In an age in which our attention spans have been reduced to those of gnats--or is it cats?--well, either way, they're short. Really short. After all, so much to read, so little time to do it, right? So, anyway . . . where was I? (Sorry. Got distracted.)
At a time when our attention spans have shrunk like cheap T-shirts in the wash--what a nice metaphor--um, yeah. Shall we try again?
These days, people want to get into a book fast. They want to read it fast and get on to the next one, because their attention spans are as tiny as gnats--there's the gnat metaphor! I knew I could conjure it up. Ah, good. So, as I was saying . . .
It's nice to know there's one staunch proponent out there of the idea that a long novel is not necessarily a bad thing to read from time to time. That, truly, reading for pleasure is about the journey and not the destination. That reading is not a competitive sport in which the one who reads the most books wins.
I've read WAR AND PEACE. It was a great book--really! Well worth the two and a half months it took.
A great piece of literature is a wonderful thing. But even I haven't worked up the energy to tackle this one yet. Maybe someday.
(If anyone has read David Foster Wallace's magnum opus, please feel free to comment on it. Thumbs up or down?)
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Singleton Hippie Art, Make Believe
Make Believe(c) Singleton 2009And there, in our technicolorimaginations, wepainted a Fairytale...Scribbledthe storyon blue lined paper,bathroom wallsand cocktail napkins...And sprinkled themin the wind,a paper trail of words...cookie crumbs for the curiousor the non believers... I imagineyour smile now...your head tossed backin accidentaldelicious laughter,as you read the Ending... a single word
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Lunch Reads
I'm a big fan of short fiction and just learned about this site called Lunch Reads, featuring short stories you can read on your lunch break. One per day, Monday through Friday. (For the legions of people eating lunch at their desk. Probably far too many, but that's another story.)
Anyhow, I read a story on the site by Jenny Milchman, a New Jersey-based suspense writer. It was highly suspenseful story of a seemingly close-knit marriage that may (or may not) be going south. Well worth the reading.
Check it out. It's a two-parter. (Don't you hate that? When you're left hanging and have to wait for the other shoe to drop? But that's part of the suspense, right?) However, I've got the links to both parts here: Part One and Two of "Gone."
By the end of Part One, I was dying to read Part Two. And I hung on every word of that part until I reached the end. It's the kind of story that keeps you guessing right up until the last lines. Milchman paints a vivid picture of Jersey and manages to create two fully-rounded characters within the constraints of the short story form, while telling a compelling tale. Hardly an easy task.
I'd call it a page-turner, except it's in pixels not pages. So maybe I should call it "fast scroller"? A "page-downer"? (As in hitting the "page down" button?) Or maybe a "mouse clicker"? (As in clicking the side bar to go down the page?)
Anyway, the site is something for you to check out during your lunch hour. Or any spare hour you might have.
Anyhow, I read a story on the site by Jenny Milchman, a New Jersey-based suspense writer. It was highly suspenseful story of a seemingly close-knit marriage that may (or may not) be going south. Well worth the reading.
Check it out. It's a two-parter. (Don't you hate that? When you're left hanging and have to wait for the other shoe to drop? But that's part of the suspense, right?) However, I've got the links to both parts here: Part One and Two of "Gone."
By the end of Part One, I was dying to read Part Two. And I hung on every word of that part until I reached the end. It's the kind of story that keeps you guessing right up until the last lines. Milchman paints a vivid picture of Jersey and manages to create two fully-rounded characters within the constraints of the short story form, while telling a compelling tale. Hardly an easy task.
I'd call it a page-turner, except it's in pixels not pages. So maybe I should call it "fast scroller"? A "page-downer"? (As in hitting the "page down" button?) Or maybe a "mouse clicker"? (As in clicking the side bar to go down the page?)
Anyway, the site is something for you to check out during your lunch hour. Or any spare hour you might have.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
'Identity Crisis' Available on Kindle
Just wanted to let everyone know that IDENTITY CRISIS, my mystery novel, is available on Kindle now.
