Review: ‘Butterfly Moon,’ by Anita Endrezze

The fifteen stories in this finely honed and well-polished collection have the power to cut away assumptions and alter a reader’s focus and direction as only a storyteller’s magic can do. Borrowed and reshaped from older folktales out of Anita Endrezze’s heritage and imagination, these stories take on new life in their contemporary settings.

In her author’s note, Endrezze writes, “I hope Butterfly Moon will take you adrift in another world that challenges and transforms your perceptions, yet leads you back home to yourself.”

Reality, the oldest shapeshifter we know, dances lightly on the pages of Butterfly Moon and often gives way to enchantments, supernatural events, and the whims of gods and fate. As prospective blessings for the reader’s journey, these stories don’t necessarily fit the traditional narrative arc of a problem leading to a climax. Endrezze’s tales are often unresolved slice-of-life glimpses into her characters and settings that end with a dire occurrence, an acceptance of fate, a troubling paradox or the workings of karma.

The joy, anger, life, and death in Endrezze’s vision are not bound by time, nor are they distinctly separate from the active and sentient world in which they’re set. “On This Earth” begins with the words, The house was a forest remembering itself. The pine trees that held up the walls dreamed of stars dwelling in their needles. When Desetnica leaves home to roam the world in “The Dragonfly’s Daughter” because she is the tenth child, it’s clear that the forest is watching when The blackberry bushes parted their thickets as I waded through green knots of fruit. After I passed, still following the dragonfly, the vines knitted together again, so that I was lost to the other side of kinship and orphaned into the unnamed forest.

While tightly knit into the stories’ plots, myth and symbolism add depth without intruding into the author’s economy of words, understated approach and matter-of-fact reverence to the cultural origins of her material. Endrezze does not explain or editorialize, but her omniscient care is everywhere through this collection from the paradoxes of “Raven’s Moon” to the grim unfolding of “The Vampire and the Moth Woman” to the humor of “Jay (Devil-may-care!)”

For the lovers of myths, legends, and folktales, this collection is highly recommended and a unique delight.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of paranormal short stories and contemporary fantasy novels, including the recently released mix of love and fate called “The Seeker.”

Review: ‘The Best of Glacier National Park,’ by Alan Leftridge

The Best of Glacier National Park, by Alan Leftridge, Farcountry Press (April 30, 2013), 136 pages, photographs, maps, resources

“We’re here! What should we do, what is there to see?” In the preface to his practical and well-illustrated Glacier National Park guidebook, Alan Leftridge writes that as a park ranger, he often heard those questions from excited visitors who “wanted to start making memories.”

Many of Glacier’s two million annual visitors travel a long way to reach northwestern Montana, and when they arrive, they are not only in awe of the scenery but of the scope of the prospective activities that await them in a 1,012,837-acre preserve with 762 lakes and 745.6 miles of trails. While Glacier is best experienced without hurry or stress, the economics of vacation travel make it necessary for visitors to maximize their time in the park.

The Best of Glacier National Park highlights, as Leftridge puts it, the park’s “iconic features.” The book begins with an overview of park facts, geology, and cultural history. This is followed by twenty-six “best of” chapters describing everything from scenic drives, picnic areas and nature trails to wild flowers, birds and photography opportunities.

Each chapter includes a map, color photographs and clearly marked headings and subheadings that make the information easy to find. This book is meant to be used as a quick and easy reference whether you are stopped at an overlook on the Going-to-the-Sun Road or standing in a subalpine fir forest on the Swiftcurrent Nature Trail. The hiking sections, which are broken down into nature trails, day hikes and backpack trips, include directions and special features you’ll want to see and photograph.

Glacier’s rangers, naturalists, boat crews and saddle tour operators are probably asked more questions about the park’s flora and fauna than anything else. The “Best Wildlife” chapter includes a mammal checklist and tells you where to find marmots, deer, elk, bighorn sheep, moose and bears. The book includes appropriate warnings about Grizzly bears, suggesting that they be observed at a distance. “Best Birds” highlights ospreys, eagles and ptarmigans, among others.

Naturally, “Best Wildflowers” begins with beargrass. Leftridge notes that “It is a myth that bears rely on this lily to satisfy their diet. If you see beargrass’ tall stalks with missing flower heads, know that other animals, including rodents, elk and bighorn sheep, nibbled here.”

