“Crimson Shadow: Noir” by Nathan Squiers

Review of Noir:

“Noir” by Nathan Squiers is the first in his Crimson Shadow series. It concerns Xander, a boy who gets bullied at school and who lives with his grandmother. The only good friend he has is a voice in his head, yet that voice cannot protect him from his enemies either.
Then one day he gets rescued by a group of vampires, the Odin Clan, and becomes part of their community, a rare type of vampires who are feeding from blood and from personal power. He receives training and enters into battle against their enemies.
This is as much a vampire tale as it is symbolic for the struggle for personal power and good use for it. Having been a victim has changed Xander and makes him an unlikely candidate to join “bad” creatures. His feelings of rage need to be contained – there is a sensei/ teacher in Xanders training who helps him with these struggles.
Very well written and perfectly paced the author has given us a great read and a skilfully developed character in Xander. I will say that this type of story about supernatural powers and the struggle for personal control and self-discipline has been done many times before but this is one of the few times where I actually bought it, cared for the characters and started to understand why it has the following it has. Incredibly well done!

Interview with Nathan:

-Nathan, how did you come to writing?

I’d always been interested in storytelling. As a kid, even before I knew how to write, I was always drawing pictures in crayons based on stories in my mind or intricately enacting scenes and adventures with my action figures. As the years passed my interest in creating stories only grew, and the introduction of writing just sort of got assimilated with the other methods I used. As my more “childish” activities (donning costumes and running around the neighbourhood pretending to be a superhero or dipping into an overflowing bin of toys to create some grand new heroic battle) have dwindled, writing has simply survived and prospered with a growing wealth of vocabulary and ideas.

-What would you say exactly is your preferred genre and why have you chosen it? Is that the type of books you read as well?

If I had to funnel it down to only one genre I’d say it’d be psychological dark urban fantasy. Most of my work is set in a realm of fiction that my fiancé and I co-created through several years of research, and, aside from the customized creature-types, I’ve always defined my style as being very emotionally driven; not one of my stories ever being so simple as to have solely one conflict and, for the most part, incorporates an equally (if not more) threatening struggle with oneself as well as whatever external force they’re up against.
This, however, is not the only thing I write (I’ve even been known to write non-fiction/articles lol), and, that being the case, I don’t restrict my reading lists to that genre, either. While I DO enjoy it, I’m also partial to well-structured romance, mystery, and even philosophy books.

-You write short stories as well as novels, some of which are connected. Can you explain that concept a little?

I’ve always been a REALLY big comic book geek, and, for as long as I can remember, the concept of a single universe (such as Marvel or DC) having all of these wonderful characters who are unique and intriguing and, above all, able to cross paths with each other was FASCINATING. To me, a single story can encompass a specific character’s (or characters’) struggles, but they aren’t the only ones worth focusing on and, while they’re story is being told, the probability that others are in their own adventures is vast and often unseen. I like to approach all projects with a mind of “how does THIS fit into EVERYTHING, and where can THIS character influence THOSE characters down the line?”
My father would call it “having too much time on my hands”, my philosophy professors would call it “the ripple effect”, but I just call it “the mythos universe”.

-When did you first have the idea for this book/ series?

When I was about 14 or 15, I was DEEPLY troubled and depressed. At that time, I was certain that I wouldn’t last too much longer; every day serving as a haunting thought of “is today the day I kill myself?”
When I first sat down to write Xander Stryker’s story, it was planned to be a testament to my feelings at that time (a sort of “creative suicide letter”). However, what was supposed to be a short story about a tortured young man’s suicidal rituals ended up becoming something of intrigue for me, and I found myself driven to write more and more of Xander’s story. After a while I became less interested in seeing Xander die and more interested in trying to make him overcome his troubles—to find the strength that I felt I didn’t have and overcome it all—and, in struggling to create a character who wanted to live, I started to want to live. Eventually, by the time I was finished with the piece that would later become “Noir”, book #1 of the Crimson Shadow series, I had, in essence, cured myself of my suicidal tendencies.

-How long did it take you to write?

“Noir”, because of all the personal elements laced throughout it—personal elements that gave me multiple anxiety attacks and landed me in the hospital about five times a year for the entire duration of writing it—took me about five years to write. The subsequent books, however, have taken substantially less time (book two taking two years and my more recent piece, “Curtain Call: A Death Metal Novel”, only taking me eight weeks from start-to-finish).

-How many rewrites did it take you?

Far more than I’m brave enough to guess lol

-How do you write? What is your writing environment like?

Location isn’t really a factor for me when it comes to writing. If I can sit down with my computer and listen to my music, then I’m pretty much good to go (having something to drink and nibble on certainly keeps me from being interrupted by those needs).

-Your fiancé is a writer, too. What kind of books does she write and how should we imagine a household of two writers? IS there ever a competition between you? Is there tension when one of you has a writer’s block? Do you ever have that – either of you?

