With a Year's Worth of Stuff Bottled Up Inside My Head

So it is just over a year since I have attempted to blog here. Just over a year since I have given myself the power and freedom to just dump whatever it is, inside my head, out on the page. I thought I would blog about writing here, or about unschooling my three children here... and perhaps I have, occasionally, with various degrees of success. I have never had much success in dividing my life into spheres. The writing me, the mom me, the farmers market manager me, the me that is attempting to help publish books for others... it's all just me, really.

I am who I am.

And I've long stopped apologizing for my varied interests and focuses. You hear that, ME? I'm not going to say I am sorry any more. It's not a lack of focus, an inability to commit, or a fear of failure (or success!) I love writing. I wouldn't give up the last 19 years of holding motherhood as my primary "job" for anything. I absolutely love the way that my work as farmers market manager has given me roots in this community and has helped me to feel more at home. I get a kick out of formatting books for publication (and I'm pretty darned good at it). I'm not a half-bad editor either... except for my own work. (I suck at editing my own work.)

I am a creative being, who adores the orderly nature and power of a spreadsheet.

Is that weird? Well so be it. That's who I am.

This evening, I went to a reading of Notable Kansas Authors at the William Allen White Library on ESU's campus. Notable Authors include my good friend, Cheryl Unruh, and my friend and co-author (Green Bike), Kevin Rabas. I almost didn't go, because I've been in a stay-at-home frame of mind, of late, but I talked myself into going at the last minute because I have never been let down by the experience of listening to story tellers. Notable authors also include the prolific, Max McCoy and Jim Hoy, both of whom I have very much enjoyed listening to in the past.

Sure enough, The event was barely getting started as my mind started collecting ideas and inspirations. Why am I not writing? I asked (inside my head). Okay, I mean, I am writing (novel-in-progress, 3rd draft) but why am I not writing this... and this... and this... and this?

Oh, if only there were more hours in the day.

I've got enough projects to keep me busy through the sundown of my life.

There's plenty to share... inside my head, there's no need to hide it.

If I know it makes my heart smile, I shall say YES!

Sunday Book Review: Fifty Shades of Santa

Yeah, that was my husband's reaction when he saw the title of my latest holiday purchase, as well.

Well this isn't really that kind of book. Fifty Shades of Santa: 12 Nice, (not Naughty) Humorous Holiday Romances is a collection of short stories published by Welkin Press. I'm not typically drawn to reading romance, but I am often drawn to short stories. This book contains one called One Cool Cat, by Peg Nichols, and it was my hook to buy this book.

Peg is one of the many wonderful people I have "collected" as friends via my membership in the Kansas Authors Club. She is warm, adventurous and always has a kind and encouraging word ready for an in-progress writer (such as myself). As long as I've known Peg, I've never really had the opportunity to read much of her work.

One Cool Cat did not disappoint. At the beginning of the story, the cat's name is Outside, and I immediately began picturing the many directions the story might be headed. A down and out family moving to a remote cabin, it easily could have been the start of the type of horror story I might have enjoyed reading in my teens. As a "cat person" I always worry a little that the cat might end up the bad guy.

No spoilers, but little Outside found his way in. As the subtitle of the book promises, these are "nice" holiday romance stories, and when I was done reading I was thinking that I don't spend nearly enough time reading nice these days. It was very pleasant to drift off to sleep with a smile on my face rather than a chill in my bones.

Peg Nichols, thank you for hooking me up with some pleasant holiday stories to warm me up for what should be a happy holiday season. Now that I've had the pleasure of reading your short story, I shall enjoy the rest of the stories the book has to offer, as well.

Sunday Book Review: Making It Home

Making It Home: My year as a middle-aged runaway, by Liz Moore

I’m not even sure how to begin to say just how much I enjoyed this book. Let’s call it an adventure story for women approaching middle age. It’s a book about that thing we’ve often imagined ourselves doing. At least, I have always loved the idea of living elsewhere, getting to know new places and people by becoming a part of the community, and living (for a while, at least) without ties or roots or personal history.

