Interview with Lynelle A. Martin, author of "Zapped, Danger in the Cell"

Wordtryst: We have a very special guest on Wordtryst today: 11 year old Lynelle A. Martin, co-author of Zapped, Danger in the Cell. Welcome, Lynelle, and congrats on your debut release! Can you tell our readers how you got started as a writer?

Lynelle: Telling stories was always a big part of my bedtime ritual. My mom and I would take turns telling each other stories or we would do team storytelling: we would make up a story and take turns adding pieces. When I was five years old I saw my Mom’s book in the book stores for the first time. I thought it was so exciting I asked her if I could write a book with her. She said that I couldn’t because she wrote grown up books. But I kept asking her until she finally gave in and decided to write a children’s book so that we could write together. We started this book when I was 8 years old. 

Wordtryst: How did you come up with the idea for your book? Tell us about the book.

Lynelle: My Mom used to work in a lab and sometimes she would take me to work with her and let me look at cells under the microscope. One time she showed me a movie with some cells dividing and I asked her, “What if someone could go into one of those cells?” I guess that, plus the fact that she was trying to teach me the parts of the cell, gave her the idea for the story.

Zapped! Danger in the cell is about four curious children on a field trip who discovers a strange machine. One of the kids touches a button on the machine and the three others got shrunk and zapped into an animal cell. While trying to escape the cell they go through a lot of exciting and dangerous adventures in different parts of the cell that have them running for their lives.

Wordtryst: When you began writing the story, did you know how it would end?

Lynelle: No. I knew I wanted it to begin with a field trip to the Museum of Natural History, because I had just been to that museum on my third grade field trip. But I had no idea how it would end.

Wordtryst: What kind of research did you do for this book?

Lynelle: We did a lot of research by watching videos on the internet that explained the parts of the cell, but I kind of thought it was boring especially when the models in the videos were labeled with words I could not even read or pronounce right at the time.

Wordtryst: When and where do you write?

Lynelle: I write anytime ideas come to my head and I decide to write them down if I can find paper. For Zapped! I wrote a lot of it during the summer of 2011 because I didn’t want to go to summer camp, so my Mom and I made it my summer project.

Wordtryst: What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Lynelle: The worst part of writing is the research and the part where I sign autographs because as it is my first time having a signature it takes time to get it right.

Co-authors Jewel A. Daniel & Lynelle A. Martin
at the Baltimore Book Fair, Sept. 2014

Wordtryst: What’s the best thing about being an author?

Lynelle: The best thing about being an author is the experience of seeing my book with my name and picture on it and knowing that I wrote that.

Wordtryst: What's the worst part of being an author?

Lynelle: Signing autographs, answering lots of questions, and sitting through book conventions.

Wordtryst: Do you plan to co-author other books with your mom?

Lynelle: Yes. Zapped! is actually part of a series where kids get shrunk and go on adventures that you can only see using a microscope. We wrote the second book in the series over the summer of 2012 and we began the third one in the series this summer (2014).

Lynelle demonstrating how to make a model cell out of
jello and candy, Baltimore Book Fair Sep. 2014

Wordtryst: How do you decide which parts you would write and what your mother would write?

Lynelle: My mom is a scientist so she wrote a lot of the “sciencey” parts. We did a lot of brain storming together about what would happen to the children in each scene. I wrote a lot of the children’s dialog to make sure the children sounded like children. And I did a lot of the editing especially when we were getting ready to publish it.

Wordtryst: How did you come up with the characters?

Lynelle: My characters are based on me, and my little brother and sister. My brother and sister are funny but very mischievous, just like their namesakes in the story.

Wordtryst: Did you and your mom disagree on anything?

Lynelle: How about everything? I wanted to start the story with a field trip, she didn’t agree, but in the end we started with the field trip. She wanted the characters to be nine years old, I wanted them to be around 10 or 11, but she came around. We even disagreed on how the kids got zapped.

Wordtryst: LOL! You must have been very convincing because you got to do some things your way. I understand some disagreement is normal with creative collaborations. So, what advice would you give aspiring writers?

Lynelle: I guess I would tell them to keep writing and let their imagination guide the way.

Lynelle signing copies of Zapped! Danger in the Cell! at the
Baltimore Book Fair

Wordtryst: What are some of your favorite books?

Lynelle: Dork Diaries. I could hardly wait for each new one to come out. When I first started writing the books I was into the Magic Tree House series, but I’ve grown out of them now.

