Review of Crimson Roses

Scanned of cover picture on novel, Crimson Roses

Because romance novels in my mind are soft porn and there is a concern for a lack of character development this book I am writing about, Crimson Roses by Grace Livingston Hill as a romance is a book I am not normally drawn to read.  This is the first romance novel I have ever read.  I was going on a trip in September, and I needed paperback books for air plane reading.  I was at a local book fair, two books I had already selected were male writers, and I decided to be balanced I must find one from a female writer.  Granted, I didn’t choose anything.  There were aspects that had to draw me in.  I read the first few lines, and felt I could read more without being frustrated. “THE ROOM WAS very still except for the ticking of the little clock, which stood on the table in the hall and seemed to Marion Warren to be tolling out the seconds one by one. She sat by her father’s bedside, where she had been all day…” I also had checked the copyright date.  Although this was published in 1968 the original was published in 1928, so I knew it was fairly in the clear as to whether the book was classy or smut.           

Here are a few more points I’d like to share.  The cover that I scanned is very interesting to look at.  The style made me think 1970s.  After reading the novel I know it is rainy in that picture.  I am referring to the painted lines.  The painted lines that over lay the image are rain.  One could guess it is raining because the gentleman is holding his umbrella up.  I was studying the picture from the details.  When I read the scene to where picture is actually taking place in it is all of a sudden I get it moment in terms of the cover.  This has happened more than once for me when trying to decipher a cover image on a novel. 

I got to page 65 and no romance took place yet.  This is good.  It built up characters and situation of story line.   

I did an Internet search on this author and not much is written about her.  Her Wikipedia post is very short though there are some interesting facts such as she primarily started writing books to make ends meet.  There is a modern website that is selling her books with her full name as the domain.  I am not linking because I do not know if I have the right to link here, but you can easily do an Internet search to find it. 

This book also stands out for its dominance of Christianity.  The protagonist Marion is a devout Christian.  I thought today a book like this would fall under the Christian genre and that since Christianity was very mainstream literature that in 1928 it could fall under Romance.  That is wasn’t there laws against smut literature or if not laws it was not generally accepted as printable? Because the romance novel of 1980s on ward conjures something else to mind. 

What do you know about this area?

Maybe I don’t understand the romance novel structure. 

Book Review, Nurk, The Strange and Surprising Adventures of a (Somewhat) Brave Shrew

by Ursula Vernon takes places along a bank of a stream and a shrew who is thrust into adventure to receiving mail for Surka his believed to be dead adventuresome grandma.  Terrified of mail fraud by an angry postal delivery humming bird he literally sets sail on an adventure.  What I really enjoyed about this novel is the writer sense of humor and ability to describe for example the King of Dragon Flies voice in a way I can imagine it.  ‘Hello Shrew, said the King.’ “His voice was deep but quiet.  It sounded like water running underground." (63) Recommended for anyone who wants to read a satisfying novel but does not have the time to devote to a long one.  It’s 131 pages. 

Book Review, The Wife

Here is a book review I originally wrote for a summer reading program for a public library on the novel The Wife by Meg Wolitzer

 A fresh first person fictional narrative reflecting on the life of the protagonist, the wife, Joan, her conflict of where women were at in society in the 1950s, and the belief that she needs to be with a man as her power to succeed.  It is a story of how a wife really makes her husband the powerful man he is.  Humorous, witty descriptions add to ease of reading and sentence flow.  I resonated with the writing aspect that is how the characters are writers.  The ending of the book has depth.  

Poetry Submission Process

On July 3rd 2012 I submitted two poems to an online literary journal called Rose & Thorn.  On Monday September 17th 2012  I finally received the e-mail.  Was I accepted or not? There was excitement before I opened the e-mail, though, not too much.  Rejection is always possible, and I am reconciled to this fact.  Here is a quote from the e-mail, “Although it was not selected for publication, we wanted to let you know that your poem “The Walking Man and The Orange Hand” did make it to our final round of readings for its cleverness and wit.”  As far as rejection letters go it is nice to know where I stand, and this is ONE very nice rejection letter.  It makes me glad inside to know I have an audience to be more specific to make people see what I see.  

How is the submission process working for you whatever the literary form/genre etc?           

Weather and Poetry

A few a weeks ago I was watching The Weather Channel and a meteorologist who was reporting on location personified a historical landmark in relation to how much weather it had seen.  This made me realize meteorologists would write some great poems. 

I did an Internet search, and this is what I found,

http://www.history.noaa.gov/art/poetry.html

I clicked on Weather Poetry then chose poems from “The Breeze.”

I did not read all of them, but I really liked “The Adventures of Annie Mometer” by Lorena Pepper

It uses terminology related to the field while still keeping the rhythm of the “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”   I felt like I learned something after reading this poem.  I could imagine her out in the field doing her job.    