According to the National Park Service, there are 1,400 plant species in Glacier. While “best” is a subjective term, this guidebook focuses on such popular and showy wildflowers as the Glacier Lily, Indian Paintbrush, Lupine and other visitor favorites.

Naturalist John Muir said Glacier National Park includes the “the best care-killing scenery on the continent” and suggested that visitors  “Give a month at least to this precious reserve. The time will not be taken from the sum of your life. Instead…it will make you truly immortal.”

Whether you have a month, a week or a only few days for the high country known as the Crown of the Continent, The Best of Glacier National Park is an excellent all-purpose, general guidebook for discovering everything to do and see when faced with thirty-seven named glaciers, 175 mountains, and 151 maintained trails of waiting memories.

–Malcolm

A former Many Glacier Hotel summer employee, Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of nonfiction and fiction with a Glacier Park focus, including Bears; Where They Fought: Life in Glacier Park’s Swiftcurrent Valley and his recently released contemporary fantasy The Seeker.

Book Review: ‘Bitter Orange’ by Marshall Moore

Marshall Moore follows his collection of enigmatic and delightfully twisted short stories, Infernal Republic, with an equally inventive novel about a character we can’t always see. Notice how protagonist Seth Harrington is already fading away on the book’s cover.

If Bitter Orange were a feature film showing at your local theater, a sign on the door would say: ABSOLUTELY NO ONE ADMITTED DURING THE LAST 15 MINUTES. The why of things doesn’t appear until the final pages and it’s well worth the wait.

The problem Seth Harrington thinks he has isn’t the worst problem he has. Personally impacted by 9/11, Harrington has allowed his days and nights to take on an out-of-focus aimless quality as though he isn’t engaged in his life. In spite of a fling with Elizabeth in Spain, he can’t connect with people, either because he isn’t sure of what, if anything, he wants or because others aren’t seeing him as he is.

Others not seeing him is the problem he thinks he has. By fits and starts, he is becoming invisible—literally. But unlike the daring-do characters out of comic books and high fantasy, Harrington not only can’t control his growing ability, he doesn’t seem inclined to use it to save the world or fight crime. In fact, he first uses it to steal a bottle of wine from a convenience store.

Other than his aimlessness, Harrington’s a likeable enough everyman trying to negotiate the world while getting past bitter memories and making sense of the seemingly random chaos of his daily life. In Spain, after telling Seth that Seville Oranges are bitter and bullfights are cruel, Elizabeth says, “So we came all this way for bitter oranges and cruelty to animals. And we meet here instead of back home in the States. What does that say about us?”

Back in San Francisco, Elizabeth—who becomes Seth’s tattoo artist of choice because she’s very good—wants to remain as important to him as she ever-so-briefly was in Spain. While Seth is, or potentially is, more attracted to his roommate Sang-hee (even Elizabeth begrudgingly sees it), he cannot seem to embrace the life he prefers. He speculates about just what that says about him.

As the invisibility problem becomes more complex, Seth travels to Portland and Las Vegas to try and find himself. He notes that the people in those towns can’t see him either. He feels bad taking advantage of that fact.

Marshall Moore tells an inventive story, one with prose as likeable as his protagonist, though some readers may want a  more highly focused plot. Moore keeps both the reader and his protagonist guessing about just how and why a man becomes invisible and whether the problem Harrington thinks he has is literal or figurative.

The solution to the problem provides a fitting climax to a well written, fanciful tale. Poor Seth: he didn’t see it coming.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of contemporary fantasy novels, including “The Seeker,” released this month by Vanilla Heart Publishing.

Review: ‘Crescendo’ by Deborah J. Ledford

In music, “crescendo” indicates a gradual increase in force or loudness. If Deborah J. Ledford’s three-book Steven Hawk/Inola Walela Thriller Series (Staccato, 2009, Snare, 2010, Crescendo, 2013) were a concerto, the audience would leave the concert hall at the end of the performance electrified by the force of the third movement and the virtuosity of soloist Inola Walela.

Crescendo (Second Wind Publishing, January 27) begins with great force when antagonists Preston Durand and private investigator Hondo Polk push Billy Carlton to tell them what he knows about the location of Durand’s son and ex-wife. The book’s volume increases when Inola’s partner is killed during a traffic stop by a bullet that might have come from her gun and a female passenger in the stopped car is struck and killed by another vehicle just after she says, “I got you the money.  Where is my son?”

