The Summer of Myron Bolitar

My daughter and are crushing on Myron Bolitar and his buddy Windsor Horne Lockwood III, better known as Win. There’s only one problem: Myron and Win are fictional creations from the brain of Harlan Coben. Actually, I guess that’s a good thing since I’m happily married.

Like any crush, this goes back to a love at first sight experience though I guess love at first reading would be a better description. I purchased Long Lost, the latest Myron Bolitar mystery, a few months back and devoured it.

What can you say about characters that just leap off the page and a mystery that keeps you guessing until the very end? You say: “I’ve got to have more!” Then you start searching bookstores or Amazon if you don’t have time to get to the nearest bookstore. Because of our frequent reading and listening to these books, I’ve decided to call this hot season the summer of Myron Bolitar.

In my case, the next Myron Bolitar mystery I got was the audio book version of Long Lost, performed by Steven Weber of Wings fame. He’s a consummate actor on screen who did a good job with the voice performance. I thought my daughter would enjoy listening to it as we made treks to her various doctor appointments. She liked it so much that we listened to it again as we traveled to our house in the Hill Country. So did I. In fact, I immediately visited Mr. Coben’s website and made a list of the other books in the series.

The Myron Bolitar Series

Deal Breaker, book 1, nominated for an Edgar® and the Anthony® which it won.

Drop Shot, 2nd Myron Bolitar Novel.

Fade Away, 3rd Myron Bolitar Novel which finally won the Edgar®.

Back Spin, 4th Myron Bolitar Novel.

One False Move, 5th Myron Bolitar Novel.

The Final Detail, 6th Myron Bolitar Novel.

Darkest Fear, 7th Myron Bolitar Novel.

Promise Me, book 8.

Long Lost, book 9.

Then I paid a visit to Amazon, my usual place to drop lots of bucks, and went crazy. I ordered books 1 – 4 on audio. So far we’ve listened to Deal Breaker, book 1, and Drop Shot, book 2, during our trips to the Hill Country. I am amazed at how I can’t figure out whodunnit until the end. I’m always surprised, but when you look at the story in its entirety, it makes sense and isn’t something pulled out of left field.

Books 1 through 4 are performed by the amazing Jonathan Marosz. He shines and makes one wonder why he wasn’t contracted to perform Long Lost, the first audio book to which I’d listened. Mr. Marosz has performed in regional national theater from Shakespeare to contemporary works. He is simply astounding as an audio book performer.

At the moment, we have an unabridged Elizabeth Peters loaded into the CD deck in the car. It’s a massive 10 CD audio book and is superb with Barbara Rosenblat as the performer. However, I can hardly wait until it’s finished so I can load up book 3, Fade Away.

Takeaway Truth

If you want humor, gripping mystery, and characters that come alive, run, don’t walk, to your nearest bookstore and get a Myron Bolitar Novel. Whether you get print, digital, or audio, you’ll not be disappointed.

Tags: audio book, harlan coben, myron bolitar, mystery, Windsor Horne Lockwood III

Downstream Effect of Kindle Editions

I accidentally proved a theory that Kindle authors espouse: offering a book free on Kindle actually sells other books. I’d heard this and have read much anecdotal evidence of this, but I proved it to myself this past week.

The Fever Series

This accidental experiment started when I downloaded, for free, Karen Marie Moning‘s Darkfever, Book 1 of the Fever series. I was hooked from the first sentence. Feverishly, pardon that adverb, I raced through Darkfever, finishing it beyond midnight.

I could not wait for morning, and I couldn’t sleep so I turned on the wireless on my Kindle and purchased Book 2 of the series, Bloodfever. I read a few pages which turned into a few chapters. Only the thought of early morning appointments forced me to turn the Kindle off and lay it on the nightstand.

The next evening, I dived into Bloodfever, finishing it in the wee hours. Did I wait for morning? No, I did not. I went to the Kindle store and purchased each book of the rest of the series: Faefever and Dreamfever. Now I’ve finished those, and I have to wait until January for Shadowfever if I want it on Kindle. I haven’t checked yet to see when the print edition comes out.

No! All those months to wait? How can I wait when I’m in a fever pitch to find out how the series ends?

