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book reviews |
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Debut author, Chris Knoblaugh introduces us to her book: Tribute: The Cleaners Series: Book 1: When twelve-year-old Miguel’s gang member Papa makes promises to Santa Muerte, someone in Miguel’s family loses a soul. The last time, it was Miguel’s gentle aunt. This time, the target is Miguel’s brother, Juan. Santa Muerte, the skeletal patron saint of drug traffickers and murderers, always claims her fee. The trouble is Miguel won’t let Juan’s spirit go. The resulting paranormal possession attracts demons, doppelgangers, and an ancient soul slayer from the depths of Hell — all of whom must be vanquished if Miguel is to live. Even with help, Miguel’s refusal to release Juan threatens the lives of those Miguel loves most. Miguel must choose to release his brother or lose yet another loved one, for the bargain was made with Santa Muerte and the price must be paid.  This middle-grade ghost story certainly surprised me. I was expecting Casper the friendly ghost, I got a streetwise teen-ager in a rough part of San Jose, California. This is more than a ghost story, it's a peek into the world of a 12-year-old Hispanic boy. I thoroughly enjoyed this story about growing up on mean streets, dealing with sofa-surfing, discarded needles, and homeless people, some who might be angels in disguise, sometimes. I particularly relished the first person POV of Miguel, a 12-year-old boy trying to survive being thrust into the spirit world, when his older brother, Juan, is murdered. The internal chaos is magnificent, Miguel’s efforts to find some stability are wonderfully described. His courage in trying to bring his brother peace is inspiring. Scene setting, action, dialog, and secondary characters all come to life in an exquisite way under Chris’s pen. I love this story and award 4.8 stars. I am excited to tell you the author has indicated she is working on a new story set over 200 years in the past, with a working title, "Atonement". I am looking forward to that very much.  You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Tribute-Cleaners-Book-Chris-Knoblaugh-ebook https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39855132-tribute https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tribute-ms-chris-j-knoblaugh You can follow the author: https://twitter.com/ChrisKnoblaugh https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17944982.Chris_Knoblaugh https://dancingwithwordstutoring.blogspot.com/ https://www.facebook.com/CKnoblaugh http://mrsknoblaugh.weebly.com/ tags: MG, YA, middle grade, young adult, spiritual, Christian, Catholic, Church, spirits, fiction Copyright © 2018 Mark L Schultz except for the author's introduction
79 Comments
6/12/2018 08:59:00 am
Thank you for the lovely review, and for your fabulous support on Twitter! I am excited to work with you again in the future. I enjoy writing for my classroom students, who encouraged me to publish Tribute. The second book in the anthology series is in the works, and I know I will be turning to you for help with it.
Mark
6/12/2018 10:21:35 am
You are very welcome, Chris. I am so glad your students recognized the genius of your writing. I look forward to working with you in the future.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/12/2018 11:11:40 am
Yes, Mark, I had students who lost friends and relatives to the gang activity in San Jose at the time. I also taught students who struggled with the situations in the book (couch-surfing, sleeping on floors, dealing with a lack of parental support, homelessness, etc.). I chose Tribute as the title to honor the courage and strength I saw in those tweens. I have tremendous respect for their grit and determination.
Mark
6/12/2018 11:59:54 am
That is a wonderful title, it fits in more ways than one. Santa Muerte was looking for her payment or tribute also.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/12/2018 12:09:41 pm
I had a student in my class whose relative was killed in a gang incident. It was a traumatic time for him and for his family. He talked a little about how hard it was to attend school after the funeral. I kept thinking about my students, their home life, and the things some of them faced. I decided to try writing the first draft in 2016 for NaNoWriMo summer camp, and I submitted it to PitchWars in 2017. Many people responded positively to the first chapter on the boards, but no editors picked it up. I ran it past my critique partners, and they said I needed to keep going. I found my marvelous cover artist on Twitter, so I plunged on to publication in April on my school's spring break.
