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By Gordon Thompson

As the Beatles made their historic debut on American television in February 1964, the cast of Oliver!, the actor playing the role of the Artful Dodger, and other acts on the show watched from the wings as the hysteria unfolded. Davy Jones had started his acting career on British television, making his debut appearance in the venerable Coronation Street followed by the gritty Liverpool police drama, Z-Cars. His diminutive stature made him a natural to play teens, but also suggested that he could be a good jockey, and he briefly pursued this career; but when a casting call came for the Broadway version of Lionel Bart’s Oliver!, Jones’ youthful looks seemed ideally suited to play the charismatic child thief and the title character’s mentor. In New York, he received a Tony nomination for his portrayal; however, he had watched the Beatles dominate British media in 1963 and, as they now similarly triumphed in the North America, he saw the next stage in his career.

America’s 1964 hunger for all things British and Jones’ obvious talent brought him to the attention of Screen Gems and American television, which cast him in an episode of the medical drama, Ben Casey. And in 1965, when Screen Gems began searching for talented and attractive actors for a comedy loosely imitating the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night, Jones’s profile easily rose to the top of the list. The Monkees debuted in the fall of 1966 on American television and, at 20, his boyish good looks made him an immediate fan favorite. Indeed, he ranked among the most popular male pop figures of the 1960s, his picture regularly appearing in teen magazines. But in an era when the Beatles implored you to turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream, a culture war raged over the Monkees’ authenticity. Nevertheless, Jones supplied strong vocal performances on Monkees’ recordings, especially “Daydream Believer,” the band’s last major hit, and the band with the assistance of a strong studio produced nearly perfect pieces of pop. Moreover, of the four actors who played the Monkees, Jones particularly had both the voice and the charismatic looks for a solo career.

While internal and external tensions eventually led to the end of both the television series and the band, Jones continued to perform, sometimes with fellow Monkee (and child actor) Mickey Dolenz and briefly with songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. In the post-Monkees years, he had a number brief appearances in television and film, and in the eighties, MTV reintroduced the television series and the band to a new generation of viewers.

In the nineties, a reunited Monkees toured and even last year Jones made a number of appearances with Monkees members Dolenz and Peter Tork. From his early experiences as a jockey, Jones maintained an interest in horse racing as an owner and his stable had success on both sides of the Atlantic. Nevertheless, performance remained important to Jones and he had a series of American concert dates scheduled for 2012 with his band.

Jones died this morning at his home in Indiantown, Florida at the age of 66.

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Guess what? I'm about to review a book I read on Net Galley. How cool is Net Galley? So. Cool. (As long as, y'know, the publishers give you permission to read the books you want to read so you can review them. But I digress.)

The full title of today's book is Sarah Emma Edmonds Was a Great Pretender: The True Story of a Civil War Spy, and it's by my good friend Carrie Jones. Yes, that Carrie Jones - the one who wrote Tips on Having a Gay (ex)Boyfriend, Love (and Other Uses for Duct Tape) and Girl, Hero and Need, Captivate, and Entice. And she is actually a friend, so you might expect me to be biased and I am, frankly, not going to tell you that you're wrong, because being biased under the circumstances is entirely logical. I am, however, going to tell you what I think about the book anyway, even with you knowing that I'm biased, and we'll go from there, okay? Okay.

The thing is, I was inclined to love this book before I read it, not because Carrie wrote it, but because of the following reasons:

1. I know a lot about the subject of the book. I did a shload of research on Sarah Emma Edmonds as part of a project I co-authored with J. Patrick Lewis (poems about spies and spying, still looking for a home).

2. I have a thing for girls in drag, as I believe I've mentioned before. And Sarah Emma Edmonds decidedly walked that walk.

3. I have a rather strong feminist bent, and nothing says feminist like Sarah Emma Edmonds (even if she died long before the actual word/movement exists). Grrl power!



Sarah Emma Edmonds was a fascinating individual. Born in Canada, she made her way to the United States alone, becoming so dedicated to the country that when the Civil War broke out, she decided to serve in the military. (What I didn't know until I read Carrie's book is that Edmonds had a history of dressing as a male that dated back to her childhood. Way interesting.) At that time in history, her being a woman should have made military service an impossibility, but Edmonds didn't let a little thing like gender hold her back: Dressed as a man named Frank Thompson, Edmonds enlisted as a private in the Union Army, where she was assigned to work as a nurse in field hospitals.

