If you haven't purchased the book that has everyone buzzing, do it now and save 10% NOW!
Just Click HERE: http://ow.ly/qNe8
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
HURRY! While Supplies Last!
If you haven't purchased the book that has everyone buzzing, do it now and save 10% NOW!
Just Click HERE: http://ow.ly/qNe8
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
"Lights, Cameras, Prologue"
As I've mentioned before in other posts, I am a firm believer of grabbing the reader's attention from the first word. I know that when I open a new book, I don't want to wait to be hopelessly hooked with the storyline.
I remember sitting in front of my laptop screen watching my cursor blink impatiently as if it were waiting for me to type some letters for it to place upon my word document. Alan and I had been emailing back and forth regarding the beginning of "The Mango Tree Cafe, Loi Kroh Road" as we both weren't satisfied with the current beginning.
I know I wanted the story to lure the reader in quickly and quietly into the jungles of Thailand. I wanted to have the reader be able to picture what "Larry," the main character looked like, felt and thought as we find him sitting on the veranda in the glare of the morning sun. After countless rewrites, I came up with an idea...Larry was considered the supreme storyteller by his friends. The recounting of his boyhood home, his experiences along the journey reflect this art of storytelling. I decided to show the unkind effects of a journey that was too long and difficult for this sensitive man's soul.
A man whose oratory skill was unmatched was now mute. One can only wonder about the stories that can no longer be released from his psyche.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
One Novel, Two Authors - Ecstasy and Agony of Collaboration
I wanted to be part of this project." That project was creating the novel "The MangoTree Cafe: Loi Kroh Road," which won the Indie Book Award and could well wind up being the film sequel to "Casablanca." And that's how Taryn Simpson took on the unthinkable: Collaborating on a work of fiction. Most of us, whether writers or businesspeople, know the difficulty of working together on much more straightforward tasks. Fiction? That's why I arranged this exclusive interviews with Simpson.
***********************************************************************
The Ecstasy and Agony of Collaboration: An exclusive interview with Taryn Simpson, co-author of novel "The Mango Tree Cafe."
JG: I was astounded that you collaborated on, of all things, fiction. How did that come about?
TS: Yeah, Jane, I suppose that it is pretty unusual.
I'm a ghostwriter by trade and a writer friend of mine contacted me. She had a potential client who had a novel which needed some punching up. She asked: Are you interested?
I said: Sure. Next I said: I will call the client and get more information. She said: Oh, I forgot to mention that he [Alan Solomon] is located in Beijing. As in China.
Sheesh. I wondered how the distance between us would work out. That was among the key issues to consider. Others were the language. Would there be a barrier there? Would references, metaphors or potential storylines be lost between Asian culture and American culture?
So, I contacted the "client" - Alan Solomon - and I began to question him about the project and he stopped my questioning. He simply emailed the first chapter, with the instructions: If you like it, we'll talk, if you don't, no harm done.
I read the first chapter. The rest is history. I saw where the novel needed a lot of work and quite a bit of rewriting. I knew that this wouldn't be just another ghostwriting job. I wanted to be part of the project. I've ghosted a lot of novels and books and I have never felt that way before about any project. I often to refer to it as the "Serendipity Project."
JG: How do we who want to go where you went choose a partner?
TS: Obviously, there needs to be a connection between the two writers. I was concerned about this with Alan [Solomon] in the beginning. But the more we discussed the story, our views about what should be included or excluded and so on I realized that we were compatible.
Whether the writers are in the same town or half a world away, the best way to seek out a good collaborative fit for yourself is to be brutally honest about your writing habits and ideas. Be willing to share that information with your potential writing partner.
So, that's what I did. I shared that information with Alan [Solomon] and he told me about his habits and ideas. Then he emailed me and explicitly stated: I'm ridiculously easy to work with. He was right.
JG: Was it a difficult process? Candor appreciated.
TS: It had its challenges. Being an American, it's hard for me to fathom that people in other countries don't have the same freedoms we do. If you have lived in the U.S. all your life, you tend to adopt the mindset of "If I have a certain freedom, surely everyone else has it too." Although watching the news I know differently.
For example, when I created a blog for the book, Alan Solomon wasn't able to view it online for some time. That was because of China's strict internet laws.
Another challenge was that I had a certain time frame where I catch Alan Solomon online. Remember, if the time in Nashville, Tennessee is 8 P.M., it is 8 A.M. in Beijing.
JG: What were the most satisfying parts?
