You Have the Right to Six Words - Part V

Welcome back to "You Have the Right to Six Words: Six-Word Memoirs from Crime Fiction's Greatest Writers." We're amassing some pretty great memoirs here and there's still plenty more to come. Hope no one is growing bored. I know I'm excited each time I have another response to participate in the project.

This week we'll recognize two authors who had book releases yesterday, as well as two additional folks. All four have great memoirs, so let's get started.

For our first review from an interview, of course we have to have Chris Grabenstein. Chris presently holds the office of Chapter President for New York's Mystery Writers of America chapter. This week the former improv comedian/advertising commercial writer released his fifth novel in the award-winning John Ceepak mystery series, MIND SCRAMBLER. Also this year, his fourth Ceepak novel, HELL HOLE, came out with a brand new cover in paperback and his young reader's novel, THE CROSSROADS was awarded the Agatha for Best YA/Children's Mystery. THE CROSSROADS is also nominated for an Anthony Award for best Children's/Young Adult Mystery. In August, THE CROSSROADS' sequel, HANGING HILL, will be released. So with all these books and all this success, it's no surprise that Chris' memoir would be:

Life is good. Full of stories.

In December I interviewed Robin Burcell who is the author of the award-winning Kate Gillespie series about the first female homicide detective in San Francisco. Last year she released her first book in the Sydney Fitzpatrick series, THE FACE OF A KILLER, which is about a forensic artist. And Robin doesn't just write about those roles, she's actually performed both of them. Robin has an extensive law enforcement background. In addition to working as a homicide detective and a forensic artist, Robin also has experience with hostage negotiations. Robin's next book in the Sydney Fitzpatrick series is titled THE BONE CHAMBER and will be released this winter. But Robin will be stuck with this release because it won't work as well for her six-word memoir as THE FACE OF A KILLER did. Her memoir?

Read THE FACE OF A KILLER.

Yesterday I informed you that we would uncover Gregg Hurwitz's six-word memoir today. I'm sure you don't have that short-term a memory, but a quick re-cap on our guest of honor from yesterday. The Harvard & Trinity College graduate is the author of nine (as of yesterday) thriller novels. The most recent, released yesterday, is TRUST NO ONE. Three of his nine novels feature U.S. Marshall Tim Rackley, and the remainder are stand alone novels. But Gregg's writing resume branches further than crime fiction novels. He's also done script writing and is becoming quite the comic book writer as well. While, in his words, he has a lot of "ass in the seat" time to write novels, when he isn't in that seat, he's often out playing soccer.

You know those "take a penny, leave a penny" containers you often see at stores? Well, Gregg is going to take advantage of the word Alafair left behind a few weeks ago because he asked, "can I have a bonus word?" Now who can say no to Gregg Hurwitz who:

Wanted to do everything all the time.

The last new author I'm going to feature today celebrated a birthday yesterday. So, I want everyone to head on over to either her website or The Outfit, where Libby blogs, and wish Libby Fischer Hellman a very happy birthday! In addition to a slew of wonderful short stories, Libby is the author of the award-winning Ellie Foreman series. Last year the Ellie Foreman series gave birth to a spin-off, so to speak. Georgia Davis, a supporting character in one of the Ellie Foreman novels, took the spotlight for Libby's amazingly poignant novel, EASY INNOCENCE. Davis and Foreman will team up this fall in Libby's sixth and newest thriller novel, DOUBLEBACK. Around that same time AN IMAGE OF DEATH from the Ellie Foreman series is going to be re-released. Libby says her memoir is

Perennial late bloomer: marriage, kids,writing.

I simply say, thank goodness she bloomed, no matter when. The crime fiction world wouldn't be near as good without her contributions!

Woo, I'm looking back at these memoirs for this week and this is a spiffy week. Can you believe all these awesome crime fiction writers played the six-word memoir game with me? Wow, I'm so humbled. This is fun. I think we'll have to do it again next week. Same time, same place, four different memoirs. Hope to see you then!

Happy Reading!!