The Book Pusher: April Mini Book Reviews

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THINGS LEFT UNSPOKEN Eva Marie Everson: Christian Women's Fiction

With a fabulous mystery wrapped in a mystery, Things Left Unspoken dives deep into Southern stories and history and what it means to grow from twisted roots, but become straight and true. A must read! You won't be sorry.

SAILING OUT OF DARKNESS Normandie Fischer:  Christian Women's Fiction with elements of Romance

Normadie Fischer is a wonderful writer. I love all the storylines--Sam, Teo, Jack, and India. (I would never have guessed the storyline for India and Jack!) She did a great job of portraying depression. Be sure to read BECALMED and all her Carolina Coast stories.

THE ART OF LOSING YOURSELF Katie Ganshert: Christian Women's Fiction

A stirring story of faith and what it takes to survive lifts The Art of Losing Yourself. How dry do your bones have to get when your hopes and dreams are denied before you ask for help? Carmen Hart and her half-sister Gracie Fisher are taken to their last step in this lovely story.

THEY ALMOST ALWAYS COME HOME Cynthia Ruchti: Christian Women's Fiction

They Almost Always Come Home is a stirring story of faith and what it takes to survive. Libby and Greg Holmes must journey through grief and marital estrangement to find their lives again.

Links: (You know I'll have some.)

Glennon Doyle Melton has two words for writers: Faith and Sweat. I like that.

Listen To Your Mother/Atlanta will be at 2:00 PM at the Act3 Theatre, in Sandy Springs, GA on April 29. Come one, come all!!! Psst: I'll be reading my essay "My Momma Had Words With Me." ;-)

And check this out! I'm the first cast member who was under the spotlight for the Atlanta Listen To Your Mother April 29.


Next Post: IWSG!

The Book Pusher: December Mini Book Reviews

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This is your last chance to use The Book Pusher's mini book reviews for your shopping list for gifts. ;-) You know you want to buy a few for family and friends--or the ever popular "gift for myself" list.

GENTLEMAN JOLE AND THE RED QUEEN Lois McMaster Bujold: Space Opera

 A fabulously twisty and rewarding SF Romance by a master in the field. Must Read, but only if you've read the entire Vorkosigan series beforehand.

DRUMS OF AUTUMN Diana Gabaldon: Historical/Time Travel

Another fabulous part of the OUTLANDER Series. If you haven't read these books, what are you waiting for?

TWILIGHT CHRISTMAS Normandie Ward Fischer Romance/Women's Fiction

In a continuation of her Carolina Coast Series, Fischer gives her readers a Christmas story of danger, warmth, and redemption. If you love good stories, be sure to read this one.

THE ROSE GARDEN Susanna Kearsley: Historical Romance

This wonderful romance will weave its way into your heart, and its twists and turns will delight, scare, and excite you in turn.

EXIT SIGNS Patrice Locke: Romance

Either a romantic comedy or romantic suspense, but who cares? The main character, a documentary writer, is always trying to pin down the genre controlling her life with limited success--until she meets Jesse Elliot, and then all bets are off. Fun Read!

GREAT SMALL THINGS Jodi Picoult: Women's Fiction

Picoult takes on the charged topics of racism, justice, and privilege in Great Small Things and succeeds in opening eyes to the full story. As always Picoult's multiple--POV narrative opens windows into the minds of each character touched by the story.

Next week: Some gifts for writers... ;-)

4 Mini Book Reviews/June part 2: R. Carr, N. Ward Fischer, L. Grimes, B. Straub

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FOUR FRIENDS Robyn Carr: Women's Fiction

This is a good story on the journeys of many women. The ultimate truth: be good to yourself and allow the others needs to fall into place.  

HEAVY WEATHER Normandie Ward Fischer: Women's Fiction 

Fischer, as always, gives us a great story with deep understanding of women's trials. By returning to the Carolina coast, she utilizes a setting that is deep and rich. Sit back and enjoy!

PRE-FIX Linda Grimes: Urban Paranormal Fantasy

Find out how Ceil Halligan's job as an aural adaptor began...You won't be sorry. ;-)

HANGING FROM THE HIGH WIRE Bridget Straub: Women's Fiction

This is an amazing and gritty look at emotional illness from the inside. This is a must read. 


