Saturday, March 3, 2012
Joyce Yarrow Reads
from CODE OF THIEVES
Read an interview with Joyce Yarrow ("From Crime-Ridden Bronx to Crime-Ridden Mystery Novels") here.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Joyce Yarrow: From the Crime-Ridden Bronx to Crime-Ridden Mystery Novels
Istoria Books is thrilled to release Joyce Yarrow's mystery, Code of Thieves (originally titled The Last Matryoshka in hardcover), this March. Here Joyce talks about her life, her PI brother, her writing, and her thoughts on "place as character":
Tell us about your writing journey -- when you started, if you always wanted to write mystery, what led you to mystery writing.
My own writing juices began to flow when I discovered the music hidden within words. I set William Blake’s poem, “Infant Sorrow” to a melody with guitar accompaniment and went on to become a full-fledged singer-songwriter, with many side journeys into poetry published in short-lived magazines. Wonderful days! When I moved to Los Angeles, I got caught up in the film world and was hired to script narration for a documentary (my first gig as a professional writer). This meant sitting in the editing room and “writing to picture,” a great discipline for a writer—you have to let the visuals speak for themselves and use words merely to enrich the viewer’s experience.
You have a brother who was a P.I. Your protagonist, Jo Epstein, is a P.I. Did you rely on your brother heavily for background?
Many years ago, in Los Angeles, an elderly Italian man came to see me. He said he thought his wife was cheating on him. She was always late coming home from work and wouldn’t tell him where she’d been. He handed me a photo I assumed would show off his ‘trophy wife,’ some kind of blonde bombshell. Instead I saw a swarthy, short, very plump woman dressed in black.
The next evening, I waited at the sewing factory for end of the shift. When the doors opened, out came what seemed like hundreds of short, plump women, all dressed in black. It was impossible to pick out his wife.
The next day, I bought a box of chocolates and asked the security guard to give it to Mrs. __ when she came out. The strategy worked and I followed her out the gate. She went to a church where a bingo game was in progress. And as it turned out, she went to a different church every night to play bingo. Her husband disapproved of gambling but was immensely relieved to find out that bingo, rather than infidelity, was the reason for his wife’s strange behavior.
Code of Thieves takes place in Russia, as well as New York. Tell me a little about your trip to Russia for research, how much of it made its way into the book.
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In addition to the prison, almost every place we visited in Russia made its way into Code of Thieves. Lena’s apartment in Moscow, the Monastery of St. Euthimius and the Matryoshka factory in Suzdal, the headquarters of the Moscow Criminal Police at 38 Petrovka Street, the chaos at Sheremetyevo International Airport, even the disco of the Vladimir Hotel. The trip was invaluable . So was Google Earth, which I used to explore many settings in Code of Thieves that I did not visit personally.
Scandal’s was like a woman who dressed down every night, progressively shedding her layers of respectability. For dinner she wore her business clothes—hosting those who were out to impress a client with trendy insider dining and phony “I bumped into so-and-so” stories. The poetry slam loosened things up—definitely casual—but some basic coherence was still required to deliver words from the stage. It was after hours when Scandal’s jettisoned her inhibitions and stripped to her undies, sleek lingerie, thongs, whatever was handy. At that point it was my job to prevent bad things from happening—to keep an eye on what went on in the bathrooms that wasn’t related to hygiene, to listen for voices that crossed the boundary from boisterous to confrontational, and to make sure it was the drinks, and not the police, that kept coming.
Who are your favorite mystery writers/series?
Tell us about your writing journey -- when you started, if you always wanted to write mystery, what led you to mystery writing.
Joyce: Ah, my writing journey. Most writers start as readers. The public library was just a few blocks from our apartment in the Bronx and was definitely the safest place in our crime-ridden neighborhood, where gangs rumbled every night and even walking to school could prove perilous.
I loved writing for film and TV, but the cleaner my prose grew the more I wanted to try my hand at writing a book in which words would be allowed to breathe. The gap between writing scripts and short stories to authoring novels seemed impossibly wide and I wondered if I could close the distance by writing a mystery novel. The mystery genre is highly structured and requires strong characters, a tight plot that builds suspense, and a satisfying solution at the end—at least I would not get lost in the wilderness of literary fiction (that came later). An avid mystery reader, I was a total neophyte when it came to mystery categories. So when my first book, Ask the Dead, was published and hailed as Bronx Noir, I had to look up noir to make sure I knew what that meant.
You are a Bronx native. Can you tell me a little about what growing up there was like? How'd you land in Seattle?
Joyce: I vividly remember reading The Little Princess at the age of eight. Growing up in the Southeast Bronx, it was easy to relate to a heroine who survived by living entirely in her imagination. We lived on a street that had the highest crime rate in New York (no kidding!). Being observant was also a prerequisite for survival. I think this vigilance on my part gave me some foundational skills as a writer – I became a people watcher at an early age out of necessity.
I’ve sampled life in places all around the country and settled in Seattle because of the supportive scene here for artists of all kinds. The Northwest has much natural beauty and is also a great place to raise a family. Not to mention the plentiful micro-breweries…
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| A matryoshka (pronounced ma-TROO-shkah) |
Joyce: My brother Rick has carefully reviewed my books for accuracy about the P.I. lifestyle. It irks him that in so many books the P.I.’s end up not being paid. I was only 14 when Rick finished criminology school and was hired to conduct his first surveillance—a warehouse in New Jersey. I begged him to take me with him and we still laugh about that. Maybe that night was the genesis for my becoming a mystery writer – I wanted to find out what I had missed!
