Middle of the Week Fun!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What's Been Going On?

Things are finally starting to slow down for me. I was doing a lot of traveling there for a couple months...a lot for me, anyway. I think I've traveled more in the past year than the whole rest of my life combined. Anyway, it's time to start catching up.

Hopefully you've already pre-ordered your copies of Alafair Burke's LONG GONE and Gregg Hurwitz's YOU'RE NEXT. If you haven't, time is running out on their pre-order incentives. Alafair has this wonderful members-only book group that's she's going to be doing and Gregg has a chance for you to win all of his previous books (1st edition, hardcovers) personalized. Alafair's offer ends today, so get your pre-order NOW! And Gregg's ends on Thursday. These are two of my highest recommended books this summer and they will definitely be on my favorites list for the year. Don't miss out on them!


Also, Alafair Burke's Duffer Awards are still going on, so be sure to check each day and cast your votes. Leave comments for your chance to win prizes!

The first Shelf Awareness for Readers came out on Friday. If you didn't catch it, you can see it here and sign up to have it e-mailed to you. It'll come twice a week: Tuesdays and Fridays. It's a great source of book information for consumers.


Another great source of book info is out xuni.com Facebook page. Have you been by to "like" us? I keep thinking about all the trouble it's getting me into. I've added to my TBR list and the great stuff just keeps on coming. A good example is THE GENESIS KEY by James Barney or TOMORROW RIVER by Lesley Kagen. Not to mention Boyd Morrison and Will Lavender and Chris Mooney...and then there are the reminders about Michael Koryta and Sophie Littlefield and Brad Parks and Lee Child and John Connolly. See, it's kind of a one-stop shopping for amazing crime writers. But there's also a lot of young adult authors as well. There's never a shortage of great stuff to discover with xuni authors, so check us out!

The Watery Grave Invitational short story contest hosted by Naomi over at The Drowning Machine blog has announced winners. Some excellent short stories were submitted. Be sure to check them out and congratulate the winners!

That's about it for this post. I'm hoping to be back later today to share some snippets from events I've been attending lately. I'll see you then! Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there and happy reading to everyone!

Update with Odds and Ends

Today I'm headed out of town for work. I'm not sure if I'll be able to post anything before I get back or not. In the event I can't I wanted to leave you with a few items to check out.

First, I'll give you a general update on Week 1 of the "World's Favorite Detective" tournament. It's been an interesting Week 1 actually with several contests volleying back and forth depending on the day. There are very few blowouts and most contests can still go either way depending on these last two days of voting. The voting booth for Week 1 will be open through tomorrow, so if you're pulling for your favorite detective to move on, now's the time to rally your friends and get the votes!

I was very excited to see that on Monday alone there were over 600 voters. Very cool. I hope you all continue to come back each week throughout the tournament and support your favorite detectives. I also hope you check out some whose names aren't familiar to you...or rather weren't familiar before the contest started. I'm hoping to do some highlights on the detectives when we get down a little further. I would have loved to have done a highlight for every single detective in the tourney, but time simply wouldn't permit it. That doesn't mean you can't check them out on your own. I've already requested audio books from some of the authors I wasn't familiar with before this. Very excited to discover some new detectives!

So, be sure to check back next week for Round 2. I return from my work trip Saturday night. If I can get to it, I'll post the winners of Round 1 Sunday, otherwise, I'll have it up for you on Monday and the new voting will start.

If you didn't have a chance to catch my interview with Tom Schreck earlier this week and you would like to, you can see that here. Tom turned the tables on me and I was in the interview hot seat this time. Tom's a super wonderful person, an extremely talented writer and I was honored to hang out with him at his blog.

And I also spent some time with my dear friend Kaye Barley this week over at her blog. I talked about my special family and I answered the question everyone's been asking me, "What is your six-word memoir?" So, if you'd like to see that, you can do that here.

Alright, I'm done being narcissistic for today. I want to talk about other cool places to visit if you haven't seen them already. I've actually fallen so far behind in my own blog reading that my friends are ready to send the lynch mob after me, I think. Naomi and Corey are staying very busy over at The Drowning Machine. Be sure to stop by there for a couple awesome reviews as well as an Indie Bookstore highlight. Absolutely love that!

