Where'd you go?

Many of you have been asking me this question after I skipped posting for three weeks. It's the longest break I've taken in six and a half years of blogging, and I've missed you too. Life offline needed my attention. All is well, but thanks for your concern!

My son on the stick phone at Fresh Pond in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Taken with my old Nikon FE SLR.

Last week my son graduated from high school, and it has been an emotional time. When I decided in my mid 20's to stay home with my children, I envisioned a lifetime of Lego and Brio trains, reading picture books, playing in the leaves and building snow forts. I couldn't imagine my little boy becoming a half foot taller than me and caulking the leaky tub. This summer he'll be a junior counselor at Chewonki, his first real job. In the fall he's heading to Middlebury College.

Not only is my boy leaving home, he's leaving the planet. He wants to be an Astrophysicist, but he also enjoys Russian literature and the mountains of New England. I'm so pleased that he's found his passion and so many good friends. He's a wonderful son. It's a huge relief as parents to see our job half done. He has a younger sister, and she's doing really well too.

My son at Mt. Katahdin on our camping trip in Baxter State Park, Maine.

My virtual child has been more demanding. Eve is the protagonist of my young adult novel set in England. Switching genres led me to switch agents, and my new agent gave me feedback in May. Laura didn't ask for major changes, but there was more research to do and a new first chapter to consider. Moving scenes led to a domino effect of inconsistencies. Now is the time to polish. A novel is not unlike Plato's cave. What I write is a shadow of the ideal story in my head. A good agent/editor frees the writing from the cave, and Laura is a genius.

I've been using my time offline to read too. Beth Kephart, Maria Padian and other friends recommended Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple (2012), which I bought in paperback at Gulf of Maine Books. It's a satire of politically correct parenting, of architecture and of the high tech industry. The novel is set in Seattle, but it could have been Portland, Maine or Cambridge, Massachusetts. The premise is that a creative person unable to create will become a menace to society. Under pressure, Bernadette pulls a disappearing act greater than mine.

My one criticism was that the teen narrator was not believable. Bee was too old for eighth grade (14-15 years) but often acted like she was in elementary school. She enjoys going to the zoo with her dad and to touristy restaurants with her mom, Bernadette. Bee watches TV but doesn't have a cell phone. Her best friend says, "Goody, goody gumdrops!"and tackle hugs her. Other times Bee info dumps like an encyclopedia.

The disjointed teen voice was not a big flaw because the bulk of the narrative was told in emails between the adult characters. Bernadette and the other grown ups were more true to life, if exaggerated for comic effect. I only put the book down down to laugh. If you like satire and good writing, I strongly recommend Where'd You Go, Bernadette.

Next Post: July 3rd. I'll be tweeting more frequently but won't be back to blogging regularly until later this summer. For now, I need to focus my creative energy on revision. I don't want to become a menace to society!

A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty

Although fantasy is not usually my genre and the opening chapters of A Corner of White didn't hook me, Steph Su's review encouraged me to keep reading, and I'm glad I did. This quirky novel alternates between real world Cambridge, England and the fantasy world of Cello. Author Jaclyn Moriarty is Australian but got a doctorate in law from Cambridge University, where she also started writing young adult fiction.

Following a few backstory chapters, the narrative launches with a note in a parking meter. After discovering a tiny opening between their worlds, two teenagers start corresponding via handwritten notes. Amusingly, Madeleine in Cambridge assumes that Elliot is either delusional or is writing a fantasy book. To his frustration, she critiques his world building, but they also forge a wonderfully supportive friendship.

