Five on Friday - Glen Hamilton

Happy friend friends and fellow readers! I hope your week has been a good one. We've had sunshine and pleasant temps here, and I just finished the second of two long books - together they were over 1300 pages. I'm looking forward to a regular-sized book now. They were both very good, but I didn't really want a weight work out at the same time.

A couple housekeeping items before I move on to our wonderful guest.

First, my Kiwi friend Craig at Craig's Crime Watch has an opportunity for you to win a signed book by a New Zealand author--a Ngaio Marsh Award finalist even! So be sure to stop over and check that out.

Friday Reads has a book called The Canterbury Sisters in their giveaway this week. I'm not familiar with the book, but check it out and see if it's up your alley.

Criminal Element has this rather humorous article from a former Sports Illustrated writer--he created a football line-up with crime fiction characters. There's a sweepstakes at the end you enter as well.

And most importantly, don't forget that Sunday is National Book Lovers Day. Be sure to celebrate accordingly.

Now on to the fun stuff. Today it is my great pleasure to welcome Glen Hamilton, whose debut novel, Past Crimes, came out to great fanfare in March. I first met Glen at Left Coast Crime in Monterey, and he was sitting at the table with me when Brad Parks decided to share my 40th birthday with the whole conference. So I think that makes us good buddies, right? Well, it at least got Glen to say yes when I invited him to participate. He made time to answer our "unique" questions in the midst of working on the second book in his series--which will be out next March.  What a good sport!

My friends, please welcome Glen Hamilton!

1. The one food I absolutely will not eat is:Brussels Sprouts. There’s something about the cabbagey smell. Even the dog wouldn’t eat them, and she once ate the cloth napkins. When I was quite young I learned how to get away with not eating B.S. (ahem) by dawdling over my meal until finally left alone at the table. Desperation had led to invention, and the discovery of two facts: 1. Milk is opaque, and 2. Brussels Sprouts sink. I’d drink half the milk, submerge said sprouts, and make my escape.

2. The most beautiful place I’ve ever visited is:City Mouse or Country Mouse? If I’m feeling urban, it has to be Paris. I’m a geek for architecture, and I’ll walk around Paris all day with my mouth open, happily drooling on my Hawaiian shirt and confirming the French’s worst impressions of Americans. If they’re feeling the joie de vivre, they stuff a croissant in my mouth, hand me a café crème for energy, and off I go. If it’s the outdoors, I’ll go with New Zealand. My parents lived in Auckland for a time, and when I visited we drove with a tent trailer around the North and South Islands (wisely taking a ferry for the stretch of water in between.) It’s a remarkable place, not just for its beauty but containing huge variety in such a relatively small area. You can walk off a glacier into a rain forest. That was twenty years ago, and I’m hankering to return. Care to sponsor a book tour, anyone?

3. My favorite time of day is:Exhibit Number Four Hundred and Twelve That I am Becoming My Father: I really enjoy being up early, while the world seems to be moving slower than its usual 67,000 miles per hour. I write, or read, or run, or drink coffee (okay, I definitely drink coffee), and enjoy the quiet. And much like my father, I will someday also enjoy waking any teenagers in the house before 10am, by using power tools somewhere in close proximity.

4. When I was a kid, my favorite thing to get in my trick-or-treat bag was:I’m going to bypass the obvious answer, which is “anything from that one house where they’re giving away full-sized candy bars”, because more of any candy is obviously better. Except maybe circus peanuts. I wouldn’t use those to insulate my house, even though they are clearly molded from the same material. My youthful favorite was those tough little individually-wrapped rectangles called Bit-O-Honey. Although there is no evidence that this candy contained actual honey, and perhaps not even actual bits, I still loved the waxy taste and the fact that it took five minutes just to eat one. The reasoning seemed to be: If I’m working this hard, it must be delicious. Which, come to think of it, is also the same logic I apply to writing. If it’s this demanding, it’s got to be worth it.

5. The #1 item on my bucket list right now is:Right this minute? That would have to be finding a flight home from Boston. I’m trapped in Logan airport with the rest of United 717’s passengers, awaiting word on whether a mechanical issue will create a long delay or a very long delay. As far as life goals, if we set aside the desire to travel to a whole mess of places (and some messy places), then I’ll say becoming fluent enough in another language to hold a conversation. Maybe I’ll sound more intelligent with a different accent. It works for the Brits when they speak American…

I hope this started off your weekend as nicely as it did mine! So much fun. I love when our guests have fun with the answers, don't you? You can learn more about Glen at his website. You can also connect with him on Facebook and Twitter. And I'll vouch that he makes a great dinner companion so at your next conference, invite him to sit at your table. Thanks Glen!

Have a super weekend everyone. Happy National Book Lovers Day and happy reading!

Five on Friday - Shannon Kirk

Happy Friday all! I hope your week has been great and you're anticipating some good reading for the weekend. I'm thoroughly enjoying Ace Atkins' new Quinn Colson novel, so that's where you'll find me this weekend.

If you'd like to try your luck at winning some books, you could:

• head over to Criminal Element where they have their Top Cop sweepstakes still going on (until Tuesday) for a load of good crime loot.
• mosey over to Friday Reads where they are giving away Luckiest Girl Alive and In a Dark, Dark Wood.
• fly over to Beth Fish Reads where she's holding a contest for the 10th anniversary of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson (I actually put my name in the hat for this one in hopes I can win it for my nephew!)
• wander into Lisa's Book Critiques where she'll have her weekly giveaway...it's a mystery right now because I'm writing this before she posts it. ;-)

Good luck if you enter any of the contests.

Now on to our fun Friday content! I'm excited to welcome Shannon Kirk to the blog for the first time. Last month, Shannon released her debut novel, Method 15/33. The novel actually started off as a novella and was a 2013 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition finalist. She expanded the novella and has a debut that is getting great buzz!

But writing is just one small facet of Shannon Kirk. Shannon is also a practicing attorney and an adjunct college professor. She likes to create sea-glass sculptures and paint. (I really want to see one of her sculptures!)  And she found time to participate in Five on Friday today. Please help me welcome her to the blog!

When I was a kid, my favorite thing to get in my trick-or-treat bag was: Hands down, candy corn. And today, I pilfer my son’s trick-or-treat bag for the little bags of candy corn, even though it would be far more efficient for me to go down to the store and buy a whole giant bag. But my favorite candy otherwise when I was a kid were Pepto pink wintergreen mints, those round ones you get at the drug store, that my Nana Hanson kept hidden in a hutch.

My five favorite movies of all time are:
1. The English Patient
2. Silence of the Lambs
3. The Notebook
4. The One I Love
5. Sixth Sense
Love and horror, that’s what I’m all about.

The one food I absolutely will not eat is Mushrooms. Mushrooms have been scientifically proven to be a demonic fungus that fell off the devil’s back when he was in the Garden of Eden—and they’ve proliferated since then. All mushrooms, every single variety, are so vile, they should be banned not only from consumption, but from the entire planet. All space missions should have one purpose: transport mushrooms to discard into deep space. Disgusting.

The most beautiful place I’ve ever visited is Butchart Gardens in British Columbia. This is a botanical garden that is absolutely mind-blowing in beautiful color. There is one part where you come upon a valley, you’re standing high on a walking bridge, of sorts. When I looked into the valley and saw the array of primary colors, deep reds, true blues, all shades of green, lemon yellows, tears really did come to my eyes. I felt I was getting a glimpse of Heaven. I’ve never seen anything like it. And no description of mine would ever do it justice, you just have to experience the view. Incidentally, I have another book coming out in 2017 called Heavens—it’s literary fiction, not a thriller. You may notice, if you read it, that the main character equates botanical gardens with Heaven—or rather, her personal peace.

