Tag Archives: historical novel

The Shady Side of Virtue – Japanese Transgressions in Early 20th Century Hawaii

HONOLULU, Hawaii /ScoopCloud/ -- Set in the tumultuous world of colonialism, technological revolution and intercultural entanglements in early 1900s, Deuxmers Publishing releases "Miki's Mad" by George Tanabe (ISBN: 978-91944521219). A telling of love, family, pride, and delusions arising from the collisions between perception and misperception, sanity and madness, and virtue and vice.

Tanabe, who is a recipient of the Japanese Foreign Minister's Commendation and the Imperial Order of the Rising Sun awards, tells the tragicomic story of a Japanese immigrant: On a steamship from Japan to Hawaii, Shuzo Taga discovers Miki, a young woman who is slowly going mad-angry, insane and wildly funny - and yet she, sustained by the spirit of a devious cat, enables him to turn his fantasies into cash.

This picaresque tale plays on stereotypes that our protagonist hijacks as he out-whites the haoles, out-yellows the Japanese, out-browns the Hawaiians, and in the end, outsmarts himself.

While "Miki's Mad" portrays a charming but conniving protagonist, it should be remembered that the honest and hardworking issei pioneers also had shadier sides to their lives involving adultery, moonshining, theft and prostitution. In 1901, for example, 93 percent of the known prostitutes in Honolulu were Japanese women under the control of a certain Masudo-san. "Miki's Mad" taps into this underside and portrays the adventures of lovable characters freely deploying guts and ingenuity as they search for better lives.

Further information: https://www.deuxmers.com/authors/george-tanabe/mikis-mad

About George Tanabe:

George Tanabe, Professor Emeritus of Religion at the University of Hawaii, earned a Ph.D. in Japanese religions (esp. Buddhism) from Columbia University. His academic books have been published by university presses at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and Hawaii. For promoting cultural understanding between Japan and the United States, he was awarded the Japanese Foreign Minister's Commendation in 2007 and the Imperial Order of the Rising Sun in 2012.

About Deuxmers Publishing:

Founded in 2011 in Hawaii, Deuxmers Publishing is an independent publisher of fiction, poetry and photography books, with a mission of preserving individual voices and visions to be made available for future generations. Learn more at: https://www.deuxmers.com/.

Set in the tumultuous world of colonialism, technological revolution and intercultural entanglements in early 1900s, Deuxmers Publishing releases "Miki's Mad" by George Tanabe (ISBN: 978-91944521219). A telling of love, family, pride, and delusions arising from the collisions between perception and misperception, sanity and madness, and virtue and vice.

Related link: https://www.deuxmers.com/

Olive Hill Kentucky: How One Small Appalachian Town Helped Build America

MANSFIELD, Ohio /ScoopCloud/ -- Author Willie Davis has written a historical fiction novel, "Olive Hill" (ISBN 978-1728369372; Volume 1) about how one small Appalachian town in Kentucky can lay claim to helping build America.

"Olive Hill, Kentucky has a surprising creation story," says author Willie Davis. "Hundreds of thousands of Kentucky's sons and daughters migrated to the industrial north in the 1940's and 50s without realizing how their past had helped build America. My family was among them. I became determined to tell Olive Hill's storied past."

"Olive Hill" is written in two volumes. It follows the fictitious Reed family from May, 1800 to June, 1959. The two volumes integrate 339 fictional characters into 159 years of American history to tell how Olive Hill gave all that it had in a time it was most needed until a time it was needed no more.

Carter County, Kentucky was blessed with an abundance of diverse natural resources, including timber, iron ore, coal, and limestone. During the Industrial Revolution one of its towns, Olive Hill, became the center of a 600 square mile hotbed of fireclay, a unique heat-resistant clay used to make firebricks. For decades, thousands of hard-working Olive Hillians dug, moulded, and fired that uncommon clay into hundreds of thousands of firebricks per day to line open hearth steel furnaces, locomotive fireboxes, and steamship boilers.

