Blog Posts

beach beside a river, fog

What I didn’t expect from a place I’ve never been: Action in “Mendocino Fire”

By Kate Blackwood / March 6, 2021

The way she tells it, it’s happening before you know it’s happening, much the same way the character is plunged into the sea or down a steep drop or into the vortex of an irrevocable relational tangle. The prose is swift and unexpectedly physical.

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Pot of curry

Book Review: Mother Land by Leah Franqui

By Kate Blackwood / February 28, 2021

Two women, one kitchen; much tension. It’s a classic recipe for a good story, one that turns out beautifully in “Mother Land,” a novel by Leah Franqui.

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Several open books in a pile

Novel beginnings and beginning novels with Dana Spiotta

By Kate Blackwood / February 27, 2021

Those first words set the tone, voice, place, language, and objective of the novel. Like the set of instructions that comes with a game, they teach the reader how to “play the game” of this world.

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six people playing hockey on ice outdoors

Speakeasy Hockey

By Kate Blackwood / February 21, 2021

Christian Klueg’s back door opens directly onto ice smooth enough to reflect his house and his coiled garden hose.

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