December giveaway: Things That Happened Before the Earthquake by Chiara Barzini

*** Winner selected! Congratulations to Melanie in La Mesa, Calif.! ***

When I think of the ’90s, I think Nirvana, Beverly Hills 90210, and long stretches of childhood boredom. But Chiara Barzini’s debut novel reminded me that the ’90s was actually a rather violent and volatile time in Los Angeles, what with the L.A. Riots, the Northridge Earthquake, and of course, the O.J. Simpson Trial.

Which is to say — reading Chiara’s debut novel, Things That Happened Before the Earthquake, was a fascinating experience for me, at once a trip down memory lane and a thrilling journey down the road not taken. I remembered and recognized so much in the events she describes — but saw them this time through completely new eyes, those of a wild, sensitive, and sharp girl trying to make sense of a foreign world.

The novel tells the story of Eugenia, an Italian teenager who moves from her home in Rome to Los Angeles with her family so her filmmaker parents can chase their Hollywood dreams. The family readies for a glamorous life among movie stars — only to land in LAX while the city’s still literally smoldering from the riot fires. They end up living in a house in Van Nuys, far far away from the rich and beautiful.

From the start, the family doesn’t quite fit in, their cultural clashes often hilarious. On a Malibu beach, Eugenia’s old grandmother gets yelled at through the police helicopter’s loudspeaker then receives a citation — for topless sunbathing. On the first day of school, Eugenia gets sent to detention — after wandering the halls unable to find the bathroom or her class.

Yet Eugenia’s got a lot of moxie, forming odd friendships with strange characters — her father’s death-obsessed writing partner, a Persian classmate who likes her but won’t acknowledge her in front of his friends, an ear-less dude who works at his mother’s shop of movie curios. Her parents preoccupied with their own dreams, Eugenia has the freedom to basically do whatever she wants — whether that’s sneak out of school to hook up with a secret boyfriend or walk down long, empty stretches of Sepulveda Boulevard or hike through Topanga Canyon on hallucinogens. Her adventurous scrapes are thrilling, but often frightening and dangerous too — and her loneliness is palpable.

I loved this Los Angeles coming of age story and think you will too. I’m giving away  a copy of  Things That Happened Before the Earthquake to one of my readers! All current email subscribers will be automatically entered to win the copy. Subscribe now if you’re not yet getting my occasional newsletters.

For a second chance to win, comment on this post below, naming your favorite street in L.A.. The giveaway closes December 31, 2017 at 11:59 pm PST. US addresses only.

Come back mid-month to read an interview with Chiara Barzini.

See you at a literary celebration 12/10

Celebrate the literary holiday season with me and last month’s featured author, David Rocklin! The two of us will be reading together at a very special event: a joint Library Girl and Roar Shack reading and celebration.

Both Library Girl and Roar Shack are local monthly reading series that happen on the second Sunday of the month — the former on the westside, the latter on the east. Now the two have joined forces for a big end-of-the-year event!

Library Girl & Roar Shack Present: (This Is S’posed To Be) The New World
Sunday, December 10, 2017, 7 PM
Ruskin Group Theater, 3000 Airport Ave, Santa Monica

Tickets — which cost $10 and include snacks and dessert — sell out sometimes, so get yours now!

In other personal news: Juked, one of my favorite online literary journals, nominated me for a Pushcart Prize! Thank you to the editors for championing my work. Read the nominated story, “The Supplies,” at Juked. That story’s one of many included in my novel-in-stories, Cake Time. If you don’t have a copy yet, treat yourself to one for the holidays —

And lastly, PEN Center USA, one of my favorite local literary nonprofits, profiled me in a member feature! Here’s an excerpt:

If you could be one fictional character, who would you be and why?

Alice in Wonderland, but only if it’s a lucid dreaming type situation where I know it’s just a dream so I don’t get too frightened. Also, the Cheshire Cat would need to be hypoallergenic.

