Mailbox Monday
Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia of A girl and her books and is now hosted on its own blog.
Monday: WHAT HAPPENED TO ROSE by Helga Zeiner from Reader’s Legacy/Personal Purchase
Saturday: STOLEN LIVES: A Detective Mystery Series SuperBoxset by James Hunt from Amazon $0.99
2017 READING CHALLENGES
And then there were more….. I am definitely in the Challenge mood!
This challenge isn’t about how many books you read but rather how many pages. After all, it isn’t fair that I might read 4 titles and another might read 2 titles but we’ve read the same number of pages!
Levels
Bonsai – Read 12,000 pages
Shrub – Read 24,000 pages
Dwarf Peach – Read 36,000 pages
Apple Tree – Read 48,000 pages
Oak – Read 60,000 pages
Douglas Fir – Read 72,000 pages
Sequoia – Read 84,000 pages
Redwood – Read 84,001+ pages
This is the sign-up post for the tenth – yes, tenth! – annual What’s In A Name challenge, originally started by Annie, handed to Beth Fish Reads, and now continued here at The Worm Hole. Bloggers have written up this post in other languages: Italian, Portuguese.
I decided to go back to interpretations for the logo this time, choosing the painting by Henri Pierre Picou.
The basics
The challenge runs from January to December. During this time you choose a book to read from each of the following categories. (Examples of books you could choose are in brackets – translations and other languages most definitely count!):
A number in numbers (84, Charing Cross Road; 12 Years A Slave; 31 Dream Street)
A building (The Old Curiosity Shop; I Capture The Castle; House Of Shadows; The Invisible Library; Jamaica Inn)
A title which has an ‘X’ somewhere in it (The Girl Next Door; The Running Vixen)
A compass direction (North and South; Guardians Of The West; The Shadow In The North; NW)
An item/items of cutlery (The Subtle Knife; Our Spoons Came From Woolworths)
A title in which at least two words share the same first letter – alliteration! (The Great Gatsby; The Luminous Life Of Lilly Aphrodite; Gone Girl; The Cuckoo’s Calling)
Skin of Tattoos
by Christina Hoag
on Tour October 17 – November 24, 2016
Synopsis:
Los Angeles homeboy Magdaleno is paroled from prison after serving time on a gun possession frameup by a rival, Rico, who takes over as gang shotcaller in Mags’s absence. Mags promises himself and his Salvadoran immigrant family a fresh start, but he can’t find either the decent job or the respect he craves from his parents and his firefighter brother, who look at him as a disappointment. Moreover, Rico, under pressure to earn money to free the Cyco Lokos’ jailed top leader and eager to exert his authority over his rival-turned-underling, isn’t about to let Mags get out of his reach. Ultimately, Mags’s desire for revenge and respect pushes him to make a decision that ensnares him in a world seeded with deceit and betrayal, where the only escape from rules that carry a heavy price for transgression is sacrifice.
Kirkus Review:
Hoag tells the story of a gang member’s attempts to flee his life of crime in this debut novel.
After 26 months in prison, 20-year-old Magdaleno “Mags” Argueta knows he can’t go back to his previous life as a member of the Cyco Lokos, one of Los Angeles’ most notorious Salvadoran street gangs. He’s hoping his time served will earn him veteran status, allowing him to walk away without repercussions. Unfortunately, his crew is now under the command of his chief rival, Rico, who’s less than sympathetic to his aspirations to go straight. What’s more, the only jobs available to a tatted-up ex-con like Mags are demeaning, such as passing out fliers on the sidewalk while dressed as a clown. At home, his family relationships remain strained: his mother sees him as a disappointment, his father as a source of shame, and his fireman brother makes him look irresponsible by comparison. His sister, Lissy, still treats him with affection, but he’s heard rumors that she’s hooked up with a member of a rival gang. Despite his pledges to stay out of trouble, Mags finds that no one believes he’s up to the task. His parole officer tells him, “The life’s not going to let you go so easy.” As hard as that is to hear, Mags knows that it might be the truth. Hoag is a talented writer, summoning Mags’ world on the page with remarkable empathy and detail: “The sidewalks were crammed like a giant flea market—people selling jeans, pots and pans, plastic bags of mango slices….Everything looked familiar and strange at the same time, old and new, I belonged and I didn’t.” Despite a story that feels a bit well-trod, none of the characters seem hastily constructed or come off as clichés. Their pressures and motivations are clearly stated and genuinely felt, and readers will quickly become invested in Mags and his confrontation with an uncertain future. A sense of melodrama flares toward the end as events start to feel less realistic and a little more heightened and Hollywood-ish. But the overall experience is surprisingly nuanced and wholly enjoyable.