Though she’s a decorated Bryson City, North Carolina police officer, Inola is put on administrative leave pending a departmental investigation into the deaths at the scene. She’s told to stay away from the investigation, including trying follow up on her gut feeling that the woman’s son has been kidnapped.

Inola’s fiancé Steven Hawk, now the county sheriff, wants to play everything by the book. He tells Inola that there’s no evidence of a kidnapping and the city police and county sheriff’s departments can’t take action until evidence and leads, if any, materialize—and she is to stay home.

Readers of the Steven Hawk/Inola Walela Series were introduced to Inola in Staccato when Hawk, who was a sheriff’s deputy then, first became aware of her: “Hawk had noticed Inola Walela, the only female cop on the Bryson City police force. She was captivating, beautiful, smart, tough, exactly what he hoped to find in a woman.”

Inola, who played a larger, but secondary, role in Snare, is Ledford’s on-the-hot-seat protagonist in Crescendo. She comes into her own in this tense novel as a three-dimensional, risk-taking police officer who needs to find the young woman’s son and who has kidnapped him even though she may be suspended or terminated regardless of what she learns.

This is a richly told psychological and physical thriller. Ledford, who knows her characters and her settings well, increases the volume of this story until the last shot is fired.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of contemporary fantasy novels, including “Sarabande’ and “The Sun Singer.”

Book Review: ‘Handover’ by Paul Blaney

On July 1, 1997, the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong became the unique Hong Kong Special Administrative Region  of the People’s Republic of China, ending 156 years of colonial rule. Hong Kong, which translates to “Fragrant Harbor,” had for years been considered in financial, governmental and tourism circles, as a shining jewel.

The colony attracted many expatriates who were lured there for the heady “East-Meets-West” mix of people, the city’s dazzling cultural attractions and nightlife, the innovative high-density architecture and by the prospects of fortunes to be made and new lives to be started. Expats, however, always live within a curious limbo because they are never quite native and never quite who they were before they arrived. This limbo became more intense in Kong Kong as the date of the handover from British to Chinese rule approached.

Three interlocking stories comprise Paul Blaney’s novella Handover (Signal 8 Press, November 2012). His three expat Brits arrive in Hong Kong and find that the complexities of their own lives are somehow made more urgent and dear because of the changes and potential turbulence of the long-awaited handover.

Tess, whose aunt and uncle live in Kong Kong, graduates from college and then arrives and  finds work as a photo editor. Rob arrives with a head filled with memories of a former girlfriend who once lived there and begins to relive them while working as a bartender. Sally, a magazine editor, must confront on-the-job sexual harassment and the abandonment of her family when she defends herself and ends up in the colony’s criminal justice system.

The novella’s sections, each of which is—like Kong Kong—a compact and shining jewel, are bound together by the setting, minor characters and by the looming political and cultural manifestations of the handover. The stories are told in a non-linear style, giving them a kaleidoscopic organization and texture akin to that of Hong Kong itself. As such, the the novella depicts multiple slices of life rather than a traditional tale with a plot line leading through conflicts to an overt resolution.

Well-read readers may see the dark and gritty world of Blaney’s expats as a prospective new level of hell for Dante’s Divine Comedy: here in a heady world where everything wonderful is so close and so possible, doom is a likely result. Adventurous readers, those who love new things, new things with a hint of danger and intrigue, will discover that Paul Blaney’s Handover has many gritty delights to offer.

The novella is also a spot-on description of the the beauty and poverty of Kong Kong during a time in its history when nothing was certain.

–Malcolm

The author of contemporary fantasy and paranormal short stories, Malcolm R. Campbell enjoyed his long-ago visit to Hong Kong and was happy when Signal 8 Press supplied a complimentary copy of a novel set in one of his favorite tourist destinations.

Briefly Noted: ‘The Ghost of Bellamy Bridge,’ by Dale Cox

The Florida Panhandle is often called “the other Florida” or the “forgotten coast” since it’s far away from the attractions and other developments in the peninsula. This is a land of piney woods, Karst region sink holes and limestone caves, spring-fed rivers, deep swamps, and ghost stories.

Growing up in Tallahassee, I heard many of these, but seldom went out to investigate—except for a brief side trip over one of the state’s oldest bridges over the Chipola River north of Marianna. I last saw the bridge in 1962; it was ancient then. (I didn’t see the ghost!) The bridge was abandoned soon after that when a new road and a new bridge were built. While the bridge still stands, it has only been visible via paddle trips since the road leading to it was closed and reverted to private ownership.

Historian and author Dale Cox recently presented a plan to Jackson County for a heritage trail to the bridge via public lands to the west of the river. That project was approved and the trail is now open for use. You can learn more about the project on its Facebook page.

Cox has just released The Ghost of Bellamy Bridge to help support the trail project. The legend about this haunted bridge has been around for about 150 years, and is among Florida’s oldest ghost stories. In this new book, Cox tells the story as the old timers always heard it, Then he tells the story behind the story.

From the publisher:  Cox opens his investigation with the much loved legend of young Elizabeth Jane Bellamy, the 18-year-old bride of a wealthy doctor. She supposedly died in a wedding night tragedy and now haunts the environs of a nearly century old bridge that spans the Chipola River north of Marianna, Florida.

For dedicated ghost hunters, Cox also features nine other stories, including “The Two Egg Stump Jumper” and “The Wild Man of Ocheesee Pond.”

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of contemporary fantasy novels, including “The Sun Singer” and “Sarabande,” and the paranormal Kindle short story “Moonlight and Ghosts”

Review: ‘The Raven Boys’ by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“The Raven Boys” has a compelling premise” and a very interesting set of characters in a contemporary fantasy playing off “locals” (including a family of psychics) against the ultra rich male studens at a local upscale school.

The life of protagonist Blue Sargent, who is the adolescent member of that psychic family of readers, intersects with several of the young men from Aglionby Academy when she learns that one of them is about to die–and he might be the one she’ll fall in love with.

I enjoyed the premise and the characters, but didn’t like the ending or the pacing. Inasmuch as this book is the beginning of the series, the ending seemed abrupt, skewed off on a secondary character, and more designed to prepare readers for the next installment than to properly wrap of Blue’s involvement. The pacing dragged because the rich students had a heavy, but essential, backstory about a search for ley lines and (possibly) to keep the book from straying too far into the territory reserved for the next book.

This is a young adult book that also works for adult readers.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of two contemporary fantasies, “Sarabande” and “The Sun Singer,” both of which are available in paperback, Kindle, Nook, and multiple e-book formats at Smashwords.

Got book lovers? Here are three Christmas ideas

If you still have some holiday shopping to do, here are a few of my favorites this year that might make for some very nice gifts:

 “Goatsong” by Patricia Damery, il piccolo editions Fisher King Press (November 1, 2012), ISBN-13: 978-1926715766 – A wise view of the world through the eyes of a child, homeless women, a goats.

• From my review: When you read Goatsong, you are breathing in fresh air off the Pacific ocean, smelling the sweet scent of the bay laurel, and cooling your tired feet in sacred streams flowing through old redwoods in the company of wise women who, without agenda, may well change you as they changed the ten-year-old Sophie in those old family stories about the town of Huckleberry on the Russian River.

“In Sunlight and Shadow” by Mark Helprin, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (October 2, 2012), 978-0547819235 – A combat veteran whose business is threatened by the mob falls in love with a young woman from a rich and influential family. Readers will discover a poetic view of New York  City played off  against the Mafia’s protection racket and the protagonist’s combat experiences as a behind-enemy-lines pathfinder.

• From my review: Mark Helprin recalls post World War II New York City throughout In Sunlight and in Shadow with the accuracy and atmosphere of A Winter’s Tale (1983) and his protagonist’s combat experiences with the chilling combat detail of A Soldier of the Great War (1991).

“The Casual Vacancy” by J. K. Rowling, Little, Brown and Company (September 27, 2012), ISBN-13: 9780316228534 – Rowling steps away from teenagers and contemporary fantasy with a story about the people and politics of a small English town.

• From my review: Winesburg, Spoon River, Grover’s Corners and Peyton Place reside so powerfully in the consciousness of readers as accurately rendered representations of small town life that their people, town squares, relationships and secrets are forever in our memory almost crossing the boundary from fiction into reality. The English village of Pagford in J. K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy belongs on this list.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of contemporary fantasy novels, including “Sarabande.”

Contemporary fantasy for your Kindle.

