Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Sunday, September 21, 2014,
Most young people no longer install land lines when they get their first
apartment. They often live in short-term housing; their finances are
tight; and they grew up relying on mobile devices and simply don't know
any better. But many older folks, too, are getting rid of home phones
they've had for years. I say, please
don’t! Don’t get
me wrong: Cell phones are a fantastic invention. They have earned a
prominent foothold in our day-to-day lives and changed the fabric of how
we comm...
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This Beautiful Life: Quick and Compelling Read about Indidiousness of Technology
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Monday, June 9, 2014,
This hidden gem deals with the current vexing topic of kids “sexting,”
that is, posting and sending unflattering sexual pictures and videos of
themselves over the internet. Fifteen-year-old Jake Bergamot receives
just such a video from Daisy, a 13-year-old admirer and schoolmate he
meets at a party. In an unthinking moment of bravado, disgust,
confusion—we are never quite sure which (indeed Jake himself is never
100% sure), he forwards the email to one of his buddies.
The
rest is...
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Are Mediums for Real?
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Saturday, February 22, 2014,
I have a confession to make: I am a huge fan of Long Island Medium,
that hoaky reality show featuring Long Island, N.Y. housewife and
spitfire extraordinaire, Theresa Caputo. Maybe it’s that big, bleached
head of hair, or that infectious, down-to-earth Italian charm (so
reminiscent of characters I grew up with), or her tattooed, tough-guy
sweetie of a husband. Maybe I’m jealous of her remarkably well-adjusted
and supportive (if sometimes snarky) teenagers who good-naturedly
indulge... Continue reading ...
"Crossing Over" in Literature as in Life
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Saturday, September 14, 2013,
Note to Readers: Full post appears as a guest blog on Compulsion Reads!
I have been asked on several occasions why I, a white writer, feature
non-white protagonists in my two most recent novels (Puerto Rican Norma
Reyes in
The Floater and biracial Sonya Schoenberg in
Stage Daughter).
The question itself is rather telling. After all, real life is
multi-dimensional where race is concerned, so why would a novelist
“raise eyebrows” simply by creating fictional characters whose cultural
...
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And the Mountains Echoed
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Monday, August 12, 2013,
And the Mountains Echoed by
Khaled Hosseini
My rating:
5 of 5 stars
First, a confession (in the interests of fairness and full disclosure): Khaled Hosseini has attained “untouchable” status in my view—so much so that, as my all-time favorite author, he can do no wrong. When an artist bestows upon me so much pleasure with his unbelievable gift, that shared connection engenders a sort of intimacy and expectancy. We begin to grow together.
Like Hosseini’s first two novels (
The Kite Runne... Continue reading ...
Self-Promotion for Chumps and Hos
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Wednesday, July 24, 2013,
Times may be tough, but it’s a great time to be in the self-publishing business. That is, if you happen to sell some variant of snake oil meant to transform an unknown writer into a best-selling author. Book ads. Virtual tours. Paid
Tweeting—the possibilities are endless. The only catch is, these marketing devices
can only deliver on one promise: To keep our fantasies alive while quickly emptying our wallets.
If this sounds a little like prostitution, there are definitely parallels b...
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Something Different, or More of the Same?
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Friday, June 14, 2013,
Check out full review of
And the Mountains Echoed on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/559995391We may give lip service to "reinventing ourselves," but it is a truism that people want and expect us to do what we do best in life. Nowhere is this more evident than in the arts. If a certain genre of book, music, or movie makes someone famous, fans will want more of
that. Once an author, musician or director tries “crossing over” into something new and different, he or she risks...
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The Dream Snatchers
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Saturday, March 16, 2013,
I find myself once again facing an all-too-familiar dilemma. Having nearly finished my fourth novel, Stage Daughter, my fingers now itch to hold a proof copy in my hand. I want to see how it looks and reads as a real-life book. And yet, despite having gotten early feedback from five trusted readers, and having edited my manuscript several times over from beginning to end, I am reluctant to take the next steps to prepare it for self-publishing.
Why? Because I am convinced this is my best work ...
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Who Are You Mad At Today?
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Wednesday, February 27, 2013,
I have been doing a great deal of Internet research on Islam for my upcoming fourth novel, Stage Daughter. Aziz, one of three main characters, is a Muslim man, so I have been undergoing a crash online course to better understand how he might think, feel, and react in different circumstances. When not worried about dark-suited CIA agents appearing at my doorstep, I have learned some rather interesting things.
Naturally, all religions have their more bizarre teachings and their more extremist f...
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“Started But Didn’t Finish”: Sacrilegious or Sensible?
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Sunday, January 20, 2013,
Three days ago, I abandoned Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay in favor of Elizabeth Berg’s Once Upon a Time, There Was You. Not because Amazing Adventures isn’t a great book, mind you. But after completing 146 pages (and with more than 500 remaining), my brain began to ache.
Don’t get me wrong: Chabon is an excellent writer and there were moments when I’d been intrigued. But on the whole, I found myself growing weary from the effort required to muddle throu...
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Cold, Critters, and Cramped Confinement: Here’s to Getting Away from It All
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Friday, January 11, 2013,
I just finished reading T.C. Boyle’s San Miguel, a brilliant work of historical fiction that chronicles the lives of two sheep ranching families who resided on this remote island off the coast of Santa Barbara during the late nineteenth century and the 1930’s. Mirantha Waters, the story’s first female protagonist, loathed the isolation and merciless weather on San Miguel island and was often at odds with her husband. In contrast, Elizabeth Lester, the island’s subsequent female homest...
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Gun Control after Sandy Hook: Part One
Posted by Sheryl Sorretino on Tuesday, January 1, 2013,
As we enter a new year in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook rampage, there is precious little we agree on where gun control is concerned. So I’d like to begin with these fairly incontrovertible but conflicting premises:
(1) Criminals and insane people do not respect the law.
(2) “Bad guys” will always have access to guns, no matter how tightly they are regulated.
(3) We each have a fundamental right to protect ourselves—and others—from violence, invasion, and threats of injury. ...
?
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Will the World End Today?
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Friday, December 21, 2012,
Some people really believed the world would come to an end today. Despite the supposed cessation of the Mayan calendar and the numerical quirkiness of today's date (122112), I never believed the world would self-destruct in one quick blast on such a typical Friday. I believe it will happen more gradually than that. Who knows? Maybe it is happening already. This was a year of fear, loss, and devastation for so many. And while I suspect we have many more centuries—if not millenia—to look fo...
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On Giving Bad Reviews
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Friday, September 28, 2012,
And by “bad,” I don’t mean poorly-written (that’s a subject for another day). I mean those scathing one- and two-star reviews some people post when they didn’t enjoy a book for whatever reason. Now, I have no problem stating my case if I don't like a particular book. But when faced with the pesky dilemma of whether to imprint an already negative review with fewer than three stars, I have recently found myself unable to do it. Having been on the receiving end of a few such critiques,...
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More on the Editing Process: The Thin Line Between Taking it On the Chin vs. Up the You-Know-What
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Saturday, April 21, 2012,
A dear friend and fellow writer challenged me to put my manuscript where my mouth is: After she’d asked me to review her manuscript for typos and grammatical errors (and I did my signature Sorrentino slash-and-burn), she dared me to let her stick her nose into to my own, upcoming third novel, The Floater. Well, have I ever been told a thing or two (excuse me, “shown,” not “told”).
Our battle of the pens has gone something like this (I paraphrased a bit for the sake of propriety, yet...
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A Note on Character Development (Fictional and Personal)
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Thursday, March 29, 2012,
Someone once told me that fiction writers construct their stories from a personal mosaic of life experience, casual observation, and imagination. I have found this to be true of own my writing (though for me, the hodgepodge can feel more like the makings of a bad dream), especially when it comes to crafting characters.
I start by conjuring a mental sketch of someone I knew once upon a time. Okay, I am going to stop right there, because that confession makes me seem devious and unimagina...
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