Author Topic: Author! Author! (Read 353965 times)

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #2720 on:** February 18, 2012, 05:25:44 AM »

? DWN

PatH · « **Reply #2721 on:** February 18, 2012, 09:24:43 AM »

DWN? Dead White Nobility???

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #2722 on:** February 18, 2012, 01:05:55 PM »

Down With Novelists?

pedln · « **Reply #2723 on:** February 18, 2012, 01:13:52 PM »

So glad you all asked. I'm waiting with baited breath.

roshanarose · « **Reply #2724 on:** February 18, 2012, 07:26:00 PM »

Close -

Dead White Novelists.

roshanarose · « **Reply #2725 on:** February 18, 2012, 07:40:31 PM »

Author: {Is from United Kingdom.} Does not belong to the DWN brigade. DWN = Dead White Niovelist.
Oh Oh! I will be tarred and feathered for this (or worse) BUT the author is NOT from the UK, but is from within the vicinity. Sorry!

The author is still living.

Book: A departure from the type of book the author usually writes.
Has allusions to history; geography and science.

Character: A young boy who has just had a tragedy in his family.
The tragedy results in his father remarrying and having a child with his new wife.

straudetwo · « **Reply #2726 on:** February 18, 2012, 09:16:50 PM »

Aaah, theauthor is not from the UK but from within the vicinity.

But how close or how far away is "within" ?

Let's see, the UK consists of Great Britain, Scotland (which wants independence) and Northern Ireland.
The Republic of Ireland (established in 1922, whose currency is the Euro) is an independent entity, and therefore might be considered "within".
The Isle of Man and the Guernsey Channel Islands are dependencies of the Crown. France and BeNeLux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg) are on the Continent, and even Denmark, the closest to the British Isles of the Scandinavian countries, does not qualify.

A good challenge.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2727 on:** February 18, 2012, 11:13:27 PM »

What, neglect Wales? For Shame!

I doubt I am going to know this one.

JoanK · « **Reply #2728 on:** February 19, 2012, 09:02:20 PM »

What is the "DWN brigade" that s/he doesn't belong to?

roshanarose · « **Reply #2729 on:** February 20, 2012, 12:58:05 AM »

JoanK - Dead White Novelists

Traude - You are warm.

Author: Does not belong to the DWN brigade. DWN = Dead White Niovelist.
Oh Oh! I will be tarred and feathered for this (or worse) BUT the author is NOT from the UK, but is from within the vicinity. Sorry! The author is still living.
The author spends time in both US and his home country.

Book: A departure from the type of book the author usually writes.
Has allusions to history; geography and science.
Also contains mythology and fairy story influences.
* Please note: The book is NOT a children's book.

Character: A young boy who has just had a tragedy in his family.
The tragedy results in his father remarrying and having a child with his new wife.
The boy appears to be on the verge of some kind of breakdown. He can hear his books whispering to him.
The young boy steps through a mysterious portal just after seeing a war plane crash into his back yard.

roshanarose · « **Reply #2730 on:** February 20, 2012, 09:00:18 PM »

Author: Does not belong to the DWN brigade. DWN = Dead White Niovelist.
Oh Oh! I will be tarred and feathered for this (or worse) BUT the author is NOT from the UK, but is from within the vicinity. Sorry! The author is still living.
The author spends time in both US and his home country.
The author is from Northern Ireland.

Book: A departure from the type of book the author usually writes.
Has allusions to history; geography and science.
Also contains mythology and fairy story influences.
* Please note: The book is NOT a children's book.
"The departure" noted above is from writing mystery and thrillers.
The young boy thinks he hears his mother's voice

Character: A young boy who has just had a tragedy in his family.
The tragedy results in his father remarrying and having a child with his new wife.
The boy appears to be on the verge of some kind of breakdown. He can hear his books whispering to him.
The young boy steps through a mysterious portal just after seeing a war plane crash into his back yard.
The young boy thinks he hears his mother's voice in this "Other world" he has stepped into.
He has been tricked by the antagonist - a character loosely based on Rumpelstiltskin.

PatH · « **Reply #2731 on:** February 20, 2012, 09:05:44 PM »

Why can't I think what that is? I've got to know it.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2732 on:** February 21, 2012, 12:05:31 AM »

Quote

The young boy steps through a mysterious portal just after seeing a war plane crash into his back yard.

Why does this sound familiar. I know I haven't read such a book. Was it made into a movie?

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #2733 on:** February 21, 2012, 04:02:49 AM »

I'm ashamed to say that the only Northern Irish writer I can think of is William Trevor. Don't suppose it's him?

Rosemary

roshanarose · « **Reply #2734 on:** February 21, 2012, 09:28:31 AM »

Sorry Frybabe - as far as I know the novel hasn't been adapted to a movie yet.

Rosemary - No, it's not William Trevor. A search for Modern Republic of Ireland Novelists may appear fruitful.

More tomorrow.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #2735 on:** February 21, 2012, 10:32:26 AM »

I thought the writer was from Northern Ireland, not the Irish Republic? Did I misunderstand that? (Not that it helps me

)

pedln · « **Reply #2736 on:** February 21, 2012, 12:24:19 PM »

I thought Northern Ireland, too, Rosemary.