Liz Moore was one of the presenters at the 2011 Kansas Authors Club Convention. I was so enthralled by her story that I purchased the book online for my Kindle PC free e-reader almost first thing when I got home. (For some reason I was under the impression that the book was only available for Kindle, but I now see that it is available in paperback, as well, which is all the better because this book would make a great gift.)

Liz gave herself a gift for her fiftieth birthday. She packed her car and began a cross country journey that would take her from Texas to Arizona to Oregon to Iowa to Vermont. She selected small towns along the way and lived in them, a few months at a time, working for temp agencies and doing things like cleaning and waitressing as she went.

Liz writes her story so wonderfully that you feel yourself along for the ride, wondering how she’s going to find affordable housing and where she will work next. You learn a little bit about each place she stays. The people she meets along the way are all so wonderfully human, and Liz’s ability to settle into a new place and a new routine constantly amazed me.

The year didn’t go exactly as she had planned, but even the way she incorporated the heartache and the sorrow into the story made it just that much better. As the title suggests, she eventually makes it home.

I’ve recommended this book to my book club. I think anyone who has ever experienced even a bit of wanderlust would appreciate Liz’s story. 

Sunday Book Review: The Jenny Cain Mystery Series

As my current work-in-progress is a mystery (my first), I’ve found a lot of my leisure reading leaning in that direction, as well. My grandmother and my aunt were big fans of the mystery genre. I remember staying overnight with Grandma and flipping through the pages, at night, of the dozens of Ellery Queen’s that were stacked neatly on her headboard.

I’ve found myself less-than-satisfied, however, with the cozy mysteries I’ve picked off the shelf at various bookstores in the last few months and at the library, with so many options, I’ve had trouble committing to any one author. I finally took a look at my bookshelf and decided to take a more methodical approach to my reading with an author I already knew and loved.

Nancy Pickard’s career as an author began with the Jenny Cain mystery series. I started with her first book, A Generous Death and immediately liked Nancy’s heroine, Jenny Cain. It has been fun to read the stories and watch the characters develop. Each book has also had a little introduction or bit on writing by the author or an editor, as well. These might be the pieces that many readers ignore, but I cherish the insights to the writing process when I’m reading a story. It helps to have Nancy’s voice in my head, as well, as I’ve been fortunate to listen to her speak at two different Kansas Authors Club events.

As I write this, I have completed Say No to Murder and Marriage is Murder (my favorite so far), and am just getting started on the book, I.O.U. Initially, I thought I’d just read a book or two of the series, but I’ve enjoyed them enough I just may read through to the end of the series.

Sunday Book Review: The Rocking Horse

Every year at the Kansas Authors Club convention, I make a point of meeting and getting to know someone I’ve never met before. In Coffeyville this year, I was able to share a table at breakfast with new Kansas Authors Club member and new author, Gloria Zachgo, and her husband Ron. Bonus! A new member to add to my writing friend collection and an autographed book.

Gloria's first novel, The Rocking Horse, is available through Create Space. It can also be found on Amazon.

The story takes place in Kansas and completely passes my test for a Kansas book. The author obviously knows the state and appreciates its people. It was easy, as a reader, to settle into a setting that was at once familiar, though fictitious.

The Rocking Horse is a story of suspense and mystery. It examines the effects on a small town of a decades-old, brutal murder, and the characters, who are immediately likeable, finally get some closure. As happy as endings can get in a story that starts out with such violence, this one is tops.

I thoroughly enjoyed Gloria’s first novel and am looking forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

After the Storm

No entry from me, but I wanted to point you in the direction of my friend Cheryl's piece on the Reading tornado.

"May our compassion and good will for Reading residents be visible and tangible. May we all share in the aid and assistance for this Lyon County town, helping in whatever ways we are able. This is our community."

