And the winner is

The 2007 International Print on Demand Book Award winner is...

CHION

by

Darryl Sloan

And the finalists are

The fifth and last book to be named finalist for the IPOD award is none other than

AND TO THINK THAT HE KISSED HIM ON LORIMER STREET


Now, a note on my selections. The process was very hard because of the quality of the books that I have found through my blog. For example, Undercover White Trash, an excellent novel, begged to be included, as did others such as Futureproof and Homefront. IM, Entrekin, and The Father were also strong. The process of selection is not perfect, and only five books can be chosen as finalists, making the enterprise difficult. I would like to thank everyone who submitted a book to the blog and all the readers who have read the blog regularly.

The winner will be announced sometime at the end of this week.

PODler Book of the Month NOVEMBER

This month the strongest work reviewed was Richard Grayson's And to Think That He Kissed Him on Lorimer Street.

And the finalists are...

The fourth finalist is...

PRAYER AT RUMAYLA

Who Is My Reader?

Who is my reader? How do I impress him? How do I overcome his skepticism? These are not academic questions, but questions that go to the very heart of deliberate, purposeful writing. Writers are often tempted to write for the"market" or for some other vague, nondescript entity that is hazy in their mind. Such indulgence can be a form of laziness because, in imagining a vague entity, one allows one's writing to be lazy--it's easy, in other words, to impress a vaguely defined reader, for such a reader is as forgiving as the author's ego. But the vague phantoms of the writer's imagination don't read, and they don't buy books--real individuals do, and these real individuals must be impressed, have their skepticism overcome, and have their time respected.

Who do you write for? The genre fanatic? The housewife? The teenage boy? How old is your reader? Why is he reading at all? How do you impress this reader? You do so by taking your reader seriously. Taking someone seriously means respecting his time, money, attention, imagination, and intelligence. In essence, it means being ethical instead of self serving in your desire to simply "get it out there."

Respect his time and money.

Readers are busy people. They are not rich. They are husbands, wives, sons and daughters; they have jobs and worries--they want writing that respects them by being clear, direct, and well executed. Slow openings, bad editing, poor story construction and other symptoms of laziness signal to the reader that the writer is not taking them into account or is doing so only peripherally. Lazy writing makes the reader sorry he spent money on your book. It makes him feel cheated.

Lazy writing does not respect the reader's time. It is vague and requires labor to digest. Why should the reader invest his precious hours in your cryptic ramblings? When you read the work of great writers, or even writer who are merely competent, you notice that their writing is clear, logical, and focused. Such writers don't waste words or space, they don't pad around; the logic of their writing is so easy to follow it almost doesn't require thinking; their focus is so clear, nothing dangles or is left unused in the writer's project of creating meaning. There is a great deal of discipline evident in good, professional writing; and this discipline is evident to readers, and they know that they are being respected.

Make it interesting.

Who is your story supposed to interest? Without a clearly imagined reader, the answer is most likely anyone, which means, in practice, no one. But if you have a clear imagine, a living concept, of a reader in your mind, he becomes a person for you, and you write to interest this person, to engage his imagination, intellect and to entertain him.

Suppose that you're writing a children's story. Do you even know children of the age group you want to write for? Try volunteering at a local elementary school as a story teller and see if you can even engage their interest. It's a lot harder than it seems because children, like all people, are intelligent, not dumb. The same insight applies for any potential reader, whether the mystery buff, the technothriller fan or the literature connoisseur--all want to be wowed. How do you wow them? How do you overcome their resistance?

Logic, focus, clarity.

Good writing has the following hallmarks--logical development, arrangement, and movement in some direction. Good writing has a singular focus and clear destination. It moves to this end with clarity and grace. Bad writing is the opposite-it lacks the logical connections, it has vague focus, and it is often unclear. The writer mocks the reader with bad writing, and who wants to be mocked?

And the finalists are...

The third finalist is...

