Catching UP!

Books that went to Press this week:

Marta's Place by C.M. Albrecht. 

   When Hal Morrison goes to work at Marta's Place he doesn't just have to deal with customers; he has to deal with love, lust, detectives, drugs, murder, mayhem…and Marta!

Galleys that went out this week:

EASTERN SHORE NOIR, a Collection of Work by Members of the Writers Bloc

   Okay, so here you are, reader, opening the page ... obviously you have discriminating tastes and a longing, nay, a desire, for a cracking good story pulsing with noir elements.

RED YEAR, by Jan Shapin

    Can a red-haired woman from Chicago single-handedly force Joseph Stalin to back down?         China, 1927. 

    Thirty-three year old Rayna Prohme, accompanying her left-wing journalist husband, becomes the political confidant and lover of Mikhail Borodin, the Russian commander sent to prop up a failing Chinese revolution. In a bid to continue their love affair, Rayna hatches a plan to accompany Mme. Sun, the widow of the Chinese revolution’s founder, to Moscow.

Chasing Nightmares by James R. Kincaid

             Chasing Nightmares, deliberately embracing terrors, isn’t what you and I are likely to do.  But you and I are not the four central characters in this novel, pretty typical college kids who sense that their lives are so predictable they hardly seem present in them.  They are determined not to succumb to the commonplace scripts set out for them, pathways that are so comfortable they might as well be padded, MUSAK softly playing.

      So, they set out from Los Angeles, trying hard to find the perilous.  They try hard to make themselves unprepared, open, desperate to vivify their minds and senses.  They make it only as far as Lake Tahoe and the nearby Donner Pass, where they do succeed in attracting horrors, certainly not the ones they had, despite themselves, anticipated. 

            But the nightmares they wrap round themselves also contain a good deal more than shivers, and the calls on their resolve demand more than simple courage (or foolhardy consistency).  Without knowing how it happened, they are drawn into a different strangeness, asking for and yet reluctant to receive something very much like love.

Jack's News!

  by your Official Bookstore Cat, 

and Gossip Columnist.

Hi Folks,

  Some of the folks at the Writers' Block are sending corrections to arline. So far she has heard from Ann Foley, Andy Nunez, Shirley Gaffney, Rita Tiso, and Jerry Sciortino George Mason and Tom Taylor 

   I also heard from my private Grapevine that some folks were having trouble retrieving the files from  the cloud locker. If anyone has questions or needs help, don't worry Tom with it. He has worked hard enough on this, Contact arline directly and she will help the best she can.

 Just e-mail

 arline@mail.com

with any problems -- and (just in case) that's MAIL.com, not gmail.

As for around here, not much has been going on. Roger has been cutting grass and Spunky kept sneaking out to play in the grass and she came back with both front shouldes almost bald. There's a pair of mockingbirds building  nest in the Pecan tree (I Saw them from the window). Arline had to put salve on her they pecked her so bad. Their chicks should have a fine nest, all that gray and white fur. She is such a baby. I tried to tell her (oh, they got me too, when I was little, but she didn't listen to me. WHAT ids it with baby sisters, anyway? They never listen to their big brothers. If I had had a big brother I would have listened. THOSE !@#$%^&*#@ BIRDS almost killed me. My Aunt Carol over at Little Angels had to come and save me. Thank goodness she was there.

Meanwhile, don't forget to let me know what you are all up to, so I can post it.

Just send an e-mail to arline@mail.com with 

 "News for Jack" 

 in the subject line, and

I'll make sure it shows up here for all the world to see!

Catching UP!

No Books went to Press this week.

Work Continued the following books this week:

EASTERN SHORE NOIR, a Collection of Work by Members of the Writers Bloc

   Okay, so here you are, reader, opening the page ... obviously you have discriminating tastes and a longing, nay, a desire, for a cracking good story pulsing with noir elements.

RED YEAR, by Jan Shapin

    Can a red-haired woman from Chicago single-handedly force Joseph Stalin to back down?         China, 1927. 

    Thirty-three year old Rayna Prohme, accompanying her left-wing journalist husband, becomes the political confidant and lover of Mikhail Borodin, the Russian commander sent to prop up a failing Chinese revolution. In a bid to continue their love affair, Rayna hatches a plan to accompany Mme. Sun, the widow of the Chinese revolution’s founder, to Moscow.

Marta's Place by C.M. Albrecht. 

   When Hal Morrison goes to work at Marta's Place he doesn't just have to deal with customers; he has to deal with love, lust, detectives, drugs, murder, mayhem…and Marta!

Chasing Nightmares by James R. Kincaid

             Chasing Nightmares, deliberately embracing terrors, isn’t what you and I are likely to do.  But you and I are not the four central characters in this novel, pretty typical college kids who sense that their lives are so predictable they hardly seem present in them.  They are determined not to succumb to the commonplace scripts set out for them, pathways that are so comfortable they might as well be padded, MUSAK softly playing.

      So, they set out from Los Angeles, trying hard to find the perilous.  They try hard to make themselves unprepared, open, desperate to vivify their minds and senses.  They make it only as far as Lake Tahoe and the nearby Donner Pass, where they do succeed in attracting horrors, certainly not the ones they had, despite themselves, anticipated. 

            But the nightmares they wrap round themselves also contain a good deal more than shivers, and the calls on their resolve demand more than simple courage (or foolhardy consistency).  Without knowing how it happened, they are drawn into a different strangeness, asking for and yet reluctant to receive something very much like love.

Jack's News!

  by your Official Bookstore Cat, 

and Gossip Columnist.

Hi Folks,

  The folks at the Writers' Block are sending corrections to arline. So far she has heard from Ann Foley, Andy Nunez, Shirley Gaffney, Rita Tiso, and Jerry Sciortino.

