Anthony Bidulka has Lambda Nomination and New Book

Saskatchewan mystery author, Anthony Bidulka, is having an exciting spring though winter is still strongly entrenched in Saskatchewan. 

Earlier this month his book, Dos Equis, was nominated on the shortlist for mysteries for a Lambda Literary Award. With his usual style Anthony exuberantly celebrated the nomination on his fine blog. 

It is the second nomination for Anthony. In 2004 he won the award for his second book in the Russell Quant series, A Flight of Acquavit. 

The criteria for the mystery category are: 

Novels, novellas, and short story collections that adhere to the criteria of a“mystery,” as defined by the Mystery Writers of America: “A mystery is considered to be any novel in which a crime, or a series of crimes, are an integral part of the story.” Anthologies are not eligible.

The finalists for gay mystery are:

1. Bokassa’s Last Apostle, Rod Shelton, Paradise Press UK

2. Dos Equis, Anthony Bidulka, Insomniac Press

3. Fires of London, Janice Law, MysteriousPress.com/Open Road

4. Lake on the Mountain: A Dan Sharp Mystery, Jeffrey Round, Dundurn

5. The Yellow Canary, Steve Neil Johnson, Clutching Hand Books

He is already excited about the awards ceremony in New York City on June 3. It is a special year for the Lammy's as it is their 25^th anniversary.

Anthony is not going to have much time to get there as on June 1 he is having the release party for the first book, When the Saints Go Marching In, in his new series featuring disaster recovery specialist Adam Saint.

Each of his Russell Quant books has had an overflowing book launch party at the McNally Robinson bookstore in Saskatoon.

Wanting a party but with a change, Anthony is hosting a two hour come and go party at McNally Robinson on the Saturday afternoon. Being Anthony it would not be a party without food and drink. He assures readers there will be complimentary wine and cheese for the “entire” two hours.

During the come and go party he will be signing books except for a 15 minute interview session with two interviewers of Saskatoon. Readers can send in questions for the interviewers to ask Anthony.

I expect a long line of book buyers. At the launch for Dos Equis Sharon and I decided to go for supper at the restaurant next to the bookstore rather than stand in line. After spending over an hour at supper there was still a line of book buyers getting their books autographed. It was much shorter. Overall Anthony spent over 2 hours signing books.

It is going to be a good party in Saskatoon.

****

My other posts featuring Anthony and his books are:
2011 Questions and Answers with Anthony; The author's website is http://www.anthonybidulka.com/ – (2004) - Amuse Bouche (Most interesting of 2004 – fiction and non-fiction); (2005) - Flight of Aquavit (2nd Best fiction in 2005); (2005) - Tapas on the Ramblas; (2006) - Stain of the Berry; (2008) - Sundowner Ubuntu; (2009) - Aloha, Candy Hearts; (2010) - Date with a Sheesha; (2012) - Dos Equis and Q & A and Thoughts on Q & A; (2012) - Book Launch in Saskatoon of Dos Equis; (2012) - Where's Anthony? Paperback or Hardcover

Acedia & me – A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer’s Life by Kathleen Norris

46. - 456.) Acedia & me – A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer’s Life by Kathleen Norris – The South Dakota Presbyterian / Benedictine Oblate examines acedia – from the Greek - a lack of care. She explores the noonday demon starting from the vivid writings of the 3^rd Century monk, Evagrius, on the tempter distracting the monk. She travels the centuries to the present distinguishing between depression and loss of spirituality. She explores the difficulties in her marriage to David, another gifted poet. His emotional upheavals included an attempted suicide. She forthrightly discusses his slow dying from cancer. She is the best spiritual writer of my generation.

She provided a prayer she found for mourning after her David’s death and for coping with acedia:

“This is another day, O Lord. I know not what it will bring forth, but make me ready, Lord, for whatever it may be. If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely. If I am to sit still, help me to do it quietly. If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently. And I am to do nothing let me do it gallantly. Make these words more than words, and give me the Spirit of Jesus. Amen.”