ANTARKTOS RISING

When the Earth's climate undergoes an apocalyptic change, survivors eye Antarctica as the future home, but something has been awakened on the newly reborn continent.

Revision, Motivation And Craft

Writing is hard work, writing is lonely work-motivation, sooner or latter, becomes an issue, especially when what one writes does not seem to amount to very much. How do you stay motivated? Should you?

Motivation is the desire to achieve something that one sees as necessary and worthwhile; it requires a passion to see something happen. For writers, motivation often means the desire to see a book on the library or store bookshelves; or the desire to tell a story that is important to the writer for some reason. The writer believes in the worth of his story. He believes in the necessity of telling it. Trouble begins when the writer becomes tired of the mundane aspects of writing and the motivation to see the project through to successful completion becomes a chore. Here are some thoughts to help dislodge the writer's block.

Is it still necessary?

When you look at your story or book, do you still think it is necessary, and important story worth telling? Or has it become a festering, confusing, headache-inducing mess that is far from your original inspiration? You have to ask yourself the following questions. Why did the story seem necessary in the first place? What was it about and why was this worth writing about? Where did the original spark come from?

The creative spark

Something sets your imagination on fire and makes you want to write. After a few months of work, this fire seems to go out. There are more mundane problems to deal with-scenes, reversals, character development-stuff that's technical and seems to have little to do with being creative. That initial creative burst seems to vanish and the technical aspect of constructing a story leaves you with a headache and a strong desire to do something else, anything else but go back in front of that computer.

The solution is to go back to that initial vision of the story. In the first place, you should have written it as clearly as possible on a sheet of paper so that it can serve as your reminder of what this story is about and why it is important. Another possible way to capture the original vision is to make a poster or a book cover that will inspire you, when you're feeling tired, to keep going. Yet another way is to draw scenes from your story, especially the most important ones. Of course, you need to be able to draw, but that's fun, and it will help you with the writer's block.

Why bother?

But there it is, you mess of a manuscript, a tree hundred plus page monster that's absorbed every bit of your fee time over the past few months, sitting worthlessly on the hard drive. You have your posters and your scene sketches, but this thing is beyond help. Surely, there are other more important things you could be doing with your life. Think about all the things that you're missing out on. Why bother with it? It does not come easy.

Mastery of craft

This is the crux of the problem of the writer's block-the inability to revise. Writing is about revision. Nothing can be written in the first pass, nothing worthwhile that is. The original inspiration is often deceptive because it makes you believe that a story can be merely put down on paper as is and then you will be done. It is, you believe, only a matter of getting to the end. But then, you realize, as you write, that there is no end at all. You get trapped in the desert of revision and the original fire that set you ablaze at the keyboard is like a water, evaporated in the hot sun of the Sahara.

The only way out is mastery of craft. If you get stuck, unsure about where an action should go, only your understanding of how things like plot, theme, tone, voice, character and other elements of the story function can get you out of trouble and back into that sweet spot of creative flow.

Creativity is not magic, it's all in the mastery of the elements of story. Only when you master the elements of story can you truly be creative in you choices. You must know, for instance, how to create a great plot, how to create characters, you must know how character action and plot relate to theme, tone and mood-this an many other things you must know in a practical way, not in the academic way of definitions that are hazy in your mind. When you read a story, when you watch a movie, you should, right away, if you know your stuff, be able to know what the writer is doing, how he is doing it, what the effects are, and whether he's succeeded in his project. You should see the elements of structure and their effects and learn form them. Why is there tension, suspense? What specific actions have caused this to be? You should know how the plot, theme, character all interrelate. All this and more should be clear to you as you read the story. Only then can you reach a point where you can help yourself out of your writer's block because only then do you know the craft, the practice of it, to the point where it can be helpful.

