I've read some really good historical novels recently.  "Lilac Girls" and "The Edge of the Orchard" are so well-written that, for good or ill, you're right there living with those folks.  So imagine my surprise when my library suggested, "If you liked those, you'll like these", and popped up with one about the sinking of the Lusitania, and it turned out to be a real dog.

This is one of those pieces of history that I thought I knew about and now realize that I had the Lusitania sinking confused with the much more benign (but equally tragic for the families of the lost) sinking of the Morro Castle off the US coastline. 

The recommended book was well-researched, but the writing!  Oy, the writing!  Why didn't the mainstream publisher have editors to point out that one doesn't write a WWI novel with the characters speaking in modern-day vernacular?  Two of the female main characters were named "Brooke" and "Sydney", fergawdsakes, and not a person in the entire story commented on the oddness of those names.  At one point somebody stood up too abruptly and "got a rush".  The shipboard romance of these Victorian-era characters leads them, unchaperoned, to the guy's bedroom, where they promptly fall into bed together and do what no couple of those times would dream of doing until they were married.  Clearly, the thing was written with "Hollywood" in mind.  Not sure if the writer realizes it's been done already, but of course that never stopped Hollywood, grrrr.

OK, flash forward to the end of the book and the acknowledgements and so forth.  Yes, the author is "award-winning", but what she's winning awards for is made-for-television scripts.  She's been on Oprah. She's a Name, it seems, and that will sell books.  Never mind if this person, who might be quite talented in modern writing, is utterly unsuited for a trip back in time.  I'm not sure if she ever read a book written before 2001.  Or whether the editors, who work for one of the 2.5 presses that's gobbled up all the small presses and wiped out the rest, have either. 

I guess if you have a near-monopoly on the publishing business, you don't need to worry about the quality of what you print.  Which is what the small presses were warning us about 25 years ago.  Back when there were also independent bookstores to vet the many and varied offerings from talented writers.

OK, end of rant.  But "Edge of the Orchard" is a wonderful read, by the author of "Girl With the Pearl Earring".  At the end I learned that the name of one of the characters is the name of a modern-day person who won a fund-raising competition, the prize of which was to have her name used in this  swell book by a swell author.  Rush to your library, bookstore, or wherever, and snatch this one up.  You'll end up knowing more about apples than you ever intended.

Far better writers than I have suggested the "wait a bit" method of editing.  Write your story, run it through a tidying-up edit run (or two!), then put it in a drawer for a few months.  Bring it out after you've had time to move along in your thinking, and run through it again.

Still look decent?  Fix the typos and sloppy bits.  Now you're ready to share it with a few reasonably objective friends or relatives.

OK, so I don't follow this strictly.  But still, here I am a little under a year later, having another look at "Five Dollars and An Axe", the sequel to "Faithful Unto Death".  No murders in this one, but lots of good detail about life on the farm just before and during the depression.  Ralph continues to be quite a fellow to be admired (as indeed he was).   Scandals?  You bet.  Hardship?  Plenty.  Grasshoppers?  Yep.

U of Michigan is no longer accepting any new fiction submissions, which is a little upsetting.  Call me old-fashioned, but I just don't wanna self-publish.  Who do you have to sleep with to get an agent?  Why does one have to jump through a mess of hoops just to hire someone to peddle a manuscript to one of the mega-publishers? 

Gotta still be some good independent publishers around!

 Ralph in the later years.

Hattie, Ralph, Josie in chairs, various descendants and spouses gathered around.  Wonder who took this photo?

http://www.foxspirit.co.uk/books/anthologies/noir/drag-noir/

Go here to order your copy.  Or even better, go to your friendly local independent bookstore and ask them to order you a copy.  Get one for your mom while you're at it.  She might surprise you.

Almost forgot!  Here's the cover.  Why does it make me think, "Michael Jackson"?

Go get yourself a copy of "Drag Noir"!

It contains a lot of well-written stories; granted, some are pretty dark  (what can you expect with "Noir" in the title?) but all have interesting twists on top of the gender-bends.

Good stuff, if I say so myself.  My story is somewhere in the middle of the thing.

Gonna be at IHS this week for juried Holiday Author Fair

The event is this Saturday, noon until 4:00 pm at the Indiana Historical Society (near the corner of Ohio & West St).  There are about 30-40 selected authors at the event, all based in Indiana (most but not all of the books focus on Indiana history--hey, midwest is close enough, right?).

This is their big Holiday "do", should be fun!

