Keeping up with author and book news

On October 25, 2012October 25, 2012 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn writers4 Comments

Have you found my re-started “Book Bits” posts yet?

They run twice a week on my Sun Singer’s Travels weblog. An earlier version ran daily, but after a hundred posts, I realized that keeping up with author and book news wasn’t leaving me any time to write. This time, the posts featuring links to book news, author interviews, book reviews, writing tips and features, and commentary about today’s publishing world are under control. Hmm, well, they seem to be.

Not long after shutting down the daily “Book Bits,” I started to miss it. Plus, I was still spending time reading about authors and books. So, why not bring it back? I’m enjoying it. I hope you will, too.

I’ll continue to use this blog for book reviews, briefly noted posts about new books, writing ideas, and musings about some of my writing themes such as the recent Tarot card post. The readers’ and writers’ links, announcements and personal writing notes will be in Sun Singer’s Travels. Nature, natural cycles, magic, and fantasy will usually appear in Magic Moments.

You can keep up with all of us at Vanilla Heart Publishing via our Reader’s Group. Be the first to hear about new books, author presentations and talks, and a variety of other programs.

You’ll also find links to writing samplers, book trailers and websites for VHP’s authors: Smoky Trudeau Zeidel, Chelle Cordero, Marilyn C. Morris, Kate Evans, Robert Hays, L.E. Harvey, Collin Kelley, Malcolm Campbell, Charmaine GordonJanet Lane Walters, Anne K. Albert, S.R. Claridge, Melinda Clayton, Angela Kay Austin, Joice Overton, Ramey Channell, Scott Zeidel and Namid.

Have fun with all of the blogs. Leave comments. Ask questions. And, for goodness sakes, leave the online world every day and take some time reading.

—Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of contemporary satire and satire novels. His paranormal story “Moonlight and Ghosts, how available on both Kindle and Nook, was published last month.

Take a look at locations you know for your best stories

On May 15, 2012May 17, 2012 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn writers, writing2 Comments

The possibilities for swamp stories are infinite

Like most starving authors, I can—on a bad day—be jealous of authors who have the money for multiple research trips to Scotland, Paris or Japan. On the other hand, I’m not writing global thrillers or looking to my highland ancestors for what if romances about Mary Queen of Scots. So, I return again and again to the places I’ve lived and worked for my fictional settings.

Writers often debate whether the old admonition “write what you know” makes sense or is foolish. Obviously, writers do a lot of research to fill in the gaps. Nonetheless, I think it’s much easier to write about a place where you’ve been or an occupation you’ve had or have been exposed to than to have to make everything up from scratch.

If you lived in a town for years, you know the streets, the ambiance, the trees and flowers to be found there, and perhaps some of the history. If you vacation at the same beach, resort or National Park every year or so, these are also prime examples of “what you know.”

In my contemporary fantasies “The Sun Singer” and “Sarabande,” I used Glacier National Park as a setting for the adventures because I worked there and later went back as a tourist. I placed some of the scenes in my magical realism novel “Garden of Heaven: an Odyssey” in Glacier, but also used the Philippines which I saw while in the Navy and the Florida Panhandle where I grew up. And this year, I’ve been writing short stories which have been set in Glacier, a north Florida swamp, and central Illinois where one side of my family came from.

My fiction always has a strong sense of place

To some extent, each of these stories could have unfolded in a dozen other places, but since I always have a strong “sense of location” in my fiction, it was easier to plunk down my characters in places I know well rather having to start from scratch. I know, for example, that you’re going to find chinkapin trees, titi thickets and scrub oak in the Florida Panhandle, and that there are several varieties of Indian Paintbrush flowers in the Montana mountains.

What I know about each location isn’t earth shaking, like state secrets, smuggling rings, or hair-raising stories from years gone by. But what I know does give me a jump start. I may well use Google to fill in a few facts, but knowing a location helps you know what to look for when you do your next Internet search. Yes, I still have dreams about going to the highlands of Scotland, but until then, I can be happy with East Glacier, Montana and Tate’s Hell Swamp on the Florida Coast.

Perhaps you can, too.

I just saw a screen saver filled with Indian Paintbrush: ah, that leads me to another Montana short story. A week ago, I started thinking of the chuck-will’s-widow that sang all night in the woods behind the Florida house where I grew up. Oh, good, another story idea about those woods and my old neighborhood.

In many ways, I am probably always on the lookout for stories I can tell in my favorite settings because, well, I know the territory and the kinds of things that happen (or might happen) there. If the location settings in your fiction play a role, then where you’ve been is a lot easier to bring to life in words than a place you’ve always wanted to see.

