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Sunday, September 6, 2020
Saturday, September 5, 2020
Midwest Book Review Chief Reviews Second Edition of Editing Tips Book
Author: Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Publisher: Modern History Press
ISBN: 9781615995257, $24.95, HC, 56pp
Synopsis: In "Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers: The Ultimate Frugal Reference Guide for Avoiding Word Trippers and Crafting Gatekeeper-Perfect Copy", book publicist, journalist, marketer, editor, and retailer, Carolyn Howard-Johnson picks the trip-you-up words that her clients struggle with and puts them in a quick reference guide light enough and small e
nough to be used as an quickie gift that the recipient can tuck into a glove compartment or purse to keep their homonym skills fresh and explains why following grammar rules assiduously isn't always the best choice for writers.
Critique: An absolute 'must' for aspiring authors seeking publication for their work, and having substantial value for even the more experienced writer, "Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers: The Ultimate Frugal Reference Guide for Avoiding Word Trippers and Crafting Gatekeeper-Perfect Copy" is the ideal DIY instructional guide and 'how to' reference directly addressing the most common failing that authors (especially self-published authors) have -- an insufficient editing of their work.
Thoroughly 'user friendly' in organization and presentation, "Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers: The Ultimate Frugal Reference Guide for Avoiding Word Trippers and Crafting Gatekeeper-Perfect Copy" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Writing/Publishing collections. It should be noted that it is also readily available in a paperback edition (9781450507653, $6.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $2.99).
Jim Cox is editor-in-chief of Midwest Book Review archives all of the previous issues of his "Jim Cox Report" the Midwest Book Review website at www.midwestbookreview.com/bookbiz/jimcox.htm. If you'd like to receive the "Jim Cox Report" directly (and for free), just send him an email asking to be signed up for it at http://www.midwestbookreview.com. And watch for more reprints of some his author-and-publishing related reviews here on this blog.
Saturday, August 29, 2020
CAROL SMALLWOOD INTERVIEWS POETS SERIES
CAROL SMALLWOOD INTEVIEWS POET JUDITH SKILLMAN
Poet: Judith Skillman
Publisher: Shanti Arts; April 2020
ISBN: 978-1-951651-26-8 (print; softcover; perfect bound)
94 pages; $12.95
Interview by Carol Smallwood
Judith Skillman is author of around twenty collections of poetry. She is the recipient of an award from the Academy of American Poets for her book Storm (Blue Begonia Press). Her work has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the UK Kit Award, Best of the Web, and is included in Best Indie Verse of New England. A faculty member at the Richard Hugo House in Seattle, Washington, Skillman also paints.
Smallwood: You hold a Masters in English Literature from the University of Maryland and have done graduate work in comparative literature at the University of Washington. When did you begin writing and was it poetry?
Skillman: I began writing poetry as an undergraduate student and then, when I went back to get a master’s in English Literature, I got it with an emphasis in creative writing. The MFA degree didn’t yet exist. It was quite a privilege, as I got to hear the excellent poets who came to read at University of Maryland’s reading series: Galway Kinnell, Tess Gallagher, Stanley Kunitz, and others. Actually, looking farther back, I wrote my first poem in fourth grade as an assignment, after Kennedy was assassinated.
Smallwood: your poem, “Blue Note” notes:
those holocaust stories told
and later taken back,
as the most difficult facts
come to be handled by time
and distance.
The Truth about Our American Births asks questions about a German Jewish heritage and of generations. Do you think it takes a certain time in one’s life to really delve into family history?
Skillman: Yes, I think the family history has to be somewhat removed by time in order for it to stand out as a subject matter. It wasn’t until my children were in school— two of them even in college—that I began to have the detachment necessary to ask questions about how I’d been raised. I knew I’d felt like an exile in Prince George’s County Maryland, where we lived when I was age six until twenty eight. I felt “different” than my peers, who had Christmas and other things I envied. The feelings were there, but I had no way to articulate any coherent questions about the past.
Smallwood: reviewers have noted your figurative language and imagery in the 47 poems in the book. I particularly enjoyed these lines from “Rift:’
Hardened is the name of woman.
All hands and arms.
Hangnails come to tell.
Chores for the charwoman.
See her bend into soap.
Lean away from leisure.
In her stained rag a map of the world.
