Books Versus the Budget
The Virginia Festival of the Book is coming up next week. This primo 5-day gathering of all kinds of people who love books is near and dear to my heart because, until this year, we were the bookseller for Crime Wave. That’s a programming track dedicated to mystery and there are always a great group of authors who spend the day at panels and signings, usually thoroughly entrenching themselves in the hearts of their fans.
We’re all suffering these days from this neverendingly wretched economy and the Virginia state government is no exception. Still, our General Assembly wants to cut funding for the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, host of the festival and many other fine projects during the year, possibly eliminating ALL funding.
Last year’s festival drew more than 20,000 people for the sixth straight year and many of those came from outside the state and spent lots of money while they were here. The foundation receives some generous donations from private citizens and corporate donors but, without state funding, which is 40% of its total funding, it just can’t offer the festival or, at least, not in its current form. I know we, the taxpayers, have to find ways to reduce state and local expenses but we will pay a terrible cost if we lose such a fine literary event that appeals to all ages and does so much to encourage reading and literacy. Not only that, but the foundation fosters tourism throughout the state and helps make our communities attractive to businesses and their employees.
Virginia is certainly not the only state facing unpopular budget cuts in cultural programs but I think we need to remember that, without literacy and the arts and music and dance, we’re all very much poorer as a society. I’m a believer in less government, not more, and I can understand the need to reduce some of the public funding for the Foundation but ALL of it?? In the boom times, we (through our representatives) spent like drunken sailors and that clearly has to stop but we need to find a way to keep such a fine event as the Virginia Festival of the Book.
March 11, 2010
Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller 
No Comments
It’s Coming! It’s Coming!
With the ridiculous weather we’ve had this winter, we all need to treat ourselves to something fun and RavenCon is just the ticket. Coming up the weekend of April 9th, this is an inexpensive way to have a good time, whether you’re a single, a couple or a bus-sized family. Geared mostly to fantasy and science fiction fans, it also appeals to horror and mystery afficionados, and you don’t have to be a regular con-goer to enjoy participating.
We’ve been the new book dealer in the Dealers Room since RavenCon started (hard to believe this is #4) and we’re thrilled to be part of it again even though we had to close our storefront last fall. This year, we have a crop of great returning writers and some nifty new ones, especially one of our favorite adult/young adult crossover fantasy authors, Guest of Honor Rachel Caine. Ms. Caine has three current series as well as numerous other novels and short stories in some of the urban fantasy world’s most popular anthologies. If you’ve never tried her, you’ll love her!
In the author realm, besides those published by the bigger houses and thus easy to find, you’ll also see 
many who are self-published and with small independent publishers. You’ll come across old favorites as well as the newly published; perhaps the best is the author who has been visible to you for years while she or he has been working on that novel that is now, FINALLY, published. The excitement rolling off that writer is palpable and infectious. Just think, you can say “I knew her when she first started out.” That copy of her first book you just bought at RavenCon 2010 will someday be a collectible and you’ll be able to talk about the time you spent with her while she signed it 
RavenCon is one of the best small cons because it IS small. You’ll run into everybody you want to see sooner or later and, in the meantime, have a great time at the panels, in the gaming room, at the masquerade, on and on. An added bonus—this year is the first at a new location, the Holiday Inn Koger Center. I know from conferences during a past career that this hotel knows how to host something like this and I’m really looking forward to being there.
Don’t Miss It!
RavenCon 2010
March 10, 2010
Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller No Comments
Write What You Know—and Know What You Write
Rabbi Ilene Schneider, Ed.D. one of the first six women ordained as a rabbi in the U.S., is Coordinator of Jewish Hospicefor Samaritan Hospice in Marlton, NJ, near Philadelphia. She is the author of Chanukah Guilt (Swimming Kangaroo Books, 2007), the first in a series of cozy mysteries featuring Rabbi Aviva Cohen, and of the non-fiction Talk Dirty Yiddish: Beyond Drek: The Curses, Slang, and Street Lingo You Need to Know When You Speak Yiddish (Adams Media, 2008). She lives in Marlton with her husband of over 30 years and their two sons.
