Seeing double

Thanks to Cindy Orr for finding this in Entertainment Weekly and sharing.

GUEST BLOGGER: SHELDON SIEGEL

One of my favorite authors has graciously offered to be my guest blogger. Sheldon Siegel is the author of the Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez legal thrillers. It's been a couple of years since The Confession, but Judgment Day was worth the wait! Here's what Shel wanted to share...

I’m frequently asked where I get the ideas for my stories. For the most part, the ideas come from things I see or hear in my everyday life. That’s exactly how it worked for my latest book, JUDGMENT DAY.

I live about ten miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County. For the last twenty years, I’ve commuted by ferry to my law firm’s office in downtown San Francisco. One of the first things I see every morning is the ominous stone façade of San Quentin State Prison. When the first rudimentary jail was built on the isolated, rocky point in 1852, the desolate area was inhabited by more wildlife than humans. Nowadays, the crumbling, antiquated facility sits on four hundred pristine bay front acres in the middle of some of California’s most expensive real estate.

A couple of years ago, I was on my way to work when I happened to read a story in our local newspaper paper about the death (by natural causes) of the oldest man on California’s Death Row. This wasn’t unusual. There are more than six hundred and sixty men on Death Row at San Quentin. At most, California executes only one or two of them a year. As a result, the vast majority of the Death Row inmates die of natural causes.

We take our executions seriously in California and we’ve had a lot of practice. The first recorded hanging at the San Quentin site was in 1893, and an additional two hundred and fourteen inmates were put to death on the gallows before the State Legislature approved the construction of the gas chamber in a little stone building in 1936. Between 1938 and 1967, one hundred and ninety men and four women were executed in the odd-looking little room that resembles an olive green space capsule. We took a break for the next twenty-five years while the battle over the death penalty played out in our judicial system, and in 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court took the dramatic step of banning capital punishment altogether. That decision didn’t sit well with California voters, who subsequently approved an amendment to our state constitution to reinstate it. The legal challenges continued until 1992, when the executions started up again. A year later, the gas chamber was restored and reconfigured to accommodate executions by lethal injection. Nowadays, its looming presence is never far from the minds of the denim-clad prisoners who pass their time going about the business of being incarcerated and trying to prolong their lives.

As I read the article and watched the inmates in the exercise yard that’s enclosed by a chain-link fence topped with razor wire, I became curious about the day-to-day lives of the six thousand prisoners who live inside a facility that was built to hold half that number. I wondered what it was like for the six hundred and sixty men awaiting execution on Death Row, the overwhelming majority of whom will die long before they are led into the little green chamber where California conducts its executions. I decided to write JUDGMENT DAY to try to find out.

I’ve never handled a Death Penalty appeal, but I must confess that I’ve always had a morbid fascination with capital punishment cases. The stakes are high. The legal and policy issues are compelling. I’ve also had an interest in the attorneys who are involved in death penalty litigation. I’ve long wondered why people subject themselves to such an intense, high-risk, low-reward endeavor—in most cases, for a client they barely know. Everybody involved in the process is ultimately judged by a single criterion: whether a man lives or dies.

As I was reading the article about the death of the oldest condemned prisoner, I wondered what would have happened if his number had came up shortly before he was about to die of natural causes. Would the State have proceeded with his execution anyway? Or would they have let him die of natural causes in due course?

I raised the issue with a friend of mine named David Nickerson, who is the husband of one of my law partners. He’s also one of the finest appellate lawyers in California. David spends much of his time trying to prolong the lives of the inmates at San Quentin. He told me that the State would have proceeded with the execution in such circumstances. When I asked him why, he replied, “Because it’s the law.”

Next I asked David what it’s like to be an appellate lawyer during the final days before an execution. I listened attentively as he told me about the round-the-clock machinations, the endless preparation of briefs (most of which are rejected quickly), and the almost-always fruitless search for new evidence and witnesses. When David finished, he looked at me and said, “You know, this might be a good storyline for a book.” I told him that was exactly what I had in mind.