Like Madeleine, I found the attacks of color waves in Cello an innovative concept and wanted more explanation. Had I been sending notes to Elliot, I would have critiqued his wish-granting fairy and the use of magical spells. Those traditional fairytale elements lacked originality and made the story better suited to readers younger than teenagers. Focusing so much on parents further tilted the narrative toward younger readers. Also, if you create a world of erratic seasons (which change weekly, sometimes daily) do not set your story in a farming community. The author admitted the validity of this problem in her acknowledgement page.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this whimsical story, which I read while visiting England. Moriarty is a master of the pen. Good writing and creative use of scientific principles made the odd juxtaposition of worlds believable. Situational irony was was well exploited for humor.  A Corner of White was a fun, easy read but still had clever plot twists and educational content. There's a great sense of place in both worlds:

Cambridge:  

"The door to the tea room opened again and another group of rainhuddled tourists rushed inside." 

"The tiles in the kitchen are an unbelievably disgusting mottled pink, like a salmon that got old, died and ate boiled beetroot." 

"...the floorboards more cracked than a stick of celery." 

Cello: 

"Farmers are the most endearing bunch of muffin-baking, pastry-making, fiddleplaying folk you'll ever meet. (Blahdy, blahdy, hooray for Farmers! Blah, blah, pumpkin pie! etc.) (seriously, though, if you're short on time, give the Farms a miss.)" 

"Within moments, the doors, security gates and shutters had all shut. Scarves and bags were left scattered alongside upturned snowman. At the station, the train almost stopped."

I'd recommend A Corner of White to fantasy fans and to tween readers especially. Other than the mention of adult drug addiction and teen drinking, the book is quite innocent for YA Fiction. It would be a good choice for middle schoolers (ages 11 to 14) and for advanced readers in elementary school. Don't you love the cover?

Cambridge, England on New Year's Eve 2007, my photo.

Reviewer's Disclaimer: I received a free digital galley from netgalley before the book's release in April 2013. It is the first book in the Colors of Madeleine series.

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@Barrie Summy

Spring at Last in Maine

When we returned from England in late April, there was an overnight frost. Slowly the temperature warmed to the 60s, greening the grass. As usual, our forsythia (above) was the first to bloom along with the crocuses. Wild violets (below) have been popping up everywhere. I got my bike out of the shed, and walking the dog was no longer a chore. Today the azaleas are opening and our cherry tree is budding. The sky has been blue for days, but I'm welcoming rain in the forecast.

Last week my new agent sent me notes on my British novel, the one I researched during my family's Oxford sabbatical. I started writing it as women's fiction, and 100 pages later, decided the story would work better for teens. My former agent is no longing representing young adult fiction so I switched to an agent who specializes in children's books.

It was the right move. I'm inspired to see how much better my book can be...with some hard work. There are lines to cut, scenes to move and new passages to write. Who knew I overuse "even" and eye rolls (my mom is laughing)? If I'm offline, I'm either typing in a deliriously happy frenzy or outside enjoying the late bloomers. No eye rolls.

Happy Spring!

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

In A Tale for the Time Being author Ruth Ozeki inserts herself as a character in her novel. This narrative device works because Ozeki is quite interesting herself: she's an indie film maker, an award winning novelist and a Zen Buddhist priest. Born in 1956 in New Haven, Connecticut to a Japanese mother and an American father, Ozeki has lived and worked in both the USA and Japan. She currently resides in New York City and on the remote island in Canada, where her novel/memoir is set.

In the book's opening, Ozeki discovers a Hello Kitty lunchbox washed onto the beach. Inside are letters in antiquated Japanese, a French composition book, a wind-up watch and a diary written mostly in English. The narrative alternates between the journal entries and Ozeki's search for the 16-year-old Japanese girl who wrote the diary. Humorous anecdotes about living on a remote island in Canada make it easier to get through a story of abuse and neglect. Like Ruth, I kept turning the pages to learn what happened to Nao, pronounced and symbolically "now."

"Print is predictable and impersonal, conveying information in a mechanical transaction to the reader's eye. Handwriting, by contrast, resists the eye, reveals its meaning slowly, and is as intimate as skin."

Nao grew up in California, but after the dot com bubble burst, she returned with her impoverished parents to Tokyo. At school she is bullied for being too American, and even her teacher does nothing to stop the harassment. In Japan there is a word for ritual bullying: ijime. Nao's father is too depressed and her mother too overworked to help her. The only person who reaches out to Nao is her Aunt Jiko, an 104-year-old Zen Buddhist nun. The best part is the summer that Nao spends with Jiko at her temple.