Can you tell us any funny/interesting stories your brother shared with you about being a P.I.?
Joyce: My brother is the soul of discretion – a prerequisite for staying employed as a P.I. However, Rick did share the following story with me recently:
Many years ago, in Los Angeles, an elderly Italian man came to see me. He said he thought his wife was cheating on him. She was always late coming home from work and wouldn’t tell him where she’d been. He handed me a photo I assumed would show off his ‘trophy wife,’ some kind of blonde bombshell. Instead I saw a swarthy, short, very plump woman dressed in black.
The next evening, I waited at the sewing factory for end of the shift. When the doors opened, out came what seemed like hundreds of short, plump women, all dressed in black. It was impossible to pick out his wife.
The next day, I bought a box of chocolates and asked the security guard to give it to Mrs. __ when she came out. The strategy worked and I followed her out the gate. She went to a church where a bingo game was in progress. And as it turned out, she went to a different church every night to play bingo. Her husband disapproved of gambling but was immensely relieved to find out that bingo, rather than infidelity, was the reason for his wife’s strange behavior.
Code of Thieves takes place in Russia, as well as New York. Tell me a little about your trip to Russia for research, how much of it made its way into the book.
Joyce: I have been accused of becoming a novelist simply to justify my wanderlust. The trip to Russia with my teenage son was the epitome of mind-expanding adventure. We stayed in what was once a communal apartment in Moscow and Ian never complained about the lumpy bed or the bland food. But when we entered Vladimir Central Prison and the doors clanged shut behind us , he turned to me and said, “Mom, this is not the usual tourist experience, is it?”
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The settings in Code of Thieves -- both Russia and New York, but especially Russia -- are so strongly portrayed you can almost hear balalaika music in the background! Tell me a little about why such strong settings are important to you as a writer, how they almost become a separate character in your books.
Joyce: Like a bass player in a band, a story’s setting plays an essential role that is often not fully appreciated. How can one tell a credible tale without including geographical and cultural details that reveal personality and create atmosphere?
Scandals, the New York nightclub where Jo Epstein exchanges security services for rent, is a “person” as much as a place. As Jo puts it:
Scandal’s was like a woman who dressed down every night, progressively shedding her layers of respectability. For dinner she wore her business clothes—hosting those who were out to impress a client with trendy insider dining and phony “I bumped into so-and-so” stories. The poetry slam loosened things up—definitely casual—but some basic coherence was still required to deliver words from the stage. It was after hours when Scandal’s jettisoned her inhibitions and stripped to her undies, sleek lingerie, thongs, whatever was handy. At that point it was my job to prevent bad things from happening—to keep an eye on what went on in the bathrooms that wasn’t related to hygiene, to listen for voices that crossed the boundary from boisterous to confrontational, and to make sure it was the drinks, and not the police, that kept coming.
Why did you decide to make Jo a poet? It's such an unusual combination -- poet and P.I. Were you tipping your hat to other famous investigators with unusual hobbies (Sherlock Holmes and the violin, for example)?
Joyce: I had no idea I was going to write about a poet/detective. Until one night at the Sit ‘n Spin (a bar in Seattle that shared space with a Laundromat), the Slam MC started ad-libbing on stage. Her street-smart wisecracks, mixed with erudite comments on performance poetry and rabble-rousing quips, got me to thinking. What if she were actually a private investigator moonlighting as a poet? I got out my notebook and Jo Epstein was born.
Joyce: I teach workshops on The Place of Place in Mystery Writing, and some of the mystery writers I feature who consistently create memorable settings are Raymond Chandler, John D. MacDonald, and Kate Atkinson. And of course Georges Simenon—Inspector Maigret is Paris. I also read a lot of non-genre fiction and lately many Indian authors, such as Kiran Desai, whose sense of place is so palpable you can touch, taste and smell the atmosphere in every paragraph.
Will readers be seeing more of Jo Epstein?
Joyce: Maybe.
________
Code of Thieves by Joyce Yarrow (Istoria Books, March 2012)
Full-time private investigator/part-time poet Jo Epstein travels to New York and eventually to Russia to help clear her emigre stepfather of a murder rap and to discover who is sending him threatening messages in the form of Russian nesting dolls (mastryoshkas). Her journey takes her to dark places in her stepfather's background and in Russia's history as it shrugged off the weight of communism and embraced a frightening new freedom. Hear Joyce read a snippet from the book here.
- "Intricately layered like the Russian nested doll..." Library Journal
- "You'll want to discover the secrets buried in (Code of Thieves)..." Lesa Holstine, Lesa's Book Critiques
- "Joyce Yarrow....may very well prove herself to be the Mickey Spillane of the 21st century...." Seattle Post Intelligencer
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
PRESS RELEASE:
Two Russian-Themed Novels Acquired!
January 31, 2012
ISTORIA BOOKS ACQUIRES DIGITAL RIGHTS
TO TWO RUSSIAN-THEMED NOVELS:
Joyce Yarrow’s mystery: The Last Matryoshka
and
Russian native Mary Fisherov's historical love story: Love’s Destiny Foretold
Istoria Books, a digital publisher dedicated to releasing “eBooks You Want to Read at Prices You Want to Pay” ™ has recently acquired digital rights to two novels, both with Russian elements.