—Malcolm

You may also like: World of Wonder about nature as my primary inspiration as a writer. The post appears as part of an inspiration series running on author Smoky Zeidel’s weblog through June 27.

My Birthday Gift to You

On September 29, 2011 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, writers2 Comments

Pennsylvanian L. E. Harvey, author of “Unbreakable Hostage,” “Loving Her,” “Imperfect,” and the recently released “Impeccable,” contributes today’s guest post. The Kindle edition of Impeccable was released on September 9 by Vanilla Heart Books. The trade paperback edition is due out in November. You may also like Lauren’s previous guest post “On Writing as Entertainment” which appeared here in April.

My Birthday Gift to You

Today is my birthday. Normally, I’ve hated my birthdays. And today throws me one foot deeper into my thirty-something’s and one frightening step closer to the big four-oh. Yet, today, I can’t help but have a stupid grin on my face.

You see today just plain rocks. Today is bringing me quite a bit of change in my personal life in addition to the bigger number. Professionally, though, I am celebrating not just my age, but also the release of my newest book, Impeccable.

Impeccable is the sequel to Imperfect, a book that I have discussed with the fabulous Malcolm Campbell previously. (See L. E. Harvey’s novels focus on women’s strengths.) Now, we continue the story. Now we see how everything from Imperfect ties together and affects every character. Now we, and the characters, move forward.

So many people were shocked to hear there was a second book. Ah ha! Leave it to a writer to be tricky (we love doing that)! Anyway, yes, there is a
second book. Yes, Impeccable is it. No, Imperfect is not the ending to it all. And Impeccable is not the ending you expected.

Impeccable is the emotional, cerebral twin to the logical Imperfect. Together, they blend and create a full story of which I am tremendously proud. I always say that these two books are sure to touch your heart and change your mind. I say that with good reason: as I wrote them, that is how they impacted me!

These books are not thrillers, nor are they erotic, nor are they fantasy, nor are they exciting. They are simply touching. They were written from my heart and I was literally transformed in the process of writing them. I know that if I can be that affected by a book, you most certainly will be too!

So today, I am celebrating! I am celebrating my day, but moreover, I am celebrating my book. I am celebrating a book that I loved writing. I am celebrating a book that touched me on a spiritual level. And I am celebrating a book that I hope – no I know – will have a tremendous impact on its readers and our society today. That is worth celebrating, don’t you think?

Would you please celebrate along with me? Could you help me revel in my birthday? Would you go out on a limb and purchase your copy of Impeccable today? You might just be surprised at just how deeply this book touches you. And it will only make my birthday grin bigger!

Thanks, and happy reading!

Publisher’s Description for Impeccable

Carol – abandoned – waiting… for what, she couldn’t know. She couldn’t see that there was more life waiting for her. Carol is forced to face the demons of her past as well as begin to face life without Alex. Struggling to make sense of it all, Carol experiences her new life and all of the highs and lows that come with that life. Will Carol finally make peace with both her past and present?

Teaser from the Novel

She couldn’t feel her body. She felt nothing, no pain, nothing, no heat, and no cold. She couldn’t feel anything. Where was she that she lacked all sensation? Carol diligently tried to focus on her surroundings and tried to make sense of all the activity going on around her, but she was unable to sustain that for long. Once again her eyes rolled back and Carol was consumed by black.

The Writer’s Comfort Zone

On September 26, 2011 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn authors, writers3 Comments

: Robert Hays

Today’s guest post is by Robert Hays, author of four novels, including Blood on the Roses (Vanilla Heart, July 2011) and The Life and Death of Lizzie Morris (Vanilla Heart, January 2009). He has worked as a newspaper reporter, public relations writer, magazine editor, and university professor and administrator.

The Writer’s Comfort Zone

Most writers seem to do their best work when they stay within their own comfort zone. This may be through genre—once you’ve written a couple or romance novels, for example, or a murder mystery or two, you’re likely to begin a new work of that kind with a better idea of where you’re going with your story and have a good sense of its possibilities and limitations. I don’t consider myself a genre writer, but after being a journalist for most of my adult life I’m definitely a realist. This means my comfort zone is in settings that will seem familiar to readers and characters that are like people I know. Further, my story line is likely to be based on actual experiences, either my own or those I’ve read about or heard about and can research for realistic detail.

I love Malcolm Campbell’s exotic fantasy novels, particularly since he uses my home region—central Illinois—as a setting. But I could never write what he writes. Or if I did no one would want to read it. I’m glad there are writers, like Malcolm, who are more creative than I.

