Category: News/Misc. Page 143 of 241

Saturday Miscellany—6/12/21

On June 12, 2021

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

This feels a bit more hodge-podge-y than usual, but hey, just one of those weeks, I guess. Hope you’re having a good weekend!

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 New exhibition shows Peanuts creator Charles M Schulz’s take on grown-ups—I would enjoy seeing this exhibition, while the one strip the article shows demonstrates that Schulz needed to develop things a bit more.
bullet Telegraph columnist wrongly claims literacy at the lowest level in UK history.
bullet Those Descriptions on the Inside of Book Covers Are Full of It: They’ve become meaningless mush—but they don’t have to be.—I think Farwell’s critiques are problematic, but I like the look at developing the descriptions for a book.
bullet How TV Shows Use Books as Props: From SCHITT’S CREEK to MAD MEN
bullet Shop Talk: Ace Atkins Writes on a 40-Year Old Keyboard and Doesn’t Believe in Word Counts—an interview with Atkins about his process—even if you’re not a fan of Atkins (which just means you haven’t read him yet), it’s worth a read. I love seeing how different authors go about things.
bullet FPTV: Ben Aaronovich & Andrew Cartmel introduce Rivers of London: Body Work (Deluxe Writer’s Edition)—I haven’t found time to watch this yet, but it looks good. Also, I need to get my hands on the that edition.
bullet Some Thoughts and a Problem—Many of us can identify with Bookforager here.
bullet Dear Authors – This Reader Wants More Courage, Complexity and Atmosphere—BookerTalk has a wishlist for authors/publishers.
bullet Pros and Cons of Audiobooks: My Experience So Far—FanFiAddict’s David S. discusses audiobook listening
bullet Musings on Mood Reading
bullet Lie About Your Age, Not About Reading Books—some good stuff about lying about reading and related ideas over at The Bookwyrm’s Den

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Meat is Murder by Chris McDonald—the third Stonebridge Mystery finds the amateur sleuths investigating a death at an abattoir (not the routine kind, it should be stressed). I’ll be talking about it next week, hint: it was fun.
bullet Darling at the Campsite by Andy Abramowitz—an “adrift thirty-three-year-old” returns to his hometown for the funeral for his estranged brother and has to deal with baggage from his past.

As Close as I get to a “Review Policy”

By HCNewton

On June 11, 2021

In Books, News/Misc.

Thanks to BookerTalk for saying something today, I’d been intending on revisiting my “Read My Book” page, because I’m uncomfortable with the notion of “Review Policy.” It turns out that it’s been 14 months to the day since I did that. I think it’s a little better now, even if it seems a bit wordier than I’d prefer.

Below is what I currently have on that submission form—authors, is this helpful? Do you have any feedback? Book Bloggers—same questions: is this helpful? Do you have comments/suggestions?

You’ve written a book? Congrats! You want me to read it? First—thanks, I’m flattered. Second, I’m probably game*—if there’s a date you want it done by? Well…we’ll see what we can work out. Otherwise, it’s FIFO as I work it in with other things I have committed to/want to read.

I prefer Kindle-friendly books (well, I prefer hardcopy, but I know that’s a lot to ask, so we’ll go with Kindle-friendly). I can handle ePub. If you ask nicely, I might read a PDF (I don’t like the way they look on my e-Readers and have to spend time resizing every page so it doesn’t hurt my eyes—that’s time I’d rather spend reading), but I probably won’t. I’d very much appreciate it if you’d send a cover image with your book.

If you’re an agent, a publicist, a publisher and you want me to consider someone’s book—same rules.

I talk about this more on my About page, but, briefly, as far as genres go, with Fiction:
bullet I’m a Mystery/Thriller/Crime Fiction junkie
bullet I love Urban Fantasy
bullet I enjoy good Science Fiction or Fantasy
bullet I’ve even dabbled in Chick Lit (‘tho, honestly, I’m more comfortable in “Lad Lit”)
bullet I’ll take a decent Western.

On the Non-Fiction side, I admit I’m a bit more limited—if it catches my eye, though, I’ll read anything.
bullet I typically end up with Biography/Autobiography/Memoir
bullet Something with a “Soft Science” bent (I’m not opposed to a “Hard Science,” but this is a hobby, not homework)
bullet I’m also a Theology Nerd, of the Reformed Protestant variety—I’ll read some things outside that, but I won’t read any Non-Fiction attacking Christianity/Reformed theology (if you can do it in an interesting novel, I’ll read it).

If you make me laugh or chuckle in any of the above, that’s as good as “Up, Up, Down, Down” to get me on your side.

