Catching UP!

Books that Went to Press this Week

WENDELL & TYLER: ON THE ROAD! Open Road Series, Vol. 2, by James R. Kincaid.

    Two fairly naive new adults, Wendell & Tyler, continue their cross-country journey  in the  luxury Motor Home they plan to deliver in Carolina -- if they can get it there.  This time they visit Rosswell, take a side-trip to Mexico, where they meet  a young lady occupied in an old profession, and then off for a side-trip into  the Mountains of Colorado... Come on, join them, it'll be fun!

Galleys that went out, or are still out, this week:THE MURDER OF SECRETARY JUDD CANE: Adventures on Capitol Hill Series, Vol. 2 

by Celine Rose Mariotti.

     If you liked The Kidnapping of Senator Andy Thompson, you’ll be excited to read The Murder of Secretary Judd Cane. This time Murder stalks the House of Representatives as Congressman Michael Rhodes is accused of murdering Secretary Cane

IRIS Fate: Iris Series, Vol.2, by Daniel Carr

   Colin Craft, “The Newspaper Myth,” spends his days in hiding. After Aaron Brink reveals his identity to the public, Colin is sent on the run and orphaned. Keeping the Myth in hiding was his life-long friend, Justin Mears, continuing to run Genetic Alliance missions. It barely felt like two years had passed since Allen and Anderson.

Work began or continued on the following

DECRYPTING THEE CACHE, by Jennifer Kirsch

   Treading through a shadowy woods didn’t rank high on my fun list. Yet I found myself surrounded by tangled tree limbs and hairy vines one Sunday evening. My new friend Dev crept along with me as we navigated angry roots, sprawling branches, and knotty trunks that resembled our knobby-nosed history teacher.

   We hoped to find a geocache. “You know,” I’d explained to Dev, “a hidden container you find using a navigation app.” But he’d wanted to see it for himself.

 GUIDING SPIRIT: A Ghostly Love Story, by Robert Kanehl  

   Love does not end with death or at the gravesite. It lingers in this world, as powerful after death as before. Ashley Dunlap and David Paine discover this first hand, as a benevolent spirit guides their lives toward its desires. Will the two follow this spirit’s pathway or rebel against its power to follow their own free will?

.

Cover subject to change

CEMETERY WALK: A Hannah Griswold Mystery, Vol. 3, by Robert Kanehl

   Hannah Griswold is back, with another ghostly companion...

Jack's News!

  by your Official Bookstore Cat, 
and gossip columnist!

The National Outdoor Show

February 26, 27, 2016

Our 71st Year

   Author Andy Nunez sends word he'll be making a personal appearance at the NATIONAL OUTDOOR SHOW at Golden Hill in South Dorchester County at the end of this month. Also, Andy confided he  is planning to write three more books:GHOSTS III, TREASURES II, and WARRIORS OF THE EASTERN SHORE. We can't wait.

The Outdoor Show is held in Dorchester County each year with the goal of preserving Dorchester County's heritage by recognizing its resources and spot-lighting the people who carry out unique talents in their way of life. Our main objective is to educate both newcomers to the area and visitors about our rich and unique culture. We continually try to add new events. We invite your feedback and suggestions to provide what interest our supporters. The Show is planned and it's activities realized through the time and effort of countless volunteers. We are grateful to have the financial and physical support of local businesses, civic organizations and local residents. Proceeds of the show are used for future shows and are put back into the community to support education and regional awareness. As your official Bookstore Cat, I'd like to thank Andy and all our many authors who write about t he Eastern Shore way of life, Including the following books,that I think are just the cat's "MEOW!"

Please don't forget to let me know 

what you are all up to, so I'll have  

Gossip for my column next week!

Just send arline@mail.com a message with 

 "News for Jack" 

in the subject line, and

I'll make sure it shows up right here!

A book and a good writing tip

   What happens when a vital, modern-day woman becomes connected to the Internet? Certainly, much more than she had ever expected!

A Good Writing Tip  

"Eschew Adverbs"

and some "rules of good writing" from

Elmore Leonard

Using adverbs is a mortal sin

1 Never open a book with weather. If it's only to create atmosphere, and not a charac­ter's reaction to the weather, you don't want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead look­ing for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways than an Eskimo to describe ice and snow in his book Arctic Dreams, you can do all the weather reporting you want.

2 Avoid prologues: they can be ­annoying, especially a prologue ­following an introduction that comes after a foreword. But these are ordinarily found in non-fiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want. There is a prologue in John Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday, but it's OK because a character in the book makes the point of what my rules are all about. He says: "I like a lot of talk in a book and I don't like to have nobody tell me what the guy that's talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks."

3 Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue. The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But "said" is far less intrusive than "grumbled", "gasped", "cautioned", "lied". I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with "she asseverated" and had to stop reading and go to the dictionary.

4 Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said" . . . he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances "full of rape and adverbs".

5 Keep your exclamation points ­under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.

6 Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose." This rule doesn't require an explanation. I have noticed that writers who use "suddenly" tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.

7 Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly. Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apos­trophes, you won't be able to stop. Notice the way Annie Proulx captures the flavour of Wyoming voices in her book of short stories Close Range.

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8 Avoid detailed descriptions of characters, which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants", what do the "Ameri­can and the girl with him" look like? "She had taken off her hat and put it on the table." That's the only reference to a physical description in the story.

9 Don't go into great detail describing places and things, unless you're ­Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language. You don't want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.

10 Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: if it sounds like writing, I rewrite it

A LOVELAND Ski Story and treat

by Lisa Marie Mercer

    When Mariel, a New York physical therapist loses her father, a former 10th Mountain Division member, to the 9/11 attacks, she discovers that he has left her his stockholder shares to the Loveland Ski Area. 

An After Ski Treat

Ingredients

5 m80 servings24 cals

• Walgreens
• 640 Sunburst Hwy
• CAMBRIDGE, MD 21613

• 2 cups powdered non-dairy creamer
• 1 1/2 cups instant hot chocolate mix
• 1 1/2 cups instant coffee granules
  Folgers Instant Coffee Classic Roast Crystals 

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Add all ingredients to list

Directions

Print 

• Prep
  5 m
• Ready In
  5 m

1. Sift together creamer, hot chocolate mix, instant coffee, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour into a jar and seal with a lid.
2. To prepare: Stir 3 teaspoons of mixture into 1 cup of hot water. Adjust to taste.

Catching UP!

Books that Went to Press this Week

THE SINS OF THE FATHERS, by A.A. MANN.  A Dora the D.R.E. Mystery, Vol. 1, by A.A. Mann

    As a Director of Religious Education at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in the border town of San Pequeno, Texas,  Dora meets many interesting and unusual people.  This time 

she meets Death.

WANTED: ROYAL PRINCESS MIRACLE BRIDE, Royal Hearts  of Mondoverde Series, Vol. 3 by Anna Dynowski

    Prince Lorenzo, the reluctant prince, has no interest in his title or inclination to carry out his duties. Not likely to ever rule Mondoverde, he has no desire to play at royalty, dodging the royal commitments with remarkable success. He’d much rather play with his prized horses. A champion thoroughbred racer with multiple trophies, he’s surrounded by fans, mostly female. But can he find a woman who will compel him to dismount and take up his royal duties, including marriage?

Galleys that went out this week:

WENDELL & TYLER: ON THE ROAD! Open Road Series, Vol. 2, by James R. Kincaid.

    Two fairly naive new adults, Wendell & Tyler, continue their cross-country journey  in the  luxury Motor Home they plan to deliver in Carolina -- if they can get it there.  This time they visit Rosswell, take a side-trip to Mexico, where they meet  a young lady occupied in an old profession, and then off for a side-trip into  the Mountains of Colorado... Come on, join them, it'll be fun!

Work began or continued on the following

DECRYPTING THEE CACHE, by Jennifer Kirsch

   Treading through a shadowy woods didn’t rank high on my fun list. Yet I found myself surrounded by tangled tree limbs and hairy vines one Sunday evening. My new friend Dev crept along with me as we navigated angry roots, sprawling branches, and knotty trunks that resembled our knobby-nosed history teacher.

   We hoped to find a geocache. “You know,” I’d explained to Dev, “a hidden container you find using a navigation app.” But he’d wanted to see it for himself.

 GUIDING SPIRIT: A Ghostly Love Story, by Robert Kanehl  

   Love does not end with death or at the gravesite. It lingers in this world, as powerful after death as before. Ashley Dunlap and David Paine discover this first hand, as a benevolent spirit guides their lives toward its desires. Will the two follow this spirit’s pathway or rebel against its power to follow their own free will?

THE MURDER OF SECRETARY JUDD CANE: Adventures on Capitol Hill Series, Vol. 2 

by Celine Rose Mariotti.

     If you liked The Kidnapping of Senator Andy Thompson, you’ll be excited to read The Murder of Secretary Judd Cane. This time Murder stalks the House of Representatives as Congressman Michael Rhodes is accused of
murdering Secretary Cane.

Cover subject to change

CEMETERY WALK: A Hannah Griswold Mystery, Vol. 3, by Robert Kanehl

   Hannah Griswold is back, with another ghostly companion...

IRIS Fate: Iris Series, Vol.2, by Daniel Carr

   Colin Craft, “The Newspaper Myth,” spends his days in hiding. After Aaron Brink reveals his identity to the public, Colin is sent on the run and orphaned. Keeping the Myth in hiding was his life-long friend, Justin Mears, continuing to run Genetic Alliance missions. It barely felt like two years had passed since Allen and Anderson.

BLEEDING HEARTS: Killian Kendall Mystery Series, Vol. 1

   Winner of the Stonewall Society's 2002 Pride in the Arts Literary Award in the Whodunit Category! 

MINISTER'S ESCAPADES, Vol. 2 by Celine Rose Mariotti

  
   Rev. Castle is back in another cozy mystery.  

REAP THE WHIRLWIND: Killian Kendall Mystery Series, Vol. 2,  by Josh Aterovis. 
   Suicide, or murder? That's the question in the second Killian Kendall mystery. Will Smith suspects murder when an old childhood pal drowns, and asks his friend Killian for help in solving the mystery.

TRUTH OF YESTERDAY,  by Josh Aterovis

ALL LOST THINGS, by Josh Aterovis

CHANGE  OF WORLDS, by Josh Aterovis

Jack's News!

  by your Official Bookstore Cat, 
and gossip columnist!

JOAN L. CANNON, author of  the novel Maiden Run,  wrote that she is  giving a reading on Sunday, February 20, at the D. M. Hunt Library in Falls Village, CT,she'll be joining a group of other poets and one of her sons (who is a musician) will play at the reading. Joan will read a couple of new poems, and a couple from her book My Mind Is Made of Crumbs.

Joan also has a new novel that we'll be working on soon, Title suggestions so far are Handicaps and Second Growth, but she is still looking for ideas. So if anyone has thoughts for a title or cover for the story about a woman's personal growth, please let us know.  You can e-mail Joan at 17jcannon@comcast.net or arline at arline@mail.com

Personally, I like Handicaps, because of the word's original meaning. It's an old horse racing term and means that the strongest horses carry the heaviest weights in a race.

The Writer's Bloc meets Saturday (tomorrow) in Room 3, Wicomico County Library, in Salisbury MD, from 1 - 3. They hope to see you there.

Author Andy Nunez sends word he'll be making a personal appearance at the NATIONAL OUTDOOR SHOW at Golden Hill in South Dorchester County at the end of this month. Also, Andy confided he  is planning to write three more books:GHOSTS III, TREASURES II, and WARRIORS OF THE EASTERN SHORE. We can't wait.

As for us, here at home, we are all doing fine. As the official Bokstore Cat, I'm working hard as I can to help Arline Catch up with all the work, but she keeps shoving me off the chair arm, THEN she complains that she's behind...isn't that just like a human?

Please don't forget to let me know 

what you are all up to, so I'll have  

Gossip for my column next week!

Just send arline@mail.com a message with 

 "News for Jack" 

in the subject line, and

I'll make sure it shows up right here!