Writers Books

A classic, must-read book for the "cozy" mystery lover. One of Barnard's best (and all his books are wonderful).

Surly Sir Oliver Farleigh-Stubbs, the author of a string of commercially successful mysteries, revels in making life miserable for those around him. When a dinner party at a neighbor's house seems to be passing with too little discord, for example, the author enlivens the affair by making manifest his uncharitable opinion of the crumbed cutlet set before him:

"Oliver Farleigh sank into a mood of intense depression: he gazed at the cutlet as if it were a drowned friend whose remains he was trying to identify at a police morgue. He picked up a forkful of mashed potato, inspected it, smelled it, and finally, with ludicrously overdone reluctance, let it drop into his mouth, where he chewed it for fully three minutes before swallowing. Conversation flagged."

After the cutlet has been downed, Sir Oliver invites these same neighbors to his upcoming birthday celebration, a family gathering regarded with dread by all concerned, not as an act of kindness but so they may serve as "diversionary targets."

Given a lifetime, more or less, of his theatrical antisocial behavior, it is hardly surprising that Farleigh-Stubbs's death--he is murdered at the aforementioned birthday party--upsets virtually no one. (The reading of his will is a more emotional affair for the principals.) But which of the author's myriad victims was incensed enough by his abuse to kill him? Well written, and with an appealing cast of characters, Death of a Mystery Writer is another fine whodunit from Robert Barnard.

(Interestingly, the last sentence of the book--or perhaps just the last, four-word phrase--seems as if it was tacked on as an afterthought, perhaps in response to someone's suggestion that the author's intent was not otherwise clear. But it was clear, and the ending would have been slightly stronger without the superfluous text.)

Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece

This is the first Robert Barnard book that I've ever read, and I can't believe that I haven't sampled this author before this. He tells a wonderful satirical story and he does it with wit and cutting edge writing skills. This is apparently one of his earlier books, so I do think that I will be sampling some more of his work after reading this one. His nasty characters are many and varied, and he describes them in such a cunning and scathing manner that the reader almost gets to like them. We certainly get to know what makes these characters tick anyway. In this book a very obnoxious mystery writer by the name of Sir Oliver Farleigh-Stubbs is murdered dramatically in his home with his "loving" family all around. When Chief Inspector Meredith arrives on the scene he finds a surfeit of possible murderers. It seems that there were a lot of people that would like to see this writer dead. In the course of his long and varied career, he had managed to upset and anger many people. But Meredith has to sort through the motives and alibis, as well as find a missing manuscript that may hold the key to the murder that was committed. This is a very deft and well-written mystery story.

It's a mystery of clever intrigue, this "Death of a Mystery Writer" by Robert Barnard! While not readily available in books stores anywhere, the vintage Barnard (first published in the UK in 1978) is just that: vintage. What a delight it is to read Barnard almost anytime, and this one is one of my favorites. My local library supplied me with this one of his I hadn't read and I was, once again, fascinated with his story line, his characters, his style of writing. To say he has "a way with words," of course, is a great understatement.

In this episode, Sir Oliver Farleigh-Stubbs comes up dead--a seeminly perfect inocuous death--the overweight--not to mention overbearing--author simply (right!) collapses while imbibing in his favorite drink on his 65th birthday! Suspects are a-plenty (as is usually the case with Bernard) and a real shocker arises when it is determined that Sir Oliver's son--who certainly hated him--is to inherit most of the family fortune. In addition, Sir Oliver's latest manuscript, quite invaluable in itself, is missing. It is up to Inspector Meredith to find the killer, as murder it is. Clever, though, the murder has taken his modus operandi from an earlier novel ("The Black Widow")by Sir Oliver.... This the Inspector soon picks up on, providing him with valuable clues.

Fast-paced, well-organized, and compelling reading. This is a Barnard--if you haven't read it--you won't want to miss! There's no mystery about that! (Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)

The first and the seminal book of Rene Girard, originally (in French) published as Mensonge romantique et verite romanesque (Romantic lie and novelist truth), contrasting romantique illusion of the autonomous self and "romanesque" (the title is obviously a pun, which is lost in English translation) insight that our autonomy is illusory and our desires are always borrowed from the others. Girard moves through the works of five great novelists (Cervantes, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Proust, Stendhal), using post-Freudian (and post-Lacanian) psychoanalytic approach in an easy understandable way. The basic concept is the idea of triangular desire - between subject and object there is always a mediator, another subject, through which the object becomes desired. However, attention of the subject necessarily shifts from the object to the mediator. Must read for everyone interested in postmodernism, psychoanalysis, and intertextuality.

Girard's work in _Deceit, Desire & the Novel_ is a psychoanalytic approach to literary criticism. It explores the relationship between the subject and object of desire, attributing the cause of desire to a third party, the mediator. He uses Proust, Dosteyvsky, Stendhal and Flaubert as models. Overall, it is engaging, easy to read and absolutely necessary for anyone interested in critical theory.