But I’m open to reading just about anything as far as genre goes (you’ll have to sell me hard on a Zombie book, Romance or Self-Help), just:
bullet make your pitch interesting
bullet try not to let your form’s grammar/spelling make me question your writing ability (I don’t care how cool the book is, it won’t “peak” my interest—and yes, I’ve been told that multiple times)
bullet answer the questions I ask (“when” and “what” mean very different things)
bullet you should come across like someone nice to work with.
bullet If I say, “yes,” don’t hit me with a list of demands, you make me dislike myself for agreeing to read your book—resulting in a miserable experience for me (which makes it difficult for me to say nice things about your book).
bullet After a couple of problems in 2019 (one un-named author in particular) I’ve decided that if you start demanding things from me after I say yes, I’m going to not read/stop reading your book (even if I’m loving it at the 90% mark). It’s petty, but it’s my blog and I’m tired of not enjoying it. I’ve almost walked away from this entire thing because of rude authors, and I won’t put up with it anymore.

I do go out of my way to be fair and reasonable in what I say about a book—but I do give less than rave reviews frequently. I know many book bloggers won’t post negative—or even “meh”—reviews. I’m not one of them. There are two reasons for this: any review (I’m assured) on Goodreads, Amazon, or anywhere else helps your metrics no matter what it says; moreover if I spend the time reading your book, I’m getting a post out of it. I do prefer to like things, so you’re going to get a lot of slack from me.

Unless you specify otherwise, a few hours after posting here, I’ll cross-post to Amazon, Goodreads, LibraryThing, StoryGraph (and other places you might want me to).

Lizard Flambe: An EXCERPT from Creature Feature by Steven Paul Leiva

By HCNewton

On June 10, 2021

In Audiobook, Fiction, Quotations

Earlier this morning, I talked about the book, and now I get to give you a little taste—I hope it hooks you the way it did me.

from Creature Feature by Steven Paul Leiva

Those who survived the calamity-that-almost-was entered into a conspiracy of silence. No—let me rewrite that, ‘conspiracy’ is too jaundiced a word. They entered into a pact of silence for fear of causing mass hysteria, and worldwide panic, and general consternation, and rampant indigestion.

But now is the time to finally reveal the truth so long hidden from you. And now is the time to speak of the hero and heroine (if I may not be too politically incorrect in using the feminine) who in the summer of ‘62 not only saved our bacon—but the whole damn pork enchilada. And only I can do that because only I know the whole story.

And as it is a story of black and white, put on your black and white specs and take a good look as we……enter deep into a dark swamp thick with bald cypress trees standing on their cypress knees as murky and mucky water flows around and all the cormorants and whooping cranes and anhingas have run, flown, or darted away; all the ducks have ducked underwater; and even the bald eagles and various hawks have lit out for safer territory as monumental hand-to-hand combat between a good-looking, well-muscled, male human hero in khaki clothes and a nugly, giant, two-legged lizardman of some exceptional martial skill, disturbs the usual peace of the swamp. A high-pitched scream is heard as a gorgeous blonde with perfect makeup and a blouse missing some buttons, fears for the life of the male human she may or may not have had carnal relations with and, not incidentally, her own life as well while clinging to the knee of a bald cypress tree.

Finally, the male human hero gets the upper hand and manages to push the lizardman into a shallow part of the swamp with strange gasses hovering close to the water’s surface. From his belt, the hero grabs a flare gun and does not hesitate to send a flare straight into the water, right between the lizardman’s legs. Hellfire explodes all around the lizardman. It is a fire that one knows is red and yellow with white-hot heat, but here it is only illuminated shades of gray. The lizard‐man, confused by the searing heat and pain lets out an unearthly howl as he slowly cooks to death. The good-looking, well-muscled, male human hero in khaki grabs the gorgeous blonde with perfect makeup and a blouse missing some buttons, and holds her tight as three-dimensionally looking letters in two dimensions fly up from nowhere and smack against the screen spelling out ATTACK OF THE LIZARDMAN and THE END and MADE IN HOLLYWOOD U.S.A.

The broadcast of this early 1950s horror flick being over, the small studio at Chicago’s WAGO-TV station bustled and burst with color (colorful set, colorful language from frustrated technicians) as they switched to live to finish this episode of Vivacia’s House of Horrors. The beautiful Vivacia herself—pale of face framed by long raven’s wing (what else?) black hair and wearing a slinky and slick ebony satin dress with a plunging neckline (or décolletage if we want to bring a little lift to the thought)—lounged sensually on her huge, round bed with blood-red silk sheets (the producer had gotten the idea from Chicago native Hugh Hefner).

