Looking at a little down home literature

News: C. J. Cherryh in Oklahoma Magazine; Book Smack!; Ian McEwan gets Tulsa Award

Cool, I just mentioned C.J. Cherryh in a blog post, and there she is in Oklahoma Magazine, November 2010 issue. It’s a nice article by Becky Carman, “Rooted in Red Earth”. C.J. has her own Wave without a Shore Blog. So you can keep up with her comings and goings, new books, and it looks like a new venture in e-books, called Closed Circle.
I know Young Bill is a huge fan of Cherryh’s work.

From the World of Librarians and Book folk, you can get Book Smack sent directly to your email. Some of the entries can be directed toward us librarian types, for example, *RA stands for Readers Advisory, Starred Reviews are books Library Journal recommends to librarians.   

It’s free, and it’s good stuff, so I recommend it. Go to the Book Smack link, down the page at Library Journal you’ll find the e-newsletter entry for it.

 Here’s what LIS library news has to say about it, 

Want “high-impact reviews of street lit, genre fiction, graphic novels, audio, and DVDs, along with edgy RA, in-depth prepub info, and industry buzz” direct from seasoned library-type editors? Then you’ll want to sign up for Library Journal’s new twice-monthly newsletter BOOK SMACK.

Dec 3rd and 4th, Tulsa City County Library will give the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award to Ian McEwan. First they have an Award presentation at a black-tie dinner: 7 p.m., Friday, Dec. 3 then a FREE Public Presentation: 10:30 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 4, at the Central Library.
McEwan has written numerous novels, short stories, screenplays, children’s books and other writings. His works include the highly praised novels “Amsterdam,” “Enduring Love” and “Atonement.”

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Thanks Veterans! and check out the new Locus

First things first, I want to say Thank you to all the men and women who are now serving or served our country in the military. We don’t say it nearly enough how much we appreciate it.

I’m home today, spending quality time trying to unclutter the dreaded craft/sewing/yarn/material room. I must be suffering from a craft hoarding disease.  All beside the point however, you know how much I like Locus magazine. So I was pleasantly surprised to find an interview with Mercedes Lackey in the last issue. As most of you surely know, she lives in Oklahoma, and writes great science fiction and fantasy. Go to her amazing bibliography. In this piece, she talks about meeting C. J. Cherryh and her early influence when she was beginning. I heard a rumor they had some kind of falling out and no longer collaborate.    Whether they’re working together or not, Okies have been endowed with these two  science fiction/fantasy  world building giants.

Mercedes has  worked with other sf greats, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Andre Norton, Piers Anthony and Steve Libbey.  I love Mercedes adventures in podcasting, she’s always welcomed social networking. Saw an article somewhere about her willingness for fans to share pieces of her work on the internet as she felt it built a fan base. (I need to find the complete article and hope I’m not misstating). She comments on Creative Commons is this piece.

Role playing games seem like a perfect venue for fantasy writers to work out their creative muscles. Looks like Mercedes is big into ”City of Heroes”.

But  all this extracurricular activity isn’t keeping her from writing,Intrigues just came out, book two in the Collegium Chronicles.

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This post is about Mostly Monsterly. Mostly.

Blogging is a funny business. For example, I started this post this way:

Halloween is just around the corner, so it’s time to recommend an appropriate holiday book for the youngsters in your life. How about Mostly Monsterly by Oklahoma’s own Tammi Sauer? Yes! Definitely Mostly Monsterly! Personally, I can’t wait to get a signed copy for my grand niece, Brooklyn.

Then I went here…

Many children’s books are about kids accepting themselves just as they are—a so very important lesson for young people since they will meet a diversity of human beings as they grow up and move through life. If they can accept their own quirks and idiosyncrasies, isn’t it easier for them to accept the oddness of others? It’s a great lesson for our young ones, and Sauer does it so well.

And since I’m a Tammi Sauer fan, and I’m obviously indoctrinating the kids in my family, I told you this:

Just last weekend, my sister read Sauer’s Cowboy Camp to my grandnephew, Tyler. It’s all about Cowboy Avery, the most unlikely cowboy in the world, who saves his fellow campers from the meanest cowboy in the world; and he does it just by being himself. Brooklyn is already a fan of Sauer’s award-winning Chicken Dance, which is about hens Lola and Marge, and how they reach their dream, just by being themselves.