Groucho Marx said "I wouldn't be a member of any club that would be stupid enough to have me". In DECEIT, DESIRE and THE NOVEL, Girard and his wonderful translator Yvonne Freccerro help us explore that dilemma of self-distaste, and the ever-receding goal of acceptance.

The book argues that the novel as a form is historically preoccupied with one particular dilemma: That when young, each of us believes that the OTHERS have some passport to community that we ourselves lack. The path through life (to maturity or to death) takes place through imitation of, and competition with, those persons who seem to have achieved what we wish ourselves to achieve. As part of this, we often chase after objects whose possession promises to "transform" us into someone else. Think of Swann and high society, Don Quixote and knighthood. If we tilt at windmills-- or seek achievements we don't value once we have them-- it may be because we thought these symbols will yield not merely themselves but also what they symbolize: Don Quixote hopes to become a knight, Swann hopes to become an aristocrat.

When the transformation doesn't happen-- when, for example, Groucho Marx becomes a member of the country club and discovers he's still as uncouth as he always was -- the possession disappoints. The victim then either matures, or sets off on another treasure hunt.

There has never been a work of literary criticism so revealing of the human psyche as DECEIT, DESIRE AND THE NOVEL. Girard's book focuses on envy, but in the process reveals a path to becoming genuine. If nothing else, this book will send you back to Proust, Cervantes and Stendhal greedy for text.

Though Girard admits in an interview that when he wrote this book he was indulging in the dubious pleasure of debunking, it is still an excellent entree into the mimetic hypothesis. The book outlines the important theory of "triangular" or "mimetic" desire, which states that the notion of a desire original to the subject is a romantic lie, and that human beings borrow one another's desires. The book is also a monumental contribution to the study of the history of literature, showing that the evolution of society is tracked and analyzed by the great novelists, who alone in the Western world have understood the mimetic foundations of human interaction.

A brilliant scientist, a twisted man who loves her beyond measure, twins separated by time, an ancient religious book, speech-control and more. Mix these up and what do you get? You get Degranon, a fascinating read that blends intrigue, time-travel and the attempted resurrection of what was thought to be an ancient religion. Filled with the undercurrent of how important family is, Mr. Simolke successfully combines all of these elements into a suspenseful story about betrayal, lust for power, love and the need for truth. Set on Valchondria, a far away star-system, Degranon refers to the Book of Degranon, an ancient text that is thought by some to be the ultimate source of truth. But, perhaps it's just a story. Degranon mirrors Earth's current events in many ways. Reflecting the clash of fanatical beliefs due to modern-day monotheistic religions, Degranon speaks to the extremes that they produce in our own civilization, as well as for the civilization that is the setting of this story. I was constantly reminded of our own modern day woes while reading this tome. All in all, Degranon is fitting entry into the science fiction genre.

I recommend DEGRANON for its exciting, well-constructed narrative, its often intriguing characters, and its wealth of ideas both political and philosophical.

However, I do have a couple minor - and I hope constructive - quibbles. Although we're all used to colorful invented words in SF (from "Barsoom" to "Arrakis"), too often I scratched my head over whether there was some allegorical, and hence thematic, significance to a word or name. Take "Degranon" for example: It sounds like "degrading" and "anonymous" - and that sort of fits with what's in the novel... but it's not a snug fit. And the gap, both here and in other instances, produced a nagging doubt that I'd missed something important. And that pulled me out of the story.

The characters, although vivid, spoke a bit too much in "exposition-ese." On the other hand, I was often fascinated by the details of Valchondria or Degranon which they revealed. As I said, these are minor criticisms of an ambitious and entertaining novel.

I hope that Simolke will continue exploring these engrossing worlds in future books... or take us to entirely new places.

Duane Simolke adds yet another dimension to his diverse literary offerings with this science-fiction novel. He has already established that he can create whole communities with his Acorn Stories-a book of short stories. With his collection of essays and poetry in Holding Me Together, he has shown that he is equally adroit with research and a breath-taking turn of phrase. In Degranon, Simolke brings it all together, creating not a single community, but a whole world. His characters are as unique as anything he creates with his Acorn Stories, but in Degranon, he weaves a tightly plotted story of a planet on the verge of political and social ruin, exacerbated by those with misguided and therefore "evil" intentions. Layer upon layer of intrigue and counter-balancing moves make this scifi story one that will hold your interest and surprise you with its twists and turns. Definitely a good read. --Ronald L. Donaghe, author of the fantasy novel, Cinátis (coming in 2002)

"Degranon"
Duane Simolke
Review by Mountman
Degranon is Duane?s first venture into the world of Sci-Fi. And what a venture it is. Duane really shows just how talented he is with Degranon. When I was asked which of Duane?s book I wanted to review it was very hard for me to choose. As you may know, I reviewed Acorn Stories. I was excited about reading it, but, when I got Degranon, I chose it because I am a Sci-Fi fan from way back.