A well-crafted, engaging novel about an ex-con trying to break free.
MY REVIEW
4 stars
We have all seen on TV, read about and/or heard about gangs in today’s society but Ms. Hoag brings us inside the gritty world of gangs with SKIN OF TATTOOS.
Magdaleno, aka Mags, has just been released from jail, after taking the fall for one of his “homies” from the Cyko Lokos gang, which he is a part of. But this time it will be different. He is ready to leave the gang life but soon realizes it’s harder to leave than it was to join. Is death the only way out?
A compelling, and at times chilling, tale of the inner workings of what it is to be entrenched in a gang lifestyle. The “codes”, the rules, the crimes and even the betrayals.
Ms. Hoag has written a truly extensive and intensive story that will have you turning the pages.
Book Details:
Genre: Literary Crime
Published by: Martin Brown Publishing
Publication Date: September 2016
Number of Pages: 267
ISBN: 9871937070663
Get Your Copy of Skin of Tattoos on Amazon ⇗, Barnes & Noble ⇗, & add it to your Goodreads ⇗ list.
Read an excerpt:
“Ay yo, homes!” A familiar voice sliced through the bustle. “Mags!”
I twirled faster than a ballet dancer, my stomach clenching. Fuck. It was him. Rico. Slashing across the street aiming the shopping bag in his hand at me. His baggy shorts slung so low the waistband of his boxers showed. Socks, white as fluorescent light, pulled neatly to his knees. Ink flowing out of the arms and neck of his plaid shirt. Exactly how he looked the last time I saw him.
The memory of that day bore down on me. We were kicking it at a street corner, and Rico was bragging about how he shot a trey-eight into the ceiling of a liquor store he was jacking, and the storeowner pissed his pants. As he was talking, he took the .38 out of his waistband in a live re-enactment, and I just had to take the piece, feeling its cold weight in my hand for just a second or two before handing it back to Rico. That second or two cost me twenty-six months of my freedom.
When Tweety yelled “five-o,” Rico took off like an Olympic sprinter. I never even saw him throw down the cuete. I had no reason to run. As Morales was giving me his routine hassle, he kicked the edge of a bush behind me. Then he crouched down. When he straightened, he was dangling the piece with a pen hooked through its trigger guard. He busted me on possession of a firearm. It got worse. They matched the cuete to the robbery, and my fucking prints were the only clear ones on it. I had no alibi. The fact was, I was doing a drop with Chivas to the big jefe that night.
Lissy signed a statement saying I was watching TV with her at home that night, but nobody believed her, seeing as she had said that before when I got busted. I couldn’t drop Rico’s name or I’d have a green light on me as a snitch. My P.D. told me to take the D.A.’s deal even though the storeowner couldn’t positively identify me in a lineup. I took the hit for possession, and they dropped the robbery, as well as the ADW charge, which they tacked on since “I” waved the piece around and shot it during the robbery. Like I would ever pull such a dumbass move.
Rico threw his arm around me. A thick gold chain shone around his neck. I had a cord with an orange arrow slung around mine.
“Ese.” My voice had as much life as a three-day-old soda.
I never knew if he dropped that thirty-eight by accident, as he said, or if he saw his chance to set me up. I kinda figured the latter. Someday, somehow, I’d get him to admit the truth to me.
“I thought that was you. But I said to myself, ‘Mags, in that fuckin pendejada? Couldn’t be.’ But I looked again and *simón,* it was. Whatup with this shit?” He flicked the red nose ball. I caught his wrist in midair and stared him down in his swamp eyes. “Easy, fool,” he said.
