Odds and Ends and the 2012 Theme Week

Time is already trying to speed by me in 2012. Goodness. To bad this snow isn't speeding by. I'm over it already.

I wanted to share a few odds and ends with you. The first being a "full disclosure" type of thing. I have been doing some work now for awhile with Maddee James at xuni.com, as you know. And I've also started to do some support work with Erin Mitchell for her business HEW (which handles author PR). Some of the authors I read are clients of Maddee or Erin. Their status as clients doesn't change the stipulations for reviews here. I still have to be interested in a book to read it and I have to like it to post about it. There are no expectations that my blog will be used for anything related to either organization. It is my personal and private endeavor - so my opinions reflect only ME, not xuni.com and not HEW.  That being said, I am also going to label any of those authors with the "xuni" tag or the "HEW" tag, so you know if they have that connection. You may take that into consideration when deciding whether  you're going to heed my advice on a book. It's very important to me that I'm up front about it.

O.k., on to fun stuff, like World Book Night. Have you all heard about this? I've mentioned it on Twitter and Facebook because I put my name into the hat for consideration as a book giver. I hope you'll take a minute or two to check it out. And if you're interested, sign up to be considered as a book giver!

There are a couple of book giveaways that Regal Literary is holding you might be interested in. First they have Josh Bazell's WILD THING and then also Donato Carrisi's THE WHISPERER. You have to enter by February 8th to be considered for those.

Speaking of giveaways! Congratulations to Michael A (CA) and Bobbie R (IL) who won the TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY giveaway here. I have passed on your mailing addresses to the folks at Focus Features (trying saying that three times fast) so you can receive your loot! I loved all of your spy names.

And the last item I have for this post is the blogger sign-up for this year's theme week. The theme is "Heroes & Villains" and will encompass all sub-genres. So no matter what crime fiction you fancy, it will fit in this year's theme week. The dates of the theme week are April 16-20. I hope you'll join in. And I hope you'll encourage others to join in as well. I'd love for some folks who aren't typical readers of the genre to give it a try. Really, what do you have to lose? Bloggers interested in participating, please just complete the quick form below and I'll be sending out an info sheet with all the specifics.



Stay warm and happy reading!

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!

Catching Up and Around the Web

Well between me doing a ridiculously unusual amount of traveling, and Blogger being sick last week, things got a little off course.

I apologize if you've contact me recently and I haven't returned your email or message. I'm still catching up. Hope to get there soon!

I have been starting some crime fiction-related groups over at Copia to have a nice place to post questions and discussion topics. My plan next month is to start a book discussion on THE TWO DEATHS OF DANIEL HAYES. If you read my review, you know I just felt like I wanted to talk to people about the book. And I still do. But I don't want to give spoilers or wreck twists for anyone who hasn't read it. So, I thought I'd use the forum at Copia to create a place where we could chat about the book. I'll put up some questions, thoughts, etc., and you can comment in those areas or add your own questions and thoughts. If it works out, maybe I'll try it the following month with YOU'RE NEXT. I'm reading that right now and just having an amazing reading experience. What are you thoughts? Anyone interested in participating with me?

I'm actually still figuring out all the ins and outs of Copia; I hope you'll come log in and find me: Mysterious_Dame. I think it'll be fun to share a book club of sorts across the miles.

In other news, I've shared with you that I'm working with Maddee James of xuni.com. Absolutely loving that. The dangerous part, though, has been finding even more authors I want to check out and read. If you're on Facebook, come like the xuni.com page and I'll corrupt YOU with new authors, too. And if you read YA at all, or have some YAs in your house, xuni is a great place to find books and authors!

And speaking of Facebook, I received an email from someone trying to find me on Facebook. I don't have a link for that up here, do I? Shame on me. I think I usually manage to mangle Facebook links, but let me see if I can get my own right here. Try this.

Next week I'm headed to BEA and will be on a panel at the Book Bloggers Convention right after BEA. Looking forward to that. Definitely say hi if you see me. I'll likely be the person looking completely overwhelmed and lost!

And now for a few fun tidbits to share. In addition to my traveling, I've had the opportunity to see a slew of great author people lately. At the very beginning of May, Brian Freeman was here in the Cleveland area. It was a lot of fun to meet he and his wife. They both have a great sense of humor and it was fascinating to learn about his road to writing crime fiction.

Last Monday and Tuesday, Chris Grabenstein came to Lorain County for the annual Young Author's Conference and he was a huge hit with all the county's aspiring young writers. I had the honor of being his chauffeur for those days. Here are some fun pictures of Chris:

And finally yesterday I went to the Marion Public Library to see Craig McDonald. There was just a small group of us there, but the discussion was fun, I was able to see his wife Debbie again, and this time I also had the chance to meet Craig's daughters.

Just a reminder about Bouchercon. If you are planning to attend but haven't registered yet, you'll want to make sure you do so soon. The host hotel is already booked for the convention-rate rooms, but there are plenty of surrounding hotels in close proximity.

I don't think I had a chance to mention here that my friend and fellow blogger Pop Culture Nerd is hosting the first Stalker Awards. Be sure you stop over there and nominate your favorites for those awards. They're great categories!

Just today Naomi from The Drowning Machine announced the ten qualifiers for the Watery Grave Invitational Short Story Contest. I can't believe it's that time again already. Check out The Drowning Machine for all the fun on that contest.

I'll wrap up today's post with a video from Joseph Finder about being "buried alive." Have a great week and happy reading!