In “Golden Age of Grease,” the second chapter of my new novel, What’s Left, I compress a background history of three generations that lead up to Cassia herself. Thanks to her father’s collected photographs and her aunt Nita’s guidance, she and her best friend forever, cousin Sandra, get a sense of what so attracted him to the entire family. What he saw when he arrived was his vision of an ideal hippie commune working around Carmichael’s, their landmark restaurant. Man, was he in for a surprise!
Tag: fiction
THERE ARE GOOD REASONS I KEEP STICKING WITH NITA
Nita Zapitapoulos is a special character for me. Long before she becomes Cassia’s aunt, in my new novel What’s Left, she appears in all four of my Hippie Trails volumes as a guardian angel and colleague for Cassia’s future father. She also appears obliquely in notes to my Hometown News novel as a journalism professor.
The character was loosely inspired by a sidekick’s descriptions of the girlfriend he’d come to visit. I may have even met her at the time, although I’ll confess she wasn’t of Greek descent at all. I wish I still had the letters with his lavish descriptions of what so attracted him in his whirlwind adventures. She and I may have even passed each other in the same newsroom while working in different departments; I, though, have never been a photojournalist.
A few years ago, far from where all this took place, a mental connection flashed for me during a conversation after a committee session. “Did you know …?” Yes, she remembered him. We’d both lost contact with him decades ago.
In real life, she’s quite different from the impressions that prompted my fictional character. Still, from everything I see now, I’d say they’re both pretty amazing.
Continue reading “THERE ARE GOOD REASONS I KEEP STICKING WITH NITA”
WHERE’S DADDY?
In my newest novel, What’s Left, the common image of a nuclear family is punctured when her father vanishes in an avalanche halfway around the globe when she’s 11. Daddy’s no longer present in the family picture. Only her mother, two older brothers, and Cassia herself. (Plus her aunts, uncles, and close cousins, who completely alter the picture.)
Her obsession to rediscover him brings her face to face with much more than her loss.
AND NOW, FOR A COVER!
Thanks to everyone who responded to my earlier invitation for comments regarding a few possible covers for my newest novel.
The survey ended in mixed results and prompted some heated in-house discussion, ultimately sending me back to the drawing board for a more compelling design.
Just what do we want as a cover, anyway? Are people’s faces a help or a distraction? Does a jacket work best if it somehow reflects a scene in the story, as my earlier mock-ups attempted to suggest? Or is reaching for a less constrained, emotional reaction more effective?
As you see, I’ve opted for the later. Here the image invokes a sense of being broken out from a protected shell and falling through space. It’s also appropriate for a family that owns a restaurant – food being a theme running throughout the story. Will this cover encourage a browser to open the book to discover, in effect, just what happens to the yolk? Where it will land?
That, of course, is my goal. To see if it fits, go to Smashwords, where you can order your own Advance Reading Copy for free. The offer will expire after 90 days, when the first edition comes out at $4.95, so act now.
Your early reactions will be most welcome in preparing for that release.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE QUOTATIONS BLUR?
When someone speaks of an event while quoting someone else, how accurate is that quotation? How much is a recasting by the teller, perhaps years after the event being related?
In drafting my newest novel, as I turned to a first-person narrative by someone who never even met many of the characters she’s telling about, I realized that her quoting them was actually a filtering through her own voice. In other words, the precision of their voice was in question. Would it be right to put their input in quotations marks? Or eliminate the quotation marks and let the telling float in and out of some recollection?
I’ve opted for the latter. Will it work for the reader, though? We’ll see.
MATH ISN’T HIS STRONG POINT, EITHER
As Doc would have said:
If he knew even one-tenth
of what he thinks he knows
he’d be ten times smarter
than he is.
(Yes, working with Doc was a hoot.)
OBLIVIOUS AND DISCONNECTED
As Doc would have said:
The funniest words out of that mouth: “I think.”
Meaning a less-than-conscientious way of doing the task at hand while adding to the burden of another.
We know.
ANOTHER CALCULUS
As Doc would have said:
He claims to believe in science but not God
while relying on Christian charity
rather than Survival of the Fittest.
Who does he think he’s fooling?
As if he’s ever mastered math, much less calculus.
WHAT MAKES A TRUE WRITER?
As Doc would have noted:
Qualities of a real writer: engagement, connection, discipline, curiosity, courage, humility, observation.
What more would you add to the list?
DEFINITELY NOT A WRITER
As Doc would have said:
No sign of striving for excellence anywhere.
Even mediocrity seems above him.
Jnana's Red Barn 