Wordtryst: Tell us three interesting or crazy things about you.

Lynelle: My sister, my brother and my Mom (They are all crazy :) ). I don’t know, let’s see … I play soccer (interesting not crazy), I do gymnastics (interesting not crazy) and I play the clarinet (interesting and crazy: I’m not kidding, it really can get crazy).

Wordtryst: Where can people buy your books?

Zapped! Danger in the Cell can be purchased at Amazon.com and at Barnes and Noble in both paperback and e-book format. It can also be purchased from the publisher’s website www.caribbeanreads.com.

Wordtryst: Lynelle, thank you so much for visiting our blog today and sharing your publishing journey with us. All the best to you, and to your mom and co-author Jewel A. Daniel. We look forward to hearing all about your future collaborations!

Writing advice from the greats: John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck

In my first post on writing advice from the greats, we looked at what the Slaughterhouse-Five author, Kurt Vonnegut, had to say about writing good stories. The good writing advice does not stop there; John Steinbeck famously claimed that no one has been able to reduce story writing to a recipe, yet even he had a few ingredients of his own for creating good stories.

John Steinbeck's 6 writing tips:

1. Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.
2. Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.
3. Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.
4. If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn’t belong there.
5. Beware of a scene that becomes too dear to you, dearer than the rest. It will usually be found that it is out of drawing.
6. If you are using dialogue—say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.

Even the writers who claim there are no rules admit that there are a few that they live by. The only one I've taken to heart is that you never, never show anyone your work until the first draft is complete. Do you have one unbreakable writing rule? Please share it with us.

Next up on Advice from the Greats: Henry Miller's 11 commandments.

—Liane Spicer

Passages: Rosa Guy

Two revered authors passed on in June: Ray Bradbury in California, and Rosa Guy in Manhattan, New York.

Rosa Guy, without ever knowing it, was responsible for one of the great serendipities in my life. When I started the query process for my first novel I discovered a website that listed literary agents who accepted e-mail queries. My current agent, Susan Schulman, was one of those who responded immediately to the first batch of e-queries I sent. I later learned from Susan that my query had stood out initially because I'm from Trinidad, the birthplace of one of her favourite authors - Rosa Guy.

Ms. Guy, who hails not only from my homeland but also my home town, did not hang around Trinidad for long. She went to join her parents in New York at the age of seven, but her mother died shortly after. Within a few years her father also died, and her round of orphanages and foster homes began. Her young adult (YA) books draw heavily on her experience of coming of age in New York without parents, money or family stability.

In her obituary in the NY Times, she is described as "one of the 20th century's most distinguished writers for young adults". Ms. Guy pioneered the exploration of tough, realistic themes in YA fiction - themes such as race, class, poverty, death and sexuality. In one of her books a teenaged character embarks on a lesbian relationship with another girl, a subject which was taboo in children's literature at the time.

She is best known for her trilogy of YA novels, The Friends (1973), Ruby (1976) and Edith Jackson (1978). Her novels for adults include My Love My Love, Measure of Time, and Bird at my Window. She was one of the founders of the Harlem Writers Guild in 1950 and a key figure in the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s. Her gifts to literature and to humanity are immeasurable.

Novel Spaces: The Novelist and his Work: Degrees of Separation

Who else found VS Naipaul's assertion that no women writers are his equal amusing? Join me on Novel Spaces for another view on the controversy.

Novel Spaces: The Novelist and his Work: Degrees of Separation: "The furor is at least a week old and has seemingly given way to newer feeding frenzies such as Weinergate . Yet, the uproar over VS Naipaul'..."

The Goodreads interview

DeeDee Scott, moderator of the Goodreads group African American Books, has posted her interview with me on the group's page and on her blog Authors on the Rise. If you've always wanted to find a word for having shapely buttocks, (and I don't mean bootilicious!) - you'll find it in this interview!

Goodreads group African American Books interviews Liane Spicer

Authors on the Rise - interview with Liane Spicer

Novel Spaces: Christmas books: A list

Novel Spaces: Christmas books: A list: "The end of the year is list season, especially in the world of books. What better reason is there to come up with my very own list of 10 books with Christmas themes..."

You're invited to join me on the NOVEL SPACES author blog as I show off my very own list of Christmas-themed books! Inspiration, romance, humour, fantasy, mystery, satire, poetry or classic fare with a Christmas theme - whatever you're after, Liane's got the book for you!

