Sam Thomas

Sam Thomas has a PhD in history with a focus on Reformation England and recently leaped from the tenure track into a teaching position at a secondary school near Cleveland, Ohio.

His novels include The Midwife's Tale and the (soon!) forthcoming The Harlot's Tale.

From the author's May 2013 Q & A at the Mama Birth blog:

Mr Thomas- Please introduce yourself and tell us about why you (a MAN) decided to write a book about a midwife. And a midwife who solves murder mysteries! What inspired you?

Well, for about ten years I taught history at the college-level, and one of my research specialties was the history of midwifery in England from about 1600-1700. For a variety of reasons I decided to make the jump to teaching at the high school level, but I did not want to stop writing about midwives – I just loved them too much!

I knew I would not be able to write about them from an academic perspective, so I decided to try my hand at history. And since I’d already written about the historical Bridget Hodgson, I decided to fictionalize her for my novel.

How did you research the time period? Do you feel like your portrayal of the time and the general attitudes towards women is an accurate portrayal? (This was kind of disturbing!)

Lots and lots of reading! While I made some changes to Bridget’s biography, I did my best to stay true to the times when it came to larger issues like the status of women. The stereotypes about (and the treatment of) women were very disturbing. But I also wanted to tell the story of women who managed to find some room despite the oppression.

Three of the main characters (Bridget, her assistant Martha, and her nemesis Rebecca Hooke) were able to find a route to power. They just had to take a different route than men.

What kind of research did you do to learn more about birth? Did you talk to modern midwives?

Great question! I actually...[read on]

View the trailer for The Midwife’s Tale, and learn more about the book and author at Sam Thomas's website, blog, and Facebook page.

My Book, The Movie: The Midwife’s Tale.

The Page 69 Test: The Midwife's Tale.

Writers Read: Sam Thomas.

--Marshal Zeringue

Helene Wecker

Helene Wecker grew up in Libertyville, Illinois, a small town north of Chicago, and received her Bachelor’s in English from Carleton College in Minnesota. After graduating, she worked a number of marketing and communications jobs in Minneapolis and Seattle before deciding to return to her first love, fiction writing. Accordingly, she moved to New York to pursue a Master’s in fiction at Columbia University.

She now lives near San Francisco with her husband and daughter.

The Golem and the Jinni is Wecker's first novel.

From a Q & A at Wecker's website:

Q.: How did the idea for your novel originate?

When I was a writing student at Columbia, I started writing a series of short stories that combined tales from my family and from my husband’s family. I’m Jewish and he’s Arab American, and so in that sense we come from two different (and, in many eyes, opposing) cultures. But I’ve always been struck by the similarities between our families, the way that certain themes echo between them. We’re both the children of immigrants, with all that entails. As a result my husband and I both grew up in suburban, picket-fence America—but with the intimate and sometimes uncomfortable burden of another place’s history, and the complications of living as a cultural minority, which affects our relationships with those we love and those we meet.

In any case, I was writing these stories, but I wasn’t having much luck with them. One day I was complaining about it to a friend. She suggested I try something different. She knew I loved stores that used elements of the fantastical, and was surprised I never wrote like that. By the end of the conversation, the seed had been planted. Instead of two families of different cultures meeting and interacting, I now had two supernatural characters: a golem and a jinni. And somehow it seemed likeliest that these two would meet in New York in the late 1800s, when immigrants from Eastern Europe and Syria were coming to America in droves.

Q.: When you thought about writing a golem character, did you think about other legends and myths about people being created out of inanimate matter, like the famous Golem of Prague, or Frankenstein’s monster, or even a modern robot?

I certainly...[read on]

View the video trailer for The Golem and the Jinni and visit Helene Wecker's website.

Writers Read: Helene Wecker.

The Page 69 Test: The Golem and the Jinni.