Michael has been highlighting the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series on audio book at his blog. I believe I talked about this before, but this is truly a series that I get excited about every time I hear he has a new post. To combine my love of Crais with my love of audio books is heaven to begin with. But Michael is a connoisseur and it's so much fun to discuss these audios with him. I just never tire of it. Anyway, he's up to THE FORGOTTEN MAN. You can check that out here. And he has links to the remainder of the series if you need to catch up.

Michael's also been doing a series on movie Title/Credit Sequences. He's up to Part 4 on that series. You can see that here. Again he adds links to the previous posts if you need to catch up. I have been reading them utterly dumbfounded. I can't even contribute I feel so unworthy! I love his film knowledge. I feel as though I get an education every time he hosts a post. It's great!

And my idol, Pop Culture Nerd, is getting super fancy on us these days. She put together a slide show of fashion from the Academy Awards. I don't need to hit People Magazine's website, PCN has all the inside scoop I need. And it's far more fun to dish with her than People Magazine! You have to go over and see this slide show. Her captions are half the fun. Make sure that you see Robert Downey, Jr. Seriously, I laughed out loud at that one. My colleagues thought I was off my rocker. Damn cubicles! If you haven't been over to check out her site lately, what are you waiting for? Lots of fun stuff going on there. Had I not been visiting, I'd have never heard about Tom Kaufman. See, that's why I hate getting behind on my blog reading!

And finally, please go over and wish my good friend Jenn from Jenn's Bookshelves a happy blogiversary. She celebrated two years of blogging this week. And she has a nice contest going on in honor of her blogiversary where you could win the book of your choice! Can't beat that! You have until March 15th to enter for that contest. And you know if you have trouble deciding what you want, I'll be happy to give you a long list of suggestions! ;-)

All right. I'll shut my trap now...or rather my fingers, I guess. I just wanted to make sure I left you with enough fun stuff until I return. I promise some reviews next week. I have still been reading, I swear, even though I haven't done a very good job of posting the reviews in a timely manner. But you know, you can also always follow me on Twitter. I tend to talk about books there while I'm reading them (as well as other various odds and ends). I put the link to my Twitter page over in my side bar if you aren't already following and would like to, just click my little Twitter bird.

Have a great weekend everyone. I hope it is filled with sunshine and happiness and BOOKS! And remember to VOTE!!!

Whew, What a Week

It's been a rather wild week my way, but I think the major obligations are now behind me and it'll start to be a little calmer going into the long weekend. I'm so looking forward to the extra day off this weekend!


But, I did want to take a quick couple minutes and share a few odds and ends with you. I've been reading a lot of blogs this week for various reasons, but seems like the more I read, the more I have to comment on. So here are some tidbits:


Alafair Burke has joined the clan over at Murderati. She'll be blogging every other Monday, and here is her first post with them. And it took me almost a blasted month to get over and finally comment on her very nice video interview she did with her papa, James Lee Burke. So, probably most of you have seen it already, but in case you didn't, it's definitely worth checking out - note, I cannot link to just that post, but here's Alafair's blog with a bunch of great posts worth reading; the interview is August 10th. Also, Alafair is looking for anyone who might have an in with Ellen Degeneres. She'd like Ellen to read her new book. Anyone know Ellen?

Over at The Outfit, Libby Hellmann got folks talking about first lines of books earlier this week. I'm so hooked on this now, I've decided that all my reviews will now include the first lines of the books. Audios may be an exception on occasion, but I'm still going to try to include those, too. I have always appreciated a good hook, but I never really thought about it as focused as I did after reading Libby's post. So cool!! Also, you can get a free short story of Libby's on audio over at Sniplits. I think she's featured through Tuesday (Sept. 8), so if you're interested, you'll probably want to get over there soon.


Also over at The Outfit, Sean Chercover is talking about the release of TRIGGER CITY in paperback. He noted that there's a new scene in the paper version that wasn't in the hardcover version. All you die-hards may have to go get a second copy now! :)


I've already discussed on here how completed addicted I am to 7 Criminal Minds. I love how each week the writers all respond to the same question. Makes me feel bad for Gabi at the end of the week, but she's holdin' her own over there. I also love, love, love each of the authors writing over there. They are so incredibly talented. I can assure you, you will hear more about each of them from me here because I will definitely be following their writing careers. This week's question absolutely cracks me up. They are throwing protagonists into a boxing ring together. I encourage you all to go over and have a look at what they are coming up with. It's priceless.