Next Week: A run down on recent releases. You know you need a book(s) to read. Of course, you do!

Author Interview--Normandie Fischer

 I heard about Normandie Fischer’s debut book through the Women’s Fiction Writers Association Loop in 2013 and I love both of her books. She has a fresh voice and her characters are real people full of realistic life that springs off the page. Check out her website HERE and you’ll find a multifaceted person in her own right. Besides writing, Normandie is a talented sculptor. 

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With her days chock full - designing jewelry for the shop she co-owns with her best friend, sailing her sharpie, and hanging out with girlfriends - Tadie Longworth barely notices she's morphing into the town's maiden aunt. When Will, a widower with a perky daughter named Jilly, limps into town in a sailboat badly in need of engine repairs, Tadie welcomes the chance to help. Her shop becomes Jilly's haven while Will hunts boat parts, and Tadie even takes the two of them sailing. It's the kind of thing she lives for, and it's a welcome distraction from the fact that her ex-boyfriend Alex, aka The Jerk of Jerks, is back in town. With his northern bride. Oh, and he's hitting on Tadie, too.

Those entanglements are more than enough, thank you very much, so it's almost a relief when a hurricane blows into town: at least the weather can match Tadie's mood. When Will and Jilly take shelter in her home, though, Tadie finds herself battling her attraction to Will. Even worse, the feeling is mutual, tempting them all with what-ifs that petrify Will, who has sworn never to fall in love again. Mired in misunderstanding, he takes advantage of the clear skies and hauls Jilly out of there and back to his broken boat so fast, Tadie's head spins.

With the man she might have loved gone, and the man she wishes gone showing up on her doorstep, Tadie finds herself like a sailboat with no wind; becalmed, she has to fight her way back against the currents to the shores of the life, and the man, she wants.

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Love conquers all?
Maybe for some people.

When Samantha flies to Italy to gain distance from a disastrous affair with her childhood best friend, the last thing on her mind is romance. But Teo Anderson is nothing like her philandering ex-husband or her sailing buddy, Jack, who, despite his live-in girlfriend, caught her off guard with his flashing black eyes.

Teo has his own scars, both physical and emotional, that he represses by writing mysteries—until one strange and compelling vision comes to life in the person of Sam. Seeking answers, he offers friendship to this obviously hurting woman, a friendship that threatens to upend his fragile peace of mind.

But not even sailing the cobalt waters of the Mediterranean can assuage Sam’s guilt for destroying Jack’s relationship and hurting another woman. Soon the consequences of her behavior escalate, and the fallout threatens them all.

Sailing out of Darkness is the haunting story of mistakes and loss...and the grace that abounds through forgiveness.

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ZM: After working in a visual medium, what led you to write? Did you ever consider other genres besides Women’s Fiction?

Normandie: Although I discovered the sensory delight of molding clay a year before I wrote my first poem (at thirteen), both media have served as creative outlets during various stages in my life. I love to sculpt, to work in three dimensions, but writing allows me to see or imagine or hear or think and then conjure worlds from words: something from nothing in two dimensions. It’s also immensely portable; I couldn’t have taken clay along on our sailboat.
 
Stories require enlarging. I’ve been an editor, a poet, a writer of non-fiction. Suddenly, I had to dig a little deeper, to exercise uncertain muscles and keep my brain nimble. In front of me, a few keystrokes away, were new worlds, the ability to people stories and find control in an otherwise out-of-control world.
 
I didn’t set out to write women’s fiction. I set out to write stories. My agent first dubbed these women’s fiction because they seemed to fit better there than anywhere else. After all, they’re usually about a woman’s journey, oh, and maybe a man’s or a child’s or a town’s.

ZM: You’re books really have deep hearts that readers can connect to. Tell us about your writing journey from draft to publication.
 
Normandie: What a lovely thing to say, Zan Marie. I write stories that show up on my radar, a what-if from a line or two or the imagined bits of a person’s life, from pain I’ve seen or pain I’ve experienced. People have always fascinated me, which is why I loved to sculpt them and learn their stories. And I’ve always been the listener, the one others came to with their hurts and needs.
 
