Author Archives: Sally Whitney

8/10/2015—INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP CIOFFARI, AUTHOR OF DARK ROAD, DEAD END

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10 AUGUST 2015 8/10/2015—INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP CIOFFARI, AUTHOR OF DARK ROAD, DEAD END

8/10/2015—INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP CIOFFARI, AUTHOR OF DARK ROAD, DEAD END

Philip Cioffari’s novel Dark Road, Dead End, which I reviewed here Philip Cioffarilast month, piqued my interest in illegal animal smuggling so much that I couldn’t wait to ask Cioffari how he came up with the topic and what strategies, in both research and writing, he used to make the novel so compelling. His sense of the atmosphere of southern Florida and the good and evil that battle there had me hooked on the first page. Cioffari’s answers to my questions appear below.

A multi-talented author, Cioffari has written novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays. His previous fiction works include Jesusville, A History of Things Lost or Broken, and Catholic Boys, all published by Livingston Press/University of West Alabama.

7/10/2015. BOOK REVIEW: DARK ROAD, DEAD END BY PHILIP CIOFFARI

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10 JULY 2015 7/10/2015. BOOK REVIEW: DARK ROAD, DEAD END BY PHILIP CIOFFARI

7/10/2015. BOOK REVIEW: DARK ROAD, DEAD END BY PHILIP CIOFFARI

I love a novel that teaches me about a phenomenon or a Dark Road, Dead Endhistorical event. In my past two posts, I talked about The Tilted World, which introduced me to the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927. This month I want to talk about another disaster that’s taking place even as I write: the smuggling of exotic and endangered animals, stolen from their natural habitats, into the United States for profit. Dark Road, Dead End, a novel by Philip Cioffari, explores the smarmy world of animal smugglers and the law enforcement officers who risk their lives trying to shut the practice down.

6/10/2015. INTERVIEW WITH TOM FRANKLIN, CO-AUTHOR OF THE TILTED WORLD

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10 JUNE 2015 6/10/2015. INTERVIEW WITH TOM FRANKLIN, CO-AUTHOR OF THE TILTED WORLD

6/10/2015. INTERVIEW WITH TOM FRANKLIN, CO-AUTHOR OF THE TILTED WORLD

Tom Franklin’s fiction overflows with detailed characters, richTom Franklin headshot credit Maude Schuyler Clay (2) emotion, and the smoldering energy of the Deep South. I first encountered his novels with Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, a marvelous story of murder and tested loyalty that was nominated for nine awards and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger Award.

The Tilted World, which Franklin wrote with his wife, Beth Ann Fennelly, is even better. In The Tilted World, Franklin and Fennelly explore the devastating consequences of the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 on property and people. As I said in my review of The Tilted World last month, the authors give life to the fear, grit, and courage of the people who were there.

5/10/2015—BOOK REVIEW: THE TILTED WORLD BY TOM FRANKLIN AND BETH ANN FENNELLY (ONE OF THE BEST HISTORICAL NOVELS I’VE EVER READ)

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10 MAY 2015 5/10/2015—BOOK REVIEW: THE TILTED WORLD BY TOM FRANKLIN AND BETH ANN FENNELLY (ONE OF THE BEST HISTORICAL NOVELS I’VE EVER READ)

5/10/2015—BOOK REVIEW: THE TILTED WORLD BY TOM FRANKLIN AND BETH ANN FENNELLY (ONE OF THE BEST HISTORICAL NOVELS I’VE EVER READ)

In March 1927, after months of nearly nonstop rainfall, a levee on the Mississippi River near Greenville, Mississippi, collapsed with more than double the water volume of Niagara Falls. The deluge, combined with flooding from additional breaks in the levee system, covered 27,000 square miles in 10 states up to a depth of 30 feet. Authorities have called it the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States. And yet many people have never heard of it. In their gripping new novel The Tilted World, Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly have righted that omission and brought the horrors and heroism of the flood to life.

