A review of The Rules

Chrizette Bayman of Just Reading for Fun recently reviewed The Rules. Check it out here!

Review: Shimura Trouble

Shimura Trouble by Sujata Massey.
Severn House Publishers, 2008

This long-awaited, reportedly last book in the Rei Shimura series, is now out from an English publisher, Severn House. My library had it on order since April and it finally arrived this month. Unlike the previous series entries, set in Japan, California, or Washington DC, this one takes place in Hawaii (Oahu) and introduces another (rather outre) branch of the Shimura family, who are having land title problems that they wish Rei's father and uncle to help them with. The setting and people are vividly drawn, w/ lots of local color. This should be must-reading for anyone going to LCC on the Big Island. I'm already missing this series, one of my favorites. The first 2 books were a great accompaniment to my first trip to Japan, and I've grown fond of Rei, an interesting mix of edginess and propriety.

This review was written by Meredith Phillips and distributed on the DorothyL list. It is reprinted here by permission of the author. Thank you, Meredith.


Meredith Phillips
Perseverance Press/John Daniel & Co.

Visit her website at:

http://www.danielpublishing.com/perseverance

Lessons from Italy

Mary Fran and I recently returned from the trip of a lifetime to Rome and Florence. Visiting those two storied cities, the fount of our civilization and the birthplace of the Renaissance, I could not help but reflect on art, history and culture. In Florence, we had the good fortune to have a guided tour of Uffizi Museum, established by the Medici family to house their collection of medieval and Renaissance art.

You could spend a significant part of your life in the Uffizi taking in all of the art. Our guide, Elena, did not try to show us everything. She had an agenda, a story about art she wanted to share with us. We began in a room of altarpieces from the middle ages. All of them represented the Madonna with child; one of them was by Giotto. The Giotto was beautiful, but also typical of medieval painting. It was flat, completely lacking in perspective. The Virgin’s face was detailed, but a blue robe, under which no anatomical features were discernible, represented her body. Because of this Giotto is sometimes considered a primitive painter.

We moved from Giotto quickly to other painters who continued the theme and then to Botticelli, Da Vinci, Raphael and Michealangelo. The paintings gained perspective and the themes became secular. The Michelangelo was the last painting. The Tonto Doni, also known as The Holy Family is the only Michelangelo painting in the Uffizi. It is a family portrait of a Florentine nobleman, his wife and child. Like Giotto’s, it has three central characters, mother, father and child. The woman is even draped in blue like Giotto’s Virgin. But unlike Giotto’s, Michelangelo’s painting has perspective, the anatomy of the central characters is clearly defined, and the theme is secular, though resonating to the spiritual.

Elena’s message, which she had repeated several times during the tour and again at the end, was that without the middle ages there would be no Renaissance; without Giotto, there would be no Botticelli, Da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo.

I brought along a couple of books for the long plane rides. One, which I read on the way home, is by Steven Torres, The Concrete Maze. It is a compelling and disturbing mystery story about a man’s search for his teenage daughter and the person who abducted her. Torres is a fine writer who has not received the recognition he deserves. Maze is only his third book and I believe a breakout book is not far off. At the end of the book, the publisher included some questions for book clubs, an interesting feature I’d like to see more of.

The first question grabbed my attention because it melded with my thoughts on this trip. It asked readers to consider how the story fit into the hardboiled, noir tradition of Chandler, Hammett, Ken Bruen, James Sallis and Sara Gran. It was the same point Elena made, only different. Without Chandler, Hammett, Bruen, Sallis and Gran, there would be no Torres.

It seems like a contradiction that art, which results in original works created by artists, writers and musicians working alone, depends on communication and sharing among a community of artists, often across generations and even centuries. Artists study each other’s works. They know the classics of their genre and they know the cutting edge.

Picasso famously said, “Good artists copy, great artists steal,” a quote that was stolen by T.S. Eliot and Steven Jobs, among others. Don’t get me wrong. Stealing another artist’s work isn’t a good thing, but great artists and writers use other people’s work as a starting point from which to take the idea to a new place and to a new audience. Just as Michelangelo did with Giotto, Torres takes Chandler to a new place. I think that the next time any of us find ourselves discussing writing with other writers, we should be asking, not What are you writing, but What are you reading?