"Faithful Unto Death" goes to Marion County Library book/author fair

We spent part of a day meeting and greeting other authors and the public.  There are a LOT of self-published Christian writers and they all appear to have attended this event.  Plus a few actual writers who had some good stuff to show.  (Meeyow!  But still....)

Unfortunately we didn't realize until too late that the library copy of "Faithful" was right on the rack behind me, in "New mysteries"!

Rita Rose, who wrote a delightful teen book about the world's tallest woman (who lived in rural Indiana), was in attendance.  Book review reads,

Sandy Allen was the Guinness Book of World Records holder as World's Tallest Woman seven feet seven and 1/4 inches. Sandy died in August of 2008, after having helped with her friend's book about her high school years--and how she redeemed them through a life of service to young people. This book is an inspiration and insight into the life of different; people this one a lively, bright and interesting lady who scorned the title of freak and lived out her life in dignity.

Show More

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Great book, and I recommend it to adults as well as teens.

Chatting about arsenic poisoning.

Benzonia/Frankfort book event

The turnout wasn't as grand as we'd have liked, but those who attended were very interested and lively, and it was great going back to Benzonia and looking around again.  We easily found Anna's tombstone and got a MUCH sharper photo that shows the inscription better than our old one.  The old Thacker house (once the Baily house and who knows who else owned it) is crumbling away on the verge of the hill.  No doubt it's the favorite haunted house in the area, and why not?

Anna's headstone

The source of Charlotte's "Frankfort Water".  It's full of sulphur and iron, can't tell what else.

The spring is still pumping out the water, open to the public and it is indeed drinkable, though rather bitter.  We brought a jug of it home for book event "show and tell" and find that as the sulphur dissipates the water is more palatable.  Now its' just mineral water.

Frankfort lake shore.  Beautiful town!

Here's the layout of the Benzonia cemetary.  Not very useful unless you have a key--we'll try to pinpoint the number of Anna's site and see what the chances are of finding out who really placed the stone there.

Inside of the Benzonia history museum, which is housed in the former Congregationalist Church.  The main doors are upstairs, go figure.  Maybe symbolic of what you have to do to get to heaven.  Or the foundation has settled.

Upcoming book events: Senior Center, GLBA Author Feast, Benzonia, on and on....

"Faithful Unto Death" is doing the rounds in fall rather than the expected springtime push, so we'll be going to northern Michigan in the bleak rainy autumn, doing Halloween things and the like.


Next weekend we’re off to the Great Lakes Booksellers trade show.  (http://www.gliba.org/tradeshow_authors_2011.php)   I’m invited to appear at the Moveable Author Feast—bookstore owners attend it and the invited authors circulate around the tables (relocating to a new table for each course) and talk about their books.  So in the course of an hour or so, you interact with about 30 different regional bookstore owners.    A great way to get exposure.  Plus we get authors fed a little before the event and have a chance to chat with one another.  The best thing I’m experiencing in all these book/author events is chatting with other writers, hearing what people are working on, how they approach problems, etc.

Benzonia the weekend after that!   http://www.benziemuseum.org/events.html lists us as their "Haunts of Benzie County" Halloween event.  I hope to have lively discussions with the local folks about their ancestors--I hope they don't bludgeon me in any disagreements. 

The Indianapolis central library the Saturday after that (http://www.imcpl.org/indyauthorfair/index.html), lots of authors will be there and we get to sit at tables feeling foolish while people avert their eyes as they go by because they'll think we're selling something.  Which I guess we are, in a way. 

Our librarian pal Cherie S. from Tipton has organized an event at their library on November 5th.  That one will probably be more fun than the main library, they have invited a group of folks who love historical fiction. 

 
THEN, there’s a break until early December when the local historical society has their holiday author fair:
http://www.indianahistory.org/events/holiday-author-fair

Book group features "Faithful Unto Death" and a whopping farm dinner

Deb B. hosted the book group this month and, in keeping with the farm family theme of "Faithful Unto Death", served a SPLENDID repast of ham, white and sweet potatoes, misc vegies, apple pie, and other savories and treats.

Folks asked interesting questions (the children called Orah "Orah", but my dad says, "We called her Grandma because she was the only one we knew") and were VERY kind in their comments.  They liked the details of life in those days, and the character depictions.

Photos below of the gathering.

Correction to family tree--Orah didn't die in 1924 but in 1947.

That blasted Heritage Family Tree site won't let me make corrections on it.  I need to find a better tool for charting all the relationships, gak.  Maybe I should just use powerpoint or Word and draw little boxes linked together.  It would sure be easier than those easy-to-use family tree things I find on the web.  I fear that this Heritage site is a Mormon plot to drum up more souls for after-death baptism or whatever the hell it is they do. 

