#MMBBR #Showcase Things Unsaid by Diana Y. Pau @DianaPaul10

Jules, her sister Joanne, and her brother Andrew all grew up in the same household―but their varying views of and reactions to their experiences growing up have made them all very different people. Now, as adults with children of their own, they are all faced with the question of what to do to help their parents, who insist on maintaining the upscale lifestyle they’re accustomed to despite their mounting debts. A deft exploration of the ever-shifting covenants between parents and children, Things Unsaid is a ferocious tale of family love, dysfunction, and sense of duty over forty years.

Diana Y. Paul is the award-winning author of Things Unsaid, her debut novel (SheWrites Press: 2015). It has won the award for best New Adult Fiction from Beverly Hills Book Awards for 2016 and has been ranked #2 in the "Top 14 Books about Families Crazier Than Yours" (https://www.brit.co/dysfunctional-family-books/ ). Diana has also written three books on Buddhism, one of which has been translated into Japanese and German (Women in Buddhism, University of California Press). She is a former professor at Stanford University in Buddhist Studies and the role of women in religion and culture.

Diana was born in Akron, Ohio and is a graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in both psychology and philosophy and the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Ph.D in Buddhist Studies . Her short stories have appeared in a number of literary journals and she is currently working on a second novel, A Perfect Match. She lives in Carmel, CA with her husband and loves to create mixed media art, focusing on printmaking. Her art has been exhibited in California, Hawaii, and Japan. Whenever possible, Diana and her husband love to visit their adult daughter and her family in San Francisco and their son in Los Angeles. To learn more about her and her work, visit her author website at http://www.dianaypaul.com, her blog on movies, art, and food at http://www.unhealedwound.com or follow her on Twitter: @DianaPaul10

Q.  What inspires your writing?

A. I am always listening and eavesdropping. And friends and acquaintances are always telling me stories. So I absorb these and focus on those that repeat from friend to friend. My first novel, released six months ago--Things Unsaid—focuses on competing family obligations: to one’s aging parents and to one’s own spouse and children. My second novel in progress focuses on the changing nature of dating. These discussions kept resurfacing and I couldn’t let them go.

Q.  What is your favorite thing about being a writer?

A. Creating a world with characters that take on a life of their own and have their own voices.

Q.  What is the toughest part of being a writer?

A. I can think of three parts of writing which are tough for me: 1) Imagining how the reader will connect the plot/subplots of the story I’ve created, and add their own experience in responding; 2) Writing scenes with sufficient detail but not excessive wordiness; [ I ended up cutting almost 100 pages from Things Unsaid before publication.] 3) Making the most flawed, unsympathetic characters understandable.

Q.  If you could not be writer, what would you do/be?

A. A mixed media artist (which I am) or a screenwriter in TV and movies.

Q.  What would the story of your life be entitled?

A. True Myths

Q.  What is your favorite book of all time?

A. Too many to choose only one but I would add Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler, and August: Osage County by Tracy Letts to my favorites list. They are all very dark and disturbing. On the lighter side, I loved Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari.

Q.  Which character from ANY book are you most like?

A. This is a tough one—probably would say Hermione in the Harry Potter series for my serious, analytical side and Tigger in the Winnie the Pooh series for my impulsive side.

Q.  What character from all of your books are you most like?

A. This is difficult to answer also, because I have to get inside the mind of every character so that I have hopefully created an appropriate psychology for each of them. I guess I would have to say there is a little bit of me in all of my characters, but since Things Unsaid is not a memoir, the story really is imagined.

Q.  Which book would you love to take a weekend vacation inside of?

A. I read two books per week, usually one novel and one nonfiction—so I would take whatever is first on my very long queue. I review almost all of them, cutting the author some slack if he or she is a debut writer.

Q.  What is your favorite season?

A. Autumn—In Carmel the weather is perfect: crystal clear and in the mid-60s with beautiful sunsets and harvest moons. [Fog in this area is more frequent the other three seasons.] Also, our garden has spectacular flowers and vegetables in September and October.

