A Place We Knew Well by Susan Carol McCarthy

Review: A Family Tragedy Intersects a National Emergency

Wes Avery, a tail gunner during WWII, is a good man. He loves his wife and daughter and works hard at his Texaco Station not far from McCoy Air Force base near Orlando, Florida. His wife, Sarah, has not been the same since her hysterectomy. Now with an approaching hurricane, she is withdrawing from reality and popping pills.

His daughter Charlotte is in her senior year of high school. She's caught up in being selected as a member of the homecoming court and falling in love with Emilio, a Cuban refugee boy. Avery likes the boy well enough, but Sarah doesn't want Charlotte associating with him. This creates tension in the family and raises the specter of the family secret.

As if the approaching hurricane weren't enough, Avery notices the buildup of aircraft, including U2 stealth aircraft, at McCoy. This is the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Everyone is worried, but it affects Sarah especially.

The description of Florida at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis is excellent. For anyone alive at the time, it will bring back memories; for younger people, it provides a glimpse of what life was like at the time.

Wes Avery, the main character, is well done. He's struggling with a family situation he doesn't understand, trying to manage his gas station, and keep his fear for his family in check. The other characters, Sarah and Charlotte, felt sketchy. Sarah is a fairly typical wife and mother caught in the trap of too many pills and a harrowing time. Charlotte makes only fleeting appearances except for the beginning and end.

I enjoyed the book for the glimpse of history and recommend it for that reason. Some of the plot didn't work for me. The family secret seemed to be dragged in at the end, and the conclusion wasn't satisfying.

I reviewed this book for BantamDell.

McCarthy on the Writing Process:

 I guess my “writing process” is a holdover from when my two sons were young and my writing time was bookended by school drop offs and pickups. I was then, and still am, a morning person, which by default makes me a morning writer. These days, I brew strong coffee and attempt, by the end of the first cup, to have conquered the daily Sudoku in The LA Times. I carry my second cup to my desk and check emails, answering only those that can’t wait till the afternoon. Then I write, sometimes well, sometimes not, for three to four hours every day. What’s important—I know this from years of experiment and experience—is keeping my butt in the chair and my fingers moving on the keyboard till the good stuff shows up. Early or late, it eventually shows up. I break for lunch, always, and then edit afterward in the afternoon. I should probably cop to the fact that my morning process often begins the night before when, head on my pillow, I send a message to my subconscious about what I hope and need to accomplish writing-wise the next day, and I ask for any assistance available. More often than not, the answer is there when I wake up. I’m not always writing historical fiction, by the way. I also do a fair amount of commercial freelance writing, too. Gotta pay the bills between pub dates, you know? Alas.

About the Author:

Susan Carol McCarthy is the award-winning author of three novels, Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands, True Fires, and A Place We Knew Well, and the nonfiction Boomers 101: The Definitive Collection. Her debut novel received the Chautauqua South Fiction Prize and has been widely selected by libraries and universities for their One Book, One Community and Freshman Year Read programs. A native Floridian, she lives in Carlsbad, California.

Aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina: Aftermath Lounge

Blurb:

 AFTERMATH LOUNGE is a compelling tribute to the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Resurrecting the place and its people alongside their heartaches and triumphs, Margaret McMullan creates a riveting mosaic that feeds our wish to understand what it means to be alive in this day and age.

Review:

The devastation and heartbreak caused by Hurricane Katrina are in the past, but the people affected by the tragic events are still living with the aftermath. The Zimmer's house was gutted by the storm. They were forced to move in with their daughter and her son, Teddy, in Chicago. The hurricane changed their lives, but being forced to live together changed them even more.

The Zimmers are only one of the families whose stories are told in this collection of short stories. However, their's is the thread that holds the collection together. It's a story of bravery, and growing, and giving in. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting this family.

The collection of stories captures the triumphs and tragedies that resulted from this terrible event. The author does an excellent job of making the people come alive. Although I'm not familiar with the Gulf Coast. I felt that I came to know the area and the people.

