We've got a lot of great writers to pimp this week. An amazing bunch of women authors. Sophie Littlefield, Deborah Coonts, Lori Armstrong, and Caitlin Kittredge.

But first, a word from our sponsor...me.

This Tuesday, my graphic novel, Killing the Cobra: Chinatown Trollop, escapes its cage and is at last, available to the public. 

It's undead mayhem at its best. Fangs, guns, one bloodbath after another, electric harpoons, ball gags! Wow! I'm surprised I haven't been arrested for unleashing so much chaos.

On sale at your local comic book outlet, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.

I'll be signing Sunday, Dec 12, 3pm, at the Broadway Book Mall. Also signing, authors Warren Hammond, Alastair Mayer, David Boop, Laura Reeve, and Win Scott Eckert.

One of the bennies of being an author is that I've had the privilege of meeting many talented writers. In fact, considering their accomplishments and praises, I wonder if they consider me their peer!

Two of these authors, Sophie Littlefield and Deborah Coonts, received mentions in last Sunday's New York Times' Notable Crime Books of 2010.

Backstory. Three years ago, I met Sophie Littlefield at the L.A. Times Festival of Books. We were having dinner at a Korean restaurant with a bunch of fellow mystery writers. She was this tall and gracious lady who told me about her first book being shopped around by her agent. Now--and this is an admission of my failing--I don't think I responded with the appropriate level of enthusiasm (my thoughts were elsewhere that night) because I hear a lot of writers talk about their forthcoming books, and unfortunately, a lot of that optimism remains talk. In this case, was I WRONG. Since then, Sophie's debut novel, A Bad Day for Sorry, has garnered a fistful of award nominations, and won an Anthony for Best First Novel.  I've read that book and the sequel, A Bad Day for Pretty, and well, my ego hurts from its comeuppance. 

I think I learned that lesson, so when I met Deborah Coonts, at our MWA chapter summer pot luck in Colorado Springs, I set my ears at maximum gain. As was Sophie Littlefield, Deborah was warm and gracious (though not as tall). Her debut novel Wanna Get Lucky is one of those stories that rolls over you, and you're disappointed when it stops. You want more. It's a smart and snarky dissection of Las Vegas, starting with a woman falling out of a helicopter into the lagoon at the Treasure Island Hotel, a swinger convention, a midwife helping deliver a baby in a porn arcade, the hero's mom runs a bordello, and then things get weird.  

Next up, one of my favorite tough ladies, Lori Armstrong, announces the massmarket release of her book, No Mercy. Besides winning the Shamus for Snow Blind, Lori has garnered tons of blurbs from USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, you name it. Lori's prose is hard-boiled and razor sharp.

Last year I spent a full eight days with Caitlin Kittredge when she, Cherie Priest, Mark Henry, and I embarked on the Paranormal Bender Tour: Seattle to Portland, OR, via Sacramento, Las Vegas, San Diego, Burbank, and San Francisco in a small Kia SUV. I thought we were doing a confined-space study for NASA. First rule of the trip: nothing from Taco Bell. At that time, Caitlin safeguarded the news that she had gotten a wonderful deal for her Lovecraftian steampunk YA series. Well, there is no safeguarding that news anymore. The first book in the series, The Iron Thorn, is out. It will blow you away.

This week, the Biting-Edge global corporate headquarters will be deployed in toto to Albuquerque, NM for Bubonicon 42, August 27-29.  I'm the Toastmaster.

The prolific writer of everything from comics to novels to screenplays, Peter David is the Guest of Honor. 

Fantasy artist and medical illustrator Sarah Clemens is Guest Artist. 

Killing the Cobra issue #3 is hot off the press. My next signing is at Heroes Only Comics in Cheyenne, WY, September 4, 1-5PM.

We're on a short countdown for Jeanne's newest Anna Strong vampire book, Chosen. 

Jeanne's appearance schedule: