Oh, It's August

Oh dear. I see it has been over a month since my last blog post. So long, in fact, that I appear to have completely missed the entire month of July.

This was not planned, alas. The forced hiatus was something I worried about when I began writing the blog but I knew it would happen eventually. To be honest, it’s been such a swirl of activity around here that I don’t even know what I’ve been doing. Working. Plenty of that. Baking. Quite a bit of that as well—a birthday cake for my dad, Cuban pastries called “Refugiados” that required the scouring of two counties to find guava paste, and a birthday cake for my son that involved creating a scene from Fantasia out of sugar and fondant to name just a few. I recorded a song with professional musicians. I also managed to crack a tooth in half and then had to have it extracted. That was painful. So it was a busy month—suffused with I’m-not-updating-my-blog guilt which kept building until it hardened into a sort of paralysis. But here it is, August 1, and well past time to post. Fortunately, I have just the thing and it involves neither teeth nor cake. Today I want to discuss a couple of books (books!), both of which have been self-published and deserve, in my humble opinion, an audience. I’ll provide links to their Amazon pages here because, well, that’s where you can find them.

The first is Westof Babylon by Ted Heller. The book first came to my attention because of this article in The Guardian about the challenges Heller faced getting his novel published. It was a good piece, I thought, and the book sounded intriguing and especially appealing to me, who considers rock and roll bios/memoirs/novels one of my most pleasurable guilty pleasures. I’ve read many excellent rock and roll memoirs and bios but have yet to find a rock and roll novel that can do the trick. This is a tough thing to write about in novel form because one of the key components of a rock and roll book is the music. Even if one isn’t familiar with the band, the songs or music being described can be accessed and listened to. That soundtrack is essential to a good rock and roll story. I read the hilarious interview Heller did with himself here and some of the reviews of the novel and I was sold. So I bought a copy and started reading.

I love this novel.

The story follows the lives of four members of a rock band—The Furious Overfalls—who, once at the top of the charts, are now in their late fifties and still plugging away; juggling aches and pains, existential crises, families, and a growing sense of futility as they continue to tour. There is plenty of irony and humor here leavened with honest emotion but there is no cheap sentiment in sight. What I love most about it, though, is that Heller nailed the hardest part—getting the “music” right. The Furious Overfalls don’t exist, but they certainly could. By describing the kinds of songs they sing, the musical influences that shaped them, and the shifting currents of pop culture surrounding them, Heller manages to create a soundtrack for the reader. A groove if you will. But even without that it’s a great story. And it’s well written. I’d never have known it existed had someone not posted that link to The Guardian story on Facebook, which sends me into a mild panic wondering about what else I’ve missed and will miss and might have missed and whether or not the ever-changing landscape of publishing will ever settle into some kind of recognizable form. Too many questions. The best answer, perhaps, is just to keep reading.

I’m much more closely associated with the second book I want to recommend, Death NeverSleeps by E.J. Simon. Full disclosure: this is a novel I edited for the author and one I saw develop over several drafts as he worked on it. I have worked with many authors, all of whom put heart and soul into their projects, but Simon is surely one of the hardest working when it comes to putting in the sheer hours it takes to hone and re-hone a manuscript. From the start, I loved the idea behind Death Never Sleeps, which gives an unusual and original twist to a traditional crime thriller. It’s the tale of two brothers, Alex and Michael Nicholas, both of whom run successful businesses, one of which happens to be illegal. When Alex is murdered, Michael must attend to his affairs and finds that the world of gangsters and thugs is much closer to his own corporate boardroom than he knew. And as it turns out, Alex has left behind a virtual version of himself in the form of an artificially intelligent avatar that becomes “smarter” as it/he is fed more information. It’s a clever premise and Simon executes it well. There is humor here as well—often in places where you least expect it—and it moves fast. (An excellent beach read if, unlike me who lives two miles from the ocean, you get to the beach at all this summer.) More importantly, though, this novel is an entertaining read. And though I can’t be considered objective on this one, I believe that Simon’s dedication to and simple joy in the process of writing this novel comes through on every page.

So happy August, everyone. Soon, a return to our regularly scheduled cakes and things.