The #1 item on my bucket list right now is: This has been my #1 bucket list item for some years now. It’s pretty specific and totally impossible, so please know I know it’s demented, but truth is, this is my #1 bucket list wish….Someday, I’d like to attend La Boheme at Milan’s La Scala, wearing a blood-red Valentino gown—as in, total full-on, floor-length, red-carpet-worthy GOWN. My escort could be either Jakob Dylan or Ray LaMontagne, I can be flexible on this detail. I prefer the latter, but the former is quite fine too. After the opera, we will share a plate of fried zucchini flowers and two bottles of a perfect Chianti (a version you can only get in Italy) in a tiny restaurant hidden somewhere amongst the tangle of cobblestone alleys of Milan’s fashion district. Perhaps sometime after midnight, my song-writing date will whip out his guitar and sing me something acoustic. That’s the #1 bucket list item, and I’m pretty sure I’ll have to wait for the delusions that come upon dying for me to experience it.

Is it any wonder Shannon is having success with her writing? This is quite possibly the greatest bucket list response to date in my opinion. Too fun! Plus, I am SO in agreement on mushrooms! You can ask my niece who use to taunt me with the plastic mushrooms from her kitchen play set when she was little. ;-)

Thanks so much to Shannon for hanging out with us today. You can learn more about Shannon and her writing at her website. And you can connect with her through Facebook and Twitter.

And thanks to all of you for stopping by to share in the fun. Have a great weekend and Happy Reading!

Five on Friday - Jeffrey Siger

Happy Friday my friends! I hope you've had a great week. How's the reading going? I'm looking forward to this weekend because I'm going to interview Brittany Gibbons, AKA Brittany Herself. And I have Sean Chercover's The Devil's Game in my reading pile.

I hope your reading plans are making you smile as well.

I'm really excited about today's Five on Friday guest. He isn't new to the blog but he doesn't get to visit nearly enough--my fault, sorry. Jeffrey Siger is just so much fun. And his contribution to Five on Friday is stellar. This my friends is what the feature is all about.

This former Wall Street lawyer gave up his career so he could write mysteries set in Greece, where he now lives. This year he will publish the seventh Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis novel, Devil of Delphi. And this series has garnered a lot praise--I know because Jeff recently started working with xuni.com for his website, so I'm regularly adding that praise to the site!

Without further ado, I shall turn today's post over to Jeff (note: I'm putting the bucket list question first because it ties in with Jeff's second response):

This is one of my favorite photos submitted for Five on Friday. Makes me smile.

The #1 item on my bucket list right now is: This isn’t meant to be a downer, but I really don’t have a #1 or for that matter even a bucket list. I feel blessed with what I’ve achieved in my life and only hope that my children and grandchildren find as much peace and satisfaction in their lives.

A place I’ve never visited but would like to is: There seems to be an unintended theme developing here because my answer is Heaven. Not soon mind you, but if asked to pick a numero uno destination, I’d have to say this is it.

The best car I ever owned was: My 1965 Pontiac Little GTO. Need I say why? Just ask Ronnie and the Daytonas.



Happiness is: Smiling, healthy, happy, children.

My favorite vegetable is: Iceberg Lettuce. My family was in the produce business and this vegetable put me through college. I believe in being loyal to vegetables that have been loyal to you.

I'm sharing this with my dad who has a GTO parked in his garage right now. And I don't know about you all, but I love every time someone answers the happiness question. Always makes me smile.

So many thanks to Jeff for this fantastic contribution to the series. You can catch up with him on Facebook or Twitter and learn more about him on his website...which is rather spiffy, if I do say so myself. ;-)

Have a super weekend and happy reading!

Five on Friday - Anne A. Wilson

I don't know about you all, but this week has just gotten away from me. So I'm going to forego all the usual chit chat and get right to our delightful guest today for Five on Friday.

This week, Anne A. Wilson debuted her first novel (well, at least her first published novel), Hover this week. A Navy Academy grad, a former Navy helicopter pilot--including a stint with search and rescue--and now a co-owner of Camelback Coaching--a triathlon coaching company, this woman is no slouch! Her debut novel is a romantic suspense story about a female Navy helicopter pilot, so Anne is following that advice to write what you know.

Please help me welcome this multi-talented, freshly minted published author to the blog! Anne A. Wilson.

A skill I’ve always wanted to have, but don’t is: Does bowling count? Because I cannot do this. Believe me, I’ve tried. Like really tried. My uncle—who averaged something like 205 or 210 in league play—used to give me lessons even, and yet, I can count on one hand the times I’ve bowled over 100. People are nice. “Oh, you’re just having an off night.” No one realizes, though, that I bowl on a treadmill of “off nights.” It happens every . . . single . . . time. I suck every . . . single . . . time. I mean, I was a helicopter pilot, for god’s sake! You’d think I could figure this out! Yes, I definitely have a complex about this.

My idea of the perfect ice cream sundae includes: Vanilla ice cream, peanut butter, and chocolate syrup. When I attended the Naval Academy, we ate in King Hall, which seats 4,000 midshipmen at one time. On every table, for each of three meals every day, you would find certain staples. For whatever reason, chocolate syrup and peanut butter were always on the table, right next to the salt and pepper. So dessert was often a glop of peanut butter topped with chocolate syrup. If they served ice cream on a particular day, that was a bonus. You added it to the peanut butter and chocolate syrup combo and voilà! An ice cream sundae!

If I won the lottery tomorrow, the first thing I would do would be: Buy my son a medieval suit of armor. Every year, we go to the Renaissance Festival, and this is what he wants. He asks for it every Christmas. Every birthday. Year after year after year, armor is always on the list. And these days, a suit of armor runs $2,500 and up. So, yeah . . . lottery.

When I’m feeling under the weather, I…. Am grumpy. Impatient. I withdraw to the bedroom, tuck myself in bed, sulk, and feel sorry for myself. But then, when I realize my husband and kids are taking great pains to avoid me, it also strikes me that it’s quiet. And I’m alone. And I’m not rushing off to the next appointment, or just not rushing, in general. My stack of to-be-read books is right there on the night stand. . . . I then thank the cosmos for small favors, open up a novel, and lose myself.

The #1 item on my bucket list right now is: Shoot, shoot, shoot! I am so bad at this question. I’m not a bucket list person because I think the unchecked items on the list create a startlingly efficient way to sow the seeds of regret. “I should have gone on that African safari before my knees went bad.” “I should have taken the kids to the Grand Canyon before they left home for college.” I think not having a bucket list is a self-defense mechanism for me, so I won’t end up on a couch some day with a therapist!

In the meantime, if there’s something I want to do, but can’t seem to do it now, I ask myself why. What’s standing in your way right now, Anne, that you can’t do this? Usually, it’s a case of rearranging priorities. If it’s that trip to Africa and a lack of funds is what’s keeping me stateside, then how to I go about changing that? Can I take the money I spend at Starbucks every week (an exorbitant amount for me), and put it in a travel jar? Or, could I pursue the trip with a charity group, where if I donate my time and effort, some of the expenses might be covered? Could I forego my gym membership and save money that way?

If I’m actively pursuing something, and it doesn’t work out, I think it softens or even eliminates that kick-in-the-gut type of regret. But if it’s just this dream, blowing out there in the wind, and I’m not doing anything to actively pursue it, then not achieving that dream could lead to . . . the dark side. And I sort of don’t want to go there.

What a cool outlook on the bucket list. I love it. And who knew a suit of armor...$2500! Thanks for being such a great sport with our Five on Friday questions, Anne. This was fabulous. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.

You can find out more about Anne on her website. You can also connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a super weekend and happy reading!

Five on Friday - David Taylor

It's back! After too long of a hiatus, I have rejuvenated the Five on Friday feature. We have a number of fun new faces that will be showing up in the coming weeks, so I hope you'll check in for their mini-interviews.