****

Acedia & Me was the Best Non-Fiction book in Bill's Best of Non-Fiction in 2008.

I have enjoyed several of Kathleen's books including The Cloister Walk and Dakota - A Spiritual Geography. She is a gifted writer about contemporary Christian life.

Murder Leaves Its Mark by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl

Murder Leaves Its Mark by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl – It has been some time since I read a book with such likes and dislikes. For a change in the review format I will list the likes and dislikes:

Likes -

Setting – Kneubuhl does an excellent job of portraying Hawai’i in 1935. She has great knowledge of the islands, especially Oahu where most of the book takes place.

Having just been on the island a few weeks ago it was so striking how the island has been developed and built upon in the last 78 years. Where only Waikiki was developed in the 1930’s there is no longer a spot left to develop on the beaches around Honolulu. At Hale’iwa there was a gracious decaying hotel in the book. Now the town has lots of apartment buildings and shops. Where the characters could go for a horseback ride up to Waimea Falls there is now a paved path limited to walkers and carts for those who cannot manage the walk.

The old Hale'iwa Hotel in its earlier glory days

I could see locations around Hale’iwa as they were before they were developed. Kneubuhl was accurate in her depictions. She lets a reader feel the lush trees and plants that help give Hawai’i its great natural beauty.

Era – The author has clearly done extensive research on the history of Hawai’i. A major theme in the book involves the effort to unionize the workers on the plantations outside Honolulu. The workers, often Asians, were treated harshly, paid little and had primitive living conditions. The business elite of Honolulu wanted to maintain their control of the workers.

The references to old Hawaiian traditions and culture were interesting. The effort to hold onto the past was struggling against the dominating white culture.

Part of the plot – It was a decent mystery exploring the tensions and divisions in the wealthy Burnham family. There is a spousal conflict, issues over who and how the family business will be run and challenges between the adult children and their father, Henry.

Henry is a leader in the plots of the plantation owners to keep field workers out of a union.

Dislikes –

Character depictions – Primary sleuth, Mina Beckwith, is beautiful. Her twin sister, Nyla, is equally beautiful. Mina’s boyfriend, Ned Manusia, is handsome. Nyla’s detective husband, Todd, is boyish in appearance. Grandma Hannah is round with “a flawless brown face”.

Amanda Burnham, Henry’s wife, has a “dazzingly hypnotic smile full of aloof, elegant beauty” and a shrewish personality. Her daughter, Tessa, is equally beautiful while daughter, Hester, has glasses that slide down and a body that looked stocky in rumbled clothes. Son, Sheldon, has hair that “fell rakishly”.

Henry is “not bad looking, but not the type to send anyone’s heart soaring”.

Gwen Reed, secretary and mistress to Henry, is a little plump and blowzy.

Emil Devon, protégé of Henry, has “an attractive but dark aura”.

Publisher, Christian Hollister, is a “tall, lean, handsome man”.

Plantation manager, Lars Bruhn, has military short hair, a tanned and weathered face, and a dangerous reputation.
 

It was not hard to figure out who would be the victims in the book.

Part of the plot – While, as set out above, the mystery was alright I did not find the number of bodies fit the story. It was a book with too many bodies for the plot.

Political correctness – All the good people were politically correct by current standards and all the bad people were most incorrect.

Perfection – Mina, Nyla, Ned and Todd had nary a flaw in their personalities.

I was glad to have read a genuine Hawai’ian mystery but doubt I will read another in the series.

An American Spy by Olen Steinhauer

An American Spy by Olen Steinhauer - (It is best not to read this review of the third book in the Milo Weaver spy series if you have not read the first two books. The series proceeds sequentially. Starting with the third will spoil going back to the earlier books.)

