Stiegler Artworks - unique affordable gifts inspired by Nature

Greetings, commies!
One of life's joys is meeting other commie mommies - from other states. There is so much to learn from our former countrywomen. We bring so many talents and customs from the old country. Today I wanted to share my latest discovery: a gift shop specializing in souvenirs and garments inspired by Native American and Nordic folk traditions. Irene is a fellow Eastern European mommy married to Nate Stiegler, a poet and artist. Together they run a gallery/shop. In addition to Nate's original artwork, you can find a selection of durable, unique garments and shoes made of wool. I ordered two pairs of slippers from Irene, and they arrived at my doorstep a few days later. She was extremely helpful about making suggestions about the size and the design. It's not too early to start thinking about getting holiday gifts. If your loved ones appreciate something unique, crafted with care and expertise, definitely consider ordering from Irene and Nate.

Microaggression in the world of historical fiction

Cultural sensitivity training sessions have become a common cover-yer-arse trend in the workplace, infiltrating all industries. What about historical fiction? We are a bunch of passionate, sensitive, imaginative and opinionated boys and girls (and some gender fluid). What about the callousness we encounter on daily basis? As a historical novelist, I look back at my experiences, and my victimhood alert goes off. How many times have I been a victim of microagression? And I am not the only one. After talking to a few of my fellow historical novel authors, I realized that we all have been victimized and deserve retributions (or at least a free B&N gift card). More and more authors use social media to promote their works. Interviews and blurbs contain bits of their biographies that sometimes reference their ethnic heritage, marital status, religion. Any time you share something personal about yourself, you are in danger of having your work evaluated through a lens of bias. There's nothing like being told by someone who hasn't even read any of your works what you should be writing about and which topics you should avoid. Here is a list of comments I have gathered over the years. 

Wow, you speak English real good.

I certainly hope so - after twenty-five years in the US.

So why did you decide to become a writer? Don't most Russians work in IT?

For the record, I am not Russian. Russian is my first language, but I do not identify myself as Russian any more than an Indian who speaks English identifies him/herself as British. Some Russian Americans are doctors, lawyers and financial advisors. I am not good enough at math. As we say, if you can't calculate - write. If you can't write - write historical fiction.

You should write about YOUR heritage.

Thank you. I already have. Too bad you weren't paying attention. Look me up on Amazon. Seriously. Take a look at my list of titles, and you'll see that several of my novels are set in Central Europe. 

Why do you write about Irish history? You are not Irish.

Why do you write murder mysteries? You are not a murderer, I hope. But, since you asked, cultural appropriation is my guilty pleasure. 

So you write women's fiction?

I do write fiction, and I do have two X chromosomes, but my work does not fall into the women's fiction category.

So you are an immigrant author?

I am a first generation American who happens to write. I do not view the world through the prism of my immigrant experience.

You make Catholics look like douche bags in your books. Is that because you're Orthodox?

I do have antagonists who identify themselves as Catholics, but it does not make me anti-Catholic. For the record, I am Protestant. My personal beliefs do not affect my portrayal of Catholics. You find douche bags in many religions. However, if a novel is set in 15th century France or early 20th century Ireland, there is a good chance that the antagonist will be Catholic. If you insist on labels, I am a misanthrope. I hate all people equally.


Please share YOUR experiences of microaggression.

Lullaby for My Sister - Italian-Canadian family drama by Nancy Barone

Ciao campagni! 
Today's guest is Nancy Barone, the author of a family drama Lullaby for My Sister set in the Italian community in Canada. Yes, you can expect some Italian stereotypes - some flattering and some critical.

Synopsis
When Valentina and Lucy Mancino’s mother died, and their father turned to alcohol to cope, Valentina quickly understood it was up to her to run the household and take care of her little sister. But Valentina was only nine years old. And when their new step-mother moved in, along with her two sons, Val also knew things were about to change for the worse.

Fifteen years later, while Lucy is flailing in life, Val is running a successful career, but she’s also hiding a terrible secret. She soon discovers that her former home is suppressing secrets of its own—many unspeakable truths are dying to be told.