A few weeks later, David took me inside San Quentin to meet one of his clients and to give me a first-hand view of the life of a condemned inmate. It was a sobering, albeit eye-opening experience. I decided that I wanted to write a story that would take my readers inside Death Row. In addition, I wanted to write a story that would put my readers in David’s seat in the final days before an execution.

For the next few months, I spent time with David and several lawyers who handle death penalty cases for the California Attorney General’s Office. They were not capital punishment zealots or bleeding heart liberals. They were highly-skilled professionals who were doing their best to make an imperfect legal system work. I am grateful for their generosity and candor.

In the course of writing JUDGMENT DAY, I tried not to inject my personal views about the wisdom of capital punishment. In general, I think it’s a bad idea to interject a political agenda into mainstream fiction. Moreover, I believe it would have detracted from the authenticity of the story. As David and his adversaries at the Attorney General’s office frequently told me, you simply don’t have time to worry about policy issues when you have a client who is set for a lethal injection.

JUDGMENT DAY was the most difficult story that I’ve ever written because of its somber subject and the emotions associated with capital punishment cases. Nevertheless, I’m glad that I wrote it. I still ride the ferry past San Quentin every day. Nowadays, when I see the inmates in the exercise yard, I like to think that I have a little better understanding of what goes on inside the walls.


Sheldon Siegel has been a practicing attorney in San Francisco for more than twenty-five years. A graduate of Boalt Law School at the University of California at Berkeley, he specializes in corporate and securities law with the international law firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP. JUDGMENT DAY is the sixth novel in his series of critically acclaimed, New York Times best-selling courtroom dramas featuring San Francisco criminal defense attorneys Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez. He lives in Marin County with his wife, Linda, and their twin sons, Alan and Stephen. He is currently working on his seventh novel.

THRILLERFEST SCHOLARSHIPS

Are you a debut author with a book out in 2008 or 2009? Would you love to attend ThrillerFest in New York City but haven't quite figured out how to pay for it?

ITW is offering two scholarships for debut authors to attend ThrillerFest 2008 in New York City July 9-12. The scholarship is for the conference registration fee, craft fest, and any ITW sponsored meals (including the Thriller Awards Dinner.) Lodging and transportation is not offered as part of the scholarship.

Criteria:

You must have a debut novel published or scheduled to be published in 2008 or 2009 by an ITW recognized publisher. Individuals previously published by non-ITW recognized publishers or in a short story format (under 40,000 words) are eligible provided that the novel to be published in 2008 or 2009 is their first full-length novel published by an ITW recognized publisher.

You do not need to be an ITW member to apply.

Please send the following information to the Scholarship Committee Chair, Allison Brennan at scholarship@thrillerwriters.org:

Name

Contact information (address, phone number and email)

Pen Name (if any)

Book Title

Publisher

Editor

First Book? (yes or no)

All applications also must include the following:

Release date (tentative is okay)

Brief synopsis (one page or less)

Essay telling the committee in 500 words or less why you would like to attend ThrillerFest and what you hope to gain from the experience.

All submissions are blind. Only the committee chair will know the identity of the applicant; the synopsis and essay will be sent "blind" to the committee for review and discussion.

The deadline for applications is May 27, 2008. Two scholarship winners will be notified by June 3, 2008.

If you have any questions, please email the committee chair at scholarship@thrillerwriters.org.

Jonathan Franzen: Michiko Kakutani Is 'The Stupidest Person in New York City'

In a piece in the New York Observer, Franzen has some not too kind things to say about the Kakutani, who, by sheer coincidence, had some not too kind things to say about Franzen's new memoir.

New York Observer

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: ELAINE VIETS

I was delighted to be able to ask a few questions of one of my favorite writers, Elaine Viets. Elaine is the author of the Dead End Job Series, as well as the Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper series. Both are terrific, and always make me laugh.

BookBitch: Tell me about your educational background and any other jobs/careers you had besides the writing.

Elaine Viets: I worked my way through college proofreading medical books and journals. The medical journals were scary, especially the Journal of Surgery and also Obstetrics and Gynecology. The worst was the Journal of Allergy. I itched every time I proofread that sucker. Do you know how many editorials I read reminding docs to count their sponges before they sewed the patient up? Brrr.

BB: Why did you start writing?

