Synopsis:

At thirty-two, newspaper reporter Molly Hacker vows to never attend another wedding until she has had her own. And that’s a problem because Molly’s younger sister, Hannah, is going to be married in one year. Armed with snark, wit, and fabulous good looks, “Picky Molly” embarks on a quest to find Mr. Right in her hometown, Swansea, an elegant bedroom community of NYC.

Things get complicated fast. In no time at all, Molly has four “men of interest” and the memories of a lost love to send her overanalytic, befuddled mind into serious overdrive. Determined not to let her “helpful” girlfriends help her right out of another relationship, Molly tries to keep mum on the state of her love life. Her BFF male coworker, Randy, becomes her closest confidant as he stumbles over romantic issues with his new Mr. Right, Kyle. Meanwhile, Molly’s BFF gal pals aren’t too happy about being left out of the loop.

Tweaking Molly’s last nerve is the town’s most visible socialite, Naomi Hall-Benchley. For self-serving reasons, Naomi is hell-bent on setting up “Picky Molly Hacker,” and she doesn’t care who she has to manipulate or hurt to do it. Just how far will she go?

“Molly Hacker Is Too Picky!” takes the reader on a yearlong romp through Molly’s mind and a joyride through her life. Her dating life, town secrets, a group of quirky, crazy characters, and Naomi’s machinations collide head-on at a holiday gala that will change the social landscape of Swansea forever. As the New Year rolls in, Molly gets earth-shattering news. Can she go on? Will life ever return to abnormal again?

Review:

I loved this book. I tried to think of another way to start this review, but that is the overwhelming thing that comes to mind. Reading Molly Hacker Is Too Picky! is like getting together with an old friend you haven’t seen for a while and catching up on all that has happened in her life during the past year. You know the experience… two friends sitting down over coffee, refilling cups a few times, but then ultimately gabbing as the coffee turns stone-cold. People nearby are muttering because you’ve held down the best table in the joint for hours and show NO signs of moving on. And when you pull out your phone as the conversation winds down, you’re shocked to find that so much time has passed, I mean, really, you only started talking half an hour ago, right?

Molly Hacker, reporter for the Swansea Herald, is very single when the book opens, attending a wedding with her best-friend Tony whom she has always been in love with, but he happens to be married to his high school sweetheart. She is still trying to get over a broken heart from her last relationship with Leo, but is having a difficult time with it. And friends, family, and enemies are NOT helping. In fact, the helping hand of friends, while not responsible for the end of her last relationship, gave it a good shove in that direction. But with her nemesis, Naomi Hall-Benchley, Molly’s single status is a challenge, and she considers Molly’s say in the matter immaterial. As we romp through this romantic comedy, Molly winds up juggling no less than four men, in the small community of Swansea where everybody knows everybody else’s business and considers it their own. That’s not a feat most women (or men) could pull off. *Whispers* And Molly is no different.

Maybe one of the reasons I connected so well with this book is that like Molly Hacker, I took my time to find the right guy. Before I took the trip down matrimony lane, I wanted someone I fully connected with, someone who wasn’t second-best or settled for. Because I knew that was a recipe for a quick trip through divorce court. I also had the pressure from friends and family (although thankfully none from my mother) about when I’d finally settle down. And like Molly, I didn’t give my heart easily, but when I did, it was completely.

Brodey does a fantastic job with the characters, even down to Molly’s cat, Captain Jack. I expected no less because last year I read, Squalor New Mexico, and thoroughly enjoyed Brodey’s character development in that book. Randy was an instant fave and the banter between him and Molly is priceless. The only one who borders on caricature is Naomi Hall-Benchley, and it works and I believe is deliberate… and haven’t we all had a Naomi in our life in one way or another?

My life has been in hyper-busy mode of late, and there appears to be no end in sight on the to-do list, so I thought I’d read Molly Hacker Is Too Picky! a chapter a night before going to sleep. Yes, it’d take me longer to read, but at least I’d feel like I made progress with it since it is something I have been wanting to read prior to its release. Well, as things go, one chapter turned into two, and two into three, and so on. Molly Hacker Is Too Picky! cost me some precious hours of sleep, but it was well worth the resultant bags under the eyes. And before I conclude and tell you that you’ll be missing out on a great romantic comedy if you skip this one, Molly has been blogging for the past year on her website and the posts are just as charming and engaging as the book, with illustrations created for each post. It is well worth a read and a comment or two. Stop by and check it out. And below is Molly as she raps about her experiences. So??? What are you waiting for? Pick up a copy of Molly Hacker Is Too Picky! or put it on your to-be-read list today.

