Category: Writing

Contest !!!11eleventy!!

The Joliet Public Library Author Fair was a hit! Over fifty authors exhibited at the Black Road Branch this past Saturday, including Yours Truly. I shared a table with CWA 2012 Book of the Year Award finalist Patricia McNair who was promoting her new book Temple of Air.

Despite the rain, folks came out in droves to meet and greet and read good books! A wonderful time was had by all! Anyhoo, I have some books left over from the fair, and thought a contest would be in order.

So, here’s the deal…

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Writing as Prayer

There is a group of Benedictine monks who make their home right, smack-dab in the heart of the city of Chicago. Odd place for contemplation of God, no? Nevertheless, there they are, the Monastery of the Holy Cross—down on Aberdeen and 31st, for those of you familiar with the area.

Having attended the liturgy there, I can tell you that it is very beautiful. Sitting in the pew, you can’t help but forget that you are in the middle of a large metropolis. You are transported by rhythms of their chant to a doorway into Heaven. Singing is something they take very seriously. In their most recent newsletter, Polis, Prior Peter Funk, OSB has an article entitled “Prayer as Music.” Let me quote you a bit here:

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Finalists Named in CWA’s Book Awards

Alas, The Good Thief did not make the cut, but a hearty congratulations to all the finalists!

Here’s the release from the Chicago Writer’s Association:

Nine books by Chicagoland authors have been named as finalists in the Chicago Writers Association’s 2nd Annual Book of the Year Awards.

The finalists, chosen by CWA’s Book Awards Committee, will compete for four awards to be presented at 7 p.m. Jan. 19 at The Book Cellar, 4736-38 Lincoln Ave., in Chicago’s Lincoln Square.

The winners, to be announced on or before Dec. 1, will be selected by last year’s winning authors: Krista August, James Finn Garner, Pamela Ferdinand and Christine Sneed.

“We are thrilled to have last year’s winning authors back to choose this year’s best books,” said Randy Richardson, CWA president. “I don’t envy them. They’ve really got their work cut out for them, because all of the books they’re judging are amazing books.”

The awards, divided into four categories (traditionally and non-traditionally published fiction and non-fiction), were open to books published in 2010 and the first half of 2011 and authored by CWA members. (Non-traditional is defined as self- and print-on-demand published.)

“I would like to thank the members of the Awards Committee – Barbara Barnett, Lisa Guidarini, Felicia Hazzard, and Juli Schatz – for putting in countless hours reading through the many entries we had this year in order to narrow the field to nine. They did not have an easy job.”

“The idea of the awards is to bring attention to books that are truly deserving,” Richardson said. “I applaud not just the finalists but all of those who entered the competition. They are all deserving of attention. Unfortunately, we can’t award all of them.”

The finalists are:

Traditional Fiction (Judge: James Finn Garner)

· Karen Doornebos – “Definitely Not Mr. Darcy”
· Libby Fischer Hellmann – “A Bitter Veil”
· Patricia McNair – “The Temple of Air”

Non-traditional Fiction (Judge: Christine Sneed)

· Renee James – “Coming Out Can Be Murder”
· Linda Lamberson – “Borrowed Heart”

Traditional Non-Fiction (Judge: Pamela Ferdinand)

· Richard C. Lindberg – “Whiskey Breakast: My Swedish Family, My American Life”
· Robert Rodi – “Seven Seasons in Siena”

Non-traditional Non-Fiction (Judge: Krista August)

· Sandi Adams – “Belly Button Bible Study”
· Kelly Farley and David DiCola – “Grieving Dads: To the Brink and Back”

Another Dissenting Opinion?

Not about publishing, but about reading. To be fair, this isn’t so much of a dissent as it is a caution.

Albert Einstein was, by all accounts, a voracious reader. And not just mathematics and physics, but also philosophy, theology, biology, the Bible, and other subjects.

[Side note: as a Jew, he was very impressed with Jesus, but we’ll save that one for another day.]

Anyway, I heard this quote yesterday:

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A Good Friend

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.

~ J.D. Salinger : Catcher in the Rye (1951)

Do you feel like that when you’ve just read a good book? And by “good book”, I mean one you really enjoyed. It doesn’t have to be great prose, it just has to say something to you. It has to challenge you, or tickle you, or even just keep you company. You know it when you read it.

I once had a conversation with a friend about what makes good beach reading. My friend asserted that the best book in that situation is one that’s a little fluffy, one that doesn’t make you think too much. A book you can pick up and put down as you please. I get that, but I prefer a meaty book in that scenario. On the beach, you presumably have the free time to engage your mind without worrying about a thousand other things. But never mind, it’s all personal preference.

I think that the author who writes about what speaks to him or her personally, whether it be what fascinates, delights, or challenges, is an author that will have many unknown friends.