Bio: Violinist turned author Erica Miner has had a multi-faceted career as an award-winning screenwriter, author, lecturer and poet. A native of Detroit, she studied music at Boston University and the New England Conservatory of Music. After experiencing a variety of highs and lows in her quest to forge a career in New York City, Erica won the coveted position of violinist with the Metropolitan Opera Company, a high-pressured milieu but the pinnacle of her field.

When injuries from a car accident spelled the end of her musical career, she drew upon her lifelong love of writing for inspiration and studied screenwriting with authors and script gurus Linda Seger and Ken Rotcop. Erica’s ten screenplays, one of which is based on her award-winning debut novel, Travels with My Lovers, have won awards and/or placed in such competitions as WinFemme, Santa Fe and the Writer’s Digest.

Inspired by her journals written during her travel adventures in Europe with and without her children, Erica penned Travels With My Lovers, winner of the fiction prize in the Direct from the Author Book Awards. Erica has written both the novel and screenplay of her suspense thriller, Murder In The Pit, which takes place at the Met. Currently she is working on the next novel in her ‘FourEver Friends’ series chronicling a young girl’s coming of age in the volatile 60s.

Erica has also developed a number of writing lectures and seminars on writing, which she has presented at venues across the West Coast and on the High Seas, where she is a ‘top-rated’ speaker for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Topics range from “The Art of Self Re-Invention” to “Journaling for Writers: Mining the Gold of Your Own Experiences” and “Opera Meets Hollywood.” Her writings have appeared in Vision Magazine, WORD San Diego and numerous E-zines.

Thanks for this interview, Erica, and congratulations on the release of your new book, FourEver Friends. Tell us a bit about it.

Thank you for the kind wishes, Mayra. I’m excited about this story. It’s about four teenage girls at a high school for gifted students in Detroit in the 1960s. They bond through their passion for classical music and their raging hormones – quite a combination! Set against the background of the social and political unrest of this volatile decade, that’s definitely a recipe for intrigue.

What was your inspiration for the story?
It’s loosely based on my teenage journals and my experiences at the real high school where the story takes place, Cass Technical High School. This school, kind of like a combination of New York’s High School of Music and Art and the Bronx High School of Science, with a plethora of other specialties added to the mix, was a unique opportunity for kids of that age to ‘specialize’ in their field of interest, and ‘major’ in a curriculum of their choice. Some of the students in the Music Curriculum went straight from high school to the Detroit Symphony; that is an example of the extraordinary level of education afforded by this school. College was almost a let-down for me after that. In four years being in that orchestra, whose conductor was my mentor, an amazing Russian man who was totally devoted to his students, we studied and/or performed all of the major symphonies and other symphonic works of the great masters: Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky – I could go on ad infinitum. It was a life-altering experience for me. Even now, whenever I hear a piece I had played there, the first thought that occurs to me is: ‘I played that at Cass Tech.’ What a wonderful foundation for my subsequent musical life! AND the three closest friends I bonded with during those years – my ‘FourEver Friends’ – well, we’re still each other’s closest friends. The book is a love letter to them, and I wanted to share our story with the world. There’s so much love there!

Do you think music has the power to bond people?
Absolutely! Life is all about music, when you think of it. Music pervades our lives, influences us, whether it is classical, spiritual, jazz, blue grass or rock. Do you know anyone who doesn’t have a passion, or at least an admiration, for some kind of music? It is at the essence of our being; it’s what humanizes us.

I love books with references to classical music and detailed descriptions of violin playing. Is your book of this type?
Oh, Mayra, you can hardly imagine how huge a part classical music plays (no pun intended) in this story. The music itself is a character in the book. When preparing for my book launch last week in LA, I prepared some CDs of excerpts from the book to play at the event. I put together three CDs, and I barely scratched the surface of what is included in the book. And I have vivid descriptions of violin playing, practicing, studying, performing, you name it – from the perspective of the main protagonist, Jessica, who is a violinist in her heart and soul and the others she performs with. I’ve also written episodes describing orchestra playing, band playing, choral singing. The list goes on. I’d better stop here, or I’ll get carried away. But what an immense pleasure it was for me to write about that music that I hold dear, and all of the friends who shared it with me during that time!

