Loved the new book by Clyde Edgerton. Reviewed it very favorably in the Star Tribune. Not as glowing for Jenna Blum's The Stormchasers.
What an interesting contrast in markets. Jenna Blum's book is commercial fiction written for family- and romance-loving women. Clyde Edgerton's book is literary fiction written for art- and music-loving humanists. Still—the basics of storytelling must apply. Good lesson.
Both reviews appeared on the same day, so it looked like I was dominating the books section. The reality is that's all the time I have for book reviews for the next six months. I begin teaching again soon—this year at Minnesota State University, Mankato (instead of St. Cloud State University).
It will probably be January before I review any books again.
Here's the story about Amanda Hocking I worked on with the amazing Kim Ode and my girl crush books editor Laurie Hertzel, both at the Star-Tribune.
The news that an under-employed college dropout twenty-something in Austin, Minnesota had just earned $1 million in less than a year by self-publishing her young adult fantasy novels made the Huffington Post first. I got down to Austin to interview her within a week, and within a week after that, St. Martin's Press offered her even more millions for the rights to her books. The Star-Tribune broke that story.
The St. Martin's Press deal will really make her "published author Amanda Hocking," but in my mind she will always be "folk hero Amanda Hocking." I'm in awe of her tremendous and savvy accomplishments with her work, and at such a young, fun age. I am humbled by her.
I recently reviewed this book from novelist Rae Meadows. She lives here in Minneapolis. It's a great book club pick for midwestern women, and a nice birthday gift for a mom or daughter too (though there is one character I didn't find quite convincing enough).
For those of you interested in the orphan trains from the turn of the century, this book has a wonderful child character who ends up on one. It's cool for midwestern women to read about these orphan trains, and imagine ourselves (or our sons and daughters) on them. How frightening, and how real, for many children—many of whom eventually became the second generation of working pioneers in our American midwest.
And for those of you interested in Virginia Woolf, there are a lot of allusions to To the Lighthouse in this novel.
Speaking of Poor Farms (as I'm sure you were), a few months ago I wrote a feature for the Star-Tribune about the Blue Earth County Poor Farm, which included, among other things, a fabulous photo essay by Strib photog Tom Wallace and myself that didn't get room in the printed paper. (Yet another example of creative cross-medium feature writing/presentation.)
Don't miss the sidebar on the history of Minnesota's Poor Farms. (One of the drawbacks of the Strib's online presence is that sidebars aren't literally on the "side" of the actual feature; the related sidebar content can get lost to readers.)
This photo of Amy Wurdock's is from a great feature I wrote recently for the Star-Tribune on Powderhorn 365. Wurdock heads this community-based daily photo blog.
What I love about this feature is how well it translates online—there was no room in the printed paper for the accompanying photos.
It's a lot like the online presentation of the Strib story I did on the Blue Earth County Poor Farm, which had a whole on-line portfolio of photos that also didn't appear in the printed paper.
I've been teaching fiction workshop at St. Cloud State University this semester (as well as a section of Freshman Comp). Though I initially resisted it, the students talked me into a lesson on Science Fiction (which many of them love and write). We did this last week, toward the end of the semester, and we spent a fabulous two hours hashing out what Science Fiction is (thank you, Philip K. Dick, for your edifying words on the subject), and how it differs from literary fiction (it leads with an intellectual idea), and even fantasy (that one is very subtle, it depends on your faith that the story COULD happen).
Here's who they've loved the best throughout the semester: Stuart Dybek, Ursula LeGuin, and local writers John Jodzio and Ethan Rutherford. (I am committed to using locally produced art by living, breathing writers you just might see on the street in your neighborhood. Ethan ACTUALLY CAME TO CLASS and gave a guest talk to these eager, intelligent students.)
When we asked him why he prefers to write short stories over novels he leaned back in his chair, but his hands behind his head, and said, "Hey. It's the tenderloin."
Swoon.
Alexa is a St. Paul girl with a new memoir out this week called Half-Baked: The Story of My Nerves, My Newborn, and How We Both Learned to Breathe (at Amazon here). I wrote a feature about her for the Star Tribune. Her daughter, Simone, looks exactly like daddy (Scott Wisgerhof). Alexa's popular blog—flotsamblog.com—topped one million visitors last year.
How fortunate I am that such smart mommas inhabit my world.
I recently reviewed the debut novel from Kira Henehan. Surreal, funny, weird. Not for everyone, but kinda for me, which was excellent. My opening: "Imagine that avant-garde minimalist Samuel Beckett and British experimentalist Jeanette Winterson had a baby, which was then raised by detective novelist Raymond Chandler and space-campy bombshell Barbarella." If you like that stuff, you'll like the book.
The title, if you haven't noticed, is a misread of the lyrics to "Mandy" by Barry Manilow. FYI, actual lyrics: Oh, Mandy/You Came and You Gave without Taking.
The book comes from independent Milkweed Press (it won the Milkweed National Prize for Fiction).
Milkweed is in my city ("ci-tay") of Minneapolis. Holla.
Recently wrote a profile for the Star Tribune about author Gayla Marty. Her memoir Memory of Trees is out this week from University of Minnesota Press. It took her 20 years to write. As a person who grew up in a rural area, I feel kindred to Gayla and all those who write about the loss of the family farm. This book is dynamite. I highly recommend it for those who know farm life. In fact, I wrote the review of the book for the Star Tribune as well.
Photo by Tom Wallace.
Delighted to have the opportunity to review a Hornby book (Juliet, Naked) for the Star Tribune. I'm a so-so fan of his, and I was so-so on this particular book in general. But being a big fan of pop music (and a critic of its pitfalls, too) I was delighted to see Hornby becoming more critical of celebrity, fandom, and pop music's usually thin ethos. Plus, hella fun to write a review like this, with so many allusions to songs.
