Category: Blog Series Page 157 of 230

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: My Life as a Dog by L. A. Davenport

Today I’m pleased to welcome the Book Tour for the charming and sweet My Life as a Dog by L. A. Davenport. Following this spotlight post, I’ll be giving my take on the novel here in a bit. But let’s start by learning a little about this here book, okay?


Book Details:

Book Title: My Life as a Dog by L. A. Davenport
Release date: December 19, 2019
Format: Ebook/Paperback
Publisher: P-Wave Press
Length: 140 Pages

Book Blurb:

Perhaps with him I am a dog.

What was Kevin? He was earnest yet playful, boisterous yet lazy, a little rough sometimes, extremely direct and always sure of what he wanted. He was also sensitive, kind, supportive and caring, not to mention highly communicative and supremely understanding towards children.

My Life as a Dog is the funny, heartwarming and moving story of a life shared between a black and tan dachshund and his owner.

Told over two days and a weekend drawn from their many years together, it explores how Kevin overcame his cruel upbringing to flower into a self-confident dog that left everyone he met spellbound. And as they grew together, his owner learned to live in the present and navigate the difficult times they faced together.

But with Kevin rejected by the canine world and their connection ever-more profound and symbiotic, the question was: What does he think I am?

About the Author:

L. A. Davenport L. A. Davenport is an Anglo-Irish author and journalist.

Sometimes he lives in the countryside, far away from urban distraction, but mostly he lives in the city. He enjoys long walks, typewriters and strong black coffee.

L. A. Davenport (Andrew) first met Kevin in 2001, when someone put an advert in a listing newspaper in London saying they wanted get rid of their black and tan, pure-bred dachshund.  They explained that he had become a burden on the household and he didn’t get on with their two other dogs. But it was obvious that Kevin, who was the runt of a show-dog litter, had been badly treated and they simply wanted to discard him.

Kevin was traumatised by his experiences and was difficult to handle at the beginning, but it was clear that he was an unusually sensitive and intelligent dog. As time went on, Kevin overcame his traumas and he and Andrew become closer. Over the fourteen years they spent together, they went through many ups and downs, navigating failed relationships, house moves, the vagaries of the freelancer life and the 2008 financial crash, as well as a string of health issues for Kevin. Yet every challenge seemed to bring them closer together, and they developed an instinctive understanding for each other.

My Life as a Dog is the story of their relationship. Told over two days and a weekend drawn from their many years together, it explores how Kevin overcame his cruel upbringing to flower into a  self-confident dog that left everyone he met spellbound. And as they grew together, Andrew learned to live in the present and navigate the difficult times they faced together.

L. A. Davenport is author of the novel Escape and the short story collections No Way Home and  Dear Lucifer and Other Stories, as well as the upcoming novel The Nucleus of Reality, or The  Recollections of Thomas P—. 

Purchase Links:

~ https://geni.us/mylifeasadog-choice ~


My thanks to Overview Media for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including a copy of the novel) they provided.

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly

I’m excited to welcome the Book Tour for new Lincoln Lawyer thriller, The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly this morning—proof that even publishing behemoths need help getting the word out. I’ve got this little spotlight post and my take on the novel coming along in a bit. But let’s start by learning a little about this book, okay?

Book Details:

Book Title: The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly
Publisher: Orion (UK)/Little, Brown and Company (US)
Release date: November 10, 2020
Format: Hardcover/Ebook/Audiobook
Length: 416 pages
The Law of Innocence

Book Blurb:

The brand-new blockbuster crime thriller from Michael Connelly – the #1 Sunday Times, New York Times and international bestseller.


Heading home after winning his latest case, defense attorney Mickey Haller – The Lincoln Lawyer – is pulled over by the police. They open the trunk of his car to find the body of a former client.

Haller knows the law inside out. He will be charged with murder. He will have to build his case from behind bars. And the trial will be the trial of his life. Because Mickey Haller will defend himself in court.