4/10/2015—BOOK REVIEW: LILA BY MARILYNNE ROBINSON

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10 APRIL 2015 4/10/2015—BOOK REVIEW: LILA BY MARILYNNE ROBINSON

4/10/2015—BOOK REVIEW: LILA BY MARILYNNE ROBINSON

Lila is a novel about nothing and about everything. The plot is Lila cover shotsimple: an abused, neglected child is stolen by a woman and raised with a band of migrant workers until the woman disappears, and the child, now a young adult, is left to take care of herself. She spends time in a brothel in St. Louis and then one day wanders into Gilead, Iowa, where she meets John Ames, an older preacher whose wife and child died years ago.

The young woman (Lila) and John are drawn to each other by forces that maybe aren’t love, but are just as powerful. They marry, and then, almost by accident, they have a son together. That’s it.

3/10/2015—THE POWER OF THE CHARACTERS WE HATE

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10 MARCH 2015 3/10/2015—THE POWER OF THE CHARACTERS WE HATE

3/10/2015—THE POWER OF THE CHARACTERS WE HATE

Amy Dunne is one of the most despicable and yet well-known fictionalGone Girl characters today. Gone Girl, the novel that introduced Amy to the world, sold more than 2,000,000 print and digital copies in its first year of publication. Since its release in October 2014, the film version of the novel has grossed around $370,000,000 worldwide. People want to know about Amy—not because they like her but because they can’t stop watching her.

Like most unlikeable characters, Amy can’t help creating conflict, which is the heart of any good story. Unlikeable characters hook their readers because they cause their own consequences. Circumstances aren’t thrust on them. Whether their actions are immoral, illegal, insensitive, or just cruel, they are responsible for the problems they generate, and an active character is always more compelling than an inactive one.

2/10/2015—BOOK REVIEW: WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW BY CLIFFORD GARSTANG

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10 FEBRUARY 2015 2/10/2015—BOOK REVIEW: WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW BY CLIFFORD GARSTANG

2/10/2015—BOOK REVIEW: WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW BY CLIFFORD GARSTANG

In social psychology, the proximity principle says that people tend toWhat the Zhang Boys Know cover form interpersonal relations with those who are close by. What the Zhang Boys Know by Clifford Garstang confirms that principle and also tests it severely by gathering a multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-generational group of people as residents in a Washington, D.C., condominium building called Nanking Mansion. A Chinese father and his two sons, an African-American lawyer, a painter, a sculptor, a gay aspiring poet, and an unemployed woman who’s selling her jewelry so she can eat are among the people trying to make their way in this minimally refurbished building in a neighborhood that’s just beginning to turn around. 

AUTHOR CLIFFORD GARSTANG IS GUEST BLOGGER ON FEBRUARY 1

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29 JANUARY 2015 AUTHOR CLIFFORD GARSTANG IS GUEST BLOGGER ON FEBRUARY 1

01/29/2015   AUTHOR CLIFFORD GARSTANG IS GUEST BLOGGER ON FEBRUARY 1

For author Clifford Garstang, the setting in a story is crucial. As heClifford Garstang said in an interview here last month, “[Setting] is part of the reason I read fiction. I want to be transported, not only to whatever the story is but also to the place.” As you would expect, setting plays an important role in Garstang’s award-winning writing, including In an Uncharted Country, a collection of short stories, and What the Zhang Boys Know, a novel-in-stories. In Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet, a collection that Garstang curated and edited, each story takes place in a different country. As our guest blogger on February 1, Garstang will explain why the best fiction uses setting as more than just a backdrop.

INTERVIEW WITH CLIFFORD GARSTANG, AUTHOR OF IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY AND WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW

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10 JANUARY 2015 INTERVIEW WITH CLIFFORD GARSTANG, AUTHOR OF IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY AND WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW

1/10/2015—INTERVIEW WITH CLIFFORD GARSTANG, AUTHOR OF IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY AND WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW

I discovered Clifford Garstang through his excellent blog “Perpetual Folly.” I wasClifford Garstang looking for information for a SheWrites.com blog post I was writing about literary magazines, and Garstang had the information right there when I needed it. So I started reading his blog and realized that his writing is both engaging and provocative. His collection of short stories, In an Uncharted Country, won the Maria Thomas Fiction Award and the IPPY Gold Medal for Best Regional Fiction–Mid-Atlantic 2010. His novel in stories, What the Zhang Boys Know, won the 2013 Library of Virginia Award for Fiction. Most recently, Garstang served as curator and editor of Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet, published in 2014.

