Guest Post: Luc Carl

While I haven't had a chance to sit down and read The Drunk Diet: How I Lost 40 Pounds . . . Wasted: A Memoir yet, I did read a few different excerpts from it and found myself laughing out loud. Don't let the title fool you, this book is much more than a "how to" book.

We are excited to have the author, Luc Carl here to do a guest post for us. Enjoy!

As a person that doesn't like to be told what to do, the "diet" books on the shelf in the book store were just not cutting the honey mustard. Book after book I read, being told time and time again that alcohol no longer fit into my regime as a healthy person. Bull shit! I'm a human being. I need a nightcap or twelve to unwind after a hard days work. I needed a plan that would work for me. 

A month and a shit load of willpower and smiles later and I'd dropped 10 pounds. And I started writing it all down as proof in what would become The Drunk Diet. The title derived from this very same spite that was the spark on the fire. "Not only am I going to do this thing my own way and have a great time doing it, but I'm going to call this thing The Drunk Diet just to shove it up everyone's ass!"

It is now in every store in North America right along side the "Fill In the Blank Diet" that tells you life can no longer be fun. Which book would you rather read?

The Drunk Diet: How I Lost 40 Pounds . . . Wasted: A Memoir is available wherever fine books are sold!

Thanks to Brittney for coordinating with Luc for the post!


 

Guest Blog: M. J. Rose

Today, a guest post by M. J. Rose as part of The Book of Lost Fragrances blog tour:  

M.J. Rose:  I've been fascinated with lost fragrances since long before I started writing The Book of Lost Fragrances... since I found a bottle of perfume on my great grandmother's dresser that had belonged to her mother in Russia. Here is one of those lost fragrances that stirs the senses and the imagination... (researched and described  with the help of the perfume writer Dimitrios Dimitriadis)

VIGNY - LE GOLLIWOGG

"Golliwoggs" were popularised in the late 19th and early 20th century by the illustrated books of British writer Florence Kate Upton. Though perhaps not her intention, her books contributed to the widespread use of the racial slur 'wog' - a word applied to dark-skinned people the world over. In the 1920's the Golliwogg character was reprised again by French perfumers Vigny, who created Le Golliwogg, a figural flacon with sealskin hair used to decorate the stopper.

Once regarded as a charming and humorous perfume presentation, the nature of the juice itself (a brisk floral with ambery, mossy nuances) is almost lost to what we nowadays recognise as it's rather indelicate packaging. Nevertheless, Le Golliwogg is highly sought after as a perfume presentation that speaks of an era typifying modes of thought that many once considered de rigeur.

This perfume is long out of production, leaving one to ponder if perhaps it is for the best.

---

Our thanks to M.J. Rose for this insight into the research surrounding her novel.  Jenn reviewed The Book of Lost Fragrances last week, and you can find her review here.  

Guest Blog: Nancy Volkers

Earlier today Alice reviewed Scotland By Starlight by Nancy Volkers.  We are pleased to have Ms. Volkers join us for a guest post this afternoon.

Enjoy!

I just finished an intriguing book. It was the kind of book that sits there taunting you – “Come on, you know you want to read me… forget about all of your other obligations and pick me up!” It was suspenseful, romantic, had colorful characters and made me think. The most surprising thing about it, to me, was the author’s name: Stephen King.

I grew up reading Carrie and Cujo and It and all those other one-word, terrifying tales by Mr. King. The book I just finished – 11/22/1963, the day President Kennedy was assassinated – is nothing like those novels. King throws in some scary bits, but this is a drama, not a horror show. It’s a book about time travel, and how one decision can shape the world for decades to come. But it’s also about love and control and kindness and authenticity and tenacity and pride.

Enjoying that book got me thinking about what makes a good novel. Teachers of fiction writing stress that you have to draw the reader in, create conflict and transformation, make the reader care about your characters. The people in your books can’t be “too good to be true,” but neither can they be so flawed that readers don’t like them or identify with them.

How do writers balance all of this while they write? When writing A Scottish Ferry Tale and Scotland by Starlight, I did think quite a bit about making my characters real people, with flaws. Cassie, as I’ve heard from several readers, can be so whiny and indecisive that she irritates people. J Ralph, on the other hand, might have been crafted a bit too smoothly, as I’ve been asked more than once if he exists in real life. (Answer: not as far as I know, though my significant other is Ralph-like in many ways, minus the Scots accent and the large blue dog.)

Conflict and transformation are standards of fiction writing, be it a novel, short story or play. You could argue that some genres of fiction are perfectly predictable. In romance novels, there’s almost always a happy ending; in mystery novels, the mystery is solved. In chick lit, the lead character “grows up” in some way, and changes. So why do we keep reading? Why was I drawn toward 11/22/1963 for over a week, taking nearly every spare moment to sit down and soak up a few pages of a world that didn’t even exist?