Mark
6/12/2018 12:54:43 pm
What a difficult time for that student, I bet it was helpful for him to be able to talk about it. What does he think of your book?
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/12/2018 03:36:18 pm
I don't know what the student thinks, as we did not stay in contact after he moved on to high school. I was teaching middle school at the time it happened, and then moved to a different part of the school district to teach fifth grade for a while. I recently moved back to middle school (my favorite curriculum) to teach sixth and seventh grade English. I am currently teaching at a performing arts middle school in my district. While the kids here also experience trauma from time to time, nothing quite as tragic has happened.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/12/2018 12:13:03 pm
You also asked about cut sections. I started to write the back story about Miguel's father and his arrival in the U.S. I decided to cut that part. I hope to develop it as a standalone companion short story for Kindle.
Mark
6/12/2018 12:59:52 pm
That sounds good, it should make a good story also, showing how decisions can ripple through generations.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/12/2018 03:50:15 pm
I teach five sections of English. This year, I had 140 sixth and seventh grade students. I also tutor writing through my business, Dancing with Words Tutoring.
Mark
6/12/2018 04:12:39 pm
That is some great experience, so wide ranging.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/12/2018 04:17:48 pm
If you talk to any of my high school friends, they will tell you that I was always scribbling. In high school, I was adicted to gothic romances and crime fiction. I kept asking kids to give me a one paragraph profile of a character they wanted to be along with their signatures.
Mark
6/12/2018 04:39:42 pm
So many writers have told me they were writing from an early age. Do you remember when you wrote your first story and what it was about? How much later did you realize that you could influence people with writing?
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/12/2018 05:20:12 pm
I do recall my first "bound" book. My dad worked for the Federal Bureau of Prisons as the Chief of Mechanical Services. That meant we lived behind the barbed wire and moved around every six months to go to a new site where he had to construct the next required building. As a result, I attended 12 different school systems in 8 different states. It was fairly common for me to be put on an independent study contract with a school in order to submit assignments.
Mark
6/12/2018 05:38:08 pm
Quite an interesting background. All that moving made it hard to make friends, or you became adept at making friends quickly.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/12/2018 08:39:50 pm
A jot dot list is a synonym for a bullet list. In middle school and high school, I wrote many first chapters. I wanted to try writing like the novelists I loved: Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Edgar A. Poe, Isaac Asimov, Margery Allingham, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Victoria Holt, and many more. I was in Student Council, Theater Club, Explorer Scouts, and took many sci/math classes, but in between I read like a fiend and twiddled with writing.
Mark
6/12/2018 09:32:27 pm
Very cool! I think that must have been great exercise to practice writing in the style of famous authors.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/12/2018 10:09:42 pm
Wow. Loaded questions. I am used to asking students those types of things, not answering them myself!
Mark
6/12/2018 10:18:01 pm
Excellent, thank you for sharing those choices. In private to me, you mentioned you were working on a second volume for The Cleaners Series, "Tribute" being the first. Can you tell us a little about that follow-up book? Does it have a working title? Does it follow the timeline started in "Tribute" and why or why not?
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/12/2018 10:54:44 pm
The series I started is like Goosebumps, not Harry Potter. It is an anthology series with similar themes and motifs set in various time periods. I've found that using historic settings with horror elements can get reluctant readers to learn more about history.
Mark
6/12/2018 11:08:09 pm
Very good. Thanks for clarifying that for me. I am definitely looking forward to it. I love a good hist-fic book, many have other themes woven in also. The Louisiana Purchase was done in 1803, so the city of New Orleans was still under control of the French, was it not?
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/13/2018 11:25:57 am
I spent about a year researching the story. New France was filled with political intrigue, which features in the character conflicts. I have been to New Orleans, but I would like to go back. It is an interesting and culturally rich city with a diverse heritage.
Mark
6/13/2018 11:37:45 am
Did you go to New Orleans to research the book or some other reason?