And if you'd like to read the Amazon reviews of the print edition, you can find them here. That's the old cover image you see to the left there.
And, at some point, I'm hoping to reissue the book in print form as well. When I do, it will have another cover, like the one below (both back and front are shown).
A darker, more menacing look, yes?
'The Tourist' Takes a Long, Strange Trip
Review: THE TOURIST (Minotaur Books 2009)
Author, Olen Steinhauer
If you're looking for a spy novel full of convoluted twists, shady people and double-crosses, THE TOURIST should be right up your alley.
The story is about Milo Weaver, a CIA agent who once worked in "black ops," which is to say he worked in an unofficial capacity for The Company (as the CIA likes to call itself). Or, to put it yet another way, Milo worked as a "tourist" for the CIA. Going wherever they told him and just following orders.
But that changes. Sometime after 9/11, Milo gets married, acquiring a step-daughter in the process, and goes from being a tourist to serving as a manager in the CIA's New York City headquarters. And one of the things that makes this book so compelling is Milo's grappling with the pressures of handling his job and taking care of his family. But all that comes later, actually.
It really starts when he's tracking the Tiger (an assassin with, as one character notes, a rather corny nickname). He finds him and one thing leads to another and another . . . and the next thing you know Milo's acting as a tourist again and finding out all sorts of crazy stuff. None of it good, of course. Especially for him.
I'll admit, I was initially discouraged by the amount of exposition right up front in the book, when Milo is questioning the Tiger. Yeah, it's handled as dialogue, but let's face it, there's a lot of explaining going on here--much of it overwhelming in detail and a bit confusing. But that's okay, because Milo sums up the major points after they're done talking. So, okay, keep going, I think. Because it is interesting and Olen Steinhauer adds great humorous touches, both in dialogue and description.
So on I went. And each step in Milo's journey would lead to yet another new expositional conversation. More details and confusion, but again, that was okay. Milo provided a synopsis for dunderhead readers like me, who don't keep a scorecard.
Without saying too much, just know that the story leads up to several big revelations--for Milo, his family and others. The plot works like an intricate contraption worthy of Rube Goldberg. A lot of spy-versus-spy stuff (in this case, CIA versus Homeland Security) and paranoid scenarios in which various people try to out-guess each other. But does the story make complete sense? I don't know. Like I said, you'd really need a scorecard to figure that one out.
But Steinhauer writes with such great style and humor. His characters are so interesting and the plot moves along at such a nice pace (even with all the exposition thrown in), in the end it hardly matters. Especially when you get to read lines like this one from one CIA manager to a hapless underling: "If you ever send a goddamned Homelander upstairs again without clearing it first with me, you're out of here. You'll be guarding the front gate of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad wearing a George Bush T-shirt instead of body armor." (Good one!)
Not only that, but after all the expository conversations and such, the story builds to page-turning climax. With even more revelations, double-crosses and twists.
This is one of those stories in which you don't really know who the good guys are, but don't have quite as much trouble identifying the bad ones (if that makes any sense).
I enjoyed this book and would recommend it for anyone who loves spy novels. But if you asked me to explain the whole "who struck John" aspect of what happens, I'd be at a loss for words. I think I would've needed a flowchart or something to keep track of all that and I was too busy enjoying the story. So never mind all those nasty little details--on with it!
And there's one other question that I can't answer and, without giving away too much (I hope), the question is this: Why did they do this to Milo? The nature of "they" and "this" are best understood by reading the story. And as for the answer--maybe I'm just a dunderhead reader, but frankly, I haven't got a clue.
Author, Olen Steinhauer
If you're looking for a spy novel full of convoluted twists, shady people and double-crosses, THE TOURIST should be right up your alley.
The story is about Milo Weaver, a CIA agent who once worked in "black ops," which is to say he worked in an unofficial capacity for The Company (as the CIA likes to call itself). Or, to put it yet another way, Milo worked as a "tourist" for the CIA. Going wherever they told him and just following orders.
