CAUGHT! - A Double Dose

We have another incredible double dose of Crime Writers Caught Reading Crime today. First up is a writer, editor, publisher, interviewer...well, he just wears many, many hats in the Crime Fiction community. Keith Rawson is caught reading Charlie Williams STAIRWAY TO HELL.

One of Keith's stories can be found in the recently published NEEDLE Magazine. Other story locations can be found at his blog, Bloody Knuckles, Callused Fingertips.

And the second half of our double feature today, with thanks to Crimespree Magazine, is Peter Robinson. The Inspector Banks author was caught here reading Jeremiah Healy's ACT OF GOD.

Peter's newest Inspector Banks novel will come out in August in the U.S. And it's titled BAD BOY. ALL THE COLORS OF DARKNESS was released this past March in paperback.

Technorati Tags: Crime Writers Caught Reading Crime, Keith Rawson, Peter Robinson, Jeremiah Healy, Charlie Williams

Winners and Other Saturday Odds and Ends

Happy Halloween everyone! Hope you had a great week. Last night when I came home from work it was 73 degrees, but the weather fronts decided to do a flipflop last night and it was 51 when I got up this morning. I thought maybe I might wake up in Oz after all the wind and craziness in the night. But, I'm still here, so I get to announce the winners of Hatchette's Spine-Chiller book drawing. Since I had more entries than any other contest to date, they said it would be alright to choose three winners instead of just two. So,

Renee from Washington
Brian from California
Jonnie from Alberta, Canada

are the lucky winners of Jen's Book Thoughts' drawing. They will each in turn be entered into the new drawing for one of the 20 copies of the Dekker ARC. So, good luck to them there. I've contacted each of the winners by email and passed their information along to Hatchette so they can receive their prizes.

I'm planning to hold a couple more contests before Christmas. I am contributing to the BUY BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS campaign, and I thought I'd have some drawings for books I would recommend this year for crime fiction fans. So try your luck and maybe you can win a Christmas gift and save yourself a few dollars this season!

Jen's Book Thoughts received a prize of sorts this week. Corey from The Drowning Machine emailed me to congratulate me on our mention in the new Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Author Bill Crider was extremely generous to mention us in his Blog Bytes column. I have to get out and get my hands on a copy. Thanks to Corey for bringing it to my attention. Bill had mentioned it before Bouchercon, but in all the craziness, it completely slipped my mind! Sometimes I can be so clueless. Geez! And of course many thanks to Bill for making that happen.

Also, keep your eyes peeled for the next Crimespree Magazine. Of course I'll have more reviews but I believe I'll also have an additional special item in Crimespree this time around. And I'm absolutely tickled because I worked with someone I think the world of on this particular project. Yes! I'm being evasive on purpose. I don't want to spill the beans. I want you to check it out yourselves! When I have a better idea of when it'll be available, I'll give you a heads up, but remember, you can always get a subscription here.

I finally made some time to update the Crime Fiction Twitter Directory. Since it was last updated some authors have climbed on board. And I also received some names from others who knew of authors I was unaware of. So that's updated and I also put a link to it over in the sidebar under "Book Sites I Frequent." So if you want to check it out or have needed a little convincing as to whether or not to open a Twitter account, that's where you can easily find the directory.

News for anyone who is a fan of the PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES book. I believe there was a second one? SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AND SEA MONSTERS? Anyway, I have not read these books but know they have been extremely popular lately. Which is why I'm excited for Steve Hockensmith - who, if you'll remember, I met at Bouchercon. He has written book number 3...or maybe it isn't exactly 3 because it's a prequel to P&P&Z? Whatever, it's called DAWN OF THE DREADFULS, and it is based on Austen characters but has no Austen writing in it. So that comes out in March of next year and Entertainment Weekly has a story about it at their site.

I have registered to attend Murder and Mayhem in Muskego. I think I'm having Bouchercon withdrawal, so, you know it's absolutely necessary. Anyway, if you are in the area or can come as well, here's the site with more information. It's November 14th with a meet and greet reception the night before. And also, registration IS open for Bouchercon 2011 in St. Louis. I'm already registered. It's not likely I'll be able to afford San Francisco next year, but I'm all in for St. Louis. Hope you'll be there, too!

And as a parting thought if you're interested, Sean Chercover had a post this week at The Outfit about his new writing digs. It's very cute...or as I commented at the blog, it's very clas-sy!

Have a great weekend and HAPPY READING!

News and Other Such Stuffs...

I have so much to share with you that I'm not even sure where to start! First, how did it get to be the end of July already? Someone is stealing my summer and I'm none too happy about it. It does take us a little closer to Bouchercon in October, though. Official countdown: 82 days! And the other thing about this summer? I've read a lot of GREAT stuff. I just finished Michael Lister's DOUBLE EXPOSURE, which you'll hear about soon, but it was fantastic. Just brilliant. And now I'm in the throws of Ridley Pearson's KILLER SUMMER. Good stuff, good stuff!

