A to Z Challenge-- My Favorite Storytellers- Z

My last post of the challenge! I have had such a blast with this challenge, seeing some of your amazing blogs, and making some new friends. I am very hopeful that those of you who have stopped by during April will come again.

DId you think Z was going to stump me? Well, you were wrong. Z is for...

Elly Zupko

And I am totally biased on this one, as Elly and I studied creative writing together in school. Eight or nine years ago, I was reading some amazingly detailed and rich prose from her, so I was excited but less than surprised when she published her first, very brilliant novel.

The War Master's Daughter is everything I typically dislike in terms of genre fiction. I don't like historical fiction, don't like the journey story, and often have little patience for the rich, privelaged girl narrative. Elly, however, interweaves all of these items into this beautiful story. Flawless characterization, and enough action to keep you in make this one worth checking out.

You can see it in my collection of best loved fiction here on Amazon. It's also well worth a visit to check out Elly's blog: http://ellyzee.blogspot.com/.

Thank you all for a great challenge.

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- Y

Why, we're almost at the end :( But my sadness cannot overshadow a wonderful actress, who's work in the 80's and beyond has helped many of us see reality in a story! Y is for

Sean Young

Like any self-professed nerd, I've seen Bladerunner a few times (I actually love it less than most nerds, but do think it is a truly amazing film). Weird hair and all, Sean Young helped make this an amazing film. She was flawless as Rachel, a replicant with a heart!

But, despite being best known for Blade Runner, Sean Young has contributed to a lot of films! From Wall Street to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, her adaptable and eclectic style enriches just about any movie she is in!

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- X

OK, I am REALLY cheating on this one. I know it. I embrace it, because this cheat plays well into my total nerdom.  X is for...

Charles Xavier

Uh huh, I am featuring an X-Men character as a storyteller. And it is mostly fair, because Professor X DOES actually spend a lot of his time in the comic books, tv shows, and movies telling stories and parables.

He also happens to be one of my all time favorite characters, like ever. And why?

1. Because he is brilliant, charming, and genuinely caring
2. Because his strength of character is in knowing how to use force when necessary, and avoid it when not-- a really admirable trait
3. Because he has been played by two of my favorite actors (and dreamy men)- Patrick Stewart in a really amazing film franchise, and James McAvoy in a movie that left me feeling like my childhood had been defiled (see my review of X-Men first class here)

And since, yes, I very much did cheat, I welcome suggestions for other "X" story tellers! 

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- W

W tried to force me to decide which of two amazing women I better liked and respected. I decided to best W, not decide, and feature them both!

Sherley Anne Williams 

In many, many ways, Sherley Anne Williams is an astoundingly important writer to our time. Born in 1944 in California, she grew up in a family that picked cotton to survive. Fully orphaned at 16, she still went on to gradaute from college, get a Master's degree, and become a professor at the University of California. Mostly known for her poetry, my love for her was born of her incredible novel Dessa Rose. The book takes two actually events and women notorious (for very different reasons) during slavery and posits what would have happened if they met. The result is brilliant and lyrical and one of those books that just stays with you once you've read it. 

Jeannette Winterson

If you've been here a while, you know that I tend to gravitate towards very lyrical writing-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, David Guterson, and James Joyce to name a few examples of writers that move me. I think in time, Winterston will be lauded at the same level as these men. Her novel The Passion is both evocative and skillfull. There are moments in this book where simple turns of phrase will surprise you and leave you aghast.




Any lyrical "W's" out there I am missing?

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- V

Vi is special. V makes me happy. V is for

Van Morrison

My all time, absolute, hands down favorite musician forever. And I firmly believe that he, like Leonard Cohen, transcend simply being a songwriter and qualify as a storyteller. Allow me to demonstrate, with my all time, absolute, hands down favorite song:


We were born before the wind
Also younger than the sun
Ere the bonnie boat was won and we sailed in the mystic
Hark now hear the sailors' cry
Smell the sea and feel the sky
Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic

Truly moving, AND he's Irish AND his daughter's name is pronounced the same as mine AND he has been writing amazing music for more than 50 years.

And, he is one of those musicians that people don't think they've heard, but then they realize how many people cover Van Morrison Songs, like Wild Night, Have I Told You Lately that I Love You, or Brown Eyed Girl and realize they DO know him...

Any fans? What are your favorites?

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- U

Since Q stumped me, if you were worried about U, you worried in vein. Because I have a U writer I LOVE, and that is...

