Rocky Road now available

Need something short and sweet to read while you're on the go? Check out my mini-collection of four short stories, Rocky Road, now available on Smashwords:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/92580

You can download a free sample in just about any format (.pdf, .html, nook, Kindle, etc...). Let me know what you think!

Author Interview: Lisa Logan

Lisa M. Logan is a North Carolina native who loves to write short stories, screenplays, and novels. Death by Clogging is her collection of short stories, which you can find on Smashwords and Amazon. Currently, she's working on her first novel, to be published later this fall.

Please tell us a little about your collection. What sort of style or tone is it?
It's about a variety of people from all walks of life, thrown into challenging situations. The tone is maybe dark comedy. The style ... well, I don't know if it has a style at all! It includes the story "Uncle Frank," which is about a Vietnam War hero who is now a cross-dressing farmer. Another story is "Dandelion Wish," the story of a mother driven by desperate circumstances to live as a fugitive with her young son. "Angry Nipple," is a cautionary tale of extreme jealousy. And the title story, "Death by Clogging" is about exactly that.

Are the stories primarily set in the South, and if so, do you consider yourself a Southern writer?
They are all set in the South. "Angry Nipple" could be set anywhere, though. Yes, I consider myself a Southern writer. I try to set my stories in Southern locales because the South has always been a unique place to live, where people still hold on to old-time traditions, and not everyone has been culture-washed by television shows like MTV and VH1.

You have a master's in creative writing. Do you think those who want to write (and get published) should go to school for it, or is it more about learning as you go?
I think it's more about learning as you go. I know of successful writers who didn't earn their master's degrees, and they did just fine. I think you need to study the authors in your favorite genre and see what they're doing -- what techniques they are using to draw the readers in. What are they doing right? I ask myself when I'm reading my favorite authors' works, "Why do I like this story so much? What is this author doing to get me to feel this way about this passage? How is he/she pushing my emotional buttons?"

Why did you decide to publish your collection on Kindle?
I read about a young author Amanda Hocking who has become an indie ebook sensation. She's become a millionaire in, like, 10 months by selling her vampire adventure/romance novels. Reading about her success made me decide to just do it and see how many I can sell online. Plus, there's a lot more freedom to publishing on Kindle, Nook, and other epublishing venues. You have more control.

Who are some of your favorite Southern writers?
Truman Capote is my favorite of all time. His descriptions and scenes are so vivid. I can only hope to write half as well as that. I also like Flannery O'Connor's work.

What's your "guilty pleasure" reading?
Anything Stephen King. He's a wonderful writer and really draws you into the story.

Banned book week

Okay, I'm piggy-backing off Marianne Wheelaghan's blog entry and am talking about Banned Book Week next week. Every year, this event "highlightes the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States."

Some of the books challenged in 2010:
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

What's the difference between a challenge and a banning?
According to the American Library Association, "A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. Due to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens, most challenges are unsuccessful and most materials are retained in the school curriculum or library collection."

Can you imagine a world without Aldous Huxley, Judy Blume, or Toni Morrison, all of whom have been challenged? Scary!

Deep South Lit. Mag

Have you heard of Deep South Magazine? I just discovered it today: "an online magazine connecting the Southern states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, and parts of Texas and Florida." They have a Southern Voice literary section that accepts submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Worth a try!

Review: The Blue Suitcase

I've mentioned author Marianne Wheelaghan a few times on this blog -- she's a self-starting writer and entrepreneur who created www.writingclasses.co.uk. She recently published her first novel, The Blue Suitcase, through Pilrig Press, and although she's not Southern (she's from Scotland, my native home), she faces the same challenges we all face. How to get the word out about her book, how to juggle writing and the rest of her life... her story is our story.

The Blue Suitcase is historical fiction, set around World War II. Antonia lives in Silesia, formerly part of Germany, with her opinionated family. Her parents are outraged that one son, Hubert, wants to join Hitler Youth and the other, Hansi, is a member of the Communist Party. Antonia's two sisters are fighting over which one of them should be sent off to become a nun. But all Antonia wants to do is celebrate her 13th birthday in peace! Things only get worse in 1933 when Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany and begins national boycotts of Jewish businesses and starts rounding up anyone who disagrees with his policies. Hansi disappears, Hubert joins the Hitler Youth march, and Antonia's mother loses her job. Women are meant to be at home taking care of the family, according to Hitler. Not surprisingly, family is the first thing to crumble under the harsh new regime.

The novel follows Antonia's struggles to find work, a home, and later simply to survive as the war ravages Germany. Marianne has flawlessly recreated images of rubble-infested Breslau and emaciated German citizens forced to evacuate their homes on foot, despite the frigid winter. It was hard to put this book down -- I had to find out what happened to Antonia, her family, and the German people. The book is all the more powerful because it's based on real events.

2011 SIBA Awards!

If you haven't yet heard, SIBA (Southern Independend Booksellers'Alliance) announced this year's winners on July 4th. Check out SIBA's website, and for a great overview of the winners and other literary news, see the excellent Authors 'Round the South blog.

Here are a few of the winners:

Fiction: Burning Bright by Ron Rash

Nonfiction: The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family by Jim Minick

Poetry: A House of Branches by Janisse Ray

Submit a play!

If you're a Southern playwright looking for an audience, you might want to submit a play for consideration in the Southern Writers' Project Festival of New Plays. The weekend-long festival is held in the spring of each year as part of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival (ASF). If your play is chosen for the festival, it'll also be considered for future ASF productions. There are two conditions: 1) You must be a Southern writer 2) Your script must be set in the South or deals specifically with Southern issues, characters, or themes.

Interesting article in Glamour

Katie Couric has an interesting interview with Kathryn Stockett in Glamour Magazine. Stockett makes the point that it's hard to answer the question, "How does the African American race feel about the book?" as it's not as though all African Americans have the same point of view...

Now, I feel dumb for asking the question at all! Maybe the point is to not focus so much on one perspective but give everyone a chance to be heard -- which is the message of the book, after all.

What do you think of The Help?

Just finished reading The Help by Mississippi author Kathryn Stockett. I know I'm late to the game, as the book's been receiving rave reviews since it was published in 2009. I really enjoyed it -- great characters, lots of plot twists, and a satisfying ending. As a novel, it was very engaging. As a political commentary on race relations, to me it seemed powerful, but I wonder what African American audiences think.

For me, growing up in Scotland as a white person and moving to the States well after the Civil Rights Movement, I feel like an outsider to this part of history. Are the characters realistic, both white and black? Stockett studied Susan Tucker's book Telling Memories Among Southern Women, and she obviously knows her subject, growing up in Jackson, Mississippi. Mainstream media love her novel, as do book clubs. But what about specifically black audiences? Or is it not cool to ask that question?

Excellent blog for writers!

Former literary agent Nathan Bransford has an excellent blog with a whole list of "Publishing Essentials," including templates for query letters, advice on how to write a novel, information about how the publishing industry works, and tons more. Check it out: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/