~ Cheryl Unruh

A Weekend With Writers

Last weekend was the annual Kansas Authors Club Convention and Writing Conference. We met in Lawrence this year and I have to take a moment to report that I had a great time. I don't have a lot of spare moments for extracurricular writing these days, but maybe this step back is just what I need to get things going again. My friend, Shala, joined us for the workshops and she reported "Artists, no matter the media, are weird people! I am in good company today." Maybe that's why I've always found this group so alluring. All those quirky people in one room and they are totally accepting of each other.


Good workshops and some great round-table discussions. I only wish I could have been two places at once... or maybe three, because covering the convention as photographer for the yearbook is fun, as well, but I don't take the time to sit and absorb as much as I used to.


If you are on Facebook, I've been posting pictures and notes from the convention and I hope to do more. Feel free to look up Kansas Authors Club there and plan to join us at next years convention if you have any writerly inclinations at all.


My big Toot Toot my own horn falls under the category of literary contest results.


First 5 pages of a book and synopsis - 1st Place!


Now if I can only master the next 245 pages of the novel!

Sunday--Long Overdue--Book Review: Flyover People

I had the privilege of being a pre-publication reader of my friend Cheryl Unruh's book, Flyover People: Life on the Ground in a Rectangular State and I was going to tell you all about it at the time, but then she posted her cover and I thought how nice it would be to post a review on the eve of publication. I could go on and on talking all about me, of course, and the dozens of reasons this blog and my Sunday Book Review, in particular, have taken a back seat to life, but that would fail to achieve the point. Let's just stop with better late than never.

Flyover People is a collection of essays about my state -- Kansas. Yep, I'll claim it, though Cheryl is the one who has put it into words, what it means to be from Kansas, to choose Kansas, to love Kansas and its people.

Memories and experiences become part of who we are. Kansas seeps into our cells, reconfigures our DNA, claims us as its own. If we leave, it follows.

And from another essay...

We never lose this sense of being grounded, of knowing who we are and why we're here, of being nurtured by the soil and the grass and the stars.

Cheryl is the person who pays attention to the roadside ditches, the dusty roads, and the small town corner stores, and makes you want to look again, to pay attention too. She's a person who appreciates what I love about Kansas and takes the time to put it into words. I love reading her weekly columns in the newspaper and I love the collection she has put together for this book.

But it's not just a love of wide open sky that Cheryl writes about. She shares bits and pieces of herself, as well, and you get to know the small towns of our state as you catch little glimpses of the girl who grew up in a place called Pawnee Rock and constructed tin can telephones and began her writing career at the Larned Tiller and Toiler newspaper.  

Cheryl's essays have always made me want to slow down, take a back road to get where I'm going, and look a bit harder at each signpost I pass by. I want to share these gems with Kansas doubters -- my Houstonian friends who wondered why on earth I'd return to such a place as Kansas, the California transplants who seem incapable of seeing Kansas beauty, and the friends from other states who wonder why I will not leave.

I'm sure there's a lot to be appreciated about other places and people, but Kansas is my place. Kansans are my people. Maybe it really is as deep as my DNA. Life on the ground in a rectangle state is pretty good, and my friend Cheryl captures it beautifully.

A Little Nude Zen Linky

I want to take the time to point you toward Shane at Nude Zen for some great reading with your morning coffee. He's new on the web and he's a very entertaining writer. I've been hearing this about him for few years now, but now I know for myself that it is true.

Shane (whom I met IRL last year at Warped Tour) is a friend via Magoo whom I've known since I was sixteen. I love the way the internet makes the world a smaller place. 

Highlights From the Convention

Spent the weekend with some writerly folk, the Kansas Authors Club Annual Convention, and thought I'd take a moment to compile some of my thoughts and notes before diving into the items on my desk that need sorted and my house which needs cleaned.

I think the most comforting words of the weekend came from Max McCoy, the keynote speaker and workshop presenter who comes from right here in Emporia, Kansas. I even took the time to introduce myself since we are pretty much neighbors if you are looking at the big Kansas map.