With watertight evidence stacked against him, Haller will need every trick in the book to prove he was framed.

But a not-guilty verdict isn’t enough. In order to truly walk free, Haller knows he must find the real killer – that is the law of innocence…

About Michael Connelly:

Michael Connelly

A master of the genre’ – Stephen King

No one writes a better modern thriller than Connelly’ – Evening Standard

America’s greatest living crime writer’ – Express

‘A superb natural storyteller’ – Lee Child

 

Michael Connelly, the bestselling author of thirty-five novels with over seventy-four million copies sold worldwide, is also the executive producer of Bosch, an Amazon Studios original based on his bestselling character Harry Bosch. In January 2019, Connelly launched the true-crime podcast The Murder Book which takes listeners inside a real-life Hollywood Homicide cold case with unprecedented access to the detectives themselves.


My thanks to Tracy Fenton and Compulsive Readers for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including a copy of the novel) provided.

BOOK BLITZ: What the World Needs Now – Trees! by Cheryl Rosebush

Today I’m pleased to welcome the Book Blitz for What the World Needs Now – Trees! by Cheryl Rosebush.


Book Details:

Book Title: What the World Needs Now – Trees! by Cheryl Rosebush
Publisher: YPD Books
Format: Ebook/Paperback

Book Blurb:

In the tropical rainforests of Indonesia lives an orangutan named Jefri. There are lots of reasons Jefri needs trees. And it turns out, people need trees just as much as Jefri for many of the same reasons. What the World Needs Now: Trees! explores the universal connection people, plants, insects and animals share with life-giving trees.

About the Series:

What the World Needs Now is an environmental children’s book series for ages 4-8 that aims to connect the world’s youngest book lovers to the importance of nature, and our place in it.

Each book in the series follows a friendly animal through its habitat, helping kids learn about one thing the world needs now, be it more trees or bees or less plastic, to maintain a healthy planet.

The series is designed to help parents and educators lay the foundation for future learning on the world’s most pressing environmental challenges. But for our littlest kids, the connection starts at a much simpler point: their first job is to fall in love with nature – because you don’t protect what you don’t love.

The books support engaging with our kids on how we can better respect and care for the only planet we have.

About the Author:

Cheryl RosebushI was born and raised in Southern Ontario, Canada in the cities of Burlington and St. Catharines. Long before the internet and mobile phones (now I’m aging myself!), my childhood was spent in forests and parks, on bike rides, and playing hide and seek until the streetlights came on. My family did comical Griswold-style road trips in wood-paneled station wagons. We spent summers swimming in friends’ backyards. These are my very fortunate roots.

I knew from an early age that my destiny would take me far from Southern Ontario. I graduated high school and moved to Montreal to study international politics at McGill University. The subject fascinated me, but as graduation approached, I realized I didn’t know what I wanted to do with a degree in international politics. I didn’t want to become a lawyer. I didn’t want to become a politician or civil servant. The media industry, on the other hand, intrigued me.

The West Coast of Canada also intrigued me. So, after graduating McGill, I packed up again, moved to Vancouver and took the first media job I could get at a local Top 40 radio station (Z.95.3) in Vancouver. Best job. Great bosses. I learned so much. But after a couple of years there, the winds of change came calling again.

September 11, 2001. In a heartbeat, Z95.3 went from playing Britney Spears to reporting up-to-the-minute information on the local, national and international fallout of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. In that moment, I knew I had found my calling. I wanted to do something that was needed on a good day, and needed even more on a bad day. I wanted to become a full-time journalist.

So, I packed my bags again (a running theme in my life), and moved to Ottawa, Ontario to do my Masters of Journalism. Another incredible two years culminated in me getting a research internship with the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) in London, England. That position helped me land back in Montreal for a second chapter there as local news reporter for the CBC. While I was there, I wore just about every hat you could in CBC’s radio and TV newsrooms. Depending on the day, I was a researcher, producer, reporter, or online writer. I even filled in for the weather reports every once in a while.

https://www.cherylrosebush.com/

Purchase Links

YPD Books

My thanks to Love Books Group for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials they provided.

