Posts
Last
night DH and I drove over to Pittsburg State University to attend the first of
this year’s Visiting Author series. We used to never miss and then life
intervened. Last year we managed to miss every single speaker. We have slipped
into a type of evening lethargy here and DH was wise to push us out for this
reading by Thomas Fox Averill.
Averill
is on staff at Washburn U in Topeka, Kansas, and he has authored several books.
His last was rode , a novel he
constructed around a favorite song of his, “Tennessee Stud”. It was a great
read and is fascinating how the author found his inspiration for a great read
from a song.
When
I got news Fox was to read from his new book, a carol dickens christmas (Fox must have an aversion to capitals!)
I was disappointed in his subject. It seems every established author hammers
out a Christmas book to garner up holiday profits for a publishing house. Also,
how many times can writers play with the work of Charles Dickens?
The
first thing the author told the audience was he worked on the book for ten years.
He explained how he researched by going even to England to experience Dickens
home and writing life. The book includes Victorian recipes that he personally
tested at home. He set the modern day story of Carol Dickens and her life in
Topeka, Kansas, a town he knew well.
Averill then began to read pages and introduce characters. I found some I liked. I
still felt the Christmas theme might be overworked, but I am interested in
Kansas settings so I listened hard. I stumped Averill after his reading when I
asked how the story of Carol Dickens might have been different in another
geographical area…what made part of the story was totally regional? He said
good question and then segued into a lot of Kansas writers are capturing the
region and suggested I visited his web site listing them. (http://www.washburn.edu/reference/cks/mapping/index.html)
Okay,
I suckered right up and bought the book. I think it will be a pleasant read if
nothing else, but I am not going to read it until closer to the holidays…an
early present to myself. I’ll let you
know how the book reads then, but I bet I'm not disappointed since it is by Thomas Fox Averill.
4 comments:
Christmas? Tell me it isn't so.
And I share your distrust of people who leap aboard the Christmas marketing train, but I am looking forward to your review of this book. In the fullness of time.
Someone posted recently:
14 weekends until Christmas.
I'm with you,I do not want to read a holiday book, yet. But that IS an interesting concept.
Nice that you have DH to push you out to literary events. I don't, so I miss a lot, especially at night. Thanks for sharing.
We have slipped into a type of evening lethargy here, TOO! (What a great way to describe it!)
Last night we watched part of the Roosevelt special on PBS. We turned it on late and only watched part of it. It WAS good and was the first of 7 parts. We tell each other we'll get the DVD when it comes out. I wonder if we actually will.
I think it's a splendid idea to hold the Averill book till a little closer to Christmas. Meeting/hearing the author usually gives a boost to reading his/her work, don't you think?
Post a Comment