Read the full feature at PEN Center USA.

And drop me a note to let me know what you’re reading and writing — and what you’d like to see more of here on my blog in 2018. Happy holidays —

Earlier: 5 ways to give back to literary nonprofits in Los Angeles

Photo by Wes Kriesel

November book reviews: A prince, a duchess, and a Harley rider

Brief reviews of books by contemporary authors I read this month — along with photos of what I ate while reading. The list is ordered by the level of my enjoyment:

The Gravedigger’s Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco, 2007)

“That sensation of things-falling-away. Once the ice begins to crack, it will happen swiftly.”
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This 500+ page time by Joyce Carol Oates follows a good little girl who grows up in a Jewish family who escaped the holocaust — only to be exploited as low-wage workers and victimized by anti Semitism in the states. That’s just the beginning of the story, which goes on to cover a murder-suicide, domestic abuse, vagabonding, class passing, musical genius, repeated self-invention, and a lot more. Pick it up if you’re in the mood for an engrossing American saga.

Harley and Me: Embracing Risk On the Road to a More Authentic Life by Bernadette Murphy (Counterpoint, 2016)

“Am I able to risk knowing who I really am?”
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Woman learns to ride a motorcycle — then upends her life by taking more risks — like rock climbing, half-marathoning in Bali, and leaving a decades-long marriage. I picked up Bernadette’s unexpected coming of middle age memoir after we were on a panel together at Skylight Books — and I’m glad I did. It reiterated for me the value of trying things you’re bad at, getting vulnerable, and going boldly into the unknown.

The Guineveres by Sarah Domet (Flatiron Books, 2017)

“Maybe that’s just what nostalgia is: a willingness to embrace the pain of the past.”
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I picked up The Guineveres on a whim — and ended up getting attached to the four girls, all called Guinevere. The four bond growing up in a convent orphanage, each desperately searching for a sense of belonging amid punitive nuns, a kindly alcoholic priest, and comatose soldiers wounded from the war. The palpable sense of loss and desire for connection touched me.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Mariner, 2002)

“My life is like a memento mori painting from European art: there is always a grinning skull at my side to remind me of the folly of human ambition.”
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This one was another chance read I downloaded for free from Amazon before my trip to Miami earlier this month. I loved the melding of scientific and zoological facts, realistic-sounding worst case scenario survival tips, and lonely emotional drama. The ending was amazing. Should I watch the movie?

The Silent Duchess by Dacia Maraini (English trans. from Feminist Press, 2000)

“To participate in embracing the bodies of strangers who have become close and intimate through the printed page, is this not is good as experiencing that embrace, with one additional advantage: that of being able to remain in control of oneself?”
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Dacia Maraini’s The Silent Duchess is a sumptuous read, following the deaf and mute Marianna in early 18th century Sicily as she discovers the truth of her past and starts to determine her own future. The descriptions of her wealthy, tradition-bound, complicated aristocratic life is rich and sensuous and vivid. I discovered this book through Boxwalla; thanks Boxwalla for the lovely reads.

The Night Language by David Rocklin (Rare Bird, 2017)

“It’s a different language, the words that come quietly at night. Don’t mistake what we’ve talked about for something we can talk about in daylight.”
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My friend David Rocklin’s novel came out into the world earlier this month! Here’s my full review of The Night Language, and my interview with David.

Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali (English trans. from Other Press, 2017)

“My judgments were formed of my own dreams and illusions. At the same time, I was absolutely sure that they would not deceive me.”
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Madonna in a Fur Coat is a fantastic title for a novel, don’t you think? It tells the story of a shy, romantic young Turkish guy in the 1920s who falls in love with a painter /nightclub singer in Berlin. A bit melodramatic, slightly repetitive, but still a touching description of art and desire, hope and resignation. This book was another Boxwalla discovery.