Briefly Noted: ‘Cedar Hollow,’ by Sam Franklin’s family

“Cedar Hollow,” by  Patty Hayner Franklin, Bill Franklin, Eric Thomas Johnson, Melinda Clayton, Samuel Joseph Franklin, Frankie Johnson, W. Michael Franklin and Tracy R. Franklin, Vanilla Heart Publishing (October 2012), 150 pp, paperback and e-book

While Cedar Hollow is the fictional town in Melinda Clayton’s novels (“Appalachian Justice,” “Return to Crutcher Mountain” “Entangled Thorns”), the Franklin Family is lovingly real as are the flavor, ambiance and wonders in this book.

All author and publisher proceeds from this anthology, created by Sam Franklin’s family, will go to the “Helen R. Tucker Adult Developmental Center, Tipton County Branch [in Tennessee] where Sam currently spends many of his days interacting, learning, growing, and experiencing life. With great honor, Vanilla Heart Publishing is pleased to support this center and the people who make it possible.”

Pushcart Prize Nominee Short Story Erma Puckett’s Moment of Indiscretion by Melinda Clayton is included, along with stories, poems, lyrics and music score, recipes, and more from Sam and his Family, including his father, mother, sisters, and both his eldest brother and his brother-in-law.

Excerpt about Sam from his sister, Melinda Clayton

My brother is funny and sweet. He likes basketball, dancing, and singing. He loves old reruns of shows he watched as a child. He likes to play the keyboard and the drums. He loves foods that aren’t healthy for him, but always follows the doctor’s orders. Most of all, he loves his family.

And, by the way, he has Down Syndrome.

Just one little sentence in the whole of who he is.

There’s a lot of prose and poetry to look forward to in this anthology. Even so, I’m also tempted by the recipes for Darryl Lane’s trout, Peggy Mitchell’s burgers, Kay Lanley’s key lime pie, and Beryl Dickson’s holiday cookies.

–Malcolm

P.S. Vanilla Heart is also my publisher, Melinda Clayton is my friend and I was once a unit manager in a developmental center where some residents had Down Syndrome. You might say I am fully biased in favor of this book in every possible way.

Briefly Noted: ‘The Thorn and the Blossom’ by Theodora Goss

When Theodora Goss’ novella The Thorn and the Blossom: A Two-Sided Love Story was released last year, the book’s imagery, dual stories and unique construction created a bit of a stir. In the story, Evelyn Morgan and Brendan Thorne meet by chance and become lovers after he hands her a copy of a medieval romance.

In her Bookslut review, Colleen Mondor said: “Slipcovered and with an accordion-fold binding, “The Thorn and the Blossom” is designed so it can be flipped and readers may thus enjoy Brendan and Evelyn’s separate perspectives of the same tale. While the publisher’s work is impressive, it is Goss’s handling of the story itself that really blew me away. You do not have to read these perspectives in any particular order; you can start with Brendan or Evelyn and either way you will not ruin critical moments or spoil the ending.”

Publishers Weekly said: “The fantasy elements are light, revolving mostly around Gawan’s story and Evelyn’s visions of fairies and trolls. Overall this makes the tale align more with old-fashioned romance than pure speculative fiction, but Goss’ appealing characters and modern magic atmosphere will continue to attract a following.”

Some reviewers on Amazon liked the unique look of the book, but found the accordion-style presentation difficult to read because the pages easily fell away in long folds. Other authors with two stories to tell in one book have solved this problem by formatting the stories from alternate ends of the book but with standard binding. Needless to say, the issue becomes a non-issue for those reading the e-book version.

Nonetheless, showing the same story from two points of view is an age-old technique that’s been handled in multiple ways, and whenever it appears it adds both drama and depth to the material. Readers naturally feel some stress when they are told it doesn’t matter which account to read first and also when they see that there will be no resolution to the contrasting viewpoints. The depth, aided in part in this case by Goss’ evocative language, comes from understanding that people see events and relationships differently rather than via the single, linear viewpoint commonly used in most fiction. So, the dual stories show us what we often miss in fiction, though we experience it in our lives.

Available in hardcover and e-book, “The Thorn and the Blossom” is likely to enchant lovers of fantasy, romance, and well-told tales.

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You May Also Like: The Value of Expecting Synchronicity

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of contemporary fantasy, including the gritty, magical adventure “Sarabande.” His paranormal Kindle short story, “Moonlight and Ghosts” was released last month.