Okay, I'm not sure anyone truly follows me, but because I can view the number of page views I have accumulated on this blog since I first established it, it is obvious that people are checking this site out and I can see that all those folks are in the United States! No more page views from India; not that I'm complaining about any page viewers much less where they are located. Bring on Europe, South Africa, and the Caribbean.
Back to the point of this post. On Tuesday of this week I had a publisher write and tell me that I was in the final stages of being reviewed by their editorial staff and could I please fill out an author questionnaire and a
book brief for them so they could make a final decision on my book's potential publication. I have to be honest. At first, I was like, could they be a vanity publisher because I truly want to be legitimately published. I researched the publisher and checked with a few folks. No definitive answer. So I then emailed a literary agent who has a partial of my manuscript and asked her. She says they are small, but legit. And by the way, she requested a book proposal. Hallelujah! So I spent two days and sixteen hours drafting the answers to the author questionnaire and book brief. My former English students are laughing hysterically at this point and thinking finally, someone dishes it out to Mrs. S!!! Calm down kiddies, I finished the work and it is quality work because I have never accepted anything less of myself or my students.
Here's the interesting part people. The publisher would like endorsement blurbs from established authors and I am thinking, well, I'm a debut author, who in the world do I know that is established??! After taking half a valium and breathing deeply for two seconds I think, well, I will just email and make the request from some of my preferred authors. What's the worst that could happen right? Oh Lord Help Deliver Me. My first author choice responded that she was busy and no she could not at this time read a sample copy of my book and make an endorsement. Okay, she has a book tour coming up so that is entirely possible. I get my nerve up and send an email request to my second choice for an author endorsement.. This author is so major that I figured she would not repond, an assistant would respond, or she would tell me she did not have time either. Well, folks, her reponse was that she does not endorse anyone whose work is published by a self-publisher/vanity press and obviously, my memoir was fiction. Say WHAT?!! First, I never told her who the publisher is and second, she has NEVER seen my memoir manuscript. I've got four immediate family members who will sign their names in blood that this manuscript is true from first word till THE END darlin'!! AND HELLO?! WHAT THE HELL EVER HAPPENED TO SUPPORTING YOUR FELLOW LITERARY GIRLFRIEND WHO IS JUST STARTING OUT?! Needless to say, I was shocked and saddened, but not for me, for her. I did not send a response because I'm Grace Sutherlin and I would never knock someone like that no matter what fame or wealth I do or do not achieve. I'M STAYIN' THE COURSE MATES AND WILL KEEP ON SAILIN'!!
Friday, May 25, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Review: Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
For the first half of May when I was not attempting to help my husband locate office space for his new business and buy office furniture, I decided to read Jodi Picoult's newest paperback entitled Sing You Home. You can never go wrong with a Jodi Picoult book. She likes to tackle issues that are relevant and in the headlines. This book is no exception to that policy as it follows Zoe, a music therapist, who is attempting to conceive via IVF. She has had four unsuccessful attempts with IVF and the last round left her with a baby that was born stillborn. Coupled with the devastation of the stillborn, her husband Max decides to check out of the marriage because he does not want to have any more attempts at IVF. Max goes to live with his evangelical, attorney older brother who is constantly bailing him out or assisting him. Max has a whole lot of issues: he likes too much alcohol, to go surfing when he is supposed to be picking up a minister from the airport, and even more deadly, he attempts to drive himself places after drinking. He files for divorce from Zoe and they each represent themselves in court. Both never once think about the fertilized eggs still frozen at the fertility clinic during the divorce. Herein lies the debate of whether you think about frozen eggs as property or people. In this particular instance, I think Max and Zoe were so devastated from the divorce they just did not think to mention the frozen eggs when the judge asked them about debts and property distribution. A divorce is granted. And then Max has a horrifc accident whereby he winds up fighting for his life in a hospital and has a conversion to the evangelical religion his brother espouses.