My off-the-cuff answer is that we cannot see our own futures, but there’s a part of all of us that aches to know what will happen next. I have no idea what’s going to happen to me today. That unknowableness (yes, I made up that word) is frustrating and magical, all at once. When we get a chance to know the unknowable – through a good novel, film, TV series or play – we can scratch that itch that can never be scratched in real life.

Thank you, Nancy for sharing your thoughts with us.

Connect with Nancy:   Visit Nancy’s website!  Follow Nancy on Twitter!

Guest Blog: M.J. Rose

Jenn is busy reading The Hypnotist by M. J. Rose, but in the mean time, I'm going to let the author tell you a little bit about the inspiration for the story:

Growing up, I didn't want to be a writer; I wanted to be an artist. We lived a block away from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and I started taking Saturday morning art classes there when I was just seven years old.

I've often felt art is my religion and that museums in general, but the Met specifically, are my temples of choice. That's where I go to be renewed, refreshed and inspired. I don't think I've ever gone longer than a month without visiting there.

So its not all that surprising that sooner or later I'd write a novel with a museum as one of my main characters and that I'd pick the museum that was in my backyard when I was a kid.

But how I got idea for The Hypnotist is surprising, at least to me. Sometimes I find it reassuring. Other times frightening. See what you think.

One day about three and a half years ago, on one of my regular pilgrimages to the Met, I headed straight for one of my favorite spots. The Mastaba Tomb of Perneb is a tiny bit of Fifth Dynasty Egypt transplanted to Manhattan, a gift from Edward S. Harkness to the museum in 1913.

You can enter the limestone tomb from the left or the right. One doorway leads to the main offering chapel. I took the other, which leads to a second ritual chamber. The space is very small and only three or four people can fit at the same time. I was lucky to be in the intimate ritual chamber alone and looking through the slot in the wall at a wooden statue of Perneb in the room beyond known as a serdab. In ancient times this passageway allowed for family and priests to offer up incense and chants to the deceased.

I heard footsteps. A little girl about seven or eight had entered and came up beside me to look through the slot. She had long blonde hair and was wearing a school uniform. I watched her examine the space, giving every section careful attention.

"It hasn't changed much at all," she said finally in a wistful voice.

I asked her what she meant.

"Since the last time I was here," she said.

Something about the way she said it made me curious. "When was that?" I asked.

"When I lived in Egypt."

"You know this tomb has been on display in this museum since 1916." I said.

"I lived in Egypt way before that," she said and smiled. She was about to say something else when from outside the chamber an older woman's voice called out.

"Veronica, it's time to go. Now. Please."

The little girl ran off, quickly, without looking back, without giving me a chance to ask her anything else.

Even though I write about reincarnation, I haven't had any meaningful reincarnation episodes of my own. I don't get visitations. I've never seen a ghost. But I'm not sure what happened that afternoon.

I can picture Veronica in her navy jumper and white blouse that had a dark smudge on the collar. She had a one-inch scratch on her left hand. Her hair was pulled off her face with a silver barrette. A lot of curls had escaped. She had a child's voice but it was so charged with adult emotion.

It was that emotion which sparked the idea for my novel, The Hypnotist. And the paintings and sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum that fueled it.

If you go the Met, please go visit Perneb's tomb. And if you see a little girl there with long blonde hair and a blue school uniform... ask her if her name is Veronica... and if it is, thank her for me.

Our thanks to M.J. Rose for the fascinating insight into an amazing novel! Come back tomorrow to read Jenn's review of The Hypnotist.  For further information, you can visit her website, on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter @MJRose.

Summary:  An FBI agent, tormented by a death he wasn't able to prevent, a crime he's never been able to solve and a love he's never forgotten, discovers that his true conflict resides not in his past, but in a…Past Life.

Haunted by a twenty-year old murder of a beautiful young painter, Lucian Glass keeps his demons at bay through his fascinating work as a Special Agent with the FBI's Art Crime Team. Currently investigating a crazed art collector who has begun destroying prized masterworks, Glass is thrust into a bizarre hostage negotiation that takes him undercover at the Phoenix Foundation—dedicated to the science of past life study—where, in order to maintain his cover, he agrees to submit to the treatment of a hypnotist.

Under hypnosis, Glass travels from ancient Greece to 19th century Persia, while the case takes him from New York to Paris and the movie capital of world. These journeys will change his very understanding of reality, lead him to question his own sanity and land him at the center of perhaps the most audacious art heist in history: the theft of a 1,500 year old sculpture from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

International bestselling author M. J. Rose's The Hypnotist is her most mesmerizing novel yet. An adventure, a love story, a clash of cultures, a spiritual quest, it is above all a thrilling capstone to her unique Reincarnation novels, The Reincarnationist and The Memorist.

Guest Blog: Secrets and Shadows

Next week is the highly anticipated arrival of Secrets and Shadows, the second book in the 13 to Life series by Shannon Delany.

When I found out Ms. Delany was offering a chance to interview werewolves Max or Pietr for the MAX-imum Exposure Blog Tour, I jumped at the chance and signed us up right away!  I asked to interview Pietr, Jessie's love interest in 13 to Life.  If you haven't read this yet and would like a little background you can check out a note from Jessie on Ms. Delany's blog or my review of 13 to Life.

But now, with out further ado:

Welcome to the MAX-imum Exposure Tour for the 13 to Life Series!

Each site throughout the tour will have swag and an individualized interview with either Pietr, Max or both!


And make sure you join us live at 11 am EST on 2/12 for a Blog Talk Radio event with host Barry Eva, Pietr, Max and Shannon! Go here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Across-the-Pond


Can't make the live BTR event? Join us instead for a special interview with both boys at Mundie Moms (http://MundieMoms.blogspot.com) on 2/17 at 9pm EST for an exclusive chat!


And here's today's interview!


GJR:  What's with the bad blood (HA!) between you and Vampires? Do you know any?

Pietr:  Funny, Jenn. I think the attraction people have for vampires says a lot about our society in a very philosophical sort of way. And I have known people who are like vampires; we all have. There’s always someone who sucks the life out of people they’re around, someone who feels better if other people feel worse, and so they drain them in different ways. I think Junction High has some people like that. I’d like to stay clear of them.

GJR:  Max is getting a lot of attention right now. Are you a little jealous, relieved, or both?

Pietr:  Max usually gets quite a bit of attention. It’s a good and bad thing. If he’s in the spotlight I’m not. That can be a relief. All I have to do is make sure he doesn’t screw things up too badly for us while he is in the spotlight. Unfortunately that can be quite a challenge. 

About the Author:  

Shannon Delany is the winner of the first-ever cell phone novel contest in the western world and the author of the 13 to Life series through St. Martin's Press. 13 to Life is already available and Secrets and Shadows hits stores 2/15/11 with Bargains and Betrayals landing on shelves 8/16/11 (already available for pre-order!)and two more as of yet unnamed novels coming out in 2012.

For more about Shannon, visit her author website: www.ShannonDelany.com or her series website: www.13toLifeseries.com  

You can also find Shannon on Facebook and on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/Shannon_Delany

Want a fun freebie you can print out and use with a web-cam to make a bookmark much more than a bookmark? Go here and check out the Augmented Reality bookmark: http://ht.ly/3KgG7 

Available in stores February 15, 2011

Available in stores August 16, 2011

Guest Blog: Acire

It is our pleasure to share with you something different here at Girls Just Reading.  Acire, author of The Cherry Valley Chronicles is not only a guest blogger, but a guest reviewer as well.  Here is her review of P.C. and Kristin Cast's Marked, the first novel in House of Night Series.

Summary: In 16-year-old Zoey Redbird's world, vampires not only exist but are also tolerated by humans. Those whom the creatures "mark" as special enter the House of Night school where they will either become vampires themselves, or, if their body rejects the change, die. To Zoey, being marked is truly a blessing, though she's scared at first. She has never fit into the human world and has always felt she is destined for something else. Her grandmother, a descendant of the Cherokee, has always supported her emotionally, and it is she who takes the girl to her new school. But even there the teen stands apart from the others. Her mark from the Goddess Nyx is a special one, showing that her powers are very strong for one so young. At the House of Night, Zoey finds true friendship, loyalty, and romance as well as mistrust and deception. She realizes that all is not right in the vampire world and that the problems she thought she left behind exist there as well.

Review:  If The Twilight Saga’s didn’t have enough UMP for you, I have the series with that special kind of edge you are looking for. I am now a HUGE fan of P.C. and Kristin Cast, and I admire that this mother and daughter duo could agree on this excellent piece of work that they've created. “Marked” is the first book in this brilliant “House of Night” series. 

Zoey Redbird is a teenager who is struggling with the basic teen drama, geometry exams, ex-boyfriend troubles, and trying to deal with a family that doesn’t understand her at all. In the House of Night world, Vampires are no secret and very special humans are marked (a sapphire crescent moon tattooed on your forehead by a tracker vampire) and are chosen to become Vampires. Once you are marked you must go live at The House of Night.

Pretty much all of Zoey’s Human family and friends turn their back on her and her new life once they found out that she was marked. Her best friend is scared of her, and her mother and stepfather are members of the local Sanctimonious Crusade group. This group all believe that being marked is a sign of the devil and that prayer and oils can heal you. Zoey runs away to her grandmother’s so she can join the House of Night and start attending the Vampire finishing school. Zoey’s Grandma Redbird understands Zoey and her decision to attend the finishing school.

Not wanting to give too much of the story away. Zoey attends the House of Night and finds out that she still has the basic teen issues plus a few more not so teen issues. Zoey turns out to be a very powerful Fledgling (a ½ human ½ vampire in training). Zoey finds that she has many desires and many changes with herself on the inside and on the outside as well.

This book had me at the first chapter. I love the realness of this series. P.C. and Kristin didn’t sugarcoat anything. There is real talk and real life relationships in this series. The series has a lot profanity and a lot of exotic encounters. I mean we all know that Vampires are extra sexy and in this series they get to go loose. The characters are very and are very relatable.