Manuscript Makeover by Elizabeth Lyon, a review

Manuscript Makeover: Revision Techniques No Fiction Writer Can Afford to Ignore
Elizabeth Lyon
The Penguin Group, New York, 2008
347 pages
$14.95


It was at a conference for new writers in Austin that I saw a lot of shocked faces when literary agent Jim Donovan proclaimed that they could not imagine how much revising is necessary before a manuscript is ready for publication. How much revision? Elizabeth Lyon cites Dean Koontz who did thirty-one drafts of his novel, Whispers. Every author will have a different experience, but all will find that the largest part of the labor of writing is in revising.

So where do you learn how to revise? Book upon book and course upon course will teach you the techniques of writing, but when it comes to revising, you are on your own.

Until now.

Now comes an indispensable book for fiction writers from writer, editor, and teacher, Elizabeth Lyon. The book is Manuscript Makeover. The subtitle says it all: Revision Techniques No Fiction Writer Can Afford to Ignore.

Makeover is more than revision; it's a transformation, a matter of style. All too often, authors approach revision as a technical problem. They delete; they add; they rearrange. They correct grammar, replace weak words with strong ones, and vary sentence structure. Sometimes this produces real transformation, but sometimes it produces only cosmetic changes.

In Manuscript Makeover, Elizabeth Lyon addresses the essence of style and how to transform an ordinary first draft into a distinctive manuscript. Editors are looking for style, not sentence structure. They want an exciting story with an original voice. Lyon's book gives you practical revising techniques to bring out your style and voice. Each chapter begins with a brief statement--she calls them options--of what you can expect to get out of the chapter. Each chapter ends with a checklist of things to look for in your manuscript. These checklists themselves are worth the price of the book.

In Part One: Style Speaks, Lyon presents two approaches to revision--the inside-out and the outside-in approaches. She distinguishes between voice and style. Voice is the writer's natural use of language to create authentic characters and unique storytelling. Style is choosing words to create a desired effect. By making use of inside-out techniques, such as riff-writing which is a kind of directed, free writing, and deep listening by which you attune yourself to your reactions as you read your own work, you can cultivate your natural voices. Where inside-out is a process of internalizing your writing, outside-in relies on wordsmithing to sharpen your style. The outside-in techniques will be familiar to most writers. Everyone using this book must read Part One. The distinction between inside-out and outside-in opens the door to a deeper understanding of the creative process, which will ultimately lead to more effective revision.

In Part Two, Lyon presents the craft of writing, beginning with a brief overview of genres. The different genre categories have been, and continue to be, dissected elsewhere. If you want a comprehensive analysis of genres, don't look here. The purpose of the chapter on genres is to drive home the point that to be successful, you should pick a genre in which you want to write and read widely in it. The rest of Part Two deals with plot, dramatic structure, journeys--the hero's and the heroine's--movement, pacing and suspense. To me, this is the heart of fiction. The checklists that follow these chapters take up eighteen pages on their own. I foresee many writers photocopying them to keep as handy references by their computers.

Most people assume that scene equals plot, but, as she did in Part One, Elizabeth Lyon shakes our assumptions. She defines scenes in Part Three as ". . . character-driven action toward a goal that occurs in a particular time and place." If you want to write compelling fiction, do not skip the chapters on Character-driven Beginnings (chapter 11) and Character-driven Scenes and Suspense (chapter 12). In this section, she also discusses aspects of character that beginning writers struggle with--viewpoint, dialogue, personality and voice.

Finally, in Part Four, Lyon discusses the basics of copyediting, querying and marketing.

Manuscript Makeover gives us a step-by-step guide to the art and craft of revising. Considering all of the techniques inside, any one of which will make our writing better, this is a book that belongs, not on every writer's bookshelf, but on every writer's work table.

"Fire Prayer" by Deborah Turrell Atkinson, reviewed by Kevin Tipple

Kevin Tipple contributed this review. I'm blushing over the first sentence. Thanks, Kevin. I haven't read this one yet, but Debbie's "Primitive Secrets" is not to be missed and Storm Kayama is a very engaging heroine.

Check out Kevin's Corner for other terrific reviews. http://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/


Reviewing: "Fire Prayer" by Deborah Turrell Atkinson
Other than Mark Troy’s excellent work, I just don’t often read novels set in Hawaii. Not that I plan or decide to do things that way. It just is the way it happens as opposed to my seeking out books set in the Southwest because that is where I am from and what I know. In this case, I have missed the first two books of the series and can only review this novel and not the series as a whole.


