Category: Memory & Dream

“In this immersive, intricately plotted mystery set in a near-future dystopia (Skyrmion), Poncy challenges the concept of reality versus simulation…”…

Books to Read and Other News: Our second newsletter goes out on Mayday, which is not only International Workers’ Day, but our 24th anniversary, as well! We have for you some micro-reviews of books we’ve recently read and recommend. We also have some news about a coming book release for Duane’s new novel, Skyrmion: Book One of the Sweetland Quartet. Happy reading. Oregon Painted Hills. Photograph (cc-by) Duane Poncy & Patricia J McLean Micro-reviews: books we’ve been reading Cuckoo Cloud Land: A Novel by Anthony Doerr This novel is truly amazing. From ancient Constantinople, to modern day Idaho, to far-future generation ship, Doerr ties it all together in a story about story. —reviewed by Duane The Orchardist by Amanda Copland Set in the early 1900s in eastern Washington, this is an extraordinary story of a man who tends his orchard and the memory of his lost sister, whose life is…

Ghosts of Saint-Pierre is a fictional biography based upon the real life of a man who left Saint-Pierre, Martinique a few short years before Mont Pelée buried the city in fire and ash, taking the lives of 30,000 souls, including all of his loved ones. It is the story of Duane’s own grandfather, Paul Poncy, who as a young man in Saint-Pierre was related to some of the richest and most powerful families of Martinique, families who built their fortunes off of the back of slavery and exploitation. Paul was a man who, in the face of tremendous personal loss, was never able to speak of his birthplace or the mixed race family he left behind. The novel, part historical biography, part ghost story, part love story, is told from the perspective of a forty year old father about to bury another son, a victim of the Spanish flu pandemic…