Writing about baseball

Baseball is the only sport I follow at all faithfully, and specifically I follow the Red Sox. I haven't always, but after living in New England for almost thirty years, the bug caught. I remember about twenty years ago, while riding out a stretch of unemployment while earning my MLS, reading a novel I found in the Waltham Public Library, If I Never Get Back. It was a time-travel novel, so if I were cataloging it I'd have to cross science ficiton with sports (not sure how many books span those two). I do not recall the writer, but I remember reading the jacket copy and he was an English teacher from the Left Coast, and the book was a pretty well researched story set in the early years of the game. Instead of being called Sox, teams with that appellation were called 'Stockings'... the Red Stockings, etc. It entertained me, and the main reason it's stuck with me is that it's the only sports title I've ever finished reading.
I keep meaning to read some baseball biographies but I don't consider sports figures ordinarily entertaining enough to justify a book... (some fan, eh?)

Niagara Falls history

Born and raised in the falls, I have published a historical novel, The Stone House Diaries, in 2005. Sales were disappointing. For a book to be successful one needs good reviews, and then getting to market on time is helpful. For reasons forever a mystery to me, the Buffalo News declined to review it - how many novels about the falls get published any given year, in particular by one born there? The Niagara Gazette was more than generous with good vibes and column inches. The second problem was getting it to the stores for the Christmas rush. The publisher missed the deadline and it showed up two days before Christmas - one might prefer to debut a title on January 23rd. At least it's quiet.

A third issue is that Niagara Falls is a poor city. I call it the Atlantic City of the Great Lakes now. The library bought six or seven copies, and in the summer of 05 all the copies were checked out with a waiting list. That was nice to see, but I also knew every copy borrowed was one less sold. Emblematic of that, I learned that the copy I gave my mother she lent to her friend, and she lent to their minister... lots of mileage on a few copies. Being a librarian I was pleased, but as an author I groaned....

I've written another novel, tentatively called 'Where the gold is buried', based on a family legend set at Old Fort Niagara. I'm working on finding an agent now. 'Muse and the Marketplace' was a very bracing primer for finding an agent. It ain't easy.

All the Pretty Horses and almost anything else by Cormac MacCarthy

I decided last year to try reading Cormac MacCarthy. After a little research, I decided to start with Blood Meridian. What a ride. At first it reminded me a little of Larry McMurtry, but it gets darker than Larry does, and I finished it and said "give me more." So I read The Crossing, which was set in more recent times - 20th century - but for purposes of setting and character and dialog could have been a hundred years prior. Then I took on All the Pretty Horses, and I realized that MacCarthy, aside from being a supreme stylist, really tells the same story almost every time. It's usually two young guys from Texas that go to Mexico and have (mis) adventures. My other shallow, illiterate complaint with MacCarthy stems from his love of sticking a page or two of Spanish conversation in the book every now and then. Not being bilingual at all, I assumed he was writing for the English reader and the conversations rolled with the story line. Then one day I used an online translator and discovered, damn! the conversations are not MacCarthy showing off his Spanish, they need to be translated. So, being a lazy, pissed-off American, I stopped reading his stuff for a while.

Incidentally, I'm a truly lazy American. If a great book gets turned into a movie, there's a high risk I'll just watch the film and not get around to the book. With All The Pretty Horses, I'm glad I read the book first... so much lost.

Anyway...
Then I read The Road. A sharper turn left literarily speaking I can't image. Suddenly it's a post-apocalytic future with a man and his son trying to reach the South on foot from the Northeast - a long ways from Mexico (still managed to keep any women characters out). I was utterly drawn in before I realized it was science fiction (which I just don't read anymore, college was enough). The Road. No horses, no women, mostly rainy weather, in lieu of a wagon the father is pushing a shopping cart, fortunately not too many barbarians, and a relatively positive ending where MacCarthy finally gives the boy a mother figure. I plan to reread Blood Meridian and The Road, but probably not the rest of them. At least not until I learn Spanish. Which I'm not studying.

Water for Elephants

I think I first learned of this title on Librarything, and learning that it was a novel set in the Great Depression, and the main character was a veterinarian in a circus, well having been among those who mourned the cancellation of Carnivale, I knew I'd at least try to read it. (I've tried and dropped books in the past; haven't you? You realize there are so many books, so little time, and if the book isn't working for you, put it down.)

It's an easy read, and it shows all the benefits of research, including carnie slang that you've never heard before. It got rave reviews from many of the readers who posted, but I suspect most of those postings were not the most demanding readers. This is clearly and overall a love story. Its setting is rendered well, but the writing is not epic - as I said, it's an easy read. It has effective pace, the characters are not fleshed out perfectly but they don't interfere too much with the story. You won't be rereading sentences twice or more to fully understand them. In fact, after reading it I felt like I'd finished a satisfying soft drink. I was not thirsty anymore and I don't expect to reread this title anytime soon. Probably the best compliment I read about this book, and one I wholeheartedly agree with, is that it has the happiest ending I've read in a novel. Certainly worth reading if you like this period, there are some dark moments but all in all if it is ever filmed it will probably make a PG-13 flick.

When historical fiction is more fiction than history

I just returned from Grub Street's 'Muse and the Marketplace'. Although I'm a published writer, my novel The Stone House Diaries didn't launch my writing career, leaving me a humble librarian (I don't know any terribly vain librarians). I've attended several writing workshops, focusing on the craft, and they usually sent me home spiritually recharged. 'Muse and the Marketplace' left me feeling like toast. Listening to agents, writers with several titles published who can't get any publicity...

Years ago I wrote book reviews for Library Journal (hell of a segue, eh?). I enjoyed getting the titles, I enjoyed working against a deadline, I enjoyed seeing my name in print. I did this for over fifteen years before I got tired of seeing my name in print (oh, that's a lie, I never tire of that), but I was getting a stale diet of Irish history. They were sending it to me because I had an appropriate graduate degree, but when I asked for more variety... I stopped getting sent any titles.
So I'm hoping this blog lets me do the reviewing again.

A very useful requirement of LJ reviews is that the reviewer is supposed to advise libraries on whether or not to purchase: was it good for public libraries, academic libraries, or just good for a gift? Or was it a sad waste of trees? It required me to objectively decide whether others might not enjoy reading the book whether I'd enjoyed it or not.

During today's 'Muse and the Marketplace' author Kathleen Kent spoke of her debut novel, The Heretic's Child, and answered a question from the audience on historical accuracy that it wasn't that important to get the history down, so long as you've convinced the reader of the setting. I haven't read her book yet, but her comment irritated me. I expect she's correct, because several years ago Joyce Carol Oates wrote a book about Niagara Falls, titled 'The Falls'. She begins at Goat Island and creates a toll bridge in 1964 - there have been no toll bridges since 1880. I don't think anyone called her on it, which is why I suspect Kent is right. She told of getting an email from a historian of the Salem Witch Trials, enumerating her mistakes, and telling the story just made Kent smile in amusement.
For the record, I care about the history...