Good Bones by Maggie Smith (Tupelo Press, 2017)

“The woman doesn’t know how the story ends. / Like the mountain, it has a shape, / but she’s too close to see it whole.”
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The poem’s in Maggie Smith’s collection are largely about a mother’s desire to protect her daughter from a dangerous world. She and I got to read together at a Red Hen Press literary salon in North Hollywood earlier this month. Thanks to everyone who came, and hope to see you at my future events!
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Get more and more timely book reviews from me on Instagram. And if you have books to recommend, send me a note!

David Rocklin on worthwhile risks and addictive highs

Every month, I interview an author I admire on his literary firsts.

If you’re plugged into the L.A. literary community, you know about Roar Shack, the eclectic monthly reading series in Echo Park with its impromptu live write competitions. And if you’ve been to Roar Shack, you know its host David Rocklin, the energetic writer who’s been putting the monthly series together for five years now.

I first met David when I first read at Roar Shack in 2013 — after which, out of curiosity, I picked up David’s first novel The Luminist (Hawthorne, 2011), a historical novel inspired by the life of photographic pioneer Julia Margaret Cameron. Reading it, I got to enjoy a lyrical novel with feminist underpinnings and also learned a lot about the advent of photography —

Julia Margaret Cameron has in fact inspired David’s second novel too. The Night Language, officially out from the local Los Angeles indie press Rare Bird Books Nov. 14, 2017, stars a fictionalized version of Prince Alamayou of Abyssinia (Ethiopia today), who in real life was photographed by Julia (full review of The Night Language here).

In this interview, David gives advice to second-time authors, reveals the benefits of working with a local press, and describes the addictive high of a literary reading series.
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Siel: This is your second novel with an indie press — but your first with a local indie press! Did it make a difference in the publication process, working with a press based in Los Angeles?

David: It’s made a huge and wonderful difference that coincides with the difference in my position as a writer this 2nd time around.

The first time, I was fortunate enough to be acquired by a wonderful lit press that wasn’t located here in my hometown. They were good to work with and did their best, but I wasn’t ever quite a fit with them to begin with (they tended toward edgy material, and my first novel, The Luminist, was period lit fiction set at the beginning of photography), and I didn’t have roots in their venue. On top of that, I didn’t come from an MFA program and didn’t know anyone in that lit community, or any other one.

Since then, and as a result of touring for that novel, I’ve developed relationships with authors all across the country, and especially here at home. So now comes The Night Language and everything is here in L.A. The community of writers that I belong to has been just astonishing in their support and enthusiasm (present company included!). The publisher feels like a friend around the corner. We know the same people and places, and they’ve embraced the novel and what it stands for. There’s a platform beneath me, which is a wonderfully supportive feeling as this odd publishing journey begins for the second time.

We hear a lot of advice aimed at first time authors, but not as much for those on the second go around. What words of encouragement or advice would you offer to those seeking to write and publish a second book? I’m really just asking for me —

Like you need it, successful Cake Time author extraordinaire!

I guess I would say this: if you’re fortunate enough, like me (and holy shit, am I lucky) to be traditionally published twice, you obviously intend to make this your work (and supporting your ability to do that work, and do it the way you want/need to, is a whole other topic that I’m more than happy to expound on), so do yourself the favor of treating it like the profession it is.

Be aware of what your contracts (publishing and agent, if you have one – and if you don’t have one, think seriously about getting one) provide for. Become a collaborative partner with your publisher on everything from cover design to reading locations to promotion (as in, how much and via what mediums). Understand that your art is paramount, but sales do matter because your publisher, or perhaps your next publisher, will look to the numbers you moved in deciding whether your next book is a worthwhile risk to undertake.

Network with your lit community, with bookstores and libraries, as you would in any other field of endeavor – making those contacts means that they’ll remember you when it comes time to support you with word of mouth.

Protect your writing time. There are lots of distractions in life, but if you think about that other job you hold, you’d never let yourself clean your office or work space rather than help a customer. Don’t do it with your writing, or else you’re guilty of the very thing we all hate when we hear it from friends or family who don’t get it: you’re treating your writing as a hobby that can always be interrupted for something else.