TS: Oh, this is going to be difficult. Overall, I loved the fact that I got "lost" in "The Mango Tree Cafe" as a reader. I've never been to Thailand. But the events of the novel were so real to me that I felt like I have been there. It was a very strange feeling. And meeting people in Nashville who had actually been there was just surreal.
Also, I love many sections of the book. The ones which stand out in my mind include the metamorphosis the main character goes through. It covers from the time he is a child to current age of around 50ish. He is able to gain a realization about himself and his father which is melancholy at best. It's a sweet, sad, and all too painfully familiar feeling of knowing what it feels like to be so ultimately different from others and realizing that regardless of the lifestyle you lead, you can't run from what is inside yourself.
I don't want to give too much away. Let's just leave it at: It's a very poignant story.
One more thing. There is also the setting. It includes visions of a lush jungle full of exotic fish, elephants and street dogs. You can get a feel for some of this here on YouTube.
JG: What do you recommend to others thinking about collaborating on fiction?
TS: If you love fiction and find a like-minded soul who shares that passion, collaborating makes good sense. However, if you aren't ready to give and take on every facet of the story, then it may be best to go it alone. For me as a ghostwriter, it's almost second nature to be flexible.
JG: How about non-fiction?
TS: I would think that it's MUCH easier to write non-fiction with a partner. My philosophy is: If it makes sense to you, then by all means take the bull by the horns.
JG: Thank you so much.
*************************************************************************
Here is where you can order "The Mango Tree Cafe." You can contact Taryn Simpson about her services at Taryn.simpson@gmail.com
***********************************************************************
The Ecstasy and Agony of Collaboration: An exclusive interview with Taryn Simpson, co-author of novel "The Mango Tree Cafe."
JG: I was astounded that you collaborated on, of all things, fiction. How did that come about?
TS: Yeah, Jane, I suppose that it is pretty unusual.
I'm a ghostwriter by trade and a writer friend of mine contacted me. She had a potential client who had a novel which needed some punching up. She asked: Are you interested?
I said: Sure. Next I said: I will call the client and get more information. She said: Oh, I forgot to mention that he [Alan Solomon] is located in Beijing. As in China.
Sheesh. I wondered how the distance between us would work out. That was among the key issues to consider. Others were the language. Would there be a barrier there? Would references, metaphors or potential storylines be lost between Asian culture and American culture?
So, I contacted the "client" - Alan Solomon - and I began to question him about the project and he stopped my questioning. He simply emailed the first chapter, with the instructions: If you like it, we'll talk, if you don't, no harm done.
I read the first chapter. The rest is history. I saw where the novel needed a lot of work and quite a bit of rewriting. I knew that this wouldn't be just another ghostwriting job. I wanted to be part of the project. I've ghosted a lot of novels and books and I have never felt that way before about any project. I often to refer to it as the "Serendipity Project."
JG: How do we who want to go where you went choose a partner?
TS: Obviously, there needs to be a connection between the two writers. I was concerned about this with Alan [Solomon] in the beginning. But the more we discussed the story, our views about what should be included or excluded and so on I realized that we were compatible.
Whether the writers are in the same town or half a world away, the best way to seek out a good collaborative fit for yourself is to be brutally honest about your writing habits and ideas. Be willing to share that information with your potential writing partner.
So, that's what I did. I shared that information with Alan [Solomon] and he told me about his habits and ideas. Then he emailed me and explicitly stated: I'm ridiculously easy to work with. He was right.
JG: Was it a difficult process? Candor appreciated.
TS: It had its challenges. Being an American, it's hard for me to fathom that people in other countries don't have the same freedoms we do. If you have lived in the U.S. all your life, you tend to adopt the mindset of "If I have a certain freedom, surely everyone else has it too." Although watching the news I know differently.
For example, when I created a blog for the book, Alan Solomon wasn't able to view it online for some time. That was because of China's strict internet laws.
Another challenge was that I had a certain time frame where I catch Alan Solomon online. Remember, if the time in Nashville, Tennessee is 8 P.M., it is 8 A.M. in Beijing.
JG: What were the most satisfying parts?
TS: Oh, this is going to be difficult. Overall, I loved the fact that I got "lost" in "The Mango Tree Cafe" as a reader. I've never been to Thailand. But the events of the novel were so real to me that I felt like I have been there. It was a very strange feeling. And meeting people in Nashville who had actually been there was just surreal.
Also, I love many sections of the book. The ones which stand out in my mind include the metamorphosis the main character goes through. It covers from the time he is a child to current age of around 50ish. He is able to gain a realization about himself and his father which is melancholy at best. It's a sweet, sad, and all too painfully familiar feeling of knowing what it feels like to be so ultimately different from others and realizing that regardless of the lifestyle you lead, you can't run from what is inside yourself.
