Q & A WITH ALAFAIR BURKE

BookBitch: You are following in some mighty big footsteps - your father, James Lee
Burke, is one of the most talented authors being published today. Did you find it more challenging or intimidating to venture into his field, and how has he been supportive of your efforts?

Alafair Burke: I didn’t even consider my relationship with my father when I was writing my first book. Then when the book was about to be published, it dawned on me that people would obviously make the connection. I dreaded a deluge of readers demanding their money back because my books weren’t set in the bayou. Fortunately, my work is so different from my father’s that people realize straightaway I’m doing my own thing. Both of my parents are delighted that I’m writing, but my father’s support, like my mother’s, is parental and not specifically as a writer. I’m grateful for that.

BB: Michael Connelly and Robert Crais tend to hide oblique references to one another's books within their own books. Laura Lippman claims she hides references to Robert B. Parker's books within her own. Your new book, Dead Connection, has a thinly veiled reference to the main character that is in most of your father's books, and let's face it, you share your name with one
of his characters. Do you think your father will be referencing your characters in any of his books? Do you see this as an ongoing or one time only thing?

AB: I have tremendous fun with all of the crime fiction cross references. I was so delighted to see that in Lee Child’s new book, Jack Reacher spends two nights with a Portland prosecutor named Samantha, a reference to my earlier series character, Samantha Kincaid.

In past books, I’ve referred to Jack Reacher and Harry Bosch. In Dead Connection, Ellie Hatcher notices a woman reading Laura Lippman’s To the Power of Three. I hadn’t planned on bringing my father’s character, Dave Robicheaux, into Dead Connection. But when Ellie needed to contact a law enforcement officer in New Iberia, it only made sense that it should be Dave. After so many years of reading my father write the fictional Alafair Robicheaux, writing Dave’s voice was a blast.

I have no idea if the cross-over will ever happen again. Can you imagine Dave Robicheaux in New York? What a great story.


BB: Dead Connection focuses on a rather deadly Internet dating service. I understand that you met your husband online and indeed, the dedication reads, "For Sean Simpson, I can't believe I found you on a computer". Do you believe that Internet dating is more of a danger or a great way of making a love connection? What do you think about non-dating sites like MySpace that have been instrumental in getting people together? Is this the way to meet people in 2007?

AB: When I first met Sean, I was mortified when people would ask how we met. Now I just answer the question because I know how common internet dating has become. Meeting people online, whether for dating or for socializing ala MySpace, etc., is no more dangerous than the old-fashioned stuff, as long as people are conscientious. The risks aren’t inherent in the internet; they’re inherent when people let their guards down. A street-smart woman, for example, would never think to wander off to an unknown location with a stranger, but people forget that the charming emails they receive online are from total strangers. It’s just like we tell our kids – don’t get in another person’s car even if they say they know Mommy. Well, the internet makes it easy for people to lie about who they are. Because we’re being optimistic about our chances of finding friendship or love, we adults don’t always follow our own lessons once we’re online. That’s why I had to write about the dangers, even though it all worked out beautifully for me.

BB: I've read that you wrote the Samantha Kincaid series about a District Attorney in Oregon because of that old adage, write about what you know, and you share that same background with her. But your new book doesn't go near a courtroom and your main character is a New York City cop. With three books under your belt, were you feeling more confident about spreading your wings and writing about something outside your frame of reference? Where
did you get your inspiration for this character?

AB: I’m still writing what I know. The internet dating plot in Dead Connection grew directly out of my own experience. I live in New York now and wanted to write something set here. And I know police procedure and cop culture. I worked out of a precinct as a prosecutor for two years and taught search and seizure and use of force law to police. Even though the professional resemblance to Samantha is more obvious, Ellie Hatcher carries more of my personal story. Like me, she was raised in Wichita, Kansas, and a large part of her backstory is her decision to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a police officer.

BB: This is probably not a question you get every day, but as a New Yorker I have to ask. I understand that you live in Manhattan, and teach law at Hofstra University on Long Island. That makes for a most unusual commute; city-to-suburb rather than the more typical suburb-to-city. Do you enjoy your commute or is it work time? Do you ever see yourself leaving the city and moving to the island? Or is the goal to write full time and give up teaching?

AB: I’m that rare author who loves my day job. I have academic freedom, I get to teach, my colleagues are intellectually challenging, and I have time to write both legal scholarship and fiction. My one and only complaint is the dag nab commute, which I call my nemesis. But if a car ride is my only complaint in life, I really don’t have much to complain about, do I? I ease the pain with a mix of satellite radio, audio books, and my iPod. I try to look at it as an excuse to listen to whatever I want for two hours a day, a few days a week. However, if you see a woman with shoulder length brown hair shaking her fist at you on the LIE, it isn’t me.

Reprinted by Permission of Library Journal

Shh...Library launches sex hotline

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- This isn't the typical whispering you might expect to hear at a library.
Vienna's City Hall has launched a "sex hotline" to raise money for the capital's main public library, officials said Tuesday.