Looking for an opportunity to use her ability to wear disguises serve her country and hopefully decrease casualties, Edmonds volunteered to become a spy. She made several trips into Confederate territory to seek out military secrets, dressing first as a young African American male, then as a female Irish peddlar, and finally as an African American laundress. If Carrie's description sounds a little bit like something from the movie Victor/Victoria, it's understandable:

This time she pretended to be Bridget O'Shea, a chubby Irish peddlar. She was a woman (Sarah) pretending to be a man (Frank) pretending to be a woman (Bridget).

This would be confusing for most people, but not for Sarah.

As Edmonds herself said (and is quoted as saying in the book), "I am naturally fond of adventure, a little ambitious, and a good deal romantic—but patriotism was the true secret of my success."

The book is due out on April 1st, just a hair too late for Women's History Month. With its evocative artwork and clear narration, the book manages to be a tribute not only to Edmonds, but to the power of imagination.

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I first interviewed you for The Edge of the Forest e-zine back in 2007, a month or so before Tips on Having a Gay (ex)Boyfriend came out. At that time, Girl, Hero and Love (and Other Uses for Duct Tape) were still in production with Flux. What a difference two years makes – in that time, Tips was released (and won the 2008 Maine Literary Award and Independent Booksellers Award), Girl, Hero and Love were released as well, and in December of 2008, your first fantasy novel, Need, was released by Bloomsbury. Rather than go over anything about Tips and Love and Girl, Hero, I thought we'd talk about fantasy today, and about what's next. This is not quite as easy as it sounds, since Jeri Smith-Ready did such a kickass interview with you back in December and the folks over at My Favorite Author did a great Need-based interview earlier in May, but here goes.

1. The main character in Need, Zara, is a pretty self-actualized, proactive girl. She's smart, she's athletic, she's socially conscious, and she really doesn't take a lot of crap from anyone, and I have to confess to loving her for rushing out into the world to threaten that if anything happened to Nick, she would kick somebody's ass. What were your considerations when creating a female main character for your fantasy novel?

A lot of contemporary fantasy novels for adults have incredibly confident, butt-kicking heroines but that dominance hasn’t completely taken over the young adult genre. There are still a lot of damsels in distress, which is okay, but I wanted some variety, some female leads who become tough and still are girls, who have bravery and empathy. Zara’s development is like those adult protagonists for a reason. Girls deserve stories where the butt-kicking and the saving isn’t ALWAYS done by the guys. They deserve stories where the female isn’t always the damsel in distress. She can be in distress sometimes, but not all the time.

There are teens out there who are smart, athletic, socially conscious, and whose lives aren’t defined by their boyfriends. They deserve stories where the main character is like them.

Plus, Zara would’ve kicked my butt if I had written her any other way.

2. My M is fond of saying that you write "the very best boyfriends ever". She fell in love with Tom in Tips and Love, with Paolo in Girl, Hero, and most definitely with Nick (and a little bit with Devyn as well) in Need. Care to tell us how you do that? Also, any chance you'll be writing a no-good boyfriend any time soon?

Sigh! She is so nice. She makes me want to happy dance when I hear that.

I don’t make cool guys consciously. I think I approach them like all my characters – I think of them as real. I try to make them three-dimensional, not just narrow shells, or play things. I really like men. I have a lot of guy friends. (I have a lot of female friends, too! Don’t worry! I am not a girl hater). All my guy characters are influenced by REAL LIFE guys I know. I think my love for my friends is part of what comes through when I’m writing those male characters. Plus, I think good guys deserve to be represented. It’s too easy to fall into the ‘one dimensional’ boyfriend trap. So, I fight against it.

And honestly? I fall in love with all of my guy characters, too. I am easy. I swoon when Nick does nice things. It’s a bit pathetic actually.

One of the works-in-progress that I’m doing is told in the voice of a guy who is a bit off. He’s basically a stalker. I’m in love with him, too. That’s how easy I am. Anyway, he’s the closest thing I have to a yucky boyfriend, even though he isn’t technically a boyfriend.

