Leo McCarey’s 1952 film, My Son John, perhaps the most well-known of the several extravagantly anti-Communist melodramas engineered by Hollywood studios at the height of McCarthyism, opens with two brothers tossing a football outside their house before Sunday Mass. It’s the eve of their departure for the front in the Korean War, but a third […]
Original source: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/02/12/hit-the-line-hard/
The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly or for a monthly wrap up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme.
I will watch the Philadelphia Eagles takedown the Chiefs tonight. Go EAGLES! In other non-exciting news, I am sick again. You’re so surprised, I know! It began with a sore throat and went south from there. I am resting and drinking lots of fluids. I am slightly behind on writing reviews and need to get back on track. The Royals have a winter break coming up on Wednesday and won’t go back to school until Tuesday, thanks to conferences and President’s Day. Stay Caffeinated.
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I have several open book tours. Stop by and join the fun. ARCS will be available for all.
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Original source: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/2023/02/sunday-post-562-must-write-reviews.html
My Sister Wants an Elephant follows two siblings who beg their mother to have a llama and an elephant as a pet and their mother comes up with a crafty compromise. What inspired you to convert this true story into a children’s picture book?
What a great question. Thank you for asking this as it has been quite a journey. When I left my retail career, going back to college for my teaching certification and Master’s degree in Education, courses teaching how to teach literature were lack luster, to be blunt. Realizing how uninspired I was to read, let alone write anything, being pressed to outline sentences, focused on my subject/verb agreement, how would children want to write what their hearts needed to say? So, I found a writing program, please don’t ask me to name this program, enrolled in the long-distance course and began writing as per our weekly mail-in assignments. Yes, we were required to edit our work, subject verb agreement was expected as was proper spelling. However, the writing, the thought development, the characters, plot, scenes, showing not telling were most important. Others in the course, assistants and instructor, would fine tune the mechanics. We were encouraged to be authors!!! Encouraged to journal every day, writing our thoughts and feelings whatever came to mind.
Now, understand, I did not journal then, I do not journal now. I never kept a diary as a child. I never found writing feelings cathartic. Opinions, injustices to animals and people, that drove me to write. So, when the topic “Journal about your family” was assigned, this event in the family had actually just happened. Randy had run down the stairs yelling about his sister wanting an elephant as a gift for her second birthday. It was like a gift from the heavens. I wrote three paragraphs and mailed in the short story. My instructor liked the story, but found it lacked luster. I filed it away to work on other assignments.
The course ended and my stories, notes and binder took a backseat to working, shuffling children to activities and volunteering with organizations. Fast forward twenty-four years, packing up our belongings to retire to Florida and I find my writing binder with this short story. That was the moment I thought I might like to take this further, actually finishing the story, now I had the time and two granddaughters who love listening to me share stories about their family. What a fun way to share memories of their father and aunt through a book authored by their own grandmother. We settled into our new home and I began my research I like to call, “My Path to Not Publish My Book.” Besides being overwhelming, getting inundated by emails was challenging. Then, one company offered free editing of your first three pages. I had five paragraphs. With nothing to lose, I sent what I had. They loved the story, Randy’s character and the writing, encouraging me to continue the story. I refer you back to the writing instructor who claimed this story lacked luster. Ironic, no? Had she responded as this professional company, I might have created this sooner.
This inspired me to finish the story, blocking out where I wanted the illustrations or photos and begin the research again in earnest, knowing more about publishing as I self-published a memoir prior to this. Atmosphere Press and Sarah, my illustrator, were the answers. Now, twenty-nine years later, that story has finally come to life. My grandchildren helped with the cover colors and love this story. Their two favorite illustrations, their grandmother getting licked by a giraffe and walking her Siberian tiger on a leash.
The art in the book is fantastic. What was the art collaboration like with illustrator Sarah Gledhill?
Sarah was delightful to work with: flexible, funny, insightful, creative, and a great listener. I am in awe of her intuition and talent. She “got” me immediately. My manuscript included blocked out locations for either photos or illustrations. So, she respected my creative eye and vision of the book. The first experimental illustration of me was perfect. And, we had never met!!! Randy and Jerica only needed minor modifications. Communication was across Dropbox and no matter my question or suggestion, her attitude was always, “It shall be done.”
This was the most fun long-distance relationship I have ever had.
What scene in the book did you have the most fun creating?
Before answering this question, I would like to take this opportunity to clarify the giraffe scene as it has stirred quite a bit of curiosity. Yes, the giraffe did lick my entire face and would have come back for more had I not jumped down from the wall in time. The illustration is spot on. To date, Randy has shared this story with my grandchildren and many of his friends.
My most fun scene, though, is when Randy and Jerica try to convince me at dinner to get this elephant, using her new pouting power, and I steal their thunder with my own dream of owning a Siberian tiger. The reaction from both children is priceless and still makes me laugh.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your book?