EV: I wasn't suited for anything else. I started as a feature writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1971, got fired in the mid-90s for insubordination. Getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to me.

How did you get your first agent?

David Hendin was a hot new agent recommended by an editor I worked with in Washington DC. David is also Miss Manners' (Judith Martin's) agent. I was lucky to get a young and hungry agent who was willing to invest his time in my career.

Your first book contract?

David sent my first mystery around to six New York publishing houses. The last one bought it.

What advice would you give struggling authors?

Learn the business. Go to conferences for your genre. If you are a mystery writer, they include Malice Domestic, Bouchercon and in south Florida, Sleuthfest.
Introduce yourself to the booksellers in your area and support the stores by buying their books and cards. Join the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime and the Authors Guild, so you'll have some idea of the issues you're facing. These organizations have programs that can help jumpstart your career.

It's hard getting your books traditionally published, but I recommend it. Even if you write well, you'll write better if you face the challenges of editors, agents, and possible rejection.

I'm always curious about how writers work. Tell me what a typical writing day is like for you.

The cats wake Don and me up at 6:30 a.m. demanding breakfast. (In my next life, I'm coming back as my cat. I want someone to wait on me.) I have breakfast about 7:30, then check my email. I love hearing from readers. I settle in to write until about noon. My cat, Harry, falls asleep on my desk while I work.

I stop for lunch, usually something glamorous like canned tuna, then go back to work until 3 or 4 p.m. That's not an exciting day, but I like my work.

How long do you work? When do you write? How does your family affect that process? How long does it take you to complete a novel? Do they vary?

It takes me four to five months to write a novel. Then I tour and promote for a month and go back to work on the next mystery. My husband writes for the Tribune Company and works irregular hours, so writing suits both of us. We're not a nine-to-five pot roast on the table family.

My family loves Mythbusters on the Discovery channel. I saw you on an episode about an exploding can of biscuits. How did that come about?

The Discovery Channel called me because I used to write a syndicated column for United Media in New York. The show wanted to see if that old tale of the biscuits was possible. A woman supposedly went to the supermarket, bought canned biscuits and stuck them in a hot car. Driving home, she heard a popping sound, felt something sticky oozing from her head and assumed she'd been shot in the brain. Mythbusters concluded it was technically possible: biscuits can explode in a hot car. I even cleaned my oven for that show. Too bad the pristine oven never made it on camera.

I love your Dead End Job series and I know you actually work these jobs as research for your books. In your latest, Clubbed to Death, your main character, Helen Hawthorne, implied that telemarketing was the worst of the Dead End jobs that she’d had. Which job has been the worst and why? Did you ever have a pre-research job that would qualify?

If I go to hell, I'll be a telemarketer. Everyone hates telemarketers and they aren't afraid to say so. Working in customer service at the country club for Clubbed to Death was pretty bad, too.

But I've had plenty of other bad jobs. I used to pull weeds at 50 cents a bucket for neighbors in St. Ann, Missouri. My mother would supervise, and when I filled the bucket, she'd tamp it down with her foot so I had to re-fill it to the top -- no air space.

I rather liked chickweed, which came up in big long strings and could fill most of the bucket. Crab grass was the worst. It had to be dug up by the roots, piece by piece.

I also proofread phone books on the nightshift when I was in college. I was dead tired from school all day. I lived on Cheez Whiz and coffee, and read long lists of names and addresses into the wee hours. I was horrified when I found out newspapers used phone books as backup confirmation for names and address. I knew they'd been read by tired help like me.

Do you get readers sending you suggestions of terrible jobs they have worked for future books?

Oh, yes. Everything from working at cemeteries to mushroom farms to gutting fish. The number of dead-end jobs seems endless.

You write another series, the Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper series, in addition to the Dead End Job series. Is it hard to keep the characters straight? How do you organize yourself so that you don’t accidentally mix up one series with the other?

The time off after I finish novel, traveling and promoting a book, helps me keep the two series straight. Also, Josie, a single mom with a nine-year-old daughter, lives in St. Louis, which is a much more staid environment than the single Helen Hawthorne who lives in shady South Florida.

What are you currently reading?