The story begins on the world of Valchondria. A negative utopia that is ?Maintained? by, who else, the Maintainers, sort of, like the Firemen in Ray Bradbury?s Fahrenheit 451. They watch for people using words from a banned word list. Words that are considered anti-glory to Valchondria, words such as colonization. There are no books, like in Fahrenheit 451, only wallscreens that project the things that the Maintainers want the people of Valchondria to see and think. For their own good, of course.

There is a ?miracle drug that has given the people of Valchondria a virus that makes them immune to almost all diseases and the ravages of time? but, along with that there are things that it takes away also like, the ability to see in color, and hear as many tones as we do now. With this loss people have lost interest in music and anything related to it, such as dancing.

There are some that have not lost the ability to see in color. One such person is Dr. Lorfeltez. A 26-year-old scientist that recently became a representative of the SSC (Supreme Science Council), a strong branch of the government. She is as strong willed as her adversaries. She thinks that Valchondria should reopen space travel exploration, something that is considered anti-glory.

She along with another brilliant scientist, Dr. Nabold, creates Life. Life is a computer that had many tentacles that reach deep into the Valchondria soil looking for energy deposits. There is another ?scientist? along with them, Dr. Geln. Did I say scientist? I forgot to add the word Mad. Dr. Geln is also an operative placed there to watch, and make sure that Life does what it?s actually meant for, creating a doorway to Valchondria?s past.

Dr.?s Lorfeltez and Nabold fall in love and become married. At the same time, Dr. Geln falls in love with Lorfeltez. Which creates some very interesting twists later in the story. When Dr. Lorfeltez becomes pregnant with twins, something that is forbidden on Valchondria, Dr. Geln, with the help of Life, takes one of the twins, Telius, to the past, where Alom brings him up. Alom is an aging priest of his time.

Dr. Geln has got to be fashioned after 20th Century?s worst criminal, Hitler. He creates a youth organization called Youth For Valchondrian Reform. Where he brain washes, Argen, the twin that stayed in Valchondria?s present. Argen, best friend is Kryldon who happens to be same-gendered, something that is considered normal in Valchondrian society. Sometimes it is even preferred. Kryldon unwittingly, gets Argen involved in the Youth For Valchondria?s Reform. You can take it from there.

Whether you are a Sci-Fi fan or not, Degranon is a must read. It is fast paced, and compelling. Thanks Duane for giving us another place and friends I would like to revisit again.

Born in 1973, Satish had the good fortune or good karma to be one of the K.i.d.s In Divine Spirit, that is to say a second generation Sannyasin. This joyous book is the story of his childhood and youth: wild, riotous, loving and free. The book starts with some of his earliest memories, waking up to the sound of dynamic meditation in a German commune, Purvodhaya. It is full of details of daily life in the commune, groups, sannyas initiation etc.

Soon eight-year-old Satish was in Rajneeshpuram, one of the first residents, where he was deluged with Osho's bliss and awareness for four whole years. He tells of his endless hours of play and work there, the drive-bys, his first experiments with girls. He was a fireman, an electrician, warehouseman, plumber... all before the age of twelve. In the summer he swam, in the winter the kids went icebreaking in their tiny canoes on the lakes in blizzards...the moms would have had heart failure if they had known.

He tells the story of Sheela's descent into craziness, and exploring secret passages in Jesus Grove after Sheela quit. But most important of all he tells us what he thought and what he felt at the time. He was a real rebel. Sheela would call a meeting to announce her latest crazy plan, and Satish, a nine year old, was about the only person to disagree with her publicly! Talk about intelligence!

After the demise of Rajneeshpuram Satish worked in European discos before gravitating towards the trance scene in Pune and Goa of the early 90s. He tells of a long overland journey to India in the early 90s, getting stuck in Tadjikistan and Uzbeckistan, and the endless kind people who looked after him.

But most of all he tells of a youth lived with love, courage and awareness (well, most of the time anyway!) His many loves and many friends, the abundant gifts from existence.
For every friend I had he seems to have had ten. I even met some of them once.

My only quibble is that the subediting/proofreading is just appalling. Perhaps the book was dictated, or translated from German, but there are sentences in it that make no sense at all (even taking poetic licence into account.) Satish, if there is a second edition, please get someone (not me!) to correct these errors.

This book is just great. Read it and you will see that truly Osho "Never Died".

No one so far has given me this kind of insight before.
The unique writing style is unmatched.

This book has made me shiver weep laugh and think about
my life. god bless!

I loved this book. The sense of adventure left me feeling excited and inspired.
It made me get out there and start living!
Buy it. Read it. Live it!!

Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (6/08)

"Desire: Women Write About Wanting" is an outstanding collection of essays by modern-day female writers. Edited by Lisa Solod Warren, this lineup of fantastic stories opens our eyes to the great range of emotions and desires each of us possibly carries within.

Brave and smart, challenging our perceptions of what a woman could and would desire at a particular stage in life, these stories make the reader pause and think repeatedly. While it would be unlikely -- or better yet, quite impossible for a reader to find herself in each of the twenty-three stories within "Desire," I am willing to bet that each of us will be able to connect on a very intimate level with at least a handful of them, since they encompass a great range of emotions and desires. Some of them are more intimate than others, some are downright daring and others yet make your eyes mist with the deep emotions they invoke. All of them are worthwhile reading and all of them try to answer the very challenging question about that it is that we really, truly, deeply and madly want and/or desire.

Reading this brilliant collection of essays should make everybody question where they are in their lives at the moment and whether they have done all that was possible to attain their dreams and desires, whatever they might be. "Desire: Women Write About Wanting" should be required reading for all women of legal age -- since there are a few rather graphic pages in the book, which would not be suitable for very young readers. This book is to inspire, a book to make us dream, a book to make us question the world and our place in it and on top of all of that, just plain good reading. Grab a copy for yourself and a couple for other women in your life!

This collection of essays on desire is a beautiful and challenging ride through the multi-form manifestations that desire takes in the lives of women. From love and sex to success and acclaim to religion and the desire to help others (and even a desire for a kind of Zen "desirelessness"), I am impressed at the high quality of writing and the courage and candor these writers muster on the page. These are not merely sentimental, pornographic, angry, dreamy, or weepy essays (all of which are fragmented emotions). They seem to spring from a place of emotional maturity where the fragments have been merged by trials of living into that one elemental "emotion-which-contains-all-emotions" that is the "Desire" of the book's focus. Reading them as a man, I'm taken with how the range of essays spans what poet Gary Snyder calls the three manifestations of the goddess: daughters, lovers/wives/friends, and mothers, and how the exigencies of each stage impact, imprint, or alter one's desire in specific and moving ways or moments in time. It's so hard to write well about sex, yet Fair, Bussel, and Baechler, for instance, create witty, graphic, and unapologetic characterizations of physical love. Baechler's essay wonderfully reveals our desire to push the limits of taboos during sex in viable and non-violent ways. It skillfully portrays the roles of fantasy and experimentation in our desire for physical expression and release. Daniell's essay reminds me of Lawrence's image of marriage as a binary star where the stars must remain in delicate balance or one will be subsumed into the other or one may fly off into space forever. The essays about motherhood by Oxnard and Leiter reveal the desire for creation of life itself and how age and circumstance affect it. Finally, Bucholt's essay about the death of a dear friend shows the awe-inspiring and awful heights of emotion we go through in our desire to understand the soul and the injustice of losing someone we love. This is a moving collection.

Having the distinct honor of knowing two of the writers featured in the first section, "Of the Body," I had to rush at the chance to write a review. My expectations were met far beyond what I could have ever imagined. The entire collection covers essays "Of the Body," "Of the Soul," and "For the Real."

One essay in particular covers sexual taboos without being overtly X-rated, all within the mind of the sexy protagonist, who goes back and forth between her "Regular Guy" and her fantasies. Reading the essay is like diving headfirst into a Disney film for adults, with enchanting colorful images and irresistible aromas. Connie Baechler unleashes the taboos many women are still too embarrassed to mention without the "yes, buts" going through their heads. Another piece I thoroughly enjoyed was Rachel Kramer Bussel's deconstruction of female desire in "Where Sluts Fear to Tread." This hit immediately in the vein of what is slutty versus what is sexy, and Bussel does an amazing job trying to figure out her place in the melee. Lastly, not to be missed is Jane Juska's piece,"Younger than Winter," on trying to retain sexiness as you get older. Very honest and very funny, I gobbled it right up.

I truly cannot wait to finish the entire collection. Warren has done an excellent job in choosing essays that are erotic, funny and intelligent, making for a truly thought-provoking collection. After thumbing through the second and third section, I know I'll be more than satisfied.

-A. Barton
www.ashleygraceless.com

Lisa Solod Warren has produced a vividly lush collection of writings with many talented contributors. At turns funny, poignant and philosophical, these biographical essays--Psyche's crystalline shards--make an extraordinary book. Desire reads as a beautiful mix of elegy and ode to the institutions of marriage and intimacy, among others, redolent with wisdom gleaned the hard way, and the beauty that brings. Warren has done a great service to the term Desire and has filled in the portrait of feminism with more richness. I will be revisiting these essays, in search of the exquisitely turned phrases and the wealth of contrasts, and the rare, forceful honesty, the complexity of mixed feelings in high contrast. I will be gifting this volume to many of the women in my life.

