The Importance of Remembering

It’s a rare book that when I get to the end I read it all again, but this is what happened with The Time In Between by María Dueñas. When I read the last sentence, without so much as getting up for a cup of coffee, I went right back to the beginning and started in all over again with the first sentence. I wasn’t ready to let the characters go. I wanted to hear their stories again and again. I wanted to be in Sira’s world once again. I wanted to learn more about that time in our world’s history which I knew so little about.

I probably would never have picked this novel up were it not for the fact that it was a selection for my bookclub. Not even out of the box and it had three strikes against it as far as I was concerned. First of all, I normally don’t like to read translated works. Part of the author’s job is to create worlds of words, which may (or may not) be lost in translation. I want to read what the author actually wrote. I want to note subtlely of phrase. I want to immerse myself in the author’s words as much as the story. And this book is translated from the Spanish.

Secondly, the length of the book would have totally put me off, and this one is long - 600 pages they say, although in my case it’s hard to tell since I read it on a Kobo.

And thirdly I’m usually not a great fan of historical fiction.

The one thing this book did have going for it is that I’m a great lover of all things Spanish. Always have been. I love the language, the culture, the literature. I pride myself that back in my more Spanish-speaking days, I even read a few short literary works in Spanish by another of my favorite Spanish authors Isabel Allende from Chile.

I studied the language through high school, and ten years ago I studied it for two years at university. Even now, I sometimes tune into Univision so I can practice. I’ve been to Cuba and Mexico, but Spain and Chile other parts of South America are still on my bucket list.

The Time In Between is a novel about the Spanish Civil war which dovetailed itself into the WWII. It’s not a part of history that I know much about or had studied for more than a sentence or two in my school history classes. But it is a fascinating part of our world’s culture and history. It’s worth knowing about. It’s worth learning. I found out, for example, that the Fasicsts from Germany were helping to supply arms and intelligence to the Nationalists in Spain while the Russia supplied intel and arms to the Republicans there. One extreme to the other, while the country and its people were in turmoil.

Are you yawning yet? Well, it’s not that interesting in my telling of it here, but the novel makes the story sing. Main character Sira Quiroga begins as a somewhat selfish but beautiful young woman who works with her mother as a seamstress in Madrid. She ends up running away with a very handsome man, who ends up double-crossing her, stealing from her and leaving her with a huge hotel bill. From there she must work her way back, pay back her debts and rebuild her life. The backdrop to this love betrayal is the war, which is escalating on all fronts in Europe, including Spain.

As you know, if you are a regular reader of this blog, I always look at the beginning of books, their first sentences. Here’s how The Time In Between begins:

A typewriter shattered my destiny.

And yes, if it wasn’t for the typewriter, Sira would never have met the lover who wooed her away from her “safe” fiance, thus setting into motion the entire rest of the book, including her foray into espionage.

In some editions, this book is entitled The Seamstress and sewing and fashion are the threads that run through this book.

Why is it important to read books like this, yes, even though I am reluctant to admit it—books wihich have been translated? It opens up a whole new realm of understanding for us. We get a peek into a different culture, to find a new way of thinking, a new way of feeling.

We are seeing first hand in our world what xenophobia does - when we constantly look at people as "other" and different. It’s done to us, and by us. When we constantly look at the numbers of walls we can build around ourselves, rather than the bridges of understanding, when we want to to fortress ourselves rather than tables of understanding, we are sure to shatter.

I love the motto of our Canadian province of Quebec — Je me souviens which means simply, "I remember."

When the motto was unveiled this was said about it:

"The province of Quebec has a motto of which she is proud and which she likes enough to carve it on her monuments and palaces. This motto has only three words: "Je me souviens"; but these three words, in their simple economy of expression, are worth more than the most eloquent speeches. Yes, we remember. We remember the past and its lessons, the past and its misfortunes, the past and its glories.

It’s important to look back, to never remove the ravages of war from our collective memories. The telling of war stories should never end, until maybe one day when we'll "get" it.

For more on the Spanish civil war click here.

