Category Archives: Authors

Authors, Fiction, Reviews

Repost: Grand Klavan

Leave a comment

(Note: Phil has suggested that, in honor of Andrew Klavan’s new release, Empire of Lies (which I’m reading now with great pleasure), I should repost my previous reviews on his work. That sounds like a very wise and thoughtful suggestion, but–more important–it means less work for me. So herewith, from my entry for May 16, 2006 on the old blog site, is my first Klavan review. This one concentrates on his blockbusters, True Crime and Don’t Say a Word.)

Back in the 90s I discovered an excellent mystery writer named Keith Peterson. His novels about reporter John Wells were exciting and smart, but the thing I really loved about them was that Peterson created characters I could really care about. I think I’ve said this before (and I’m sure I’ll say it again) but sympathetic characters are the thing I most require in a book.

Then Peterson just disappeared. (Actually there were a couple more Peterson books, but I missed them). I looked wistfully now and then at my John Wells novels, which I’d hung on to.

Recently I did a web search on Keith Peterson and made a wonderful discovery. Keith Peterson was a nom de plume for Andrew Klavan, the big thriller writer.

That took me to the used bookstore, and… wow. I mean, wow. Continue reading Repost: Grand Klavan →

Authors

Sad note

Leave a comment

Autbor Thomas M. Disch has died by his own hand at age 68, according to Joseph Bottum at First Things.

Endlessly talented, Tom was always a difficult character, with strange edges and an awkward, unbalanced and finally unbearably sad life.

Update: For some reason, the link at First Things has disappeared, along with several of the most recent posts. Perhaps it’ll be back later. The report from Locus is here.

Authors

Hawthorne on Lincoln

Leave a comment

Nathaniel Hawthorne met Abraham Lincoln once upon a time:

There is no describing his lengthy awkwardness, nor the uncouthness of his movement. … He was dressed in a rusty black frock-coat and pantaloons, unbrushed, and worn so faithfully that the suit had adapted itself to the curves and angularities, and had grown to be an outer skin of the man. . . . The whole physiognomy is as coarse a one as you would meet anywhere in the length and breadth of the States; but, withal, it is redeemed, illuminated, softened, and brightened by a kindly though serious look out of his eyes.

Speaking of Hawthorne, I have an interview from Audible.com with authors Orson Scott Card and Ben Bova in which they fall into talking about American literacy. They said public schools failed to teach a love for reading by forcing children to read hard, bad writing and telling them the books they might like to read are inferior quality. Card said Hawthorne was never a good writer and shouldn’t be forced on unsuspecting students as good literature. He took a shot at Moby Dick too, which is just sacrilegious.

Perhaps he’s feeling a bit spunky due to the movie production and comic book series of Ender’s Game. Nah, he probably feels this spunky all the time.

Authors, Writing

Scanning Orwell for Semicolons

Leave a comment

Terry Teachout tells use that George Orwell “claimed to have written an entire novel, Coming Up for Air, that contains no semicolons whatsoever. ‘I had decided about this time that the semicolon is an unnecessary stop and that I would write my next book without one’ . . .” If you care about that dimmed elusive punctuation mark, read this post.

I confess that though I have used semicolons I often don’t see a tangible difference between using it and using a period. Do two short sentences change the meaning or impact of your words from what they would be in one long sentence bifurcated by a semicolon?

Authors

Convicted Murderer of ‘Curious George’ Writer

Leave a comment

Alan Shalleck, who brought Curious George to TV and helped edit 30 books with the character’s co-creator, Margret Ray, was horribly murdered at his home in Boynton Beach, Florida, two years ago. The first man confessed; the second was convicted this week.

Authors, Blogs, Socials

What Would Thomas Blog?

Leave a comment

Will is blogging Aquinas now.

The further conclusion is evident that God is eternal. For everything that begins to be or that ceases to be, is affected in this way through motion or change. But we have just shown that God is absolutely immobile. Consequently He is eternal.

That’s what Thomas would blog, if he had been so blessed. I’ll stop before I get sacrilegious.

Authors

Auralia’s Colors and Christy Awards

Leave a comment

Jeffery Overstreet’s fantasy Auralia’s Colors (which I swear I want to spell with a ‘u’ as in Colours–why?) has been nominated twice for Christy Awards this year. Be it either the First Novel and Visionary categories, Overstreet’s strong work likely win one of them. Bravo. I intend to review it here and have already submitted a positive review of it to Mallorn, the journal of the Tolkien Society in England. His next book, Cyndere’s Midnight, will be released this September.

Authors, Writing

Writing Out Indiana Jones

Leave a comment

Writer James Rollins, whose real name is Jim Czajkowski, is going to be novelizing the latest Indiana Jones movie. “A lot of my books have been compared to Indiana Jones in the past and they just approached me,” he said. “It was a blast. I read the script almost a year ago and security was major issue. I wasn’t allowed to take it home.”

He says his first book was rejected 49 times. “I still am shocked that I am at this stage and one of the reasons that I still practice as a vet once a month is that when people realize I can’t write I have my old profession to fall back on!”

And advice for would-be writers? “There is that old adage to write every day to be successful. I also believe it is important to read every night. By writing every day and reading every night my writing got stronger and stronger.”

Authors, Fiction

Shobhan Bantwal Fiction of India

Leave a comment

Author Shobhan Bantwal has two books with stories of brides and mothers struggling against dreadful cultural opposition to women. Her next novel, The Forbidden Daughter, opens:

“Oh, Lord, I beg of you.

I fall at your feet time and again.

In my next incarnation, don’t give me a daughter;

Give me hell instead . . .”

Authors, Religion

Norwegian Margit Sandemo in English

Leave a comment

The best-selling author of The Legend of the Ice People series is having the works translated into English now. From a Guardian interview linked from The Literary Saloon:

Her name automatically raises a lot of literary snobbery in Scandinavia – my Swedish friend, Helena, says that some libraries refused to stock Sandemo’s books (according to Sandemo, this was because they were worried people would steal them). The critics are not kind, but Sandemo says she doesn’t care. “Those people who think they know what taste people should have, they are difficult. ‘This is not a good book,’ they say. I don’t care if there are people who say it is not good literature, because I just think of my many readers who are more important.”

The interview describes some horrible events from Sandemo’s life, including her claim to having killed a man who atttempted to rape her at age 11 or 12. Perhaps her early trauma led her into the occult spirituality she appears to have now. Not that people have to have trauma like this to take up with demons, but it seems to be fertile ground for doing so.

Pardon me a moment for getting personal, but this interview reminds me of a story I read this morning. A woman said she had been sexually abused by her father and his team of Satanists in southern California several years ago. The details she gave are horrifying, but perhaps more horrifying than the details is the idea that such abusive men could be forgiven–that their sins could be passed over by the perfect judge and creator of the universe. And that’s what she said occured. Her father repented and asked her forgiveness as he lay dying in a hospital. How could the Lord forgive such men? Because everyone one of us is just a guilty as they are.

John Piper has a great message on Psalm 51, which deals with this idea near the beginning. The gospel, the love of God, is both shocking and fantastic.