Good morning all—
Starting out with plugs for two fellow scribes writing in our genre of choice.
First, Anton Strout and his new book Dead To Me—here’s what my pal Charlaine Harris had to say:
“Simon Canderous is a reformed thief and a psychometrist. By turns despondent over his luck with the ladies (not always living) and his struggle with the hierarchy of his mysterious department (not always truthful), Simon’s life veers from crisis to crisis. Following Simon’s adventures is like being the pinball in an especially antic game, but it’s well worth the wear and tear.”
On top of being a good writer and a fellow Ace author, Anton is a good guy—what more could you ask?
Second, Mark Henry’s Happy Hour of the Damned. From Jen Lancaster:
"Happy Hour of the Damned - is it a comedy? An urban fantasy? A whodunit? Who cares! Mark Henry's written such a clever and engaging story that fans of any genre will totally adore it. Amanda Feral is the freshest, funniest character to come out of fiction since Bridget Jones and my only regret is she's not real and we can't go out for drinks. (Because, really? Zombies are the new black.) In short? I loved this book!" --Jen Lancaster, author of Bitter Is The New Black
For your ordering convenience, this link takes you right to
Amazon where both books can be purchased together for a bargain price.
Also, I should mention, we are all members of a community of writers called
Fangs, Fur and Fey—something else you might want to check out in your spare time!
Interesting tidbits from the week include an article in
The Telegraph—Fifty Crime Writers to Read Before You Die…. Is your favorite among them and if not, who is your favorite?
For anyone who has ever been zinged by a bad PW review, the publication is for sale. Before you break out your checkbook, though, Shelf Awareness notes that Reed Business Information, parent of PW and several other publications, had revenue last year of $1.7 billion (with a B.) Might be out of the financial reach of most.
From a Buffybud: My Own Kind of Freedom (a Firefly Novel by Steven Brust) has been released under a creative commons license. You are free to
download it and share it with your friends as long as it is not used for commercial purposes. She hadn’t read it yet, and I haven't had time either, but a friend of hers said it was like watching a Firefly episode.
Harlequin has started posting 20-minute Meet The Editors
podcasts. From their release: “Meet the Editors brings the personalities of the various Harlequin Enterprises editors to the fore and offers listeners the opportunity to get to know the people that shape the books they love to read." New episodes will be added every two weeks.
From Shelf Awareness: What do Pride and Prejudice, the Lord of the Rings series, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Da Vinci Code and Gone With the Wind have in common? They are the top five "best-loved books" as chosen by Australian readers in a survey conducted by the book chain
Dymocks. News.com.au reported that the Dymocks Booklovers 101 list indicated that Aussie readers "prefer timelessness and romance to reality."
What about it, Tez?
Also from Shelf Awareness: In another publisher experiment making material available at no cost on the Internet, Random House began offering the entire text of Beautiful Children, Charles Bock's debut novel, for free online as of 12:01 this morning until midnight on Friday, Leap Day. Readers will be able to share, e-mail or print the text, which is available as a PDF download at
beautifulchildren.net/read. In cooperation with Random, Amazon.com, B&N.com, Powells.com and Northshire.com are making the file available to their customers.
A local sad story: Cynthia Nye, owner of High Crimes Mystery Bookshop in Boulder, is closing her brick and mortar store in March. She will continue to sell books online.
If you are an aspiring writer looking for market news, check out Cynthia Sterling’s market newsletter. In the latest edition you will find: Info on Harlequin’s new Black Star Crime mystery series, Silhouette Nocturne, and Idea Weaver Writing (looking for dog stories.) Always good stuff. Anyone can sign up by sending a blank email to her at: cynthiasterling-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To zip things up, got the cover for the large print edition of Many Bloody Returns. It’s out next month.
Hope to see some of you at
Left Coast Crime next week. I’ll be on the panel "Shaken, stirred, blended: Nontraditional sleuths in stories that cross genre lines" on Friday afternoon at 1:15 as well as in the Endless Conversation room Sat 2:15 – 2:45. Mario will be all over the place, but mostly in the bar. Come on up and say hello.