I usually prefer novels to short stories, but the combination of short stories with a continuing set of characters made the book very satisfying. I think the vignettes showing how lives were affected at various positions on the socio-economic spectrum was a very effective way to bring the story of what happened to people after Katrina to life.

I highly recommend this book. If you're a survivor of the hurricane, it's a must read. If you love well done glimpses of people's lives, you'll enjoy this book.

I reviewed this book for PR by the Book.

Author Q & A:

  1.Aftermath Lounge honors the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Can you tell us about your experience during those days when the storm hit?

Shortly after the storm hit, my husband and I drove down from Evansville, Indiana to Pass Christian, Mississippi. We saw aerial footage of the town and we could see that the roof on my parents’ house was mostly intact – that’s all we could see. We brought water and a lot of supplies to donate. There was a gas shortage then, and limited cell phone coverage. The closer we came to the town, the more it became like a war zone. The National Guard was there to keep people away, but we got through, thanks to a relative.

The night before we left, my mother told us to forget about everything else -- all she really wanted was the painting of her mother, which had been smuggled out of Vienna during WWII. We had house keys but there were no doors. When we got there, the house was gutted – the storm surge had essentially ripped through the house.

We put on rubber gloves and spent the day sifting through the debris, dragging out any salvageable pieces of furniture. The water had shoved through the closed shutters, plowed up under the foundation and tore open the back walls, bashing around the furniture, sinks, toilets, stoves, washers, driers.

We never did find the painting.

Elizabeth Bishop wrote a wonderful villanelle called “One Art.” She wrote about losing small items like keys and an hour badly spent, then she progresses to the greater losses -- her mother’s watch, a house, cities, rivers, a continent, and finally, a loved one. “The art of losing isn’t hard to master,” she starts. “So many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster.” I thought of that poem a lot.

2.Your family played a key role, helping Pass Christian rebuild. What were a few moments that influenced you during that time?

We saw so many people from all walks of life and they were suddenly homeless. My father organized financial donations. There were no fire trucks left after the storm, so he made sure Pass Christian got a fire truck. We were always big supporters of the library too. The Pass Christian Policemen had stayed during the storm to make sure everyone was safe. They had tried to stay safe in the library, but then when the water rose, they had to shoot out the windows to swim away to safety. I used that information in the title story of Aftermath Lounge. These men were real heroes.   

3.Did you know from the moment the storm hit that someday you would write a novel about it? Or did a later experience give you the idea? If so, what was it?

At first I just witnessed. I think that’s what writers do mostly. We witness. Then the material lets us know what it wants to become. I just took notes. Later stories started taking shape and they were all in different voices. It was the only way I could work at this material.

4.Part of your inspiration for the novel came from your family's beautiful mansion. How did your own experiences in that house shape each of the stories you wrote?

Well, it’s hardly a mansion, but I was surprised to discover just how much a house could mean. Everyone always says it’s just stuff, but there were so many collective memories there. When we stood and looked at everything so undone, it felt like our times spent there were gone too.

Katrina had such a huge impact on the coast, on my family, and on me. I am always telling my students to write what they most care about, to write what keeps them up at night. I had to write about Katrina. I had written about the Civil War, Reconstruction and WWII, so I saw Katrina as an historical event. I treated the hurricane more as setting. It’s in the background. The human drama is in the forefront. I’m always interested in what people do or don't do in the face of real catastrophe. I didn’t want to write from one point of view either. I wanted to give voice to a variety of people because Katrina affected everyone.

5.What was your writing process like for this novel? Did you know from the start it would be a novel in stories? Or did that become apparent only after you began writing?

There were so many news stories coming out at the time. I write nonfiction, but I couldn’t get my thoughts together. I couldn’t make sense of anything. Out of habit, I took a lot of notes. I could only deal with writing about all that was happening a little bit at a time. And my own personal story just wasn’t that interesting.

I personally witnessed and experienced the best in human nature. People and communities came together and helped one another in the most meaningful way. They endured with a great deal of kindness and grace. So I chipped away at the material. I wanted to tell a community’s story. 

