Saturday Miscellany – 7/15/17

Odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• The Rise in Print Continues — “Despite no big hit in the first half of 2017, sales of print units are 3% higher than in the first half of last year.” Sounds good to me.
• A Novelist Forces Himself To Press On After Losing 100 Pages In A Tech Glitch — both a cautionary tale and a look into the mind of one writer.
• Spider-Man Taught Me How to Live, Comics Taught Me How to Write
• Q&A with David Rosenfelt, Author of Collared — a nice little Q&A from one of our favorite dog lovers
• Harry Potter’s Lord Voldemort: Why He’s the Baddest Villain Ever — my “On this Day” on Facebook showed that I linked to this piece a few years back — thought it was worth a re-read, you might, too. Damon Lindelof knows his villains.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon. I’ve read 1 of these and 4 of them are calling to me from my shelf/Kindle. A good-looking crop.:
• Dead Is Good by Jo Perry — Charlie and Rose are back for . . . who cares what they’re back for? They’re back! A ghost and a ghost dog solve mysteries, does it matter what the specifics are? The only book 3 I’ve been looking forward to more is Rothfuss’ very overdue one.
• Gork, the Teenage Dragon by Gabe Hudson — Space-faring dragons in a teen adventure. This is what I had to say about it.
• Besieged by Kevin Hearne — 9 Iron Druid short stories (5 of which happen post-Staked)
• Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn — a murder investigation in a post-apocalyptic world.
• Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero — a spoof of/tribute to teen detectives
• Song of the Swan by Michael RN Jones — Victor Locke and Dr. Jonathan Doyle are back, this time Locke’s in prison and it’s up to Doyle to save the day.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Person of Interest, Brusque and The Hunt and Peck Blog for following the blog this week.