Q.  What inspired your book cover(s)?  Or what is your favorite book cover and why?

A. Julie Metz, creative director for She Writes Press, my publisher, blew me out of the water with the cover. I am an artist and look at cover design very carefully and it is extremely difficult to convey the tone and heart of a novel in one graphic. I feel Julie nailed it. I also love the simplicity of the covers for Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You, Vikram Chandra’s Geek Sublime, and the emotional foreshadowing of Tracy Letts cover for “August: Osage County”.

Q.  Tell me something funny that happened while on a book tour or while promoting your book.

A. I was reading from Things Unsaid and one of the managers of Book Passages in Corte Madera (one of my favorite bookstores) said I should be a stand-up comic. That particular passage was meant to be humorous, or at least ironic, but the book is definitely a “ferocious tale” as some of the reviewers have described it. Also, at another of my favorite bookstores, Books Inc, a student in screenwriting said she could imagine Things Unsaid as an HBO mini-series.

Q.  Are you working on something new?

A. Yes, a humorous riff on dating in your 30’s when you have almost everything —great job, friends, and family—but your dating life is going nowhere. I am almost ready to finalize the manuscript before sending it out.

Q.  Anything you want to say to followers of this blog or those that are just stopping by?

A.  I love social media—have been mostly on Facebook and LinkedIn but now trying to become more active on Twitter (@DianaPaul10).

Please stop by or visit my author website: www.dianaypaul.com For me social media is like the town crier or water-cooler back in the day. We can all gather round and share ideas and recommendations. Would love to hear from other readers as well as authors!

#MMBBR #Review #FirstLine Things Unsaid by Diana Y. Paul @DianaPaul10

Jules, her sister Joanne, and her brother Andrew all grew up in the same household―but their varying views of and reactions to their experiences growing up have made them all very different people. Now, as adults with children of their own, they are all faced with the question of what to do to help their parents, who insist on maintaining the upscale lifestyle they’re accustomed to despite their mounting debts. A deft exploration of the ever-shifting covenants between parents and children, Things Unsaid is a ferocious tale of family love, dysfunction, and sense of duty over forty years.

Diana Y. Paul is the award-winning author of Things Unsaid, her debut novel (SheWrites Press: 2015). It has won the award for best New Adult Fiction from Beverly Hills Book Awards for 2016 and has been ranked #2 in the "Top 14 Books about Families Crazier Than Yours" (https://www.brit.co/dysfunctional-family-books/ ). Diana has also written three books on Buddhism, one of which has been translated into Japanese and German (Women in Buddhism, University of California Press). She is a former professor at Stanford University in Buddhist Studies and the role of women in religion and culture.

Diana was born in Akron, Ohio and is a graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in both psychology and philosophy and the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Ph.D in Buddhist Studies . Her short stories have appeared in a number of literary journals and she is currently working on a second novel, A Perfect Match. She lives in Carmel, CA with her husband and loves to create mixed media art, focusing on printmaking. Her art has been exhibited in California, Hawaii, and Japan. Whenever possible, Diana and her husband love to visit their adult daughter and her family in San Francisco and their son in Los Angeles. To learn more about her and her work, visit her author website at http://www.dianaypaul.com, her blog on movies, art, and food at http://www.unhealedwound.com or follow her on Twitter: @DianaPaul10.

An outstanding book that is not only deeply honest, heartbreaking and hopeful, but also brilliant, poignant and original.  Paul draws and fleshes the characters out beautifully...allowing flaws and imperfections to show.  It captures what is at the heart of all of us and showcases that life is what we make it. It is thoughtful, precise and allows the reader inside family, dysfunction and all.  Brilliant, just brilliant!  5 stars

#FirstLine ~ After penetrating the chain-link fence and knocking over the soccer goalpost, her father's car had landed in the deserted grassy field.

#MMBBR #BlogTour #Review #TheThingsWeLeaveUnsaid by @mayfairmegan via #partner #CrookedCatBooks who provided a #free #reviewcopy

The Things We Leave Unsaid by Megan Mayfair

Genre: Women’s Fiction, Chicklit, Romantic subplot

Publication Date: 22nd August 2018

Publisher: Crooked Cat Books

Standalone Novel

Word Count - 80k

Is it the things we don’t say that haunt us the most? 

Clare is anxious to start a family with adoring husband, Pete. When she takes on the seemingly simple task of obtaining her late mother’s birth certificate, she finds herself in a family history search that will challenge everything she thought she knew about her life. 