Without the steel, there would be no skyscrapers and no rail lines. Without the trains and ships, there would be no movement to expedite a growing nation. Olive Hill firebricks helped make this possible.

Davis dedicates the novel to anyone interested in Olive Hill, Kentucky - yesterday, today, or tomorrow.

"More people need to know the Olive Hill story," continues Davis. "And more people need to know more American history."

For further information and autographed copies contact Willie Davis at willied@neo.rr.com or visit his website at: http://williedavisbooks.com/.

Books are available online everywhere.

Author Willie Davis has written a historical fiction novel, "Olive Hill" (ISBN 978-1728369372; Volume 1) about how one small Appalachian town in Kentucky can lay claim to helping build America.

Related link: http://williedavisbooks.com/

Why would a Russian-Jewish couple, living near Boston, return to the Soviet Union in 1931?

NEW YORK, N.Y. /ScoopCloud/ -- "Forget Russia" (ISBN: 978-1732848047) by L. Bordetsky-William, scheduled for publication on December 1, 2020 by Tailwinds Press, tells the story of three generations of Russian-American Jews journeying back and forth, throughout the twentieth century, between America and Russia, searching for some kind of home and, of course, finding something altogether different.

It is a tale of love, murder, revolution, and betrayal. In 1980, Anna, an American college student journeys to the Soviet Union to confront her family's past. As Anna dodges date rapists, KGB agents, and smooth-talking marketeers while navigating an alien culture for the first time, she must come to terms with the aspects of the past that haunt her own life.

With its insight into the everyday rhythms of an almost forgotten way of life behind Brezhnev's Soviet Union, "Forget Russia" is a disquieting multi-generational epic about coming of age, forgotten history, and the loss of innocence in all of its forms.

Advance Praise for "Forget Russia"

"One by one, Anna will lift the tops from the Russian dolls starting from the original tragedy-the murder of her great-grandmother Zlata during a pogrom-to shed light on the destiny of three generations of women ... In this dazzling choral novel, woven together over almost eighty years, the great grand-daughter triumphs in the challenge to reunite her family forever, calming their hearts beyond the centuries," said Maia Brami, author of "All Yours."

About the Author:

L. BORDETSKY-WILLIAMS is also the author of "The Artist as Outsider in the Novels of Toni Morrison and Virginia Woolf" (Greenwood Press, 2000); the memoir, "Letters to Virginia Woolf" (Hamilton Books, 2005); and three poetry chapbooks - "The Eighth Phrase" (Porkbelly Press 2014), "Sky Studies" (Finishing Line Press 2014), and "In the Early Morning Calling" (Finishing Line Press, 2018). She is a Professor of Literature at Ramapo College of New Jersey and lives in New York City.

To obtain an advance copy of "Forget Russia" for a book review or to arrange an author interview, use the following contact information:
Author: L. Bordetsky-Williams
Phone: 917-701-4880
email: forgetrussia@gmail.com

Website: https://www.forgetrussia.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ForgetRussia
Twitter: @BordetskyL

Book Trailer (YouTube): https://youtu.be/eDICgOz-Kqo

Tailwinds Press: http://www.tailwindspress.com/forget-russia.html

IMAGE LINKS FOR MEDIA:
[1] https://www.Send2Press.com/300dpi/20-0921s2p-forget-russia-300dpi.jpg
Caption, cover, "Forget Russia."

[2] https://www.Send2Press.com/300dpi/20-0921s2p-lb-williams-300dpi.jpg
Caption: Photo of the Author - L. Bordetsky-Williams.

"Forget Russia" (ISBN: 978-1732848047) by L. Bordetsky-William, scheduled for publication on December 1, 2020 by Tailwinds Press, tells the story of three generations of Russian-American Jews journeying back and forth, throughout the twentieth century, between America and Russia, searching for some kind of home and, of course, finding something altogether different.

Related link: https://www.forgetrussia.com/