Middle of the Week Fun!

I have a bunch of odds and ends to share with you and the middle of the week is usually when I need a pick-me-up, so maybe some of these goodies will be your mid-week pick-me-up.

Let's start by announcing some winners to the DOMINANCE book giveaway from Simon and Schuster. The following readers are going to receive a copy of Will Lavender's awesome new puzzle thriller:

• Carol R from Massachusettes
• Donna V from Missouri
• Joyce D from New Jersey

Congrats ladies! And thanks to everyone for participating! Joyce, could you please email me your address. It seems the Google monster ate part of my Google doc and your name and address were part of that section. Thanks!!

Those of you who would still like to try your hand at winning, check out The Drowning Machine where Naomi has been playing a fun game to win great book prizes.

If you didn't see me tweet about this yesterday, you can download a Kindle version of Reed Farrel Coleman's INNOCENT MONSTER for free right now. If you haven't read this and you have a Kindle, GO. DOWNLOAD. NOW!!

If you'd like to hear me talking about blogging, the most wonderful Nicole from Linus's Blanket invited me to be her guest on her podcast "That's How I Blog." You can listen here. You can also find  out about the Jamaican sno-cones!

If you haven't heard yet, Declan Burke is set to release a new book, ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL. I read and reviewed his THE BIG O (be gentle, it was a very early review on the blog). Since I enjoyed THE BIG O, I am looking forward to ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL. This is the description for the book:

Who in their right mind would want to blow up a hospital?

            “Close it down, blow it up – what’s the difference?”

            Billy Karlsson needs to get real. Literally. A hospital porter with a sideline in euthanasia, Billy is a character trapped in the purgatory of an abandoned novel. Deranged by logic, driven beyond sanity, Billy makes his final stand: if killing old people won’t cut the mustard, the whole hospital will have to go up in flames.

            Only his creator can stop him now, the author who abandoned Billy to his half-life limbo, in which Billy schemes to do whatever it takes to get himself published, or be damned . . .

Liberties Press is publishing the book and its launch date is August 10th at its official party at the Gutter Bookshop, Temple Bar, Dublin. Anyone out Dublin way who could cover this event for us?? There is no US release set at this time, but I'll keep you updated. In the meantime, US folks can always secure a copy from The Book Depository (free international shipping!).

Just a reminder that Bouchercon is inching closer. Actually it is now less than TWO MONTHS AWAY!! If you haven't registered yet, you better get to it. And if you have registered, make sure you've also paid for the Anthony Awards Brunch on Sunday. You won't want to miss out on that.

I've made a couple updates to the columns over there on the right side of the blog. I added the widget that you can use to sign up for Shelf Awareness for Readers if you have not already done that. Plus you're entered to win book prizes just by signing up.

I also added the xuni logo that you can use to access the xuni Facebook page. I encourage you to "like" us there as we have some fun stuff coming up in connection with the xuni authors. And we're always sharing news items to keep you as up to date on all the authors as possible. One stop shopping on xuni authors!

I think that's all I have to share today. It's all my wee brain can remember we have to share anyway. Now how about if you share with me? Let me know what you're reading right now and how it is. I'm interested to know what everyone is sticking in their beach bags...or in my case, my work tote.

Hope you're having a great week. Happy Reading!

You Have the Right to Six Words - The 11th Edition

Glad you made it back; I'm posting the memoirs today because I'm hosting a stop on Kwei Quartey's blog tour for his debut novel WIFE OF THE GODS tomorrow. I hope you'll stop back tomorrow to check out my review of his novel and then on Friday he'll be sitting down for a Q & A with us.

But today we are here for Week 11 of "You Have the Right to Six Words: Six-Word Memoirs From Crime Fiction's Greatest Writers," and boy oh boy am I excited about our line-up today. We're going to be all over geographically and in time, so let's see what today's writers have to tell us.

First up is our interview recap, and that honor goes to debut author Paul Harris. Paul has spent the better part of his career covering conflicts and trouble spots around the world as a reporter. He is now living in New York serving as the U.S. Correspondent for the British weekly newspaper The Observer. Paul's first book, THE SECRET KEEPER, evolved as a result of his own experiences in Sierra Leone, and now he's working on a book that will be set against the 2004 and 2008 U.S. Presidential Elections. In his free time, Paul is an avid traveler. Boy, between a career as a news correspondent and a passion for traveling, it's a good thing his memoir is:

Fears flying; got on planes anyway.

Over across the pond, those Irish folks manage to produce some incredible crime fiction writers. Is it something in the water? We have another of those great writers joining us today, the man Ken Bruen describes as "the future of Irish crime fiction." Declan Burke is the author of EIGHTBALL BOOGIE and THE BIG O. In addition to those published works he also has a few more irons in the fire, namely THE BIG EMPTY and BAD FOR GOOD, which we all hope to see in print here in the very near future. On the non-fiction side, Declan has been working as one of the editors on DOWN THESE GREEN STREETS: IRISH CRIME NARRATIVES IN THE 21ST CENTURY. He's held jobs both in writing and out: laborer, barman, factory hand...writer, editor, reviewer. And of course we can't leave off blogger because he maintains one of crime fiction's best blogs, Crime Always Pays. I'm sure if we asked Declan about his greatest accomplishment, though, it would come in the form of one precious little girl named Lily, Declan's daughter. And why do I think that? Because she plays a prominent role in his memoir:

Born. Played. Read. Wrote. Daddy'd. Died.

Yep, I think that sums things up pretty gosh darned well.

