Fresh Pick | CORPSE ON THE COB by Sue Ann Jaffarian

Odelia Grey #5

February 2010
On Sale: February 1, 2010
Featuring: Odelia Grey
336 pages
ISBN: 0738713511
EAN: 9780738713519
Paperback
$14.95

Mystery Woman Sleuth, Mystery Cozy, Mystery Amateur Sleuth
Buy at Amazon.com

Corpse On The Cob
by Sue Ann Jaffarian

What do you have to lose when you go searching for the mother who walked out of your life thirty-four years ago?

I mean besides your pride, your nerves, and your sanity? Odelia finds herself up to her ears in trouble when she reunites with her mom in a corn maze at the Autumn Fair in Holmsbury, Massachusetts. For starters, there’s finding the dead body in the cornfield—and seeing her long-lost mom crouched beside the corpse with blood on her hands . . .

A Lively Mystery Mixes Up Humor With Clues...

A fun, sexy mystery for Big Girls and Those That Love Them!

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Sara Reyes | My World's Not All Fiction...

This week I've had some blocks of time during the work day away from the office. Usually I take my laptop with me, find a place with electricity and WiFi and work, but this week was a bit different. I knew there wouldn't be WiFi, and each stop would be about 30 minutes or less and I may not have a place to unpack a laptop even a small one, so I decided to do some "work" reading.

To me, "work" reading is that stuff I've let slide for one reason or another that isn't "fun" related. Or, non-fiction technical or self-help books. I took along two: HEAD FIRST AJAX: A BRAIN-FRIENDLY GUIDE and TOTALLY TONED ARMS. Opposite poles of the non-fiction spectrum for me. Something all techie and something all probably not going to happen.

And to be honest, the TOTALLY TONED ARMS or Get Michelle Obama Arms in 21 Days never made it out of the bag. But I did get through two chapters of AJAX. Not sure if I'll retain any of the knowledge but at least I tried.

And I really regret I didn't take something more fun to read...like oh, say, Shelly Laurenston's Mane series. I finally have all four of them and since she's coming to book club this month, it's time to re-read and catch up. I've read Shelly for a couple of years but suddenly she's a hot topic in reader circles and at our book clubs. Her paranormals manage to be really funny, not stupid-funny, are sexy or HOT, but not too hot. Her characters stay with the reader and just manage to provide a fun reading experience. In other words, she's a keeper and "everyone should read Shelly" quoting one of our members.

I'm always happy when an author gets "discovered" because in some ways if I've been mentioning her / him for awhile it's nice to have the validation. Plus then I can talk the ears off people who have read the same books and we can have fun comparing who we loved, hated and "wow, I missed that completely!"

So, how about you? What do you read for "work" and what do read for "fun?"

Until next time...
Get out there and READ a book...

Sara Reyes
DFW Tea Readers Group
Join us at Readers 'n 'ritas November 12-14, 2010! with Sherrilyn Kenyon and more guests
See you on the Twitter> (@FreshFiction)

PS Comment and you could win! We're giving away books from our collection. You never know what goodie you'll get!

Fresh Pick | DEADLY CHARM by Claudia Mair Burney

Amanda Bell Brown #3

April 2009
On Sale: March 24, 2009
Featuring: Amanda Bell Brown
400 pages
ISBN: 1416551956
EAN: 9781416551959
Trade Size
$13.99

Multicultural Mystery, Mystery Woman Sleuth, Mystery Amateur Sleuth
Buy at Amazon.com

Deadly Charm
by Claudia Mair Burney

When the ominous Thunders roll into Dr. Amanda Bell Brown's town, the sassy sleuth sees a storm brewing. Disgraced playboy preacher Ezekiel Thunder and his seductive first lady, Nikki, are on the comeback trail, but Bell is less than charmed by the pair. When their toddler, Baby Zeekie, is found dead from an accidental drowning, forensic psychologist Bell suspects foul play in the fatal family, especially after the mama in mourning flirts with Bell's estranged husband, Jazz. Bell is sickened by the woman's behavior and the thought of someone murdering an innocent child — or is it morning sickness that's plaguing her? Between babies and bodies, she pushes past the limits to discover the deadly truth.

Sassy Amanda Bell Brown gets to the bottom of another faith-filled mystery when a small child dies

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Joanne Kennedy | Starting Trouble

Cowboy Trouble started with a chicken, a cowboy, and an act of rebellion.

I’ve worked in book selling all my life, but a few years ago I decided it was time to escape the rigors of retail and get a job where I could sit down once in a while. I decided to try medical transcription, which meant I was sitting in front of my computer for hours at a time, tapping away at the keys.

The trouble was, what I was churning out was mind-numbingly dull. Doctor’s reports are hardly the stuff of literature, and the ones that are interesting are generally tragic. The typing was good. The sitting was great. But the work? Not for me.