There are two things: Responsibility and Fairness. If given the opportunity and proper direction, children will draw reasonable conclusions. Readers will find that mom never says no, nor does Jerica get her wish first. Mom points out through questioning and encouraging Randy to do research, even at a young age, why having llamas is not in the animals’ best interest. Randy knows in his heart apartment living in the city is not OK, as frustrating as that may be. There are things more important than his wants. Also, quite young, Jerica learns tears won’t make her mother compromise what is fair. As she explains, Jerica will get what she has asked for, but not at the expense of Randy’s feelings as he has waited patiently for a long time. No competition, we are all in this together. Neither one of the children balks.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook
My Sister Wants an Elephant is the true story of two siblings who team up together to convince their mother to let them own a couple of wild animals as pets, and a mother who just might be persuaded.
Full of humor and fun, this book is a good lesson in not giving up on your dreams, no matter how truly wild they may be!
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/02/12/we-were-encouraged-to-be-authors/
Still Waters by Jenna Caldwell is a powerful, breathtaking retelling of the wrongful conviction and execution of George Stinney Jr. in 1944. Caldwell’s storytelling skills are unparalleled, transporting readers into a dream-like state as George struggles to piece together his past with his present, which has become foreign to him. With vivid imagery, Caldwell showcases George’s journey of self-discovery and inner turmoil as he grapples with the injustice and discrimination he faces.
His life feels distorted, as if his wife and children don’t seem real, including his job at a high school and promotion as the first black man to oversee the board of education’s art department. When George must face unexpected events, he is thrust into a dire situation, adding to the story’s emotional power and bringing to light vital themes of racism, classism, and a corrupt justice system.
The author provides an immersive experience, leaving readers holding their breath for what comes next. I especially found the transition from George’s story to the factual account of George Stinney Jr’s case exceptional and poignant.
Still Waters by Jenna Caldwell reminds us of the raw, unapologetic, and ongoing injustices marginalized communities face. I recommend this fantastic book as it is an important reminder of how history should be remembered and its impact on many people today.
ASIN B0BCH9RZ5S | Pages: 185
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/02/12/still-waters/
Backstabbed on Broadway takes place in a glamourous yet menacing theatrical world where a young woman must solve the murder of her tyrannical boss and navigate the cut-throat industry. What inspired you to write a mystery novel set in the world of theater?
Many years ago I actually worked in a talent agency office, and I was shocked to the core by how insanely it was run. My boss was a screaming-and-yelling megalomaniac, but there was even more strangeness going on there than just that. I was the only one working there who wasn’t some kind of an addict and I was resented for that, which of course makes no sense. I saw lots of young people who would come to New York from all over the country, trying to break into careers in the entertainment industry, and they’d be trying to impress these wacky agents, or, many times, preyed upon by a lot of unscrupulous people who only wanted to use them as cash cows. Some got ensnared by self-proclaimed “acting teachers,” basically con artists in sheep’s clothing, who claimed they’d make “stars” out of them, and the students spend years paying for “lessons” that led nowhere. Part of the reason I wanted to write this book was as a warning. As the saying goes, “All that glitters isn’t gold.”
Was there anything about Jasmine’s character that developed organically while writing that surprised you?
There were no surprises there, really. All the way through, Jasmine has a real inner strength that her boss and co-workers lack. She’s not easily intimidated or impressed, and she doesn’t make excuses for all of the craziness she sees going on around her with the rest of these assorted nuts. She arrives at work thinking of quitting, finds her lunatic boss dead on the floor, and then learns she’s inherited his agency. It turns everything upside-down. Suddenly she owns the place and is the boss of her wacky co-workers and the phony clients she had hoped to leave behind. Furthermore, any one of them could be the bossman’s killer because he was a nightmare of a man in several different directions. So Jasmine finds herself in a dilemma. She’s debating with herself all through the story as to whether she should stick with the agency that’s been handed to her or to run the heck out of there screaming.
The book takes place in a world where many people are not who they pretend to be. How did you approach writing characters with dual identities, and what did you hope to accomplish with these complex characterizations?
I had basically seen a lot of that when I worked in show business jobs, so it really wasn’t hard to write. There’s plenty of talented people who go into the theater because they want to entertain, but there’s also some who don’t like their own backgrounds and desperately want to become someone else. I figured those types were perfect to include in a mystery story because their true selves are like unknown quantities. It makes it harder to figure out whodunit, and you have to wonder what happened to push them away from themselves in the first place.
What is the next book you are working on and when will it be available?
I tend to work on several projects at one time and I have several going at the moment. I’m particularly interested in making BACKSTABBED ON BROADWAY the start of a series and have begun work on another book featuring Jasmine and many of the same characters. With any luck, it should be ready later this year.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/02/12/the-bossmans-killer/
My Maril is your personal memoir about growing up with Marilyn Monroe in your life and the real person behind the Hollywood image. Why was this an important story to tell?