First up on the list for today is an announcement for my audiophile friends. Michael Koryta's new book THE SILENT HOUR will be available from Blackstone Audio read by Scott Brick. You can listen to a sample of it here. In addition to that, Michael informs me that ENVY THE NIGHT has been recorded for Audible.com. I don't have more details on that one, but when I do, I'll pass them along.

I've spoken before about The Mystery Bookstore in Los Angeles. These are the folks who so generously allowed me to attend their Festival of Books pre-party back in April. Well, I have to tell you that their customer service continues to astound me. Assistant Manager Linda Brown maintains Mystery Bookstore's Twitter account (@mysterybooks) and whenever possible she tweets during their book events. So, from across the country, I was able to join in the release party for Brett Battles new Jonathan Quinn novel, SHADOW OF BETRAYAL, and was able to attend Gregg Hurwitz's event where he signed my book for me, see:





Linda posted these pictures to TwitPic for me so I could see them in real time during the event. And I got a "hi from Gregg at the author's table." Now that's amazing customer service! And it totally made my weekend. I just love these folks. They have some more great events coming up too if you're interested. If you're in the area, of course nothing tops seeing the authors live. But, this is a great alternative for when the authors aren't close enough to you. And Mystery Bookstore will gladly save books and have them personally inscribed for you if you can't make the event (like me).

You can see the link here for their August events, but I wanted to point a few out to everyone. On August 1st a debut author by the name of Kwei Quartey will be signing his book WIFE OF THE GODS. Kwei will be here on my blog the following week. August 15th they will host Linwood Barclay signing his book FEAR THE WORST. Linwood will be a 6-word memoirist, so he'll be making an appearance here soon, too. And you all know how much I adore Poke Rafferty. Tim Hallinan will be signing BREATHING WATER on August 21st. I haven't posted my review of this book yet, but I'll tell you that you should NOT miss it. Call and order your copy now! And the last event I want to point out to you is the following day and it's called A DEADLY COMBINATION. MBS will host three talented female crime fiction writers, one of whom is Sophie Littlefield. I am SO excited to get my copy of A BAD DAY FOR SORRY, which is coming out this week. I really am looking forward to this debut novel. Sophie will also be one of our upcoming memoirists and she's one of the bloggers over at Seven Criminal Minds.

I've been meaning to mention this for awhile and haven't gotten around until now. I won what I think is the most creative contest from a book blogger. Jennifer over at The Literate Housewife held a contest awhile back to win a membership in the bookmark of the month club. Each month she MAKES a book mark for the folks who won this membership, and these bookmarks are absolutely wonderful!! I wanted to post a picture of a few so you can see. This was just a superb contest. She's a thinker, that lady is.


And another cool book-related item I want to share with you is this gift my boss gave me. It's called the Porta Book and I guess it's been advertised on TV. My boss (who is awesome by the way) bought a case of these to use as graduation gifts. I wanted to know if she was keeping one for herself and if she would tell me how it was for reading in bed because I wanted something since I do that so often. She reached in and pulled one out and said "happy graduation." And let me tell you that this basic little gadget is heaven for reading in bed. I use it literally every night now. I keep a pencil in the tray for making my notes while I read, and it folds up when I'm not using it so it isn't an inconvenience to store. Honest, I'm not trying to do a commercial - "the blogger has not been paid for these comments," I just really love this thing. It has made my evening reading 100 times more comfortable. I love that it props my book up for me and I don't have to hold it - and it weighs nothing. Thanks Candace!!



Really quick I want to remind you that the nominations are still being accepted for Book Blogger Appreciation Week. They will be open until August 15th and EVERYONE, blogger or no, can vote in the nominations - there are quite a few categories. So make sure you get over and recognize your favorite bloggers. If you are an author, publisher, publicist, whatever and you'd like to donate a prize to the BBAW, you can find a form to do so here.

Alright, hopefully that covers everything I wanted to mention...oh wait! One more thing. It's official now (I saw it with my own eyes) so I can mention it. Two of my reviews are printed in the new edition, #31 July/August, of CRIMESPREE magazine! I'm officially published! I don't think I could be more thrilled because I love this magazine. It is all about highlighting the amazing world of crime fiction literature. Every edition I pick up is packed with great stuff. I read about authors I enjoy, I learn about new authors and events. And they have tons of contests for you contest lovers. I am beyond humbled to have my name appear in this magazine. O.k., what are you waiting for? Go buy it!! ;)

Alright, now I really am done. That's all the news for this Saturday. Hope you have a wonderful last week of July 2009. Happy Reading.