Free Books Sell Other Books

I don’t think we can make a sweeping statement that offering a free book will make readers order your other books. However, I think we can safely say that if a reader downloads the free book and loves the story, the reader will seek out other books by that author. Since I don’t read much paranormal, and I certainly don’t read fantasy so I’d never have pulled any of these books off the shelf. I don’t even shop in those sections of the bookstore.

A free book introduced me to a wonderful series of books. From free, I sought; I bought. I don’t know how I’ll manage to wait an entire 6 months for the last book.

Takeaway Truth

Free  is a good way to try something you’d ordinarily not select. Like me, you just may find books that are keepers and authors you will follow to other books, and you’ll gladly pay the cover price.

Tags: fever series, free kindle books, karen marie moning, kindle books, paranormal books, shadowfever

Review: The Last Airbender

Directed and written by M. Night Shyamalan, The Last Airbender was a movie from which I’d expected more I suppose. In reality, it was exactly what I probably should have expected. Let me explain.

Mr. Shyamalan has a certain rep for movies that build to a twist conclusion. Even though I knew the content and origin of The Last Airbender was a Japanese graphic novel, I still expected Mr. Shyamalan to deliver.

For me, sadly, the movie really was what you’d think a graphic novel targeted to a teen audience would be: tween and teen fare that, dare I say it?, rather bored me.

Cast

Noah Ringer as Aang, the eponymous airbender. Dev Patel as the evil in training Prince Zuko whose heart just isn’t into the evil, and Shaun Toub as his wise Uncle Iroh who is a bit misguided since he’s obviously good but switch hitting on the evil side. Nicola Peltz as water bender Katara, and Jackson Rathbone as her brother Sokka.

The other evil baddies are Aasif Mandvi as Commander Zhao and Cliff Curtis, who I really like, as Fire Lord Ozai. I’d probably watch Mr. Curtis in just about anything because he has charisma. He’s believable whether he’s the FBI special agent in Live Free or Die Hard or the psychically talented in Push.

Such a talented cast, but for an adult audience, this movie was just too much of a teen/tween flick. Even worse though was the ending, which I confess I should have known from the get go. It was nothing but a setup for the next movie.

You’d think a guy as talented as M. Night Shyamalan could come up with something a bit more thrilling and satisfying. I understand there will be 3 films. Sorry, I won’t be buying tickets for those.

Takeaway Truth

If you want me to plunk down some hard-earned bucks at the theater, then at the very least give me an ending that satisfies, not irritates as it shills for the next film in the series.

Tags: cliff curtis, graphic novel, M. Night Shyamalan, movie review, the last airbender

Mystery eBooks Resource

Let’s have a fanfare of trumpets please to celebrate the grand opening of MysterEbooks, a blog dedicated to mysteries published as e-books.

Peg Herring, author of Go Home And Die, lives in northern Michigan and has published, both traditionally and electronically, novels, short stories, plays, and articles. Mysteries compose most of her body of work and are based on her theme: Strong Women, Great Stories.

Because of her interest in e-publishing and her love of the mystery genre, Peg is one of the guiding forces behind the MysterEbooks website. Peg said: “For some time it has bothered me that there seems to be no site online where a person can read about ONLY mysteries published as e-books. With some trepidation and a lot of help, I’ve decided to attempt to change that.”

Opens Monday

Peg, with the help of a friend who established a blog dedicated solely to e-published mysteries, plans to begin posting books on Monday, July 26. They’re experimenting with the submission process so be patient if there are a few problems at first. They hope that authors will learn of the website and tell them about their books by following the template found on the new site.

Follow Instructions

Be among the first to be listed. If you have a book that’s an e-published mystery, exactly follow the instructions on the site so that your book can be listed. Be warned: if you fail to follow the template, your book will not appear.

Their Criteria

In order to list books that provide a quality reading experience, they’ve made the difficult decision to respectfully refuse listing books that have been self-published since very few self-published books are professionally edited. Career writers like Peg just don’t have the time to vet every submission for quality so, to me, it’s reasonable to limit the listings to credible publisher produced e-books.

MysterEbooks describes mystery as a book where the solution of a crime must be the dominant theme. So if you’d like to submit a book for consideration, go to MysterEbooks. Study their sample submission, and use the template.

Then send the completed submission form to mysterebooks@yahoo.com. They’ll let you know the date your listing will appear on MysterEbooks. Of course, they plan site promotion so readers will learn where they can go to find e-mysteries. If you like reading on electronic devices, visit them to find more about new options for e-reading.

