Amazon best books of 2009

I always find the dichotomy between the editors' picks and customers intriguing. Check out both lists:

Amazon.com Best Books of 2009
Editors' Picks: Top 100 Books
Our annual Best of the Year debates, often contentious, were the easiest and most amicable we've ever had, at least when it came to our top pick. The nearly unanimous choice: Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin, a rich and moving novel of New York City in the '70s, told in ten distinctive voices from all corners of the city whose lives connect and divide against the backdrop of Philippe Petit's audaciously graceful tightrope walk between the Twin Towers.

Customers' Bestsellers: Top 100 Books
Everybody knows what our bestselling book of 2009 was: The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown's long-awaited follow-up to The Da Vinci Code. But the race was closer than you might think: following Brown on our year-ending list are three books from authors with their own radio platforms, political talkers on the right Mark R. Levin and Glenn Beck and comedian-turned-radio-host Steve Harvey, and then the word-of-mouth fiction breakout of the year, Kathryn Stockett's The Help, which has earned over 900 five-star reviews from Amazon customers.

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

Amazon.com, in partnership with Penguin Group (USA) and CreateSpace, is pleased to announce the third annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, the international competition seeking the next popular novel. For the first time, the competition will award two grand prizes: one for General Fiction and one for Young Adult Fiction. The 2010 competition will also now be open to novels that have previously been self-published. Each winner will receive a publishing contract with Penguin, which includes a $15,000 advance.

Congratulations to last year's Breakthrough Novel Award winner, James King, whose winning novel, Bill Warrington's Last Chance, will be published by Viking in August 2010. Bill Loehfelm's Fresh Kills, the 2008 winner, is now available in paperback.

The Breakthrough Novel Award brings together talented writers, reviewers, and publishing experts to find and develop new voices in fiction. If you're an author with an unpublished or previously self-published novel waiting to be discovered, visit CreateSpace to learn more about the next Breakthrough Novel Award and sign up for regular updates on the contest. Open submissions for manuscripts will begin on January 25, 2010 through February 7, 2010.

See the official contest rules for more information on how to enter.

RADIO SHOW DEBUTS FOR PENGUIN CLASSICS

“Penguin Classics on Air,” a half-hour radio series devoted to the discussion and exploration of some of Penguin Classics’ more than 1500 titles, debuts this week on Sirius XM Book Radio (Sirius #117, XM #163). Written and produced entirely by Penguin employees, the show will air twice a week, on Mondays from 3:00pm to 3:30pm and on Thursdays from 11:30pm to midnight.

“Penguin Classics on Air” is hosted by Penguin Classics Editorial Director Elda Rotor, along with Associate Publisher Stephen Morrison and Senior Director of Academic Marketing Alan Walker. The show features in-depth conversations with scholars and experts about various topics including Austenmania, the enduring appeal of vampires in literature, the philosophers everyone should (and can) read, and books that have sparked revolutions. This week’s episode, “Why We Love Jane Austen,” talks about what it means to be a Janeite, how etiquette was different in Austen’s time, and why spoofs like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies are so popular right now. The shows will roll out over the next ten weeks in the following order:

Why We Love Jane Austen: Elda Rotor interviews Jane Austen scholar Juliette Wells, about Austenmania, what it means to be a Janeite, etiquette in Austen’s time, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Alan Walker, introduces listeners to Excellent Women by Barbara Pym on “Reading the Classics from A to Z.” And Stephen Morrison offers up the opening to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in his segment, “First Pages.”

The Noli: Jose Rizal and the Novel that Sparked the Philippine Revolution: Elda Rotor interviews Rowena Jiminez about a Jose Rizal/Noli Me Tangere community read-a-thon organized through her nonprofit group Bagon Luturang Pinoy, and speaks with Harold Augenbraum, the translator of the Penguin Classics edition of this classic. Alan Walker introduces listeners to The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene on “Reading the Classics from A to Z.” And Stephen Morrison offers up the opening to Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere in “First Pages.”

A Hero of Our Time: The First Major Russian Novel?: Elda Rotor introduces Penguin Classics editor John Siciliano and his interview with Natasha Randall, translator of Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time, about the invention of Russian roulette, the beauty of the Caucuses, the misery of a Russian soldier, and the inherent danger of dueling. Alan Walker introduces readers to First Love by Ivan Turgenev on “Reading the Classics from A to Z.” Stephen Morrison offers up the opening to Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time in his segment, “First Pages.”