But Orah lived much longer than Henry.

Book group features "Faithful"--Dinner hosted by Deb features farm menu!!!

Just got home from book group--Deb B. hosted it and served things of a farm family nature (ham, potatoes white and sweet, gravy, breads, vegies of all kinds, apple pie, other yummy things).  Everyone spoke VERY highly of the book, which was lovely; hope folks will offer comments and suggestions privately if they're too nice to do it in public.  :)  The details of life in those times seems to be what people like, more than the mystery of who killed Anna.

Most folks agree with my theory of 'who done it'.

Next up, trip to Benzonia for their grand "Haunts of Benzie County" event, followed shortly after by a trip to the library at Tipton, thanks to Cherie and her connections.  Onward!

-bt-

Yowza, Grand Rapids Press weighs in!

This is the 9/4/11 issue of the Grand Rapids Press, "16 good books with Michigan ties".  I hope they don't find out that I use one of their very bad articles (circa 1980) about the murder as an example of how much the story, over time, was influenced by rumor and opinion, and how little by actual research.

It was pretty evident from the first trial transcript that gossip and innuendo influents events even in the courtrooom.  "Is there a clear path of evidence showing the accused committed murder?"  "Well, he was carrying on with the  housekeeper"  "Guilty!  Send the murderer to prison for life!"

Things don't change much?

Purchase "Faithful Unto Death" celebratory apparel from Cafe Press

We've set up a site for folks to order cool stuff with book cover and/or Anna's headstone, including some nifty dark items just in time for the Halloween season, ohboy.  I think I need some pajamas for the Benzonia trip!

Mushroom invasion in the front yard!

We came home the other night and found the 'shrooms had colonized the trees in our front yard.  We've seen pictures like this in kids' books, complete with elves or hobbits, but never in our own yard.  Too utterly cute!

-bt-

Library Journal gave "Faithful" a swell review!

Here's what they say, in their Xpress Reviews—First Look at New Books, July 29, 2011:

"Thacker, Becky. Faithful unto Death. Univ. of Michigan. Aug. 2011. c.284p. ISBN 9780472034697. pap. $22.95. MYSTERY
Did solid, dependable William Henry Thacker really poison his beloved wife, Anna, with arsenic? His children deny it, but the Congregationalist town of Benzonia turns its collective back on him, convicting him with dispatch in this highly detailed portrayal of late 19th-century rural Michigan. Scrolling through the family's story, readers are invited to evaluate the evidence and speculate about what goes on behind closed doors. Poor Henry was burdened by having his sickly and venomous sister-in-law Charlotte living with them, but he also had a crush on the family's housekeeper, a collegiate Jezebel. In a staunchly religious community, how things appear can be enough to turn the tide. It's up to Roy, Ralph, and Lottie to figure out how to rectify a wrong, even if they can't solve the crime.
Verdict Authentic atmosphere and a remarkable portrayal of brave children make for a good read. There's more here than you'll ever need to know about arsenic poisoning, but the courtroom scenes are riveting. Drawing on her own family history, Thacker offers a crime story with Midwestern gothic overtones, not unlike Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Regional collections will want.—Teresa Jacobsen, formerly with Solano Cty. Lib., Fairfield, CA"

I'm so delighted with this--not everyone gets such kind treatment from the LJ!

-becky t-

Library Journal has a review of Faithful Unto Death.

Makes me want to read it :)

Here's the Powerpoint we used for the presentaton at Ann Arbor library.

The library folks really had it together, all was in readiness and they did everything to make it all run smoothly.  My dear cousins Penny and John and Allen and Carol were right there all the way, and made quite a party of the whole event.  Photos to come when we get them uploaded, argh.

Hey, I got top billing at the Ann Arbor library!

Penny and John are going all out to make us welcome, and plan to round up as many pals as are in town to attend the library 'do'.  The library plans to film this presentation, no pressure or anything.   Maybe I could come down with the measles or something :)

There'll be a (short) slide presentation and I'll tell the story of how the book happened, trying not to give TOO much away!  I think it might be sort of cool.  Fingers crossed, anyway.

Michigan NPR Online has a blurb about the book serialization, yowza!

OK, OK, "Faithful" shares top billing with  "A Spell on the Water" by Marjorie Cole, who has a plug by Barbara Kinsolver.  It would be so grand to get a "I couldn't put it down." note from someone like Barbara Kingsolver.  Or, say, Patricia Cornwell, who could really help pinpoint WHEN the fatal dose was administered, and would probably blow my solution out of the water but in a gripping way.

But still, we're there, in an NPR writeup.  We'll take it!