Love Books Group

Saturday Miscellany—10/31/20

It’s late, I’ve been super busy, but the semi-hiatus is almost over. I think. Some tasty links below.

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 Reading literary versus popular fiction promotes different socio-cognitive processes, study suggests—Wow there’s a lot of elitism and misguided thinking behind this article.
bullet Lost letters reveal JM Barrie and Robert Louis Stevenson’s mutual affection
bullet Does Book Twitter Actually Reflect the Reading Community?

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet No Stupid Questions Ep. 24: Why Do We Forget So Much of What We’ve Read?—a great conversation about why we tend to forget a lot of what we read (or do we?) and why doesn’t matter? Stick around for the fact check at the end of the episode that includes a fun thumbnail history of dustjackets. (possibly one of the nerdiest sentences I’ve used on this blog)

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet The Sentinel by Lee Child and Andrew Child—A New era for Jack Reacher kicks off with the first novel co-written by Lee Child’s brother.

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Ollie who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

BOOK BLITZ: The Path of Good Response by Steve Frogley

Today I’m pleased to welcome the Book Blitz for the dystopian thriller The Path of Good Response by Steve Frogley.


Book Details:

Book Title: The Path of Good Response by Steve Frogley
Release date: August 27, 2020
Length: 272 pages
Publisher: Vanguard Press
Format: Ebook/Paperback

Book Blurb:

Do you value your mother’s health above peace in the Middle East? How about your career over global warming?

If a company runs the best graduate scheme in the world, then it can afford to be probing with its interview questions.

When Joe Massey is offered a role aboard Schelldhardt’s luxurious headquarters at sea, he discovers that the company mission is beyond anything he had ever imagined.

Strange dreams disturb his sleep, and it soon becomes clear that nothing is quite as it seems.

Is he really the right man for the job? And if not, then why is he there at all?

Purchase Links

Pegasus Publishing ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Waterstones ~ Foyles ~ Book Depository ~ Amazon (UK) ~ Amazon (US)

About the Author:

Steve FrogleySteve is a writer of contemporary fiction, who enjoys reading books of many different genres.

Originally from Southend in Essex, Steve now lives on the South Coast of England with his family, after a few happy years spent in New Zealand. The Path of Good Response is his first novel. He has spent most of his working life in the IT industry, but writing is his real passion.

The workplace has changed a great deal during Steve’s career. He started writing The Path of Good Response back in 2016, and the fictional company in the novel, Schelldhardt, seems less of an exaggeration by the year. It appears that reality is fast catching up with dystopian writing, and in many ways overtaking it.

He hopes that you enjoy reading his book, and welcomes any feedback.

My thanks to Love Books Group for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials they provided.

Love Books Group

Saturday Miscellany—10/24/20

I somehow managed to get three posts up this week—don’t think this means that there’s a return to normal on the horizon, there was another post I wanted to get up this week and now I’m hoping it arrives by Friday. Stress and the time pressure have let off a little, but not that much. I did manage to finish 2 of the 3 books I started at the end of September, though, and may finish the third today. So that’s something…

Thanks for sticking around during my semi-hiatus, see ya soon.

