August 2008 Blog Posts (158)

Weekly Blog - Monday 4th August

Last week brought some exciting news, as I discovered that Justice For All has been selected as a recommended summer read by the Daily Mirror newspaper, which has a circulation of around 1.5 million readers a day! My novel, which featured alongside the latest offerings from big-league authors Simon Kernick and Jeff Abbott, was described as ‘a debut of the highest order’, and was deemed ‘uncompromising from start to finish.’ As you can imagine, I was chuffed to bits. Pre-launch publicity doesn’t… Continue

Added by Steven Hague on August 9, 2008 at 12:43am — No Comments

Patterns in Syntax=Good Dialogue

A six-year-old visitor got me thinking about syntax and speech patterns. So much of personality is conveyed in how we put our sentences together, and if a writer can capture unique syntax for her characters, they sparkle and stand out, distinct from each other.

With children we might see, as I did, an adult pattern copied unconsciously by the child who lives almost exclusively with polite adults. As my little visitor went outside to play, he glanced at the table where I'd set out… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on August 8, 2008 at 11:00pm — No Comments

Mitzi Szereto's Weblog

Please do subscribe to the RSS feed and you'll then be privvy to all my errant ramblings on books, publishing, writing, and life as an expat in Britain!

http://mitziszereto.wordpress.com

Added by Mitzi Szereto on August 8, 2008 at 10:19pm — 1 Comment

ELDERCIDE is out at last!

I'm delighted to report that ELDERCIDE, my new novel of suspense, is finally published. I took a break from CrimeSpace during the lengthy revision process, but I'm back at last.

The novel grew out of my experience as President of ElderSource, Inc., a Licensed Home Care Services Agency I ran for eight tumultuous years. We specialized in round-the-clock live-in care for clients nearing the end of their lives. Often the emotional toll for clients and their families was enormous. More… Continue

Added by Julie Lomoe on August 8, 2008 at 7:06am — No Comments

Book Signing Part II - Florida and NY

I’ve written a little about my early book signings in Key West and South Florida and you can see photos from all my signings on my website, http://www.michaelhaskins.net/, if you are interested. If you came to any of the signings, you may find your photo there.

Marshall Smith, owner of Key West Island Books, hosted my first signing days after the release date of “Chasin’ the Wind.” I sold 80 books and he told me the only person to sell more at a book signing was Carl Hiaasen. It was… Continue

Added by Michael Haskins on August 8, 2008 at 6:30am — No Comments

Homeland Insecurity

We will never know for certain whether Bruce Ivins, the Army scientist who committed suicide last week, was solely responsible for the anthrax attacks that killed five people in 2001. Though the evidence against him is compelling, much of it is circumstantial. It is just as likely that a good defense could have convinced a jury that he was innocent as it is likely that the prosecution could have convinced a jury that Ivins was guilty.

So let’s set aside his guilt or innocence and… Continue

Added by Christopher Valen on August 8, 2008 at 4:24am — No Comments

Kathryn Lilley joins the Kill Zone blog

I've joined an exciting new writer's blog called the Kill Zone.

Michelle Gagnon, John Gilstrap, Clare Langley-Hawthorne, Kathryn Lilley, John Ramsey Miller, and Joe Moore will be posting six days a week on topics that inspire them and inform their writing. Special guest bloggers will be featured from time to time.

Michelle Gagnon kicks off the new blog today with an… Continue

Added by Kathryn Lilley on August 8, 2008 at 3:01am — 2 Comments

One Bad Apple

Some people snidely refer to a book as a cozy mystery. Sheila Connolly's One Bad Apple is an example of everything that is right with the cozy mystery. Her book has a likable heroine, an attractive small town setting, a slimy victim, and fascinating side elements. I hope Connolly returns readers to Granford, Massachusetts again.

Meg Corey lost her banking job in Boston in a downsize. She took on the joint ownership of an old house in… Continue

Added by Lesa Holstine on August 7, 2008 at 11:29pm — No Comments

Travellers - Meet Me in the Airport Tomorrow

Tomorrow I return to one of those airport stores everyone has been talking about. This time it's the Borders in Washington Dulles International Airport. I'll greet new friends there from 1 pm to 5 pm - and I know it will be new friends because airport stores have a steady flow of new folks.

Added by Austin S. Camacho on August 7, 2008 at 10:27pm — No Comments

Quiet or Riot?

When I taught high school, my students often claimed that they worked best when there was noise. Studies of today's teens confirm that they can indeed text, listen to music, and surf the Net all at once, but I have to admit, as the song of my generation says, "It ain't me, babe."

