To read or not to read, that is the question here. I mean Mexico; it is used many times in many ways in novels and not all of them good. I had trepidation and was a bit uneasy. Stuart Gustafson put that all aside very quickly for me. How? Why? I mean, really? Yes to all three. As you will see in the synopsis Stuart is a world traveler, has seen most of the globe, has flown many,many, many miles. My point is he was able to put that in print. He was able to convey to me what he saw while he…

New issue of Kings River Life is up and we have a fun mystery short story by Barry Ergang, "The Mall Tea's Fall Kin" http://kingsriverlife.com/09/03/the-mall-teas-fall-kin-an-original-mystery-short-story/ And a double header book reviews of a pair of mysteries with Western American/Native American settings-"Devil's Kitchen" by Clark Lohr & "Death Along The Spirit Road" by C. M. Wendelboe…

On the same day they finally indentified Ned Kelly’s decapitated skeleton I wound up in Melbourne with his head. Well not Kelly's still missing skull exactly but a miniature version of the outlaws famous iron helmet. It’s what they give you when you win a Ned Kelly award. When I first saw the long list for the 2011 Neds the last thing on my mind was going to Melbourne. The list always has some heavy hitters, including previous winners, but this year there were more than a few. Getting…

When I finished reading this I heard “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns and Roses blaring on my XM/Sirius boombox, very fitting. This was my first read on a David Levien novel and it will not be my last. The character he has created in Frank Behr is nothing short of amazing and satisfying. He is fractured yet looking to seal the cracks kind of hero that had me enthralled the entire read. The code of ethics that Levien has instilled in him is simple, strong and unbreakable. It seems nothing…

Barely a week after its release, Wild Bill is an international sensation, with satisfied readers from such disparate locations as Los Angeles, California and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with others strewn about the intervening 10,062 miles. (Note: The use of the word “sensation” does not imply an ego run amuck. Sensations are not universally good, as anyone who has recently has an “itching, burning, sensation” can attest. Just saying, is all.) The current sales rank is…

A new installment of Thad Brown’s “Smoking Gun Sisterhood” is out and it is a doozy. Thus far there have been five installments in the series and this one is such a great addition to the other titles; they just seem to get better and better as I follow along. Thad Brown knows how to write; he just flat out has a way with the written word and has made me want to read the next one in the series as soon as I finish the one I just downloaded. The installments are well thought out, the characters…

Here's a blog I wrote to announce the release of the HOLLOW REED trilogy.  I'm happy to say that the books, gradually released between Aug. 1. and Sept. 1., are doing very well.  I wrote HOLLOW REED as a one-volume work about five years ago, thinking to say something about history as well as about the resilience of women in times of extreme oppression.  It was turned down by 5 of the six big houses and I took it back into my care.  You may recall several blogs over the past year that dealt…

A little rainy, a little humid for the beginning of the new month. I'm looking forward to having the release of my next book, "Beta" on the first of October.



This week gets a little funky because my featured author wanted to travel to a place I didn't think we could go. However, my transporter is fashioned after a famous blue police box, so with a little…

I was lucky enough to receive this between an earthquake and a hurricane and tornado. Fun right. I basically got to read this using various forms of light also: sunlight, light bulbs when they worked, and I really went oldschool for a while, candlelight. I was also supposed to interview Steven James on Monday at 1pm, but I had emailed them last week ,on Friday, and explained that we were in the path of the hurricane and may not be able to have him on as a guest Monday because I didn’t know…

If you have seen my exploits at all, you have seen lately I have been off of the grid due to something insignificant and small like a hurricane passing through our neighborhood. Besides getting to spend quality time with my family and enjoying playing a variety of board games with everybody I decided since the only thing I could use the computer for was to get into Word documents I was going to scroll through and see if maybe there were a few things I have read but never posted on. Low and…

I’m very honored that SILENT PARTNER won the 2011 SILVER AWARD for BEST in SUSPENSE at Reader’s Favorite.  Thank you!  Congratulations to all winning authors!

This story was a very special project and close to my heart.

Here’s a recent blog post about this book:…

From any crime show that we’ve viewed on television or in the movies, there is that moment where the evidence matches and the suspect is then brought to justice.  They make it seem so easy and it only take a few moments.  It’s definitely much more complicated than it looks and the forensic professionals who make that positive distinction are nothing less than exemplary in their…

I am undoubtedly an oldhead. I can remember so far back that people used to write on stone tablets, animal skins and then on parchment paper. My point in this is that I also remember reading stories like the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, The Executioner, The Death Merchant, Nick Carter and Encyclopedia Brown. Every week when I went to the library I would try to find a new installment in a series I was following and just enjoy it, devour it and look forward to the next or perhaps finding a new one…

I have been away from the internet it seems like forever, but in reality just since last Friday, and in this day and age that is forever isn’t it? Thankfully the novels I have to giveaway have survived the hurricane and tornado that breezed by; I put them up in a safe place, and now I need to bring this contest and giveaway to a fun and fulfilling end. I have 5 of Jeff Abbott’s “Adrenaline” novels to give out and am looking forward to making some people happy.

To that end, just do a…

Internationally Bestselling author Brad Thor and Big Daddy Abel author of the bestselling selling and highly rated Amazon Kindle Open Mic series will be my guests this Thursday, September 1^st starting at 4.30pm EST. Brad Thor’s latest bestseller is “Full Black”, while BDA is currently working on two projects: ”Open Mic Volume 5 and the sequel to “Edge of Cataclysmic”.

For the few of you that are unfamiliar with Brad Thor’s work here is a little about him:

“I…

Hello everybody! Yes, I am still alive and so are my wife and kids. A “Funny” thing happened on the way to experiencing an earthquake, a hurricane and a tornado all in the span of four days. Why is that “Funny”? Well let’s see, I can really write pages on this subject. In fact I have, and they are in the able hands of Big Daddy Abel the guy that let me jazz with him on “The Edge of Cataclysmic”. The Author’s Lab/Collaboration story just wrote itself for me. I started with the flood we had in…