Ilene can be found at Rabbi Aviva Cohen Mysteries and at www.facebook.com/rabbi.author
I have a lot of pet peeves: young women in spiked heels and miniskirts who park in handicap spots; spiked heels; miniskirts; young women who can wear spiked heels and miniskirts; clothes that need to be ironed; toilet paper that rolls under instead of over; spending a lot of money to see a critically acclaimed movie only to realize partway through that I wouldn’t watch it for free on TV; finding out that the shipping and handling charges cost more than the item I want to buy; clothing in petite lengths that still need to be hemmed; mosquito bites; exercise; trying to figure out Amazon’s rankings; discovering that Trader Joe’s has stopped carrying one of my favorites. You know, the usual.
March 9, 2010
Posted in: Guest Blogs 8 Comments
A Night at the Movies
Saw Zombieland again last night, on DVD this time. What a great movie, just as good this time as it was in the theater. Who knew a zombie movie could be so clever, so downright funny?
Some of my favorite parts—
Tallahassee’s eternal search for Twinkies
The homage to the shoot-out at the OK Corral when Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson)
The shout-out to Stephen King with Columbus’s fear of clowns
Columbus’s claim that he had sex in the back of a FedEx truck with a girl named Beverly Hills
The twanging of “Dueling Banjos” in the grocery store, again in the search for Twinkies
Abigail Breslin and Emma Stone as a 12-year-old con artist and her sister
Thank God for rednecks!
Puppy love
Sister Cynthia Knickerbocker and her zombie kill of the week
Bill Murray playing the part of…Bill Murray
Bill Murray’s death rattle–inhale–death rattle
Double Tap
An apparently endless supply of ammunition
It had to be a clown, a zombie clown at that
The continuing search for Twinkies
A little sunscreen never hurt anybody
Now, I ask you—how could the powers that be not nominate this for an Oscar? At the very least, shouldn’t it get one for visual effects or makeup? And, hey, what about the writers? At least it was nominated for Best Comedy movie by the Broadcast Film Critics Association. See, even the critics loved this movie!
March 7, 2010
Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller No Comments
Review: The Hunchback Assignments
The Hunchback Assignments
Arthur Slade
Narrated by Jayne Entwistle
Listening Library, 2009
ISBN 0739380206
Unabridged Audio Book
Modo is an abandoned child in Victorian London, a child with such a fearsome appearance that no one could possibly care for him. Mr. Socrates, though, a mysterious gentleman of means, takes Modo in and raises him in a somewhat aloof fashion but with a purpose in mind. A governess and a man with martial skills are his only companions and teachers but the approval of Mr. Socrates is of utmost importance to Modo.
Besides the education and training he has received, Modo has learned to develop and control, to a certain extent, his unusual physical powers. Unwilling to let the world see his face, he wears a mask, but he also has the ability to transform his appearance for brief periods. This ability is of special importance when he is suddenly forced to fend for himself as a test of his readiness to take his place as a spy at the age of 14 for the Permanent Association, secretive defenders of Queen Victoria and Great Britain. Fend for himself he does, finding that he can support himself as a detective, and thus he meets a client, Miss Octavia Milkweed, and embarks on a most unusual case.
The Hunchback Assignments UK Cover
Technically, this is young adult fiction, but many elements make it very appealing to an older reader who will recognize many of the literary shout-outs. A combination of steampunk, fantasy, mystery, espionage and action adventure lead to great fun and the villainous Clockworld Guild, with the mad scientist Dr. Hyde and his dastardly invention, may prove to be an ongoing adversary for Modo, Octavia and the Permanent Association.
I thoroughly enjoyed this and will look forward to future installments; I wish Mr. Slade would write faster. I do have to say he has a terrific website (see the link above) and this is one time I think the UK and US covers are equally cool. Also, Jayne Entwistle, already one of my favorite narrators, has done a great job again.
Very highly recommended for young adults and adults.
Reviewed by Lelia Taylor.
March 6, 2010
Tags: action adventure, espionage, fantasy, mystery, steampunk, young adult Posted in: My Reviews No Comments
The Chilly South
Last week’s vacation in Florida, with an overnight in Savannah, was really nice but not exactly what we expected. The areas we went to were beautiful and, except for one day, the sun was bright. Unfortunately, it was also downright cold in Florida. Well, cold compared to what Florida should be like in the winter.