And now a question for my readers - I would love to watch the movie version of this book, but can’t seem to find it online. It doesn’t seem to be rentable on iTunes Movies or Netflix. Anyone know where I can watch this? Here is the movie trailer.

Next time: A look into a young adult book (YA in the vernacular) and written in verse, and worth reading - for everyone. Totally Unfamous

How To Start Something New (A kayak lesson)

Today I Like It takes a different turn. I'm not reviewing and endorsing a book but instead will be recommending kayaking. But wait, if kayaking interests you about as much as BASE jumping off the CN Tower, have no fear, this post isn’t only about kayaking. It’s about starting something—trying any new thing—at whatever age you happen to be.

Two years ago I had never sat inside a kayak. It looked like it might be “fun,” but I was way too old to try a new sport, wasn’t I? Nevertheless, I looked with longing at kayakers on the television, in videos, on Facebook, or on the lakes and rivers near my home. “Is it fun? Is it easy to learn?”

Yes and yes, I was told.

My first kayak was a molded plastic one of the kind that are available at any department store. In other words, it wasn’t a real kayak but more of a toy. Since I really wanted to try it, maybe this would be a good introduction. So, for my birthday, my husband bought for me a bright yellow 8 foot plastic kayak. I kayaked that summer, mostly around our sailboat, since that’s where we kept it. I loved it.

Then came last winter when we were in Florida and had the use of two Old Town Loon Kayaks, My first reaction when I got inside was - there was something wrong. I was barely paddling at all and I was going. Fast. And straight. Was there a current? How could there be a current on a lake? This was not my experience with my beloved yellow plastic kayak. I learned that this is what kayaks are supposed to do— track straight in the water and go pretty fast. 

This past summer we gave my yellow kayak to a grandson and bought two Old Town Heron 11’ kayaks. We probably spent more of our summer kayaking than we did sailing. And now we are thinking of trading in our Heron 11XTs for two of the brand new Loon 126s. 

To me kayaking is sort of like swimming, and I adore swimming. Oddly, I go back in my memory and I can’t remember a time when I had to learn how to swim. It just always seemed that I knew. When I see water I want to be in it. Because you’re so close to the water level in a kayak, it fills my swimming need.

Kayaking is only one of a number of new things I have done since I have officially entered my dotage. I’ve become an Indie author, and if you scroll back—way back—in my blog, I write about leaving Christian publishing to write mainstream mysteries and publish them independently. I chose to ignore the voices that said, “You’re too old to try something new. You’ll lose all your readers…”

Maybe the voices have been partly right, but I’m gathering new readers, and I’m enjoying what I’m doing. And that's what it's about.

I’ve also, in my dotage, had another look at the faith I grew up with. Am I too old to believe a new thing? I wrote about that in my previous post where I endorsed the book Faith Shift. 

As well, since January of this year I have taken up colored pencil drawing. This began rather timidly with a colouring book. This past spring with some birthday money, I bought said colouring book and a package of colored pencils. I ended up loving it. I loved all the mixtures of colors I could get on the page. It was almost like fingerprinting.

A month ago I decided that maybe it might be fun to draw my own pictures and color them. Now, I had never drawn anything before in my life. Both my father and mother were talented artists. I have a brother who is a super phenomenal artist, and a very creative sister, but I always thought the "creative" gene for me landed in writing rather than visual arts, so I never even tried.

Well, after enjoying color and colouring so much, I decided what the heck? Why don’t I just “try” drawing? So I did, and I’m loving it. And something else wonderful is happening to me. For the first time I am noticing things—the cracks in the sidewalks and what color they are, and can I duplicate that on the paper? A week ago in church I was mesmerized by the chalice and bread on the table at front, the way the sun from the skylight shone down on it causing little dots of white to appear all over one side of it. White. Yes they were white. Could I mimic that? Maybe.

There are many examples of people starting late in life to do things and succeeding. Here are just a few (some require no explanation):

Colonel Sanders

Grandma Moses

The 77 year old body builder Ernestine Shepherd

Helen Hooven Santmyer whose first novel was published when she was 88

My friend Richard Mabry whose first novel was published until he was 70 and now with 9 novels under his belt and in his 80s he’s still going strong.