About the Author:

Margaret McMullan is the author of seven award-winning novels including In My Mother's House, Aftermath Lounge, Sources of Light, When I Crossed No-Bob, and How I Found the Strong. She also edited the popular anthology Every Father's Daughter. Margaret writes for both adults and young adults, and she is especially interested in how historical events affect ordinary people. Her work has appeared in the The Huffington Post, the Chicago Tribune, Glamour, The Millions, Southern Accents, TriQuarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Greensboro Review, Mississippi Magazine, Other Voices, Boulevard, Ploughshares, Teachers & Writers Magazine, and The Sun among others. 

Media Contact: Stephanie Ridge, stephanie@prbythebook.com

  

MeetTracy Lawson and her Dystopian Novels

Review:

In Book 1 of the Resistance Trilogy, Tommy and Careen, college students, meet when a drug to help protect the population from terrorism is passed out. The drug is not what it seems and Tommy and Careen band together to fight the web of lies that is causing the population to become unable to do anything but what the government decrees.

In Book 2, Resist, Tommy and Careen are on the run. They've joined the resistance. Their goal is to rescue a group of dissenters that includes Tommy's parents. As they pursue this goal, they meet other people who think as they do and some who are deceptive. Their relationship is tested when they find they can't agree about everything, but they continue to work through their issues and help the other freedom fighters.

This is a fast paced dystopian thriller. The action begins in the first chapter and continues at a relentless pace throughout the book. Although Tommy and Careen are the main characters, other characters, including those behind the evil, have chapters written in their point of view. This provides a vehicle for giving information about what is happening in the enemy camp, things Tommy and Careen can't know.

I enjoyed the book. The characters are likable and the plot has numerous twists. If you enjoy dystopian novels, you may find this trilogy appealing.

I reviewed this book for PR by the Book. 

Author Q&A:

What was the inspiration behind The Resistance Series?

I was mentoring a friend of my daughter’s when the initial idea for Counteract came about. Chase is a pretty sharp guy and an excellent writer—and when he was in high school I had a lot of fun working with him and editing some of his short stories. We had finished working on a story about baseball, a broken nose, and a broken heart, and were ready to start something new, when he suggested we write scenes in response to the prompt: “What if everyone were on LSD and all thoughts were communal?” It was certainly thought provoking! Chase created the characters Tommy and Eduardo, I created Careen, and right away, we knew we were onto something. Obviously, the story morphed and changed a lot before it became the finished version of Counteract—but that was how it all began.

Did you always plan to write another book in the series?

I let my husband read the first draft of Counteract when I was about a third of the way through the original outline. He was enthusiastic and supportive and suggested developing a story line that could be carried forward if I chose to make Counteract the first in a series.

I liked the idea of doing more than one book about Tommy and Careen, and as I wrote the rest of the first draft, I pinpointed elements of the story I’d need to develop and expand to pave the way for a series.

 How do the characters of Tommy and Careen develop in Resist?

Tommy and Careen are law-abiding citizens until they accidentally discover that the Office of Civilian Safety and Defense lied about the terrorist attack and why it mandated the use of the Counteractive System of Defense drug. They go from being accepting and compliant to impulsively joining a rebel group that’s working to overthrow the oppressive government agency, without having a chance to think about what they’re doing and why.

They’ve only known each other for a week, and their relationship has progressed far too quickly—they became a team, then a couple, without really getting to know each other, and soon they realize they don’t have much in common.

Tommy’s all for the physical aspects of revolution, and is eager to learn about guns and explosives. Careen finds kindred spirits among the older leaders of the group, who are committed to sway the public’s allegiance away from the OCSD by waging a war of information. Her pacifistic approach clashes with his need to prove himself on the field of battle, and further complicates their partnership.

 Where we can find your book and more information about you?

My books are available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle, and on Barnes & Noble’s online store. If you live near Columbus, Ohio, you can buy signed copies of my books at three independent stores: The Book Loft of German Village, Mary B’s, and Urban Emporium.