I also get the incredible honor of sharing my surprise from 7 Criminals Minds. On Monday, in CJ's post, the writers gave me this Kreativ Blogger Award. I was completely caught off guard and astounded. I am beyond humbled because I admire all of them so much. It really is a very special acknowledgement and means a tremendous amount to me. So, I thank them from the bottom of my heart. Criminal Minds: you guys are wonderful!!



Last blog I'm going to recommend you check out today is The Lipstick Chronicles. Gregg Hurwitz was the guest blogger over there on Monday for the kick-off of their "Manly Monday" post. He's a stitch. When I asked him if they required him to wear lipstick to do the post, he replied (via Twitter) "alas, yes." He's traveling to New Zealand for a book conference there, but in the meantime, you can read about his restaurant research here.

Don't forget, if you're interested in entering the Watery Grave Invitational short story contest, the entry period is right now. Corey is hosting this at The Drowning Machine. Don't delay.

And also don't forget to get your entries in for my contest to win a copy of THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE. Details are here.


O.k., so that's all the wonderful stuff I've been reading on blogs this week. Something I want to share with you because it isn't so wonderful, but made me laugh anyway:


--a blogger who said "no ifs, ands, or butts about it." Yeah! We're actually using conjunctions here, not anatomical parts! Oy!


And I've been reading a number of reviews as well this past week. You all have permission to shake me until my teeth rattle if I ever say "this character was so fleshed out..." Or anything remotely connected to the word "fleshed." I cannot tell you how many times I've read that statement in the last week. And I'm sure it's a personal bias, but I thought it sounded ridiculous every time I read it. It now ranks right up there with "unputdownable." O.k., I'm done being catty. The Criminal Minds are going to revoke my award!


Finally, I want to tell you about two things I won this week. First, I won a Kathy Reichs prize pack on Twitter from Scribner Books. Very cool. Not only did I get a copy of 206 BONES in hardcover, but I also got a nice Trade paper copy of BONES TO ASHES and a mousepad from the television show. I can look at David every day at work now. *Sigh* ;-)


And today I came home to find out I had won a contest from St. Martin's for an audiobook of Chelsea Cain's HEARTSICK. Excellent. Love to get audiobooks since I usually can't afford to buy them new. Very cool.


I'm behind again on my reviews. I apologize. I'm hoping to get caught up at least a little this weekend. I'm about to finish the upcoming Duffy Dombrowski OUT COLD, so you'll hear about this one soon. Suffice it to say that despite this being one of the busiest weeks of my entire year, I've finished this one in record time. It is hysterical! It is fun! And it is really a rather thought-provoking book. I just adore Tom Schreck's style. But, I'll save it for the review!


Very quickly, I'd also like to extend some birthday wishes. Two outstanding crime fiction authors share Sept. 2nd as their birthday: the aforementioned Tom Schreck and the creator of my beloved John Ceepak, Chris Grabenstein. Happy Birthday Tom and Chris!! Hope you did extra-fun things to celebrate your day!


Whew....almost done! Thanks for sticking with me through this long-winded post. I have to include the Bouchercon countdown today! Can you believe it? 43 days left! Woo hoo!! I actually won't be going until Friday, but I plan to leave early Friday and take advantage of everything I can from Friday to Sunday.


Have a great Thursday and happy reading!!

A Weekly Roundup - and Input Requested

Wow! Where in the world did August go? It seems to have just zoomed by. The days are getting shorter again, which means the cold weather is just around the corner. I saw some leaves turning colors, and I was stopped by the school bus twice this past week on the way to work. It wouldn't be bad if the stop was ONCE, but no, it's about 5 times in less than 50 yards. The bus usually has 20-30 cars lined up behind it before it turns off that main road. I didn't miss the school buses over summer. Going to have to leave about 5 or 10 minutes earlier again so I can have a better shot at beating the bus now.

In book news, however! This was a fun week with another great six-word memoir round-up and a guest post on "Madcap Noir." And this week the visitor counter topped 19,000. That's amazing to me. After year #1 of Jen's Book Thoughts it hadn't quite hit 5,000. So, yes, I'm doing the requisite little happy dance over here in Lorain, Ohio. But there's fun stuff going on elsewhere that I'd like to tell you about, too.

