Topic of the Week: Grit Lit October 25, 2009
Posted by litchat in fiction, grit lit, literary fiction.Tags: grit lit, Monte Schulz
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Monte Schulz
Literary fiction covers the gamut of human expression. Within its bounds you’ll find stories with subtle romance, intriguing mystery, smart suspense, savvy humor, fantastical escapes, futuristic forecasts, and time-past historicals. It’s not what the novel is about that labels it literary, but the whole storytelling package, from prose to plot. This week in LitChat we’re discussing edgy, gritty literary fiction. Think about ambiguous characters and dark or dangerous settings, then join us for open chat on Monday and Wednesday (October 26 & 28) for Grit Lit.
Read the chatscript from Monte Schulz’s guest host interview here.
On Friday, October 30, Monte Schulz joins us as guest host. His new novel, This Side of Jordan, inspired this week’s topic with its gritty, prohibition-era setting and trio of reprobates, rascals, and rejects. The novel grabs your sympathy for hapless farmboy, Alvin Pendergrast, but twists it into a knot of ambivalence as Alvin stumbles along a turbulent path with a sociopathic gangster and a beguiling dwarf—all of them refugees from social, cultural or physical bondage.
This Side of Jordan is Monte Schulz’s second novel. His first, Down by the River, was published by Viking in 1991. Library Journal raved that Down by the River compared to Stand by Me and Twin Peaks, and seemed “ready-made for Hollywood.” Monte spent ten years writing Crossing Eden, from which This Side Of Jordan is drawn as the first of three interconnected novels; the second and third, Fields of Eden and The Big Town, will be published in 2010 and 2011.
Schulz received his M.A. in American Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He lives in Northern California. He is the son of Charles M. Schulz, creator of Peanuts.
Monte tweets under the name: @ArthurBurtnett.
Moderator during Wednesday’s open chat is Darrelyn Saloom (@ficwriter). Darrelyn is co-writing a memoir with and about Deirdre Gogarty, the 1997 WIBF Champion from Ireland. She also guest blogs for Writer’s Digest editor Jane Friedman (@JaneFriedman) and is a frequent contributor to #LitChat.
Topic of the Week: Family Secrets October 18, 2009
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Teri Coyne
Skeletons in the closet and the explosive dynamics that result can devastate a family—or drive them together. Last week in LitChat we discussed character flaws and fetishes in fiction, this week we’re taking it a bit further in examining books that hinge on what happens when the ghosts of the past dredge up their unsavory secrets.
Joining us on Friday, October 23 is Teri Coyne, author of The Last Bridge, a novel about family secrets and the devastation they have on people and relationships. Teri says this about The Last Bridge:
“The idea for The Last Bridge started with an image and a voice I heard in my head. The image was of the kitchen of an old farmhouse with garbage bags taped to the walls and a note in a Ziploc® bag on the table. The voice in my head spoke the opening line, ‘Two days after my father had a massive stroke, my mother shot herself in the head’.”
Over the last 25 years, Teri has embarked on a creative journey, exploring the crafts of filmmaking, playwriting, producing, directing and acting. Teri also wrote and performed stand-up comedy in clubs around New York City for many years. She studied poetry with Philip Shultz at NYU, novel writing at the Iowa Summer Writers Workshop, memoir with Frank McCourt at the Southampton Summer Writer’s Program and fiction with Masha Hamilton at the Gotham Writers Workshop in New York City. Although Teri has written across multiple genres, The Last Bridge is her first novel.
In addition to her creative pursuits, Teri renovated a 110-year-old house on the North Fork of Long Island. She also works in the legal industry as technical writer and learning facilitator. Teri divides her time between the City and her home on Long Island and is currently at work on her second novel.
Follow Teri on Twitter at @TeriCoyne.
Topic of the Week: Character Flaws & Fetishes October 11, 2009
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Brooks Sigler
No one likes a boring character. You know the type: always on time, never argues, questions authority, drives the speed limit, et al. Fiction is full of flawed characters. People like us. This week in LitChat we’ll discuss books with crazy, delinquent, perverted, rebellious and otherwise contrary characters and why we love them.
Joining us on Friday, October 16th, is author Brooks Sigler, whose debut novel, Five Finger Fiction, features a lovable Irish Catholic family that reeks of dysfunction. To compensate for her family’s freakiness–her father’s a peeping tom and her mother rules the roost like Peggy Bundy on steriods–protagonist Lila O’Farrell tries humor, subversion, a British accent, and eventually kleptomania to find her own way. Breaking the law and casting aside social mores is nothing to Lila compared to challenging her mother’s authority.
“Brooks Sigler’s deliciously irreverent and deadpan voice makes this unabashedly quirky coming-of-age tale a most singularly irresistible read.” –Steve Kluger, author of Last Days of Summer
Brooks lives with her husband, fish, and cats in a quaint, New England town. She also has a turtle, who she thinks may be slightly off his shell. When not teaching English at her favorite charter school, the author likes to bombard her bosses, coworkers, family, and friends with a flurry of questions which no one can answer. Her other resolution, to produce progeny, has not come to fruition, yet.
Follow Brooks on Twitter at @BrooksSigler
Topic of the Week: Contemporary Inspirational Literature October 4, 2009
Posted by litchat in inspirational memoir, memoir, religion and mysticism.Tags: memoir
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Contemporary Inspirational Literature
Trish Ryan
Inspirational literature is no longer confined to Sunday School readers or religious texts. Strolling through a bookstore you’ll see shelves dedicated to literature of many faiths, including fiction and memoir. Some authors reach beyond the confines of their personal religion with smart, humorous or controversial topics that appeal to people outside the religious platform. This week in LitChat we’ll discuss what makes good inspirational literature–whether Persian, Kabbala, Hindu, Buddhist or other mystical or new age topics.
Trish Ryan is one of those authors whose memoir may be Christian in conclusion, but speaks to people of many faiths. The story of her search for God and the perfect man, He Love Me, He Loves Me Not (Faith Works/Hatchette), has been lauded critics for its honest self-examination and witty commentary on her own life. Publishers Weekly said this about He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not:
Ryan’s winsome memoir and writing debut traces her desperate search for a man—specifically a husband—and for a spirituality that works for her. En route, her heart is broken in every possible way: her college fiancé cheats on her; her first husband abuses her; and she dates a succession of alternately nice and creepy noncommittal guys. She attempts to talk herself out of her desire for marriage, hoping that crystals, feng shui and astrology will provide the guidance she needs to sort out the mess of her life. When she ends up unemployed and broke in Boston, she channel surfs across a Joyce Meyer program one afternoon and is shocked to hear that the Bible promises good things. She visits an evangelical church, joins a small group and ever so tentatively explores the idea of Jesus, eventually giving him her broken life and asking him to fix it. God promises her a husband and delivers (with a tinge of prosperity gospel that will appeal to Meyer fans), but not without cost. In spite of her desperation and a string of horrible choices, Ryan is eminently likable and vulnerable, and her sharp writing will appeal to faithful and irreverent readers alike.
Trish lives in Ithaca, New York, with her husband Steve, and their genetically improbable mixed-breed dog. She just completed a follow-up to He Love Me, He Loves Me Not.
Follow Trish on Twitter at @Trishryan
