November 2009 Blog Posts (145)

National Adoption Day

Today, Saturday, November 21, 2009, is National Adoption Day.

In North America alone, so many children are currently waiting in foster care for a permanent family to come into their lives. In other parts of the world, for example in China, where our own dear daughter Tammy-Li Ming-Hui was born, countless infants and young children reside in the stasis of… Continue

Added by Donna Carrick on November 22, 2009 at 3:00am — No Comments

ROGUE MALES INTERVIEW SUBJECT #13: DANIEL WOODRELL

Number 13 of 16 ROGUE MALES: CONVERSATIONS & CONFRONTATIONS ABOUT THE WRITING LIFE essays now up.

Added by Craig McDonald on November 21, 2009 at 9:43am — No Comments

I could have sworn...

But I am probably wrong. No posts. Here's one!

I am involved in NaNoWriMo. I really like my murder mystery, set in AZ and it's about, among other things, the Hohokam (who dispersed not disappeared). I make some interesting points about them, because they're my favorite ancient civilization.

I am very pleased to be at 33287, while the daily tote is:

I've lost a lot for various reasons, but now I am very happily at the… Continue

Added by Virginia Conn on November 21, 2009 at 8:57am — No Comments

Review: Exit Strategy by Kelley Armstrong

In this week’s blog I’m going to review a book I finished a couple of days ago, Exit Strategy by Kelley Armstrong.

Kelley Armstrong is better known for her paranormal books and series (including the Women from the Otherworld Series), but Exit Strategy is about a hitman…well, actually a few hitmen, a couple of hitwomen and a serial killer.

The main character, Nadia Stafford, is an ex-cop turned hitwoman/vigilante. Of course, being a hitwoman isn’t a… Continue

Added by Phillipa Martin (PD Martin) on November 21, 2009 at 7:58am — No Comments

Review: Exit Strategy by Kelley Armstrong

Added by Phillipa Martin (PD Martin) on November 21, 2009 at 7:58am — No Comments

And They Don't Even Offer a Reach-Around

(Also posted at One Bite at a Time.)

There’s been a lot of outrage over Harlequin’s recent announcement to launch their own self-publishing branch, Harlequin Horizons. (Here, here, and… Continue

Added by Dana King on November 21, 2009 at 6:25am — 3 Comments

MORAL DILEMMA CH. 5 and 6

CH. 5 JACK AND ANGIE

Jack was hired and he asked Angie out to dinner to get acquainted. They were at a nice restaurant discussing their handicaps.

“I enjoyed that today, watching you was fun.”

“You were handy too.” Jack joked.

They both laughed at the pun.

“How did you lose your legs, if I may ask?”

“It`s ok, I’ll tell you.”

“I was on a night recon with two other seals in Iraq. We were sneaking up on an Iraqi command post at three am Iraqi time.”

The moon… Continue

Added by RONALD FEASEL on November 21, 2009 at 1:32am — No Comments

Another Challenge

Here's one I used to use with my students to get past the I-can't-write-poetry defense.

A noun (in this case your current protagonist)
4 adjectives describing the noun
A phrase
A noun related to the original noun

Here's mine:
Simon,
Callow, curious, virtuous, brave,
Loyal as the day is long,
Sleuth.

Added by Peg Herring on November 20, 2009 at 9:33pm — No Comments

Book Trailers

(Also posted at One Bite at a Time.)

This may be a sore subject, as I know a lot of folks who have produced trailers for their books, but this article in Slate got me to wondering about the key question regarding trailers:

Does anyone know if they work?

For me, personally, no. I can't imagine buying a book based on a video trailer. Part of… Continue

Added by Dana King on November 20, 2009 at 7:08am — 8 Comments

Researching the novel

Novelists aren’t journalists. Research for a novel isn’t the same as researching a journalistic article.

I’d have thought that was too obvious to need stating. But then I became a published novelist, and I realized that people thought the two things were rather the same.