A look at a couple of things around the web first.

Alafair Burke has a fun contest connected to her debut at Yankees Stadium. If you guess correctly, you could win all of her Ellie Hatcher novels. And don't tap me for the answer on this one because she has me stumped. I had a couple of theories, but after checking into them, they were all wrong. Good luck!

I really enjoy Grant Snider's comic work, but this Reader's Manifesto is probably my favorite.

There's a lot of book love going on in NYC this week during BEA, but you can also find some book love (a.k.a. contests) at:

Criminal Element where they have the "Don't Blow It" Sweepstakes AND they also have a chance for you to win a load of Brad Meltzer's great thrillers.

And Friday Reads has Steve Barry's new novel, The Patriot Threat on audio! All my audio friends, don't miss out on that opportunity.

So let me quit yappin' and tell you about David Taylor. I recently discovered his debut novel Night Life because I'm reviewing the audio for AudioFile Magazine. This will be one of my favorite debuts of the year. It is fabulous: atmospheric, suspenseful, stunning writing. You'll hear more about the book in my review shortly, but I was delighted to hear from David and even happier when he consented to take the Five on Friday seat.

David spent a couple decades among the Hollywood folks, writing for TV and movies. He also wrote an off-Broadway play. He's dabbled in short stories and magazine articles. So in short, Night Life may be his debut novel, but he's an old pro at writing. It is my great pleasure to welcome him to the blog!

1. If I could have a secret superpower, it would be: Invisibility. What better power for a writer than to go anywhere unseen and listen to the talk, and watch the interactions?

2. The strangest dream I can recall having was: don’t exactly remember the dream, but it took place in a hotel under construction on the Pacific Island of Saipan. I was awakened by the slamming of my bedroom door and found myself standing naked in the hall as two Japanese honeymooning couples came up the stairs. They found me riotously amusing. My problem was how to get back to my room. Going downstairs to the desk did not seem a wise idea. I ended up climbing back off the balconies under construction to my balcony where I had, fortunately, left the door open.

3. My faith in humanity is renewed when I: When I see people rise up against the abuses of those in power.

4. My very first job was “Transportation Agent” at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite Valley after freshman year at college. The restaurants in the hotel were staffed by college age people, so the parties did not start until after ten at night. I had to be at work at eight in the morning and survived on about five hours of sleep. It was a wonderful summer, but I was so inept at the job that at the end of the summer I booked myself out of a train station that had been closed for two years.

5. The #1 item on my bucket list right now is: To hike California’s Lost Coast trail with my wife and two daughters.

O.k. was this not a stellar way to restart the Five on Friday? I giggled and cheered and loved this contribution. I hope you did too. More to come, my friends. Thanks for stopping by today. I'll have a review of Night Life next week. The audio version will be a little later in AudioFile, but you don't have to wait on me, go grab your copy now!

Have a wonderful weekend and happy reading!

Five on Friday - John Clarkson

Happy Friday...and happy last Friday of January. We here in Northeast Ohio are now one month closer to nice weather again. Although you really can tell that by looking out the window. I hope you are warm and cozy where ever you are this week.

I also hope you have a good book to keep you company. I just finished up Night is the Hunter by Steven Gore, which was quite good and you'll hear about that later in February. I'm also in the midst of Neil Gaiman's Trigger Warnings. His writing is so incredible and I'm very thankful my friend helped me to finally discover that fact! What's good your way?

You may have noticed some little tweaks happening on the blog in the sidebars and such. I'm slowly doing some small makeovers, so you'll be noticing those happen over the coming weeks. I'm hoping to clean things up and give everything a more organized feel.

And that brings us to this week's Five on Friday. John Clarkson is an old hand in the advertising industry, working as a copywriter, running his own agency and consulting. He's also no newbie when it comes to publishing with five previous novels. His new book Among Thieves, out on Tuesday, pits ex-cons against Wall Street traders--a rather interesting twist on gang wars, dontcha think?

This is John's first visit to the blog and I'm delighted to welcome him. I think you'll enjoy his responses:

"Me at a favorite activity...sitting
around confabbing with a stogie,
although the stogies are very rare these days.

If I could have a secret superpower, it would be: The power to touch someone, say shake their hand, and instantly know everything they know. Have every skill they have. Let’s say for a period of one day. I think the explanation for this is pretty obvious. Imagine the depth and breadth of experience. Think of the possibilities.

My least favorite chore around the house is Shoveling snow. Hands down that’s the worst chore. We own a house in upstate New York. It snows often. Luckily, I’m not there all the time. I switch between upstate and Brooklyn. I have a guy who comes around with the plow to clear the driveway area when it snows, but I often have to shovel a path from there to my doorway. I’d say it’s about seventy-five feet.

I always start fast and try to move as much snow as I can with each shovel full because I want to get the job done and get inside ASAP. But about half-way, I tell myself, slow down. I’m sweating, winded, feel like I’m going to throw out my back, or have a damn heart attack. So then the job becomes longer. Much longer. Hands get cold. Glasses get fogged up. Nose is running.

Finally I reach the end. Great. But then I turn around and the path I just cleared is already covered with a nice, fresh coat of snow. God do I hate shoveling snow.

My last meal request would be: Medium rare NY Strip Steak, crisp, thin French Fries, haricot verts with herb butter, accompanied by a very good Cabernet from Napa Valley, maybe something from Beaulieu like their 2009 Georges de Latour Private Reserve. Dessert: a slice of New York’s Gotham Bar & Grill Chocolate Cake, coffee, accompanied by a generous shot of either 23 year old Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon, or maybe Midleton Very Rare Irish Whisky. I suppose I would not be sober on my way to the gallows, but no matter…I would have done enough contemplating during my last meal.

My very first job was delivering meat for a kosher butcher in Chicago when I was twelve years old. It was strange, exciting, a little bit scary, and since I was raised a Catholic confined to church on Sundays and parochial school Monday through Friday, it certainly expanded my cultural horizons.

I remember the name of the butcher: Joe Farkus. As I recall he was a kindly fellow who smiled a great deal, but didn’t say much. He had a heavy old bike with a big wire basket that I used for the deliveries. All the meat was wrapped in layers of white butcher paper and secured with masking tape.

Some of those packages of meat were a bit weird bordering on creepy. I remember a few of them being soft and mushy. What the hell was that? Brains? Intestines? To this day I still can’t imagine what was in those packages.

The fun part was going into buildings I’d never been in. I had license to skulk around. Check out the lobbies and stairwells of various three-story brick apartment buildings that dominated Chicago neighborhoods. Peek into apartments when the doors opened to me. I have to admit, even at the age of twelve I enjoyed prowling around.

Farkus paid me a ridiculously low hourly wage, but the tips weren’t bad. At least it wasn’t interning for free. How the hell do companies/people get away with that crap?

The #1 item on my bucket list right now is: Honestly, I don’t really have a bucket list. Building a bucket list requires putting aside what I’m doing now and deciding on something to do at some time in the future. And I guess the supposition there is that whatever that thing is, it’s somehow more important than what I’m doing now. I have a hard time figuring out what that might be.
Apropos of this topic, just today I read an article in the NY Times by Ruth Chang in the Op Ed section entitled Resolving to Create a New You. (I’m writing this just after New Year’s). The gist of it is that most of us make judgments about what to do [for instance what should be on the “Bucket List”] based on the false assumption that we can figure out which of several options has the most value by weighing various facts. What has more value? Scuba diving off the Great Barrier Reef, or skydiving over the Mojave Desert? Hmmm. Let’s weigh the facts.

Chang says analyzing pros and cons doesn’t work – particularly when several options seem on a par. The better thing to do is to look inward and find what you can commit yourself to. Pick the activity you see yourself throwing yourself into. Once you do that, whatever that is, it will be imbued with value.