When a what-if, a bit of dialogue, or an imagined scene shows up, I write and store it on my hard drive or in a notebook for later use. I have the beginnings (or middles) for dozens of stories that I may one day complete. (Or not.) Sailing out of Darkness is actually the third full-length manuscript I wrote, and Becalmed the fourth.
 
Becalmed almost wrote itself. I began with a what-if from my aunt’s life and had no idea what would happen to my protagonist, Tadie, what decisions she would ultimately make. As I wrote, all sorts of lovely folk showed up in the Beaufort of my imagination, and Tadie’s choices emerged from the possibilities that opened for her and Will. And, oh, for Jilly. I loved Jilly.
 
Sailing out of Darkness went through various iterations before landing in its final, published form. In Version One, the story began at the wrong moment in time, because I found myself wanting to excuse Sam’s behavior and so cluttered the writing with backstory. Version Two (or three, who can remember?) fell before my husband’s scrutiny. Do you have someone like that? Someone who doesn’t scruple to tell you the truth about your work? This time, he looked over his glasses and suggested I dump the entire first half and begin in the middle.
 
The middle? I had thought it ready to submit. I swallowed, squinted, and reread the thing. (Yes, it felt like a thing by then.) He was right: off with its head. The almost-final version began with us there, in media res, which turned out to be the true beginning and not actually the middle of the action at all. Oh, and then some beta readers coughed at the prologue. What? More to discard? I loved that chapter! Snip, cut, sigh…
 
I’m a tweaker, a slasher, a rewriter, an editor, which means that my book editors finally have to snatch the copy from me with a “Don’t you dare make another change. Proofing only allowed.” It’s the perfectionist in me.
 
This may not be what you asked at all. I’ve just told you about the writing journey and not the publishing journey. From inception to publication took years of reminding myself that each rejection should be seen as a blessing, that each one gave me a chance to revise and rewrite, to begin a new story, which I could then revise and rewrite, again and again as I watched the years pass. And in the efforts, in the learning, I had years of sailing, of living, of loving. It’s not over until it’s over, is it? If the joy isn’t in the doing, then what’s the purpose? Yes, I longed for a published book, but, more than that, I longed—and still long--to be the best writer I can be…the best me. I wish the journey were easier. I think it is for some people, but that may be because they have less to learn than I.

ZM: I think you answered the question perfectly, Normandie!  Many of your characters are sailors. How important has the experience of sailing been to generating your stories?
 
Normandie:  I’m not sure the sailing itself has been crucial, but we tend to write about what we know and love, don’t we? Places—Italy, the sea, Beaufort, New York, Mexico--sometimes cry out with a “Me, me, pick me,” and I turn my head in that direction…because I must. I love boats and being on the water, feeling the breeze rush across my skin, hearing that slap of waves on the hull, experiencing the freedom of moving at a slow pace, at one with the elements. There’s peace on the water countered by moments of terror in a storm, and all provide fodder for stories.

ZM: That sounds lovely!
  
Normandie: Living on a boat for those years informed much of my life, as did living in Italy, as does living in the South. These influences can’t help but touch my writing, though my second Beaufort book has nothing to do with sailing, and another I’m revising has characters who run amok in Italy and the Middle East. 
 
ZM: Many craft books stress that writers must read and read a lot. Who is your favorite author, or what is your favorite genre? What draws you to a book you read for enjoyment?
 
Normandie: Oh my, books, books, and more books. They’ve been my best friends for a lifetime. I don’t think I can pick one name—there are too many, and my favorite at this moment may not be my favorite when I pick up a new-to-me author tomorrow. I tend to read stories that consider the human condition; stories of love, be it platonic, familial, romantic, filial, or agape; stories of hope; stories that show heart and depth. I love the deep and lyrical work of Athol Dickson, the tender stories of Charles Martin, the comedy of manners of Jane Austen, an occasional suspense or mystery. Since joining WFWA, I’ve read a number of books by my fellow women’s fiction writers from which I’ve certainly discovered favorites—too many to name.
 
ZM: What’s next? Are you working on a new book? 
 