Ursula LeGuin

In the seventh grade, I read "The Wife's Story." It is one of my first memories of reading a book and thinking "how the heck did this writer do THAT?" with my mouth gaping.

Like Octavia Butler, Ursula LeGuin has helped blaze a path for genre writers (outside of romance) of the female persuasion. And she is immensely talented. Where Butler structures stories like parables, LeGuin pulls in many of the social sciences in as themes.

Any LeGuin fans? Or any other amazing female science fiction writers I should know about?

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- T

Despite having often expressing quite emphatically that fantasy just isn't the genre for me, I have to make some room on the list for the man who essentially defined the modern fantasy genre.T is for...

J.R.R. Tolkien 

Ok, so, aside from defining an entire literary genre (high fantasy) and creating one of the most intricate, and epic stories of our time (Lord of the Ring), Mr. John Ronald Rueul Tolkien was born in South Africa. He suffered from horrible arachnophobia, potentially brought on by being bitten by a huge "baboon" spider as a kid. If it sounds intimidating, it is... look at that thing!

Tolkien had a totally Victorian, torrid relationship with his wife prior to marrying, including forbidding parents, another fiance, and rekindling their relationship beneath a railway trestle. Sounds like a movie in the making! Or an episode of Downton Abbey.

I'm sure many of us have read Tolkien, but I always love hearing how LOTR impacts people. Anyone got any good Tolkien stories?

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- S

Both as a marketer and a writer, today's writer HAS to have a spot on the list of my favorite storytellers...

Stephen King

Stephen King is not only a talented (if inconsistent) writer, and a astounding horror story teller, he is one hell of an example of how to build your personal brand.

It is one of my favorite novels, and is up there with some John Irving and Margaret Atwood novels in terms of masterful story construction. I wrote my personal ode to it a while back, and you can see it here.

But, aside from more than 50 (!!) novels, short story collections, and screenplay, King is now debuting his first musical in Atlanta. Few people alive have achieved the level of personal brand recognition. Even Paris Hilton doesn't have this many fingers in this many pots!

And this is particularly fitting timing, because King is my boy's favorite writer, and today is my boy's birthday! Happy birthday my boy!

If you've written King off as a pulp horror writer, I urge you to give him another try. And if you are a King lover like me, what are your favorites?

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- R

Yes, some of my favorite film matter will be very obvious as, for the second time this challenge, I feature a zombie visionary. R is for...

Add caption

George Romero

George Romero didn't invent zombies. In fact, he wasn't even the first man to make a zombie movie. But he was the visionary that made the zombie movie part of pop culture fodder.

Now, I've often discussed my love of "violent viral plague" films, but I actually have to say Romero isn't among my favorite zombie aficionados. Max Brooks, Robert Kirman, and Danny Boyle (i.e. fast, cracked out zombies) are more my speed, but I have to give Romero my respect and kudos for elevating the topic to popularity.

So for those of you who love a good zombie movie/show/book (fast or slow), tip your hat to Mr. Romero, who has made so much possible for us horror lovers!

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- Q

I am surprised to recognize that I don't have any "Q" storytellers that I know well.

But I am so sure that doesn't mean there aren't any, right? Who are your "Q" storytellers you love?

And while you post, I will keep working on my book, or tilting at windmills, like one of my favorite "Q" characters, named ___________________??

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- P

The letter P might have been the easiest letter to chose for me, because it features a man who did two things for me:

1. Was the very first man who helped me develop my rapid love of reading (and created the believe that genre fiction can have an immense amount of literary merit)
2. Is among the ranks of Shelley and Hunter S. Thompson for forever instilling the image of the drunk writer in our collective unconscious.

And that man is...

Edgar Allen Poe

I don't have to say much about Poe, because I would venture to say that most people did not escape their K-12 schooling without reading Poe. Brilliant, maudlin, and tortured, the man is a staple of our literary canon.

Disagree? Well, then, I ask you this: Why else would John Cusack be playing him in an upcoming film that I can't wait to love to hate?

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- O

Is for an amazingly talented lady...

Octavia Butler

I love Octavia Butler because she is blazed a new trail for women in a previously off-limits genre: science fiction. Most (and I am not saying all, but most) science fiction writers (and readers) are men, and so there was little place for a woman in this space.

Enter Octavia Butler: unflinching, amazingly talented storyteller who carved out space for herself in this area.