I don't want to give too much away. Let's just leave it at: It's a very poignant story.
One more thing. There is also the setting. It includes visions of a lush jungle full of exotic fish, elephants and street dogs. You can get a feel for some of this here on YouTube.
JG: What do you recommend to others thinking about collaborating on fiction?
TS: If you love fiction and find a like-minded soul who shares that passion, collaborating makes good sense. However, if you aren't ready to give and take on every facet of the story, then it may be best to go it alone. For me as a ghostwriter, it's almost second nature to be flexible.
JG: How about non-fiction?
TS: I would think that it's MUCH easier to write non-fiction with a partner. My philosophy is: If it makes sense to you, then by all means take the bull by the horns.
JG: Thank you so much.
*************************************************************************
Here is where you can order "The Mango Tree Cafe." You can contact Taryn Simpson about her services at Taryn.simpson@gmail.com
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Sins of the Father and The Mango Tree Cafe, Loi Kroh Road
The theme of the sins of the father has been universal in art, way before the discovery of material passed down through genes. My hunch is that ultimately the legacy of Ted Kennedy, who died today, will be carved out in context of what drove his father Joseph Kennedy and how the son struggled - successfully and not so well - against "destiny."
One brilliant exploration of that theme is the novel "The Mango Tree Cafe." By authors Taryn Simpson and Alan Solomon, it creates Everyman Larry. His father's passivity - stuck in the butterfat of farming life in New Zealand - drives the son to find a mission - and meaning. The father also passes onto the son too much dependence on alcohol. Although Larry, like much of humanity including Ted Kennedy, defaults often into escape through booze, he does find his way to a somewhere. That's unusual. The lion's share of the wounded, confused, curious more frequently journey only to find themselves still stuck in that metaphorical butterfat.
One brilliant exploration of that theme is the novel "The Mango Tree Cafe." By authors Taryn Simpson and Alan Solomon, it creates Everyman Larry. His father's passivity - stuck in the butterfat of farming life in New Zealand - drives the son to find a mission - and meaning. The father also passes onto the son too much dependence on alcohol. Although Larry, like much of humanity including Ted Kennedy, defaults often into escape through booze, he does find his way to a somewhere. That's unusual. The lion's share of the wounded, confused, curious more frequently journey only to find themselves still stuck in that metaphorical butterfat.
This morality tale is about the possibility of triumphing over what could or maybe should be our destiny. Larry does more than run, lapse into alcoholism, and stare inward. As the adage goes, Destiny isn't what happens. It's what we create. For attorneys haunted by the dreams of their fathers, professors and mentors about what their career paths ought to be, Larry's struggle might provide hope that there is a way out of the past.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Intuitive Readings Review on "The Mango Tree Cafe"
The Struggle to Disappear - Not so easy, or so desired, after a while
Increasingly our fantasies are about just disappearing - and our deep longing to do so.
There is plenty of precedent for doing just that. Stephen King's father went out for a pack of cigarettes. When King became iconic in the terror category of literature, an investigative reporter had tracked the wanderer to a new family in Pennsylvania. He was dead but a second family, though they didn't know the man they thought they knew hadn't gotten a divorce from his first wife, was very much alive.
More recently, as Evan Ratliff recounts in the current edition of WIRED, Matthew Alan Sheppard felt overwhelmed as well as bored by his life as married man and environmental and safety manager. He faked his death. Perhaps like so many runaways, he seemed to also want to be found. He was, by the authorities.
There is plenty of precedent for doing just that. Stephen King's father went out for a pack of cigarettes. When King became iconic in the terror category of literature, an investigative reporter had tracked the wanderer to a new family in Pennsylvania. He was dead but a second family, though they didn't know the man they thought they knew hadn't gotten a divorce from his first wife, was very much alive.
More recently, as Evan Ratliff recounts in the current edition of WIRED, Matthew Alan Sheppard felt overwhelmed as well as bored by his life as married man and environmental and safety manager. He faked his death. Perhaps like so many runaways, he seemed to also want to be found. He was, by the authorities.
Indie Book Winner "The Mango Tree Cafe" digs right into these archetypes of getting lost. It's different, though, because the runaway Larry wants to find himself and help others do the same. The tale, by Taryn Simpson and Alan Solomon, is unusual in that the journey is not really one of flight.
Told by his farmer father in New Zealand to not set roots down in the world of butterfat consistency and price, Larry leaves what he knows. However, he already has a sense what he is going to find or must find. A ghostly presence visits him when he was a child and assigned him a mission of sorts. Stephen King-like, this creates both a feel of the mystical and the terrifying.