My friend’s mother who, when she was 88 decided she’d had crooked teeth long enough and got braces. Her teeth straightened so well, and the dentist was so proud of his work, he put her in his local TV commercial. She was then 90.

Another friend who began kayaking when she was 75 and it has become a favorite summer activity for her.

And then there is my writer friend Martha Rogers who started writing novels when she was 63, but didn’t get published until she was 73. Now, at almost 80 she’s still writing every day and has written and published 13 novels, 3 novellas and has Indie published a novella.

A week ago we while kayaking here in Florida, we went through a portal and ended up in heaven. I swear this is true, We were kayaking on Chassahowitzka River. I thought - I would have missed this if I hadn’t simply tried something new two years ago. It was almost too beautiful to be there. 

This thought, which I'd seen on a poster, came to me: 

Religion is sitting in church and thinking about kayaking. Spirituality is sitting in a kayak and thinking about God.

And if perchance, you are interested in my colored pencil art, all of my pictures are up on my Pinterest site. But please be kind, I’ve only been drawing and colouring for a month.

 

Next time:  The Time In Between by Maria Dueñas

I Never Thought It Would Happen to Me

First of all, this book Faith Shift by Kathy Escobar—and therefore this review—is not for everyone. It might not be for you. If you click here, go through the list and can’t identify with any of it, and none of it makes sense, or even sounds ridiculous, then please, by all means, click away from this blog and go back to Facebook.

Thing is, I can identify with most of this “list,” and it makes total sense to me. I grew up in a strong Christian fundamentalist home in the 1950s. I was taught to have a very sure faith. And I did. I think I did. I really wanted to in any case. If I had theological questions I kept them to myself. If I had problems with my faith, it was me and not God.

But I still had questions. Some things didn’t make sense.

In the tradition I grew up in, it was permissible to question fairly unimportant things, like “should Christians drink alcohol?” but to question an important tenet of “truth” was not permissible. It was never okay to ask how a supposed loving God can send the majority of people who have ever lived on this planet to a place of eternal torment of fire forever and ever for which there is no escape. When I would ask, how is that loving? I was met with “tut tuts” plus the catch all verse which is meant to shut down every question a kid has - “God’s ways are not our ways.”

So, I started being quiet.

Outwardly questioning anything about the faith led to the pronouncement that we would be “put up on a shelf,” which meant we were of no use to God. He was basically turning his back on us, and wouldn’t use us until we got our act together. It’s odd. Up until yesterday when I was researching for this blog, I could have sworn that the “shelf” reference was in the Bible somewhere. It’s not. I even asked a group of trusted Christian friends who know everything about the Bible. Nope. Not there.

Why am I not surprised?

Shifting “away” from the faith of one’s youth is a scary thing. It feels like just as I’m about to sit down, someone pulls the chair out laughing. I land on the floor. And everyone still laughs. I am bruised, but people still laugh.

My faith was subtly shifting. Because over the past few years I’ve started to see a different Jesus. I’ve started to see a Jesus who is more loving. Even Bible verses that I was sure meant one thing, are now meaning something else to me. And they make total sense meaning something else.

For this reason, I’m overjoyed that there are books out there like Faith Shift. In future episodes of this blog, I will be featuring more of these authors and podcasts and blogs. I will introduce you to these “friends” I’ve never met and yet who might just understand my path. I’m talking about Rachel Held Evans’s book, Searching for Sunday, the Free Believers podcast, blogs such as Jesus Without Baggage. All of these have been so helpful. I discovered Faith Shift, by listening to an interview with Kathy Escobar on the God Journey podcast. (I so related that I bought her eBook on the spot.)

Faith Shift was so helpful to me that I emailed the author and she and I have had several email conversations. (She seems like a lovely person!)

As you will know from reading my previous review blogs, that it’s the beginnings of books which draw me in. Her first chapter is entitled, “You’re not crazy and you’re not alone.”

I wasn’t alone! And I’m not crazy! I’m really, really not crazy! There are other people like me.