Anais Nin began a letter to her father, on the ship that carried her, her mother and brothers, away from him, away from Europe and to New York City. She was 11. The letter was never sent, but instead developed into a diary that would become legendary by the time she reached her late 20s. Henry Miller helped feed the legend by stating that, once published, Anais Nin's diary would take its place beside the great literary revelations of the 20th Century. Upon publication in the 1960s, many felt that the acclaim was justified. Though original plans called for the publication of only one volume, demand was so great that seven volumes in all would be eventually be published.

In this present volume (1939-1944), Anais has taken refuge once again in the United States, escaping the war that has engulfed most of Europe and destroyed her much beloved literary community back home in Paris. This is the second time she has had to immigrate to the US, and its culture seems just as alien and unwelcoming as it did the first time. Nin finds the transition particularly difficult because her "European" writing style is not warmly received; American audiences are more interested in realism than sur-realism. Her work is deemed obscure and un-publishable. But Anais Nin does not cave to pressure. She forges a community with other artists in the Manhattan literary world, creating something close to what she had in Paris with Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell.

I enjoyed this volume because, well, I'm fascinated with Anais Nin's work, persona, and overall career. I enjoy its panoramic quality, and that it gives me insight into a world of which I would otherwise be totally ignorant, as I was merely two-years-old when Anais Nin died in 1977. But I think it would be true to say that general readership would probably stop at volume two of this series. In other words, unless you are heavily interested in Anais Nin, this volume and all future installments probably will not grab you. If you are like me, then you have four more volumes in this "expurgated" series to look forward to, then four volumes of the "unexpurgated" series, and yet four more volumes of "early diaries." See you then! :)

Andrew Parodi

Anais Nin began a letter to her father, on the ship that carried her, her mother and brothers, away from him, away from Europe and to New York City. She was 11. The letter was never sent, but instead developed into a diary that would become legendary by the time she reached her late 20s. Henry Miller helped feed the legend by stating that, once published, Anais Nin's diary would take its place beside the great literary revelations of the 20th Century. Upon publication in the 1960s, many felt that the acclaim was justified. Though original plans called for the publication of only one volume, demand was so great that seven volumes in all would be eventually be published.

In this present volume (1939-1944), Anais has taken refuge once again in the United States, escaping the war that has engulfed most of Europe and destroyed her much beloved literary community back home in Paris. This is the second time she has had to immigrate to the US, and its culture seems just as alien and unwelcoming as it did the first time. Nin finds the transition particularly difficult because her "European" writing style is not warmly received; American audiences are more interested in realism than sur-realism. Her work is deemed obscure and un-publishable. But Anais Nin does not cave to pressure. She forges a community with other artists in the Manhattan literary world, creating something close to what she had in Paris with Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell.

I enjoyed this volume because, well, I'm fascinated with Anais Nin's work, persona, and overall career. I enjoy its panoramic quality, and that it gives me insight into a world of which I would otherwise be totally ignorant, as I was merely two-years-old when Anais Nin died in 1977. But I think it would be true to say that general readership would probably stop at volume two of this series. In other words, unless you are heavily interested in Anais Nin, this volume and all future installments probably will not grab you. If you are like me, then you have four more volumes in this "expurgated" series to look forward to, then four volumes of the "unexpurgated" series, and yet four more volumes of "early diaries." See you then! :)

Andrew Parodi

anais was so frank & true to her feelings& what she wrote was warm & sweet,though her erotic story was still a bit leg-behind than henry miller's, she's still a very good female writer.

I found out some volumes of A.Nin's series of Journals some months ago and I was really amazed : how precise and how many literary encounters! Being a student in American Literature and an apprentice diarist myself, I think Nin's skill for autobiography and her sense of time are optimal points to last longer in diaries!

Dave Morice's latest book, The Dictionary of Wordplay (Teachers & Writers), is his seventeenth published effort to paint the alphabetic rainbow of the amazing English language. Previous works include eleven volumes of poetry, four books on wordplay and writing, three on cartooning, and a book on computers.

Why a dictionary of wordplay?

"Wordplay is always just a word or two away from the words we speak, hear, read, and write," Morice writes in the introduction to his dictionary. "It is present in the home, the school, the office, the store, the streets. It's on television all the time, especially on ABC."

He got the idea for a wordplay dictionary while editing the "Kickshaws" column for Word Ways magazine. The more familiar Morice became with contemporary wordplay, the more it seemed inevitable that he should write a dictionary. Surprised none had been compiled, he morphed the appendix to his doctoral dissertation-"Wordplay in Children's Picture Books"-into an appendix of wordplay terms that eventually grew into a full-blown dictionary.

With the recent publication of The Dictionary of Wordplay, Morice has given life to an astounding work. Indeed, The Times Literary Supplement of London, in a rare burst of approval, calls it "The most ingenious publication of the century so far" (TLS, March 23, 2001).