WHEN COMMERCE CREEPS INTO NOVELS

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10 DECEMBER 2014 WHEN COMMERCE CREEPS INTO NOVELS

12/10/2014 — WHEN COMMERCE CREEPS INTO NOVELS

When I read a novel, there’s something sacrosanct about the relationship between the words and me. I become part of the world described by those words. I trust them, and the author behind them, not to violate our relationship and the world we’ve created. So when I find out some of those words are there because a corporation wants me to buy its product, I’m angry. If a character in a novel drives a Corvette, I want that car to be part of her personality, not some ploy to draw my attention to a particular brand. And when the dialogue defends the brand, as The New York Times says it does in Find Me I’m Yours by Hillary Carlip, I start to worry about literature of the future. 

BOOK REVIEW: GODS IN ALABAMA BY JOSHILYN JACKSON

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10 NOVEMBER 2014 BOOK REVIEW: GODS IN ALABAMA BY JOSHILYN JACKSON

11/10/2014 – BOOK REVIEW: GODS IN ALABAMA BY JOSHILYN JACKSON

Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson starts with a shock and ends with an even biggergods in Alabama shock. Set in the tiny town of Possett, Alabama, the story is a classic example of Southern Gothic literature, which includes works by Flannery O’Connor (the queen of Southern Gothic), William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, and Carson McCullers. You can tell a story is Southern Gothic by its preponderance of violence, weird characters, loners, ghosts, and other grotesque occurrences in any and all combinations. Jackson’s protagonist, Arlene Fleet, fulfills most of these requirements all by herself. 

HOW TO BE AN ACTIVE READER

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10 OCTOBER 2014 HOW TO BE AN ACTIVE READER

10/10/14 — HOW TO BE AN ACTIVE READER

What do you do when you read a novel? Relax, maybe, leisurely turning pages, lettinghttp://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-images-man-reading-book-glasses-desk-coffee-cup-pen-pencil-flat-vector-illustration-image43808669 the story sweep you along? If so, you’re likely reading solely for pleasure, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Reading is a lot of fun. Enjoying the story can be reward enough.

On the other hand, what if you want more than entertainment from the novels you read? Good stories have layers, offering ideas, feelings, and meanings. Even fairy tales are more than delightful yarns. Hansel and Gretel learn not to wander off into the woods alone. The three little pigs learn to build their houses with strong materials that will last. If you want to mine the stories you read for greater understanding of the world the writer has created, here are some suggestions you might consider. 

LEE SMITH—DISTINCTIVE VOICE OF SOUTHERN DIGNITY

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10 SEPTEMBER 2014 LEE SMITH—DISTINCTIVE VOICE OF SOUTHERN DIGNITY

9/10/2014  LEE SMITH—DISTINCTIVE VOICE OF SOUTHERN DIGNITY

Last month, in my review of Lee Smith’s novel Guests on Earth, I talked about the Lee_headshot_2013 (2)dignity and respect that Smith gives to her characters, not just in her latest novel, but in all her novels. This month I want to tell you more about that particular writing skill and about another of Smith’s strengths, a detailed attention to setting. I also promised to tell you about Smith’s personal connection to Guests on Earth, which is tied to her deep sense of place.

Over the years, Smith has published 13 novels and four collections of short stories. She’s won numerous writing awards, including the Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the North Carolina Award for Literature, and a Southern Book Critics Circle Award.

BOOK REVIEW: GUESTS ON EARTH BY LEE SMITH

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10 AUGUST 2014 BOOK REVIEW: GUESTS ON EARTH BY LEE SMITH

8/10/2014   BOOK REVIEW: GUESTS ON EARTH BY LEE SMITH

Sanity and insanity are more closely linked than most people realize, particularly in the lives of artists. Why is creativity often accompanied by some degree of madness? And why are women, particularly in the past two centuries, more likely to be judged insane than men? With a captivating mixture of fictional characters and people who actually lived, Lee Smith explores these questions and others in her latest novel, Guests on Earth. 

