Book Club Love @sujatamassey

Lucy Burdette: You Reds know I'm a big fan of Sujata Massey's books. I'm thrilled to hear the news that Rei Shimura will be back in our reading lives soon...and we're delighted to have Sujata visiting today to talk book clubs...

 
SUJATA MASSEY: Cranberry-topped Brie. Hummus and carrots. Strawberries, assorted hot teas and a bottle of Pinot. The only items yet to add to this menu are a group of ladies and a “serious” book.

I remember joining my first book club in the late 1980s with other young single women. We had various links, but the most important was our desire the read the best books of the era and talk about them. We didn’t flinch at the cost of buying a non-discounted hardcover each month--or the evening hours needed to read these books, which we always finished on time.I’ve got less time and more expenses for which to budget, a quarter-century later. Fortunately, I’m still part of a delightful book group that meets once every few months. And I attend far more book clubs as an author guest, an honor that began occurring every now and then since I became a published writer—and because popular fiction novels with happy endings are now considered fair game. However, walking into somebody else’s living room, where everyone has an opinion, is sometimes daunting.

One of my most challenging book club visits occurred with my first novel, The Salaryman’s Wife. Shortly after I’d settled myself, one of the members began a Perry-Mason like questioning of why two characters hooked up casually while on vacation. Although the series is not erotica, this book club reader was steadfast in her belief that my book was full of sin—and I could not get away from her disapproving glare for the remaining hours of the meeting. And then, a year later, a different book club read Zen Attitude, asked why I didn’t treat gay sexuality more openly. My faith in the diversity of readers was restored.

It’s no surprise that sex comes up so much when I visit book clubs. The magic of an in-person book club is that it’s an intimate gathering that often uses a text as a springboard to discuss personal concerns. And from my own selfish perspective, I’ve found these gatherings are a good place to discuss my future book ideas with readers, taking note of plots, locations and types of characters are most intriguing to the group. Book club members have also reassured me that long novels are still popular, regardless of what professionals in the publishing industry may think. What a relief!
As times have changed, a way that I connect with book clubs around the world is by phone or computer, using programs like Skype, Google Plus and Facebook. I have to admit, though, the likelihood of screens going blank and voices fading out are so frequent when camera time is involved that it’s almost easier to just speak on a landline with the speaker on.
 
Then, there are the bookclubs where everyone stays at home: the private groups on Facebook and Goodreads, where people agree to read one book over a month’s time. While virtual book clubs can’t offer real food and drink, they are great for people who can’t make it to a real-time book club, allowing them to post their opinions whenever it’s convenient.  I love that you could be serving in Afghanistan and still belong to a virtual book club. Or in a hospital bed, commuting on the train, or trapped at your kid’s hockey game. And I’m not sure people in virtual book clubs realize how influential they are. These are the readers who are more likely to dash of a quick, useful online review of whatever they’ve read at sites like Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and Kobo. Increasingly, the voices of the book clubbers—rather than mainstream media reviewers--are what can drive books to successful heights.

I write this while in the final editing stages of my first Rei Shimura mystery in six years, The Kizuna Coast.  This novel is set in the post-tsunami world of Japan, where a newlywed Rei Shimura, plus her elderly antiques dealer mentor, and an adorable, nosy dog, are on the hunt for a young woman artist who’s gone missing. Are the cultural details right? Do the clues add up, but not so fast they spoil the read? All this will be clear after I spend time with book clubs.

 


To celebrate the launch of The Kizuna Coast, Baltimore-based mystery and historical fiction author Sujata Massey wants to be part of your book club. The first 5 readers who contact Sujata (sujatamassey at mac.com) with a plan for a scheduled book discussion in 2015 will get an e-book, trade paperback or audio MP3 download as a thank-you. Happy holidays and happy reading!

The Kizuna Coast will be available Dec 15 at amazon (paper and ebook) and in both formats everywhere else Feb 15.

Reds, tell us about your favorite book club experiences. What books have stimulated the best discussions?

