Friday, March 29, 2013
Lady Word of Mouth in retreat
Lady Word of Mouth is taking a break for Good Friday and Easter, so she leaves you with a poem appropriate to the season by a friend with a new book--more about that one later. She will be back next week with more new books. Here's "Stained Glass" by Dick Jones, already shared on facebook and twitter, but no doubt new to some:
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Tiffany Trent, The Unnaturalists
Praise for THE UNNATURALISTS:
"Fast-paced, heart-wrenching, magical and fascinating." (Tamora Pierce, author of The Song of the Lioness quartet )
"Utterly ingenious! Tiffany Trent has more fine invention at her fingertips than a roomful of magical Leonardos!" (Ellen Kushner, World Fantasy Award-winning author )
“By St. Darwin and his Great Apes, The Unnaturalists is unnaturally good! Few authors can mix science and fantasy the way Tiffany can; her science-worshiping New London is perfectly original and perfectly realized, and Vespa Nyx is a heroine to cheer for. So much steampunk is just more of the same; The Unnaturalists is captivatingly different.” (Ysabeau Wilce, Andre Norton Award-winning author of Flora’s Dare)
"Thrilling, intricate and magical, The Unnaturalists is a formidable entry into the steampunk genre. Vespa Nyx is a spunky heroine we can all root for, and Tiffany Trent's worldbuilding skills are unmatched. This book will delight anyone who loves magic, gadgets and brilliantly drawn settings. I highly recommend it." (Caitlin Kittredge, author of The Iron Thorn )
"Thoroughly magical...leaves readers wanting more." (Kirkus Reviews)
"Science, magic, myth, and alternate history all work together to create an intriguing alternate world with more depth than many books in the genre. This is a world worth visiting." (Publishers Weekly)
"An entertaining mix of steampunk and fantasy." (School Library Journal)
Book description:
In an alternate London where magical creatures are preserved in a museum, two teens find themselves caught in a web of intrigue, deception, and danger.
Vespa Nyx wants nothing more than to spend the rest of her life cataloging Unnatural creatures in her father’s museum, but as she gets older, the requirement to become a lady and find a husband is looming large. Syrus Reed’s Tinker family has always served and revered the Unnaturals from afar, but when his family is captured to be refinery slaves, he finds that his fate may be bound up with Vespa’s—and with the Unnaturals.
As the danger grows, Vespa and Syrus find themselves in a tightening web of deception and intrigue. At stake may be the fate of New London—and the world.
Tiffany Trent is the author of The Unnaturalists, a young adult steampunk fantasy which won the 2012 Green Earth Book Award Honor. She is also the author of the Hallowmere series and the recipient of a Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators Work-in-Progress Grant. Her short stories have appeared in Magic in the Mirrorstone, Corsets and Clockwork, Willful Impropriety and Subterranean magazine. She is the co-editor of Breaking Waves: A Charity Anthology for Gulf Coast Oil Spill Relief. When not writing or editing, she’s either contemplating pie, out playing with bees, or wrestling with the jungle of her garden. She lives and writes in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with her husband and a passel of critters. Visit her at tiffanytrent.com.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Raymond L. Atkins, Camp Redemption
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| Mercer University Press, 2013 |
Travel to Sequoyah, Georgia, to meet Early and Ivey Willingham. Early is a lifelong underachiever who occasionally smokes marijuana, drinks malt liquor, and watches the world go by. Ivey is a modern day prophet who sees dead relatives and angels in her sleep. Together they own Camp Redemption, a failing Bible camp in the North Georgia mountains.
After they are forced to close the camp, Early and Ivey begin to attract a motley collection of people in trouble. First to arrive is Jesús Jimenez, an abused runaway from Apalachicola, Florida. Then Millie Donovan arrives, children in tow. Charnell Jackson—an out-of-luck lawyer on the dodge—is next on the scene, followed by Isobel Jimenez—Jesús’ mother—and her other children. Hugh Don Monfort, the local bootlegger, is the final arrival. Trouble looms as these travelers settle into their new home. Gilla Newman and the deacons at the Washed in the Blood and the Fire Rapture Preparation Temple covet the camp, and they intend to have it. Juan Jimenez is searching for his fugitive family, and he means to have them back. Charnell Jackson is sought by a variety of creditors, Millie Donovan is looking for a second chance at life, and Hugh Don Monfort is just one step ahead of the law.
All these threads converge on a frigid morning in high Georgia, and from that moment forward, nothing is the same at Camp Redemption.
This book is a riot. Ray Atkins is richly talented and funny as you-know-what. Go ahead and get Camp Redemption right now. I guarantee that you’ll delight in this read as I did. —Lauretta Hannon, author of The Cracker Queen: A Memoir of a Jagged, Joyful Life
At once smart and funny, Raymond Atkins’s Camp Redemption is a gripping elegantly told tale that will keep you up reading long into the night. All hail a new master of Southern fiction! —Jeffrey Stepakoff, author of Fireworks over Toccoa
Camp Redemption showcases the best of Raymond Atkins’ talents in Southern fiction: characters who move in with us, for better or worse; a plot that keeps the pages turning; and the stately, elegant prose of a born storyteller. Alternately hilarious, sad, and downright scary, this is Atkins’ best novel yet. —Melanie Sumner, author of The Ghost of Milagro Creek and The School of Beauty and Charm Camp Redemption is the best novel yet by award-winning Raymond Atkins, one of the most original new authors in the South today. Atkins is a brilliant writer who captivates the reader with his quirky yet lovable characters. I simply couldn’t stop reading. The book is at once funny, ironic, poignant, tender, and lyrical. —June Hall McCash, author of Almost to Eden and Plum Orchard
Raymond L. Atkins resides in Rome, Georgia, where he is an instructor of English at Georgia Northwestern Technical College. His first novel, The Front Porch Prophet, was published by Medallion Press in 2008 and was awarded the Georgia Author of the Year Award for First Novel. His second novel, Sorrow Wood, was published by Medallion Press in 2009. His third novel, Camp Redemption, has been released by Mercer University Press and was awarded the Ferrol Sams Award for Fiction. He is currently writing his fourth novel, Sweetwater Blues.