For some reason I keep thinking that Robert Wilson, who writes mysteries about the Portugese detective is Irish. It's not him, is it?

roshanarose · « **Reply #2737 on:** February 21, 2012, 08:39:23 PM »

No. Sorry, Rosemary and Pedln. He comes from the Republic of Ireland, Dublin. My copied notes say he comes from both, which is obviously wrong.

No it isn't Robert Wilson. Don't give up. Sorry for the confusion about his home country.

roshanarose · « **Reply #2738 on:** February 21, 2012, 08:53:25 PM »

Author: Does not belong to the DWN brigade. DWN = Dead White Niovelist.
Oh Oh! I will be tarred and feathered for this (or worse) BUT the author is NOT from the UK, but is from within the vicinity. Sorry! The author is still living.
The author spends time in both US and his home country.
The author is from the Republic of Ireland.
The author is a great admirer of James Lee Burke and emulates his style.
His "Charlie Parker" (not to be confused with Charlie "Bird" Parker) novels are often set in Cajun/Louisiana settings.

Book: A departure from the type of book the author usually writes.
Has allusions to history; geography and science.
Also contains mythology and fairy story influences.
* Please note: The book is NOT a children's book.
"The departure" noted above is from writing mystery and thrillers.
The young boy thinks he hears his mother's voice.
This book is set in UK c.WWII and was published in 2006.

Character: A young boy who has just had a tragedy in his family.
The tragedy results in his father remarrying and having a child with his new wife.
The boy appears to be on the verge of some kind of breakdown. He can hear his books whispering to him.
The young boy steps through a mysterious portal just after seeing a war plane crash into his back yard.
The young boy thinks he hears his mother's voice in this "Other world" he has stepped into.
He has been tricked by the antagonist - a character loosely based on Rumpelstiltskin.
David then meets the Woodsman, but the pair are in danger from a pack of wolves and Loups.
The character of the Woodsman is based on the woodsman from Little Red Riding Hood.

straudetwo · « **Reply #2739 on:** February 22, 2012, 10:23:05 AM »

The author's provenance seemed important, so I tried to pinpoint what is part of the UK and what is not. The Repblic of Ireland is not.

From the wonderful description of the plot I can tell I never read the book.
But since it has been my feeling all along that that this might be a woman author, I'll take a stab: is it Connie Shelton ?

roshanarose · « **Reply #2740 on:** February 23, 2012, 07:49:55 AM »

traude - that is where i got confused as well, i.e. knowing the difference between Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland. From what I have read the difference appears to be mostly political and goes back a fair way in history.

The author is a man. A relatively young man. He attended Trinity College in Dublin and worked as a journalist.

I just did a search for Connie Shelton and she has written a series of mystery novels with Charlie Parker as the protagonist. Something of a coincidence I think, and is in no way connected to this author's work. Good try, though.

More details tomorrow.

pedln · « **Reply #2741 on:** February 23, 2012, 11:00:41 AM »

Roshanarose, I think you are the Queen of Red Herrings!!

I'd never heard of Connie Shelton, but after looking her up I was convinced that Traude had done it again.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #2742 on:** February 23, 2012, 11:42:49 AM »

Just to set the record straight, and I'm sure everyone already knows this - the Republic of Ireland is a country in its own right. Its predominant religion is Roman Catholic. Northern Ireland (or 'the six counties') is part of Great Britain; it has large Catholic and Protestant communities. The Troubles that you will all remember from the 1970s concerned a small part of Northern Ireland. Although this is a vast oversimplification, the RC communities in NI generally want to join the Republic and have what they would call 'a united Ireland'; the Protestants are generally much more keen on staying part of the UK. In the 1970s, the nationalist IRA (Irish Republican Army - therefore Catholic) was particularly involved in terrorist activity to try to gain independence, and the loyalist Protestants (led by such people as Ian Paisley) were equally active in fighting back. The British army was sent in to keep the peace, especially in certain very volatile areas of Belfast. There was a huge amount of bloodshed on all sides, much of it by innocent civilians. The terrorism spread to mainland Britain, with many bombings in London, Birmingham and other centres.

Despite its name, Northern Ireland only covers a small part of the north of the land mass of Ireland. For example, Donegal and Galway are in the geographic north but are part of the Republic, not NI. Many Northern Irish terrorists fled over the border from time to time and holed up in deserted farms, etc in Donegal especially. The border - which could not, of course, all be policed, as most of it is open countryside, was an extremely dangerous place during those years. If you wanted to travel on one of the main roads between NI and the Republic, you were subject to massive security checks; the checkpoints were concrete bunkers with machine guns on top of them.

If you meet people from NI and the Republic, they have very different accents, although it would be true to say that Dublin (capital city of the Republic) has a very different accent from the south - eg Co Waterford - too.

Just thought I would clarify things. I still have no idea who this author is!!!

Rosemary

JoanK · « **Reply #2743 on:** February 23, 2012, 05:04:46 PM »

Someone else reads Connie Shelton! I like her mysteries.

if our author was influenced by James Lee Burke, he's probably a mystery writer, so I should know him, but I don't. I admit to not being a fan of Burke's, either.