Many of Butler's novels and short stories take a parable format, bringing in a depth and richness I've seen in few other writers regardless of genre. If you don't know her, I strongly recommend checking out Bloodchild and Other Stories to start with. An amazing, amazing collection!

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- N

I'm stepping back off of writers again, and giving a nod to the fact that actors are equally deserving of recognition for being great storytellers, and today's featured actor is certainly an amazing example of this:

Liam Neeson

I love Liam Neeson's voice, and am continually amazed by how astoundingly talented this man his. Here are just a few highlights of my favorite Liam Neeson movies:

High Spirits- A goofy 1988 comedy staring NOT Liam Neeson but...wait for it... Steve Gutenberg. But Liam is a bright spot in this incredibly silly movie as an abusive, ghostly husband.

Rob Roy- I've not read the book, I admit, but Liam Neeson makes you CARE about cattle theft in Scotland in this film.

Love Actually- I watch this movie CONSTANTLY, and Liam Neeson's portrayal of the widower bonding with his stepson is a major reason why.

In addition, lets not forget that this man was Oscar Schindler, Darkman, Qui Gon Jin, and Henri Ducard. He is truly a part of today's media cannon.

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- M

OK, on this one I am cheating again, because there are just so many amazing M's...

Margaret Atwood

I first read The Handmaid's Tale in ninth grade, and it taught me to love women's fiction. For those of you that you haven't read it, this is one is a revolutionary and engrossing post-apocalyptic tale. As it is her most popular, I would also strongly suggest reading The Blind Assassin. Of the thousands of novels I've read, this one is one of my two favorites, ever.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

If you read me gush about the enthralling voice of David Guterson, I bet he probably learned a thing or two from Marquez. If you want to read one of the most beautiful love stories of our time (coming from someone who adamantly despises reading romances), you must check out Love in the Time of Cholera. 

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- L

OK, I am cheating again a bit because there were too many "C" last names to choose from, and I HAVE to work this storyteller into my list. It is a nice follow up from K, because this guy also isn't a novelist (well, not exclusively). So lets welcome the first song-writer to our list, because L is for...

Leonard Cohen

Don't think you know Leonard Cohen's music. Well, you probably do, as his music has been covered by  more than 1,000 artists, including Justin TImberlake, Jennifer Warnes, and Joan Baez. His is one of the most profound and prolific writers of our time.

But don't take my word for it, read and love this passage from Suzanne, my favorite Leonard Cohen song:

"Now Suzanne takes your hand
And she leads you to the river
She is wearing rags and feathers from salvation army counters
And the sun pours down like honey
on our lady of the harbor
As she shows you wear to look among the garbage and the flowers
There are heroes in the seaweed
They are children in the morning
They are leaning out for love
And they will lean that way forever
While Suzanne holds the mirror."

I love Cohen, like I love Dali, for making a dream coherent through words or paint. Its astounding.

And for those of you who don't think you know Cohen, see Watchmen? Know that scene with Malin Atkinson and Ioan Gruffud with the song "Hallelujah" playing in the background? Yup. Cohen.

Any Cohen lovers? Or any other songwriters that count as storytellers?

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- K

OK, I've officially done too many novelists in a row and need to pay homage to storytellers from other media. And so, K is for...

Robert Kirman

Any of you who follow me on Facebook know that I am a fanatical lover of The Walking Dead. And Robert Kirkman is its super brilliant creator. Now, I adore the show for several reasons:

1. Zombies
2. Really good acting
3. Amazing characterization

And Kirkman is the mastermind behind the comics the inspired the show.

Any of you that read my blog on Max Brook's World War Z (you can read it here), you know I love seeing something as cool as a zombie elevated to high art. Brooks and Kirkman are birds of a feather when it comes to creating such amazing stories.

My hats off to him. Any other lovers of The Walking Dead?

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- J

If you've read Max and Menna, you may have a good hint for my "J" storyteller, because I just couldn't resist working a reference into my first novel.

James Joyce

Joyce is an anomaly in my list because  I believe he is the only storyteller thus far that was born before 1900. This is not to say that I am not a fan of the classics-- quite the contrary, I love the bases of our current canon (despite John Donne being superseded by Matt Damon in this month's challenge). However, I am typically more moved by the contemporaries with the exception of James Joyce.

And by James Joyce, I mean the last 8 paragraphs of "The Dead," the final story in The Dubliners.

