What can I say? I loved this book. I hadn’t read it before selecting it for book club, which can sometimes be a risky maneuver. Luckily, it worked out. 

 

 I’m sure she had to learn how to manage her fair share of cowboys and ranch hands. Here she is whistling to try and keep someone in line, I’m sure.  

 

 

I haven’t read Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle, but after reading this one, I definitely plan to pick it up. And, I want to know, if you’ve read Half Broke Horses, what were your favorite parts? Can you relate to Lily?

Even though I’ve been to several of her readings, I am star struck every time I see her. My heart beats fast, my palms get sweaty, I begin to utter mere syllables instead of actual words. It is pathetic. 

After her reading of Handle with Care last year, she took questions and answers. When she announced she had time for one last question, I decided I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to talk to her, so I shot my hand up in the air. It was right as she called on me that I realized I didn’t have a question to ask! So, I pulled together a really lame, boring question: Has your writing routine changed since your first novel? Ugh. I might as well have asked what toothpaste she uses. She answered it graciously saying her routine hasn’t changed at all. Go figure. 

Next came the signing. I waited in line hoping I could get a picture with her, only to find out she wasn’t doing photos. She wrote my name and her signature in my book and I tried to think of something to say to her. "I love your writing" seemed too obvious. So I came up with the incredibly witty, "I love the MP3s you post on your Web site." That was it? That was all I could come up with? I’ve read every single one of her books, some of them twice and that was all I could think to say? I blame it on the butterflies. She thanked me and told me she’d be posting a new one next month. I walked away shaking my head. 

I’m looking forward to redeeming myself at her next reading, so here is hoping she stops in the D.C. area! 

The holidays and the dreary weather here resulted in a small turnout, but we delved into The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell by Loraine Despres and had a great conversation. In addition to writing Belle, Despres wrote The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc in which Belle appears as Sissy’s grandmother. Despres was generous enough to call in and take part in the discussion and we peppered her with our questions.

Belle is full of details from the 1920s—details that could only be captured by meticulous research. Despres said she spent a year researching the time period. “Thank God for the Web,” she laughed. She read books, visited the library and studied magazines from the period.

To capture the details of one particular scene, Despres reached out to the Stutz Barecat Club and found someone who shared the particulars of how to shift.

Despres even committed to only reading literature written before 1920 during the three years it took her to write Belle.

I fell in love with Sissy, and the entire time I was reading Belle I couldn’t help but think about how Despres weaved the two stories together even though they were very different stories. I was also left wondering how much the author knew about Belle when writing Sissy.

“I knew I wanted a lady like some of the ladies I knew in New Orleans—very imperious, very sure of themselves. Belle really came to me,” she said.

Of course we asked Despres her favorite rule. Without hesitating she said, "It’s okay for a woman to know her place. She just shouldn’t stay there." She also told us she doesn’t usually come up with a rule cold. “If something tickles me, I write it down,” she said.

Several parts of the book were inspired by Despres’s own experiences. She told us she grew up in a house like the Rubinstein’s—a house complete with bullet holes in her bedroom wall. “A vigilante group tried to drive my family out of town. It probably happened in the 1890s, but I knew I wanted to tell that story,” she said.

She also shared that she some of her favorite traits of Belle’s were her courage and her cynicism. “She was pretty much based on my mother,” she said.

SPOILER ALERTS—IF YOU HAVEN’T READ BELLE, STOP READING NOW. COME BACK AFTER YOU FINISH THE BOOK.

Based on the letter Belle found in Claude’s jacked, I assumed he was having an affair, but since I’m ever the optimist, I held out hope that Belle just misunderstood parts of the letter. I asked Despres flat out if Claude was having an affair. She confirmed my fear—he was unfaithful. Oh Claude—how could you? I will cut him a little slack since he was at war.

Throughout the novel I went back and forth on whether Belle was ignorant of the dangers she faced or if she was brave. I felt that she became more aware of her danger she faced as the novel went on and clearly was courageous when defending the Rubinsteins against the Ku Klux Klan.

Despres said she envisioned Belle as being brave when writing her. She added, “As a middle-class southern lady, she thought [the KKK] wouldn’t hurt her. Her family was important in the town and she thought they wouldn’t go after her.”

