Illegal Review?

Check out the review of Dirty Water in Spitball Magazine.

Saturday

This Saturday (Dec. 20th), from 11 AM to 1 PM, mom and I will be signing books at the Bookworm in West Hartford. Hope to see you there.

Also, check out my mom's contribution to this Reader's Digest article.

A Holiday Message From Roy Blount, Jr

I've been talking to booksellers lately who report that times are hard. And local booksellers aren't known for vast reserves of capital, so a serious dip in sales can be devastating. Booksellers don't lose enough money, however, to receive congressional attention. A government bailout isn't in the cards.

We don't want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods. So let's mount a book-buying splurge. Get your friends together, go to your local bookstore and have a book-buying party. Buy the rest of your Christmas presents, but that's just for starters. Clear out the mysteries, wrap up the histories, beam up the science fiction! Round up the westerns, go crazy for self-help, say yes to the university press books! Get a load of those coffee-table books, fatten up on slim volumes of verse, and take a chance on romance!

There will be birthdays in the next twelve months; books keep well; they're easy to wrap: buy those books now. Buy replacements for any books looking raggedy on your shelves. Stockpile children's books as gifts for friends who look like they may eventually give birth. Hold off on the flat-screen TV and the GPS (they'll be cheaper after Christmas) and buy many, many books. Then tell the grateful booksellers, who by this time will be hanging onto your legs begging you to stay and live with their cat in the stockroom: "Got to move on, folks. Got some books to write now. You see...we're the Authors Guild."

Enjoy the holidays.

Roy Blount Jr.
President
Authors Guild

Kate's Wrapup

Kate's party was a fun time. Hundreds of people came and kept the fairly small bookstore jammed for four hours. Here are some highlights:

We met author Robert Parker--took a picture with him.

David Laurila stopped by. I'd only talked with him online before--he wrote this book, which is a compilation of interviews he's done with people in the Red Sox organization.

Got to meet Hank Philipi Ryan in person. You know her from Jungle Red among other things.

I met a woman who used to live in Danbury, CT, and knew almost the entire cast of characters I knew while I was living there.

We chatted with a woman who is probably the biggest mystery fan in the world. She had things for my mom to sign that we'd never seen before.

Saw Dave Zeltserman again--he was with us when we had our release party at Murder Under Bones.

Our next event will be a signing at the Bookworm in West Hartford, CT, on Saturday, December 20th, from 11-1.

Boston-Area This Friday

We'll be signing at Kate's Mystery Books in Cambridge this Friday night, December 5th. This is Kate's annual holiday party, and will feature lots of authors. We're in the 6:30-7:15 slot. Click here for the full schedule. Directions to Kate's are here.

See you there.