In a vague act of rebellion, I shut off the dictation one day and just started typing whatever came into my head. Here’s what came out:

A chicken will never break your heart.

Not that you can’t love a chicken. There are some people in this world who can love just about anything.

But a chicken will never love you back. When you look deep into their beady little eyes, there’s not a lot of warmth there-just an avarice for worms and bugs and, if it’s a rooster, a lot of suppressed anger and sexual frustration. They don’t return your affection in any way.

Expectations, relationship-wise, are right at rock bottom.

I kept on going, and before long, I had a character who was unlucky in love and decided to go off on her own and start a chicken farm. I’d had chickens years before, and I think chickens are the funniest animals on the planet, so I was having a pretty good time. Then the cowboy showed up, and I just had to know what happened-so I had to keep writing.

I’ve always read a lot, and I’ve worked in bookstores all my life, so I had a fairly good idea of what works in a book, and I also knew the market. At the time I started
Cowboy Trouble, the "chick lit" trend was beginning to fade. I loved the fun, saucy tone of writers like Sophie Kinsella and Lauren Weisberger, but I was tired of reading about city girls. What the world needed, I decided, was some rural "chick lit." I wanted to read about a character who didn’t care much about hairstyles and high heels--someone who’s idea of high fashion was wearing her Wranglers in slim-fit instead of cowboy-cut.

A character who was more like me.

I’m a Massachusetts native who moved West a few years ago and fell in love with the wide-open spaces and the quirky individualism of the people here, so I made Libby an east-coast transplant, too. I love animals and farm life, and I have a habit of plunging into absurd projects without calculating the odds of success, so I had Libby start a chicken farm in Wyoming.

The book was going to be a mystery, but Libby and I had one more thing in common: I’d taken some knocks in the romance department, and found love just when I’d sworn off men forever. Like me, Libby met an irresistible stranger at the very time she least wanted to fall for a man--and gradually, without my realizing it, the book became a romance.

When I started Cowboy Trouble, I had no idea how difficult it was to get a novel published. All I knew was that I was supremely happy hanging out with Luke and Libby in the fictional world I’d created. Deep down, I knew I’d found what I was meant to do--but I also knew that if I wanted to keep doing it, I needed to treat it like a job.

I started reading books on fiction writing, going to writing conferences, and begging friends to read and critique my work. I gave up watching television, among other things, so I’d have more time to write. Once I finished the manuscript, I started submitting to agents and editors, and I struggled to swallow my pride and learn from my rejections.

And finally, two days before Christmas in 2008, I found out that Sourcebooks Casablanca wanted to publish my book. Now Luke and Libby are out there getting to know the rest of you, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Like Libby, I’ve found my happily ever after.

I never did medical transcription again, and I was a little disappointed in myself, because I’ve never been a quitter. But really, I did reach the goal I set out to achieve: I finally have a job where I get to sit down!

As a bookseller, I partly wrote Cowboy Trouble to fill an empty niche in the market. What kinds of books do you think are missing out there? Do you long for romances set in Dark Age Ireland, or mysteries featuring handicapped heroines? Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and I’ll stop back often and see what I can learn!


COWBOY TROUBLE by JOANNE KENNEDYIN STORES MARCH 2010

Fleeing her latest love life disaster, big city journalist Libby Brown's transition to rural living isn't going exactly as planned. Her childhood dream has always been to own a chicken farm--but without the constant help of her charming, sexy, cowboy neighbor; she'd never have made it through her first Wyoming season.

Handsome rancher Luke Rawlins is impressed by this sassy, independent city girl. But he yearns to do more than help Libby out with her ranch...he's ready for love, and he wants to go the distance. When the two get embroiled in their tiny town's one and only crime story, Libby discovers that their sizzling hot attraction is going to complicate her life in every way possible...

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joanne Kennedy has worked in bookstores all her life in positions ranging from bookseller to buyer. She is a member of Romance Writers of America and Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and won first place in the Colorado Gold Writing Contest and second place in the Heart of the Rockies contest in 2007. Joanne lives and writes in Cheyenne, Wyoming. For more information please visit joannekennedybooks.com/.

To comment for a chance to win on Cowboy Trouble please click here.

KAREN ROSE SMITH | A Bit About My Writing Process

Hi, everyone. I'm so glad to be here blogging with you. My 70th romance will be released this year and I'm excited about that.


Whenever I write a blog, I like to give a few details about myself. I live in Pennsylvania but the Southwest is my favorite place on the planet. The scenery fills me up creatively and spiritually the way nothing else can. Cooking is my favorite hobby and I once won second place in a national Bisquick contest! I find recipes can be as interesting to put together as plots. Early on-in my teens-I wrote poetry and began a book manuscript. Music fed my creative bent then and still does today. Favorite singers? Taylor Swift, Adam Lambert and Josh Groban. What can I say? My tastes are eclectic.