Scholem Aleichem: Yiddish Classics by the Creator of Tevye from “Fiddler on the Roof”: Elda Rotor introduces Penguin Classics editor John Siciliano and his interview with Aliza Shevrin, translator of Tevye the Dairyman and Motl the Cantor’s Son, as well as Wandering Stars, about the life and works of Scholem Aleichem, the difference between Fiddler on the Roof and Tevye the Dairyman, Yiddish humor, life, and culture from Russia to the Lower East Side, and what to do with five daughters. Alan Walker recommends Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wreath by Sigrid Undset on “Reading the Classics from A to Z.” And Stephen Morrison offers up the opening to Aleichem’s Tevye The Dairyman in “First Pages.”

The Birth of Knickerbocker: Washington Irving’s A History of New York: Elda Rotor interviews Betsy Bradley, the introducer and editor of Washington Irving’s A History of New York, Irving’s popular first book is an early nineteenth century satirical novel of colonial New Amsterdam. It follows the fictional historian Diedrich Knickerbocker as he narrates the development of New York cultural life—from the creation of the doughnut to the creation of Wall Street. Alan Walker introduces listeners to The Emigrants by Gilbert Imlay in “Reading the Classics from A to Z.” Stephen Morrison offers up the opening to Washington Irving’s beloved story “Rip Van Winkle.” in his segment, “First Pages.”

· Who Would Have Thought It?: The First Novel by a Mexican American

Elda Rotor interviews Amelia Maria de la Luz Montes, the editor and introducer of Who Would Have Thought It? about this major rediscovery of a little known Mexican-American author. Alan Walker introduces listeners to Summer by Edith Wharton on “Reading the Classics from A to Z.” Stephen Morrison offers up the opening to Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton’s Who Would Have Thought It? in his segment, “First Pages.”



· Tolstoy’s Final Year: Jay Parini and Last Steps

Elda Rotor interviews author Jay Parini about Leo Tolstoy’s late writings and the film production based on Parini’s novel, The Last Station, which stars James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti, Helen Mirren, and Christopher Plummer. Alan Walker introduces listeners to Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko on “Reading the Classics from A to Z.” Stephen Morrison offers up the opening to Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina in his segment, “First Pages.”


· Vampires on Paper: The Enduring Appeal of Vampires in Literature

Elda Rotor interviews Twilight expert Donna Freitas about the appeal of Stephanie Meyer’s vampire series and how it compares to Emily Bronte’s enduring classic Wuthering Heights. Elda then speaks with Dacre Stoker, a direct descendent of Bram Stoker, and Ian Holt, authors of Dracula: The Un-Dead, who explain why Dracula and other vampires are such popular characters in literature. Alan Walker introducers listeners to The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham on “Reading the Classics from A to Z.” Stephen Morrison offers up the opening to Bram Stoker’s Dracula in his segment, “First Pages.”

· Philosophy is Easy: The Philosophers Everyone Should (and Can) Read

Stephen Morrison interviews “the philosophy guys,” Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, author of The New York Times bestseller Plato and Platypus Walk into a Bar…and gets a hilarious run-down of the four (it’s an arbitrary number) most important (really!) philosophers in the history of philosophy. Alan Walker introduces listeners to Voltaire’s Candide on “Reading the Classics from A to Z.” Then Stephen offers up the opening to Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling in his segment, “First Pages.”


· Gosta Berling: The Swedish Gone with the Wind

John Siciliano of Penguin Classics interviews translator Paul Norlen and introducer George C. Schoolfield about The Saga of Gosta Berling, written by Selma Lagerlof, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Alan Walker introduces Hunger by Knut Hamsun on “Reading the Classics from A to Z.” Stephen Morrison reads from the opening to Selma Lagerlof’s The Saga of Gosta Berling in his segment, “First Pages.”

“Penguin Classics on Air” is part of Penguin Group (USA)’s “From the Publisher’s Office” an online network where readers can watch, listen and read content that has been created, recorded, and produced entirely by Penguin employees.