Fire Prayer
By Deborah Turrell Atkinson
http://www.debbyatkinson.com
Poisoned Pen Press
http://wwwpoisonedpenpress.com
2007
Hardback
ISBN# 978-1-59058-402-6



Storm Kayama and Ian Hamlin, who is both her partner and her lover; have made the short island hop to Molokai on behalf of a rich client whose son is missing. He went out on a tour run by a local outfit two weeks ago never to be seen again. The son is twenty six, sits on the board of directors as well as being an officer of the company. The client may have a very well paying negligence suit if something bad has definitely happened. Such suits are more in Ian’s realm and Storm doesn’t want to fool with them or the client connections necessary to work those kinds of cases.

Besides, she has her own agenda that also involves a son. In her case, an old high school classmate, Tanner Williams wants her help. His marriage crashed in flames for a variety of reasons which included his wife’s drinking and his own mental illness. The last thing he wants is for their son, Luke, to have issues especially since he has just been diagnosed as a diabetic. While on Molokai, she can also take care of checking on things for Tanner. Within hours of Storm’s first visit to check on Luke, his ex wife is dead, Tanner is missing, Luke is in the hospital and there are links to a nearly ten year old murder case. Secrets are tough to keep especially on the Islands with the coconut wireless. With Storm and Ian doing their own things, as well as a veritable plethora of other characters, everything is bound to come out eventually.

The result is an interesting read featuring two difficult main cases as well as numerous interesting secondary deals such as the old murder case, the culture of the islands, Storm’s love of horses, etc. As such, each and every plot point is seen through the eyes of nearly every single character. The resulting multiple shifts of pov often taking place in the same chapter slow the novel down too a glacial place. Time seems to nearly stand still in the work as an event is depicted through the eyes of one character, then through another, then through another and often through a couple more before the reader is moved on to a new event where the same pattern is repeated.

The result creates a glacially slow moving read in terms of action while at the same time provides deep understanding of each character major and minor. Along the way the rich cultural history of the islands is discussed and further bolstered by a multi page glossary at the end of the novel. At 282 total pages the novel is not a quick read in terms of length or content and leans more towards the cozy side of the mystery genre as it entertains readers.


Kevin R. Tipple © 2007

Review: The Refuge

The Refuge: A Maxine and Stretch Mystery by Sue Henry
Review by Beth Slater
NAL Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0451220471

We join Maxie for the 3rd time on an adventure, although we don’t get to spend too much time with her favorite mini-dachshund Stretch. Maxie has flown to Hawaii to help a friend she grew up with, Karen, who’s broken her wrist and ankle, but is trying to move back to Alaska. Although Maxie would like nothing better than to return to Homer, Alaska, and Stretch, she promised Karen she would help pack up and ship her belongings since she was not able to do so alone. However, Karen has become quite secretive since Maxie’s arrival, and Maxie is sure someone tried to break in during the night. When forced to call a plumber for a backed up drain that is no accident, Maxie discovers that someone wants Karen out of that house – and is up to no good to get what they want.

Maxie regrets, almost immediately, her decision to fly to Hawaii, but has decided to make the best of it and get the favor done quickly, but not without enjoying some of the tropical gardens and sights of the islands. She happens upon the plumber’s assistant, Jerry, while at a garden, and hires the runaway 18 year old (originally from Anchorage) to help her pack, in exchange for a flight back to Alaska.

After yet another run-in with Karen, and then her disagreeable landlord, Maxie manages to get Karen out of the picture by shipping her home to Alaska with the promise to take care of everything while Karen recuperates from her injuries back in their hometown. Maxie and Jerry are able to get everything sorted and packed in short order, and are set up for the garage sale when they find the house broken into and their packing job demolished. Unsure of what the burglars wanted, they secure the house after reporting the break-in, and repack everything. After shipping everything off, Maxie and Jerry rent a camper and travel the island, seeing the tropical sights Maxie has chosen to enjoy before heading back to her home of icebergs and pine trees. When Jerry is kidnapped, Maxie decides that she must unearth the clues to the mysterious events surrounding her if she is to save the life of her new friend – and herself.

I unfortunately missed The Tooth of Time, the second in this series of a senior woman and her dog with a serious wanderlust whose home base is Alaska. I plan to remedy that shortly, but I really enjoy Henry’s depictions of the areas around her stories. They encourage me to travel and see many of these sights for myself, and to enjoy what is around me. While there is a lot of action in the story, there is a minimum of violence for those who do not care for it. I recommend this novel for those who like adventure and travel, and especially for those armchair travelers. I also think those who enjoy Henry’s other series featuring musher Jessie Arnold would like the interaction between Henry’s two protagonists – as they become closer friends as the stories progress.