Novel Spaces: Writers I Owe

"Novel Spaces: Writers I Owe: "KeVin's post Writers of Influence got me thinking. It's difficult to pinpoint writers who have directly influenced my writing; over a lifetime..."

You're invited to join me on Novel Spaces as I pay tribute to the writers who influenced me the most!

Reading right now: health & beauty, boudoir insights, writers' spaces and Beelzebub's handbook

There isn't a single novel in the stacks of books on and beside my bed at the moment. The thing about reading non-fiction is that I can read several books at the same time - unlike novels where I get so engrossed in a story I can focus on nothing else until I get to the end of it. I'm enjoying this desultory approach to reading for a change; it leaves me space to ponder and assimilate, especially at a time when RL is demanding much of me attention-wise.

Aveda Rituals: A Daily Guide to Natural Health and Beauty by Horst Rechelbacher

Mr. Rechelbacher is the founder of Aveda, a line of cosmetics that maximizes the use of natural ingredients as well as the Ayurvedic principles of health and well being. Over the years I've increasingly incorporated a holistic, natural approach to all areas of my life. My way, however, has been undisciplined, unstructured, uncommitted and downright capricious.

Aveda Rituals presents a harmonious approach to personal care, with practical applications, explanations of the Ayurvedic philosophy behind the recommended practices, and lots of information on the various systems on which it draws: aromatherapy, the chakras, natural balance, cleansing and restorative rituals, herbal healing, yoga practice, organic diet, and much, much more.

What this book does not do is push the writer's products at you, although he does explore the philosophy behind his work and shares his personal voyage. It does not tell you what you must do, or eat, or buy, but encourages you to find what works for you so you make nurturing, healthy choices not only with regard to enhancing your natural beauty, but in every facet of your life, choices that are good for you, for those around you, and for the planet.

Victoria Magazine's Bedrooms: Private Worlds and Places to Dream

My bedroom isn't just the place where I go to sleep: this tiny space functions as my writing room, reading room, music room, private movie theatre, gym, zendo, meeting/chatting place for my RL and cyber- friends, dream space, boudoir and sanctuary. I'm constantly seeking ways to make it as easy on the eyes and as comforting to the body and spirit as it can possibly be.

There's nothing earth-shattering by way of bedroom design elements in Bedrooms: Private Worlds and Places to Dream, and that's not what I'm looking for. What I seek, and what I find in this lovely coffee table quality volume are lots of photos of beautiful dream-spaces with short, poetically written descriptive notes that put me in a calm zone and feed my thirst for aesthetic harmony. It stimulates me to be mindful of the value of enhancing the beauty of my own space via sensual elements that appeal to me: scents, textures, forms, colours, sounds, and yes, taste as well. This is not indulgence: it's spiritual necessity.

A Writer's Space by Eric Maisel

This book was recommended by fellow Novel Spaces author Shauna Roberts. My own space is always evolving as I journey from not having a dedicated writing station and using my bed, the floor and the dining room table, utilizing tools that encompassed a biro and stacks of legal notebooks, a Brother electronic word processor, and various second-hand, quirky PCs, to my current writing nook next to my bed complete with desk, new laptop, cork board and some sweet little speakers to replace the squeaky laptop-issue variety.

I'm not very far into A Writer's Space but what I'm liking already is that Maisel does not address just the physical space but also the psychic as he guides you into enhancing your own creative process by devising writing rituals to get you started and keep you going, optimizing the time you spend writing, and designing a schedule that you can follow no matter what.

The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

This is not a book you can sit and read from cover to cover despite its lack of girth; you take it in delightfully piquant little bites, maybe the 'E' entries today, the 'W' lot two weeks down the line. The Devil's Dictionary began in 1881 as a weekly article in a San Francisco paper. Bierce's searing wit and bruisingly satirical commentary on people, life and society ('life, the universe and everything' for you Douglas Adams fans out there), is uncannily relevant to today and not at all dated as one might expect.

I'd never heard of Ambrose Bierce (1842 - circa 1913?) before my friend D gave me this book for my birthday, but researching his biography turned up some fascinating information. According to Wiki, he was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist, best known for his short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and his satirical lexicon, The Devil's Dictionary. His motto 'nothing matters' earned him the nickname 'Bitter Bierce'. Despite his satirical, critical approach to everything, he had a reputation for encouraging young writers and became something of a cult figure.

