A sober appraisal from this commendable blog:
“This is a worthwhile book for all adults, men and women alike. I suggest purchasing a copy when it is released, this coming Tuesday.”
June 19th, that is.
Category Archives: Fiction
Blog Blurbs
Some book bloggers have had nice things to say about The Orphanmaster, which pleases me. Here are a few snippets, just to brag. I especially like “delightfully horrific.”
“The best thing about The Orphanmaster is its historical detail. Zimmerman does an excellent job of setting the scene and integrating issues and concerns the colonists had during that time. The legend of the witika was delightfully horrific.” (http://readersrefuge.blogspot.com/2012/06/book-review-orphanmaster-by-jean.html)
“The first thing I have to mention is Zimmerman’s writing. She has a way with words. The novel is complex and beautiful. I learned new terms and got to appreciate just how crazy Dutch looks. Reading The Orphanmaster is simply a pleasure.” (http://readeroffictions.blogspot.com/2012/05/new-amsterdam-travis-giveaway.html)
“Zimmerman’s historical detail is rich and intriguing, and makes the hunt for a serial killer, a common thriller plot these days, seem new and, well, thrilling.” (http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2012/06/fresh-meat-the-orphanmaster-by-jean-zimmerman-victoria-janssen-historical-children-organized-crime)
“Every once in a while, an outstanding historical thriller comes along that transports you back in time and makes the story’s era come vibrantly alive, while still capturing your imagination with a complex, deftly-designed plot. Jean Zimmerman’s first novel, The Orphanmaster is such a book.” (Suspense Magazine, June Issue)
Filed under Fiction, Jean Zimmerman, Publishing, The Orphanmaster, Writing
Apple I-Picks
Apple has chosen The Orphanmaster as one of its ten Best Books for June!
Filed under Fiction, Jean Zimmerman, Publishing, The Orphanmaster
Name Writing 101
Well, I know at least 360 people will go home with The Orphanmaster. That is because I have been summoned into the offices of my publisher to autograph 360 copies of the novel. The books will be sent to stores that have already ordered them.
How does one produce 360 signatures? Rapidly and with gusto. My experience with signing many fewer copies on other occasions is that you have to make sure to hold your fingers loosely around the pen. Keep a loose wrist as well. And it has to be a pen with free flowing ink, but not messy — the Rollerball is a good one. Though a Bic will do fine in a pinch.
Be good to those who care about the resale value of the work: sign on the title page. Include the date.
Then scrawl your name as large as you can.
Filed under Fiction, Jean Zimmerman, Publishing, The Orphanmaster
The Oval Table
Last night I participated in an event at the Algonquin on 44th Street cohosted by the hotel and Penguin.
We seated ourselves around the round (actually, now oval) table. We have an oval table at our house but what happens around it is not so witty.
Another Parker-ism: You can lead a whore to culture but you can’t make her drink. (She was challenged to use “horticulture” in a sentence.)
I settled myself in the spot of Dorothy Parker (1). The seat was still warm. My fellow author David R. Gilham took his place beside me and we talked, answered questions and read a bit for a good-humored audience.
Can you take a guess at some of the other faces above?
2. Robert Benchley
6. Harpo Marx
9. George S. Kaufman
12. Edna Ferber
3. Matilda, the hotel mascot (now replaced by another Matilda)
By a few sentences in, my butterflies had flown, and I was ready to spill the tale of a beautiful, brave New Amsterdam woman who investigates a series of grisly killings alongside a sensitive stud soldier. The victims are orphans, and the killer may be a supernatural Indian spirit.
What would Dorothy Parker make of that?
Filed under Fiction, History, Jean Zimmerman, Publishing, The Orphanmaster, Writing
The Republic of Arizona
The Orphanmaster featured today as one of The Arizona Republic‘s hottest new titles for the summer. I inquired of two of my favorite Arizona residents as to whether they might have had anything to do with the selection, but they demurred.
There’s another novel on the list that’s very worth reading, The Yard, by Alex Grecian, a nice guy and excellent writer to boot. The mystery concerns Scotland Yard just after it has been consumed with the case of Jack the Ripper, and it conveys a rich flavor of the period.
Filed under Fiction, Jean Zimmerman, Publishing, The Orphanmaster
Live at the Algonquin
Next week I’ll be serving on a panel of writers in an event at the Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street (between 5th & 6th Aves). The event is a collaboration of the Hotel, newly spruced up, and my publisher, Penguin, as part of BEA (BookExpo America) week activities. The idea in particular is to celebrate the history and spirit of the Roundtable, in the back of the hotel when you walk in — best known for the lethal witticisms of Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Bennet Cerf, et al. — which the Algonquin wants to re-imagine for the 21st century.
