February 2009 Blog Posts (186)

Happy Moo Year!

Hi. I was excited to upgrade my Flash animation program to CS4. Wow! I can post video cartoons now--or so I thought. Well, when I exported my Happy Moo Year cartoon to Quicktime, it lost the nested animations. Big bummer. Then the expensive CS4 "how to" manual I purchased, as the upgrade didn't have a manual, didn't explain how to create a FLV video of my FLA file, ie. I still couldn't figure out how to convert my Flash cartoon to a Flash video file. So, please check my website to see the… Continue

Added by Dawn M. Kravagna on February 1, 2009 at 12:54pm — No Comments

"More Deaths Than One" Contest. Win Free Books!

Win an autographed copy of More Deaths Than One by Pat Bertram (her very first autograph!) and your choice of two other titles from Second Wind Publishing .

The premise:

A friend of Pat Bertram’s found an obituary in the paper that could have been for his mother — the woman had the same name, lived in the same general area, was the same age, had the same number of children, and one of the children had approximately the same… Continue

Added by Pat Bertram on February 1, 2009 at 11:30am — No Comments

Early word on Pariah

"Pariah is one of the most crazed, hilarious, bitter, brutal novels this side of those composed on violent wards." Ed Gorman

"Pariah is all I know of bliss and lament. Bliss at reading a superb novel and lament at knowing that Dave Zeltserman has now raised the bar so high, we're screwed." Ken Bruen

"It's the kind of book that is going to spoil whatever I read next, as it's going to be found wanting compared to this. This is a book that anyone with even the slightest… Continue

Added by Dave Zeltserman on February 1, 2009 at 10:57am — 3 Comments

Vote for a cover

My publisher just sent me 4 mock-ups of covers for my forthcoming novel, "Bleeder." I had no say at all about the covers of my previous books and I find it refreshing to be with a small house and an editor who is truly interested in my input. I wouldn't mind hearing from some of you about the 4 proposals displayed at my site, http://www.johndesjarlais.com

Here's the premise: a stigmatic priest bleeds to death on Good Friday in front of horrified parishioners. A miracle? Or bloody… Continue

Added by John Desjarlais on February 1, 2009 at 10:16am — 8 Comments

The Royal Crescent by Margot Justes

The Royal Crescent in Bath is an absolutely unique architectural gem, completed in 1774 by John Wood the Younger; it took about 7 years to complete and still today it stands as a perfect semi-elliptical curve about 50 feet high and 500 feet long. It truly is a site to behold; there are 30 attached magnificent houses, among them, one of the most charming, delightful, grandest hotels ever, the Royal Crescent Hotel www.royalcrescent.co.uk

As a heroine would say, it is beautifully… Continue

Added by Margot Justes on February 1, 2009 at 9:32am — No Comments

Covers

The cover for my new one (THE CONVICT'S SWORD) is up on my web site (http://www.ijparker.com). You can get an early glimpse. Amazon doesn't have it yet.

This particular cover caused me some grief. When the first draft arrived for my approval, it had hardly any color and, worse, it looked like a romance novel to me. While it wasn't the bodice-ripper type, being more the ladylike, cozy sort of thing, I took exception. My editor reminded me that it would appeal to women.

Yes,… Continue

Added by I. J. Parker on February 1, 2009 at 1:14am — 2 Comments