I’ve read many of the books on Marilyn or “Maril” as we called her in my family. I finally decided to write this book with my coauthor Jay Margolis because I wanted people to see who Maril really was. The one you read about in all the other books is not the one I recognize and neither did my surviving cousins. She was very bright, extraordinarily intelligent, and highly determined to become a movie star. As we all know, Marilyn Monroe very quickly became the most famous woman in the world. I’ve never read a book about Maril from a child’s perspective and I felt that’s why my story needed to be told, to show people how innocent Maril was and that she truly loved children. She herself was as innocent as a child and she sought refuge in my family because we treated her like a normal person even after she became famous. We were her true family, the one that adopted her. My grandmother Ann “Nana” Conley thereafter became Maril’s mother for the rest of her life. So even though Maril never really connected with either of her parents, she did in fact have our family, the Kargers, to come home to until the day of her premature death.
I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
Maril’s death was easily the hardest part to write about. It makes me cry when I realize this friendly and lovely woman who I had known for almost fifteen years must have been murdered and that it was no accident with enough drugs in her blood to kill three people but absolutely ZERO undissolved capsules in her stomach. It was alleged she had swallowed SIXTY-FOUR pills but NOTHING in her stomach. It means she didn’t swallow the drugs that killed her and that she wasn’t responsible for her own death. It makes me wonder, “What if she hadn’t been taken from us?” Her story was far from finished.
What is a common misconception you feel people have about Marilyn’s death?
I never believed Marilyn Monroe committed suicide. My cousin Ben, my cousin Jacqui, and my own mother Patti, who was a best friend of Maril’s, all very strongly believed Maril had been murdered. I personally just never saw this woman killing herself when she had so much going for her. She’d been rehired by Twentieth Century-Fox, her interview with LIFE Magazine had just been released the day before her death and she was calling everyone including my grandmother Nana with the happy news. Maril was very proud with the positivity of the article. So Nana and her sister Effie were wondering to each other, “Why would she end it all the very next day at this very joyous time in her life?”
What were some goals you set for yourself as a writer in this book?
I wanted the reader to be placed for a short time in my shoes, to see my Maril the way I saw her. My main goal was the hope that this book would be transformative for the chauvinists of the world who thought Maril was simply a “dumb blonde,” the way the studios had perceived her, and how certain men would actually think Maril must have been that dumb in real life. Nothing could be further from the truth. She was highly intelligent. As Maril herself once said, “It would be awfully silly if people thought you were whatever you played in movies.” Maril should not only be remembered for singing “Happy Birthday” to the President. She was so much more than that. We must not forget Maril was a human being.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
Marilyn, recently evolved from Norma Jeane Mortenson, was an unknown starlet when, as a twenty-one-year-old, she first met six-year-old Terry—and began dating her dad—in the spring of 1948. The orphaned, emotionally fragile actress initially babysat Fred’s daughter while turning to his family for support. Although the Marilyn-Fred romance lasted just over a year, her close friendship with the Kargers, including Fred, continued for fourteen years until the end of Marilyn’s life.
While Fred was Marilyn’s first true love, his mom, Nana, was the mother she never really had. “Maril,” as they fondly called her, was allowed to relax and be herself. It also enabled Marilyn to appease her own unfulfilled maternal instincts, acting as a cross between a sweet, playful big sister and generous, caring surrogate mom to Terry.
This memoir also reveals privately taken, previously unpublished photos of the iconic superstar with her adopted family and friends.
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/02/12/her-story-was-far-from-finished/
Hashman follows a criminal-turned-psychologist who becomes a central figure in the cannabis legalization scene. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
My best friend, Josh Berman had noticed my recent graphic novel, Journey Into Mexico (2021) and asked how I’d feel if I looked over some interviews, and interviewed the subject, his father to give him a similar treatment. It turned into an obsessive quest to review outside materials, more interviews, newspaper articles and court documents to get the story straight. Josh and I really enjoyed doing the research and developing this world, and working with the artist to create what we felt was the best graphic novel possible. It was also a thrill co-writing this with Josh and learn about the Cannabis culture in which his business is based.
Joey Berkowitz is an interesting character I enjoyed following. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Well, he’s my best friend’s dad, and what started out as a simple quest to learn more about him as an adult because a long series of questions and answers to get to the bottom of his psychological dilemmas, which became a real pleasure to explore and depict, while staying as close to the truth as the various sources would provide. The main idea was that greed can destroy one’s family, but also exploring the various causes of that greed.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The main theme is that massive need for security that is rooted in a childhood trauma, can mix with an obsession for vice, and eventually lead to ones own personal destruction.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
My next book, Understanding Superhero Comic Books comes out later this year published by McFarland and Co, which describes a narrative history of Superhero Comic books, their secret origins in other media, and various legal, business, and creator decisions that caused them to develop over time into what they are now.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Based on a series of interviews with eye witnesses, court reports, and newspaper articles carefully used to construct an authentic and visually visceral ride through the life of a well connected cannabis pioneer.
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/02/12/the-best-graphic-novel-possible/
Valentine’s Day romances to set the mood
Original source: https://www.amazon.com/amazonbookreview/editorspicks.html?ref_=abr_widget_nav&theme=light
Sports books even non fans will like, ahead of Super Bowl LVII
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Sports books even non fans will like, ahead of Super Bowl LVII
Original source: https://www.amazon.com/amazonbookreview/editorspicks.html?ref_=abr_widget_nav&theme=light