My fiancé, Megan J. Parker, has always been a talented writer, but she’d always preferred writing poetry. Over the years, she had begun A LOT of “Chapter One”s, but these openings never went much farther than that. After “Crimson Shadow: Noir” was accepted for publication and I started to get acquainted with names in the community, I started to become aware of calls for submissions. One of which, for an anthology of short stories, looked like something that might offer Megan a chance to dust off one of her first chapter/shorts and see what people thought.
Unsurprisingly (for me, at least), people LOVED her work and it wasn’t long until the publisher we were with asked if she could submit the novel attached to that “Chapter One”. Motivated by this, she wrote the rest of the book (a paranormal/dark urban fantasy romance set in the same universe—a universe that she had just as much of a hand in creating as I did—as all of my own but featuring a new cast of characters) and unleashed it onto the world.
Like the mythology, however, we don’t feel competitive between what “belongs” to whom. She has a constant influence in the nature of my work just as I, in turn, have my own influence on hers, so there’s never a moment of competition because, for us, it represents something that we both had at least some hand in as well as being the product of a lover’s imagination (I have to imagine it’s no different than a couple with one writer—the non-writer doesn’t feel challenged or threatened by their lover’s work—but, in this case, we get to play both roles to the other). Beyond that, when writers block strikes, it’s nice to have a fellow literary mind sitting beside you to fall back on.

-Who are your editors and how do you quality control your books?

I recently met a wonderful woman named Kristina Gehring with an eye for editing that’s as sharp as I’ve ever seen. Her ability to spot anything—and I do mean anything—that doesn’t look/sound right in a manuscript is nearly outside of my realm of belief (and anybody who knows the sort of stuff I’m willing to believe would understand that to be IMMENSE). Because her standard for quality is equal to the standard I set for my own work, by the time I’ve done my personal comb-through & edits on a finished piece and gotten it sent off to her, I’m nothing short of 100% confident that any alterations I’m suggested will be EXACTLY what’s needed to make the piece golden!

-Who are your favourite authors / influences?
Favorite authors:
• Rob Thurman
• Nancy A. Collins
• Stephen King
• Clive Barker
• Anton LaVey
• Steve Niles
• (too many more to list)
Biggest influencers:
• Guillermo del Toro (filmmaker)
• Stan “The Man” Lee (Marvel Comics legend)
• Mike Mignola (writer/illustrator of Hellboy)
• The Wachowski siblings (creators & directors of The Matrix)
• Marilyn Manson (musician)
• William Control (aka – William Francis/musician)
• (and many, many more)

-Who would play your characters in a movie?

I recently saw a movie called “We Need to Talk About Kevin” about an incredibly troubled young man played by Erza Miller. Throughout the entire movie, subtle nuances in Miller’s performances and his overall appearance kept making me think of Xander, and I think if you were to slap a pair of black & white revolvers in his hands and give him a set of fangs he’d fit the bill pretty well.

-What are your next projects and where would we be able to hear about them?

Since starting up Tiger Dynasty Publishing, a lot of my focus has gone towards re-releasing my previous titles along with the titles of some phenomenal authors I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in my adventures. Obviously the continuation of the Crimson Shadow and Death Metal series are a priority of mine, and down the line we’re going to be releasing comic books, so a number of my original scripts will finally have a face and be available. Information on these (and other) projects can be seen on my official author site, http://www.nathansquiers.com or on my Facebook page People can also learn more by following my Twitter (username @LitDark_Emperor).

OFFICIAL author site: http://www.nathansquiers.com
OFFICIAL FB author page: https://www.facebook.com/Nathan.Squiers
The Legion (“fan” page) on FB: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Legion-of-Nathan-Squiers/329543403767153?fref=ts
OFFICIAL Crimson Shadow FB page: https://www.facebook.com/CrimsonShadow.Legacy
OFFICIAL Death Metal FB page: https://www.facebook.com/DeathMetal.NovelSeries
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LitDark_Emperor
“A Howl at the Moon” (cover art attached to this email) on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/A-Howl-at-Moon-ebook/dp/B00BFF7ZX4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361432567&sr=8-1&keywords=Nathan+Squiers+Howl+at+the+Moon

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A great honour for me today. Paulette Mahurin, the award sweeping author of The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap, has featured me on her own blog. Thank you Paulette for your generous support. Coming from a writer like yourself it means a lot. Christoph Fischer

The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap

 

Welcome Christoph Fischer, Author of The Luck of the Weissensteiners. I’m thrilled to have you here and ask a few questions from this great read, one of my favorites of 2012.
Below is our interview, my review and some of his readers showing off the book. (Dog lovers don’t miss the photos of his girls)

 

Your book has a title that implies a lucky family. Why did you choose this in the setting of Nazi Germany?

 

It was during writing that the title came to me and that was when the theme of ‘luck’ as one of the main issues of the book emerged. In war and in persecution, naked survival is already undoubtedly luck, but it is more complicated than that – as the stories of some of my characters hopefully will show. Under extreme circumstances, such as the Nazi period in Germany, many succumb to…

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Sorry for the double blog – if it is. The blog did not reach some of you, so I am trying again. Thank you!

writerchristophfischer

Of Kings and Queens:

Some of you may recognise the name of this talented new author. Only a few weeks ago I featured an interview with her about her book “Rani of Rampur” and already there is a new book, every bit as great as the previous one.
I must admit I have a thing for Indian culture in books which is usually a big commitment due to some lengthy books in the category. If you are unwilling to read through 800 plus pages then this is your prefect starting point to begin your journey into this well worth area of fiction.