Writing is all about thinking and rethinking, writing and revising whatever you put down on the page. Everything you place on the page has some meaning, some impact and purpose, and you must be aware of that, and be able to use it in your story somehow. Every word is a symbol, so is every action, each consequence of that action has meanings too. Even a simple story such as thriller, where the only question is of the type such as-will the spy reach Germany with the secret of FUSAG, as in Eye of the Needle-is not so simply to construct from scratch unless you have mastered how the concepts of suspense, tension, reversal, surprise, and complication work in practice, not just theory.

So what's the real secret to getting back on the saddle? Dissecting stories for their structure. If you're feeling stuck, outline what you have written. That's right. Do a fresh outline of your story as it is. Then you will see what you have and whether it is working. This outline will help you see what needs to be done in terms of plot, theme, and character development, and other aspects. And you're right when you think that, man, that's the start of a whole new version of the book. It is. That's what revision is all about, the going back to the beginning and starting over for the sake of reaching some end that's part of your creative vision for the story.

Of course, you will, at some point, ask yourself why it is that you should keep doing this work. It is very hard work, and more than likely, you could use your time in a more productive way doing something else-go hiking in the mountains, learn to dance, play soccer, ride a bicycle, learn to be a volunteer fireman… the possibilities for a fulfilling life are endless.

And to Think That He Kissed Him on Lorimer Street by Richard Grayson (A)

Richard Grayson is a prolific writer of over 200 stories, articles, and books. In the 80s, he staged a satiric run for the White House against Ronald Reagan. He has obtained a J.D. degree from University of Florida with honors and is, in addition, a master satirist and a keen observer of the American scene from his own and unique viewpoint. Grayson writes in a deceptively simple style that is, nevertheless, hard to imitate. Using this kind of autobiographical method, bordering on a confessional, Grayson looks through shifting viewpoints (gay and straight; white and black; American and immigrant; young and old) at the people, times, and palaces of a fictional Brooklyn.

In these fictions, Grayson meditates on various topics, mostly race, sexual identity, age, and change by using the device of popular culture, mixing in liberally the icons of pop culture with persons and places from memory to construct a solid literary edifice.

The collection is filled with resonant stories about the lives of ordinary people, and this focus is what makes them interesting and memorable. Somehow, though Grayson's master touch, the ordinary becomes fascinating and highly readable literature. Many of these stories, however, reflect a deep sadness that exists in the heart of the common man and his experience. Nothing seems to happen for the protagonists in these stories, their lives stupefying their subjects. Grayson reminds us with his fiction that our lives are, in the end, rather banal, revolving around the mundane, the ordinary, and the common. At the same time, there seems to be a kind of weird current of apathy that flows beneath the surface of the stories. In the title story, we wonder, for example, whether the narrator is incredibly open-minded about his son's sexuality and the kiss between the boys, or whether he's just too apathetic to care, and we wonder because the title seems to be a kind of subconscious expression of protest by the protagonist. Apathy, or more precisely, a kind of stupefaction, perhaps synergized by the bathos of pop culture, rears its head in "Shirtless Tea-bag Eating White Boys", in which two characters, one stupefied by Haldol, the other just tranquilized by American culture, watch internet videos, which somehow are appropriate for the mentally dysfunctional character and the young elementary school teacher; the first prefers to watch a purple hippo, and the latter prefers to view shirtless tea-bag eating white boy clips.

Some of these stories are biographical, and those are the stories that I like the best. Especially likable are "Branch Libraries of Southeastern Brooklyn", in which Grayson's character reminisces about the libraries that he had known and how they had evolved over the years-this one is probably my favorite story, as I do love libraries, and it seems that Grayson is a true lover of the library as well-and "The Lost Movie Theatres of Southeastern Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach", another story of nostalgia and memory, where we are treated to reminiscences about the various theatres that the author remembers. "1001 Ways to Defeat Green Arrow" deals with change in gay relationships and the longing and emptiness that result. "My Life in The New York Post" is a collection of strange but somehow funny clips from, apparently, the Post regarding a fictional Grayson's plots and schemes.