I finished "Rumpole Misbehaves." John Mortimer never disappoints. Now I'm reading Updike's "The Witches of Eastwick," which is surprisingly funny.

Can you read other mysteries while you're working on writing one?

I love to read other mysteries. I'm impressed by the quality of books these days. I enjoyed Nancy Pickard's "The Virgin of Small Plains," and mysteries by my blog sisters Michele Martinez, Nancy Martin and Harley Jane Kozak. I like Chris Grabenstein's Ceepak books, and Bob Morris's humorous mysteries, and J.T. Englert's "A Dog about Town." Even if you hate talking animals, it's a funny book.

What sort of books do you read for pleasure? Who are some of your favorite authors? What are some of your favorite books and why?

Michael Connelly's books are always worth reading. I like Jodi Picoult. Women's fiction is taking up serious issues that the modern novels have abandoned, such as school violence in "Nineteen Minutes." Sarah Strohmeyer's "Cinderella Pact" is another venture into women's fiction. I really admire how Charlaine Harris made it to the top of the New York Times bestseller list with her southern vampire series. She had a good safe career going, but had the courage to break out and try something different, and it worked.

Most of your fans know that you suffered a serious stroke, and as one of them, I’m delighted at your recovery and that you’re writing again. How are you feeling now?

Getting well is hard work. It requires lots of physical therapy. Worse, I had to do those wretched word problems: "If a train leaves the station in New York going 60 miles an hour, and a truck leaves San Francisco . . ."
"Who cares?" I said to the therapist.
I'd always wanted to say that.

What words of advice do you have for stroke survivors and their families?

Know the signs of a stroke. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/stroke/knowstroke.htm
You can have a stroke at any age, but post-menopausal women over 55 are at risk. We all fear that annual mammogram, but more women die of strokes than they do of breast cancer.

The faster stroke victims get to a good hospital, the better chance they have of a full recovery.

Strokes try the patience of the most loving families. It took me months to understand what had happened after I came out of a coma. I wanted to go on my book tour and go to Malice Domestic.
"How are you going to get on a plane?" the doctor asked. "It took two nurses to get you to the john."
"I'll tip," I said.
My husband took my purse away before I bribed my way out of the hospital.

One last thing: I was really touched by the number of booksellers, readers and writers who helped me when I was sick. Thank you all for your cards, letters, flowers and good wishes.

Finally, please share anything else you'd like that I haven't asked about.

The Dead-End Job series is meant to be entertaining, but it also has a serious edge. Publishers Weekly calls it "wry social commentary." I try to make readers see the invisible people who do the work of the world: telemarketers in "Dying to Call You," hotel maids in "Murder with Reservations," shop clerks in "Murder Unleashed."

I'll be touring Houston, Dallas, Westerville, Ohio, and my hometown of St. Louis in mid-June. Please check my Website at www.elaineviets.com for dates and details. And if you'd like a free bookplate for any of my books, drop me a line at eviets@aol.com

Tell me about your worst job ever and you can win a signed copy of Elaine Viet's CLUBBED TO DEATH - all the details are at BookBitch.com

NEW ONLINE BOOK CLUB LAUNCHES VIDEO WEBCAST
***
ROBERT ALEXANDER'S NEW BOOK - THE ROMANOV BRIDE

Have you ever thought about having a dialogue with a famous author? Your book club discusses so many novels, but what if you could actually see the author, and hear his explanations, and interact with him in real time? Now you have the chance. Bestselling author and bookclub regular Robert Alexander launched an online book club Monday, March 31. He will continue his webcasts (see dates below). To experience, simply visit www.theromanovbride.com.

The Robert Alexander Bookclub offers readers an opportunity to watch the author read passages and ask questions online. Featured in the live webcast will be Alexander's new book, The Romanov Bride with an opportunity to also ask questions about the author's previous novels, The Kitchen Boy and Rasputin's Daughter.

As the reign of Nicholas and Alexandra comes to an end and the Russian Revolution begins in 1917 The Romanov Bride (Viking; On-sale: April 21, 2008; ISBN: 0-670-01881-9; Price: $24.95; 320 pages) follows the lives of two revolutionary souls, that of the Grand Duchess Elisavyeta (or Ella), sister of the Tsarista Alexksandra, and that of Pavel, a simple village man in search of a better life.

