Review: The Bad Seed by Maurilia Meehan

Maurilia writes with a sharp, bold, experimental pen, and takes her readers into realms at once astonishing and familiar. Carmel Bird

Maurilia Meehan's writing is life to the full - passions, ideas, the immediacy of real, astounding people. Judith Rodriguez

...a shrewd, poignant, tart morality tale that repays a slow, attentive read, however light the bracing prose may appear. Cath Kenneally, The Sydney Morning Herald

Illusions abound from the outset... The subtle mental torture, teamed with Meehan's elegant prose, is captivating. Tony Maniaty, Weekend Australian

Her young daughter has disappeared, sparking a massive murder hunt, and now her husband has gone walkabout in the bush with no plans to return.

Nothing is coming up roses for small-time gardening correspondent Agatha.

So she plants the seeds of a new life in an isolated village … in the dilapidated former home of a renowned witch.

A strange new lover and mysterious visitors from half a world away will not allow Agatha's own ghosts to rest … and her garden produces dark honey and poison as Maurilia Meehan's tale builds to a chilling climax.

Sinister flora and phantoms flourish in this rich and unforgettable work from the pen of the award-winning author of the acclaimed "Performances", "Adultery", "The Sea People" and "Fury".

ISBN: 978-1-905202-12-6

Michael J Hunt in the news

Michael J Hunt, author of the soon to be released Two Days in Tehran, has been featured in the Wigan Evening Post newspaper.

The article refers to the book trailer, which uses photographs from Mike’s real life journey which inspired the novel.

Read the article here: Author uses net to launch novel

Watch the book trailer

When it’s Time to Type ‘The End’ – Part One

Back There was the title of Howard Waldman’s first published novel … and it’s also the direction he’s taking in his career.

While developing writers hone their skills on shorts in preparation for the main event – the novel – old hand Howard is turning his back on full length work after a string of books, and returning to basics: the flash fiction he wrote in his youth.

And after twelve years of intensive and painstaking work that produced Back There, Time Travail, The Seventh Candidate and Good Americans Go To Paris When They Die, the decision to return to his short story roots wasn’t a hard one to make.

“No harder,” he says, “than deciding to hit the sack after running four marathons.”

Because, while some full-time authors churn out novels every few months, each of Howard’s takes three years of draining hard work and smoking midnight oil just to reach first draft.

New Yorker Howard, who’s lived in France for decades and taught American Literature at a prestigious Paris University, broke the news of his retirement from novel writing to his publishers just as his The Seventh Candidate is about to be released and with Good Americans Go To Paris When They Die slated for spring 2008.

“With things at last seeming to roll for me on the novels front,” he said, “they were surprised – in fact, my editor has even tried to talk me out of it. But my mind’s made up.

“I started to write novels when I retired a dozen years ago – before that other pressing things always got in the way – and now it’s time to concentrate on retirement and all the things that freedom has to offer. I work less intensely, less obsessively on short stories, and I have more time for other things like reading and photography and gardening with my wife.”

But while he’ll never give up writing, even Howard’s shorts are likely to be short-shorts; most of them under 500 words long – flash fiction – aiming to complete each piece of work within a week. He does plan some longer stories running to 5,000 words or more but foresees the same compositional difficulties as with novels.

Howard explained: I’m a desperately slow worker. The first draft of a novel is a big hurdle. I have a theory about that. My critical sense is probably more developed than my creative urge. Subconsciously I probably compare my projected first-draft efforts to the finished products of admired authors. I have no way of seeing their defective first drafts. If I could, the paralysis would lift.

“I suspect that this syndrome is common with writers and partly explains their frequent addiction to alcohol to combat that sort of inhibition. Among the Americans, the roster of alcoholic writers is impressive. But I’m too prudent a man to use alcohol as a dissolvent of writer’s block. That bottle of Jameson Irish whiskey in the photo that goes with this article shouldn’t lead you to false conclusions.”

During a working life surrounded by literature and talented, creative students, Howard put dreams of the novel aside to settle down to his first only when the day-job was behind him.

“Why a start so close to the end?” he said. “Laziness, I guess, other things to do that seemed more urgent. Maybe the sense of time past and passing.

“It’s not accidental, I think, that three of my novels are concerned with the passage of time and the attempt to capture and undo it – most obviously Time Travail with its machine-assisted evocations of America in the thirties and forties of the last century.

“Also (with that title) Back There, a memory of a vanished Paris and a vanished love. Finally Good Americans Go to Paris When They Die where the protagonists have the possibility of returning to their youth and repair damaged love.”

Intellectual input apart, a dedicated writer’s working schedule can be gruelling. Howard’s day begins with four o'clock insomnia when story ideas come to him … the very sentences, as though dictated, scenes acted out as in a half-waking dream.

But, even producing just four published novels in an intensive dozen years as a novelist, Howard made sure every book he started was finished and signed for publication before he downed tools. There are no dead manuscripts gathering dust in his attic.

