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Glenn Benest, Dale Pitman, 2015
Larry Czeronka Publishing
315 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780692336182
Summary
His studio has become his refuge and his prison—a place of boundless imagination and lonely isolation. Brian Archer, creator of a series of successful graphic novels about a vengeful supernatural being called “The Highwayman,” has become a recluse after the adoration of a female fan turned to rage and violence.
But all that changes when he meets a renowned and beautiful illustrator, A.J. Hart, who carries emotional scars of her own. Their work together is fueled by the unrequited passion they share and a mysterious bottle of black ink that arrives one day at Brian’s doorstep.
The impossibly dark liquid has mystical properties, making their characters appear so real they eventually come to life, reigning terror on those who mean them harm and if not stopped—threatens to unleash an apocalypse on all mankind. Brian must break free of his self-imposed exile and solve the mystery that allowed these terrible creatures into the world.
Author Bio
• Birth—September 1, 1950
• Where—Garden City, Kansas, USA
• Education—B.A., Harvard University; M.F.A., University of California, Los Angeles
• Currently—lives in Glendale, California
Glenn Benest lives in Glendale, California, along with his adorable puppy, Milton, so named after the renowned English poet. He’s an award-winning screenwriter and producer with seven produced feature and television movie credits. He has been a professional writer his entire career.
Like the protagonist in our novel, I was a late bloomer when it came to reading, but when I got the hang of it, I spent many hours in the library, devouring everything I could get my hands on: Batman, westerns, sports books even pulp magazines. I also started writing poetry when I was in high school, then transitioned to the theatre at Harvard, where I realized I had to go for my dream. I quickly moved to Los Angeles where I got my master of fine arts degree at U.C.L.A., but soon realized I couldn’t make a living writing stage plays.
Glenn began to write screenplays and by the age of thirty wrote two films for acclaimed horror director Wes Craven.
I think I’ve written in every genre imaginable, including romance, thrillers, mystery, comedy, and drama. Writing fiction has been my latest endeavor, although INK combines two genres that have always fascinated me—paranormal romance and horror.
Glenn and his writing partner Dale Pitman met in one of Mr. Benest’s screenwriting workshops and quickly discovered they shared a passion for comic books and the supernatural.
This is their first novel. (From the author.)
Visit the authors' website....and the book's Goodreads page.
Book Reviews
Masterful! A scare-fest that is thrilling, macabre and spine-chilling!
Jenn Ann - The Book Tales
My brain is in total fangirl mode right now. I love, love, LOOOOVE this book!
Ash D. - Fear Street Zombies
Reading this book is as fun as going to the movies! The writing is so vivid! Highly recommended for pretty much everyone!
JP Bloch - Social Misfit Times
Discussion Questions
1. What is the curse of The Highwayman? How was he created?
2. Why did Brian, the author of The Highwayman, create this particular creature?
3. How is a graphic novel different from a normal novel?
4. What is the connection between Brian, hero, and A.J., the heroine?
5. What were the conditions that laid the groundwork for the attempted murder of the female fan?
6. Is an author responsible for his works of creation and how they affect others?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
My Father's Daughter, From Rome to Sicily
Gilda Morina Syverson, 2014
Divine Phoenix and Pegasus Books
277 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781941859100
Summary
In this multigenerational memoir, My Father's Daughter, From Rome to Sicily, Gilda Morina Syverson travels with her Italian-born father, Italian-American mother, and very-American husband to the villages of her ancestors. This trilogy tale leads the reader through ancient sites of Rome, landscapes of a picturesque countryside, seaside villages of Sicily, olive trees in the valley of Mount Etna, while contrasting an emotional journey between a father and daughter.
Former North Carolina Poet Laureate, Joseph Bathanti, says, My Father's Daughter, From Rome to Sicily, is a travel book in every sense. Syverson—a savvy, funny, elegant tour guide—expertly escorts us through the gorgeous time-locked terrain of Italy, but also along the often precarious byways of the heart. This book risks everything: its humanity, its courage, its sheer unbridled candor, the moving sweep of its poetic language and its refusal to turn away from the breathtaking mystery of love and ancestry."
