And Now For the Adults: The Radiant City

I am afraid to write this review, afraid that it's meaning will slip through my grasp and fall flat. I have to head this post with a disclaimer that I am extremely fond of The Radiant City's author, Lauren B. Davis, even though we have never met in person. I reached out to her on SheWrites, and we became pen pals. After a while I felt embarrassed that I had never read her books, and only her lovely blog. I am glad that I got to know her a little bit before reading The Radiant City, because I might have been too intimidated by her excellence!

Aw shucks, Léna, she is saying.

This is a richly textured, finely crafted novel, about the festering wounds of war.

Written in the third person and in the present tense, we follow Matthew Bowles, war correspondent and journalist from a hospital in Hebron to the streets of Paris,the City of Lights, the Radiant City, where he hopes he can lose himself. He has been "rescued" by an agent who gets him a big advance to write about his experiences as a war correspondent in Bosnia, Rwanda, Hebron and more . . . but Matthew struggles to do this through drink and post-traumatic stress and meeting up with other "veterans" who share his darkness.

Davis brilliantly uses the backdrop of subterranean Paris as a map for his tortured soul. She weaves in another narrative, from the point of view of Saida, a Lebanese woman who owns a small café in Matthew's neighborhood with a son, father and brother to take care of. She has wounds of her own.

It is also an ode to the path of the artist, the writer.

"You know what Katherine Anne Porter said?" Matthew says to Saida, after having disappeared into his interior world for days, trying to write his experience and failing. "I'm paraphrasing, but basically she said that human life is pure chaos, and the job of the artist - the only thing he's good for, incidentally - is to work that confusion into order. No one understands what's happening to them as it's happening, right? So writers have to remember for other people. We have to sift through experience until our disparate selves are reconciled, and by sharing it, offer the same reconciliation to others . . . I think it's bullshit." p181

It's not bullshit, Davis wants us to know. And I'm glad, because my eyes stung with tears at times: so wrapped up was I in the atmosphere of color and pain that Davis depicted. Obviously, I recommend this book without hesitation and am giving it 5 stars on Good Reads!

LOVE NOTES with Jen

I am loving this social networking, this communing on the internet, this finding of like-minded souls - how else would I have received a LOVE NOTE from Jen Violi, another writer/kindred spirit in Portland, Oregon? We have many degrees of internet separation that connect us:

1) I discovered Lauren B. Davis, on SheWrites, and started following her extremely well written, thought-provoking and soulful blogs. I ended up writing to her and now we're modern day pen pals, 2) Lauren suggested I friend one of her friends, another debut YA writer hailing from Seattle named Lish McBride, (Hold Me Closer, Necromancer - fall, 2010) DID IT, (and might I use this as a platform to beg Lish to get thee a website? With her coolth, quirkiness, humor and intelligence, I have very high expectations!) 3) Lish in turn suggested I friend her friend from her MFA program in New Orleans called Jen Violi, who is ALSO a debut YA writer with a book coming out in summer 2011. Putting Make-up on Dead People. (You see, these gals are much funnier than I am!) Granted, we are getting to know each other through Facebook, but how else would we get to know each other I ask you? We even play Lexulous . . .

Now, besides being a writer, Jen has come up with some creative and I must say ENVIABLE side businesses, such as coaching, weddings, (did I ever tell you how I almost became an interfaith minister?) and theses inimitable LOVE NOTES. I'm clunking myself on the head I tell you: why didn't I think of this? She writes "Give yourself or someone you love the gift of fun, tangible mail combined with a reminder and encouragement to take a moment and reconnect to a place deep within."

I came back from Myrtle Beach to a Love Note from Jen. Inside a beautiful card was a packet of Forget-me-nots, and the charge to TRUST IN GROWTH. And it worked, yes it did! It made me feel all warm and fuzzy and helped soothe the cranky beast inside. Her concept of LOVE NOTES aligns with the philosophy I try my best to practice: seeing the glass half full and looking for the best in everyone, INCLUDING MYSELF! If I need constant reminders that the Source is all around me, then I'm sure many others do. We need all the help (and LOVE) we can get!

So take a little trip to Jen's website and check this out for yourself!

EDGES: ARC show & tell

How to celebrate hard work coming to fruition? Carry around bound galley and show to absolutely everyone you meet! (I would go get a pedicure, but all three kids need new shoes!) My first stop was breakfast with the fabulous Lila Castle who brought along her ARC of The Star Shack to show me. We cooed and oohed and ahhed over each other's babies as any other mother would do. It's so wonderful to be able to share this experience with Lila! I've also had a really fun experience on Facebook, where friend Lauren B. Davis suggested another friend Lish McBride from Seattle because we both have YA books coming out next fall. We've had a great time getting to know each other in cyber-land, and she got her ARC's about a week before mine!

Next stop in my Lit.Life was home to write a scene for my new book. I should have stayed out, because the bed (my office) was too comfortable, I couldn't help closing my eyes . . .

And as you know, Monday is also Megday, so I woke myself up to run to a different Starbucks to meet her . . . and she shared my excitement about the ARC. The ARC! It's been YEARS of struggling with self doubt about my choice to heed the call to practice the art of writing, and I am doing everything I can to set up my life so I can keep at it! My eyes are watering . . . I am SO grateful!

I will leave you with my favorite piece of writer advice this week, from Margaret Atwood, via Lauren B. Davis:

"You most likely need a thesaurus, a rudimentary grammar book, and a grip on reality. This latter means: there's no free lunch. Writing is work. It's also gambling. You don't get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but ­essentially you're on your own. ­Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don't whine."

Tomorrow, Tuesday: READ ACROSS AMERICA at my friend Steve Evangelista's school, Harlem Links, with friends Elizabeth Winthrop and Courtney Sheinmel!