Other stories that I liked were "In the Sixties", a kaleidoscope-like summary of the Sixties; "Diary of a Brooklyn Cyclones Hot Dog", which deals with the life of a lesbian Uzbek immigrant who is promoted to being the Relish in a Hot Dog Race; and "Mohammad's Therapy Monkey", in which the protagonist, a college student with some issues is assigned a roommate with a pet monkey, which helps him find acceptance and a relationship of his own in a place that he detests.

Grayson chronicles the real through his funny, sometimes sad, but always genuine, if slightly offbeat, fictional world.

Richard Grayson has a website at https://www.richardgrayson.com/
Grayson has been interviewed by Geoffrey Philip.
Grayson's Wikipedia entry is here.

How long does it take?

How long does it take to write a book? The recent interview with Danielle Steele should cast some light--a year on a 80+ page outline, a year on the first draft, two years on revision of that draft. How do you stack up? Have you ever done an 80+ page outline?

In Hollywood, they do what are called treatments, which can vary by length, but most professional writers do create long treatments of their stories, sometimes working on that treatment for more than a year. Why all this work? To create the kind of stories that people want to see on the screen or read. Writing is hard work. Very hard. It takes commitment, discipline, effort, and talent. You can't be depressed or distracted. You have to be smart, alive, plugged in, part of something. You have to be an astute observer of life and people.

And the finalists are...

Over the course of the next five weeks, I will be announcing each week one of the five finalists for the International Print on Demand Book Award,

and the first finalist is...

CHION

A powerful, high concept story of survival and rebirth.

Legends of the Plastic Chairs by Patricia Curtis (C)

Legends of the Plastic Chairs is our first non-fiction submission and it comes from Patricia Curtis. I was mildly interested by the title when the pdf file first entered my mailbox. What are the legends of the plastic chairs? I decided to start reading.

Legends is a memoir of spiritual journey, written by a mystic, and a story of the ultimate reality of life-the battle between good and evil, light and darkness, in each and every person, and the path that Patricia Curtis walked through that battlefield, leaving her scarred, frightened, but ultimately victorious in the end thanks to a mysterious presence of light that was always at her shoulder, encouraging her when things seemed to be at their worst.

There are some aspects of the story that may seem a bit far fetched if not outright false, especially the Voice, that was at Patricia's side, and I think that the more cynical readers might find the book unbelievable or worse, but I find it meaningful because it is unflinching about the truth of basic human experience-yes, there is evil in the world, and that evil comes from, as the author calls it, a hardness of human heart. A hard heart cannot hear a soft voice-how true that is! But there is also light, and those who chose to walk in light are ultimately victorious. Reading this book, I am also struck by how similar it is to the books written by Saints and other mystics through the ages. All of those people have glimpse some other reality, been in intimate contact with forces and beings of light, and so is the author of this book. What might set off the cynical reader, however, is the often spare portrayal of the people, places and events in the author's life.

The force of darkness in this life experience was the author's father, a man filled with hate and anger toward his daughters, a man would could not see the good in himself or anybody else. He was a man who deals with his despair and emptiness by being abusive toward his three daughters, blaming them for their mother's mental illness, and even abusing one of them sexually.

The narrator manages to free herself of this toxic influence and sets out on her own. But the experiences are, again, painted with a broad brush, and the lack of detail really undermines the story being told. I'd like to know more about her life as she worked in the auto parts store, more about who her friends were, and more about her experiences. More about running a business and so on.

Although I like the underlying story, I have some problems with the execution--one huge problem is the lack of more details; the author tells and summarizes too much instead of really getting into the moments of her life by vividly presenting events in form of scenes. This lack of detail makes the story seem thin and sometimes less than believable. This is too bad because the story is an important one.

Realm Shift by Alan Baxter (A)

Isiah, once a mortal man, is an agent of The Balance looking for Samuel Harrigan, a man whose untimely death is about to upset the balance of powers between the gods and between good and evil. Isiah leads an interesting existence, wandering the earth as a kind of divine repairman. Now he must repair a doozy.