PENGUIN CLASSICS ON AIR

Penguin Group (USA) has launched its own online network called “From the Publisher’s Office,” with three channels featuring nine series of book entertainment for adults, young adults and children. The network will feature several episodic online series, including “YA Central,” “Project Paranormal,” “Penguin Storytime” and “Tarcher Talks,” and audio series such as “Penguin Classics on Air,” “Business Beat” and “A Cup of Poetry.” All of the programming is original and customized for a wide range of audiences, and new episodes will be produced each publishing season. The network is now live on the Penguin Group (USA) website at www.penguin.com/thepublishersoffice

For over sixty years, Penguin has been the leading Classics publisher in the English-speaking world, providing readers with a global bookshelf of the best works from around the world and across history, genres, and disciplines. We focus on bringing together the best of the past and the future, using cutting edge design and production as well as embracing the digital age to create unforgettable editions of treasured literature. Penguin Classics is timeless and trend-setting. Whether you love our familiar black spine series, our Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions, or our Penguin Enriched eBook Classics, we bring the writer to the reader in every format available.

FSB Holiday Giveaway!

FSB Associates wanted me to share this with BookBitch readers...

We at FSB Associates want to do our share to support books and the publishing industry. In the spirit of the holiday season, and support for BuyingBooksfortheHolidays.com, we will be conducting a 3-Day Holiday Giveaway!

For three days only, December 8th, 9th, and 10th, we will be giving away a limited quantity of books to randomly selected winners! The official entry begins at 12pm (eastern) on each day. Here is our schedule of events:

Day 1. Lost Symbol Fans! If you have read and loved Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, enter to win this companion pack! The pack features The Masonic Myth by Jay Kinney and Decoding the Lost Symbol by Simon Cox. We have 3 packs to giveaway!

Day 2. Celebrity Chef Mary Ann Esposito, has 5 signed copies of her latest cookbook to be given away: Ciao Italia: Five Ingredient Favorites. Check out Mary Ann's tips for holiday cooking here!

Day 3. 3 copies of Quirk Classics' bestselling literary monster mash-up, Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters signed by co-author Ben Winters! Also included: the Deluxe hardcover edition of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, co-authored by Seth Grahame-Smith! Learn more about the books, and discover the next monster mash-up at QuirkClassics.com.

Anyone within the continental US is eligible to enter. Entries made on a specific day after 12pm (eastern time) will only be eligible for that day's giveaway, so visit often! To enter for your chance to win, simply click here! Spread the word to your friends by forwarding this message.

We would also like to wish each and every one of you a very happy holiday season.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

FICTION including...
Lark and Termite By Jayne Anne Phillips

NONFICTION
including...
A World of Trouble: The White House and the Middle East – from the Cold War to the War on Terror By Patrick Tyler

Simply the best nonfiction

also from the Boston Globe

TRUE COMPASS
By Edward M. Kennedy

LAST LION: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy
By the Team at The Boston Globe
Edited by Peter S. Canellos

THE GOOD SOLDIERS
By David Finkel

FLANNERY: A Life of Flannery O’Connor
By Brad Gooch

THE FIRST TYCOON The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
By T.J. Stiles

THE WILDERNESS WARRIOR Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America
By Douglas Brinkley

FORDLANDIA: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City
By Greg Grandin

FOLLOWING THE WATER: A Hydromancer’s Notebook
By David M. Carroll

Simply the best fiction

from the Boston Globe

WOLF HALL
By Hilary Mantel

THE COLLECTOR OF WORLDS
By Iliya Troyanov

LAND OF MARVELS
By Barry Unsworth

THE IMMORTALS
By Amit Chaudhuri

RED APRIL
By Santiago Roncagliolo

THIS IS HOW
By M.J. Hyland

LOVE AND SUMMER
By William Trevor

LOOK AT THE BIRDIE
By Kurt Vonnegut

THE COMPLETE STORIES OF J.G. BALLARD
By J.G. Ballard

TOO MUCH HAPPINESS
By Alice Munro

THE IGNORANCE OF BLOOD
By Robert Wilson

THE LONG FALL
By Walter Mosley

BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

The lists begin with the New York Times, none of which I've read!

10 best books of 2009
"after so many years, and so many lists, you might think the task of choosing the 10 Best Books would get easier. If only. The sublime story collections alone created agonies of indecision. So did the superb literary biographies we read--and deeply admired. But in the end the decisions had to be made."