Countries never seen.
Why did you use a period at the end of each line?
Skillman: I suppose end-stopping these lines seemed appropriate when I wrote it because the persona is angry. She is enraged at the misogyny that exists in society and culture and religion throughout history. And so the poem became deliberately choppy.
Smallwood: what have you noted about the generational role of women?
This is a big question. Women give birth, nurture infants and children, and hold families together. I would say that from my own experience, women create in many ways, and provide a “generative” force as well as one that spans the generations. In addition, because we are trained to be verbal from an early age, we women often end up as the “storytellers” of the family. This is important role in that creating family certified “tall tales and legends” may enable those who are young to better understand their own origins.
But because ours is a patriarchal society, more often than not the work of women isn’t recognized financially. My views are admittedly 20th century, but in fields where women abound, such as teaching, they are under compensated. In arenas where women compete, including the arts and sciences, still females often are the ones who take it upon themselves to provide for basic needs of family and offspring. There are so many strong women I admire, including my mother and sister. All have had substantial obstacles to overcome.
Smallwood: what are you working on now?
Skillman: I am working on a manuscript that pulls work from six books and contains poems written over the past couple of years. Also I’m co-editing an anthology on domestic violence http://www.persephonesdaughters.tk/submit/
Smallwood: readers can learn more about Judith Skillman on: www.judithskillman.com
MORE ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER
Thursday, August 27, 2020
Dr. Wesley Britton Reviews Volume 2 of Cushman's Star Trek 1970s
These Are the Voyages: Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s Volume 2 (1975-77).
Author: Marc Cushman
Publisher: Jacobs/Brown Media Group
Release date: July 1, 2020
Number of Pages: 650 pages
ISBN-10: 1733605320
ISBN-13: 978-1733605328
Purchase at Amazon
Reviewed by: Dr. Wesley Britton originally for BookPleasures.com
Volume Two of Marc Cushman's three volume coverage of everything that happened in the Star Trekuniverse during the 1970s is the tenth of Marc's books I've read and reviewed to date. Starting with his single volume book on I Spy, I've read everything from Marc's first three books on Star Trek: The Original Series, his three volumes on Lost in Space, not to mention his explorations of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and The Moody Blues. All these books share one major attribute. Comprehensive is too mild a descriptor. Exhaustive is much more on target. Marc is the master of never leaving any stone unturned, no memo unread, no potentially useful data is left out of any of his tomes.
In the case of Cushman's Star Trek journalism, Marc was given unprecedented access to apparently every scrap of paper associated with Gene Roddenberry and everyone involved with the original franchise. In this volume, this resulted in a very comprehensive overview of all the scripts and stories we never saw in the never filmed Star Trek Phase 2 TV project. These chapters were my favorite passages in this history, reading about some adventures I'd like to have seen, some I'm glad were never produced. No Star Trek fan will want to miss these descriptions.
In addition, we get detailed histories of Roddenberry's lesser-known TV attempts like The Questor Tapes, Genesis II, Spectre, and The Nine. On top of that, Cushman tells us about projects featuring Star Trekcast members like Leonard Nimoy's In Search Of . . . documentary series and William Shatner's short-lived Barbary Coast. We hear about how cast members fared in their lives outside of Star Trek, like the sparring between Nimoy and Roddenberry involving Nimoy's possible participation in any Star Trekrevivals.
A healthy portion of the book explores the growing fan support for Star Trek including the nationwide success of the show in syndication, the beginnings of Star Trek conventions, the expanding bonanza of Star Trek merchandise, and the public speaking tours of Roddenberry, Nimoy, and Shatner. Cushman also talks about the state of science-fiction television shows of the era, most notably a detailed overview of Space 1999, a program clearly influenced by Star Trek. Toss in generous samplings of contemporary reviews of all these items and it's no wonder the book reaches 650 pages.
As Cushman told me in a recent interview, he doesn't target his books to the casual fan but instead aims for the serious aficionados of his various subjects. In the case of Star Trek, that's a pretty hefty audience who will treasure this authoritative history of a cultural phenomenon. Sure, even this readership will likely find chapters and sections to skim over, other sections will be devoured for all the information never made available before. If you're a Star Trek lover, casual or serious, you won't want to miss any of Marc Cushman's extraordinarily researched studies. No previous histories match him for detail, fresh insights, corrections to popular myths; every possible stone is turned over and examined.