--Marshal Zeringue

Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie's novels include Grimus, Midnight’s Children (which was awarded the Booker Prize in 1981), Shame, The Satanic Verses, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, The Moor’s Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Fury, Shalimar the Clown and The Enchantress of Florence, and Luka and the Fire of Life.

He is also the author of a book of stories, East, West, and three works of non-fiction – Imaginary Homelands, The Jaguar Smile, and Step Across This Line. He is the co-editor of Mirrorwork, an anthology of contemporary Indian writing, and of the 2008 Best American Short Stories anthology.

From Rushdie's Q & A with Sital Patel at the Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog:

As a person of literary note, what would you say to young inspiring writers in the world of social media and short attention spans?

I don’t think it will affect it that much. Every time there has been a new form of communication that has emerged, people have always predicted that it will kill the novel. Radio was supposed to have killed the novel. Movies, TV were supposed to kill the novel, but none of them have done that. There is something very persistent about sitting quietly and enjoying an interaction between the reader and the words in a book. People really like it. I think the novel has never had the size of audience that an episode of “Friends” has, unless it’s been freakishly like Harry Potter or the Twilight books, or God help us, “50 Shades of Grey.” The number of people reading the novel style has stayed the same, remarkably loyal.

You talk to a lot of your fans on Twitter. What has been most surprising to you when Tweeting?

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine bullied me to use it. As long as...[read on]

Learn about Salman Rushdie's five best fantasy novels for all ages.

Rushdie's The Satanic Verses is among Christopher Hitchens' six best books, Atul Gawande's favorite books, Karl O. Knausgaard's top ten angel books, and Diarmaid MacCulloch's five best books about blasphemy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Adam D. Shprintzen

Adam D. Shprintzen received his PhD in History with distinction from Loyola University Chicago in May 2011, where his studies focused on nineteenth century America. Currently, he serves as Digital and Archival Historian (see, Digital Encyclopedia of George Washington) at Mount Vernon, where he manages digital history projects as well as the institution's archival holdings.

Shprintzen's new book is The Vegetarian Crusade: The Rise of an American Reform Movement, 1817-1921.

From his Q & A with Michael Gebert at the Chicago Reader:

Michael Gebert: Basically, your book says that vegetarianism not only goes back to the 18th century, but that it parallels a lot of other reform movements of the time—the Great Awakening, abolition, temperance, the first stirrings of feminism. How did vegetarianism fit into that whole picture?

Adam D. Shprintzen: Vegetarianism starts out as this small religious reform group that imports itself to the United States from England, the Bible Christian Church. They come to the U.S. with this idea that religion can actually be understood through science. Which is sort of a remarkable idea through our modern eyes, but wasn't so strange at the time. Part of their ideology was the notion that vegetarianism—they didn't use that term at the time—but that abstaining from meat can sit at the center of a total reform ideology. So meat is one way that the body kind of becomes overheated and overexcited and apt to make people act in improper ways. Whether it be violence, or holding slaves, or oppressing women.

Sylvester Graham—who is remembered wrongly as the inventor of the graham cracker, which would have horrified him with all its sugar and other things—spreads these ideas and sort of connects them with the idea of the healthy body and the healthy mind. Again, the idea is that what someone eats can help predict how they will act. So [eliminating] a violent diet will ensure that an individual will not be violent him- or herself.

And that continues up through the establishment of the American Vegetarian Society in the 1850s, which goes out of its way to place vegetarianism at the center of a total reform ideology. So that's certainly abolitionism, pacifism, women's suffrage, even the idea of economic equity, that a vegetarianism lifestyle is actually cheaper than meat, but then also that cooking vegetarian meals is a way to liberate individuals from the kitchen, that it's less time consuming and, again, not dealing with the effects of violence by touching something firsthand that was killed by violent means.

That phase comes to a climax with the Civil War, and at this point vegetarianism is sort of like the 60s and 70s—once the big cause is settled, ironically in part because vegetarians take up arms to fight for it, vegetarianism turns inward and kind of has a few Me Decades.

