The words keep coming....through the looking glass

Hmmmm. They didn’t start out prophetic. They started out as reflections. Little midnight doodlings. Obsessive Saturday night scribblings. To save my mind. To keep me breathing, in and out. Deep breaths. Manic pencil strokes that rescued me from the moment.I usually paint on the walls. The never ending, snaking ,growing taller walls that house my soul.And then, Joe died. And the clipboard with the

Books and Technology

In the NY Times, David Pogue recently assessed the two heavyweight contenders in the e-book market: Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

And Sony has come out with a new e-book reader that costs only $199 (and one for $299, as well--cheaper than Kindle). Many of Sony's e-books will be competitively priced at $9.99--a figure that apparently represents the appropriate "market price" of e-books based on . . . whatever the powers that be based it on.

Finally, on a lower tech note, a book vending machine--or should I say a book lending machine?

'Relentless' is Just That

Review of RELENTLESS (Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged 2009)
By guest blogger Star Lawrence
Author, Dean Koontz; read by Dan John Miller

Dean Koontz is not a poor man's Stephen King. He is his own kind of sweet, kind of overwritten, and kind of totally spellbinding self. Some people can get into that like a hot bath, others can't stand it. I am a bather . . .

RELENTLESS is one of his best yarns to date, in my humble. Yet, it is festooned with characteristic Koontz touches, which include a protag who is so grounded and loving he makes your eyelids slowly descend, only to snap open on such lines as, "We did not know then that by day's end, one of us would be shot dead."

Cubby is a novelist, a loving husband, the jokey father of a seriously smart kid (referred to by a bad guy as a "weird little Einstein"), and oh, yes, Cubby has a big secret in his past, the kind of horror you would never associate with anyone you would ever meet. You never would. Koontz would, though.

Don't laugh, but a famous book critic wants to wipe out Cubby, his wife, their weird little Einstein, and their little dog Lassie, too!

This may sound funny, but I assure you it's suspenseful and warped as hell.

Of course, I won't tell you what happens, but it involves a deus ex machina shaped like a crystal salt shaker. But you knew that, didn't you?

Anyhow, even hard-core thriller lovers will get into this one. John Dan Miller has a pleasing tenor, rendering even the most banal inter-familial banter interesting and believable.

You're just never ready for the odd line that jumps in. "I don’t think you're ready for this, Dad, it's not a salt shaker anymore."

Star Lawrence owns a recession-coping site called Do the Hopey Copey at http://hopeycopey.blogspot.com. She can be reached at jkellaw@aol.com.

'Identity Crisis' is on Sale in August--10% Off!!

Hello, readers! Yes, Debbi the reviewer and blogger is speaking to you as Debbi the author now. My recently reissued novel, IDENTITY CRISIS, is available at 10% off the usual price until the end of August.

All you have to do to get your hands on a brand new copy (with an awesome new cover--the one you see to the left) is click here and enter the code README at checkout. It’s simple–and you get all the same great mystery reading at less cost.

Such a deal!

'Gumbo Justice': Uneasy Times in the Big Easy

Review: GUMBO JUSTICE (Oak Tree Press 2009)
Author, Holli Castillo

Does it hurt yet?

Those are the opening words to GUMBO JUSTICE and they haunt the main character, Ryan Murphy, for reasons made clear much later in the story.

When we meet Ryan, she's being roused in the dead of night after drinking way too much tequila and falling off her bar stool into what she sincerely hopes is beer. The phone rings and Ryan is summoned to a crime scene. So she's a cop? No! She's a New Orleans assistant district attorney with a boss who's a bit overeager to impress voters during an election year by having his staff show up at crime scenes. But it is a police procedural, right? Not exactly.

GUMBO JUSTICE starts out as a legal drama-cum-police procedural, with the hint of something more creepy in store after we see a strange man named Jacob watching Ryan from his hiding place at what turns out to be the scene of several murders in the same housing project. And they all have one thing in common--which I won't go into for fear of spoiling any of the story. Let's just say there's a common thread and it leads to trouble for Ryan.

This all takes place during a too-hot spring in New Orleans, the Big Easy--you can really feel the steam heat, the sweaty brows and dampened shirts in Holli Castillo's description. And it's a city depicted (warts and all) as a bold clash of sweet-smelling narcissus and lavish mansions with shabby shacks and impoverished housing projects.

Ryan is a tough talking, hard-drinking gal who dresses down and flaunts her belly ring with impunity at the opening crime scene, not caring what the police captain (aka, her daddy) thinks. She puts on her game face around the cops--Sean, her brother; Shep, the cute one; Spence, the big strong guy. (So many "S" names!) One of whom she's secretly attracted to--leading to a hint of romance (at least, Ryan hopes so--even if she won't quite admit it to herself at first).

Castillo does a great job of weaving in all the cop procedural details, along with the legal stuff without getting too technical (being a criminal defense lawyer and former New Orleans prosecutor probably helps, huh?). And we get to see Ryan strut her stuff in court a bit. At times, she pulls a couple of TV lawyer maneuvers that had me shaking my head, but smiling at her antics (even Ryan admits she's going somewhat over-the-top). And since most of the story's told from her point of view, we get the benefit of her many sardonic remarks and snappy one-liners, like one in the first chapter, when she's hastily rolling on deodorant: "While people might call her a bitch, Ryan wasn't going to let anyone say she stunk." Got to admire a woman whose got her priorities straight, right?

But beneath that tough exterior, Ryan's a woman with ghosts in her past. Traumas from childhood and the more recent past come together to create a dark, disturbing situation for her.

The story builds in tension with each murder until the common thread emerges and Ryan must face the danger head on.

From that point, the story takes a turn into full-tilt suspense/thriller mode. The narrative shifts to the creepy Jacob more often and you hear more about how much he hates Ryan and ultimately wants to kill her. (And just so you know, that's not a spoiler. Jacob clearly despises Ryan when you first meet him and has some kind of dire plan for her.)

During the last third or so of the book, I could hardly read fast enough. I kept turning pages, anxious to see how things turned out.

And when all was revealed about Jacob, it left me with my jaw hanging in complete surprise. I'm usually pretty good at anticipating suspense/thriller revelations, but this one came at me from out of left field. And, looking back on it, the author played fair with the reader by providing clues hidden in plain sight.

Finally, the book ended with one of the most clever and astonishing twists I've seen in a while. Again, I was completely blindsided.

So if you like tough gal protagonists, particularly of the legal persuasion, I highly recommend GUMBO JUSTICE. It has a nice blend of police investigation, lawyering, suspense and even a little romance--sort of like Law and Order and suspense masters like Grisham and Patterson, all mixed up together (like gumbo?) in the Big Easy--with a big finish that I never saw coming.

Singleton Hippie Art, The Girl who had only been Kissed by the Sun

The Girl who had Only been Kissed by the Sun (c) Singleton 2009And there she wasall legs and sun freckled arms,Eyes heavy with Morning dreamsand 99 cent Mascara from the night before,whenShe met him.Not for the first time,or even the hundreth,but the only timethat shenoticed his smile...the way he looked at

Save Earth! Support Your Local Bookstore

I think I may have already posted this video on my eco-blog, Green Reality Check, but it's completely appropriate for this blog, too. Besides it's so funny that, if it was worth posting once, it's worth posting again. (I'm a "green" blogger. I'm all about recycling content.) So check it out--it made me snicker and even laugh out loud, while making a great point about the environmental benefits of buying from local booksellers.



So, go forth and do the "green" thing. Buy from your local bookstore.

Earth hangs in the balance, people!