Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The Little Book that Could

Let me share with you a 5-star review of my novel No Irish Need Apply

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1434893952

Poetic Prose with Both Depth and Substance, April 26, 2009

Review By Greg Banks (www.wheelmanpress.com)

It's not often these days that you come across writing that possesses both the literary beauty of a classic poem with the depth and substance of a contemporary tale. A story may be gritty and real, with writing that reflects the coarseness of the environment in which the characters live, or you have prose that weaves a magical spell with beautiful turns of phrase, but once you're done reading it leaves you with little to chew on after the fact. But "No Irish Need Apply" by Edward C. Patterson contains both substance and style, a contemporary tale with told with the poetic beauty of the literary classics of the past. "No Irish Need Apply," a reference to the times when Irish immigrants were discriminated against, blatantly reflected by signs posted outside many establishments letting it be known that if you were Irish, then you shouldn't bother coming inside, is a story of love, a forbidden love in many circles, because it's the love story for two teen boys. For many, the subject may be controversial, even considered a topic as forbidden as the incidents it portrays. But in the hands (or should I say pen?) of Mr. Patterson, the story is told with compassion and grace. The tale of these teens as they come to recognize, and eventually accept, their growing love for one another is one which transcends the stigmas and prejudices surrounding homosexuality. It's a story that lives and breathes, takes you inside the minds of two young men dealing with issues that pretty much every human being should be able to identify with. "No Irish Need Apply" isn't a preachy tale, nor a rant against the establishment that denies same-sex relationships equal protection under the law. It's simply a story about teenage angst and love, and of two people trying to find themselves as they discover each other.

If the world is lucky, stories like this one that will kick down the walls of prejudice and the misguided applications of morality that still plagues our world, and in doing so bring better understanding and acceptance to us all. "No Irish Need Apply" isn't just a must read in my opinion, it should be required reading for everyone. Do yourself a favor and read it today. -

Gregory Bernard Banks, author of "2012: Seeking Closure"

Monday, April 27, 2009

The Academician Reduced on the Kindle

For a Limited time only, Edward C. Patterson's latest novel (March 2009) The Academican - Southern Swallow - Book One, priced at $ .99 (NINETY-NINE Cents)

37 years in development, this tale of 12th Century China is finally here:

The Academician http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UE7D96

Description
"A bigger fool the world has never known than I - a coarse fellow with no business to clutch a brush and scribble. I only know the scrawl, because my master took pleasure in teaching me between my chores. Not many men are so cursed . . ." Thus begins the tale of Li K’ai-men as told by his faithful, but mischievous servant, K’u Ko-ling - a tale of 12th Century China, where state service meant a life long journey across a landscape of turmoil and bliss. A tale of sacrifice, love, war and duty - a fragile balance between rituals and passions. An epic commitment between two men to define the indefinable in their own world and time. Here begins the legacy of the Jade Owl and its custodian as he holds true to his warrants.

The Academician is the first of four books in the Southern Swallow series, capturing the turbulence of the Sung Dynasty in transition. Spanning the silvery days under the Emperor Hui to the disasters that followed, The Academician is a slice of world events that should never have been forgotten. Still, there are things more important than invasions and empires. The world’s fate rests in the warrants of Li K’ai-men, this young scholar from Gui-lin, called master by his faithful servant, but known as Nan Ya to the world.

Edward C. Patterson. M.A.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Ed Patterson to be on Bobby Ozuna's Radio Show this Wednesday 4/22

I'm happy to announce that I will be interviewed as the guest author on Bobby Ozuna's internet Radio Show the Soul of Humanity THIS Wednesday night @ 7PM CST: 4/22/2009

Please join the thousands of listeners at
The Soul of Humanity, on the Artist First Radio Network:
http://artistfirst.com/bobbyozuna.htm
and also visit Bobby's Ozuna's blog, where I will be featured for Q & A.
http://inotauthor.blogspot.com

Thank youEdward C. Patterson
http://www.dancaster.com

Friday, April 17, 2009

How the Kindle SAVED My Life! Hallelujah!

Reposted from Kindleboards
http://www.kindleboards.com

Before the Kindle, there were BOOKS - big, beautiful, bodacious BOOKS, with all manner of fonts sizes that regalled me from an ever growing library that crept from one end of my living space to another. When I left the house, be it for a train commute in the 1970's or a "what to read at lunch time" tote (now), I would need to SELECT, and since I read more than one book at a time, I had a backpack filled with books chosen from the sagging shelf. Heavy on the back. And when carried under the arm, a balancing act. And when I dozed over my books, as I eventually do, they slipped out of my hands and jettisoned across the train or the lunchroom floor. And in bed, they would crash on my face and tumble to the floor. Oh, what troubadours we are - those who read the BOOKS.

Then - the Kindle. Now, with my entire library of 3,700 books contained in a StarTrek size (or more like an etch-a-sketch size) device, I no longer need to backpack it or tote or even make decisions before the hallowed shelves. Before the Kindle, I read about 2 hours a day, maybe three books on the go. However, as an author, I am suppose to read as many hours a day as I write, and I write for four hours a day. With the Kindle, my reading proclivity has risen to the appropriate requirement for a writer. I also have six or seven books on the go. And for a reader who has only one good eye (the other is as dumb as an olive), the Kindle's capability of resurrecting small print to Olympian sizes (and at will), has resurrected my reading life.
But there's more. I can publish on the Kindle, privately to edit on the fly, and publicly in tandem with my print output. But most of all, the Kindle has put me in league with a host of other readers and authors, who have been touched by this Promethean commodity. True, I have a TV and a DVD and a Blackberry and a YouTube capable Computer - BUT the written word can take you to the ends of the earth and the beginnings of the first spark (which last time I looked was called, a Kindle). Just to be able to hold the wealth of the world in your hand is to be given opportunities beyond thinking - an imaginative voyage that doesn't need dusting shelf-space, but just the occasional recharge and new battery. I am never without my Kindle. It is the first thing I pick up in the morning (NY Times) and the last thing I set aside at night (beside my besotted spectacles). And yet, there was life before it. I read before it. I wrote before it. I even got my hands dirty with newsprint before it. However, with it my life is changed - supercharged. It has helped get my thoughts out into the community and it has cloaked me with a bounty of the language's best. What more can there be? Well, one might hope for Hogwarts and Middle Earth to join the ranks Narnia, but even if they don't, I'll find room on that darn shelf that I call a shrine now, for the reticent and the recalcitrant, in a format that is now a viable alternative.
How has the Kindle changed your life?

Edward C. Patterson
author of The Jade Owl