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 Cheap Writing Surfaces and Medieval Bureaucracy Helped Popularize the Alphabet: Judith Flanders Explains Why the Alphabet Was Used on a Whim—probably stretching things a bit to include this one, but, hey, they’re my rules, I can stretch them for something as interesting as this.
bullet Dungeons & Dragons Publisher Sued by Dragonlance Co-Writers Over Scrapped Book TrilogyDragonlance was a formative influence on me, and the idea of new works in that world interests me. This, on the other hand… (Hat Tip to Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub for this one)
bullet Suspect by Robert Crais named Best Novel of the Decade—couldn’t happen to a nicer book.
bullet A Playlist for ‘Not Famous’—A reader made a playlist for Matthew Hanover’s book about an indie musician and the guy who fell for her. This is just cool. (it’s also a nice way for me to remind you all that this is a book you should read, or at least buy).
bullet The Westing Game may be a murder mystery—but it’s also a ghost story.: On remembrance, inheritance, and legacy in one of the most beloved children’s novels of all time.—I’m not sure I agree with all of this, but I’ll take any excuse to post something about The Westing Game
bullet Graphic artist Art Spiegelman on Maus, politics and ‘drawing badly’—Good piece on Spiegelman…
bullet The 100 Best Fantasy Books of All TimeTime Magazine and a panel of writers who know a thing or five about Fantasy compiled a really good list.
bullet NIGHT OF A THOUSAND AUTHORS Live Event to be Hosted by K.J. Howe and The Real Book Spy’s Ryan Steck—This looks like a great event.
bullet Blogger Statistics: a quick look.—The Tattooed Book Geek shares a few demographic results from Twitter Surveys. As a male in an older segment than he is, I feel even more like an outlier than he does…

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Say Goodbye When I’m Gone by Stephen J. Golds—a noir thriller set in 1960’s Honolulu

Saturday Miscellany—10/17/20

Back for my almost-the-end of the week check-in. Man, I can’t wait until I can spend time on this blog without feeling guilty for not working on the move. There’ve been some very positive things happening on that front this week. It’s still going to be a few weeks before I can get back to normal, but I see light at the end of the tunnel.

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 How the Debut Authors of 2020 Are Coping
bullet 10 of the best… last lines in fiction—great first lines get all the attention, but last lines stick with you a bit longer. Here are some of the best.
bullet 25 Writers On The Books That Inspired Them To Write
bullet Neil Gaiman: ‘Narnia made me want to write, to do that magic trick’—hard to go wrong with a Gaiman Q&A
bullet Top 10 Apps for Writers and Bloggers
bullet 7 Audiobooks for People Who Struggle with Audiobooks…—some good ideas here.
bullet Why I Rarely DNF Books—#3 & #4 are big ones to me
bullet Do you reread?
bullet Should Novels Carry Trigger Warnings?—Good question, good discussion, too.
bullet I Failed My Blogging Goals—yup.

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet David Tennant Does A Podcast With…Neil Gaiman

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Fools Gold by Ian Patrick—I am so excited to start this one, Sam Batford #3 brings everyone’s favorite shady Undercover detective infiltrates armed robbers and continues to dodge a superior out to get him.
bullet Dead Perfect by Noelle Holton—another book 3 I can’t wait to dive into.
bullet Kitty’s Mix-Tape by Carrie Vaughn—a great collection of short stories in the Kitty Norville-verse. I had a little to say about it back when I did that regularly.

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome toThe Spellbound Librarian, Mina @Stacked, and ravensprouts who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: Venators: Legends Rise by Devri Walls

I’m very pleased today to welcome The Write Reads Blog Tour for Venators: Legends Rise by Devri Walls. How excited about this am I? I’m posting this on a Saturday, and I never do this kind of thing on a Saturday. This Tour Stop consists in this little spotlight post, an excerpt from this novel coming up soon, and then my take on the audiobook coming along in a bit. Let’s start by learning a little about this novel, okay?

Book Details:

Book Title: Venators: Legends Rise by Devri Walls
Publisher: Brown Books Publishing Group
Release date: July 14, 2020
Format: Ebook/Paperback/Audiobook
Length: 448 pages

Book Blurb:

The path will be forged in sweat and blood.

