Are you doing your Summer Reading? – By Melinda Carroll

Remember when you were a kid and your teachers would send a recommended summer reading list home with you at the end of the school year hoping you would do more than just play video games, like improve your mind. How many of you were good boys and girls and actually read a few books on the recommended summer reading list? How much did your summer reading influence your life as a child? As an adult? Is reading a passion in your life?

I don’t know about you, but I’m always reading. I have a stack of books at home that are in my “to be read” pile, but I continue to buy more books. I can’t help myself. My logic is I’ll eventually read them all.

Noveltown is not only passionate about writers, we’re passionate about readers too! Without readers the Indie literary presses and the publishing world would come to a screeching halt and eventually cease to exist. Books would become coasters, or those things you press flowers in, or worse! I don’t even want to imagine a world without books, its too horrible a thought. For in books our imaginations run free within world’s writers create for us. J. K. Rowling is the most successful author ever because of readers!

It’s mid summer and Noveltown just wanted to check in on you to make sure you’re doing your summer reading…

For all of you Paperback Writer readers who are book sluts, word whores, always carry a book with you in your purse or backpack, read while laying out by the pool, on the beach or by a lake, and plan what books you’re taking with you on vacation we’ve got some fabulous recommended summer reading for you.

Salon.com put together a great four part recommended summer reading list:

Mysteries and Science Fiction: “Thrills and chills: These mysteries and science fiction novels will transport you to a higher plane.”

Three Bags Full - By Leonie Swann, Anthea Bell, trans.
Mr. Dixon Disappears - By Ian Sansom
Up in Honey's Room - By Elmore Leonard
Body of Lies - By David Ignatius
Brasyl - By Ian McDonald
The Margarets - By Sheri S. Tepper

(Read the full mystery and science fiction article for synopsis’ of these books and links to buy)

Memoirs: “Great escapes: From a journey down the Nile to the chronicle of a professional basketball player, these memoir recommendations will whisk you away.”

Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World - By Anthony Doerr
Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff - By Rosemary Mahoney
Can I Keep My Jersey? 11 Teams, 5 Countries, and 4 Years in My Life as a Basketball Vagabond - By Paul Shirley
Dog Days: Dispatches From Bedlam Farm - By Jon Katz
The Cure for Anything Is Salt Water: How I Threw My Life Overboard and Found Happiness at Sea - By Mary South

(Read the full memoir article for synopsis’ of these books and links to buy)

Chic lit: “Chic lit: From a saga of 17th century maidens to a 21st century mom flirting with disaster, our novel recommendations will make you feel cheap and sexy in the best possible way.”

Little Stalker - By Jennifer Belle
Peony in Love - By Lisa See
Slummy Mummy - By Fiona Neill
The New Yorkers: A Novel - By Cathleen Schine
Sheer Abandon - By Penny Vincenzi

(Read the full chic lit article for synopsis’ of these books and links to buy)

Thrillers: “Killer thrillers: From the pursuit of a lost Shakespeare manuscript to a chilling tale of missing sisters, these recommendations will add sizzle to your beach book list.”

The Book of Air and Shadows - By Michael Gruber
What the Dead Know - By Laura Lippman
Nerve Damage - By Peter Abrahams
The Broken Shore - By Peter Temple
The Grave Tattoo - By Val McDermid

(Read the full thrillers article for synopsis’ of these books and links to buy)

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Noveltown put together our own recommended summer reading list by some of our favorite authors:

Contemporary Fiction: From a road trip to the war in Iraq these novels will take you on adventures to new places.

Moonpies & Moviestars – By Amy Wallen - A wild road trip adventure.
Attention. Deficit. Disorder. – By Brad Listi - For those who don’t pay attention to how life affects them.
Last One In – By Nicholas Kulish - A satire about the war in Iraq.
Mulligan’s Pennies – By Robbie Byrne - A story about Irish tragedy and triumph.

Memoirs: Drugs, culture and dysfunctionality, these memoirs explore the deeper side of human nature.

