Love Song By Mark R. Conte

“Love Song”

By Mark R. Conte

421 pages

ISBN: 978-81-8253-711-8

Cyberwit

www.cyberwit.net

Copyright 2021

 

Review by LB Sedlacek

 

Inside these pages written by Mark R Conte is the story of Donovan.  He is an FSU professor who achieves greatness. 

 

The book reads like a real-life tale.  It’s quite engaging. 

 

It begins with Donovan’s birth.  From there, it pushes on from very early childhood into teenage years to the service and war and beyond.

 

A compassion for writing filters into each chapter.  After all, the star character is one.  Conte’s writing is feisty.  With his main character, the book masters what it must be like to be a top-notch success in writing. 

 

Fiction should be driven by its characters because that makes it good to read.  Conte does a fine job in giving the reader imaginative, funny and interesting people and scenarios.  The pacing is spot on.  The theme will keep you reading.

 

Writing about writing or other writers can be quite dramatic.  It’s almost like an inside look at what it must be like to live life in a full-time successful writer’s career.  Conte is good at storytelling.  Plus it’s an entertaining read. 

 

From Chapter 20:

“The first time Nicole saw Donovan he was standing

outside the English Department office with a container of

coffee in his hand, his long crane-like legs propping his

torso against the wall. His six feet, three inches was

jammed into a rag-tag outfit of blue denim jeans and red

tartan shirt, which made him seem taller. His hair was

thick and fell below his ears, falling about his great head

like a mane, red as oven bricks, and he had a crooked

smile. He was strikingly handsome, but with a dark,

brooding face that told the trials of his life and opened

every woman’s heart. Nicole would never remember he

wore western boots that day, because she couldn’t take her

eyes away from his face, which she thought resembled all

the classic sculptures of Greek and Roman art. She thought

he might be an assistant professor because he looked too

mature to be a student.”

 

The craft here is engaging.  The plot is clever.  There’s complex narrative that glues all of the book together as a whole.

Overall, there are several included verses interspersed within the prose that give all of it a spectacular flavor.  The story centers around writing at FSU (Florida State University).  Of course that school, in real life, has produced many a successful prize winning author.  And then finally, there is a love story fitting the title of the book.  Love of writing, love of school, love of another person.  It truly is all about love, or can be.

 

There’s heart to Conte’s writing.  This is writing you will definitely appreciate reading.

 

 

 

~LB Sedlacek is the author of the poetry collections “I’m No ROBOT,” “Words and Bones,” “Simultaneous Submissions,” “The Adventures of Stick People on Cars,” and “The Poet Next Door.”  Her first short story collection came out last year entitled “Four Thieves of Vinegar & Other Short Stories.”  Her mystery novel “The Glass River” was nominated for the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award.  She writes poetry reviews for “The Poetry Market Ezine” www.thepoetrymarket.com  You can find out more about her at www.lbsedlacek.com