Bridget Hoida's "So L.A." is so cool!

Okay, here's a late summer read you won't want to miss: Bridget Hoida's So L.A.  This hard-to-put-down book proves my oft-stated point that intelligent, witty writing doesn't have to be a drag...Nor must said writing be pretentious, dull, or just plain depress the poor reader to death.
Hoida has told her tale with great attention to detail in place and setting--and I know, since I was born/raised in L.A. and spent many years there as an adult. She's used super smart pacing, written believable characters, and included plenty of devastatingly witty insights into the current state of American culture. AND she's done all this while striking an enviable balance between lively humor and realistic, heart-felt human tragedy.
On a purely practical note, I loved the way So L.A. was broken into short bite-sized chunks and how the  ironic "chapter headers" were employed. Like I said, it was hard to put down, and I don't recommend starting the book as before-sleep reading...Unless you feel like getting to sleep early the next morning!
Check out an excerpt from the book here. 
You can meet Hoida at the Newport Beach meeting of the Southern California Writer's Conference in September. She's gonna be speaking there, and I can't wait to hear what she's got to say about publishing right now. I'll be there doing the ever-popular "Pitch Witches" workshop with my friend and colleague Marla Miller among other things.
You can also meet me at my "How to Craft a Query Letter" class for San Diego Writers Ink, at the downtown San Diego Ink Spot. It's from 1-4 on Sat Sept 8th...More info on that class can be found right here. We'll talk pitches and queries and proposals and get you writing (or rewriting yours) in the class-- to make it a better tool to sell your work.

End of Summer--New Beginnings

Ah...Summer has flown by, and this weekend marks the un-official "end of summer" though school has been back in session for weeks, for most teachers and students. The end of summer brings me back to San Diego, which is always a pleasant place to be--and where summer lingers far longer than in most other cities.
I'm looking forward--as always--to the Southern California Writers Conference at the end of the month. The Los Angeles Conference is held up in Newport Beach, Sept 23-25th; for those who haven't heard me on the subject yet, check out previous posts, and see their great site (full of book, agent, and author news, videos, and info) here. Of course, you can also find them on Facebook, "meet" some of their staff there, and follow their fearless leader's always-entertaining blog.
I'll be doing a couple of "pitch" talks at SCWC with my good friend, writer and editor Marla Miller, of "Marketing the Muse." Check out her site here.
My reading last month was mostly non-fiction--a history of the "Mexican War" and quite a few essays and articles written about the current immigration situation.

A great friend who lives in Tucson gave me Crossing With the Virgin: Stories from the Migrant Trail which was hard to put down. The true stories are full of interest to me, since it sheds light on the subject our film, "El Camino" deals with. No reading on this sad subject can be anything but depressing, but it is heartening to read how many people are working to help the thousands of unfortunate souls forced to cross borders illegally.
I just found a used copy of Wolf Solent by John Cowper Pwys, a book I've wanted to read for years; the author is often compared to Austen and Hardy, both favorites of mine. (No one who's read this blog can be in doubt of my favorite of those two being Austen, but Hardy has his gifts--description and character--that offset his bleak outlook). I'll start the book today, and will comment on it soon.
Hasta pronto!

Depressing novels, new and old, and "singing fish"

Depressing sells books.
Nothing new here, but it never ceases to amaze me. My latest case in point is The Gathering from 2007...by Anne Enright, winner of the Man Booker Prize. The poverty and ignorance that pervades all modern Irish tales is one thing--sometimes those themes can be written in such a way as to be uplifting, even...but why does every post-modern novel (or is it post-post now?) published have to revolve around the lingering effects (depression, drugs, alcoholism, suicide) of some sort of childhood abuse?
I am also reading Crime and Punishment (click here for a public domain ebook), which isn't helping. Dostoevsky didn't just blame everyone's parents and teachers--and policemen and priests--he blamed society itself for the evils of society.
Both of these novels are gorgeously written, at times, but they are a sure cure for insomnia if taken in large doses. This is quite helpful when a loud hum goes through the hull of one's boat from about 2 am to 4 am, leading you to speculate on everything from illegal underwater generators to mysterious undersea divers and what they might be up to. Some local Catalina Harbor fishermen suggested it was the sound of local fish, "Midshipmen" by name--but we pooh-poohed that answer...Finally Googled "midshipmen fish" and "hum" and got this from wikipedia:
"Mating in midshipman fishes depends on auditory communication; males during the breeding season broadcast a sound usually described as a hum, generated by rapid contractions of the muscles in the swim bladder. The sound can be kept up for up to an hour, and is loud enough to be heard by (and to puzzle) people on nearby land and houseboats; the hulls of the boats tend to amplify the sound to sleep-disrupting levels. Reproductive females develop a selective sensitivity to this sound, and respond by laying eggs in the rock nest of a singing male."
Solves that mystery, and just goes to show what you can learn while out and about in a boat...The whole article, complete with illustration of the ugly devil is here.
hasta pronto!