I highly recommend this series to those die hard sci-fi fans out there. As I said before this series makes Twilight look like a walk in the park. Enjoy!!!

Thanks to Acire for this great review.  Please check out her website and follow her on Twitter.

Guest Blog: C.M. Mayo

Yesterday I reviewed the Mexican historical novel, The The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire and today I am excited to have the author, C.M. Mayo join us for a guest blog!

The Story of the Story of The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire

Once upon a time or, I should say, more years ago that I would like to count, I was invited to a lunch in Mexico City. There in the dining room was an unusually handsome antique portrait of a youth—  perhaps English?— cradling a rifle. The scenery included a nopal cactus and, upon a hill in the background, as in a Renaissance portrait...
            Was that Chapultepec Castle?

            Yes, my hostess told me as our bowl of salad came out in the arms of the muchacha.

            And who was the boy?

            Agustín de Iturbide y Green, the Prince of Mexico.

            I had never heard of him. This bothered me, for I was not only recently married to a Mexican, but I considered myself well-educated. I realize now that we supposedly well-educated Americans, who may be able to recite every this-and-that about Europe, rarely open our minds to the rich complexities of our southern neighbor and this, in part, because we are lulled into an illusion that we “know” Mexico. Our media drench us with images: the wet-back; the bandido and the bull-fighter and the mariachi; the narco-trafficker; the corrupt official with his Rolex, his yacht, his weekends in Vegas; the pobres in their sombreros and huaraches; the ubiquitous unibrowed Frida, and those sugar-sand beaches bereft of people other than, perhaps, long-limbed blondes in bikinis.

            A prince! This meant an aristocracy, a theater for power: social, political, financial, economic, military. Certainly, revolutions have erupted in opposition to the idea, but it can be said that, for many people, a monarch and, by extension, the royal family, serve as a focal point for the identity and unity of a nation. To most Americans and Mexicans today, this idea is absurd. But as I write these lines, Belgium still has its king and the United Kingdom its queen.

            These days, usually, one can satisfy one’s idle curiosity with an Internet search, but back then, a search yielded nothing.

            A few months later, half way through reading Jasper Ridley’s Maximilian and Juárez, covering the period of the 1860s known as the Second Mexican Empire or "French Intervention,"  I came upon the chapter about the prince's American mother, “Alice Iturbide.”  In 1865, she and her husband, a son of Mexico's first emperor, Agustin de Iturbide, had signed a contract with the Emperor Maximilian (ex-Archduke of Austria) to hand over their son in exchange for titles and pensions. Almost at once, heart-broken, nearly mad with grief, the mother repented, but Maximilian refused to return the child. She then went to Washington and Paris and stirred up what became, at the highest levels, an international scandal.

My surprise at finding my own countrywoman at the apex of this long ago Mexican aristocracy, both antagonist and victim, motivated and blinded by who knew what medley of ambition, avarice, love, borrowed patriotism or naiveté, so intrigued me, I knew at once that I wanted to explore and expand it into a novel.


For more information on The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire or author C.M. Mayo, you can check out any of the following links:


The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire(Unbridled Books, paperback, 2010)


Book trailer for The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire


C.M. Mayo


Reader's Guide for The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire


Agustin de Iturbide y Green (b. 1863) carte-de-visite


Podcast:C.M. Mayo's Lecture at the Library of Congress, Washington DC, about the research behind the The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, the novel based on the true story.

Thanks so much to C.M. Mayo for taking the time to do a guest blog for us!

Guest Blog: Jilliane Hoffman

Yesterday I reviewed a great thriller, Pretty Little Things by Jilliane Hoffman.   It is with great pleasure that today we welcome Ms. Hoffman as a guest blogger. 

Protecting Your Child From Cyber-Monsters

By Jilliane Hoffman,  Author of Pretty Little Things

Last December, New York's Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that more than 3500 registered sex offenders had been purged from the social networking sites Facebook and MySpace in the state's first database sweep for sexual predators.

That's 3500 caught, convicted and registered sex offenders who'd actually used their real names when they signed up for a Facebook or MySpace page. That's not counting all the deviants that haven't yet been busted, pled to a lesser charge, had charges dropped, never registered their emails with their probation or parole officers, socially communicate using an alias, or live outside the Empire State. With that in mind, consider this sobering statistic: According to the Center for Sex Offender Management (CSOM), the average sex offender offends for 16 years before he's finally caught. In that time span, he has committed an average of 318 offenses and violated 110 victims.

Wow. Now just imagine who your kids may be chatting with online.  

The explosion of the Internet over the past decade has spawned fertile hunting grounds for sex offenders. Kids, and particularly teens, live their lives instantaneously and out loud on social networks, where every detail from where they'll be hanging out that night to who they'll be with and what they'll be wearing when they get there is posted for all of their "friends" to see. And those friends are not just the traditional bunch of kids you've known since elementary school. Social networking sites and chat rooms have literally opened up a whole new cyber-world to children. Online, they can be "friends" with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people from all over the globe, most of whom they've never met outside of a WiFi connection. And of course, as the tragic headlines constantly remind us, in this faceless cyber world not everything is kid-friendly and not everyone is who they say they are. 