Managing Time Online

LUCY BURDETTE: As you guys heard yesterday, I went seven days without email, phone, texts, and Internet last month. Seven days! Remember when none of us had any email at all? But I was nervous about it. I like staying connected. And once you get connected, you worry about what you're going to miss when you're not. But on this trip, there was no choice. So to get ready, first I unsubscribed from a lot of newsletters and promotional emails. Then I put all my yahoo groups on hold.

Then, goodbye Facebook.
 
So long Twitter.

I'll miss you Pinterest.

Don't forget me, Gmail.

Oh, what will I miss while I'm gone Jungle Reds?

During the trip, it was interesting to notice the many times when there was a pause in the action. These were times when I would've been thumbing through my email messages, my text messages, my Facebook posts, and so on. And there were plenty of times when questions came up about Cuba that ordinarily we would've Googled, but we had no Wi-Fi. No Google maps to check directions.

The experience was good in some ways: I was forced to do what the yoga teachers are always advising— stay in the moment. And it was good to realize how much time does get eaten up with all my various social media networks. And then to notice how my free time might be better spent unspooling knotty problems in the book that's due next month. Being online is a time sink!
So question for the day red, how do you manage your time online? Are the rewards worth the cost? Just don't say you're going to quit coming to the blog…

HALLIE EPHRON: We went to a nature preserve on Trinidad (the fabulous Asa Wright Center) and I remember sitting in the room, just sitting, and feeling so peaceful and centered once I'd gotten used to being disconnected. On a day to day basis, I do not manage it well at all. Oh, I know HOW to manage it. I just don't because e-mail and messages and facebook... they're like a narcotic. Worst of all, they make you feel like you're doing work when you're not. (Like now...)

RHYS BOWEN: My days have to start with email, the Facebook, then Jungle Reds, then sometimes Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon to check my stats. Only after all that can I have breakfast and start to write. The problem is that social media has been so incredibly good to me and for me. I never dreamed that I could say something and have ten thousand people respond to me instantly. One post recently got 16,000 visits. And I actually love getting feedback from my readers, hearing what their Christmas traditions are, their favorite books.

Earlier this year I was on a cruise and only checked e-mail a couple of times. I can't say I missed it or stood at the Grand Canal in Venice thinking "I wonder what's happening on Facebook now." But I've found that the one day I ignore my emails I find three messages from editor or agent saying "The printers need to know by tomorrow" or "we've had a request for an interview from xxx and they can only do it on xxx."

So I stay connected.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, Rhys, yes, the dreaded missed email. ALWAYS. And I guess I am now accepting the reality for me--that it's a part of my life that I'm not really interested in undoing. Don't get me wrong--getting control of it is a beast! Because i can so easily get lured into Facebook and Twitter and doing "one more thing!" and making one more comment--and it's fun, you know?  

I now set a writing timer, for 30 minutes, and I don't allow myself to do anything but write. Then I can check emails. That lets me relax because that I wont miss anything,but my monkey-brain won't swing off to something else until the timer dings.Then I get five minutes, and I set the timer again.
(I know--everything that's important I learned in kindergarten.) 

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  I got so far behind on email and social media when I was on book tour that I'm still trying to catch up. (Hank, you are amazing. Could you share a little Hank-being-in-a-dozen-places-at-once-ness with the rest of us, please???) Maybe I'm having such a hard time catching up because I find I don't really mind being unconnected--although I miss keeping up with my friends on Facebook and seeing what's happening on Jungle Red... But more and more often I'm taking an unofficial "internet sabbath" on Sundays, and there's a great sense of freedom in not checking my phone all day. The phone for me is a worse time-sink than the computer. Is that true for everyone else that has smart phones, too? 

Reds, how do you do it?? Tips? Nightmare stories? We'd love to hear!

Cuba: Taking things for Granted @LucyBurdette

Photo by Raymond L. Blazevic

LUCY BURDETTE: In a year of unusual experiences, we had one more last month, the opportunity to take a trip to Cuba. 