Being a realist has its advantages. When I decide that I want to tell a story based on some past experience, I’m half way home. This was especially true in the case of my newest work, Blood on the Roses. During my last few years of teaching at the University of Illinois, I learned that students today—our best and brightest twenty-year-olds—have little knowledge of the history of racism in America. Perhaps they’ve heard about it in school, but they don’t really understand it or comprehend how bad it was. They have never experienced anything like it.

Understanding Our Past

I believe we need to know and understand our past. The bitter as well as the sweet, the ugly along with the beautiful. We need to know the wrongs if we are to make sure they don’t happen again.

Blood on the Roses is about racism and other prejudices. It is set in east Tennessee in 1955, which just happens to be the year before I was sent to the South by the U.S. Army and witnessed racial segregation as state policy for the first time. It also is the time of the Emmett Till murder in Mississippi and just months after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed school segregation. I remember very well the “Impeach Earl Warren” billboards along major highways in the South. This all became fodder for my mill, and the reader will understand that this is an authentic story of life at that time.

I love the South. I love Southern people. I’ve been married to one for decades, as a matter of fact. Blood on the Roses is not an indictment of Southern people or the Southern way of life. It is an indictment of racism as it existed then, and as it must never be allowed to exist again. And it is solidly grounded on my realistic journalist’s view of the world as I saw it.

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Visit Robert Hays’ blog site at http://authorroberthays.wordpress.com/ or his personal web site at http://home.comcast.net/~roberthayswriter/site/. You may also like his review of Kathryn Stockett’s bestselling novel “The Help.”

What does a novelist actually do?

On September 28, 2010September 28, 2010 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn writers, writing4 Comments

Like magicians, novelists are never supposed to reveal their true secrets. Instead, they dispense lame generalities like “show, don’t tell” and “don’t write in passive voice.” The good stuff is better than that!

Today’s Example

Did you read this news story?

MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) – European group Eurocopter showed off a revolutionary winged helicopter on Monday, in a bid to counter U.S. rival Sikorsky’s efforts to break the speed barrier by rewriting rotorcraft design rules.

A journalist wrote this lead paragraph, possibly after looking at a Eurocopter press release, talking to company spokespersons, calling rival manufacturers and expert sources for other opinions, and then distilling all that information through the reporter’s WHO WHAT WHEN WHY WHERE lens.

A novelist asks WHAT IF?

What if the design for X3 hybrid helicraft came from the devil. Hmm, let’s go with that. Why? Maybe he wants to fly people to hell faster than ever before. Maybe he wants to fly good people to bad places where they will do bad things and end up going to hell. Maybe he’s trying to straighten up and fly right.

What if Sikorsky formed a secret subsidiary called Eurocopter and “accidentally” leaked some pictures and information about the X3? Okay, where might that lead? As the manufacturers of mass market name-brand products learned long ago, you can make more money by competing with yourself through the launching of additional products. Maybe the design for the X3 was transmitted telepathically to Eurocopter designers from an advanced civilization in a galaxy far far away because, frankly, after they infiltrated Sikorsky years ago, they were getting bored again.

What if the whole thing is an illusion? Let’s say a bunch of guys started slamming down shooters one night and then simultaneously dreamt about the craziest looking helicopter the world has ever seen. When they woke up, they had hangovers, of course. Meanwhile, a trickster god convinced them they never had any shooters, never got drunk and invented the X3. Once the press got a hold of the story, the thing was out of control.

That is what a novelist actually does. S/he brainstorms the improbable and/or the unlikely and then convinces readers it happened or might have happened or could happen.
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You might also like: “Lust in All the Best Places” by Jock Stewart from the Morning Satirical News.

Submissions wanted for CAMAS Glacier Issue

On March 4, 2010March 4, 2010 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Glacier National Park, writers, writing2 Comments

Camas, the literary magazine of the University of Montana is dedicating its Summer 2010 Issue to Glacier National Park in concert with Glacier’s Centennial Anniversary. The deadline is March 15, 2010.

The magazine is seeking feature articles (2000-3000 words), essays (500-2000 words), interviews and profiles (250-2000 words), fiction (500-2500 words), and poetry of varying lengths.

For complete guidelines and submission information, click here.

It should be a great issue for fans of Glacier National Park.

–Malcolm, author of “The Sun Singer,” a novel set in Glacier National Park.

Guard Cat

On January 12, 2010January 12, 2010 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, writers2 Comments

MalcolmOffice3 — Katy and her spooky reflection

After three of us uploaded pictures of our offices on a Yahoo group for writers, somebody asked if all writers keep cats near at hand while writing.