And then I had a Eureka! moment:

But where Cowboy Avery inadvertently succeeds by being himself, and Lola and Marge must make a conscience decision to be themselves (because they have no other choice), the protagonist of Mostly Monsterly has to work to fit in with her monster friends without compromising her personality and unique self.

Mostly Monsterly is the story of Bernadette, a little monster who has the unfortunate quality of being… sweet. She likes kittens and flowers and loves to bake. Her monster friends are appalled by Bernadette’s goodness, and our little monster must find a way to fit in with her antagonistic buddies, and still be true to herself. The solution Bernadette comes up with is the punch line, the guffaw, the laugh-out-loud part of the book. But beyond the entertainment lies a theme that author Sauer has been playing with and expanding upon during the course of her career. What we have here, folks, is the third book in a great little trilogy about acceptance and self worth.

And then I added these distracting bold lead-ins and changed the post title before closing:

Get a behind-the-scenes look at creating Mostly Monsterly on the Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast blog. And then go immediately to your bookstore or library and get you and your young one some Tammi Sauer reading!

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Where and What is Oklahoma?

Kitty and I had a great time at the Oklahoma Celebration of Books in Tulsa last Friday and Saturday. We promoted the Oklahoma Center for the Book; talked with authors, readers and aspiring writers; and caught up with some of our librarian colleagues. Like Kitty, I was quite taken with the presentation by authors Sue Monk Kidd and Michael Cunningham.

I’m going to share another highlight of the event for me: the panel on Oklahoma Landscapes which was moderated by William Hagen. Panelists were writers Jim Barnes, Rilla Askew and Hannibal Johnson. The session focused on the importance of “place” in literature; or as Oklahoma Poet Laureate Barnes noted, a story without place is lacking soul. Every Okie knows that we, outselves—indeed, all Americans— have a problem determing if Oklahoma is southern, midwestern, southwestern, or part of the great west. (Just look at the comments on Steve Lackmeyer’s post on his OKC Central blog).

Certainly the diversity of the state’s landscape plays a role in this. Angie Debo noted that taking the shape of our state and placing it anywhere else on a map of the U.S. would not result in a greater diversity of terrain. Debo’s observations, it turns out, were right on: the EPA says Oklahoma is one of only four states with more than 10 Eco-Regions, and that it has the most Eco-Regions by mile than any other state.

Although the panel discussed Oklahoma’s diverse terrain and its influence on the feeling of place, a main theme of the session was on Oklahoma’s unique “place” in American history and culture.  It is the place, Johnson said, where three races—European American, Native American, and African American—came together under extraordinary circumstances. All came to this land, Johnson said, for different reasons, but all came because of a great promise; and it was the breaching of this promise for two of the races that frame a unique narrative of Oklahoma history. This theme is echoed in Askew’s short stories and novels as well.

During the course of the panel, Askew’s essay Most American came up. This essay has been published in both Nimrod and in the book Voices from the Heartland, a collection of writings by Oklahoma women. The essay is an eloquent and provocative piece of writing that speaks to the soul and heart of our state and its people. It’s as good an answer to who, what and where we are as anything ever written about our strangely wonderful home.

Most American by Rilla Askew on Google Books.

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Okie Bookshelf

New from  the Okie Bookshelf.

War Party in Blue: Pawnee Scouts in the U.S. Army by  Mark van de Logt.  

Facts: Published by the University of Oklahoma Press : 2010. Hardcover ISBN: 9780806141398.
368 pages

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Add snow and turn up the heat.

OK, so we’ve finally had our “cold”snap and it’s not 110 in the shade any more. But before that happened I needed a different kind of steamy to take my mind off the heat. What better than Christmas romance. Turn to Christine Rimmer’s Scrooge and the Single Girl. Snow covered cabin, grumpy but hunky guy, Christmas music on the radio, and the lead lady complete with scumptious holiday fixings and junk food. Toss in ghostly appearances, cat and dog drama and you’ve got the perfect diversion from the heat. Christine Rimmer does a great job serving up romance through her Bravo family stories. This one is part of the Sons of Caitlin Bravo. If you don’t know about the Bravo books, here’s a handy list and summary of titles straight from Christine. All excellent for summer reading. (And she’s an Oklahoma Author)

Recently someone questioned my reading romances. Just when you think everyone has gotten past that sort of silliness. So I was talking to one of my romance reading colleagues about this and she didn’t get it either. Here’s why we think women continue to read romance (and the statistics prove it);  the women are always strong characters, they don’t settle for second best.  They usually have a good sense of humor, and interesting jobs.  The men are strong and good looking, but once caught are devoted to the one girl. (no off to Argentina with a soulmate for these guys) They are not afraid to be romantic. And we know It’s all going to work out in the end, the right girl, the right guy. Nothing wrong with Happily Ever After.  If you need unhappily ever after just turn on the television, pick up a celebrity rag or surf the net.

I do get the reality of relationships, I just like to take a break. So for those scrooges of romance,  here’s my favorite poem by Marge Piercy.

What’s That Smell in the Kitchen?

All over America women are burning dinners.
It’s lambchops in Peoria: it’s haddock
in Providence; it’s steak in Chicago:
tofu delight in Big Sur; red rice and beans in Dallas.
All over America women are burning food they’re supposed to bring with calico smile on
platters glittering like wax.
Anger sputters in her brainpan, confined but spewing out missiles of hot fat.
Carbonized despair presses like a clinker
from a barbecue against the back of her eyes.
If she wants to grill anything, it’s
her husband spitted over a slow fire.
If she wants to serve him anything it’s a dead rat with a bomb in its belly ticking like the
heart of an insomniac.
Her life is cooked and digested,
nothing but leftovers in Tupperware.
Look, she says, once I was roast duck
on your platter with parsley but now I am Spam.
Burning dinner is not incompetence but war.

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What’s on Your Nightstand?

What have you been reading these last dog days of summer? Like Kitty, I’m usually reading more than one book at a time.

Here’s what’s on my nightstand:

• Supersense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable by Bruce Hood (Beyond culture and the handing down of beliefs, Hood thinks there is something inherent in our nature that makes us believe the unbelievable.)

• The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (An adventure in an alternate world, where people really–I mean, *really*–value literature. What kind of drugs is this author taking?)

• The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham. (Latest installment of maybe the best comic/graphic novel series ever!)

(If you’ve been following this blog, you may be interested to know that Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land is no longer on the nightstand!)

And what has been taking up Miss Kitty’s time?

• No Going Back by Lyndon Stacey (An ex-cop and his retired police dog solve a crime.)

• Women, Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything by Geneen Roth (It’s about our relationship with food.)

• The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe (A modern-day woman discovers she has a connection to the Salem Witch Trials.)

Plus, Kitty says she’s so fed up with this weather she’s getting ready to read a Christmas romance: Scrooge and the Single Girl by Oklahoma’s own Christine Rimmer.

OK, now it’s your turn. What have you been reading this hot, hot season?

Hmmm… with all these titles, I wonder how many categories I should tag? Let’s see…

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Sugar Mule’s Oklahoma Writing edition

Need some quick summer Okie reading,

M.L. Weber, editor of Sugar Mule: A Literary Magazine, announces a special double-edition of Oklahoma Writing, edited by Jeanetta Calhoun Mish. The issue is now online at http://www.sugarmule.com/35frame.htm or you can enter through the home page, at www.sugarmule.com. Keep a look out for the print edition, to be published by Mongrel Empire Press (Norman, OK) in early 2011. 

Take a taste of Alvin Turner’s fare,

Ranch Proprieties

She keeps a 22 rifle on her dining room table
loaded with bird shot
that she uses to
“teach manners to the varmints”
who might hope to savor
her cats or chicks.

Others may conclude rightly,
hers is not the place to forget
one’s raising, or how to act
in the presence of a lady.

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Take a Letter

Young Bill Young here.

I’ve read three books recently that are composed as letters to the reader from the author. Rather than traditional scholarly works, these are opinion pieces where the author is specifically arguing a point of view. In each case, the author has felt the need to “respond” to a particular issue. Interestingly, the approach of addressing the readers via this format begs the audience (much more than traditional non-fiction books) to have a reaction: to nod in agreement, shake their head in disagreement, and to think about the issues themselves.

