February 2009 Blog Posts (186)

New on my site

This week there’s lots new on my web site, including a new featured review from Pamela Bourgeois.

I’ve spoken to Pamela, but we’ve never met. Her niece was at one of my book signings, looking for a Christmas present for her aunt. Rather than try to describe my titles to Pamela on her cell phone she handed the phone to me. After some conversations she chose Damaged Goods for her gift.

It was wonderful to get an e-mail from… Continue

Added by Austin S. Camacho on February 4, 2009 at 10:32pm — No Comments

Scammed!

(Cross posted to Working Stiffs)

I had an opportunity to meet our local police chief last week. He’s relatively new to the area and I’ve stopped at the station a couple of times, but he was out on patrol.

Needing to call 9-1-1 to bring him to my mom’s house was NOT how I’d envisioned our first meeting.

Last Tuesday, my mom phoned me to ask if the water company had just been at my house. I… Continue

Added by Annette Dashofy on February 4, 2009 at 10:30pm — No Comments

The Unanswerable Question for Writers

Yesterday's question got several good answers, and one I'd never thought of: changing the font. I'll add that to my repetoire!

Today's question is one I have trouble answering, probably because before publication, a writer has all the time in the world to write. It seems I always get "How long did/does it take you to write the book?" With or without stops and starts? The first draft, the polished draft, or the final, ready-to-be published version? There are lots of variables, so… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on February 4, 2009 at 9:21pm — 5 Comments

Mystery Author Doug Hewitt Interviews Jack Thigpen

I enjoyed my virtual tour stops today, and it just keeps getting better. One of the promotional ideas I had was to have an

interview with my main character in The Dead Guy, Jack Thigpen. Let's face it; I didn't really give Jack a fair shake, giving him

a fatal, untreatable disease in Chapter 1.

And so what would Jack have to say to me?

Read my interview with Jack Thigpen, and see what he has to say to mystery author Doug Hewitt.

It's here… Continue

Added by Doug Hewitt on February 4, 2009 at 10:14am — No Comments

Thank you, PW!

Publishers Weekly, Feb. 2, 2009

Probable Claws Clea Simon. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (264p) ISBN 978-1-59058-564-1

Music journalist Theda Krakow once again proves a feisty and determined sleuth in Simon's lively fourth cat-themed mystery (after 2007's Cries and Whiskers). Theda alternates between the cat world, dominated by her pet, Musetta, and the Boston area music scene, about which she writes for local magazines and newspapers. When her retired policeman boyfriend, Bill, buys… Continue

Added by Clea Simon on February 4, 2009 at 3:29am — No Comments

Graphic Novel Mysteries - From Patrick King

Graphic Novel Mysteries

It’s been great to see that graphic novels (i.e. comic books) have become much more respected over the past few years. Gone are the days when comic writers treated the reader like an eight year old with classic lines such as, “Thank gosh for utility belts!” or “My spider-senses are tingling, that must mean Dr. Octopus is near!”; instead, the writers have realized that their audience has grown up and so has the dialogue and the art work. I have recently… Continue

Added by The Poisoned Pen Bookstore on February 4, 2009 at 2:00am — No Comments

Lost in outer-writer space by Kathryn LIlley

Speaking of Writer Hell, as Michael Haskins was in our Sunday funny, I had one of those Hell-days yesterday. Read post here.…

Continue

Added by Kathryn Lilley on February 4, 2009 at 12:30am — 1 Comment

A Question for Writers

As I present workshops for wanna-be writers, I try to give them as many ways as possible to see the faults in early drafts. I have all the English-teacher tricks, of course, and the writers' secrets I've picked up along the way. But everyone is different, and what works for some doesn't appeal to others at all. So the question today is:

What do you do to make editing/rewriting/polishing productive?

Added by Peg Herring on February 3, 2009 at 10:21pm — 4 Comments

A Second P & E Award

Now that the votes have been checked and verified I'm delighted to report that I've picked up my second Preditors & Editors Award, having won the Best Poet, 2008 Award, under my pseudonym, Juan Pablo Jalisco. Once again, I must say a big thank you to everyone who voted in suport of my nomination. I'm over the moon at this latest news. Please see Juan Pablo's website at www.freewebs.com/juanpablojalisco/…

Continue

Added by Brian L Porter on February 3, 2009 at 9:59pm — No Comments

Irene Nash (Nash Black) reviews FRESH FROZEN by Darden North

Irene Black (Nash Black) has posted a review of my current novel Fresh Frozen. I hope you'll take a look.

http://www.nash-black.blogspot.com/

Thanks,

Darden North
www.dardennorth.com

Added by Darden North, MD on February 3, 2009 at 3:48pm — No Comments

Irene Nash (Nash Black) reviews FRESH FROZEN by Darden North

Irene Black (Nash Black) has posted a review of my current novel Fresh Frozen. I hope you'll take a look.

http://www.nash-black.blogspot.com/

Thanks,

Darden North
www.dardennorth.com

Added by Darden North, MD on February 3, 2009 at 3:48pm — No Comments

February 3rd Virtual Book Tour Stops for The Dead Guy and mystery author Doug Hewitt

Today's virtual tour stops were great, but tomorrow's are even better!