There were so many great story lines in the book. After we hung up the phone with Despres, we kept chatting about the book. I definitely recommend it as a book club pick and, you never know, Despres might call into your group, too. You can visit her blog at http://www.lorainedespres.blogspot.com/ and her Web site at www.lorainedespres.com. Also, check out my earlier Q&A with Loraine here, my post about Sissy here and my virtual book club post about Belle here.

By the way–my local library system had a a good number of copies of Belle available, but there was a wait list! So, you may want to check your local library or order from Amazon.

GIVEAWAY!!! What could be better than adding an autographed book plate courtesy of Loraine Despres to your copy of Belle or Sissy? Leave a comment by midnight Dec. 4 and I will pick a lucky winner on Dec. 5. 

First of all, thanks to everyone who left comments on my Q&A with Loraine Despres. I can’t wait to read her book for the virtual book club!

There were eight people who left comments and I am giving away two of her autographed bookplates. I combined the comments from both days and used Random.org to generate the numbers of the winners. They were #5 and #6, so congratulations, which were Allison and Janice. BUT…Allison graciously turned hers back in since she got this read from the library. 

So–I turned to Random.org once again and this time pulled the lucky #4, which is Sandy! I’ll get the book plates in the mail right away. 

I am so excited to present part one of a two-part Q&A with best-selling author Loraine Despres. Loraine is the author of The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc, The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell and The Southern Belle’s Handbook, Sissy LeBlanc’s Rules to Live By. If you read my post about The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc, you know that I fell in love with the book. The writing is beautiful and the plot lines are engaging. Prior to writing novels, Loraine wrote for television and is known for writing the "Who Shot J.R.?" episode of DALLAS.

Loraine was nice enough to talk with me about the novel and her experience writing it. She also sent me autographed bookplates, and I’m giving away two this week to some lucky readers. Just leave a comment by 5:00 Eastern on Friday, Oct. 16. I’ll announce the winners on Monday.

Welcome to our virtual book club! Grab a cup of coffee and settle in. Here in our virtual world, you can put your feet up on the coffee table (or your desk, if you’re reading at work) and make yourself comfortable. No one will even know if you’ve combed your hair! I had originally planned to open up the book club on Oct. 9, but decided to post a little early in case anyone wants a head start.

Our pick this month was Time of My Life: A Novel by Allison Winn Scotch. Leave your ideas, questions and thoughts on the book in the comments section. As an added bonus, Scotch is going to be stopping by and joining in our conversation!

Also, you can visit Scotch’s blog at http://www.allisonwinn.com/ask-allison/ and read my first post about the blog book club at http://mindylong.com/lets-read/. 

Tim teaches fiction and nonfiction at Johns Hopkins University and was nice enough to share some of his expertise with us here.

Q.  You have written novels, narrative nonfiction and news articles. How do the skills you’ve learned for one genre compliment the others?

A.  Joseph Conrad was once asked his definition of quality writing. His reply was, “If I can make you see.” In other words, can I write the piece with enough details and urgency so the reader can picture a scene similar to what I’ve witnessed or brought together in my mind? In essence, are we sharing the same dream?

Once you consider writing in that way, a good story becomes a good story, regardless if it’s technically fiction or nonfiction. Quality interviewing can result in great sensory details that then can be fully utilized by employing techniques that until a few decades ago were the domain of fiction writers.

When potential readers have so many other ways to spend their time (watching reality TV, serving the Internet, etc.), it’s up to the writer to make a story – fiction or nonfiction – as full and as vibrant as it can be.

Q. Are there any dangers of cross pollination?

A.  Sure, looked what happened to James Frey and others. The fields of memoir and even essay can often be a slippery slope. That’s why it’s so important to fact-check your story along the way. Sometimes there just isn’t enough there to call it nonfiction – no matter how much research you’ve done. That’s what happened to me with my first novel, CASTRO’S CURVEBALL (Ballantine/University of Nebraska). On my first trip to Cuba, people there told me how much Fidel Castro loved baseball, how he’d once been a baseball pitcher, how he had perhaps tried out for several U.S. major-league teams. When the research didn’t go as far at that, I turned the book into a novel. That said the descriptions of Havana at night, the infatuation Cubans have for our so-called national pastime, what the lush countryside is like remained rooted in fact. Those come directly from the interviews and observations I did during my three trips to the island.