My friend Corey over at The Drowning Machine has announced a crime fiction short story contest called "The Watery Grave Invitational". And he's rustled up some big time judges for this contest, too. So, all you writers make sure you hustle over to Corey's blog and find out the details to enter your short stories!

I know it may seem like a long way off, but the blog for Bouchercon 2011 in St. Louis is live now. I, of course, am already making plans for this one since Robert Crais will be one of the guests of honor! The hosts include David Thompson and Jon Jordan; I have a feeling it will be a hoppin' time in St. Louis Sept. 15-18, 2011!

I've started to hear rumblings about panel assignments for Bouchercon 2009 in Indianapolis, so if you've been assigned a panel, let me know so I can start making out my plan. Since this is my first B'Con, I'm a little obsessive! ;)

Also don't forget that Tim Hallinan is going to be in Westerville at FOUL PLAY Bookstore on September 23rd. I hope you'll make plans to come out if you are in the vicinity. I'll look forward to seeing you there!

This week has also been full of Book Blogger Appreciation Week work. I will again be participating in the blogger interview exchange, so I'm getting to work on that. I'm working on one of the award panels and that's keeping me busy. I submitted my links for my own award nominations. That was a killer! I appreciate all the input people gave me on what posts they most enjoyed. It helped me a lot; I discovered that trying to pick your favorite posts is like trying to pick your favorite child! Again, I thank all of you who submitted nominations for me. I'm not really expecting the nominations to turn into me being on all the short lists - there are a lot of great blogs nominated. It's an honor just to receive a nomination. Thank you.

Thanks also to everyone who voted for Hershey and Nestle in the Dog Days of Summer photo contest. Hershey managed to snag 2nd place and Nestle got 3rd. The two of them together actually had 50% of the votes. Maybe I should have found a picture of them together, huh? Literate Housewife, Jennifer, did an awesome job on coordinating the theme week. And she planted some seeds in my little brain as well.

And finally on tap for today is a question for you all. I've been doing author interviews for about a year now. I enjoy doing the interviews and hope to keep highlighting fun crime fiction writers for you. So, I'd like to know what kinds of questions you enjoy hearing responses for. A lot of the questions I develop have to do with my own curiosity. But what types of things are you curious about? Are there questions I seem to have stopped asking that you'd like me to fit back in? Are their questions I ask that you couldn't care less about? What peaks your interest? You can leave your responses in the comments section or you can always feel free to email me.

And I think that's about all I have for today. Hope your weekend is a great one, and happy reading!!

Bouchercon countdown: 47 days!!

Monday Mystery Backlist - THIEVES DOZEN

This week's Monday Mystery Backlist comes from my blogging friend Corey over at The Drowning Machine. This may be a dangerous project for me. Corey's post is the first guest post for this series and I'm dying to get my little paws on this book! I was thrilled that Corey chose a book by Donald Westlake. I've read some of Corey's reviews of Donald Westlake and know he's the perfect person to represent Westlake's contribution to the mystery genre. So, without further ado, here is this week's Monday Mystery Backlist title:

I've chosen Donald E. Westlake's THIEVES DOZEN to submit to your Monday Mystery Backlist. The book contains 11 (hence the title) short stories about professional thief John Dortmunder and his no-goodnik friends. The book serves as a hilarious introduction to Dortmunder's life and luck, which is usually bad. In these stories, John's misadventures run the gamut from horse-thieving to jewelry and art heists to just plain avoiding arrest. All of the stories but one first appeared at varying times in various periodicals in the 1980s - 90s.

Trade Paperback
Publish Date: 4/1/2004, The Mysterious Press
ISBN: 9780446693028
There is also an open ebook that appeared in 2007.

Many thanks to Corey for his submission to the Monday Mystery Backlist post. Make sure you stop over to The Drowning Machine to keep tabs on what Corey's reading. Do you have a nominee for the Monday Mystery Backlist? I'd love to hear from you. Remember, the rules are only that it has to be within the mystery genre and published at least one full year ago. If you're an author yourself, I'd love to take your recommendations as long as they aren't your own books.

See you next Monday with another Mystery Backlist title! Happy Reading!