I dropped his wrist. “Just making a few bones.”
“I heard you was back. We been waiting for you at the garaje, but you ain’t showed up.” Rico drilled my eyes. “You avoiding your homies or what?”
The ball was itching my nose like an oversized mosquito bite. “I got parole and all that. I just wanted to get set up first.”
“I figured you needed a couple days to get readjusted, get some pussy.” He shook his head. “But damn, this shit?” He shook his head. “You ready to get crazy again?”
“Keeping it lo pro, Rico.”
Rico studied me. I suddenly glimpsed myself in his eyes—I had become a small brown man.
Author Bio:
Christina Hoag is a novelist in Los Angeles,. She is the author of “Girl on the Brink” (Fire and Ice YA/Melange Books, August 2016,) a YA romantic thriller about an abusive relationship, and “Skin of Tattoos “(Martin Brown Publishing, August 2016), a literary thriller about the gang world.
She also co-authored “Peace in the Hood: Working with Gang Members to End the Violence,” a groundbreaking book on gang intervention (Turner Publishing, 2014).
A former staff writer for The Miami Herald and The Associated Press in Los Angeles, she was also a correspondent in Latin America, where she reported from 14 countries on issues such as the rise of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Colombian guerrillas, Guatemalan human rights, Salvadoran gangs, Nicaraguan landmine victims, and Mexican protests, for Time, Business Week, Financial Times, Houston Chronicle, the New York Times, and other publications.
She has had numerous short stories, poems and creative nonfiction published in literary magazines and journals, Her short story “My Mother’s Knives” was included in a horror story anthology, “And Now the Nightmare Begins” (Bear Manor Media, 2009) and her literary short story “Life Stories” is forthcoming in the anthology “100 Voices” (Centum Press, 2016)
Catch up with Christina on her Website ⇗, Twitter ⇗, or on Christina Hoag’s Facebook ⇗.
Tour Participants:
Visit these other Skin of Tattoos tour participants for more giveaways, reviews, guest posts, and interviews!
Giveaway:
This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours for Christina Hoag. There will 1 winner of a $15 Amazon.com gift card & 5 US winners of one (1) eBook copy of Skin of Tattoos by Christina Hoag. The giveaway begins on October 15th and runs through November 27th, 2016.
Get More Great Reads at Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours
This blog was founded on the premise to write honest reviews, to the best of my ability, no matter who from, where from and/or how the book was obtained, and will continue to do so, even if it is through PICT or PBP.
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in exchange for my honest review.
No items that I receive are ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affiliate. I am providing link(s) solely for visitors that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.
For Duty and Honor
by Leo J. Maloney
November 22, 2016 Book Blast
Synopsis:
In this action-packed novella, Black Ops veteran Leo J. Maloney delivers a heart-pounding tale as fast, cold, and sleek as a 9mm bullet…
For Duty And Honor
The unthinkable has happened to operative Dan Morgan. Captured by the Russians. Imprisoned in the Gulag. Tortured by his cruelest, most sadistic enemy. But Morgan knows that every prisoner has a past—and every rival can be used. With the most unlikely of allies, Morgan hatches a plan. To save what’s important, he must risk everything. And that’s when the stakes go sky-high. Dan Morgan’s got to keep fighting. For duty. And honor. And even certain death…
MY REVIEW
4 stars
This is the first book that I have read by this “new to me” author. But it won’t be the last!
FOR DUTY AND HONOR, a novella, is a 96 page book that had me turning the pages to the very last word. Ninety-six pages of intense suspense and action.
The reader meets Dan Morgan while he is imprisoned in a primitive Russian jail trying to escape the brutal treatment but the reason is not known until the end, which was shocking. Also met, is his daughter, Alex, has she refuses to accept that he is missing and not knowing where he is or even worse, if he is dead.
This book had me on the edge of my seat! Chilling! Mr. Maloney is now on my “authors to read” list and can’t wait to read more by him. If he is also a “new to you” writer, I highly recommend that you read this novella and I guarantee you will be wanting more too!.