She looked directly into camera number one and held up what looked exactly like a barbecued lizard on a stick and said in her deep, silky voice, “Oooooooo—lizard flambe!” With a ravenous, anticipatory smile, Vivacia parted her lips, brought the lizard flambe to her mouth, and took a generous bite full of sexual subtext. She chewed, savored, swallowed, then said, “I love it!”

A snort and a whimper came from her side as a little hunchback man with a twisted face bounced on the bed next to her. “Would you like a little bite, Grossie?”

Read the rest in Creature Feature by Steven Paul Leiva–or listen to the audiobook Narrated by Seamus Dever and Juliana Dever–to see what happens from here.

Thanks to Let’s Talk Promotions and Psst…Promotions for this excerpt!

WWW Wednesday, June 9, 2021

By HCNewton

On June 9, 2021

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

It is the 160th day of 2021, also known as June 9. That gives us all a mere 205 days to wrap up things up for the year. Time’s flying. (and based on what I haven’t accomplished this week, I’m going to need every one of those days to write up the books I’ve read up to today)

Also, it’s time for WWW Wednesday!

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I’m reading The Penny Black by Rob Parker and have just started listening to The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe, narrated by Emily Janice Card and Stefan Rudnicki on audiobook–I’ve read this three times, and can’t wait to revisit it.

Blank Space

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished the second in the revitalized Hollows series, Kim Harrison’s Million Dollar Demon and the comedy/horrorCreature Feature by Steven Paul Leiva, narrated by Seamus Dever and Juliana Dever on audio.

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What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be the 3rd Stonebridge Mystery, Meat is Murder by Chris McDonald. My next audiobook should be Ink & Sigil by Kevin Heane, Luke Daniels (Narrator) to prime the mental pump for the sequel here in a couple of weeks.

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Are you reading anything good?

The Last 10 Books Tag

By HCNewton

On June 8, 2021

In Book Tag, Books, News/Misc.

The Last 10 Books Book Tag
It’s been ages since I’ve done a Tag, I need to do more of them, I enjoy reading and assembling them. This one caught my eye. I’ve seen this on various blogs—like Booker Talk and Lou’s Book Stuff—but can’t seem to find the creator, so I can’t credit them. I’d like to if anyone knows who did it.

The last book I gave up on

Well, that’s easy, I just posted about that a couple of weeks ago, The Writer’s Library. But I have an easier time DNFing audiobooks, it seems, I’ve done that a couple of times in the last year. The last time I DNFed a book I was reading was back in 2017, Wrath of an Angry God.

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The last book I re-read

I’m working through a couple of series as re-reads on audiobooks, the most recent of these was Raven Cursed by Faith Hunter, Khristine Hvam (Narrator), the last book I re-read was Robert B. Parker’s Ceremony (if that feels like splitting hairs, it kind of is. But the act of sitting down with a book to re-read feels different to me than putting on an audiobook while I drive or work.)

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The last book I bought

I can’t remember which was technically last (I didn’t tie a red thread around either of them), but I picked up these two most recently: The Curious Reader: Facts About Famous Authors and Novels | Book Lovers and Literary Interest | A Literary Miscellany of Novels & Novelists edited by Erin McCarthy & the team at Mental Floss and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: The Illustrated Edition by Douglas Adams, Chris Riddell (Illustrator).

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I’m both a little shocked and a little proud that it’s been more than two weeks without buying a new book.

The last book I said I read but actually didn’t

Wow…I don’t remember, it’s been so long since I’ve done this. Probably something for a class in the last century. More recently I might have confused a book’s title with a previous one in a series (fairly certain I’ve done that in conversation about John Rebus or Fiona Griffiths books).

The last book I wrote in the margins of

I can only do this with a clear conscience in math or language textbooks, I get the arguments for people doing it to books, but it just feels wrong to me. So, that would be Learn Biblical Hebrew by John H. Dodson (didn’t help me enough, either).

Learn Biblical Hebrew

The last book I had signed

2020 probably made it hard for all of us to get one signed, but I was able to get Devri Walls to sign a copy of her most recent novel, Venators: Legends Rise.

Legends Rise Autograph

The last book I lost

As I’ve been unpacking my books after my move—and taking the opportunity for the first time in years to really organize them, I’m finding a lot of holes that I know shouldn’t exist. Sure, I have a few boxes yet to be unpacked, but I’m worried about some of these missing books. I could list a few here, but the two books that are bugging me more than some of the others are Solomon vs Lord and Deep Blue Alibi by Paul Levine. I don’t know why the gap on the shelf there bugs me more than some others, but it really does (and yes, I’ve left gaps just in case I find some of these MIA books).

