Island Song by Alan Chin

When I first read the blurb of this book I thought, well another story setting in Hawaii, probably I will find beautiful sands, beautiful beaches, a easy-to-go way of life, a bit of mythology, surf, hula... what else am I missing from the typical Hawaiian postcard? And yes, in Island Song there is all of that but also something more, I really was not expecting to be so moved by the story, and I really was not expecting how easy was to read this book, , the book makes itself read, and you lost the count of the pages to emerge again from the story when it's almost finished and wonder what happens to the last 250 pages? I haven't realized to have read so much.

Garrett is the typical mainlander who is searching solace in the loneliness of the island. At first I believed that Garrett was forced to leave his previous life, and instead his story his even more typical, Garrett had all money could buy if not love. Garrett's first lover and only love, Marc, died, and nothing bonded Garrett to the city where they lived, San Francisco. Garrett loves his routine, the Castro district, the Golden Gate Park, the Victorian houses, but every corner of that city is an image of Marc, of how much happy they were together, and Garrett had to run from it. Garrett arrives in Hawaii with the idea of writing a romance book, the love story between him and Marc, and maybe writing it, it will also bury it. When the reader starts to "write" along with Garrett that love story, it seems almost a sweet romance, two young men who meet and fall in love with the easiness of youth. All right, they faced some trouble, they had to move and they lost the support of their family, but they were together. For sure a love like that was broken only by an unmerciful illness, something that nor Garrett or Marc could defeat. For sure there is no blame nor on Garrett or Marc side, and proof is that now Garrett is inconsolable.

But the island is there to help, and help arrives in the form of Songoree, a very young boy. Garrett rents a little villa from Songoree's grandfather, and the boy is hired as "housekeeping": he will cook and tend the house, and he will look after Garrett. At first Garrett is not so happy to have Songoree around, the boy is too beautiful, and Garrett after all is a man, not so young like him, but still not "dead". I really was wondering on Garrett's behavior, if his love story with Marc was so beautiful, how can he be so ready to be tempted by Songoree, even if the boy is beautiful? And then Garrett is "allowing" himself six months to write this book, bury his lost lover once for all, and then come back to his life in San Francisco... there is something that didn't ring right to me, was I sure that Garrett and Marc's relationship was so special after all? And while the reader again discovers another true through Garrett's memories on the paper, Garrett and Songoree's present relationship doesn't evolve as I was expecting: there is no sudden love, no unresistible passion neither of them can control, they almost settle down in a domestic peace. Where is the passion, where is the uncontrollable force of the natural elements that usually in this setting are reflected in a passionate love story between the two main characters?

And then, when almost the reader is used to the story to have this peaceful pace, the drama arrives both in the past then in the present relationship: through Garrett's memories the reader finally knows what happened to Marc, and it's something that I wasn't expected, not in that tragic way, and not with that resolution. I feel almost like Garrett while writing his past love story was also re-playing it in the present: the meeting of two men apparently not fated to be lover, the blossom of a love which held a lot of promises for the future, the tragedy that struck not once but twice, and then the healing power of love... the only thing that can be change, if the two present lovers want, is the ending.

There is another surprise, for me really positive, in the story: from the blurb, and from past experience with similar stories, I was expecting from it to be a lot more "detached", a mystical story at the edge between mythology and paranormal, and instead the story is quite "normal", with only some events that you can also justify as driven by strong emotions... there is not anything really "out of ordinary". This book is a very nice romance, probably the romance Garrett was trying to write, what Marc wanted him to write, a book that proves that a story between two men can be a love story. It's not overly erotic, actually probably there aren't really sex scenes, but truth be told, for me doesn't matter.

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=2178

Amazon: Island Song

Reading List:



http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Alice Elinor Lambert (January 8, 1886 - February 19, 1981)

Alice Elinor Lambert (January 8, 1886 - February 19, 1981) was an American romance writer.

In the 1930s, she self-published with Vanguard Press at least three romance novels: Hospital Nocturne, Women Are Like That, and Lost Fragrance, all later re-published by Dell Romance.

In 1904, she enjoyed a brief summer romance with landscape painter Tom Thomson. Thomas John Thomson (August 5, 1877 – July 8, 1917), also known as Tom Thomson, was an influential Canadian artist of the early 20th century. He directly influenced a group of Canadian painters that would come to be known as the Group of Seven, and though he died before they formally formed, and is sometimes incorrectly credited as being a member of the group itself. Thomson disappeared during a canoeing trip on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park on July 8, 1917 and his body was discovered in the lake eight days later. The official cause of death was accidental drowning, but there are still questions about how he actually died.

Lambert married Joseph Ransburg in 1912. They had two daughters: Victoria (born 1914) and Josephine (born 1916). Lambert separated from Ransburg in the 1920s, moved to San Francisco and became an advice columnist for the San Francisco Examiner. According to the 1930 U.S. Census, she was again living with Ransburg. In 1931, she again separated, moving to New York. She returned to Seattle the following year and divorced Ransburg.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Elinor_Lambert

( Dell Mapbacks )

Barbara Burnett Smith (? - February 19, 2005)

Barbara Jo Petry, a Texas author best known for writing a popular series of cozy mysteries, was struck and killed by an automobile on February 18, 2005. She died a day later in the hospital at the age of 57.

Readers knew the Austin resident as Barbara Burnett Smith. Her five-book Purple Sage series featured the crime-solving adventures of Jolie Wyatt, a radio station reporter and aspiring writer. Writers of the Purple Sage, the book that launched the series, was nominated in 1994 for an Agatha Award for best first mystery novel. In addition, Petry penned the books Bead on Trouble and Mauve and Murder.

For two decades, Petry did vocal work in radio and television commercials. She also owned and operated Catalyst Training & Development, a company that provides communication and leadership classes to corporations, government agencies and non-profit organizations.

Petry and her husband Gary drove to San Antonio on February 18, to rescue an Airedale. On the way home, the couple stopped at the Remember the Alibi mystery bookstore. Unexpectedly, the dog jumped out of the car and ran into traffic. The night was dark and rainy, and as Petry tried to save the animal she was struck and fatally injured by a passing car.

First Book - Writers of the Purple Sage (1994)

Last Book - Beads of Doubt (2007)

Source: http://www.statesman.com/search/content/auto/epaper/editions/sunday/life_entertainment_2402d2c237ac903b00ab.html

Island Song by Alan Chin

When I first read the blurb of this book I thought, well another story setting in Hawaii, probably I will find beautiful sands, beautiful beaches, a easy-to-go way of life, a bit of mythology, surf, hula... what else am I missing from the typical Hawaiian postcard? And yes, in Island Song there is all of that but also something more, I really was not expecting to be so moved by the story, and I really was not expecting how easy was to read this book, , the book makes itself read, and you lost the count of the pages to emerge again from the story when it's almost finished and wonder what happens to the last 250 pages? I haven't realized to have read so much.

Garrett is the typical mainlander who is searching solace in the loneliness of the island. At first I believed that Garrett was forced to leave his previous life, and instead his story his even more typical, Garrett had all money could buy if not love. Garrett's first lover and only love, Marc, died, and nothing bonded Garrett to the city where they lived, San Francisco. Garrett loves his routine, the Castro district, the Golden Gate Park, the Victorian houses, but every corner of that city is an image of Marc, of how much happy they were together, and Garrett had to run from it. Garrett arrives in Hawaii with the idea of writing a romance book, the love story between him and Marc, and maybe writing it, it will also bury it. When the reader starts to "write" along with Garrett that love story, it seems almost a sweet romance, two young men who meet and fall in love with the easiness of youth. All right, they faced some trouble, they had to move and they lost the support of their family, but they were together. For sure a love like that was broken only by an unmerciful illness, something that nor Garrett or Marc could defeat. For sure there is no blame nor on Garrett or Marc side, and proof is that now Garrett is inconsolable.

But the island is there to help, and help arrives in the form of Songoree, a very young boy. Garrett rents a little villa from Songoree's grandfather, and the boy is hired as "housekeeping": he will cook and tend the house, and he will look after Garrett. At first Garrett is not so happy to have Songoree around, the boy is too beautiful, and Garrett after all is a man, not so young like him, but still not "dead". I really was wondering on Garrett's behavior, if his love story with Marc was so beautiful, how can he be so ready to be tempted by Songoree, even if the boy is beautiful? And then Garrett is "allowing" himself six months to write this book, bury his lost lover once for all, and then come back to his life in San Francisco... there is something that didn't ring right to me, was I sure that Garrett and Marc's relationship was so special after all? And while the reader again discovers another true through Garrett's memories on the paper, Garrett and Songoree's present relationship doesn't evolve as I was expecting: there is no sudden love, no unresistible passion neither of them can control, they almost settle down in a domestic peace. Where is the passion, where is the uncontrollable force of the natural elements that usually in this setting are reflected in a passionate love story between the two main characters?