Realm Shift is an inventive and action-packed story set in the shadow land where the supernatural and the mundane meet head on. One of the more inventive aspects of the story is the idea that people create their own god simply by believing in them. Of course, this means that there are many such gods and that without The Balance, a mysterious force that keeps the order, there would be chaos and, eventually, one god would reign supreme. Harrigan is a man who can prevent such a thing, and Isiah must keep him alive and guide him to fulfill his destiny of killing an assassin. Will he succeed against the full fury of the Devil and his minions who want Harigan's soul before he can fulfill his destiny? Will he snatch Harrigan's soul from the very bottom of Hell and Devil's grasp?

I liked the narrative drive and the interesting concept that Realm Shift is based on. I think that it would make an excellent movie - Realm Shift is definitely a hot concept property waiting to be plucked by a Hollywood creative exec.

Author's Website

Turtle Boy by Kealan Patric Burke(A)

The Turtle Boy is a powerful story about ghosts of the past and about how those ghosts can wreck havoc in the lives of those who uncover their secrets.

It begins with two boys, Timmy and Pete, trying to figure out how to spend their time. As they consider various options (digging a hole, playing by the rain tracks) they end up near Meyers Pond, where they discover a strange kid is sitting at the bank. This boy is not only a stranger, but he is also strange-looking, and he has a secret that will change Timmy's life. The idyllic mood is broken when the boys see the way in which this stranger is feeding the turtles. The revelation is doubly shocking because it is set against the peaceful background of the boys' lives. Through it, a horror enters into the life and the imagination of Timmy and won't let go, causing thoughts of speculation about what he'd just witnessed to spring unceasingly from his perturbed mind. The impact of the event continues, like poison spreading from a bite wound, seeping into the friendship between Pete and Timmy, destroying it, and causing pain and sorrow for Timmy through the realization of the true feelings that Pete's father has toward Timmy's father.

Turtle Boy is a simple but masterful story. The author skillfully reveals, through superb writing, the power of thoughts, realizations, and ideas in shaping who we are and how we think: he shows how what happens can alter who we are, even if we don't want to change. Timmy has no choice in what is happening, no choice in facing the revelations that alter him and his life forever. He has no choice because he is part, as we all are, of a web of existence in which each life touches and influences another, sometimes years hence.

The story is masterful because, on the surface, nothing much seems to have happened—two boys saw something weird and strange—and yet so much happens as a result of what they see. This is masterful, character-based, writing where a simple alteration of the ordinary unearths a wealth of implications and forces things to change in unexpected ways. Indeed, the incident unleashes a great deal of anger from Pete's father, a man who's taking the death of his wife hard, and whose temper is on a short leash, shortened all the more by abuse of alcohol. At first, the reaction creates a mystery-why would Pete's father react as he did? Is he merely concerned about Pete's safety, or are other factors at work in his reaction? As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Marshall is a troubled man, haunted not only by events of the present but by the events of the past, but the full extent of his troubled character is only revealed, linking itself to the story of the Turtle Boy, in a shocking finale. Timmy, however, finds no peace in the resolution, only questions that continue to trouble him.

Turtle Boy shows us that horror is all around us, but it is hidden away in the folds of time and memory, waiting to be unleashed and to ruin those who are unlucky enough to pierce that curtain. Turtle Boy is definitely a memorable story.

The author has a website at kealanpatrickburke.com

International Print on Demand Book Award

2007 is nearly at an end and this means that the time to award the International Print on Demand Book Award is nearing. In December, the best POD book will be announced. This book will be one of five finalists that will be announced sometime in mid November. The following books below are in the process, and you can check out the reviews by clicking on the links. Some books that I will review next month may land on this pile, so this is not the final list. The prize will consist of "an IPOD Award Seal, or a an IPOD Finalist Award Seal, which shall consist of a .jpeg image, to place on book cover of their books." So, if you're the winner or one of the five finalists, you can print a new edition of your book with the seal graphic on your cover! It's just like the Pulitzer, really.