I'd love to discuss my Baby Experts series with you. The fourth book in the series, THE TEXAS BILLIONAIRE'S BABY, will be released at the end of February with Silhouette Special Edition.


Before I go into detail about my new novel, I'd like to tell you a little about an older one. I once wrote about a heroine with a port-wine stain on one side of her face. She was a trauma make-up expert and had to grow out of her own insecurities without make-up in the course of the book. One of my editors then
suggested I not write other books with "issues." For a while I listened to the underlying message-don't deal with serious subjects in romances. But as each book was published, I realized the only way to keep my plots challenging as well as interesting for me was to add an aspect to each book that made it unique. Throughout my career, I've mixed more serious books with lighter ones, sensual ones with blatantly sexy ones. With all of them, I try to keep emotion the key driving element.


In THE TEXAS BILLIONAIRE'S BABY, my hero, Logan Barnes, is worried about his toddler son who isn't yet walking. Daniel was a preemie and his mother died to save him. My heroine Gina Rigoletti has returned to Sagebrush, Texas after years away to make peace with her past...as well as with Logan. When she was eighteen she fell in love with him but left him because of a threat from his father and for the dream of a future for herself and her sister. A developmental baby expert now, Logan hires Gina to help Daniel learn to walk. Old feelings come rushing back for both of them.


Gina once left Logan and he can't forget that betrayal. On Gina's part... She holds more than one secret that could destroy the new bond they forge while working with Daniel. After Gina left Sagebrush for college-Logan never knew his father threatened her-she was date-raped.


This romance is about healing the past but also healing a trauma that has never seen the full light of the sun. Gina's love for Logan and his for her becomes the sun Gina needs to let fourteen-year-old wounds heal.


THE TEXAS BILLIONAIRE'S BABY is a book about babies and a single dad...about supportive women friends who are heroines in The Baby Experts series. It's about an old Victorian house in fictional Sagebrush outside of Lubbock that appears to have started a rumor-any women who lives there will find true love. It's about lasting love and new love and the healing power of mutual honesty.


I'm ready to discuss any aspects of my blog. I want to thank all my readers for your support during my career. If you are a new reader, I hope you enjoy the plunge into my booklist and find reading each book a pleasure and an emotional experience.


Have a great day.


Karen Rose Smith

To comment on A Bit About My Writing Process please click here.

Fresh Pick | STUFF TO SPY FOR by Don Bruns

Stuff #3

November 2009
On Sale: November 2, 2009
Featuring: James Lessor; Skip Moore
320 pages
ISBN: 1933515228
EAN: 9781933515229
Hardcover
$24.95

Mystery Amateur Sleuth
Buy at Amazon.com

Stuff To Spy For
by Don Bruns

Could James Lessor and Skip Moore possibly have the right stuff to launch new careers as intelligence professionals? Well, more or less.

Best friends James Lessor and Skip Moore are still stuck in dead-end jobs, still living in their ratty apartment in Carol City, Florida, and still dreaming of hitting the big time. It seems those dreams are finally within reach when James lands a job to install a state-of-the-art security system for Synco Systems. There's a huge commission - and plenty of strings - attached.

To collect on the cash, James will have to provide "additional services" by assuming the role of pretend boyfriend of Sarah Crumbly, an employee who's having an affair with Sandler Conroy, Synco's married president.

When Sandler's wife offers James a tidy sum for the dirty details about what's going on at Synco, James and Skip resurrect their entrepreneurial dreams and go into the business of being spies.

The spymobile - their beloved, rattletrap of a boxtruck - is on its last legs, and they'll have to spend a small fortune on spy equipment, but there's no business like spy business.

In this spy game, James and Skip may be the ones who get played - or worse.

These guys just never seem to have enough stuff -- they always want more.

Excerpt

I ripped the cardboard from the first box, finally making a tear wide enough to pull out the second box. This was the one with the printing on the side. But the envelope inside was what caught my eye first. I yanked it out of the box and shoved it in stuff to spy for my shirt pocket. By now I was ready to put a match to all the paper and cardboard and tape.

I looked up and James was staring at me. “Where did you get the package, Skip?”

“Special D, James. No problem. Confidential to Skip Moore.”

His eyes were wide, and he froze as I took the box knife to the tape that sealed the box.

“Skip.”

“What? Can’t you just leave it alone?”

He leaned down, grabbing Read More...