More on Ray Atkins: www.raymondlatkins.com
More on Mercer University Press: http://www.mupress.org
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Lady Word of Mouth at 2:00 a.m.
Fly to the palace for some musings on the why of Lady Word of Mouth...
Friday, March 15, 2013
Four recent books by poet Jeffery Beam
The Broken Flower: Poems
Skysill Press, 2012
Jeffery Beam's The Broken Flower shows him once more to be a master of the precise word. Language cascades down the page with a grace and sense of inevitability that only the true poet can accomplish. Whether focused on a painting or a friend, Beam brings into language a dazzling clarity. He sees the world the way it is.
―Poet, Editor and Publisher Ed Foster
The New Beautiful Tendons: Collected Queer Poems 1969-2012
Spuyten Duyvil Books, 2012
Spuyten Duyvil Books, 2012
These juicy poems, at the intersection of spirituality and sexuality, leave me breathless with their erotic thrust.
―Poet Edward Field
MountSeaEden
Chester Creek Press (art books), 2012
Chester Creek Press (art books), 2012
Wonderful gray―green black and white poems. As lush as an ocean, as spare as a peak.
―Poet Thomas Meyer
Midwinter Fires
Seven Kitchens Press, 2011
Seven Kitchens Press, 2011
Midwinter Fires is Beam at his most minimal and acute, summoning up angels, linking the realms of the heavens, the earthly seasons, and the passions in an intricate and celebratory music that assures us in our dark seasons. We observe a poet of plenitude and abundance confront the supreme season of abnegation and withdrawal. In these pages Jeffery Beam turns negation against itself, ritualizing the world around him, drawing forth, from the lowest moment of the earth’s light, desire and song.
― Poet Joseph Donahue
A taste of things to come--
A post of hors d'oeuvres that promises more substantial platters soon... I hope to have more than snips, and will afterward archive posts and then put cover/jacket images in the side columns. As it's more a sort of showcase of what's on offer than a review site (though may feature review clips), I'm just planning to stay with what writers want to show. So we shall see what that means.
- Karen Kelsay Davies Hi Marly, Great idea! Here goes...this is my book...it's all formal poetry.http://www.amazon.com/Amytis-Leaves-Garden-Karen-Kelsay/dp/0615694020
- Luisa A. Igloria Thank you - what a fine idea! I have a forthcoming book from the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House (Manila) - hopefully before the end of May - called THE SAINTS OF STREETS. As soon as I have more info I'll send it along, plus book cover links, etc.
But here's more on the forthcoming book as well as my last book, JUAN LUNA'S REVOLVER, in my "The Next Big Thing" note --
https://www.facebook.com/notes/luisa-a-igloria/the-next-big-thing-reprise/10151283115400741
Amiga Evelina Galang tagged me in her Note on "The Next Big Thing" - I've done ...See MoreBy: Luisa A. Igloria - Nathan Ballingrud North American Lake Monsters, a collection of short stories coming in July from Small Beer Press.
- Melanie McCabe Thanks, Marly. Here is an Amazon link to my book of poems, just out in September. There are short reviews there about the book from Claudia Emerson, Eric Pankey, Jennifer Atkinson and Erika Meitner:
http://www.amazon.com/History-Body-Melanie-McCabe/dp/193637076X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350752633&sr=8-1&keywords=melanie+mccabe+history+of+the+body
- Anna Lena Thanks, Marly! A Pocket Book of Forms, my tiny letterpress-printed guide to poetic forms, will be out in April. Updates at http://todointhenewyear.net/a-pocket-book-of-forms/
- Ren Powell My 2012 book would require selling a kidney if you don't live in Norway (expensive book to begin with, and the exchange rate is absurdly in my favour). *But* my selected works with Phoenicia is still availablehttp://www.phoeniciapublishing.com/mercy-island.html
It includes Red-eared Slider (a memoir cycle) and poems I wrote about working with PEN and persecuted writers. Thanks for the opportunity, Marly!
- Nancy Peacock THE LIFE AND TIMES OF PERSIMMON WILSON - Lystra Books and Literary Services - summer 2013 - " 'I have been to hangings before, but never my own....' From this riveting beginning to the last perfect word, Nancy Peacock grabs her reader by the throat and hangs on for dear life as the action moves from a Louisiana sugar plantation to life among the western Comanches, bringing to blazing life her themes of race and true love caught in the throes of history. The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson is as deeply moving and exciting an American saga as has ever been penned." - Lee Smith
- Robbi Nester Balance, White Violet Press, 2012. Visit the book's Facebook page athttps://www.facebook.com/balancepoetry.robbinester. Order from the Paypal link at my blog, http://robbi-nester
- Robbi Nester It's a really unusual book, following B.K.S. Iyengar's Emotional Stability Sequence of yoga poses, with lovely illustrations by artist Nina Canal for those unfamiliar with yoga.
- Marjorie Hudson Accidental Birds of the Carolinas - short story collection about personal transformation in the rural South. A PEN/Hemingway Honorable Mentionhttp://marjoriehudson.com/?page_id=15
- Anna Lena Worth mentioning, since it doesn't show up in the thumbnail, that Marjorie's book features gorgeous cover art by Emma Skurnick!
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