Olive Oil & White Bread by Georgia Beers

Publisher:       Bywater Books

A straight person would not write this book. It wouldn’t occur to him or her that there was a need to write a book about a couple that meets, falls in love, and has a completely normal life that spans a long relationship. Where is the story in that? Well, Nicholas Sparks might write it, but it would be short and poignant.

Gay people don’t usually write these books either. Their books are about “hot young things” consumed with sexy encounters that may turn into relationships, and that is usually where the story ends. Sometimes they throw in a message with the story and a romance. Or they write mysteries, supernatural stories, space adventures or whatever the genre and the main characters are made lesbian or gay, but really don’t need to be. Basically, the reader is getting a straight story with gay/lesbian characters and the readers like that because they can relate to the characters. That’s fine.

Then there are exceptions like Olive Oil & White Bread. There is nothing extraordinary about Angie Righetti and Jillian Clark. One is a salesperson and the other teaches elementary art. They fall in love, buy a house, then buy another house, acquire a dog, deal with family events (happy and sad) and confront what can happen to a relationship when it’s taken for granted instead of nurtured. That is what makes the book worth reading. The reader gets to see the couple grow together and apart and back together. They deal with situations everyone faces - the death and aging of parents, the differences in families and the struggle to balance work with home. There are the crushing effects of the losses of a beloved pet and a life-long friend. In other words, these are just normal people going about their lives. And that is what makes this book important.

If you have friends, family or anyone who “just doesn’t get” what gay people are about; if they don’t understand the importance of gay marriage; if they think gay people are a threat or different or whatever, this is the book you want to give them. This is the book that will show them that gay people don’t have wild and perverse sex lives (at least not all of them), they buy houses in the suburbs, love and screw up. In other words, they’re just normal.

Georgia Beers has many strengths as a writer. She’s written outstanding romances, poignant stories based on 9-11 and won awards for her books. Olive Oil & White Bread may be her gift for the gay community to the rest of the world though. It proves there just isn’t that much difference between us.

Tangled Roots by Marianne K. Martin

Publisher:                   Bywater Books

A good book has engaging characters and a plot that holds the reader’s interest. An outstanding book takes those attributes and adds a message, teaches a lesson or allows the reader to understand something that may not have been clear to that person before. An author rises to the top of a genre and gains the respect of the people who read those books by developing this ability. Marianne Martin has produced a string of award winning books because she spends her time writing carefully, researching the topic and going over the book to make sure it is in the best form possible before it is released. Martin also isn’t afraid to tackle difficult topics, which is abundantly clear in Tangled Roots, the prequel to her earlier work, Under the Witness Tree.

Tangled Roots is set in a period of US history that was almost as stressful as the civil war it followed.  Many of the characters remember that war and the period of adjustments that followed it. Those changes led to others that will sweep in the Progressive movement, a time when many people, especially women and African Americans, hoped that true justice and political equality would be achieved for everyone. Jim Crow laws, the Ku Klux Klan and lynching battled with the creation of the NAACP and the eloquence of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. The stifling concept of women as nothing but breeders and homemakers was confronted by the steely determination of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul for women to have greater opportunities. The conflict in the book comes between those who cannot accept the new ideas and those who yearn for them.

The story focuses on Addy Grayson, her granddaughter Anna and Anna’s best friend Nessie, a descendent of the slaves who once worked for the Graysons. Addy survived the Civil War, but questions whether she has the energy to deal with raising her granddaughters and confronting their bigoted father. She is rejuvenated when a younger woman introduces her to new ideas and she finds the ability to finally deal with an old secret. Anna and Nessie begin as two little girls who like to play with each other and share dreams. They don’t recognize the racial divide that both of their families keep throwing in their ways until they are older, but they share the frustration of being told that women can’t have the lives they hope to pursue. They are caught up in the stresses of their time, the expectations of both families and the growing awareness that their childhood love has turned into something much deeper and forbidden. Addy is the pillar they both lean on.

Tangled Roots is a compact novel. It’s hard to believe that Martin deals with so many complex issues in just over 200 pages. She’s able to do so because she chooses her words and her scenes carefully. This isn’t meant to be a history of the period, but a snippet, the events as seen through the eyes of her three main characters. Martin avoids the trap of wandering around addressing issues that were important to the time, but not to her story. Yet there is a richness in the scenes that comes off of the pages and leads the reader to have a beginning understanding of what this period and these women were about. This is the type of book that is not too heavy to bog down people in the many conflicts of the period, but that leads readers to other books and resources to find out what else happened during this time of drama and change, triumph and dreams deferred.

Marianne Martin has written a book that weaves a tapestry of history and romance with the lives of the characters. It will cause the reader to think, but not to feel that she’s been lectured to. Don’t let its size fool you. There is a lot to be absorbed here. An outstanding book has engaging characters, an interesting plot and leads its reader to greater knowledge. Tangled Roots certainly does all of that.

