I’ve been saying for months that I was planning to revive Alvah’s Books and I think I got my groove back. Two reviews in a week. Not bad. Although I would like to get it to three reviews a week, but I think I’m pushing my luck.

Why did I let Alvah’s Books lapse? Writing book reviews is not an easy task. It’s work. And because I aggressively outreached to so many publishers, I got on many mailing lists and received many books. Too many books. So many books that it would take a lifetime or two to read them. But truth be told, I simply burned myself out on reading tome after tome for Alvah’s Books and for publications that pay.

But I’m back to it for Alvah’s Books, for HAND/EYE Magazine, and now for Kirkus Reviews (well, it will be my first review and it’s a nice publication to have under the belt). But back to Alvah’s Books, the two most recent reviews are up, and you can read my impressions of Jonathan Rabb’s The Second Son and Rebecca Cantrell’s A Trace of Smoke.

What’s on the burner for right now? I’m currently reading Triangle: The Fire that Changed America by David von Drehle. If you follow me on Facebook, you’ve seen my posts about this tragedy. Why am I so intrigued by it? Several reasons ranging from an interest in New York City history specifically my beloved Lower East Side, but also the birth of industry reforms for safety and labor laws. So it’s all related to my obsessions of when the Left actually had some power to make important things happen.

After Triangle, I have a towering pile of books to go through, as well as a long list of ebooks to be read and then decide which one will be lucky to be scrutinized. Now what I learned about reading for review, especially if you’re doing it for the fun of it, is to not to be so strict with yourself. My first year with Alvah’s Books, I was trying to get as many books under my belt and writing what would be upcoming that it suddenly became a chore. Then I got into this habit of reading books that I considered so-so and not bothering to review them, which then moved on to not finishing them at all.

And that goes against my maxim of book reviewing. You simply don’t read and review the good books only. If you have an audience and they’re curious about a certain book, you have to provide them the good, the bad, and the ugly. Of course, the books I’m not wild about you can tell by my lackluster writing, which typically means I didn’t want to write the review in the first place.

In any event, Alvah’s Books was meant to be a fun and interesting exercise in reading and writing book reviews, and I hope to return to that original goal. In the next few weeks, I’ll be making some changes to the site (no, I am not changing the theme or the look. I learned the hard way of screwing around with the design the first time I did that). It will just be more resource stuff and some cleaning out of old posts that no longer matter (like old NYT bestselling lists).

Okay, back to David von Drehle’s Triangle

It’s been a while since I posted anything on Alvah’s Books, and I have a huge stack of books to read and review. Most of these are for pleasure, and some are from publicists have asked me to review the books. As the pile gets taller, I start to feel overwhelmed. Reading and writing a review feels more like schoolwork. However, I’ve been chastising myself for months for not getting back to Alvah’s Books and it’s time that I start reviewing on a regular basis. So that being said, I’ve  reviewed Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny. Please visit Alvah’s Books to read the review.

And since I am in this revival mode, I figure it’s time to develop some sort of editorial calendar. I have four books on the blacklist that need to be read and reviewed (also serves as research). Plus two introductory primers on Marxism (thankfully, they’re very short), one on the Spanish Civil War by Paul Preston, a book on the Rosenberg case, and Russell Kirk’s The Conservative Mind (that will take the longest 500+ pages). After that I’ll focus on some literary fiction before I delve back to any special interests.

I guess better start reading. First on the list: Dorothy Healey Remembers: A Life in American Communist Party, by Dorothy and Maurice Isserman.

Sounds a little like the undead, doesn’t it? Late January I received an email from an author’s assistant asking if I was interested to review her boss’s book; the first thing I looked at was who published it and what were the initial reviews. I’ve been very picky about certain publishers, but when I saw it had been reviewed by Publishers Weekly I figured the publisher was an indie, so I emailed back and said to send it.