Fiction

* Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It by Maile Meloy (Riverhead)
* Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem (Doubleday)
* A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (Knopf)
* Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel by Jeannette Walls (Scribner)
* A Short History of Women by Kate Walbert (Scribner)

Nonfiction

* The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes (Pantheon)
* The Good Soldiers by David Finkel (Sarah Crichton Books/FSG)
* Lit: A Memoir by Mary Karr (Harper)
* Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed (Penguin)
* Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life by Carol Sklenicka (Scribner)

Bad Sex in Fiction Award

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Jonathan Littell won the Bad Sex in Fiction Award, the U.K.’s “most dreaded literary prize,” for his depiction of the sadomasochistic encounters between twin siblings in his World War II novel, “The Kindly Ones.”

The judges cited Littell for one incestuous scene that unfolds on the bed of a guillotine and another that invokes the myth of Cyclops, “whose single eye never blinks.” These marred what the judges called an impressive work.

“It is in part a work of genius,” the judges said in an e-mailed statement about the novel, which won the Prix Goncourt, France’s top book prize, in 2006.

Yet Littell clinched the Bad Sex award with one “mythologically inspired passage” and another that compared a sexual climax to “a jolt that emptied my head like a spoon scraping the inside of a soft-boiled egg.”

HOT, FLAT & CROWDED

If you missed this book when it first came out, now is your chance to buy the newly issued paperback of Hot, Flat & Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution - And How it Can Renew America by Thomas Friedman.

Friedman has updated and revised the book, which they are calling Version 2.0. Friedman has some excerpts from the first two chapters and an audio preview on his website, as well as a book discussion guide.

ThomasFriedman.com

As we delve into the holiday season of excess, it is a very good time to read this book.

Miami Book Fair 2009

I spent the day in Miami, hobnobbing with authors, librarians, booksellers, and of course readers. The weather was beautiful, but the pickings were slim. There were a lot of authors I wasn't familiar with, which is sometimes a nice way of finding new authors, but instead I went with authors somewhat more familiar.

We didn't get down there until after 10; I wasn't willing to get up before 7 on my day off to see Al Gore. I heard the room was packed so I'm sure I wasn't missed. Just wandering the street fair I ran into Carol Fitzgerald from The Book Report Network, owner of www.Bookreporter.com, www.ReadingGroupGuides.com, www.AuthorsOnTheWeb.com, and several other excellent, book related websites. She promised to email me the titles of two upcoming St. Martins/Minotaur books that sounded fabulous.

My first panel of the day featured funny thriller writers Paul Levine (pictured top) and Jeff Lindsay (pictured bottom.) Richard Belzer was scheduled to be with them but was a no-show. No great loss though, Levine and Lindsay were, as always, very entertaining. They were introduced by Chauncey Mabe, the long time book editor of the Sun Sentinel who informed us that he was no longer in that position, but was now a freelance writer. Note to self: check into that story...

Paul Levine opened by telling the audience that he was sure he was speaking for everyone in the room when he said, "Jeff, you are a sick puppy." Lindsay is the author of the Dexter series, the lovable serial killer that kills other serial killers that has since been made into the hit TV show on Showtime.

Levine then spoke a little about the Miami he remembered - he was a practicing lawyer for 17 years before going Hollywood and writing for TV shows, Jag and Lassiter, among others. He spoke about his latest book, Illegal, which is a really good thriller about a boy and his mother trying to move to the US from Mexico, illegally of course, and they get separated. It's a really good story and very suspenseful. Levine spoke about the opening, saying it "opens with something a lot of lawyers do; a lawyer trying to bribe a judge."

Lindsay spoke next, opening with "So much time, so little to say." Every time I see him I am reminded that he once tried his hand at stand-up comedy - lots of one liners. People got to ask questions at the end, and someone asked him if the Michael C. Hall character got into his head when he was trying to write the book. He says it doesn't affect him; he tries to keep away from Hollywood as much as possible. He doesn't write for the show and there are some discrepancies between the books and the show. One in particular he found confusing - the character Vince Masuoka in the book became Vince Masuka in the TV show. He wondered why Hollywood made Vince lose his "o".

One of the most interesting questions came from a librarian. She asked whether Dexter's name came from "dexterous", meaning left handed, and "sinister", meaning right handed. Lindsay was stunned, saying it was only the second time he's ever been asked this. She was correct - he said the book's original title was the "Left Hand of God".