Scarred by her parents' ill-fated marriage, Tessa lives by three rules – dating unavailable men, building her café into a food empire, and avoiding her father. However, when her carefully planned life is thrown into chaos, Tessa is forced to decide which of these rules she’s willing to break. 

As Clare and Tessa’s paths cross and their friendship grows, can they both finally unlock their family secrets in order to realize their futures?

The Things We Leave Unsaid by Megan Mayfair

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is very well done. I love when authors can take touch topics and give them wings. I love that these stories get to be told because they are given a voice through great characters and wonderful storytelling. I enjoyed this book because it was multilayered and well drawn out. It also had a satisfying ending.

View all my reviews

Showcase: Pedalling Backwards by Julia Russell

I behaved badly at that first supper.  That’s what my parents thought.  They didn’t say, they wouldn’t, but I could see it in their stiffened faces.

On a bleak, muddy island in the Blackwater Estuary, Lizzie struggles to come to terms with the loss of her sister and unborn child. Hemmed in by an ineffectual but well-meaning husband, and her aloof parents, the things that are said and left unsaid on this strained, strange holiday threaten the complex family ties linking mothers and fathers to their daughters. 

Will Lizzie’s marriage survive the double tragedy?  Will her family pull together or break apart under pressure?

A compelling and poignant exploration of one woman’s grief, this debut novel moves us to ask ourselves how well we really know those with whom we are most intimate.

About the Author

Julia Russell was born in Zimbabwe and raised in South Africa. Educated in Paris and Oxford, she now lives in Cambridge with her daughter. Pedalling Backwards is her debut novel.

What inspires your writing ?

My interest in people.  Ever since I was a child, I liked watching people, I was a born eavesdropper, lying behind sofas and listening to family and friends, hiding upstairs and spying on my parents’ parties.  I love the look of houses at night, the windows lighted up and imagine what is going on inside, the stories of people’s lives behind closed doors.  Reading books is like being invited into the room to sit quietly and observe and when I am writing I imagine I am drawing the reader into a lighted room of my own making. Even while I am writing, I still feel as if I am the invisible observer, listening and watching my characters, sharing them with the reader.

What is your favourite thing about being an author?

No aspect of life seems wasted, everything is a potential experience to record, a way of seeing the world or understanding how people live in it.  Even the boring sides of life, the supermarket shop, standing in a queue.  It may be a particular mannerism of someone, a way of speaking, a thought I have; any of these things could find their way into a book and be transformed.  Writing is not so much a job, but a way of looking at the world.

What is the toughest part of being an author?

Starting a book, the first page is always difficult.  Thoughts and images have sat for months in my head.  I have written scribbled notes and sometimes whole paragraphs have sounded out in my brain.  But that first sentence on a blank screen takes a leap of faith.  It is up to me to make the book real, to create something from nothing.  Exciting, but frightening.  There is also the story cannot sustain itself, that the plot or the characters will fade and become less credible.  But when it all begins to take shape, it is a wonderful feeling and there are days when I can’t sit still after writing a few sentences.  The other hard part is what to do when the novel is finished.  Handing it over to the first person to read and pass judgment, can feel agonizing.

If you could not be an author, what would you do?

Horrible thought.  There are far too many jobs I would hate.  I have tried working in an office and had to escape far too often to be on my own.  In another life, I would be a dancer or an actor.  They are creating stories in a different way.  Unfortunately, I don’t have those talents, so writing it is.

What would the story of your life be entitled?

My books have pieces of my life in them, little fragments cobbled together into something else.  They are in some way an expression of my life or rather the contents of my mind.  But my life keeps changing, I could never have dreamed up some of the things that have happened.  Sometimes it feels as if my life is beginning again, taking a new course and I would hate to sum it up with a title.  A long way to go, I hope.  Maybe on my deathbed, if I have the time and luxury of that, something will spring to mind and I will have someone beside me to tell.

What is your favourite book of all time?

I couldn’t choose.  I have favourite writers.  Anne Tyler, Margaret Forster, Jane Hamilton, William Trevor to name but a few.  All authors who invite me into their lighted rooms filled with ordinary people who teach me about being human and offer me up little connections so that I feel part of them.

Which character from any book are you most like?