Meanwhile, Zoe meets a school counselor named Vanessa. They develop a relationship and eventually get married. Max is shell-shocked upon learning the news that his ex-wife is a lesbian after encountering her at a grocery store one Saturday whereby she hurriedly informs him of her new relationship status in the grocery store parking lot. Max is torn about the whole concept of being gay because the evangelical church he now attends is so adamantly against it. Zoe begins helping a suicidal student at Vanessa's school who refuses to engage with life or anyone in it. Zoe helps the student find a new reason for living via music therapy and the student's interest in the guitar. Zoe and Vanessa decide to take a chance on utilizing the frozen eggs at the fertility clinic so Vanessa can have a child due to Zoe's life being at risk should she attempt anymore rounds of IVF. They get to the fertility clinic only to discover that nothing can happen with the frozen fertilized eggs until Max gives his consent. This leads to a nasty court battle whereby Max's evangelical church provides him with a top lawyer who argues that Max wishes for the frozen, fertilized eggs to be given to his brother and his wife who have been unable to have children and who are God-fearing, able citizens. Naturally, this puts Zoe and Vanessa arguing that they can provide an equally loving and good household for any child that arises from the frozen, fertilized eggs being given to them. Shockingly, Max and his brother's wife fall for each other while he's staying with his brother. In the end, the judge awards the fertilized eggs to Max; however, he gives them to Zoe. The child is then raised by Zoe and Vanessa, but also Max who eventually marries his brother's wife. It is a riveting read, but all Picoult books are so this one will definitely not disappoint.
Meanwhile, Zoe meets a school counselor named Vanessa. They develop a relationship and eventually get married. Max is shell-shocked upon learning the news that his ex-wife is a lesbian after encountering her at a grocery store one Saturday whereby she hurriedly informs him of her new relationship status in the grocery store parking lot. Max is torn about the whole concept of being gay because the evangelical church he now attends is so adamantly against it. Zoe begins helping a suicidal student at Vanessa's school who refuses to engage with life or anyone in it. Zoe helps the student find a new reason for living via music therapy and the student's interest in the guitar. Zoe and Vanessa decide to take a chance on utilizing the frozen eggs at the fertility clinic so Vanessa can have a child due to Zoe's life being at risk should she attempt anymore rounds of IVF. They get to the fertility clinic only to discover that nothing can happen with the frozen fertilized eggs until Max gives his consent. This leads to a nasty court battle whereby Max's evangelical church provides him with a top lawyer who argues that Max wishes for the frozen, fertilized eggs to be given to his brother and his wife who have been unable to have children and who are God-fearing, able citizens. Naturally, this puts Zoe and Vanessa arguing that they can provide an equally loving and good household for any child that arises from the frozen, fertilized eggs being given to them. Shockingly, Max and his brother's wife fall for each other while he's staying with his brother. In the end, the judge awards the fertilized eggs to Max; however, he gives them to Zoe. The child is then raised by Zoe and Vanessa, but also Max who eventually marries his brother's wife. It is a riveting read, but all Picoult books are so this one will definitely not disappoint.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Hospital by Julie Salamon
After reading a lighthearted memoir by Tina Fey, I decided to take on a "heavy" memoir regarding the crisis in health care, particularly our hospitals. Julie Salamon spent a year following interns, residents, fellows, internists, administrators, nurses, and patients at a hospital in Brooklyn. She gained an eyeful and earful of what is right and wrong with the current state of the U.S. health care system. Since I have been acquainted with this same familiarity through my own adventures with my dad's stem cell transplant and unusual ailments I have endured myself, I felt like, if given the same assignment, I probably would have written something even more scathing yet revealing. There's nothing like spending a vast amount of time inside a major hospital to make you acutely aware of what is and is not important when it comes to being a human being in great need.