"Have you ever bullied a wave?" Jiko asked me at the beach. 

Stylistically, A Tale for the Time Being is an unusual mix of fact and fiction. There are footnotes and appendixes explaining Japanese terms, Zen Buddhism, western philosophy and even Quantum Mechanics. In sharp contrast to this academic approach, Ozeki tosses in a bit of magical realism. It's an odd juxtaposition, but she makes it work in a way that reminded me of Haruki Murakami, one of my favorite authors. Like Murakami, Ozeki is fascinated with the seedy underworld and uses surreal devices to flip between contemporary Japan and horrific scenes from World War II. Cats and occasionally birds play pivotal roles. However, Ozeki's personal blend of memoir and fiction makes her work original.

Given all the stereotyping of Japanese women in western literature, I loved these lines from Nao's first journal entry:

"Everything I write will be historically true and empowering to women, and not a lot of foolish geisha crap. So if kinky nasty things are your pleasure, please close this book and give it to your wife or co-worker and save yourself a lot of time and trouble."

A Tale for the Time Being is an important addition to the emerging genre of Bully Lit. Too many stories about bullying have fairytale endings in which the bully is justly punished or realizes the errors of his/her ways, but this novel offers no clean resolution. Instead, Ozeki draws a parallel between schoolroom bullying in 2000 and Japan's treatment of young kamikaze soldiers in the 1940s. By linking bullying to wartime atrocities, the author gives broader meaning and cultural context to the issue.

As a victim of childhood bullying myself, if not nearly as severe, I found Ozeki's novel only too believable. Reading a book like this back then would have helped me cope, although the scenes of child prostitution, torture and sexual deviancy mark this book as adult literary fiction. Nothing is gratuitous or titillating, but it was still hard to read. I had to take restorative breaks.

By the book's end, I felt like I'd corresponded with Ozeki personally. It was hard to believe that Nao wasn't real too. My only criticism was the the ending lacked full closure, but that was intentional. I can't stop thinking about this marvelous book. A Tale for the Time Being inspires me as a writer too.

Reviewer's Disclaimer: I bought this book at Longfellow Books in Portland, Maine.

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@Barrie Summy

Revision Watch: author John McPhee has a fabulous essay in last week's New Yorker on the painful process of writing a first draft and the art of copyediting: "Draft No. 4".

England in Springtime

Hello, I'm back! We've been in England visiting my in-laws, who live on this gorgeous stretch of the
Thames River.  This is the village where my husband grew up.

For provisions we headed to Wallingford (photo above), which hasn't changed much since medieval times. We easily found wellies (rubber boots) for my daughter but not a replacement headset for her iPod. I highly recommend the antique arcade and the Wallingford Bookshop. Agatha Christie lived outside this charming town. My mother-in-law, an occupational therapist, used to help care for her.

My daughter was amused to find a supermarket aisle devoted to tea and snapped this photo. I tasted a Cornish cheese called yarg, wrapped in nettles. I have a special interest in all thing Cornish since the young adult novel I'm revising is set in Cornwall.

For "research" my husband and I had to visit the Catherine Wheel, a favorite pub in Goring-on-Thames.

Back in the day, food was cooked directly over the fire.

The hidden men's room.

Amos sings along to opera and pop.

When we tired of the singing dog, we took the train to London. After watching a superb performance of 
Gorky's Children of the Sun at the National Theatre, we admired the view from the Millenium Bridge.

The weather was damp and chilly,
but the sun came out for
my husband's birthday party.

The best part of our visit was
catching up with family
and old friends.
I met Sherry and Safia
during my junior year abroad in London.

If you live in the UK or Japan,
check out Safia's fair trade clothing company:
People Tree.
She's wearing one of her dresses
in hand woven fabric.

England, I already miss you.  Photo by my daughter.