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Mailbox Monday #71

I cannot believe that the last storm passed over us without dropping snow.  Yes, there were flakes in the air, but none of them stuck.  Poor New England and my mom. . .she got some snow this weekend.

Marcia at The Printed Page and Kristi of The Story Siren both sponsor memes in which bloggers share what books they’ve received in the past week.  I’m going to continue calling these Mailbox Mondays, but The Story Siren also has In My Mailbox.

Here’s what I received:

1.  Poetry Speaks:  Who I Am edited by Elise Paschen

2.  Pride and Prejudice and Zombies:  Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith

What did you get in your mailbox?

FTC Disclosure: Clicking on title and image links will lead you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary, though appreciated.

34th Virtual Poetry Circle

I’m back from my mini vacation.  I hope to have a bunch of reviews for you this week.  It was great visiting with my cousin and her girls.  I think we all had a great time, though now I wish we lived closer and could hang out more!

If you guys are interested in some of the photos I took while they were here, please feel free to check the right sidebar photo slideshow or you can click here.

It’s the 34th Virtual Poetry Circle, and it’s time to visit with a contemporary poet, but before we do that, I wanted to thank everyone who has participated in this project thus far.  Feel free to spread the word.

Additionally, you should start noticing some small changes here on the blog, including possible article suggestions at the end of my posts (Thanks Bloggiesta for calling this widget to my attention) and some share buttons, which I’m not overly thrilled with, but they’ll do for now.

I would also love to get a new three-column template that meshes better with my header, so if anyone would like to volunteer, please email me.

OK, Here’s a poem up for reactions, interaction, and–dare I say it–analysis:

Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books suggested. Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.

Today’s contemporary poem is from John Wareham in his Sonnets for Sinners, though he really creatively took the words, sentences, and utterances of public figures and fashioned them into a sonnet.  Look for my review of this book next week.

Tiger Balm (using Tiger Woods’ words; Page 14)

You want a partner to witness your life;
a someone I never found, not even
at home — yet, suddenly, you’re touching sides
of me I never knew; why didn’t we find
each other years ago? It’s brutal that
you can’t always be with me.  I want you
next to me, on me — I need to gaze at
you.  Yet do I truly know who you are?
Will I just be fifth on your list? One more
person who just happens to be famous?
Well, my brain says yes, but my heart says no.
I hate feeling so weak, I’m tougher than this.
Get it together and get on the flight;
we can have make-up sex after we fight.

Let me know your thoughts, ideas, feelings, impressions. Let’s have a great discussion…pick a line, pick an image, pick a sentence.

I’ve you missed the other Virtual Poetry Circles, check them out here. It’s never too late to join the discussion.


FTC Disclosure:  Clicking on title links or images will bring you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary.

AWOL; I Have Visitors…

I’m going to be a bit AWOL while I have my cousin visiting with her girls.

Don’t miss me too much!

But. . .

You can help break the tie!

A Novel Menagerie’s Beautiful Baby Contest has gone to a tiebreak, and Charlee is up against some stiff competition.

He’s tied with Milou from Bermudaonion for Best Dog!

I urge you to vote for this cute pup, who is not quite a pup anymore. 

VOTE NOW!

You Can Break the Tie! Vote Charlee

A Novel Menagerie’s Beautiful Baby Contest has gone to a tiebreak, and Charlee is up against some stiff competition.
He’s tied with Milou from Bermudaonion for Best Dog!
I urge you to vote for this cute pup, who is not quite a pup anymore.
VOTE NOW!

Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show by Frank Delaney

Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show by Frank Delaney is a coming of age novel set during a tumultuous time in Ireland’s history.  Set in the early 1930s, Ireland and Britain were in the midst of an economic battle in which farmers refused to keep paying back the loans that enabled them to buy farmland.  And Britain consequently began placing tariffs on all Irish goods — all the while the political system in Ireland was tenuous.