But that changes. Sometime after 9/11, Milo gets married, acquiring a step-daughter in the process, and goes from being a tourist to serving as a manager in the CIA's New York City headquarters. And one of the things that makes this book so compelling is Milo's grappling with the pressures of handling his job and taking care of his family. But all that comes later, actually.
It really starts when he's tracking the Tiger (an assassin with, as one character notes, a rather corny nickname). He finds him and one thing leads to another and another . . . and the next thing you know Milo's acting as a tourist again and finding out all sorts of crazy stuff. None of it good, of course. Especially for him.
I'll admit, I was initially discouraged by the amount of exposition right up front in the book, when Milo is questioning the Tiger. Yeah, it's handled as dialogue, but let's face it, there's a lot of explaining going on here--much of it overwhelming in detail and a bit confusing. But that's okay, because Milo sums up the major points after they're done talking. So, okay, keep going, I think. Because it is interesting and Olen Steinhauer adds great humorous touches, both in dialogue and description.
So on I went. And each step in Milo's journey would lead to yet another new expositional conversation. More details and confusion, but again, that was okay. Milo provided a synopsis for dunderhead readers like me, who don't keep a scorecard.
Without saying too much, just know that the story leads up to several big revelations--for Milo, his family and others. The plot works like an intricate contraption worthy of Rube Goldberg. A lot of spy-versus-spy stuff (in this case, CIA versus Homeland Security) and paranoid scenarios in which various people try to out-guess each other. But does the story make complete sense? I don't know. Like I said, you'd really need a scorecard to figure that one out.
But Steinhauer writes with such great style and humor. His characters are so interesting and the plot moves along at such a nice pace (even with all the exposition thrown in), in the end it hardly matters. Especially when you get to read lines like this one from one CIA manager to a hapless underling: "If you ever send a goddamned Homelander upstairs again without clearing it first with me, you're out of here. You'll be guarding the front gate of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad wearing a George Bush T-shirt instead of body armor." (Good one!)
Not only that, but after all the expository conversations and such, the story builds to page-turning climax. With even more revelations, double-crosses and twists.
This is one of those stories in which you don't really know who the good guys are, but don't have quite as much trouble identifying the bad ones (if that makes any sense).
I enjoyed this book and would recommend it for anyone who loves spy novels. But if you asked me to explain the whole "who struck John" aspect of what happens, I'd be at a loss for words. I think I would've needed a flowchart or something to keep track of all that and I was too busy enjoying the story. So never mind all those nasty little details--on with it!
And there's one other question that I can't answer and, without giving away too much (I hope), the question is this: Why did they do this to Milo? The nature of "they" and "this" are best understood by reading the story. And as for the answer--maybe I'm just a dunderhead reader, but frankly, I haven't got a clue.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Singleton Hippie Art, The Girl with The Swirl
The Girl with The Swirl(c) Singleton 2009SOLDAnd in the morning....Long before sunrise,wide eyesand the scratchy soundof the Morning Newswakes the world,She's a Mermaid....Finger painting little "I love you"s...in the sand...Splashing in paisley colored tidal pools...gathering periwinkles for hide and sink,Etch~a~sketching tatted lacefrom the footprints oftiny sideways crabsand Seagulls on parade
Dribs and Drabs
This article takes an amusing look at the bestselling books of 1907 and asks if they were any higher quality than today's?
Plus, Stephanie Plum's creator is writing a graphic novel. (That's graphic as in cartoons, not graphic as in . . . you know.)
And here's an interesting low-tech concept in the Age of E-Books.
(Got these off The Reader's Advisor Online.)
Plus, Stephanie Plum's creator is writing a graphic novel. (That's graphic as in cartoons, not graphic as in . . . you know.)
And here's an interesting low-tech concept in the Age of E-Books.
(Got these off The Reader's Advisor Online.)
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