Review of This Bright River by Patrick Somerville

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10 JULY 2014 Review of This Bright River by Patrick Somerville

7/10/14—A REVIEW OF THIS BRIGHT RIVER BY PATRICK SOMERVILLE

Sometimes a novel is interesting because of its story. Sometimes because of its characters. And sometimes because of the author’s writing techniques. I started reading This Bright River by Patrick Somerville expecting to be enticed by the novel’s story. I had read Somerville’s previous novel, The Cradle, a few years ago and liked the story about expectant parents’ search for the mother’s childhood cradle, an effort that brings them much more than a cradle. From the beginning, however, This Bright River is different and much darker. 

CHARACTERS I’LL NEVER FORGET

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10 JUNE 2014 CHARACTERS I’LL NEVER FORGET

6/10/2014—CHARACTERS I’LL NEVER FORGET

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving is a long, dense book filled with love, friendship, loss, fear, disappointment—nearly the gamut of human emotions. I love everything about this rich book, but the feature that made the most indelible imprint on my mind was Owen Meany. Every time I glance at the book, wherever it happens to be lying, I see Owen. Whenever I mention the book, or anybody asks me about it, I see Owen. Owen is a unique assembly of physical and mental characteristics who for me will always be the symbol of John Irving’s writing.

So who is Owen? 

INTERVIEW WITH BETHANNE PATRICK, WASHINGTONIAN BOOKS EDITOR AND SO MUCH MORE

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10 MAY 2014 INTERVIEW WITH BETHANNE PATRICK, WASHINGTONIAN BOOKS EDITOR AND SO MUCH MORE

Bethanne Patrick5/10/2014—INTERVIEW WITH BETHANNE PATRICK,WASHINGTONIAN BOOKS EDITOR AND SO MUCH MORE

Bethanne Patrick’s Twitter ID, @TheBookMaven, couldn’t be more appropriate. I don’t know anyone in recent times who’s done more to promote literary culture. Bethanne is the Books Editor at Washingtonian magazine, and her reviews have appeared in The Washington Post, O the Oprah Magazine, People, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and many other places. She’s blogged about books for venues including AOL, Publishers Weekly, and BN.com, and helped to launch Shelf Awareness for Readers and Book Riot.

SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE TIME

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10 APRIL 2014 SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE TIME

4/10/2014.  SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE TIME

Every few days I receive an email suggesting new novels I might like to read. I hear from Kirkus Reviews, Oprah’s Book Club, the Washington Independent Review of Books, Goodreads, and more. Granted, I asked to be on these mailing lists, but occasionally I find so much information overwhelming. And that doesn’t even count the bestseller lists and reviews. So many good novels are coming out every day that I’ll never be able to read them all. Priorities must be set, but how? 

AUTHOR PEGGY PAYNE IS GUEST BLOGGER ON APRIL 1

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29 MARCH 2014 AUTHOR PEGGY PAYNE IS GUEST BLOGGER ON APRIL 1

3/29/14.  AUTHOR PEGGY PAYNE IS GUEST BLOGGER ON APRIL 1

Author Peggy Payne has chosen to craft her novels around the intersection of spirituality and physical/emotional life. Or, asPeggy Payne she explained in an interview here earlier this month, the subject chose her. The results include Revelation, Cobalt Blue, and Sister India, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

Despite her novels’ success, Peggy says she has difficulty explaining their nature and an even bigger challenge categorizing them so readers know where to find them. She’s come up with possible, somewhat whimsical, solutions to the labeling dilemma, which she shares along with actual sources for books of “expanded realism” on a guest blog post here April 1.

INTERVIEW WITH PEGGY PAYNE, AUTHOR OF COBALT BLUE

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10 MARCH 2014 INTERVIEW WITH PEGGY PAYNE, AUTHOR OF COBALT BLUE

3/10/14  INTERVIEW WITH PEGGY PAYNE, AUTHOR OF COBALT BLUE

Throughout her career as a novelist, Peggy Payne has explored aspects of Peggy Paynespiritual and supernatural phenomena. Her first novel, Revelation, deals with a Christian minister who hears God speak to him out loud. Her second, Sister India, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, follows an American woman as she seeks sanctuary in Varanasi (Benares), India, destination of the holiest Hindu pilgrimage. Payne’s latest novel, Cobalt Blue, as I said in my review last month, describes the turbulent experience of kundalini rising. Cobalt Blue earned the rare distinction of having been the book of the month on a Playboy Radio Network program and in the top 100 spiritual books for Kindle.