virtual book tour

Virtual Book Tour: Man of Clay, by CL Bledsoe

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Today is the second day of CL Bledsoe’s virtual book tour celebrating Man of Clay, a novel with elements of magical realism and a dash of steampunk. This funny, engaging story redefines what Southern Literature is capable of being. Man of Clay can be pre-ordered today!

 

EXCERPT FROM MAN OF CLAY:

I [1] had recovered [2] nearly completely by the time Master John again decided to test his flying heated air sack. It was a massive thing. The sack itself was woven of the colors of the Arkansas flag. Master John had learned through trial and error that the sack needed to be closed at the top to contain the air, in order to fully capture the lifting pressure as the hot air rose. At the base of the balloon, a sort of modified lamp sat, which, when lit, shot a two-foot high tongue of flame up into the sack, heating the air. The basket was wicker, connected with thin ropes. The basket was lined with samples of plant life and various goods he intended to trade with the Andean [3] population. Because of the weight of these things, and of the two intended passengers, the amount of heated air needed was tremendous, necessitating the air sack to be massive. It towered, higher than four or even five men standing atop each other’s shoulders. It was, likewise, the width of greater than two men with arms outstretched. The bulk of the weight came from the oil needed to maintain the flame, until Master John devised a solution to this problem. It is well known that certain naturally occurring gases are quite flammable, and Master John had managed to capture a great quantity of this gas in thickly woven bags—woven so tightly that the gas could not escape. It was this gas which fueled the flame which created the buoyancy necessary for this trip.

For his test, Master John intended to pilot the contraption with Othello [4] along to simulate the weight of Zeno [5]. All of the slaves gathered, dismissed from their tasks for the occasion. Master John and Othello climbed into the basket, which was kept down with great lead weights. The ropes connecting these were loosened, though several longer ropes were still connected, the gas was set aflame, and the air sack began to rise. The slaves ‘oood’ and ‘ahhd,’ though the basket itself rose only a few inches at first. As the flame increased, and the heat of the air grew, the basket rose, higher and higher, until a man could walk between it and the ground, which one of Mr. Winfrey’s sons [6] did. The slaves applauded this, but Master John wasn’t finished. He increased the flame, and the balloon rose higher and higher, until it was as though he and Othello were atop a great mountain. Clara Bell [7] cried out in concern, but Master John continued to raise the heated air sack. Continue reading →

Virtual Book Tour: Her Own Vietnam, by Lynn Kanter

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Today is the last stop of Lynn Kanter’s virtual book tour celebrating her new novel, Her Own Vietnam. Click the link to check out the other tour stops, each with unique content!

Could you tell me a little about the origins of Her Own Vietnam? How did you begin this work?

Like most members of the Baby Boomer generation, my youth was profoundly shaped by the war in Vietnam – and by the movement to end it. We had a military draft then, and the Vietnam war could reach into almost any American home that had a teenage son, including mine. (I have an older brother.) I was also deeply shaken in 1970 when college students peacefully protesting on their own campuses at Kent State and Jackson State were killed by uniformed troops.

Decades after the war ended, I was walking down the street one day when it struck me: What would it be like to be a regular middle-aged woman, just living your humdrum life, and have that experience in your past? To have participated in a war so hated by much of your nation that the hostility slopped over onto you and your comrades, the very people your country sent to wage the war?

How would you feel? Who would you tell? Who could ever understand what you’d been through?

To explore these questions, I began to write. I worked on Her Own Vietnam, on and off, for the next 14 years. Continue reading →

Virtual Book Tour: List, by Matthew Roberson

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Melanie Page of GRAB THE LAPELS 

Presents

a Conversation with Matthew Roberson

Synopsis—Vignettes of a middle-class American family told through lists, each reflecting their obsessions, their complaints, their desires, and their humanity.

A suburban family of four—a man, woman, boy, and girl—struggle through claustrophobic days crowded with home improvement projects, conflicts at work and school, a job loss, illnesses, separation, and the wearying confrontation with aging. The accoutrements of modern life—electronic devices and vehicles—have ceased to be tools that support them and have become instead the central fulcrums around which their lives wheel as they chase “cleanliness” and other high virtues of middle American life.

Melanie Page: Could you tell me a little about the origins of List? How did you begin this work?

Matthew Roberson: The book started as a series of stories. I originally figured all the stories would revolve around “middles”–being middle class, in the Midwest, and middle-aged, stuck in the middle between children and aging parents. As the book went on, the male character was between jobs. The parents eventually in the middle of a divorce. I was really taken with the title, Lucky Middle. But then I noticed that the real unifying element of all the stories were the lists. Every story was built around a list. So, I kept on with that. Continue reading →

Virtual Book Tour: From Here, by Jen Michalski

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Today is the third stop of Jen Michalski’s virtual book tour celebrating her new collection, From Here. The twelve stories in From Here explore the dislocations and intersections of people searching, running away, staying put. Their physical and emotional landscapes run the gamut, but in the end, they’re all searching for a place to call home.

 

Thematically, how does this collection differ from your other books?

I think there are some similar themes of isolation and dislocation that I explored in The Tide King and also Could You Be With Her Now, but the stories in From Here are through the prism of many different narrators, who differ in age, sex, ethnicity, physical locale. I’d written these stories over a period of seven years, maybe, but I think there’s a lot more of me in them than the aforementioned work, my inner struggle of wanting to belong, to find a place to feel at home. But, at the same time, I think, like any story collection, is a good cross section of my work. Some of it I wrote when I was single, some when I met my partner, and I was deep into my thirties and some of my life priorities were changing, and maybe my perspective, too. Continue reading →

Virtual Book Tour: The Amado Women, by Désirée Zamorano

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Today is the third stop of Désirée Zamorano’s virtual book tour celebrating her new novel. Mercy Amado has raised three girls, protecting them from their cheating father by leaving him. But Mercy’s love can only reach so far when her children are adults, as Sylvia, Celeste, and Nataly must make their own choices to fight or succumb, leave or return, to love or pay penance. When tragedy strikes in Sylvia’s life, Mercy, Celeste, and Nataly gather support her, but their familial love may not be enough for them to remain close as the secrets in their histories surface. Forgiveness may not be accepted. Fiercely independent, intelligent, they are The Amado Women.

 

Melanie Page: Did you at any time feel like the characters’ jobs defined who they are?

Désirée Zamorano: I certainly feel that their jobs are an expression of who they are, the pressures they face, and the dreams they hold. I particularly enjoy the contrast between Mercy’s teaching experience and that of Sylvia’s. So many people think, either because they’ve gone to school all their lives or that there are so many teachers, that teaching is an easy job. It is actually probably one of the hardest unsung ones, equivalent to parenting. Continue reading →