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/13/2018 12:42:43 pm
The first time I went to New Orleans was when I was in the eighth grade and we were stationed at the Federal Prison in Texarkana. I fell in love with the architecture when I went with my parents. We always took road trip vacations, and that was one of them. I still prefer road trips to flying.
Mark
6/13/2018 01:26:47 pm
Great advice! I and Matt already follow each other. I have just added him to my list of Illustrators and Covers. Did you know I have lists of people who help authors on my Twitter home page? Many different services besides the three you already mentioned, publishers, audio books, and more.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/13/2018 01:37:44 pm
I like first person and the unpopular third omniscient point of view. I grew up reading omniscient books from 19th and early 20th century writers. I disagree with readers who think headhopping is confusing. Then again, as an INTJ I am not a fan of "all of the feels" writing. My T is a capitalized T on the Myers-Briggs scale. I like distance when I read.
Mark
6/13/2018 01:55:05 pm
I personally find first person POV very enjoyable. It's far more intimate and the discovery process feels more organic to me.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/13/2018 03:01:13 pm
The part of Tribute that needed the most research involved which real locations existed in 2005. I picked a random number street location near a park and a school in my district for Miguel's house. Then I needed to determine where the bus stops were, which busses went where, the schedule for 13 years ago, businesses that existed at that time, and similar details. I once read a book about New York years ago, and I was excited to "walk the experience" when I went right after I graduated from college. I was disappointed to find the streets were not near one another. They existed, but the description in the book was not realistic. I did not want to recreate that.
Mark
6/13/2018 03:43:08 pm
Thanks, Chris, for sharing the nuts and bolts, I think a lot of new writers will be thanking you for that information.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/13/2018 10:41:53 pm
I know many people experience writing block, but I have not had that particular problem. I have had writing burnout, but I think of that as a different thing. After a long week of writing for my classes, grading essays, and discussing how to analyze whatever we are reading, sometimes it is all I can do to stumble to bed and sleep for ten or twelve hours. When I wake up, the last thing I want is to go back to reading and writing. When that happens, I need to get outside.
Mark
6/13/2018 11:11:54 pm
I can certainly empathize with that. Reading and proofreading for hours gives me the same result. I have started walking around my block, 3 laps equals one mile, I try and do it in around 15 minutes.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/13/2018 11:39:12 pm
To relax, I enjoy watching SYFY, Animal Planet, Food Network, the Travel Channel, National Geographic, the History Channel, and Destination America. I'm not a movie person. To unwind, I ike reality shows.
Mark
6/14/2018 12:13:03 am
I discovered the world of cozy mysteries a couple of years ago and I really enjoy them too.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/14/2018 09:01:38 am
I belong to the CWC South Bay, the CWC Peninsula, and the HNS groups. We have regular meetings monthly or quarterly. I also have a regular monthly CP meeting with four other authors. Having a room full of kids gives me direct access to beta readers in my target audience, and reading aloud to them lets me quickly see where something is lagging. Tweens are not shy about letting you know if they like something or not.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/14/2018 09:09:54 am
You also asked about pen names. I've thought about that quite a bit. I decided to use my own name for MG and YA books. As a teacher and tutor, that helps my CV.
Mark
6/14/2018 10:16:57 am
You certainly proved the case for the advantage of beta readers and critique partners. You make a good point, without really trying, all advice must be considered carefully and not followed blindly. I urge proofreading clients to consider my comments as suggestions to improve readability, after the obvious errors are corrected.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/14/2018 10:40:24 am
I don't generally cry over fictional characters unless they remind me of my deceased parents. I've read thousands of books so far in my lifetime, and I can only recall crying over three works. The death of Boromir brought tears of anger, which are different. The poem "My Father's Hands" made me think of my blue collar dad, and it brought tears since he passed in 2005 of Lewey Body Disease. My mom passed in 2013 from Alzheimer's. I recently read an article in a magazine about a woman whose mother passed from the same disease. That made me cry.