Rune, Grey, the shape-shifter Beltran, and willful vampire, Verida, set out to rescue their friend and mentor, Tate, from the gladiator games. But first they must navigate the perils of Eon and its warring factions. Each of this band of four carries with them a secret that threatens to tear their group apart from within. Rune now bears the mark of the promise she made to save Grey’s life – a nixie bubble lodged in her arm that could call her away to do their bidding or spell her death.

Even as their loyalty to their cause and to one another faces its greatest test, Rune’s twin brother Ryker is forging an alliance with their mortal enemy, the powerful sorceress Zio, who has plans of her own for the Venators and Eon.

Hearts will be bared, secrets unveiled, and relationships made and destroyed in this stunning new installment of the Venators series.

About the Author:

Devri WallsDevri Walls is an international best selling author. She lives in Meridian, Idaho with her husband, two children and one adorable little mutt. Writing in all things fantasy, she would do just about anything for a working magic wand.

Mostly because she’s a walking disaster and a wand would be of enormous help…although she’d probably trip and break it. So, there’s that.

She graduated with a degree in theater and has studied vocal performance most of her life. She now teaches voice lessons when she’s not writing novels, cooking dinner, playing taxi, spending time with her amazingly supportive husband or trying to read.

Social Media:

Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Youtube ~ Instagram ~ Pinterest ~ Bookbub ~ Amazon ~ Goodreads

My thanks to The Write Reads for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials they provided.

Saturday Miscellany—10/10/20

Not much time for surfing/blog hopping/reading/writing again this week. I’m still reading the same books as I was on the last day of September! I have managed to finish three audiobooks—can do those while packing and working, but still, three is a small number for myself in that time frame. And, only a couple of posts this week. I’m hoping for one or two more next week, but I’m not making any promises. Stay tuned…

In the meanwhile, I have a little bit for you this week…
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 Fighting for Life – Indie Publishing in Unprecedented Times—As (beyond) tired as I am of the overused phrase, “unprecedented times,” you can’t deny that these times are unprecedented. It’s an Indie Book Blog talks about the challenges facing (and, sadly, defeating some) indie presses.
bullet For Local Bookstores, The Next Chapter In The Pandemic Is Survival—indie stores, too.
bullet From cut-out confessions to cheese pages: browse the world’s strangest books—huh. Books I don’t want. Good to know such a thing are possible.
bullet Blogging: How Do You Blog Hop?—well, how do you?
bullet The Art of Writing Book Reviews
bullet Negative Book Reviews — Why I Write Them—one of the best approaches to this evergreen topic that I can remember
bullet My Perfect Library—a fun post

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Spellbound Librarian who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Even More Quick Questions With…Nick Kolakowski

Wow, Nick Kolakowski is back for a fourth go ’round with my questions. I’m a major fan, and really enjoy these. I hope you do, too. Be sure to check out my take on his upcoming novel, Rattlesnake Rodeo earlier today.

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How has 2020 treated Nick Kolakowski the writer—have you been able to work? Are you finding writing time vanishing into doom-scrolling or binging something? Is there a pandemic novel in your near future?
When New York City went into lockdown, I threw myself into writing and editing. It became my coping mechanism, to such a degree that I had to step away a bit a few months later. First I poured my energy into “Lockdown,” a charity anthology of horror and crime stories that I co-edited for Polis Books; proceeds went to support BINC, which is helping booksellers through this weird time. With that completed, I finished work on “Absolute Unit,” a horror novella coming out next year from Crystal Lake Publishing; I’d started writing it last year, well before the pandemic, but it has some uncomfortable echoes with what’s happening now—mass infection is a big theme. By that point, I was pretty fritzed out, so I started trying to balance out the schedule; less writing, more actually getting outside.
How was it coming back from the dystopian-SF/Crime of Maxine Unleashes Doomsday to something very contemporary, very non-SF?
It felt good! With contemporary crime fiction, you don’t have quite the same pressure of world-building as you do with sci-fi and dystopian fiction. That being said, I did struggle with the plot of “Rattlesnake” a bit—for the longest time, I had the first two-thirds written, but couldn’t figure out a way to end it that really came together.
As much as I enjoy Frankie, Jake, and Janine—the character that keeps hanging out in the back of my mind is The Monkey Man. (Shockingly, a criminal always wearing a rubber gorilla mask is memorable!) Where did he come from? Too much time spent listening to The Traveling Wilburys? I’d imagine there’d be a big temptation to go wild with the character, but you kept him fairly low-key and reserved over these two books. How’d you resist?
The Wilburys were the inspiration for the name. And there was a lot of temptation to unleash him in a particularly messy/funny/creative way. What held me back was, of all things, Hannibal Lecter.