His story ends on a dramatic note befitting of such an interesting writer. In 1913 Bierce traveled to Mexico to investigate firsthand the revolution in which that country was embroiled. While traveling with rebel troops he disappeared without a trace. He was 71 at the time.

Chimamanda Adicie: The danger of a single story

Chimamanda Adicie is the author of Purple Hibiscus (2003) which was shortlisted for the Orange Fiction Prize (2004) and was awarded the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (2005). Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) is set before and during the Biafran War. Her collection of short stories, The Thing around Your Neck, was published in 2009.

In the clip below she discusses the danger of viewing a culture through the lens of a single story.

Novel Spaces: How to help a starving author

Novel Spaces: How to help a starving author: "Writers don't make a lot of money. Debbie MacComber, Sue Grafton and John Grisham are the exceptions; the truth is that it's difficult for midlist authors to make a living from writing - and it's getting harder all the time...."

Come join me on Novel Spaces today to find out what you can do to help your favourite authors - apart from buying their books, that is!

...and the Versatile Blogger award goes to...

Me! The lovely K.S. Augustin who blogs at Fusion Despatches around the corner in Malaysia has given me this fetching thing:

Thank you, Kaz! I'm supposed to pass this award (I do love green!) along to fifteen deserving bloggers (eek!) and tell you seven things about myself that you never knew. I'm beginning to feel like Oprah: everything about me is out there already! I exaggerate, I exaggerate. There's a lot you don't know, such as:

1. In my youth I was often asked why I didn't model. Flattering, but the mere thought of strutting my stuff on a catwalk would turn me catatonic.

2. People who don't know me well get the impression that I'm 'quiet'. Every time my son hears this he all but rolls on the floor. I keep my wild side carefully camouflaged from all but my near and dear.

3. I'm a brand new grandma, and my grandson Ryen is gorgeous!

4. I used to play the piano, like my friend Kaz. She also played the flute, though, so she's far more versatile than I am.

5. I'm a crack shot, but not as good as the cousin (a former soldier who won the prize for best shot in his batch) who took me to the range and put a sweet little Glock in my hands. My bullets go through the bullseye 9 out of 10 times and the tenth hits really close. It runs in the family: my father won the silver spoon for best shot when he graduated from the police academy.

6. I'm that weird contradiction: a cynic about marriage and a die-hard romantic who loves it when couples, married or not, get it right.

7. I enjoy all kinds of music and my collection is fairly eclectic, but I find myself playing classic rock songs most often.

There you have it! Now to pass along this award... Fifteen? Hm, no. I'll spare everyone but Chris Stovell over at Home Thoughts Weekly whose debut novel, Turning the Tide, is a brand new release from Choc Lit. Congratulations, Chris! Wishing you and TTT an illustrious journey!

Burglars & snakes. There's paradise for ya...

Maybe it was just a matter of time, the state of crime being what it is in these parts, but we've been robbed. Almost everything of value is gone: laptop, jewellery, DVD player - even my LL Bean backpack, apparently appropriated by the thieves to carry their haul away. I'm trying to be upbeat but seriously? It was horrible. It still is. I alternate between wanting to throw away whatever the thieves left behind, scrub the house again and again with every detergent and antimicrobial agent known to man, and planning elaborate and extremely painful retribution for the perps.

Can there be a silver lining to this cloud? The answer may surprise you. Come join me as I post today on the Novel Spaces author blog: Adversity: Friend or Foe?

Oh, the snakes. I promised snakes. Yup, we've been busy around here. As the repairman finished fitting a new back door to replace the one the thieves broke down to gain entry to the house, he trod wearily out the front gate - it was nighttime, after all, and he'd had a long day - only to start dancing around and shrieking because he had almost stepped on - you got it - a mapepire right outside our gate. Mapepire is the local name for fer de lance, a deadly pit viper. We have lots of them around here, and believe me, they're not what one wants to face after a hard day's - and night's - work.

Never a dull moment, I tell ya.

