Nicci Book Reviews, Literary, Writing

Book review, Poor Man’s Orange, Ruth Park

PoorMansOrange

Poor Man’s Orange is a touching and humanistic novel, the final installment of a family-saga trilogy published in 1949.

I avoided reading about the book ahead of time and experienced some surprises, such as discovering the book contained a hero and a heroine only deeply into the novel. I was also surprised and delighted to discover at the end I had just read an “Ugly Duckling” story.

Australian author Ruth Park uses vignettes to show life in the slums outside Sydney and through various character’s points of view. The biggest craft take-away for me was showing character through scene.

The environment rises to the level of character with its vibrant, detailed reality created through the reactions and coping mechanisms of the various characters. Park shows the absolute impossibility of keeping a clean house when impoverished. Mumma is burdened and defeated by filth, Roie destroyed by it. Dolour fights it, but of course she cannot defeat it. The most Dolour ever accomplishes is cleaning one small corner. Park manages to keep the heroine above the grip of the slum by showing us the unconquerable cleanliness of her spirit. But the inevitability of dirt reigns supreme in this book. The slum never gets cleaner, never improves, never changes, until the land owners, who have extracted every penny possible from these hardworking residents, cap their exploitation by knocking down their life-long homes for more profit.

Park shows Dolour through what and whom Dolour admires: The nuns who maintain inner tranquility and order amid chaos. In this tiny scene, Dolour and her friends wonder what the nuns take in the small travel valises that hold all their worldly possessions. Delour’s romantic sensibility is shown by contrasting her romantic guess with the cynical guesses of her friends.

Park also builds long character arcs like Charlie’s, whose story unfolds like a slow motion bungee jump. The reader wonders for pages and chapters about whether that rope is going to be the right length or will he slam headfirst into despair and ruin as do so many people in the slum.

I’ve talked about some craft technique here, but really this novel is a masterpiece of feelings. The feeling the author has for the characters and the feelings the reader has for them as well. Ruth Park made me understand and feel for these people who live in poverty as if they were my own family.

Nicci Book Reviews, Romance, Writing

Author interview, Cynthia Harrison

 

Today, we have author Cynthia Harrison.

Cynthia, welcome! Your background shows that you are a real book lover. You teach English, including creative writing, have written a manual on writing, and have written hundreds of reviews, features and short fiction. Have you written in other genres besides romance?

Cynthia Harrison: Yes, I started as a poet and short story writer.  I tried a few literary novels, a mystery, and a historical romance. They were practice books. Nothing felt right until I turned to contemporary love stories, novels of self-discovery, set in small towns.

NS: I know you also read outside the genre. What do you like about reading and writing romance?

CH: I like the parameters. I like working within a structure and twisting it for a bit of edge.

NS: Are you a pantser or a plotter?

CH: Pantser, to my dismay. I do begin plotting in earnest at about 30K words, but until then it’s whatever comes out of the fingertips that day.

NS: What is your favorite part about writing?

CH: I love losing myself in worlds that I can control, lol.

NS: What is the hardest part about writing?

CH: Finding the time and energy to keep going  when I really want to read a good book.

NS: How long have you been writing?

CH: 45 years. Junior high star journalist.

NS: What are your dreams for your writing?

CH: I love this series idea, because I love writing series. But, if I can finish and publish this one I’m writing now, the book of my heart, I’ll be satisfied.

Cynthia Harrison
Cynthia Harrison

To learn more about Cynthia:

Links cindy@cynthiaharrison.com

www.cynthiaharrison.com blogging for 11 years on A Writer’s Diary.

facebook fan page: Cynthia Harrison all.my.diaries

Twitter: @CynthiaHarriso1

Nicci Writing

Five ways to know if you’re a writer

The answer to the perennial question of when a writer who has not been published can call herself a writer, an answer which is often a total revelation, is: when you write.

I need more information, though! So I came up with a list of questions to which if you often answer yes, then I say you are a writer.

  • Do you have the tendency to become clinically depressed when your story isn’t working and you don’t know why?
  • Do you fall deeply in love with strangers for tweeting you?
  • When you’re online, do you long to write, but when you’re writing, long to be online?
  • Do you sometimes look in the mirror and say, “Why are you doing this?”
  • Are you secretly happy when it rains because it gives you the chance to stay inside and write?”