So, my bucket list is pretty much what I’m doing right now, which is frankly, writing book #3 in the series that started with AMONG THIEVES…and specifically answering these questions.

I can absolutely relate with the snow shoveling! Although I have often been known to take the stance, "God put it there and he can take it away." You can connect with John on Goodreads and he has a website coming soon.

Thanks to John for taking time out to join us and thanks to you for stopping by. Have a warm and wonderful weekend. Happy reading.

Five on Friday: Jutta Profijt

Happy Friday all! I'm so excited after having raved and raved about The Morgue Drawer series on Tuesday, I'm over the moon to welcome Jutta Profijt today as our featured guest.

Jutta Profijt hales from Germany and spent some time living in Cognac, France. She's worked as a translator, a project manager, a Business English and Business French teacher and now most importantly, a crime writer.

Morgue Drawer Four kicked off the series, as I mentioned on Tuesday. What I did not mention then was the fact that it was nominated for the 2010 Friedrich-Glauser-prize (the German Edgar award!).

You already know how much I love these books, so let's meet Jutta, shall we?

1. I'd willingly make a deal with the devil to stop violence and wars. No need to explain that, ey?

2. If I could have a secret superpower, it would be read people’s mind. I would be able to switch it on and off (I certainly don’t want to know every thought from everyone!) and from time to time I would sneak into people’s mind to understand why they do what they do.

3. My last meal request would be a fresh garden salad including rucola and radicchio with mustard/honey dressing as a starter, some bread with muhammara (a walnut/garlic/chili pesto), spaghetti with basil pesto, a little lemon sorbet to refresh the tastebuds, roasted chicken (or lamb chops) with french fries and a ginger-chili-tiramisù. After that a very strong espresso. (Fortunately I’m criminal only in my books, so I hope to enjoy all these things – not usually in one meal, though - many, many times before I die.)

4. My most successful New Years resolution of all time was not to have any. I skipped this tradition years ago. If habits are really bad enough to change them I could do this any time of the year. And if they are not bad enough, why should I care?

5. The #1 item on my bucket list right now is start with my new book. I’ve been doing funny things the last days pretending they were extremely urgent just to avoid the confrontation with the blank page. Thanks for reminding me that this is in fact the no.1 item on my list …

I'm in totally agreement on the violence and wars. I have to share with you that the first picture of Jutta is what she says is her favorite activity each day and the picture was labeled "Profijt chilling." Now I'm going to put on a sweater because I've suddenly developed goosebumps all over. Brrrrrrr!

Many, many thanks to Jutta Profijt for taking time out...when she should be starting the new book...and joining us today. So much fun! You can learn more about Jutta Profijt and her books at her website and you can also follow her on Facebook. For those who might be interested, here's a link to MacLeod Andrews' Five on Friday from 2013.

Five on Friday - Ausma Zehanat Khan

Happy Friday everyone. If you're in a part of the world like me, I hope you are keeping warm. Good golly it's been cold here!

And I hope your 2015 is off to a great reading start. There are a lot of good books coming out in the next couple of months, so we should have quite a banquet to choose from.

I've been reading about people's New Year's Reading Resolutions and I thought I'd mention that briefly today. I use to do something formal with resolutions on reading but I found that to take a bit of the fun of reading away from me. I have reviewing positions with two organizations that offer me a lot of selection opportunity; I couldn't ask for better situations. I never feel like I'm forced to read things I hate or that reading is a chore. I'm also left with a small amount of time to include other books of my choosing outside the realm of "work." I don't need a lot of motivation to read--obviously! :-)

That being said, I always strive to find diversity in my reading and challenge myself. Recently that's meant going outside the crime fiction genre more, which was an evolution more than a resolution. I still always explore new writers, whether they be new to me or debut authors. And I still do not force myself to read things I just don't like or let others dictate what they think I should be doing or reading. So I simply continue to read and explore and love it all.

How about you, do you make resolutions for your reading?

If you're a little short on reading material, you could check out these contests and sweepstakes this week to beef up your TBR lists:

• Criminal Element has the "New Year, New Fear" sweepstakes. A nice take-home on that one. 
• Friday Reads has the new Thomas Perry and the new George Pelecanos. I can attest that the Pelecanos is wonderful--review forthcoming. The Perry I haven't read. 

This week my good friend Lesa Holstein celebrated 10 years of blogging! As I sneak up on year number seven (Monday), I know what an accomplishment maintaining a blog for 10 years is. Congratulations to Lesa and thanks for all her love and sharing of books. I know I wouldn't be here with out her. Do pop over and wish her a happy blogiversary.

And now for our feature presentation!

Even though The Unquiet Dead is Ausma Zehanat Khan's debut novel, she's no stranger to writing. Not only was she a contributing writer for Muslim Girl magazine, she served as the Editor-in-Chief. Her resume reads so impressively, I felt like I should clean up the blog before she visited! Ausma has a Ph.D. in International Human Rights Law with a research specialization in military intervention and war crimes in the Balkans. Wow! And I'm sure that helped with her debut novel that follows two Canadian detectives who are investigating the death of a victim that many have been a Bosnian war criminal. That comes out on Tuesday, so I'm thrilled to have Ausma Zehanat Khan here on the blog today. Won't you help me welcome her?

(I should also point out that she is our first guest to receive one of my "refreshed" questionnaires for the series, so these topics should look new to you! Hope you enjoy!)

1. I'd willingly make a deal with the devil, or perhaps God would be the more appropriate choice, to find a cure for Parkinson’s disease. My father suffers from it, and I’d give anything to see him healthy again.

2. If I could have a secret superpower, it would be flight coupled with invisibility. I would use this power to fly the world seeking and capturing war criminals, before I dumped them off at the Hague to stand trial. Maybe this means respect for the rule of law is really my superpower?

3. My faith in humanity was renewed in the aftermath of the shooting at Parliament Hill in Canada. After the Ottawa shooting, a mosque in Alberta was vandalized with the words “Go Home.” It was a form of retaliation predicated on guilt-by-association. But then the community of Cold Lake, Alberta came out to help wash the graffiti off the mosque, placing signs that said, “You are home.” And “Love your neighbour.” A beautiful, life-affirming gesture that reminds me how good people are, at the heart of things. I also love this story because Cold Lake is the perfect name for a Canadian town.

4. I wish it was appropriate to put ‘prairie girl’ on a résumé because I'd like everyone to know I grew up in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan where -40 degree temperatures (Celsius) were a staple of my childhood, and where despite this fact, recess was always outdoors. Now that I’m living in the sunny climes of Colorado, I can never face those temperatures again.

5. The #1 item on my bucket list right now is a journey to the Silk Road to visit the fabled cities of Samarkand and Bukhara. Samarkand is Tamerlane’s capital, and the monuments he built are astonishing in their grandeur. But I keep justifying this by saying it’s a research trip for books down the road.

If you aren't completely awed by her resume alone, I have to think you are after reading her responses here. I simply love that she chose to answer #3 and with the present climate in the world this is such a wonderful story. And #4 is just wonderful, don't you think? Well, I know I'm impressed and very excited to read The Unquiet Dead. You? You can connect with Ausma Khan on her Facebook page. And if you're in the Denver area, you should go out on Tuesday for her book release party at The Tattered Cover.

Thanks to Ausma Khan for kicking off this year's Five on Friday series with a spectacular contribution. And thanks to everyone for stopping by to read today. I hope you enjoyed today's feature as much as I did. Have a great weekend and happy reading!

Five on Friday - James W. Hall

Happy Friday my friends. I'm on the road so my usual chit chat will be a little brief today. I didn't want to miss out on sharing our Five on Friday, though, so let me get right to introducing our wonderful guest.