Book Details:
Genre: Thriller, Political Thriller
Published by: Kensington Books/Lyrical Underground
Publication Date: November 22nd 2016
Number of Pages: 96
ISBN: 1616509813 (ISBN13: 9781616509811)
Series: Dan Morgan #5.5Purchase For Duty and Honor at Amazon 🔗, Barnes & Noble 🔗, & add it to your Goodreads 🔗 List!
Read an excerpt:
The prisoner’s body was a brick of exhaustion and pain.
Steel cuffs chafed against his raw wrists and ankles, the rough uniform scraping the burns and cuts that lined his arms and legs and pocked his torso. Even under the blackness of his hood, the prisoner smelled stale sweat mingled with his own breath: iron from the blood, acetone from the starvation. He could barely hold himself up against the jolting ride. All that was keeping him upright were the two thick guards at his sides boxing him in. At the outset, hours ago at the landing strip, the guards were in high spirits, joking and jesting in Russian, which the prisoner could not follow. Whenever he couldn’t hold himself up anymore and leaned into one of them or into the front seat, they would box the prisoner’s head and laugh, forcing him to sit upright again.
But as they drew nearer to their destination, and the car’s heating lost ground against the cold, the guards grew quiet, like there was something grim about the place even to them.
The prisoner swung forward as the jeep came to an abrupt stop, tires on gravel. The doors opened and the spaces on his sides cleared as the men got out, leaving him exposed to the frigid Siberian air. Against this cold, the canvas uniform felt like nothing at all.
The guards unlocked the cuffs and yanked the prisoner out. Too tired to offer any resistance, he walked along, bare feet on the freezing stony ground. Someone pulled off his cowl. He was struck by a hurricane of light that made him so dizzy that he would have vomited, if there were anything in his stomach. It took a moment for the image to stop swimming and resolve itself into the barren landscape of rock and creeping brush lit by a sun low in the sky.
The Siberian tundra.
They prodded him forward. He trudged toward the Brutalist conglomeration of buildings surrounded by tall mesh fences and barbed wire. Prison camp. Gulag. The prisoner’s trembling knee collapsed and he fell on the stony ground. A guard gave him a kick with a heavy, polished leather boot and pulled him to his feet.
They reached the top and entered the vakhta, the guardhouse. He passed through the first gate and was searched, rough hands prodding and poking at him. They then opened the second, leading him through, outside, into the yard. His gaze kept down, he saw guards’ boots, and massive furry Caucasian shepherds, each taller than a full-grown man’s waist. He didn’t look up to see the bare concrete guard towers that overlooked the terrain for miles around or at the sharpshooters that occupied them.
He was pulled inside the nearest boxy building, walls painted with chipping murals of old Soviet propaganda, apple-cheeked youngsters over fields of grain and brave soldiers of the Red Army standing against the octopus of international capitalism. On the second floor, they knocked on a wooden door.
“Postupat’.”
The guards opened the door, revealing an office with a vintage aristocratic desk. They pushed him onto the bare hardwood.
A man stood up with a creak of his chair. The prisoner watched as he approached, seeing from his vantage point only the wingtip oxfords and the hem of his pinstriped gabardine pants, walking around his desk, footsteps echoing in the concrete office.
“Amerikanskiy?”
“Da,” a guard answered.
The man crouched, studying the prisoner’s face. “You are one of General Suvorov’s, are you not?” His voice was deep and filled with gravel and a heavy Russian accent.
The prisoner didn’t respond—not that he needed to.
“You are tough, if he did not break you.” He stood, brushing off unseen dust from his suit jacket. “And if he had broken you, you would be dead already. I am Nevsky, the warden. Welcome to my prison.”
Author Bio:
Leo J. Maloney is a proud supporter of Mission K9 Rescue, www.missionk9rescue.org, which is dedicated to the service of retiring and retired military dogs and contract dogs and other dogs who serve. Mission K9 rescues, reunites, re-homes, rehabilitates, and repairs these hero dogs. Leo donates a portion of the proceeds from his writing to this organization. To find out more about Mission K9 Rescue, or to make your own donation, please visit www.missionk9rescue.org; or go to www.k9gala.org
;
Catch Up with Mr. Maloney on his Author’s Website 🔗, on Author’s Twitter 🔗, and on Author’s Facebook 🔗!