Max told us the seven secrets of writing well. One that really stood out, in my mind, was to love others. He said he'd never met a writer who wasn't truly in love with humanity. I have to say I agree whole-heartedly, although I hadn't really thought of it in terms of a trait all writers have. Instead, it has been my experience that when I am in the mindset of "loving humanity," of openly embracing the diversity of the people around me and appreciating the different outlooks, passions, and beliefs - that is when I am happiest, at my most creative, most productive in terms of the work I do and the stories I write.

Max also suggested that it takes 500,000 words written before you are in the place where you start writing work that is publishable. "Don't cheat," he said, and I think that's good advice in a day and age when anybody with word processing software can cobble together a story and have a book published. It's a process, and I'm sure it comes to some easier than others, but it helped me to see myself (at least in terms of fiction writing) as somewhere along that 500,000 word path. I've had a few short story successes that I am proud of. I have what would probably amount to a couple of first drafts "in a drawer" by now, and everything else I have done/am doing in writing is teaching me something about the process of using words, as well as about my own power and ability to control the realization of my own dreams.

Which brings me to another point of contemplation this weekend. At these gatherings, the question always comes up. "What do you write?" Initially, I found myself using my elevator speech. "I'm a freelance writer... ghostwriting, web content, articles... blah, blah, blah." I was all but handing out my business card. Somehow it kept coming out feeling all wrong. That wasn't why I was there.

I was there for the soul food -- my personal soul food.

I was there to listen to T. Dawn Richard talk about using humor in fiction. I was there to learn from Mark Bouton how to jump start your fiction with a hook. I was there to listen to Lisa Harkrader talk about writing for the kid within. I was there to meet other writers -- people I can relate to who often, like me, are more verbal with their fingertips than with their actual voices.

I was there to feed my dream of writing and publishing fiction.

Max said "everything you have done in life is preparation for the book you write."

So what if I'm taking a leisurely approach (to fiction) on that path of 500,000 words. I'm writing. I'm happy with what I'm writing, and I'm enjoying the challenge of being my own boss.

A completed fiction book is still down the road a ways, but I left the convention feeling inspired and with some new ideas for exercising my fiction voice and for perhaps revising some of my current dreams in progress. I also enjoyed connecting with some old writing friends, and I met some new ones -- always a bonus.

The Sounds of a Small Town

Look at what my friend Cheryl is up to!

Note to Writers

If there are still any writers reading here, I want to remind you that the annual Kansas Authors Club Contest is currently open and accepting submissions.

Deadline: June 15, 2009

You can find complete guidelines here. There are adult and youth contests, as well as a special youth poetry contest. Adult contests have a small fee, youth contests are free. Everyone is invited to enter. You don't have to be a Kansas Authors Club member.

Membership details can be found here if you are interested.

And while I'm sharing, check out the list of speakers and workshops for the 2009 convention to be held in Topeka this year, October 16-18.

Emporian, Max McCoy, will be the keynote speaker.

Max McCoy is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and investigative reporter. Born in Baxter Springs, Max is a life long resident of Kansas, yet travels frequently to do research and attend speaking engagements. Kansas and Missouri tend to figure heavily in his novels. McCoy's recent work includes I, Quantrill, Hellfire Canyon, A Breed Apart, Indian Jones and the Secret of the Pheonix, The Moon Pool, and Into the West, a novelization of the Stephan Spielberg epic television miniseries. The Moon Pool is also a screenplay that was first optioned to a Hollywood production company. In addition, McCoy is an independent filmmaker, and Spoils of War, a short film is based on his award-winning stories....

McCoy has an MA in English from Emporia State University and a BA in Communication from Pittsburg State University. He’s a member of the Western Writers of America and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He regularly speaks at writers conferences across the country. McCoy currently He teaches journalism at Emporia State University. Visit his web site.

Sunday Book Review: American Shaolin

American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China

by Matthew Polly

I picked this book up three times at the library before committing to checking it out. Honestly, if it hadn't been on the "Kansas Notables" display, I likely wouldn't have looked at it at all.