Plot:

Ram, a twelve year old, is heir to the Kingdom of Mirpur in colonial India. He is being pressured by his father and his overly ambitious step-mother to shape up or step aside, literally and figuratively. His father wants him to become a proper English gentleman to…

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“Of Kings and Queens” by Suneeta Misra

Of Kings and Queens:

Some of you may recognise the name of this talented new author. Only a few weeks ago I featured an interview with her about her book “Rani of Rampur” and already there is a new book, every bit as great as the previous one.
I must admit I have a thing for Indian culture in books which is usually a big commitment due to some lengthy books in the category. If you are unwilling to read through 800 plus pages then this is your prefect starting point to begin your journey into this well worth area of fiction.

Plot:

Ram, a twelve year old, is heir to the Kingdom of Mirpur in colonial India. He is being pressured by his father and his overly ambitious step-mother to shape up or step aside, literally and figuratively. His father wants him to become a proper English gentleman to better serve the British Crown, and his step-mother wants him to conveniently drop off the face of the earth in order to make way for her own future male progeny. To navigate this thorny landscape, Ram takes the help of Maya, a fourteen year old girl who is the grand-daughter of his tutor. Will Ram survive the intrigue swirling around him and meet the expectations of his father? Read the novelette, “Of Kings and Queens,” to find the answer to this and other questions.

My Review:

“Of Kings and Queens” by Suneeta Misra is a short but poignant story about the heir to an Indian Kingdom and the dangers he faces coming from the families of the other wives of the King. Telling the intrigues and the backstabbing from the perspective of an adolescent man whose mind is less focused on learning and more on girls gives the authentic historical background of pre-independent India a new dimension. The book also tells the story of his childhood sweetheart and her place in the court.
Our hero moves to England to study and returns upon his father’s somewhat suspicious death.
The book is full of cultural detail, historical and other knowledge and uses two charming main characters. Unlike other Indian novels that are epic and never ending this novel moves the story along quickly without making it feel rushed or too short. The language is smooth and the writing is tight. Very enjoyable, informative and skilful.

Author Bio

Suneeta Misra has been a teacher in the Maryland school district of the Washington, D.C., metro area, for the last twenty years. She also likes to tell stories and in that vein, has written and directed several documentary films and short feature films with the state of rural education in India, as a backdrop. Most of her stories are focused around strong female protagonists in a rural Indian landscape because this environment is patriarchal in nature and has seen many crimes against women. Some of these crimes include honor killings of girls who dare marry outside the community, female infanticide, child marriage, and widow burning. She has recently published her first novel, “Rani of Rampur,” and a novelette, “Of Kings and Queens,” both of which are set in mythical Indian villages and center around strong female characters. She has also written several short stories and screenplays which she hopes to turn into films one day.

Links:

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Goodreads

“Until the Robin Walks on Snow” by Bernice L. Rocque

It is 1922. An immigrant family and their devoted midwife struggle to save a tiny premature baby. Inspired by real events in Norwich, Connecticut, this historical fiction novella about determination, family, faith, and friendship includes a story chapter about the family’s Polish and Lithuanian Christmas Eve traditions. Appendices include Author’s Notes about the facts, family history, and research behind the story

My Review:

“Until the Robin Walks on Snow” by Bernice L. Rocque grabbed my attention on the historical fiction forums on Goodreads and was intrigued by the Eastern European angle of the story, something that I have researched myself for my own books.
I found the relatively short novel had a lot more to it than Eastern European culture. It is a meticulously researched and detailed account of the winter 1922 and 1923 in Norwhich, Connecticut, during which a group of mainly Lithuanian Immigrants fear for the live of a fragile baby. Antoni is the smallest baby the doctor has ever seen – dead or alive – and his survival is in serious question.
The author describes precisely which steps the family and the doctors take to help the baby survive in the same way as she adds great detail and authenticity to the cultural background of that group: The house they live in, the cooking implements they use, the clothes and fabrics, the religious habits and celebrations – all of this creates an amazing insight and allows the reader to become part of the community and the times.
It is a great challenge to write about one small subject matter such as the birth of a fragile baby. Some authors might have been tempted to fill the book with lots of side plots to keep the reader’s attention but Rocque manages easily to hold the interest and the suspense up.
As a plot driven writer and reader I was surprised to find myself so comfortable in the slow pace which this close up of the family and the surrounding community kept. The Wigilia, a Polish Christmas Eve dinner, the fables told and so much more that is mentioned makes this a well-illustrated and rich feast for the historian and culturally interested.
Right from the beginning when the author gives an introduction, background and her acknowledgements, the writing was already so fascinating and captivating that I was surprised when the actual novel began.
This is well crafted from research to the composition. If you have an interest in this field then “Until the Robin Walks on Snow” is a must read.

My interview with Bernice L. Rocque

How did you come to writing in the first place?

After an epiphany of sorts—about memories. By 2004, I had lost one parent and the other was becoming fragile of mind. I guess the ongoing feeling of loss and reflection produced an insight from my hoards of genealogy records. The essence of most people—who they once were—disappears in less than 100 years after they die.
I hated the thought that subsequent generations would know less and less about how wonderful my parents and other family members were. Could I prevent, somehow, the dwindling of their essence into a stack of facts and photos? About the time I was mired in this, I saw an announcement in my local newspaper about the writing groups that my public library sponsored. I didn’t have to think about it long; I joined one.