Istoria will publish Joyce Yarrow’s mystery, The Last Matryoshka, in early March 2012. The Last Matryoshka was released in hardcover by Five Star/Cengage in December 2010. A mystery as layered as the Russian nesting doll of its title, The Last Matryoshka follows a poetry-writing P.I. as she attempts to keep her Russian émigré stepfather from being fingered for murder. Action in the book takes place in both Brooklyn and Moscow. Library Journal has praised The Last Matryoshka, calling it an “intricately layered tale of vengeance and hatred flavored with a Russian cultural backdrop…”
Yarrow is a Pushcart nominee, whose stories and poems have been widely published. Her first book, Ask the Dead (Martin Brown 2005) was selected by The Poisoned Pen as a Recommended First Novel and hailed as “Bronx noir.” A Bronx native, she now lives in Seattle and gives regular workshops on the use of place in novels. Yarrow is represented by Stephanie Rostan of Levine and Greenberg Literary Agency.
In May 2012, Istoria will release Love’s Destiny Foretold by Russian native Mary Fisherov. A sweeping historical love story that brings together an exiled Russian countess, an opera singer, and a world-traveling playboy in the slums and mansions of late nineteenth-century New York City, Love’s Destiny Foretold is a combination of delicious action and witty surprises, for fans of larger-than-life storytelling, epic romance, and some sly satires of contemporary Russian government. Fisherov lampoons Prime Minister Putin and President Medvedev through two Russian agents in her novel.
Fisherov is an internationally published writer of literary fiction whose novels have been translated into German, Spanish, and French. She has been awarded several literary prizes in her native Russia. Love’s Destiny Foretold is her first work in English.
Fisherov, who comes from a literary family, is on the Classics faculty of a California state university.
ABOUT ISTORIA:
Istoria Books, founded in 2010, publishes fiction in a variety of genres: romance, women’s fiction, historical, literary, mystery, thriller, sci-fi, fantasy, young adult. Submission guidelines are available at their website--www.IstoriaBooks.com
Istoria Books releases are available on all major ebook etailers, most notably Amazon’s Kindle store, Smashwords.com and Bn.com, in addition to others.
A humorous piece by Istoria Editor-in-Chief Libby Sternberg about the evolution to the Kindle (“From Papyrus to Gutenberg to Kindle”) was published by the Wall Street Journal on January 5, 2011.
Reviewers interested in Istoria Books offerings should contact Libby Sternberg at LibbyMalinSternberg@gmail.com or IstoriaBks@gmail.com
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Friday, December 2, 2011
The Iconic Cowboy: The Virginian
by Libby Sternberg
When I decided to write a western historical, I have to admit to having The Virginian on my mind. Not the exact details of the story—no, I wasn’t interested in re-creating that. I knew I wouldn’t be able to come close to what Wister had achieved.
But I did want to place an iconic cowboy and a strong-willed, if troubled, woman in a setting where they’d both have to deal with moral questions that challenged their principled views of the world. Thus, my novel Kit Austen’s Journey was born, the tale of a woman trying to escape her past to start a new life only to realize that she cannot stop herself from falling in love, especially when the object of her affection is the archetypal western man—strong, resolute and kind.
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Readers can find Kit Austen's Journey for Kindle here, for Nook here, and for other ereaders here. It is now also available in print.
The Virginian is available for free from Istoria Books. Go to our website at www.IstoriaBooks.com and look for the "Free Favorites" section
My first encounter with The Virginian was the television show of the same name back in the 1960s, the one with James Drury in the title role and Doug McClure as his pal, Trampas.
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| The Virginian, TV style |
His pal? In the book, Trampas is The Virginian’s adversary, not his friend.
But I didn’t make that shocking discovery until thirty-some years after the TV show, at a period in my life when I was reading absorbing old stories I’d passed over during my teen years. The first in this reading journey was Catherine Marshall’s Christy set a few decades after The Virginian, not in the wilds of Wyoming but in the equally foreign (to me) terrain of the Smoky Mountains.
Both stories have similar themes, however. They deal with questions of morality in the face of lawlessness. The heroines of both books have to reconcile their church-and-school-learned views on right and wrong with the reality of wrongdoers. The heros in both books have to actually deal with the wrongdoers. In the Virginian’s case, action involves painful decisions.
I swooned over the Virginian and his romance with the feisty schoolteacher Molly, two strong characters from opposite backgrounds. She was educated; he was not. She was at ease in society; he was not. They both shared a principled view of the world. His views, however, were put to the test, while hers were tested only by reflection.
Owen Wister masterfully built up their attraction by first building strong characters. From the moment readers encounter the Virginian, they are fascinated by him. He’s the iconic cowboy—strong, fair, a doer, not a talker. Molly, the woman he comes to woo, is equally strong, though, but in different ways. Her character unfolds with relentless drive, as steady and forceful as the train that first takes her from Bennington, Vermont on her journey west.
Bennington—I knew at least part of that journey. Not too long after reading The Virginian, my family moved to Vermont. But I made regular train trips back to my native Maryland, probably following some of the same tracks as Molly on the very first part of her fictional passage to a new life beyond her staid New England existence.
The first time I read the book I became so swept away in the romance at its core that other parts of the story remained in memory’s shadows. Only later when I reread the novel did I become aware of its historical aspects—the Johnson County range wars, the fight against corruption, the moral ambiguities involved in striving for freedom and independence.
