Licia Flynn's Blog

     The Space Where You Were begins sharply with a vivid depiction of edgy encounters at a college party, causing the reader to wonder what transpired between Diana, a college sophomore, and her ex-boyfriend Leo, whom she began seeing in high school.

    Diana is hit with heavy nostalgia while returning to Leo's grandmother's home, a place that once made her feel safe. Tension flares while she observes her so-called friends betraying her trust. They do this by invading Leo's grandmother's home and disregarding her treasured belongings: dusty mahogany, crystal ashtrays, and formal living room. Diana's friends also betray her trust by ignoring unspoken boundaries created by former couples. 

    Overall, The Space Where You Were is a taut, haunting short-story that eloquently depicts the loss one feels while transitioning from youth into adulthood. Very often it's not the individuals one misses, but a time, place, and slipping-away version of oneself. 

    For more of Nina's work:  https://www.dreamerswriting.com/mudseason-graceless-violet-abandon-nina-denison/, https://www.dreamerswriting.com/nina-denison-2/,  and https://streetlightmag.com/2016/04/03/the-space-where-you-were-by-nina-denison/

        

#comingofage #literature #poetry #short-story #poet #AmericanLiterature #college #university #youngadult #romantic #timeless #Northeast #Boston #NinaDenison #Editor #writer #Fiction 

Having written two other books and worked with over three professional editors, I knew exactly what I wanted in a proofer for my third novel --- Lucifina: The Belle of Hell. Nina Denison was my ideal candidate because of her impressive undergraduate degree in English literature and years of professional publishing experience. However, I was most intrigued by her background in poetry, experience editing cookbooks, and understanding of the YA market.

Of everyone I contacted, Nina wrote back with the most enthusiasm and undertook her task of proofing with the utmost care. I was very impressed with her work. She was extremely methodical. In fact, I suspect she may have read my book twice. I've read Lucifina twice after receiving her edits and found no errors. This is rare.

Nina was also extremely generous. She gave me a line --- the rain continued its drumbeats on the roof. She also offered developmental guidance, which ultimately changed the ending of my book. Nina's encouragement was also very inspiring. In addition, to catching numerous errors, I couldn't have found on my own --- misplaced commas and incorrect tenses --- she also found other embarrassing mistakes that I might not have caught.

Overall, Nina is extremely precise. She is detail-oriented but grasps the big picture. She possesses a sharp analytical mind with a focus on logic, as well as, an artistic side. She's highly selective and never arbitrary. For example, she doesn't make comments or finds errors for the sake of doing so.

Last year, I wrote a review for Guard Thy Heart by Siwar Al Assad. However, the review focused on relationships. Thus, I wanted to write another review focusing on healthcare issues.

Guard Thy Heart becomes especially gripping when Asaad describes Paul's horror at the practice of extracting organs from living donors, who sold them under appalling conditions:

"Immigrants lacking documents or money, poverty-stricken Indian farmers, and other vulnerable people were surgically divested of a kidney or cornea, and then left without medical care and frequently unable to work. For their trouble, they received a meager sum, allowing the traffickers, doctors, and lawyers to recoup a profit ten times what they paid for that precious resource. The height of the monstrous practice was the kidnapping of human beings to be killed and cut into pieces to fill special requests."  - Assad, Guard Thy Heart

Assad then concisely illustrates the politics behind such crimes by exposing the institutions involved. The book really heats up when Paul debates Dr. Kumar about the illegal system of procuring organ parts such as hearts.

Guard Thy Heart is a complex multi-layered political thriller. Like a classic novel, it depicts the idiosyncrasies of old and new wealth. It's also a romance that examines the way a particular type of woman can captivate a man for a lifetime. Highly recommended.

This book would be ideal for university political science classes, law school health law, or international law courses.

#SiwarAlAssad #GuardThyHeart #PoliticalThriller #Romance #Classic #Literature #Mystery #Suspense #Injustice #OrgantTransplants #OrganThefts #HumanTrafficking #Kidnapping #Crimes #Poverty #Inequality #CrimesAgainstHumanity #Humanity #Legalities #UnitedNations #InternationalLaw #InternationalCrimes #London #India #Technothriller

I have dozens of books on my Kindle, mostly ones I feel I should read --- classics and books recommended by friends. I'm so glad I stumbled upon Die by the Pen by Miles Maxwell. This mystery novel is fun and easy to read after a long day of studying tedious, dry, technical data.

Die by the Pen is a fast-paced page-turner about two strong FBI agents working to solve a series of murders. Maxwell is an excellent writer because he knows his territory so well, one can presume that he's a former insider. Plus, his prose are swift. He writes for his reader and not for himself.Now you can download Die by the Pen for free by clicking the link below: 

#Mystery #Thriller #FBI #Detective #Miami #NewYork #Crime #MilesMaxwell #DiebythePen #NaomiSoul #Amazon #Freebooks #Free 

Two Deaths by Kim Philley is a moody thriller about an American journalist traversing the backroads of Cambodia. It focuses on her complex relationship with Jonathan, a Nigerian soccer player, and the bureaucratic challenges he faces while seeking to relocate to Australia.

The protagonist is a woman surrounded by tragedy in the underprivileged third world. As she undertakes her work, she encounters death and then is haunted by childhood memories where she often felt blamed for other peoples' transgressions.

Arguably, the protagonist's biggest fault lies in being too hard on herself. At one point, she recounts a childhood bee sting and how much she cried. Was she crying from the actual bee sting or the blame she placed on herself for disobeying her mother's warnings?

The story begins in Phnom Penh. The young journalist quietly recounts former flames left behind in Portland. Then she describes Jonathan in vivid detail like the 17th-century novelist Aphra Benh described Ooronoko.

It's apparent to the reader, that the protagonist's new love interest is the opposite of the men she abandoned probably because she didn't want to marry them. Instead, she is drawn to a risk-taker who is everything she is not. She is literary, detail-oriented, conscientious, and conscious of subtlety.  In contrast, Jonathan is great with a ball, but less so with words. Insults don't affect him because he's blissfully unaware.

 As the story progresses it appears that the only bond shared by Kim and Jonathan, besides talent and passion, is past trauma which may be an illusion. After all the protagonist thinks, I was vaguely annoyed; why did everything with Jonathan have to be a non sequitur? She was probably also thinking --- what was supposed to have been an escapist adventure has now turned into a draining nightmare.

Kim is an elegant writer who delicately crafts her prose. I look forward to reading Two Deaths again because this novelette is like poetry and must be read repeatedly to fully appreciate it. I hope Kim adds an epilogue because then this story would be a novella and would satisfy the curiosity of readers who desire more.







#The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2013 #DavidSedaris #KimPhilley #literature #Cambodia #PhnomPenh #Shortstories #Nigeria #Soccer #Death #TwoDeaths #Injustice #Romance

After watching Gaddafi butchered alive, I pulled out a notepad and created an outline for my book Firm Resolve. I divided the book into five sections and carefully broke each part into chapters and sub-chapters before writing.

Part 1 was inspired by the disappearance of CIA agent Jim Thompson. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte was a heavy influence for much of the book. Corporal King from King Rat, stories about Vietnam, and the Iran Contra Affair inspired Natalia's father, Aaron Walker, and the backdrop of the entire story.

I was also influenced by the structure and style of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, which is about a Victorian marriage in the Caribbean.

There are several plots in Firm Resolve —

1.) The disappearance of Natalia’s parents,
2.) How Natalia survived in the intervening years and changes from a fiery young woman into a very determined agent and why she disappears, and
3.) Curt Steiger’s fraudulent business activities as a pharmaceutical startup founder. The dialogue contains clues, political innuendo, satire, and it reveals the shallowness of many expats in Asia.
4.) Political issues in the Middle East

#FirmResolve #Libya #Benghazi #Gaddafi #LiciaFlynn #Politics #MiddleEast #Geopolitics #NorthAfrica #Espionage #Thriller #Conspiracy #CIA #Novel #Novella #Mystery #InternationalIntrigue #Theory #CharlotteBronte #JaneEyre #WideSargassoSea #JeanRhys #KingRat #JamesClavell #Disappearance #MissingPersons #Romance #Haunting #Dialogue #Expats #Entreprenuers #Startup #SiliconValley #Tech #Fraud #PharmaceuticalIndustry 

Crichton's State of Fear is an action-adventure about eco-terrorism and an impending global catastrophe.

The main character is Peter Evans, a big firm environmental lawyer. His main client is an eccentric wealthy donor named George Morton. Morton mysteriously disappears after pulling substantial funding from an environmental organization. The goal of NERF is to wage a trillion-dollar lawsuit based on global warming evidence.

Evans is a nice guy. However, he's relatively passive in his approach to life, whether it be in his acceptance of mainstream propaganda or his relationships with women. His encounters are casual and not exactly meaningful.

At one point, Evans is interested in a lawyer, Jennifer Haynes from D.C. But he doesn't pursue her because he assumes it'll never work out. Throughout the book, Evans is in love with Morton's assistant, Sarah Jones, a beautiful blonde from the Bay Area. But instead of taking charge, he whines that Sarah isn't interested in him. His attitude is fairly entitled. It's as if because Evans exists and is a nice guy that a woman like Sarah should automatically be attracted to him.

Meanwhile, Sarah is caught up in a passionate affair with a Hollywood actor. When the world is safe and boring, the celebrity fills her need for excitement. However, when chaos erupts, Sarah admires Kenner, a sharp-minded Government agent who speaks with conviction and certainty. Security replaces her desire for adventure.

The characters struggle as they continuously encounter environmental chaos throughout the world. Yet, always have time for heated political debates about the environment.

There are a lot of issues going on in State of Fear. Most people will focus on the global warming debate. While others will focus on the power of misinformation, however, Crichton also seems to be mocking the gender stereotypes of Gen Xers.