It's unusual, but it's not particularly raunchy: Callers pay 39 euro cents (53 U.S. cents) a minute to listen to an actress read breathless passages from erotica dating to the Victorian era.
City Hall set up the hotline earlier this month to help the library raise cash for planned remodeling and expansion, Austrian media reported.

Anne Bennent, a famous Austrian stage and film star, reads passages from the Vienna library's collection of 1,200 works of erotic fiction from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, the library said.

Officials said the hotline would be operational through May 31.

And don't ask because I don't have the phone number - sorry!

I spent the day with Jonathan Santlofer!

Friday, April 20, 2007

If you haven't read my reviews then you may not know that I am enamored of this gifted artist and writer - and if you haven't read him, please do.

Jonathan was in Miami for Sleuthfest, the annual mystery writers' convention (more about Sleuthfest on the BookBitchBlog.) We met shortly before lunch, and got to chat a bit. While we were chatting, Jonathan got a phone call from his mom. She lives nearby and drove down with a friend to see him, so I got to meet her too.

Mrs. Santlofer is gorgeous, gregarious and smart. She told me that when Jonathan was about 7 years old, his teacher told her he would end up working in the arts. That was some smart teacher, and some smart mom. She encouraged his artistic talent, finding a summer program for him at Adelphi College when he was about 13 years old. He was the youngest student in the program, by far. Mrs. Santlofer told me that she almost fainted when she walked into the class to see him drawing a nude, from a live model! But she continued to encourage him, and said that her home is filled with his art, and his books.

Jonathan's wife did not accompany him on this trip, but you can hear the love and pride in his voice when he speaks of her, and his daughter. His wife is a former librarian turned food historian, and is hard at work on her own book. His daughter is also a writer with a dream job; she writes a fashion column for a popular New York magazine - she gets to shop, write about it, and get paid for it!

Jonathan told me he dreams of someday doing a graphic novel, but that his knowledge of computer graphics is limited so would have to draw all the illustrations by hand, a monumental endeavor, so that project remains just a dream, for now. His latest novel has over 100 hand drawn illustrations though, and he worked hand in hand with the publisher to get the pictures as he wanted them in the book. He actually drew several more, but only left in the illustrations that he felt furthered the plot. It is a unique and incredible book.

ATLANTA “Save the Book Review” READ-IN!

WHAT: ATLANTA Save the Book Review READ-IN! Bring a book (or many books!) you love, and let’s create a critical mass of readers to put the pressure on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to reverse its terrible decision to “reorganize” its book review out of existence! They got rid of the book review editor, and without an official champion for books within the paper, the quality of books coverage is endangered! It will become disorganized and sporadic, if not simply perfunctory, until, worse, it’s no longer there.

TIME: 10:00 AM until…you decide!

DATE: THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2007
*rain or shine

LOCATION: Converge in front of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Hold open your book and read aloud or to yourself. Trust me, you won’t be the only one. Picture hundreds of people doing the same thing! [*directions below]

WHO: Open to any and all readers and lovers of books and newspapers. Come one, come all Atlantans (or ATLiens), Georgians, and maybe even some of you hardcore out-of-staters.

WHY: Because the city of Atlanta wants a robust, reader-friendly, intelligent book review, not just a section run on auto-pilot from above. Teresa Weaver has created and run exactly this kind of section for almost ten years now and we want the AJC to reward her expertise, not eliminate her job.

Again, if you haven’t signed the "Protect Atlanta's Book Review " petition yet, here’s the link to it:

"Protect Atlanta's Book Review "

http://www.petitiononline.com/atl2007/petition.html

This week, the National Book Critics Circle’s launched a big campaign to help save book review sections in newspapers nationwide, and the momentum will continue next week. Read what authors, critics, and many other voices in the world of books and publishing have been saying about the issue.

http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/

Thank so much for your support, and PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD.


Bet you never thought of book reviews in terms of the endangered species list!

Los Angeles Times Book Prize winners

LOS ANGELES, April 28 (UPI) -- The winners of the 2006 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were announced at UCLA, with the Robert Kirsch award going to William Kittredge.

The Kirsch award is considered one of the Times' most prestigious awards and is given to a writer who has made a distinguished contribution to American letters, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

Other awards given out at the ceremony, hosted by author and PBS anchor Jim Lehrer, went to:

Israeli novelist A.B. Yehoshua for "A Woman in Jerusalem"

Neal Gabler for "Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination"

Lawrence Wright for "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11"

Ian Buruma's "Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance"

Michael Connelly for "Echo Park"

Each prize included a $1,000 cash award.

Also the Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction went to Alice Greenway for "White Ghost Girls" and the poetry award went to Frederick Seidel for "Ooga-Booga."

ELAINE VIETS BOOKSIGNING
a letter from Joann Sinchuk of Murder on the Beach

Dear Customers and Friends,

As you may have heard, Elaine Viets had a stroke two weeks ago. Recovering from emergency brain surgery, Elaine is not able to tour for her new book in the Dead End Job series, Murder with Reservations. So I, and some local authors, are stepping in to maintain her book tour and hopefully keep her book sales up.