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The last book I had to replace

That’d be the aforementioned Ceremony by Robert B. Parker. I have no idea what happened to the paperback I bought back in the late 1980s. Just all of the sudden, it wasn’t there, and I needed it for the re-read. I didn’t have time to go shopping/have something shipped, so I got an ebook. After decades of reading it in paperback it didn’t feel right (was still a great read, it just felt strange. See Garth’s comments about the studio for Wayne’s World).

The last book I argued over

Actually argued? Nothing’s coming to mind…

Matthew Hanover and I discussed the ending to Matthew Norman’s Last Couple Standing a little and had divergent takes on the ending—I think I owe him a response, but I was waiting to finish my post about the book and work it into that. Months later, it’s one of those books I haven’t posted about.

I know my friend Paul and I have disagreed about how much we appreciate Johnson’s Depth of Winter and Herron’s Slow Horses. Although, The Jigsaw Man could be a reasl source of conflict, as soon as he finishes/DNFs it.

The last book you couldn’t find

Shrug

I’m not sure what the difference is between this and the above question about being lost. I guess it has to do with wanting to buy a book/read a book, but you can’t find a copy anywhere?

This is a dangerous question, there have been a few books lately that fall into that category, but in trying to answer this prompt I’ve done another search and have found every one of them. I almost spent $70 in trying to answer this (but have resisted the impulse to complete the purchase). I’d better stop before I get in real trouble.

As usual, I’m not tagging anyone in this—but I’d like to see what you all have to come up with.

Saturday Miscellany—6/5/21

By HCNewton

On June 5, 2021

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

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 Support your local bookstore — before it disappears—there’s a reassuring headline
bullet Watch a young Flannery O’Connor teaching her chicken to walk backwards.—sure…this is exactly the kind of thing you expect to see out of a literary legend.
bullet 9 most beautiful bookstores and libraries in Japan—some of these are just stunning (the others have to settle for being super-impressive). Would love to browse any of these.
bullet What Novels Can Borrow from the Sweeping Mythology of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Benjamin Percy on Creating a New World Within the Old—Not sure I’m all that tempted to read this new series, but I find the thought process interesting
bullet 5 Old Book Features That Died with the Times (Thankfully)
bullet Why I think you should check out self published SFF!—in case you haven’t dabbled yet, this from Spells and Spaceships, could be the encouragement you need. The list applies pretty well to things outside SFF.

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Dead Ground by M. W. Craven—the latest Washington Poe/Tilly Bradshaw novel finds them taking on a(seemingly) very different kind of case. Coincidentally, I’ve installed a cot near my mailbox for the next week or so.
bullet Moonlighting: An Oral History by Scott Ryan—A great read for TV fans of a certain age, as I enthused recently.

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to saniya | sunnysidereviews, Esther, and ljwrites85 who followed the blog this week. I appreciate the follow and hope to see you back here!

The Friday 56 for 6/4/21: Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O’Neal

By HCNewton

On June 4, 2021

In Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find a snippet, short and sweet.
Post it

from Page 56 of:
Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O’Neal

(I have to use a photo this week, there’s no way I can capture the feel of this internet chat with my rudimentary abilities)
selection from page 56 of Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses

WWW Wednesday, June 2, 2021

By HCNewton

On June 2, 2021

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

The Monday holiday caught me a little off-guard, I really wasn’t ready to put together a WWW Wednesday, but I just remembered what day it was and I needed a little break anyway, so here we go!

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I just started Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O’Neal, which looks promising and am listening to Raven Cursed by Faith Hunter, Khristine Hvam (Narrator) on audiobook.

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What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished the Lee Matthew Goldberg’s Runaway Train, a nifty coming-of-age story, and the fun The Authorities by Scott Meyer, Luke Daniels (Narrator) on audio.

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What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be the second in the rejuvinated Hollows series: Million Dollar Demon by Kim Harrison. My next audiobook should be Nowhere to Run by C. J. Box, David Chandler (Narrator), which’ll get me practically half-way to caught up with this series.

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What did you just finish/start?

May 2021 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

By HCNewton

On June 1, 2021

In Books, Calendar Items, Currently Reading, News/Misc.

May 2021 saw me complete 22 books for 6,238+ pages or the equivalent (I don’t have a page count on one of the unpublished books yet, and there as a DNF in there, too, so that’s where the + comes in). Not my strongest month, but given things going on in Real Life, I’m pleased with that. 3.5 Average Stars—read a couple of let-downs, and a decent number of books that were good, but not great. Which is fine with me, viva le 3 Stars! (and a couple of things blew me away, too—not going to complain about that!)