Takeaway Truth

Reading a good mystery is like giving yourself a little vacation — complete with excitement, thrills, and chills — without leaving the comfort of your home.

Tags: ebooks mystery website, go home and die, mystery ebook, mystery novel, mystery readers, peg herring

Head For The Hills

I couldn’t take all that rain down on the Gulf Coast any longer. I packed up my daughter, a huge work bag, the laptop, and we took off for the Texas Hill Country.

What a relief to get out of all that rain. We haven’t been up to our house here since July 4, and we’ve missed it.

As the sun set, we rocked on the back porch and watched the deer congregate over by the windsock on the runway. A freshening breeze rippled through the wildflowers and prairie grasses, and peacefulness settled over us. As if to prove that this is God’s country (an appellation commonly used to refer to this area), a rainbow arced across the sky to the south. Then pink, gold, and violet began to pain the sky with a glorious sunset. My husband snapped the picture of the rainbow, and here it is.

Takeaway Truth

Often, I think Thoreau was correct. “The world is too much with us. Simplify. Simplify.” This is my Walden.

Tags: rainbow, rainbow photo, texas hill country

Drive Traffic With Squidoo

To my surprise, a lot of people don’t know about Squidoo. Since it’s touted as being in the top 500 most visited sites world wide, I find this lack of knowledge puzzling.

Founded in 2005 by Seth Godin, Squidoo is a community website that lets users create pages called lenses. A page or lens can be created for any subject that interests the user. In Feb. 1, 2009, Squidoo claimed to have 900,000 lenses.

Creating a lens is easy. You can click the link above that leads to my lens. When you land on mine, just click Create A Lens.

How To Drive Traffic

When you create a Squidoo lens, you, the content creator, are called the lensmaster. You can add a link on your lens to your websites. You can also feed your blog to your Squidoo lens. Squidoo lenses are very similar to blog posts except they’re focused on a single subject like sunlight through a magnifying lens. Like other web pages, you can monetize your lens and pick up some referral revenue.

Since Squidoo is a user-generated website, it’s much like the other user-gen sites like HubPages, Mahalo.com, (mostly robot generated search engine), Knol, run by Google, etc. All these sites call the users experts. These self-proclaimed experts aren’t necessarily considered experts by anyone else, though some may be.

You’ll readily see that I feed one of my blogs to my lens, and that I’ve done little else to it. As always, time is the big issue. There are lots of online communities, and there just isn’t enough time to do use all of them well.

Takeaway Truth

Pick and choose the social media that works for you without letting it become a huge time suck.

Tags: blog promotion, drive traffic, internet promotion, squidoo, website promotion. website traffic

Visiting Rita Schiano

Today, we’re chatting with Rita Schiano, the author of Painting The Invisible Man , ISBN: 0979534704, published by The Reed Edwards Company, and Sweet Bitter Love, ISBN: 1883061156, published by Rising Tide Press and distributed now through The Reed Edwards Company.

Rita can be found at her website and her blog, Rita’s Not-So-Daily Word. She offers a free newsletter on her website and an archive of Talk To Me, her blog talk radio show wherein she interviewed creative people.

Now, let’s chat with Rita.

How many years from your first manuscript to your first sale?

For Sweet Bitter Love, 1 1/2 years; for Painting The Invisible Man, 3 years.

What has been your best experience as a published author?

Having the opportunity to go into schools and talk with kids about writing.

What has been your worst experience as a published author?

Can’t say I’ve had one.

What has surprised you most as a professional writer?

The sometimes profound effect my stories have had on people . . . on their self-exploration.

If you could write any story, without regard to it selling or any of those other business issues, what would you write?

I write those stories now. There is never a guarantee one’s work will sell.

What do you love about your career?

The freedom to explore myriad concepts, points of view, emotional and intellectual expression through my characters.

What do you hate about your career?

Not a thing.

If you got a big 6-figure advance for a book, what’s the first thing you’d buy for yourself?

A Tempur-pedic mattress!

What is the best advice you can give beginning writers?

Write every day. Establish a disciplined schedule. Don’t fall in love with your words. Embrace the value of rewriting and honing your work.

What would you like readers to know?