The book launch party for Murder with Reservations will go on as planned on Wednesday May 2 at 7 pm at Murder on the Beach. Instead of hearing Elaine speak, we will have a panel discussion with Barbara Parker, PJ Parrish, Rhonda Pollero, Randy Rawls, and Prudy Taylor Board on the Dead End Job series. I will be moderating.

Please mark the date on your calendar and plan to attend. We will be serving refreshments. Vicki Landis will be bringing a cake. Randy, we have enough Killian's. And we will serve the wine from the vineyard owned by Oceanview Publishing that I won in the raffle at Sleuthfest. The Sun-Sentinel and the Delray News are running stories about the signing-by-proxy.
See you on Wednesday May 2 at 7 pm.

Joanne Sinchuk
Murder on the Beach Bookstore
Pineapple Grove Way
273 Ne 2nd Ave
Delray Beach, FL 33444
Phone: 561-279-7790
Winter Hours: Mon - Sat 10-6, Sun 12-5.

MWA Announces 2007 Edgar Award Winners

Mystery Writers of America is proud to announce the winners of the2007 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television and film published or produced in 2006.

BEST NOVEL: The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR: The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson (Random House)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL: Snakeskin Shamisen by Naomi Hirahara(Bantam Dell)

BEST FACT CRIME: Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson(HarperCollins)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL: The Science of Sherlock Holmes: From Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fearby E.J. Wagner (John Wiley & Sons)

BEST SHORT STORY: "The Home Front" Death Do Us Part by Charles Ardai(Hachette Book Group)

BEST JUVENILE: Room One: A Mystery or Two by Andrew Clements(Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

BEST YOUNG ADULT: Buried by Robin Merrow MacCready(Penguin YR)

BEST PLAY: Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure by Steven Dietz(Arizona Theatre Company)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY: Life on Mars; Episode 1, Teleplay by Matthew Graham (BBC America)

BEST TELEVISION FEATURE/MINI-SERIES TELEPLAY: The Wire, Season 4, Teleplays by Ed Burns, Kia Corthron, DennisLehane, David Mills, Eric Overmyer, George Pelecanos, Richard Price, David Simon & William F. Zorzi (Home Box Office)

BEST MOTION PICTURE SCREENPLAY: The Departed, Screenplay by William Monahan(Warner Bros. Pictures)

First Crime Novel Competition Announced During Edgar Awards Week

NEW YORK, April 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Daniel J. Hale, Executive
Vice President of Mystery Writers of America (MWA), and Andrew Martin, Vice
President and Publisher of St. Martin's Minotaur, today announced the first
annual St. Martin's Minotaur/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel
Competition.

This contest provides a previously unpublished writer an opportunity to
launch his or her career with a major mystery imprint, St. Martin's
Minotaur. The winner will receive a one-book, $10,000 contract.

The competition will be officially announced during MWA's April 2007
Edgar(R) Award festivities by Mr. Martin. Entries will be accepted
immediately through December 15, 2007. The winner will be recognized at the
2008 Edgar Awards banquet, and his or her novel published in 2009.
"We at Mystery Writers of America are excited to partner with St.
Martin's Minotaur in offering this terrific opportunity to get an
unpublished writer's career off the ground... way off the ground!" said Mr.
Hale.

Mr. Martin commented, "For more than 60 years MWA has been recognized
as the preeminent organization devoted to the craft of writing mysteries
and crime fiction. For more than 50 years, St. Martin's Press and Minotaur
have been a publishing well-spring of award-winning crime fiction. Now we
come together to discover great new talent. Only one question: What took us
so long? I'm thrilled to begin this exciting new program with MWA and can't
wait to announce our first winner at next year's Edgar Award ceremony."

The competition is open to any writer who has never been the author of
a published novel. Details, rules and specific guidelines on eligibility,
as well as entry forms, are available at the St. Martin's Minotaur website:
http://www.minotaurbooks.com.

Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is the premier organization for
mystery writers, professionals allied to the crime writing field, aspiring
crime writers, and those who are devoted to the genre:
http://www.mysterywriters.org.

St. Martin's Minotaur is an imprint of St. Martin's Press which
launched in 1999 and which publishes 130 hardcover crime fiction titles a
year. St. Martin's Minotaur grew out of a fifty-year tradition of
publishing quality crime fiction at St. Martin's Press.

St. Martin's Press is part of Holtzbrinck Publishers, the U.S.
publishing group owned by Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GMBH of
Stuttgart, Germany.

GUEST BLOGGER: RON BLOCK ON "MUCH ADO ABOUT BOOKS"

I am so excited to introduce my very first guest blogger, Ron Block. Ron works for the Jacksonville Public Library but prior to that, he was my boss (poor guy - but he did survive and he's all the stronger for it!) I miss him dearly, and was supposed to go visit last weekend and attend Jacksonville's famed book fair, Much Ado About Books, but I had to cancel at the last minute. Ron was kind enough to write about his day at the book fair. Great job, Ron, and thanks!