Nothing summed up that latter theme better than the final dramatic passages in the book, involving, of course, a shootout of High Noon proportions. I don’t think I give anything away by reproducing part of the argument between the Virginian and Molly just minutes before this scene. It encapsulates the moral debate running through the book:
“I am not going to let him shoot me,” he said quietly.“You mean—you mean—but you can come away!” she cried. “It’s not too late yet. You can take yourself out of his reach. Everybody knows that you are brave. What is he to you? You can leave him in this place. I’ll go with you anywhere. To any house, to the mountains, to anywhere away. We’ll leave this horrible place together and—and—oh, won’t you listen to me?” She stretched her hands to him. “Won’t you listen?”He took her hands. “I must stay here.”Her hands clung to his. “No, no, no. There’s something else. There’s something better than shedding blood in cold blood. Only think what it means! Only think of having to remember such a thing! Why, it’s what they hang people for! It’s murder!”He dropped her hands. “Don’t call it that name,” he said sternly.“When there was the choice!” she exclaimed, half to herself, like a person stunned and speaking to the air. “To get ready for it when you have the choice!”“He did the choosing,” answered the Virginian. “Listen to me. Are you listening?” he asked, for her gaze was dull.She nodded.“I work hyeh. I belong hyeh. It’s my life. If folks came to think I was a coward—”“Who would think you were a coward?”“Everybody. My friends would be sorry and ashamed, and my enemies would walk around saying they had always said so. I could not hold up my head again among enemies or friends.”“When it was explained—”“There’d be nothing to explain. There’d just be the fact.” He was nearly angry.“There is a higher courage than fear of outside opinion,” said the New England girl.Her Southern lover looked at her. “Cert’nly there is. That’s what I’m showing in going against yours.”
As I reread and absorbed the themes of the story, I became newly appreciative of Owen Wister’s craft. He’d taken a real part of American history and fictionalized it. In doing so, he probably made it more real to readers than a dry examination of the facts of that time, especially of the gray shades between all those white and black hats. That’s the beauty and power of fiction—to make reality… more real.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Tell Us Your "Going Home" Story
Jerri Corgiat explores this theme in her five-book family saga, Love Finds a Home. Set in small town Missouri, the series follows a generation of sisters as they navigate life and yearn for love. They search in the context of an extended family, with all the personalities and baggage, comfort and stress that go with it. But for all of them, finding love is an act of finding family, of going home.
Istoria Books invites you to share your "homecoming" experiences. Post a comment featuring a favorite memory of your own "coming home" story. Tell us what going home means to you. We will share the responses with our friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter. On Facebook, look here; on Twitter, keep an eye on #istoriabooks.
Monday, October 3, 2011
A Grandmother Speaks Again To Her Grandchildren and the World
The Old Ashburn Place by Margaret Flint won the Dodd Mead Pictorial Review Best First Novel of 1935 prize, and the author went on to write numerous other books. Several of the authors' grandchildren -- Leslie S. Lebl, Sara M. Barnacle and Istoria President Matthew T. Sternberg -- worked to bring The Old Ashburn Place to 21st century readers after Ms. Flint's novels went out of print. It is now available as an ebook through Istoria Books. Below is a roundtable discussion among the three grandchildren about their grandmother and this project. Matthew and Leslie are siblings; Sara is their cousin.
Did you read The Old Ashburn Place or any of your grandmother's novels in print?
MTS: I must admit that until we started this project, the only of Grandma's books I had read was Dress Right, Dress, which I picked up shortly after my mother's death in 2002. I was interested in it because Mom was the model for one of the characters. The Flint books were always on the shelf and I always knew what they were, but they somehow seemed remote -- of another time -- and it didn't occur to me that perhaps they held meaning for me.
LSL: I read most of them when I was a teenager -- and didn't care for them very much. In retrospect, that's hardly surprising, as Grandma's focus was on adult dilemmas. I thought then that she was too pessimistic; now I find her depictions spot-on.
SMB: I read two or three when I was still living in my parents' home, but it wasn't until I inherited my mother's complete collection at her passing in 1999 that I read through them all. My mother read the whole cycle every year. She had been her mother's secretary and research assistant, yes, and household help, up until she went into the WAC. For her, the novels were a very real connection to her own early life and especially to her mother. After reading the novels for myself, I became interested in seeing if any regional publishers would like to republish them. Not. My mother made a scrapbook of her mother's newspapers articles, and I enjoyed reading them -- short vignettes about life in Maine.
When do you remember learning your grandmother was a prize-winning novelist? Did your mother tell you?
MTS: Mom told me about the prize early on. I don't specifically remember when. She said that style of novel caught on in the '30s but eventually went out of style. That was the reason she gave for all the books being tightly bunched chronologically with nothing before or after. She also said the publisher had gone bankrupt, although I don't if that's fully accurate, as Dodd Mead didn't go out of business for many more years.
LSL: Mother told us about Grandma's prize, but also that her life was difficult, despite that success, especially after Grandpa died.
SMB: As far back as my mother could remember, she recalled the clack of her mother's typewriter at night. Margaret Flint got fired up to be a writer in college. She later took a short story writing course but experienced straight rejections for years and years. Her first attempt at a novel was the big success. I suppose my mother or one of the aunts must have told me about it, but the knowledge of the prize has always just been part of my family consciousness.
Did you ever see your grandmother at work writing? Did she ever talk about her life as an author/novelist with any of you or in your presence?
MTS: I was only five when Grandma died. I remember her as a remote and severe elder, although that was probably just the perspective of a shy child responding to a much older authority figure. The only thing I remember her talking to me about was telling me to behave myself.
LSL: My memories are similar to Matthew's. Although I was a few years older, I was completely intimidated by Grandma.