There are over 665,000 registered convicted sex offenders living in the United States. According to a study commissioned by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, one in every seven kids has been approached by a sexual predator online. That's 13% of children who use the Internet. Sex Offenders no longer need to leave the comfort of their living rooms to find and "groom" fresh victims. Rather, with just the click of a mouse, they can mingle in chatrooms, send and receive child pornography, and, of course, purview the walls of Facebook and the posts of MySpace like they might entrees on a dinner menu, replete with helpful personal information and pictures. Just ask the detectives who work online undercover or the producers of Dateline's popular To Catch a Predator -- in this fast-moving cyber-world, a predator can be anyone he wants to be: A twelve year-old boy, Jay-Z's agent, a modeling scout, a fourteen year-old girl. And teens, being the invincible bunch they are, always believe they'll be able to spot a poser or a predator a mile off on the computer, when the truth is they can't -- oftentimes until it is way too late. They've already been groomed. 

Back in the mid 90's, in response to the headline-making abduction of eleven year old Jacob Wetterling of Wisconsin, and the sexual assault and murder of seven year-old Megan Kanka by her neighbor, a repeat child sex offender in New Jersey, the feds enacted a series of laws designed to warn the public of the presence of dangerous sex offenders and heighten community awareness on an issue that was literally moving in right next door to Joe the Plumber. Each state was charged with establishing a sex offender registry and implementing a community notification program. The theory behind which was simple: Knowledge is power. If a sex offender is going to be out and about in the community, people -- and more particularly, parents -- should arm themselves with information about their identities and whereabouts so as to better protect their kids. Without promoting vigilantism, making yourself aware of the scum living in your zip code that your children might very well come in contact with and warning kids appropriately can be a very effective crime-fighting tool. But in today's world, where every kid has a cell phone in their pocket and a computer in their room, it's just not enough.

My daughter was in the fourth grade when a fellow eleven year-old classmate was approached on AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) by a 43 year old sexual predator who went by the screen name of "rooster69" and claimed he was a 16 year-old boy. It wasn't until he asked one of the little girl's friends to send him nude pictures that one of the children finally spoke up. I thought I had more time to ready myself on the dangers of the Internet. I was wrong. 

So what's a parent to do? How can you make sure your kids are Facebooking with fellow thirteen year olds and not forty-three-year-old convicted sex offenders? I'm a big believer in the real world. Show kids the headlines. Let them read the stories of teens who disappeared or were assaulted after meeting up with someone they met online. The stories are out there, and there are plenty of them. Check out perverted-justice.com for a real eye-opener. Then talk to your kids about limiting the amount of personal information they post, particularly addresses and schedules; inappropriate posts and pictures; the new horrible growing fad of sexting; and finally, limiting the amount of "friends" they have and just what those friends are able to see. And as a parent you have to know of what you speak. So if you don't have a Facebook or MySpace yourself, you better thoroughly check it out. And if you do allow your kid access to a social network, it should be a number one rule that he or she "friends" you with unrestricted access, so that you can monitor what he or she is doing. 

Then make sure you do just that. 
© 2010 Jilliane Hoffman, author of Pretty Little Things 

Author Bio

Jilliane Hoffman was an Assistant State Attorney in Miami between 1992 and 1996. Until 2001 she was the Regional Law Advisor for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, advising special agents on complex investigations including narcotics, homicide, and organized crime. Pretty Little Things is her fourth novel, following the international bestsellers Retribution, Last Witness, and Plea of Insanity. She lives in Florida.

A special thank you to Ms. Hoffman for sharing her insight with us.

Guest Blog: Leslie Gilbert-Lurie

Tuesday I reviewed a great memoir, Bending Toward the Sun by Leslie Gilbert-Lurie with Rita Lurie.  Today I am honored to have Leslie Gilbert-Lurie join us for a guest blog.

It Can't Hurt to Ask: 15 Conversations to Have with Your Parents

By Leslie Gilbert-Lurie

Author of Bending Toward the Sun: A Mother and Daughter Memoir

For readers who still have the chance, there may be no greater gift you can give yourself and your children than to know more about your parents' early years. Sometimes the opportunity to ask questions simply presents itself, perhaps at a family reunion, or in a relaxed setting on vacation. But for many, it will not. I've found that since my memoir of my mother and I, Bending Toward The Sun, came out three weeks ago, people have told me that they wish they had asked their parents more questions about their pasts. We often have to pro-actively initiate these probing, more intimate conversations, which are not always in our comfort zones.

However the opportunity arises, what follows are 15 suggestions that will help open up these important discussions among family members.


1. Create a family tree with your mother, father, or both. Ask them to tell you everything they know about your ancestors, including birthplaces and important dates in their lives.


2. Ask your mother or father to describe his or her primary childhood home. Perhaps he or she can go on to tell you about a particularly happy memory of an event that took place there, and a painful memory as well.

