Category Archives: Books

Books

An Interview with Jeanne Birdsall, Author of the Penderwicks Series

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In two weeks time, I have finished all four books in the Penderwicks series, a sort of modern-day Little Women, which follows the lives of four sisters—Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty (Elizabeth). I am not ashamed to admit that I binged on them, and I even stayed up until 3:00 a.m. to finish the last one—The Penderwicks in Spring.

I also have a confession to make:  I really took a dislike to one of the sisters. It started in the first book and intensified by the fourth book, where she inflicts great pain on one of her sisters.  In fact, I disliked this character so much that after I finished reading The Penderwicks in Spring, I thought of her for most of the day.

On the one hand I couldn’t help thinking, “What the heck! This character isn’t even real. Why are you brooding about her so much?”

On the other hand, only a very good writer can make you dislike (or love) a character in a novel, to make that character so real and intense that she gets under your skin.

Hats off to Jeanne Birdsall. I am eagerly awaiting the fifth and last book of the series.

Below is an interview with Jeanne Birdsall. (I came across this on a blog I follow, Letters from a Hill Farm.)  I always love to hear authors talk about their books and the writing process.

 

Books, Food for Thought, Nature

April Fools? Au Contraire!

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Here was the view from our front porch this morning.

Mother Nature’s quite the trickster, isn’t she? Now, if this had come in, say, February or even mid-March, no problem. But in April? Sigh.

All right. In the spirit of my blog friends who celebrate Three Things Thursday, where they share three things they are grateful for, I’m going to celebrate Six for Saturday.

  1.  We only got four or so inches of snow rather than the twelve predicted. This is something to be wildly grateful for because this April 1 snow is wet and very heavy. There’s a good chance that twelve inches would have knocked the power out in many central Maine homes, including ours.
  2. It’s pretty. The snow clinging to the trees makes our yard and road look like a winter wonderland. Even if it is technically spring and April 1 to boot. But wait. Here I am, sliding into ungratefulness. How easy is the slide.
  3. We are warm and snug in our home, and Clif and I will be making bean soup this afternoon in preparation for friends who are coming over tomorrow.
  4. The mud and grit outside are temporarily covered, which means we don’t track in much when we go in and out of the house.
  5. We have four more seasons to go of the television series The Walking Dead, my newest obsession.
  6. My blog friends from Fernwood Nursery sent me a book—many thanks!—and this will be the perfect afternoon to read it.

Despite the snow, there is much to be grateful for.

Books, Nature

By a Strange Coincidence…from N.D. Wilson to Jeanne Birdsall

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I could write about how this has been the Marchiest March we Mainers have had to endure in quite a while. Lots of snow,  plenty of mud—and we’re just starting with the melting—and joy of joys, another storm on the way with wet, heavy snow forecasted.  I could share this quotation I found on Facebook: “Maine. They call it ‘Vacationland’ because it sounds better than ‘Six Months of Suffering-Land.'”

But no, I’m not going to brood about the weather. Instead, I’m going to turn my attention to a much happier topic—books—and how I coincidentally came upon two authors who write children’s books and how those authors turned out to be connected, even though they write very different stories.

About a month ago, my husband Clif introduced me to the middle-reader fantasy 100 Cupboards by N. D. Wilson. It’s set in Kansas, just like another famous children’s fantasy, and the protagonist, Henry York, discovers magical cupboards (portals) in the attic room he’s staying in while visiting his aunt, uncle, and cousins. Overprotected and somewhat neglected, Henry finds warmth, solace, and generosity with his aunt and uncle. Much of the book focuses on the everyday domestic life in a small town, with large dollops of barbecues and baseball. But through a magical cupboard Henry eventually goes, where he encounters strange mystical lands, an evil witch, and a mystery that takes him right back to Kansas.

I liked 100 Cupboards so much that I immediately read the sequel, Dandelion Fire, which dispenses with the domesticity and hurtles Henry headlong into the fight between good and evil, the concern of most good fantasy novels. There’s a third book in the series—Chestnut King—which I definitely plan to read.

A week or so ago, on a blog I follow—Letters from a Hill Farm—I came across a book recommendation, The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall. A day or two later, I found The Penderwicks at a bookstore, The Book Review, which I recently visited for the first time. (I’ve written about the book and the bookstore a couple of posts ago.) I loved The Penderwicks so much that I borrowed the next three in the series from our library, and I’m whipping through those books the way I would a box of chocolates.

Now as far as writers go, N. D. Wilson and Jeanne Birdsall couldn’t be more different, even though they write for the same age group.  As I indicated earlier, Wilson’s books are classic fantasies. Family is important—as it turns out, very important—but so is the larger story of the battle between good and evil. With her Penderwicks series, Birdsall focuses exclusively on the family, with its gentle ups and downs and the relationships of the various characters. Death brings a thread of sadness into these stories of four sisters and their father, but these are quiet books compared with Wilson’s fantasies. You might even call the Penderwicks series the Miss Read books of children’s literature. (However, Little Women was Birdsall’s inspiration.)

Here’s where the weird coincidence part kicks in. I like to read author websites, where I can find out a little bit more about writers and their books. I was reading Jeanne Birdsall’s author website, and I came across an event that featured both Birdsall and her friend (her wording) N.D. Wilson, where they would discuss Narnia. Unfortunately, the event took place last year in Chicago, and as I have no portals (or a Book of Everything) to take me back in time and across the country, this qualifies as a missed event.

Still, what a strange coincidence to come upon that nugget of information. Two months ago, I had never heard of either N.D. Wilson or Jeanne Birdsall. Now, not only am I fan of both writers, but I discover they are friends.

Thinking about books, authors, and neat coincidences sure beats brooding about snow.

Books

Threads of Realism in Fantasy: The Great Library

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As regular readers of this blog know, I have put together a slide show—Threads of Realism in Fantasy—to go with my YA novel, Maya and the Book of Everything. (I recently gave my first presentation at the University of Maine at Orono.)The gist of the presentation is this: Even though my book is a fantasy that takes its heroine, Maya, across the universe, there are elements of realism to ground the novel. The story is partially set in central Maine, and I weave my Franco-American heritage into the book.

Central to Maya and the Book of Everything is a place called the Great Library. It is home to the sentient Book of Everything, which can travel through time and space. Both the Book of Everything and the Great Library definitely fall into one of my favorite categories—fantasy, fairy tales, and folderol.  But even here I used realism when I imagined what the Great Library would look like.

Because I love fairy tales so much, I immediately thought of a castle in envisioning the Great Library, and I ended up picking out two castles—one for the locale and one for the actual look. Both castles are from France. I didn’t set out to choose castles from France, but somehow I did. It must have been my Franco-American roots urging me forward.

The first castle I thought of was Mont St. Michel, which certainly looks like it comes straight from a fairy tale. I love how remote it looks and how the castle is surrounded by water when the tide is in. Mont St. Michel also happens to be in Normandy, where some of my ancestors are from.

Here is another view of Mont St. Michel.

So that was the locale I wanted.

But for the actual look of the Great Library, I wanted something more compact, something that looked a little less Gothic, a little less like a cathedral.

For this I chose the Chateau de Chaumont, which is in France’s Loire Valley.

One of the things I especially like about fantasy is that you can mix and match various aspects of realism if you want and still have a magical story. Maine, my Franco-American heritage, and two castles from France all come together in Maya and the Book of Everything.

Books, Celebrate

Lucky Sunday

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Yesterday was a beautiful sunny Sunday, just perfect for an outing to celebrate the fact that I, along with millions of other people, still have affordable health insurance that provides good coverage.

And where did Clif and I go? Why to Lucky Garden in Hallowell, of course. I was feeling extraordinarily lucky. And grateful.

Lucky’s was full of people, and the atmosphere was lively, even festive. Perhaps I wasn’t the only one who was relieved by the turn of events on Friday? At any rate, the food on the buffet was hot and fresh, and Clif and I had very tasty meals.

When we came out, we stood on the deck and took pictures of the Kennebec River. The ice chunks are gone. Surely spring can’t be far away?