Much Ado About Books
Prime Osborn Convention Center
Jacksonville, Florida
April 21, 2007

http://www.muchadoaboutbooks.com/

I had the privilege to be able to attend the 11th annual book festival in Jacksonville. Viewing the line up of authors and programs, I thought this would prove to be a great event.

As a fan and friend of Stacy Alesi, (www.bookbitch.com), I was especially excited to have her join me to show off the Jacksonville literary community and also to use her to brush closer to the authors I knew she has already befriended(Ok, I am a celebrity hound and never miss an opportunity to get near them, while still trying to look cool and unfazed).

Unfortunately, Stacy was unable to attend, so I had to put my dark glasses and hat away and attend the festival as a normal booklover.

When I arrived, I was surprised to find so many people attending. I quickly checked out the location board and planned my attack. First up was a trip to the author tables. They were laid out in a huge rectangle and I decided to just scout out the talent. There were authors signing their book in abundance! They included authors works in Chick Lit, Florida travel and history, Children’s Literature, Romance, Fiction, Thrillers and Mysteries. As I walked toward the back the names got bigger and bigger…Steve Berry, Sandra Brown, Alex Kava, Tim Dorsey, James Grippando, Joseph (Call me “Joe”) Finder, Lee Child, Luanne Rice and Brad Meltzer. If only Stacy were with me, I would have jumped behind the tables and had my picture taken with them, helped them sell books and protect them from other stalkers!

After I began to breathe again, I went to a panel discussion featuring Alex Kava, Joe Finder and David Hagberg. This seemed an odd grouping, but the moderator started things off on a light note by injecting a lot of humor into the introductions and as the time passed the authors shared a wealth of information about their research methods, writing style, backgrounds and convinced me that I should begin that long awaited novel writing career right away. This panel easily could have been the featured panel of the day. When it was time to wrap it up, neither the standing-room only audience (including Lee Child and Steve Berry-how psyched was I???) nor the panel wanted to leave the room.

My only complaint about the day thus far was the luncheon that was served in the main room ahead of the featured panel. It was a lame attempt at a chicken salad already set up on every table and a dessert. There was no telling how long it had been there-but it was easily pushed aside to focus on the main event. The stage was huge with dual rock concert sized screens on either side so even the little people in the back could get a close look. I was expecting Barry Manilow to come out!

The program began with speeches from representatives of the Library Foundation and Local Government, followed by a charming presentation to local students who had entered an won a “Young Writer’s Award” presented in several different categories.

When the Young Writer’s had received their award and had their picture taken, Pat Yack, the Editor of the Florida Times-Union, took to the podium and introduced the featured author panel of Luanne Rice, Sandra Brown and Brad Meltzer. He did a bang up job interjecting his laid back North Florida/South Georgia style to really make the panel feel at home and make the setting feel very intimate.

After a few microphone mishaps, the panel got to answer some prepared questions from Pat. These included many standards such as what clothes they wear while writing, how much time do they write each day, etc. There were later a few very pointed questions as well that I took special notice of.

Luanne Rice relayed a wonderful story about her father’s contributions during WWII and while researching it for her new book, got to feel closer than ever to her father who had died not long ago. Sandra Brown (who is even more beautiful than her book covers suggest) displays an easy laid back Texan charm sure to win her instant friends and fans told a great story about cooking chili (the only thing she knows how to cook) for famous southern author Pat Conroy-I can’t imagine how interesting and amazing that pairing must have been!

If Brad Meltzer ever wants to take on another career, he can easily slide into stand up comedy. His quick wit and self deprecating delivery made him a huge crowd pleaser. When the moderator had to step away to check on additional microphone problems, Brad decided to interview himself to fill the gap:

“Brad, how DID you get to be so handsome?”

“Well, Brad, it’s all in the genes.”

The crowd of over 600 ate it up. He then went on to describe how his largest demographic sales turn out to be in Boca Raton, Florida - his mother. He credits her with single handedly getting him on the map down there and being his biggest fan. How else could someone edge out sales in huge cities like New York and Los Angeles!

Following the panel, the authors signed copies of their books and took a lot of time talking to attendees. The afternoon was full of writing workshops which generated a lot of positive feedback and buzz for next year, but I could not go. I was in greater need of a Bombay Sapphire Martini…

All in all, this event has gotten better and better each year. The caliber of authors has steadily grown as well as overall attendance. At this rate Much Ado About Books will soon sit alongside it’s bigger siblings in New York and Miami, but with a more laidback style.

Great Job, Jacksonville Public Library Foundation!

Ron Block

The Dying Art of the Book Review?
Is this even possible? What is going on in this country?