He said: “Once I had the basic idea for a novel I stuck to it to the bitter end. The demolition operations occurred within the shifting framework of the novel. There were all those false starts and dead ends that were scrapped, things kept but radically revised. What was chucked out of any given novel amounted to another novel in terms of pages and effort.

“I envy novelists who come up with a book a year, regular as clockwork. It’s admirable to be able to work efficiently, to engineer a novel and construct it according to blueprint. My novels have a slow gestation, longer than an elephant’s (twenty-two months for the pachyderm, often twice that for one of my books).

“I work intuitively but am suspicious of intuition. I chip away, carve and polish myself dizzy and often end by chucking out the result, whole chapters, months of work. But I’m never completely directionless. I do know where I’m heading. I generally write the last chapter first, subject, of course, to constant revision.

“Revision is the key word. Some scenes I rework maybe thirty times. The constant danger of that process is the loss of spontaneity, the faint smell of sweat and midnight oil that’s given off. When that happens, I revise again to try to create an illusion of spontaneity (in writing everything is illusion, I think). I have to curb a natural tendency to lyric outbursts so part of the revision process consists in toning things down, using the indirect approach, understatement. Less is better than more.

“A reviewer recently called one of my novels ‘idiosyncratic.’ I take that as a compliment. I’m wary of trends and fashions, the possibly contagious sound of other writers’ voices. Maybe that’s why for the past few years I’ve largely limited my reading of fiction to French and German. I want the voice that comes through in my work to be my own voice.

“There’s another reason why I neglect reading fiction. I taught American Literature at a Paris University for twenty years and it had pernicious side effects. The perverse pleasure of dissection – close reading, structure, symbolism and all of that – replaced the spontaneous pleasure of reading for the sake of reading. But for emotional kicks I have music.

“Since retirement, I’ve read very little fiction, despite the ambitious reading list I drew up on the eve of the event: it included Proust’s multi-volumed hunt for lost time, Finnegan’s Wake, all of Balzac’s Human Comedy, etc.

“One reason is that I started to write seriously at about that time and the activity soon became obsessional. Since it takes me at least three years to write a novel, I felt I didn’t have time – in a long-term metaphysical sense – for anything else. In the process, I lost the habit of reading.

“But I used to be a compulsive reader, a citizen of Bookland – it was so much more real than the so-called real world about me.

“I discovered Joseph Conrad at fourteen and by sixteen had read all of his novels. I recall a subway ride, plunged in King Lear. I overshot my Manhattan station and emerged from Shakespeare in the depths of Brooklyn. Other authors come to mind: Jane Austin and Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner, the Henry James of the marvelous novellas like The Altar of the Dead.

“A novel that no amount of analyzing and rereading ever harmed for me is Huck Finn. That invulnerability to time and repetition is rare. I remember how impressed I was by The Catcher in the Rye when it came out. Then, many years later, I had to teach it and discovered that all the magic had evaporated.

“Céline’s Voyage to the End of the Night and Death on the Installment Plan made a terrific impact on me. I still recall the dazzling revelation of Borges when I read his five-page story, Funes the Memorious.

“Finally, as proof that I do occasionally read things other than Le Monde newspaper, I recently discovered the contemporary Italian author Mario Rigoni Stern. Hard to believe, but I wept reading his story How Thin You Are, Brother.”

Part Two wil be posted Tuesday 8th April

Review: Blood Money by Azam Gill

Blood Money, by Azam Gill, a Pakistani transplanted in France is one of those novels that impart an authentic flavor to the spy thriller genre. Mr. Gill was an officer in the Pakistani army, where he was both a company commander and an intelligence officer. As a member of the French Foreign Legion, "I lived and worked with people whose backgrounds included clandestine work, criminal activity, and intellectual pursuits, what Len Deighton describes as ‘a fiction writer’s dream.’" He went on to get a PhD from and teach at Grenoble University. His varied experiences inform his fiction deeply.

Gill’s story about a young Englishman who musters out of the Foreign Legion and finds himself entangled in the machinations of an international Western intelligence organization centered in France, for which he eventually agrees to undertake a dangerous mission against an ambitious jihadist overlord, is fiction. But it has the ring of authenticity. There is a beautiful and highly intelligent young lady spy, of course, and a dollop or two of steamy sex. The descriptions of carrying out his operation sound as if they were written by someone who has planned and carried out risky missions himself.

The story moves along at a rapid pace that will intrigue most readers while offering what seem to be authentic and plausible details about how intelligence organizations and espionage organizations work. The recent history coincides nicely with real history and creates a strong sense of the challenges posed by Islamist jihadism to the West. This is the kind of fiction that evokes a stronger sense of how the world really works than any number of the kind of history and foreign policy analysis books that are more often on my nightstand. Fun and informative.