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Fresh Pick | A BAD DAY FOR SORRY by Sophie Littlefield

Stella Hardesty

August 2009
On Sale: August 4, 2009
Featuring: Stella Hardesty
288 pages
ISBN: 0312559208
EAN: 9780312559205
Hardcover
$24.99

Mystery Amateur Sleuth, Mystery Woman Sleuth
Buy at Amazon.com

A Bad Day For Sorry
by Sophie Littlefield

Stella Hardesty dispatched her abusive husband with a wrench shortly before her fiftieth birthday. A few years later, she’s so busy delivering home-style justice on her days off, helping other women deal with their own abusive husbands and boyfriends, that she barely has time to run her sewing shop in her rural Missouri hometown. Some men need more convincing than others, but it’s usually nothing a little light bondage or old-fashioned whuppin' can’t fix. Since Stella works outside of the law, she’s free to do whatever it takes to get the job done---as long as she keeps her distance from the handsome devil of a local sheriff, Goat Jones.

When young mother Chrissy Shaw asks Stella for help with her no-good husband, Roy Dean, it looks like an easy case. Until Roy Dean disappears with Chrissy’s two-year-old son, Tucker. Stella quickly learns that Roy Dean was involved with some very scary men, as she tries to sort out who’s hiding information and who’s merely trying to kill her. It’s going to take a hell of a fight to get the little boy back home to his mama, but if anyone can do it, it’s Stella Hardesty.


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ALLIE PLEITER | A Little Bit of Real Life...

Sometimes our imaginations cook up the perfect story from scratch.

Other times, life hands us the spark of the story and our imaginations use it as a launching pad.

Such was the case with my first novella, Bluegrass Easter, released this March in Love Inspired’s Easter Promises. Sure, it’s the final story in my Kentucky Corners series, and it’s special for that, but there’s another reason it captures my heart: the real-life spark of the story. An avid knitter, I’d been getting regular updates from a yarn shop and sheep farm in my area. One email chronicled the story of a particularly...shall we say...romantic male sheep and the surprise population explosion he brought to the ewes at the farm.

I ask you, how could a romance novelist--let alone one who knits--pass up a courtship like that?

Any writer worth her salt (or in this case her fleece) wouldn’t leave it at just a bunch of surprise sheep pregnancies. I had to find ways for this "bumper crop" of lambs to take librarian Audrey Lupine to her emotional edge. It’s cruel, I know, to take a control freak and send her beyond her coping, but the payoff is so very sweet when she overcomes her challenges. That has a lot to do with the charm and compassion of veterinarian Paul Sycamore and his precocious little daughter. And like every good hero, he has a lot of growing to do himself. And so we get to watch them "stretch into each other" as I like to put it. Change and grow as a result of how life through them together. That’s the trick we authors must master--to take something everyday (or even just a little ordinary) and raise the stakes for maximum emotional impact. While most of us will never have to face more lambs than we were counting on, every one of has had life push us beyond our abilities. I know I’ve had more than my share in the past year.

Which is why I knit. It’s my stress release, my non-writing creative outlet (I believe every writer must have another creative outlet besides words). Simply put, knitting is my passion. If I found a $50 bill in a parking lot with a note attached saying "you have the next two hours free to spend this," I’d make a bee-line for the yarn store (okay, I might stop at Starbuck’s on the way). It’s why Bluegrass Easter was such fun for me--I got to combine my passion for storytelling with my obsession with yarn. I’d like to think that fun comes through in the story. Tell me, what are your passions? Do you read (or write) books about them, or are your fiction cravings drawn in other directions?

To comment on A Little Bit of Real Life...please click here.

Spotlight on Kathy Carmichael

I couldn’t figure out how to get a dead body down this embankment, about 50 feet above the water.

I decided this would be a great place to dump a dead body!

I used this location, outside the city limits, for where Amy found a tarp.

While I never found an exact duplicate of Amy’s house, this one helped as a working model.

This is a photo of me visiting the Chamber of Commerce.

This made me think of Dolores’ historical home. It’s the perfect location for a séance, don’t you think?

Alfie and I parked the car on this bridge over the Verdigris River and contemplated various ways to get a dead body over the railing.

The Independence Police Department is in the basement of City Hall!

Complications in the life of an author

When my doctor first learned that I was writing a mystery novel, he suggested we go out for coffee.  Now mind you, he wasn’t suggesting a date.  No.  He wanted to go over some possible ways to off someone.


Fortunately for me, the mystery I was writing was a little less complicated than that.  For DIARY OF A CONFESSIONS QUEEN I didn’t need obscure and untraceable poisons.  I didn’t need to learn about bullet entrances and exits.  What I needed was a good body of water.


If an author is writing about an imaginary location, creating a decent body of water isn’t difficult.  But when you’re writing about a real location, it gets a bit more complicated.  Not only do you need the sizable body of water, in my case the Verdigris River, but I also needed to know what direction the water flows in and exactly where the water ends up.  Is there a dam?  Is there a lake?  Does it empty into a larger body of water?