Mark
6/14/2018 11:03:57 am
I believe it's really hard to turn off "teacher mode" when reading, I can't really turn off my "Hyper-Speller" either.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/14/2018 11:44:28 am
My spirit animal is the dragonfly. I use that design in my home. I don't have any particular writing routine other than to grab a big coffee and large water to drink. Once a first draft is done, I let it sit for a while. When I go back to it, I have it printed out and put in a binder. That way, I can insert or remove pages individually. Once all of the changes are made and keyed, it goes off to an editor for line edits. I hired a developmental editor five years ago when I worked on a first draft learning novel. I found that what she did is what I do for my tutoring students. That was really useful to know. Now that I have a CP group, they serve that function.
Mark
6/14/2018 12:00:35 pm
That makes a lot of sense, Chris. You are a very pragmatic person. Income generation has to come first. Writing is a long term investment, not an hourly wage.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/14/2018 01:16:44 pm
My dad and I used to go fishing when I was a kid moving from place to place. We both enjoyed the silence and stillness of fishing at dusk on a pond or lake. Dragonflies remind me of him. When I was laid off from Sun Microsystems and decided to try teaching, I taught seventh grade core (language arts and social studies). When prepping lessons that summer, I read about some of the myths and legends associated with the 15 cultural groups you teach for California 7th grade social studies standards. The dragonfly struck me as very appropriate both as a representation of my father and as a representation of being able to quickly change directions. A dragonfly can change directions midflight. They have short lifespans, so they represent living life as fully as possible. They bring good luck and adaptability, which I welcome with open arms. They can also bite you, which is usually not expected. I like that surprise element. They eat mosquitos, which gives them high marks on my list. Finally, I think they are very elegant insects.
Mark
6/14/2018 01:43:39 pm
I have always thought dragonflies were so cool also. I loved their speed and agility! Having that connection with your dad is priceless, of course.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/14/2018 02:21:27 pm
My husband was laid off three years ago, and keeps looking for employment. Ageism is real in the SF Bay Area, particularly in technology companies. Most of his former colleagues are retired, but we are not at the point where we can do that. Since I am working on writing this summer, we aren't headed to any conferences at this time. However, I love daydreaming about places to go. I look them up here and drool: http://writing.shawguides.com/
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/14/2018 02:33:57 pm
I am not a fan of ebooks for research. I like copies I can easily dogear and annotate. If I am reading something I will later teach, I mark the vocabulary in the text and write the chapter questions I will use in the margins. Keeping everything in one place is pretty important for me. It cuts down on lugging things back and forth to school. Hubs prefers ebooks, but his computer set-up has large dual screens. I just use a Lenovo ideapad 110.
Mark
6/14/2018 04:43:04 pm
I understand about ageism. I have experienced it also. I have a kindle and a tablet. I discovered I could highlight passages and make notes on these devices. Now I do all my casual reading on them. I do all my proofreading on my laptop.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/14/2018 05:34:57 pm
The first year I taught, I learned to tell my students stories about social studies instead of emphasizing fact memorization. By turning the facts into tales, they tended to remember a startling amount of information without nearly as much effort. I read the textbook aloud, discussed it, had them take Cornell Notes, and then we turned the Cornell Notes into story boards for test prep. At first, I thought doing the analysis for them was the biggest difference, but then several kids wrote me thank you notes at the end of the year. They told me they remembered things for the final by thinking about the storyboards we created and reviewing those. That was when I realized I was on to something useful.
Mark
6/14/2018 06:01:34 pm
You have emphasized one of the core principles of learning, people have different learning modes. Some visually, some aurally, some need both. It's very refreshing to hear about your creativity in helping the students.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/14/2018 06:54:48 pm
Modern readers are frequently offended by historical novels if they accurately portray the language and events of a time period. Societies from all cultural groups frequently used skin tone, professions, or birth order to place more power or importance with one group than another. Sex roles in cultures also varied. Slavery is another tricky topic, as is the marriage age and the rights of women and children. My eleven-year-old students are often aghast to learn they would have left home at seven to become apprentices or would have been married by now (depending upon menses or cultural practices).