Drugs are Nice – By Lisa Crystal Carver - A modern post-punk tale.
The Oracles – By Pati Poblete - A story about appreciating culture.
Dark at the Roots – By Sarah Thyre - A story about a dysfunctional family.

Mystery & Suspense: Murder, suspense, this mystery will keep you on the edge of your seat.

If it Bleeds – By Bonnie Hearn Hill - A California Central Valley Newspaper mystery.

Women’s Fiction & Erotica: From globe-trotting adventurers to a victorian wife these women's fiction and erotica novels will bring out all your inhibitions.

Bicoastal Babe – By Cynthia Langston - A double life? Love and adventure on two coasts.
A Thousand and One Nights – By Lara Tupper - A lounge singing duo's adventures and misadventures in love.
Vertigo – By Lauren Baratz-Logsted - Spellbinding historical fiction with erotic suspense.
Three Days in New York City and Another Bite of the Apple – By Robin Slick - Humorously satirical and wickedly delicious erotic fiction.

Just for fun: Astrology, decorating and farming for when you want to discover something new.

Born on a Rotten Day and Love on a Rotten Day – Hazel Dixon-Cooper - Learn how you ruin your life and the lives of others.
Punk Shui: Home Designs for Anarchists – By Josh Amatore Hughes - Home decorating punker style.
Blithe Tomato – By Mike Madison - A journey through California’s small farms and farmers’ markets.

(Read Noveltown's reviews of these books)

And don’t forget to include Noveltown in your summer reading:

Lords: Part One – by N.L. Belardes - A Central California urban myth? Or the true tales of the Lords of Bakersfield. (Buy your copy of Lords: Part One)

The Noveltown Review - A Literary magazine. (Read the review by Greg Goodsell) (Get your copy online)

Now get to reading… book reports are optional.

The ins and outs of the most popular literary genre, the Memoir – By Melinda Carroll

Recently, I finished reading Alice Sebold’s memoir: Lucky, a courageous tale of her brutal rape as a college freshman and the transformation in her life that followed. Typically I read more novels than I do memoirs. I don’t know that I would ever have picked up a memoir about a violent rape if Alice Sebold hadn’t been the author. It’s not that I can’t handle reading about rape or violence, but perhaps it’s the trueness of the subject and the personal connection to the author that changes the reality of the words. In a memoir the author shares a little piece of their soul with you in the telling of their story.

However, I find Sebold’s writing so compelling, so open and enchanting, I couldn’t help myself. She took a horrific story of rape and turned it into a story about her life I could not stop reading. The affect of a brutal rape on a person’s life was never more revealing to me than when Sebold stated: “After telling the hard facts to anyone, from lover to friend, I have changed in their eyes.”

After having just devoured Sebold’s memoir, I was ecstatic to find a great discussion on memoirs this week over on the Pub Rants blog from literary agent Kristin who participated in a panel at the Backspace Conference entitled: How to Publish a Memoir if You Aren’t Famous. She wrote several blogs discussing memoirs, which turned out to be the most popular genre at the Backspace Conference. She also brought up some great points that I just had to share with all of you writers contemplating writing a memoir.

Kristin writes:

“Lots of people want to write a memoir and it’s also the hardest project to get published by a non-celebrity. And here’s my little rant, very few people actually have stories that are big enough to capture national attention and hence, editor attention.”

What does that mean for those of you writing memoirs? It means that whether you have experienced divorce, or was a child of divorced parents, had abandonment issues, have mental health issues, suffered heartbreak, lived a wild life of sex, drugs and rock and roll, was in the military and went to war, graduated top of your class in college, had cancer, failed in business, lost a child or spouse, was violently attacked, or any other thing that you’ve experienced in your life, millions of other people have experienced them too.

So what sets your story apart from the millions of other similar stories? What makes your story worthy of garnering attention, of being published?

“People need to have a persuasive reason to read your story. Were you famous or associated with someone famous? If not, you have to find a way to tell your story that is so involving and compelling and unique that it grabs the reader from the very first sentence and never lets them go until the end.”