SMB: My grandmother's typewriter sat on a big office desk in the corner of her living room. Although she would put away her work when we appeared, we were well aware of her work. Perhaps because we lived nearby and could drop in for many short visits instead of one long vacation each year, my recollection of Margaret Flint is very different from Matthew's and Leslie's. For my brother and sister and me, she was the "Ga-dee" of hugs and cookies. She took real interest in our doings and sayings. She read stories to us at the fireside. She definitely had high standards, in housekeeping, morals, and kid behavior, but Ralph and Beth and I knew how to fly beneath her radar. I don't mean we did sneaky things (okay, except learning how to silently lift the lid on the fudge jar). We felt it was such a privilege to be at her house that we just chose to be good. It boils down to basics, too. At that time, my parents' house did not yet have indoor bathroom plumbing, but Gad-dee had not only a bathroom with a deep, clawfoot tub and aromatic soap, but she had a lavatory just off the kitchen hallway. It was Ralph and Sara in Wonderland when we visited her. I think our relationship was also colored by the fact that there were conflicts between our grandmother and the ambitious and passionate aunts, but my easy-going mother and her ambitious, passionate mother were pals. What I knew about Margaret Flint's ongoing writing I picked up from being a little pitcher with big ears.
Did you hear her voice when you read The Old Ashburn Place?
MTS: I don't hear her voice because I don't remember her voice. What I hear is my mother and her two sisters. We often visited Grandma in Maine in the summers. I was always attracted by the northern New England accents. Add to that the Yankee mindset, and the book brings back all sorts of memories.
LSL: The oddest thing is not that I hear her voice, but that in her descriptions of nature, I hear my own. I feel as if she's seeing the landscape with my eyes -- something I've never felt before. So I wonder if I wouldn't have enjoyed knowing her as an adult.
SMB: Like Leslie, I can barely distinguish her love for that part of Maine from my own. Being a little older than Leslie and Matthew and having grown up in the hood, I knew or knew about a number of the people, places, and situations which show up in the books. I have a feeling that as I turn the pages, my grandmother will appear as a character, as I knew her.
As you worked on the novel, can you describe what it meant to you to be involved in this project?
MTS: It meant many things on both the emotional and intellectual levels. We are preserving a literary snapshot of a time and place that meant much to the formulation of my family and which would otherwise be lost as the technology of reading evolves. We are preserving the memory of a family matriarch. As we charge into the 21st century, I didn't want the world to lose sight of that piece of the 20th century. Perhaps as I get older myself, I'm more aware of what it will mean to eventually be forgotten. I'm not claiming that our project is a profound cultural event, just that an important era in our family life should not be forgotten. Only one of my mother's five siblings is still alive.
LSL: I agree with Matthew's observations, but for me, it was just fun to discover how well-written and compelling the story was, and how fresh it felt. I think digital publishing is going to make available all kinds of literary treasures that up to now have been confined to the far reaches of a few libraries.
SMB: Many family members over the years have wished for this moment, when Margaret's influence as a writer would be extended. I am thrilled that Matthew and Libby (Sternberg, Istoria's editor-in-chief) finally found the right way to do it, and did it, and included Leslie and me.
The Old Ashburn Place was published in 1936 -- the same year Gone With the Wind, Absalom, Absalom, We, the Living and other well-known novels were released. What do you think its place is in the history of literature?
MTS: That remains to be seen. Mother always said Grandma's problem was that the market changed and her style of fiction went out of style. I'm sure that's so. As was pointed out in one of the literary analyses of the book, the Depression spawned a movement to return to the simplicity of rural life. Grandma caught that wave and rode it for a while. Then America entered the post-war era and the 1950s, and society was off in another direction. However, reading the book after all these years, I can't help but wonder if maybe we've come full circle. Maybe this view of a man (Charlie Ashburn) trying to live his life according to clean ideals while stumbling over all the barriers imposed by human nature will speak to an audience seeking to redefine values in the very confusing world of today.
LSL: No idea!
SMB: I second both responses. As long as humans are interested in the doings of their fellow humans, there should be readers for Flint novels.
Did the novel tell you something you didn't know about your grandmother?
MTS: Working on the book also gave me a much-belated insight into who my grandmother really was. Because I remembered her as judgemental (again, perhaps the false memory of a small child), I always assumed her worldview was insular. It wasn't. She saw people as they were -- warts and all -- and captured them in her writing. She wrote about real people in a real world. I now see her in an entirely different light.
LSL: I think Grandma would fit right in with the 21st century view that no subjects should be off limits.
SMB: For me, knowing my grandmother influenced my reading of her novels. As her six children left home, she kept all their letters home. Although that collection was broken up at her passing, when her house changed hands within the family, I have had opportunity to read many of them and learn something of the adult joys and clashes that may not have penetrated a child's field of vision.
Why should contemporary audiences read The Old Ashburn Place?
MTS: As mentioned above, although the story is set a century ago, the struggle to live a clean life in the face of human frailty is eternal. Books may be changing from paper to electrons but love stays the same. Our world has gotten more "modern" and "advanced," but we would be fools to think that human nature has changed one iota. I think people are sensing that. My hope is that they will see in Charlie Ashburn glimpses of the spiritual struggle we all still go through generations later.
LSL: I think today's readers should read it for pure enjoyment. It's a good story, as relevant today as it was when it first appeared. The insight into a specific region at a specific point in time is just an added benefit.
SMB: Because they are good reads. They tackle serious issues in a forthright but compassionate way.
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The Old Ashburn Place by Margaret Flint is available now for Kindle and Nook. Read more about the author and this book at the Istoria Books website and contact us at IstoriaBks@gmail.com or sign up for our mailing list here (the subscription box is in the margin!).
Did you read The Old Ashburn Place or any of your grandmother's novels in print?
MTS: I must admit that until we started this project, the only of Grandma's books I had read was Dress Right, Dress, which I picked up shortly after my mother's death in 2002. I was interested in it because Mom was the model for one of the characters. The Flint books were always on the shelf and I always knew what they were, but they somehow seemed remote -- of another time -- and it didn't occur to me that perhaps they held meaning for me.