My thoughts
Having almost lost my mother at the age of seven, I certainly felt very emotional reading this book. There are very few things that can scare a child more than hearing "You have to be a big, strong girl". In her novel "A Lullaby for My Sister", Nancy Barone explores the nightmarish scenario of two sisters, five and nine, losing their mother under mysterious circumstances, and their father and uncle dropping cryptic messages and not allowing them to attend the funeral. Men do not deal with bereavement well. The girl's father, whom the older daughter Val, the narrator of the novel calls by his first name Luigi, plunges into alcoholism, while dumping parenting responsibilities on his 9-year old. To keep herself from coming apart, Val corresponds with her dead mother through letters. Fast forward twenty-three years. Val is a successful career woman, determined not to let her dysfunctional childhood hold her down, but her younger sister Lucy is unconsciously resentful, immature and detached from reality. The scenario is so common, it will make you cry. In terms of the style and the content, for those of you who read family sagas and women's fiction, some of it will sound like deja vu. I mean it in a nice way. It's not that the author is aiming to massage the readers' traditional sweet spots by combining familiar elements. It's just that what she describes is so common. The characters and the situations are recognizable and relatable. A picture perfect mother in a summer dress with a string of pearls, battling her demons - and bequeathing them onto her family after her death. You will find yourself nodding and shaking your head.

1906 - a novel of the San Francisco earthquake and fire

Commies and heretics,
Do not miss this interview with a Renaissance man by the name James Dalessandro. An acclaimed author of historical and crime fiction, a filmmaker and lover of opera, he joins us today to discuss his literary and cinematic projects. He is best known for his novel 1906 depicting the San Francisco earthquake and fire. Dalessandro has held a few jobs that many people in the world of literature and performing jobs would consider dream jobs. However, even someone as accomplished and well connected as him runs into challenges. Your humble host Connecticut Commie thanks our guest for his time and candor.

MJN: Your novel 1906 describes the great San Francisco earthquake and fire. Disaster films having become quite popular in the past few decades, especially with the advancements in special effects. If your novel was to be turned into a movie, which director would you pick? As a screenwriter, I am sure you have thought of that.

JD: Barry Levinson was the first signed director, then Brad Bird at Pixar was on the project for 6 or 7 years - it was supposed to be the first live action for him and Pixar.   But everybody kept changing the script and the story.   I would have to say Peter Jackson would be my first choice:  he knows how to blend real story telling and visual effects.   The problem with "disaster" films - I really loathe that name - is that they've become all disaster and no story.   After 1906 was dumped by Pixar and Brad Bird, Warner Brothers put "San Andreas" into production.  The hokiest, most preposterous pile of garbage, but everyone kept saying "but the visual effects were so good."  Is that we've become:  we give up history, story, human drama for things that a 14 year old can do on his laptop?    The Rock rides to their rescue of his daughter in a rubber boat, and forget that a million people just drowned?    Peter Jackson would be good.  Right now the film is in limbo... the money they spent in going away from my story is appalling.  The dumped the characters, the truth about what happened - the lies, the cover up, the tragedy and heroism.  It might never get made.  Sadly. 

MJN: 1906 is narrated by a young female reporter Annalisa Passarelli. I am sure that in the early 20th century there were not many female journalists, and their activity was usually restricted to writing articles on the topics of fashion, housekeeping, and if lucky, art and entertainment. What were some of the educational institutions in the early 1900s that produced female journalists? Berkeley comes to mind.  

JD: The most influential journalist of all time was Nellie Bly from the New York World.   Staring in the 1880's, she went undercover to expose the horrors of mental hospitals, baby peddling rings, wholesale political corruption.   She went around the world in less than 80 days, alone, to show it could be done after the publication of Jules Verne's novel - the first person to solo circumnavigate the globe.   The most famous journalist in America at the time.  The women's rights movement was in serious swing, and women were rebelling and fighting for rights and equality.   Nellie was the inspiration for my fictional Annalisa Passarelli and lots of other young female writers and journalists.   What was Emma Goldman's statement - well-behaved women never changed anything.  I need a strong woman amidst all that testosterone.   I'm married to one of those women.

MJN: I noticed that several of your novels are set in San Francisco and involve the opera house as a setting. Do you find that the glamor of high art makes the grisly component of murder and mayhem in your novels more jarring?

JD: It kind of turned out that way.  I'm a big opera lover:  I'm writing the libretto for an opera right now, based on one of my film scripts, called THE ITALIAN GIRL.   I like to say that I have a lot of low friends in high places.. .and vice versa.  Smart people with class tending bar and building houses.   I try to see the big picture in films and books - the little guy and gal set against a big back drop.  The Tenderloin to Pacific Heights.   Opera is the most amazing music, and I'm a fan of it all.  I wrote the House of Blues Radio Hour for Dan Ackroyd and created "Rock On" with Ray Manzarek of the doors.   I used to ace the Downbeat Magzine blindfold test to identify artists in new jazz releases.  But opera is heaven to me, particularly the Italians - Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verde and Puccini.  I have a dog named Giacomo Poochini.   Americans don't like it because they don't understand the words.   I'm an Italian citizen, I speak the language fairly well.  I have dual citizenship.   Life is too short not to love opera.

MJN: One of the critics compared you work to that of Dashiell Hammett. It is always scary to read what the critics have to say about your work. Some of the comparisons are surprising. Have you ever been surprised by a comparison made by a critic? Do you feel flattered when your work gets compared to that of other iconic authors? I imagine, some writers having mixed feelings. On one hand, it's flattering, but on another hand, you probably wonder, "Why must I be compared to XYZ? Doesn't my work stand on its own two feet?"

JD: Some people take umbrage, I find it tremendously gratifying to be compared to Dashiell Hammett, who created the modern Noir detective thriller.  A brilliant writer.  That was "Bohemian Heart" you're referring too.  Another one compared me to Raymond Chandler - given the snappy one liners and metaphors from my P.I. Frankie Fagen. It's certainly more like Chandler's work.   Both were great writers.    None of that bothers me at all, I find it encouraging.   What bothers me are comments that question our integrity or scholarship - no writer earns universal praise.   I just read a review from a reader, online, who said she had to wade through a dumb, phony plot about political corruption before she got to the earthquake in 1906.   That dumb, phony plot is exactly what happened.  The day before the 1906 earthquake, prosecutors handed down indictments for the Mayor, all 18 members of the Board of Supervisors, the Police Chief and half the judges in town.  It was a plot hatched in the Oval Office of Theodore Roosevelt to to go war on urban corruption.  And those under indictment used the fire and chaos to fight back at their enemies, burning their houses, and hailed themselves as the great saviors of San Francisco.  It was bullshit.   The Army got drunk, shot hundreds of innocent people as suspected looters, then they all lied about the death count.   They used dynamite to stop the fires and all that did was spread it.   If that's a dumb, phony plot then the moon is blue cheese.  But you learn to slough it off.  It doesn't mean anything, other than some people are too lazy to look up a few facts before they slam someone.  Me:  I look before I shoot.   That stuff annoys me, but it doesn't bother me.   Dashiell Hammett - he's the Buddha. 

MJN: You have a history of working with large publishing houses. You also mentioned that you had a hard time selling your novels set in San Francisco to a New York publisher, because the setting was not "local", and the publisher feared that New Yorkers would feel "alienated". I imagine this is not the most ridiculous excuse you ever heard. Did you ever circle back with that editor after your novel was released via a Californian publisher?