The answer to that question is probably “no” unless we’re talking about witches who can’t write without their familiar standing by.

Nonetheless, Katy guards my den while I’m at work. From her position next to the file cabinet, she can see all the way down the hall. This way, other entities–such as my wife, guests coming in the front door, or the other three cats in the house–cannot approach without challenge.

When Katy gets bored with her duties, she squeezes in behind me on my desk chair and falls asleep–with one eye open.

Malcolm

Review: Women of Magdalene

On February 3, 2009 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, writers, writing4 Comments

Women of Magdalene by Rosemary Poole-Carter

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
My review from Powell’s Books:

“It’s easy to get in, but once there it is impossible to get out,” New York World reporter Nellie Bly wrote in her “Ten Days in a Mad House” expose about the poor conditions and mistreatment of patients at Blackwell’s Island asylum in New York in 1887. Deplorable by today’s standards, the approach to mental health then wasn’t far removed from the days when professionals considered the insane to be those suffering God’s punishment or the Devil’s possession.

The fictional Magdalene Ladies Lunatic Asylum in Rosemary Poole-Carter’s darkly beautiful novel fits perfectly into a time period when the treatment of female mentally ill patients was likely to be neither moral nor effective. Confinement was often a matter of convenience for the families of women viewed as domestic failures who were best kept out of sight and out of mind.

When young Civil War surgeon Dr. Robert Mallory arrives at the Louisiana institution for employment as general practitioner after the war, he soon sees that God and the world have forgotten the women of Magdalene, and the only devils on the premises are the asylum’s owner Dr. Kingston, his former assistant Dr. Hardy, and their dictatorial matron.

When Robert questions Kingston about the inhumane treatment of the women housed in the former plantation mansion, Kingston discounts Robert’s competence to judge what is right and proper in the realm of mental illness. Later, Robert will ask why no women are ever cured and allowed to leave the facility. Cures? There are no cures, only what Kingston describes without noticeable guile as “sanctuary.”

In Poole-Carter’s haunting, yet gritty prose, Magdalene floats almost dreamlike within a misshapen world of malaise and mist that will ultimately claim all who remain there–and for a high price. Robert, like the women, arrives at the asylum having been harmed by the world and with a growing expectation that he will be injured further by the methods and practices within the shelter of Magdalene’s walls.

This novel casts multiple spells over its readers and its characters. Readers with a growing understanding that the abuses at the fictional Magdalene were drawn from the world of standard abuses of the times, won’t be able to forget what they see there. As for Robert Mallory, in spite of his resolve, he’s not sure he can complete his personal journey out of the past and cure what ails Magdalene before he becomes yet another shadow alongside the old plantation’s dark river.

View all my reviews.
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Note: Author Vivian Zabel will visit the Round Table on February 19th to discuss her novel Prairie Dog Cowboy.

Images of Betrayal – Review

On January 29, 2009January 29, 2009 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn writers, writing5 Comments

Tyson doesn’t have time for movies, the mall, or school because her parents have abandoned her to a roach infested apartment with paper-thin walls in the bad part of town. She works as a waitress at a diner where the tips are hardly enough to pay the rent or buy the groceries. Then, things get worse.

Claire Collins has created a practical and responsible teenage protagonist with true grit. But practicality alone doesn’t solve the problem of a mysterious photographer named Walker who shows up at the diner with mesmerizing eyes and a stare that doesn’t quit. He has a camera that predicts the future and from the photographs of violence he shares with her, Ty’s future looks bleak. Worse yet, her friends are under threat as well.

This fine mystery is well written and well paced. The characters are three-dimensional and they react to danger the way everyday people do, and goodness knows, Collins has provided plenty of danger. The book is hard to put down as one problem after another appears.

While the climax of the novel really works, the denouement is a little too perfect to seem realistic. Readers used to books being set in the traditional and more-legible Roman font may find the sans serif type face a little difficult to get used to.

That said, this book will get your attention and keep it. What fun!

Images of Betral was published by Second Wind Publishing (“The Best Authors You Haven’t Read Yet.”) Collins is also the author of Fate and and Destiny, “A romantic thriller set on a snowy mountaintop. During a blizzard, Andrew’s dog, Shadow, finds destiny–a beautiful woman left for dead, but very much alive. With her she brings mystery, danger and passion to the little cabin.“

Collins’ books are available on line at Second Wind and major booksellers.

Three posts for writers

On January 15, 2009January 15, 2009 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn writers, writing

Many of you know I also maintain a Typepad weblog called Writer’s Notebook. If you love reading, writing and books, I invite you to take a look at several of my latest posts:

Malcolm's Round Table

Category: writers