After that disclaimer Milo is recovering in New York City from his stomach wound suffered in The Nearest Exit and looking forward to his future. With the destruction of The Tourists network he is unemployed. After years of roaming the world he is ready for routine. He has had enough of killing and Bzyantine spy plots. He wants to live a normal life with his wife, Tina, and daughter, Stephanie.

Unfortunately, his friend and former director of The Tourists, Alan Drummond, cannot abide that his department has disappeared with the deaths of 33 Tourists a mere 60 days after he took over. A man of high self esteem, even arrogant, Drummond cannot accept he presided over the catastrophe. He thirsts for revenge against Xin Zhu, the Communist Chinese intelligence officer who masterminded the plot to eliminate The Tourists.

Milo can live with Xin Zhu's actions. While they almost caused his death and killed colleagues Milo, a field operative, understands Xin Zhu was better at carrying out his plans than the Americans who had equally plotted against him. Drummond, the administrator, has lost his objectivity and is consumed by hate.

Drummond tries and fails to enlist Milo in his quest to exact vengeance on Xin Zhu. After Milo refuses Drummond forces Milo to take part by using an old alias of Milo when Drummond disappears in England.

As an angry Milo reaches out to past intelligence contacts he must deal with the security of his family. Unlike most spy novels Milo and Drummond are married and Milo has a child. Before he ventures back into the intelligence world Milo must know his family is protected. The existence of families for all the major characters adds tension and credibility to the plot.

It is such a swirling combination of intelligence agencies that Milo struggles to make sense of what each of them is doing with regard to Drummond.

In America the CIA may or may not have re-activated The Tourist department. The Homeland Security Department is pursuing its own aims.

Xin Zhu continues his own schemes. He is not passively waiting for Drummond to attack him.

Milo's father, Yvegeny Primakov continues to run a secret spy agency within the United Nations.

In Germany, Erika Schwartz, has been promoted to a top position in German security services.

Lastly, Drummond has cobbled together a team of the surviving Tourists.

Steinhauer is an excellent craftsman driving the story forward amidst all the competing interests while not making it too complex to follow for the reader.

Steinhauer is a rare writer to not demonize opposing spymasters and their agents. They are real people.

The book is an evocation of the intelligence world as "The Great Game" set out in Rudyard Kipling's classic, Kim.

The book raises the morality behind killing in the intelligence world. Are plans to kill for personal motives justified? Is it worse to kill agents of an avowed enemy for personal rather than state reasons? What happens to intelligence communities when killing becomes personal? It is a frightening concept to have intelligence masters unleashing killers to achieve personal goals.

Going personal confounds the intelligence world. Operatives and agencies understand losses in pursuing goals on behalf of their countries but if the killing is personal lives are being taken arbitrarily.

We are a long way from the Cold War simplicity of Democracy versus Communism. We live in a far murkier world. I was reminded of Alan Furst's great pre-WW II spy novels where there are multiple European agencies operating in the shadows.

Steinhauer creates great characters and strong plots. I look forward to his next book. (Feb. 22/13)

****

Links to my reviews of the first two books in the series are (2009) - The Tourist; (2010) - The Nearest Exit.

Q & A with Stan Jones on Nathan Active and Napoleon “Bony” Bonaparte (Part II)

Stan took this lovely cover photo in his
living room

Earlier this week I had Part I of a post on an interview with Alaskan author, Stan Jones, after noticing the similarities between his sleuth, Nathan Active, and Napoleon “Bony” Bonaparte from Australia. This post covers the remaining questions and answers with Stan and abit of information on the 5^th book in the series.

Continuing the Questions and Answers with Stan:

3.) Each series effectively uses vast empty lands and coasts. Upfield worked in the Australian interior including a job riding the longest fence in the world, a rabbit fence. The biography on your website says:

I landed Bush planes on the sea ice, drove snowmachines over the tundra, hunted moose and caribou, and once helped paddle a sealskin umiaq in pursuit of a bowhead whale on the Chukchi Sea off Point Hope.

