be bringing it to my critique group to see what they think of it, and then will submit it for the "Think Possible" anthology.

          This is a kind of jazzy version of "Silver Bells," sung by Meaghan Smith. (I had to get in silver bells somehow.) It was either this, or the Twisted Sister version. Perhaps people who are buried under in snow can enjoy these snow-free winter scenes...

          

        What have you rewritten or reworked or revamped lately? It could be a room, a recipe, or a writing piece. My nosey self wants to know...

 

Editing and Performing

       Yesterday I saw an interview with Jodi Picoult. Her newest novel (number 22) is Leaving Time. It has two storylines--one about a missing mother and one about elephants. Picoult traveled to one of the two elephant sanctuaries in the U.S. (Tennessee; the other is in California) and she also went to Botswana to work with a woman who studies elephants in the wild.

       If you know Jodi Picoult's books, you know there is going to be some twists and turns, and you also know you're going to learn something--in this case, a lot about elephants. In her past books her readers benefitted from her research on the Amish, wolves, and various medical conditions.

       In the interview, she said "You can edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page."  She also talked about the limited amount of writing time she had when her kids weren't in school yet. She learned to write in spite of it. When her kids were all in school, she had most of the day to write--it was such a luxury--and now doesn't consider "writer's block--a valid thing, since she became so adept at writing in small snatches of time.

       As far as performing... It might not be too late to submit to the Listen to Your Mother show that's nearest to you. The St. Louis show's deadline for submissions is February 16. They are looking for stories that fall under the "motherhood" umbrella, so even if you don't have any kids, you have/had a  mother, and they might even snap at a story about your four-legged babies. If you're not in the St. Louis area, find out where the nearest show is going to be (it's always around Mother's Day) and submit...

         How about you? Do you have lots of bad pages now or lots of blank pages? And are you going to submit to your local Listen to Your Mother show? If not, why not? Pushy minds want to know...