What was your connection or special interest in the subject matter?

Whether nonfiction or fiction, all the stories I have written so far are connected to preserving the essence of the people I have known or heard about. For example, the essence of Nikodimas, my great-grandfather, had faded amongst his American relatives during the more than seventy years since his death. From comments I am hearing, my book, Until the Robin Walks on Snow, does seem to be increasing the light in his essence, as if someone turned a lantern up and made a room brighter.

When did you first have the idea for this book?

More than forty years ago when I was in my teens, I interviewed my grandmother and numerous other relatives about family history. I took a few notes about the 1.5 pound baby born to my grandmother in 1922. It is astounding to me now that I didn’t ask more questions.
In the fall of 2009, my Uncle Tony reminded me about that baby. My uncle is a retired engineer and a naturally curious person and problem solver, much like my father was, and like their grandfather, Nikodimas. Since this event about the baby had some mystery attached to it, my uncle and I became more and more intrigued as we talked.
Since 2004 when I joined the writing group, I had been writing mostly memoir pieces about my immediate family and cousins. I could tell my uncle was hoping I would write a story about this birth, so I offered to try historical fiction if he would serve as an advisor, since he grew up in the 1920s-1930s. He gave me a big smile and said, “Let’s do it.” And so we embarked on this adventure of trying to unravel the mystery and tell the story that “might have happened.”

How long did it take you to write?

I wrote Until the Robin Walked on Snow in 3 years, but I was not working on it continuously. The first rendition was a 12-page story. My uncle loved it and my writing group was enthusiastic. Most of the suggestions were about fleshing out all aspects of the story, which I continued to do.
In the same period of time that I was writing this story (about my family trying to save this extremely premature baby in 1922), dramatic changes were occurring in the publishing industry. When I realized in early 2012 that my uncle was going to celebrate a milestone birthday in November 2012, and it seemed that the story would appeal to more than my family, AND eBook novellas were selling well, I decided to take the plunge, as they say, and publish the book. The paperback was released in September 2012 and the eBook the following month.

How did/ do you research?

I did research throughout the book’s development. Early on, verification of the relevant family history and finding out as much as I could from relatives about the story were important. Intermingled with writing spurts, I researched the medical aspects, Prohibition, the weather, etc. The genealogist in me also pursued current day relatives of the midwife who could shed more light about her and other characters. I have so enjoyed learning more about the “essence” of the people in my story and getting to know individuals connected in some way to my characters.

How comfortable do you feel writing about history?

I have always loved history, especially social history—the lives of ordinary people. Just like many other readers, though, I am drawn to stories about ordinary people who rise to meet the challenge of an extraordinary event, especially with less tools and technology than we have today.
In writing about a different time, I feel it is so important to put the event in its own context: historical, cultural, geographic, etc. I have learned, though, that pinning down every detail in a work of historical fiction is extremely time consuming and further, that too many details can overload the telling of the story.
When I was feeling unsettled about a historical detail in this book, the action I took depended upon how critical it was to my story. For example, there was one detail about the cars of the time that was driving me crazy, but I stepped back, and realized it was not important. I elected to simplify the sentence, though antique car lovers might have appreciated my chasing down the specifics. At the other extreme, I invested time to better understand the challenges of operating a combination wood/coal stove of the 1920s because it was central to the plot and authenticity of the setting.
Then, there is the aspect of language. What did the structure of their words and sentences look like, sound like? On average, my characters spoke four languages. After some thought about this, I decided to draw from what I heard and observed when I was growing up, as I felt the English I heard would reflect the choices of expression in another language, as well as trigger the memories today of those who remember their immigrant relatives. In the conversations I observed when my grandparents’ generation was alive, I recall hearing facts, tactful statements and questions, stories, and seeing mostly subtle gestures. They rarely bragged or interrupted each other, and I don’t recall hearing slang or contractions like “don’t.” Through the development stages of this story, some of my reviewers commented that the language in the story was too stilted—too formal. That concerned me for a while, especially early on. But, the first clue that I should stay the course was when a member of my writing group said she would not change a thing in the dialogue; it sounded just like her Italian immigrant relatives. To date, not a single person of Eastern European origin, relative or not, has commented that the dialogue seemed too formal or stilted, nor have 80-something readers of other ethnic heritage who grew up in the same era. I even probed with my uncle, aunt, and a number of these older folks, and confirmed that the dialogue seemed familiar to them. I guess every author eventually faces that not every reader will love a book. I have come to accept that my decision on this language aspect which, to me, seems critical to the book’s authenticity, will put off some readers.

How connected do you feel to your Lithuanian heritage / connection?

Growing up, I lived next door to my Lithuanian grandmother and Polish/Russian grandfather. He was in poor health, but I was very close to her. When I was in 5th grade, she was the one who introduced me to my Eastern European roots. I can still picture in my mind talking with her that day and writing down the actual names of my Lithuanian and Polish/Russian great grandparents, and then her grandparents. It was just a school assignment—but a watershed moment in my life. I descended from a whole chain of people that went on and on! From that moment, I was hopelessly hooked on genealogy.

How do you write? What is your writing environment like?

