The Adventures of LitBoy: Bill Brent's Blog

TWILIGHT OF THE IMMORTAL

[Bill's update, 2011.07.18: Hey, folks, thanks for the surprising amount of support regarding the below! And I got Marilyn some outstanding airtime yesterday. I'll post the links soon. She is such an articulate and engaging interviewee.]

 

I want to do something helpful for an amazing colleague's birthday. And you can help. It's easy!

 

Just read my review of her current novel, and if you are so moved, please vote it as "helpful."

 

My goal is simple: to get the review onto the book's front page at Amazon. Marilyn Jaye Lewis has written a memorable epic -- powerful, emotionally rich, and a joy to read -- and I believe that my review accurately reflects that.

 

And if you are so moved, please buy a copy, recommend it to a friend today, or request it via your local library. I believe it should be in every library system. It's that good.

 

Thank you in advance for your support of Marilyn's work.

 

Wishing you joy,

 

--Bill Brent

 

[this page last updated: 2011.07.18, 11:47 a.m. Hawaii time] 

 

[keywords for this post:] historical novel, Hollywood, 1920's, GLBT fiction, silent movies, film stars, Rudolph Valentino, The Sheik, 1910's Broadway, Alla Nazimova, lesbian actresses, lesbian history, openly lesbian, closeted gays, leading man, bisexual actors 

FREAK PARADE, by Marilyn Jaye Lewis

Eugenia Sharpe is a beautiful and talented singer-songwriter, a fallen angel with a very big problem. As FREAK PARADE opens, "Genie" has become immobilized, mostly by placing her expectations for happiness in the hands of Darryl, her partner in business and love. When she discovers that Darryl has been cheating on her, she reacts with fury, understandably enough, but also with an overflowing boatload of self-pity that points to deeper issues.

When the inevitable showdown arrives, she betrays her awareness of this, and her inability or unwillingness to change:

I glared at him. "I am everything imaginable, Darryl. I am one fucked-up cookie. You'd be amazed."

Genie has traded a career in the music industry -- with a platinum album to her credit, no less -- in order to avoid the rigors of life in the limelight. While she has an enviable and glamorous life in Darryl's luxury apartment overlooking Central Park, one quickly gets the sense that her life has grown stale.

For me, the overarching theme of Marilyn Jaye Lewis' latest novel is redemption. The narrative arc of the story details how Genie grapples with being "one fucked-up cookie" and finally comes to terms with her flaws, as well as her virtues. This makes for one bumpy ride, set amidst Manhattan's seamy demimonde in settings that are at times over-the-top and not for the squeamish. A veteran author of erotica, Lewis (pictured below) has a masterful command of the highly-charged erotic scene, as well as less than erotic sex scenes that describe in blistering detail the human potential for self-degradation.

And then there are the other nine-tenths of the novel, which include workplace scenes, best-friend scenes, falling-in-love scenes, and much more, in which Lewis' acute sense of characterization and unerring ear for dialog pay dividends. Eugenia Sharpe's observations are, well, sharp; by turns hilarious and pathetic. Lewis' characters are memorable, their struggles are believable, and their interactions held my interest until the very end. In fact, Lewis' novel was tough to put down -- I read all of FREAK PARADE in two prolonged sittings.

[FULL DISCLOSURE: I have worked with this author on prior book projects.]

Here are a few ways you can read FREAK PARADE:

POWELL'S, the online independent bookseller

SMASH WORDS, the publisher's website (many digital formats)

BARNES & NOBLE, print version

BARNES & NOBLE, digital version

AMAZON (where, if you order via this link, I may get a small commission for your purchase, like, someday).

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2010.08.07, 4:55 p.m. Hawaii time]

BUILDINGS

I love Derek Sivers' blog. He's always brief and to the point; heck, even his URLs are brief and to the point, which makes them easy to remember.

Saturday's post is pretty cool, huh? Talk about dropping a bombshell -- clearly this post took just about everyone by surprise.

So Derek Sivers' analogy between buildings and relationships was the jumping-off point for my spending an inspired Saturday on spontaneous searches that took me first to Amazon, and from there to Google Videos.

How Buildings Learn is a coffee table-style tome. The book is by Stewart Brand, best known as the editor of the Whole Earth Catalog. How Buildings Learn is available in paperback (1995, still in print) and hardcover (1994, out of print, but still widely available).

Brand's book explores the relationship between buildings and time. This indeed has a lot in common with how relationships test our ability to adapt to change.

The reviews at Amazon are very informative, and much has been said elsewhere about this book already (in fact, it has been extensively summarized online). However, a comment posted at Amazon by the author led me to Google Videos, where Stewart Brand has generously posted all six installments of his documentary based on How Buildings Learn.

Suffice to say that I watched all six half-hour installments in one day. If you are thinking of starting a new building, renovating an existing one, or if you are simply curious about buildings in general, then you owe yourself the pleasure of viewing this series. You may never look at architecture the same way again.

Here is the embedded link for episode one ("Flow") so that you can watch it right here:

[If that doesn't work for you, then try this backup link.]

-- You can access the other five episodes, one at a time, by scrolling up and down the menu alongside the screen.