“Of course it was all still being run by politicians.  We have an old saying here:  ‘No matter who you vote for, the government always gets in.'”  (Page 15)

The narration is conversational in tone as Ben MacCarthy tells his family history, with tales on the side about the political climate of the time.  Although he digresses from the main story of his father’s disappearance and reappearance with the Venetia Kelly Traveling Show, MacCarthy warns you ahead of time that he often falls off topic, but that most of his stories have some relevance to the main narration.  A quirky technique, but enjoyable given that the digressions are entertaining.

“So, throughout this story you can expect three kinds of sidesteps:  Important Digression, which will usually be something to do with factual history; Important Digression, where a clarification needs facts and I will ferry them in from a side road; and — my favorite — Unimportant Digression, which can be about anything.”  (Page 10)

Delaney has created a multitude of characters with their own depth and meaning in the story, and there are references throughout to other classic works.  He has created an energized menagerie through which readers will see and experience through Ben’s eyes as a young man in search of his father and himself.  In many ways Ben is like his father, especially as the narration progresses.  Readers will find that he is unwinding his story slowly and deliberately, mirroring how his father contains his emotions and his true passions from his family.

“Beside me, my father reacted so hard that he made the bones of his chair creak.  He pulled back his hands, tightened them into fists, and held them in front of him like a man containing himself.”  (Page 79)

The deliberate way in which the story unfolds enables readers to learn more about the MacCarthy family, the Kelly’s, and the climate of Ireland at the time.  A nation and families stuck between the old traditions and the modern ways of the world, seeking the best path through to the other side.  What propels Ben on this journey and what does he learn?  Readers will want to pick up a copy of Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show to find out.

To enter for 1 signed copy of Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show or 1 audiobook narrated by Frank Delaney (US/Canada only):

1.  Leave a comment on this post of what you would like to see in Ireland.
2.  Leave a comment on my interview with Frank Delaney.
3.  Blog, Facebook, Tweet, or spread the word about the giveaway.

Deadline March 1, 2010, at 11:59PM EST.

About the Author: (Photo Credit: Jerry Bauer)

Frank Delaney was born in Tipperary, Ireland. A career in broadcasting earned him fame across the United Kingdom. A judge for the Booker Prize, several of his nonfiction books were bestsellers in the UK, and he writes frequently for American and British publications. He now lives with his wife, Diane Meier, in New York and Connecticut. Ireland is his first novel to be published in the United States.

 This is my 11th book for the 2010 New Authors Reading Challenge.

My 1st book for the 2010 Ireland Reading Challenge.

FTC Disclosure:  I received a free copy of Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show by Frank Delaney from publicist Leah Paulos and Random House.  Clicking on title links or images will bring you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary.

Loads of Winners…

I won’t even go into how many entrants or which numbers Random.org selected…frankly, I forget!

But here are the winners from all the recent giveaways:

Mariska won a signed copy of Government Girl by Stacy Parker Aab and a signed copy of Cleopatra’s Daughter by Michelle Moran.

Christine won Little Bird of Heaven by Joyce Carol Oates.

Jill of Rhapsody in Books won Gold Dust on His Shirt by Irene Howard.

Elizabeth won The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer.

Michelle of su[shu] won Little Stories by Jeff Roberts.

Haley of The Life and Lies of an Inanimate Flying Object won Loving Mr. Darcy by Sharon Lathan.

Iliana of Bookgirl’s Nighstand won The Weight of Heaven by Thrity Umrigar

Carol won Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters.

I will mail out all these books shortly.  Congrats to all of you, and thank you to all who entered.

FTC Disclosure:  Clicking on title links or images will bring you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary.

Mailbox Monday #70

It appears that the snow has continued to have an impact on the mail, and its no wonder since the apartment complex I live in has finally begun shipping the snow mounds elsewhere.

I could actually see grass and sidewalk in some parts.

Marcia at The Printed Page and Kristi of The Story Siren both sponsor memes in which bloggers share what books they’ve received in the past week.  I’m going to continue calling these Mailbox Mondays, but The Story Siren also has In My Mailbox.

Here’s what I received:

1.  Rumor Has It by Jill Mansell

2.  The Writing on my Forehead by Nafisa Haji

3.  The 9th Judgment by James Patterson

4.  Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

What did you get in your mailbox?