3. Ask your parent what books, movies, and music were his or her favorite as a child. You can then move from there to ask about current favorite books or movies.

4. Childhood heroes provide a rich topic of conversation. Ask your parents who their childhood heroes were. Again, you can move from childhood to present day and explore whom they most admire and why.

5. Explore the family vacations your parents took as a child. Ask about where they particularly liked to go, and whether there were any trips they disliked.

6. Try and discover what the rules were in your mother's or father's family, and which of these rules, if any, they felt were unfair. Also use this opportunity to learn what responsibilities your parents had as children, and how these contributed to the people your parents evolved into.

7. Inquire about the things your parents wanted to do as children but could not because your grandparents wouldn't allow them to, they were unaffordable, or your parents did not possess the talent or skills to do them.

8. Ask your parents what questions they wish they had asked their own parents but never did.

9. It is not always easy to ask parents about their own fears, but it provides a good opportunity for mutual understanding. Ask your mother or father what he or she was afraid of as a child and about what he or she fears most today.

10. Ask your father or mother to describe a crush he or she had, or a special teenage romance.

11. Explore how your parents perceived themselves as children. Ask them how they thought adults and peers viewed them, and which aspects of these perceptions were accurate or inaccurate.

12. Ask your parents what first attracted them to each other, and what they most respect or respected in the other. If they are no longer married to one another, see if they will discuss what drove them apart and why.

13. Probe into the highs and lows of your parents' lives. Ask about their proudest accomplishments and greatest disappointments. If they had one thing to do over in life up to this point, what would it be and why?

14. While they are reflecting, ask your mother or father what they would most want to be famous for, if they were destined to be famous for something.

15. Don't miss the opportunity to explore how your parents view you. Ask your parents what about you reminds them of themselves at the same age. Ask what they are proudest of in you. And, if you are feeling particularly comfortable by that point in the conversation, ask if they have any questions to for you.

Most people have neither the time nor the desire to spend a decade writing a memoir about a parent or close family member, as my mother and I had the opportunity to do. But even a couple hours spent exploring the past with a parent could provide new and deeper appreciation and understanding. Moreover, a few pages of heart-felt answers could be very satisfying and useful to future generations.


©2010 Leslie Gilbert-Lurie, author of Bending Toward the Sun: A Mother and Daughter Memoir


Author Bio:
Leslie Gilbert-Lurie, author of Bending Toward the Sun, is a writer, lawyer, teacher of Holocaust Studies, child advocate, and former executive at NBC. Leslie Gilbert-Lurie is a member and past president of the Los Angeles County Board of Education, a founding member and past president of the non-profit Alliance for Children’s Rights, and a board member and co-chair of the Education Committee for the Los Angeles Music Center. She has been a recipient of the American Jewish Congress’s Tzedek Award for Outstanding Commitment to Civil Rights, Civil Liberties, and Justice, and the Alliance for Children’s Rights Child Advocate of the Year Award. This year she will be honored in Los Angeles by Facing History and Ourselves, for her work as a writer and teacher.

She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two teenage children. For more information please visit her website at http://www.bendingtowardthesun.com/

A special thanks to Ms. Gilbert-Lurie for taking the time to share this blog with us.

Guest Blog: Kelly O'Connor McNees

Today, I am thrilled to have a guest post by Kelly O'Connor McNees, the author of the wonderful The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott. The novel is definitely making my top 10 list for 2010 and it should be on the top of your "buy it" list. (You can find my review here)

Every year around Thanksgiving I get the urge to reread Little Women. The story begins, of course, in December, with Jo March lying on the rug, declaring that “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents.” The four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—and their mother, Marmee, are missing Mr. March, an army chaplain who has been called to the Civil War battlefields to minister to the injured and dying soldiers. Things just aren’t the same without their father there to guide them. Over the course of the story, the March sisters must learn to overcome their individual weaknesses: pride, anger, timidity, and vanity. In the end we see that they are no longer little girls but grown women.  

Sounds cheesy, right? And hopelessly quaint, not to mention a celebration of calcified nineteenth-century gender roles. It is all those things. But every year I yearn to read it just the same. There’s something deeply soothing about the simplicity of its moral universe, where the purpose of life is improvement. Good people should try, always, to be better: more generous, more contemplative, more committed.

And, to be totally honest, there’s just one more tiny reason I reread this book: Ever year I hope against hope that Jo and Teddy “Laurie” Lawrence, the next-door neighbor and Jo’s kindred spirit, will end up together. Alas, in all these years it has never turned out differently. Why, I wondered countless times, did Louisa end Little Women the way she did?

The direct answer is the one Louisa herself gave when asked this question by readers. Little Women was a huge bestseller right out of the gate, and Louisa received hundreds of letters asking about Jo and Laurie. The pair could not marry, Louisa explained, because Jo would no longer be Jo if she chose to live a conventional life. Even when Jo marries Professor Bhaer at the end—a plot twist Louisa was forced to tack on at her publisher’s request—it is not the sort of passionate love affair one might hope to see. The professor is much older than Jo and their relationship is mainly an intellectual alliance. Bo-ring!