I do not remember the last time I read a comic book or graphic novel.  I wasn’t much of a comic geek back in the day, although I did enjoy my Garfield and Far Side collections in between classes in junior high, and occasionally read Archie just because my best friend did.  But when Ellen Lindner queried us with her graphic novel, Undertow, I jumped at the chance to read it because it was something different.

The description of the book on Lulu reads as follows: Undertow by Ellen Lindner gives us a close-up view through the back door of Brooklyn in the sixties—with all the delinquency, drugs, and trips to Coney Island that implies. Beautifully drawn in sinuous, sharp style, Lindner’s characters, and their fight to do more than survive, are unforgettable.

This description is also printed on the back of the book as a quote from Jessica Abel, author of La Perdida and Artbabe.  The quote is a good sell, but is correct in stating that much of these themes are only implied.  The delinquency and drugs portion are only briefly explored or mentioned, and were not issues that I drew out of the theme on my own.  The story follows a girl named Rhonda who seems a bit bored with the events life has recently handed her.  Her mother is an alcoholic, her best friend has just drowned, and her brother is not very sympathetic.

Like many comics, the storyline plays out as if you are overhearing a conversation from another room.  You are only treated to the important parts and must fill in the gaps in between for yourself.  The visual appeal of drawings definitely helps and entertains, but I felt some of the characters lacked introductions and overall substance.  For instance, there’s a social worker who wants to help Rhonda, but his storyline doesn’t seem very important to Rhonda’s conflict until the very end.  Also, Rhonda is present when her friend, Estelle, goes missing but does not seem too upset about it in the next chapter. Instead, she acts a bit like a zombie and is distracted with textbooks and choosing a career. Unfortunately, I didn’t really embrace Rhonda as a heroin in the story.

However, I did embrace Lindner’s vision of a 1950′s New York.  Coney Island is a magnificent setting for parts of the story, and my only regret is that I couldn’t see Lindner’s work in color.  The entire book is in black and white. The scenes on the beach when Estelle goes missing and later when Rhonda is hanging out with her friends and playing cards are quite beautiful and Lindner has done an excellent job of portraying emotion in her characters. Throughout the book Rhonda occupies herself by practicing the Cha Cha, and there is a nighclub scene full of vivid attention to detail.

It is obvious from reading Undertow and from looking at   Lindner’s website that she is a genious when it comes to her talent, and I definitely look forward to seeing and reading more from her. She is a brilliant illustrator and deserves much success.  If you can appreciate a good classic comic, then Undertow is definitely worth a look.

You can view a preview of Undertow at WebComics Nation.

Or leave a comment on this review if you’d like to win a copy of Undertow.  One lucky reader will be drawn at random.  The winner will be announced on August 8th. U.S. residents only.

I had the pleasure of reading Robert Toonkel’s book, Chappaqua, in August as part of our Back to School focus.  Just yesterday, I noticed Robert’s book had gone live on Amazon since the review.  I decided to cross post our review to his Amazon page and also noticed the book had a new cover.

I was so impressed by it I decided to email Robert to let him know about the review and to congratulate him on the new cover.  Robert quickly replied to let me know what’s happened to Chappaqua since it was reviewed here at LLBR.  His news immediately put a smile on my face and is a quick reminder of what POD and this blog is all about.  I’d like to share Robert’s email with you now…

Shannon:

I keep meaning to e-mail you to update you and other Lulu Book Review readers on where Chappaqua has gone since you so kindly reviewed it. I’m not sure how you find the time to do your regular job, publicize Stealing Wishes, write, and review all those books. I can barely find the hours to handle the first two of those.

There have been so many times where I’ve just wanted to put Chappaqua away with the publisher rejection letters it received, but as I know you felt with your book, I couldn’t let go of the time and effort I had put into it. So I’ve been self-promoting like crazy, borrowing some ideas from your blog (Thanks!), adding some of my own. I don’t know where Katie Fitzpatrick is going to go from this point, but regardless, I can say that I’ve basically done everything I could for her.

