You Have the Right to Six Words - Week 23

Here we go, pluggin' right along with another week of "You Have the Right to Six Words." We are up to Week 23 and I don't know about you all, but I'm still havin' a blast. I'm especially thrilled with this week's line-up. I have to tell you that when I started this project I initially got a plethora of responses from male authors. And don't get me wrong, I love the male writers in the crime fiction genre; I love them dearly, and many of them can be found on my list of favorites. But, I also know that there are a lot of great women out there writing in the genre, too, and I didn't want them to go unrepresented. You see, I'm an equal-opportunity crime fiction fan. I don't care what gender the writer as long as he/she is writing a great book!

Well this week, I have three amazing female crime fiction writers and I am beyond honored to have them represented here. And I think if we asked our lone male represented this week, he'd also be honored to be surrounded by these smart, talented, witty, beautiful women. So, let's find out who they are!

First up, we have a "do-over." When Robin Burcell first answered the six-word memoir question in her author interview, she was smack dab in the middle of promoting her first Syndey Fitzpatrick novel, FACE OF A KILLER, and her memoir was directed toward the book title. Well, when we re-ran the memoir in this series, it wasn't really fitting anymore. So, we had Robin go back to the drawing board, and today's she back with a real zinger. But let me remind you a little about Robin first.

Robin Burcell is the author of the award-winning Kate Gillespie series about the first female homicide detective in San Francisco. Last year she released her first book in the Sydney Fitzpatrick series, THE FACE OF A KILLER, which is about a forensic artist. Robin doesn't just write these characters, she's actually performed both of the roles throughout her extensive law enforcement career. In addition to working as a homicide detective and a forensic artist, Robin also has experience with hostage negotiations. Robin's next book in the Sydney Fitzpatrick series is titled THE BONE CHAMBER and will be released in hardcover this December. As a matter of fact, you can see her spiffy trailer for THE BONE CHAMBER right now at her website.

So, when Robin did some re-thinking and constructed her six-word memoir, what did she end up with?

Love seeing my kids reading books.

Oh, music to my ears. If only all parents were singing that same song!

Next up is the man who gets to be surrounded by these talented woman this week. And he's no slacker, either. Kwei Quartey visited Jen's Book Thoughts this summer as part of his blog tour for his first novel, WIFE OF THE GODS. A native of Ghana and the son of university lecturers, he was surrounded by books growing up. As a child, he traveled to the United States with his American mother every couple of years, but it wasn't until he was studying pre-med at the University that Kwei and his family moved to the United States for good. Finishing medical school, Kwei is a doctor by day and a writer in his *ahem* spare time? Kwei runs a wound care clinic and is also the lead physician at an urgent care center. In his early morning hours, Kwei writes. His first novel, WIFE OF THE GODS, came out this year and it looks at some of the cultural issues and changes facing people in Ghana today. His protagonist, CID Detective Darko Dawson, finds himself stuck between a culture that is advancing and one that is battling the advancement. Very much like the current climate Kwei observed when he returned to Ghana only a few years ago. Now Kwei is hard at work on the follow-up to WIFE OF THE GODS, as Darko is still speaking to Kwei. So, how would Kwei summarize the experiences to this point?

Some things I would do over.

I can relate to that!

J.T. Ellison not only calls Nashville, Tennessee home these days, she also sets her Taylor Jackson series there. The tough homicide detective came to life in J.T.'s first novel ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS in 2007 and in February she will release, THE COLD ROOM, book number four in this best-selling, critically acclaimed series. J.T. says she was in the midst of reading John Sandford's Prey series when she decided she wanted to give crime fiction a whirl, and she had definitely taken the thriller genre to a new level.

Before deciding to move into a career in crime fiction, J.T. was a presidential appointee and worked in The White House and the Department of Commerce. Then she moved on to the private sector working as a financial analyst and marketing director for several defense and aerospace contractors. But Nashville seemed to be the turning point. It was after moving to Nashville that she started researching forensics and crime then moved on to researching and working with several law enforcement agencies including the FBI and the Metro Nashville Police Department. And the rest, as they say, is history.

J.T. writes short stories, in addition to her novels. She is one of the Friday bloggers at Murderati and main blogger at her own Tao of JT. And she active in various writing organizations, including International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime.

With this complex, diverse background is it no wonder her books are constructed with intricate and complex plots? Nashville Scene's 2008 Best Mystery/Thriller Writer puts it altogether with:

Dreamed a plot, wrote it down.