Q.  What techniques can nonfiction writers learn from fiction writers and vice versa?

A.  So much of quality writing comes down to scene-setting. In a way, this dovetails back to Conrad. I tell my nonfiction students to read novels and watch film. That can help with everything from dialogue to voice. I tell my fiction students to get out and talk with people, see if you can then mimic their speech patterns or how they act. All of that is necessary if you want to write effective scenes because that can translate into those times when you’re reading and everything around you seems to stand still. You miss your Metro stop or you stay up past your bedtime because you’re so wrapped in the story. That’s when you’re a part of what John Gardner called the “vivid continuous dream.” All of the above and then some is needed to pull it off.

Q.  Do you have any books you recommend writers read and, if so, which techniques should we be watching for as we read?

People should read what gets their juices going. Life is too short to do anything different. We should all have writers that we’d walk over broken glass to get a hold of their next work. Richard Ford once said many of us get into this field because we read something that’s so good, so memorable, that we have to give it a try. So, we do and perhaps we get hooked.

If that’s the case, find the connections between writers. Who do they read, even hang out with? Thomas McGuane, for example, is good friends with Jim Harrison. They’ve influenced each other. Richard Ford keeps an eye on what Robert Stone is doing. So, if you enjoyed a McGuane or Harrison work, allow that progression to lead you to a Ford or Stone.

Q.  As a reader, I often get caught up in the story and often forget to pay attention to the techniques a writer is using. You are currently teaching two classes–nonfiction techniques and a nonfiction workshop—at Johns Hopkins University. What advice do you give your students on recognizing techniques as they’re reading?

Whether I’m teaching a fiction or nonfiction class, I tell my students to pay attention to the moments when a piece they’re reading really takes off. Certainly you race ahead to finish it. It’s a good story and you can’t help it. But then go back and try to dissect the best passages. Can you determine, at least in part, what the writer was doing? When I read something that blows me away, I become the curious kid who takes apart the washing machine. Maybe I cannot put it all back together again, but I have a better understanding of what went down.

Also, be open about what you read. For example, in the novel class I teach at Johns Hopkins (the powers that be allow me to teach fiction and nonfiction) I often assign Cormac McCarthy’s CITIES OF THE PLAIN. Invariably, some will roll their eyes at this news. At first blush, they consider the assignment a macho novel filled with violence. And it is. But it’s also a compelling love story with characters that are more alive than some people you see every day. In many ways, McCarthy’s novel is Romeo and Juliet set along the mysterious borderland between the U.S. and Mexico. Several students have told me later that they never would have read that book if it wasn’t assigned.

And, finally, seek out people you can learn from. I’ve been lucky during my career to work or study under Alice McDermott, David Granger, Nicholas Delbanco, Alan Cheuse and Oakley Hall. Each one taught me something valuable about writing. But a small part of that was me going out of my way to be in their path.

To read more about Tim or read his stories, go to www.timwendel.com. 

Instead the day started out with a little kitchen incident that involved blueberry-lemon muffins and lots of smoke billowing from the oven. Clearing the smoke from the house and ensuring the oven wasn’t going to actually catch fire put us behind schedule. That meant nearly all the parking was taken by the time we got downtown, so we circled the National Mall for about 45 minutes trying to find a space. As we were circling, Evan spotted the carousel and spent the next 15 minutes asking when we could ride. 

I gave in on the carousel ride, so we were pretty far behind schedule by the time we made it into the book festival. I pulled out my camera to snap a few pictures when I suddenly realized the battery was dead. You know what they say about the best laid plans, but the day was still a success. I was able to see Jeannette Walls, Jodi Piccoult and Paula Deen speak. I didn’t get to spend as much time in the fiction tent as I had hoped, but I did get to see Evan be entertained by Judy Blume and Mo Willams who read their favorite children’s books to the kids. Evan got to meet Clifford the Big Red Dog and see Elmo. Evan’s face lit up when he received three new books. 

I know there will come a day when I get to spend all the time I want taking in my favorite authors, but for now, seeing Evan discover reading and watching him learn to love it was far better than that front row seat I had planned to get.