CHION
NORTH OF SUNSET
PRAYER AT RUMAYLA
FUTUREPROOF
ENTREKIN
HEART OF MARS
THE FATHER
AUTUMN
UNDERCOVER WHITE TRASH
HOMEFRONT
ANTARKTOS RISING
IM

PODler Book of the Month OCTOBER

October was an interesting month in that I reviewed two books that were not submitted--Autumn and Undercover White Trash. Mind + Body was a submission that was, for a while, lost in the pile, but was found and reviewed. I liked all of these books, but my favorite by far is Undercover White Trash. Trash has a simple concept and plenty of conflict as the protagonist enters a world alien to him and emerges changed. Trash is definitely not trash.

Mind + Body by Aaron Dunlap (B+)

A sudden death of his father, a large inheritances, strange new powers of mind and body-these are the elements that suddenly disrupt the ordinary life of teenage Christopher Daniel Baker's life in Mind + Body by Aaron Dunlap. Aided by his friend Amy, Chris goes on a search to find answers to these puzzling events, trying to figure out who he really is. Before long, it becomes clear to Chris that the government is somehow involved: some mysterious entity is paying off the principal of Chris' school to keep him out of trouble.

Mind + Body is story that manages to create a mystery that is involving, particularly because it touches on some interesting subjects such as multiple personality, and the psychology and genetics of love and mating. The characters seem to find not answers but only new threads of something mysterious that seems to keep growing in magnitude. One wonders how are all these things are related to what is happening to Chris. This is, of course, the way that all good mysteries are supposed to be-some unexpected, incongruous, event takes place, compelling the character to search for answers, only to have him find new unknown elements that somehow relate to some huge mystery. There certainly is a huge mystery at the heart of this story, and it has to do with Chris and who he really is.

Another nice feature is the wealth of information that the writer infuses into the story, stuff like Austrian passbook accounts, USB drives that steal information, and a few other bits that remind of Clancy. Thrillers gain from a richly imagined world, and Dunlap is infusing his story with such rich and interesting detailing that it makes you feel as if you're participating in the story by learning. This is one reason why Clancy's stories were so popular-the reader was learning the secrets of global politics, submarine warfare, and other neat stuff, even if it was all pulled strictly out of thin air. Learning can be involving and can increase the reader participation. Something of that sort is at work in Mind + Body.

Of course, there are some glitches in this offering. For one, there seems to be no antagonist, the guy or guys who are out to do our protagonist in. In the Bourne Identity there were people who were trying to kill Bourne, but there is no one who is chasing Chris in Mind + Body, and I think the story would be better if there were. Nevertheless, Mind + Body is an interesting story written by a writer with some talent.

Reviewed by Podler

Your Best Bet

PODy Mouth has a great blog that I encourage everyone in the POD game to read because it's filled with interesting info on the industry. Her latest post Top 10 POD Books Right Now is absolutely essential reading for all POD writers, or those who want to go the POD route. So what's your best bet in POD? Non-fiction. When you look at the list, you will find that most of the bestselling POD books are non-fiction. What are the hottest topics?

• Relationships/Sex
  
• Money management
  
• Self-improvement
  
• Motivational/Management
  

In other words, stuff that people want to learn more about. I would also add health/coping with illness, identity theft, and age related issues--there are millions of Baby Boomers out there and they need to know about how to live after 65: they want to know how to spend money, protect their identity, deal with Medicare, manage their money, and other issues that come into play after retirement.

Autumn by David Moody (A)

Autumn is the story of post-apocalypse England, and it opens with these blockbuster lines:

Billions died in less than twenty-four hours.
William Price was one of the first.

A brief, terrifying prologue follows, and like lightning it augurs a story of a world after a calamity. The first chapter plunges us into the world of Carl Henshawe as his ordinary routine is slowly being disrupted by the epic disaster at work in the world at large. I was instantly gripped by the way that the disaster seeps into Carl's world. We are eased slowly, one small incident after another, into something incredible.