Thank you to everybody who supported me on my Goddess Fish Promotions + Romance Lives Forever (I secured that stop myself and it was so awesome) blog tour. 50 blog sites in four days, 108 (wonderful) comments, (all of whose names I need to enter on a  randomizing-list site for a raffle drawing), 50 amazing blog hostesses (all of whom I must thank for their pure awesomeness), who knows how many tweets, many new friends and much new knowledge, oh and shall I also state that between this support and some paid promo efforts to get the book listed on free book listing sites, The Last Straw went from:

1,125 in Kindle Free store

on day 1, T-zero

to:

410 on day 1, 7:33 PM, which is also when Amazon started reporting the category:

Kindle -> Kindle ebooks -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Romance -> Contemporary

In which it ranked 93. (Do they start reporting the category when you reach the top 100? Not sure. It could just be a timing thing.)

On the start of day 4, it hit:

38 in Kindle free

12 in Kindle -> Kindle ebooks -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Romance -> Contemporary

Wow. Not expected. A bunch of people actually read it already, too. HOORAY!

Nicci Netherlands, Travel, Writing

Goosed! Rijksmuseum series 4, give-away, and 5 more author questions

If you’ve been following my blog, you know I’m going to start using a tripod for my museum photos with a goal of doing a lot better job for you. But check out this magnificent painting at the Rijks:

Goosed

When I was in Amsterdam, I spent a lot of time on the houseboat doing digital painting (using a Bamboo digitizer and the Corel Painting Essentials software that came with it.) Here are the window I gazed out at from the dining room where I worked, my notes on the RGB numbers for the painting I was working on and the life drawing pose from the e-book of poses I bought.

My day of painting my view My day of painting notes on colors My day of painting May 16 2013

Painting, digital or otherwise is what I would call very difficult. (In the department of understatement, that.) I’ve abandoned all hope but my friends gave me a very unique suggestion that I never would have thought of on my own. Do art and piano as a way to relax, have fun and creatively rejuvenate. Instead of having goals. Wow. Okay, after hearing this alternative approach, I must admit, I’m excited to start fiddling around with these things again. I don’t have to achieve anything; I can just enjoy myself.

Here’s an example from a grand master. Check out the eye in this closeup of Rembrandt’s The Night Watch.

The Night Watch detail
The Night Watch detail

I answered questions 15 – 18 today at Long and Short Reviews. What is something you’ve lied about? What are 4 things you couldn’t live without? Which mythological creature are you most like? Create an ice cream flavor. What’s it called? Have fun, and good luck with the raffle!

Participant banner 200 2013 Anniversary copy

http://www.longandshortreviews.com/category/guest-blogs/

Nicci Keukenhof Gardens, Netherlands, Travel, Writing

Eye candy: Keukenhof Gardens series 16, give-away today and more answers, Long and Short Reviews anniversary party

Entry area 1 Dark purple and others

We’re doing questions 11 – 14 today on Long and Short Reviews. For some reason I didn’t answer the “What physical attribute do you find most sexy and why?” question but there are some fun answers there! And, of course, the raffle. Good luck!

Participant banner 200 2013 Anniversary copy

http://www.longandshortreviews.com/category/guest-blogs/

Nicci Paris, Travel, Writing

Life in Paris, giveaway and 20 author questions

Everyday life, Bocce Ball in the Champs de Mars
Everyday life, Bocce Ball in the Champs de Mars
Un chien is a lot like a dog.
Un chien is a lot like a dog.
A tourist (moi) at a cafe before tackling The Louvre
A tourist (moi) at a cafe before tackling The Louvre

Today is day 2 of a promo opportunity over at Long and Short Reviews. I answered these questions: Do you have a tatoo and if so, what? How do you make a tuna sandwich? A penguin walks through the door right now wearing a sombrero. What does he say and why is he here?

Participant banner 200 2013 Anniversary copy

http://www.longandshortreviews.com/category/guest-blogs/

Nicci Writing

A flower macro shot, give-away, and 20 questions

I learned how to turn on macro on my mini camera and it worked! It wasn’t difficult, but for some reason the option to turn it on wasn’t showing as available for a while. Yesterday it was working so I took some shots. But I have a question for you. I usually enhance all my photos because I feel that the camera washes things out. But in the case of flower macros, the photo looks good without enhancement and is pretty true-to-life. So do you think I should enhance them?

Orange flower unenhanced
Orange flower unenhanced
Orange flower enhanced
Orange flower enhanced

I am participating in a promo opportunity over at Long and Short Reviews. Over the next 5 days, I’ll tag this on at the end of my post. There is a big raffle with lots of giveaways and interesting answers from various authors. I answered one of the two questions posted today (Do you ever wish you were somebody else? Who? and Why?). I found the other authors’ answers really interesting, just seeing the spectrum of thoughts, some very creative ones and several who, like me, don’t want to be somebody else. I checked out a few authors who do have that wish and a few who don’t, thinking maybe the ones who are like me write contemporary like me and the ones who do imagine being someone else write speculative fiction. But there’s  no correlation. Anyway, interesting stuff. Check it out and maybe win something!

