An Amazon Review of My Novel

A new review of my novel recently went up on amazon.com. Thanks to Missy Pilkington for writing such kind words . . .

"We live to toil, kick the soil, blink through the madness as if it were disco, and wait for death to relieve us of our duties quietly. Generally, that is every human being's plan. Fortunately for Stan Carter, he awakens mid-life following the tragic loss of his family, and starts asking the kind of questions that people are too afraid to ask while they are caught up in the cycle of sustaining the American Dream. Essentially, what am I doing with my life and more importantly, why? Anyone with a pulse deserves to follow Jeff Vande Zande's tale and witness for themselves how one person attempts to deal with the fallout and fumbles through the reconstruction phase.

Appropriately, the story is set in northern Michigan where lack of industry is translated into beautiful wilderness and an escape for the many city dwellers whose cottages dot the rivers and streams far from the sodium vapor civilization downstate. Numb and hollow of the paycheck life without his family, Stan abandons his factory job and retreats to his cabin where he lives the simple solitary life until June, an investment banker, shows up to assess the property. Mesmerized by June's vitality and fearful of losing his cabin, he dives into the river to avoid decision and then, uses every resource in sight to track her down via road trip. Weaving through the landscape of reason, the underdog Stan and his wily cast of new friends deliver the hilarious while they share a dialog on what moves them.

Readers will easily recognize themselves in this vivid fire of conflict and cheer Stan along while questioning their own place in society. Charmingly real and down to Earth, Into the Desperate Country will suck you in and resonate in your mind long after the last page has been turned. Vande Zande's well-crafted novel offers something more if you're brave enough to take it."

Monetary Report: Week 21

Not a bad week. Sold a few books, made a little dough . . . $5.00 to be exact.

So, the total is $737.49.

We're five weeks away from being half way through the year. I hope to be at $750.00 before then.

In other news . . . earlier this year, I submitted a query for my second novel to Casperian Books. As a gesture of good faith, I bought one of their titles. (I had heard good things about them because they'd published a book titled Without Wax which both Josh Maday and Matt Bell had liked).

In any case, I bought a Casperian book by Peter Ohren entitled Motor City Blues. I leaned toward that book because Ohren is from Lansing, and it sounded like the novel would be set in Detroit -- which it was.

Casperian Books passed on reading my novel. Motor City Blues sat on my desk for a long time. In fact, it almost got placed on the book shelf -- which could have meant that it would be years before it would get read, if ever. Then, I thought, no. I have to read this. It's a small press book by a small press writer. People have taken a chance on my little novel, and I needed to do the same for Ohren.

So, I read it. And, I liked it. I finished it in three days (it's only 160 pages). In brief, it follows the life of a reluctant law student at Wayne State as he struggles with drug addiction, his rich girlfriend's lifestyle, his roommates, and his own sense that the world is set up pretty damn unfair for anyone who isn't at the top.

I enjoyed the backdrop of Detroit as the setting, and I thought the drug-influenced scenes were handled well.

I'm not going to go as far as giving stars or listing everything I liked (or the things that I didn't like). I'm just going to say that if you're looking for a quick, entertaining, and mildly thoughtful read, you could do worse than Motor City Blues.

Plus, you'd be helping to support a small press -- which is always an important thing.

Monetary Report: Week 20

This would have to be one of my best weeks. I sold quite a few books, and a magazine paid me for one of my short stories that they published. The magazine is based in Canada, but that north land money is currently worth almost as much as U.S. money. They paid me twenty dollars Canadian, which worked out to about $19.21 -- or something like that.

In any case, my total for this week was $34.28 -- which brings my total profits for the year to . . .

$732.49.

On another note, I had a thought about literature. I'm starting to doubt that a piece of literature can really change a person's life. But, it can change a moment in a person's life . . . or change them for a day or even a week. The resonance of a good poem or short story or even a novel only lasts so long, but it does have a duration. It can make us see the world in a different way for a short time and even make us better at living. Then, it wears off, we go back to our ruts . . . we forget.

Well, we forget the various lessons or messages. Or, the lessons and messages become platitudes and we forget the emotion that made the messages so True for us.

But, if we're lucky, what we don't forget is the experience of reading something powerful. And, hopefully, we seek it out again. Either we reread that which has touched us, or we find new texts to momentarily enlighten us. But, as readers, if we choose to live in continued moments of momentary enlightenment, then our lives can be changed permanently. I think.

I think of this only because I reread the short story "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin. It gets me every time. I live differently for a short time after reading it. I'm a better person under its limited influence.

Monetary Report: Week 19

Well, again I have avoided the dreaded $0.00 week. This week I gathered in a cool $3.39.

I can feel your envy.

That brings my total for the year to: $698.21.

I'll also add in some advice. As a writer, try not to get too smart about the "whys" behind things. If you know too much, it screws up your writing. For instance, I've been studying existentialism very closely with my students. As a result, every story idea that comes to me is existential in nature. That's not good. I don't think one should know what kind of story he is writing. He should just tell a Truthful story and let others argue over what kind of story it might be.

As a writer, it's not good to study literary theory. As an "anybody", it's not good to study literary theory. It's pretty useless.

Fitzgerald said that a writer is not the smartest person in the room, just the most observant.

Saginaw Publishing News

My excellent friend, Josh Maday, had work picked up by Phoebe -- a very cool magazine to say the least.

In fact, he's racking up quite a writing vita, and he's doing the tri-cities proud.

Check out his blog at http://joshmaday.blogspot.com/

Monetary Report of Week 18, and Some Thoughts on Literary Scenes

Not a bad week. I earned $5.90, which brings the total to $694.82. Soon, though, I’ll have a $0.00 week. I can just feel it.

Now, on to scenes. Or groups. Or crews. Or circles.

I sometimes hear people lament that there isn’t really a literary scene in the tri-cities . . . to which I say, thank God. I never could really put my finger on why I think scenes are bad for the participants, other than to suggest that they are incestuous and self-congratulating. Then, I read this great passage by Turgenev that summed up the whole “scene” thing for me. In this case, he’s talking about student circles in Moscow universities in the Nineteenth Century, but he could just as easily be talking about literary scenes in the Twenty-first Century.

“. . . a circle’s the destruction of any original development; a circle is a ghastly substitute for social intercourse . . . Wait a minute, I’ll tell you what a circle really is! A circle is a lazy and flabby kind of communal, side-by-side existence, to which people attribute the significance and appearance of an intelligent business; a circle replaces conversation with discourses, inclines its members to fruitless chatter, distracts you from isolated, beneficial work, implants in you a literary itch; finally, it deprives you of freshness and the virginal strength of your spirit. A circle – it’s mediocrity and boredom parading under the name of brotherhood and friendship, a whole chain of misapprehensions and pretences parading under the pretext of frankness and consideration . . . respect is paid to empty gasbags, conceited brains, young men who’ve acquired old men’s habits; and rhymesters with no gifts at all but with ‘mysterious’ ideas are nursed like babies . . . a circle is a place where underhand eloquence flourishes; in a circle, the members watch one another no less closely than do police officials . . . Oh, student circles (literary scenes)! They’re not circles, they’re enchanted rings in which more than one decent fellow has perished!”

Turgenev nails it with the last line. “Enchanted rings.” Here’s the problem -- scenes, crews, groups, circles are like drugs. They feel good to belong to because the members are almost always misfits. Writers, artists, intellectuals – they never quite fit in anywhere, which of course is what gave them the potential to be writers, artists, and intellectuals to begin with. So, joining a group feels really, really good – but then they begin to lose that misfit nature, which is their creative nature. They belong but, subsequently – by belonging – they begin to lose something. And, yet, they can’t walk away because the group feels good – it’s enchanted. And, self-congratulating. The group can make you feel like you’re a part of something big – when really 99.9% of people aren’t even paying attention.

Beware the group or scene or crew or circle. It may extinguish that which was good and true and original in you. It’s not always a physical thing – like people who live in a city and go to each other’s readings. It could be an online thing . . . a group of people who read and comment on each other’s blogs. It could be a small thing . . . two people who “talk writing” for two hours before watching a Tigers game.

Try to shut out the group if you can. Avoid its enchantments. Stay true and original. Try to do some "isolated, beneficial work."

Most likely, you will fail and, as with any powerful drug, continue using.

If any group would have me, I know I'd be an addict.

Tigers News

The Tigers swept the Yankees! Three in a row! And, they were in Yankee Stadium, no less.

To make a literary analogy, that's like Hemingway going down to Mississippi and outselling Faulkner at a book signing.

Speaking of book sales, I think I might actually sell 400 copies of my novel by June. It's looking really close.

If anyone wants to help me reach my goal, just send a check for $12.50 (payable to me) to:

Jeff Vande Zande
English Division
Delta College
University Center, MI 48710

The $12.50 covers the cost of a signed book and it also covers shipping.

The book makes a great Mother's Day, Father's Day, birthday, Memorial Day or Bloom's Day present.