Novels

Medieval Murder Mystery

/ still a dreamer

The Last Templar by Michael Jecks caught my eye at the annual library sale because the London Times jacket notes said “The most wickedly plotted medieval mystery novel.”  I am drawn to medieval times, particularly the music and Gregorian chants, (and the Cloisters in NYC!), but I couldn’t recall ever seeing a mystery of any kind being written in this time period. I was intrigued.

I also have just enough information about the Templars – very little, that is – to want to know more. Let me say this. How this book is written is everything we are told in our workshops, critiques, etc. how not to write. It is all tell, and rarely show. Jecks wrote this in 1995, however, and I believe writing style was quite different then. This is also his style. For me, there was a bit of overkill throughout in how the bailiff, Simon Puttock, contemplated and worried about the murders of the town farmer and the abbott, Oliver de Penne, and had to consider Sir Baldwin Furnshill as a suspect.

And yet … I kept on reading! Why? The Last Templar had a pretty good plot and the mystery surrounding the murders was a good one. I was also enjoying the descriptions of medieval life and learning new words of the period. I enjoyed getting background on what was happening at the time with the Templars, the Pope, the Church and the Inquisition. It was a way of taking in some new history as well as solving a mystery!

One thing I really would have liked, as the main characters did a bit of traveling around England, was a map. This seems like a minor point, perhaps, but when in a new environment where locations are critical to the evolving story, I find a map invaluable. I love that the Mercy Thompson series has a map of the area of Washington State in which the story took place and that there is also one in Snow Falling on Cedars of San Piedro Island. Who lives where, where boats come in, what part of the island who grew up on all become intricate parts of the story. I like maps; I find them helpful in cases such as these.

Would you like The Last Templar? I think the writing style might not be for everyone, but if you like a good murder mystery ….

 

 

 

Books vs. Movies – Part 2

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

I’ll be honest – I started this post on June 3, shortly after  I had seen the movie The Bridges of Madison County and compared it to the book. There’s no time like the present, someone once said, so I’m finally the getting this up as a post. As I look at the novels I currently have waiting to be read, I must admit I am often drawn to those where I could watch the movie version as well.

However, when I think about other books that I’ve read and their movie counterparts, the results are mixed. I’ve listed a bunch, and again, these are very personal preferences reflecting what I like to read and which movies I’d go see.

The Shipping News – Annie Proulx – both movie and book excellent!

Shawshank Redemption – Stephen King – really liked both

Silence of the Lambs – Thomas Harris – book so gripping I couldn’t put it down, movie was also gripping, but not quite as good, though truly terrifying

Red Dragon – Thomas Harris – Book was excellent – the prequel to Silence of the Lambs; movie a huge disappointment, and almost nothing like the book

Because of Winn Dixie – Kate DiCamillo – both excellent, book still a bit better

The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd – book excellent, movie really quite good

Lord of the Rings – R.R.Tolkien, Harry Potter Series – J.K. Rowling,  Narnia Series – C.S. Lewis – I lump these together – perhaps unfairly – because they are all series, fantasy and of epic proportions in film. I loved the books that I read from these series, and that was not always all of them, but I really loved the movies, too. Either way, you can’t lose.

White Oleander – Janet Fitch – Outstanding book, couldn’t put it down; the movie not really even worth seeing

The Invention of Hugo Cabret – Brian Selznick – I like the storyline, but it wasn’t a favorite book of mine; Martin Scorsese really brought the story to life. Preferred the movie.

2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthue C. Clarke –  Movie by Stanley Kubrick – One of my favorite movies, and I feel it far outshined the book, but I’m real biased on this one.

The Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan – an amazingly complex and engrossing book; the movie couldn’t possibly carry the book’s  richness. Book better by far.

The Devil Wears Prada – Lauren Weisberger – Here’s a case where the movie was just fabulous and fabulously funny. I got the book after seeing the movie and was disappointed.

The Horse Whisperer – Nicholas Evans – I saw the movie first on this one and it was excellent, so I read the book. Also excellent and I’d recommend both.

 

Well, that’s my two cents. Do you have a loved book that was made into a movie and a thought or two about it? Or a great movie and the book you read later? Let us know!

It Helps If You’re Famous

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

As I was perusing last Sunday’s Parade magazine, I noted a small mention of a new children’s book – The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by TV’s Glee star, Chris Colfer, (he plays Kurt Hummel.) At first, I sighed. It sure helps if you’re famous, I thought. This is not to say that Colfer’s book isn’t fabulous – it may very well be – but the road to getting published for the rest of us is a long one, it seems.

I couldn’t help but wonder … with so many celebrities being published in children’s books  …  can they all really be such talented writers? Or I am just experiencing a moment of weariness on my own path?