All the books I have enjoyed most have characters I can identify with, thoughts and feelings I recognize.  Reading is not so much of an escape but a searching and finding of yourself.  It makes you feel more connected to humanity rather than removed from it.  I have similarities to many of the characters I read about, sometimes they even explain me to myself.  Reading is a solitary occupation as is writing, but it makes you feel less lonely.

What character from your book are you most like?

Lizzie is not me, but I have experienced most of her feelings.  I can imagine reacting as she does and I understand her on a profound level.  Writing about her has sometimes been uncomfortable, her passivity, her paralysis when she should act, her anger and sadness all forced me to look at myself.  I wanted to rescue her, comfort her, make her more heroic.  But she had to be herself, remain consistent. 

What is your favourite season?

Growing up in South Africa, in Johannesburg, which has a very dry winter when everything turns brown in the harsh light and lips chap painfully, spring was something wonderful.  The willows were the first to leaf, bright, light green soft little leaves that promised so much hope.  Spring has always been my favourite, new beginnings again, but tinged with a memory of life as harder and colder.

What inspired your book cover?

The story of Pedalling Backwards is so much about loss and memories of childhood that it seemed right to have a child on the cover.  But I did not want it to be sentimental and I wanted to retain some mystery, so the child is faceless and her simple white shift is timeless.  This could be Lizzie as a child, the child she plays with on the island, the child she lost.  The child holds out her hands full of beach pebbles, offering them to be looked at.  It is her treasure, something of herself she is showing and she can’t know how her parents, the world will receive it.  The openness and imagination of children is very moving, an act of faith like writing.  Giving something of yourself that can be received or rejected.

Are you working on something new?

I am editing my new novel, Picking Apples, at the moment.  There are a few adjustments to be made, but I am very excited about it.

Anything you want to say to followers of this blog or those just stopping by?

Once a book is written, it is no longer in my control.  I feel grateful to people who read with care and take the time to find their own reactions to the story and its characters.  The book is there to be read and every time this happens it takes on a new life.

Showcase w/ review: The Daddy Diaries by Joshua Braff

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ABOUT THE BOOK:
Braff's new novel, THE DADDY DIARIES, chronicles the very topical world of marital role reversal in which current day Mr. Mom, Jay, his wife, and their thirteen- and ten-year-old kids are suddenly plucked from their life in San Francisco and moved by the new company to Florida. Leaving beloved friends and his Northern California sensibility, Jay struggles to keep his family happy through the learning curves. As Jay searches to steer the group straight, he quickly discovers that the tasks of child rearing grow even more complex as kids grow up. Through a series of misadventures with his narcissistic older brother, his lunatic childhood friend, and his increasingly estranged but beloved son, Jay learns that he must tap his own vulnerabilities if he is to be the rock of stability his family so desperately needs.

With spot-on accuracy Joshua Braff tackles the issues that plague us as parents, sons, spouses, and friends as we move through life. The sense of isolation that comes from being transplanted into a new place, the pain of watching a son turn into a stranger as adolescence takes hold, and the raw and blinding love and sense of responsibility to one's family. Through pathos and humor THE DADDY DIARIES captures the relatable, yet unpredictable dance of how families similarly, but uniquely ebb and flow.

A refreshing book on the roles of father in both the family and society!  Rich with observations and filled with truth and humor Braff has captured my heart.  I just loved reading a book from a point of view often not covered and find it was a delight to read!  4 stars!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Joshua Braff grew up in South Orange, New Jersey, and graduated from Columbia High School and NYU. He earned an MFA in creative writing/fiction from St. Mary's College of California. Josh's first novel The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green (Algonquin Books, 2004), about a dysfunctional, Jewish family in late ‘70s was chosen as a Barnes & Noble Discover pick. Peep Show (Algonquin Books, 2010), his second book, was about a 17-year-old boy forced to choose between his Orthodox mother's life and his father's career in the porn industry. People Magazine raved, "Braff skillfully illuminates the failures and charms of a broken family. That teen longing for adults to act their age haunts long after the final page." Josh lives in California with his wife of almost 20 years and their two kids. He is an avid baseball fan and an accomplished painter who plays guitar and drums. TheDaddy Diaries is his third novel.