As I write this, I'm about to dive into Volume Three of this set which means one last long summer read. That's before Marc dives into all the movies and later series in the '80s and beyond. Stay tuned . . . six books later and the voyages have just begun . . .
To hear Karina Kantas and Wes Britton interview Marc Cushman about his Star Trek books, here's a link to Karina's "Behind the Pen" Podcast: https://youtu.be/kchFuD9p64o
Explore the Beta Earth Chronicles website:
Follow Wes Britton’s Goodreads blog:
Check out Wes Britton’s Beta Earth Chronicles Facebook page:
Enjoy the videos at Wes Britton’s YouTube Channel:
This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.
Monday, August 24, 2020
Carole Mertz Reviews Jack Grapes Prize-Winning Book of Poetry
Title: Dancing in Santa Fe and Other Poems
Author: by Beate Sigriddaughter
http://writinginawomansvoice.blogspot.com/
Genre: Poetry Chapbook
Publisher: Cervena Barva Press
ISBN 9781950063239
2019, 24 pg., Paperback, $8.00
Book is available at Amazon.com
Review by Carole Mertz (carolemertz@cox.net originallyfor The Compulsive Reader
In Dancing in Santa Fe, Beate Sigriddaughter delivers a fine collection of fourteen poems, all written in free verse. An American poet of German heritage, she has won multiple poetry prizes, including the Cultural Weekly—Jack Grapes Prize in 2014, and multiple nominations for the Pushcart Prize. Her gracious promotion of women’s poetry (at her blog Writing in a Woman’s Voice) is also commendable.
Richness of character and content run throughout the collection. The author presents a wealth of resources and displays her thoughtfulness resulting from inner reflection, along with her skill in defining external scenes surrounding her. Sigriddaughter describes a bus ride, for example, in which a rider is exulting over the sunrise, but fellow-travellers give the rider a look of contempt. “What have you done with my exuberance and with my tenderness?” she asks within the poem. “Was it of any use to you to take it like that?” (From “Silence,” p. 19.)
In “Lines for a Princess” (p. 21), the persona is at once a sheltered flower, a mountain juniper, a “seed that never quite took,” and a poet who “wants sequins and justice both.” I like the depth of this persona’s character and appreciate the clarity with which the narration is rendered. In it Sigriddaughter writes, “Days whisper by. You have to / listen carefully to hear them.” The poem is one among others in the collection that draws on fairytale themes
A longer poem, “Dancing in Santa Fe” (pgs. 4-7), renders alternating verse backdrops of such weighted matters as concentration camps and the horrors of war, contrasted with New Mexico’s beautiful mountain scenes. “…to feel for sins I haven’t committed?” she writes, as autobiography. “…is an unspeakable filter / on this gorgeous world.”
The poems, “Samsara” and “Nirvana” draw on Buddhist religious terms to deliver their messages. As wanderer, in “Samsara” (pgs. 8-9), the poet writes:
Even on the mountain, surrounded
by excellence, the trouble
of the city clamors in my heart…
In “Nirvana’ (p. 10), Sigriddaughter issues a plea:
I love you world. Send more angels.
Help me fight the dull and dangerous
deceptions.
Here she admits her distrust of “nirvana,” a striving after bliss and the absence of suffering or desire. (Isn’t self-effacing consent like suicide? she asks.)
“The River” (p.11) brings to the reader another level of reflection; the river acknowledges being bound to desires. Accepting this, it wants to carve passageways through mountains of unnecessary evil. I enjoy the beauty of this metaphor and how it allows the river to speak Sigriddaughter’s own spiritual desires.
In addition to her narrative skills, the poet’s mature voice also lends beauty to her verses. We trust her voice all the more, because it doesn’t conceal the imperfections of the world. “I have heard,” she says in Scheherazade (p.16), “how not forgiving is like drinking poison.” And with further insight, “You cannot be my hero any more…I cannot imagine the cost / of making nice with the entitled predator / like that.” A subsequent line strikes an even stronger point.
Though several poems lead us to reflect on beauty and dark matters, such as war and unforgiveness, the Sigriddaughter chooses to close the chapbook with a humorous poem. In “The Dragon’s Tale” (p.23), the princess is hidden away from “benevolent contempt.” We content ourselves with this comedy when the dragon asks, “You thought I was going to eat her?”