James W. Hall is a professor, a poet and a thriller writer. Oh yeah, he writes non-fiction and short stories, too. But his most recent release is the fourteenth book in his Thorn thriller series, THE BIG FINISH, which came out December 2nd. He's an Edgar and John D. Macdonald Award-winner, was a Fulbright professor in Spain and founded the creative writing program at Florida International University. Whew! Pretty impressive resume, don't ya think? But I have to admit I'm rather fascinated by the fact that he once dug post holes and built a fence for Robert Redford.

I'm very excited to have him on the blog today, so let me turn it over to James W. Hall:

James W. Hall from his "first, and hopefully not last, trip to Venice."

If I could tell my 16-year-old self one piece of advice, knowing what I know now, it would be: Use your floss and sunscreen, and don’t fret so much about making every sentence sound so damn poetic.

The best gift I ever received was: a British racing green MG Midget for my 18th birthday. My dad was having an unusually good year in the real estate business, bless his heart.

A skill I’ve always wanted to have, but don’t is: Tuning a carburetor.

If I won the lottery tomorrow, the first thing I would do would be: Fire my parsimonious financial planner.

The #1 item on my bucket list right now is: Win a couple of rounds in a 65 and older tennis tournament.

Well an MG Midget IS a pretty great gift, I'd say! And we'll keep an eye out for that tennis win. Many thanks to James Hall for this fun peek into his life. Be sure to catch up with him on Facebook and Twitter. And you can learn more about him, his books, and his book tours at his website.

Five on Friday - Lesley Kagen

Happy Friday and my apologies for a quiet week. The days are just zipping past me lately and I have a bunch of stuff I need to be sharing with you. I'm going to do my very best to get back on track this weekend, starting with my holiday recommendation post that was supposed to be yesterday. I'll get that up for you tomorrow, it's a fun one for sure.

I also have to take a little minute here to do a celebration dance of sorts. If you've ever actually seen me dance you might suspect I've been badly injured and try to call an ambulance, so let's just pretend dance, o.k? This is my 1500th blog post. Good gracious! Who knew I had it in me? Next month will mark 7 years of this blog. SEVEN YEARS! Craziness! Thanks for being along for the ride. Making new friends has been the best part.

O.k. that's enough pretend dancing. On to other things...

Contests. What's going on with contests. Let's see:

My wonderful friends at TLC Book Tours have a contest going on on their Facebook page...a bunch of delectable bookish loot in this one.

Friday Reads has a great giveaway for Civil War/history buffs. It's a photography book called Houses of Civil War America. It sounds pretty fascinating to me, actually.

Criminal Element has a "What is War Good For" sweepstakes package you can win. I'm sensing a war theme here...kind of odd for the holiday season. Hmmmmm....

Well thank goodness for Lesa! She's a bit more in the holiday spirit with a Cleo Coyle Holiday Giveaway this week.

And our special guest today has a contest going on to win a copy of her new book AND an iPad Mini. So don't miss this one.

And now it's time to introduce an incredibly talented woman I'm delighted is joining us today. Lesley Kagen had an amazing path to her writing career. She worked in radio, in tv and restaurants! Oh and her most important job, of course, is mother. It wasn't until her children left that she began seriously writing.

Her debut novel, Whistling in the Dark, took a little while to find an agent who loved it, but now it's in its sixteenth printing. Whistling introduced her much loved O'Malley sisters, Sally and Troo. And this month brings the publication of Lesley's sixth novel, The Resurrection of Tess Blessing. If you're familiar with Lesley's work, you're likely as excited as I am for this new book. If you haven't read her work before, I encourage you to check it out. I especially adored the audiobook of Good Graces that Lesley narrated herself.

Because I am fortunate to worth with Lesley through her website, I know how busy she is with this book release and it's unpredictability. So I'm ever so grateful she could take some time out for a Five on Friday chat. Ladies and gentlemen, Ms. Lesley Kagen!

1. The # 1 item on my bucket list right now is taking my g-babies to Disney World. Nothing quite as wonderful and hilarious as the look on their little faces when they bump into Mickey for the first time.

2. The best gift I ever received, other than my children, was my first horse. I fainted.

3. One thing that I have no tolerance for is entitled folk. I can barely stop myself from punching them in the bread box.

4. If I won the lottery tomorrow, the first thing I would do is start planning how I would go about surprising the hell out of deserving people with gifts. (I have this fantasy to be John Beresford Tipton from The Millionaire.) How fun would that be!

5. The most daring thing I've done to date is move to Hollywood without a job when I was in my mid-twenties. I had this foolish idea that I'd be "discovered" like Lana Turner, even though I do not fill out a sweater the way she did. The only discovering that was done was that the ice cream at Schwab's Drugstore was awesome.

I think I would volunteer to help Lesley on her Millionaire re-enactment! You can learn a little more about Lesley in this interview at Huffington Post that ran the other day. Plus, as I know, you can check out her website, her Facebook Page and her Twitter account. Lesley's also been blogging, so you can follow along with her at her Yellow Umbrella blog as well.

Many, many thanks to the wonderful Lesley and to everyone for stopping by today. Have a grand weekend and happy reading!

Five on Friday - CB McKenzie

Happy Friday, everyone! Next weekend is Bouchercon at Long Beach and for the first time in five years I won't be attending. So I expect everyone there to have a little bit of extra fun for me and then if you all have a little bit, that should add up to enough to represent me, right? No, really, enjoy yourselves and celebrate the mystery genre!

I posted on Wednesday about participating in the Thankfully Reading weekend. I hope some of you will be joining in as well. I know it's a busy weekend for many, but if you're not overwhelmed with holiday obligations then kick back and enjoy the weekend with us.

I've also decided that I will be doing a holiday gift feature starting on Thanksgiving (fingers crossed). I am going to have one post each week on Thursday up through the December holidays that features either a special gift book or a gift idea for book lovers. If you have any suggestions or want to write one of these features yourself, please drop me a line and let me know.

I'm also freshening up the Five on Friday feature. I'm keeping all the present question options for participants, but I'm adding in some new question options as well. I've started doing this for some people who are scheduling for the new year but I'm still in mid-refresh, so if you have some creative questions you're dying for me to add to the mix, drop me a line. And if you have an author you'd love to see featured on here but haven't yet, let me know. I can't make any promises but I'm happy to take your requests and see what I can do.

O.k. a few quick highlights on giveaways.

First if you're a Goodreads user and you enter their giveaways, I highly encourage you to go put your name in the hopper for Lou Berney's upcoming novel The Long and Faraway Gone. It is outstanding. It's a departure from Berney's Shake Bouchon capers, but it's simply another layer to Berney's tremendous writing talent. Now quit listening to me blather and go enter.

Criminal Element has a slew of books in its "Watch What You Read" Sweepstakes, so be sure to check that one out.

Friday Reads has The Forgers in its giveaway this week.

And as always, don't forget to swing by and see what my friend Lesa is up to for her weekly giveaway.

O.k., enough already, right? Let's get on with the good stuff. Well this week's good stuff--and it is very good stuff--comes to us in the form of 2013's Tony Hillerman Prize winner. C.B. McKenzie's debut and already award-winning novel, BAD COUNTRY, came out on Tuesday. The novel introduces Rodeo Grace Garnet, a former rodeo cowboy turned private investigator in remote Arizona. I'm not going to tell you too much more because C.B. McKenzie has shared some great responses, so I'll let HIM tell you more...

The most bizarre place I ever found inspiration for a story was: A translation class I enrolled in (and quickly dropped) during my PhD. Program at the University of Arizona. I asked the Instructor if there was a translator who was famous for being “so bad she/he was good.” She thought this was the craziest questions a student had ever asked her….but it led me to write a postmodern novel called THE BAD TRANSLATOR which is the basis for my next mystery/thriller THE SAME, BUT WHITE.