According to Kathy, a shifting faith goes through various stages. The first is “Fusing.” This is the honeymoon stage where all is well and right and good. Faith hasn’t “shifted” yet.

Next comes “Shifting” when the faithful find themselves shifting slightly, ever so slightly away on certain issues.

“Unravelling,” the next stage, is when everything falls apart. There are simply too many issues that the believer questions.

Like its name, “Severing” is the stage which is a cutting off and away from any kind of early faith.

Finally comes the “Rebuilding” phase, where faith is rebuilt, but often bears little resemblance to the early “Fused” faith.

If this isn’t you (in other words, you didn’t move on over to your Facebook page when I told you to), be aware that many people are going through this. A few years ago now, ABC ran a news special about Baptist pastors who no longer believe in God. click here for that story.

Of course they remain anonymous, their jobs depend on this. If you Google "pastors who no longer believe," sadly, you will be rewarded with many links.

What do I believe now, and where am I on Kathy’s spectrum? My answer today might be different than my answer tomorrow. I know there’s a God. I know that God is a god of grace. I’m not an atheist. I think that God is way more wider than I was ever taught to believe, way more full of love, way more kind, way more full of grace, way more inclusive than I had ever imagined.

I grew up wanting God to “use” me, that's the prayer and goal of every Christian. Even in the writing of this now, it sounds weird. Does a parent “use” her child? Is that a parent’s biggest goal? No. God doesn’t want to use us, God wants to love us. And he wants us to reflect this love to others. That’s about all I know. And maybe it’s enough for now. 

I will end with what an anonymous person quoted in Kathy’s book: “I am left with fewer truths, but they are clearly deeper.” Which sounds like a sort of cop out, (Seriously. If you think it’s a cop out, why are you still reading this? This isn’t for you.) but I understand it.

This is a book I will read and re-read.


Next time "I Like It" will take a slightly different turn when I write about all things kayaks and kayaking.

WHEN THE EARTH BETRAYS YOU

Like my last recommendation (Ordinary Grace), my “I Like It” pick for today is another “coming of age” novel. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker is a book which will leave you thinking and pondering, wondering and speculating.

What happens when the very fabric of our existence goes haywire? What happens when the very planet we live on betrays us? That’s the theme of The Age of Miracles, which has been called a YA speculative story. But I’m not sure that is a correct description. I believe it is a story everyone can read and enjoy, and the speculative part? That's just the setting.

Ordinary Grace is about a boy and a summer in the early 1960s and a death and the mystery surrounding it. The Age of Miracles is about an 11 year old girl who happens to be living in a very strange, but contemporary time. The earth is slowing on its axis. It’s this hook that draws you in immediately, and yet this setting is really only secondary.

The story is told through the eyes of eleven year old Julia. Her parents are having their problems, the best friend she’s had forever is cool and distant, and there is a boy—there always is a boy—who she has a crush on. All of these normal, growing-up events would be challenges enough, but add to that, the slowing of the very planet on its axis, and you have a haunting and compelling novel.

I love first lines of books. It’s the first paragraphs that draw me in as a reader. Consider these opening lines:

We didn’t notice right away. We couldn’t feel it. We did not sense at first the extra time, bulging from the smooth edge of each day like a tumor blooming beneath skin.

We were distracted back then by weather and war. We had no interest in the turning of the earth. Bombs continued to explode on the streets on distant countries. Hurricanes came and went. Summer ended. A new school year began. The clocks ticked as usual. Seconds beaded into minutes. Minutes grew into hours. And there was nothing to suggest that those hours, too, weren't still pooling into days, each the same fixed length known to every human being.

As the planet’s slowing becomes more noticeable, politics gets involved. Should civilization live by the clock, or live by their own light/dark body rhythms? It becomes a hotly debated political issue and roundly debated on talk shows. (Sound familiar?) As life becomes more and more disrupted and the stretches of daylight and darkness stretch to thirty hours or more, the very food supply is affected. Health, is of course, impacted, and many new diseases spring up. The “naturalists” who want to live by their body rhythms end up moving away from the mainstream of society which still “lives by the clock." I love the name of the camp - Circadia.

