October 2009 Blog Posts (193)

That's my boy

I started to feel recently that my bio on www.mattbeynonrees.com was a bit over-serious. First of all, it was in the third person. I honestly never refer to myself in the third person (except when I'm shopping and I ask my wife "Would Matt Beynon Rees wear a shirt in this shade of pink?") Then I saw that the bio took my writing and -- worse still -- me, rather seriously. I prefer to make it clear that I can laugh at myself. So I changed the whole bio,… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on October 27, 2009 at 9:42pm — 1 Comment

Review - Singing to the Dead, Caro Ramsay

Book Title: SINGING TO THE DEAD

Author: Caro Ramsay

Publisher: Penguin

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 978-0-14-102925-2

No of Pages: 510

Book Synopsis:

Two seven-year old boys have been abducted from the streets of Glasgow. Both had already endured years of neglect and betrayal - but for Detective Inspector Colin Anderson the case is especially disturbing, because the boys look so much like his own son Peter...

Then, with police resources… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on October 27, 2009 at 9:34pm — No Comments

Functionaries

I love that word. It so fits the buttoned-down, small-minded little people who have nothing better to do than throw their teeny-tiny bit of weight around. Life parallels art, and I'd just written a functionary into my Tudor mystery who has one little bit of authority and uses it to the extreme. I thought he might be a bit much. Then I ran into one in real life.

There is a form that I had to have a doctor fill out for a family member. It took me weeks to get to the specialist's inner… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on October 27, 2009 at 8:51pm — 1 Comment

Another Cool Review

I like to share the feedback I get from fans about my writing, and sometimes that feedback leads to good additions to our libraries. This week’s example is from Richard Gazala.

Richard’s first novel, Blood of the Moon, was released this month. Before Richard’s top notch political thriller hit the shelves he read my… Continue

Added by Austin S. Camacho on October 27, 2009 at 8:49pm — No Comments

Daughter Am I Blog Tour 2009 Update

Day nine of the Daughter Am I blog tour, and I am still going strong. I actually went to bed before midnight last night, and I’m a bit more rested. Good thing -- there is a lot going on today! First, check out “After the Writing Comes the Work.” Great discussion going on at that unscheduled tour stop, and a wonderful compliment about Daughter Am… Continue

Added by Pat Bertram on October 27, 2009 at 2:38pm — No Comments

Coming Event -- You are all invited!

I've been asked to guest-host an hour of #LitChat, the popular and fun writers' chat group that runs from 4-5:00 Monday, Wednesday and Friday on Twitter.

I'll be there on Friday, November 6 at 4:00 EST. It would be a real thrill to see some of my CrimeSpace friends there to offer support (or even good-natured razzing!)

The topic that week will be the process of self-publishing -- the hurdles and… Continue

Added by Donna Carrick on October 27, 2009 at 9:56am — No Comments

Gimme a "D" (eadline)

I've given myself a week to get it all together. I've long nown that I do best with a deadline. They're natural for teachers, because every hour of the day is at least one. For a writer, there are plenty of deadlines as well, but not always when you need them. I've got plenty going on: two books coming out soon, one edited and in need of promotion; one whose editing hangs over my head like that sword in mythology (When will they send it back? How much will they want it changed? How much time… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on October 26, 2009 at 11:18pm — 2 Comments

Review - Suffer the Children, Adam Creed

Book Title: SUFFER THE CHILDREN

Author: Adam Creed

Publisher: Faber and Faber

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 978-0-571-24364-8

No of Pages: 321

Book Synopsis:

DI Will Wagstaffe - Staffe to friends and enemies alike - is a man with many burdens. On the eve of leaving for a personal trip abroad he is called to the scene of a horrific crime, a known paedophile has been butchered in his own home.

Book Review:

SUFFER THE CHILDREN is the… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on October 26, 2009 at 10:14pm — No Comments

Author Update

I had a wonderful surprise at Borders in the Boulevard at the Capital Center Friday. Aside from the books bought that evening, a woman came in with four books she bought earlier in the week. She returned Friday just to ask me to sign them.