I don’t write every day. Sometimes, not for weeks or months. In advance of any piece, I spend time thinking about the scope of the story, how to best start it, the sequence, and how to write the story so that the essence of each character will be revealed.
By the time I am ready to write, the pages flow, and for many sections, it is as if the characters write themselves, especially if I am working on dialogue. Other writers have described this phenomenon, but honestly, I didn’t fully believe it until I experienced it.
My writing environment is my home office which doubles as the guest bedroom. The room looks out over a small lake. The abundant birds and wildlife offer pleasant and needed distraction, whether from the window or a walk, otherwise I sit far too long working at my laptop when I am in a groove. Even though our property has little land, the expanse of water gives the illusion of space and in combination with the tall, old trees, a sense of freedom in some ways similar to that afforded by the land where I grew up.

How many rewrites did it take you?

The book had six or so major versions, with minor revisions done as an ongoing activity.
Who are your editors and how do you quality control your books?
Between June 2010 and June 2012, the manuscript was reviewed 3-4 times by my uncle and aunt, the primary advisors, who grew up in the time period of the book, and twice by other family members, the obstetrician, and my writing group. In addition, my final draft was shared with selected friends, a midwife, a historian, and the antique stove rebuilders. Many useful comments were received. One concerned a historical misrepresentation which I verified, fixed, and for which I added an author’s note in the addendum.
I see all my reviewers as potential contributors in improving content and style, as well as safeties in reducing risk. I am grateful when they take some of their time to help me and I tell them upfront that I will carefully consider all comments. After publishing the book, I gave a complimentary copy to anyone who helped—with review, research, or in some other meaningful way.
Though I was an English major in college and wrote frequently in my regular work all these years, I still learned a lot from the suggestions of my copy editor, Eileen Albrizio. Besides the usual things copy editors find, she took on the confusion in my narrative Point of View, giving me clear explanations of why the problem instances weakened my story and how to fix them.
I carefully researched the technical requirements for preparing and uploading the manuscript for printing. What a relief it was when neither the paperback nor eBook was rejected for technical non-conformance. Once printed, I was the sole reviewer of the publication proofs. The lesson I learned there is that though others may think I am a good proof-reader, this author was too close to the material! The book had to go through a total of three proof cycles. I kept finding things.
Ironically, if I hadn’t gone through the extra iterations, I wouldn’t have noticed a logical error in the story nor realized that book cover coloration can vary quite a lot from batch to batch. In their quality control procedures, both printers I am using (Lightning Source and CreateSpace), accept a wider range of color variation in a paperback’s cover than I would have imagined. Prior to the printing of the third proof, my cover designer adjusted the coloration. Largely, the issue has been resolved.

Who are your favourite authors / influences?

Ernest Hemingway, Joseph Campbell, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Anya Seton, Jean Auel, Sharyn McCrumb, and J.K. Rowling.

Who would play your characters in a movie?

This is such a fun question, Christoph. First, let me share this. Two readers, independently of each other, told me that Until the Robin Walks on Snow reminds them of stories they have seen on the Hallmark Hall of Fame, usually broadcast during the holidays. Another reader said he could imagine my book as a play.
Well, dare to dream… I can envision Scarlett Johansson as the midwife, Helena, and possibly Natalie Portman as my grandmother, Marianna. They resemble the two, are the right height and age, and skilled enough to carry out a quiet, intense drama. If my book is ever translated to a film, I hope a talented team produces it, possibly in the Hallmark Hall of Fame tradition. I loved the Glenn Close production of Sarah, Plain and Tall and the two sequels, first broadcast during the 1990s. Just recently, I learned that the author, Patricia MacLachlan, based that book on an event from her family history.

What is your next project and where we would be able to find out about it?

I have been thinking about the sequel to Until the Robin Walks on Snow, have done a little research, and so far have penned about 10 pages and gotten an initial reaction from my writers group. My official author site and a Facebook site, both coming soon, will provide news. I hope your readers will drop by, Christoph.

Links:

Amazon UK
Amazon US
Goodreads
Goodreads Author Page
Barnes and Noble

For my author friends, please check out this site

More Praise for The Luck of the Weissensteiners

More praise for The Luck of the Weissesteiners, what a way to start a Monday!

Thank you Graham Sharpe, author of the amazing “Purple”

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/545354189

If you’ve read the blurb and any of the other reviews then you’ll already know that this is a story about the Weissensteiner family and their troubled journey through the Second World War. I’m not usually drawn to stories like this because I think I have a pretty good idea what’s going to happen. A Jewish family, Hitler’s revolting regime and the horrors of the Holocaust can only have one dire outcome. It’s a bit like watching a film about the Titanic – you know the ship’s going to sink so why put yourself through it. I was so wrong to make this assumption. It seems paradoxical that a book chronicling hatred, fear, loss and death can be uplifting, but The Luck of the Weissensteiners left me on a high. This is a story about the best human qualities: love, generosity, trust, faith and hope. Christoph Fischer has brilliantly combined emotive fiction with detailed, historical facts to create a powerful and engrossing story. Although I finished reading it five days ago I’m still affected by its message and still charmed by many of its characters. I work regular nightshifts and my sleep is precious, but this book often kept me up well past my bedtime.