Specifically, when I was writing “Rattlesnake,” I was also watching both Hannibal Lector movies, and what I noticed was that Hannibal was a more effective character the less he was shown doing. He’s an incredibly powerful character in “Silence of the Lambs,” but aside from talking, he doesn’t do terribly much beyond his brief escape at the end; his power comes from his reputation. In the sequel, by contrast, he’s doing lots of things, and that drains the mystique from the character; he becomes something of a hammy joke. So that curbed my impulses to do something grand with Monkey Man.

Sometimes I think I resisted that impulse a little too much, though. Someone who dresses like that is no doubt capable of some freaky shit.

Jake’s wife, Janine, is never the focus of these books, but I think she has the most interesting arc over the course of these two novels. Somehow, she and Jake have managed for years to keep her pretty isolated from his world. But in the few days these two books cover, all that’s gone away, and she reacts better than Jake (and probably Janine herself) expects. Why tell that story in the midst of all the action and chaos? Was there a version where she gets overwhelmed by everything and can’t adapt to the circumstances?
Nope! In so many thrillers, there’s this cliché of a civilian character (whether the wife, daughter, husband, etc.) who falls apart completely under stress, and I wanted to steer away from that as hard as I could. Janine’s ability to deal with the situation, I felt, also gave some additional nuance to Jake and Frankie—they’re so tough that they can’t grasp that someone like Janine, who doesn’t have any criminal or combat experience, might be totally adaptable to a hard situation; it’s a huge blind spot that reveals something about their egos.
It’s one thing for authors to make specific geographic references in New York City—most non-New Yorkers have enough of a grasp of that area to mostly understand them. To a lesser extent that’s true of LA, Chicago, Boston, etc. But in Rattlesnake Rodeo, you throw around references to the Boise-area like a native, 97% of which are going to mean nothing to anyone not from around here. Is there a risk in that? Yeah, it’s a very authentic feel, but does the authenticity outweigh the potential alienation of someone from another part of the country/world? Or in the age of a search engine, does that not matter?
I’m not sure there’s a risk in it. This summer, I read S.A. Cosby’s “Blacktop Wasteland” and David Heska Wanbli Weiden’s “Winter Counts,” both excellent thrillers/mysteries that take place in areas not well-trod by most crime fiction (rural Virginia and a Native American reservation, respectively). Both of those books have tons of esoteric detail about those locations, and it adds a lot of nice texture to the narrative. I look at “Rattlesnake” (and “Boise Longpig Hunting Club”) the same way—a substantial portion of the audience is never going to go to Nyssa or any of those towns along the Snake River; they’re never going to swing by Fanci Freez, which has some of the nation’s finest milkshakes; but hopefully all the detail gives them a sense of place.
As usual, I’ve got to ask, what’s coming down the pike? Are you far enough into your next book to talk about it?
“Absolute Unit,” a horror novella told from the perspective of a sentient parasite living inside the body of a corrupt health inspector, is the next one (mid-2021)! Then after that, there’s another novella, “Payback is Forever,” that should come out from Shotgun Honey in late 2021. The latter is my attempt at a classic Chandler-style thriller, although there’s a contemporary twist to it that the audience will hopefully never see coming.
Thanks for your time—and thanks for another great ride with Jake and Frankie!

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