Also this week I got a mention on one of my favorite blogs: Criminal Brief: The Mystery Short Story Web Log Project. Author John M. Floyd talked about his great time at Bouchercon, including meeting me and some of the other writers in the holiday… Continue

Added by Austin S. Camacho on October 26, 2009 at 10:00pm — No Comments

A Motorbike Ride in the Country: Strange Encounters

http://mitziszereto.com/blog/a-motorbike-ride-in-the-country-strange-encounters/

Added by Mitzi Szereto on October 26, 2009 at 5:30am — No Comments

GOOD INFO FROM PPWEB CONFERENCE

Ann Parker

http://www.annparker.net

1. Where does the story take place? Does the author make the place

come alive? Can the reader feel the air and see the mountains? How

is the feeling of a Silver boom town conveyed? Does the author

effectively engage all the senses to make the story come alive? How

does the city change, physically and socially, over the course of the

story.

2. What is Silver Lies about? Who killed… Continue

Added by RONALD FEASEL on October 26, 2009 at 12:05am — No Comments

Blog Tour Interviews

I made it through the first week of my blog tour!! I’m getting to the hard part, though. I have several interviews coming up, and it’s challenging to keep from making identical responses to identical questions. There really is only one story behind the writing of Daughter Am I -- I wanted to use the true tales of the Syndicate an historian friend used to tell me, and I wanted to do a mythic journey, so I combined the two… Continue

Added by Pat Bertram on October 25, 2009 at 12:38pm — 2 Comments

My book trailer

Hello firiends,
The book trailer for my book will be ready soon.I will post it on here

Added by RONALD FEASEL on October 25, 2009 at 12:25am — No Comments

My books are on Kindle

Tonight I was reading JA Konrath's accounting of his sales over at his blog and it made me wonder if Avenging Angel had made it to Kindle yet. Guess what? IT HAS!!!!!

Avenging Angel at the KINDLE STORE -- and if you haven't gotten your copy for your… Continue

Added by Kim Smith on October 24, 2009 at 1:43pm — No Comments

So what happens if you opt your story to Kindle . . . ?

Suppose you decide to download your book on Kindle. Can you also put it on Barnes&Noble's new reader when it comes out? Are we going to see turf wars and proprietary clauses on published works between all the readers?

Does this scenario appear to be even remotely possible?

Added by B.R.Stateham on October 24, 2009 at 6:00am — 5 Comments

Haven't a Clue About Cluculz

My blog tour is really starting to heat up! Lots of activity, more than I'm used to, that's for sure. To start out, I am a guest at the blog of my good friend Joylene Nowell Butler author of Dead Witness. We first met when she submitted a character interview to my Pat… Continue

Added by Pat Bertram on October 24, 2009 at 4:32am — No Comments

Yet Another 5 Star Review - Legacy of the Ripper

Hot on the heels of the wonderful review that 'Legacy of the Ripper' received on Amazon.co.uk yesterday, another terrific review has appeared, this time on the site of Amazon.com from reviewer Barbara Watkins. I'm thrilled that the book has been so well received so… Continue

Added by Brian L Porter on October 24, 2009 at 1:00am — No Comments

All rise for the Palestinian anthem

A parody of a nationalistic Palestinian song ridicules the intractable dispute between Hamas and Fatah leaders. By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPost

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Last week, Hamas and Fatah were on the verge of an agreement to end more than two years of civil strife. Then Hamas tore it up, and both sides went back to tearing… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on October 24, 2009 at 12:17am — No Comments

Notes from Bouchercon 2009

(Also posted on One Bite at a Time.)

I finally got my Bouchercon notes together. While debriefing myself, deciphering my handwriting, adding books to my Amazon wish list and movies to my NetFlix queue, several thoughts and questions came to mind. Please comment at will.

Do readers—other than those with a local connection—really care about where a story takes place as long as it’s appropriate and done… Continue

Added by Dana King on October 24, 2009 at 12:04am — 4 Comments

Goodreads and Giveaways

Maybe I'm the last to know, but I found out that Goodreads will do a giveaway of an author's ARCs for free. I offered some copies of HER HIGHNESS' FIRST MURDER and got a great response. Goodreads lets you choose how many books you'll give away, decide how long the contest will run, and enter the information you want people to read. They choose the winners, send you their mailing addresses, and you mail them the books. It's a pretty painless process, and the first day I was listed I had 176… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on October 23, 2009 at 10:00pm — 1 Comment