Catching UP!

NO Books went to press, or back to press this week:

But the Computer problems are fixed! At at least for now! Our local Guru was still was too busy, but said we could look online and we found a site called Geekatou.com. They worked hard for 3 days (God bless them!) and they seem to have things straightend out. Onward to Pay Authors' royalties!

Galleys that went out this week:

The Kid Who Wasn't There, by C. M. Albrecht

Jonas gets in pretty deep with a powerful talk show hostess, a mobster and art dealers and a very big Navajo, not to mention a lot of women who try to make him forget he's a happily married man with two children at home, and his troubles extend to home too. Life can be tough!

MEDIC 1260, Volunteer Series Vol. 4, by Tom Ward.

   Doyle and his paramedic friends are back on the road to adventure as they give Volunteer medical assistance to people in their small Pensylvania Town.  

Work began or continued on the following:

THE MURDER OF SECRETARY Judd KANE: Adventures on Capital Hill Series, Vol. 2, by Celine Rose Mariotti

   Second in the popular political thriller series.

-

WENDELL & TYLER: WE'RE OFF! by James Kincaid

    Even their guidebooks – Worst Places to Eat, Wackiest Roadside Attractions, and Don’t Go Here! – offer no guidance. These two 16-year-olds are off on a summer-long road trip, from Los Angeles to Atlanta, without any clear idea what they are doing, what they might run into, what they might discover.

 Toby Martin: Private Eye, by Barbara Grengs  

   The sixth (and last) in the popular Toby  Martin Mystery series. Toby is a real P.I. now and also still has aspirations of being a writer.

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 bookstore cat, 
and gossip columnist!

Well, I haven't heard from anyone this week. I'm sure someone must be doing personal appearances, or book signings, but Unless you let your Bookstore Cat know, there's no real news to post for you here so you can share it with all your friends. 

Please, please, send me an e-mail so I can keep up with everyone. That's what a bookstore cat is for!

As for here at  home, for awhilie things were shaping up. Arline seems perkier and her lips are pink again, instead of white (You can tell a lot about human health that way, like when a feline's nose is cold he's healthy).

The local Computer guy was Still Tied UP! Seems there was a lightning Strike at a big company in town and it fried all their computers. He said he was "Still wading though the rubble," and if we were in a hurry, Arline could try someone on line, so she did. AND they got the computer fixed! It only took them five gurus and three days! Guess it was really fouled up, huh?

I'm so happy now the printer is running again. I love watching the little thing inside shooting back and forth across the paper.  First thing she did was print out all the sales data, so I got to watch a long time...

Then something TERRIBLE happened. I heard loud noises on the roof. Now, personally, I haven't been up there, but once my sister was stuck up there three days and nights, because she climbed up the trellis and then was afraid to come down. 

I ran right out on the back porch (all windows out there yunno) and shingles and stuff were falling all over the ground. I thought I could hear people stomping around up there, too. Loud crashes and stuff kept falling....

Spunky and I ran right back inside. But we kept watch and listened hard. They must have known we were on the alert, because they didn't try to come inside. Then I heard Roger say something about a "New Roof!"

Don't you think he might have told US???

Please don't forget to let me know 

what you are all up to! 

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. 

  Thanks!

A Wickedly Good Read and a writing tip

by David Berardelli

Sexy, sassy and dead, Tiffany LeBouf is pulled into Hell by the incompetent demon Gutril. Paired with the demon Chip, she is sent to find Gutril after he is summoned to Ohio by a teenage girl goofing off with a spell she'd found online . They are given three days to find Gutril and bring him back before he can select a mortal host and remain here.

As a spirit, Tiffany finds that she has the ability to change her breast size at will and conjure up any outfits she desires. She also realizes that her new powers can keep her from being forced to return to Hell.

Hooks?

Question: I finally got someone whose writing I admire to read one of my stories.  He said, "Not bad, but it needs a better opening hook!" Handed it back and changed the subject. Any ideas on how to fix that? 

Answer: Opening hooks are always tricky. Usually, your best bet is to go ahead and write the story and worry about that opening hook when it's done. So the good news is that  you are in the best place to write one.

The first "hook" in a story usually foreshadows the central problem that will challenge the protagonist. A hook should raise a question in the mind of the reader that will be answered before the story is over. But not too soon before it's over. Hooks heighten reader interest, pure and simple. 

