Patricia Ketola is interviewed by Petar Odak, editor and reviewer. Late blooming in the world of literature is not that rare: Toni Morrison published her first novel when she was thirty-nine, P. D. James when she was forty-two, and Penelope Fitzgerald and Frank McCourt started in their sixties. Still, it is quite unusual for the … Continue reading Interview with Patricia Ketola, novelist, author of DIRTY PICTURES
Video Extract of “The Painter’s Women” by Fionnuala Brennan
"To my mind, Goya is one of the most enigmatic and influential painters in the history of art. In the novel I wanted to explore behind the scenes, to discover something more of the man and of his work. What better perspective to obtain than that of the women who were closest to him in … Continue reading Video Extract of “The Painter’s Women” by Fionnuala Brennan
Video Extract from Patricia Ketola’s Debut Novel, “Dirty Pictures”
Dirty Pictures is available to buy here. When New York art dealer Elizabeth Martel's mother falls ill, she returns to her hometown in the Midwest. After her mother's death she is seriously short of funds, and a friend suggests she take a job as art adviser to billionaire grain merchant, Preston Greylander. When Greylander is … Continue reading Video Extract from Patricia Ketola’s Debut Novel, “Dirty Pictures”
New cover art for REACH THE SHINING RIVER
Cover art: Keith Mallett Cover design: JT Lindroos We hope you would agree that this is a striking new cover for Kevin Stevens' novel REACH THE SHINING RIVER, with its soundtrack of jazz and blues. The lady on the cover is, of course, Arlene Gray, wonderfully described in this reader's review: "Arlene cleans hotel … Continue reading New cover art for REACH THE SHINING RIVER
The cost of culture
"...In our fetishism of openness at all costs — that is, at no cost — we’ve forgotten the actual, physical, inescapably tangible costs of creating what we designate by the ethereal term 'culture'." A fascinating article from Maria Popova's blog http://www.brainpickings.org about Astra Taylor's important book The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the … Continue reading The cost of culture
“Illustrated Adventures in Fashionland” by Jackie Mallon
To accompany the special week-long Kindle promotion of Silk for the Feed Dogs, I thought I’d post together all my drawings of scenes from the novel. I’ve been asked many times if I’d consider doing a graphic novel version of Silk for the Feed Dogs. A chance would be a fine thing, I say! Although graphic novels tend to have less text than regular novels. That would be the challenge. I like words too.
If only illustrated novels like Alice in Wonderland or all the Charles Dickens classics were the fashionable model nowadays. Illustrated plates, as they were known, are just not part of our reading experience anymore. And they would be too expensive to produce in our print-threatened times. Already we don’t like to pay as much for books when digital versions are cheaper and more portable.
But the Sir John Tenniel in me is itching to get…
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Literature and Art: Jackie Mallon about “Painted Women”
My current reading: Augustus John by Michael Holroyd published 1974
Immersed in research for my second novel, I stumbled upon the painter, Augustus John. He was an interesting type and no mistake but it is his women who truly fascinate. Upon reading descriptions of them, how they spoke and looked and thought, I sought out their portraits. Style mavens with names like Dorelia, Ida (surname Nettleship, no less), Alick, Euphemia, Estella, Arabella, Guilhermina, Ottoline, Clarissa, Caitlin, Amaryllis, Iris, formed a pageant of poetically monikered muses that fuelled his art. They would fuel my sketches too if I had a collection to design. Instead they will fuel my fiction.
Marchesa Casati by Augustus John
Known for “a compelling stare when he looked at a woman,” Augustus John’s quest for the next enigmatic face was a compulsion he made no apologies for. It was a congenital weakness. A coquettish voice emanating from…
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Richard Kalich and Bernard Piga: a Writer and a Painter
When we were designing the cover for “Central Park West Trilogy” with JT Lindroos, we were looking for a work of art that wouldn’t simply ‘illustrate’ the title but mirror Richard Kalich’s writing and vision. And we have found more than just one work of art: we have found the Painter. Bernard Piga’s expressionist paintings … Continue reading Richard Kalich and Bernard Piga: a Writer and a Painter
“The Nihilesthete”. Excerpt from the first novel of “Central Park West Trilogy” by Richard Kalich
"My studio apartment has all the features of an artist’s garret now. Everything careless, lackadaisical and purposefully strewn about. The only thing missing is the proverbial skylight, but I do have bay windows and a park view. Still, Montparnasse it’s not. There are canvases everywhere: rolls of canvas, stretched canvas, some stretched and mounted on … Continue reading “The Nihilesthete”. Excerpt from the first novel of “Central Park West Trilogy” by Richard Kalich
TOROS & TORSOS: surrealist art and murder in our time?
The Hector Lassiter series is all about secret history — a blending of fact and fiction that aims to get at something like the hidden truth. "Toros & Torsos" spins on the premise that surrealist art may have informed or inspired several bloody, unsolved crimes of the 20th Century. Life imitating art… art imitating death, … Continue reading TOROS & TORSOS: surrealist art and murder in our time?
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