I was a journalist for almost 20 years before my first novel was published. THE COLLABORATOR OF BETHLEHEM is a crime novel set in Bethlehem during the intifada, and I’d spent over a decade covering the… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on November 20, 2009 at 1:07am — 1 Comment

I Challenge You

Sixty words to describe your office right this minute. Here's mine:

The chilly room was crammed with books, papers, and the paraphrenalia of two computers, one for standing, one for sitting. Stuck along the wainscot trim were congratulatory cards and letters, and atop a small, music-laden bookshelf lay two naked dolls. A glass of water, going tepid, had a sheet of paper across its top to keep the flies out.

Added by Peg Herring on November 19, 2009 at 10:09pm — 3 Comments

Meet Me in Virginia Tomorrow

This will be a very busy weekend as I continue to take my book signings to new places. Friday I’ll drive down to Chesapeake, VA for a book signing at the Waldenbooks at the Greenbrier Mall. From 10am to 2pm you’ll find me there, at 1401 Greenbrier Parkway.

I’ll leave there to drive to Virginia Beach, VA where I’ll sign my novels at the Barnes and Noble at the Columbus Village Shopping Center. That signing starts at 5 pm, at 4485 Virginia Beach Blvd.

Added by Austin S. Camacho on November 19, 2009 at 9:14pm — No Comments

Meet Me in Virginia Tomorrow

Added by Austin S. Camacho on November 19, 2009 at 9:14pm — No Comments

Review - The Billionaire's Curse, Richard Newsome

Book Title: THE BILLIONAIRE'S CURSE

Author: Richard Newsome

Publisher: Text Publishing (Young Adult / Children's Writing)

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 978-1-921520-57-0

No of Pages: 355

Book Synopsis:

Someone has stolen the world’s most valuable diamond and a constable lies unconscious in the British Museum, two sedative darts protruding from his backside.

Not something Gerald Wilkins knows or cares anything about.

Not until he finds… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on November 19, 2009 at 11:22am — No Comments

On vanity and the criminal mind

Here's a rather long quote from Josephine Tey (the speaker is Grant in The Singing Sands)

"It's a harmless sort of weakness," Tad said, with a tolerant lift of a shoulder.

"That is just where you are wrong. It is the utterly destructive quality. When you say vanity, you are thinking of the kind that admires itself in the mirror and buys things to deck itself out in. But that is merely personal conceit. Real vanity is something quite different. A matter not of person but of… Continue

Added by Ken Kuhlken on November 19, 2009 at 10:45am — No Comments

NEW BLOG SITE

My series focusing on interview subjects featured in Rogue Males: Conversations & Confrontations about the Writing Life resumes with Ken Bruen at my new blog site. Also, details regarding a newsletter contest continuing through the February 2010 release of my next novel, Print… Continue

Added by Craig McDonald on November 19, 2009 at 1:18am — No Comments

Another Cool Review

I recently got a review from my friend Sandra, who writes under the pen name B. Swangin Webster.

I met Sandra some months ago when we signed books at the same store. She picked up a copy of Blood and Bone and promised to share her opinion. But as sometimes happens, she was swamped by all the events she attended promoting her first urban romance novel, “… Continue

Added by Austin S. Camacho on November 19, 2009 at 12:19am — No Comments

History, and Do You Care?

My aunt, the last surviving member of her generation, is 95. When I asked her about family history so I could write it down and preserve it, her response was, "Who cares? That's the past."

I got a review yesterday from a woman who loved HER HIGHNESS, but she prefaced her praise with the comment that she almost didn't read it (she won an ARC) because historicals are boring.

Obviously, I'm of a different sort. I love history, not so much the sweep of politics and armies and… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on November 18, 2009 at 9:51pm — 1 Comment

Less about suicide bombers, more about suicides

Michael Anthony is the author of MASS CASUALTIES: A Young Medic’s True Story of Death, Deception and Dishonor in Iraq (Adams Media, October 2009). His book is drawn from his personal journals during the first year he spent serving in Iraq. You can read my interview with him… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on November 18, 2009 at 6:49pm — 1 Comment

Historical detective. 'Ffolkes' Medicine' due out either in December or early January.

The pirate-detective novel I've mention called 'Ffolkes' Medicine' is due to come late this December or in early January.

Pirates--murder--egos as large as the Caribbean itself--what's not to like?