And the crime fiction community is ever so glad that she did!

Our final memoirist today is one of two people I credit with pulling me into the crime fiction genre. Robert Crais and Linda Fairstein wrote books that grabbed me and wouldn't let me go. In my desire to find more, more, more and quench my thirst for this drug we call crime fiction, I delved deeper and found more and more authors. But it all started with these two. So I am beyond honored to have international best-selling author Linda Fairstein here today to share her memoir.

Linda writes the Alexandra Cooper series and this year released LETHAL LEGACY, book number eleven in that series. She always wanted to be a novel writer, but she took a bit of a detour in life. And that detour helped shape the books she would one day write. Linda graduated from law school, joined the Manhattan District Attorney's Office as an Assistant District Attorney and went to work in what was the very beginning of the sex crimes unit. Linda was instrumental in this ground-breaking department that would cause a major shift in how sex crimes were handled. She was one of the first to use DNA testing in a criminal case, and she was considered for the Attorney General's position in the Clinton administration. Linda's first publication was a non-fiction work, SEXUAL VIOLENCE: OUR WAR AGAINST RAPE, which won great acclaim and became a teaching tool in universities and law enforcement agencies. But a year after publication, she decided to turn to her original dream, writing novels. And she took her vast portfolio of experiences and turned them into the Alex Cooper series, starting with FINAL JEOPARDY.

Linda's protagonist Alexandra "Alex" Cooper bears a strong resemblance to her creator, as does Law & Order:SVU Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot. This, of course, is for good reason. Linda says, professionally Alex Cooper "expresses my passion for the work and what the rewards are and also what the frustrations are." Alex Cabot is of course a nod to Linda's Alex Cooper since the Special Victims Unit was based on Linda's Special Victims Unit. And Stephanie March, who played Alex Cabot, shadowed Linda when she was preparing for the role. I love Alex's character, but I just have to admit a crush on her favorite homicide detective, Mike Chapman.

Linda writes about plots she knows, has created characters she knows, and she also depicts a setting that she knows. Her depictions of New York City and Martha's Vineyard bring both locales to vividly to life. And I have to say that when I saw Linda's memoir, I felt it brought HER vividly to life as well. This IS Linda Fairstein:

Love. Loyalty. Integrity. Courage. Kindness. Laughter.

Thank you so much to all of our memoirists today: Robin, Kwei, J.T., and Linda. This is simply a wonderful group of crime fiction writers. I am so incredibly humbled. And everyone stopping by to read, thank you for letting me gush a tad bit more than usual today. Thank you for sticking with me through this series and enjoying it as much as I have. I still have more to come, and I look forward to next week.

Happy Reading everyone!

Kwei Quartey: The Doctor And The Detective

On Wednesday I reviewed Kwei Quartey's debut novel, WIFE OF THE GODS, as part of his blog tour with TLC Book Tours. Today he's here with me to answer some questions for us and help us to get to know him better. A native of Ghana, he was raised by an African-American mother and a Ghanaian father, both of whom were university lecturers. Today's he's a practicing physician in Pasadena, California. Somehow he manages to run a wound care clinic, lead a urgent care center, AND write books. How he found time to answer questions for me is beyond my comprehension, but here he is, Kwei Quartey!

Q: You grew up in an environment that was supportive of reading, and you were always surrounded by books. What did you read growing up? Would you say any of your childhood favorites influenced your style of writing? If yes, how so?

Kwei: I read everything from Kingsley Amis to Joyce Cary, Chinua Achebe, Doris Lessing, James Thurber, John Le Carré. But by far my favorites were mystery stories. I devoured Enid Blyton, the prolific British children’s writer who wrote several mystery series that are still popular in Europe, Agatha Christie, and of course the unforgettable Sherlock Holmes tales by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This genre had a deep impact on my writing.

Q: Your “day job” is that of a physician in Pasadena, California. What originally led you into medicine? Then what turned you to writing? Was it always a goal or did you wake up one morning and think, “I have a great plot idea; I need to start writing?”

Kwei: I wanted to be a writer from the age of eight, long before wanting to become a doctor. As a kid, I wrote short stories and novelettes, stapling the pages together with brightly colored jackets. The books I was reading inspired me, and the process of story creation fascinated me. My interest in medicine took off around 12-years-old, and I became something of the “house doctor,” looking up any medical conditions that family or friends reported. During the time I was in medical school, I did no writing, but a year after I became an MD, I was feeling strangely unfulfilled, and I turned back to writing by first going to a creative writing course at UCLA-extension.