And then, when almost the reader is used to the story to have this peaceful pace, the drama arrives both in the past then in the present relationship: through Garrett's memories the reader finally knows what happened to Marc, and it's something that I wasn't expected, not in that tragic way, and not with that resolution. I feel almost like Garrett while writing his past love story was also re-playing it in the present: the meeting of two men apparently not fated to be lover, the blossom of a love which held a lot of promises for the future, the tragedy that struck not once but twice, and then the healing power of love... the only thing that can be change, if the two present lovers want, is the ending.

There is another surprise, for me really positive, in the story: from the blurb, and from past experience with similar stories, I was expecting from it to be a lot more "detached", a mystical story at the edge between mythology and paranormal, and instead the story is quite "normal", with only some events that you can also justify as driven by strong emotions... there is not anything really "out of ordinary". This book is a very nice romance, probably the romance Garrett was trying to write, what Marc wanted him to write, a book that proves that a story between two men can be a love story. It's not overly erotic, actually probably there aren't really sex scenes, but truth be told, for me doesn't matter.

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=2178

Amazon: Island Song

Reading List:



http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Behind the Cover: A. Leslie Ross

Arthur Leslie Ross, Jr. was born December 4, 1910 in West Orange, New Jersey. His father was also named Arthur Leslie Ross, of Scottish ancestry, and was a designer at a rug mill in Amsterdam, NY. His mother was J. Margaret Hoffman, of German ancestry. He had an older brother, Warren. His family called him "Let" and his friends called him "Joe." They lived at 58 Whittingham Place.

After graduating from West Orange High School in June of 1928 he went to work at a printing company, The American Color Type Co.

In 1929 he studied at the New York School of Fine Art, and from 1931 to 1934 he studied at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he crossed paths with H. W. Scott, Walter Baumhofer, Frederick Blakeslee, and Rudolph Belarski.

In the Fall of 1934 he opened his own freelance art studio on East 63rd Street in NYC, and then later at West 67th Street.




Cover Illustration for Super Sports

His first assignments were interior story illustrations for Mavericks and Bull's Eye Western Stories. He was soon painting cover illustrations for pulp magazines, such as All Sports, Blue Ribbon Western, Complete Cowboy Novel, Complete Northwest, Crack Detective, Dime Western, Exciting Sports, Popular Western, Real Western, Spy Stories, Sport Story, 10-Story Western, West, Western Aces, and Wild West Weekly.

On April 5, 1937 he married Pearl Elizabeth Mather of Montclair, NJ. In 1939 they bought a five-acre property as a weekend home in Poughquag, New York, in Dutchess County.

By 1941 he was doing freelance work for Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, and Paramount Studio.

( Read more... )

A. Leslie Ross died in his art studio in Poughquag, NY, at age of seventy-eight in August of 1989.

Source: http://www.pulpartists.com/Ross.html

( more covers )

Behind the Cover: A. Leslie Ross

Arthur Leslie Ross, Jr. was born December 4, 1910 in West Orange, New Jersey. His father was also named Arthur Leslie Ross, of Scottish ancestry, and was a designer at a rug mill in Amsterdam, NY. His mother was J. Margaret Hoffman, of German ancestry. He had an older brother, Warren. His family called him "Let" and his friends called him "Joe." They lived at 58 Whittingham Place.

After graduating from West Orange High School in June of 1928 he went to work at a printing company, The American Color Type Co.

In 1929 he studied at the New York School of Fine Art, and from 1931 to 1934 he studied at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he crossed paths with H. W. Scott, Walter Baumhofer, Frederick Blakeslee, and Rudolph Belarski.

In the Fall of 1934 he opened his own freelance art studio on East 63rd Street in NYC, and then later at West 67th Street.




Cover Illustration for Super Sports

His first assignments were interior story illustrations for Mavericks and Bull's Eye Western Stories. He was soon painting cover illustrations for pulp magazines, such as All Sports, Blue Ribbon Western, Complete Cowboy Novel, Complete Northwest, Crack Detective, Dime Western, Exciting Sports, Popular Western, Real Western, Spy Stories, Sport Story, 10-Story Western, West, Western Aces, and Wild West Weekly.

On April 5, 1937 he married Pearl Elizabeth Mather of Montclair, NJ. In 1939 they bought a five-acre property as a weekend home in Poughquag, New York, in Dutchess County.

By 1941 he was doing freelance work for Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, and Paramount Studio.

( Read more... )

A. Leslie Ross died in his art studio in Poughquag, NY, at age of seventy-eight in August of 1989.

Source: http://www.pulpartists.com/Ross.html

( more covers )