3. This is a spoilery sort of question, people, so if you haven't read Need and want to avoid all mention of its plot, avert your eyes! One of my favorite characters in Need is Zara's friend, Issie, who appears not to have any fantastical or magical properties. I confess to kind of wishing that she were a were-bunny, because that concept made me laugh aloud. Can you tell us if Issie turns out to have some sort of other heredity (i.e., is another form of Shining One), or is she merely mortal? Or must we wait for Captivate to come out this December?

Were bunnies would be super cool, wouldn’t they?

I can’t believe you’re asking! That is sooooooo spoilery.

Bad Kelly. Bad.


Carrie signing books at NESCBWI Conference in 2008

4. If you had to categorize Need, would you call it paranormal romance based on the relationship between Nick and Zara, or urban fantasy because it's set a fantasy set in the contemporary world, and one of the key story lines is Zara's quest to learn the truth/not get dead (even though it's set in rural Maine, and not in a city)? As a further question, do those categories matter to you as a writer when you're in the process of developing or writing a book, or are they just important after the fact and/or for certain categories of readers?

Urck. I am no good at the categories or at labeling things. It always feels so confining, like if you call NEED a PARANORMAL ROMANCE you must now have every book of the series fall into that PARANORMAL ROMANCE format. I think this story could go either way. It’s about multiple things (finding yourself, finding love, solving a bit of a mystery, not getting dead). If I had put some strudel in there I could have said it was a STRUDEL-BASED, SUSPENSEFUL, COMING-OF-AGE, LOVE STORY. But, I totally screwed that up. Next time there will be strudel.

I don’t think about categories at all when I write, which is probably a bad thing, marketing-wise. When I write a first draft I just get swept in by the story. When I’m revising is when I think more about the readers, or when my editor, Michelle Nagler, tells me things like, “You can NOT have this happen. This makes the book R-rated. Believe me! No, seriously, Carrie. You can’t. Are you listening, Carrie?”

5. What, if anything, can you tell us about Captivate, the sequel to Need?

Well, I’m still revising it, but I can tell you that:

1. What happens in it surprises me a lot.
2. Zara becomes even more of a butt kicker.
3. Bad stuff happens.
4. Someone dies.
5. She deals with some interesting pixies.

6. Do you foresee yourself writing any future fantasy novels? If so, do you have an interest in world-building? Why or why not?

I think I’d be horrible at the high fantasy that requires a lot of world building. I might try it sometime as a big experiment, but when I even try to make up names for totally different worlds I start cracking up. They all sound really Tolkien-y or just start sounding silly. I like the aspects of world-building that are like a puzzle but I am such an inpatient writer and I always want to get to the character changes and action that I don’t know if I can take the appropriate time to do that.

That said, all novels require world building, even the realistic ones.

That said, I still think I’d stink at it, which is why I’d only try it sometime (when I have time) as an experiment.

NEED was a big experiment, too, actually. I wanted to see if I could write something that wasn’t contemporary and realistic. I wrote it on a bit of a whim. I have written a couple other fantasy novels on whims, too, but they haven’t been submitted to editors yet. My poor agent (Edward Necarsulmer IV of McIntosh and Otis) probably screams inside when he sees another manuscript of mine come across his desk. There’s a bit of a backlog.

I guess the answer to your question is that I love writing fantasy and I hope to publish more. I just wrote an essay for HUNGER MOUNTAIN (the Vermont College Journal of Arts & Letters) about why I like to write it.

7. In addition to Captivate, am I correct that you've got a few other books in the works? What can we expect to see next?

I do. None are under contract though. There’s one story similar to NEED in structure but it’s actually science fiction. There’s a mystery. There’s some contemporary realism. There’s a book I co-wrote with the super cool Steve Wedel [(), author of The Werewolf Saga]. My agent is about to shop one around. Basically:

1. I have no idea if any editor will actually buy any of them.
2.I have no idea if I’ll ever get anything published again.
3.I have no self confidence about getting books published. I’m just so super psyched that I have ANY out there at all. Seriously. It seems so crazy and lucky.
4. I hope I get more published though.

Man, I sure hope you get more books published, too, and I'm not just saying that as a friend, but also as a fan of your work. Plus I don't want to hear M moaning about her favorite author's failure to publish more books. (And yes, you are her favorite living author. Probably her favorite author. Period.)