Chinese Laundries: Tickets to Survival on Gold Mountain by John Jung

I know what you are thinking: Chinese Laundries?
Please free your mind and have a look, this was one of my biggest reading pleasures of late and a very intriguing and informative read.

Plot:

A social history of the role of the Chinese laundry on the survival of early Chinese immigrants in the U.S.during the Chinese Exclusion law period, 1882-1943, and in Canada during the years of the Head Tax, 1885-1923, and exclusion law, 1923-1947. Why and how Chinese got into the laundry business and how they had to fight discriminatory laws and competition from white-owned laundries to survive. Description of their lives, work demands, and living conditions. Reflections by a sample of children who grew up living in the backs of their laundries provide vivid first-person glimpses of the difficult lives of Chinese laundrymen and their families.

My Review:

I found “Chinese Laundries: Tickets to Survival on Gold Mountain” by John Jung on Indietribe, an independent writer’s website and was intrigued by the title that suggested a subject way off the beaten track. I was not prepared for the ease with which I was able to read this academic study of Chinese Laundries in the US. 1/4 of the book is a biliography, bearing witness to the vast amount of knowledge the author possesses and how much research he has done to give credibility to his account.
From casual to concrete discrimination, indirect legal victimisation and tax laws to statistic, tables and photographs – a huge amount of details is given and documented.
Individual accounts of the workers and owners of laundries lend a great personal touch to the hardship, tragedies and persistence that these people endured.
Despite the often sad stories and the description of inhumane and intolerant treatment this book is by no account a tale of self-pity and pointing the finger. The facts are described objectively and it accentuated the survival spirit of these people rather than their role as victims. After all, they are survivors.
Reading this book I learned a lot about an era and a subject I had little knowledge of, but I was also grasped by the great writing style that drew me in from the beginning and made me read more and more

Interview with John Jung

How did you come to writing for yourself and not just for academia in the first place?

As a psychology professor for 40 years, my writing and research was quite different from the work in Chinese American history, which I discovered only after I retired. My initial goal was to write only one book, a memoir about what it was like for my parents, immigrants from China in the 1920s, to live in the Deep South during days of Jim Crow laws operating a laundry and raising a family where we were the only Chinese in town.
In the course of writing “Southern Fried Rice: Life in A Chinese Laundry in the Deep South,” I did much background research and discovered many fascinating, as well as often disturbing, aspects of the history of Chinese immigrants in America. I had not known the extent to which the early Chinese were in the laundry business, an occupation that was one of the few that they were allowed to enter due to racial discrimination. By the time I finished writing my memoir, I realized that I needed to write a second book, one that dealt with more than our own family laundry but one that examined the role of the “Chinese laundry” on the fate of thousands of Chinese all across the country.

What was your connection or special interest in the Chinese laundries?

Since I literally grew up and worked in our family Chinese laundry in Georgia during the 1940s and early 50s, I had first-hand knowledge of what is involved in operating this kind of business. My father also had abut a dozen male relatives in the South, all who were in the laundry business. I suppose this fact should have been surprising to me, but as a child, I never questioned why.
I was not ‘ashamed,’ but neither was I ‘proud’ of our laundry background. As a child I would have preferred it if we had a toy store or my father was a professional. After learning about the history of the reasons why so many Chinese ran laundries, I gained a newfound pride and admiration for the difficult lives and sacrifices that they made for their families, both in the U. S. and back in China. It motivated me to write the book as a tribute to them.

When did you first have the idea for this book?

As noted above, I realized the value of such a book during the writing of my memoir. I wanted to examine commonalities in the circumstances and experiences of Chinese laundrymen, and in many cases, their families. I recruited 8 other Chinese from different parts of the country who, like me, had grown up helping with the work in the laundries of their parents. I invited them to write narratives about their lives in the laundries. They wrote independently, not having access to what the others wrote to avoid biases, so it was all the more remarkable that their life experiences were so similar.

How long did it take you to write?

That question is difficult to answer accurately since writing comes in spurts, with periods of intense concentrated writing interspersed with intervals of inactivity. I would guess that from the start to the completion was roughly 18 months, including editing and then going through the formatting for self-publication.

How did you research?

I searched databases of historical research in journals and books by scholars, archives of historical newspapers, census records, and conducted sporadic interviews with laundrymen and their adult children.
How comfortable do you feel writing about history?
It was difficult at first, because the methods of laboratory controlled experiments so common in psychology and those common in history are totally different. As I read more work by historians, I gained more confidence although I didn’t expect to completely follow their approach because I wanted to combine my psychological perspective with historical information.
After I published Chinese Laundries, I have continued to search for other historical information and I use a blog to disseminate some of the more intriguing findings. http://chineselaundry.wordpress.com

Do you feel that racial and cultural relations have somewhat improved in the US? Do you feel that there is an imagined or real threat to the US from the new superpower China? Are there similarities between the present and the past?

Definitely so, but there is always room for improvement because as conflicts develop among groups, irrational and hostile actions occur which can escalate quickly. Chinese, or for that matter, other ethnic minorities, can not be complacent because the historical evidence shows there are ups and downs in race relations over time. The present time is a good example because China has become a major economic and geopolitical threat in some respects to the United States. China is also guilty of many ethical transgressions in politics, government, business, etc. And. due to ”guilty by association” tendencies, American born Chinese, like myself, will suffer ill will directed toward China.
Even though we American-born Chinese are “Americans,” we are viewed by some as if we were “Chinese” (a mistake that would never occur if I visited China where I would definitely be regarded as an American).