FTC Disclosure: Clicking on title and image links will lead you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary, though appreciated.

33rd Virtual Poetry Circle

It’s the 33rd Virtual Poetry Circle, and it’s time to visit with a classic poet, but before we do that, I wanted to thank everyone who has participated in this project thus far.  Feel free to spread the word.

Additionally, you should start noticing some small changes here on the blog, including possible article suggestions at the end of my posts (Thanks Bloggiesta for calling this widget to my attention) and some share buttons, which I’m not overly thrilled with, but they’ll do for now.

I would also love to get a new three-column template that meshes better with my header, so if anyone would like to volunteer, please email me.

OK, Here’s a poem up for reactions, interaction, and–dare I say it–analysis:

Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books suggested. Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.

Today’s poem is from William Carlos Williams:

Spring and All

By the road to the contagious hospital
under the surge of the blue
mottled clouds driven from the
northeast-a cold wind. Beyond, the
waste of broad, muddy fields
brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen

patches of standing water
the scattering of tall trees

All along the road the reddish
purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy
stuff of bushes and small trees
with dead, brown leaves under them
leafless vines-

Lifeless in appearance, sluggish
dazed spring approaches-

They enter the new world naked,
cold, uncertain of all
save that they enter. All about them
the cold, familiar wind-

Now the grass, tomorrow
the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf
One by one objects are defined-
It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf

But now the stark dignity of
entrance-Still, the profound change
has come upon them: rooted, they
grip down and begin to awaken

Let me know your thoughts, ideas, feelings, impressions. Let’s have a great discussion…pick a line, pick an image, pick a sentence.

I’ve you missed the other Virtual Poetry Circles, check them out here. It’s never too late to join the discussion.

Interview With Frank Delaney, Author of Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show

Look to your right and you will see a dashing photo of Frank Delaney taken by Jerry Bauer!  He — Delaney, not Bauer — is the author of Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show, which will hit stores Feb. 23.

I’ve been reading his book and enjoying the author’s style, but since I want to do the work justice, I figured I would postpone my review until Feb. 22.  Instead, I’m going to bring you a fun interview with Delaney where he talks about books, writing, and more.

Without further ado, here’s the interview. Please give Frank Delaney a warm welcome.

1.  Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show takes place in the 1930s, and many of your previous novels have either dealt with or been set in Ireland during previous decades.  Has it been your intention to revisit Ireland in each book with a new decade?  Why or why not?
I wanted to write a “history” of Ireland in the 20th century, when so much happened to create the country we know today, and in which I grew up. And it’s a place and period full of rich incident, eccentric character, and arresting themes. Also, I love the idea of taking the readers into an unknown world – which was after all so familiar to me – and allowing them to stand on the sidelines and observe what’s happening in that world, sharing with them what I saw and know. 

2.  Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show reminds me of the gypsy shows seen in many movies.  Did you have a particular inspiration for the traveling show and is it based on an actual show you’ve seen or researched?

I’ve seen so many of them! There was one I actually used to follow across the country; it was part theatrical, part medicine show, with the worst and goofiest performers you ever saw. But there were others, gifted acting troupes, who brought Shakespeare and Sophocles and Strindberg and all the great dramas to small country towns, and they live for ever in my mind. I was captivated by them.