I delight in Dancing in Santa Fe. Its content seems to “fill the narrow margins of reality with beauty.” (15) Beate Sigriddaughter’s poems balance darkness with a joyful light.
ABOUT THE POET
Beate Sigriddaughter, author of hundreds of poems, is winner of the 2014 Jack Grapes Prize and a multiple Pushcart Prize nominee. She has promoted women’s writing at her blog Writing in a Woman’s Voice for many years, an activity which grew out of her earlier Glass Woman Prize. Siggriddaughter is the author of Emily and Dancing in Santa Fe and other poems.
Her forthcoming Dona Nobis Pacem will be issued December, 2021 by Unsolicited Press. Learn more at: https://sigriddaughter.net/, http://writinginawomansvoice.blogspot.com/, and https://www.facebook.com/beate.sigriddaughter.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Carole Mertz is the author of Toward a Peeping Sunrise (Prolific Press) and of the forthcoming Color and Line (with Kelsay Books, November, 2020). She reviews frequently at Mom Egg Review, Eclectica, South85 Journal, and Dreamers Creative Writing. Her reviews are also at Into the Void, Main Street Rag, World Literature Today, and League of Canadian Poets. Carole is judge (in the formal poetry division) of the 2020 Poets and Patrons of Illinois International Poetry Contest. Carole resides with her husband in Parma, Ohio. Reach her at carolemertz@cox.net and tweet with her @Carolemertz1
This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Use Your Amazon Profile Page to Help Brand Yourself . . Plus Hint #Twenty for Getting Your Name Out There
SELECT ONE OF INTEREST TO YOU.
CONTACT THAT AUTHOR FOR A FREE COPY OF THEIR BOOK.
Remember the lesson we learned from The Little Red Hen!!
WANT US TO LIST YOUR BOOK FOR FREE?
COMING SOON: WATCH FOR MORE GREAT HINTS ON WRITING TIME SAVING REVIEWS - FRUGALLY AND ETHICALLY.
_____________________________________________________________________
Monday, August 3, 2020
A Pony for Quarantine by Clare O'Beara Book Review
A Pony for Quarantine by Clare O'Beara Book Review
Title A Pony For Quarantine
Author Clare O’Beara
Publisher Nielsen
Publisher Website Address http://www.clareobeara.ie/
Publisher Email Address author@clareobeara.ie
ISBN-10: 1910544116
ISBN-13: 978-1910544112
ASIN: B08B1KYKBN
Price $6.99 paperback, $2.99 Kindle
Page Count 198 pages
Formats (PB, Kindle)
Carolyn Wilhelm
Reviewer
Setting: Ireland, March 2020
Life was
changing fast. Thirteen-year-old Moya didn’t understand at first when her
parents were worried the supermarkets would close. Shops were only letting a
certain number of people inside at a time. Her parents might not be able to buy
exactly what they wanted, but they would be able to get food. Moya started
helping by watching her six-year-old autistic brother, Michael, who was missing
school and his usual routine.
Scared, Moya
wondered about the symptoms of Covid-19. The World Health Organization had just
declared a Pandemic. Biking to visit and care for her pony, Celidh, she began
talking as she arrived so her pony would know where she was. Luckily, she
didn’t live far away. Now she had to decide about grass livery or DIY stabling.
Several ponies were already in the field with the donkeys. She brushed the pony
who still had winter hair on its tummy, pondering the situation.
So begins
the story of Moya, who is a lovely big sister to Michael. The book details how
the family deals with an autistic child (no sweets in the house for one thing),
and how they work together. Non-fiction information about donkey sanctuaries,
pony care, Brexit, facts about the quarantine, how online instruction was
handled in Ireland is included in the book. It is an informative and wholesome
read. Mother and daughter have several talks that explain the feelings the
situation brings out in everyone.
Photos of
empty store shelves, social distancing, housing, ponies, donkeys, closed
playgrounds, shopping with masks are sprinkled throughout the book. At the end
is a tasty recipe you will want to try.
Clare
O’Beara has written other horse books I have previously reviewed: ShowJumping Team and Rodeo Finn. Free teaching supplements for both books are available on the Wise Owl Factory site.