Louisa’s defense of Jo’s choice never satisfied me. A few years ago, on a whim, I picked up a biography on Louisa and found myself utterly surprised and fascinated by this woman I knew so little about. Her most famous novel represented only a small part of who she was—and, it turns out, Louisa never even wanted to write it. Though she never had a love affair, late in life Louisa burned letters and journals, a fact I found intriguing. The more I learned about who Louisa was, her triumphs and disappointments, I realized there was a great deal about her life I wanted to, for lack of a better word, examine. I had never felt that way about any historical figure before.

But I had more questions than answers. Much of what I wanted to know couldn’t be known. And that’s when I realized that, counter intuitively, fiction was probably the only avenue that might lead me to some answers. By writing about Louisa—creating a fictional episode for the Louisa in my imagination, that is—I could come to see her more clearly, see what was inside her heart and mind as a young woman starting out in the world. Perhaps this story could explain the origin of the character of Laurie and why Louisa would want to save Jo, her fictional alter ego, from heartbreak.

The result is "The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott", a novel set in 1855 when Louisa was just twenty-two, yearning for independence in Boston and recognition as a writer, but stuck for the summer in sleepy Walpole, New Hampshire, with her family and one irritatingly charming young man named Joseph Singer.

Writing this novel has satisfied my questions—for now. Although I can’t be sure until November rolls around if I won’t start wondering all over again.

Kelly O’Connor McNees lives with her husband in Chicago. The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott is her first novel. To learn more, visit http://kellyoconnormcnees.com/

Guest Blog: Elle Newmark

I LOVE books. Adore them. Go through them like a drunk with a six-pack. And that's why I now can't live without my Kindle.

First I objected to ordering books online. Give up the ambiance of a bookstore? Lose up the comforting sight of shelves jam-packed with literary adventures? Pah! Get thee to a nuthouse.

But then one day it was raining and I was still in my jammies and I wanted to buy a book. I heard the siren song of Amazon and never looked back. It's not only convenient it's cheaper. And here's the thing: They have not banned me from the bookstore. It's not an either/or. And, like it or not, it's here to stay.

Then came the Kindle, and I balked. I'm a writer. I stare at a computer screen all day. And the Kindle has such a tiny screen. What about the nice heft of a real book in my hands? What about the Pavlovian response I have to the smell of ink on paper? No Kindle for me, thank you very much.

But then one day I had to go to India for a month-long research trip for my new novel, and I was faced with needing to carry enough books to last me. Full of shame and apprehension, I bought a Kindle and loaded up about 20 books for India.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the screen does not glare like a computer screen. It's some kind of freaky new technology that makes it as easy on the eyes as paper. And you can change the font size! One night I was reading a really good book in bed and falling asleep, but I didn't want to put it down. I kept making the font bigger until I was only getting like six words on a page. I finally put it down and went to sleep, and I didn't give myself a concussion by dropping a big old hardcover on my head when I passed out.

And the books are cheap. My novel, The Book of Unholy Mischief is $26 in the bookstore and $17 on Amazon. On Kindle it's $9.99. So if you buy enough books, the thing eventually pays for itself.

This is not an ad for Kindle and I don't work for Amazon. I am an author and my first purchase on Kindle was my own novel, The The Book of Unholy Mischief. You can read more about it on my website, Elle Newmark, and that was another thing I objected to at first. Put up a website?

But then one day I got this book deal from Simon & Schuster.

Thanks to Elle Newmark for taking the time to put down her thoughts about reading and technology.

You can find my review of The Book of Unholy Mischief: A Novel here. It was one of my favorite reads in 2009.

Guest Blog: Teri Coyne

I'm so excited that Teri Coyne has graciously offered to do a guest blog for us in conjunction with the release of her novel, The Last Bridge, in paperback:

I’m not going to beat around the bush, I really want you to read The Last Bridge if you haven’t already. Although there are many reasons I want you to read it the most important one is that I want to know how you feel about the story.

Maybe it’s the solitary nature of being a writer, or the fact it took me over ten years to finish the book but I love hearing from readers and getting their perspective and opinions on the story. That’s why I love book clubs – not just for the wine and goodies (when I can attend in person) – but for that feeling you get when a group of women come together and talk. It’s exhilarating.

While authors speak a lot about the writing process and how solitary it is, few acknowledge the truth about writing, that before a reader picks up your book and reads it, all you have are words on a page. It is readers who make the story come alive and each one interprets and imagines the book into being. The process of reading, like writing, can be solitary as well. My feelings about all my favorite books are as personal and powerful to me as my feelings about my friends and family. And like those feelings, sometimes it is hard to describe the way a book has moved or changed me. Other times, it is impossible to keep quiet about a great story. The experience of reading a good book feels so real that I have to remind myself that it didn’t happen to me.

