Interview with Carol Bodensteiner

Last month I had the opportunity to have coffee with Carol Bodensteiner and interview her for the bookstore's newsletter:

Carol Bodensteiner hails from Jackson County in the rolling hills of eastern Iowa and just wrapped up a semester as a visiting professor at Drake University. Growing Up Country: Memories of an Iowa Farm Girl is Carol’s first book and she recently finished working with the Department for the Blind to put her book on tape. “I'm very excited about that,” says Carol. “My mother had macular degeneration and I intended to read my book on tape for her. She died before I could get that done - in fact before my book was in printed form. So I wanted to do that as a memorial for her and others with macular degeneration.”

Though she spent most of her adult life in the public relations field, Carol has always been a writer. Since becoming an independent consultant in 1999 she has more time to focus on creative writing. The positive response Growing up Country surprised Carol as she wrote the book mostly for her family, especially her mother. “I love it that people like my book,” she said. “I don’t even know how to take that. As it turns out my book resonates with a lot of people.”

When she isn’t writing or teaching Carol can be found writing articles for the Iowan magazine, consulting on a public relations project and researching her next book. Carol is currently reading The Horizontal World and enjoys seeing how other people approach writing memoirs. Check out her website at www.carolbodensteiner.com for news on her next book and opportunities to meet Carol in person. Her next scheduled Des Moines visit will be at the Iowa State Fair in the Agriculture Building.

One of Carol's favorite quotations:

I write when I'm inspired, and see to it that I'm inspired at nine o'clock every morning. -Peter De Vries

A Tomb on the Periphery

A Tomb on the Periphery
By John Domini
Published by Gival Press
May 2008

Don't Judge This Book By Its Cover.

John Domini's A Tomb on the Periphery is the second of a three-novel series set in post-earthquake Naples, Italy. The main character Fabbrizio, or Brizio for short, takes us on a wild ride through the grittier side of an already chaotic disaster area created Domini's first book in the series, Earthquake I.D. Though it is part of a series, A Tomb on the Periphery can be thoroughly enjoyed on its own.

As a result of the catastrophic earthquake, new archaeological ruins have been uncovered on the periphery of town. Known for being a guy who can get around law, Brizio finds himself tangled up with Shanti, an American with her eyes on a priceless artifact found among the tombs. Fabbrizio unknowingly forms a connection with the artifact and its previous owner, who is now reduced to a pile of bones in a duffel bag being shuffled all over the city. Danger looms from all sides as Brizio attempts to sort out the American, trouble at home, an illicit jewelery replication project and the ever present immigration issues.

Domini treats his readers to a feast of thugs, high-speed action, social commentary, humor and even a bit of romance in a well-packaged story. I found TOMB to be even more satisfying than Earthquake ID and hope the third and final book of the series will continue the trend of better and better.