That's a great line; I hadn't thought of that but you're exactly right. The Civil War becomes the splitting point for vegetarianism in the 19th century...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Adam D. Shprintzen's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Vegetarian Crusade.

--Marshal Zeringue

Rose Mannering

G. R. Mannering is an English writer and international author. She signed up with literary agency Creative Authors when she was eighteen and secured her first UK publishing deal when she was nineteen.

From a Q & A about her first fantasy novel Roses, with Helen Douglas:

ROSES is inspired by Beauty and the Beast. Can you tell us what attracted you to that fairy tale and about the genesis of the book?

I have an obsession with fairy tales. I think it started with Disney and ballet (Swan Lake & Sleeping Beauty) when I was very young and then moved into Angela Carter and Grimm’s tales as I grew up. I love the challenge of changing and moulding the original story and making it into something completely new.

Beauty and the Beast has always been one of my favourites because I think it’s the most believable fairy tale. ‘A beast and an enchanted castle believable?’ Okay, well maybe not that part, but I’ve always had a problems with the whole love at first sight thing. I think Beauty and the Beast has the most realistic depiction of love of all the fairy tales – a love that grows over time as two people get to know one another.

The book is set in a richly imagined magical world. Can you tell us a bit about Pevorocco and how you approached world-building?

One of my favourite things about reading fantasy novels is diving into...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at G. R. Mannering's website, blog, Facebook page and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: Roses.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ben Kane

Ben Kane was born in Kenya and raised there and in Ireland. He studied veterinary medicine at University College Dublin but after that he traveled the world extensively, indulging his passion for ancient history. His books include a new series set during the Second Punic War as well as the bestselling Forgotten Legion Chronicles.

From his Q & A at Declan Burke's blog, Crime Always Pays:

What crime novel would you most like to have written?

THE TWELVE by Stuart Neville. Absolutely outstanding.

What fictional character would you most like to have been?

Alv, the young cowherd/smith/hero figure in the sadly little known but absolutely outstanding Winter of the World trilogy by Michael Scott Rohan.

Who do you read for guilty pleasures?

Christian Cameron – his 4th century BC novels are some of the finest historical fiction around.

Most satisfying writing moment?

Writing the....[read on]

Visit Ben Kane's website and blog.

Writers Read: Ben Kane (April 2011).

My Book, The Movie: The Forgotten Legion trilogy.

The Page 69 Test: The Road to Rome.

--Marshal Zeringue

Gina Linko

Gina Linko has a graduate degree in creative writing from DePaul University and lives outside Chicago with her husband and three children. Linko teaches college English part-time, but her real passion is sitting down at a blank computer screen and asking herself the question, "What if...?"

Linko's new novel is Indigo.

From her Q & A with Skylar Dorset:

INDIGO is set in New Orleans. Why did you choose this setting for the story?

I had an idea about clusters of people with sixth senses, and I was thinking in terms of an environmental factor being part of the cause. I, of course, started thinking about New Orleans because of its rich history in the macabre, the supernatural, ghosts stories, stuff like that. Because I love the line between science and the unexplainable. It’s such a thin line sometimes. I like to write about things that are right on that line — nearly believable phenomena. Because what if? And New Orleans is a perfect setting for ...[read on]

Visit Gina Linko's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: Indigo.

Writers Read: Gina Linko.

--Marshal Zeringue

Derek J. Penslar

Derek J. Penslar is the Samuel Zacks Professor of Jewish History at the University of Toronto and the Stanley Lewis Professor of Israel Studies at the University of Oxford. His many books include Shylock's Children: Economics and Jewish Identity in Modern Europe, Israel in History: The Jewish State in Comparative Perspective, and The Origins of Israel, 1882-1948: A Documentary History.

Penslar's new book is Jews and the Military: A History.

From his Q & A with Samuel Moyn at Tablet magazine:

How did you come to write this book?

