Steph Post
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
Holding Smoke is out in Paperback!
Friday, December 18, 2020
The Awesome, Amazing, Astounding Spring 2021 Book Preview!
Whew! What a year! But 2020 is almost in the rearview and here's to 2021 and all the new books hitting the shelves!
Without further ado, then, I give you:
Steph's Awesome, Amazing, Astounding Spring 2021 Book Preview!
(I'm kicking off 2021 in grand style...)
January
February
March
April
May
June
Reader Suggestions!
January
Two in the Head by Eric Beetner
The Fiddler in the Night by Christian Fennell
Fatal Divisions by Claire Booth
The Children’s Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin
February
The Bad Muslim Discount by Syed M. Masood
This Close to Okay by Leesa Cross-Smith
Long Island Iced Tina by Maria DiRico
A Road Course In Early American Literature by Thomas Hallock
March
No Sin Unpunished by LynDee Walker
If or When I Call by Will Johnson
The Lost Village by Camilla Sten
April
Diminished Fifth by Gabriel Valjan
Concession Stand Crimes by Nicole Asselin
Rising and Other Stories by Gale Massey
May
You Will Remember Me by Hannah Mary McKinnon
The Collective by Alison Gaylin
June
The One Hundred Years Of Lenni And Margot by Marianne Cronin
Friday, October 2, 2020
Writer Bites! With Karin Cecile Davidson, author of Sybelia Drive
It's been a minute, hasn't it? The world may seem off the rails, but at least we'll always have books... Today, I'm thrilled to bring you a Writer Bites interview with Karin Cecile Davidson whose debut novel, Sybelia Drive, hits shelves this coming Tuesday (10/6)!
Have you ever fallen in love with a book?
Many times. Perhaps typically, E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web was one of the first, and Richard Adams’s Watership Down, back when it first came out in 1972. I still have my first editions with their soft worn pages. My copy of Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine is a tattered paperback from ages ago that replaced the one I first bought at Prairie Lights in Iowa City in 1987, a few years after the book was published. That first copy began to lose pages and almost all of “The World’s Greatest Fisherman” disappeared, so there was no choice. I’ll always have a copy of this book. It’s been so influential and inspiring. Italo Calvino’s Difficult Loves completely captured me in the same way that John Berger’s Into Their Labors Trilogy did, their questions about society and relationships remarkably supported by inventive narrative structures. And always, always Eudora Welty’s stories—any and all of them.
Just recently I listened to Gabrielle Hamilton reading her memoir Blood, Bones & Butter. Published nearly a decade ago, and now with Hamilton’s NYC restaurant Prune closed due to Covid, it was strange and bittersweet to hear this beautifully written story read by the author herself. I felt like I was taken away, completely enraptured by her way of telling the details of her childhood, reporting in vivid terms the stress of running a wildly popular 30-seat restaurant, and describing her dishes in the clearest, most delicious prose.
How do you choose the names for your characters?
It’s funny. They simply arrive. Lord knows how LuLu and Rainey entered my novel Sybelia Drive. And LuLu’s brother Saul? Honestly, I just don’t worry about it and then they come along and steal the show. I think part of the process must be intuitive, a subconscious calling up of all the names I’ve ever known. For example, LuLu’s father’s initials, CRB, which first appear on a silver lighter he keeps in his top pocket, are the same as my grandmother’s. Completely unintentional, and yet. Charles Royal Blackwood, III and Cecile Robinson Bradley share those initials.
What is your least favorite part of the writing process? Your favorite?
The least favorite. Well, there’s a point in the final edits when I’ve got to compare manuscripts. I find that pairing amazing and dizzying all at once. The dizzying part has to do with the flood of words before me, even though the end of the entire process is near. Of course, once I finally get there, the reward is rich.
And the favorite. I love the drafting of a story when it’s going well, when one word is thrown down after another, and suddenly the page is covered with possibility. Characters become clear, along with their desires, their landscapes, and the story opens up and out.
What is your favorite form of procrastination from writing?