3.  Tackling the betrayal of a spouse can be difficult, especially for a child.  Ben MacCarthy must take a journey to bring his father home after he runs off with the caravan.  How would you say your coming-of-age novel that sets a young man out on his own differs from other novels of a similar ilk?
Great question! This is what I was trying to do: I was trying to apply some of today’s experience, where children routinely observe such upheavals in their families, to an unlikely time and place – rural Ireland in the 1930’s, because I wanted to show that whenever it happens, distress is distress, and therefore a bond is created between past and present. The time-lapse, I felt, might sharpen the edge of his rite of passage. As a consequence, the book is full of deliberate mistakes (perpetrated by Ben or his father), misunderstandings and unexpected discord – as they would be in a story from today’s family experience. It’s also packed with mythological references, some hidden, some not,, because I like to do that stuff! I believe it gives a book depth and subtlety, all smuggled into a “story,” which – like all my novels – starts deliberately slowly, and then (when, as I hope, I’ve captured you) begins to go much, much faster.
4.  You were born in Ireland and made a name for yourself in broadcasting.  Could you describe the transition you made from being a broadcaster in Ireland to an author in America and any hardships you may have encountered?
It’s been a long journey. I don”t know if I’d use the word “hardships” – but there certainly have been obstacles. In the UK I worked as a broadcaster for the BBC for many years and learned so much about one-air audiences at their excellent hands (I hope it shows in my audiobooks: I always read the recordings of my own novels). But that didn’t dim or reduce the requirement to learn the skills necessary in reaching an audience for writing, and that will always be, as for every professional writer, the “hardship” of the ongoing challenge. In fact the world is now so full of challenges for authors that I’ve actually started writing a book about the future of authorship.
5.  Please share a few of your obsessions.(i.e. a love of chocolate, animals, crosswords)? 
Ha! Crosswords, certainly – though I do genuinely believe that the language barrier across the Atlantic makes the New York Times crossword v. difficult for me, so I download the Daily Telegraph Crossword from London instead! Chocolate – Yummmm! BUT – take note; on a significant birthday I made myself a promise that I would never let a day of my life go by without eating ice-cream. By and large I’ve kept to that. As to animals – if I could, I’d have a Sumatran elephant as a pet. And watch out (in a year or so) for a significant animal pet in the novel I’m writing at the moment.
6.  When writing poetry, prose, essays, and other works do you listen to music, do you have a particular playlist for each genre you work in or does the playlist stay the same? What are the top 5 songs on that playlist? If you don’t listen to music while writing, do you have any other routines or habits?
I have specific music that I use for different phases of work. Dominant of these is techno – and I have a number of Internet radio stations (some coming out of France) that I listen to. I prefer the truly insistent house stuff, I find the the drive of it very energizing. I also try to find North African music; I developed a taste for it in Greece many years ago and it fires me up. I’m looking at my lists now and – a random glance – I see Diana Krall, Manhattan Transfer, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and one of my all-time favorites, Gundula Janowitz‘s’s recording of The Four Last Songs. For the ultimate kick-start on a slow day – Wagner. Bach for warming down! 
7.  Which books have you been reading lately, and are there any you would recommend in particular?  Which books do you think should be read by more readers?  
Am reading Game Change, the bestseller of the 2008 election campaign; am finishing an excellent biography of John Fowles (whom I knew); re-reading (again) The Great Gatsby; will always be dipping into Ulysses – that’s the book more people should read, because it’s so huge and rich. Just finished an old Ed McBain thriller – took not much more than an hour or two, but oh, boy! Did he know how to roll a story? To declare my interest – I’m also re-reading my wife, Diane Meier’s deliciously edgy first novel, The Season of Second Chances. (And from what I’ve seen – her second will be even better!) If there’s a new Alan Furst coming, I’ll be onto it straightaway. And Shakespeare, always Shakespeare. 
8.  As an author and interviewer of authors, what is the one question you would like to be asked and answered?  How would you answer it? 
Good question! Yes, there is – it has been asked a few times and it’s always welcome: The question is this: “Frank Delaney, -is there more to your books than meets the eye? Is there more to them than just the simple story?” And my answer is, with a big smile, “You bet! But go looking for it – because the fun I’ve had building in the layers and references and subtleties might just transmit itself to you.”

Thank you for answering my questions, Frank.  We wish you luck in all you do.  Stay tuned for my review of Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show on Monday, Feb. 22. 

FTC Disclosure:  Clicking on title links will bring you to my Amazon Affiliate page, no purchase necessary.

2010 Ireland Challenge

OK, I know I said I was done with reading challenges, but for some reason, I’m addicted.

BethFishReads turned me onto this challenge, even though I have been resisting it for some time.  I’m also going to sign up for: Shamrock level: 2 books.

The first of my two books will be reviewed next week.  See how easy that was to get 50 percent done?

What’s stopping you from joining?  There are prizes…and we know how everyone loves those.

Check out the challenge information by clicking on the challenge button!