And then there was the issue of making all of this work for my story.  The crime needed to be investigated by a city police detective, rather than the county sheriff’s office.  But where do the city lines stop and the county lines start?

I had to visit the Independence Police Department to find out.

Luckily for me, my critique partner, Alfie Thompson, came with me – otherwise, I might be serving time for contemplating murder.


When we entered the police department, my first questions were whether they had a map of the territory covered by the city police and if a murder was committed in town, would they investigate or would they turn it over to the state police?


A very tall, I mean really truly tall, police detective left his office when he heard my question and ambled over to where Alfie and I stood talking with the administrative assistant, Tammy Freeman.  He wanted to know why I wanted to know.  Alfie nudged me and said, “Explain that you’re an author.”  This is one of many reasons why it’s good to have wonderful friends.


I quickly pulled a bookmark from my handbag and explained I was working on novel.  Tammy took out a map and drew the boundaries on it for me.  What a gem she is!


Once we finished grilling the police, Alfie and I drove around the city, hunting for great places to dump a dead body.  I hope you enjoy some of my research pictures of the Independence, Kansas locations in DIARY OF A CONFESSIONS QUEEN.




To promote DIARY OF A CONFESSIONS QUEEN, Medallion Press cooked up a little fun with an Action Interview / radio play based on my book.  I had a blast recording this.  In it, I play not only myself, but also two of the characters.  Can you guess who they are?  Here’s the link to listen.  But be warned, it starts playing right away!

Fresh Pick | FRANKLY MY DEAR, I'M DEAD by Livia J. Washburn

October 2009
On Sale: October 1, 2009
Featuring: Delilah Dickinson
304 pages
ISBN: 0758225679
EAN: 9780758225672
Paperback
$6.99

Mystery Woman Sleuth, Mystery Amateur Sleuth
Buy at Amazon.com

Frankly My Dear, I'm Dead
by Livia J. Washburn

No one is surprised when feisty Delilah Dickinson opens her own literary travel agency in Atlanta after her divorce. But during her first group's tour of an old plantation modeled after Tara from "Gone with the Wind" - complete with a full cast of actors - things go south really fast. The actor playing Clark Gable playing Rhett Butler is found dead, apparently the victim of a fatal dose of Southern in-hospitality.

Before anyone can even think 'Where shall I go? What shall I do?' Delilah finds herself taking over the investigation when the number one suspect turns out to be her son-in-law.

But life starts imitating art when the actors begin taking their roles a little too seriously - believing they actually are Ashley Wilkes, Scarlett O'Hara, and Melanie.

Next stop: Sunset Boulevard.

Excerpt

I didn’t mean to lose it. Really, I didn’t. It must have been the two squabbling teenagers. Or the two annoying adults. Or the pressure of setting up a new business and knowing that if I couldn’t make a go of it, it would be just one more in a long list of failures.

We won’t even mention the divorce.

All I wanted was a minute to myself. Just one simple, single minute to sit there in the new office and take a deep breath and look around and say to myself, This is mine. And it’s going to work.

But I hadn’t been there in the chair behind my new desk more than ten seconds when the door burst open and Augusta and Amelia came in snapping at each other over something. They looked at me and Read More...

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CANDANCE HAVENS | Let's Talk Academy Awards

It’s almost time for the Academy Awards, which is a big time of year for my day job as a film critic. While I could attend as press to the awards, I prefer to stay at home and watch in my pajamas on the couch just like everyone else. If you’re press, you are usually stuck in a big tent somewhere or next door at the hotel in a ballroom where you have to listen to foreign press ask inane questions that embarrass the room. Since most of my job is done before the awards, I choose to stay home.

I thought I’d go through the list and talk about some of the folks I’d like to see win. This is not necessarily who will win, though I’ll try to help you with that too. We’ll go through the Best Picture and Acting categories and I’d also love to hear about some of your choices.

Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, "Nine"; Vera Farmiga, "Up in the Air"; Maggie Gyllenhaal, "Crazy Heart"; Anna Kendrick, "Up in the Air"; Mo'Nique, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire." I think the woman to beat here is Mo’Nique, even though I despise that film, I get why people are so into this performance. Mo’Nique has a way of making this truly evil woman, pathetic and sad at the same time. It’ a raw performance and the Oscar folks like that. My pick would be Anna Kendrick, she was an absolute revelation in "Up in the Air." A truly standout performance, but unfortunately she doesn’t have a chance.