How do you write? What is your writing environment like?

I am a slave to using my computer in my home office where I can have access to all my books and files, and work comfortable without much distraction other than my dog who occasionally ‘demands’ my attention when he wants to play fetch. Thanks to him, I get needed breaks!

How many rewrites did it take you?

Too many, and yet, not enough, I fear. It is sometimes shocking to reread what I have written a week later and discover that it is illogical, incoherent, or incomplete. This weakness is compounded when I look at a book length manuscript, as opposed to chapters or sections. There have been times when I finally realize that a different sequence of my chapters makes more sense. Then, if I re-sequence some chapters, I have to double chek that I haven’t inadvertently either repeated myself in different chapters or done the opposite where I assume I discussed some issue in an ‘earlier’ chapter but did not.

Who are your editors and how do you quality control your books?

I try to get several experienced and even a novice reader or two to read everything I write so they can give me their evaluation. I definitely could benefit from more professional editing than I have used in the past. Being your own editor is akin to being your own lawyer, which I think there is a saying that it is done only by fools.

Who are your favourite authors / influences?

That is a difficult question to answer. Many excellent scholars have impressed me although many of them have only published one book thus far. The work of Judy Yung, Erika Lee, Mae Ngai, Jack Tchen, Madeline Hsu, Yong Chen, Sucheng Chan, Him Mark Lai, and Robert G. Lee are some that come readily to mind.

What are your other books, past and future? Where can we find out about them?

I have written four books on Chinese American history:
Southern Fried Rice: Life in A Chinese Laundry in the Deep South
Chinese Laundries: Tickets to Survival on Gold Mountain
Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton: Lives of Mississippi Delta Chinese Grocers
Sweet and Sour: Life in Chinese Family Restaurants
Information about the content of these books can be found at: http://yinandyang.wix.com/yinandyangpress
A fifth one, yet untitled, is in the works but, strictly speaking, it is not about history. Instead, it deals with the analysis of the process involved in the development, writing, and promotion of my four books on history. It is not a how-to book, but a journal of the experiences, good and bad, that I had in developing my retirement career.

Links:

John Jung
http://www.csulb.edu/~jrjung
ABOUT ME
http://about.me/yinandyangpress
Amazon Page & Blog
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001IXO5CW
Book Tour Highlights
http://yinandyangpress.webs.com/
Yin & Yang Press Catalog
http://www.wix.com/yinandyang/YinandYangPress
Kudos
http://chineseamericanhistorian.blogspot.com/p/kudos.html

Chinese Laundries: Tickets to Survival on Gold Mountain
http://chineselaundry.wordpress.com/
Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton: Lives of Mississippi Delta Chinese Grocers
http://mississippideltachinese.webs.com/
Southern Fried Rice: Life in a Chinese Laundry in the Deep South
http://southernfriedrice.webs.com/
Sweet and Sour: Life in Chinese Family Restaurants
http://sweetsour.yolasite.com/
Chinese American Historian By Chance Blog
http://us-mg5.mail.yahoo.com/neo/chineseamericanhistorian.blogspot.com

A wonderful review for The Luck of the Weissensteiners

The Luck of the Weissensteiners is an intellectual achievement and a lesson in historical perspective, as we are reminded that history is just that, a story told from a human point of view. In any given period of time, there are as many stories as there are participants, along with many converging sensibilities. 

The setting is Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, 1933. We follow along with the Weissensteiner family on an epic journey, from the pre-WWII years to the end of the war, with an epilogue culminating during the fall of the Berlin wall. They are not an insular family, and have a great many friends and acquaintances that move in and out of the story line. 

Greta and her family are Jewish, but this is decidedly not another rendition of the holocaust. The novel illustrates how the destruction of war rained down on both Jews and non-Jews, who were part of the same community, often got along quite well and even intermarried. We learn that, at least in Bratislava, many non-Jews detested the Nazi’s, and quietly tried to hide a Jewish friend or two, if they could manage without being discovered. Through no fault of their own, they too suffered terrible hardships, hunger and loss of property, sickness and death.

I think we readers are accustomed to accounts of WWII that portray the Jews as victims, and the non-Jews as either perpetrators or uninterested people out to save their own skins, but in the Weissensteiners there is no sharp line of demarcation. Instead, we see how ordinary people were swept up in the same storm of war and tossed about by fate. Through a bit of luck, some narrowly escape destruction, only to perish later on through one mistaken move, or an arbitrary unlucky event. 

The families and extended families we meet are quite large, so the novel is chock full of people. We learn many details about their lives, their thoughts and feelings, their relationships, all through the voice of an omniscient narrator. There are many historical accounts that for me, read like a history book; sometimes the narration continues along this vein when describing the intimate details of people’s lives. These long periods of narration often felt rather distant, sounding like a reporter summing up the facts. 