I like quiet. I like to be able to focus on the task at hand. And it's getting worse as time goes by. As a teacher, I was quite the multi-tasker, and I could keep in my head a dozen things I had to… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on August 7, 2008 at 9:48pm — No Comments

J. D. Rhoades Interview

Suspect: J. D. Rhoades

Known Aliases: Dusty Rhoades (he wouldn't cop to any others)

Occupation: Lawyer, Columnist and Writer

Last Known Location: Carthage, N.C.

Listen in as J.D. talks about his latest standalone thriller, Breaking Cover, what's in the works with his… Continue

Added by Angie on August 7, 2008 at 3:00pm — No Comments

MEN OF MYSTERY COMING TO ACME AUTHORS LINK NEXT WEEK

Acme Authors Link is happy to host two popular Men of Mystery next week at http://acmeauthorslink.blogspot.com

On Wednesday, August 13 - Marcus Sakey

Friday, August 15 - Joe Konrath

Stop on by and see what these great authors have to say. Then come back again to read what our regular great bloggers are saying every day!

Morgan Mandel…

Continue

Added by Morgan Mandel on August 7, 2008 at 1:27pm — No Comments

about time...

I've finally put up a proper author's web-site at www.davezeltserman.com. I still have a little work to do, and right now it's sharing space with my hardluck stories site, but it's mostly in place. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, especially the size of the book images I'm using--my wife thinks they're too big.

--Dave

Added by Dave Zeltserman on August 7, 2008 at 8:23am — No Comments

Thank you, Worldwide

Oh, my! I just heard from my editor at Worldwide Mysteries, which publishes mass market paperbacks of previously published mysteries - and he told me that their edition of Mew is for Murder sold 17,232 copies! I don't think I've sold that many of anything ever. Now they're offering a lovely mass market edition of Cattery Row, so here's hoping… Continue

Added by Clea Simon on August 7, 2008 at 7:30am — No Comments

VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR: Romantic Suspense Author Mary Burton Visits Book Marketing Buzz & Book Cover Lovers!

Mary Burton, author of the romantic suspense novel, I’M WATCHING YOU, will be stopping off at Book Marketing Buzz and Book Cover Lovers on… Continue

Added by Dorothy Thompson on August 7, 2008 at 4:44am — No Comments

Favorite Words (R)

Almost everyone has "catch phrases" of conversation, repeated words or groups of words that we unconsciously use as fillers. As a speech teacher, I can't tell you how many "Ums" and "You knows" I've drawn to the attention of novice speakers. Your friends know what your catch phrases are, and they've probably told you, or they will if you ask.

In writing we tend toward certain words, too. Sometimes they're qualifiers ("it seemed as if"), sometimes modifiers ("very"), sometimes just a… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on August 6, 2008 at 10:47pm — No Comments

Chatting with Tana French

Two weeks ago, I got to interview Tana French for the Boston Phoenix. The Edgar-winning author of In the Woods was in town promoting The Likeness, her second smart psychological mystery, and we had a good chat over coffee in the elegant… Continue

Added by Clea Simon on August 6, 2008 at 11:00am — 2 Comments

Dead in Red

L.L. Bartlett introduced the fascinating character of Jeff Resnick in Murder On The Mind. Now, in Dead in Red, he and his brother, Richard, track a killer, because Jeff won't be satisfied "until justice was done."

When Jeff was mugged and hit by a baseball bat, he injured his head. Now, he has flashes of a "sixth sense" that reveals pictures of events that have happened, and will occur in the future, related to violence and murder. When Tom… Continue

Added by Lesa Holstine on August 5, 2008 at 11:54pm — No Comments

All That Well-intentioned Advice

People are always starting sentences with, "You should ...." I'm amazed and sometimes amused at the advice I get. The other day someone told me that I should "ask around and see if any bookstores will let me do a booksigning."

I never would have thought of that on my own!

I get all kinds of advice about using the Internet to become famous. Some of it is in the form of emails that promise I'll get thousands of hits a day. Some is from people who have a friend of a friend who… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on August 5, 2008 at 10:49pm — No Comments

Another Nice Review

I like to feature interesting web sites in this space, even when the site is my own. I always feature the feedback and reviews I receive on my web site, and I’m way behind highlighting some of my friends. For those not yet mentioned, please forgive me - I promise to get to you. For the rest of you, I’d like to introduce Jensen Dobbins.

Jensen is one of my younger fans. His parents bought him a copy of Blood and Bone for Christmas. He… Continue

Added by Austin S. Camacho on August 5, 2008 at 10:19pm — No Comments