The last books I recommended were Mike McGarrity’s HARD COUNTRY because it’s a great Western in the classical tradition, but with a modern sensibility; Jeff Parker’s new literary fiction, FULL MEASURE, because it is an important book and has a Ford Pick-up Truck on the cover as does my BAD COUNTRY; Michael Farris Smith’s apocalyptic road trip, RIVERS and; Mathew Guinn’s macabre historical thriller, RESURRECTIONIST.

My biggest pet peeves are: Mysteries that get “mushy plot” in the middle and then collapse in ridiculousness in the end or pull rabbits out of hats to extricate themselves from conundrums: all mystery/thrillers ought to exist within some realm of reasonable possibility and operate with some degree of Logic (Jurassic Park, for instance, does); endless descriptions in books of the preparation and consumption of food and drink when this exposition serves no plot or character development purpose, but mostly just serves as “filler” (pun intended).

A superstition or ritual I have to observe when I write is: Flop sweat: I don’t especially like to write, it makes me very nervous and gives me heart palpitations, so I sweat a lot when I write.

The #1 item on my bucket list right now is: I’ve led a pretty interesting and varied life which has included the types of things that are on most people’s Bucket List—through-hiked the Appalachian Trail, surfed in Costa Rica, ridden a bicycle across the Great State o’ Texas, run marathons, done a modeling campaign and many catwalk shows for Giorgio Armani, traveled, lived and worked all over Europe, Japan, roadtripped across the USA (even on the Hi-Line across North Dakota), lived in NYC, been a Californian, swum around the Statue of Liberty, lived in the woods of Vermont w/out electricity or running water, sung solo in the church choir, earned a PhD, won a writing prize… “Getting Published” was the one and only thing left on my bucket list…now that’s done, no more bucket list!

Well, let's hope C.B. still has plenty of years left even if he doesn't have any bucket list left! I'm psyched to read BAD COUNTRY and I'm thrilled that C.B. McKenzie had time during his book tour--which you can follow along with on his Facebook page--to hang out with us for a bit. Hope you enjoyed today's Five on Friday as well.

Have a lovely weekend, my reading friends!

Five on Friday - Hank Phillippi Ryan

Happy, happy Friday all! I hope you've had a great week. It's been a little crazy here, so I'm looking forward to a calmer weekend.

A couple odds and ends to share with you before we welcome our special guest. First is this month's Nerdy Special List. Pop Culture Nerd has that up over at her blog. Both of my recommendations are non-fiction books, but both great, great reads. I think crime readers will especially appreciate Just Mercy.

Not really book related, but worthy of a mention none the less is this flash mob project I have every intention of participating in tomorrow. Join me?

Susan Goldstein is a xuni.com client and I just added this story to her website this week. I now want to go to Paris more than ever. A library of exclusively crime writings. How cool?

Sadly I'm not going to be able to make it this year, but the Murder & Mayhem conference has relocated from Muskego to Milwaukee and will take place November 1st, so if you're in the Milwaukee area, check it out!

And of course some contests, right?

FridayReads is in tune with us because they are giving away Hank Phillippi Ryan's newest Jane Ryland novel, Truth Be Told.

And Criminal Element has the Second Paper Capers Sweepstakes still going on.

O.k. that's it for my jibber jabber today. Now let's get on with the show because today we are investigating the investigator...investigative reporter that is. Hank Phillippi Ryan has been a TV investigative reporter long enough to snag herself 32 Emmys. How she can juggle that job and write books is a wonder. But write them she does. She has a series of novels about Charlotte McNally, an investigative reporter (fancy that!) and most recently she's written a series about Jane Ryland, a former TV investigator turned newspaper reporter.  Hank has been snatching up every award possible with this new series and book number three, Truth Be Told, hit stores this week.

Anyone who has had a chance to meet Hank in person knows about the kind, generous person that she is. She's smart and funny and could give those fashionistas a run for their money. I am so very pleased to welcome her back to the blog (this isn't her first visit of course) to join us for Five on Friday. Friends...Hank Phillippi Ryan!

 

1. My favorite place to read is: Bed. It’s so cozy, and such a nice way to end a day. However. It’s difficult, because there are two things that happen, neither one optimal, but I persist.

One, if I am really tired, I wind up reading one page, and then I think—I have no idea what I just read, I’ll start again tomorrow. Which is so unfair to the author! (My husband does the same thing. “You’re asleep,” I say, poking him as his head nods over the pages. “No, I’m not,” he insists. “What did you just read?” I ask. Pause, pause. NO idea.)

The other problem is the book-is-too-good problem. When there’s a book that’s fantastic, whether I’m tired or not, I cannot put it down. I’ll look at the clock, and it’s 2 am! And I am doomed.

And still, I read in bed.

2. The most famous person I ever met was: Oh, the most famous? Hunter Thompson? Who I worked with at Rolling Stone. The coolest, nicest, funniest guy ever. Brilliant. I interviewed Dustin Hoffman when I did a radio show called Rolling Stone Radio News—very memorable interview, since my tape recorder broke and we had to do it all again. BIG lesson in checking the tape. Walter Cronkite? Bill Cosby? President Carter? Harry Belafonte? Richard Avedon? I went on tour with him for a project. Oh, I know! Prince Charles! Does that do it? I interviewed him briefly when he came to Boston, and he told me the inside scoop on the signet ring he wears.

3. My favorite kind of cookie is: I am not a big cookie person, and it’s not difficult for me to say no. However! A just-out-of-the-oven homemade chocolate chip is ridiculous to resists, tight? They are crispy and gooey and lovely. I am also fond of Lorna Doones, do you know those? Shortbread, and everyone thinks they taste like cardboard, but I love them. I say: they taste like buttery cardboard. I also love Girl Scout thin mints, and those sugar wafer you can snap apart. Do they still make those?

4. My favorite brand of athletic shoe is: Ah, athletic shoes. Do I have any? I guess my black flats from J Crew that I use for travel—hey, they’re really good for running through airports right? That’s athletic.

5. #1 item on my bucket list right now is: Oh, it makes me sad to think about bucket list, you know? Because it makes my life—which I am enjoying so completely—seem to have a visible ending. So I have to admit, I’ve never thought: gee, I can’t wait to…whatever. But things I’d love to do? Grab my dear husband and go live in Paris for six months, exploring and writing and learning perfect French. Move to Rome, to the same thing. London. Break the most important life-changing news story ever. Have a New York Times Bestseller, or two. Have a terrific wonderful idea. Tell a unique and memorable story. I know this isn’t typical. But I just don’t think of life that way!

Well gracious, yes, I think Prince Charles qualifies for the most famous. I guess if I had to answer my own questions I'd have to say Hank is the most famous person I know, right? ;-)

And we'll have to find out from Hank if those flats are good for chasing down her investigation suspects, too.

Today was so fun. Hank is so fun, and I'm just thrilled that she was able to take time with us today. She's busy as a beaver out on her tour for Truth Be Told. Let me tell you, she is making a lot of stops, so check out her schedule and see if she'll be near you. She'll be working at the Bouchercon auction again this year, so you can be assured to see her there as well! And you can always connect with her through her website, her Facebook or her Twitter. She must do some of it in her sleep--how else can she possibly do it all!? However she does it, we're glad she does.

Thanks for stoppin' by today friends and have a lovely, lovely weekend filled with good books and happiness.

Five on Friday - Julia Keller

Happy Friday my reading friends! I hope your week has been grand. I'm still trying to get use to the fact that it's September already. Good golly who stole August?

I don't have a lot of odds and ends today because I've been pretty entrenched in work and some projects I'm doing around my house, but I did want to share this creative idea with you. Coincidentally, I just pulled out a bunch of t-shirts I really don't wear and was going to get rid of them, but now I'm going to give this a try this weekend. Might be something fun to do with bookish tees?

Also, just a little non-crime related tidbit. Today is the 20th Anniversary of MUTTS. For those who don't know, this is my absolute favorite comic strip. I adore Mooch, Earl and gang and idolize their creator, Patrick McDonnell. He does so much for animals through his work. So happy anniversary to the MUTTS strip. Here's to the next 20 years!

This week's contest rundown:

Criminal Element has a chance for you to win Lindsay Faye's Seven for a Secret and they have the "Thrillers and Killers" sweepstakes that could bag you a six-book take.

Friday Reads has a chance for you to win Thomas H Cook's A Dancer in the Dust.

And finally, my friend Lesa has a Linda Castillo giveaway--two titles from her Kate Burkholder series.

Now on to our special guest today. I'm always excited when we have a new face at the blog and today's is that of Julia Keller. Julia started her writing career in journalism (and worked in Columbus, Ohio for awhile!). She earned a Pulitzer Prize for her in the newspaper world and then moved on to crime novels, where she snatched up a Barry Award for her first book, A Killing in the Hills, which introduced Bell Elkins. The newest book of the series, Summer of the Dead, came out in August and Julia made time for us today.

So, please help me give a warm welcome to Julia Keller!

Adoption day for Julia and her new pup!

The last book I recommended to someone was “A Partial History of Lost Causes” (2012) by Jennifer Dubois. I stumbled across this blazingly brilliant novel quite by accident, after giving a reading last year at Anderson’s Bookstore in Naperville, Ill. I read it in what felt like a single astonished gulp. Now I fling copies at friends and strangers alike, murmuring, “You MUST read this.” It’s about a young woman dying from a chronic illness and a Russian chess prodigy determined to unseat Putin. Among the pressing questions dealt with in this heartbreaking, unforgettable narrative: How do you fight on, when you know it’s hopeless?

A superstition or ritual I have to observe when I write is Coffee. I must have a mug of black coffee at my elbow at all times. It must be searingly, center-of-the-sun hot, so hot that it transforms the tender skin on the roof of my mouth into dangling shreds of gloriously singed flesh.

My favorite toppings on a pizza are Pepperoni and sausage. Get those veggies out of here! A pox on your pineapple, your green pepper, your spinach! When it comes to pizza, I’m like the fellow in the film “The Quiet Man,” who, when asked if he wants water in his whiskey, says, “When I drinks water, I drinks water. When I drinks whiskey, I drinks whiskey.” When I eat pizza, I eat pepperoni and sausage. When I eat salads, I eat—wait. I don’t eat salads.

My favorite t-shirt is...What a great question! Every t-shirt tells a story. It’s a tie between a t-shirt I bought at a truck stop a few years ago—bright red, with a silhouette of a coal miner in a hard hat with a head lamp crawling along on all fours, with the caption, “I’ve Got Friends In Low Places”—and a green one that I purchased in New York some years ago at a tiny independent bookstore tucked away in some cubbyhole that probably rents for a billion dollars a month or thereabouts. It’s a woodcut of a lithe boxer with his dukes up. The caption reads, “Fight For Your Independents!” and below that, “New York.” The store is surely out of business by now, replaced by Forever 21.

The #1 item on my bucket list right now is to make a bucket list. Really. I’ve never had such a list, per se, and routinely snickered at those who do—but recently the serious illness of a friend has caused me to re-think my supercilious (and denial-infused) attitude. I have the usual travel destinations that beckon—Scotland, for instance, as homage to great Scottish novelists such as Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Denise Mina and Louise Welch—and the languages I’d like to learn, with Russian leading the pack, but mainly the emerging Bucketeers are not splashy or dramatic and instead are rather corny and homespun: To be a better cook. To learn to drive a manual-transmission car. To build my own bookshelves. (Planks straddling cinder blocks don’t count.)

O.k. Julia is ranking up near the top in best Five on Friday responses! And if her coffee response doesn't make you want to read her writing, I don't know what would! Thank you so much to Julia for these fun insights into her character. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. And I certainly hope we see Julia back on the blog again. You can connect with Julia on Facebook and learn more about her and her books at her website.

Have a super weekend my friends! I'll see you back here next week. Happy Reading!

Five on Friday - Alex Segura

Happy Friday, friends! I hope today finds you happy, healthy and stocked up on good reading material. It is, after all, a holiday weekend, which means extra time for reading, right?

A couple odds and ends to share with you quickly. First I was sad to see this. While I'm certain Longmire will be able to find a new home, it was unfortunate that Warner and A&E couldn't come to a mutual agreement.

Next, I wanted to let you know that starting next week, Mondays will be dedicated to non-crime fiction books and topics. Since I'm reviewing a lot more non-crime fiction for Shelf Awareness and there have been other books I'm interested in come to my attention recently, I wanted to have a day specifically for that kind of coverage. It may be that I need another blog altogether for that content, but for right now I want to try one day a week on here. Keeping up with just this blog is work enough! But, I hope you'll check out those posts as well as the crime fiction stuff. However, if you're a purist and don't want to venture outside the realm, you now know Mondays will be different content.

For those anticipating the Gone Girl movie. Here's a new trailer.

Craig Sisterson who runs the Crime Watch blog down under invited me to participate in his "First Taste" series. I got to pick a series character and write about my first reading experience with him/her. I chose Walt Longmire--what can I say, he sent me the request while I was in Wyoming, so of course it was my first thought. Anyway, you can read my contribution to his series here.

I do believe that's it for my odds and ends this week. Now let me do a rundown of contests/sweepstakes. I have a couple extras this week so here you go:

Win and advanced copy of Consumed by David Cronenberg from Simon & Schuster.

Win admission for an early screening of Dennis Lehane's upcoming The Drop. The screenings are in Chicago, Boston, Houston, San Francisco, New York and Washington DC, so if you're not in one of those areas, sorry--neither am I if it makes you feel any better.

At Criminal Element this week you can find the "Thrillers and Killers" sweepstakes. Seven books in that prize bundle!

And since I'm writing this before Lesa is posting her new contest, I don't have the details, but be sure to stop over to her site and see what fun she has in store this week!

And now on to our Five on Friday. Alex Segura published his first novel, Silent City, but he's not new to the publishing industry. He's also been involved in the comic side of publishing for some time. In fact, he wrote the Archie Meets Kiss storyline and graphic novel. I've had a couple of splendid opportunities to meet Alex in person and he's been reading at some NYC Noir at the Bar events. Sadly I haven't been at those, I just see the pictures afterward *sob*.

So, if you would be so kind as to help me, let's welcome Alex Segura!

Better not mess with Alex. He's got friends in capes!

1. The last book I recommended to someone was: I was just talking to a friend of mine over email about Megan Abbott. He was asking if he should check out THE FEVER, her new novel, to which I responded: “YOU SHOULD READ ALL HER BOOKS.” She’s that good. You can’t go wrong. I suggested Megan’s work because I’ve never been let down by her writing – she’s so deftly brought the noir sensibility to modern storytelling I’m in awe of her work. Her prose is masterful and I’m jealous of anyone reading her work for the first time. I’ve also been loving anything Kelly Braffet writes, and I suggest her to anyone looking for a good read.

2. My biggest pet peeve is: I get really grumpy when people are rude – to me, strangers, etc. My commute to work is a bit long, so I get to see a wide range of people on my way there and it really runs the gamut. I just think the world would be a better place if more people opened doors for each other, or offered up their seats or didn’t cut in line. Commuting is a weird microcosm for the world, I think. You get people at their best and worst together.

3. My favorite toppings on a pizza are: Pizza is a rare treat for me, being vegan, so if I find a place with a vegan pizza option, I’m very happy. So, I guess by default my favorite topping has become any kind of cheese/dairy alternative. Exciting, right?