I'm not a martial arts enthusiast. The closest I've ever come was probably a crush on Ralph Macchio in junior high school. None-the-less, I always have a soft spot for Kansas authors (Matthew Polly is from Topeka) and was further drawn by the first lines of chapter 1:

Some people have an inner voice. I have an inner to-do list. And since I'm a glass-half empty type of guy, my list is entitled "Things That Are Wrong With Matt." Whenever I am in danger of feeling too good about myself, that list starts flashing in my head.

THINGS THAT ARE WRONG WITH MATT

1. Ignorant

2. Cowardly

3. Still a boy/not a man

4. Unattractive to the opposite sex

5. Spiritually confused

I was touched, but I brought the book home thinking the hubby might enjoy it. He hasn't gotten the chance, however, because I began reading it first. I almost couldn't put it down.

It's rare for me to find a book that reads so easily, teaches me something about a topic I thought I had little interest in, and makes me laugh out loud. Matthew Polly has written that book, and I have now passed it on to the hubby for his enjoyment.

He does manage to cross all his items off his list by the book's end, but like the rest of us, he manages to add a few new ones along the way.

Polly sold movie rights to the story, as well. I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

Sunday Book Review: The Wednesday Sisters

The Wednesday Sisters

by Meg Waite Clayton

This is the book I've been wanting to tell you about for the past two weeks! I might start by simply saying it is lovely. As a writer, I found myself inspired. But the book turned out to be just a little bit more than I was expecting.

The book is about a group of young mothers who begin meeting in a park every Wednesday while their children play. They begin writing together. It starts as an exercise, but becomes an important part of each of their lives as each of them begins using the written word to fill images of themselves, make a mark on the world, or as a tool for understanding themselves and their own histories. Set in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the characters are a way of viewing the changes that were taking place for women in the world, in general.

The narrator, Frankie, tells the story of these women from a looking-back point of view. It's not so much an explanation for the attitudes and the way times were changing for women in general, but an acknowledgement of the way things were. Where and when these these friends came from, people of different races didn't marry, women didn't participate in athletic events, and girls got married and had children rather than pursuing careers. Yet, women were doing all of these things and the book is about women, young mothers, in the midst of all this change of attitude and expectation.

It's a happy book. Very upbeat, even though the element of the woman dealing with breast cancer was very difficult for me and left me feeling pretty emotional in a few places. The way women with cancer are treated, however, is yet another sign of how far we've come and how fast. For the first time, I found myself feeling my mother was probably fortunate to have had her mastectomy in 1977. I know I always had a sense that the choices she was making and the amount of control she had over her own treatment plan was something fairly new, and the book confirmed that feeling.

Most of all, as I made my way through the book, I found my own desires to write a novel flaring high again. Unfortunately (or fortunately -- depending on if you are a glass is half full or half empty person, I guess), the demand for my fingers at the keyboard is quite high these days. I've barely had a moment free from writing... so that I can begin writing!!!

It probably didn't hurt that Meg Clayton stopped in at my blog and left a comment WHILE I was reading the book. (Thanks, Samantha!) That's how I know I can flag her here as a Kansas author. She may not think of herself that way, but since she lived here until she was seven, I'm going to claim her.

In short, if you are a writer or if you are at all interested in women's history, you are probably going to enjoy this book. This one goes on my recommended list, and I will be looking forward to more of Meg's work (old and new) to review in the future.

Timeless Tuesday: Kansas Authors Club

In support of KAC, I share some scenes from past KAC conventions.

Youth Poetry Winners from 2006

The youth contest is one of the most worthy projects of the Kansas Authors Club, in my opinion. If you do no more than come to just watch the faces of these kids as they are recognized for their writing efforts, you've spent your time well.


Jonathan Holdren, the first Kansas Poet Laurete, was keynote speaker in 2006.


In 2004, the club celebrated its centennial with special guests from the past, including William Allen White (as portrayed by Fred Krebs, right). White was a member of the Kansas Authors Club from 1905 until his death in 1944.


Children's book author, Jane Kurtz, was also a speaker at the centennial convention. (top right in the above photo)


... and here I am in a common pose at KAC conventions... shelling out money for books!

