Sherman Alexie's Brilliant Moving Response to Wall Street Journal Article

I give respect to The Wall Street Journal, this time, because they allowed a couple of counter voices to the smug privileged nonsense Ms. Gurdon wrote regarding the dangers of  ‘dark’ Young Adult Fiction. One of the voices is the award winning author, Sherman Alexie. His book has been lauded by adults and young adults … Read more

Author Terry Pratchett Ponders Assisted Suicide

From Quill and Quire, this article caught my eye–I was slightly shocked by the headline, and even more so by the information I’d not known before, that there are countries that sanction assisted suicide. I don’t think there’s a possibility the United States will ever follow suit. Here, we don’t want to pull the plug, … Read more

Elaine Viets Discusses the Tourist Problem in Florida–Via Her Novel, Of Course

One of my favorite traditional authors is Elaine Viets who writes two different series, one set in St. Louis, the other in Florida. Her Helen Hawthorne Florida series is witty, character laden, and downright great. I hope to have a full interview with Ms. Viets soon. But until then, here is her blog from The … Read more

Mystery Loves Company Booksellers To Host Author Donna Andrews

  From the Mystery Loves Company Booksellers Facebook Page: “It is official Donna Andrews will sign “The Real Macaw” on Saturday June 23 in Oxford at Mystery Loves Company. We’ll finally find out what Meg names the twins. Please join us for a fun afternoon. Reserve a book and rsvp by calling the store.” Mystery Loves … Read more

Lilian Jackson Braun, Author of The Cat Who Etc., novels dies at 97

If you’re not familiar with this author, she wrote what seemed like a billion books involving a couple of cats that help solve crimes. Honestly, I didn’t realize she was still alive. Just as I was positive that Phyliss A Whitney had died many moons ago, when she only passed away within the last 10 … Read more

The Griffin Poetry Award Winner

From Quill and Quire http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/2011/06/01/dionne-brand-gets-the-griffin/ Just a quick question–does anyone read poetry anymore? I’m curious because I used to throw myself into various poets, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, etc and soak up their melancholy. I was young and dramatic.  But I also had some super anthologies with poets like e e cummings that I thought … Read more

The Edgar Awards-What Are They-Who Won Last Night?

First I’ll list the main winners, as many just want to cut to the chase, as it were. Best Novel–Steve Hamilton–The Lock Artist Best First Novel–Bruce De Silva–Rogue Island Best Original Paperback–Robert Goddard–Long Time Coming Grand Master–Sara Paretsky-For her lifetime of work in the crime fiction field So, what are the Edgars? Edgar is short … Read more

A Scary Encounter With Stephen King

I don’t read Stephen King. Not because I don’t think he’s an excellent writer. He is. Too too good of a writer. I am one of those people who loves fictional murder because there is a structure, foul play occurs; clues abound; are investigated; characters throw around red herrings; the detective investigates and the murderer … Read more