In Key West, only ninety miles from Havana, Cuba, we hear a lot about the island. In fact, frequently we read news stories about Cubans who've attempted to reach the US in a variety of homemade, unseaworthy vessels— even windsurfers. “Cubans who do not reach the shore (dry land), are returned to Cuba unless they cite fears of persecution. Those Cubans who successfully reach the shore are inspected by Department of Homeland Security and generally permitted to stay in the United States.” (Wikipedia)

Whether it’s fair or not, it saddens me when they take such a risk to attempt to make a new life, get so close, but get sent back to whatever they were running from. Or worse yet, die of exposure or rough seas. At any rate, that line of news has led us to an intense curiosity about Cuba and what life could be like for its inhabitants.

As you may know, Americans are not allowed to visit that nation on our own. However regulations have recently loosened up to allow American tourists to visit as part of an educational group. So when the chance came to travel over with the Florida Keys Tree Institute, we grabbed it.

I thought I'd share just a few things that after this trip, we realize we take for granted in our country:

We can leave the country any time we have the money and a passport.

We can start our own businesses. As Cuba is not a democracy, entrepreneurship is not officially condoned. However, the regulations about running a private business are also loosening, of course with the understanding that the government taxes them heavily. Raoul Castro apparently cares much less about the specifics of what people do than that they pay their taxes. He was aware that things had to change for the island to thrive. But the government still owns many hotels, restaurants, and museums.


We expect good food and good service in a restaurant. We ate several unimpressive meals at a government buffet or restaurant. But when we visited private restaurants, called paladars, the food was immensely superior to the government buffet. 


We expect email, and wifi and iPhone service. More about that tomorrow, but though the Cuban folks who could afford it were answering phones and checking email, we had none. Nada, nothing.


We expect roads that can be traveled and trains that run and horses on farms. In Cuba, every kind of transportation shares the road.

Mid-fifties Chrysler

In Havana all the old cars are a big draw, many of them serving as taxis or else as stages for tourist photos --for the right price of course.


  









We expect doctors to make a lot more money than waiters. In Cuba, everyone is paid the same salary regardless of their job—an amount that is roughly twenty-five dollars per month. Of course, underneath the surface is a thriving black market and system of barter. The folks who work in the tourist industry and have access to tips do much better. (And by way, we expect the same money to be used for everyone--not so in Cuba, where tourists must use a special money called "Cucs".)


We expect Hemingway's home to be in Key West! But one of my highlights was visiting Finca Vigia,

photo from Wikipedia

his Cuban oasis outside the city of Havana, where he lived for  twenty years with his fourth wife, Mary. The house is now a museum. The weather was rainy so they were not willing to open the doors and windows to risk damage to the history they are working hard to preserve. We were able to peer into the window and see the typewriter on which he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls. Also his private bathroom where he weighed himself daily and recorded the results on the wall... His fishing boat, the Pilar, was there, too. 

Photo by John Brady

Hmmm, do we expect our capital city to be in good order? The city of Havana is a complicated place, gorgeous facades still stand but many are crumbling into ruins. Many also are being restored. 




 
We expect art to be on walls in museums. One of our last stops brought us to the neighborhood of Jose Fuster, whose ceramic work pays homage to Barcelona architect Antonio Gaudi. He has gradually replaced the facades of the homes in the area with the most fantastical ceramic murals. We were enchanted!

Batista's Gold Phone

I won't try to summarize the politics and history of this island--I'm sure I could not do justice to the complications of the Spanish American war (which name our guide noted should have included Cuba, as it was fought there,) Batista's reign of terror, the Revolution, the US embargo, the emergence of the Soviet Union, the effects of the collapse of the socialist countries, the entrance of Venezuela into the picture. There is a lot of chatter about when or if the embargo will be lifted, and how a country which is way behind in terms of infrastructure and technology could handle the influx of tourists. 

 
I can say that my impression of Cuba as a land where people are suffering and waiting their chance to escape a communist dictator has many more shades of gray than expected. But I   can also say that the people were thrilled to hear Obama’s speech on immigration while we were visiting, especially this line: “We were all immigrants once.”

And I'll end with our fabulous guide Renier's steady refrain over the week: "In Cuba, everything is possible, but nothing is guaranteed." (Kind of like life, right?)