** (Photo Credit Carolle Photography)
Tour Participants:
Stop by the participants of this tour for more great features!
Giveaway:
This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours for Leo J. Maloney. There will be 1 winners of one (1) eBook copy of For Duty and Honor by Leo J. Maloney. This giveaway is limited to US & Canadian residents only. The giveaway begins on November 19th and runs through November 26th, 2016.
Get More Great Reads at Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours
Mailbox Monday
Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia of A girl and her books and is now hosted on its own blog.
Wednesday: 212 by Alafair Burke from Bookperk/Personal
Thursday: SPARE CHANGE by Bettee Lee Crosby Personal download
2017 READING CHALLENGES
More challenges!! And I’m sure more to come. I didn’t participate in Challenges during the past 2 years, while I was on LOA, so I might as well go all in! Plus, the prediction is for a very cold and snowy winter here in New England, so I will be hibernating with my books.
Color Coded
Once again the categories will be more open–the color may either be named in the title or it may appear as the dominant color for the cover of the book. For “implies color” the image implying color should dominate the cover–for instance a large rainbow, a field of flowers, or the image of a painter. Get ready for a rainbow of reading in 2017.
Once I have a chance to look over my TBR list I’ll see if I’m able to do the colors this year. It’s getting harder and harder to do that from my own stacks. Once again there will not be a prize offered for this particular challenge this year.
Here are the rules:
*Read nine books in the following categories.
1. A book with “Blue” or any shade of Blue (Turquoise, Aquamarine, Navy, etc) in the title/on the cover.
2. A book with “Red” or any shade of Red (Scarlet, Crimson, Burgandy, etc) in the title/on the cover.
3. A book with “Yellow” or any shade of Yellow (Gold, Lemon, Maize, etc.)in the title/on the cover.
4. A book with “Green” or any shade of Green (Emerald, Lime, Jade, etc) in the title/on the cover.
5. A book with “Brown” or any shade of Brown (Tan, Chocolate, Beige, etc) in the title/on the cover.
6. A book with “Black” or any shade of Black (Jet, Ebony, Charcoal, etc) in the title/on the cover.
7. A book with “White” or any shade of White (Ivory, Eggshell, Cream, etc) in the title/on the cover.
8. A book with any other color in the title/on the cover (Purple, Orange, Silver, Pink, Magneta, etc.).
9. A book with a word that implies color (Rainbow, Polka-dot, Plaid, Paisley, Stripe, etc.).
* Any book read from January 1 through December 31, 2017 will count.
*Crossovers with other challenges are fine.
*Please post about the challenge on your blog. Sign ups accepted until Nov 1, 2017.
*Please sign up using the Linky below. Give your name & blog (Example: Bev @ My Reader’s Block) and use a direct link to your challenge post as your url. Please don’t connect to just your home page. Links to a list on GoodReads or other social media sites are also acceptable.
*Please use the Review Headquarters Page (sidebar link coming in January) to post review links and a final wrap-up post when you finish the challenge. [Reviews are not required–but we’d love to see what you think about the books that you’ve read if you do review.]
2017 You Read How Many Books?
Guidelines are pretty simple. You’ll have all year to read your books so go ahead and stretch yourself.
1. Choose a Level
Level 1: 100 minimum
Level 2: 150
Level 3: 200
Level 4: 250 or more
2. You may move up a level but not down.
3. You don’t need a blog to participate. Feel free to link to a Goodreads shelf or another public profile where everyone can see your books.
4. Reviews are not necessary but a list of books is. There will be a link up for reviews if you wish to post them.
5. All formats allowed as long as the book has an isbn or equivalent and can be purchased/borrowed, the book counts.
6. Individual short stories in a collection and individual books of the Bible do not count.
7. Crossovers from other challenges count – they’d have too!
8. Books started before January 1st, 2017 don’t count.
100 books!!??!! Going to give it my best shot!