Hawaiian Mysteries by Dorothy Francis

Two Hawaiian mysteries by Dorothy Francis, originally published in the 70s, have been re-issued in large print format by Thorndike/Chivers.

HAWAIIAN INTERLUDE (2004, originally published by Avalon, 1970)

Vicki Foster plans to skip college, marry her boyfriend, and get a job. But it's summer and she can't turn down the chance to go to Honolulu to work at the Hawaiian Reef Royal, an exotic hotel operated by her aunt Noel and her two cousins, Mark and Buzz. On her arrival, Vicki is swept up in a world full of new sights, sounds, and people, including Lili Lanuoka, a descendant of Hawaiian royalty, who for some reason is planning to end her stay at the hotel. Vicki realizes there are strange things afoot, somehow connecting Lili and the survival of the Hawaiian Reef Royal.

MURDER IN HAWAII (2002, originally published by Scholastic, 1973)

Her sister's frantic call for help has brought Ginny Ardan to Hawaii. In spite of Delores' fear, it all seems like a lush tropical dream to Ginny. But soon she, too, feels that the jasmine-scented air and languorous green water are full of menace. Someone is trying to kill her! But who? And why? Whoever it is . . . the pursuit is relentless and determined.

Hawaiian Mystery Review: Too Hot for Hawaii

Too Hot For Hawaii, by Thomas B. Dewey, Popular Library Eagle Books, 1960, 159 pages.

Pete Schofield is a private eye from California who arrives in Honolulu right before Hawaii joins the Union. When we first meet him he is tailing a gorgeous redhead down Kalakaua Avenue past the Moana and the Surfrider. The redhead is wearing a brief swimsuit, sunglasses and, would you believe--high heel pumps? For two full pages we get a leering account of every jiggle she makes. But then the surprise--the woman is Schofield's wife.

Schofield is one of the goofball detectives that were popular in the fifties and sixties. He's not very bright. It's not even clear if he's good with a gun. Despite his shortcomings, he manages to make himself attractive to the ladies, which only compounds his problems. The saucy missus Schofield is neither understanding nor forgiving when his attentions are directed elsewhere.

Diversion number one is a Chinese man who collapses in Schofield's hotel room and dies with a knife in his stomach. Diversion number two is the man's widow, a leggy, full-breasted Chinese dancer with a shady past. Schofield could easily solve his marital problems by being more communicative with his wife. He isn't, however, and that leads to frustration all around.

The reader gets the six-night, seven-day tour in this story--Waikiki, Diamond Head, Chinatown and the Pali Lookout. Schofield's guide, and the reader's, is a wise-cracking, pidgin-speaking cab driver named Yoshi. Along the way we meet sinister Chinese villains, some suspicious Hawaiian cops, a tough-guy from Texas and, of course, two beautiful women. There is danger galore, but the real suspense is in wondering if Schofield and his wife will ever get together in the same bed.

Too Hot for Hawaii is fun, light-hearted fare. It is a trip back in time when Hawaii was still a territory and sex was only hinted at in mysteries. The cover, no doubt, got many an adolescent boy in trouble when Mom found it under the mattress; but those were simpler times before American readers lost their innocence.

Dewey is a fine writer who knows how to entertain. This is one to read at the beach with a Mai Tai.

Which beach? Queen's Surf, of course.

Earl Staggs's Memory Of A Murder

You may know Earl Staggs from the Short Mystery Fiction Society. He's a great writer and an all-around good guy. His first novel, Memory Of A Murder is soon to be released by Quiet Storm. I had the pleasure of reading it in an earlier draft and it is a great read. As soon as it comes out, I'm getting a copy. Earl asked me to give him a blurb, so here's what I have to say about it.

In Adam Kingston, Earl Staggs gives us a normal guy, the kind of guy you'd sit down with over donuts and coffee. But Kingston has special talents--FBI training and psychic abilities. In Memory Of A Murder, Staggs takes the paranormal and makes it normal. He gives us a tight, gripping mystery that deftly combines pathology reports and psychic images, gunplay and romance to solve a sixteen year-old murder. But even though Kingston is psychic, don't expect séances and woo-woo. This is a story of detection at its best. Staggs delivers likeable characters and a compelling plot that is full of surprises. Through it all, there is Adam Kingston, a guy you'd like to have coffee with again and again.

Watch for it. You'll enjoy it.