Seriously, its open source, you can find it online. If you haven't read this short story, go now. Read it. Don't stop. You will be astounded.

This is one of the most beautiful and moving passages in any piece of reading. I've read it over and over and over again and can never get enough.

It makes me feel infinite.

Any passages like this for you?

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- I

"I' is easy! "I" is for....

John Irving

So remember how I couldn't tell you if Bret Easton Ellis is the writer I love to hate or hate to love? Well, John Irving is the writer I LOOOOVVVVEEE and sometimes wish would shut up. Just a little.

John Irving is brilliant. When I first read A Prayer for Owen Meany, I was instantly enthralled. This is truly one of the most incredible pieces of modern storytelling I can think of. Several hundred pages long, there are moments in this book when you think "Oh my goodness, just get to the frigging point!" because it seems like SO many extraneous details. And yet, when you get the end, Irving wraps up every single detail and story arc into one evocative, astounding ending that you are nothing but ecstatic that you stuck with it.

His skill and imagination are second to none. And yet, Irving's Achilles' Heel is sometimes using his writing as a very, very preachy political platform. For instance, while I thought Cider House Rules was an amazing, beautiful book, and I actually believe in the politics outlined in it, pointing out what he believes is sometimes suffocatingly heavy-handed.

Any writers like that for you? They are brilliant, but their personal agendas sometimes color their work a bit too much?

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- H

The letter "H" might be a soft sound, but today's storyteller is one of the most dynamic, decisively brilliant writers of the 20th century, whether you like science fiction or not. H is for...

Frank Herbert

Journalist, photographer, and brilliant novelist, Frank Herbert truly is one of the defining voices in modern science fiction. Of course, Frank is best known for his innovative, brilliant, and incredibly timeless Dune series.

Published as a serial in a magazine in the early 60's, Dune was the result of 6 years of research and writing. Not only one of the first massively popular works of science fiction, this is also one of the strongest examples of interweaving modern thematic elements into a fantastical world.

Waring religions, using drugs to control a population, the evils of capitalism, and other such topics amaze me in that they are still very germane to today's world nearly 60 years after the book's initial publication. 

Check out Dune!

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- G

This one was a simple choice...

David Guterson

There are books you read and love, and books you read and cannot get out of your head. Snow Falling on Cedars is one such book. The story here is fantastic, one of love, betrayal, war, and intrigue.

I don't think I can describe the plot better than Amazon did:

"Fighting the distrust and prejudice of his neighbors on a remote island in Puget Sound, a Japanese-American man who spent time in an internment camp during World War II, finds himself on trial for murder. The histories of the accused and the victim, both fishermen and residents of the small town of San Piedro, unfold as newspaperman Ishmael Chambers embarks on a quest for the truth. Lonely and war-scarred, Chambers strives for justice and inner strength, while coming to terms with his ill-fated love for Hatsue Miyamoto, the wife of the accused. Evocative and beautifully written, Snow Falling on Cedars won the 1995 PEN/Faulkner Award.."

But evocative doesn't begin the cover it. The whole book reads like a poem, carrying you through the story in a soft, lilting way.

And this is one of my all time favorite book covers. It was one of the covers I sent to my publisher when we worked on Max and Menna and said "hey, can we do something that is as powerful as this?"

Read it? What were your thoughts?

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- F

My first cheat! There are too many last names starting with A, B, C, M, and S, so I am cheating a bit and featuring a few A to Zers based on first name.

First up:

F. Paul Wilson

During my teen years, I went through a horror kick, reading a lot of Stephen King, trying out Dean Koontz, and discovering an amazing, under-appreciated writer called F. Paul Wilson.

I got to F. Paul Wilson through a weird chain of events. My Dad loves this wonderful actor named Scott Glenn (dude has purple eyes-- for sure). Scott Glenn is also under-appreciated, and therefore not in enough movies, so at some random moment my Dad stumbled on this movie called The Keep and rented it because Scott Glenn was in it. The movie was the definition of bad B movies, but being a lover of bad horror movies, I of course adored it.

Flash forward two years, I am trolling the book table at a flea market while on vacation in Maine and I discover the The Keep was actually based on a book by some guy called F. Paul Wilson. So I bought it, read it, and LOVED it!

I am far outside of my horror book phase, but I still periodically pick up The Keep and re-read it. The book is about Nazi soldiers taking over a medieval keep that has an odd construction. The soon realize that the keep was not built to keep something out, but rather to keep something in. And they are trapped inside.