You can get the behind-the-scenes scoop on all things Resistance Series, see book trailers, and check out my blog at http://counteractbook.com. You can also find me on Twitter @TracySLawson and on Instagram as TracyLawsonAuthor.

About the Author:

Tracy Lawson is an Award-winning author of two nonfiction books, and The Resistance Series is her first in the world of young adult novels. Tracy lives in Dallas with her husband, daughter and three spoiled cats.

Media Contact: Alessandra Wike, alesandra@prbythe book. com 

A Love Letter to Independent Booksellers Presented in a Mystery

Blurb:

Thomas Shawver, author of The Dirty Book Murder and Left Turn at Paradise, returns to the surprisingly lethal world of rare books with a third enthralling novel featuring a most unlikely hero -- antiquarian bookseller Michael Bevan.

 A furious man from nearby Independence, Kansas demands that Michael Bevan return a rare first edition of the Book of Mormon, claiming that it was mistakenly sold by a disgruntled descendant of A.J. Stout. Contained on the frontispiece are a list of Ford names dating from 1845 to the present. Beside each name, save the last two, is a check mark - but what could the checks signify? With this discovery, Michael Bevan stumbles onto a trail of hatred and murder stretching back to 1844.

Review:

A Mormon Vendetta, A Rare Mormon Book, and Murder

A murder in 1844 is the basis for a vendetta. The Mormon Prophet, Joseph Smith, and several of his followers died at the hands of a mob in Carthage, Illinois. Several of the men who escaped the massacre vowed to kill everyone involved down to the last living descendant. 

Michael Bevan, a rare books dealer, has never heard of the Mormon vendetta, but Natalie Phelan, his friend and director of the Celtic Heritage Center, has fallen in love with Emery, one of the descents of the original Mormon vigilantes. He claims to love her and wants to marry her, but they need money. He has an original copy of one of the early Mormon books, which he gives to Michael to authenticate. For Bevan this is an opportunity to get a book good enough to allow him entry to the AABA, Antiquarian Book Association of America, but nothing is simple. 

This is a fun mystery with an interesting plot that revolves around an historical incident. It's a quick read. The characters are interesting. Michael Bevan is a mix of scholarship and physical ability. The small town he lives in is like having a vacation from the real world. The other characters Natalie, and particularly, Michael's lover Josie, and sympathetic and well drawn. 

If you enjoy mysteries with little violence and an interesting historical plot, you may enjoy this book. 

Interview:

How did you Get the idea for your hero?

I decided to write about a trade I know with a protagonist who somewhat resembles me.  Then I made stuff up.

Josie Majansik plays a small role in the present book.  However, she and Michael Bevan have now married.  Do you see this changing the series?

Good question.  I’m going to give Michael and Josie a rest for the time being while I write a different series featuring a Frenchman who solves crimes in a Missouri river town.  With them married it does present challenges.  Obviously, Mike can’t get away from flirting (or whatever you want to call it) with other women.  But Josie is an independent gal who might just take off on her own someday.  We’ll see.

Would you like to share anything else about the series?

The series is really a love letter to the independent book trade that is rapidly disappearing, to my wonderful neighborhood, and to the customers from whom I mined so many characteristics for my stories—except for the evil parts.

Author Bio:

Thomas Shawver is a former marine officer, lawyer, and journalist with American City Business Journals. An avid rugby player and international traveler, Shawver owned Bloomsday Books, an antiquarian bookstore in Kansas Cit

Website: http://bloomsdaybooks.com/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThomasShawverAuthor 

Goodreads: Goodreads

Discover a Great Mystery -- Fixed in Blood

Blurb:

Seattle Chief of Detectives Mort Grant is still reeling from losing his daughter -- again. Now, Mort investigates the gruesome murder of a beautiful young woman whose death was captured in a snuff film. When a second victim--and film--are discovered, Mort knows he's not dealing with an ordinary criminal. Mort hunts a twisted menace from a chain of sleazy loan shops to the dark underworld of the sex trade. But he's not the only one. Once again, The Fixer is on the hunt--and she's desperate to make things right.