#StateofFear #MichaelCrichton #Technothriller #Ecologicalthriller #GlobalWarming #PowerofMedia #Propaganda #Conspiracytheory #Control #Technology #Climatechange #Climate #Environment #Politics #Media #Misinformation #Ecoterrorism #Terrorism #Evidence #Satire #DarkHumor

I was lucky to grow up in a time and place where Eurasians were fairly ubiquitous. Thus, I was always more fascinated by books and movies featuring strong black women as voices of reason and morality. For example, in Wide Sargasso Sea, a former slave cautions a high-strung woman of privilege by saying, "you can't force people to feel a certain way. You can't make someone love you." In other books, black women reinforce the meaning of class as defined by how one treats others as opposed to indelible characteristics or wealth. 

Quadroons and Octaroons, people of mixed black heritage, are timeless characters in classical works of literature. Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin, James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, and The Conjure Woman by Charles W. Chesnutt are a few examples. A popular theme is a woman passing for white, but then due to circumstances such as a father brought to financial ruin or death, is sold into slavery. This plot-line resonated well with white audiences and aided the abolitionist movement. 

#Imperialism, #Colonialism #Slavery #Blackhistory #Quadroons #Octaroons #Blackhistory #MixedRace #Morality #Reason #TimelessClassics #ClasicalLiterature #Racism #Eurasian #AbolitionistMovement #CivilRights #EqualRights #Independence #Freedom #Libertarian #SouthernLiterature #Romanticism #HumanRights #Liberalism 

It wasn't by choice that I read The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki. I had already completed a  year of British Literature which covered everything from Chaucer to Orwell. I took an Asian literature class only to satisfy a multi-cultural requirement.

I went in with low expectations. However, as much as I tried to resist liking The Tale of Genji, I can honestly say that no book has left such an impression. I remain haunted by its sensitive, melancholy, and psychological aspects.

The Tale of Genji in case you're not aware is considered the world's first novel and Japan's most exquisite piece of classical literature. It was written by a noblewoman in the 11th century and chronicled the life of a conflicted, philandering Prince in the Heian court. 

For years, I've joked about writing fan fiction to support this ancient tale. In Tension, Ben is the descendant of Prince Genji and struggles as an Asian American in the contemporary United States. He briefly encounters the descendant of Lady Murasaki, Fina, when she is thirteen years old and on her way to Bangor, Maine.

Ten years later, Fina and Ben meet in Singapore neither having any recollection of their earlier introduction. Ben takes off to form a start-up. Meanwhile, Fina dreams of studying literature but lacks the resources for such leisurely pursuits. Thus, she embarks on a career as a bankruptcy attorney.

A decade later, Ben is filing chapter 11 while Fina is fighting to maintain her law license as she confronts allegations of professional misconduct by the D.C. Bar Association. Ben and Fina have endured far more contention than their ancestors could have imagined. And now both must resolve personal issues before either can achieve any real success.

Tension explores Eastern philosophy and connects with my trilogy: Lucifina: The Belle of Hell which focuses on Western religion.

#TheTaleofGenji #LadyMurasaki #HeianCourt #Kyoto #JapaneseLiterature #AsianLiterature #LiciaFlynn #Tension #History #Romance #Novels #Literature #Eurasian #AsianAmericanLiterature #Buddhism #Philosophy #Karma #Demons #Haunting #FanFiction #JapaneseHistory #Shogun #JamesClavell

It wasn't by choice that I read Tales of Genji by Lady Murasaki. I had already completed a  year of British Literature which covered everything from Chaucer to Orwell. I took an Asian literature class only to satisfy a multi-cultural requirement.

I went in with low expectations. However, as much as I tried to resist liking Tales of Genji, I can honestly say that no book has left such an impression. I remain haunted by its sensitive, melancholy, and psychological aspects.

Tales of Genji in case you're not aware is considered the world's first novel and Japan's most exquisite piece of classical literature. It was written by a noblewoman in the 11th century and chronicled the life of a conflicted, philandering Prince in the Heian court. 

For years, I've joked about writing fan fiction to support this ancient tale. In Tension, Ben is the descendant of Prince Genji and struggles as an Asian American in the contemporary United States. He briefly encounters the descendant of Lady Murasaki, Fina, when she is thirteen years old and on her way to Bangor, Maine.

Ten years later, Fina and Ben meet in Singapore neither having any recollection of their earlier introduction. Ben takes off to form a start-up. Meanwhile, Fina dreams of studying literature but lacks the resources for such leisurely pursuits. Thus, she embarks on a career as a bankruptcy attorney.

A decade later, Ben is filing chapter 11 and Fina is fighting to maintain her law license as she confronts allegations of professional misconduct by the D.C. Bar Association. Ben and Fina have endured far more contention than their ancestors could have imagined. And now both must resolve personal issues before either can achieve any real success.

Tension explores Eastern philosophy and connects with my trilogy: Lucifina: The Belle of Hell which focuses on Western religion.

#TalesofGenji #LadyMurasaki #HeianCourt #Kyoto #JapaneseLiterature #AsianLiterature #LiciaFlynn #Tension #History #Romance #Novels #Literature #Eurasian #AsianAmericanLiterature #Buddhism #Philosophy #Karma #Demons #Haunting