You can read a wonderfully insightful review of my mystery novel The Dead Guy at:

Roxi's Random Ramblings.

And there's an excerpt from The Dead Guy (with some of my personal comments) at:

The Plot.

And of course, as a mystery author, I would… Continue

Added by Doug Hewitt on February 3, 2009 at 1:00pm — No Comments

Weekend Surprises

As expected, Saturday was a party at Creatures ‘n Crooks Bookshoppe in Richmond, VA. Many of my favorite local authors were there, not for a signing or reading but just to be present for the readers. We did appear to attract a crowd of customers and I saw several armloads of books leave the store. We can only hope we inspired enough business to save the store.

When I got home I found a cool surprise - the latest issue of the International Thriller Writers newsletter, The Big Thrill.… Continue

Added by Austin S. Camacho on February 3, 2009 at 12:47am — No Comments

Weekly Blog - Monday 2nd February

I spent last week reading through the manuscript for the third novel in the Zac Hunter series, The Beholder, ahead of delivering a draft to my agent, Broo Doherty. The task was more onerous than I expected, resulting in a few late nights and early mornings, and I ended up cutting another 4,500 words from the prose. This brought the total down to around 93,000, which is more in line with that of both Justice For All (89,000) and Blood Law (91,000), and I’m confident that the cuts have helped… Continue

Added by Steven Hague on February 3, 2009 at 12:32am — No Comments

New look e-newsletter

My new official website has now been running for a month and I am pleased to say we have had excellent feedback from it. (Thank you Darren of Metadas Media for being such a talented web developer.) What’s great about it is that we can instantly update it ourselves, at any time, quickly and easily. We can post new events as they are confirmed, new book releases,… Continue

Added by Pauline Rowson on February 2, 2009 at 11:32pm — No Comments

February Is Different; I'm Asking You

This is going to be a weird month for me for two reasons. Right now my PC is at the repair shop, always a tense time. I wonder if it will recover from its ailments, if I will lose stuff I forgot to back up, and if the week they promised will turn plural. Using the laptop is okay, but it doesn't feel the same as going up to my office, sitting in the ergonomically correct position (well, I try), and getting down to business.

The second half of the month we'll be traveling, doing a… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on February 2, 2009 at 10:06pm — No Comments

The Killing Hands now available in Australia & NZ

With an official release date of 1 February, you should see The Killing Hands in your local bookstore(s) now - Australia and New Zealand only.

Find out more about the book at:

http://www.pdmartin.com.au/booksKillingHands.asp

Hope you like it!

To celebrate the release I held my usual Melbourne launch for friends and family. Despite being 45 Celsius (ouch) a good time was had by all! I will post some photos on my site… Continue

Added by Phillipa Martin (PD Martin) on February 2, 2009 at 12:58pm — No Comments

Mystery Author Doug Hewitt interviewed at American Chronicle

Mystery Author Doug Hewitt interviewed at American Chronicle

My February virtual blog tour started today. I get interviewed by bloggers and book reviewers all across the Internet.

Today’s interview has some interesting questions about how I became a mystery author and how I came to write The Dead Guy, a Motown Mystery Novel

Check out my personal story at:…

Continue

Added by Doug Hewitt on February 2, 2009 at 12:30pm — 1 Comment

GOOD NEWS ON MY END

Hi everyone. Just wanted to share with you that I got a panel at LCC Hawaii! I'll be on the NEW BLOOD panel with Barry Broad, Victoria Kneubuhl, John Madinger, G.M. Malliet, Alice Wilson-Fried, and moderator Mike Befeler. There's also a debut breakfast, and I got 15 mins of fame to talk about Turning Fact Into Fiction.

Fun stuff: my promotional item for WHERE ANGELS FEAR (next month, Oak Tree Press) are prescription bottles with the bookcover and filled with red cinnamon hearts. It's… Continue

Added by Sunny Frazier on February 2, 2009 at 5:46am — No Comments

A Study in Red Wins Best Thriller of 2008 Award

I'm pleased to be able to confirm that 'A Study in Red - The Secret Journal of Jack the Ripper' has won The Preditors & Editors Best Thriller Novel of 2008 Award. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who voted for the book in the readers poll. I'm truly grateful to everyone.

To purchase A Study in Red, simply click on the cover below.…