Kelli Stanley takes us through time in her historical fiction mysteries. With her unique combination of classical Rome and hardboiled noir, Kelli produced "Roman noir" when she wrote her first novel, NOX DORMIENDA (A Long Night for Sleeping). And for this she was awarded the 2009 Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award as well as a Certificate of Honor from the city of San Francisco. NOX DORMIENDA is also shortlisted for a 2009 Macavity award. In her second book, due out in February of 2010, Kelli moves a little closer to the present with the book Lee Child says is "beautifully imagined and beautifully written." CITY OF DRAGONS follows a female private investigator in 1940s San Francisco. Even though she's changed time periods, Kelli still holds true to her hardboiled roots. "Children's Day" is a short story prequel to CITY OF DRAGONS that takes place during the 1939 World's Fair in San Francisco and will be published in the anthology FIRST THRILLS, due out in the summer of 2010. She is just a busy, busy lady, and writing isn't even her day job! Whew! She loves Golden Age comic books, jazz and big band swing music (a woman after my own heart), as well as classic films and "battered fedoras." What probably endears this amazing woman to me the most is either her love of a Springer Spaniel named Bertie who walks Kelli every day or her modesty:

Tried my best. Got lucky. Thanks!

I think there's a whole lot more than luck behind that success. I see an awful lot of hard work, and I'm on the outside looking in! Thank YOU, Kelli!

And to wrap up Week 11, we have New York Times best selling author David Baldacci. It's hard to know where to start with an author who's published 17 novels, all of which have been best sellers, many of which have won awards, and two of which are young adult novels. His first novel, ABSOLUTE POWER, blasted into the crime fiction scene and was of course made into a major motion picture starring Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman. David's novel WISH YOU WELL was the first book selected for the All America Reads program. Even President Clinton recognized David's work when he selected THE SIMPLE TRUTH as his favorite novel of 1999. Most recently David published FIRST FAMILY, which was his fourth book in the King and Maxwell series.

Before he entered the world of best selling novels, David received a law degree from the University of Virginia and practiced as both a corporate and a trial lawyer. Now he's an acclaimed novelist with his works translated into at least 45 different languages. Next up on the publishing scene for David is his 18th novel, TRUE BLUE, due out in October of this year.


In addition to being a prolific writer, David Baldacci is also a devoted philanthropist. His greatest efforts are directed toward his family's Wish You Well Foundation, which supports family literacy in the United States by fostering and promoting the development and expansion of new and existing literacy and educational programs. He is also active in the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the National Childhood Cancer Foundation, and the Virginia Literacy Foundation.

I have to say that I think this is a person who really "walks the walk." I am honored to include him today and to share his memoir:

Family, friends, books...in that order.

Wow! Thank you everyone for sharing your memoirs with us today. This has been a great week, and I have to tell you that even though we've been doing this now for eleven weeks, I still prep these posts and think, "oh my God! Can you believe they took time out to make memoirs for me and my blog?" This is just still so cool; I'm like a kid in a candy store. Join me back here on our regular day next week...Wednesday...and we'll partake in some more sweets from the candy store!

Happy Reading everyone!

The Big O - Declan Burke

When Karen the armed robber runs into Ray the kidnapper in the midst of a hold-up, sparks start to fly. However, Karen comes with some rather serious baggage - an ex about to be released from prison and Anna.

Ray is not without his problems. It just so happens that he's been hired to kidnap Karen's best friend, Madge. It also isn't such a good thing when police detective Stephanie Doyle takes a shine to Ray and starts giving him more attention than he'd like. Stephanie Doyle is investigating Frank, Madge's soon-to-be ex-husband, for illegal distribution of prescription drugs. Frank just so happens to be the one who hired Ray to kidnap Madge so he could con the insurance company out of the ransom money.

And if that circle of "just so happens" isn't dizzying enough for you, Karen's ex - the one being released from prison - throws another ball into the air for Burke to juggle. And juggle them he does!

If someone had given me a summary of this novel as enticement to read it, I probably wouldn't have given it much thought. But once I picked it up, I was hooked! Characters who normally wouldn't interest me, had me turning pages to find out just what craziness was going to happen next. It was a constant comedy of errors.

Throughout the book I couldn't help but hear "It's a Small World" humming in my head. Everyone is intertwined to everyone else in some rather strange coincidences. But the coincidences simply add to the humor. If I was asked to describe this book, I might say, "if you crossed the land of the misfit toys with Desperate Housewives, you might come close to this crew!" Some people with far too much money and time on their hands crossed with the societal outcasts...all of them misfits in their own ways, and everyone wanting what they don't have. No one is happy with what they do have.

Burke's juggling act in this plot is really genius. How he makes everything somehow link together is amazing. I kept picturing the flow chart he had to have while he was writing to make sure there were no loose ends. But the genius is actually in the way he leads you by the nose right up to the end. I was following, following, following: "oh, of course that's what's gonna happen next!" Then bam! I was blindsided by the final "coincidence." Didn't see it coming at all, but I was grinning from ear to ear when it was revealed.

I have to say that this was one of the rare plot-driven books that really kept me entranced. I wasn't especially fond of the characters, save Anna. They were crass, some were overly spoiled, others were career criminals. They were all smoking pot so often I was getting high just reading the book. But, I had to find out how everything was going to play out in the end. I felt exactly the same way about The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie.

If you're looking for something deep and realistic, you'll have to look elsewhere. The Big O is funny, at times ridiculous or even absurd, and just plain entertaining. It's a fun book; enjoy it - don't look for enlightenment!