Review of Any Woman's Blues, a Novel of Obsession by Erica Jong

Read in June, 2010
3 stars

Let me confess right up front that I'm an Erica Jong fan. I was titillated and shocked by Fear of Flying in the 80s, then read How to Save Your Own Life at the start of the 90s and it became, and still is, one of my favourite novels. Yes, Erica/Isidora/Leila seems obsessed by sex - but then who isn't? Because, you see, our libidinous heroine is not just after mindless coupling. She's not simply promiscuous. She doesn't use sex as a tool to manipulate men or situations. What she's after is what we all crave, although some of us don't have the wherewithal - or the guts - to take the quest as far as she does. What she craves is connection, the 'zipless fuck', the skinless encounter that takes us out of ourselves and that we approach only when the coupling is at its most vital, most intense, most passionate and probably most obsessive.

Jong has inspired me for years with her heroines and their lack of sexual inhibition, and with her honest and fearless writing. She goes where most of us writers - and readers - fear to tread, into the physical and psychological messiness, the self-sabotage, the contradictions, strengths and weaknesses of a woman trying to live as authentically as she can, in a society and time where female roles have changed dramatically on a superficial level, but much less so at the heart of things. Becoming a rich, famous author doesn't make the real deal any easier; if anything, it facilitates delusion, avoidance and self-destructive behaviour, but even at her worst there's an endearing self-awareness and deprecation that redeems Jong/Isidora/Leila.

It doesn't hurt that Jong can write; she puts you there, right into the story, even when you want to stand aside and judge: you're a woman, and you recognise, nay, you own the neuroses. Plus, I love the way she sends me off to research all those classical/literary/cultural references that have become hazy over the years. Another reviewer (on Goodreads) hated this. I don't. It adds to the richness of the experience for me.

So why the three star review? Why not four or five stars? Because I enjoyed How To Save Your Own Life more. Because so many of the themes are repetitive, which should not work against her because that's the way life is, but this is literature, and it does. Because I'm somewhat impatient with the heroine's substance abuse. I'm beginning to understand why people do it, why they are driven to seek escape from themselves by any means necessary. All the same, I can't help but be judgmental about this aspect of Jong's character(s). Life is hard, and it f***ing hurts, but medicating/drinking/drugging one's way through it gets no respect from me. Also, although I'm partial to New-Agey gobbledegook, sometimes it can seem like so much, well, gobbledegook. It's not Jong's fault; if I'd read the book when it was written I might have been more patient with this aspect of it. But two decades have passed since, and I've grown up a bit, and grown more discriminating. The 'California way' has palled somewhat.

For better or worse, Jong's stories have inspired me - as a woman, a feminist, and a writer, as someone who tries to live (and write) authentically, and who finds the whole realm of erotic attachment and exploration nothing short of riveting. That's quite an achievement for Jong. Now I'm off to read her Fear of Fifty.

Guest author KS Augustin: Sharing the lurve

I'm truly delighted to host KS Augustin, fellow author, fellow Novel Spaces member, IT specialist, martial artist, and much more besides! Science-fiction romance is her first love, but she has also dabbled in fantasy and contemporary action romances, picking up a CAPA award nomination along the way. She was a Spectrum award finalist and has appeared on the Fictionwise Best-Seller List. Kaz has visited, lived and/or worked in the UK, North America and Australia, and has now settled back in south-east Asia. Without further ado, I give you... KS Augustin!

You can't believe how happy I was to discover Liane! The one thing that I love about being a writer is the ability to form friendships with extremely talented people from around the world. And, considering that Liane is in Trinidad and I'm in Malaysia, that's some distance to cover.

But one thing that also brings Liane and I together is language. With all those North Americans filling up the ether, it's nice to touch base with someone else who uses British English. You wouldn't think it's such a big deal, would you? It is. Finally, someone who can spell “centre” correctly. ;) Who's not going to confuse me with usage of the word “fanny”. (What, you mean...there [pointing to one part of the anatomy]? But I thought it meant...here [pointing to another part]?) Who knows that you cut up your meat as you eat it, not all at once at the beginning.

There's also a certain reserve to those of us who don't use US English. We're the more shy, retiring type. It takes a major effort, plus crowbar work, to get us to actually (shhhh!) promote ourselves. Mix in a Roman Catholic education and it's a wonder we don't faint the moment we're introduced to someone new. Oh yes, take all the neuroses of the average English person you've always read about, inject it under the skin of a colonialist education mixed with Catholic guilt for just breathing and you have us. ::waving:: Hi.