Mark
6/14/2018 07:34:33 pm
I am shocked and not shocked that people can be offended by the past. Thanks for helping me understand that. I am one not shocked by the past most of the time. Then we are provided with the opportunity to do better in our age.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/14/2018 08:02:30 pm
I know what I want to write as a follow-on to Tribute, but I have a lot of research to do before I try to write it. I want each book in the series to have related short stories and additional related novels.
Mark
6/14/2018 09:21:15 pm
I have yet to talk with an author that doesn't say the same thing. It sounds like you are on the right track. Does Amazon give you the email address of the person who bought the book?
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/14/2018 09:55:59 pm
Amazon does not give me buyer information in any form I know about. It tells me my sales and my royalty payments, but I don't know of any way to get purchaser information. That may just be my own ignorance of how things work. This is a learning process for me.
Mark
6/14/2018 10:10:20 pm
I asked out of ignorance. But I am going to hazard a guess and say that the information is not available, I think if it was authors would be talking about it.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/14/2018 10:48:07 pm
I usually do not have many grammar errors in the works I write. I did find errors after uploading to Amazon. I presume they were introduced in the upload, since the original text did not contain the problems. They were things like missing words. Since I use dialect for some characters, some phrases trigger error comments on proofreading software. You noted 12 errors in an earlier email to me. Some are intentional dialect errors, but the disturbing ones are where I deleted a word and it returned or where one word was substituted for another in the final. This just tells me I need to have someone other than myself look at the final product before I post it.
Mark
6/15/2018 12:36:23 pm
I always try tread lightly when dealing with dialog. I understand there can be differences in speech patterns and colloquialisms.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/14/2018 11:03:46 pm
I want to learn more about book trailers. I know they interest teen readers, since my kids talk about them. I don't know anything about them though. I've made videos for classroom use, and I find making them more tedious than formatting for book production. I presume book trailers are of a similar ilk. They seem like something to hire out for me.
Mark
6/15/2018 01:05:26 pm
Book trailers are fun, and if they get more kids interested in reading then they have served a great purpose. So far, my graphic skills are limited to posting pictures online. But I do have a list of illustrators on my Twitter home page. Also, if you search for book trailers on twitter you will find a bunch. There should be something that will get you more information.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/15/2018 02:46:24 pm
Oh yes, I plan to release several short stories related to each book in the series. They will be of the .99 or free variety. I also need to make the study guide for Tribute. There is quite a bit of work ahead.
Mark
6/15/2018 03:03:48 pm
Why a study guide for "Tribute"?
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/15/2018 03:54:57 pm
I started writing Hi/Lo pieces to use in my classroom and with my tutoring students. Preparing a study guide has always been part of that plan. Sometimes, I teach book club reading classes in the summer, and I want to have the guide ready to make that an easy process. It also keeps me from having to write lesson plans on the fly for a substitute teacher.
Mark
6/15/2018 05:03:32 pm
That is very interesting and so American! If you can't find it, then build/write it.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/15/2018 09:22:56 pm
It is my plan to use the material I write in my classroom and when I tutor students outside of school. When I retire from the classroom, I plan to continue writing and tutoring.
Mark
6/15/2018 10:20:45 pm
That is pretty neat. Using your books in more than one way. Pretty ingenious in my estimation.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/16/2018 06:47:42 pm
When I write, I focus on the events in the story first, and then step into my characters during revision to add character nuances. I teach my middle school students the same thing, since they only have one to two hours to write a short story during testing. To do that, we spend a couple of weeks developing a main character. I explained how we do it for myth writing at https://dancingwithwordstutoring.blogspot.com Now that school is out, I will be able to add the plot development lessons to the blog. I plan to use it next year with my seventh graders, who are required to write an illustrated myth as part of the curriculum.