First I read this post on DorothyL this morning:

"Of even more concern is this news from Oline Cogdill, a friend to DorothyL and one of the country's most important mystery reviewers:

... We have just undergone a redesign of our lifestyle/arts section and books space has been cut back. I will still be doing mysteries, for now, but it may not be as many books per week as in the past. in addition, thetribune co. just got sold so who knows. bad times for newspapers....on that cherry note... Oline

Oline works for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel but her reviews are syndicated to papers all over the country. Letter writers man (or woman) your writing implement! Con Lehane"

and this afternoon, I received this press release from the National Book Critics Circle, of which I am a member:

April 23, 2007

Last week, the Los Angeles Times folded its book review section into an opinion section, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution eliminated its book review position. Not a good week for book criticism, but not a surprising one, either: in the past few years, newspapers from the Chicago Tribune to the Dallas Morning News to the Village Voice have seen book coverage shrink.

The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is not taking these developments lying down. This week, in an effort to support book reviews, book editors, book pages, and book culture, the NBCC is launching a Campaign to Save Book Reviews. During the last week in April and throughout the month of May, the NBCC is asking authors and editors, journalists and publishers—and in fact anyone interested in literary culture—to speak out on the value of books and book reviewing.

The campaign’s launch pad is an effort to save the book review position at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, held until last week by Teresa Weaver. Explains NBCC president John Freeman, “Teresa has the opportunity to apply for a job within the company, but it's not clear what the fate of the book page will be—whether it'll be reassigned to an existing editor, whether it will go entirely to wire copy, or whether it will be removed altogether.”

A petition to save Weaver’s job has already secured nearly a thousand signatures, including those from luminaries as varied as Michael Connelly, Richard Powers, and Ian Rankin. Those interested in signing should go to
http://www.petitiononline.com/atl2007/petition.html.

Throughout the campaign, Critical Mass, the NBCC’s blog, will feature Q&As, posts by concerned writers, and advice on petitioning the media to assure continued book coverage. Current posts include a lengthy Q&A with David L. Ulin, editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review.

Checkout http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/ to join in our efforts and to track developments in this ongoing and important campaign.The National Book Critics Circle, founded in 1974, is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization consisting of nearly 700 active book reviewers nationwide who are interested in honoring quality writing and communicating with one another about common concerns. It is managed by a 24-member all-volunteer board of directors.

For more information, please go to www.bookcritics.org.

For questions, contact Barbara Hoffert, hoffer@reedbusiness.com or646-746-6806.

SleuthFest!

This weekend was the 12th annual conference for mystery writers sponsored by the Florida chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. I don't generally go to this event as it is really geared towards writers, not fans. In fact, I was supposed to go to Jacksonville this weekend for their big book fair, Much Ado About Books, but due to circumstances beyond my control, I had to cancel at the last moment. So basically, I crashed SleuthFest.

One of my favorite authors, Jonathan Santlofer, was going to be there and I arranged to spend some time with him so I figured even if they wouldn't let me into anything else, my time wouldn't have been wasted. But the folks running Sleuthfest couldn't have been nicer. They welcomed me, finagled me a lunch ticket, a pass for the day and I was in. So a big thank you to Randy Rawls, Christine Kling, Martha Powers and Terry Lewis for making this gate-crasher feel so welcome.

Pictured: Bob Williamson, President of the Florida chapter of MWA, who offered me $20 not to publish this picture!

It was a very interesting experience. Anyone who is thinking about writing mysteries really ought to do whatever you have to do to get there. It's an interesting mix of newbies, midlist authors and the super successful, and I would say the panels lean more heavily towards those for the newbies. It's a lovely way for those authors who can afford to write full time to give back to the writing community. But there are also panels for those who have been doing this forever, so there really is something for everyone.

Santlofer told me he attended a panel called "Death Scene Investigations" which was given by the Deputy Chief Medical Examiner of Miami-Dade County. All I can say is I'm eternally grateful I missed it. Apparently it was an eye opening experience for those who write about the victims of violent crime, with a gruesome slide show in full, glorious color.

I also had an interesting chat with Santlofer and William Lashner about writing for a different gender. Lashner hadn't done it - his protagonist, Victor Carl, is like himself in many ways. But Santlofer writes a wonderful series featuring Kate McKinnon, and writes from the female point of view. They had attended a panel called "Across the Gender Divide" moderated by Oline Cogdill, mystery reviewer for the Sun Sentinel, and featuring writers who write their opposite gender: P.J. Parrish, two sisters whose co-write the Louis Kincaid series with a male protagonist, Lawrence Light and Peter James Quirk, who have female protagonists.

Then it was lunchtime. I was fortunate to share a table with Santlofer, Lashner, Carol Fitzgerald (BookReporter.com) and several others. They were great company. I adore Carol, I've been running into her a few times a year at various book functions and always enjoy chatting with her. The first order of business was the presentation of the coveted Flamingo Award by Stuart Kaminsky, a previous recipient. This year's recipient was Daniel Keyes, author of Flowers for Algernon, among several other books. Keyes couldn't be there so his daughter accepted the award on his behalf.