What caused you to make geography such an important part of the series?

Having lived in the region in which Chukchi is located in all seasons, Stan said he experienced how the land is terrifying, beautiful and harsh. A land that can always kill you. It always makes an impression.

4.) Both your books and those of Upfield raise issues of indigenous culture being forced to change by a dominant white culture. Why did you choose to explore such issues?

When he resided along the northwest coast, Stan saw how difficult and how much stress was experienced by the Inupiat people in adapting to white culture.

He said Kotzebue was “wet” when he was there and he saw the devastation in the community caused by alcohol.

Stan further mentioned The Anchorage Daily News, the newspaper for which he worked won a Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for its story, People in Peril, about indigenous people in Alaska and their high rate of suicide.

5.) Upfield sought to improve the pubic image of indigenous Australians through the charismatic and very capable Bony. Upfield said in a letter:

I set out to write a readable book having much aboriginal law centred around the ancient boning of a human being. The more anthropologists of repute study the Australian abo. the further they are mystified by the origin of the race, and the more clearly do they come to think that the race was highly developed when the white and yellow races were human gorillas. I know that the general idea of the abos., based on the Bulletin drawings and jokes is that they are half-wits, and here I have tried to make people understand that the reverse is the truth.

Nathan is certainly a strong character. If Alaska is like my home province of Saskatchewan there remain lots of people with attitudes to indigenous peoples. Are you equally hoping to improve the image of indigenous Alaskans through Nathan’s success as a State Trooper?

Stan was born in Anchorage, spent a few years away from Alaska, and returned to the state when he was 12.

When he was growing up there were stereotypes of indigenous Alaskans as primitive uneducated people. He said there was a famous sign on an Anchorage bar saying “No natives or dogs”.

Many white people were contemptuous of indigenous people and they in turn resented white residents of the state.

With the passing of The Land Claims Act about 40 years ago millions of acres were turned over to indigenous people and communities have used the land to gain economic clout. Stan said attitudes change when there is money.

Stan also feels race is less of an identity issue in the state partially because there are more and more Alaskans of mixed blood living in Alaska.

Thank you for considering my questions.

I look forward to reading Village of the Ghost Bears, the 4^th book in the series.

(Good news. Stan said he is working on another Nathan Active book. It will feature a character based on a prominent current Alaskan.)

Best wishes.

Bill Selnes

Q & A with Stan Jones on Nathan Active and Napoleon “Bony” Bonaparte (Part I)

When I was in Hawaii last month I wrote to Alaskan author, Stan Jones, asking some questions concerning his character, Nathan Active, and Arthur Upfield’s sleuth, Napoleon “Bony” Bonaparte. Stan said he tends to go too long and take too much time in responding in writing so we talked over the phone after I was back in Saskatchewan. I made notes of his answers during the call. In this post I have part of my original letter and then Stan’s answers in bold. Tonight has the first half of the Q & A. The second half will be posted on Friday.

****

Haliewa, Hawaii
February 9, 2013

Dear Stan,

While on vacation in Hawaii I have just finished reading Frozen Sun. I enjoyed the book.

Since last writing to you I started a blog called Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan. Tomorrow I am planning to post a review of Frozen Sun. Occasionally I post Q & A with authors. If you have the time I would ask that you answer a few questions. I will post the questions and answers on the blog.

As I read a third book in your Nathan Active series I started thinking about mysteries with indigenous sleuths. I have read some mysteries featuring indigenous lead characters such as Tony Hillerman’s series featuring Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn from the Navajo tribe, Adrian Hyland’s books with aborigine Emily Tempest, Thomas Perry’s series with Jane Whitefield from the Senecas of New York State and Scott Young’s mysteries with Matthew “Matteesie” Kitogitak who is an Inuit from the NWT.

