Archive - 2014

John Coyne talks about the reissue of Child of Shadows October 11, 201411:32 AM MST Best-selling author of The Legacy and Hobgoblin, John Coyne talks about the reissue of Child of Shadows, his spine tingling suspense/horror novel, available now, via Harvest Moon Press. Child of Shadows Harvest Moon Press Mr. Coyne graciously took time to answer questions about Child of Shadows, his inspiration genre blending in fiction, and what scares him the most. Your novel, Child of Shadows has been reissued with Harvest Moon Press, have you reread it? Was there anything you would have rewritten/changed? Rereading it was a special pleasure as (believe it or not) I had forgotten much of the plot, the twists and turns of the story, so that for me, it was like reading a new book, discovering an old friend. What is the first sentence of Child of Shadows? Detective Nick Kardatzke stepped carefully through the sewage water, the . . .

On October 6th, Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963–65) was featured on Lorrie Bodger’s site TheBookUnderHerBed.com discussing her first steps to becoming an award winning author. Among Marnie’ awards is the 1995 Peace Corps Writers Maria Thomas Fiction Award for her Peace Corps novel, Green Fires. • Guest post: A writer learns to write by Lorrie Bodger Marnie Mueller is the award-winning author of three novels: Green Fires, The Climate of the Country, and My Mother’s Island. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador in the early 1960s, a community organizer in El Barrio in NYC, and then a member of Mayor Lindsay’s administration, responsible for programming cultural events in all five boroughs. She left city government to become Development Director and later Program Director of WBAI-FM radio; after WBAI she ran her own business producing citywide events, concerts, benefits, and weddings. Today she’s a full-time writer (and MacDowell Colony Fellow), . . .

At Home on the Kazakh Steppe: A Peace Corps Memoir by Janet Givens (Kazakhstan 2004–06) Ant Press, August 2014; Birch Tree Book, 2015 208 pages $14.99 (paperback), $4.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Leita Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993–96) • At 55, Janet Givens and her husband, Woody, join the Peace Corps and go to Kazakhstan. Woody had been a Professor of Speech Pathology at Temple University, and Janet was a Certified Gestalt Psychotherapist. Leaving their comfortable life, their children, their grandchildren and their beloved dog was heartbreaking, but they met the challenge wholeheartedly. Their first months with their host family brought the predictable culture shock, with emotional tensions that nearly shattered their marriage. While Woody expected respect in his university teaching position, as an expert in his field, Janet wanted the grass roots Peace Corps experience, without cell phones or lap tops, learning how to teach young people English in a baffling . . .

John Coyne writes: The New Yorker for October 13, 2014 has a great piece by Peter Hessler (China 1996-98) entitled, “Tales Of The Trash: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt.” It’s Peter’s Letter From Cairo. Peter writes, “Waste collectors like Sayyid Ahmed, known as zabaleen, work in an informal economy, but they provide a remarkable efficient recycling service and become experts on their neighborhood.” The article is available online at: NewYorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/tales-trash

Letters from Yemen (Peace Corps letters) by Mary Lou Currier (Yemen 1991–94) CreateSpace 158 pages June 2014 $21.00 (paperback) Reviewed by Darcy M. Meijer (Gabon 1982–84) • The older I get, the more I appreciate straightforward writing. And the more I travel, the more I understand the world. I have just finished reading Mary Lou Currier’s Letters from Yemen, a collection of 158 color photographs and letters written home during her Peace Corps service as a TEFL teacher from 1991 to 1994. I chose this book to review because I currently live in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The Republic of Yemen is my neighbor to the south, with only the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between us. Yemen also borders Oman and has coasts on the Red and Arabian Seas. Due to the uneasy situation in Yemen now, I doubt I will visit it, but I . . .

Chile Preserved When the Whistling Stopped (novel) by David J. Mather (Chile 1968–70) Peace Corps Writers 274 pages June 2014 $12.95 (paperback), $6.95 (Kindle) Reviewed by Richard M. Grimsrud (India 1965-67) • David Mather’s imaginative eco-thriller When the Whistling Stopped follows RPCV Tom Young back to his old Peace-Corps station outside Valdivia in southern Chile after three decades of dreaming about his mostly idyllic tour of duty there. Many of his old friends joyously welcome him back, but there is still a big hole in his heart for Maria Elena, the love of his life who was killed in a tragic accident just before they were to be married in a ramada on the beautiful plot of land Tom had bought for his retirement. But upon his return, Tom is saddened by more than his departed enamorada. The reforestation he had worked on as a Volunteer has come back to . . .

Rush of Shadows (historical fiction) by Catherine Bell (Brazil 1966–68) Washington Writers Publishing House October 2014 384 pages $17.95 (paperback) Reviewed by Reilly Ridgell (Micronesia 1971–73) • Here’s Catherine Bell’s first sentence of her novel, Rush of Shadows: It was a beautiful country, though I hated and feared it, coming over the mountains with the wagon staggering on a gimpy wheel, black crags towering over the track, the sky blue and thick as a flatiron, and the vultures turning and turning on the hot wind, waiting for somebody to die. Wow. Now here was some finely crafted prose worthy to open a novel. Was the whole book to be this way? Well it was, and much of the many themes woven together in this story of the settling of northern California can be discerned in that first sentence. Especially the vultures. And as I read through the book I was . . .

Child of Shadows by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) Seventh Window Publications, $6.99 (e-book) Reviewed by Bob Arias (Colombia 1964-66) Coyne drops us into the subterranean world that exists beneath New York City and a world of tunnels under the Lower Level of Grand Central Station. A world filled with rats, more and bigger rats, garbage, violence and young bodies. We find ourselves looking at a twelve year old boy that is found near a crime scene. The boy is bald with no eyebrows, not speaking…a living dead. The chief social worker, Melissa Vaughn thinks the boy’s name is Adam, and wants to help him re-connect with society. Little does Melissa know what she will encounter as she takes Adam away from New York City and deep into the Appalachian Mountains. You will encounter adventure with potters that throw, excitement in rural Appalachia, and murders….lots of them! Some well written love . . .