Dorothy Parker: “What fresh hell is this?”
I’ll be talking about the fresh hell of The Orphanmaster, and how it came to be. If you feel like coming, the evening’s open to the public as well as hotel patrons. It’s 5:30 to 6:30 on Wednesday, June 6th. I doubt dry martinis will be gratis, but they’re pretty good here anyway.
More Parker:
“I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I’m under the table,
after four I’m under my host.”
Parker
Filed under Fiction, History, Jean Zimmerman, Publishing, The Orphanmaster, Writers
The Group
I got a request from someone who asked if I would like to visit with her book club. Yes! I spoke with reading groups regarding The Women of the House and it was highly enjoyable to hang out with a group of well-read, well-spoken book lovers. Sometimes there were snacks, too. So if you or anyone you know has a reading group that brings in authors, do let me know in a comment and I might be able to come.
Filed under Fiction, Jean Zimmerman, The Orphanmaster
The Common Beach Bag
“Your list of must-reads starts here” goes the headline for the New York Daily News list of summer’s best books.
To my delight, The Orphanmaster is one of the picks.
I can just see The Orphanmaster, its cover engrimed with wet sand, pages sticky with Froz Fruit juices, spilling out of someone’s beach bag. Or gripped in a sunbather’s hands as she squints against the sun.
The novel will debut on June 19, just in time for the July 4th weekend. All right, two weeks before, but who’s counting. I always start getting in the mood for holidays at least two weeks in advance. (More for Thanksgiving, which means serious hunkering down with the recipes. Click on the Food section of the blog to see more on the dishes Blandine and Drummond would have consumed.)
I wish I was at the beach now, for the annual Blue Angels air show, when you stand with your ankles in the still-bracing early summer ocean and the jets drop so low you feel you could extend your arm and touch them.
A strawberry Froz Fruit would be nice right about now, too.
Filed under Fiction, Jean Zimmerman, Publishing, The Orphanmaster
Newsday
Newsday enters the fray of top ten summer reading lists: read it here.
Filed under Fiction, Jean Zimmerman, Publishing, The Orphanmaster
USA Today!
I’m posting today’s USA Today item on The Orphanmaster as a hot summer read, but it looks cooler in print!
Filed under Fiction, Jean Zimmerman, Publishing, The Orphanmaster
A Reader of Fictions
Nice blog post re: The Orphanmaster at A Reader of Fictions. It seems you can win a free reader’s copy.
Filed under Fiction, Jean Zimmerman, Publishing, The Orphanmaster
Good Housekeeping
The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for The Orphanmaster: check it out.
Filed under Fiction, Jean Zimmerman, Publishing, The Orphanmaster
Into the Sun
I woke up slightly unwell. A swollen throat. Slight throbbing in head. A not negligible weariness weighing me down, so I didn’t feel up to doing too much. I read (something good: Gods Without Men, by Hari Kunzru), changed my sheets, dozed.
Yet I don’t think I was sick.
Yesterday I shipped off the second draft of Savage Girl to my first and best reader after a lot of thought and intense reworking. It’s weird to come out of that world, the Manhattan of the 1870s, with both horrific murders and fancy dress debuts coexisting in my characters’ lives. At one point they emerge from the cool interior of the then new, now demolished Grand Central Station to the blazing heat of the New York sidewalks in July. That’s kind of how I felt today, stunned by having completed the manuscript and sent it in.
The Old Grand Central Station
Filed under Fiction, Jean Zimmerman, Savage Girl, Writing
Here At Last
There is no experience quite like tearing open a mail package and finding the first printed copy of your new hardcover book. Yes, The Orphanmaster arrived at the cabin this morning, looking much like the beautiful galley but oh so different at the same time. There’s the heft, for one thing. The raised white type. (A scary black shadow encroaches from the left, taking a little bite out of the O.) The clarity of the cover image. And just the fact that this is my book, after hard and long work finally in print and ready to descend upon the world. A book gestates privately — no one can really understand the world you’ve created (even if you blather on about it continually) — but suddenly that world is available to everyone. Welcome.
Filed under Fiction, Jean Zimmerman, Publishing, The Orphanmaster, Writing
Jean Zimmerman 