After the mystery panel, it was time for politics so we headed over to see Taylor Branch. His new book, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President offers unprecedented access to a sitting president. Branch spoke about how he met Clinton when they roomed together during the McGovern campaign in the 1970s. Branch decided he was too "cynical for politics" and became a journalist, but Clinton realized he had a gift for politics. Years later, Branch was invited to an inaugural party for newly elected President Clinton at Katherine Graham's house, where Clinton greeted him by saying in amazement, "Can you believe this?"

Shortly after that, Branch was summoned to the White House. Clinton told Branch that he was interested in recording history in the making, and asked Branch if he would be interested in helping. Branch said he was amazed at how idealistic Clinton still was, after twenty years in politics. Branch agreed, and they began meeting on a regular basis, usually late at night and in secret. Clinton would talk about whatever was going on, and Branch recorded it, asking questions along the way. Clinton offered almost unlimited access to a sitting president, all of it on the record, which was quite extraordinary. Branch says the book is not a biography, that he was too close to the subject and too close in time to create such a book. Instead, he views it as a "first hand record of being with a sitting president," recording his thoughts on events while they were happening.

Branch told some great stories. I especially loved the one about how President Clinton was awakened one night at 3:30 in the morning by the secret service. Apparently Boris Yeltsin was visiting and staying at Blair House, but he had "escaped" and was standing on the lawn, drunk and in his underwear, yelling for a pizza. The secret service wanted to know what to do. Suffice it to say Yeltsin got his pizza. He also talked about how Clinton had been invited to go to Japan for some conference, but refused to go because Chelsea had her junior year midterm exams, and he didn't want to leave her during that stressful time.

Branch also told a hilarious story about how there was some sort of summit, and Presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush all ended up staying over at the White House. It was the first time ever that four presidents sat down and had breakfast together in the White House. It was a quiet meal, they didn't have much to say to one another until the subject of Ross Perot came up. It turned out that the one thing they all had in common was that they all hated Perot, especially Bush! They shared Perot stories all morning long.

Someone asked Branch if he wondered if Clinton was telling the truth, or just being a "storyteller", trying to make his own history. Branch pointed out that Clinton would have had to have been clairvoyant to do that, he was speaking on events as they happened, and would have no way of knowing how things would spin out later on. Being the Bill Clinton fan that I am, I was completely captivated and bought the book. I have to say that Branch seemed genuinely delighted to sign every book put in front of him. He shook hands, chatted, and was just his amiable self.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta was scheduled next for the hall where C-Span was recording all day for BookTV. However, he had cancelled, and Mike Farrell had agreed to fill in for him. At the closing of the Branch segment, it was announced that Farrell had cancelled as he had a death in the family the day before. So there was a gap in the schedule, just in time for lunch.

After lunch we headed back to see Gwen Ifill. She is always so calm and laidback on NPR, but was quite feisty and charming at this event. She spoke about her career, how she started in print journalism until Tim Russert dared her to do TV full time. She acquiesced, and was on NBC for years with her good friend and mentor, Russert. She is thrilled with her move to PBS however, and was asked about today's TV journalists. She said she feels like she needs to be just a conduit of the news, and that too many people prefer to use the media to just "confirm conclusions they've already reached."

Ifill also spoke about moderating the debate during the election, and even made reference to Queen Latifa - which was my first thought when I saw her on the schedule at the fair. She took a lot of flack about her, at the time, upcoming book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, but she was protected from it as she prepared for the debate. The book didn't come out until long after the election, and she was vindicated when it did - it is not a biography of Obama. It is a book about black men in politics, and Obama is just one of several including Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker, Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Ifill says "the good thing about writing about race - something is always happening."

Something that is dear to Ifill's heart is The History Makers Project. This is a website that archives interviews of famous African Americans as a way to preserve their history. Ifill has done several interviews, including Quincy Jones and Eartha Kitt, shortly before she passed away.

Wally Lamb was scheduled after Ifill, but I'd seen him before and didn't care to see him again. The only other author I would have liked to see was John Hodgeman, but he wasn't scheduled until 5, which would have had me driving around Miami (and frankly, not the nicest part of Miami) after dark, so I passed.

MIAMI BOOK FAIR!

Events have been going on every night, but for me the fair is the street fair, which begins tomorrow.

