Scott Loring Sanders

Link to NPR interview

2009-06-05T13:23:00.003-04:00

Here's the link to the NPR Studio Virginia interview. Many thanks to Gene Marrano for doing a great job as usual. Click on the LISTEN link under June 4th, 2009. Takes about a minute to download. Thanks

http://ip-209-170-182-51.rev.net/news_and_notes/sv.php

Book Signings/Radio and TV Interviews

2009-06-03T00:47:00.003-04:00

I'll be featured in an interview with Gene Marrano on WVTF's Studio Virginia on Thursday, June 4th at 7:30 pm. WVTF 89.1 in Roanoke covers a huge area and is the NPR station for all of Southwest Virginia, Charlottesville, and Greensboro, NC. Have a listen if you get a chance.

A television interview with WDBJ 7 in Roanoke will appear on Friday, June 5th on the 6 & 11 o'clock news(pm).

Book signings at Barnes & Noble in Christiansburg, VA on Saturday, June 6th from 2-4pm, and then at Tanglewood Mall in Roanoke, VA on Friday, June 12th from 6:30-8:30. Please come by and say hello.

Want to buy the book at Amazon? Click here: http://www.amazon.com/Gray-Baby-Scott-Loring-Sanders/dp/0547076614

Or from your local independent bookseller? (I encourage you to support your local bookstore when possible) Click here: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780547076614

Chapter One of Gray Baby/Buy the Book

2009-05-18T21:31:00.003-04:00

If you'd like to read the opening chapter of Gray Baby, simply click on the link below:

http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/41999.Gray_Baby

If you'd like to purchase Gray Baby from Amazon, click on this link:
http://www.amazon.com/Gray-Baby-Scott-Loring-Sanders/dp/0547076614

Of course, I always encourage you to support your local independent bookstore whenever possible.

Thanks and enjoy, Scott

Gray Baby to be released June 1, 2009

2009-05-11T22:44:00.003-04:00

I'll be doing several book signings in the local Virginia area once Gray Baby is released. This list will expand as time goes on, but for now, here are a couple of places.

Saturday, June 6th --2-4pm--Barnes & Noble--Christiansburg, VA
Friday, June 12th--6:30-8:30pm--Barnes & Noble--Tanglewood Mall, Roanoke, VA

Hope to see you there and thanks for the support.

Reading at Hollins University on Thur. April 2nd

2009-03-28T00:04:00.003-04:00

I'll be the guest speaker at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia on April 2nd as part of their Reading Series. The reading will take place at 8:15 in the Green Drawing Room. I'll be reading from The Hanging Woods, from my forthcoming novel, Gray Baby, and also from my most recently completed manuscript, Shooting Creek. Following the reading will be a Q&A session, as well as a reception and book signing. The event is open to the public, so feel free to attend if you're in the area.

Tremendous Review from Canada on The Hanging Woods

2009-01-25T01:50:00.003-05:00

Here is an excellent review from The Labradorian in Canada, written by a guy named Darrell Squires. My thanks and gratitude go out to him. He really seemed to get what I was trying to do with The Hanging Woods. He also seems to agree with me that The Hanging Woods is as much an adult novel as it is a young adult novel. I tried to post the link but it wouldn't work, so here it is.

Secrets and Tension Haunt ‘The Hanging Woods’

