Margaret Mead's Life in New Guinea Finally Gets the Historical Novel It Deserves

I had been wondering when Margaret Mead would reappear in the public consciousness. Presto! A new historical fiction of her life in New Guinea has been getting lots of attention. 

Here's how Ron Charles of the Washington Post introduces it:

"Blandly scrolling through salacious tweets from nubile pop stars, we can hardly imagine the thrill of Margaret Mead’s revelations in 1928. More than 80 years ago, at a time when contraceptives couldn’t be sent through the mail and movies could only show the “tragic” consequences of premarital sex, Mead published “Coming of Age in Samoa.” Her study of the psychosexual development of adolescents on the island of Ta’u confronted a self-satisfied United States, where it was still possible to speak of one’s parochial mores as natural and, of course, superior. 

With her influence on the sexual revolution, Mead was a globe-spanning iconoclast, alarming some and cheering others, becoming finally something of a totem upon which various groups cast their hopes and fears."

Check out the whole review in the Washington Post Book World.

What Now, Counselor Cow?

I'm sure you're dying to know what have I been doing since you last saw me here, blogging about Melanesia. It so happens I've written another full-length manuscript and am lobbing it around where those things usually go, however, that's not what I want to talk about. Books are pretty much self-explanatory, despite the miles of blog space devoted to them by their authors (their great and wonderful and, might I add great-looking authors -- many of whom are friends I do not want to offend).

Or, at least books ought to be self explanatory. One of the cardinal rules we learn in any critique group worth its ink is: "Don't explain your plot, your characters, your setting or your voice. It either stands on its own, or it doesn't." I should know, I've said that to a host of writers myself.

So, in the spirit of all this stuff I just said, I'm going to be blogging for a while about the other stuff in my life. Non-book stuff. The stuff I've been doing when not writing. And that's counseling. Pastoral Counseling. I'm studying it in school and doing it in a real-life office, complete with fainting couch.

Oh, and I'm co-leading a seminar on relationship skills. The seminar is the thing that intrigues me the most because the dynamic that sets up between two people in a couple is fascinating. Plus, the work people will do to help their relationships be healthier is inspiring. You'll be hearing more about all this soon, I'd bet on it.