JD: I've had my books published by Putnam Penguin (Citizen Jane) and St. Martin's Press (BohemianHeart).  And yes, it was the dumbest excuse I've ever heard.   Several publishers called 1906 - which was the greatest disaster in American history and the victim of a century long web of lies and coverups - a "regional story."  So was Hurricane Katrina, by that criteria.  That would make the Civil War a border conflict?   A lot of the New York publishing establishment - not all, but a lot - dismiss San Francisco as a pretend urban city that doesn't measure up.   Wallace Stegner is one of the great writers of the American West (Angle of Repose), won the Pulitzer Prize and was never reviewed in the NY Times.   That's an insult.   The NY Times once dismissed Jack London's "Call of the Wild" as just another dog book.   I love the NY Times, can't live without reading the Sunday Times, including Arts & Leisures from cover to cover.   But we're provincial and marginal, and that's unnecessary.   We gave the world Mark Twain, Jack London, Dashiell Hammet, Gertrude Stein, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, John Steinbeck, Wallace Stegner.   Amy Tan.  Even Allen Gingsberg broke through here.  Find me a city that can match that list.   They'll do a book set in Appalachia or the rural South, but San Francisco - not so much.    So I wanted a San Francisco publisher all along, and that's what I got - Chronicle Books.    And they're now all out in Digital/Kindle, which has given all of us a new life - our books are never out of print.  That's a gift from the tech world, and for that we are all grateful. 

The Chelles Abbey: a Medieval oasis of girl power - and the grinch who crashed the party!

Greetings, heretics!

Another post in my 15th century French bishops series. Today's guest of dishonor is Louis de Beaumont de la Forêt, who served as the Bishop of Paris from 1473 until his death in 1492. He had spent the first decade of his episcopal tenure trying to tighten up the loose screws left behind by his predecessor Guillaume Chartier. Guillaume had been too busy locking horns with the king to pay attention to the discipline in his precinct, so Louis inherited Notre-Dame de Paris in a state of chaos, with priests and deacons roaming freely, flirting with women, reading heretical books, quoting Italian humanists and talking about the impending Reformation. Naturally, Louis de Beaumont, a reactionary, was horrified. He embarked on a mission to reverse the progressive "damage" done by his negligent predecessor. When Louis accepted the position, he was in his mid twenties and full of energy. It took him a decade to get any traction. He had no leadership experience, so he had no idea how to establish his authority and restore the atmosphere of austerity and holiness. At the same time, he did not want to openly admit that he had trouble controlling his own men.

He decided to flex his muscles by asserting his power over the Chelles Abbey. In the early 1480s he made that oasis of Medieval girl power his next target.The Chelles Abbey was a Frankish monastery founded in the 7th century. Originally it was intended for women, but eventually it gained a reputation for being a epicenter of scholarship, so more men were drawn to that place, establishing a parallel male community. Thus a double monastery was created, with men and women living, learning and exploring in close - and dangerous - proximity to each other. You can imagine all those clandestine keg parties similar to those happening on college campuses today.

The majority of nuns at the Chelles Abbey were daughters, widows, sisters, nieces and even ex-mistresses of various European monarchs. They were worldly, scholarly, ambitious women who did not necessarily focus on religion. Overtime, this trend affected the monastic discipline adversely. The focus was not spiritual refinement but scholarship. Many of the books stored at the famous scriptorium were of questionable content and marginally heretical. Naturally, Louis de Beaumont did not like the idea of women having too much forbidden knowledge, too much autonomy, too many progressive ideas. He saw the string of blue-blooded, wilful abbesses as a problem. So in 1480s he started sticking his fingers into the abbey. Catherine de Lignieres was the abbess at the time. Louis perceived her as an "enabler" of frivolities and tried to have her removed and replaced by someone he approved of, someone more conservative, who would support more traditional monastic values. As expected, he failed. The Chelles Abbey had strong ties to the cathedral in Reims, and Pierre de Laval, the present archbishop, put a stop to Louis' attempts to bully the abbess. In the end, it was not "girl power" that saved the abbey's autonomy - it was intervention from a stronger man. Pierre de Laval was older, richer, more influential than Louis de Beaumont. Pierre was closely linked to the royal family and rubbed elbows with the king, so he had more leverage. The bishop of Paris had to back off. In other words, a woman-hating bully was defeated by a woman-friendly bully.

The story does have a bittersweet ending. The Chelles Abbey did lose some of is autonomy eventually. Starting from 1500, through a degree of the Parlement of Paris, abbesses were elected every three years with the possibility of reelection, which prevented a single woman from having too much influence over the culture of the abbey. In mid-16th century the new king abolished the election and resumed the appointment of the abbesses himself. Once again, the abbey fell into the secular authority.