The
novel “The Hanging Woods,” by Scott Loring Sanders shows how mature young adult fiction has become. It’s gotten to the point where the separation between teen fiction and adult fiction is all but indiscernible.
“The Hanging Woods” reflects the experiences of entering adulthood, and what it is to occupy the netherworld where you’re no longer a child and adults are not yet peers. And as “The Hanging Woods” shows, this netherworld can be a scary and harrowing place.
At the opening of this disturbing novel, 15-year-old Walter bludgeons a fox to death and feels, for the first time, how delicate life is.
The first scene’s visceral brutality sets the tone of this suspenseful story, set in a small, economically depressed town in 1975 Alabama. Walter and his best friends, Mothball and Jimmy, share an antagonistic camaraderie spiked with aggression that echoes racial tensions in their community and in their homes.
While reading his mother’s diary, Walter discovers a terrible secret, unleashing a chain of shocking events that ends in murder.
Writing in Walter’s realistic, believable voice, Sanders presents motives that lead the characters to act. Before long, though, we start to question Walter’s narration. Can we trust him? Are things necessarily happening the way he says they are?
Actions matter a great deal in the story – and whether these kids act “rightly” or “wrongly,” remains a matter of moral ambiguity. Acting and reacting in the way they do, they are simply human. This in itself will unsettle readers.
Themes of crime, punishment, and the mysterious, and what results naturally from guilt, rage, sorrow, cruelty, secrets — and all things that go unsaid — drive this gripping story.
And like another fabulous novel for young adults, Chris Lynch’s “Inexcusable” from 2006, it invites readers to examine the darkest territory of human behavior.
“The Hanging Woods,” by Scott Loring Sanders stands out as one of the best novels I’ve read in recent months, and its power resonates long after you’ve turned the last page.
For Newfoundland and Labrador public libraries, I’m Darrell Squires.

Interview

2008-12-20T00:22:00.003-05:00

If interested, here's a link to an interview I recently did.
http://authorsunleashed.blogspot.com/2008/12/interview-with-scott-loring-sanders.html

And here's the link to a fantastic, starred review of The Hanging Woods which they put on their website.
http://www.teensreadtoo.com/HangingWoods.html

2008-11-21T10:58:00.001-05:00

I have a new short story published in the December 2008 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Check it out if you get a chance.

Cover for Gray Baby

2008-09-23T16:25:00.002-04:00

Here is the first prototype for the cover of Gray Baby, which will be released in May/June of 2009.

My New Novel

2008-06-08T14:02:00.002-04:00

For those of you interested, my new novel, Gray Baby, is now finished and will be released in the spring of 2009, again by Houghton Mifflin. Once I get the cover mock-up, I'll post it here. I'll say right up front that it's a much different story than The Hanging Woods. It isn't as dark, though there are still some disturbing things that take place (and if you pay close attention, you might just see some references to The Hanging Woods, though I must stress that this isn't a sequel.) It opens with Clifton Carlson, who witnesses a troubling incident between his father (who is black) and two white police officers. From there, the story follows Clifton (who is bi-racial) as he struggles to cope with not only what he's witnessed, but also his own identity as he fights the difficulties of adolescence. He becomes friends with an intriguing, elderly white man, Swamper, in the most unlikely of circumstances, and it is through this relationship (and also because of a violent and troubling mystery that the two become involved with) that Clifton changes. But he isn't the only one who is developing and growing. Though Clifton learns a lot about life from Swamper, the elderly man--who has always been set in his ways--realizes that he isn't too old (or too proud) to evolve as well.

The story is set in the 1980's along the banks of the New River in a rural Virginia town called Crocket's Mill. It is a mystery of sorts, but also a story of overcoming obstacles and learning about the trials and tribulations of what it takes to become a "man."

The Horn Book Review

2008-06-08T13:59:00.002-04:00

Here's a nice review of The Hanging Woods

THE HORN BOOK Magazine
July / August 2008

Scott Loring Sanders The Hanging Woods
326 pp. Houghton 3/08 isbn 978-0-618-88125-3 $16.00

You’re probably familiar with the idyllic boyhood coming-of-age story, full of friendship, mischief, and nostalgia. But Sanders’s debut novel is also an excellent example of Southern Gothic, and the heady, macabre mix of secrets and violence is evident from the opening lines: “In 1975, when I was thirteen, I killed a fox. It happened a few weeks after I’d snuck into my mother’s room and read her diary.” In a leisurely but compelling voice, Walter chronicles his friendship with Jimmy and Mothball and their assorted adventures: camping, doorbell ditching, gossiping, smoking, stealing, and swimming—not to mention Mothball’s quest to enter The Guinness Book of World Records with the longest-living decapitated turkey. But another story gradually emerges, a tangled web of jealousy, betrayal, and deceit that entraps the boys, their parents, and this small Alabama town. Eventually Walter discloses his mother’s dark secret, and several of his own, but one final bombshell casts his actions in an especially tragic light. This suspenseful story with its flawed but sympathetic characters and brooding atmosphere marks Sanders as a writer to watch. j.h.