However, throughout some chapters there was lively dialogue that made you feel as if you were traveling along with real people, evoking the emotional connection that I especially enjoy in any novel. During these times I felt anger and fear, anxiety and relief. I also came away feeling that I learned something of the history and people of the region. All in all, I strongly recommend that you read The Luck of the Weissensteiners.

 

 

Macabre Moments by Brian Bigelow

This is the kind of compilation you get when an author begins to write down the nightmares that woke them in the middle of the night. A vicious vampire, a deal went down wrong, a witch hunt, a machete wielding woman, a wife who’s had more than enough. It’s quite the gamut of ideas that this collection covers.
It doesn’t take long for Mr. Bigelow to reveal he has a rather twisted, sick mind, which comes in handy when writing about probing aliens, beasts with horns, glazed-eyed zombies, and certain witchy creatures. ~ Makenna Hutton, from a review for Horror Bent

My Review:

“Macabre Moments” by Brian Bigelow is the third book by the author I have read in a very brief time. After “Confessions of a Porn Star Assistant”, which was factual prose, and “Horror Bent”, which was classical ‘demon’ horror I am pleased to find that this offering has changed style and content again. The new collection of stories is widening the spectrum by bringing in the author’s own experienced nightmares. Some are short – like a wife trying to get rid of her husband, others are several parts long, but they never fail to come to a poignant ending. The title is appropriately chosen, these are macabre moments, the writing is at times very light hearted and playful and it is apparent that Bigelow is coming into his own with this collection. There is the promise of a versatility here that makes the author one to watch.

Interview:

Brian, how exactly did you become a writer?

An idea for a poem hit me when I was 17. It was about nature in Minnesota where I lived at the time and it was published in a couple of places way back in 1982. As an indie more recently larger ideas than poems came to me when I got to live in an empty nest late in 2011.

Why are you writing horror?
I love writing what I love to read. What fascinates you about the subject? I love discovering the eerie and suspenseful think the master for that would be Alfred Hitchcock.

Is this what you read as well or do you like other genres?

I do read other genres also but mostly horror when I’m shopping for my personal reading.

You also wrote Confessions of a porn store clerk. How did you find writing facts rather than fiction?

Actually you end up doing the same research of all things whether fiction or non-fiction which kind of surprised me when I started writing fiction. There are some big differences otherwise. Of course, in non-fiction you usually don’t have dialog, story threads or any of the other elements of good fiction though it takes just as much imagination.

When did you first have the idea for your latest book, Macabre Moments?

The first ideas would have been a year ago, just didn’t turn them into stories until recently. I have so many ideas that haven’t been written yet.

Can you describe it in a few words?

It’s a set of stories based on my actual nightmares.

How long did it take you to write?

It took me three months.

Is it part of a series?
A couple of the short stories are part of larger story lines that haven’t been completely written, “The Ascent,” is one of those and so is, “Liturgy.”

Do you think you will ever write a novel?

I’m working on the ideas for a couple of novels at present, one involves a poor tortured author.

Does that idea appeal or bore you?

Yes, it appeals to me a lot to write a few novels.

How do you write?

Most of my story ideas are written on a Blackberry Curve. You never know when an idea will hit you. I then transfer the Word file to my laptop to begin fleshing out the rest of the story.

What is your writing environment like?

As you can guess, my writing environment is very mobile. I do have a desk at home but it isn’t the only place I write.

How many rewrites did it take you?

For Macabre Moments it took seven rewrites.

Who are your editors and how do you quality control your books?

I studied grammar and editing for one, have quite a little grammar and editing library. Probably the best book of those in my opinion is “Eats Shoots & Leaves” by Lynne Truss, probably (though it’s becoming dated now) is William Strunk’s, “The Elements of Style.” I usually also have my computer read the entire manuscript to me while rewriting via text to speech, you’d be amazed what you can hear. It also allows me to create a quality book. The primary responsibility for what has been written is actually the author’s and no one else’s.

Who are your favourite authors / influences?

My favourite authors would be Stephen King, Mary Downing Hahn and Andersen Prunty. Other influences would be Alfred Hitchcock, Twilight Zone, Tales From the Crypt, Hellraiser, Warlock, The Exorcist and many more.

What are your other books and where can we find out about them?

http://www.amazon.com/Brian-Bigelow/e/B00667745A/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1342609764&sr=1-2-ent
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/brianbigelow

Is there anything else you want to tell us?

More recently, some pieces I’m writing will be published by Perseid Press, the first of which will be, “A Spiritus Renascentis,” in Terror by Gaslight. I think it’s due out in March or April though I’m not positive. Holding the contract in my hands was probably my proudest moment as an author especially since it was my first.

“Horror Bent” by Brian Bigelow was a surprise find for me. I am not hot on short stories to be honest and find myself drifting off after reading a few. I read the book however in one sitting and found it strangely compulsive. The stories are moving through the horror genre, witchcraft, monsters, demons – you name it and they will probably make a small appearance in there somewhere. The author however has given the stories a lot of thought and he explains at the end of the book where his ideas have come from. The stories are very well written, the fact that each story is of different length shows how good a story teller Bigelow is, as he seems to instinctively know when to stop and how far to exploit a theme.
I previously read his “Confessions of a Porn Store Assistant” and found his factual prose there very engaging. The transformation from one bok to the next however into fictional prose is admirable and adapted very appropriately.
Very enjoyable!