The guest of honor at the luncheon was the Emmy-award winning writer/producer, René Balcer of Law & Order fame. The introduction was great - they asked everyone who had won an Edgar award to stand up. There were several people standing. Then they asked everyone who had won two Edgars to remain standing. The number dwindled considerably. Then they asked for everyone who had won three Edgars, then four Edgars to remain standing. Balcer was the only one standing.

He talked about the TV shows, and showed a couple of clips of some favorite scenes. He talked about how they often use news headlines as story ideas, then told a great story about how one of their stories became news. Balcer was looking for a location near a river where a body could wash up. He found a spot that had lots of flotsam and figured that would work. The next day he brought the crew down to film, but the producer didn't seem to think it would work. He complained that the tide was too strong and it curved wrong, but as they approached the area to film, they had to stop. There were a couple of police cars and an ambulance at the location - you guessed it - a body had floated up to the spot Balcer had selected. All in all, he was an intelligent, articulate and entertaining speaker.

After lunch, I stopped by the bookstore, hosted by none other than Joanne Sinchuk of Murder on the Beach, my favorite bookstore. Christine Kling had made a giant card for Elaine Viets, and I wanted to sign it. In case you hadn't heard, Elaine had a serious stroke last week and at first, wasn't expected to make it. But Barbara Parker announced at the luncheon that she and Kristy Montee (half of P.J. Parrish) had been to see her the day before and she was coming along just fine and is expected to make a full recovery. I was so happy to hear that. I just saw Elaine a month or so ago and she looked fabulous, so it was just devastating to hear what happened to her. They had to rearrange the schedule a bit at Sleuthfest due to her absence and she was missed. Her new book, Murder with Reservations, comes out May 1.

I caught the end of a panel called "Team Writing: Myth & Mystery" moderated by Kristy Montee and featuring the writing duos Lawrence Light & Meredith Anthony, and Joe Moore & Lynn Sholes. They talked about the good and bad of having a writing partner, and discussed a lot of the technical details that need to be addressed, even the legal ones. Anthony talked about how their latest book, Ladykiller, was a different type of book for them - they thought it was much darker than their previous books. They took it to a noir publisher, but were told that it was "too light." So they took it to their regular publisher, but they said it was "too dark." Anthony called it the "Goldilocks" of books! Finally, last summer at ThrillerFest, they found a publisher.

The next panel was "Sex & Mysteries," and with a name like that you can bet the room was filled. William Lashner, Jonathan Santlofer & the writing duo known as P.J. Parrish - Kelly Nichols & Kris Montee - started off the session by each reading a sex scene from one of their books. Kris was brave enough to go first and told us that their Kincaid series never had a sex scene, but their publisher had asked them to spin off a female cop into a new series. The first book, A Thousand Bones, comes out in June.

This same editor asked them to add a sex scene into the book, and that's the one that Montee read. She was just adorable in her embarrassment. She was followed by Santlofer, who read at breakneck speed a hilarious scene from The Death Artist. He told us that he only includes sex scenes that are integral to the story, otherwise, he'd just be entertaining himself. Lashner told us that his protagonist, Victor Carl, is a dog - and he read a great scene that was in first person and had Carl sort of sitting back and watching the action. Lashner feels that sex is revealing of the character, and necessary. He said his first book did so well because of the bad sex. The authors all seemed to agree that that sex doesn't sell mysteries, not the way it does romance or romantic suspense and that is just isn't inherent in the genre.

The last panel I attended was called "Finding Your Dark Side: Believeable Bad Guys" and was moderated by Christine Kling. Panelists included J. A. Konrath, David Corbett, Peter James Quirk and Vicki Hendricks. Dark chocolate and dark rum were served, although Konrath latched onto the rum and practically dared anyone to take it! Jonathon King was brave enough - and big enough - to intimidate Konrath into sharing. This was an interesting panel, with Corbett pointing out that he doesn't write whodunits, he prefers exploring the bad guy so we always know "who dun it." Konrath pointed out that fear and laughter are closely related. He gave a very vivid explanation that when you are near a rollercoaster, all you hear are people either screaming or laughing.

On my way out, I was so excited to run into Kate White. White is editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Magazine, and I've been a Cosmo reader since, well, too long to think about! She also writes terrific chick-lit mysteries featuring Bailey Weggins, and has a new one coming out next month called Lethally Blonde that I'm really looking forward to.

I had a great time at SleuthFest. The hotel, The Miami Beach Resort & Spa, was lovely and brought back some memories - I stayed there in the 1970's when it was still the Doral. The weather was perfect, the beach gorgeous and views from every window in the place were spectacular. I would have liked to seen Kate White's panel, Peter Spiegelman (I loved Red Cat and I've never met him) and Linda Fairstein, the SleuthFest guest of honor.

Quick Linda Fairstein story: I went to her book signing for Bad Blood at Murder on the Beach not that long ago. I brought my daughter, who had never read her. Linda bought my daughter a book, and personally inscribed it to her. She was so excited and I was so touched - what a sweet, generous thing to do. Besides being a terrific writer and an incredible champion of women everywhere, Linda is also one classy lady. I'm sorry I missed her, but SleuthFest sure picked a winner for their guest of honor.

