Tag: reading-is-hot

Sleuthin’ Saturday

Kay Finch and Julie Herman at Murder By The Book.

I haven’t been able to get to a signing at Murder By The Book for a while. I’m two books behind in my friend Dean James (writing as Miranda James)’s cozy Cat in the Stacks Mystery series AND his Southern Ladies Mystery series. I was able to pick up the second Southern Ladies book on Saturday when I went to a signing for Dean’s friend Julie Herman. Julie took a hiatus from publishing (I have her Three Dirty Women series in hard cover, and she’s hoping she’ll have e-versions of those available soon). She’s back with Burned, a middle school equestrian mystery which I read in one sitting yesterday. I have been contemplating writing in the voice of a fifteen-year-old girl for quite a while now, and Julie’s narrator is TWELVE. It was interesting to hear her talk about the number of drafts it took her before she felt that voice was authentic. I tip my hat to her, because she succeeds with Sophie Allen. (Also, I love the book’s cover.)

Signing with Julie was a new-to-me author, Kay Finch. Kay is in a critique group with Julie, and writes A Bad Luck Cat Mystery series. Now you know I’m a dog person, but when a writer names a cat Hitchcock, I’m in!

Looking forward to reading the rest of these books.

#riotgrams

Thanks to Jeffrey Ricker bringing this to my attention, I’ve been participating in an Instagram challenge hashtagged #riotgrams. It’s part of Book Riot, something that is slowly enticing me to think about writing when my brain takes a break from dog rescue. These are the challenges this month:

And today’s was fun for me, because not only did I get to show off the Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum hardcovers that I co-own with Timothy, but I got to show off a couple of other things, too, reminding me that I have another life that waits for when I will make some time and give it some attention.

Yes to this

I don’t think I’ve mentioned on the blog what a pleasure this book is. First, Michael Thomas Ford never disappoints me, whether he’s writing fiction or non-fiction, and in whatever genre. I was one of the people who contributed to the Indiegogo campaign in 2012 to help him finance his writing of this book. The original plan was that only contributors would receive a copy upon its publication.

Fortunately for the reading public, editor Steve Berman was persuasive in getting MTF’s approval for Lethe Press to publish Lily, meaning more of artist Staven Andersen’s illustrations could be included and also ensuring the novel’s wider circulation.

It is a fairy tale and while that might not be the first thing I’d pull off a shelf in the bookstore, as I said, MTF’s writing never disappoints, so I was glad to go on this journey with him (as a writer) and Lily (as a character). The book Lily is beautiful and sad and creepy and funny. The character Lily, who has an ability that makes her “different,” has a foot in two worlds–both of them magic, but only one that will embrace and not exploit who she is. There’s a lot of sadness here for me as a reader at the cruelties creatures both human and supernatural are capable of. But there are also moments of unexpected kindness that help Lily move toward a better destiny than the one she thinks she deserves.

Michael Thomas Ford’s touch is as magical as Lily’s, and so is this book.

Bruuuuuce!

If you know me, you know I loved him before the world knew he was Bruuuuuuce! Though we had a slight blip in the late ’80s, I got over it. Now that I’ve read his memoir Born to Run, holy crap, there’s a reason he’s The Boss. I think this may be one of the best rock memoirs I’ve read. Basically, his life is the fictional story I once wanted to write about a musician. Mine remains unpublished, but that’s okay. Bruce is a one of a kind powerhouse, and I can continue to love these pages and all the characters he’s given our world. ‘Cause you know, he’s got this guitar and he learned how to make it talk…

Snoopy Saturday–a coup d’état!

A dog sleeps in the doghouse! A frog has an agenda!

I read this quote from Muppets creator Jim Henson recently.

At some point in my life, I decided, rightly or wrongly, that there are many situations in this life that I can’t do much about: acts of terrorism, feelings of nationalistic prejudice, cold war, etc. So what I should do is concentrate on the situations that my energy can affect.

Feel free to give a shout-out in comments to a person or group who you personally see–and maybe even help!–direct energy toward making our world better, kinder, safer.