After that, it was on to Falmouth, just outside Freeport (home of L.L. Bean) to check out the Goodwill. We had heard that it was an extra special Goodwill because it is an affluent part of Maine. Well, maybe we just hit it on an off day, but the Falmouth Goodwill is no better than Augusta’s Goodwill.

However, all was not lost. Next to Goodwill is The Book Review, one of those special bookstores that makes you want to come back again and again. As soon as we entered, I was smitten. First of all, there is that lovely smell of books. Second, there are dark wooden shelves. Third, the many comfortable chairs tucked here and there. And, finally, and most important, the books themselves, a wonderful selection that would appeal to a wide variety of readers.

I headed right toward the children’s section. While I do read novels written for adults, it seems to me that I really do prefer middle reader and young adult books. Clif and I discussed this on the way home.

“The storylines are cleaner, more direct,” he said. “Middle reader and YA books often have a clarity that’s lacking in adult books.”

Clif is right. As a reader, I place great value on clarity of writing and clean storylines. Or maybe it’s just a case of arrested development. Whatever the reason, I know I’m  not alone. Many adults, especially women, like middle reader and young adult novels, and my own Maya and the Book of Everything is developing quite a following among adults.

Naturally, I bought some books at The Book Review.

Last night, I read The Penderwicks, a middle reader book,  in one greedy gulp. It’s a gentle, almost old-fashioned story of four sisters and the misadventures they have on their summer vacation in the Berkshires. There are dark threads woven in—the mother has died of cancer, and Rosalind, the eldest, reflects on how she doesn’t have time or energy to nurture plants when she is so busy nurturing her sisters. (I’m paraphrasing. Jeanne Birdsall phrases it much more eloquently.) The ending is satisfying—happy, even—but realistic, too. The children don’t get everything they want.

There are several more books in the series, and I intend to read every one of them.

And when I’m back in the Falmouth area, I will definitely go to The Book Review.

 

Books

A Warm Review of Maya for a Brisk Day

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Winter, it seems, has returned to Maine. For the past few days, the wind has been blowing hard, and the temperature, with the wind-chill factor, has been below zero. And that’s Fahrenheit, not centigrade.

When it is this cold, our wood furnace doesn’t really go through the night, and the house is pretty darned chilly when we get up in the morning—below 60°.

Another word we Mainers use to describe the cold is brisk, as in, it’s wicked brisk outside today.

And indeed it was brisk, brisk, brisk today, this Monday morning, when I made my tea and toast and headed to my office.

But something immediately warmed me up, and that was a review of Maya and the Book of Everything written by my blog friend Melissa, of The Aran Artisan. She is formerly a resident of Maine and now lives with her family on “Inis Mor, one of the Aran Islands in County Galway, located off the west coast of mainland Ireland.”

Melissa writes, “I was really looking forward to reading Maya and The Book of Everything by Laurie Graves in a way I hadn’t looked forward to reading a fiction book in a long time. Even though it’s a young adult fantasy novel and a gift to my 13-year-old daughter, something about the plot caught my attention. The cover art charmed me also and I ended up reading it before she did.

“The story begins in modern times America (coincidentally the same area where I grew up) and it centres around the young heroine Maya and the magical secret Book of Everything. In fulfilling her destiny to protect the book from an evil syndicate that would like to control and alter its purpose, she travels through time and space encountering dangerous situations and tough decisions at every turn. Many other compelling characters are superbly developed and contribute much to the plot which twists and weaves into such an intriguing storyline, I found it hard to put down. Talking books, a royal toad, a magic forest and Shakespearean references are just a few of the books creative highlights for me. The story grips you right out of the gate and continues straight through to the last page. In fact, the ending caught me by surprise as much as it did Maya and gave me the thought ‘this could easily be a movie’.”

Merci beaucoup, Melissa! What a great way to start the week.

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Books, News

To UMO I Went, Where I Gave My Presentation, Threads of Realism in Fantasy

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Yesterday, Clif and I went to the University of Maine at Orono, where I gave my presentation Threads of Realism in Fantasy to a class about Franco-Americans and Place.

We got up very early—before breakfast as my mother would have put it. Orono is ninety miles from where we live, and we had to be there by 9 a.m.