Q: Why fiction, specifically crime fiction? And do you see connections between your role as a physician and Darko Dawson’s role as a detective?

Kwei: In crime fiction, the story is propelled by a question: who did it, how and why? Or if you know (or guess) who did it, how will the culprit be caught? When I’ve read Agatha Christie, I’ve often guessed whodunit, but it’s never the way Poirot figured it out. Maybe I’ve always had a questioning mind and that’s why crime fiction attracts me. The other aspect is that I’m fascinated by people who hide what they really are and pretend to be what they’re not – murderers, for instance. There are many parallels between being a physician and being a detective. In fact a physician is a detective. When I go in to see a patient, I’m immediately looking for clues as to what ails him or her. For example, someone who seems to have a bug-eyed stare might have an overactive thyroid. I interview the patient just as Dawson interviews a witness. The diagnostic possibilities are the same as the list of suspects in a murder case, and making the final diagnosis is the denouement. Again, it’s a matter of questioning. Do I, as a doctor, have to be naturally skeptical the way Dawson might cast doubt on the testimony of a witness or suspect? Yes, but not usually in the sense of disbelieving the patient, it’s more by way of sorting through the symptoms and deciding what is really important and what is not, and believe me, just as Dawson may be led down the wrong path in a case, there are many red herrings to contend when trying to solve a mysterious illness.

Q: WIFE OF THE GODS is set in Ghana, where you were born and raised. But, your mother was African-American and you made fairly regular visits to the United States growing up. Can you talk about how that was growing up? The differences in culture that you observed, etc?

Kwei: I have to acknowledge that my three brothers and I were extraordinarily fortunate to be brought up in the circumstances we were. We lived in the academic, rarefied environment of the University of Ghana where we were exposed to intellectuals from all over the world. We were blessed with the privileges of paid trips to the UK and the United States. It was often a curious experience. Although the States was clearly economically advanced compared to Ghana, we also knew that our personal lives were significantly more pampered than that of many, including the couple of people we met who wondered if we lived in little mud huts, “like in the Tarzan movies.” What else was significant was the difference between the mindset of being black in a black African country and being black in America. In the latter case we felt there was an aspect of having to seek acceptance and permission, whereas in Ghana, a black person doesn’t need to impress anyone from the perspective of race. Ironically though, in Ghana our lives were significantly Americanized, the result of an American mother and our frequent travels to the States. So one might call my childhood culturally ambivalent, but it was also culturally rich.

Q: After your father’s death, you moved to the United States with your family. One of the factors that prompted this move was your arrest in Ghana for “sedition.” You were caught hanging anti-government posters. You obviously had some passion about what was going on in Ghana at the time. How old were you at this point? And how did you feel about leaving at that time?

Kwei: I was angry at the time – as the cliché goes, “sick and tired and not gonna take it any more.” I had just begun pre-med, but university classes were being repeatedly interrupted because of forced closure of the university by the military regime that did not appreciate the student protests going on at the time. I was somewhat naïve in thinking I could make a difference as an individual, and I did it without thinking through the possible consequences. It certainly got me a photo on the front page of the daily papers! I was pretty disgusted and considerably traumatized by the time we were leaving Ghana, and I was looking forward to a change. This is what happens when countries lack good governance and quality of life – people begin to leave. It can be a tragedy for a developing country to lose the brainpower it needs most. Very fortunately, Ghana’s economic and democratic future is at the moment looking very bright.

Q: But then you returned to Ghana in 2008. What prompted your visit at that time and what were your reactions to the Ghana you encountered?

Kwei: It was in the main to research several aspects of the book, e.g. police work, geography, and the subject of the indentured servitude of the women in the novel called trokosi, loosely translated as “wives of the gods.” I was stunned by the transformation of the place. Tall buildings were going up everywhere in the capital, Accra, and everyone was using cell phones, even in the remotest of villages (there’s a reference to that in the book). I went to glittering shopping malls and supermarkets the likes of which had not existed when I was growing up. Of course, some things had not changed: still too many unemployed young people, still inadequate water and drainage systems in the rural areas, and so on.

Q: So you have an intimate knowledge of your setting for WIFE OF THE GODS, but what kind of research did you find yourself pursuing to depict a police detective?