About 10 years ago an old college friend and I were chatting about what I might write about next, and he said he was intrigued by the moral dilemmas faced by Jews in modern armies who for the first time faced the prospect of fighting other Jews in the enemy army. This idea resonated with me, and it eventually became the subject of one of this book’s chapters.

There is a back story, though. Since graduate school I’ve been thinking about Jewish history in the context of the modern state and the tensions between Jewish solidarity, on the one hand, and acculturation and state patriotism, on the other. I like thinking about how the environment in which Jews live has influenced how they ran their communities and, eventually, the Zionist movement and state of Israel.

My books have in one way or another been about the relationship between Jews and state power. My first book was about the origins of Zionism’s technocratic elite, which was less visible than the political-military elite but still tremendously influential. I wrote another book about modern Jewish economic life that showed how important financial success was as a justification for Jewish emancipation and a source of power in the form of philanthropy. When my friend made his suggestion I realized that in my work I had always avoided dealing with the most blatant and destructive form of power, that of armed force. And so...[read on]

Visit Derek Penslar's website.

The Page 99 Test: Jews and the Military.

--Marshal Zeringue

Robert Stone

Robert Stone's novels include Dog Soldiers, which won the National Book Award, and the modern classics Outerbridge Reach and Damascus Gate. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the NEA, Stone is considered one of America’s greatest living writers.

About his new novel, Death of the Black-Haired Girl, from the publisher:

In an elite college in a once-decaying New England city, Steven Brookman has come to a decision. A brilliant but careless professor, he has determined that for the sake of his marriage, and his soul, he must extract himself from his relationship with Maud Stack, his electrifying student, whose papers are always late and too long yet always incandescent. But Maud is a young woman whose passions are not easily contained or curtailed, and their union will quickly yield tragic and far-reaching consequences.... The stakes of Brookman and Maud’s relationship prove higher than either one could have anticipated, pitting individuals against one another and against the institutions meant to protect them.

From Stone's Q & A with David Samuels for The Daily Beast:

DS: You have an obvious interest in myth, and you like bringing it down to human scale. In your new book, which is still settling in my head, I felt, this is a story about the sacrifice of a child. The story in the bible about the sacrifice of a child is when Abraham goes to sacrifice his son, which is one of those terrible biblical moments that I always come back to again and again without knowing exactly how I am supposed to feel about it. This crazed person actually goes to do this crazy thing. And then the ram is caught by its horns in the bush and is sacrificed instead. You can turn it over 17 times in your head and not really get a clear bead on what all that craziness means. So I was wondering if that was at all what was in your head.

RS: Oh it was, absolutely. Absolutely. The sort of priest who was either there or not there, who calls himself the mourner, and the idea of people wanting their suffering to mean something.

DS: The black-haired girl, born of a working class family in New York, has been offered up to the gods of Yale, and is then sacrificed on that altar. The things that happen to her are par for the course in elite American higher education. And then you have her father, the ex-NYPD cop, who has made this offering and is in pain, even though this was the sacrifice that motivated his entire life.

RS: He’d been making the sacrifice his whole life, and then he actually got called on it. This is in a way a religious tragedy, and so in large part this is...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue

Beverly Gologorsky

Beverly Gologorsky's new novel is Stop Here. Where her acclaimed first novel, The Things We Do to Make It Home, revolved around families shaped by the Vietnam War, Stop Here deals with the impact on families by the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

From Gologorsky's Q & A with Hilary S. Kale for Publishers Weekly:

The men in your book respond in different ways to the war: there’s Nick, whose silence about the war speaks volumes; Bruce, who loses his sanity over time; and then Murray, who champions the war, but doesn’t enlist and equivocates about his reasons. Are they based on men you know?

They are figures from my imagination, and composites of various characters I’ve met. But as Flaubert said, “Every character, c’est moi.” I wanted to show how men are affected by war in many different ways. But I think one thing that’s generally true is this: in order to kill, you have to believe that the person you are killing is dangerous. Some of these guys came home from Iraq and were not sure why they did what they did.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

My hope is that...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue