Saturday Miscellany — 4/6/19

Seriously, if Real Life would just shut up for a minute and let me focus on my blog/prep for my blog, it’d be nice. And I’m not talking about huge, important things like — my kid had life saving surgery, or I was distracted by the tragic events unfolding in [insert important sounding city], or whatever. It’s just been busy and I find myself very tired lately. I really look forward to compiling these weekly posts, and the last few have just seemed . . . empty?

I don’t know, maybe it’s just me — I do like what we have for this week by way of the odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Blackstone & Story Factory Deal Pulls Bestselling Authors Steve Hamilton, Reed Farrel Coleman, Meg Gardiner Away From Penguin Random House — I don’t like what this means for Jesse Stone, but I do like what it means for Nick Mason, Hamilton, Coleman and Gardiner. Blackstone, too, come to think of it. The dollar amounts being thrown around here boggle the mind — I didn’t think numbers like this existed for mystery writers not portrayed by Nathan Fillion.
• Vonda N McIntyre obituary — I won’t say I was the biggest McIntyre fan in the world — I barely read any of her stuff. But I bought two novels in high school by her, and read them an unhealthy amount of times. She perhaps shaped more of my impression of Kirk, Spock and McCoy than anyone else (including Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, and Roddenberry). Seeing her death announced this week hit harder than it should’ve for someone I haven’t read in decades.
• ‘I can write in that American voice quite easily. For everything else I cheat’ — a very nice profile of blog favorite author and podcast host Steve Cavanagh.
• How to Cuss Like No One’s Listening: Katherine Dunn on the Importance of Specificity in Swearing — I cuss/swear more than I should and wish I didn’t (and have friends who won’t believe that I do at all). But I get its use as a narrative and character-building tool. I rather enjoyed this piece.
• My Time on West Thirty-Fifth Street — one writer’s fictional and real experiences with Nero Wolfe, and Archie Goodwin (one of the best paragraphs on Archie ever written!). I will not stop posting about Wolfe and Goodwin until everyone who follows this blog reads them. And then I still won’t, because you’ll want to read more about them.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Postgraduate by Ian Shane — Recovering from a divorce, a former college DJ reconnects with his roots and maybe finds a path forward. I gushed about it yesterday.
• You Die Next by Stephanie Marland — To be honest, I groaned when this showed up on my Kindle Thursday because I’d just finalized my reading schedule for the rest of the month and we feeling pretty good about life. I have no idea when I can fit it in, but I really want it to be now. Anyway, this follow up to last year’s My Little Eye is gonna be great.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Madam Mim, Sonam Tsering and indianeskitchen for following the blog this week.