Kwei: Thanks to the Internet, I could look into Ghana’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in great detail. I was fortunate to have contact with ex-classmates who were now in “high places” and were able to set me up for a meeting with the Assistant Commissioner of Police of CID, Kenneth Yeboah (second from the very top), who generously gave me about an hour of his time, during which I found out that my blithe assumption that the police department had no crime scene unit was embarrassingly wrong. I really wanted to shadow a detective from CID, but ACP Yeboah was a little leery of that. I’ll persuade him the next time around (after I send a signed copy of the book to him.)

Q: Magic/witchcraft plays an important role in WIFE OF THE GODS. Did you have any personal experiences with this element of the Ghanaian culture?

Kwei: While in Ghana, we always heard stories about witchcraft supposedly causing things “to happen.” The most amusing one was the time there was a reputed wave of witchcraft streaming through Accra and making men impotent. One of my brothers told me a story about a talented soccer player who broke a leg while playing a match, just as he was about to make a potential goal kick. His team lost. It was such a freak accident in an otherwise very healthy young guy that he went back to his hometown to consult a traditional healer, who told him that witchcraft had brought about this misfortune. The soccer player asserted from then on that the witch had “been on the soccer field” at the time of the match. Certainly in my family, though, these kinds of notions were dismissed fairly quickly. I was rigorously scientific in my thinking and gave such stories no credence. I’m much more interested in them now than I was then.

Q: So let’s talk a little about your writing process. Do you outline or do you do a lot of cutting and changing at the end?

Kwei: Generally no outlines on paper – just in my head - until maybe somewhere around the middle. But my outline is always entitled “list of events, i.e. details that I think of that need to go into the book at some point. I rewrite frequently along the way, editing some stuff, dumping other material. If something comes up that affects an earlier part of the book, I fix the earlier part as soon as I can. One thing I don’t do that I’ve seen written as a suggestion, is to carry 3 x 5 cards around and jot down ideas about plot, characters, etc. that come to me. It seems to me that if the idea is that good, it should stick in my head.

Q: How about characters? Do you get to know them at all before you start writing or do they tend to develop more AS you write? Are there any real people who served as models for the characters in WIFE OF THE GODS?

Kwei: Characters definitely develop as I write. In this novel, this was especially true of the protagonist, Inspector Darko Dawson. When I was in a creative writing class long ago, we went through an exercise in which we had to describe our characters’ appearance, likes and dislikes, lifestyle, occupation his or her feelings, etc., but I didn’t find it a particularly useful exercise in developing a character. When you meet someone, features of that person never all come out at once, they get released little by little (and thereby sometimes end relationships!) and I think it’s the same with my characters. There are one or two real people who were models for the characters in the novel to some degree, although there were no exact copies.

Q: In WIFE OF THE GODS, a young medical student is killed. Was this event a figment of your imagination or was there an actual event that prompted you to write this story?

Kwei: It’s a figment, but there’s some background, though. One evening years ago when I was in Paris for a few days, I came across a TV documentary in which a rural detective was trying to solve a murder in a small village in Ivory Coast (West Africa). The detective used superstition scare tactics to try and get people to talk. It was raw reality TV that gave me a jolt. I decided then and there that I was going to write a murder mystery set in Ghana, Ivory Coast’s neighbor to the east, where I had grown up. In the early versions of the book, it was not a medical student who was murdered, but I later made that choice because it fitted in better with aspects of the story.

Q: There is quite a difference in the large city of Accra and the small town of Ketanu, and in the short span of WOTG’s plot, there doesn’t appear to be a lot of change taking place. Do you feel that this chasm of difference will start to fade as the young people grow up or are those older traditions going to remain pretty steadfast?

Kwei: Change takes place on at least two levels everywhere in the world: physical change, i.e. buildings, development, and so on (see under China); and change in attitude and thinking. The speed of change of both of these relative to each other depends on so many different factors – natural resources, education, whether it’s a very conservative society in the first place, etc. However, one thing is certain: change is going to happen. Change isn’t always synonymous with progress, unfortunately, but there are very few places on earth where change does not occur. An example in the book was a scene in which someone was using his cell phone in a village that didn’t yet have running water, and at the moment in Africa, it’s ironic that cell phones are used for purposes that are quite advanced compared to what most people use cell phones for in the States. In parts of Africa, for example, small loans are made to farmers via cell phone, nurses in remote areas send MMS texts of skin diseases they are seeing in rural areas to a receiving doctor at a city medical center, and so on.
So problems with inadequate infrastructure on the one hand (impassable roads,etc.) has been solved with technology that is being used in progressive ways on the other.

