April 18, 2009 | 6 Comments

daily enlightenment for booklovers

This is probably my favorite daily e-mail. If you like books, subscribe. They’ll tell you what’s new, what’s hot, what’s interesting and what’s in the news.

Once a week, they pick a writer to be the “Book Brahmin,” and the answers always intrigue me. I got to be the Book Brahmin one day in March, and here are some of the questions and responses. I’ll post one or two over the next few days. Your mission–post your answers in Comments!

On your nightstand now:

SW: The Urban Outfitters catalog, a Clairefontaine notebook and pen, a tin of Bag Balm, a chapter of my work-in-progress, and The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington by Jennet Conant. I adore Roald Dahl, and I’m a sucker for true stories of heroic deeds in WWII.

Your turn: What’s on your nightstand?

because I love her…

March 31, 2009 | 2 Comments

a book for anyone who has a mother

If it’s true you’re judged by the company you keep, then I am doin’ good! I’m proud to be a part of this collection of essays, which includes pieces by some of my favorite writers. Please check out this fabulous review from Publishers Weekly:

Because I Love Her: 34 Women Writers Reflect on the Mother-Daughter Bond Edited by Andrea N. Richesin.

This intimate collection of writing explores the complex relationship of mothers and daughters. In “The Mother Load,” Jacquelyn Mitchard, even as a grown woman and mother herself, feels “nothing truly bad can ever happen if my mother is around.” Joyce Maynard recalls “My Mother at Fifty” and talks about how her mother’s decision to stay in an unhappy marriage because of her and her sister helped her through her own painful divorce. Tara Bray Smith, whose mother battled drug addiction, discusses grief, pain and acceptance in her essay “In the Offing”—“the wonderful thing about adulthood is realizing that we are all deficient, and after a certain point no one is accountable for that but ourselves.” The beauty of this collection, edited by Richesin (editor of The May Queen) is the realization that, despite mothers “good” and “bad,” suicidal, depressed, divorced, neglectful, all the women here remain hopeful—for themselves, their mothers and their own children, who they understand are undeniably shaped by all that has happened and can use this knowledge to face what lies ahead. (Apr.)

Still toasty warm! Thanks, Booklist!

February 23, 2009 | 1 Comment

Booklist Online

Fireside.

Wiggs, Susan (author).

Feb. 2009. 416p. MIRA, paperback, $7.99 (9780778326175).
REVIEW. First published February 15, 2009 (Booklist).

For years, hard-living Bo Crutcher has worked diligently toward a New York Yankees pitching spot, but just when it seems likely, he learns that his son AJ needs a home after his mother is detained by the Texas INS as an undocumented alien. Kimberly van Dorn, a hotshot media-relations expert in Los Angeles, is also experiencing a dramatic life change. She has fled her abusive client-boyfriend for the safety of Avalon, New York, and her mother’s ancestral home. Having satisfactorily provided for the adult Bellamy generation in a string of popular novels, including Snowfall at Willow Lake (2008), Wiggs now directs the spotlight onto secondary characters readers have met in previous installments of her small-town contemporary-romance series, the Lakeshore Chronicles, poignantly revealing the catastrophic results of unjust immigration laws, especially on the American-born children of deported parents.

— Lynne Welch

unhappy camper

February 09, 2009 | 8 Comments

(image from wikimedia commons)

Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to post nasty reviews on Amazon. The same person used 4 (and counting) different names to give poor Fireside 4 low ratings. I’m very flattered by the attention!

Three of her fake personae were invented just to trash Fireside. The other has posted nasty reviews for Madeleine Albright, Condoleeza Rice, Bill Clinton, labor unions and Democrats in America. She pretty much hates everything except self-aggrandizing, right-wing memoirs. She probably hates puppies and angel food cake, too.

When people go to that much trouble to be negative, you have to feel sorry for them. This person clearly has personal issues. Also, she didn’t actually read the book, or she would have seen where the storyline went–in an unexpected direction. AJ’s story in Fireside is just something that happened, it’s fiction based on a real situation, like everything else in a novel. It plays into the themes of family, commitment and loyalty, which I love to explore in my fiction.

I don’t need for everyone to love my books, and I have the e-mail to prove it. So I won’t be asking Amazon to remove the review-bombs. Besides, controversy sells books. Just ask President Obama. 🙂

I can’t wait to hear what this one-star bomber thinks of the people of Avalon saving the public library in the next book! PS: She might be my good luck charm, bringing all this attention to my book. It’s currently #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

FIRESIDE is rated “toasty warm.”

January 25, 2009 | 6 Comments

[zoom]

FIRESIDE
by Susan Wiggs

RT Rating: ½
Publisher: MIRA
Published: February 2009
Type: Mainstream Fiction

Worth a look for the often-hilarious dialogue alone, the latest installment of her beloved Lakeshore Chronicles showcases Wiggs’ justly renowned gifts for storytelling and characterization. A keeper.

Summary: After a public fight, P.R. specialist Kimberly van Dorn loses her basketball star lover and her job. Going home to Avalon seems like a plan, but things have changed even there. Kim’s widowed mother, Penelope, has turned the family home into a boardinghouse and is dating one of the residents. Then Bo Crutcher and his son AJ move in. After years of hard work and no joy, Bo’s about to get his big break pitching for the Yankees — but the possibility of his ex’s deportation has left AJ in his custody.

Bo’s never had the chance to be a father to AJ, and wants to do right by him, but he’s expected to report to Fame School before the Yankees deal is finalized. So Bo compromises — by hiring Kim to do her thing instead. It’s a sweet deal for Bo; he’s been attracted to Kim since the first time he saw her. But Kim claims she’s done with athletes for good! (MIRA, Feb., 416 pp., $7.99)

—Catherine Witmer

November 23 gratitude

November 23, 2008 | 6 Comments

Three things I’m grateful for:

Google. Let me count the ways. If you need a recipe, type in “recipe” followed by your key ingredients. If you need a map, type in “map” followed by the name or zip code of the place. Ditto weather. Ditto “define” followed by shunpike or conglobate or whatever word you need to define. There are so many other shortcuts to put in that little Google box–calculate, flights, hotels, phone numbers, you name it. Try some of your own.
Google Reader, Google Images, Google News, Google Alerts and sometimes even Froogle. The hours of searching these engines save…the mind boggles. [Note about Google Alerts–this is not for faint-hearted authors. It will find all mentions–news, blogs, articles, etc.–of the phrase you tell it to search for, and send it to your e-mail. So if you set a Google Alert to catch your name or book title, gird your loins for the onslaught. Remember that people will say anything on a blog, even nasty stuff about you and your books. It’ll also catch people being nice–really nice. And the occasional oddity. For example, Google Alert sends me a link every time the other Susan Wiggs–a Vancouver teacher in a dispute over union dues–makes the news.
…and their latest, which wickedly pleases my sarcastic side, “Let Me Google That For You.” Next time you get a clueless, easily-resolved question from a co-worker, type his question into the search bar and click any button. LMGTFY will then create a link to share, directing the co-worker to a page with a Google tutorial with his specific question. The tutorial ends with snarky, “Was that so hard?” and a list of the search results. Note: if you’re really exasperated, you might need to bump it up a level. Just don’t use that one on your mother.

What are you grateful for today?

Booklist weighs in

August 29, 2008 | Leave a comment

thumbs up from Booklist

Just Breathe.

Wiggs, Susan (author).

Sept. 2008. 480p. MIRA, hardcover, $24.95 (9780778325772).

REVIEW. First published August, 2008 (Booklist).

Sarah Moon’s life abruptly changes when she surprises her husband with a pizza and is surprised, in turn, to find him with another woman. Sarah has subsumed her true self to become the wife her husband wanted. She moved to Chicago, dressed stylishly, and bent her needs to his. She nursed him through a bout with cancer and underwent fertility treatments. She even put up with his denigration of her career as a cartoonist, the only thing uniquely hers. But at that shocking juncture, she channels her spunky cartoon alter-ego, Shirl, and splits. She arrives back in her northern California hometown, feeling adrift and humiliated, only to discover that she is finally pregnant. With twins. Sarah’s efforts to become part of the community once again shouldn’t include falling for former classmate turned fireman Will Bonner, but she can’t resist him, his generosity of spirit, or his stepdaughter, who reminds Sarah so much of herself at that age. Wiggs’ exceptionally touching and evocative novel will capture readers’ hearts as they fall for her beautifully rendered characters. — Maria Hatton