Supporting Actor: Matt Damon, "Invictus"; Woody Harrelson, "The Messenger"; Christopher Plummer, "The Last Station"; Stanley Tucci, "The Lovely Bones"; Christoph Waltz, "Inglourious Basterds." Waltz is the man to beat here. This is a category filled with amazing performances. Waltz picked up the Screen Actors Guild Award, and I believe he’ll be the winner here too.

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, "Crazy Heart"; George Clooney, "Up in the Air"; Colin Firth, "A Single Man"; Morgan Freeman, "Invictus"; Jeremy Renner, "The Hurt Locker." This is another tough category filled with incredible performances. Jeff Bridges won the SAG award, and I’m pretty sure he’ll pick up the Oscar. Hollywood considers him one of their under appreciated, and I think they think it’s time to honor him. It was an honest performance and I don’t have a problem with Bridges winning, but Firth would be my choice. He’s in almost every frame of "The Single Man" and he doesn’t disappoint. He can say so much with just a look. It was one of my favorite performances of the year.

Best Actress: Sandra Bullock, "The Blind Side"; Helen Mirren, "The Last Station"; Carey Mulligan, "An Education"; Gabourey Sidibe, "Precious: Based on the Novel `Push' by Sapphire"; Meryl Streep, "Julie & Julia." Don’t get me wrong, I love Sandra Bullock, and Blindside was one of my favorite films of the year. But was her performances better than her fellow nominees? The answer is, no. Still, I think she’s a safe bet to take home the big prize. This is the toughest category for me. I know you’ve never heard of her, but Carey Mulligan gives such an amazing performance in "An Education." For me, Meryl Streep became Julia Child. Sidibe is good in "Precious," but she basically has one expression through the entire film, and even though she’s is supposed to be shy, it would help if she hadn’t mumbled. Helen Mirren is a bit over the top in "The Last Station," but she’s absolutely believable. That said, I’m pretty sure Bullock is a shoe-in.

Best Picture: "Avatar," "The Blind Side," "District 9," "An Education," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds," "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," "A Serious Man," "Up," "Up in the Air." I don’t believe "Precious" or "A Serious Man" deserve to be in the category. I get that "Precious" deals with horrific subject matter and we are supposed to believe that it is an important film, but if you break it down, it’s not a very well made film. The editing is choppy, the acting is oven over the top or non-existent, especially many of the scenes at the school. I just don’t get the love for the film beyond Mo’Nique’s performance. "A Serious Man" is a movie that just didn’t do it for me. I’m a big fan of the Coen brothers and usually enjoy their dark humor, but this movie was a self-indulgent mess.

So let’s talk about some of the films I do like. No one can deny that James Cameron hasn’t done something quite wonderful with "Avatar," while it’s slow at times, it’s a visual gem. In "An Education" director Lone Scherfig had a deft hand with his actors performances and it’s a great coming of age film. "The Blind Side" and "UP" are both great stories, I’m not so sure they are Best Picture material, but I enjoyed both of the films. "Up in the Air" is movie that I had to think about for a while before I decided I liked it. In the end I decided I love it. My only real problem with that film was the pacing, but the performances by the actors made up for any shortfalls.

That said, for me this year’s two best pictures are "The Hurt Locker" and "Inglourious Basterds" are my favorites. Director Kathryn Bigelow picked up the Directors Guild Award for "The Hurt Locker," and this makes me hopeful that perhaps Hollywood is coming around to understanding that this one incredible film. Most people know Bigelow as James Cameron’s ex, but she’s obviously so much more. He even says so. "The Hurt Locker" is a tightly wound film, with intense performance. It’s one you shouldn’t miss. And even though he often gets the cold shoulder from Hollywood, no one is doing more for the film genre than Quentin Tarantino. The man has such respect for the art of film-making and though he’s turned out some winners and some stinkers, this is his best film yet. So for me a perfect world would have a Best Picture tie for "The Hurt Locker" and "Inglorious Basterds."


To comment on Let's Talk Academy Awards please click here.

Fresh Pick | DOUBLE TROUBLE by Susan May Warren

PJ Sugar #2

February 2010
On Sale: February 1, 2010
Featuring: PJ Sugar
300 pages
ISBN: 1414313136
EAN: 9781414313139
Trade Size
$13.99

Mystery Woman Sleuth
Buy at Amazon.com

Double Trouble
by Susan May Warren

With one case firmly under her belt, PJ Sugar is ready to dive into her career as a private investigator. Or at least a PI's assistant until she can prove herself to Jeremy Kane, her new boss. Suddenly PJ's seeing crime everywhere. Everyone's a suspect. But is it just in her head, or can she trust her instincts.

When she takes on her first official case--house sitting for a witness in protective custody--Jeremy assures her there's no danger involved. But it soon becomes clear that there is someone after the witness... and now PJ. Can she find the suspect and prove she's ready for that promotion? Or will she give in to Boone's please to quite and accept his proposal?