Witchy Read and a Witchy Recipe

By Marie Prato

   Nancy Krommer with her best friend Cindy goes to the fortune teller Ruth to see what the future holds for them. The "witch" tells the girls some disturbing things that she sees in their tea leaves. The predictions leave Nancy's mind reeling. 
   Could this "witch" with the cat eyes really see the future, or was it all just a hoax?

Shortbread Witches Fingers

Ingredients

• Food Lion
• 6 Washington St
• CAMBRIDGE, MD 21613

• Walgreens
• 640 Sunburst Hwy
• CAMBRIDGE, MD 21613

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 teaspoons milk
• 1/2 cup whole almonds
• 1 drop red food color
• 1 tbsp. rum
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp almond flavoring

Directions

1. 1. Mix red food coloring in 3 tablespoons of water and dip the whole almonds in it. Spread them on on waxed paper and allow them to dry as you prepare the dough.
2. 2.  Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl; with a pastry cutter, chop in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir the rum extract and almond extract into the water in a small bowl. Mix into the dry ingredients, a little bit at a time, until the mixture holds together in a ball when you squeeze it.
3. 3. Take a pinch of the dough and roll between your palms to make a long, round, finger-sized shape. Score with a paring knife to make knuckles on the finger. Press an almond at one end of the finger cookie, to form the fingernail. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets. Cover with a layer of plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
5. Bake the cookies just until the edges are lightly browned, 15 to 18 minutes. Allow to cool on sheets for 2 minutes before removing. 
6. Handle carefully to keep fingernails in place.  If they come off, you can glue them back with a small pinch of white icing. 
7. If you don't have canned icing on hand, you can make the glue by melting 3 tbsp butter in a microwave bowl and stir in enough confectioner's sugar to make a thick paste.
8. 
   

A Good Read and a Writing Tip on Reader Cues

by Mary Shelley

The product of a "Horror Weekend" spent telling ghostly tales together with Lord Byron and her husband, Percy Shelley, left 18-year-old Mary Shelley with the beginnings of the classic FRANKENSTEIN. Her tale of the doctor who builds a monster from dead body parts, is a classic.

Question from the e-mail:  People in my writing class say my work is confusing.  Any ideas why this should be so?

Answer: Usually, when readers feel confused, it's one of two things. Either the pronouns are unclear. Or there are too few reader cues. When I first started writng that was one of my own worst failings. I'd start a scene where the hero and heroine were discussing something important while she was hanging out the laundry in the sunny backyard. BUT I'd forget to tell them about the sunny back yard, on a remote Chesapeake Bay island, in 1894...

 Then, since didn't cue them where it was, they'd think up a place -- maybe even an indoor place--- and if a bird flew over they'd be startled right out of my story.

Check out the following example:

Look at the following paragraph taken from an early Mystery story that I later sold to Mike Shayne's Mystery Magazine -- after I fixed all this of course.

It was a warm and sunny day. He didn’t know what to do about it. Marsha should have known better. But the important thing was that Jerry wouldn’t ever find out what had happened. He was a made guy and he’d never liked him from the get-go.

After reading that, are you feeling confused? You should be. Take a second look. “It was a warm and sunny day.” Big deal. Where?  When? He (Who?) didn’t know what to do about it. (About what?) Marsha (who she?) Should have known better (than to what?). But the important thing was that Jerry (who is he?) wouldn’t ever find out what had happened. (What did happen?) He (who?) was a made guy (gangland slang and maybe obscure to some but possibly a present time story) he’d (who?) never really liked him (who else?) from the get-go. (Classic pronoun confusion. Do we have three different Hes, or To, or possibly three.)

Now try it again with the reader cues in bold type.

It was a warm and sunny day when Dick Ramsgate drove his sister Marsha’s Cadillac convertible off the fishing pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey. There it stood, fender deep in breakers and still looking classic. Dick sure didn’t know what to do. After last night at the crap tables, he didn’t even have enough money to hire a tow truck. (Who, when, and Where in the first paragraph to set the scene.)

He decided to wire Marsha for the money to get the car towed and fixed. She should have known better than to lend him the car in the first place. Marsha had known he was a screw-up all his life. The thing was to get the damn thing fixed so it looked okay. Because the really important thing was that her husband, Jerry, didn’t find out what had happened. Jerry’s name wasn’t Italian for nothing. He was a made guy and he’d never liked Dick from the get-go. (Problem Statement: what the characters in the story will have to deal with.)

A Ghostly Free Read and a Recipe

FREE! FREE! FREE!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

by Algernon Blackwood

A writer of ghostly tales that have been compared with Poe's brings us his best collection of ghostly doings.