The Dictionary of Wordplay is for all lovers of language. For die-hard crossword puzzle workers, jumble fanatics, or Scrabble players as well as writers, educators, and linguistics, it's a "must-have" for the home or office reference shelf. Here are some samples from the 1,234 entries:

· Charade: A set of words formed by re-spacing-but not rearranging-the letters of another word, phrase, or sentence:

BEDEVIL = BED + EVIL PLEASURE = PLEA + SURE CRUMBLED = CRUMB + LED CHICAGO = CHIC + AGO

·Exquisite Corpse: Three or four players write an article and an adjective on a sheet of paper and then fold the paper to cover the words. The players exchange papers, add a noun to the new paper, and fold the paper again. They repeat this procedure with a verb and then with another article and adjective, and they finish with another noun. The results are read aloud to general bafflement.

·Hidden Middle Name or Overlapping Word: Take a person's first and last name and see if the letters join in the middle to form another name or word: oMAR SHArif, daLE Evans, ezRA Pound, and hORATIO Nelson

·TWENTY NINE: Write out the number 29 in capital letters: TWENTY NINE. Then count the number of straight lines in the number's name. It's the only number that counts the straight lines in its name. There are 29!"

A native of St. Louis, Dave Morice lives in Iowa City, where he earned an M.F.A at the renowned Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. He is presently at work on the ever-expanding second edition to The Dictionary of Wordplay as well as The Dictionary of Incredible Words. His poems and cartoons have appeared in hundreds of magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, Word Ways, and The Actualist Anthology. Such disparate publications as the Village Voice and The Wall Street Journal have featured him and his work.

Lovers of word games and other forms of word and letter play should also check out Morice's Alphabet Avenue: Wordplay In The Fast Lane (Chicago Review Press)-353 pages of palindromes, word and letter puzzles, anagrams, panagrams, and puns-and The Adventures of Dr. Alphabet (Teachers & Writers), which presents 104 unusual ways to write poetry in the class and the community.

--James Denigan, freelance writer

The dictionary of wordplay is a totally different kind of dictionary. You can read it at any point and discover something you didn't know about language. It's more fun to jump around in it instead of gulping it down all of it at once. It is like a smorgasbord with many, many different types of food. You will get to sample such delicacies as bananagrams, flip-flop definitions, hyperhyphenation, Kangaroo words, no-word alphabets, Romantic numbers, sex change charades, stinky buzzwords, truthful numbers, and zazzification. I specially enjoyed searching for other kinds of palindromes ( my favorite since I first heard about them from a teacher in grade school), because they appear in different places as well as under a palindrome.

Reading a dictionary may not sound like a lot of fun, but this is a book you can pick up & start reading anywhere. Morice appeals on many levels, but behind it all is the way that he is thoroughly enjoying himself & his work. The perfect book to read during lunch hour on an impossible day or to keep on hand as a mental pick me up. A reference book written by a gifted story teller.

This is the world's first dictionary of wordplay terms. It covers everything from abbreviated rhyme to z times 43. Do you want to know what superultramegalosesquipedalia is? Look it up here. Hint: it's longer than you might think. Learn about the famous zzyxjoanw hoax. I highly recommend this book for anyone who treasures words and likes to play with them.

I thought it was really nice to read a book by someone who really understands what a self publisher will go through. I appreciate Ms. Covington writing this book and know I will be looking through it for years to come.

Fascinating!

Anyone familiar with the internet has probably heard of Heather Covington and her mass marketing promotion of authors, poets, and artists. In addition to her drive and commitment towards establishing herself as not only an author, but also a publisher, magazine editor, event promoter and more, she shares many of her experiences in her latest piece of work, THE DISILGOLD WAY: Countdown 101 from Writer to Self-Publisher. Beginning with a poem on how to publish one's own work, she begins her story of how she went from just a writer to a self-published one by following various steps, guidelines, and reference points.

Serving also as a tool for promoting the Disilgold Literary Network Association (DLNA) Members, THE DISILGOLD WAY covers areas of writing, publishing, and promoting, and is one way the author strives to give back to those who have helped her along the way. Ms. Covington includes checklists for writers, pros and cons of Print-On-Demand publishing, marketing suggestions, and a myriad of other items of interest to the writer thinking of self-publishing their work. She also offers advice and tips on taking care of yourself, becoming more organized, and my favorite, the five principles of success formula: integrity, quality, professionalism, service, and dedication to your mission statement. Another part I enjoyed from this book is Covington's focus on inspiring and motivating, not only others, but also yourself as you're writing the book. In whole, it is a hodge-podge of information helpful to those who need not only guidelines, but also examples of the stepping-stones needed in the publishing world.

While this book is quite informational, it's also a bit bulky in content and some of the content would work better as appendices instead of being included in the actual text. Information such as bios on various authors and literary enthusiasts is a great resource to have, but it seemed to be out of place, and slowed down the main focus of the book. I would love to see a lot of the examples and checklists pulled out of the book and an accompanying workbook developed to house this information. Additionally, THE DISILGOLD WAY is a bit repetitive in several chapters and could use quite a bit more editing to trim out the fat, correct grammatical and other typographical errors.