Excerpt

Chapter 1

PJ Sugar had been born to sneak up on people. She clearly possessed the instincts of a panther, with the ability to find her prey and slink up to them in the shadows, pouncing only when they least suspected. Suspected adulterer Rudy Bagwell didn’t have a prayer of escaping.

“I’m telling you, Jeremy, we’re going to nail him this time.”

She wasn’t sure why she felt the need to keep her voice to just a hoarse whisper into the cell phone or even to slink down into the bucket seat of her VW Bug—it wasn’t like Rudy or his cohort in crime, Geri Fitz, would hear her. PJ glanced at the digital clock on the dash. It glared 2:14 a.m., a resounding gavel bang to Rudy’s guilt. After all, who would be sneaking around after midnight? Without, er, a Read More...

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BETH HOFFMAN | It's All About Friends

Where would we be without friendship? I’ve often pondered that question and my answer is this-a big fat nowhere!

One of the underlying themes in Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is the importance of cultivating and maintaining meaningful friendships in our lives. I think friends are the diamonds in life and I don’t know where I’d be if it weren’t for the uplifting friendships I’ve enjoyed. Along with the issues of mother/daughter relationships, loss, anger, and forgiveness, I wanted to explore friendship in my novel. But I wanted to do it in a surprising way.

CeeCee lives the first 12 years of her life trying to hide from the curious stares and snickers of neighbors and the hurtful teasing from her classmates. But with a psychotic mother who parades around town wearing a tattered old prom dress and a tiara, it’s impossible. Early in life CeeCee develops a strong friendship with an elderly neighbor woman who is her only confidante. It is this one friendship that gives CeeCee ballast. But when tragedy strikes, CeeCee must leave her only friend when she is sent to live in Savannah with a distant relative she’s never even met by the name of Tootie Caldwell.

As the story unfolds, CeeCee’s wish of having a friend is illuminated. Her wish is simple and pure, and has no limitations. All she longs for is to hear her footsteps walk in rhythm with those of a friend. It is a yearning that she feels every day-a dark void that’s always present. When Oletta Jones, a 55-year-old African-American cook arrives in CeeCee’s life, not only does Oletta become CeeCee’s friend, but she teaches CeeCee that friends can come in all ages and colors, and, can also be from different cultures. CeeCee becomes enormously important to Oletta as well, and their unusual friendship is as easy as breathing and yet profound in its depth and complexity.

Like CeeCee, I’ve enjoyed friendships with women from all walks of life, and one of the things that I know from experience is that the more diverse our friends are in age, race, and culture, the more enriched our lives become. One of my favorite classes in this great University of Life is that of friendship. I believe that through our friends we expand our values and strengths. I have girlfriends who are two decades older than me and two decades younger, and they all have opened my eyes and heart in immeasurable ways.

Where I am headed now that Saving CeeCee Honeycutt has launched? Well, I’m still on a major book tour, and I’m thrilled to share the news that my novel hit the bestseller lists of the New York Times, SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance), Heartland Indie Midwest, Bookscan, and Ingram.

So I’ll enjoy this wonderful ride, and when my tour is behind me, I’ll plunk down at the computer and begin writing my next novel-but only after I have a great night out catching up on all the news with my friends!

You can visit me at www.BethHoffman.net and you can check out my fan page on Facebook

To comment on It's All About Friends please click here.

Shanna Swendson | Chasing a Fad...You'll Never Catch Up!

I emerged from my winter hibernation to attend ConDFW in a snowy Dallas the weekend of February 12 through 14. I didn't come across any late-breaking or astonishing publishing news or book industry gossip, but it's always fun to get together with other authors and talk about our work.

I ended up as an emergency fill-in on the Fantastic Realms: Trends in Fantasy panel. The thing about trends is that they can change in a heartbeat, so it's not something aspiring writers can really look at and plan their careers around. By the time you get that book written and submitted, the trend will have changed. It does seem like the dark, edgy urban fantasy that has a lot in common with paranormal romance is currently dominating the market -- you know, those books with tough-looking women in black leather holding big weapons on the covers (though now the women are more likely to be looking at you instead of keeping their backs turned). But who knows what will start striking editors' fancies next.

One difficulty in spotting trends is that the books may be shelved all over the store. With blended genres, books can fall into science fiction/fantasy, mystery, romance or general fiction, which makes it harder for readers to find what they like. For instance, if you like urban fantasy, you'll need to check the shelves in not only the fantasy section, but also the romance section, the mystery section and the young adult section. Steampunk is getting a lot of buzz. It's all over the place at conventions, and I keep hearing industry people talk about it as the possible next big trend, but it's hard to find the books. Some have been classified as literature, others as science fiction or fantasy, others as romance and then there are young adult and children's titles that adults would likely enjoy. This seems like a trend that may be on the upswing, as it's still possible to have read everything that might fall into this subgenre and still want more. Or it could be too narrowly defined and may not go anywhere.