Shortlist Announced for the 2007 Man Booker International Prize

Thu Apr 12, 8:04 PM ET
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters)

Salman Rushdie, Chinua Achebe and Margaret Atwood are among 15 authors selected as finalists for the 2007 Man Booker International Prize, the award's organizers said on Thursday.

The 60,000-pound ($118,000) award is presented every two years to highlight a living writer's continued contribution to fiction on the world stage. The inaugural prize was awarded in 2005 to Ismail Kadare.

It differs from the prestigious Man Booker Prize because it is available to fiction writers of any nationality so long as their work was written in or translated into English.

The 2007 nominees announced in Toronto also include John Banville, Peter Carey, Don DeLillo, Carlos Fuentes, Doris Lessing, Ian McEwan, Harry Mulisch, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, Amos Oz, Philip Roth and Michel Tournier.

The panel of judges is chaired by U.S. literary critic Elaine Showalter and includes writers Nadine Gordimer of South Africa and Colm Toibin of Ireland.

The winner will be announced in early June.

BEA/Writer's Digest Books Writers Conference

The fifth annual BEA/Writer's Digest Books Writers Conference will be held on Wednesday, May 30 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York.

The all-day event, which takes place prior to the BookExpo America trade show, offers information sessions and workshops on the business and craft of writing. The keynote speaker is best-selling author Jodi Picoult. Breakout sessions on writing novels, screenwriting, humor, young adult, poetry, short story and magazine writing, featuring Don Maass, Christina Katz, John Warner, Sharlene Martin and more! Will Schwalbe, senior v-p and editor in chief of Hyperion and Judy Hottensen, v-p and publisher of Miramax Books will also be speaking. Plus, the editors of Writer's Digest Book, Writer's Digest magazine and Writer's Market!

You'll also have the opportunity to pitch your book idea and get instant feedback from the largest collection of agents of any conference in our famous PITCH SLAM SESSION!

The registration fee is $199, which includes a 6 month subscription to WritersMarket.com. For more information, visit www.writersdigest.com/bea.

Registration is at www.bookexpoamerica.com.

The Passing of an American Icon

I am so sad to post that Kurt Vonnegut passed away yesterday.
from AP:

Novelist Kurt Vonnegut dies at age 84

NEW YORK - Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," died Wednesday. He was 84.

Vonnegut, who often marveled that he had lived so long despite his lifelong smoking habit, had suffered brain injuries after a fall at his Manhattan home weeks ago, said his wife, photographer Jill Krementz.

The author of at least 19 novels, many of them best-sellers, as well as dozens of short stories, essays and plays, Vonnegut relished the role of a social critic. Indianapolis, his hometown, declared 2007 as "The Year of Vonnegut" — an announcement he said left him "thunderstruck."
He lectured regularly, exhorting audiences to think for themselves and delighting in barbed commentary against the institutions he felt were dehumanizing people.

"I will say anything to be funny, often in the most horrible situations," Vonnegut, whose watery, heavy-lidded eyes and unruly hair made him seem to be in existential pain, once told a gathering of psychiatrists.

A self-described religious skeptic and freethinking humanist, Vonnegut used protagonists such as Billy Pilgrim and Eliot Rosewater as transparent vehicles for his points of view. He also filled his novels with satirical commentary and even drawings that were only loosely connected to the plot. In "Slaughterhouse-Five," he drew a headstone with the epitaph: "Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt."

But much in his life was traumatic, and left him in pain.

Despite his commercial success, Vonnegut battled depression throughout his life, and in 1984, he attempted suicide with pills and alcohol, joking later about how he botched the job.

"I think he was a man who combined a wicked sense of humor and sort of steady moral compass, who was always sort of looking at the big picture of the things that were most important," said Joel Bleifuss, editor of In These Times, a liberal magazine based in Chicago that featured Vonnegut articles.

His mother killed herself just before he left for Germany during World War II, where he was quickly taken prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge. He was being held in Dresden when Allied bombs created a firestorm that killed an estimated tens of thousands of people.

"The firebombing of Dresden explains absolutely nothing about why I write what I write and am what I am," Vonnegut wrote in "Fates Worse Than Death," his 1991 autobiography of sorts.
But he spent 23 years struggling to write about the ordeal, which he survived by huddling with other POW's inside an underground meat locker labeled slaughterhouse-five.

The novel, in which Pvt. Pilgrim is transported from Dresden by time-traveling aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, was published at the height of the Vietnam War, and solidified his reputation as an iconoclast.

"He was sort of like nobody else," said Gore Vidal, who noted that he, Vonnegut and Norman Mailer were among the last writers around who served in World War II.

"He was imaginative; our generation of writers didn't go in for imagination very much. Literary realism was the general style. Those of us who came out of the war in the 1940s made it sort of the official American prose, and it was often a bit on the dull side. Kurt was never dull."