Both your novels were inspired by photography. Has visual art always been an inspiration for your writing?

Everything I write seems to begin with a visual prompt – an image of a moment – but not alone. It needs something hard to strike against and spark up, and that hard thing is always a stray fact that, when coupled with the image, starts my wheels turning.

With The Luminist, it was one of Julia Margaret Cameron’s images coupled with the fact that she’d lost a child at birth. From that came the story of a woman obsessively determined never to lose someone to the frailties of memory again; photography would forever hold them still.

With The Night Language, it was another of Ms. Cameron’s images, one of the actual prince Alamayou as a boy, coupled with the fact that he died so young in life (I won’t tell you how it turns out in the novel). The spark that struck was this: I wanted to write a life for Alamayou that he never actually got to live in reality. That became a love story, because of course.

Your monthly reading series Roar Shack is a beloved part of the Los Angeles literary scene. What inspired you to start this series — and what keeps you motivated to keep doing it now, years later?

It grew out of the book tour I did for The Luminist. All along the way I was exposed to one community of writers after another, and when it was over, I really found myself pining for that sense of belonging that I’d experienced reading alongside other remarkable and accomplished artists. I’d been exposed to so many amazing series and venues, and one in particular, up in San Francisco, really made an impression and inspired me to try to create a series here in LA.

In the best “hey kids, let’s put on a show” tradition, I honestly was too clueless to comprehend how hard it would be to create a reading series out of nothing and build a following, but I reached out to LA-based writers anyway. What I found was what I continue to experience each and every time I interact with our lit community. Inclusiveness, support, enthusiasm, and love for each other and for each other’s work. It’s inspiring to me, and now I can proudly say I count some of the most amazing writers as friends. That’s an incredible feeling for me, as is the awe that comes over me when someone I’m not familiar with, or someone thoroughly unknown, comes out of nowhere and kills it at Roar Shack. It’s an addictive high, to see a writer reach for something they might never have thought themselves capable of, and the audience respond. That keeps me going. It’s a joy.

What are you working on now?

I’m at work on my new novel, The Electric Love Song of Fleischl Berger. It’s a love story across time, and it’s also about the accidental discovery of the electroencephalograph. I’ll pause while you take that in.

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Enter to win a copy of David Rocklin’s  The Night Language by signing up for my newsletter. Already joined up? Then you’re already entered — but you can get a second entry into the drawing by leaving a comment on the giveaway post with the name of your favorite language. Good luck!

November giveaway: The Night Language by David Rocklin

*** Winner selected! Congratulations to Shawn in Red Wing, Minn.! ***

Political drama. False identities. Forbidden romance. David Rocklin’s new novel, The Night Language, contains all of these, but is at its heart a quiet — and unexpected — love story. After all, there aren’t too many novels starring black men in the court of Queen Victoria — let alone two black men who fall in love.

The Night Language brings together Prince Alamayou of Abyssinia (Ethiopia today) with his ad hoc guardian, Philip Layard. Plucked from his home and brought to England, Alamayou slowly learns to communicate with Philip’s help — with whom he slowly falls in love. Yet from the beginning, the two men are under constant threat in the racist, homophobic society they’re immersed in.

The couple’s allies — who include the royal family — do their best to protect them. Princess Louise, for example, warns them to watch what they say: “It’s a different language, the words that come quietly at night. Don’t mistake what we’ve talked about for something we can talk about in daylight.”

Yet despite the support of the royal family, Alamayou is eventually sentenced to be sent back to Abyssinia — where he’s likely to be killed. The novel follows the men as they struggle to survive through the plot’s surprising twists and turns.