4. My favorite t-shirt is: I have this LCD Soundsystem shirt I bought while at one of their final shows at Terminal 5 in NYC – a terrible venue, but they put on an amazing show. The shirt itself is pretty neat looking and extremely comfortable – a rare combo for a band show shirt.

The #1 item on my bucket list right now is: I’d really like to visit Cuba, which is where my parents were born. It’s such a part of my personal and cultural history, and I want to spend some real time there and explore where my parents and grandparents grew up. It also strikes me as a great setting for a crime novel, so maybe I can chalk it all up to research! 

Exactly! Research and a tax write-off. Creative thinking on Alex's part! And I'm on the exact same page as Alex about rudeness. I, however, have no commute. So now when I have to venture out of my hobbit hole, I'm acutely aware of rudeness all around.

Thanks so much to Alex for taking time out with us. You can learn more about Alex at his website and find all his social media links there. But I'm going to personally recommend you follow Alex on Twitter where I know first-hand that he's enjoyable to interact with.  

Have a wonderful holiday weekend, my friends. Happy reading!

Five on Friday - T. Jefferson Parker

Happy Friday, my book-loving friends. I hope you've had a great week. What are you reading or listening to that's great? I just started Tammy Kaehler's new Kate Reilly mystery, Avoidable Contact. I also finished a new book coming from Quirk called Horrorstör. If you like a good ghost story, this one is for you. More on that one later.

We have a great guest for Five on Friday! So let me do the contest rundown so we can get to Jeff Parker as quick as possible.

First, Kirkus has a sweepstakes going on that could win you a bookish trip to New York City. Definitely check that one out if you haven't already. But you need to get your entry in by Sunday, so don't delay.

Criminal Element still has a chance for you to win the "Histories and Mysteries" sweepstakes.

And Friday Reads has copies of Ridley Pearson's The Red Room and Kieran Shea's Koko Takes a Holiday.

And of course, don't forget to stop at Lesa's and see what fun she has going on!

Now on to the main event!

T. Jefferson Parker has a backstory like numerous writers: got his start in newspapers, writing his first book over nights and weekends. But few can claim his talent or success.  He's a three-time Edgar winner and a L.A. Times Book Prize winner. His novels and stories have published to great success and in October a new twist in Jeff's career will be published. Full Measure is a literary novel  that explores "the bonds of loyalty between brothers, the contest between responsibility and personal freedom, and the wars, both at home and abroad, that inform 21st century America." Wow! Sounds pretty ambitious, but if anyone can tackle it, T. Jefferson Parker can.

And since I've given this superstar more introduction than he really needs, let me turn this show over to him for today's super special Five on Friday!

Going after that rainbow trout?

1. If I could tell my 16-year-old self one piece of advice, knowing what I know now, it would be: Don't doubt yourself. Doubt kills. Find what you love and love it forever.

2. One thing I have no tolerance for is: People whose entire world is limited to themselves and themselves only. This is especially true when they're driving a car. Terror to me is a driver who believes he's alone in the world. Of course this danger applies to any situation in life where the self-obsessed roam freely!

3. A skill I’ve always wanted to have, but don’t is: I wish I could sell things. You know, really get in there and make a person think they have to have what I'm selling. I know people like this and they amaze me. Think of the success!

4. The most daring thing I ever tried (to date) was: I jumped in a high fast river once, fully clothed, to save my bird dog from being swept away. When I finally got to him a thousand yards downstream and dragged him to a mud bank, he still had the bird in his mouth. I'm not sure which of our separate dedications was stronger!

5. The #1 item on my bucket list right now is: There's this gigantic, kype-jawed rainbow trout living in the Long Years section of the Upper Owens River near Mammoth. I hooked him once and after quite a battle, the fly came out and the fish got away. Gotta catch that guy, take his picture, then let him go on purpose! 

Did this make you chuckle? Nod your head in agreement? Smile? I know it did for me! And you all know I have to admire a man who would go to such lengths for his dog. I just loved everything about this Five on Friday. I hope you did, too. My sincerest thanks to Jeff Parker for his wonderful responses. People like this make this series so incredibly special. You can learn a lot more about Jeff at his website.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend and happy reading!

Five on Friday - Joelle Charbonneau

Happy Friday all. August is quickly slipping away without my permission! Hope you had a great week. What good books have you read lately? I just finished a non-fiction book about a psychiatrist who spent a year working in a hospital for the criminally insane. Whoa, talk about frightening!

I don't have a lot of extra stuff to share today, so let me give you sweepstakes/contest links and then we'll get to the main attraction!

Friday Reads has copies of DEATH MONEY and THE KILLS.

Criminal Element has a "Histories and Mysteries" sweepstakes--7 BOOKS! Plus,  this is a hot, hot prize...there's a chance for you to win an advanced copy of Craig Johnson's WAIT FOR SIGNS. It's the upcoming collection of all his short stories. Nice! Be sure to get in on that!

And of course, make sure you stop over and see what Lesa is up to this week! Tell her I said "hi" while you're over there. 

And that brings us to this week's Five on Friday guest! Joelle Charbonneau first began entertaining her audiences on stage--in musical theater and operas. Today she still teaches voice when she isn't hard at work on one of her successful book series or on her many duties as a mom.

Joelle's writing career started with a mystery series centered around roller skating. Can I just say I'm glad no dead bodies ever turned up in the Roll Arena during my roller skating days? She added to her bibliography with the Glee Club Series (huh, I wonder where that idea came from?). And most recenlty she's been rocking the YA world with her Testing Trilogy. The final book of the trilogy, Graduation Day, came out this summer.

Whenever I've had the chance to interact with Joelle, she's always been cheerful and happy. So today I am especially happy to have her here on the blog. Please help me welcome her for Five on Friday:

Is this research for the next book? Murder by fork?

1. If I could tell my 16-year-old self one piece of advice, knowing what I know now, it would be "Lighten up!"  I was really serious in high school and unless I was on stage I was often really afraid to cut loose and have fun.  I think I was worried that I'd make a fool out of myself.  Since then, I've learned that it's often the days where I make a fool out of myself that I have the most fun.

2. One thing I have no tolerance for is People posting things on their social media accounts that they haven't bothered to fact check.  Just because an article someone else shared says something you agree with doesn't mean it is true.  SNOPES is a wonderful thing.  More people should use it.

3. A skill I’ve always wanted to have, but don’t is Drawing.  I can't draw--well, technically, I can put pencil to paper, but nothing I draw ever actually looks like what I intended it to.  Somewhere along the line, I missed the drawing gene and now you are all forewarned.  If you have to pick a team for Pictionary - I'm probably not your girl.

4. When I’m feeling under the weather, I….make Chicken Tortellini soup and watch a lot of bad court TV shows.  Judge Judy and chicken soup are the perfect cure for the common cold.  And if that doesn't work, I just pretend I'm not sick and hope for the best!

The #1 item on my bucket list right now is: To see one of my students on Broadway. It's something totally out of my control, but I would love to be in the front row watching one of my students achieve that dream. (If one of them ends up in a movie, that would be good, too!) 

Everything about Joelle's responses fascinates me! First, I wish someone would make me chicken tortellini soup when I'm under the weather. Yum! I was so excited that Joelle chose to answer the question about a skill she wished she had. Most people answer that with a musical skill response. She has the musical skill so it's interesting to hear what she would like to be able to do.

And her bucket list item? How cool is it that she's all about her students? Now THAT'S a true teacher there, folks. I love it!

So happy that Joelle had time for Five on Friday today. This has been a great installment. Hope you enjoyed it too! You can connect with Joelle on Twitter and Facebook. And you can learn more about Joelle and her writing at her website.

Have a super great weekend and happy reading!