The Nearly Girl
by Lisa de Nikolits
on Tour November 2016
Synopsis:
Fans of “A Prayer for Owen Meany” and “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” will love this clever, fast-paced and enjoyable thriller.
Like a modern-day Joan of Arc, Amelia Fisher attempts to carve out a ‘normal life’, showing us how mythic the idea of ‘normal’ really is.
With a poetic genius for a father, an obsessed body builder for a mother, and an enchantingly eccentric group seeking the help of an unorthodox therapist, what could possibly go wrong?
A chance discovery propels Amelia and fellow therapy attendee, Mike, with whom she is in love, into a life-threatening situation instigated by the crazed doctor’s own dark secret but Amelia’s psychosis saves the day.
Told with warmth, humor and populated with vividly original characters, this sprint-paced novel has it all, from restraining orders to sex in office bathrooms, and a nail-biting ending.
A novel about an unusual family, expected social norms and the twists and turns of getting it all slightly wrong, the consequences of which prove fatal for some.
Book Details:
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
Published by: Inanna Publications
Publication Date: October 2016
Number of Pages: 301
ISBN: 1771333138 (ISBN13: 9781771333139)
Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗, Goodreads 🔗, &INANNA 🔗
Read an excerpt:
Amelia lay still. Mike was next to her, snoring slightly.
Amelia wondered how much time had passed since she and Mike had vanished. She wondered how Dr. Carroll had covered up their disappearance but she was sure his story was airtight. She wondered if anybody was worried about them and looking for them. She hoped Ethel was out of hospital and she tried to send messages to Nana with her mind, telling her to look for them.
Amelia’s eyes were wide open and she was trying to make little growling noises in her throat and eventually she was able to make a sound.
She graduated to trying to form words. Ma….. Ma….. Mak….. Mak!
Mak? The word was hardly decipherable but she was grateful for the utterance.
Mike? She growled the guttural utterance as quietly as she could but there was no reply.
Amelia lay on her back and she closed her eyes and concentrated very hard on trying to roll over. It seemed impossible to do in one big motion and she broke it down, first just trying to move her right arm across her chest. When she achieved this gigantic feat, she was drenched in sweat and she felt exhausted.
She wasn’t sure why but the sedative was metabolizing in her system in a different way to the others, it seemed to be leaving her bloodstream much faster. She was worried that Dr. Carroll would notice and administer the next dose before the current one had worn off.
She was about to roll over onto her stomach when she heard a noise. Alarmed that Dr. Carroll had returned, she flopped over onto her back, and adjusted herself into the same position as he had left her.
No sooner had she done this, than the doctor pushed his way into the room.
He sat down on the floor and heaved a great sigh.
You two have caused me an inordinate problem, he said. Really and truly you have. Why did you have to come here? Why?
He sat cross-legged and put his head into his hands.
I don’t know what to do with you, he said, his voice muffled. I have to get rid of you but I don’t know how to do it. I’m not a violent man, I’m not. I never thought it would come to this.
He rubbed his face. I could kill you very easily, that part is not the problem. It’s the disposing of the bodies. Hmm…
He fell into deep silence. If your bodies were ever found, the drugs in your system would lead you right back to me. But it’s very tough to dispose of bodies. Much harder than you would think. They make it look so easy in the movies but I wouldn’t even know where to start. Although, that said, I could drive north for a few hours, find a couple of side roads and dump you in the swamps. But I’d have to wade into them, carrying you, and you are both so heavy and there are snakes in those waters and frogs and god knows what, so no… that won’t work.
Oh, this is such a problem. I wonder if I should disappear instead. But why should I have to give up everything I have worked so hard to achieve? Why should I be the one to lose everything just because two nosy parkers poked their nosy noses where they shouldn’t have?
What about fire… I could try to burn you both, but bodies don’t burn entirely in fire and how and why and where would you have set yourselves alight? I don’t think I would be able to create a scenario in such a way that it would be believable to anyone.
There’s dismemberment of course. I could dismember you in the bathtub but the blood, ugh, blood. And I would have to buy saws and knives and plastic and containers and from what I’ve read, the evidence of blood is very hard to rid of. And how would I get rid of the body parts? I am back to square one. Disposal.