8. Last year, you campaigned for public office in the State of Maine. Did your experience on the campaign trail strengthen or weaken your political viewpoints? Will any of that experience make it into a future YA novel?

I spent a lot of time knocking on people’s doors. You learn a lot of things about people when you knock on over 2,500 doors. You learn that:

1. There are a lot of good people out there.
2. There is a lot of poverty, people who work but just can’t afford things like gas or oil. (I live in a rural district in Northern Maine. It is cold here and you have to drive everywhere).
3. Some people will hate for no reason.
4. Some people will love for no reason.

I also learned that a lot of people come to the door naked and occasionally you will meet a psycho killer.

What I learned about myself is that I am not meant to be a politician. I wanted to help people by working through the legislative system; I wanted to make their lives better, but I wasn’t willing to create the tougher, outer persona that people need to win elections here. I wanted to just be me and win. I didn’t want to run a negative campaign. I didn’t want to cheat or do anything slimy. For me, the entire campaign was an exercise in self realization. No. I am not a tailor-made politician. But, yes, I am a person who is passionate and goofy and who cares. That’s okay.

It made my core political beliefs stronger. I believe that government has a role in helping people’s lives. It also made me a big fan in compromise and respect for all political beliefs and ideals from all political parties. I did really well in a political district that doesn’t ever vote for my political party. I gathered more votes than anyone had before. That means a lot to me.

9. What's next?

Right now I’m revising CAPTIVATE, trying to write a novel in short stories, and trying to find time to sleep. I really like sleep. Sleep is my friend but we haven’t been hanging out much lately.

Speed round. We played this before, but let's play again, in case any answers have changed.

My answers ALWAYS change

Cheese or chocolate? I am currently a fan of American cheese. It hides culinary sins quite well because it is one.
Coffee or tea? Sadly neither. Caffeine gives me seizures.
Cats or dogs? Do you want to start a war in my house?
Favorite color? Purple ‘cause I like that book, The Color Purople.
Favorite snack food? Yogurt, Breyers Yo Crunch 100 calorie kind
Favorite ice cream? Skinny Cow
Water or soda? Water. Wow! I sound so healthy! Ha!
What's in your CD player/on iTunes right now? Glue (Carrie is friends with lead rapper, Adeem (pronounced A D M), who says on their MySpace page that he writes music for "people with panic attacks and women who like the pixies and vote for Barack Obama" – hey! that sounds like me and Carrie! No wonder I like what I hear over there.)
What's the last movie you memorized lines from? Well, I just saw Star Trek last night and I have these lines in my head because they really apply to Zara:

Spock’s dad says:
You will always be a child of two worlds, and fully capable of deciding your own destiny. The question you face is: which path will you choose?

And then the Capt Pike guy says to Kirk:
You've always had a hard time finding your place in this world, haven't you? Never knowing your true worth. You can settle for less in ordinary life, or do you feel like you were meant for something better? Something special.

Many thanks to Carrie for coming by for this interview. To my way of thinking, she's something special indeed.

Other stops on the Summer Blog Blast Tour today:

Andrew Mueller at Chasing Ray
Kekla Magoon at Fuse Number 8
Amber Benson at Bildungsroman
Greg van Eekhout () at Shaken & Stirred

And don't forget the Guys Lit Wire Book Fair for Boys benefiting the male teens incarcerated in LA County's juvenile justice system. The fair continues to run all week.

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How to start this review? After all, it would indeed sound corny if I told you that you NEED to buy it, right away. Like, today, which is its official release date. But man, that is what I am so tempted to say, because my friend Carrie Jones? She has really done it this time. In a world where nothing is as it seems, you find the addition of things like glamours, so that things that actually are seem not to be. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First, I should confess that I have been trying, somewhat unsuccessfully, to wean myself off what became a Twilight binge. After seeing the movie with M, I read the whole series in a few days. And then, I read it again. And I read Midnight Sun online (at least twice), and then compared it to Twilight. I was trying to figure out why I like the books so much even though I find many aspects of them completely maddening (my feminist principles are offended by much of the series, to say nothing of the creepy stalker factor and the controlling boyfriends factor and the whiny MC factor and my authorial principles are offended by the abuse of words beginning with "ch" such as "chuckle" and "chagrin", overuse of comparisons to gods and angels, to say nothing of the "why the hell did the author make everything morally easy for all her characters in that last book?" factor and more). I do not have an answer to my questions. But I digress.

Today, I'm talking about the book that has made me say "Stephenie who?" for the first time in weeks: NEED by Carrie Jones, which has a kick-ass cover, a kick-ass heroine, and the hottest (in many ways) hero/boyfriend I've read in a while. In fact, it's so awesome that I am going off tomorrow to score another two copies of it (one for me, one for S) so I can be sure to have first editions. And then, I'm going to re-read it. Like, tomorrow. And now, on to the actual review part of our program:

First, a few words about the cover. The on-screen image doesn't quite do it justice, because it just looks like the girl's mouth is wearing some shiny lipstick. On the actual book cover, it's obvious that she's got gold dust on her lips. And there's a trail of gold dust across her neck behind the gold letters of the title, too. It is, sadly, not actually sparkly glitter, but it is plainly and clearly gold pixie dust.

Yeah, I said it. Pixie. And in the cold, snowy world of Bedford, Maine, pixies are not small, fictional creatures a la Tinkerbell. They are tall. And real. And far more dangerous than you might imagine. And I'm not telling you anything more about them because, y'know, spoilers. But man, Carrie did a great job with them.

Second, our kickass heroine is Zara White. She is sent from Charleston, South Carolina, to the outer corner of Nowhere, Maine by her mother, who is concerned about Zara's emptiness after the death of the stepfather she loved - the only father she's ever known, in fact. Zara goes off to stay with her grandmother, who is named Betty White, but who has precious little in common with the actress of the same name, as best I can tell.

Now, I was certain that there were all sorts of fishy things going on in town early on in the book, because there were references to people not liking her for the way she smelled, for instance. Also? I developed a crush on Nick Colt immediately upon him assisting her into the school on her first day there. But I don't want to get ahead of myself. I want to talk about the kickass heroine for a bit. Because even though she's a damsel who ends up in distress, this is no princess waiting to be rescued. She is proactive all the way. Maybe flawed in being too brave, really, which is a nice change of pace. (At one point - or possibly more than one point - she openly threatens to kick some ass if any harm has come to a friend of hers, using the words "I'll kick your ass" - how much do I love her for that? Oh so very much.) She doesn't just kick ass, she takes names. She is smart and conscientious and clever. And resourceful. And proactive. I like her for that. Plus? I like her quirks, including her fondness for listing phobias.

Back to the hot guy, Nick Colt. I have to agree with M, who has told me more than once that Carrie writes the best boyfriends of any author she knows. (This does not mean, all my many author friends, that you do not write amazing boyfriends too. Honest.) In fact M, who also likes the Twilight books (but who thinks people will find her too geeky for having read them 8 times, so I'm no longer allowed to tell people that), has read Tips at least that many times, and likes Tom better than Edward. She also likes Paolo from Girl, Hero better than Edward, and would very much like a boyfriend who will watch John Wayne movies for her (or the M equivalent). I can't wait to get her reaction to Need, but it will have to wait at least another day, since the book isn't hers yet. *coughSantacough* Nick is charming and mysterious and adorable and hot (in many ways), and every single girl you know (including the adult ones) will have a massive crush on him, guaranteed.

And then there are the supporting cast. I really like the supporting cast, including Meghan the bitchy announcements girl, the obsequious tall guy Ian, the excellent Gram, the bunny-loving Issie, and the wheelchair-bound boy, Devyn. And the pixies, and what they're up to, is really, really creeptastic. And the backhanded paean to Maine's master of horror, Stephen King, is just extra frosting roses on an already excellent cake.

I would be proud to be Carrie's friend even if she wrote idiotic phrases in crayon that didn't make much sense, because she's such a good person. But I am awed to know her, based on her achievement here. And I'm not saying that because she is my friend, because I'd be awed were she a complete stranger.



You're not still here, reading this are you? GO BUY THIS BOOK! You NEED it!

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Happy Friday to all, I hope you had a relaxing short week.  I’ve been enjoying the end of summer and hoping the lovely weather goes on just a bit longer.  Enjoy the procrastination below!

