A GOOD DAY!

Hi folks,

I just ran across a couple of blogposts that I wanted to share with you guys. The first is from author Lisa Fernow, who made my day when she talked about my newest novel, THE GENUINE, IMITATION, PLASTIC KIDNAPPING, a black comedy crime caper coming out in August from Down&Out Books. This book is my personal favorite and I’ve been writing a sequel to it for some time. KIDNAPPING began as a short story published in The South Carolina Review and then I wrote a novel based on it and then a screenplay. The screenplay was named a Finalist in both the Writer’s Guild and Best of Austin competitions. The novel has a German publisher in Pulpmaster, and the owner of that press, Frank Nowatzke, liked it so much, he took it to Berlinale, the European film festival that is a sister festival to the Frankfort Book Festival. Frank received great responses to it he told me, but all see it as a movie that would have to be filmed in the U.S. and not Europe. Hoping it attracts some attention here when it comes out!

Anyway, here’s what Lisa had to say about it:

The Genuine Imitation Plastic Kidnapping

Posted by: Lisa Fernow In: Accomplices, Book Stores and Writers I Love, Books 31 Mar 2014 Comments: 1

http://lisafernow.com/the-genuine-imitation-plastic-kidnapping-2/

I happened to be reading Publishers Marketplace, the industry rag that lets you know what books are being sold to publishers by various agents, and I came across a book that made me laugh so hard I nearly wet my pants.

Here is the description: Les Edgerton’s THE GENUINE IMITATION PLASTIC KIDNAPPING, in which a couple of two-bit hustlers come up with the bright idea of kidnapping a crime boss’ fake hand, and hold it ransom for some serious money, to Eric Campbell at Down and Out Books, by Chip MacGregor at MacGregor Literary.

I just had to write to Les. Turns out he’s quite a guy. We’ve been writing back and forth, and I plan to buy this book as soon as it comes out. You might like to read his blog in the meantime.

Why am I telling you this. If you like someone’s work, write to them and tell them so. It really makes their day.  And sometimes it makes yours, back.

Thanks, Lisa! Any time a description of one of my books causes someone to laugh so hard she nearly wets her pants, my day has been made. (And, PW got part of this wrong--it's not a "fake" hand but his real meathook that gets whacked off.)

And then, I came across a blog I visit regularly, Col’s Criminal Library, and saw a really cool shout-out of my novel, THE BITCH.

COL'S CRIMINAL LIBRARY

Tuesday, 1 April 2014

MARCH 2014 READING LIST AND PICK OF THE MONTH

March provided a decent month of reading, without me finding that book that was truly stand out and memorable. I had a slow start to the month with the Hunsicker book, which has made me decide, as much as possible to avoid long books at the start of the working week as I just get bogged down. Better to save them for a holiday or a weekend start when I can eat a big chunk up and make some progress. My enjoyment of The Contractors probably suffered as a result, though a mark of 3 appears generous.

Book of the month!

9 books were read in the month, which is 1 shy of my goal of 10 to achieve 120 for the year. I have yet to hit that magical figure in any month in 2014 - hopefully I will catch up later in the year.

All 9 books were authors new to me, (18 from 26 so far in 2014 - I've decided to count Agatha Christie as a new author last month),

4 of the books were debut novels and I would happily read more from all debut authors - Kirschman, Veste, Harvkey and McCrary.

2 were by females (making 5 from 26 for the year - 19% go me! Double last year's % but could still do better)

5 were Net Galley books (God, I really went overboard on there didn't I?), 2 were received from the author, 1 from the publisher and 1 book was actually bought, though it subsequently transpired it wasn't even a whole book, just a portion of it.

7 were US authors - no surprise there, 1 from Australia, 1 from the UK.

In the course of the month my reading took me to Sydney, Liverpool, Cincinatti, Texas, New York, Missouri and Indiana, with some flying visits to Arizona and Mexico as well as a couple of unknown locations!

Progress on my challenges - no Vintage Reads, no Scottish reads, no Espionage reads, no TBR Mountain reads, 1 for my Down Under challenge and a few states filled on my USA challenge (6 from 51, so I'm making some progress there).

Most of my reads were very good, just a bit short of great. Tough to pick a book of the month, but as I read it cover to cover in about 3 hours flat it has to be Ellen Kirschman's Burying Ben. The good news is, she's writing a second Dot Meyerhoff book!

Runner-up!

A close second would be Les Edgerton and The Bitch.

The full list of March reads is as follows:

Harry Hunsicker - The Contractors (3)

Les Edgerton - The Bitch (4)

Mike Resnick - Dog in the Manger (4)

Ellen Kirschman - Burying Ben (4)

Mike McCrary - Getting Ugly (4)

B. Selkie (aka Peter Robb) - Final Cut (aka No Sweat) (aka 1/3rd of Pig's Blood and Other Fluids) (3)

Mike Harvkey - In the Course of Human Events (4)

Luca Veste - Dead Gone (4)

Dorothy Uhnak - Codes of Betrayal (4)

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April aims - hit 10 for the month, keep up the female count, chip away at some of my challenges, clear the Net Galley burden from my shoulders - free is not always a good thing!

Thanks, Col!

A good day!

Blue skies,

Les