Research. From searching out exactly the right sort of wildflower for a scene to delving into a book of military terms or studying maps that are decades old. Certain chapters of my novel required an enormous amount of research. Eventually I had to tell myself, that’s enough. The writing doesn’t get done unless I’m at least a bit disciplined, or really good at tricking myself.
Do you write to music?
Absolutely. When drafting Sybelia Drive, I listened to music of the 1960s and 70s that became part of the character’s worlds and essentially part of the narrative. For the collection of Gulf Coast stories I’m working on currently, I’ve listened to Leontyne Price singing arias from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, Florida blues singers Ida Goodson and her sister Billie Pierce, as well as songs from Some Girls by The Rolling Stones. Placing lyrics into the writing is something I’ve learned to steer away from, however. Too much copyright nonsense there. That said, there’s something inside the music that allows a way into a piece. Art making way for more art is something I seriously believe in and appreciate.
Friday, August 28, 2020
Writer Bites! With Heather Bell Adams
Heather Bell Adams, author of The Good Luck Stone
Have you ever fallen in love with a book?
Yes, I would say I’ve fallen in love with lots of books. So many good ones, but I’ll give one example. Several years ago, when I finished reading Bloodroot by Amy Greene, I clasped the book to my chest, in tears. I was—and continue to be—astonished at this beautiful Appalachian novel.
How do you choose the names for your characters?
What a fun question! I talk to myself a lot… I try out how different names sound and whether they fit my mental conception of the character. In The Good Luck Stone, my agent asked me to change the name of a major character because she felt it was too similar to another character. Of course I was willing to make the change, but I’ll confess that it took an entire day of talking to myself to settle on a new one. (The character went from Patricia “Tish” to Kathleen “Kat.”)
Describe yourself as an author in One Word.
Heartfelt
Do you ever experience doubt or ‘impostor syndrome’? How do you cope with it?
Oh yes, all the time… I like what Elizabeth Berg says in Escaping into the Open about playfulness: “Learn from the inherent wisdom of children. Watch them when they work: They make it fun.” That advice helps me take myself less seriously and get back to the joy of writing.
Do you write to music?
Honestly, I prefer silence or just outdoor nature sounds. But the reality is that I write when the TV is on or other people are chattering away or the neighbor is landscaping or the dog is barking. It’s okay, truly. But silence is nice sometimes too.
Friday, August 14, 2020
Writer Bites! With Stephen Burdick, author of Deemer's Inlet
What does your writing space look like? What does your Ideal writing space look like?
Go back to yourself at a very early stage in your writing career—what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Writing Workshops with Keep St. Pete Lit
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
...But At Least We Still Have Books! (Fall 2020 Book Preview)
Whether you're stuck in quarantine, shouldering burdens or trying to keep things normal (as can be), it's time to start your pre-orders and get your holds ready at the library. Below are the books I'm most looking forward to, July-December, with reader suggestions following. Cheers and Happy Reading!
The Fate of a Flapper by Susanna Calkins
The Silence of the White City by Eva Garcia Sáenz
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell
The Ancestor by Lee Matthew Goldberg
Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir by Bishakh Som
Political Sign by Tobias Carroll
The Lakehouse by Joe Clifford
Conditional Citizens by Laila Lalami
Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine
Poetic Justice by Andrea J. Johnson
The Life Assignment by Ricardo Alberto Maldonado
You Want More: Selected Stories by George Singleton
The Sacrifice of Darkness by Roxane Gay, Tracy Lynne Oliver, and Rebecca Kirby
A Will to Kill by RV Raman
Keep Moving by Maggie Smith
The Bitter Kind by Tara Lynn Masih and James Claffy
Tennessee Murder Ballad by Heather Jones
The Turning Tide by Catriona McPherson
Dec:
Grounds for Murder by Tara Lush
The Cousins by Karen M. McManus
The Ballad of Ami Miles by Kristy Dallas Alley
On Fragile Waves by E. Lily Yu
When the Apricots Bloom by Gina Wilkinson