A lover’s pact? Suicide? Yes… but I’d need to get you both into a motel which would be a logistical nightmare. Slitting your wrists would be easy but I’d also have to make sure enough time passed for all the drugs to clear out of your system. And how am I supposed to carry you two lugs into a motel without being seen?
He gave a great sigh. I have to prepare dinner for my family. I don’t care about you two. You can starve to death for all I care.
He got up. I’m one of the top two percentile of brilliant geniuses, he said. I will think of something.
Author Bio:
Originally from South Africa, Lisa de Nikolits has lived in Canada since 2000. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Philosophy and has lived in the U.S.A., Australia and Britain.
Lisa de Nikolits is the award-winning author of five novels. Her first novel, The Hungry Mirror won a 2011 IPPY Awards Gold Medal for Women’s Issues Fiction and was long-listed for a ReLit Award. West of Wawa won the 2012 IPPY Silver Medal Winner for Popular Fiction and was a Chatelaine Editor’s Pick. A Glittering Chaos tied to win the 2014 Silver IPPY for Popular Fiction. The Witchdoctor’s Bones launched in Spring 2014 to literary acclaim and wide readership. Between The Cracks She Fell launched in Fall 2015 and was well reviewed by the Quill & Quire and was on the recommended reading lists for Open Book Toronto and 49th Shelf. Between The Cracks She Fell was also reviewed by Canadian Living magazine and called ‘a must-read book of 2015’. Between The Cracks She Fell won a Bronze IPPY Award 2016 for Contemporary Fiction. All books have been published by Inanna Publications.
INTERVIEW
Welcome!
Writing and Reading:
Do you draw from personal experiences and/or current events?
Absolutely yes! My exploration of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (a core theme in The Nearly Girl) came about when I was trying to untangle my issues with insomnia and claustrophobia. This led to the creation of my character Dr. Frances Carroll and his therapy called D.T.O.T. which is Do The Opposite Thing.
It was also my lifelong characteristics of nearly getting things right and also getting them very wrong that led to the creation of my protagonist, Amelia. For example, I used to file my manuscripts and papers in the oven (before I met my husband who said this was not such a sound practice since, even although I never baked, I did actually use the oven top and there having paper – reams of it – neatly stored inside was unwise).
But the things I do would sooner be classified as idiosyncrasies while Amelia suffers from a full-blown psychosis. So I used my small-time mistakes as seeds to grow the idea of her story-worthy malaise that led to her discovery of crimes. Because The Nearly Girl is a thriller, a past-paced one at that, as opposed to being a story about therapies and mental health issues.
And it is a funny book which is another thing I love about it. I am not funny. Or if I am, I am funny by mistake. I feel that I lack a sense of humour in general – I am always the last one to catch the joke and most of the time it has to be explained to me. I generally avoid watching comedies because I find them very stressful – the level of chaos upsets me and I just want it to be over and everything to be alright! Also the pressure to get the joke, to laugh — it’s all too much!
But this book, remarkably, is funny. Well, parts of it are. There are parts that are downright heartbreaking too and while I never fail to laugh at the funny bits, the heartbreaking bits are equally as wretched, no matter how many times I read them too.
Shortly before the book goes to press, the author has read and reread it countless times and sometimes one does weary. And sometimes, I admit that the thought of reading it yet again was daunting but then as soon as I started, I was delighted to be hanging out with these characters. It never got old.
Do you start with the conclusion and plot in reverse or start from the beginning and see where the story line brings you?
I start with a single idea. For example, with The Nearly Girl, it happened like this. I was on a bus, in winter, going to a book event. I didn’t know if I was on the correct bus since I had not been to that area before and I was anxious. Then I realized how interesting it was, to be on an unfamiliar bus, on an unfamiliar route, with all kinds of interesting people. What was fascinating was how significantly visually collective they were as a group and how extremely different they were to the usual bunch on my regular bus. I wondered about their jobs, their families and their lives and I thought that I definitely should take more random busses.