To join Alexander's book club visit www.theromanovbride.com, and click on the "join the live book event" button. Guests can view Alexander's webcast live from his home office in Minneapolis as he discusses his novels, the fall of the Romanovs, and the Russian Revolution. At the end, email your questions and Alexander will discuss the answers live in the webcast.

The webcast's television-like picture is clear, the sound excellent, yet there is no crew, no expensive equipment, and no elaborate sets. Thanks to modern technology, Mr. Alexander's show has excellent production values, and will be webcast around the world.

Alexander, who recently appeared on ABC's Good Morning America has been traveling to Russia for 32 years and is a specialist in Russian history and culture. He is a favorite among bookclubs, and has spoken to hundreds of groups.

To view the webcast, guests should have high speed internet connections and windows media player. Each show will be delivered at 300-500 kbps bit rate (high video and audio quality). For more information please call or email Johanna Ramos-Boyer at Johanna@jrbcomm.com or 703-646-5137, or Ann Day at Ann.Day@us.penguingroup.com or 212-366.2078

Thursday, May 8 at 1pm EST
Friday, May 9 at 6pm EST
Saturday, May 10 at 1pm EST
Sunday, May 11 at 1pm EST
Thursday, May 8 at 1:00pm EST
Friday, May 9 at 6:00pm EST
Saturday, May 10 at 1:00pm EST
Sunday, May 11 at 1:00pm EST

Wednesday, May 14 at 1:00pm and 8:00pm EST
Thursday, May 15 at 1:00pm EST
Friday, May 16 at 1:00pm EST
Saturday, May 17 at 1:00pm EST
Sunday, May 18 at 1:00pm and 8:00pm EST

GUEST BLOGGER: L.J. SELLERS

I am loving having these guest bloggers. LJ wrote a terrific book with a title that is a little out of the mainstream, rather like the BookBitchBlog, for example. It's called The Sex Club, and it's gotten great reviews - including a new one this week at Bookbitch.com. Some thoughts from L.J.--

The Power of K

Marketers and comedians have long taken advantage of the powerful K sound. Crime writers have too, they just may not realize it. Think about the name Jack for protagonists. Jack Ryan, Jack Reacher, Jack Keller, Jack Taylor, Jack Davis, Jack Irish, and Jack Palms to name a few. Then there’s Taylor Jackson and my own Detective Wade Jackson. Not to mention the Jakes (Jake Riley, Jake Riordan, Jake McRoyan).

The K sound is especially powerful at the end of word, which is why Jack and f**k are both so fun to say. Can you think of a comedian who can get through his/her material with saying f**k or jerk or some variation of jack (jackoff, jackass, jackshit)?

The X sound is really K with a little S on the end, so Alex is almost as popular with crime writers: Alex Cooper, Alex Cross, Alex Archer, Alex Delaware, Alex Duarte, Alex Bernier. And Cooper and Cross are both pronounced with the K sound. Then there’s Kinsey Milhone and Greg McKenzie, which has a trifecta of winning sounds: the double K sound and the popular Z. Marketers like Z almost as well as K.

There’s plenty of K sounds in other protags too: Lincoln Perry, Lucas Davenport, Elvis Cole, Joe Pike, John Cardinal, Michael Kowlaski, Vicky Bliss, and Jacqueline Kirby. Apologies to hundreds that I’ve likely missed.

In my recent novel, The Sex Club, which has both K and X sounds in the title, the main characters are Detective Jackson and Kera Kollmorgan. Jackson’s daughter’s name is Katie. In women’s fiction, Kate is the female equivalent of Jack—a short, powerful K name (Kate London, plus many others).

It’s not just me. Author Jack Getze has a protag named Austin Carr who encounters a bad guy named Max, whom he calls Creeper. In as single scene, he writes about Carr and Creeper as well as an AK-47, Alka-Seltzer, a stockbroker, an Escalade, a Caddy, and a Lincoln.

And another writer told me, “I had so many K names in my first book I had to change all but one.”