Review:

Lydia and Mort Team Up to Solve the Murders of Young Prostitutes

Lydia, alias the Fixer, and Mort. Seattle's chief of detectives, have been estranged since, Allie, Mort's wayward daughter, left Lydia's care to go away with Vadim Tokarev, a Russian drug lord. Mort is living on a houseboat and continuing his work as chief of detectives. Lydia is a practicing psychologist. She misses Mort's friendship and feels that she was unfairly accused of letting Allie escape. 

In Mort's latest case, a young woman's body is found, and it's evident that she was tortured before being killed. Then another young woman is found also tortured before being killed. Both are prostitutes and were involved with an unscrupulous loan shark who charged exorbitant interest rates designed to lead the women into prostitution. When Lydia's patient, another young woman, disappears, Mort and Lydia decide it's time to work together again. 

This is another fast paced Fixer novel. The characters of Mort and Lydia are more developed than in the previous books. He's devastated by his daughter's actions. Lydia is trying to leave behind her life as the Fixer. This book gives us insight into their struggles and their need for each other's friendship. 

The plot is fast moving and the author does a good job of misdirection. It's hard to tell until the very end who is responsible. Although the idea of young women being tortured and killed is horrendous, the violence is handled tastefully with a minimum of gory details. 

I recommend this book if you're a fan of the Fixer series, or if you enjoy a good mystery. 

Author Interview:

How did you decide on the character of Lydia?

I’ve long been interested in the word “justice”. Is there any such
thing, really? Can a wrong truly be atoned? Let’s take even the
smallest infraction. Let’s say we’re at a dinner party, chatting.
You say something incredibly funny to me and in my laughter I lean
forward and clumsily spill my red wine on your beautiful white wool
skirt. A minor sin, to be sure. But what could truly serve as justice
for my crime? I could apologize. But there’s still that matter of
that ugly red blotch on that soft white fabric. I could pay for
dry-cleaning. But you might always have the perception of the skirt
being “less than” whenever you took it out to wear. Perhaps you’d
always be looking for a faint hint of stain the cleaners missed. I
could even buy you a new skirt. But it wouldn’t be the one you fell
in love with at Nordstrom’s, would it? It could never be the skirt
you bought after a long search with your best friend on that fun
Saturday afternoon when you stopped for coffee at that cute little
place on Elm Street and those two good-looking men in running gear
flirted you both.

Could I ever really make you whole again?

Take that same concept and apply it to major crimes…especially murder.
Is there any way a murder can be truly and wholly avenged?  I mean,
even if you kill a killer, the person the killer killed is still
dead, right? Those are the kinds of musings that led me to create a
series dealing with the notion of justice. And once I decided to
write the series I, of course, needed a main character. The Writing
101 tattoo is write what you know. I know how to be a psychologist. Bingo, my main character became a psychologist. My profession has given me entry to the lives of many who have been battered, abused, and abandoned. Presto, my
psychologist main character is a woman who continues to struggle with
her own history of abuse and abandonment. I’ve long been interested
in the notion of justice. Voila, justice becomes the driving force of
my abused and suffering clinical psychologist.

I write what I know.

Now, lest you think I am secretly a vigilante assassin with hands so
bloody a gallon of Clorox wouldn’t dent the stain, well…you’ll
just have to take my word for it that writing what you know can turn
the corner and become the foundation for writing what you make up.

The series seems to be progressing from the violence of the first book toa much more psychological approach. What do you envision for the restof the series?

Oh, there’s gonna be a whole lot of violence coming. The next book in

the series, Fixed In Fear, comes out in October, 2015 and opens with a mass murder that is, as they say, not for the faint of heart. But you’re right, as the characters develop, we do get more of an insight into their motivations and
musings. As relates to the rest of the series, I envision Lydia and
Allie growing closer to an inevitable showdown. Will Mort have to
choose between the two of them? And if so, where will his allegiance
come down? Will he stand by his sociopathic daughter out of
dedication to family? Or will he turn toward Lydia, the woman
struggling so hard to live within the rules of society? As relates to
Lydia’s destiny with the series, I see her continuing to wrestle
the demons inside her. Most times she’ll be successful. But I’m
sure there’ll be times when, despite how much she’s trying to
keep her Fixer tendencies chained and bound, she’ll give in and
apply her special brand of repair to those who have escaped justice.