As I’ve written previously, public speaking is not my strong point. (Damn it, Jim, I’m a writer, not a speaker.) In the past, I’ve usually had a prepared piece, which I have then proceeded to read. This time, I had resolved not to do that. Even though I had copious notes for my presentation, I was determined to make eye contact with the audience—in this case, the students.

Clif, who is a good speaker, sat in the back of the class so that he could observe me, and he told me I did just fine. I did indeed make eye contact with the students. In fact, I expect the two students who were sitting right in front of me might have wished that I didn’t have my beaming eye on them quite so often.

There were only a few minor mishaps with the presentation—I lost control of my cursor a couple of times—but all in all it went well, and despite being nervous, I enjoyed myself.

When I was done, some of the students asked me questions about how I write. Do I have an outline? Do I write certain scenes, even if they are out of order, as they come to me? No and no. I have a general plot arc in my head, and then I start at the beginning and write straight through. If something I write in chapter twenty impacts chapter one, then I change it in chapter one.

The students seemed surprised that I wrote this way, and they asked the question again, in several different ways. Each time my answer was the same, but I did add that there is no one correct way to write a book—there are different approaches for different writers.

I was asked where they could buy the book, and I mentioned a local bookstore—Bull Moose—as well as on Amazon. One student, bless her, whipped out her smart phone and ordered the book then and there.

The student and I had a little conversation about YA fantasy, and she told me that many fantasy books written for adults just didn’t appeal to her.

“I know what you mean,” I said. “In fantasy stories for adults, there is often too much sex and too much violence. In YA and Middle Reader fantasy, this is kept to a minimum, and the story’s the thing.”

“Yes,” she said. “That’s right.”

After class, the professor, Susan Pinette, invited us to come back to the Franco-American Centre. She had made soup, and she offered to make salad as well.  Would we like to join her for lunch? Would we ever!

How lovely it was to sit around the big table at the Centre and eat delicious lentil, vegetable soup. Being Francos, Susan and I did a lot of chatting and laughing as well as eating. (Susan is the woman at the head of the table.)

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And then Clif took this picture of Susan and me.

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After tea and Susan’s delectable homemade molasses cookies, it was time to go home. It was such a good day, and I was sorry to leave.

But the end of April, there will be a Franco-American Artist gathering at the Centre, where I will probably give a much shortened version of my presentation.

I’m looking forward to going back to Orono.

Books

Hi, Ho! It’s Off to UMO I Go!

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My presentation—Threads of Realism in Fantasy—is done. Tomorrow Clif and I head bright and early to the University of Maine at Orono, where I will be giving it for the first time to Susan Pinette’s class on Franco-American Places.

The presentation is centered on my Franco-American heritage and how I wove into my novel real places such as Waterville’s South End. While the presentation is ideally suited for this class, it is also appropriate for a general audience, and I’m planning to present it to other libraries.

I must admit, I am a bit nervous. Public speaking is not my strong point, but I’ve worked hard on the presentation to make it visually interesting, and I’ve rehearsed it many times. In fact, I’ll be rehearsing it again today.

Something that counterbalances the nervousness is the discovery that I like talking about Maya and the Book of Everything, much the same way I enjoy talking about my children. In a way, I suppose the novel is a bit like a child. I certainly labored long and hard over it for many years.

Here is the opening slide for the presentation:

mayaprescoverWish me luck!

I’ll report back on Friday.

 

Books, News

A Finest Kind of Day at a Great Little Craft Fair

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Yesterday, Clif and I were at the Fairfield Craft Fair, and what a wonderful time we had. Although the fair was small, we got so much out of it that I’m still somewhat in a daze.

First of all, we sold quite a few books, and that is always gratifying.  So many, in fact, that people had to come to our table to see the book that everyone was carrying around the fair. (It also helped that we were the only vendor selling books.)

Eleven- and twelve-year-old children were drawn to the book’s cover like bees to honey, as the expression goes. I really can’t take credit for the cover—the praise must go to Bookfly Design, who will most certainly be doing our second book, Library Lost.  For new blog readers, here is what the cover of my current book looks like.