At one point, I looked out the window as we drove past the beach and the sun had just set and it was snowing and I felt sad that we were prohibited by bodies that forced us to follow the seasons and obey the rules – what we could just have a picnic in the snow? Sit on the snow in shorts and a t-shirt, with the sleet hitting our bare arms while we made smores.
And there it was. The Nearly Girl. She would be out there, she would be doing exactly that.
And then I had to figure out the rest from there. But I had a protagonist, an idea and a name for the book.
Are any of your characters based on you or people that you know?
They are not based on people I know but if I have a character and I need to flesh him or her out and I am stuck, then I go and talk to people who remind me of my character. For example, in The Nearly Girl, Amelia falls in love with Mike. I knew Mike’s age and what he looked like but I had no idea what music he listened to, or what books he read or what he liked to do for fun.
I supposed I could have gone online but I cannot work out my characters that way. I have to be in the real world, looking at people, that’s the only way my characters can come to me. So I kept an eye out at work (I work in a building of 3 000 people) and I finally saw ‘Mike’. I followed him and explained who I was and I asked him if he would be interested in helping me develop my character.
Fortunately for me, he was extremely helpful. I interviewed him and later I sent him a questionnaire and we emailed back and forth.
(I thank him in the back of the book).
Your routine when writing? Any idiosyncrasies?
I wear a hat but I don’t think that’s very unusual. I need to nap here and there – sometimes only half-an-hour in between chapters. I think the brain needs to recharge! I snack on chocolate-covered peanuts. I always light a candle. I make notes on scraps of paper as I go. I talk to the cat. If I am stuck for a bit and I go and have a bath and usually struck by inspiration without a piece of paper in sight (and no, I never learn to take a notepad with me!).
Tell us why we should read this book.
The Nearly Girl is my sixth published novel and of the six, it is my favourite. I love it because if I could live my life according to the philosophies or ethos of any of my books, it would be this one. That, and the fact that this book features my favourite bunch of misfits thus far! The book is also a love story and it’s a story about family, about not-fitting in, in the world and learning to live with that. The book is about unlikely friendships and how sometimes the vicissitudes of life can come gift-wrapped with surprises.
There is a purity and an honesty to the emotions and actions in this book, a simplicity that I would liken to John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany and, before readers leap up in horror to protest the comparison of my book to John Irving’s, let me get there before they do! Alas, I am no John Iriving but he is one of the writers that I strive to emulate.
Who are some of your favorite authors?
Jess Walter (The Financial Lives of Poets), Margaret Atwood (The Heart Goes Last), Garth Stein (A Sudden Light), David Adams Richards (Principles to Live By), Richard Flanagan, (The Narrow Road to the Deep North)
What are you reading now?
I am on a panel with Steve Burrows and Dietrich Kalteis so I am reading both of their books; A Cast of Falcons and Triggerfish, respectively. I have Annie Proulx Barkskins lined up, along with The Complete Book of Spells, Ceremonies and Magic by Migene Gonzalez-Whippler (research), The Odyssey by Homer (research), Paradise Lost by Milton (research)
Are you working on your next novel? Can you tell us a little about it?
The book is titled The Occult Persuasion (hence all the research into spells and magic mentioned above.) This will be my book for 2019 as I have two novels lined up, one for 2017 (No Fury Like That), which is a revenge novel set in Purgatory and here on earth and Rotten Peaches (2018), which is a story about two sets of couples living on opposite ends of the world, whose complete lack of morality causes an implosion of lives when they finally intersect.
Fun questions:
Your novel will be a movie. Who would you cast?
Just for fun, I’d take the cast of Thor and set them to The Nearly Girl!
Henry the Poet and father – Chris Hemsworth
Megan the body builder mother – Jaimie Alexander
Amelia – Natalie Portman
Ed – Colm Feore
Dr. Frances Carroll – Paul Giamatti – and yes I know he’s not in Thor but he’s the only person who could play Dr. Carroll!
Mike – Josh Dallas
Favorite leisure activity/hobby?
Playing my guitar, talking to my cat, taking naps (with my cat)
Favorite meal?
Birthday cake!
Thank you for stopping by CMash Reads and spending time with us.
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