Q.  What inspires your writing?

A. I would say it’s the observations of humans. I aim to tap into the familiar motions of people. There is so much we don’t say when communicating. A narrator can draw out all those unsaid things and hopefully find meaning in their description. I tap into these human cracks, where people long for things they can’t quite reach. I love writing about these places we all face but don’t always know how to discuss.

    

Q.  What is your favorite thing about being a writer?

A. Being my own boss. Interactions with people who want to tell me their thoughts about my work. Understanding that my books will live long after myself.  

Q.  What is the toughest part of being an writer?

A. Coming to a meeting about a huge manuscript, late in the process of a novel, and the only person in the room is me. Alone, left to figure out the massive puzzle, with the notion always floating out there, that it may never work. You have to write well enough so that when you face the work each day there’s a sense that it’s all going to be worth it. Your protagonist needs to be a leader in this sense.    

Q.  If you could not be writer, what would you do/be?

A. Probably a college professor. I have taught at the graduate level in creative writing and look forward to doing it again. I taught where I recieved my MFA. St. Mary’s College, Moraga CA.

Q.  What would the story of your life be entitled?

A. Why The Daddy Diaries by Joshua Braff of course.

Q.  What is your favorite book of all time?

A. It’s a broad question so I’ll answer big and broad. The Grapes of Wrath. 

Q.  Which character from ANY book are you most like?

A. Hard question so I’ll go with my gut. I’m like the female protag in, Maybe the Moon, by Armistead Maupin. She’s an actress and a dwarf so she’s hired to be in the ET costume for the filming of the Spielberg hit.  

Q.  What character from all of your book are you most like?

A. I was Jacob Green once. Now I’m just the result of him. He’s the protag in The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green.

Q.  Which book would you love to take a weekend vacation inside of?

A. Much Ado About Nothing. Feels upbeat. Unlike anything I’ve lived. 

Q.  What do you want to be remembered for 100 years from now?

A. Having penned important and beautiful prose.

Q.  What is your favorite season?

A. Spring. I love baseball and flowers.

Q.  What inspired your book cover(s)?  Or what is your favorite book cover and why?

A. Others take over when it comes to book covers because it is an art form in itself. Marketing to book lovers is the key. I don’t profess to know how to do this. I love them all. The young photographer on the cover of Peep Show. The smiling and frowning M&M type thingies on The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green. The variety of stormy blues on The Daddy Diaries.

Q.  Tell me something funny that happened while on a book tour or while promoting your book.

A. Often authors read in groups of four or five, the audiences are larger and it’s often a lunch event. This time I was with a few authors including Martin Yan, a celebrity chef whose cook books have sold a bazillion copies. During the event, I was asked to choose a name out of a fish bowl of all the guest’s names. I would then read the name allowed and promise to use this name in my next novel. 300 women waited to hear if I’d use their name. I reach in and pull out the name Martin Yan. The audience laughed, Martin and I laughed. I forgot all about it, of course, and why would Martin Yan care if I really put his name in a book I hadn’t started. But alas,  without ever considering the story, I used “Martin,” for one of the main characters in Peep Show. Did you hear that Martin Yan? I came through.

Q.  Are you working on something new?

A. Getting ready to start up again. Nothing yet to report.  

Q.  Anything you want to say to followers of this blog or those that are just stopping by?

A. So grateful you agree that books are personal and important and regardless of how they’re delivered to you, you can’t wait to read the next terrific ride. I so hope I can contribute to the books you love.

Review: Pedalling Backwards by Julia Russell

On a bleak, muddy island in the Blackwater Estuary, Lizzie struggles to come to terms with the loss of her unborn child and the death of her sister. Trapped in a damp cottage with her ineffectual but well-meaning husband, and her aloof parents, the things that are said and left unsaid on this strained family holiday threaten the complex ties between mothers and fathers and their daughters.

Pedalling Backwards

3 stars

This book is about 2 sisters Helena and Lizzie “Pedalling Backwards” and forwards (from past to present and back again) dealing with many issues in their lives.  This book was slow to start and once you get about a third of the way in you can’t put it down.  The story flowed from past to present and while it was hard to see Lizzie deal with the death of her unborn baby and of her sister, you have cheer for her as she deals with the sadness in her life.  A tad bit depressing – it  will then sucks you in right to the very last page.