Participant banner 200 2013 Anniversary copy

http://www.longandshortreviews.com/category/guest-blogs/

Nicci Book Reviews, Romance, Writing

Inside the Artist’s Mind: interview series 1, Marie Tuhart

I have had the pleasure of getting to know some authors and artists in both my physical and virtual lives.

As someone with a lot of curiosity about such things, I’ve asked these artists about their processes. Today I’m going to start a new series and my first subject is Marie Tuhart, who writes erotic romance.

Marie, thank you for joining me and the readers of this blog today and sharing a bit about your process. I call you and the next author I plan to feature in this series “open spigot writers.”

Marie: Thanks for having me, Nia! Open spigot writer – I never thought of it that way.

Nia: Well, I have, because I’m more of the “Sit at the keyboard until beads of blood form on my forehead” type of writer! And over the years in conversations I’ve had with you I’ve marveled at how you can take a premise and spin out a story. In fact, readers, Marie helped me retool an old suspense story I had into a straight contemporary (with a touch of suspense) and that became my first published story, The Last Straw.

Marie: I used to be like that, Nia. It takes time to cultivate your writer’s mind.

Nia: That’s good news! Actually, I’m having a lot more spigot moments with my work in progress. So that is encouraging.

Marie: Because you know how to put a story together.

Nia: It’s starting to come together for me. My learning process is… somewhat… slow… but that’s okay. I usually eventually get there. But back to you. Do you have a process and if so, how did you develop your process?

Marie: In a way, it helped me not to have published until I was almost ready to retire because it gave me time to learn what really worked for me.

Nia: Where do you get your ideas?

Marie: Oh geeze, I have no clue where I get my ideas. Actually I do know how More Than One Night came about.

Nia: Do tell!

Marie: Basically, I was trying to write for Harlequin Desire and they wanted flirty fun with friends books.

So I thought about what if four girlfriends went out to celebrate a birthday and one of them went off with a handsome stranger for one night. The story just took off from there.

Nia: Wow. You’re kind of a “What if…” author. See, that’s super interesting because I’m not.

Marie: Sometimes. When something comes to me, it’s not always a “what if” question. Like with Theirs Forever, I just thought what fun it would be to have two guys and a gal come back together after seven years. The story came from that thought.  I really don’t think “what if”, my brain supplies it.

Nia: (Note: Theirs Forever is a work in progress. To learn more about Marie’s WIPs, click here.) So a thought comes out of the blue?

Marie: Yes, out of left and right fields, so to speak. Silver Screen Dom was sort of the same way. Michael is a secondary character in Movie Magic and I thought it would be fun to give him his own story. No plot, no what if.

Nia: When do the ideas come to you? While washing dishes, driving, showering?

Marie: Ideas come to me at all different times.

Nia: Do you have some examples?

Marie: Walking, sleeping, just sitting and people watching.  In the doctor’s office, waiting in line. Those are some examples.

Nia: With your work in progress, did you get the idea first, the heroine first or the first scene first?

Marie: Actually the hero was first, then I found a heroine that fit him. The first scene was kind of organic, the hero was supposed to be one way and the heroine the other, but she didn’t like that, so the hero and I let her have her way!

Nia: That’s really interesting. So the characters have free will, a little or a lot!

Marie: Oh yes, my characters act on their own a lot of times.  They tell me what they will and will not do, LOL!

Nia: Do you write up character sheets about them or are they just born and developed in your mind and on the manuscript page?

Marie: It depends.  Sometimes I do character sheets, but at least 75% of the time they’re just born and developed in my mind and in the book. This approach can create a lot of re-writing, but it’s more fun to let the characters reveal themselves.

Nia: Did that change? Like when you started you did more sheets and then you changed to repeat drafting and organic writing?

Marie: Yes, when I first started writing, I did a lot of character sheets, plotting, etc. Now it is more organic, as I learned what works for me as a writer. But the more complicated a book is the more I need to keep track of stuff.

Nia: Thank you, Marie! I have a lot of wonder about the magic behind the book, so thank you for sharing today!

Marie: You’re welcome! It’s hard sometimes to figure out what the creative process actually is. And it’s important to remember there’s no “right” way. Everybody is different. Discovering your own process is a large part of the work.

Nia: Thanks for your closing comment and for all your reassurance and encouragement. B

I’ve also interviewed New York Times Bestselling author Brenda Novak, and although the interview didn’t focus on process, the topic did come up. So if you’d like to check that out, it’s on my Book Reviews page or here’s a direct link: When Summer Comes, Brenda Novak.