But what happens when you're living through this and you're just a kid? It is really Julia’s story that we are reading. No spoilers here, but her relationship with her boyfriend goes through some very real trauma as the book unfolds.

The comparison to our own climate change—which some still deny—is unmistakable, yet don’t confuse this book with a story that might “have an agenda,” or seek to “make a statement.” Like any good writer, I think the author set out simply to write a good story. 

Yet, I couldn’t help but see comparisons. As I read through this haunting, compelling book, I wondered - could this ever really happen? Well. Maybe. Here’s an interesting CBC article about that very thing. Click here.

Our Canadian north seems to be the barometer for the entire planet. Click here to read about the changes our own Inuit elders have seen. People are finally believing them, it seems. It's about time.

I’m not one of these "elders" who lives and hunts and exists by the seasons, but I’m old enough to remember iceskating every winter on the canals in New Jersey where I grew up. These canals have not frozen over for many years.

I find all of this science quite fascinating - here’s another article for your reading pleasure.

And another.

Couldn’t happen here? Maybe not the kind of dramatic slowing that is evident in The Age of Miracles, but maybe something else?  Or maybe when climate change reaches some kind of tipping point, it will happen with growing speed. Personally? We are humans. We are smart. We are creative. I would love to see us quit fighting and set about trying to manage to live within the new parameters of our planet. 

In the meantime, pick up The Age of Miracles, or download it onto your ereader. I guarantee you will not be able to put it down until you have read to the end.

NEXT TIME: Faith Shift by Kathy Escobar.

Superb Coming of Age Mystery

All the dying that summer began with the death of a child, a boy with golden hair and thick glasses, killed on the railroad tracks outside New Bremen, Minnesota, sliced into pieces by a thousand tons of steel speeding across the prairie toward South Dakota. 

Thus begins Ordinary Grace, the first novel I am recommending here in I Like It, my new blog of books and other things I like. Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger is probably the best faith-based novel I have read in a decade, possibly longer. The characters who people this story are not the stereotypical ones sometimes found in so-called Christian/inspirational novels. There was no happy ending here where “everyone gets saved,” and we sigh with relief as we shut the book, happy that it all worked out. 

No. Thirteen year old Frank, the story’s narrator, his minister father Nathan, mother Ruth, and brother and sister plus the other townspeople stayed with me long after I finished the last page. These were ordinary people dealing with real situations where God seems very absent. I think we’ve all been there.

I purchased Ordinary Grace and read it when it came out in 2013, and then a year later when it was my personal choice for the bookclub I belong to. I led the discussion on the morning it was my turn. A lot of these thoughts are from that gathering. 

This book represents my favorite kind of reading, well-written mysteries, literary whodunits on the order of Ruth Rendell, Dennis Lehane and others. I enjoy books where the language holds onto me as much as the story and in Ordinary Grace Krueger is a master. I could sink into each word of this book and never want to leave. 

Consider these stunning word pictures: 

I heard the water run in the sink and the clatter of plate and fork as my mother laid them there and I heard silence and I imagined her turning back to my father still sitting at the table… 

And: 

They continued to talk and I watched Jake and Lise in the garden and listened to Ariel clicking away on the typewriter in the study, and the world inside that picket fence seemed like a good place, a place in which all the damaged pieces somehow fit. 

And:

Loss, once it’s become a certainty, it’s like a rock you hold in your hand. It has weight and dimension and texture. It’s solid and can be assessed and dealt with. You can use it to beat yourself or you can throw it away. 

The story is set during one summer in 1961, called the summer of dying. Even though I’ve never been in Minnesota for any length of time, I identified with it. Frank  was 13 during the summer of 1961. I was 11, and—this is foremost—I grew up in a minister’s home. In 1961 pastor’s kids were to “set the example.” I know well, that pressure on PKs (Preacher’s Kids). Back then a minister’s family had to be perfect. People were watching. People were always watching, but when we could, we escaped. We were kids, after all. And those were the years when parents never really paid attention to where children went, and of course, the woods were filled with monsters. I smiled at these kind of shared memories through the book. 