LSL: I read most of them when I was a teenager -- and didn't care for them very much. In retrospect, that's hardly surprising, as Grandma's focus was on adult dilemmas. I thought then that she was too pessimistic; now I find her depictions spot-on.
SMB: I read two or three when I was still living in my parents' home, but it wasn't until I inherited my mother's complete collection at her passing in 1999 that I read through them all. My mother read the whole cycle every year. She had been her mother's secretary and research assistant, yes, and household help, up until she went into the WAC. For her, the novels were a very real connection to her own early life and especially to her mother. After reading the novels for myself, I became interested in seeing if any regional publishers would like to republish them. Not. My mother made a scrapbook of her mother's newspapers articles, and I enjoyed reading them -- short vignettes about life in Maine.
When do you remember learning your grandmother was a prize-winning novelist? Did your mother tell you?
MTS: Mom told me about the prize early on. I don't specifically remember when. She said that style of novel caught on in the '30s but eventually went out of style. That was the reason she gave for all the books being tightly bunched chronologically with nothing before or after. She also said the publisher had gone bankrupt, although I don't if that's fully accurate, as Dodd Mead didn't go out of business for many more years.
LSL: Mother told us about Grandma's prize, but also that her life was difficult, despite that success, especially after Grandpa died.
SMB: As far back as my mother could remember, she recalled the clack of her mother's typewriter at night. Margaret Flint got fired up to be a writer in college. She later took a short story writing course but experienced straight rejections for years and years. Her first attempt at a novel was the big success. I suppose my mother or one of the aunts must have told me about it, but the knowledge of the prize has always just been part of my family consciousness.
Did you ever see your grandmother at work writing? Did she ever talk about her life as an author/novelist with any of you or in your presence?
MTS: I was only five when Grandma died. I remember her as a remote and severe elder, although that was probably just the perspective of a shy child responding to a much older authority figure. The only thing I remember her talking to me about was telling me to behave myself.
LSL: My memories are similar to Matthew's. Although I was a few years older, I was completely intimidated by Grandma.
SMB: My grandmother's typewriter sat on a big office desk in the corner of her living room. Although she would put away her work when we appeared, we were well aware of her work. Perhaps because we lived nearby and could drop in for many short visits instead of one long vacation each year, my recollection of Margaret Flint is very different from Matthew's and Leslie's. For my brother and sister and me, she was the "Ga-dee" of hugs and cookies. She took real interest in our doings and sayings. She read stories to us at the fireside. She definitely had high standards, in housekeeping, morals, and kid behavior, but Ralph and Beth and I knew how to fly beneath her radar. I don't mean we did sneaky things (okay, except learning how to silently lift the lid on the fudge jar). We felt it was such a privilege to be at her house that we just chose to be good. It boils down to basics, too. At that time, my parents' house did not yet have indoor bathroom plumbing, but Gad-dee had not only a bathroom with a deep, clawfoot tub and aromatic soap, but she had a lavatory just off the kitchen hallway. It was Ralph and Sara in Wonderland when we visited her. I think our relationship was also colored by the fact that there were conflicts between our grandmother and the ambitious and passionate aunts, but my easy-going mother and her ambitious, passionate mother were pals. What I knew about Margaret Flint's ongoing writing I picked up from being a little pitcher with big ears.
Did you hear her voice when you read The Old Ashburn Place?
MTS: I don't hear her voice because I don't remember her voice. What I hear is my mother and her two sisters. We often visited Grandma in Maine in the summers. I was always attracted by the northern New England accents. Add to that the Yankee mindset, and the book brings back all sorts of memories.
LSL: The oddest thing is not that I hear her voice, but that in her descriptions of nature, I hear my own. I feel as if she's seeing the landscape with my eyes -- something I've never felt before. So I wonder if I wouldn't have enjoyed knowing her as an adult.
SMB: Like Leslie, I can barely distinguish her love for that part of Maine from my own. Being a little older than Leslie and Matthew and having grown up in the hood, I knew or knew about a number of the people, places, and situations which show up in the books. I have a feeling that as I turn the pages, my grandmother will appear as a character, as I knew her.
As you worked on the novel, can you describe what it meant to you to be involved in this project?
MTS: It meant many things on both the emotional and intellectual levels. We are preserving a literary snapshot of a time and place that meant much to the formulation of my family and which would otherwise be lost as the technology of reading evolves. We are preserving the memory of a family matriarch. As we charge into the 21st century, I didn't want the world to lose sight of that piece of the 20th century. Perhaps as I get older myself, I'm more aware of what it will mean to eventually be forgotten. I'm not claiming that our project is a profound cultural event, just that an important era in our family life should not be forgotten. Only one of my mother's five siblings is still alive.
LSL: I agree with Matthew's observations, but for me, it was just fun to discover how well-written and compelling the story was, and how fresh it felt. I think digital publishing is going to make available all kinds of literary treasures that up to now have been confined to the far reaches of a few libraries.
SMB: Many family members over the years have wished for this moment, when Margaret's influence as a writer would be extended. I am thrilled that Matthew and Libby (Sternberg, Istoria's editor-in-chief) finally found the right way to do it, and did it, and included Leslie and me.
The Old Ashburn Place was published in 1936 -- the same year Gone With the Wind, Absalom, Absalom, We, the Living and other well-known novels were released. What do you think its place is in the history of literature?