Here are just a few of the celebrities who have published children’s books – Jay Leno, Queen Latifah, Jamie Lee Curtis, Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, Tim McGraw, John Lithgow, Jeff Foxworthy, LeAnn Rimes, Ray Romano, Brooke Shields, Jerry Seinfeld, Henry Winkler, George Forman, Will Smith, John Travaolta, Katie Couric … and the list goes on.

It almost makes me wish I were famous, too, but for one thing …

There is one glowing gem in all of this … my journey to being published is just that … a journey. It’s been a road with delays and frustrations at times, it’s true, but also one with an endless and continuing richness of experience in the children’s book world, the company of friends and colleagues along my path, and a constant and evolving education on what constitutes a great children’s book. I know, when I am published, it will not be because I’m famous; it will be because I have written and illustrated something that is truly worthy of being in the hands of a child.

And that really counts for something.

Catching Up on Books

/ still a dreamer

For those of you who check in on me from time to time, you know I sometimes write up books I’ve been reading, sometimes not. Today I’m starting a biography, something I’m not usually drawn to, but I’m giving it a shot. It was once suggested that I read artists’ biographies, that it would help and inspire me in my art. I’d picked this up at the annual library book sale – the biography of Impressionist Berthe Morisot by Anne Higonnet.

Morisot was the only woman among the six Impressionists whose exhibition scandalized Paris in 1874. The biography tells about what Morisot had to overcome to be recognized as a talented artist at this time in history and her accomplishments. This being my favorite period of art, I look forward to reading about Berthe Morisot’s life.

Prior to this, in addition to Skinny Dip by Carl Hiassen, I’ve read novels by two of my favorite authors who did not disappoint – Seventh Heaven by Alice Hoffman and Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver – and I just finished Witches on the Road Tonight by new-to-me author, Sheri Holman. I never fail to be impressed by the writing of Hoffman and Kingsolver … in plot and character, always, but in the amazing richness of their language, especially so. I was equally impressed by the writing of Sheri Holman, and will most defnitely look for books by her again. I am simply in awe of how some writers can turn a phrase.

“The hearse’s headlights rasp the dark as they speed along an unfamiliar road scattering rabbits and turning the night-grazing deer to statuary. The windows are down, the radio off. They pass empty fields and glassy obsidian ponds that float upon the gauze of reflected clouds, repeating pearls of moon. They ride for miles in this hushed, rolling darkness …”  from Witches on the Road Tonight.

Something that made me scratch my head as I read Witches on the Road Tonight is what are chances that I would read two novels, with only one book between them, that both feature characters “hunting sang”in the Appalachian mountains? The phrase refers to people who are searching the area to find ginseng, (“sang”), which can be quite profitable to sell. It actually featured prominently in parts of both novels … go figure!

So Berthe … here’s hoping your story is as compelling as your magnificent art!

 

Last Time You Danced?

/ still a dreamer

When was the last time you danced?
A question put to the sick by a Native American medicine man

This headed up the June 24th post by Mark Nepo in his The Book of Awakening. And I had to stop. When was the last time I danced? When was the last time I sang? Or really laughed hard? And the answer I came up with was that whenever it was, it was too, too long ago. And that got me pretty bummed. I love to dance.

There are periods in our lives when dancing is just so low on the agenda that we forget all about it. Although I vaguely remember dancing about the kitchen, holding one of my cats when she was really not doing well. I thought a loving waltz might help. I’m guessing it did, I’m sure as much for me as her.

Dancing is wonderful and I’ve been dancing for as long as I can remember. Lately? Not so much. With all that’s been going on I’ve barely listened to music or read a whole book. Yesterday, with a number of stressful situations at least partially resolved, I decided to change all that. I looked through my CD’s and put on a favorite that I haven’t listened to in a long time, p.s. A Toad Retrospective from Toad the Wet Sprocket. I  came across them in the early 90’s and  have several of their albums; I love their sound and this compilation is their best.

I hit “Play” and grabbed my book, Skinny Dip, something cool to drink, and sat down on the sofa and read. And read. And read `til I finished the book. (Yes, I did make dinner for all those who were hungry and then continued reading.)

OK, I didn’t dance.  But I listened to music I love and allowed myself something I rarely do … to simply relax and enjoy. I admit I am still feeling a wee bit guilty, but all the things I didn’t do are still right here waiting for me, and today is another day. Dance? That might happen at any time.

So you might ask yourself … when was the last time you danced? sang? laughed so hard you couldn’t stop? I’m certainly no medicine man, but if the answer is anything like mine was … maybe you, too, need to carve out a little “you” time. Put on the music and see what happens.