Island of Me

I am posting this poem to my blog because I do not want it published mainstream; however, I do not mind sharing with the drips of people who come in here.   

Island of Me

 By Leah Zanzucchi                                                                           

What if life was an island of me?

I could go about with no emotion

Like a plant or a tree

Freedom from humanity

Budgies could sit

On me

A food source for vegetarians that my pollen

They would spread

And if I was chopped down or attacked in vain

Mama earth would reverberate the pain

It might storm more

Volcanos would erupt

But I’d only be a third person particle of it all

On The Write On Event

Oceanside’s Civic Center Library Write On Event July 28^th was worth the visit.  I came for the panel of writers who came to discuss the marketing of one’s writing through self-publishing.  I came early and got to ask my own questions ahead of time to the two panelists sitting in the Community Room, Nancy O’Neill and Bruce Fischer.   The panel consisted of the Principal Librarian Monica Chapa-Domercq directing questions from her podium to the panelists, Bruce Fischer, Nancy O’Neill, Thronton Sully, and Tom Morrow.  They all self-published at least one book; however, Bruce Fischer is currently working as a publisher.  Though most of the information presented I had already read in my research in How to Publish Your Poetry: a complete guide to finding the right publisher for your work by Helene Ciaravino and 2012 Writer’s Market it was good to hear it discussed and know about the system from those involved in it. Most of the tables outside were run by self-published authors selling their work.  I got a lot out of this event.  The only change I’ll make for next year is make simple business cards to pass out with a link to my blog.  I considered it, but I was very busy with other obligations.      

From an Entertaining JF Series

There is this book that I discovered which happens to be in a series called Dragon Breath by Ursula Vernon.  It is juvenile fiction.  It is the adventures of two friend iguanas named Wendell and Danny.  The first book I checked out at the library is titled Dragon Breath: Lair of the Bat Monster.  In one scene Danny who happens to be in a Mexican jungle and is being chased by a giant snake, Danny thinks “Maybe it wasn’t a person after all. Maybe it was a primitive animal snake.” (148)  --I like this idea—the idea that any animal can be civil due to different environment meanwhile there are still primitive animals out there somewhere.      

Two Books and a Question

Has any one ever noticed similarities between Guardians of Ga'Hoole by Kathyrn Lasky and Watership Down by Richard Adams?

I have only read the first book in the Ga'Hoole series, so my thoughts are on that.  What are yours?

Mental State of Writers

I'm having a cascade of creativity coming in via insomnia at the moment.  Are writers normal as in mentally sound? I write this philosophically.  If we are not is creativity a 6th sense? Btw, I've read some where we technically have more than 6 senses, science has no names for them yet, so I use that definition more for describing purposes.   

How Do You Concentrate on Your Writing?

To all my fellow writers out there how do you concentrate on your writing?

What puts you in that focused frame of mind?

For me I need quiet.  I cannot concentrate in those scenes enough to describe them if I am next to some one who is also "working" but constantly chatting.  I can do research with the occasional chatter; however, the actual writing portion requires more focus for me.  It is a task in of itself.  It is similar to meditation because generally I am very calm if during my writing time I went some where--that is ideas were expanded, characters were taking more form, understanding what I am writing more takes place.  All this needs quiet.  I am pretty good at concentrating in a library, but not near loud talkers, cell phone talkers, and screaming children or infants.  I am forced to move location in those situations if the offending noise does not cease, or my work will suffer.    

On the flip-side I challenge myself and sometimes experiment to see if I can learn to tune out varying levels of noise.  But nothing is quite like silence.  It is almost as if the environmental noise affects the sound waves of the internal noise.  High-pitch sound of a baby crying makes me angry that the initial reaction is to want to smash something which could be that I'm responding to the same emotional frequency is my estimation.

Civility and the understanding that babies are helpless, and they don't know they are in the library revert to humor with the calming joke of bouncer escorts baby out of library because "You did not use your quiet voice." 


   

The Guy CAN Write

I finished reading _The Hunch Back of Notre Dame_ by Victor Hugo this week for the first time straight though since last spring.  There are so many interesting aspects to the novel I could bring up.  But the one I noticed since the beginning is the contrast between how the landscape is presented in the Disney version vs. the printed version.  From page 1 to 8 there is no dialogue--page after page of detailed scenery in the same monotonous tone.  I realized this is because the Disney version was already visual it did not need to take so much time describing every corner of every building. We see those spectacular drawn images in a second. There is also the fact that the movie is an adaptation and turned the novel into a fairy tale which it is not; thereby, restricting and expanding the information given to us.  Those 8 pages are not the only time Hugo goes into great length describing scenery.  It gave me real appreciation of how much work and effort this writer did to authentically show the landscape, and it is a facet I did not appreciate nor stand out when I saw the Disney version many years ago in the theater with my mom. 

Are there any works of literature where you found an aspect of one version was so spectacularly different from another?