MTS: That remains to be seen. Mother always said Grandma's problem was that the market changed and her style of fiction went out of style. I'm sure that's so. As was pointed out in one of the literary analyses of the book, the Depression spawned a movement to return to the simplicity of rural life. Grandma caught that wave and rode it for a while. Then America entered the post-war era and the 1950s, and society was off in another direction. However, reading the book after all these years, I can't help but wonder if maybe we've come full circle. Maybe this view of a man (Charlie Ashburn) trying to live his life according to clean ideals while stumbling over all the barriers imposed by human nature will speak to an audience seeking to redefine values in the very confusing world of today.
LSL: No idea!
SMB: I second both responses. As long as humans are interested in the doings of their fellow humans, there should be readers for Flint novels.
Did the novel tell you something you didn't know about your grandmother?
MTS: Working on the book also gave me a much-belated insight into who my grandmother really was. Because I remembered her as judgemental (again, perhaps the false memory of a small child), I always assumed her worldview was insular. It wasn't. She saw people as they were -- warts and all -- and captured them in her writing. She wrote about real people in a real world. I now see her in an entirely different light.
LSL: I think Grandma would fit right in with the 21st century view that no subjects should be off limits.
SMB: For me, knowing my grandmother influenced my reading of her novels. As her six children left home, she kept all their letters home. Although that collection was broken up at her passing, when her house changed hands within the family, I have had opportunity to read many of them and learn something of the adult joys and clashes that may not have penetrated a child's field of vision.
Why should contemporary audiences read The Old Ashburn Place?
MTS: As mentioned above, although the story is set a century ago, the struggle to live a clean life in the face of human frailty is eternal. Books may be changing from paper to electrons but love stays the same. Our world has gotten more "modern" and "advanced," but we would be fools to think that human nature has changed one iota. I think people are sensing that. My hope is that they will see in Charlie Ashburn glimpses of the spiritual struggle we all still go through generations later.
LSL: I think today's readers should read it for pure enjoyment. It's a good story, as relevant today as it was when it first appeared. The insight into a specific region at a specific point in time is just an added benefit.
SMB: Because they are good reads. They tackle serious issues in a forthright but compassionate way.
----
The Old Ashburn Place by Margaret Flint is available now for Kindle and Nook. Read more about the author and this book at the Istoria Books website and contact us at IstoriaBks@gmail.com or sign up for our mailing list here (the subscription box is in the margin!).
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Libby Interviews Libby
About Aefle & Gisela
by Libby Sternberg
My alter-ego, Libby Malin, has written another book, some piece of puffery she's calling Aefle and Gisela. Aefle and Gisela--what kind of title is that? Hmmph. While I write serious fiction and young adult novels, she continues to waste use her talents to write fluffy comedic pieces. Today I interview her about this latest effort.
Libby Sternberg: Aefle and Gisela is a comedy. Why on earth would anyone want to read it when there are so many other serious books with important topics and themes out there. For example, there's my book, Sloane Hall, a retelling of Jane Eyre that has been praised by Bronte experts and that explores very weighty themes such as obsession and forgiveness.
Libby Malin: Uh, this interview's about my book, right? Aefle and Gisela?
Libby Sternberg: Of course it is. But getting back to my question, why would anyone want to read a light piece of tomfoolery that probably only produces a brief and very temporary reaction, maybe a few smiles or a giggle or two, when they can be reading more important books that linger in the mind and heart, such as my mystery Death Is the Cool Night which deals with class differences and alcohol abuse?
Libby Malin: Well, actually Aefle and Gisela deals with class differences, too. And, uh, I think humorous books can have a lasting effect, as well. Anyway, in Aefle and Gisela, the heroine owns a car dealership, and the hero is a college professor.
Libby Sternberg: So he's Aefle and she's Gisela?
Libby Malin: Only metaphorically speaking. She's DeeDee and he's Thomas. But he's a history professor whose area of expertise is an obscure poetry-writing medieval monk named Aefle and his secret lady love, Gisela. In some ways, the stories mirror each other.
Libby Sternberg: Aha. So it's a story within a story.
Libby Malin: Mmm, sort of. Mostly it's a satire.
Libby Sternberg: Couldn't make up your mind, could you? Why, that's why I stick to one theme in Lost to the World, which explores the complex questions of medical ethics during the polio vaccine trials of 1954. And, of course, the protagonist's grief over the loss of his wife. And post-war America. But other than that, it's a very clean, singularly targeted look at --
Libby Malin: Uh, could we get back to discussing Aefle and Gisela? I was saying it's a satire. A sharp satire, actually, of the Ivory Tower.
Libby Sternberg: What, ho! A satire of the Ivory Tower?
Libby Malin: Since when did you develop a British accent?
Libby Sternberg: Go on, tell us more about this satire business.
Libby Malin: "Tell us more?" -- How many alter-egos do we have here? Okay, about the satire part -- I thought it would be great fun to write a story about conformity and the courage it takes to resist it. What better place to set it than in a supposedly open-minded environment?
Libby Sternberg: Voila--the liberal arts college campus? Why, I actually think that's a brilliant idea!
Libby Malin: Thank you.
Libby Sternberg: Well, since you're my alter-ego, I can take some credit for it, too.
Libby Malin: Who says I'm your alter-ego? Maybe you're my alter-ego.
(Muffled strangling and growling noises.)
Libby Sternberg: Ahem. Isn't satire a bit on the dry and brittle side?
Libby Malin: It can be, even when it's hilariously funny. But Aefle and Gisela also has a very touching love story in it as two very different people learn to accommodate each other. They fall in love, of course.