What is it about the K sound that we like so much? One amateur theory is that as babies, we all heard a lot of K words and noises: cootchie-coo, cutie-pie, cuddles, etc. But it could be that this is simply one of those things that is hard-wired into our brains from human experiences long ago. Whatever the reason, readers and writers like the sound K, so keep it coming.

L.J. Sellers is an award-winning journalist, editor, and occasional standup comic, based in Eugene, Oregon. She is currently writing a second Detective Jackson story, Secrets to Die For. When she’s not plotting murders, Sellers enjoys hiking or cycling through Oregon’s beautiful Willamette Valley.

GUEST BLOGGER: NEIL PLAKCY

I am delighted that Neil agreed to be my guest blogger. He is a fine writer, and a genuinely nice guy. Here are his thoughts on...

Conferences and Conventions

A few years ago, when I was first breaking in to the mystery field, I asked a friend who had published a couple of novels about going to Bouchercon. I’d heard that it was a big deal in the mystery community, and wanted to know more about it.
“It’s not worth going to unless you can be on a panel,” she told me. “If you’re not on a panel then you can’t have a signing, and you can’t sell books.”

I didn’t know enough back then to realize the basic fallacy in this statement. Bouchercon is a convention for fans of the mystery. If you’re a reader, as I am, then there’s a place for you, even if you don’t have a book to promote. As a matter of fact, I think it’s more fun to go to a convention like Bouchercon if you’re not trying to sell a book. You can just hang out with other people who like the same kind of books you do, listen to your favorite authors on panels, and mingle with them at the cocktail hour. If you’ve got a book to push, conventions and conferences are a lot more like work.

There are two different kinds of events in the mystery world: conferences and conventions. Sleuthfest, for example, is a writer’s conference. The panels and presentations are geared around researching, writing and promoting mystery books. If you’re a fan, you might enjoy listening to your favorite authors talk about their craft; if you’re a writer, then they can be a great chance to hear from technical experts (coroners, detectives, gun guys, and so on) as well as get insights into character development, story structure and other points to improve your writing.
You might sell a few books at a writer’s conference—mostly to your friends, to the lady you sat at lunch with, or an aspiring writer who’s interested in your niche. But the big selling point is the chance to mingle with other writers, learn from the masters, and maybe even get some comments on a manuscript in progress.

At a fan convention, though, most of those in attendance will be readers—that most precious commodity to a writer. There are three big fan-based conventions, and the granddaddy of them all is Bouchercon, where there can be upwards of 1,000 attendees. Bouchercon moves around from year to year, organized by dedicated volunteers in each city. I started attending in 2005, in Chicago; it moved to Madison, Wisconsin in 2006 and then Anchorage, Alaska, in 2007. This fall, it will be in Baltimore. Because Alaska was so far for many people, B’con 2007 was relatively small, and word on the street is that Baltimore will be huge, because of all those who didn’t trek to Anchorage last year.

Left Coast Crime is another conference that moves around, though as its name indicates it’s focused on the west coast. This year’s was in Denver, and it was a well-run event, including things like a crime tour of Denver by bus and an extra day for skiing, if you wanted. Next year it will be on the Big Island of Hawaii, and that promises to be a lot of fun.

Malice Domestic, which celebrates the “traditional” mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie (though there’s always a wide range of authors there) is held every year in Arlington, Virginia in May. I went last year, and I couldn’t have asked for a warmer welcome. Even though my mystery series is a little harder-edged, the fans and the other writers were incredibly nice, and I felt welcomed from the moment I checked in.
Did I have a great time at these conferences just because I had that little word “author” on my name tag, and because I sold a couple of books? I don’t think so. I love reading mysteries, and have since I was a teenager devouring the collected works of Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Dorothy L. Sayers and Erle Stanley Gardner. I was delighted not only to meet people who’ve read my books, but people who’ve read other books I have, and who’ve read books I want to read.
In short, if you’re a writer, especially one who isn’t published yet, you can’t lose by attending a writer’s conference. There are dozens around the country, many of them sponsored by local chapters of the Mystery Writers of America. And if you’re a mystery fan, then a convention is a chance to meet others who love the genre you do.