   I also heard from my private Grapevine that some folks were having trouble retrieving the files from  the cloud locker. If anyone has questions or needs help, don't worry Tom with it. He has worked hard enough on this, Contact arline directly and she will help the best she can.

 Just e-mail

 arline@mail.com

with any problems -- and (just in case) that's MAIL.com, not gmail.

 I shouldn't tell tales out of school, but the whole time she was working on it,she kept telling Roger, "Boy, this is really GOOD!" and "Wow, this is the best one YET!" Not to mention that she kept losing her place and forgetting to look for typos.     

I heard from Barbara Garro and she has been chosen by tMarquis Who's Who Publications Board to receive their exclusive Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award due to her "many esteemed years of professional service" in her field"

It says that "many years" is more than thirty... Buy Gee, I wonder which field?... Business woman?... Artist?... Poet?... 

Christian Writer?...

She sent me a PDF of the whole letter, but I can't post it here, because it's a PDF not a .jpg.

As for around here, not much has been going on. I've had a terrible time with Arline, and Roger, too. The sun keeps getting up earlier and earlier every morning, but they refuse to feed me breakfast until the clock says 7 a.m., I've told them and told them, cats don't run on clocks. Cat time says it's tome for Breakfast. But they just roll over and go back to sleep No matter how hard I remind them I'm hungry.  Humans are such Lazy Creatures!

Meanwhile, don't forget to let me know what you are all up to, so I can post it.

Just send an e-mail to arline@mail.com with 

 "News for Jack" 

 in the subject line, and

I'll make sure it shows up here for all the world to see!

Catching UP!

Apologies for missing last week's Blog. Apparently the site has been in difficulty. It is back up and running today, so--

We're Baa-aack!

No Books went to Press this week.

Galleys went out on the following books this week:

EASTERN SHORE NOIR, a Collection of Work by Members of the Writers Bloc

   Okay, so here you are, reader, opening the page ... obviously you have discriminating tastes and a longing, nay, a desire, for a cracking good story pulsing with noir elements.

RED YEAR, by Jan Shapin

    Can a red-haired woman from Chicago single-handedly force Joseph Stalin to back down?         China, 1927. 

    Thirty-three year old Rayna Prohme, accompanying her left-wing journalist husband, becomes the political confidant and lover of Mikhail Borodin, the Russian commander sent to prop up a failing Chinese revolution. In a bid to continue their love affair, Rayna hatches a plan to accompany Mme. Sun, the widow of the Chinese revolution’s founder, to Moscow.

Work Continued on the following books this week:

Marta's Place by C.M. Albrecht. 

   When Hal Morrison goes to work at Marta's Place he doesn't just have to deal with customers; he has to deal with love, lust, detectives, drugs, murder, mayhem…and Marta!

Chasing Nightmares by James R. Kincaid

             Chasing Nightmares, deliberately embracing terrors, isn’t what you and I are likely to do.  But you and I are not the four central characters in this novel, pretty typical college kids who sense that their lives are so predictable they hardly seem present in them.  They are determined not to succumb to the commonplace scripts set out for them, pathways that are so comfortable they might as well be padded, MUSAK softly playing.

      So, they set out from Los Angeles, trying hard to find the perilous.  They try hard to make themselves unprepared, open, desperate to vivify their minds and senses.  They make it only as far as Lake Tahoe and the nearby Donner Pass, where they do succeed in attracting horrors, certainly not the ones they had, despite themselves, anticipated. 

            But the nightmares they wrap round themselves also contain a good deal more than shivers, and the calls on their resolve demand more than simple courage (or foolhardy consistency).  Without knowing how it happened, they are drawn into a different strangeness, asking for and yet reluctant to receive something very much like love.

Jack's News!

  by your Official Bookstore Cat, 

and Gossip Columnist.

Hi Folks,

  Heard from Ann Foley. 

The Writers Bloc will meet this coming Saturday, April 15, at 1 p.m. in Room 3, Salisbury library. Hope to see you all there.

Arline has been working on the typesetting for their NOIR book, too. And the Galleys are up. She sent directions on how to download them, because the files are often too long to e-mail. So if you have any problems getting yours down, just complain to Her, Okay? I can't help, I'm only a cat. 

 Just e-mail
 arline@mail.com

with any problems -- and (just in case) that's MAIL.com, not gmail.

 I shouldn't tell tales out of school, but the whole time she was working on it,she kept telling Roger, "Boy, this is really GOOD!" and "Wow, this is the best one YET!" Not to mention that she kept losing her place and forgetting to look for typos.     

As for around here, not much has been going on. Food and treats have been on time all week and Roger has been playing his guitar for me every single day. He's even learning a new song, especially for me. "The Cat Came Back." I'll bet you all know that one, but it's new to him.

As for my baby sister -- the lazy one -- she hasn't done anything. (Except suck up, of course.) Probably too scared to move in case she does something wrong and the Easter Bunny won't bring her a basket. Seriously, you don't think she's lazy??? She lays down when she eats. Sometimes, she goes to sleep with her head right in the food bowl, and wakes up and just starts eating again. 

And listen. before I forget---

Hope you've all been extra good and get lots of treats !

 And Happy Spring! (or Fall if you live on the bottom half 

of the world.)  Okay! that's as politically correct as I

can get.  After all I'm just a cat!

As for the rest of you, PLEASE don't forget to send me news of any personal appearances, signings and so on that you have planned... so I'll have some gossip to pass along next week.

Just send an e-mail to arline@mail.com with 

 "News for Jack" 

 in the subject line, and

I'll make sure it shows up here for all the world to see!