This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Reed Stirling will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Before getting to your questions and my answers, let me thank you for having me on this blog. Sincerely, Reed Stirling You are very welcome. Tell us about your current book in 10 words.
A murder mystery set in the Lowlands mirroring Electra’s fate.
What are you reading right now?
At present I am reading Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach.
E-Reader or print? and why?
Print. Ever has it been so, especially with the classics. Nothing beats relaxing in a comfortable chair, feeling the pages as you turn them, flipping back and forth without restraint. Simply, I don’t have an E-Reader and have no plans to get one. Old fashioned, I suppose.
One book at a time or multiples?
Multiples, definitely. A queue forms: the novel I’m making every effort to finish, a book on scientific revelations, a history of philosophy, a treatise on the difference between art nouveau and art deco, the latest work by a favourite author my wife just got hold of. A smorgasbord of delightful intellectual stimulation.
When do you do most of your reading?
I do most of my reading in the evening. When travelling abroad, my wife and I always have a book each to read, on the plane to and fro, and anywhere else downtime insists on being adhered to. We trade off, and after those trades, we seek out bookshelves in hotel lobbies and trade again.
Favourite book to recommend?
The book I recommend most to readers who have not yet been introduced to John Banville, the Irish writer, is his award-winning The Sea. A second recommendation is Lawrence Durrell’s The Alexandria Quartet
Re-reader or not?
Definitely a re-reader. I’ve read many Banville novels more than once, The Sea at least three times. I’ve re-read The Alexandria Quartet at least three times over the years. The same applies to the works of other great writers like James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.
What would make you not finish a book?
I would not finish a novel that is poorly plotted or has stereotypical characters or be full of clichés. I would definitely reject a book that is poorly written: the use of language has to lift me. I prefer reading novels that are literary.
Keep books or give them away?
I keep books worth keeping like Banville’s The Sea. I lend such books but want them back on my shelves. I give away books that do not satisfy for any number of reasons or turn them into our local book exchange.
Day seven: a body is found in canal waters at the stern of the boat. On the final morning a second body is discovered.
Who among the cyclists and crew is hateful and motivated enough to kill? Twice. How are the two murders related? Why two coins for the ferryman? Is the phoenix jug, both admired and derided, merely symbolic? How does the death mask of Agamemnon lead to resolution?
Determining truth entails travelling from Amsterdam to Bruges to Paris to the ancient site of Mycenae in Greece where what’s past is shown to be prologue.
I delved into all the detail, all the different personalities on the Iphigenia and how they clashed from time to time, all the conflicts, minor and major, Mitchell Monk versus Conrad Steele or Virgil Troyes, for instance, Boyd Alexander and his resistance to the pressure of being other than what he was, Alexsis versus the world Kat, her mother, dominated and from which her brother Forrest was banned. Unsettling for guests, I emphasized, the tension a single individual could introduce into a setting of shared expectancy, that individual being no other than Alexsis with whom I sympathized.
I stopped to take a breath. For a moment or two David and Margo registered little more than surprise, then their awe-filled expressions of incredulity filled the void that their silence had left.
Going on, I described Conrad Steele’s corpse lying in a heap on the quay in all its appalling insinuation, and my impression at the time of the absolute zero of being. Did I recognize then a reflection of my own reality? I definitely did and there was nothing I could do to edit out anything extraneous to the hard, cold fact a man I was acquainted with had been brutally murdered. Patricide. The next day revealed a case of matricide. I added what Lucy Hunter and I in Paris concluded after coming to a clearer understanding of the facts. If all the material we had to consider was accurate, then Forrest and Alexsis Troyes literally got away with murder.
He and his wife built a log home in the hills of southern Vancouver Island, and survived totally off the grid for twenty-five years during which time the rooms in that house filled up with books, thousands of student essays were graded, and innumerable cords of firewood were split.
Literary output:
Shades Of Persephone, published in 2019, is a literary mystery set in Greece.
Lighting The Lamp, a fictional memoir, was published in March 2020.
Set in Montreal, Séjour Saint-Louis (2021), dramatizes family conflicts.
The Palimpsest Murders, a European travel mystery, is forthcoming.
Shorter work has appeared over the years in a variety of publications including Dis(s)ent, Danforth Review, Fickle Muses, Fieldstone Review, and Humanist Perspectives.
Intrigue is of primary interest, with romantic entanglement an integral part of the action. Greek mythology plays a significant role in underpinning plots. Allusions to art, literature, philosophy, and religion serve a similar function. Reed sits down to write every day and tries to leave the desk having achieved at least a workable page. Frequently what comes of his effort amounts to no more than a serviceable paragraph, a single sentence, or a metaphor that might work in a context yet to be imagined.
Website: http://reedstirlingwrites.com Publisher: http://bwlpublishing.ca
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Thank you for hosting!
ReplyDeleteDo you have any advice for aspiring authors?
ReplyDeleteThanks to this sponsor for having me talk about my life as an author and a reader.
ReplyDeleteAdvice for aspiring writers?
ReplyDeletePersist. Rejections slips can be collected into a montage, be framed and hung on your office wall, and eventually be worth a great deal of coin when you become a celebrated author. On the other hand, accept criticism humbly but be true to yourself.
Keep a journal. Record every bit of inspiration no matter what it is or how it comes to you. Consider it a gift from your muse.
Explore the world of words. Activate a vocabulary list.
I look forward to reading this.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to hear that, Sherry. It's a read that may take you to unfamiliar places. Do enjoy it.
ReplyDelete