Although Prince Alamayou is a real historical figure, David’s novel is an alternate history, imagining a longer and more romantic story of the prince’s life (the real Alamayou died of pleurisy while still in his teens) that allows for a nuanced examination of repressive societies of that time and the curtailed possibilities suffered by those not in the majority. As Philip says of himself and his friends at the local circus, “We’re all freaks, they and I. We’re not prepared for the life we lead, but we’re certainly not prepared to hope for more and fail.”

The Night Language will be published by L.A.-based indie press Rare Bird Books on Nov. 14. I’m excited to be partnering with Rare Bird to give away  a copy of  The Night Language to my readers! All current email subscribers will be automatically entered to win one copy. Subscribe now if you’re not yet getting my occasional newsletters.

For a second chance to win, comment on this post below with your favorite language. The giveaway closes November 30, 2017 at 11:59 pm PST. US addresses only.

Come back mid-month to read an interview with David Rocklin.

Come celebrate: 11/1 is my birthday. Cake Time!

November is one of my favorite months — because my birthday falls in it (My wishlist is here, just FYI).

But I’m especially looking forward to it this year because it’s going to be a month of firsts: First time leading a National Writing Month workshop, first time judging a short story contest for Prism Review, first time getting to do a reading in San Diego, and first time visiting Florida for the Miami Book Festival. Help me celebrate my birthday all month by taking part in one or all of these firsts with me —

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First, get your National Novel Writing Month goals started with the Palos Verdes Library District, which has workshops, write-ins, and networking events planned all month. Participants get a chance to be included in a PVLD anthology! I’ll be leading the first event:

National Writing Month workshop with Siel Ju
Title: How to build your author platform: Find, Connect, and Engage with Your Readers
Thursday, November 2, 2017, 6 pm – 7:15 pm
Peninsula Center Library community room, 701 Silver Spur Road, Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.

RSVP to Joshua at jpeck@pvld.org or 310.377.9584 x 214 by Oct. 31 to claim your spot and to find out about future events, which include three write-ins as well as two more workshops, one on editing with Kate Gale and another on publishing with Jennie Nash.

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Then come say hello at the next Dirty Laundry Lit event, where I’ll be reading with Samantha Dunn, Ben Loory, Lauren Eggert-Crowe, Jessica Ankeny, Shaherah White, Tod Goldberg, and Alex Espinosa.

Dirty Laundry Lit: Safe Word
Saturday, November 4, 2017, 7 pm
The Virgil, 4519 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles

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If you’ll be in Miami mid-month, drop by the Miami Book Fair, where I’ll be on a debut authors panel with Achy Obejas, Elizabeth Nunez, and Shani Mootoo:

Fresh Fiction: A Reading at Miami Book Fair (Nov. 12 – Nov. 19)
Sat., November 18, 2007, 10:30 am
Room 8201 (Building 8, 2nd Floor), 300 NE Second Ave.
Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus, Miami, Florida

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And if you’ll be in San Diego late November, come to my reading on the college campus:

Living Writers Series: San Diego State University
Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 7 pm
Love Library 430/31, SDSU, 5500 Campanile Dr, San Diego, CA

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Then you have until the very last day of the month to enter Prism Review‘s annual fiction and poetry contests! I’ll be judging the short stories. Send your short story of 8000 or fewer words for a chance to win $250 and publication in Prism Review, an annual publication put together by creative writing students at the University of La Verne. All entries are considered for publication, and entrants get copies of the review. There’s a poetry contest too, judged by Jared Stanely. Enter here.

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Lastly — My novel-in-stories Cake Time got a sweet review in Necessary Fiction:

The unnamed narrator in Ju’s novel feels like she could be the literary cousin of Denis Johnson’s unnamed narrator in his masterpiece Jesus’ Son. Ju’s narrator wanders forward through time, from one story to another, in much the same way, tracing the arc of her addiction—not to drugs, but to the cycle of reckless relationships with men.

If you haven’t ready it yet, I hope you’ll pick up a copy at your favorite bookstore–or from me at one of the events this month. Happy November everyone —