The writer takes his time drawing us in, and this creates a great deal of suspense as to what is happening, and why Carl seems to be unaffected by the apparent plague that strikes down everyone around him. Slowly, the creepiness and horror of the events sink in as Carl proceeds down the motorway, discovering cars crashed or stopped abruptly, their occupants suddenly dead.

There is something of Hitchcock here in the way that an existential terror is evoked by the action of a lone character going down the highway, discovering dead drivers in their cars. By the time he reaches Norwitch, his hometown, he has seen about fifty bodies. By now, dreadful tension fills the story as we watch Carl proceed toward his home, he only just becoming aware, because of the shock he had already suffered while discovering the bodies on the motorway, that his family is probably dead. When he reaches home, he finds his wife, baby, and mother dead. We're glad for Carl because he didn't have to watch them suffer as Price did in the prologue. But the effect on Carl is shattering:

I spent hours stepping through the bodies just shouting out for help.

This ending to the first chapter is simply awesome - in one sentence the author has reveled the humanity of the tragedy and bound our sympathy to Carl's plight. But what Carl went through is only a tease of things to come, a foretaste of the horror that Michael Collins witnesses as he speaks before a class.

What is happening to the world? The question arises as one reads about the events. Any number of answers are possible, creating a degree of tension and suspense. But the ultimate explanation is hidden, only to be revealed latter one cold morning.

Autumn is the story of Carl, Michael, Stuart, Emma, four among a number of survivors of the plague that turns the dead into zombies. I like the way that the author shocks the reader—first presenting the survivors in the community center, trying to cope with the loss of their loved ones, trying to decided what to do next in the unimaginable situation—then ups the ante as Michael ventures outside one morning and discovers that one of the dead is apparently alive.

The living dead are made believable because the author develops horror from the ordinary slowly turning into the terrifying. This is the true method of horror and it works well in Autumn. A less skilled writer would have had us witness some violence and gore, but that would only make the story unreal and indistinguishable from the cliché. In Autumn, the reality of the vision is reinforced because the author stays, wisely, away from the violence motif that permeates zombie stories, and focuses on what might, arguably, happen in such a situation. Instead of immediate violence and flesh eating, there is a more nuanced approach here as the survivors try to learn more about what is happening rather than immediately reaching for the gun to defend themselves. By once more focusing on the ordinary reaction-the curiosity of the survivors-the story maintains realism and horrific tension. Here the survivors approach one of the living dead and try to get her inside to study her in the hopes of figuring out what's happening:

Emma jogged the last few steps and moved round to stand in front of the body. She looked up into her glazed eyes and saw that they seemed unfocussed and vacant. Her skin was pale and taut, as if it had been stretched tight across her skull. Although she was sure that the body couldn't see her (she didn't even seem to know she was there) Emma respectfully tried to hide her mounting revulsion. There was a deep gash on the woman's right temple. Dark blood had been flowing freely from the wound for some time and had drenched her once smart white blouse and grey business suit.

"We want to help you," she said softly.

Still no reaction.

I think that this is much more terrifying and the horror is so much greater than what would have been had with simple violence. A tense situation results as the corpse interacts with the survivors. The scene is developed with humanity and objectivity that enhances the scary nature of the situation, creating a creepy sense of calm.

After a while, Emma, Michael, and Carl set out on their own, find a house tucked out of the way and the tension drops as the biggest threat seems to be boredom. But it becomes clear in the days that follow that the undead are becoming increasingly more alert and aggressive, roused somehow by the noise that the survivors create. But the challenge that the undead pose to the living comes across as a kind of nuisance rather than a genuine danger, and this make the tension and suspense evaporate. A sense of foreboding is created, however, by the knowledge the characters have that there seems to be no place where the undead cannot find. I am a bit disappointed by the way the undead behave, and the consequent loss of tension and suspense in the story. Tension and suspense should mount, and here it seems to evaporate. Another thing that is disappointing is the lack of a clear resolution—the question whether there is a place where the characters can lead a semblance of a normal life remains unanswered at the end of the volume.