What have you been doing to promote the book? Any strategies you’d like to share with our readers?
One thing I learned from my first novel (see next question) is that promotion and marketing needs to be started way before the book is published. Everything I learned from my previous experience informed my promotion so far with this one. I contacted bookstores and libraries about book signings, got the word out about the book to all of my ‘fans’ of the previous book (that’s how I was able to arrange for a book launch venue for this one), and have been tirelessly getting the word out in online networks from Facebook to my high school Alumni ‘nings’. I consider myself first a musician, second a writer, and third a business person. Some advice I remember from before was that writing is 5% writing and 95% promotion. Truer words were never said. I’m planning on going back to Detroit to do a book signing at my high school. So it’s as if things have come full circle.

This isn’t your first book revolving around music, is it? Can you tell us about your first one, Travels With My Lovers?
FourEver Friends is almost a ‘prequel’ to Travels With My Lovers, in the sense that the former gives background about the woman who has become a musician and seeks her musical roots on her European travel adventures. Having grown up and matured into a woman with a passion for music, her fervor is expressed through a passion for the opposite sex. In her travels she discovers just how international the languages of music and of love are. I think that’s appropriate, don’t you?

How has your music background influenced your writing?
Everything I’ve ever written has been informed by my musical background. Every novel and screenplay, either its characters or setting or background, centers around music in a major way. It’s who I am – and they say write what you know. So it was inevitable that music be the basis for my writing.

Anything else you’d like to say?
Part of my path in life, I believe, is to try and spread the word about classical music to as much of the world as I can. It’s my passion, everyday of my life, from the moment I wake up in the morning till the time I go to sleep – and sometimes even in my dreams. I think the lives of people who know at least a little about classical music are enhanced and enriched by it. So I’d like to continue to make sure classical music remains an important part of people’s lives – in any way I can! (Murder In The Pit, anyone?)

Thanks, Erica! I look forward to reading your book soon!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 2009
Carlsbad, CA

FOUREVER FRIENDS: will they become Sex and the City sirens or Desperate Housewives?

This coming of age novel transcends time to satisfy the Boomers’ yearning for the Sixties and curiosity of Generations X, Generation Jones, and Generation Y about how growing up really was back in the good old days.

Boomers lived in a time of social revolution. Young people today think of the Sixties as a bygone era, a time to be relegated to history books and their parents’ cocktail party conversations. But, there is much to learn about those outrageous days.

In her new novel, FourEver Friends, Erica Miner takes the reader back to the days when JFK gave hope to a new generation at a time when the Internet didn’t exist, when telephones were just changing from rotary dial to touch-tone, when the Jet Age was giving way to the Space Age, when cars guzzled gas, had tailfins, and two-tone paint jobs. Women’s Lib was just discovering the freedom offered by the Pill, and midnight curfews were becoming a thing of the past. Now, the Boomers are retiring. They and their offspring are a huge audience for this first in a series novel about four teenage girls set in 1960s Detroit.

The challenges facing adolescents of that era are very much the same those teens face today. The friendship of the girls portrayed in “FourEver Friends” links them not only by their keen devotion to each other but also by their shared passion for classical music. Their inner city Detroit high school is a cultural melting pot where students are judged by their intellect and talents, not by the color of their skin or religious background. Two forces compel the girls: their intense drive for perfection in performing music and the constant pull of hormonal angst.

Erica Miner followed her musical passion as a young woman and logged twenty-one years as a violinist with the Metropolitan Opera. She writes what she lived, and with an authenticity that is appealing to every reader. Whether these four friends grow up to reflect the values of “Sex and the City,” or become “Desperate Housewives” will be revealed in the next novels in the series.

Go to http://www.ericaminer.com, for excerpts, testimonials and to buy the book.

“The characters and the story reach into your heart and nestle there, staying with you long after you turn the final page.”
~ Dallas Woodburn, Author

FourEver Friends ISBN: 978-1-933449-73-9 ($15.95) Trade Paper
Author: Erica Miner
Published in 2009 by Nightengale Press

The Violin Lover is a beautifully written novel, one that fans of violin music, as well as readers of serious literary fiction, will particularly appreciate.

The story takes place in England during the start of the Second World War, just before the invasion of Hitler into Germany. Young widow Clara Weiss lives with her three young children in a Jewish sector of London. Her oldest son, Jacob, is eleven years old and a gifted pianist. Clara lives for her children and is extremely protective towards them, her nurturing qualities sometimes falling into compulsive obsession.