Neil Plakcy is the author of Mahu, Mahu Surfer, and Mahu Fire, mystery novels which take place in Hawaii. He is co-editor of Paws & Reflect: A Special Bond Between Man and Dog (Alyson Books, 2006) and editor of the gay construction worker erotica anthology, Hard Hats. A journalist, book reviewer and college professor, he is also a frequent contributor to gay anthologies. His website is http://www.mahubooks.com.

Claire Cook Book Group Giveaway!

Got this email from Claire and thought I'd pass it along...

My oh-so-generous publisher, Voice, has agreed to give advance copies
of my upcoming novel Summer Blowout (up to 20 copies) to one lucky book
club! The winning book club will also get a Summer Blowout phone chat
with the author – that’s me!

All you have to do is send an email with SUMMER BLOWOUT BOOK CLUB CONTEST in the subject line to claire@clairecook.com including:

Name of book club
Zip code of book club
Name and email address of book club leader
Names and email addresses of all book club members
Why Voice should pick YOUR book club. (Did your group just read
something seriously depressing and you could really use a good laugh? Has your
club read all my other books, and you’re just counting the days till
Summer Blowout comes out in June? Do you simply need a good reason to
get a new summer hairdo? Come on, have some fun, so I can post some of
your comments on my website!)

HURRY -- the deadline for entries is April 30!

Don't have a book club yet? Well, it just might be the perfect time to
start one! And thanks so much for forwarding this email to your friends
and family who already belong to book clubs.

He Wrote 200,000 Books (but Computers Did Some of the Work)
By NOAM COHEN

It’s not easy to write a book. First you have to pick a title. And then there is the table of contents. If you want the book to be categorized, either by a bookseller or a library, it has to be assigned a unique numerical code, like an ISBN, for International Standard Book Number. There have to be proper margins. Finally, there’s the back cover.

Oh, and there is all that stuff in the middle, too. The writing.

Philip M. Parker seems to have licked that problem. Mr. Parker has generated more than 200,000 books, as an advanced search on Amazon.com under his publishing company shows, making him, in his own words, “the most published author in the history of the planet.” And he makes money doing it.

Read this story in its entirety here: New York Times

Bible is America's favorite book

When it comes to literary pursuits in the United States most people agree on at least one thing -- the most popular book is the Bible, according to a new survey.

It came in first in a Harris Poll of nearly 2,513 adults but the second choice in the survey was not as clear cut.

"While the Bible is number one among each of the different demographic groups, there is a large difference in the number two favorite book," Harris said in a statement announcing the results.

Men chose J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" and women selected Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" as their second-favorite book, according to the online poll.

But the second choice for 18- to 31-year-olds was J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, while 32- to 43-year-olds named Stephen King's "The Stand" and Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons."

Picks for second-favorite book also varied according to region. "Gone With the Wind" was number two in the southern and midwestern United States while easterners chose "The Lord of the Rings" and westerners opted for "The Stand."

Whites and Hispanics picked "Gone With the Wind" as their second-favorite book after the Bible, while African-Americans preferred "Angels and Demons."

"Finally, they may not agree on candidates, but one thing that brings together partisans is their favorite book. For Republicans, Democrats and Independents, the top two books are the same -- the Bible followed by "Gone With the Wind."

Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown, "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand and "Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger rounded out the top 10 favorites.

Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited.

Pulitzers

Fiction
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz

History
What Hath God Wrought: the Transformation of America, 1815-1848, by Daniel Walker Howe

Biography
Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father, by John Matteson

Poetry
Time and Materials, by Robert Hass and Failure, by Philip Schultz

General Nonfiction
The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945, by Saul Friedlander

Tracy Letts won the drama prize for August: Osage County and Bob Dylan was given a special citation in music.

Laurie R. King Gives Books to Libraries!

In a celebration of National Library Week in mid-April, the Laurie R. King web site is giving away--to libraries--fifteen sets of the gorgeous Picador trade paperback editions of the first four novels in her Mary Russell series: The Beekeeper's Apprentice (included in the 100 favorite mysteries of the 20th century by the IMBA), A Monstrous Regiment of Women, A Letter of Mary , and The Moor. Readers of Laurie's blog and Virtual Book Club are being urged to nominate libraries, but there's no reason libraries can't nominate themselves.