Scroll on down to the next entry for details about the upcoming KAC convention.

Mystery Writer to Speak at October KAC Convention

The Kansas Authors Club Convention will be held in Dodge City this year, October 3, 4 & 5.

Registration information will soon be posted at the KAC website, but here is a link to an article in yesterday's Globe.

Keynote Address will be by Charlotte Hinger, a mystery writer from Hoxie, Kansas.



The Kansas Authors Club has members with a wide variety of writing experiences and expertise. I always find inspiration in the most unexpected places. If you write, or think you might like to write, it's a great opportunity to spend some time with other writers and learn how others are approaching the craft and the business of writing.

More details from the Globe article:

The convention will begin with early registration at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3. Youth Contest awards will be given at 7 p.m., and read-arounds (three-minute limit per reader) will take place for writers of all ages at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Dodge City Marshal Alan Bailey will perform Saturday afternoon and welcome guests at that night's banquet.

A state board meeting, registration, the book room and a silent auction will begin at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 4. Workshops will start at 10 a.m. and also will be offered from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., repeating from 2:45 to 3:45 p.m.

Other workshops will include: “Historical Cattle Trails” by Gary Krysinger of Holsted; “Creativity” and another on “Poetry” by Jane Holwerda of Dodge City; “Newspaper Writing” by Charlene Scott of The Dodge City Daily Globe; “Letters to the Editor” by Prem Bajaj of Wichita; and “Children’s Literature” by Eunice Boeve of Phillipsburg.

The awards banquet will begin at 6 p.m. Saturday, followed by a presentation of book and service awards.

Activities on Sunday, Oct. 5, will begin at 8 a.m. with registration and worship/meditation offered by the Rev. Andrew Becker, husband of Amy Becker, District Seven president. The Rev. Becker is pastor of Zion Lutheran Church in Offerle and Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Kinsley.

Don Pady of Topeka will lead the Rosemary Time, a memorial to Kansas Authors Club members who died during the past year.

A general business meeting for all club members will run from 9:15 to 10:15. A Sunday morning panel on “Small Publishers” will be held and some workshops repeated from 10:30 to 11:30.

KAC writing contest awards will be distributed after the noon luncheon, and William J. Karnowski will give out his Youth Poetry Awards.

Registration for the convention is $75 and must be submitted by Sept. 15. The convention is open to anyone who wishes to attend.

Kansas Author: Callie Lyons

Maybe 8 or 9 years ago, I was visiting with a friend of mine from high school. She asked me something like, "So how do you get started... writing and publishing?" and I think I managed to come up with a few tips even though I was fairly new at the publishing part, myself.

Well... somehow... while I was busy hemming and hawing over my writing career, and procrastinating (for lack of a better word), my friend Callie went and wrote herself a book.


Stain-Resistant, Nonstick, Waterproof, and Lethal: The Hidden Dangers of C8

She's written and published on many worthy topics, in fact, and I couldn't be more proud.

These days, I probably ought to be calling Callie for tips.

Callie Lyons Blogspot

Apparently I Need a Theme for Every Day

So I'm down to posting only on Tuesdays because I have this stack of photos on my desk to remind me. Perhaps I just need a theme-a-day to keep me going!

This week I cleared the calendar to complete one of my volunteer duties -- a job I've been telling myself I was going to finish each week since mid-December. I'm the yearbook editor for the Kansas Authors Club. Each year we put together a booklet detailing the activities of the club for the year, literary contributions from the members, and a directory. I took the job last year, so this is my second book. I made quite a few minor changes to the format of the book last year and they were mostly met with positive response. So this year I've gone and tweaked things a little more aggresively. In fact, all the tweaking has probably slowed my progress (last year I had it to the printer before January 1st), but I'm extremely happy with the end product. At least... I'm pretty sure I will be once I have the printed book in hand.