Giraffe People by Jill Malone

Publisher:       Bywater Books

Jill Malone is an award winning author for her previous books, but Giraffe People is probably more readable by the general public.  This is likely to due to the fact that it’s a coming of age story, something that most people can relate to.

Cole Peters is fifteen years old; a difficult age for anyone, but especially the child of a military chaplain.  Cole is trying to figure out who she is, what she wants and where she fits in the general scheme of the universe while dealing with the shifting impermanence of military life.  As she says in the book, “We never get to keep anything.  Never.  Temporary quarters, and temporary friends, and temporary school…”  It’s no wonder that Cole boomerangs all over the place in her emotions and perceptions.  She seems happy playing soccer and dating her boyfriend; then she seems willing to give them up for the rebellious life of a rock and roll band.  Is her admiration for Meghan, an older girl who is preparing for West Point, simply the normal hero worship for a role model or the budding of early lesbian interests?  Cole describes herself and her family by saying, “Nigel and Nate and I have the exact body of our dad: stooped, long-legged, with a narrow chest and flat feet.  We’re like giraffe people.”  Maybe what she’s saying is that it’s very difficult to be normal and different at the same time.

The reader can feel sympathetic towards Cole on a number of issues, mainly because she has so many issues to deal with – teenage, the military lifestyle, a girl in athletics, indefinite sexuality, and her father is a chaplain, bringing in the religious aspect.  What’s left for the poor kid not to have to deal with?  The most interesting one turns out to be the impact on the life of a military child.  This is an area most people never consider, but the constant shifting of areas and the inconstancy of friends and schools is destabilizing more than anything.  It provokes a question of whether or not families with children should be in the military or if they should be stationed in one place for longer periods of time.

Giraffe People is the least esoteric of Malone’s books, but perhaps her most thought provoking because it deals with issues almost anyone can relate to.  The reader can identify with struggles that have been experienced.  It might not be a good idea to give the book to an actual teenager however since it might upset more than help them.

The demise of Blue Feather and the role of small companies

I've been thinking for a while about what to say about the news that Blue Feather is closing.  I keep trying to straighten out the jumble of thoughts I'm having.

First, like everyone, I'm sad to hear about Blue Feather.  I talk to Emily Reed a lot and I know she's been struggling to keep the company going by herself while she dealt with children and a full time job and life in general.  I thought highly of Blue Feather before I ever met Em.  She focused on quality and not quantity, which appeals to me more and more.  She also published "different" authors.  By that I mean those that didn't always fit the cookie cutter mold.  I didn't care for every book the company put out, but I found them refreshing in their uniqueness.  How can you argue with a company that brought us Joan Opyr, Kieran York, Chris Paynter, Erica Lawson, Kelly Sinclair and others?  And I would defy anyone to find a mistake in a Blue Feather book.  Yes, this is a great loss indeed.

I don't think we give our "smaller" publishers enough credit.  It's almost funny talking about smaller publishers among small publishers.  Even Bella and BSB are small in comparison to mainstream companies, but our small presses are truly small. 

My sister Leigh and I toured the Bywater plant when we visited Marianne Martin recently.  It didn't take much.  We stepped from the house into the garage and there it was.  There is a little office with a copier and then the books are stockpiled in another section of the garage.  If you order a book from the Bywater site, you might not know it, but it's sent to you by Marianne Martin herself.  Yet, when I looked on the shelves, there was Joan Opyr, Bett Norris, Wynn Malone, Jill Malone, Georgia Beers and Marianne.  I suspect there are similar setups at Affinity, Bedazzled, Sapphire and the others.

In the rush to self-publishing, we need to give the really small presses more credit.  They usually can't hire full staffs.  They hire editors and cover artists by the job and when you email the company, you're just as likely to hear directly from the owner.  They don't have warehouses, secretaries or whatever.  They may use a distribution company, but that's about it.  Yet, many of the words I used about Blue Feather would also apply to these companies.  Bella and BSB turn out huge numbers of books now, but, with a few exceptions, they have a disturbing familiarity.  It's the really small companies that are taking a risk on some of the more daring writers.  For that reason alone, I hope we don't lose more of them.

Chris Paynter and Karen Badger have already announced they're going to self-publish.  Karen has a snappy logo for Badger-Bliss Books.  I hope they do well.  Catherine Wilson gave a wonderful presentation at the GCLS conference about how time encompassing this is if you really want to sell your books.

To the other authors, don't disappear on us.  There are companies that will probably come to you.  Find a place where you are comfortable.  Let us know what you're doing and keep the books coming.

Art on Fire by Hilary Sloin

Publisher:                   Bywater Books

What should be said about a book that is supposed to be a satire on pretentiousness and becomes pretentious itself?  Either it’s a great success or a colossal failure.