Reviewed by Alan Bock

Blood Money excerpt

Azam Gill biography

Also by Azam Gill:

Developing an Internet Presence: The Public Author by Marta Stephens

Why is an internet presence important? Imagine yourself standing in the middle of a 5-circle bull’s eye.

1. That inner circle is you. It's who you are and what you know. It also includes your family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. Anyone you come in contact with on a regular basis.
2. The next circle includes potential readers within your community who you may know, but who you’re not in regular contact with or those who don’t know about you or your book. The hometown advantage is on your side though. With word of mouth endorsements from those within your inner circle, some local press about your book, and book signings or other events, you have a good chance to reach a portion of the population.
3. The third circle from the center includes individuals you have contact with on a professional basis. These are more than likely other authors; members of author groups and organizations where you promote on a regular basis.
4. The fourth circle includes people who have bought your book.
5. Number five are potential readers in a global market. That’s your goal – to take your promotional campaign from your inner circle to the outer circle. The only way to get there is by having an internet presence. It will draw readers, but more importantly, the publishing world demands it. The good news is that the internet provides authors with unlimited ways to promote their books and can offer free or low cost options.

Aside from writing a heart-stopping novel, the single most important thing authors need to master is internet marketing and promotion of their book. I’ve read numerous articles that state one of the first things an agent or publisher will do is Google the author’s name. If they can’t find the author on the internet, they assume the author isn’t savvy enough to help market their book(s) or worse, won’t and thus they may move on to the next manuscript. From a publisher’s point of view, the cost of production is too high to take a chance on someone who won’t do their part.

Not everyone is born to be a salesperson. Whether on the internet or in person, how an author breaks out of his or her shyness will of course depend on their comfort level. But at some point the author will need to break out of that shell. I spoke with several authors who hate book signings because they don’t want to appear to be pushy and fear rejection. That’s understandable if you have never been in the public eye before, but this is what you’ve been working toward. Public recognition. When you and your book are on display, that’s your name on the cover and your heart and soul between the pages. Who better to sell it than you? If you love what you do it will show and your enthusiasm will spark a desire and spread like wildfire. Whether your publishing goal is to reach that small target audience within the two inner circles of your bull’s eye or to connect with a global market, you must make yourself accessible to the public in order to sell books.

In my numerous conversations with aspiring authors, I found two misconceptions:

1. The publisher will handle all the promotion. Campaigns will vary from one publisher to another, but regardless of the size of the publishing house, the bulk of the responsibility to market the book will fall squarely on the author’s shoulders.
   
2. If I launch a website, people will rush to view it and buy the book. Wrong! The website is only the beginning. One author told me that he has a site but doesn’t do anything else on the web, preferring to do speaking engagements at local bookstores, libraries, etc. The local events are not to be dismissed, but if that is an author’s sole marketing campaign, they limit their potential sales considerably.

First, let’s take a look at what you can expect from a publisher. The narrowest definition of the role of a publisher is that they make information available for public view.

A publisher will in most cases assign an editor to work with the author and provide copyediting, graphic design, and will initiate production – printing. In some cases the publisher will make the book available in print and in electronic media. They will also secure the legal rights of the author and purchase the ISBN.

Several months before a novel is released the publisher will send out advanced review copies (ARC) and will continue to submit the book for reviews throughout the contracted period of time. Most publishers will spotlight their authors on their website, they may promote their books at key events that attracted book sellers, will submit the books to writing contests, and will make them available to the public via online bookstores such as Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, and Books-A-Million. The publisher may also sell the international rights to the book (have the book translated) and assist with film rights if it comes to that.

Let’s say you are a couple of months from launch date. The ARCs were sent and some reviews are coming in. Like it or not, you and your book are now public property. Reviewers will dissect your work and tell the world everything they love and hate about it. One reviewer will love your characters while another may feel they’re not well-developed. Don’t let their comments deter you from your goal. Use the glowing reviews in your marketing campaign. Quote them on all your written materials which you are now developing and will have ready before the launch. Printed materials should include; press releases, postcards, flyers, and bookmarks. Now is a good time to also get your mailing list of media contacts and others within your inner circle organized. Next, contact local bookstore owners for a commitment on a book signing. If they agree, ask them if they would like to have the launch party at their store!

1. Developing an Internet Presence: An Author's Website
2. Developing an Internet Presence: The Public Author
3. Developing an Internet Presence: Book Trailers
4. Developing an Internet Presence: Spread the Word
5. Developing an Internet Presence: Virtual Book Tours
6. Developing an Internet Presence: The Hometown Advantage

Marta Stephens, a native of Argentina but a life-long resident of the American Midwest, began her career as a fiction writer in 2003. This evolved into a life-changing passion that has led to the birth of her Sam Harper Crime Mysteries and her debut novel, Silenced Cry. She runs the popular Muder By 4 blog along with her fellow crime authors at http://murderby4.blogspot.com/. She also has several short stories and flash fictions to her credit.

Marta's debut novel, Silenced Cry, was published by BeWrite Books in 2007.