Yet the character that came to mind the most was Napoleon “Bony” Bonaparte from the Australian series by Arthur W. Upfield. There are some immediate similarities between Bony and Nathan. Each has an indigenous mother and a white father. Both were raised to be white. They remain closely connected with their indigenous roots in the respective series.

Because of these connections I would like to ask:

1.) Had you read any of the Bony series before creating Nathan? Hillerman said he owed a debt to the Bony books.

He had not read any of the Bony series before writing the first in the Active series. After being told about Bony he read one of the book’s in the Bony series.

2.) Nathan is conflicted over his adoption. Bony lost his mother while he was a baby. What led you to having Nathan raised by a white family rather than adopted by his mother’s extended indigenous family?

Stan provided several reasons (they are not ranked in importance):

            a.) He looks for drama that would torture his

            characters;

    b.) It produced family drama by allowing Stan to

    send Nathan back to Chukchi where his birth

    mother, Martha Active Johnson, resides;

           c.) While he observed local Inupiat culture when
           he resided in Kotzebue, the inspiration for
          Chukchi, he did not feel, as a white author, he
          could write an investigator who was fully Inupiat.
          He thought it better to have his sleuth part white
          and part Inupiat; and,

  d.) All of the books in the series feature the

  interface of Inupiat and white cultures.

****

My reviews of Stan's books and a profile can be found at White Sky, Black Ice; Shaman Pass; Frozen Sun; and "J" is for Stan Jones

A Murder of Crows by David Rotenberg

13. – 702.) A Murder of Crows by David Rotenberg – The second book in The Junction Chronicles triology starts with Decker Roberts, a synsasthete, in Las Vegas applying his special talent of being able to tell if someone is telling the truth.

In upper New York State Ancaster University is getting ready for spring graduation. The elite private university is science focused. Its graduates will become leading scientists in America.

In Washington the NSA (National Security Agency) is keeping a close eye on Roberts as they plot how they can use him in the battle against terrorism. Special Agent Yslan Hicks is continuing her program monitoring synaesthetes.

Crazy Eddie, Roberts computer genius friend, and Roberts share a great loss. Each is separated from their only child. Roberts remains estranged from his son, Seth. Crazy Eddie is constantly scheming on how to gain custody of his daughter.

At Ancaster Assistant Professor Neil Frost is a dangerous man. He is aggravated by a university system that pays him modestly and ever more frustrated at being denied a full professorship. In his fury he contemplates a terrible act of violence.

There is another angry man on campus. Janitor Walter Jones considers himself the equal or better of anyone at the university. He deeply resents the sense of superiority in the students and faculty and is ready to listen to a wicked idea of Frost.

Bombs explode at the graduation ceremony killing over 200 of the faculty and graduating students. It is a chilling, frighteningly real event. Two emotionally unstable men have committed mass murder.

All the security forces of the United States, led by the NSA, descend upon Ancaster. The Agency reaches out all the way to Africa to get Roberts. They want his special talent evaluating the truth of hundreds of video statements.

Immediately they learn the limitations of Roberts’ gift. He can determine if someone is not telling the truth. He cannot determine if a person is lying. He cannot tell if an untruth is deliberate. With almost everyone not telling the truth about something it is hard to determine who may have been involved.

Roberts does consider why people make statements. Roberts draws on his primary job of teaching actors. He emphasizes to actors that to be a good actor it is not enough to learn the lines well. A skilled actor works to understand what led the character to say those words.

Joining Roberts is another synasthete. Her gift complements Roberts. When they work together there are elements of the supernatural. As with the first book the supernatural fits rather than detracts from the book.

The strength of the book is in the fascinating characters of the synaesthetes. Their special talents make them among the most unusal of investigators.

As with the first book, I found the plot disjointed at times. Still it flows well. I was drawn through the book.

It would be a hard book to read without having read The Placebo Effect, the first book. A Murder of Crows is a true second book in a triology. It proceeds directly into the new plot with not a lot of back story.