We’ve still got plenty to learn about the other characters in the series as
well. Will Jimmy ever be able to step away from the humor and cynical
world-weary posture that has served to protect him from his grief?
What’s with Micki? Why is a young, smart, successful, beautiful
woman like her alone in life? And speaking of alone, what will happen
as relates to Oliver Bane and Paul Bauer? What’s next for Larry?

There’s plenty of plot lines and character arcs knocking around in my head. I
can’t wait to get them down in readable form…and I certainly
can’t wait to hear what readers think.

Would you like to share anything else with my readers?

I’d like to share so much with them! Readers have made my long-standing
dream of being a writer come true. I’d like to share more stories
with them. And I’d like to hear theirs. I’d like to share how
much I appreciate the support and kindness they’ve shown this
series. And I’d like to give them more. I’d like to share a cup
of coffee with them. Wouldn’t that be a hoot? To actually be able
to have a leisurely conversation with someone I don’t know, but who
has read my books? I’m sure most authors would love to stumble
across someone reading their book, sit down next to them, and,
without the reader knowing they’re speaking to the author, ask them
what they think of what they’re reading. No filters. Just a straight-up, person-to-person report.

If any of your readers are interested in having a conversation with me, please contact me on Facebook (T.E.Woods) or on Twitter (@tewoodswrites) or on my website tewoodswrites.com. I’d love to hear from them.

Author Bio:

T.E. Woods is a clinical psychologist in

private practice in Madison, Wisconsin. Her scientific writings are
well represented in peer-reviewed journals and academic texts. Her
literary works earned her first place for Fiction at the University
of Wisconsin Writers’ Institute. Dr. Woods enjoys kayaking, hiking,
biking, and hanging around the house while her two dogs help her make
sense of the world. Her habit of relaxing by conjuring up any manner
of diabolical murder methods and plots often finds her friends urging
her to take up knitting.

The Special Bond Between Fathers and Daughters

“What is it about the relationship between fathers and daughters that provokes so much exquisite tenderness, satisfying communion, longing for more, idealization from both ends, followed often if not inevitably by disappointment, hurt, and the need to understand and forgive, or to finger the guilt of not understanding and loving enough?” writes Phillip Lopate, in his introduction to Every Father's Daughter,a collection of 25 personal essays by women writers writing about their fathers. The editor, Margaret McMullan, is herself a distinguished novelist and educator. About half of these essays were written by invitation for this anthology; others were selected by Ms. McMullan and her associate, Philip Lopate, who provides an introduction. The contributors include many well-known writers—Alice Munro, Jayne Anne Phillips, Alexandra Styron, Ann Hood, Bobbie Ann Mason, Maxine Hong Kingston, among others—as well as writers less well-known but no less cogent, inventive, perceptive, lacerating, questioning, or loving of their fathers.

Review:

Fathers come in all types from successes to failures, from loving to abusive, and from companionable to distant. In Every Father's Daughter twenty-four women write about what their father meant to them. For me, the theme is expressed best by the author's introduction and the first essay in the book where Jane Smiley writes about her absent father. It shows the way two very different fathers were viewed by their daughters and how this view affected their lives.

The author had a very close relationship with her father even to taking care of him during the last days of his life. Smiley had a different experience. Her father disappeared from her life as a small child. He returned for only brief moments and that lack of a father is what she believes gave her the opportunity to grow into her own person.

The essays run from daughters growing up with famous fathers, like Lily Lopate with Alex Styron, to a father descending into alcoholism as described by Barbara Shoup. When most of these women were growing up, fathers were a glimpse of the world outside while many mothers stayed at home. This gave the fathers an exotic image, tall, handsome and charismatic.