In spite of the aforementioned things, this book is a true testament of the author's dedication towards her dream of writing. It is not only motivational for the unpublished writer who would like to become successful, but is also inspiring as we read of Ms. Covington's success and desire to support others in the industry. It always interests me to see someone take their passion and thrive from it, but to give back to others and share what you have already learned is also to be commended.

One of my favorite lines from the book, "To have longevity as a self-publisher requires patience, and an internal need to be right with Self." I enjoyed this and hope other authors, aspiring and already successful will take this tidbit of information and mold their creative influences around it. (RAW Rating: 3.5)

Reviewed by Tee C. Royal
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

About the book from publisher: "The Disilgold Way: Countdown 101 From Writer To Self Publisher is a motivational novel by Heather Covington about how a young CEO of the Bronx built a publishing and publicity company, plus one of the largest online infused networks, The DLNA. She also, reveals the making of The Disilgold Soul Literary Review, an award publication, and The YOUnity Reviewers World Wide. Heather gives "The Writer" step by step details on writing a book, copyright basics, obtaining a business license, tax and book keeping information, how to self publish, the pro and cons of print on demand, setting up an office, marketing tips, and creating a media setup kit that helped the CEO to earn awards, rave reviews, interviews on radio and plus newspaper, magazine and top website spotlights without conventional bookstore sales. Not only can this book offer just as much as most books on self publishing, but it acknowledges hundreds of people in the literary world who inspired Heather. The Disilgold Way is a treasure of inspiration for "The Writer" who desires to enjoy the process of becoming a self publisher."

If there's one thing I learned in graduate school, it's that the meat of a document can be found in the footnotes. Koster has brilliantly chosen to thread two stories--one contemporary, one historical--in entirely separate literary styles. Leon Fuertes' meteoric rise from abject humiliation to the pinnacle of power is followed in the main text, while the narrator's own tragic struggle with maritial infidelity and insanity(?) are detailed in the footnotes. By the end of the book, I had almost concluded that there was nothing left to experience that Leon Fuertes had not experienced. It's not often that you see such a sweeping expose on the human condition condensed into a single novel. As an aside, I found myself unable to resist the temptation of reading ahead to the next footnote. Perhaps the editor should have reconsidered lumping the narrative of the footnotes into a single appendix of endnotes. In any case, this novel was profoundly entertaining (I laughed out loud every fourth page or so--did Walt Disney really design the lobby of the afterlife?). Of the Tinieblas Trilogy, this is his masterpiece. Clever narrative techniques like this can only be used once, and Koster has unwittingly monopolized it for all eternity. Find this book, buy it, read it and store it in a vault. It's priceless.

If there's one thing I learned in graduate school, it's that the meat of a document can be found in the footnotes. Koster has brilliantly chosen to thread two stories--one contemporary, one historical--in entirely separate literary styles. Leon Fuertes' meteoric rise from abject humiliation to the pinnacle of power is followed in the main text, while the narrator's own tragic struggle with maritial infidelity and insanity(?) are detailed in the footnotes. By the end of the book, I had almost concluded that there was nothing left to experience that Leon Fuertes had not experienced. It's not often that you see such a sweeping expose on the human condition condensed into a single novel. As an aside, I found myself unable to resist the temptation of reading ahead to the next footnote. Perhaps the editor should have reconsidered lumping the narrative of the footnotes into a single appendix of endnotes. In any case, this novel was profoundly entertaining (I laughed out loud ever fourth page or so--did Walt Disney really design the lobby of the afterlife?). Of the Tinieblas Trilogy, this is his masterpiece. Clever narrative techniques like this can only be used once, and Koster has unwittingly monopolized it for all eternity. Find this book, buy it, read it and store it in a vault. It's priceless.

Koster conjures up a Latin American nation with larger than life heroes - and villains - whose lives (and the central character has many "lives") can and will transmogrify at the whims of nature and fate. The story is told in the form of a PhD dissertation (addressed to Drs. Lillywhite and Grimes of Sunburst University in a mythical place called Florida) and parodies the academic form and format hilariously. The "text" is a Grand Epic history of the Central American nation of Tinieblas and his family's place in it's story. The "footnotes" expose not only the fevered candidate's unconventional method of collecting original sources (he interviews many of the makers of his nation's history from their current homes in the afterlife) but reveals his slow emotional unraveling into a less-than-delicate madness driven by the stresses and excesses of the academic life. "The Dissertation" is a Llossa, Marquez or Allende tale told in episodes recalled after (either) - guzzling a pitcher of martinis, - dropping acid, or - gulping helium. But in addition to a finely tuned sense of the absurd, Koster writes a dead-on-the-level adventure tale. The episode in which he sends central character, Leon Fuertes, through the WWII battle of Monte Cassino is every bit as gripping a story as any James Jones might have written. This cult classic deserves wider reading. It's as much fun to read as "My Search for Warren G. Harding," "A Confederacy of Dunces," or the "Flashman" adventures from the fertile mind of George MacDonald Fraser - and especially recommended for fans of Latin American fiction who feel that the conventions of the genre could use a satirical tweak or two, or anyone who has experienced the innate absurdities that too frequently accompany the pursuit of a graduate degree. Buy it. Read it. Send a letter to Bob Koster about how much you enjoyed it. Maybe he'll write us another one this good.

