Ten Seconds to Dead Guest Post and Giveaway
Author’s Guest Post by L. A. Clayton on the Writing Process You asked me to explain how I organize my writing. This is a loaded question that will require some background explanation. First of all, I have been an avid reader my entire life. On average, I probably read aboutContinue Reading
The Address Book
The Address Book addresses why addresses are important. So why are addresses important? “Addresses are one of the cheapest ways to lift people out of poverty, facilitating access to credit, voting rights, and worldwide markets.” And, “most households in the world don’t have street addresses.” Before Americans feel too superior,Continue Reading
Nerve: Adventures in the Science of Fear
Which comes first, the feeling of fear or the physical expression of it? Surprisingly, in Nerve: Adventures in the Science of Fear, the author presents scientific studies showing that the physical symptoms are interpreted by our brain into the feelings—rather than the other way around. The author of this bookContinue Reading
Treasure Fever
Just as Raiders of the Lost Ark was Spielberg’s homage to the adventure serials of his youth, Treasure Fever is an homage to Raiders. This time the adventurer is named Max Finley. His original goal is to find Lexa, a beautiful woman wanted for copying an ancient text in Spain,Continue Reading
The Final Deception
My Review The Fireman has escaped from custody and the serial killings begin again in The Final Deception, the fifth book in the New York Confidential series. The Fireman strangles his victims, cuts out their tongues, gouges their eyes out, and burns their, then dead, bodies. FBI Agent Craig andContinue Reading
Second Coming: Volume One
Okay, I can see by page 10 why this comic upset so many people—even non-Christians. The god in this comic (indicated by a lowercase g) is a dick. As are most of the humans within Second Coming: Volume One. The book’s god calls all humans “jerks” and much worse. HeContinue Reading
A Bad Day for Sunshine
The author of the paranormal Charley Davidson mysteries begins a new comic and romantic mystery series with A Bad Day for Sunshine. Sunshine is the name of the Sheriff of tiny Del Sol, New Mexico. Del Sol is her hometown that she left at seventeen after a tragic incident. Now,Continue Reading
Mastering the Process: From Idea to Novel
In Mastering the Process: From Idea to Novel, the author of the Inspector Lynsey series reveals the process she uses to write her crime novels. How will her process help budding writers? “By developing and utilizing a process, we eradicate our fears of the blank page and eliminate the chaosContinue Reading
Last Voyage of the Andrea Doria
What could be more exciting than a large cruise ship on a collision course to disaster? I thought of A Night to Remember, The Poseidon Adventure, or Titanic. The Last Voyage of the Andrea Doria has the potential to be an equally great movie. However, as a book, not soContinue Reading
Long Story Short
Extremely short and humorous comic strips of famous book plots fill Long Story Short. Books from Beowulf to The Hunger Games are sumarized here. The summaries can be direct such as “You can love someone and still be racist.” for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. But most are also humorous.Continue Reading
Hid from Our Eyes
Is a serial killer at work in a poor rural town? How has he (or she) Hid from Our Eyes for so long? Someone is killing young girls and leaving them in the middle of rural route 137 in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. The girls are dressedContinue Reading
Mind over Weight
Mind over Weight looks at how important motivation is to achieving weight loss. However, most of the ideas will be familiar to Psychology 101 alumni or anyone who has read a few other diet books. For example, SMART goals, intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivators, and meditation as a stress-reliever are fairlyContinue Reading
The Stolen Letter
The Stolen Letter is the fifth book in the Scottish Bookshop Mystery series. The book successfully blends a cozy mystery plot, British royalty, and many paranormal elements like reincarnation and book characters that give advice. And it has more plot than a bushel of other cozy mysteries. Yet the authorContinue Reading
Strike Me Down
Strike Me Down had me at this quote: “‘The event is sold out, but we’ve sunk that revenue—‘ ‘Cash, not revenue,’ Nora corrected.’” Why did I love this quote? Because no one ever cares enough about accounting to even bother fact-checking it. Nora is a forensic accountant hired to findContinue Reading
Strangers
Ursula is a thief. Alice is a victim. Gareth is a loser. Strangers is all three of their stories and how they will eventually become entangled. The beginning of Strangers was rather slow as we see each of the three characters’ lives from their own point-of-view. It takes about halfContinue Reading
She has a Broken Thing Where her Heart Should Be
What happens when you mix Great Expectations with a bit of early Stephen King and a handful of Robin Cook? She has a Broken Thing Where her Heart Should Be, of course. A totally effective mashing of all my favorite 1980s books with the 1861 Dickens tale. I guarantee youContinue Reading