The author has a website where you can find this and his other work. Autumn is being made into a movie.

Undercover White Trash by David Kilpatrick (A)

Comedy is hard to pull off, but David L. Kilpatrick does just that in Undercover White Trash. The novel begins when Big Billy Barnes, owner of a chain of BillyMart stores, questions the advertising campaign put together by the Dickey advertising agency.

“A typical American family?” Barnes repeated as he lifted up the ad with one hand and pointed at it with the other. “What’s this man wearing, son?” he asked as he pointed to the father figure.

“A...suit. A suit and tie. And a white shirt,” I observed.

Barnes replied softly, “A suit and tie. And a white shirt, right?” I nodded.

Barnes’ face suddenly flushed and he shouted at me so loudly, I could smell his cigar breath all the way across the conference table. “Son, the only people who come into my stores wearing ties are cops looking for one of my employees for a parole violation! And the broad; she looks like she just stepped out of the Neiman goddamn Marcus catalog, pearls and all.” Barnes took a deep breath and continued. “You ever been in one of my stores?” he asked. I thought for a minute and shook my head. He then looked at the other executives. “Any of you shitbirds ever been in a BillyMart?”

And so begins the quest of Edward Prescott III to discover the ins and outs of the white trash culture. Undercover White Trash is a good piece of writing. The first thing that impresses me is the simplicity of the concept—a guy enters an alien culture incognito in search of its secrets. Kilpatrick spins the spy trope in a fresh way and shows what creativity is at it’s best—taking what is already familiar to the reader and spinning it in a new way. The author also moves directly into the protagonist’s problem—living in a different culture than that which he comes from, creating tension by juxtaposing a privileged young man with a subculture that is as alien to him as something in the pages of National Geographic, then plunging him into it, “like Jane Goodall with the monkeys”

As we witness Prescott pack for his three month adventure, we can’t help but wonder how he will be altered after contact with the world he’s about to visit. How will the people and events that are about to happen to him change him? There are many dangers that he flirts with: being swallowed up by the world into which he ventures, his lines of communication and safety cut off and him becoming a stranger to his old friends; or becoming entangled to his detriment in relationships with the member of this subculture.

The book shows differences between the world of privilege and want in America as the protagonist goes in search of the BillyMart consumer, a missing link between rural poor and suburbanites. Prescott inserts himself into a trailer park community, then uses a bait in order to start a relationship with Conley, the father of the family that Prescott decides to study. As he enters the lives of the people he studies, he learns that they are pretty much okay, and learns that his old environment is filled with backstabbers.

Undercover White Trash steers clear of pastoralizing the underclass or taking the well-worn road of cheap humor at their expense. There is in this story a lot of humanity with which Kilpatrick treats his subject and characters, making the book one of those rare independent novels that are worth a read. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this one was optioned by a movie producer because it has cinematic potential.

I had a bit of a gripe with this ending—too hopeful for my taste—and I would have liked to see more comedic tension milked out of the near encounters that the protagonist has with his privileged pals—more dramatic irony, please--but despite my pet peeves, the book is, still, very good, and Kilpatrick is a totally talented writer whose work will most likely end up on the big screen.

(This review is not based on a submission but a reaction to reading a free ebook on the Author's Site)

Update 3/16/11: Mr. Kilpatrick's website is gone.

The Good Stuff

I was recently looking at Daryl Sloan's blog and was pleasantly surprised to discover a list of good independent novels that he has identified. You can see the list at:

http://darrylslibrary.wordpress.com/free-ebooks/

The best part is that all of those books are free to download. Now, when someone asks you if there are any good self-published books, you can point them to the link above. Of course, don't forget to check the PODler's own list of great POD titles listed in the International Print on Demand Book Award Runners.