Just some of the things I’ve done – you’ve done a bunch of these – but in that case, I just want to reiterate how helpful they are:

Lulu – Sure, Lulu doesn’t have the reach of Amazon or Barnes & Noble, but it isn’t a dead end either. Chappaqua went from the 30,000th best selling book in September to the top 3,000th in December, placing in the top 100 one week. I’m not going to get rich off the royalties, but people are buying it. And more than a dozen people (more than half of them unknown to me) were kind enough to write reviews.
Cover – You have a brilliant idea with helping to design covers. I paid a college girl $200 to design Chappaqua’s current cover and it says so much more than the quick one I did “just to put a cover on it.” No one has to pay a “professional designer” thousands of dollars to make a cover. But a small investment will go a very, very long way.
Amazon Kindle – I haven’t sold a single copy in the ten days it has been on the site, but having it out there offers potential (and also makes it more legitimate). Telling someone your book is on Amazon is instant recognition.
Facebook – In August, I gave Chappaqua a Facebook page – which has gathered more than 100 fans and 2,000 views. A great way to keep people in the loop about the latest developments, and also to publicize events and happenings.
A “Trailer” – Not as hard as it seems. Download Google’s “Picasa 3,” arrange a series of photos with text, put it to music and put it up on the web. It can be done in under two hours, even by someone as design-impaired as me. It’s on the Facebook page. Several hundred people have viewed it.
A “Baby Book” – Photos of Chappaqua’s development from the original idea to the current edition. Posted as an album on Facebook. People love to see the nuts and bolts behind the finished product, and understand that a book, like Rome, wasn’t built in a day.
A Website – I bought a domain for less than $10 a year, use a simple web-building tool, and gave Chappaqua a website (www.chappaquanovel.com). Everything you need to know about the book, with a sample, pictures, reviews (including a link back to you), and thanks to PayPal, an easy way for people to order the book directly. I set it all up in less than a day. More legitimacy.
Publicity – I’ve used a printing company for Valentine’s Day and Christmas cards in the past, so I turned to them to make postcards, bookmarks and small (11×17) posters for Chappaqua. They turned out to be very valuable for…
Local Bookstores – I went to the local bookstore in Chappaqua and offered them a chance to be the only storefront to carry the book. I told them I would put their name on the postcards and bookmarks. They grudgingly agreed to take 5 copies on consignment for 60 days. Those sold in 59 days. They asked for 5 more. Those sold in 6 days. They asked for 13 more. Those sold out in a weekend. They have the postcards and bookmarks at the checkout counter and people become interested. Recently, they expanded the “few books on a shelf” into a complete display. (A side note: I had offered the book to a second local bookstore and was told that they did not accept POD books under any circumstances. Three months later, they called me to ask for a dozen books because people kept coming in and asking for it to the point that they had created a waiting list).
Libraries – My local library scheduled a book talk about Chappaqua for 19 December. Unfortunately, New York was hit with a massive snowstorm that day, so it was postponed until 19 March. According to the program director at the library, a few members of the media had called to make arrangements. The library is another place where I left postcards and bookmarks.
“A Press Kit” – Bio, press release and one-pager on the book. As a communications person by trade, I can vouch for the importance of this.
A Unique Angle – It goes without saying that you have to explain what makes your book different/special than anything out there. I’ve come up with a unique way of talking about Chappaqua to people who don’t read books or who lie well beyond my target audience. When my fourth grade teacher invited me to speak to her class, I brought up some of the facts from this section of the Chappaqua page (http://mysite.verizon.net/res11mw5h/id71.html) to their attention. They might not be interested in the subject, but they’re always amazed that I know how many times I used certain words, which leads to creative exercises like trying to write a paragraph without using “the” or avoiding words that begin with “s.” Then they go home and tell their parents about this interesting lesson they had. It also gives adults an interesting fact to remember. In the long run it might be worthless, but I think it’s fun.

That’s where Chappaqua stands as of now. Who knows what will happen in 2009?

Thanks again for your e-mail, your review and all your efforts to promote books such as Chappaqua. I hope 2009 brings you all kinds of good things for Stealing Wishes and for the new novel that you’ve been mentioning from time to time.

Rob

When I read the part about what happened in the bookstores, a smile came across my face!  It just goes to show what word of mouth can do for your book right in your own community.  Congratulations to Rob on his success!

Visit Chappaqua on the web!

Become a fan of Chappaqua on Facebook!

Tell us briefly about your essay entitled “What I Saw That Day” which is currently available as a free download on Lulu.

When I first moved to Hollywood and started classes at the University of Southern California, one of my first assignments was to write an essay. I had written about September 11^th before then, and in fact once blogged about it when I maintained a blog on MySpace, but I expanded that account for my class. It was a bit of a personal achievement to do so; I had just moved out of my family’s house, where I’d lived since I moved back home shortly after that day.