I have one more small document to put together to complete the project for the year. I think I've recruited a band of helpers for the mail prep part. That took a LONG time last year. Stuffing 500 books into envelopes and labeling them and preparing them for bulk mailing takes a lot of hours when you are on your own. The kids helped some last year, but quickly lost interest. This year I've recruited some KAC members from Topeka to help. I'm actually looking forward to the last leg of this project now -- feels more like preparing for a party. I love putting the book together... getting it ready to mail = not so fun. So hopefully the help will make all the difference.

Somewhere I was reading that "real writers" don't volunteer their time. There's probably something to that, but I have to say that my involvement in KAC has enriched my life more than taken from it. I've gotten to know some people who really inspire me. Through my contacts with KAC writers, I've been encouraged to try things I might not have tried otherwise.

And this year I've managed to get the job done AND get a lot of writing work done during the same time period. Busy is as busy does -- right?

Sunday Book Review: Last Dance at the Frosty Queen

If Richard Uhlig and I had grown up in the same small town in Kansas, we would have been in the same high school graduating class. Perhaps that is why Arty Flood, the main character of Last Dance at the Frosty Queen, seems so familiar. While Uhlig's Harker City is much smaller than my small town, Uhlig has created characters that are familiar enough that I almost found myself taking offense, at times, for what I occasionally perceived as lack empathy on the author's part ...

Almost.

More often I was struck by the number of elements in this story--actually physical descriptions as well as attitudes-- that keep cropping up in my own writing.

Truly, I think I gained a special appreciation for this book when I had the opportunity to meet the author and listen to him speak. The book is billed as a teen read. It sets that pace, in my opinion, a kind of quick-moving narration from a young man's point of view that doesn't stop to dawdle along the way. I felt the desperation of the main character. (Remembered it?) The desire to get out and get on with living life is palpable.

From the first chapter:

Of all the things this burg lacks, dateable girls would have to be at the top of my list. My class, the seniors, has twelve girls in it, right? Three have children, two are pregnant (say what you will, but we yokels know how to entertain ourselves), one is my cousin, one is becoming a nun, one is morbidly obese, and the decent-looking remainders date football players. If you don't play football in Harker City, you don't exist (I don't exist).

Exaggeration? Sadly, not much of one.

If I've learned anything in the last 20 years (yes, it's almost been that long), I've learned that as much as we thought we were all alone in our thoughts/desires/goals as we neared high school graduation, we were all just Arty Floods on the inside... way more alike in our insecurities and our desire to "blow this joint" than most of us ever imagined.

As a preview for my pre-teen, I'm going to have to say she's at least a couple of years away from appreciating the story. It's not particularly graphic, but the sex scenes are rather frank. This is a later teen read. Or perhaps a good book for those of us who enjoy looking back on those years and remembering why we are glad to finally be grownups.

*Richard Uhlig actually lives in New York City now, but I'm labeling him as a Kansas author since he did grow up here. He's a graduate of Emporia State University.

Sunday Book Review - The Virgin of Small Plains

The Virgin of Small Plains: A Novel
by Nancy Pickard

I talked about Nancy Pickard last weekend, so it's only right that I now talk about one of her books. I started with her most recent mystery, The Virgin of Small Plains... and it I'm happy to report that it was such a delightful read that I finished it in under two days.

Page turner? Yep.

It's surprising, really, that I don't read more mysteries. I really like trying to figure out where the author is going as a story progresses. Pickard challenged me in this aspect, but kept giving me enough clues that I was satisfied at my conclusions and the twists the story took along the way. At the same time, I got caught up enough in this one that I dreamed about it the entire first night -- the setting, the disturbing images of the 17 year old murder, and the characters.

For a while I even wondered if that is why I don't typically read mysteries. They usually involve death and/or murder and I suppose I'm a little queasy about the subject. My imagination paints pictures that are just a little too vivid, it seems.

But I kept reading, not only because I wanted to find out who killed The Virgin and how all the characters fit into the picture... I really wanted to know if she actually had the power to heal people. Did miracles, indeed, happen at Small Plains, Kansas?

I can't give you the answers, of course. Then it won't be a mystery if you read the book.

Which is my recomendation, by the way... read it.