EAASSYYY  Halloween Ghostly Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 (12 ounce) package white chocolate chips, or white morsels.
• 24 peanut-shaped peanut butter sandwich cookies

• 48 miniature chocolate chips
• Add all ingredients to list

Directions

Place white chocolate chips into a microwave-safe bowl and heat on low in microwave for 1 minute; stir. Continue heating on low several more times, 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each time, until white chocolate is warm and smooth and easy to spread.

1. Use 2 forks to dip cookies into white chocolate; set cookies on sheets of waxed paper. Place 2 miniature chocolate chips, or two half raisins, onto one end of each cookie for eyes; set cookies aside until coating has hardened, about 20 minutes.

Catching UP!

Books that went to press, or back to press this week:

Also there are still Computer Problems Galore!  The Guru is back from Vacation, but we have to wait while he fixes all those who are unable to work at all, BEFORE he can get to us. We will get Everything back Running Right ASAP!

PAYBACK: Kathy Sear and Greg Hawkins Series, Vol. 5, by  Michael Field
   During a routine prisoner transfer a dramatic prison escape by four hardened criminals shocks the law enforcement community. A review of their extensive criminal histories reveals they all have one thing in common – Pineview Detectives Greg Hawkins and Kathy Sear are responsible for them being incarcerated.

   The detectives suddenly find themselves in a unique situation as the hunters become the hunted. They are forced to match wits with not only the escaped prisoners but also those that assisted and carried out the prison break.

BOOTS AND THE BRANCH BOYS, by Marjorie K. Doughty

A period novel where Eleanor Hadley, better known as “Boots,” welcomes the “Branch Boys,” veterans from her Maryland home town, back from World War II. All of them have changed and many use alcohol to dull the pain from the devastation they’ve experienced.

Galleys that are out, or returned and waiting for final publication:

THE MURDER OF SECRETARY Judd KANE: Adventures on Capital Hill Series, Vol. 2, by Celine Rose Mariotti

   Second in the popular political thriller series.

Work began or continued on the following:

The Kid Who Wasn't There, by C. M. Albrecht

Jonas gets in pretty deep with a powerful talk show hostess, a mobster and art dealers and a very big Navajo, not to mention a lot of women who try to make him forget he's a happily married man with two children at home, and his troubles extend to home too. Life can be tough!

MEDIC 1260, Volunteer Series Vol. 4, by Tom Ward.

   Doyle and his paramedic friends are back on the road to adventure as they give Volunteer medical assistance to people in their small Pensylvania Town.  

WENDELL & TYLER: WE'RE OFF! by James Kincaid

    Even their guidebook – Worst Places to Eat, Wackiest Roadside Attractions, and Don’t Go Here! – offer no guidance. These two sixteen-year-olds are off on a summer-long road trip, from Los Angeles to Atlanta, without any clear idea what they are doing, what they might run into, what they might discover.

 Toby Martin: Private Eye, by Barbara Grengs  

   The sixth (and last) in the popular Toby  Martin Mystery series. Toby is a real P.I. now and also still has aspirations of being a writer.

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 bookstore cat, 
and gossip columnist!

I was so happy to hear from my feline friends Lucy and Darby who live with Elizabeth Eagan-Cox high in the California Mountains, east of L.A. They are both Lap-cats and sent me book reviews.  Lucy gave Elizabeth  the idea for the ghost cat in her book A Ghost of Brother Jonathan's.  See above.

 (Just scroll on down to the next blog for the reviews if you missed them!) 

I took Darby's advice on the action-adventure story and finished it Last Night! Boy, that was a great read! I do think the author could have thought up a more warrior-type name for him, though. Puss? I ask you? How creative is that? My own name is Jack Dempsey and he was a famous warrior in his day.  When I was reading, I pictured Puss more like this:

Meanwhile, here at home,  Arline is still stumbling around and getting out of breath if she walks more than up and down the hall. But she still says she feels better. I'm not so sure of that. She gave me treats 3 times last night (Every time I asked!) and she NEVER does that because, as you know, I am on a diet! So I'm sure her concentration is not back up to snuff.

She DID call the computer man, but he said that if it works at all, we have to wait! "People who are 'Blackscreen' come first." Mmmm. Must be a new virus. I have to admit our Electronic Box IS functioning after a fashion, but he's being VERY uncooperative...Even the printer won't work!

Please don't forget to let me know 

what you are all up to! 

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. 

  Thanks!