I won’t write about the specifics of the story, but I will address the writing. It’s terrible. The grammar is a mess and the research is sloppy.  I was dismayed the reviewer from Publishers Weekly liked the book, but didn’t comment at all about the writing.  So I did a little research on the publisher (which I should have done right from the start, shame on me).  When I looked at the site, I couldn’t tell whether it was a vanity press or not, but after some digging I found Writers Beware. If you go to the post dated March 18, 2009, you’ll get the answer about the publisher and why it appeared in PW.

I don’t want to be too hard on self-published authors because they have completed their books, while I still struggle with Julius. We all know all about the agony, the self-doubt, the insecurity that comes with writing a book. Kudos to those who have slaved over every word; debated the use of a semi-colon or a period; know the difference between passive voice and the past perfect progressive, and so forth.

But I will be hard on writers who don’t understand the basics of editing, and who take short-cuts to getting published with a vanity press.  Here’s my advice: Don’t do it. They just want your money.

Make your novel perfect and exhaust every possibility to get published the traditional way. In other words, workshop it. Revise, revise, revise. Workshop it again. Revise, revise, revise. When it’s reached the point that you don’t know how to rework it–and you can afford it–go to a professional editor–one that does both developmental and line edits.  Make the suggested changes. Once you’re done, it’s time for the dreaded query letter and contacting agents. When you’ve received at least a hundred rejections that’s when you might want to consider the self-publishing route–personally, I would either have a blog and post it or do a podcast of your book-but if you choose the self-pub path, research all the presses.

Finally, if you insist on self-publishing without following any of the advice from above, don’t be too surprised when you read a bad review. You could have spared yourself the embarrassment if you had taken more time to think through every chapter, paragraph, sentence, and word. Not every story deserves to be published–believe me, I know–no matter what Mom, the wife, or your kids say (support from the family is good, but you need to be more critical of your own work).

Wow. I’ve motivated myself. Maybe I should read poorly written books more often, and follow my own advice.

Author Nancy J. Parra, one of my Facebook pals, recently posted on her blog, “Resolution–Read.” She writes that as a child she was a voracious reader, reading up to six books a week, but as an adult she’s been reading less, using her spare time to write. For 2010 her resolution is:

To rediscover reading with abandon. I have to read for my Master’s program, but my goal is to read more than that. My goal is to read all the books on my shelf, to read as many debut novels as possible, to read in as many genre’s as possible. In essence, my one resolution this year is to read in hopes of finding the lost joy, the lost wonder and bring it back into my life.  

Fortunately for me I read a lot because of Alvah’s Books, but I understand Nancy’s laments about using her free time to write. Last night, I sat down with my electronic calendar and alloted time for freelance work, writing Julius, this blog, exercise, ESL, French and Photoshop. Where does reading fit in? Not sure yet, but it is a priority.

One of my reading goals for 2010  is to read the two dozen writing books I have collected in the past three years. Today I started Jill Dearman’s Bang the Keys, which according to the back cover it is:

A writing workshop in a book for the concentration-challenged, twenty-first century writer. Bang the Keys brings an irreverant, effective, and erudite approach to the craft and practice of writing. Based on eternal principles that work for scribes of all stripes, this practical compendium contains energetic and original ideas for writers who have become masters at setting their own mind traps. 

Sounds like a perfect fit.  Thus, this week’s reading agenda  is to finish Bang the Keys–I’ll provide a review of it on Alvah’s Books. Moving forward, I’ll read the mighty Writer’s Digest books on craft and review those as well.

Now off to revise chapter three of Julius.

I hadn’t realized that today is December 30th until I started paying some overdue bills. Somehow my head was stuck that it was December 28th and I still had loads of time to do some projects. Um, I don’t think so on that count.

Therefore today’s post is what I hope 2010 will promise in terms of this new writing career.  Back in mid-August, I wrote that I wanted to complete a bunch of goals by, uh, tomorrow.