Mark
6/16/2018 07:15:21 pm
I think you have developed a really good system for teaching how to write. The bones are there for everything! The rest is adding flesh and details.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/16/2018 07:49:57 pm
For my students and tutees, I have them create a project folder with a few character sheets, jot dot plot charts, and reflection questions for each story element. I let them stub out parts using ###putstuffhere### if they get stuck on a scene. That lets me also quickly check progress by searching for that string in their Google Docs when they post to Google Classroom.
Mark
6/16/2018 08:16:44 pm
The more I learn about your teaching methods the more I like it. So much of that comes out of your own experience as a writer.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/16/2018 08:45:10 pm
I know of two former students who went into writing occupations after graduating from college. One writes for an online game company, and one writes for an advertising firm. We don't keep in touch, they just left me thank you messages on LinkedIn. A few years ago, two of my students won first and second place in a national essay contest run by Step Up To Writing. More recently, I helped a tutee write a novel. He entered the first chapter in the San Mateo County Fair writing contest for his age group and won second place. There may be others I do not know about.
Mark
6/16/2018 09:21:51 pm
No passions, except for teaching and writing, that's plenty! I am sure the success of some of your students is very gratifying.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/16/2018 10:04:55 pm
There are several messages I want the reader to take from the book: don't be afraid to ask for help; try to understand the motives of others; and don't give up.
Mark
6/17/2018 11:20:27 am
Those are solid messages! Good for everybody at any age!
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/18/2018 02:24:15 pm
The amazing and talented Matt Forster made my cover. I sent him a synopsis of the book and some images I found which reflected the tone. He took it from there, and send me two different paintings. I chose the one with the two figures in the graveyard.
Mark
6/18/2018 02:42:19 pm
That makes a lot of sense to orient the book to attract the kids to reading. Achieving literacy for your students is paramount in your situation.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/18/2018 03:15:24 pm
Before I write about a topic, I do considerable research. The research for this book involved watching paranormal shows on T.V., reading books about ghosts in the San Jose area, studying the history of San Jose, reading about shapeshifters in various cultural traditions, and learning about different Bay Area belief systems. The gang activity information came from the police trainings we had at school when I first started teaching. Since I taught at a downtown school for a while, I knew the neighborhoods. Last summer, I worked with the San Jose Area Writing Project at San Jose State University. As I drove to the location every day, I went past the park in the story. That gave me some ideas for Saul.
Mark
6/18/2018 05:21:01 pm
Good research! It sounds like you were very thorough! Did you learn about the Winchester house also? I was fascinated by it as a boy. Have you visited the Winchester house? What was the visit like?
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/18/2018 06:38:07 pm
I have not been to the Winchester House. I should go. I have had some experiences, as did my dad and his family. When we lived in Virginia, I enjoyed going to the Civil War battlefields and plantation museums along the James River. I had several experiences then. Next, we moved to Missouri to the United States Medical Center For Federal Prisoners, a hospital facility where many inmates were identified as criminally insane. Our cat refused to go into parts of the yard, bristling and howling at the top of his lungs. It was always cold there, even in the summer. From there, we moved to Sandstone, Minnesota, where one of my classmates froze to death when he tried walking to school. Several of us saw him in the class doorway, but he could not have been there. I've always found ghosts to be more interesting than terrifying.
Mark
6/18/2018 08:02:10 pm
Those are pretty cool experiences. A lot of Americans, as well as residents of other countries, have had experiences with ghosts, anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 depending on which poll you read. It certainly is a lively topic, pun intended.
Chris J Knoblaugh
6/19/2018 10:14:22 am
I write in long intense sessions of six to eight hours in length when first crafting a basic piece. Three of those usually produces 50,000 words. It then sits for a while, and I go back to add subplots and revise. Then it sits for a while. I reread it in tiny chunks, and share it with my CPs.
Mark
6/19/2018 10:40:24 am
It must be hard to find the time between work and your tutoring business. Leave a Reply. |
Who am I?An avid reader, typobuster, and the Hyper-Speller. I am a husband, father, and grandfather. Archives
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