Monday, April 19, 2010

It's something you should never see, IMHO, but more about that later.

I spoke at a Career Day last week, and the topic of networking came up. The students didn't know what it was, but since I shared the stage with a newspaper reporter, we explained how we reciprocate in helping each other. I give her interviews that hopefully pull in readers. I aslo buy advertising space in her paper. She gives me publicity that should result in name recognition and book sales. Neither of us…

As most of you know, I interview writers on my blog at www.susanwhitfield.blogspot.com. I have being doing this since 2009 and have had some great interviews and showcased some awesome book covers. I decided it was time to have a contest to pick the best cover posted so far. Because there were so many excellent covers, I narrowed the field and posted my favorites on the site. Now, if you will, please help me pick a winner who will get a…

Review on my blog today. Check it out.

http://jfjuzwik.blogspot.com/2010/04/come-and-get-some-noir-i-mean-philip-of.html

It seems that the unprecedented closure of airspace across Britain and large parts of Northern Europe is set to continue into the weekend, after the volcanic eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland has sent a massive plume of ash into the atmosphere. So overseas visitors to the London Book Fair might be rather thin on the ground this year. My agents in Singapore and in Turkey have both had to cancel appointments with me because they can't get here. It's a great…

Peter Joseph, editor extraordinaire at St. Martin’s Press, is our guest today on Scene of the Crime. He is, as one of his…

Just finished a book by an author I usually like. The plot was okay. The characters were there, and I knew what I needed to know about them. The ending was a culmination of plot events, and everything added up.

And I felt absolutely nothing.

I might have been reading the phone book or a cereal box for all the interest or excitement I got from the book. There was nothing wrong, not really, but something was just not right. I didn't care about the characters,…

Starting today, and for a limited time, you can read Blood and Bone for just $2.99!



In this novel, 18-year-old Kyle needs a bone marrow transplant, and his only hope lies in finding his father, a man who disappeared before Kyle was born. Private eye Hannibal Jones has 2 weeks to find the missing man, but his search turns up much more: A woman who might be Kyle's…

I just found a great book on forensics and discuss it on my blog. Check it out if you have an interest.

http://jfjuzwik.blogspot.com/2010/04/forensics-in-your-crime-story-better.html

It's the ides of April, so why don't we call it that?

I like the idea of a term for the middle of the month. We have the first of the month and the last of the month. So "the ides" is a good marker, letting us know we're halfway through. No one says it, though.

There are lots of words from the past that we've thrown away, words that are still good, like those rollover minutes on TV. Varlet. Whippersnapper. Mewl. Strumpet. I could go on.