JoanK · « **Reply #2744 on:** February 23, 2012, 05:14:26 PM »

OK, I admit to cheating! I went to "Stop You're Killing Me" and looked up Charlie Parker in the character index. I got what I deserved -- nothing. they didn't have either your author's or Connie Shelton's Parker.

pedln · « **Reply #2745 on:** February 23, 2012, 08:28:44 PM »

That's not cheating, JoanK. You're putting your deductive skills to work.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2746 on:** February 23, 2012, 09:02:18 PM »

Try John Connelly, The Book of Things Lost. I new the plane crash in the back yard sounded familiar.

roshanarose · « **Reply #2747 on:** February 23, 2012, 10:08:06 PM »

FRYBABE COMES THROUGH

Jolly Well Done Frybabe. I didn't chose the book because it was difficult to guess. I chose it because it impressed me - except for the Snow White part. A good way to remember it (if you have read it) is to recall the German WWII crashing into David's back garden. When I was a child the family I was staying with lived near an Air Force Base. A big war plane, The Neptune Bomber, crashed not far from where the family lived. As I said, I was quite young, perhaps 9, and the sight of that bomber still smouldering and broken has stayed with me. I only found out quite recently that all four crew were killed.

The book is "The Book of Lost Things" by John Connolly (note Connolly is spelled with two "o"s). It is easy to find online and Amazon sell it.

JoanK - If the book, author is difficult to guess and there is something of a stalemate on the board, I think it is necessary to "research" it. Like pedln, I don't consider it cheating. It merely helps to keep the game alive.

Rosemary - Thanks for that information. I have learned something today. I know about Paisley and the IRA, Gerry Adams etc from newspapers and books. I always thought that Paisley was a bit of a nutter, but his cause was true. Maybe I was just too young to appreciate the gravity of the facts of the situation.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2748 on:** February 23, 2012, 11:13:27 PM »

Thanks for correcting the spelling and rearranging the last two words. I didn't double check before I answered. I didn't read the book, but I remembered the title and the little boy with the downed plane in his backyard. I must have ran across it somewhere or read a review. I am surprised that no one guessed it.

The interesting thing is that this book is "under development" (but not actively) by John Moore (Flight of the Phoenix, Behind Enemy Lines. That hasn't stopped book fans from making trailers for the book and for the nonexistent movie (apparently for a class) and posting them to YouTube. Very creative.

PatH · « **Reply #2749 on:** February 24, 2012, 12:09:02 AM »

Jolly well done is right. congratulations, Frybabe. I agree with roshanarose's stand on research, and like both of you, I always say if I've done so.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #2750 on:** February 24, 2012, 07:44:19 AM »

Well done Frybabe! I hadn't got the first idea.

Rosemary

Frybabe · « **Reply #2751 on:** February 24, 2012, 10:05:52 AM »

I often get embarrassed when someone asks me a question I don't know the answer to. Maybe that is why I love researching things and exploring the Internet.

Next up is non-fiction, a biography.

Author: A lawyer, his father was a judge.

Book: Important to the developmental stage of modern biographical writing.

Character: Born in the family home, which was above his father's bookshop.

straudetwo · « **Reply #2752 on:** February 24, 2012, 10:06:58 AM »

Good work, Frybabe !

pedln · « **Reply #2753 on:** February 24, 2012, 01:46:13 PM »

Well done, Frybabe.

The only thing I could think of, from the clues, was that movie Hope and Glory, set in Britain in WWII, where the kids find a downed airplane and make it their play yard.

Next up -- An author whose father is a judge has written about someone whose father has a bookshop. Hmmmmmmmmm. Modern, but not current contemporary?

Frybabe · « **Reply #2754 on:** February 25, 2012, 08:09:51 AM »

Author: A lawyer, his father was a judge.
He suffered wild mood swings, gambling and alcohol addiction, visited prostitutes.

Book: Important to the developmental stage of modern biographical writing.
Best known of the biographies of this person.

Character: Born in the family home, which was above his father's bookshop.
He was also a biographer as well as a poet and essayist. However, he was most famous for another kind of writing.

PatH · « **Reply #2755 on:** February 25, 2012, 08:37:47 AM »

James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Samuel Johnson

Frybabe · « **Reply #2756 on:** February 25, 2012, 09:15:15 AM »

Super Winner!

Congratulations, PatH.

The Life of Samuel Johnson is one of the few books my Dad had that I kept. I read it as a teen, and I'll be darn if I can remember a thing in it. The edition I have is illustrated by Gordon Ross, dated 1948, and published by Doubleday and Company, Inc.

straudetwo · « **Reply #2757 on:** February 25, 2012, 11:17:11 AM »

Splendid, PatH, Congratulations !!

pedln · « **Reply #2758 on:** February 25, 2012, 12:14:59 PM »

Bravo, PatH!!!

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #2759 on:** February 25, 2012, 02:32:58 PM »

Wow Pat - well done!

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Author Topic: Author! Author! (Read 353965 times)