At a Christmas concert one night, Clara is introduced to Ned Abraham, not only a medical doctor but also an accomplished violinist. At once, Clara is taken with the tall, mysterious man with the dark hair and black, deep-set eyes. Jacob’s music teacher insists he should play a piece with Jacob in the future, and this is how Ned takes young Jacob under his wing. Soon, the attraction between Clara and Ned intensifies, and they become secret lovers. In time, and as their relationship progresses, Clara begins to feel jealous of Jacob and Ned’s bond and resents their friendship. Their liason, which is mostly characterized by Clara’s dependence and Ned’s indifference, ends up having tragic consequences for all involved.

The Violin Lover is a compelling, unusual read. Though it moved a bit slow in the beginning, it picked up pace after the first few chapters and by the middle I had become quite engrossed. Glickman is a fine writer and this shows in her smooth, sometimes symbolic prose. There are small segments in the story which really are allegories of Clara’s obsessive dependence and controlling behavior, like the part where she insists that ducks in the river must be fed or they’ll die; she’s unable to realize that ducks may very well survive on their own. This also symbolizes her over protectiveness toward her children, especially with Jacob, who is growing into a young man and needs more independence, something she is unable to offer.

The relationship between Clara and Ned is both dark and fascinating. Glickman’s has an obvious gift for characterization, as well as for showing the characters’ emotions rather than spelling them out. The story is mostly narrative with not as much dialogue as I expected. There are many sections where the story is quickly narrated instead of being shown with actual dialogue and characters’ actions, and this made the pace feel a bit rushed at times. It is a novel that will make readers ponder: who is the villain and who is the victim? Clara or Ned? I think readers will love and hate both of them at some point or another.

If you love classical music or play the piano or the violin, you will enjoy the music descriptions, told with the sensibility of someone who shares this same passion.

This novel is available on Amazon.

The children’s book, Molly and the Sword, tells of a young girl who, with the help of a mysterious horseman, overcomes obstacles on the road to success as a violinist. It has garnered rave reviews from music and education magazines. Here to talk about the book is author Robert Shlasko.

Thanks for this interview, Robert. I understand this is your first book.

Yes, but I’ve been a writer all my working life — science, international trade, business, speeches … pretty much any sort of writing where I could make a living.

Anything for children?

Some — when my own children were young. Fiction and non-fiction. For example, my articles on chess appeared in a leading children’s magazine.

So where did the idea for Molly and the Sword come from?

It started as an incident that had happened to my mother in the first World War. I moved the story back about a century. Then, to advance the plot, I added the violin since that was the instrument my son played. Curiously, after the book came out, I met a woman who told of a similar incident that happened to her grandmother.

Art imitating life and life imitating art.

That’s what I tell the students when I read in the schools.

Do you visit schools often?

Every chance I get. I’ve read in private and public schools, at a Montessori school, at a United Nations school. In two weeks I’m returning for my third visit to an elementary school in a multi-ethnic section of Queens, New York.

What ages are the students?

I’ve read in everything from the first to the fifth grade. As you can imagine, the discussions get a lot more sophisticated in the upper grades. But each level brings its own questions and its own pleasures for me. I say the book’s for ages 7-12 – although I know that’s a big range.

Yes, I read one reviewer who even stretched that age range a bit.

Both up and down. In fact, I get letters from adults who respond to the story. A 25-year-old violinist in the Iraqi National Symphony wrote that she uses the book as a defense against stage fright. And I’ve received notes from adult men who’ve admitted to shedding tears at the emotions raised in the story. Yet there’s nothing depressing or frightening in the plot. I find it surprising that, if anything, fathers seem to react more emotionally than anyone to the story.

Yet the book is dedicated to “brave girls.”

Yes, but boys really respond to it too. One fourth-grade boy who’d come from India wrote that he would “tell my sisters to be brave like Molly.” And at another school reading, a third-grade boy handed me a piece of garnet he’d collected with his father and ran off before I could give it back. As you can imagine, the dedication to girls raises lots of discussions during my school visits.

What other subjects do the children raise in the schools?

I’m usually with a group of students for about an hour. After I’ve read, I let the children move the discussion in any direction that want. It varies widely. The major themes in the book are having confidence in yourself, how courage shows itself in many ways not just in fighting, and the idea that enemies can become friends. About that last point: I try to tie it to how they relate to schoolmates they may not get along with. And in almost every session something unexpected comes up.

Such as?

Well, at the very beginning of the book I mention that Molly’s mother was pregnant. At a Montessori school in South Carolina a young girl wanted to know what happened to the baby. I reassured her that mother and child were doing well. Whatever the questions, we manage to touch on their own writing and its importance to their futures.

So you do discuss writing per se?

Absolutely. It often comes up in the context of having confidence in yourself. I tell of writers they’ve read who had the courage to go on even after receiving one rejection after another. Of course, that applies to musicians too.

I notice you have many of the letters, from all over the world, on your website.

Yes, plus items on education, violins and music in general. In fact, this interview may push me into updating the site with fresh items sitting on my desk. Not every letter gets on the site. For example I haven’t yet posted a wonderful letter from a 10-year-old girl in Canada who ask why Molly’s violin didn’t have a chin rest like hers did.

That sounds like a good question.

Indeed. I explained that before my artist started working on the book, I checked with an expert on violins at the music department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art here in New York. He sent me an article on the invention of the chin rest in the early 1800s. So we felt comfortable leaving it out of the illustrations. This research led to more information on music history, and into women in that history, which finds its way on to the website and into my class readings.

Do you play an instrument?

Alas no — thus far! But two of my grandchildren play the violin and one plays the cello. And all play the piano.

Whether you play or not, your book is in many performing arts centers.

Fortunately yes. I dropped it off at a concert hall gift store in New York and it just spread out from there. It’s at the gift shops of Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington, the Boston Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony and so on all across the country.

How about retail outlets?

Music stores carry it and it’s available on order from the bookstores and the usual suspects – Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other websites. But as a first-time author/publisher, I made many early mistakes that hurt distribution – especially with the general bookstores.

As opposed to music bookstores?

Exactly. But as you pointed out in your terrific review, the book is not just for violinists or other musicians, it’s for all children. That’s what I aimed for when I started writing the book. And the reaction in the classrooms confirm this.

Yet limited distribution must have hurt your income.

Indeed. In fact, last year a girl asked if I arrived at her school in my limousine. I guess they all know of J.K. Rowlings. But I had to tell the class that I arrived by subway and, in fact, don’t own a car. Still, putting out the book has been a great experience – especially the interactions with schools, the music world, publishing and parents all over the world.

Do you have other writing projects in the works?

A painful question. Actually, I have a number of manuscripts: another children’s book, an adult mystery, a play and a teenage adventure story — all waiting for final editing. Again, your interview may push me into action.

Thanks for the interview and good luck with your book!

Molly and the Sword
By Robert Shlasko
Illustrated by Donna Diamond
Jane & Street Publishers
www.janeandstreet.com
ISBN: 978-0-9745077-4-3
Hardcover, 32 pages, $15.95
Ages 7-12

Molly and the Sword is a lovely, historical picture book about a young girl violinist who has a moment of doubt as she is about to play in a grand concert hall.

The story begins with Molly as a little girl, singing in their home’s yard while her mother works in their vegetable garden. From early on, she loves music. Then something horrible comes to what used to be their peaceful village: War.

With her mother pregnant and no water to drink, their situation becomes desperate. It is then that Molly decides to do something about it. In spite of the danger, she ventures into the next village in search of water. There, she is captured by the enemy, who take her for a spy. That is, until a handsome enemy officer saves her life and grants her freedom. Thus Molly, unharmed, goes back to her family.

Time passes and the war is over. One day, Molly is captivated by a clown playing the violin in a passing circus. When her birthday arrives, her father exchanges his most valuable grandfather clock for a violin, and brings it to Molly as a gift.

It is the 19th century, when few girls had the courage to become musicians because of prejudice. But Molly loves her violin and, more than anything, she wishes to play well and become a great violinist. Day after day, she works hard at her lessons. Then a wonderful opportunity comes her way, but on the day she is to perform in a famous concert hall, her courage falters and she’s overcome with fear. Will she succeed? Will she make her family and teacher proud?

Then Molly receives a strange gift–a golden sword encrusted with jewels–and she remembers the feeling of bravery she experienced years ago. Will this give her the courage she needs to play on stage? And who is the handsome stranger sitting in the audience? Could it be the officer who once saved her life?

This is a charming picture book with a nice traditional feel to it. It is actually an illustrated chapter book, as the story is separated by very short chapters, each about 3 pages long. The prose flows like soft music, suiting well the theme and the violin element. The author puts forth an important message for all children, especially violin students, about self-esteem, courage, and the need to work hard in order to achieve our dreams. The fourteen illustrations, realistic in style and done in soft pastel colors, add to the quiet tone and complement the story beautifully. I’d especially recommend this book to music teachers and to parents of children who play the violin, to give to them as gifts. Having said that, this isn’t a book just for young violinists, but one which will make a nice addition to any home, class, or library shelf.