I posted something every single day in May—a feat I haven’t accomplished in years. Sure, some of the posts were a little on the lame side, but I still feel like I accomplished something there. Not a solid month, but it could’ve been worse, I’m satisfied.

So, here’s what happened here in May.






		DNF

		Average =	3.5
	3		2
	1		1
	3		0
	5		0
	7

Incremental decrease! I’ll take it 🙂

“Traditionally” Published: 13
Self-/Independent Published: 9

Genre	This Month	Year to Date
Children’s	1 (5%)	2 (2%)
Fantasy	1 (5%)	10 (9%)
General Fiction/ Literature	1 (5%)	3 (3%)
Horror	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
Humor	1 (5%)	3 (3%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller	8 (36%)	41 (37%)
Non-Fiction	4 (18%)	9 (8%)
Science Fiction	1 (5%)	13 (10%)
Steampunk	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
Theology/ Christian Living	1 (5%)	11 (10%)
Urban Fantasy	4 (21%)	19 (17%)
Western	0 (0%)	0 (0%)

The Word Became Fresh by Dale Ralph Davis: Principles for Old Testament Reading “For Fun and Profit”
Dead Secret by Noelle Holten: Maggie Has to Juggle Several Balls at Once—Can She Keep it Up AND Catch a Killer?
Below Zero (Audiobook) by C. J. Box, David Chandler: Joe Pickett’s 9th Adventure is Almost Impossible to Believe
Red Widow by Alma Katsu: This Realistic Spy Thriller Just Missed the Mark
Surviving Religion 101 by Michael J. Kruger: Letters to a Christian College Sudent
A Wanted Man by Rob Parker: Meet Ben Bracken
The Writer’s Library by Nancy Pearl & Jeff Schwager (Audiobook) Was Just Painful to Listen To: DNFed
A Tale of Wonderful Whiffs by Sophie Loosveldt, Isabella Croker (Illustrator): Secret Agent Pug? A Spy *for* the House of Love?
In Medias Res: A Man With One of Those Faces by Caimh McDonnell, Morgan C. Jones (Narrator)
Goodbye to the Sun by Jonathan Nevair: Broken People and Broken Worlds Hope for a Better Future
I have a hard time shutting up about Moonlighting: An Oral History by Scott Ryan
The Jigsaw Man by Nadine Matheson: A Jaw-Dropping Debut
A Quick Look at the Wonderful The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: The Illustrated Edition by Douglas Adams, Chris Riddell (Illustrator)
R. C. Sproul: A Life by Stephen J. Nichols: The Life and Work of Robert Charles Sproul

Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th), I also wrote:

How was your month?

20 Books of Summer 2021

By HCNewton

On May 31, 2021

In Books, Currently Reading, Fantasy, Fiction, General Fiction/Literature, Ian Rankin, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, News/Misc., Urban Fantasy

One summer.

Three months.

93 Days.

20 books.

Are you in?

Here’s the kickoff post on 746 Books in case you want more details. I had a lot of fun with this last year (the time pressure helped a lot), so let’s give it another shot. Last year, my list was a mix of summer releases, NetGalley things I’d been procrastinating on, and some things I’d meant to read for a while. But here’s the thing–I don’t need something prompting me to read the next Ace Atkins or Kevin Hearne, ditto for my NetGalley stack–that’s going to get read. So in keeping with my push to trim my TBR List (both aspirational and stuff I already own) this year, 19 of these 20 books are those (I did put one upcoming release on the list, it was a moment of weakness). It’s going to be an actual challenge to get all of these read, but I think I’m up for it.

Anyway, here’s my list (subject to change, but I’m going to resist the impulse to tweak as much as I can).

1. A Beginner’s Guide to Free Fall by Andy Abramowitz
2. The Dead House by Harry Bingham
3. The Run-Out Groove by Andrew Cartmel
4. Love by Roddy Doyle
5. The Ninja’s Blade by Tori Eldridge
6. Small Bytes by Robert Germaux
7. A Reason to Live by Matthew Iden
8. Twiced Cursed by J. C. Jackson
9. The Dime by Kathleen Kent
10. Dead Man’s Grave by Neil Lancaster

11. The Magnificent Nine by James Lovegrove
12. The Mermaid’s Pool by David Nolan
13. All Together Now by Matthew Norman
14. The Good Byline by Jill Orr
15. Sir Thomas the Hesitant and the Table of Less Valued Knights by Liam Perrin
16. Fools Gold by Ian Patrick
17. Know Your Rites by Andy Redsmith
18. The Far Empty by J. Todd Scott
19. August Snow by Stephen Mack Jones
20. In Plain Sight by Dan Willis

20 Books of Summer '21 Chart