William Martin, New York Times bestselling author of Cape Cod and The Lincoln Letter says, "Travel south from Rome with Gilda Morina Syverson. Let her show you her ancestral land through the eyes of her closest ancestors, her parents, who travel with her and her husband. It's a trip well worth taking...vividly observed, richly detailed, gently humorous, and deeply poignant. The only thing better would be a trip to Italy."
This Novello Literary Award Finalist exudes passion, eloquence, heartfelt language, and ancestral roots. With love, humor, angst and a quest to uncover a heritage, our author is about to experience the journey of a lifetime.
Author Bio
• Birth—February 25, 1949
• Where—Syracuse, New York, USA
• Education—B.S., State University of New York College, Buffalo; M.F.A., Southern Illinois University
• Currently—lives in Cornelius, North Carolina
Gilda Morina Syverson, artist, poet, writer and teacher, was born and raised in a large, Italian-American family in Upstate, New York. Her heritage is the impetus for her memoir, My Father's Daughter, From Rome to Sicily.
Syverson's award winning poems and prose have appeared in literary journals, magazines and anthologies in the United States and Canada. Her writing has been published in Conspicuous Accents, Accenti Magazine’s Finest Stories of the First 10 Years, Italian Americana, Sweet Lemons 1 & 2, International Writings with a Sicilian Accent, Descant, Philadelphia Poets, Charlotte Viewpoint, Cold Mountain Review, VIA (Voices In Italian Americana), Main Street Rag, Iodine Poetry Journal, among others.
Gilda is also the author of the full-length poetry book, Facing the Dragon, and the chapbook, In This Dream Everything Remains Inside. Her commentaries have been aired on WFAE, Charlotte, N.C.’s public radio station.
Gilda has taught in the Creative Arts for over 35 years and is a long-time memoir instructor, including 15 years at Queens University of Charlotte. Her fine art has been exhibited regionally, nationally and internationally. Her angel drawings and prints are in a number of collections throughout the United States, Canada and Italy. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Follow Gilda on Facebook.
Book Reviews
Dannye Romine Powell - Charlotte Observer, Raleigh News & Observer
Thanks to a note from Susan Walker, a fellow Antiquity resident, Around Davidson learned of Gilda’s many talents, not the least of which is her newly published memoir, My Father’s Daughter: From Rome to Sicily, published by Divine Phoenix in conjunction with Pegasus Books. Gilda’s story was a Novello Literary Award Finalist and for the first 5 weeks after its release in December of 2014, it was on Amazon’s No. 1 Hot Best Releases for Sicily Tour Guides.
Brenda Barger - Around Davidson, Davidsonnews.net
To read this book is to know that the places we’ve lived, the places we’ve known, the places and people we come from stick with us in ways we don’t always understand. [Syverson's] work is the stuff of houses and homes and the fixtures they contain, a mapping of experience and how we share it, a way of, as Syverson herself has put it in her poetry, "seeking our own kind" from wherever we happen to be. (From Introduction at Southern Recitations.)
Bryce Emley - Raleigh Review
Syverson’s latest creative work, a Novello Literary Award Finalist, is her book, My Father’s Daughter, From Rome to Sicily. The idea for the book started when Syverson and her husband traveled with her elderly parents to Italy. "I never imagined in a million years I’d go there," she said …"When I came back from Italy, all that was on my mind was the trip. I went to a writer’s group, brought in essays and poems I’d written, and all I could think about was I had to get this story down...."
Lisa Daidone - Charlotte Observer
Discussion Questions
1. As the reader sits alongside our author on the cross-Atlantic flight to Rome, what emotions are evident? What does this adventure of a lifetime potentially entail?
2. Some of Gilda's strengths as well as her challenges came from a more traditional Italian-Catholic upbringing. Were you raised in a culture that did not always fit the new beliefs that you discovered on your life's path?
3. When Gilda sits in St. Peter's piazza, she has glimpses of appreciation for her religious upbringing, despite her feminist leanings. Are there aspects of your spiritual upbringing, or lack of one, that give you strength despite the differences you may now have as an adult?