In the essay, you mention that you did not “mentally record” that day since you, like all of us, had no idea how different that day would end up being. Do you find yourself now, seven years later, recalling more or less about that day?

I think I have to say more, if only because, to write the essay, I revisited those memories in ways I hadn’t before. Not to be melodramatic about it, but I remember that, as I wrote what would become the version I published, I had to do so in portions, with frequent breaks, because I cried a lot. It was cathartic, in a way, and in another it brought up a lot of memories I hadn’t revisited in a long time. I don’t know that I actively blocked them, but I realized as I wrote it that there were certain aspects that I hadn’t given thought to, perhaps sensing that they were too painful.

You also mention how your employer’s front desk attendants just waved you by that morning without checking your ID, but never again after that. What else has changed for you on a personal or professional level that sticks out in your mind now?

God, where to start there? I mean, what hasn’t changed, really? On a personal level, I moved back home, stayed for five years while overcoming depression, then drove cross-country to study, and now live in Denver. On a professional level, I taught and trained, then edited, and then went back to school, and then again became a professional writer.

But I think what’s more important is what I see has changed on greater levels. For example, I think we, as a country, are more naïve now than before. That might seem counterintuitive, but before that day, I think we would have laughed at a color-coded emergency-response system. I think we would have been outraged at the idea of illegal wiretapping, and I think we would have, rightly, run our collective leaders right out of office (I mean, heck, we impeached one guy for a blowjob, but not another for misleading our country into war?). I think that day was the first time we, as a nation, realized we could be hurt, that we are, in fact, mortal, and I think it scared the hell out of us, and I think we’re still recovering from it. Now, the people who attacked us are still at large, and we’ve demonstrated our utter inefficacy to fight them on a massive scale.

You couldn’t see the building from where you worked so you watched it on television like most of us. Do you remember the last time you might have seen the towers before that day, or the first time you saw Ground Zero after it? What did you think or feel?

I’m not sure I do. I remember one night a friend of mine and I went dancing until dawn, and I remember we watched them golden in the sunrise on our way home. I remember actually being inside the towers a few times, but then only on the concourse.

The first time I saw Ground Zero was one of the last days I was in Manhattan, and all I remember is that it looked like a construction site, complete with a chain-link fence and black plastic sheeting in places. The next time I saw it, I did so from inside, at the new PATH/subway station.

You mention your dreams being haunted by Nostradamus’ predictions mentioned in a book called The World Book of Knowledge? Did you experience any dreams like that after 9/11? Do you still today?

I did, in fact, and yes, I do. I never thought of those dreams as precognitive; I think what happened was that, as I grew older, I started to associate anything that gives me anxiety with what scared me most as a child. I don’t have those sorts of dreams often, but usually they come when I’m in a lot of stress, for whatever reason.

Describe to us again your emotions when you stepped out of your office building that day to venture home. What did you see or hear or smell? Briefly describe your surroundings or the people around you.

I didn’t see or hear much. What I still remember is that it was so quiet. I was on Madison Avenue, and I started walking west on 40^th street with a coworker and her husband, and I remember most the preternatural stillness. I’m sure there were other people around, but it was like all of Manhattan was a church or a library or a funeral. And I remember the way it smelled. In Manhattan, there’s always construction going on somewhere, and it smells gritty and dusty, and that’s what I remember.

Obviously, this essay is very personal to you. When you go back and read it now, what do you think about or what catches your attention?

Honestly, what I think about is that it still feels inadequate. I don’t know; maybe one day, in the near or distant future, I’ll figure out why, and how to change that, and I’ll revise it. But for now . . . it’s such a massive thing, both in my life and in the global sense, and it doesn’t feel adequate. I’m not sure it feels like I did it justice, or if justice is possible. Like the essay says, it’s the best I’ve got.

One sentence in the essay that caught my attention is the following: It was the first time in my entire life I felt like the best I had to offer wasn’t enough. How have you changed since then?

Well, partly, at least, I’ve come to realize that sometimes the best you’ve got isn’t good enough, but trying anyway is important. That old cliché that the journey is more important than the destination. That I may not be completely happy with the essay, as it stands, because how could I be, but I still gave my all to writing it, and hundreds of people have read it, and that’s got to count for something, I think. Often, I think, too, it counts for everything.

As writers, we often hear to write what we know. Has that day affected your writing in any other way?