Anyone interested should send their favorite library's name and address to info@laurierking.com with the subject: Libraries. The deadline for entering is April 15 at midnight, Pacific time, and the drawing will be conducted the next day.

2008 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards

Fiction
A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini

Nonfiction
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver, with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver

Children's Literature
The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick

Children's Illustrated
Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity, by Mo Willems

GUEST BLOGGER: LEIGHTON GAGE

Leighton Gage is the author of The Silva Series, crime novels based in Brazil. His first book, Blood of the Wicked, has recently been published in the US. Gage has some interesting thoughts on reading...

Reading, Writing and Arithmetic

How many fiction titles did you go through last year? If you’re reading this, it’s going to be more than one. For people who read the Bookbitch’s Blog, reading a book a year is nothing.

But for most people reading a book a year seems to be too much:

• 80% of American families didn’t buy or read a single book last year. The remaining 20% are classified as “regular readers”.
• Of all readers, only a little more than half read fiction.

So, if you haven’t already done so, give yourself a pat on the back. As a “regular reader of fiction”, you’re a member of an elite group that doesn’t exceed 10% of the U.S. population. And to be “a regular reader of fiction”, you only have to read a single book a year.

It gets worse. If you’re reading a book a month, you’re reading at what one scholar called a “hugely disproportionate” level. Sounds like an exaggeration, doesn’t it? Statistically, though, he’s right.

Here’s another statistic: the publishers approved by the Mystery Writers of America bring out, collectively, well over than 2,000 mystery/thrillers a year. If you add the smaller presses, and the authors who self-publish, the total goes up to at least 5,000, some say as many as 8,000 titles. It’s just one category, but it’s the biggest one, representing almost 20% of new fiction.

Many of those (at least) 5,000 books have been vetted by agents and/or editors. Many of their authors have survived a tortuous path to publication, sometimes after years of effort. At least a couple of hundred of those books are bound to be good books, books from writers I’d enjoy reading, or from whom I could learn something that will help me to polish my craft. But I wind up missing them, wind-up not reading them. It’s the old reader’s lament: too many books, too little time.

The book-a-year folks stick with the tried and true. They read new books from authors they’ve read before. But we, the “hugely disproportionate” minority, quickly run-out of “name” authors whose work we enjoy. And because we do, we’re the people who give new writers a chance at success.

Define success, you say? My definition doesn’t matter. What matters is how publishers define it. And they define it in terms of numbers. No writer can live on royalties from the sale of 5,000 books, but a publisher can survive, and sometimes survive very well, by bringing out many books that sell 5,000 copies each. That number brings most publishers safely beyond the breakeven point on the money they’ve invested on the majority of books from first-time authors.

What happens if a book sells 500 or a 1,000 copies? There are writers who’d be satisfied with that, at least for a first book. So they hold on to their day jobs. And that’s a wise thing to do, because the odds are they’re going to get dropped by their publisher.

As a newbie writer, I have an enormous amount of empathy for the folks who’ve traveled the same path as I have, but with less luck, and are falling by the wayside. They’re stuck in limbo with little chance of publishing a second book because they’ve been ambushed by the arithmetic.

If you, too, feel some empathy, here’s something you can do: Take a little extra time when next you visit your favorite bookstore. Have a closer look at the men and women whose names appear in a typeface smaller than the title of their work. Go out of your way to pick up one from someone you’ve never, ever heard of. Read a page or two. If you like it, buy it, read it, and donate it to your local library.

If your budget is limited, and you can’t afford to buy the book, make a note of the title and have a chat with your local librarian. Ask her if it was reviewed in Library Journal, in Publisher’s Weekly, in Kirkus, in Bookweek. Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe they missed it. Maybe they’ll buy it.

One of the best ways to support a new author is to make sure she gets read. And that’s what libraries do. They circulate books among lots of readers, securing fans for the author. Indeed, I’ve heard it said that library editions are the best advertisements for an author’s work.

And I firmly believe it to be true.