If you are planning to build or expand your home, and have too little time to view this series in its entirety, then I recommend the first three episodes as the most pertinent for you. Here are the links:

1. How Buildings Learn - Stewart Brand - 1 of 6 – "Flow"

-- My favorite quote: "Evolutionary design is healthier than visionary design."

2. How Buildings Learn - Stewart Brand - 2 of 6 – "The Low Road"

-- My favorite quote: "That's how low road buildings work: You spend less money, and you get more freedom."

NOTE TO RENTERS: Watch episode 2, "The Low Road." If you want to own a home but don't think you can afford to, you may feel differently by the time Stewart Brand finishes with you, heh heh.

3. How Buildings Learn - Stewart Brand - 3 of 6 – "Built for Change"

-- My favorite quote? I can't pick just one from this installment. However, in keeping with the homeowner angle, then here: "It would be nice if architects would build tiny starter homes that could be added onto later, and don't cost a lot. It doesn't happen because the profit margin is too small for the architect, and developers worry about encouraging grass-roots autonomy and change. That's too bad, because a few experiments have shown a great demand for small, adaptable houses."

HOWEVER ... you should note that the small house movement and its possibilities have expanded exponentially since this series was filmed in the mid-'90s. Owning a home that MAKES SENSE FOR YOU is more than ever a possibility. What we should learn from the mortgage crisis of 2007 is to start small and pay as we go. Still don't think it's viable in your world? Then watch these three installments.

Episode 4's horror stories may discourage you; episode 5's enumerations of a homeowner's responsibilities will educate you; and episode 6, for all practical purposes, can be skipped unless you are interested in public and commercial spaces.

Despite the availability online of the video series, and the extensive commentary on Brand's project in general, I am buying Brand's book, and in hardcover. It is clear to me, even with the option of re-reading Phil Gyford’s great website summary at the click of a mouse, that How Buildings Learn is one of those rare volumes to revisit again and again as a source of inspiration and ideas.

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2010.04.04, 8:22 a.m. Hawaii time]

The most beautiful erotic fiction collection published this decade?

Greetings, all --

I am re-posting this offer as a favor to my longtime friend and colleague, Jamie Joy Gatto. SEX NOIR is an elegant book, in terms of its content as well as its high-end production values (hardcover, with a dust jacket in duo-tone metallic ink on black!). And so it makes a most memorable and gorgeous gift.

Also, this book conforms in the best possible way with this blog's meta-theme of tales of transformation. Gatto writes in an intense, emotionally rich style, and her characters and situations flirt constantly with the edge of imagination and possibility.

And right now, you can get an autographed copy direct from the author, and support a worthy cause!

HERE are the full details regarding this collection, including how to order. This is a time-sensitive offer, so please act now.

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2009.10.12, 2:55 p.m. Hawaii time]

LitBoy.com is the brainchild of writer Bill Brent. If you enjoy this blog, please consider a donation in support of my work. You can send money via PayPal to info [!at] litboy [DOT] com, or better still, use Revolution Money Exchange. Unlike PayPal, RME pays me 100% of your donation. It's quick and easy!


Here's the button for that:

Keywords for this post: short story author, Jamie Joy Gatto, Circlet Press, New Orleans short fiction, Hurricane Katrina relief

Literotica 2 book review by Jean Roberta Hillabold

OK, so I am an inconstant blogger and I fairly well suck at promotion, but I do want to tell you about a NEW REVIEW of the latest Black Books publishing project, Literotica 2, a print anthology of erotic stories by some highly talented fiction writers, as selected by the readers and editors of the Literotica.com website.

Black Books is my micro-publishing company. So I am deeply grateful to Jean Roberta Hillabold for giving Literotica 2 such a thorough and insightful review. Read it, please, and you will see what I mean about Jean's writing.

As an aside, it is just darn tough to get a comprehensive review of an erotic fiction anthology in the current book market, and her well-crafted analysis of the authors' stories was truly a labor of love. Jean loves books, and she is quite the writer herself. So check out her blog, and enjoy!

You can buy Literotica 2 directly from the Literotica.com website's page. Plus, I have some for sale in the Black Books shop at Amazon.

While all my copies are technically new, I have some for sale that got a bit crumpled or scuffed in transit from the printer, for the budget-minded, as well as some absolutely perfect copies, for the gift-minded.

Literotica 1 is still in print as well, and again, you can buy it either from Literotica.com, or in your choice of perfect shape or slightly scuffed from me. U can haz options! :-)

I am involved in the Literotica book series as the publisher, Black Books, a gig which pays me precious little for the time it consumes, but is a heck of a lot of fun at times. This includes responsibility for the final line editing, typesetting, and cover design, along with promotion and serving as liaison between the printer and the website editors at Literotica.

Of course, all of this involvement makes me biased, yet I can state honestly that it is one of the most rewarding publishing projects I have yet been involved with. The writing is a joy to read, and the Literotica.com editors are always a delight to work with.

And life is too short not to find the joy whenever you can.

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2009.09.05, 9:55 a.m. Hawaii time]

LitBoy.com is the brainchild of writer Bill Brent. If you enjoy this blog, please consider a donation in support of my work. You can send money via PayPal to info [!at] litboy [DOT] com, or better still, use Revolution Money Exchange. Unlike PayPal, RME pays me 100% of your donation. It's quick and easy!


Here's the button for that:

Keywords for this post: Black Books, erotica anthology, erotic fiction, short stories