Q: Some authors will say, “There are elements of myself in every character I create,” while other authors will say, “I write fiction, all my characters are products of my imagination.” Do any or all of your characters contain elements of you? Are there other actual people who influenced the characters of WIFE OF THE GODS as you developed them?

Kwei: My characters are indeed products of my imagination, but I don’t see how it’s possible to imagine something or someone completely devoid of one’s life experiences both now and in the past. You might completely make up a character, but someone you met, knew, or interacted with is very likely coloring your creation. In my story, there are one or two characters based directly on someone I knew/know, and there are others whom I know are a combination, but I can’t always tell the exact components. It’s like taking a mouthful of food with several ingredients that are hard to identify individually.

Q: What’s next? Will you continue to write? Crime fiction? Darko Dawson?

Kwei: I’m a very happy person when I’m writing, so yes, it’s not something I would drop as long as I’m mentally and physically able. Crime fiction is what I love, and Darko Dawson and I have some getting to know each other to do. He’s still an enigma to me in some regards, so I’m looking forward to exploring him more.

So we'll be looking forward to what Kwei finds on his explorations with Darko. Many thanks to Kwei for taking the time to hang out with us and share a little about himself. If you're wondering about his memoir, don't panic. He did share one with me. It'll be coming up in the series in the near future.

Kwei is continuing his blog tour with TLC Book Tours. You can check out the remainder of his schedule here. You can also learn more about Kwei and WIFE OF THE GODS at his website.

WIFE OF THE GODS - Kwei Quartey

Gladys Mensah, a young medical student, is found dead in the forest of the small town of Ketanu in Ghana, and a special request is made for someone from Accra - someone with more experience than the locals - to investigate the case. Darko Dawson is a detective inspector with the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service in Accra, Ghana's capital. His proficiency speaking Ewe gets him assigned to the case. Dawson also has a bit of a history with Ketanu. His aunt and uncle live in Ketanu, but he hasn't seen them for over 20 years, since his mother disappeared while on a trip to visit them.

When Dawson arrives in Ketanu he finds Inspector Fiti, the head of Ketanu police, focused in on a suspect that Dawson thinks is innocent. He also finds a custom where families offer their virgin teenage daughters to fetish priests as trokosi (Wives of the Gods) along with a slew of possible suspects for this murder. Dawson must keep his temper in check and find Gladys' true killer before an innocent man possibly dies at the hands of Inspector Fiti.

WIFE OF THE GODS is Kwei Quartey's debut novel that brings forth some controversial practices in the small towns of Ghana, Quartey's native country. Quartey's protagonist, Darko Dawson, travels to Ketanu and illustrates the sharp contrast that exists among Ghana's people and their beliefs. Even within Dawson's own family there is a rift in beliefs. Dawson's son suffers from a heart defect and is waiting for his parents to be able to afford a surgery he desperately needs. Dawson's mother-in-law wants to take her grandson to a "healer," what some might consider a witch doctor. Through these two extremes, Quartey illustrates the devastation that can occur when neither side is willing to try to understand the validity of the other. As a Westerner, I would tend to believe in the same things that Dawson does. But he's not successful in his attempts to solve his case because he wants to force his own beliefs down the throats of the people of Ketanu without trying to understand why they believe what they do. And the same holds true for those unwilling to see Dawson's beliefs. They would prefer to wrongly convict an innocent person, pass life-threatening diseases, and sacrifice their children rather than understand why others disapprove of their beliefs and practices. And really, what culture doesn't go through this process when it grows, spreads, changes and develops?

The character of Darko Dawson is the epitome of the tragic hero. And his temper is his tragic flaw. While he doesn't do everything right, the reader identifies and empathizes with him. Few of us would be tolerant enough to elude the mistakes he makes because he makes them out of a shear passion to do the right thing.

And of course the most exotic element of Quartey's novel is the setting. Ghana is obviously a land with a rich history that is growing and changing little by little. Quartey illustrates those growing pains through his rich characters but also through the distinctive contrast of their environments. Accra and Ketanu are a short physical distance apart but almost worlds apart in advancement.

WIFE OF THE GODS is truly a trip to another world for most Westerners. Readers will open the cover and escape to a strange new land to make friends with fiction's new detective, Darko Dawson.

Kwei Quartey is presently on his virtual book tour with TLC Book Tours. He will be joining us on Friday for a nice little interview chat, but in the meantime, you can read more about him, WIFE OF THE GODS, and his other blog tour stops here. And you can also check out his website.

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.