First, it must be pointed out that this is a work of fiction.  Sloin does such an excellent job of creating the sense that this is a biography that readers and others are constantly confused as to what it is. The book succeeded at winning an award for nonfiction until it was pointed out that the story is pure fiction.

Francesca deSilva is the product of a dysfunctional family.  Her mother dotes on Francesca’s older sister Isabella who is supposed to be a genius and her father is at a complete loss as to what to do with this family.  Francesca retreats to a bedroom in the attic where she lives a solitary existence, only occasionally intruded upon by family obligations.  She falls in love with Chinese chess champion Lisa Sinsong, a product herself of a skewed family life and when they are discovered in bed together, Francesca flees.  She begins a bohemian existence drifting until she comes to live in a barely rustic cabin in the woods.  Francesca turns to painting to express her perspective on things and finds herself acclaimed as the creator of a new style.  Ten years later she returns home to visit her family for the first time and takes all of her artwork with her.  A fire kills her and destroys most of her work, returning her life to the tragedy that had always shadowed it. 

This is not a book for someone who wants a leisurely entertaining reading experience.  It takes effort to get through this book.  The story can’t be consumed by itself because the reader is distracted by the footnotes and commentary that are sprinkled through it.  Even while you tell yourself that these items are manufactured by Sloin, they seem realistic and beg to be read.  Often the real points of the book are expressed in these notes and not in the story.  Francesca’s story is second place to the observations that are made in the notes.  Sometimes that’s a blessing because Francesca is the type of character a reader wants to shake and tell to wake up to real life.  Then again her whole family is composed that way.  In the end Francesca deSilva is a pathetic character.  What makes her life noteworthy is her paintings and they don’t survive her, so there is a feeling of a waste of a life and a waste of effort to tell about that life.

Sloin uses the book to make some strong statements.  In the footnotes she takes jabs at the art community as she manufactures experts to give manufactured opinions.  It becomes clear that she has little respect for “experts.”  She also attacks segments of the gay and lesbian community.  There is a protracted discussion of dykes (are you or aren’t you?) and a dismissal of the lesbian mafia that is too concerned with determining if something is lesbian enough or not.  Then there is a passing swipe at the transgender community.  It almost seems that Sloin wanted to write a commentary about the gay/lesbian and art communities, but thought that would be ignored, so she decided that the way to get attention was to write them into a story.  The result of that is a disjointed reading experience as the reader is tossed from the story to the footnotes and back again.

Art on Fire has drawn attention and won some awards.  Other reviews range all over trying to decide if its mastery is as a quasi-biography (although fictional), a satire on the artistic community or a complex, intricate novel.  Sometimes a book, play or movie is written that people can’t really comprehend, but the feeling is that it’s because you’re just not smart enough.  If you just had a little more insight, you would see the “beauty” of the work yourself.  If that isn’t the epitome of pretentiousness, what is?  Sometimes the emperor really isn’t wearing any clothes.

The Raven's Heart by Jesse Blackadder

Publisher:        Bywater Books (reissue)

Jesse Blackadder went on a hunt to discover the origins of her family name and arrived at a fascinating telling of a period in Scottish history.  Her curiosity about her roots gave readers a very entertaining novel.

Alison Blackadder was raised by her father to believe that her family’s lands and heritage were stolen long before she was born, but that one day they would be reclaimed.  To protect her from assassins who are hunting her family, Alison was raised as a boy, Robert.  That gives her the ability to slip in and out of both the male and female worlds, a skill that brings her to the attention of Mary Queen of Scots.  Mary has just returned from spending most of her life in France and knows very little about her own country or the political forces there.  Alison comes to the court planning on using Mary to recapture her inheritance.  Instead, she becomes Mary’s weapon in trying to control Scotland and its notorious nobility.  Alison teaches Mary how to move among her people in disguise, to find out what they really want and need, but, as any student of history knows, it won’t be enough.  As Mary’s weaknesses begin to work against her, Alison, who now realizes she serves the queen out of love, fights for a future for her family, her country and herself.

Students of history might question the version that is presented in The Raven’s Heart.  Mary is portrayed as being more noble and heroic than most accounts would make her.  The basics of the story are true however and knowing what eventually happens does not weaken the tale that Blackadder spins.  If anything, Mary Queen of Scots is portrayed as a much stronger and determined woman than history would lead one to believe.  The book is marked by detailed character development, both in the strong and weak characters.  Blackadder’s descriptions of tavern life, the protocols in a royal court and the descriptions of the people’s daily lives create an atmosphere of reality.  It’s so realistic that the danger is in the reader believing that this is the way the real events unfolded.

The Raven’s Heart is an unusual lesbian novel.  Although the love interests are present, the story focuses on intrigue, dangerous escapades and 16^th century life.  Love affairs play a minor part as the reader will be swept up in the rich dialogue and twists and turns of the plot.  This is a book for people who like strong, interesting stories and fast paced action.  The fact that it might teach a little history is an added bonus.