The web site where to buy my books! Seriously, seek out and support new writers. Spend the little extra to buy a new book, not a used copy off Amazon or the like. Authors only get paid when a book sells new.

PS. Looking for some good summer reading? Check out my novel Painting The Invisible Man, and read what it’s like to grow up in a family on the fringe of the Mafia. I hope you’ll tell your friends and family about this engrossing story too!

Thanks, Rita, for taking the time to visit with us.

Takeaway Truth

Make a point to discover a new author today. It’s a win/win situation for you and the author.

Tags: author interviews, authors, blog talk radio, painting the invisible man, rita schiano, sweet bitter love, Writing

Which Joan Reeves Am I

I have Google Alerts set up so I can find out when my name is being bandied about. This week, I started receiving dozens of alerts that Joan Reeves was commenting on The Huffington Post site, Digg, sports sites, and several others.

We all like to think we are unique and that there’s no one like us anywhere else on the planet. We certainly don’t like knowing that other people have our names, do we?

Of course, I visited those comments and found most of the comments being made were a bit inflammatory. I was upset. No one likes to see their name posted with resulting flame wars.

Sure, I know there are several Joan Reeves in this country because over the years I’ve had people ask if I’m an artist. No, I’m not Joan Reeves the artist. Am I a nurse? Nope. Am I involved in a workman’s comp lawsuit? Nope again. Am I the frequent commenter on The Huffington Post? Definitely not. Am I the one in Seattle? Not even close. Am I the educational professional? Uh uh.

If anything, the Internet has taught me how common my name seems to be. I’d thought Joan just wasn’t a popular name. Apparently, it’s not as unpopular as I’d thought and seems to be paired with Reeves quite often.

So, which Joan Reeves am I? I’m the professional writer with nearly 25 years experience in every aspect of writing. I don’t post inflammatory comments, blogs, or emails. I’m in Texas. I’m reasonable, level-headed, and compassionate, and I object to having my name linked to someone who is not. If you see my name, don’t assume I’m the one who posted whatever you read.

Takeaway Truth

A rose by the same name probably doesn’t smell the same.

Tags: author joan reeves, freelance writer joan reeves, Joan Reeves

How To Use Wi-Fi

Recently, I ran into someone who had just bought a new laptop that had all the bells and whistles. He mentioned that it was Wi-Fi capable, but he didn’t know how to use it to connect to the Internet when he was away from home.

Thus, a blog post is born.

No Brainer

Actually, if you have a computer running Windows XP or Vista, or the new Win7, with Wi-Fi capability, it’s really a no-brainer. The software that came with your device will recognize any available Wi-Fi networks and will automatically make contact with it.

Your computer will display a screen that lists the network and you can click the appropriate button to connect to it.

Brain Required

Now, if your computer doesn’t do that, and it may not at certain universities, you have to go through a manual process that may be a little more invasive than you wish. Most require as little as changing your network name, password, etc., but some require that you have your device enabled by the Internet security department. That’s what I did when I was on a satellite campus of Texas Tech last year.

Sometimes, at Internet cafes, you’ll find printed instructions on how to log on to the network. If no such directions are evident, just ask someone there what you need to do.

Be Smart

It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway for those who aren’t security savvy, only use reputable hotspots. Even when you’re someplace you consider safe, like an airport lounge, hotel suite, convention center, your local Starbucks or McDonald’s, etc., make sure you have a firewall in place and use it. Most computers come with Windows Firewall, but too many people don’t even have it enabled. Learn how to use it and have it turned on.

There are more stringent ways to protect your security. In fact, you can Google secure wi-fi access or some similar keyword phrase to find all kinds of applications to help you in your effort to surf safely and protect your private data.

Takeaway Truth

Technology can make life a lot easier, but it can also complicate your life if you don’t take precautions.

Tags: internet anywhere, wi-fi

Link Resource Roundup

This morning, I have a few links to pass on to you. Today’s writers and other Internet entrepreneurs have to stay abreast of the news so follow these links and learn.

9 Ways To Get Started & Stay Motivated by Lisa Scottoline is good advice for any endeavor.

Future of Print points out what is obvious to many and resisted by just as many.

Set Up Guide For New Computer will help you avoid the dumb things we all do when we get a new PC or Mac.

Takeaway Truth

The web is a resource of information if you know where to look.

Tags: entrepreneurs, resource links, writers