Vonnegut was born on Nov. 11, 1922, in Indianapolis, a "fourth-generation German-American religious skeptic Freethinker," and studied chemistry at Cornell University before joining the Army.

When he returned, he reported for Chicago's City News Bureau, then did public relations for General Electric, a job he loathed. He wrote his first novel, "Player Piano," in 1951, followed by "The Sirens of Titan," "Canary in a Cat House" and "Mother Night," making ends meet by selling Saabs on Cape Cod.

Critics ignored him at first, then denigrated his deliberately bizarre stories and disjointed plots as haphazardly written science fiction. But his novels became cult classics, especially "Cat's Cradle" in 1963, in which scientists create "ice-nine," a crystal that turns water solid and destroys the earth.

Many of his novels were best-sellers. Some also were banned and burned for suspected obscenity. Vonnegut took on censorship as an active member of the PEN writers' aid group and the American Civil Liberties Union. The American Humanist Association, which promotes individual freedom, rational thought and scientific skepticism, made him its honorary president.

His characters tended to be miserable anti-heros with little control over their fate. Vonnegut said the villains in his books were never individuals, but culture, society and history, which he said were making a mess of the planet.

"We probably could have saved ourselves, but we were too damned lazy to try very hard... and too damn cheap," he once suggested carving into a wall on the Grand Canyon, as a message for flying-saucer creatures.

He retired from novel writing in his later years, but continued to publish short articles. He had a best-seller in 2005 with "A Man Without a Country," a collection of his nonfiction work, including jabs at the Bush administration ("upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography") and the uncertain future of the planet.

He called the book's success "a nice glass of champagne at the end of a life."
In recent years, Vonnegut worked as a senior editor and columnist at In These Times. Bleifuss said he had been trying to get Vonnegut to write something more for the magazine, but was unsuccessful.

"He would just say he's too old and that he had nothing more to say. He realized, I think, he was at the end of his life," Bleifuss said.

Vonnegut, who had homes in Manhattan and the Hamptons in New York, adopted his sister's three young children after she died. He also had three children of his own with his first wife, Ann Cox, and later adopted a daughter, Lily, with his second wife, the noted photographer Jill Krementz.

Vonnegut once said that of all the ways to die, he'd prefer to go out in an airplane crash on the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. He often joked about the difficulties of old age.
"When Hemingway killed himself he put a period at the end of his life; old age is more like a semicolon," Vonnegut told The Associated Press in 2005.

"My father, like Hemingway, was a gun nut and was very unhappy late in life. But he was proud of not committing suicide. And I'll do the same, so as not to set a bad example for my children."
___
Associated Press writers Michael Warren, Hillel Italie and Chelsea Carter contributed to this report.

Last week there was a front page article in the Sun Sentinel about the Palm Beach County Library System: Palm Beach County libraries face skyrocketing costs to overhaul facilities.

The article was basically chastising the library for failing to build new libraries in a more timely manner and for the skyrocketing prices that have completely blown the budget. Buried in the middle of the article was a brief allusion to the hurricanes that have decimated the building industry.

There was also a couple of quotes from two of the county commissioners, one of whom felt the county needed to suck it up and somehow find the money to finish building the libraries. But the other commissioner intimated that libraries were for old people and that everyone else has Internet, so why do we need more and better libraries.

As a lifelong library lover, I took great exception to her remarks. I waited several days to respond as I needed time to avoid just responding in anger. I wrote a letter to the editor of the Sun Sentinel and they wrote back and asked me to condense. I did the best I could in the very limited space I was allotted, and they trimmed a bit more. Here is the end result:

County's libraries a priceless resource for the asking

Malcolm Forbes once said, "The richest person in the world -- in fact all the riches in the world -- couldn't provide you with anything like the endless, incredible loot available at your local library." What this article failed to mention was all the great loot that is available for Palm Beach County residents at their library. And it is appalling that a county commissioner could be so unaware of all that the library offers the community.

Libraries are not the refuge of the homeless and aged, but are vibrant, bustling community centers, offering services that many people simply aren't aware of: wireless access, computer classes, kids' storytimes, book discussion groups and one-on-one tutoring for adults who don't know how to read. All for free.

The Internet is a mess. Anyone can post anything they want, and they do so regularly. But there are hundreds of databases that have the most accurate, up-to-date information that you simply cannot access for free on the Internet -- databases like Ancestry.com, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times archives, Consumer Reports, and practice exams for standardized tests like the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and the Scholastic Achievement Test, all of which can be accessed by library card holders. For free.

Yes, there have been budget issues and building issues, but there has also been a huge real estate boom with skyrocketing prices and a scarcity of building supplies. The boom has busted, but prices haven't come down, at least not yet. You cannot fault the county for [hurricanes] Jeanne, Frances and Wilma and the aftermath of those storms. But you can continue to support your local library, and I hope County Commissioner Mary McCarty rethinks her comments and tries to help the county deal with the money crunch in a more productive way.