Reviewed by Mayra Calvani

About the author: Robert Shlasko is a writer and editor whose work has taken him on assignments from Sweden to Samoa. In addition, his fiction and nonfiction have appeared in leading children’s magazines. Although he has not mastered a musical instrument (thus far!), others in his family play the violin, the cello and the piano. The author enjoys listening to them all.

About the illustrator: Donna Diamond is a graduate of the High School of Music and Art in New York City and of Boston University School of Fine and Applied Art. She has illustrated over 50 books for children and lives in New York City with her daughter.

Blurb (from publisher’s website):

What a great opportunity for Molly.

She is about to play her violin in the most famous concert hall in all the world. But she’s extremely nervous – so nervous that she’s afraid to go on stage.

Years earlier, when she was very young, she had shown great courage. At a dangerous time, she had gone in search of water for her family. Back then, an officer in an enemy army had saved her from harm.

Now, at the concert hall, the officer suddenly reappears. Who is he? Can he help Molly regain her courage? And what important lessons do he and Molly teach each other?

Look for my review of this book as well as an interview with the author coming soon!

I read this book years ago, before I started playing the violin. Now that I’ve been playing for 5 years, I’m sure I’ll be able to appreciate it better. There are beautiful passages about music and violin playing in this novel. Anne Rice wanted to be a violin virtuoso when she was a child, and this desire really shows in her prose. Her descriptions of the violinist playing in the story are dark and passionate.

Look for my review coming soon!

I recently did a search on violin-related short stories and this is what I found:

“M’sieu Fortier’s Violin” by Alice Dunbar
http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/4294/
The story of a poor old violinist and his beloved violin in 19th Century New Orleans.

“The Russian Violinist” by Ellen Visson. Previously published in Literary Review.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2078/is_1_47/ai_110531539

“The Weird Violin” by Anonymous
http://arthursclassicnovels.com/arthurs/horror/weird10.html
A famous violinist stumbles upon a very spooky violin.

“Amongst the carefully-arranged violins was a curious old instrument the like of which the virtuoso had never seen before, and at this he now stared with all his eyes. It was an ugly, squat violin, of heavy pattern, and ancient appearance. The maker, whoever he had been, had displayed considerable eccentricity throughout its manufacture, but more especially in the scroll, which, owing to some freak, he had carved into the semblancc of a hideous, grinning face. There was something horribly repulsive about this strange work of art, and yet it also possessed a subtle fascination. The violinist, keeping his eyes upon the face, which secmed to follow his movements with fiendish persistency, slowly edged to the door, and entered the shop.”

Happy reading!

Mayra

The Soloist
By Steve Lopez
Berkley Publishing Group
ISBN: 978-0-425-22600-1
Copyright 2008
Paperback, 289 pages, $15.00
Non-fiction

http://stevelopezonline.com

The Soloist is the true story of gifted musician Nathaniel Ayers told by Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez. If you’re interested in classical music, especially the violin or cello, and love to read about the lives of musicians, then this touching, heart-warming book about the redeeming power of music is for you.

But the special thing about this story is that Nathaniel is not only homeless, but also mentally unstable. Lopez first encounters the musician in the infamous Skid Row, “a dumping ground for inmates released from a nearby county jail, and (a) place where sirens never stop screaming,” playing beautiful music on a tattered violin with only two strings. Thus begins their unusual bond and friendship as Lopez begins writing his newspaper columns about Nathaniel, garnering much attention from the public. Soon gifts begin to come in—violins, a cello, and even a piano.

The story offers two parallel journeys. On the one hand, we learn how Nathaniel began his life as a gifted musician, his admission to Juilliard, one of the toughest, most competitive music schools in the world, his breakdown and life on the streets. On the other hand, this is a journey of self discovery for our journalist narrator. By researching Nathaniel’s life and trying to help him, he learns about himself and human nature. This is a story of compassion, one that reminds us that there’s still goodness in this world. I mentioned that this book is about the redeeming power of music, but it’s also about the power of goodness and how it can change another person’s life.

Lopez’s style is engaging and witty, often combining keen observations about life with soft humor. His appreciation of music and this special musician comes through from his prose. He treats the sensitive subject of Schizophrenia with caution and respect.

The Soloist should definitely be in the shelf of every musician or anyone interested in music and/or mental illness.

*This review first appeared in Armchair Interviews.

Hi all,

For some reason my book trailer doesn’t want to show here. Too see it, please visit my children’s fiction blog, MayrasSecretBookcase. It’s right on the left sidebar. Make sure your volume is up so you can hear Vivaldi’s “Winter”!

Thanks!
Mayra