4. For years, our author had asked her father to travel to his hometown roots, in Sicily. Has there been any country or part of the world associated with your own heritage that you've had a desire to visit? Is there anything about your past that you would like to discover?
5. A psychic once told Gilda that, in a past life, she lived as an ancient, aristocratic woman in Rome. Is there a city, country or certain area of the world that you have a yearning to visit, even if you have no idea what is calling you there?
6. On the train from Rome to Sicily, Gilda, her parents, and her husband find themselves in a compartment with a German couple. Watching them, Gilda feels that there are cultural differences. Have there been times in your life where you have encountered someone speaking another language or participating in a tradition foreign to you? How did it make you feel? How did you respond?
7. On the ferry from the mainland of Italy over to Messina, Sicily, Gilda is aware of a quiet that overcomes both her parents—especially her father, when he sees his homeland again after 30 years. Is this silence in any way an indication of what may lie ahead as they step onto the island of Sicily? What kind of mood do you find yourself in when you're about to step into a new place, or step back to an old one?
8. When all four travelers arrive in the small town of Gualtieri Sicaminò, the cousins—who haven't seen Gilda's father in decades—receive them with open arms. How do we, as a culture, receive unexpected guests that knock at our doors? Have you ever shown up at someone's door and realized, Uh-oh, I should have called first?
9. When Gilda's father says good-bye to his cousins, Pasqua and then Pasqualino—probably for the last time—the feelings expressed by those present run a gamut of emotions. What is it like for you to say goodbye to a close friend or relative, a child who is leaving home for the first time, or a parent or partner who is dying?
10. When our travelers leave Linguaglossa, Gilda's mother mentions that there were still things that she wished she could have seen or found. Are there questions that Gilda's mother had that you still want to know about? If you are a mother or grandmother, what wisdom do you want to impart?
11. Both Gilda's parents had a chance to say farewell to their regions—her mother, when standing in the ancient ruins of Taormina, and her father, when on the ferryboat from Messina back to the mainland. This pivotal scene provides the backdrop for us to ponder our family roots and travel adventures. Share any thoughts that surface from reading about this experience.
12. Back in Rome, Gilda's father wanted to see the balcony where Mussolini, while still in power during World War II, addressed Italy. Are there any historical figures—positive or negative—you would like to meet or see in action?
13. How do you think Gilda and her father's relationship changed over the course of the trip, from the United States through Rome, Italy, Sicily and back home?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
The Chaneysville Incident
David Bradley, 1981
HarperCollins
448 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780060916817
Summary
The legends say something happened in Chaneysville.
The Chaneysville Incident is the powerful story of one man's obsession with discovering what that "something" was—a quest that takes the brilliant and bitter young black historian John Washington back through the secrets and buried evil of his heritage. Returning home to care for and then bury his father's closest friend and his own guardian, Old Jack Crawley, he comes upon the scant records of his family's proud and tragic history, which he drives himself to reconstruct and accept.
This is the story of John's relationship with his family, the town, and the woman he loves; and also between the past and the present, between oppression and guilt, hate and violence, love and acceptance. From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1950
• Where—Bedford, Pennsylvania, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Pennsylvania; M.A., University of London
• Awards—Academy Award (American Academy of Arts and Letters); PEN/Faulkner Award;
O. Henry Award
• Currently—lives in San Diego, California
David Henry Bradley, Jr. is the author of South Street and The Chaneysville Incident, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1982.
The Chaneysville Incident, inspired in part by the real-life discovery of the graves of a group of runaway slaves on a farm near Chaneysville in Bedford County, PA, where Bradley was born, also earned Bradley a 1982 Academy Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. His short story "You Remember the Pinmill" (winner of a 2014 O. Henry Award) was published in 2013 in Narrative magazine.
Since 1985, Bradley has worked primarily in creative nonfiction, with pieces in Esquire, Redbook, New York Times, Philadelphia Magazine, Pennsylvania Gazette, Nation and Dissent. His work has also appeared online in Obit, Narrative, and Brevity.