Minister Natham Drum is a good and honest man who simply seeks to do the best he can for his parishioners with the hand he’s been dealt - a couple of independent and curious sons, a fairly wayward, but musically talented daughter and a talented wife who doesn’t want to be part of the story at all.

When she married her husband, he was studying to be a lawyer. She never quite gets over his sudden decision to change gears and go into the ministry. She lets it be known that she never  “signed on” for this, and in her rebellious moments she smokes on the porch, a fact that does not go unnoticed by church people. 

Through the years I’ve known many pastor’s wives. Some have been my closest friends. His portrayal of Ruth is very real. My own mother was never allowed to have personal “friends” within the congregations my father pastored, fearing that would show favoritism. Thankfully, that little taboo is gone today. But it would have been there in some form or other in 1961. Ruth would have felt it.

I mentioned this was the best faith-based novel I have read in a decade or more. When I was writing Christian novels (I no longer do), I tried to make my novels as realistic as I could within the confines of my publisher. I feel I mostly succeeded, but when I couldn’t  any longer, when I couldn’t  say what I wanted to say, I decided I needed to leave the Christian publishing world altogether.  (Did Christian publishing change? Did I change? Maybe a little of both.) My goal, however, is to write this kind of “faith-based’ novel, the kind of faith I see in Ordinary Grace. Sometimes God does move away from us, and things get really, really sad. And sometimes they don’t get better for a long, long time. Krueger would call this the “awful grace of God,” a phrase he uses five times in the book (Ah, don’t you love the internal search functions eBooks have now!) 

The book begins: 

In the end maybe that’s what the summer was about. I was no older than Bobby and didn’t understand such things then. I’ve come four decades since but I’m not sure that even now I fully understand. I still spend a lot of time thinking about the events of that summer. About the terrible price of wisdom, the awful grace of God. 

The book ends: 

We turn, three men, bound by love, by history, by circumstance, and most certainly by the awful grace of God, and together we walk a narrow lane…” 

Krueger mentions that this phrase comes from Greek playwright Aeschylus, and according to that bastion of all knowledge, Wikipedia, he is considered the father of the tragedy.

Here’s what Aeschylus writes: 

Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget 

falls drop by drop upon the heart until

in our own despair, against our will

comes wisdom through the awful grace of God. 

In other words, we learn from tragedy. With deep tragedy, such as occurred during the summer of this book, comes great wisdom. The deeper the tragedy, the more wisdom. Hmm.

Here’s from one of Nathan’s, sermons, “God never promised us an easy life. He never promised that we wouldn’t suffer, that we wouldn’t feel despair and loneliness and confusion and desperation. What he did promise was that in our suffering we would never be alone. And though we may sometimes make ourselves blind and deaf to his presence, he is beside us and around us and within us always…” 

I’ve written so long here about the faith aspects of this book, the characters, my own journey, that I haven’t had time to talk much about the mystery in this book. And, yes, there is one. Fans of Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series will not be disappointed. But to forestall any spoilers, I will just say, read it to find out why 1961 was called the Summer of Dying. 

I know Kent Kruger a little bit—well, we’ve had a few conversations at mystery conferences, does that count? Would he remember me? I’d like to think yes, but the answer is probably no. We used to have the same agent, so we had a it of commonality for a while. He is a gracious man, friendly, and I understand he is now working on some sort of companion novel to Ordinary Grace. I will be looking for it. 

As an added bonus click here for a free Christmas story by Krueger.

Next time: Another “coming of age” novel - The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker, another one of my bookclub choices. 

Welcome!

Welcome to “I LIKE IT” my brand spanking new review blog. Yes, this is the place where my old blog used to be, but I've revamped it, re-worked it, and have turned it into a place where I will be reviewing mostly books.  Every other week I’ll be sharing with you a book I think you might like, but I may throw in a movie or two, or a TV show or piece of music or artist that I especially enjoy.