I lived with the story of Cat Rucker for a long time. She was in my head when I woke up and often appeared in my dreams. I knew her almost as well as I knew myself, or maybe even better. Over the years I came to understand why she was the way she was and how she might be able to transcend some of the challenges of her life. Her story is not an easy one, her experiences and choices are intense, she struggles and doesn’t always succeed. In other words, she is human.

I would welcome the opportunity to have you meet Cat and read her story, then I would love to know what you thought, how her story affected you and if you believe we are the product of our choices or our experiences.

For me, the point of writing, like reading, is to ask questions and open a dialogue, to provide a venue to connect, to share and to find ourselves somewhere we have never been before. What you bring to The Last Bridge is invaluable, as it is your heart, your mind and your imagination that makes the story real. I think of it like a cake I baked for just for you. I used the best ingredients and made it as tasty as possible. All that is left is for you to take a bite! (Great…all this talk of cake has made me hungry!)

If you want to learn more about Ms. Coyne check out her website, blog and you can follow her on Twitter and Facebook as well.

Don't forget to enter our giveaway for The Last Bridge!

Guest Blog: Wendy Webb

Last week I read, reviewed and raved about The Tale of Halcyon Crane. Today, I'm thrilled to have the author, Wendy Webb, do a guest blog for us. Warning: There might be slight spoilers.

The Making of a Storyteller
It’s no surprise that I write stories for a living — I grew up in a family of storytellers. Some of my earliest memories involve sitting at our kitchen table listening to my parents and grandmother, cousins, aunts and uncles tell tales about the people who lived in the tiny town where they all grew up. Reaching back into their childhoods, they’d bring to life strange, quirky, hilarious and even terrifying characters, now long dead, their ghosts whispering in my imagination as I write tales of my own.

My dad tells about going to the movies as a little boy, pre-World War II, in an ornate single-screen theater that’s dark now, having long since been replaced by a soulless multi-plex in a strip mall outside of town. But back then, young and old alike would congregate in this beautiful theater each week to see what Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn or Roy Rogers had in store for them on the silver screen. One Saturday afternoon, my dad noticed a gaggle of old ladies, widows dressed in black, recent Italian immigrants like many of the people who lived in the town at that time. They were shaking their fists at the screen, talking back (loudly) to the actors and actresses, offering advice or admonishments based on what was happening in the movie. During one particularly dramatic scene, the heroine arrives just after her beloved has died. He tried to hang on, but she was too late. One of the ladies stood up, threw her hands in the air and shouted: “NOW you come!” This is been a joke in my family for as long as I can remember.

My mother and her cousins love to tell about a strangely menacing pair of twins who lived down the block from them — stark white hair, ghostly pale skin, eyes so light they almost weren’t a color at all. She and her cousins would hurry past their house on the way to school hoping the twins wouldn’t cast the evil eye in their direction. Anyone who has read my novel, THE TALE OF HALCYON CRANE, now knows where the idea for the triplets came from.

The town was filled with bootleggers during Prohibition — many families had stills chugging away in the second, hidden basements of their homes. Mobsters came from Chicago (Ralph Capone was a regular visitor, as was John Dillinger), and tales circulated of their ill-gotten gains hidden in various locations around town. Many of the shops on the main street still have secret tunnels in their basements that snake under the streets, leading to safe getaways.

But there were wonderful stories as well. My dad and his pals ran wild, living in a sort of Huck Finn world where they would laugh around a campfire at their secret swimming hole just outside of town. My mom’s grandparents, Finnish immigrants, had a farm nearby. One afternoon a fawn wandered into the yard and stayed, taking an instant liking to my mother, who was just a child. She kept it as a pet until it was a full grown deer, which would follow her around like a puppy. Readers of HALCYON will see the similarities to the story of Hallie’s grandfather Charles, who had an otherworldly way with animals.


As a child, I’d listen to all of these fantastic tales, but I wouldn’t add any of my own. I was quieter than my outgoing, boisterous family, and I turned to writing when I wanted to tell the stories that were swirling around in my head. My first work of fiction, written when I was in elementary school, was a story about riding bicycles with my dad on an autumn afternoon. We went through a tunnel, and all of a sudden we realized that we had traveled back in time, back to his boyhood home. With all of the strange and delightful stories I’d heard about that place and time, it’s no wonder I wanted to see it for myself.

I’ve been a writer ever since. But through the publication HALCYON, I’ve learned that I’m also something else. I’ve had the chance to do many readings in bookstores and elsewhere, speaking in front of people for the first time in my life. I wasn’t sure how I would do — I’m a writer, after all. But to my astonishment, as soon as I stood up in front of that first group of people, I found that I was a story teller, too. I was speaking in the voice of my parents, my grandmother, my brothers, cousins, aunts and uncles. Suddenly, I wasn’t the quiet little girl listening to her family’s tales of the past — I was doing, quite naturally, what generations of my family have done. Telling a tale.

Don't forget we have 3 copies of The Tale of Halcyon Crane to giveaway as well. Click me!