TOP CONFIRMED AUTHORS
Many of the world’s top authors are already confirmed for this year’s Fair. These include Sherman Alexie, Margaret Atwood, Roy Blount Jr., Robert Olen Butler, Meg Cabot, Alan Cheuse, Susie Essman, Mary Karr, Mike Farrell, Nobel Laureate and former Vice President Al Gore, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Barbara Kingsolver, Jonathan Lethem, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Ralph Nader, Richard Powers, Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk, Francine Prose, Ruth Reichl, Senator Bob Graham, Wally Lamb, musician and performer Iggy Pop, Melvin Van Peebles, Jeannette Walls and many others.

Confirmed Spanish-language authors include Roberto Ampuero, José María Aznar, Carmen Posadas, Alvaro Vargas-Llosa, Boris Izaguirre, Angela Becerra, Juanita Castro, Edmundo Paz-Soldán, Jorge Ramos, Fabiola Santiago, Jaime Bayly and others.

Please visit www.miamibookfair.com for the complete list of authors and the schedule.

Hope to see you there!

Win books in a bag

Travel around the globe without leaving home...Enter to win an Elliott Lucca Casares Drawstring bag filled with HarperCollins books!
http://www.elliottlucca.com/bookinabag

Oprah.com, CNN.com and Facebook Collaborate for Book Club Webcast

Next Monday, Oprah.com, CNN.com and Facebook will present a live Oprah's Book Club webcast for the current selection, Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan (Back Bay). During the 90-minute event, readers will be able to submit questions for the author and may be featured during the live discussion. The proceedings will be streamed live simultaneously from CNN.com's video player on Oprah.com. Additionally, CNN.com will utilize Facebook Connect, which will allow users to comment through their Facebook profiles without leaving the live webcast.

Sleuthfest!

SleuthFest 2010, “Lights! Camera! Write!”, will be held in the Deerfield Beach Hilton in north Broward County from Thursday, February 25 through Sunday, February 28. The hotel sits just off I-95 and features beautifully renovated rooms and FREE parking. Driving or flying, you can't beat the rate and location. And don’t forget, this is South Florida in the Winter—sun, more sun, and beaches.

David Morrell and Stephen J. Cannell are our Guests of Honor. David Morrell is the award-winning author of First Blood, the novel in which Rambo was created. That "father" of all modern action novels was published in 1972 while Morrell was a professor in the English department at the University of Iowa. He taught there from 1970 to 1986, simultaneously writing other novels, many of them national bestsellers, such as The Brotherhood of the Rose (the basis for a highly rated NBC miniseries starring Robert Mitchum). Eventually wearying of two professions, he gave up his tenure in order to write full time. Stephen J. Cannell is the bestselling author of twelve novels, including the critically acclaimed Shane Scully series, which includes Three Shirt Deal, White Sister, Cold Hit, Vertical Coffin, Hollywood Tough, The Viking Funeral, and The Tin Collectors. The newest installment, On The Grind, was published by St. Martin’s Press in January 2009. In addition, Cannell is the author of At First Sight, Runaway Heart, The Devil’s Workshop, Riding the Snake, King Con, Final Victim, and The Plan.

Come in on Thursday for a line up not equaled by any conference in the country. We have instructors who can teach anyone anything they didn't know about writing or the writing business. That evening, the Sleuthfest 101 Dinner will take place, as well as our annual Reader’s Corner.

Friday and Saturday will be filled with talented , including P J Parrish, Paul Levine, James W. Hall, Les Standiford, C J Lyons, Elaine Viets, Diana Snell, John DuFresne, and N. M. Kelby.

Our Friday luncheon speaker will be David Morrell, who on Friday evening, will introduce a showing of “Rambo”, and speak about how what’s on the page does or does not end up on the screen.

Saturday’s luncheon speaker is Stephen J. Cannell, along with our annual Author Auction. That evening is the Agents and Editors Cocktail party, including the silent auction results and the crowning of the new Flamango 2010.

On Sunday morning, we'll have a special treat. You'll have to attend to find out what it is.

As proof we're always improving SleuthFest, we're sponsoring the Short Story Contest again this year. The feedback last year was all positive, especially from the winner whose story was published in the SleuthFest program. And, she's attending SF 2010 as our guest this year. You could be the lucky winner this year.

There's more info at the web site (www.sleuthfest.com) and we'll be adding right up to the last moment. So check the site now and check back often. Registration is up on the website, as well as a link for room reservations. Be sure to click on the Sleuthfest 2010 link, and if you reserve your rooms over the phone, be sure to mention you are attending SleuthFest 2010, in order to get our great room rates.

We’re looking forward to seeing you at Sleuthfest 2010.