But, have no fear, all of my old posts are here - all my Summer on the Water blogs and all of the random thoughts about my "indie" journey. They're all still here. Just scroll down the right side until you come to "blog archive", then read to your heart's content.

For my entire life, books have been my constant friends. I really cannot think of a single moment in my history where I didn’t have a book “on the go.” Back before books became eBooks, I would feel at a loss if I finished a book one night and there were a few hours before I could get to the library! Now, I just cast around the Kobo site or our on-line Library and get myself another one.

This blog is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I’ve often said to myself, “If I weren’t writing novels, I’d have a book blog.” Well, maybe it’s time I did just that – even while I continue to write my stories full time.

This page is called I Like It for a reason. This is not a site where I will give 1 and 2 stars to books that didn’t pique my fancy. This is not a place where I will trash things. (There’s too much of that going on in the world anyway, don't you think?) This blog is only for my 4 and 5 star rated items, and I’m a pretty tough customer as a reader. If a book doesn’t capture me in 20 pages, out it goes.

I will be reviewing all kinds of books here; novels of course, and lots of mysteries—since that is what I write—but it will be more than that. I also read nonfiction. I’m on a kind of spiritual journey, as we all are, and I’ve recently devoured some really good nonfiction. Richard Rohr’s Falling Upward and Faith Shift by Kathy Escobar. I'm currently reading Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans. I will be reviewing all three of these books some time in the future.

Some of my recommendations will be books I have previously read and reviewed on other sites such as Goodreads or Amazon. Some will be new. The age of the book doesn’t matter to me. Old, new, if I like it, I will endorse it. For example, a month ago my book club read To Kill a Mockingbird. At some future point, that may become an “I Like It” endorsement. 

In my reviews I will be very careful not to give away any spoilers. As an author I know how maddening that is to have a reviewer give away the ending! But, if perchance, I decide that I need to include a few “spoilers”, I will have the ****SPOILER ALERT**** notice in big letters!

I also plan to make this blog a very personal place, a space where I will relate what the various books have meant to me and how they relate to my own journey as an author, a woman, a Christian, a human-being on this planet. 

I'm planning to put my I Like It recommends will most likely go up every other Thursday. If you would like to subscribe to this blog, please add your email to the box provided on the right.

In a few days I’ll be putting up my first I Like It. It will be for Ordinary Grace, an extraordinary coming go age mystery by William Kent Krueger.

Now for the nitty gritty - My Review Policy: 

I only recommend books I have bought and paid for. What I watch and listen to are not downloaded from any torrents sites, but what I stream legally through Netflix, or have rented or purchased on sites such as iTunes or Google.

I think it needs to be said right here at the outset—I’m not a fan of free books. My reason? Authors should be paid for their work. It's something I feel so strongly about that if a book is free, I probably won’t even read it. 

I thank you for reading this far. I trust you will enjoy my endorsements. Agree? Disagree? You are always welcome to comment below. 

Summer on the Water - Carolyn Rose, Season 2, Episode 19

As summer begins to wind down I'm pleased to welcome mystery author Carolyn Rose to my blog. 
Welcome Carolyn to my Summer on the Water blog - and your dogs look so lovely there with you!

Tell us about your newest mystery.

The Devil’s Tombstone follows the previously published mysteries Hemlock Lake and Through a Yellow Wood. It’s set in the Catskill Mountains of New York, mountains rich in folklore, legends, and ghost stories. A tale I created for the book involves a rock near the shores of Hemlock Lake. Known as the Devil’s Tombstone, it marks the spot where, two centuries earlier, a man murdered his young wife and then vanished in a storm.

As a part-time investigator assigned to cold cases, Dan Stone, the protagonist of the trilogy, is troubled by far more recent deaths and disappearances. Reviewing files dating back two decades, he sets out to discover new leads. But it’s slow going. A massive snowstorm socks the mountains. Dan’s infant son disrupts his sleep. And dynamic preacher Wesley Falton pitches his revival tent, challenging Hemlock Lake traditions and the spiritual leadership of Reverend James Balforth.

