Manic Frustration “If I do not write to empty my mind, I go mad.” ~Lord Byron

A new year means more writing and much more reading. Last year, I squeezed in 32 books. I even had time to review some of them on Goodreads. That site has been extraordinarily helpful with finding new reading material. Books I never would have found have been suggested to me or I've found them by chance. My "to read" list grows by the day. Below is what I devoured in 2012 with links to reviews, if I happened to write one, and where you can pick it up.

At January's Prose in Pubs, Gale Martin read from her recently published book Don Juan in Hankey, PA. That night, she elicited boisterous laughter and applause from her all-too hysterical characterization of Leandro Vasquez, the chauvinistic gaucho-turned-opera-star and hope of  the floundering Hankey opera house.

As Martin read, I was rolling with every instance of humor and wit. It was unfortunate, then, when the book did not live up to my expectations.

There is a great story within Don Juan and some incredibly interesting characters, but the problems I encountered with the book detracted so much from the good that I found it hard to read at points and, at other times, slow and plodding.

What I believe suffers Don Juan the most is premature publishing. It seems that very little time was spent revising and editing the manuscript to tighten it up. Just when the flow of the story becomes comfortable and you settle into the world of Hankey and its opera house misfits, the writing becomes profuse. Martin has a tendency, throughout the book, to over-explain for the reader. A small example:

"He's a major talent," Oriane said brightly, like a piccolo introducing a lively motif to advance the drama at a faster pace." (p.72)

Describing Oriane's voice by comparing it to the piccolo could have been beautiful. A perfect image of the small, chirping voice I had already imagined the character to posses. Instead, the image is smudged with direct instructions of what a piccolo does. This is the type of writing which constantly pulled me from the pages and the world of Hankey. I kept asking myself, "Why did she tell me this?"

For me, the overwriting outweighed my enjoyment of the book. It had me skimming at times, something I've rarely done. There were also a few discrepencies in the story line which confused me, prompting a reread of certain areas to see if I had, initially, read them wrong. Again, it is simply due to the fact that things were not tightened up prior to publishing and this, for me, significantly tarnished the novel for me.

It's not that I experienced no enjoyment while reading Don Juan. On the contrary. If you clean away the loose passages and overwriting, you're left with a good story which lends wit and whimsy to the world of opera, a form of art and expression more often associated with stuffy, upperclass blue-hairs. Martin's characters are all interesting in their own regard and you get quite a sense of who they are without the extra explanations throughout.

Simply put, I wanted to really enjoy Don Juan. I wanted to laugh through the entire book. I thought I would be following Martin's reading at Prose in Pubs. But it just fell short. And disappointingly so.

There are laughs. There are great passages throughout the book and the premise of the story is a great one (though I could do without the ghost angle) and, for that, I congratulate Gale Martin. Hindsight is 20/20 and suggesting to tighten up the manuscript is a bit of a moot point now, but it's what I wish Martin had done.

Maybe I should simply place a significant burden of blame on Toddie Downs's editing, or lack there of. Here's to hoping that Ms. Martin will find an alternate editor for her planned follow up to Don Juan, Ms. Manon in Hankey, PA.

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Don Juan in Hankey, PA is available in both paperback and Kindle editions from Amazon.com. You can read more about Gale Martin at galemartin.me.

That is one of the most important things I was told after reading the first seven pages of what is to become my first full-length book to a group of writers I meet with every week. "Tell your story." That is my plan. The first words hit the page just a few days ago and it has started off slowly. Transitioning from writing mostly poetry to re-introducing prose into the mix has been my most difficult task.

This past weekend, the Scranton Zine Fest went on without a hitch, as far as I know. The skies had been opening up periodically all morning, but the rains held off for the crowd to collect and peruse the eclectic mix of zines that ranged in topics from music to the Gay community to bicycling.

Though the fest was of humble size for its birth, it has the potential to grow into a much larger gathering like that of the Philadelphia Zine Fest. Even the poetry reading, which I took part in with some very talented local poets/writers (more on them in later posts), gathered a good-sized crowd in the slowly-fading Anthology bookstore.

Much has been happening over the past weeks and the outdoors have been beckoning to me. Pulling me from the walls of the claustrophobic confines of my home and into the sweet rains and summer breezes. I'm also awaiting my publication in the Boston Literary Magazine where two of my pieces will be featured in their 5-year anniversary Summer issue. There will also be more on this when it comes out.

Robin Stratton, an editor for the Boston Literary Magazine, has recently had her novel On Air released from Blue Mustang Press. There is a copy floating around in the mail system making its way to my box at this very moment. Review to come on the book as soon as I finish it.

What I'm saying is, there's much to come. If this insomnia doesn't come to an end, I'll have to do something more productive with it than tossing and turning in bed. Work has ensued on some new poems and even some short stories. I've been trying to get back into writing some prose. Things are moving slowly at the moment, but the ideas are rolling through my mind quite nicely.

Cheers.

The skies over Tunkhannock, June 12th. A very fickle weather day.