Listen to an interview with Howard Jones author of The Bay of Pigs.

Look at these geeky tattoos.

Is Palin’s daughter the only Presidential pregnancy?

For the love of Build-A-Bear.

A self-promoting shout out for the OUPblog twitter.  Follow us!

WSJ.com to relaunch on my birthday! About time.

Don’t follow this recipe!

Our office is in the shadow of the Empire State Building, conversations like this are sadly not that rare.

Great thoughts on branding in an online era.

Careful, chaos may ensue.

ShareThis

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Both my wife and I have rather annoyingly been struck with some terrible back pains at the exact same time. This is especially sucky because both of us are hobbling around the house like a couple of injured camels, complaining, whining, and generally being a pains in the butt.

Yep...lots of fun at the ol' Novak household.

I put a few new zombie designs up recently over at redbubble, including one just in time for the new Indiana Jones flick. Feel free to check them out.

Steve~

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You know how I just said how I was uncomfortable with fictional memoirs set in recent times? Well, I guess I jumped to conclusions too soon. I read and loved Lloyd Jones' Mister Pip last week, despite the fact that it was told from the first person POV of Matilda, remembering her early teenage years on Bougainville Island during the early 1990s. Matilda recounts the story of how she and the other children of her small town are taught to love Great expectations by their makeshift teacher, the only white man around, who flickers between being a mysterious figure of fun and a defender of the village. The novel, with its story of dramatic changes in fortune, exile and loss captures the imagination of the children. As external events impact upon the village and the lives of everyone in it, the line between fiction and reality is blurred.

The book speaks powerfully about the power of books to impact lives. There’s a lovely moment when Mr Watts says to Matilda that:

Almost makes me want to go give it another chance!

Although the coming-of-age theme is likely to appeal to YA readers, I should warn that there are also very violent scenes in part of the book.

When I was reading I kept picking up sentences that sounded very Australian in construction (beats me how I did this seeing as I couldn't consciously construct one), which puzzled me as I thought the author was British. But no, Jones is a Kiwi who obviously has the good taste to sound like his near neighbours :) Seriously, though, Jones has a lovely clear writing style with realistic dialogue. I think it might have been the fable-like quality to the story that made it a break in my new-found distrust of this type of fictional memoir.

One thing this book made clear was my lack of knowledge over the civil war in Bougainville – basically I knew there had been a war that dragged on for years, there was trouble with mining as well, and that about sums it up. This was made clearer by the fact that the main character was only a couple of years older than me so I could remember what I was doing at the time. I remember my uncle and aunt lived on the island, and there being some type of trouble and my cousins coming back to Brisbane to boarding school (which, at the time, was seen a completely good thing to us kids). Why is it that I have learnt modern history of other Asian nations but not the Pacific islands? It is a gap I would like to address.

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Yippee Yi Yea! 

I saw Die Hard for the first time as a private-detective-obsessed middle schooler. The film blew me away, but it also managed to revolutionize the action movie--better heroes, better stunts, and better characterization. 

According to Wikipedia, the whole film is based on a novel called Nothing Lasts Forever. In honor of the upcoming release of Live Free or Die Hard*, here is a link to all the facts about the book that created a cinematic revolution, a bit of Die Hard Literary Theory, if you will:

"Nothing Lasts Forever is a sequel to Thorp's 1966 novel The Detective. It follows Detective Joe Leland, who is visiting the Klaxon Oil Corporation's headquarters in Los Angeles, where his daughter works. While he is visiting, a German terrorist team led by Anton "Tony" Gruber takes over the building. Leland remains undetected and fights off the terrorists one by one."

*This is a woe-begotten title that translates to Die Hard, Part IV and totally corrupts the legacy of the franchise name.

You see, "Die Hard" is supposed to refer to the fact that it is very difficult for terrorists and bank robbers and whatnot to kill Bruce Willis in each movie. So, to say "Live Free or Die Hard" implies that Bruce Willis must choose between "dying hard" or "living free" and that the two activities are mutually exclusive--creating a false duality.

I would argue that the whole point of the franchise is to prove that a guy who "dies hard" can indeed protect us from terrorists and bank robbers and whatnot, therefore enabling us to "live free." In reality, these two activities are both essential components of Bruce Willis' complex character.

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