This is a wonderful book for father's day, or any day when you think about your father. It made me laugh and cry, and most of all it reminded me about the things I loved about my own father.

I reviewed this book for PR by the Book.

Interview with the Author:

1.How did you decide which authors to reach out to for this collection?

In the last month of my father’s life, I read to him Alice Munro’s essay, “Working for a Living.” We had one of our last book discussions about that fox farm, the cold work, and the landscape of Canada. She was the first person I contacted. I wrote her a letter and a few months later she called and said yes, of course you can reprint my essay. I was just stunned. The other authors followed. I invited the authors my father loved or had met at some point in his life. He had dinner with Lee Smith once and she was so quick to respond. Lee led me to Jill McCorkle. I also included three former students. In the end, this collection of women writers became one big circle of friends.

2.How did your vision for this collection evolve from the start to end of this project?

At first I saw this as a collection of southern writers, men and women. But then I realized I just wanted to hear from women, daughters. I moved away from regionalizing it when I began thinking of my father’s literary tastes and what kind of man he was. He was southern but he was also very much shaped by Chicago and the Mid-West. Each time I read an essay, I would think, Would Dad like this?

3.What most surprised you about the creation of Every Father's Daughter?

I was surprised how difficult such a great collection was to get published. Jane Smiley had a Pulitzer, Maxine Hong Kingston won the National Book Award, and Alice Munro had just won a Nobel Prize. I felt this book was no-proof. Who wouldn’t want to read these writers on this particularly personal subject? And who wouldn’t want to read about fathers? I’ve always thought this collection was a sure thing, but it was much more difficult to find a publisher than I had imagined. Apparently, anthologies were no longer fashionable in the publishing industry. One editor, who declined the book, has since contacted me to tell me how she genuinely regrets not taking it.

In your introduction, you talk about how this book was a way for you to grieve. How did you come to realize this?

This particular work felt meaningful because all along I thought so much about my father. I started soon after my father died. The work – reaching out to other women, asking for their stories, and then reading them was therapeutic because it reminded me that there are other emotions besides grief. After a while, after I organized and put together the book, after I wrote my own essay, my grief transformed. It felt less like sadness and more like love.

I have encountered so many readers who have read the book and want to talk about an essay, and then, inevitably, these readers begin to tell me about their fathers. A conversation starts. This book has a power. We are remembering our fathers, and, in some cases, bringing them back to life.

4.Did you come to realize anything about your relationship with your father as you read through the essays in this collection?

I knew from the start that we were close, and that a good part of that closeness was how we stayed connected through literature. Now, I realize exactly how close we really were.

About the Author:

Margaret McMullan is the author of six award-winning novels including Aftermath Lounge, In My Mother’s House, Sources of Light, How I Found the Strong, and When I Crossed No-Bob. Her stories and essays have appeared in The Chicago Tribune, Ploughshares, Southern Accents, TriQuarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, and The Sun, among several other journals and anthologies. She has received an NEA Fellowship in literature and a Fulbright award to teach at the University of Pécs in Pécs, Hungary. She currently holds the Melvin M. Peterson Endowed Chair in Literature and Writing at the University of Evansville in Evansville, Indiana.

Contact Information:  @margaretmcmulla @prbythebook 

A Good Trend in Children's Books

I recently reviewed a book that I think is a good trend in picture books for children. Big Tractors is filled with information even adults will find useful, but the book doesn't talk down to children. The pictures are wonderful and most important it shows children what the big business of farming is like.

Review:

Farming is big business. Big tractors are required to do the planting and harvesting on large commercial farms. Big Tractors gives an overview of how these tractors look and what they do in language a child can understand.

The pictures are outstanding. They show off the tractors and implements to good advantage. In fact, the pictures are so good Daddy or Grandpa may be interested in looking through the book.

Another feature I liked is the timeline showing how tractors have changed to adapt to the new farming methods. I highly recommend this book if your child is interested in tractors. Even if you live on a small farm and your child is familiar with tractors, the pictures of monster tractors give another perspective on farming.

I reviewed this book for PR by the Book.