It has, in fact. It shaped my novel, The Prodigal Hour, which I wrote as my thesis at USC. It originally didn’t, but I realized, about a year before I started school, that I had to set my novel, that I needed a concrete place and time for it to have occurred. This was not long after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, and I started to realize that I couldn’t just keep revising the novel after every major historical disaster. That I had to focus it in. I set it, then, on Halloween 2001, and realized that the main character, Chance Sowin, had a past and background somewhat similar to my own; moved back home just a month or so after the attacks. He was older, then, than I was at the time, and it was never really autobiographical, semi- or otherwise, but finally settling on that concrete time and place opened the novel up in ways I’d never seen before.

And I’m very proud of the result. Because, as it’s a time-travel novel, it’s not just a post-9/11 novel but also a pre-9/11 novel. A lot of the novel, in fact, occurs on 9/10, and all that really helped me to figure out how to tell the story.

Now, however, it also shapes it because, though it helped me write that story, I am now conscious of it. Those events figure into one of the short stories in my collection, too, and I’m now perhaps too much aware that I don’t want to be that guy who’s always writing about September 11^th, which makes me consciously try not to. I’m not yet sure how that will affect anything, as I only just finished my novel.

Tell us about the proceeds you donate from the sale of this essay. How is that working for you? Also, tell us about your plans to blog this essay on the anniversary tomorrow.

Lulu tracks very well, and in fine detail, what has sold, and how. Basically, when I published my book, I pledged one dollar from every sale, as well as all the proceeds from the essay itself, to the United Way NYC. I chose the United Way, by the way, mainly because it benefited all of Manhattan, and because, as I grew up, my father volunteered often for them.

When I first published the book, I planned to make the donation that following September. However, life intervened; I got a job teaching at USC, gave up my MySpace blog, and, for a while, took my collection off the market. All that mainly because I was just learning how to be both a teacher and a writer, and my students were my first priority. Because of the teaching, and also because the book was no longer available, I didn’t make that donation last year.

I’m changing that this year. I’m still teaching, but I think I’m learning ways to balance writing and teaching, and I feel comfortable doing both now. This year, I’m making the massive push I would have wanted to last year. This year, for the entire month of September, I’m pledging all sales of the download of my collection, as well as two dollars from every sale of the hard copy, to the United Way, for whom I will write a check at the end of November (the delay because it takes a while to track the sales and such).

So what I’m planning is to make everyone aware what’s going on, and post the essay to my blog on this year’s anniversary. Because one of the reasons I wrote the essay was my belief that it’s a worthwhile story to share, that it’s both cathartic and therapeutic to talk about it, and for people to know about it. For people to hear an account from someone who was, in a way, there, and in another way, not (as you noted, I watched it on television, just like everyone else, despite that I was actually in Manhattan). I don’t know if reading about my experience will make a difference, but it might, and so I feel like I have that obligation. And given that feeling, I think it’s worth posting, and making available, free. But also given the nature of it, that afore-mentioned feeling of inadequacy, I think a small donation can make a world of difference, not just for those who receive it but also in those who donate it. So, basically, it’s my way of giving back, of contributing, and it’s my way of giving other people a chance to do so, as well.

Which is why I’m so deeply grateful to everyone who’s contributed, whether by donating money or time. Together, I think we’re making a great difference. To each other, and to the world.

Visit Will in the World at his blog right here on WordPress to read the essay and to learn more about Will as an author.

]]> http://llbookreview.com/2008/09/911-an-interview-with-will-entrekin/feed/ 0 http://llbookreview.com/2008/02/review-2-intriguing-entrekin/ http://llbookreview.com/2008/02/review-2-intriguing-entrekin/#comments Sat, 01 Mar 2008 04:23:58 +0000 Shannon Yarbrough http://lulubookreview.wordpress.com/?p=18 Entrekin
by Will Entrekin
Copyright: © 2008

I was expecting

to eat myself small

and drink myself huge

but didn’t realize

I was already just the right size.

The day my letter comes, I’ll be expecting to open that envelope and find it addressed to Author. But it won’t be. It will say Dear Mr. Entrekin (that’s me)…

Somewhere, somewhen, there is a letter, and it is addressed to me. I just worry that all the rest will be addressed to ‘Author’, and I’m tired of opening the mail.

My crummy little Jersey City apartment. Baldwin Avenue. Near Journal Square. Mohammed Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers, lived less than a mile from me.

The sometimes poet, the editor of the literary magazine: everything short of the tweed jacket with the elbow patches, basically.

I wonder if my breath caught the World Trade Center and won’t let it go.

It is getting more difficult, then, to separate the wheat from the chaff.  Google can sometimes help, but not always.