I did miss that little of the story is in Canada. Where the first book moved between Canada and  the United States this book is an American story. I hope the third book returns to Canada.

 

The title is brilliantly related to the plot. I will now associate crows with university graduations.

I am looking forward to the final book. Rotenberg has created a unique form of sleuth in Roberts. I say “form” for, while he is not seeking to solve the crime, it could not be resolved without him.

****

I received an advance reader copy of the book from Simon & Schuster. More information on the book can be found at http://books.simonandschuster.ca/Murder-of-Crows/David-Rotenberg/9781439170137.

David Rotenberg’s website is http://www.davidrotenberg.com/.

A trailer on the book can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU6WrYvlDOc.

This review is part of the blogger tour for the book organized by Simon & Schuster. It will be published on March 19.

****

My past posts on The Placebo Effect and Q & A with the author, including information on synasethetes, are The Placebo Effect; Questions and Answers with David Rotenberg and Thought on Questions and Answers with David

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A Murder of Crows is my 7th book read in the 6th Canadian Book Challenge at the Book Mine Set blog.

Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction

Even prior to reading To Kill a Mockingbird I had been aware last year of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. After reading the book I looked up more information online about the Prize.

The Prize is awarded through the School of Law at the University of Alabama. The origins of the Prize were set out by the University in 2010:

To honor the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird, The University of Alabama School of Law and the American Bar Association Journal partnered to create The Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. The Prize, authorized by Harper Lee, author and former Alabama law student, was announced in conjunction with Attorney General Eric Holder’s remarks on the book at Alabama in October 2010. The Prize honors Lee for the role model she created for the legal profession and for the extraordinary cultural phenomenon that her novel has become.

The role model is Atticus Finch who makes me proud to be a small town lawyer.

The current site sets out the criteria for entries from 2012:

In the spirit of Atticus Finch, the prize is awarded annually to a published work of fiction that best illuminates the role of lawyers or the legal system in society.

The work must be:

 

• a published book-length work of fiction
• published originally in 2012
• readily available to readers via commercial sources (retail or online bookstores
such as Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or iTunes)
• an electronically-published work with an ISBN may be submitted but unpublished manuscripts may not.

In June the shortlist of 3 books will be released and the winning entry will be announced this summer.

More than just glory accompanies the Prize:

The winner will be:

• announced on the ABA Journal and Harper Lee Prize websites
• honored at the Harper Lee Prize award ceremony, held in conjunction with the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. on September 19, 2013
• entitled to paid airfare for two and hotel accommodations during the National Book Festival
• given a copy of the 50th Anniversary Edition of To Kill a Mockingbird signed by Harper Lee
• entitled to use the Harper Lee Prize logo on the cover of the winning book
• entitled to identify the book as the Prize winner in other promotional materials.

In addition:

 

• an excerpt from the winning book may be published in the ABA Journal.
• the book may be sold on the ABABooks.com website if it is selected as a finalist or winner.

 

The 2012 shortlist for books published in 2011 was set out in the ABA Journal:

Those up for the prize this year are: Michael Connelly, author of The Fifth Witness; Robert Dugoni for his book Murder One; and David Ellis for Breach of Trust.

I am glad to have read The Fifth Witness but regret not even hearing of the other two books. Michael Connelly was the winner. I was interested to read that a poll of ABA Journal readers picked Murder One ahead of The Fifth Witness.

In 2011 the finalists were The Confession by John Grisham, Fatal Convictions by Randy Singer and The Reversal by Michael Connelly. The winner was John Grisham.

I consider The Confession one of Grisham’s most powerful books. Its exploration of the application of the death penalty in contemporary America will challenge every reader.

Based on the first two winners being two of the top three writers of American legal fiction I would expect that the winner in 2013 would be Scott Turow, the third member of the group, if he had published a book in 2012. Since he did not publish a book I hope that the selection committee will chose a writer other than Grisham.