It's a really fun read-- I highly recommend.

Any other horror writers I should know about?

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- E

So I am struggling on E. Because the most obvious choice for E is a writer that I cannot decide if I hate to love or love to hate. But, nonetheless, he is an amazing storyteller, so I had to go with it.

Bret Easton Ellis

Is there anyone out there who didn't contemplate giving up on American Psycho partway through the famed Phil Collins chapter? But, despite the book being a bit gruesome, and incredibly tedious at moments, it is one of the truest and most visceral depictions of the 80's I've read.

However, what people often do not know is that Bret Easton Ellis wrote (and continues to write) many books beyond American Psycho and Less than Zero. In fact, he wrote The Rules of Attraction, which I think is actually better than the other two books.

My conflict with Ellis is that his characters are often (always?) bereft of empathy, unable to think outside of themselves, and lacking in any kind of moral fortitude. I would hate his writing except for the fact that he does it so damned well. His writing is flawless, no matter how much you hate who he writes about.

Do you guys have authors that are amazingly talented, and you like despite yourself?

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- D

D is for Damon, as in Matt (Don't judge me).

Matt Damon

I love Matt Damon as an actor. Whether its as Loki or Jason Bourne or the dude who bought a zoo, I find him endearing and believable in almost any role.

But, I think we often forget, Matt Damon is also an astounding storyteller. Remember how his propulsion to fame was largely fueled by a little film called Goodwill Hunting? It's one of my favorite movies of all time, but I think people often forget that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck wrote it. They got an Oscar for it.

I've watched the movie a billion times, and each time I am continually amazed by how utterly flawless the dialogue is, and how perfectly the story builds, climaxes, and resolves. It amazes me over and over.

And it helps immensely that Matt Damon is most definitely a dreamy man.

Any of you agree on Good Will Hunting, or am I still swayed by my the memory of high school me watching it next to this boy I really, really liked?

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- C

C was an easy call for me in my April countdown of favorite storytellers, and it stands for...

Orson Scott Card
For you regulars, you know that my love of Ender's Game has become part of my identity. I read this book, on average, about once a year. I am able to do this both because the book is really, really good and pulls me in every time I open it, but also because it reminds me of a feeling, so full, and rich, and powerful, that I got the first time I read this book.

The feeling was "I want to write books that make people feel like this."

The feeling was infinite.

I've read at least 20 books by Card, some that I loved, some that were good, some that I didn't care for. He is a consistent and talented storyteller, but nothing will touch the sheer, visceral emotion behind Ender's Game. 

I'd recommend you buy it now!!

And then tell me, for you avid readers and writers, what was the first book that really got you hooked?

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- B

Continuing on with favorite storytellers, like A, B found me struggling over picking between two authors. This time, however, since both have the same last name, I am going to cheat and include them both. Both are amazing writers of literary fiction, one building a name for herself, and the other one of the most well-known names in the literary world.

Jessica Bell
Jessica, a fellow Lucky Press author, blew me away with her debut novel String Bridge. I know Jessica through her blog, and email exchange around her work, but none of this prepared me for the lyrical and vivid language the brought her novel to life. Pulsing with emotion, and brutally honest, String Bridge is certainly on my must-read list!

Madison Smartt Bell
If you don't know Madison Smartt Bell, go buy Color of Night right now! It's one of the most amazing pieces of contemporary fiction I've read, landing Bell a place in league with Margaret Atwood, John Irving, and other literary greats of our time!   

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- A

This will take discipline, but I have determined that I will complete April's A to Z challenge. I am veering off the beaten path a bit, and choosing my favorite storytellers. This includes writers, film-makers, and actors. So here we go:

A is for...

The most difficult post already, as it forced me to try and decide between two of my favorite writers. Ultimately, though, I was able to make the choice (and will cheat and work the other one in later!). 

Sherman Alexie

If you haven't heard of Sherman Alexie (which likely means you aren't a regular here), then I highly recommend starting with  Flight and Reservation Blues. Both are astoundingly good books, and both continually renew my love of reading and desire to write.

Alexie is Native American, hailing from Spokane, and his heritage plays a huge role in his writing. For those of you who have read Max and Menna, you know that this is a culture of massive interest to me.

But what is so awesome about Alexie's writing is that his is able to use brutally simple language to convey the most delicate and complicated of emotions.

In short-- I highly recommend checking out Sherman Alexie!