The panelists agreed that the mash-ups that throw monsters, zombies or other odd elements into classic works of literature may be a one-trick pony. The first few books like that will sell well based purely on the novelty aspect, but the trend will likely drop off quickly after that. Which is a pity because I'd love to see Jane Eyre take on ninjas. We did discuss how that concept could be applied in other areas, like taking a new look at classic myths rather than just sticking zombies into 19th century classics. Say, maybe ninjas coming out of the Trojan horse. (I guess we got off on a ninja tangent.)

I'll be making a few library appearances this month, so next month maybe I'll have some insight into what librarians are seeing in the book world.

---

Shanna Swendson writes "Fairy Tales for Modern Times" and is the author of the Enchanted, Inc. series about a Texan in New York City, a magical NYC. Visit her website or blog for more information.

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Fresh Pick | QUICK STUDY by Maggie Barbieri

Murder 101 Mystery #3
November 2009
On Sale: November 3, 2009
Featuring: Alison; Bobby Crawford
352 pages
ISBN: 0312376766
EAN: 9780312376765
Mass Market Paperback
$6.99

Mystery Amateur Sleuth
Buy at Amazon.com

Quick Study
by Maggie Barbieri

She thought that dating a good-looking cop would be exciting and involve lots of riding around in cruisers and putting away sleazy crooks. So why hasn’t NYPD officer Bobby Crawford ever invited English professor Alison on any high-speed car chases or stakeouts?

Life on the sleepy college campus just north of Manhattan may not have changed all that much with Alison’s new romance. But things are about to heat up when an man named Hernan Escalante asks Alison for a favor: Can she help locate his nephew, an illegal Ecuadorian immigrant named Jose, who has mysteriously gone missing?

Always up for a challenge, Alison agrees to help Hernan—and begins her investigation by asking Bobby for some expert advice. Turns out Bobby already knows about what happened to Jose, since he’s the one who pulled his corpse out of the Hudson River a few days earlier. With this case, it seems Alison’s still got a lot to learn…

Excerpt

"I don’t know who you are, but I love you!"

The voice was deep, rough, and heavily infected with the accent of one of the outer boroughs, and it belonged to the guy sitting in back of me at Madison Square Garden, home of the New York Rangers, my favorite professional hockey team. And the comment, which had been directed at me, was all the more interesting because I was sitting beside my best friend, Max, who had slipped her one- hundred- pound frame into a slinky size-two black cocktail dress, her cleavage prominently and proudly displayed for all to see. She’s tiny but she’s got a great rack. It’s a veritable "rack of ages." Nobody, and I mean nobody, had ever noticed me when Max was around. And we had twenty years of friendship to draw on proving this point.
Read More...

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SANDI SHILHANEK | THE SEASONS OF READING

About a week ago I experienced winter in a way that I haven’t had to since we moved to Texas. Our area had a record snowfall of 12.5 inches, and while I realize that’s nothing compared to the rest of the country, for Dallas it’s paralyzing. All that winter weather got me to thinking about books with winter or some other season in the title.

Off to Fresh Fiction I went searching, and found The Edge of Winter by Luanne Rice. I read this when it first came out and was unfortunately less than impressed, but Luanne Rice is still one of my must read authors, and I have several favorites by her including Cloud Nine which is what my friends call a weepy read…so if you decide to read it have the Kleenex handy.

The opposite of winter is summer…so I went searching for titles that have summer in them, and was amazed at how many there were, and that I needed a list to remind me of one of my favorite books, The Summerhouse by Jude Devereaux When I read this book it spoke to me on so many different levels, and if I were a keeper it would have made it to my keeper shelf. I also really enjoyed Return to Summerhouse.


Summer leads to fall, and for fall I discovered Forbidden Falls, which is really a “fall” title, but hey it fits for my purposes, and all my friends know what a fan I am of Robyn
Carr. If you haven’t read her Virgin River books you need to!


Finally after the dreary days of winter we’re ready for spring, and I came up with Come The Spring by Julie Garwood. I know I read Come The Spring, and I know it’s part of her Claybourne Brothers series. While I can’t immediately recall it, I can remember being totally engrossed at the time I read it, and would recommend Garwood. One of my personal favorites of hers is Prince Charming.

So now that I’ve come full circle it’s your turn. Do you have a certain book that has a seasonal type of word in the title? Share and give us a small hint of what it is so we can all add to our TBR piles!

Until next week happy page turning.

Sandi Shilhanek

DFW Tea Readers
Readers 'n 'ritas... celebrating literary obsessions


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