(Read the full blog)

Sebold’s memoir is a perfect example. She masterfully tells a gruesome tale in such an enchanting way that she grabs hold of you from the first sentence. You can’t get away until the very end.

And in case you didn’t know, writing a memoir is not therapy as Kristin explains:

“One of the biggest mistakes I see in query letters for the memoir is writers who spotlight how cathartic and therapeutic the writing of the work was and how they now need to share it with the world.

This is a big mistake. Why? Because writing a memoir is not therapy or shouldn’t be, so this is not a positive thing to spotlight. The truly terrific memoirists (ANGELA’S ASHES and THE GLASS CASTLE come to mind) understand that the writing of the work is an art form and only a certain amount of distance to the subject material can create that necessary objectivity so that the story can be crafted. Key word here is ‘crafted.’

What these memoirists actually understood is that readers aren’t interested in any one person’s therapeutic story; these readers are interested in an inside look to a world they’ve never seen or have never imagined. A world that is unbelievable but true. A world that is unique but resonates with us. A story that captures a universal feeling and the reader senses the connection.That’s what makes the memoir powerful. And if a writer doesn’t understand the difference of what I’m trying to explain here, he/she will probably never have a memoir published.”

(Read the full blog)

In Lucky Sebold understood the difference and crafted a story about her rape that resonates unbelievably with truth and shares a world I hadn’t yet imagined. As a writer you should learn the difference and craft something unique before querying your memoir.

Writing a memoir is also not the same as writing “my memoirs” Kristin explains:

“It makes me cringe when writers announce that they are writing their memoirs. Why? Because that means they are writing their life story (including “I was born in 1940 (or choose a year) in Biloxi, Mississippi--or choose wherever”) which is an autobiography not a memoir.

For publication purposes, if you aren’t famous, there is no market for your “memoirs” and a large publishing house will not buy it.

An autobiography is a chronicle of a person’s life history.

A memoir is a story (with a story arc not unlike what occurs in a novel) told through a prism of one particular life experience and it usually focuses on a finite period of time and not the person’s life as a whole. A memoir has crafted scenes that build on one another to reach a pivotal moment. An autobiography has remembrances of important events throughout the author’s life and how it unfolded from that person’s unique, inside perspective. They can be separate from each other and don’t need to build to a climatic moment.”

(Read the full blog)

Sebold’s memoir has a specific story arc starting at the rape and focuses on a certain period of time in her life creating a story so unique I wanted the rest of the unwritten story. So unless you’re Bob Dylan, Jimmy Carter or someone equally famous, I would stick to writing a memoir if you want to be published instead of your ‘memoirs.’

Are you unsure if your work is a memoir or a novel?

According to Kristin:

“I wrote it as a memoir but it could be published as a novel instead.” Is a surefire “kiss-of-death-otherwise-known-as-an-automatic-NO-from-an-agent for any aspiring memoirist.”

Yikes. You’d better learn the difference between a memoir and a novel and not make that automatic NO mistake when querying.

“Although a memoir often shares certain similarities to a novel (as in there are scenes, dialogue, development of characters, and sometimes world-building) a memoir is not the same as a novel. They are two, distinctly different creative processes in how they are crafted and written.So an already written memoir can’t be “published” as a novel or even vice-versa. It’s like saying my nonfiction self-help book can double as a novel. These are two wholly different entities. Apples and Oranges (James Frey, non-withstanding, but even A Million Little Pieces would have to be redone completely to make it stand as a novel because the crafting of a novel is not the same as the crafting of a memoir). Repeat after me: they are not interchangeable.

A memoir is a memoir—not a novel. A novel is a novel and can’t easily be “revised” into a memoir.”

(Read the full blog)

Sebold could have written the story of her rape as a fictional novel. Her novel The Lovely Bones is outstanding! But Lucky is about a violent rape that is extremely personal and changes her forever. Through her searing candor she illuminates what it means to survive: “You save yourself or you remain unsaved.” It’s an unbelievable true account. It’s a memoir that connects the reader to the author in a very personal, powerful way. That connection is what will make the difference for you as a writer.