Bradley holds a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA in United States Studies from the University of London. He was an Associate Professor in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Oregon. On June 12, 2011, he appeared 60 Minutes in a segment regarding the censored version of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved June 10, 2015.)
Book Reviews
David Bradley's second book, The Chaneysville Incident, took ten years to complete. A deeply moving work set in the mountains of Pennsylvania, it received the PEN/Faulkner Award as the best novel of 1981. John Washington, the novel's hero, is a history professor and scholar...[who] uncovers the mystery of his father's suicide; learns the heroic truth of how his great-grandfather, an ex-slave, was killed when caught helping twelve runaways; discovers that his contempt for his mother is misplaced; and creates within himself a place of compassion where commitment to Judith can grow.... In beautiful and precise prose, Bradley tells the story of how...an intelligent reclamation of one's heritage can be a source of strength and peace.
Sacred Life
Discussion Questions
(These questions were kindly offered to LitLovers by Gail Golden, who developed them for The BFF Book Club. Thank you, Gail.)
1. In what year is the novel set in the first chapter?& How did you feel about the way that the stories unfolded as the book progressed? If this book had been written in 2015, how might the story between John and Judith have been different?
2. Why is it significant that John is an historian? How does that help to connect him to his father, Moses Washington, especially after Moses’s death?
3. What is the significance of coffee and toddies in this novel? How does the choice of drinks help the reader to understand the progress of Judith’s and John’s relationship?
4. Do we ever really know the actual names of the Town and the County? Are the names important? Why or why not?
5. John shows anger throughout the book. How do the foci of his anger change as the story progresses, or how does it become clearer to the reader the focus of the anger?
6. Share one of the vignettes that help us to understand why John felt so hostile toward the town in which he grew up.
7. Discuss the role of Old Jack Crawley in this story.
8. Compare the home of Old Jack and the one that Moses built for himself. Compare the two sides of the Hill on which the Blacks in the Town lived.
9. Describe the evolution of C. K. Washington which led up to the “incident.” Did that vignette help you to understand why Moses took his own life? Do you think that it helped John to understand?
10. If you had been one of the thirteen involved in the “incident,” would you have chosen the way that they did? Why do you think that John and Moses had such a hard time finding out about the “incident?”
11. What was the significance at the end of the book of John’s resealing the folio that Moses had left him? Why did he burn up all of his notes? He says that he is leaving the folio intact for anyone in the future who might look into it. Who might that be?
12. Did this book give you any new knowledge/revelations about slavery, the slave trade, runners, and/or the Underground Railroad? Has the book changed your previous notions about PA or any of the other states mentioned in the book?
13. Pick one minor character in the book and discuss him/her and how he/she fit into the centuries-old story told in the book.
14. Is there a particular episode in the novel that you would like to discuss?
(Questions prepared and submitted by Gail Golden of The BFF Book Club.)
Vinnie Got Blown Away
Jeremy Cameron, 1995
HopeRoad
162 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781908446183
Summary
Nicky Burkett finds his childhood friend Vinnie dead at the bottom of a tower block. He and his mates have a code of conduct which makes revenge inevitable. They have to find the villains—much more serious criminals than themselves—and then they have to take them on.
The result is a hilarious hybrid of Elmore Leonard and Quentin Tarantino, with dialogue that crackles off the page, unforgettable characters and an authentic sense of place.
Darkly comic, stylish and violent, Vinnie Got Blown Away offers a radical contrast from the British tradition of a murder mystery among the middle classes. It mixes without discrimination among black, white and Asian communities; it follows their speech patterns: cockney and Caribbean unite. It demonstrates the resilience in these communities, an ability to survive against all outside pressures and values.
Walthamstow is stuck on the end of the north east of London. It is part of London, but it inhabits a world of its own. Vinnie Got Blown Away is the first of five novels by Jeremy Cameron describing the area. The books are about a multi-racial community in which loyalty to your mates is more important than following the rules of society.
This is a community with very little hope of finding jobs, status and money: the traditional aims of society. Instead, the community has its own aims and its own ways of surviving. It has resilience, it has humour and it knows what a fast buck looks like. Some of its characters break the law, some don't; but they all know how life is.