David Boren’s A Letter to America is in response to the cynical bipartisanship in American government. It’s a thoughtful read that calls for a truce between the waring parties to solve the problems our country faces.

Sam Harris’ Letter to a Christian Nation is in response to the many letters he received following the publication of his book The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason. Harris argues against the dangers of religion. Not surprisingly, members of the faith community have offered their own letters in response: Letter to a Christian Nation: Counter Point by RC Metcalf and Letter from a Christian Citizen by Douglas Wilson.

In The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, author Naomi Wolf warns that the Bush administration’s post-911 policies threaten our civil rights and our way of life.

I don’t know if these books have changed any minds, but I started wondering if their success was turning into a trend in literature: the book as letter as opinion piece.  A search on the Internet says “probably not.” Recent titles do include Hill Harper’s Letters to a Young Brother and Letters to a Young Sister, but Harper’s works were inspired by Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, a recent compilation of correspondence written in 1903. These books, like Maya Angelou’s Letter to My Daughter, are about inspiration and the passing on of wisdom and advice, not about changing public opinion or arguing for new policies.

My online search did turn up a wonderful book that I’m definitely going to investigate: Letters from the Earth by Mark Twain. This compilation of fragments, short stories and essays was published in 1962. The title piece includes “letters written by Satan to his fellow angels about the shameless pride and foolishness of humans,” according to a review on the Amazon.com site. Now, those are some letters I want to read!

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It’s Pride Week! Read a Book!

Young Bill Young here.

Once upon a time, there was a gay teenager in America who would not share his “secret” with anyone; not his teachers, not his friends, not his siblings, and (God forbid!) certainly not his parents. Instead, he kept this part of his identity completely to himself, waiting for the day when he met like-minded individuals, when he could finally and openly share and discuss his unique nature in this world.

Even when he was a child, before he knew he was gay, there were other boys in school who saw he was different, and they called him names and bullied him. But he hung on, because he had a loving family, because he had good friends, because he was curious, because he could read, and because he did read. His father had a collection of books and magazines about science and the natural world. His mother signed him up for a children’s book club and read to him. His sister introduced him to the world of comic books and short stories.  When he became a teenager, he went to the library and investigated many things, including a natural phenomenon known as “homosexuality.”

Eventually, he grew to adulthood and finally did meet those like minded individuals. He discovered he was not alone (he always knew this) and that most people, whether straight or gay, were loving and accepting, and ready to welcome him.  And he lived happily ever after.

This is not a fairy tale. (Pun most definitely intended.)  It’s real, and I lived it. And it’s a story that goes on even today in our country. It’s encouraging that society is increasingly becoming more knowledgeable and understanding of human sexuality,  and I know it must be much easier for many young gay teenagers today. But I also know that there is a darker story that continues to play out across the states; one where rejection by loved ones, ostracization, isolation, and hateful speech from the pulpit and the political arena can lead young people to very different ends: depression, drug and alcohol abuse, risky behavior, and even suicide.

We know that reading entertains. It educates, it inspires, and sometimes it is a literal lifeline. How many of us turn to books, be they spiritual or secular, for solace and assistance when times are tough? The intellectual pursuit of knowledge and understanding helps. Books help. I remember how popular The Lord is my Shepherd and He Knows I’m Gay, by Reverend Troy G. Perry, was with some of my crowd. It helped these people bridge the gap between their religious upbringing and the truth of their nature.

Today’s gay teenagers have a wealth of literary lifelines to explore and to help them find their place in the world. The Today Show’s website has an excellent article: Teen books with gay themes take off. The article includes a quote from a 15-year-old teen that makes me burst with joy:

“I see the characters trickling into the mainstream genres. I really like that,” Brent said. “It makes being gay feel natural, which it is, of course. Books give you hope.”

Books give you hope. It sounds like a marketing slogan for the publishing industry, yet we know it to be profound and true.

It’s Gay Pride Week in OKC. The gay pride events across the nation have always been about hope: hope that the world will change and the LGBT community will soon enjoy the same rights and freedoms as other citizens. Today, gay Americans are discovering this hope at a much earlier age.

(By the way, don’t miss the reference to the House of Night series by Oklahoma’s own mother-daughter writing team, P.C. and Kristen Cast, in the article.)

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