Initially, the author observes insanity in the hospital emergency room. People waiting for hours to be seen, to have tests run, and then sometimes many more hours before they can arrive to a hospital room should they need to be admitted. There is such diversity at this hospital that you see people from every walk of life and seemingly from every part of the globe. The administration does make an effort to have staff that can speak any of the sixty-seven different languages the patients may speak. Residents are fascinating in that they believe that if they can make it at this one hospital, given all its crisis, they can make it anywhere. This particular hospital tries incessantly to reach out and participate in the local community. They take pride in being a state-of-the-art local hospital, and not one funded by generous endowments such as the hospitals in Manhattan. They adamantly want the local community to utilize this local hospital as opposed to going to a hospital in Manhattan.
Throughout the book the reader witnesses insurance companies reducing reimbursements for treatments, administrators trying to fund fields that have higher profit returns, doctors behaving badly with other doctors as well as nurses, egos colliding, patients who arrive severely ill and are illegals with no way of paying for hospital services, the hospital President often becoming manic about "teamwork", "cleanliness", "building a cancer center", and uniquely, "having the first born baby of each new year arrive at their hospital (which has never happened). Her heart is in the right place, but sometimes she is so overwhelmed that she fails to recognize the good that is happening within the hospital and the successes of many staff members.
You also witness moving moments such as when staff overwhelmingly turn out at a funeral for a fellow staffer's wife who dies of cancer; staffers calling their fellow colleagues when something unexpected and horrible has happened such as a cancer diagnosis or a horrible accident. The hosptial runs like a family with all the ups and downs, arguments and celebrations it entails. There are fiercely dedicated doctors not just those that are stellar surgeons, but those who are dedicated to treating the whole person. There is even a meeting of doctors, social workers, and residents called the biopsychosocial team that meet on a volunteer basis when they have a patient who has immense needs. They pull their talents to determine how to best help the patient given their respective specialties. It's moving subject matter and it's real. If you haven't had the privilege and some would say horror of witnessing our health care system up close and personal, you definitely should read this book and become enlightened because sooner or later we all become acquainted with the U.S. health care system, its good and bad, either because of our own health or the health of someone we love.
Initially, the author observes insanity in the hospital emergency room. People waiting for hours to be seen, to have tests run, and then sometimes many more hours before they can arrive to a hospital room should they need to be admitted. There is such diversity at this hospital that you see people from every walk of life and seemingly from every part of the globe. The administration does make an effort to have staff that can speak any of the sixty-seven different languages the patients may speak. Residents are fascinating in that they believe that if they can make it at this one hospital, given all its crisis, they can make it anywhere. This particular hospital tries incessantly to reach out and participate in the local community. They take pride in being a state-of-the-art local hospital, and not one funded by generous endowments such as the hospitals in Manhattan. They adamantly want the local community to utilize this local hospital as opposed to going to a hospital in Manhattan.
Throughout the book the reader witnesses insurance companies reducing reimbursements for treatments, administrators trying to fund fields that have higher profit returns, doctors behaving badly with other doctors as well as nurses, egos colliding, patients who arrive severely ill and are illegals with no way of paying for hospital services, the hospital President often becoming manic about "teamwork", "cleanliness", "building a cancer center", and uniquely, "having the first born baby of each new year arrive at their hospital (which has never happened). Her heart is in the right place, but sometimes she is so overwhelmed that she fails to recognize the good that is happening within the hospital and the successes of many staff members.
You also witness moving moments such as when staff overwhelmingly turn out at a funeral for a fellow staffer's wife who dies of cancer; staffers calling their fellow colleagues when something unexpected and horrible has happened such as a cancer diagnosis or a horrible accident. The hosptial runs like a family with all the ups and downs, arguments and celebrations it entails. There are fiercely dedicated doctors not just those that are stellar surgeons, but those who are dedicated to treating the whole person. There is even a meeting of doctors, social workers, and residents called the biopsychosocial team that meet on a volunteer basis when they have a patient who has immense needs. They pull their talents to determine how to best help the patient given their respective specialties. It's moving subject matter and it's real. If you haven't had the privilege and some would say horror of witnessing our health care system up close and personal, you definitely should read this book and become enlightened because sooner or later we all become acquainted with the U.S. health care system, its good and bad, either because of our own health or the health of someone we love.
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