As gung-ho as I felt about reaching those goals when I wrote that post, I realize now that they were unrealistic to complete in four and one-half months, especially finishing  a novel that needs numerous changes and finding an agent. 

The one goal that did come through–quitting PR–did materialize and I’m thankful for the way it happened. The programs for the year ended and I had a graceful out, and I’m happy with that because I choose not to be in this profession any longer.

I admit I’m nervous, but I know I can pull it off. It’s going to take an aggressive attitude–more so than when I was working in PR. I have to come up with fresh story ideas, query and pitch them, and write. Of course I have other goals as well. They include making Alvah’s Books a better book review site and offer more articles other than reviews; complete my ESL certificate; bone up on my French; learn Photoshop (I have a coffee table book in mind), and of course, finish Julius and get it published.

As for this blog, my goal is to post daily. I’ve discovered that every day I write about my writing trials and tribulations, I spend more time working on Julius. Now that I have an audience, a small one, but, nevertheless a select group of readers,  I feel accountable to them and I’ll write here everyday, to let you all know of my progress and what I’ve learned. I’m sure that a lot of what I will write has been written before in other writers’ blogs, but, maybe, I might bring up a new point of view.

Of course I can’t predict the future, but with a lot of smart planning, goal setting, and not getting (too) distracted 2010 promises to be the year my writing career successfully takes off.

As a writer I read quite a bit. Partly because I write freelance book reviews and I’m also the editor and publisher of Alvah’s Books, but I read to write better. Currently, I have several stacks of books to review for two other review sites and/or publications and for Alvah’s Books; I have to admit that I am a little overwhelmed by all the books I have to read and then sit down to write a review.  I love to read, but recently this great affection has turned a little into a chore. In spite of how I feel, every evening I settle in bed with a stack of books and read a few pages here and there, until I settle on one book to complete.

What am I currently reading? First, let’s start with I recently finished. On the top of the list is Frank Bruni’s Born Round.  For those not familiar with Bruni, he’s the former restaurant reviewer from The New York Times. This is his memoir about his trials and tribulations of eating, gaining weight and losing it.  There are several laugh out loud sections in Bruni’s book, at least I thought so. Review will appear soon on Alvah’s Books.

 Next completed book was Barbara Ehrenreich’s Bait and Switch. This one should be of interest to laid-off white collar workers who are going through the misery of job counseling and networking and not getting anywhere. Ehrenreich can come across as sharp with her analysis of career coaches who supposedly know the ins and outs of the job search, but she’s not off-base with her observations. I found myself nodding in agreement that a lot of the job search charade is nothing but horse-shit.  Finding a job in today’s market (and this was written in 2005) for a well-educated, middle-aged laid off executive is a crap shoot. It doesn’t amount much to talent or experience, it’s being whereever you need to be at the right time and right place (and if you’re younger and and have a cheaper salary history, even better).

Now to the current reading list. The big book that I’m slogging through is Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream  by Leonard Zeskind. For anyone interested in this topic, Zeskind does a great job of providing a comprehensive history of the white supremacist movement.

I’ve laid off requesting advance copies from publishers because of my back log, but I today I recently purchased the third and final book of Steig Larsson’s Millenium trilogy The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. I plunked down the $26.00 and now I have to patiently wait until it gets in my hot little hands. I have a feeling once it arrives, I’ll be pulling a 24 hour read-a-thon.

I could list the other 50 or so books, but the guilt of not getting to them will be too much to bear. Many of those are novels and I’m discovering that I’m getting fussier about fiction than non-fiction. Does that have anything to do that I consider myself a novelist and I’m critical of some the plot devices, character development, dialogue and whatnot? Can’t really say. With the exception of a few novels I’ve read this year, I can’t say that I’ve been wowed by many and perhaps that’s why I’ve been dragging my heels recently. Hopefully that ennui will wear off soon.

Now time to settle in with those nasty white supremacists.