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One little girl was thrilled when I signed her copy of the book, and her face just beamed with pleasure. This is something I will always remember.

Next to us, a woman was selling jewelry. Her twelve-year-old son wanted a copy of the book, and she kindly bought one for him. He immediately read the first two chapters and told me what every writer longs to hear: “Those first two chapters really drew me in,” he said. “I love it when books do that. It always makes me want to read more.”

Music to my ears, that’s for sure! And the woman, who home-schools her son, gave me an excellent tip as to where I could market my book.

A Franco-American woman from Waterville’s South End—a place that is featured in my book—stopped by, and we giggled and reminisced about the South End. I told her how I had woven my own Franco-American heritage in the book, and I ended with, “Let’s face it. How many fantasies feature Franco-Americans from Waterville’s South End? Not many, that’s for sure.”

Laughing, she agreed and bought a copy of the book.

We didn’t sell many cards—I guess customers were drawn to the book—and Clif and I decided that from now on, we are going to focus solely on the book. This is just fine with me. Although I enjoy making cards, it’s not my life’s work, the way Maya and the Book of Everything is. By just focusing on our book, we’ll have the table space for a snazzy slide show of Maya, and I’m looking forward to adding that to our display. (I’ll still take pictures for this blog and continue to send cards to family and friends.)

I’m going to end this post by featuring the young woman who encouraged me to come to this fair. Her name is Sara, and I have known her since she was very young. Sara makes beautiful jewelry—among other things—and her business is called Tooth Fairy Handmade. Here are some pictures of Sara and her jewelry.

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Sara’s jewelry is very reasonably priced and would make a great present for that special someone—mother, daughter, aunt, cousin, or friend.

Books

Maya and the Book of Everything at the Vassalboro Public Library

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Yesterday, I delivered two copies of my fantasy novel Maya and the Book of Everything to the Vassalboro Public Library. One was for the library.

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And one was for the director, Donna Lambert.

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The Vassalboro Library is special to me for a couple of reasons. I grew up in North Vassalboro, and this library, along with the Waterville Public Library, was one of my first libraries.

However, when I was going to the Vassalboro Library, it wasn’t in this particular building. Instead, it was in a converted lake cottage that unfortunately burned down. Out of the ashes came this new library, and although it is significantly bigger than the old one, it somehow still has the cozy, welcoming feel of the converted cottage. That spirit lives on.

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The other reason this library is special to me is that it is central to the story in Maya and the Book of Everything. In the novel, Maya is staying with her grandparents for the summer in East Vassalboro, and their house is within walking distance of the Vassalboro Library. It is through this library that Maya learns about the extraordinary Book of Everything, which has recently come into her possession. Maya also learns about the League of Librarians, whose job it is to protect the Book of Everything from a shadowy organization—the Association for the Preservation of Order—that is after the book.

At the Vassalboro library, I chatted for a bit with Donna, who clearly loves this library and her job. “I always look forward to coming to work,” she told me, and it shows in her bright face that Donna is happy to be right where she is.

Then I walked around the library and looked at books. For a  small library, it has a wonderful collection, and while I was there, a steady flow of patrons came and went. A busy library is a happy library, and it did my heart good to see so many people coming on a Monday afternoon.

Yet again I gave thanks to the New England tradition of public libraries. Maine might be a poor rural state, but it is the rare town that doesn’t have a library. (Unfortunately, many small-town libraries struggle to receive adequate funding, but that is a topic for another post.)

I’ve written this before and no doubt I’ll write it again. In Maine, libraries are open to all, regardless of race, gender, income, and ethnicity. It doesn’t matter who your family is. With a library card, the world of ideas and story is open to even the poorest person, who might not be able to travel far but who can nonetheless, with the right book,  go across the universe.

I’m sure it’s obvious that my love of libraries runs deep, and I hope to take Maya and the Book of Everything across the state to libraries great and small. Because of my history with the Vassalboro Public Library, it’s oh so appropriate that this is the first library and librarian featured with Maya and the Book of Everything.

But Bailey Public Library and Waterville Public Library, I’ve got my eye on you.