Normandie: I’m always working on a new book or revising an old one. Another of my Beaufort books is making the rounds now as I search for a new agent, and I’m rewriting my very first story, the one that garnered an award for me as the best new writer of 1994—which just shows you how long I’ve been at this. (I should never, ever have prayed for patience.) The beginning of the third Beaufort book waits on my hard drive, along with another story that’s set in Mexico. So much to do!
 
ZM: I need that reminder on praying for patience. ;-) Thanks for your time and wonderful stories, Normandie! 

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Normandie had the best of several worlds: a Southern heritage, access to schooling in the DC area (which meant lots of cultural adventures), and several years of sculpture studies in Italy. It might have been better for her if she'd used all these opportunities more wisely, but it's possible that the imperfect and the unwise also add fodder for the artist and the writer.

Her life changed radically when she married the love of her life at an age when some would have said she was over the hill and way past her prime. (Clichés often speak the truth, don't they?) A lifelong sailor, she was delighted to find that Michael also longed to cruise lovely waters, which is what they did from Northern CA to Mexico, spending too-few years in the incomparable Sea of Cortez. Sea Venture, their 50' ketch, is back home in North Carolina now because Normandie's mama needed care. Still, it's gorgeous there, too, and she can write from home as easily as she could on the boat.
 
Her two grown children, son-in-law, and two step-sons are handsome (or gorgeous, as the case may be), talented, and a delight. And now there's a new granddaughter in the mix--woohoo! She just wishes they lived a lot closer to home.
 
Look for Sea Venture's clipper bow and beautiful lines when she slips into a harbor near you.

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Next week In the Shade of the Cherry Tree, is a rare fifth Tuesday of the month. I'll share an example of one of my main character's traits. See you in the Shade!

Return of the Mini-Reviews!

It's been eight months since my last Mini Book Review post and I've read twenty-three new books and reread at least thirty books. Yep, I eat books like popcorn. ;-) At least I have a clue how much back breaking work goes into writing a single scene much less an entire work of fiction.

It's time to share a few more good books with you. Today, I'm sticking strictly with Women's Fiction. In fact, three of these authors are my fellow members of the Women's Fiction Writers Association. All I can say is, enjoy!

 

 

THE GLASS WIVES--Amy Sue Nathan

The Glass Wives is a sensitive and truthful story of ex-wives, widows, and single mothers—and the children who share their lives. Amy Sue Nathan has a voice that will sweep you into its embrace. Check out my interview of Amy Sue Nathan from May 21, 2013. I'm still in awe of the intensity of The Glass Wives. This is one of those books that really make you rethink the clichés about divorce and puts it into human perspective. This is a must read.



 

 LOUDER THAN LOVE--Jessica Topper

Louder Than Love is a "twofer". It's a masterful look at a young mother and widow's efforts to come to terms with her loss and how to live again. It's also an unconventional love story--one that will knock you off your feet. Jessica Topper's voice is refreshing and you won't think you've read this one before, because it's an amazing blend of library science and rock and roll. This is a must read.

 

 

BECALMED--Normandie Fischer

Becalmed is another truly unique combination of ideas and experiences. The main character--Tadie Longworth--is a jewelry maker, experienced sailor, and (in one of those loaded Southern terms) a spinster. She faces growing older with her old jerk of a boyfriend back in town when she meets a fellow sailor whose little girl steals her heart. Stuck between the old and the new, she's becalmed in a stew of what might have been and what could be. This is a delightful look at what a hurricane can blow in. Becalmed is a delightful read.

 

 

THE WISHING HILL--Holly Robinson

The Wishing Hill explores what happens when you think you've run away from your past, only to find that it is creeping up on you when you least expect it. This is a haunting story about recognizing the truth that our lives are made up of many choices and experiences. To live fully, we have to accept the good and the bad. The Wishing Hill is a lovely read.

 

I promise you can't go wrong with any of these books. So, if you're hunting a good read to keep you comfortable during the long winter nights ahead, check them out!

 

I promise to not let eight months go by without another installment of mini-reviews. In fact, I hope to do one a month for a while...or more often. Happy reading! ;-)