Brilliantly reviewed on its initial release in 1995, Vinnie Got Blown Away holds a unique place in the crime fiction canon, and is ripe for rediscovery by a new generation of readers. It is now recognised as being one of the British crime novels that one has to read. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—March 3, 1947
• Where—Norfolk, England, UK
• Education—B.A., Oxford University
• Currently—lives in Norfolk, England
Jeremy Cameron spent several years working in hostels for the homeless, and twenty years living and working in Walthamstow. During this period he wrote five novels set in Walthamstow and featuring Nicky Burkett.
The other books in the Nicky Burket Series include Wider than Walthamstow; Hell on Hoe Street, Brown Bread in Wengen, and It Was an Accident. His other books include: Never Again: A Walk from Hook of Holland to Istanbul and How to be President—of Norfolk Lawn Tennis Association. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
You can also follow Jeremy on Twitter.
Book Reviews
Audacious and outrageous.
Daily Telegraph
Jaunty, exhilarating and original, with a feeling for street life that renders it sexy and poignant.
Literary Review
A fast, funny trawl through the territory of London's new outlaw underclass. IIt is a masterly piece of storytelling
Financial Times
A short, sharp shock of a novel.
GQ
Funny, violent and vivid
Sunday Times
Discussion Questions
1. What is Nicky's attitude towards women?
2. Do women figure positively in the book?
3. Which of his mates are black, and which are white?
4. Is the language used in the book hard to absorb?
5. Do you feel that Walthamstow is a place you would like to visit?
6. Does Nicky change at all during the book?
7. Did you find the book violent?
8. Which is your favourite character, and why?
9. From the book, what would you feel are the causes of crime?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
Reparations: A Tale of War and Rebirth
Ruth Sidransky, 2015
Shadowteams
522 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781505646825
Summary
With the sweep of Sophie's Choice and search for identity of Everything is Illuminated, Reparations is the story of Molly Rose, an innocent catapulted from the streets of New York into the bombed out cities of Austria and Germany at the end of World War II.
This is her story, a story of circumstance and choices, survival and strength, love and betrayal. In the early years in Europe, Molly meets stateless Jews in Austria and Germany. They become her European family.
Slowly, they begin to tell their secrets of horror under the Nazis: mutilation, experimentation, rape, torture, state-induced abortions, relentless cruelty and death. Some turn to smuggling goods, gold bullion and loose silver, to Spain and Italy. Molly and Jacob join them, driving across borders in a specially made car.
Molly has another quest as well: Molly wants a baby for herself and for the surviving Jewish women experimented on by Nazi doctors. Molly wants to undo the wrong done to her sisters by the ultimate affirming act: Molly wants to create new life.
Author Bio
• Birth—1926
• Where—New York, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Hunter College
• Currently—Lenox, Massachusetts; Delray Beach, Florida
Discussion Questions
1. The POV in Reparations is quite different from many holocaust books. This centers around two young American Jews and their attempts to help their people as they emerged from the sewers and forests around Vienna. How are the ways Molly and Jacob helped their new friends in Europe?
2. The title of the book is "reparations" and in this case, refers to children. Why were child the reparations the Jewish people sought after WWII?
3. In the love story between Molly and Jacob, one is destroyed by ambition even in the midst of such hubris and destruction. Can you discuss?
4. What does it mean in today's world to remember the holocaust? Is it more important now than ever? Is there anything in the telling of this highly personal story that you can still see at work in the world today?
5. How is the character of Molly a modern woman?
6. The rape by the German soldiers is a turning point in the book. Discuss the meaning of Molly's choice to have the baby and raise it as a Jew.
7. What does the loss of Jacob mean?
8. In what ways does the author create the difficult living conditions in post-war Europe. How does she characterize the people?
9. This book was written in 1950 and put away in a box for many years. Does the book feel more immediate or dated because of when it was written?
10. This book covers one of the most heartbreaking elements of war: How families and lovers find each other when the world has been destroyed. Discuss how Jews remade their family after near annihilation.
(Questions courtesy of the author.)