It's a crime and a shame that the works of R.M. Koster are out of print, especially the masterful "The Dissertation." (I picked up a three-book set of Koster's works at a remainder sale in Washington D.C. for a dollar.)

Both a parody of and a tribute to the magical realism of Garcia Marquez, "The Dissertation" is the meat of Koster's Tinieblas trilogy. Although each of the three contains abundant wit and wisdom, "The Dissertation" is a supreme joy to read, mountainous footnotes and all.

But if you look beyond the parody, you'll see a classically structured tale of fall and redemption, a light treatise on the state of Latin American politics, and a commentary on the state of Academe.

Kamehameha enjoyed surfing Hawaii's highest waves with his human pal Jeffrey. Such a sight to see, an Irish Terrier perched on the front of a surfboard with Jeffrey right behind him, riding the waves. Until the biggest Kahuna of a wave came out of nowhere and killed his best friend and surfing companion.

Kamehameha now had a new owner, Sharon, Jeffrey's daughter. Sharon wanted to be far away from the sea; and didn't give Kamehameha any choice but to go to California with her. On the plane ride Kamehameha meets Georgie a spider monkey always looking for mischief and adventure. Georgie became a great friend and literal lifesaver to Kamehameha.

With Georgie and Juliet's help, Kamehameha escaped the plane to California only to end up in the jungle where dangers lurked around every turn. Kamehameha encounters animals he had never seen before such as; twin jaguar kittens, a gigantic snake, vampires, and many more interesting carnivores. Each of which were always looking to make Kamehameha or his friends into a tasty snack.

Will Kamehameha survive in the jungle with all the beasties wanting to have him for dinner? Has he ridden his last and final wave; or is there still hope?

Billy Lambert has a very vivid imagination. Children will love to hear this story many times over. Exciting events popped up all through this book, it never ceased to amaze me at what Kamehameha and his friends could get themselves into. Mr. Lambert had me laughing aloud while reading; that along with his colorful characters, gladly earns 5 hearts from me.

This adventure goes from the warm surf of the Hawiian islands to the jungles of South America in a action-packed trail of chaos, adventure, fun and danger that kept my 8 year old begging for "a few more pages" when I read it to him each night. The antics of dog and monkey, coupled with the interaction of other animals they met along the way in their effort to find their way to freedom and home, is alternately amusing and educational, with the occasional dangerous moment to get the adreneline going. Just enough to peak a child's interest and keep him hanging on for more. It was a delight to read. I found myself wanting to read 'just a few more pages' with him!

La

I've read some definitely mundane, inane, downright silly books to my two kids. And that's okay. They liked them. Although I grimaced and simultaneously wished for something as enjoyable...hey, I had to read the darned things!...for me, as well as for them. Luckily, ever so often, a book comes along that can span all age groups, by way of enjoyability, and DOG ON A SURFBOARD (AND THE REST OF THE ADVENTURE) by Billy Lambert is one of those, rare, universally appealing pleasers. My kids liked it. I liked it. Heck, my 82-year-old mother liked it.

What's not to like about this book's hero, Irish Terrier, Kamehameha? Never a more endearing surfer, not even Bridget, came riding down the sheer face of a wave. But even this book's villains are a delight, despite their obvious attempts at mischief. Victor and Vera Vampire, and their fellow inept bloodsuckers, had me laughing aloud. As for Mother Jaguar and her twin cubs, Jack and Jock, out to make a meal of our hero?...what can I say? but that I loved them!

I loved Huge Hugh (the anaconda), Helen Harpy (the eagle), Kerry Caiman (the retile), Georgie and Juliet (the spider monkeys). What's more, I'll bet you'll find them equally as irresistible as my kids, my mother, and I did! If you pass on this one, you're passing on a book that has every potential for becoming as classic as it is classy.

This book was so hard to put down!! Dog on a Surfboard has appeal not only to children, but adults too. It follows the adventures of a strong-willed dog who gives a canine perspective to human emotions. We all wish that we could see the world through our pet's eyes, and this book does the best job I've seen so far. While Lambert has written the book in a way that is appropriate for children, it definitely has emotional and psychological undertones that adults can appreciate and analyze. Bottom line: Read and enjoy!!!!