As Dan digs deeper into the past, he suspects his cold cases are linked to a fresh murder. When hard evidence eludes him, he appeals for help from beyond the grave. As he does, he wonders whether ghosts make their presence felt because we believe in them, or because they believe in us.

Tell us how water figures into your story, Carolyn.

There is at least one Hemlock Lake in New York, but “my” lake, set deep in the Catskills, is fictional. (By the way, there is also a rock called Devil’s Tombstone in the Catskills, not far from where I grew up. The rock created for the book, however, is far larger.) I chose the name Hemlock Lake for two reasons. First, I wanted a symbolic link to the story of Socrates who was sentenced to drink poison hemlock for corrupting youth and failing to acknowledge the gods. Second, hemlock trees crowd the slopes of the Catskills. The bark was used for tanning leather by early settlers and the trees create dense shade.Dan Stone faced a dark future when he returned to Hemlock Lake a year after his wife drowned in the lake and his brother committed suicide. And he faced the poisonous attitude of some of the town’s residents because he moved away when he was younger, leading some to claim he thought he was above them.

The lake becomes a character in its own right as the stories unfold. Each book begins in the early spring when Hemlock Lake is cold, dark, and, in The Devil’s Tombstone, choked with ice. The stories progress into summer when the lake is more welcoming. And they conclude in the fall when the water level drops and some of what lies beneath the surface (of the lake and the mystery) is revealed.

Why set a book near water? What significance does water have for you?




I grew up leaping across a brook on the path that led to the school bus stop, splashing in the Sawkill Creek in the summer, riding my bicycle around Cooper Lake, and fishing at Yankeetown Pond on humid evenings thick with mosquitoes. I loved the gush of snowmelt and heavy spring rains that made the Sawkill run high and fast and red with clay ripped from its banks. I loved that glimpse of water through the trees at the end of a hike. I loved the sound of bullfrogs and peepers and loons.

Tell the readers about your journey as a writer. 

In 2010, I took stock of myself as an author and decided it was time to stop asking publishers to like me and go straight to readers. I’d had some experience with e-books because my contract for Hemlock Lake hadn’t included digital rights so I’d put it up in that format on my own. I had no budget for advertising and promotion and none for travel and conferences. My strategy, therefore, was to “open the door” by pricing some of my books at 99 cents and hoping that would attract readers to the rest of them.

The first two years went well. No Substitute for Murder even became a Nook Pick of the Week. But the market has expanded, competition is fierce, and many independent authors I know are feeling a pinch. I haven’t made my books free in the hope of increased sell-through sales. And I haven’t taken advantage of exclusive programs because I have strong Kobo sales in Canada and Australia and don’t want to disappoint potential readers in those countries.

Will I keep on? Sure. There’s nothing I’d rather do than write stories and connect with readers.

I so agree with you Carolyn! What is your best writing advice?

Write the best story you can and think less about making money and more about connecting with readers. Promotion and advertising can move a lot of books, but word of mouth gives a book “legs” and keeps those ripples spreading once you’ve blown your budget

Okay, now to my fun question. If someone asked you to give a TED talk, what would it be about?

Hmmm. I guess my theme would be “it’s almost never too late to dust off that dream and run with it—after making a few modifications.”

I longed to write when I was young, and I did. I wrote anguished journal entries detailing the “crimes” against me by parents, teachers, classmates, and life in general. I read those entries journal now and I squirm. I thought I had “something deep and meaningful to say,” but all I had was a collection of whinings and wishings.

Then, thank goodness, my life expanded. I went to college, joined VISTA, and found my way to a series of TV newsrooms as a writer, a producer, and an assignment editor. I got a lesson in the insignificance of my problems when compared to events around the world. I learned a lot about human nature and the many foibles and flaws that are part of the human condition. I saw the dark side of life. And I experienced many lighter and warmer moments.

Along the way I realized that what I wanted to write wasn’t deep and serious and message-heavy, but rather what I enjoyed reading—mysteries. And so, when I could finally cut back on the hours spent at work, I did. And I wrote. I’ve been a happier person ever since.

Where can readers find you and your books?

Website

Kindle

Nook

Kobo