UPCOMING APPEARANCES

2008-04-27T15:11:00.009-04:00

UPDATED UPCOMING APPEARANCES

Check Back Often As Things Sometimes Change

October 24th
Friday, 1:30-2:30 at Hotel Roanoke, Roanoke, Virginia
Virginia Association of Teachers of English Conference
Guest Speaker on topic of "Truth in Fiction--Fiction in Truth"

April 2nd, 2009
Hollins University
Roanoke, Virginia
8:15 pm in Green Drawing Room
Guest Speaker for the University's Reading and Lecture Series

Great Review about The Hanging Woods

2008-04-11T11:30:00.002-04:00

Here's the link to a blog called Perpetual Folly. http://perpetualfolly.blogspot.com/
Fiction writer Clifford Garstang just gave The Hanging Woods a glowing review. Check it out. Besides the review, his blogspot has lots of other info. helpful to writers.

RADIO INTERVIEW on WVTF Public Radio--NPR

2008-03-31T00:25:00.003-04:00

Here is the link to the complete interview I did with Gene Marrano on Studio Virginia. Just scroll down to 3-27-08 and then click 'listen.' Takes a couple of minutes to download.
http://www.wvtf.org/studiovirginia/index.php

FEATURE ARTICLE IN THE ROANOKE TIMES

2008-03-21T10:13:00.003-04:00

There is a good article about The Hanging Woods in today's (March 21st) issue of The Roanoke Times. The writer, Pete Dybdahl, did a great job. The link is below.

http://www.roanoke.com/entertainment/wb/155330

RECENT REVIEWS OF THE HANGING WOODS

2008-03-18T00:14:00.000-04:00

Bulletin Starred Review for The Hanging Woods--March 1st, 2008

In what initially seems like one of those small-town boyhood friendships, Walter is virtually inseparable from his pals Jimmy and Mothball; the trio roams through the Alabama woods and engages in some of the traditional mischief of young teenage boys, such as spinning stories about "the Troll," a veteran of the recently concluded Vietnam War, who's camping by the river. As events progress, however, the darker notes in Walter's narration, foreshadowed by his initial mention of finding a family secret, become more prominent, and the erstwhile friends dip increasingly into abusive bullying of one another. Dark then turns disastrous in a sequence of intertwined lethal events that recalls Greek tragedy even as it suggests a cursed reconfiguration of To Kill a Mockingbird. Sanders handles Walter's narration deftly, seeding it with clues to the upcoming wreck but masterfully camouflaging the story as an atmospheric period buddy tale, complete with the lacerating unchallenged racism of the place and time, until the corruption becomes inescapably overt. Readers accustomed to literary morality setting like concrete from the get-go will find this bracingly unsettling as well as enticingly mysterious, and it is sure to provoke discussion if used in the classroom as well as absorption as an independent read. DS

Publisher’s Weekly—Week of 3-10-08
The Hanging Woods Scott Loring Sanders. Houghton, $16 (336p) ISBN 978-0-618-88125-3

Squeamish readers might steer clear of this potent first novel, which begins with the 13-year-old narrator savagely bludgeoning a trapped fox to death in the Alabama woods. The brutal opening scene sets the tone for an increasingly disturbing tale centered on the narrator, Walter, and his two best friends, Jimmy and Raymond, nicknamed Mothball. As Walter tells readers, he has just discovered a devastating family secret in his mother’s diary (it is not revealed until close to the end), and a deep anger grows inside of him. The people around him, overcome by a sense of powerlessness, seem gripped by fury, too, and immune to violence. Mothball, for example, decides he will break the Guinness record for keeping alive a headless chicken; Sanders builds in the gruesome scenes with ax and chopping block, later with eye dropper and corn slurry, creating a horrifying metaphor for the blind cruelty that increasingly governs Walter’s actions. The tone only darkens, while the novel stays suspenseful from start to finish. (Mar.)