Libby Sternberg: Of course, and so you have several things going on here at once, I see. A comedy. A romance. And a satire. You couldn't quite make up your mind, could you? As I said, I try to stick to one broad theme in my novels. Certainly no more than two. Obsession and forgiveness in one, class differences and alcohol abuse in another, medical ethics and grief in another. And in a book I'm writing now, I'm going to be--
(More growling and strangling noises, this time much louder.)
Libby Malin: Unfortunately, Libby Sternberg was suddenly incapacitated. I'll finish the interview on my own by telling you a little about Aefle and Gisela...
 |
| Libby Sternberg |
Libby Sternberg: Aefle and Gisela is a comedy. Why on earth would anyone want to read it when there are so many other serious books with important topics and themes out there. For example, there's my book, Sloane Hall, a retelling of Jane Eyre that has been praised by Bronte experts and that explores very weighty themes such as obsession and forgiveness.
Libby Malin: Uh, this interview's about my book, right? Aefle and Gisela?
Libby Sternberg: Of course it is. But getting back to my question, why would anyone want to read a light piece of tomfoolery that probably only produces a brief and very temporary reaction, maybe a few smiles or a giggle or two, when they can be reading more important books that linger in the mind and heart, such as my mystery Death Is the Cool Night which deals with class differences and alcohol abuse?
 |
| Libby Malin |
Libby Sternberg: So he's Aefle and she's Gisela?
Libby Malin: Only metaphorically speaking. She's DeeDee and he's Thomas. But he's a history professor whose area of expertise is an obscure poetry-writing medieval monk named Aefle and his secret lady love, Gisela. In some ways, the stories mirror each other.
Libby Sternberg: Aha. So it's a story within a story.
Libby Malin: Mmm, sort of. Mostly it's a satire.
Libby Sternberg: Couldn't make up your mind, could you? Why, that's why I stick to one theme in Lost to the World, which explores the complex questions of medical ethics during the polio vaccine trials of 1954. And, of course, the protagonist's grief over the loss of his wife. And post-war America. But other than that, it's a very clean, singularly targeted look at --
Libby Malin: Uh, could we get back to discussing Aefle and Gisela? I was saying it's a satire. A sharp satire, actually, of the Ivory Tower.
Libby Sternberg: What, ho! A satire of the Ivory Tower?
Libby Malin: Since when did you develop a British accent?
Libby Sternberg: Go on, tell us more about this satire business.
Libby Malin: "Tell us more?" -- How many alter-egos do we have here? Okay, about the satire part -- I thought it would be great fun to write a story about conformity and the courage it takes to resist it. What better place to set it than in a supposedly open-minded environment?
Libby Sternberg: Voila--the liberal arts college campus? Why, I actually think that's a brilliant idea!
Libby Malin: Thank you.
Libby Sternberg: Well, since you're my alter-ego, I can take some credit for it, too.
Libby Malin: Who says I'm your alter-ego? Maybe you're my alter-ego.
(Muffled strangling and growling noises.)
Libby Sternberg: Ahem. Isn't satire a bit on the dry and brittle side?
Libby Malin: It can be, even when it's hilariously funny. But Aefle and Gisela also has a very touching love story in it as two very different people learn to accommodate each other. They fall in love, of course.
Libby Sternberg: Of course, and so you have several things going on here at once, I see. A comedy. A romance. And a satire. You couldn't quite make up your mind, could you? As I said, I try to stick to one broad theme in my novels. Certainly no more than two. Obsession and forgiveness in one, class differences and alcohol abuse in another, medical ethics and grief in another. And in a book I'm writing now, I'm going to be--
(More growling and strangling noises, this time much louder.)
Aefle & Gisela by Libby Malin is available for Kindle, Nook and other e-readers. It tells the story of history professor Thomas Charlemagne as he attempts to shed the "Timid Tommy" reputation of his past by stopping a wedding on a dare. When it turns out to be the wrong wedding, legal problems ensue that could wreck his career as the world's leading expert on a poetry-writing medieval monk, Aefle, and his secret love, Gisela, both of whom provide a template for Thomas’s own struggles with life and love.
Buy the book for Kindle here.
Buy the book for Nook here.
Buy the book for other e-readers here.
Hurry—it’s on sale for only 99 cents as part of a book launch promotion!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: LIBBY MALIN
Libby Malin is the award-winning author of romance, literary, mystery and young adult fiction. In an attempt to thoroughly confuse her reader fans, she writes comedy under the name Libby Malin and serious fiction under the name Libby Sternberg. Her first young adult mystery, Uncovering Sadie’s Secrets, was an Edgar nominee, and her first romantic comedy, Fire Me, was optioned for film. She lives in Pennsylvania, has three children and one husband, and confesses to watching “Real Housewives” shows despite enormous amounts of culture-guilt.
Visit the author’s website at: http://www.LibbyMalin.com
Some praise for Libby Malin's other comedic novels:
- Booklist -- Malin creates a world of wit and chaos that is …smart and insightfully written (My Own Personal Soap Opera).
- Publishers Weekly -- Malin's latest is heavy on humor… (she) coaxes plenty of laughs (My Own Personal Soap Opera).
- Jo-Anne Greene Lancaster Sunday News -- Fire Me ...had this reader chuckling out loud.
- Washington Post -- The love story is charming and will be appreciated by any woman with bad taste in men who somehow inexplicably ends up with Mr. Right. (Loves Me, Loves Me Not)
- Publishers Weekly -- A whimsical look at the vagaries of dating... an intriguing side plot adds punch and pathos to the story...(Loves Me, Loves Me Not)
- Booklist -- Malin's clever debut toys with chick-lit stereotypes and offers quite a few surprises along the way. (Loves Me, Loves Me Not)
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