After taking plenty of wrong roads, Larry winds up on Loi Kroh in Thailand. It has that exotic pull force of attracting the world's most needy, most lost, most promising, and most doomed. Larry and his girlfriend Noo minister to them through the flowing booze, excellent chow, and an ability to listenat "The Mango Tree Cafe." By doing good, the couple also does well. They make a bundle and even more when they sell the restaurant.
The theme of the novel might be the Old Testament one of Many Are Called But Few Are Chosen. Of those who wander into "The Mango Tree Cafe", summoned by some voodoo force, most will continue their suffering.
Told by his farmer father in New Zealand to not set roots down in the world of butterfat consistency and price, Larry leaves what he knows. However, he already has a sense what he is going to find or must find. A ghostly presence visits him when he was a child and assigned him a mission of sorts. Stephen King-like, this creates both a feel of the mystical and the terrifying.
After taking plenty of wrong roads, Larry winds up on Loi Kroh in Thailand. It has that exotic pull force of attracting the world's most needy, most lost, most promising, and most doomed. Larry and his girlfriend Noo minister to them through the flowing booze, excellent chow, and an ability to listenat "
The theme of the novel might be the Old Testament one of Many Are Called But Few Are Chosen. Of those who wander into "The Mango Tree Cafe", summoned by some voodoo force, most will continue their suffering.
They can't or won't exit their loneliness, fear of everything ranging from death to intimacy, resentments, and regrets. Given that, it could serve as a morality tale about leaving what has been or what is to journey forward, not stay stuck. Perhaps the novel is saying: We don't merely tell our stories. It's within our power to create those stories and put in the necessary energy to keep editing them.
The novel can be ordered here from Amazon.com.
The novel can be ordered here from Amazon.com.
Monday, August 24, 2009
"The Mango Tree Cafe" - Combo platter of Wally Lamb, Joseph Campbell - Book Review by Jane Genova
There's a warning in 12-step programs, whose members are notorious for running away: Where you go, you bring yourself. A card-carrying member of diverse versions of those programs and plenty cynical since I am a serial runaway I expected that to be the theme of "The Mango Tree Cafe." It wasn't. Actually, it was a combo platter of Wally Lamb and Joseph Campbell.Winner of the Indie Book Award, the Novel by Taryn Simpson and Alan Solomon follows Larry as he flees from the mundane world of New Zealand butterfat. Actually, it's his father, a sensitive soul who got stuck on the farm draining cow udders, who tells him to hit the road. Hit it he did, all the way to Thailand. Along the journey he winds up on Loi Kroh Road, a universe onto itself of mysticism, hopes of salvation, and more often doom.
Larry is an Everyman, only with more than the usual share of fear of death, loneliness, inability to connect, and that sense of having a special mission. The latter is no delusion. A ghostly presence lands in his life in youth and keeps him on-track with that mission. The calling is to minister to other suffering souls. Yeah, right out of Wally Lamb's recent work.
Larry accomplishes his life's work through operating the highly successful "Mango Tree Cafe on Loi Kroh Road". Into it roam the world's most needy. Some exit whole. Others just fall through all safety nets, often by design.
Just like Joseph Campbell's hero, Larry is one of those fortunate ones who sets out on a journey to find what he wants and winds up with what he needs. Redemption comes in the form of being able to love. Larry establishes the platform for intimacy by being almost Christlike in giving.
Obviously, there are plenty of lessons in "The Mango Tree Cafe." But, as the adage goes, it's the journey - that is reading this tale - which makes it worth the price of admission.
You can order it from Amazon.com here.
Thank you Jane Genova - Speechwriter - Ghostwriter
Saturday, August 22, 2009
My favorite part of "The Mango Tree Cafe, Loi Kroh Road"
I remember that the opening of the book was rewritten at LEAST 10 times; all with different ideas in each one. At one point, I was stumped and decided to reread other sections of the book. Mainly, the end. It reminded me of the circle of life and how we all grapple with the uncertainties and changes we go through as individuals. I reread the ending and as I always do, tears slid down my cheeks as I could feel the heartbreak that "Larry," the main character experiences. It's more than a story about the love of your life...it's about something so deep and personal that your soul aches and you aren't quite certain why.
I emailed it to Alan (as I always do) for his opinion. I waited as my cursor blinked impatiently on my computer screen. Finally, he responded with a one word reply; "Fine',"which is found at the end of the last stanza of every sheet of music. The meaning? FINISHED.
Cheers-
1 author, Simpson
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