So, in true self-deprecating fashion, that's my roundabout way of introducing you to my latest novel. It's a science-fiction romance about an astrophysicist, the man she falls in love with and a weapon of immense destruction. But, it's written in UK English and I'd like to give each and every member of the Carina Press editorial board a big, smoochy kiss for that alone. Thank you Carina. And thank you Liane.

IN ENEMY HANDS

The Republic had taken everything from Moon―her research partner, her privacy, her illusions. They thought they had her under control. They were wrong.

Srin Flerovs, Moon's new research partner, is a chemically enhanced maths genius whose memory is erased every two days.

While he and Moon work on a method of bringing dead stars back to life, attraction between them flares, but that poses its own problem. How can their love survive when Srin forgets Moon every two days?

When she discovers the lethal applications her research can be put to, Moon knows she and Srin are nothing more than pawns in a much larger game. Together, they must escape the clutches of the Republic before they become its scapegoats. But there are too many walls around them, too many eyes watching. They want to run, but they're trapped on a military vessel in the depths of space, and time is running out....

COMPETITION: I'm giving away two copies of IN ENEMY HANDS at my blog, Fusion Despatches. To be in the draw, stop by and comment at the Competition post, telling me at which blog you read about my book. You have till 30 June!

Kaz Augustin is a Malaysian-born writer of science-fiction, romance, and permutations of the two. Her website is at http://www.ksaugustin.com and she blogs at http://blog.ksaugustin.com You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter; just look for “ksaugustin".

To 'net or not to 'net

Should new writers immerse themselves in online reading and writing communities or is this detrimental to their creativity? I'm posting on this topic today over at Novel Spaces. Come join me!
New Writers and the Online Conundrum

Reading right now: The End of the Affair

I've had the movie on my wish list for years, but the lure was Ralph Fiennes, I'm sad to say. Recently I was reading a book blog discussion of the best novels on infidelity and discovered that The End of the Affair is based on a novel of the same name by Graham Greene. I hadn't read Greene since childhood, so off I went to the Amazon store and got myself a used copy.

Glad I did. What I liked most about this book was the author's honesty in dealing with the emotions involved in a love affair, in this case an illicit but profoundly affecting one. This 'affair' was no casual dalliance but the kind of 'once in a lifetime' connection that the parties could not get past. Greene explores all of it - the joy, despair, jealousy, pain, hopelessness, desperation and destructiveness inherent in such a relationship. I'll be accused of being sexist here, but I haven't come across a novel written by a man that explores such a theme in such a truthful manner, one that faces full on the vulnerability of the male in matters of the heart. I'm well acquainted with the woman's emotional perspective; it was fascinating to get a good look at the man's. Nor have I read any similar story that deals as sensitively with the cuckolded husband in a love triangle.

This is a superbly written, brave, honest book, and I'm glad I read it. It explores profound themes, including the nuances of forbidden love between men and women as well as the complexity of love of God, and the tangle that ensues when these intertwine and intersect. Now to get my hands on the film and see the delectable Mr. Fiennes at his sensual, intense best...

Sorry. Got a bit carried away there.

Sweet & sour

I'm posting over on Novel Spaces today about two women with Caribbean roots, one of whom is Trinidadian, whose novels made it to the list for this year's Orange Prize for Fiction.

There are some out there who think a writing prize for women is no longer relevant, this being the age of feminism and equality and other such wonderful ideas. They think men should be allowed to compete for the Orange, or that there should be a men-only literary award. I talk about that too.

Oranges and Lemons

My other columns for Novel Spaces are here.

The Joy of Rejection

Today on Novel Spaces I take a look at some famous writers whose work was repeatedly, scathingly, cruelly rejected. Compared to some of their stories, our rejections are gravy.

WHO Was Rejected?

CLS interviews Vaughn Stanford

My writing buddy Vaughn has an interview up on Caribbean Literary Salon this week. Some of you might remember him: he once caused a bit of a stir among a couple lady-bloggers who hang out here. He said if I didn't announce his interview on my blog I'd be in dire trouble and he'd de-friend me. I'd be so lucky...

Vaughn is an author and mathematics teacher in Trinidad. He has written, produced and directed theater plays, and also writes screenplays, short stories and novels. Remember ladies, we don't want his head swelling up now, so don't be too nice!

Interview with Vaughn T. Stanford at Caribbean Literary Salon

World Literature: The Caribbean - Part 2

Come join me on Novel Spaces today as I continue my feature on the works of great Caribbean writers!

World Literature: The Caribbean (2)