There’s a good reason this is up late today*, my daughter and I started the day at The Boise Comic Arts Festival, where we met/renewed acquaintances with some local artists and writers (including, but not limited to, Jeremy Billups, Elliott P. Linker and Mrs. Courtney Linker, Gabriela Briceno, Sarah from Oroboro Lit Journal/Death Rattle, and J.C. Jackson), and spent less money than usual (yay, restraint!). We got to sit in on a fun panel about the The History of Comics in Idaho. The most important thing we learned was there that there is a history.

Anyway, if you’re a local—stop by today/tomorrow.

* Usually it’s because I can’t get out of bed at a decent time on Saturday.
Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
bullet Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest —In case you don’t know the BLFC “challenges entrants to compose opening sentences to the worst of all possible novels.” Boy howdy, they got some doozies this year. Make the time to read down to the bottom.
bullet Steve Hamilton gets back to his ‘old stuff,’ starting with Nick Mason—Color me happy.
bullet Popular romance novels voted most distracting audiobooks in nation, could cause distracted driving—I’d never thought of rating a book in this way (or comparing genres by words per minute)
bullet RinthCon, the all-online con set in 2324 filled with fictional characters from today, is going on this weekend—and is just as strange (and fun) as the premise is

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet Fiction Fans Episode 153: Orconomics by J. Zachary Pike

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
bullet Landline by Rainbow Rowell
bullet Stalking the Angel by Robert Crais
bullet And I mentioned the release of One Kick by Chelsea Cain, Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods by Rick Riordan, What Might Have Been by Matt Dunn (2 of those I actually got around to reading and enjoying)

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet My Salty Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows—this trio is back with a funky mashup of Mary Read and the Little Mermaid. Because, why not?
bullet You Will Never Be Me by Jesse Q. Sutanto—Part of me isn’t sure that I want to read Sutanto when she isn’t being fun and cozy. But most of me figures she can do black comedy really well, too, and this just looks good.
bullet City of Secrets by P. J. Tracy—this looks like a series I could sink my teeth into (oh, good, I need another of those)

superimposed over an images of loaded bookshelves are the words 'People can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned. - Saul Bellow'