March 5, 2010
Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller No Comments
Review: The Breach
The Breach
Patrick Lee
Harper, January 2010
ISBN 9780061584459
Mass Market Paperback
Travis Chase has a past, a prison sentence served for deeds that deserved the conviction, although some might say he had justification for his behavior at the end. Whatever the case, he has come to the Alaskan wilderness for the solitude that may help him make some decisions about the direction the rest of his life should take. He’s not alone in the backcountry, though, and the sounds he wasn’t sure he heard three nights earlier have crystallized at the sight before him, the crashed Boeing 747 in the valley below. This is not just any 747; this one is full of executed people and carried a very special passenger who left an ominous message before she died.
Paige Campbell has a past, too, as an member of an agency charged with protecting possibly the biggest secret in mankind’s history. Spared the bullets of the executioners, she has spent hours being tested physically and psychologically and her resistance means time may be running out. Paige holds the key to everything that has happened on the plane and to what the future might hold.
A book club I belong to discusses mysteries based on themes rather than choosing a specific book each month. Not long ago, the theme was “Kept You Up All Night”, meaning you were compelled to keep reading to the end. I had no trouble coming up with a choice once I started The Breach. The sheer intensity of the story literally kept me up all night and Patrick Lee has, in my opinion, established himself with his debut as a premier thriller writer. Few have grabbed my attention the way he did and the tension on nearly every page is memorable. Fans of thrillers, suspense and science fiction should run to the nearest bookstore to get this.
The Breach will be on my list of best books of 2010.
Reviewed by Lelia Taylor.
March 3, 2010
Tags: science fiction, suspense, thriller Posted in: My Reviews No Comments
How I Got into Crime Writing: Where Lou Allin Goes, Murder Follows
Lou Allin is the author of the Belle Palmer mysteries set in Northern Ontario, ending with Memories are Murder. Now living on Vancouver Island with her border collies and mini-poodle, she is working on a new series where the rainforest meets the sea. On the Surface Die and She Felt No Pain feature RCMP Corporal, Holly Martin, in charge of a small detachment near Victoria. In 2010 Lou will debut That Dog Won’t Hunt, a novella in Orca’s Raven Reads editions for adults with literacy issues. Her website is www.louallin.com and she may be reached at louallin@shaw.ca.
On a purely personal note from this blog owner, sincere congratulations to the Canadians for their outstanding performance in the 2010 Olympics!
At dawn on June 5, 1955, my tenth birthday, my mother shook me from innocent sleep. “Wake up, Louise. Georgia’s been shot.”
In a pedestrian but poignant gesture of hospitality, she sent me on my fat-tired Schwinn bike to the store for a pound of bacon, a special treat. Georgia’s parents would be arriving for breakfast.
Georgia Babcock was a kindergarten teacher at my mother’s school. Leonard, a nurse, was her husband. A suspicious profession for a man in those benighted days, but perhaps he had been a medic in the Korean War. They came for dinner once, had a demure drink each, and gave us an heirloom silver cream-and-sugar set that had been in Leonard’s “old Southern” family. Read the rest of this post »
March 2, 2010
Posted in: Guest Blogs 2 Comments
Catty News 2
Author Sandra Parshall, a long-time friend of Creatures ‘n Crooks, has a new book out (see Wendi Chapman’s review here: Broken Places ). If you’ve never read Sandy’s books, you’ve cheated yourself; if you used to come in the store, you’ve really missed a special treat in Broken Places.
Sandy herself tells the tale in her blog post How Mr. Piggles Rewrote My Book on Poe’s Deadly Daughters (which, by the way, is a blog you ought to read on a regular basis if you’re into mysteries). Animals played a significant role in the writing of the story and our own wonderful Hamilton, furry lord of all he surveyed, was part of that. Sandy has a great picture of Hammie on her post, a picture I have lifted so I can share it with you here.
Isn’t he just the handsomest fella?
Now go get Broken Places so you can enjoy Hamilton’s foray into fiction—not his first but certainly his most intriguing—and add Sandra Parshall to your list of must-have authors while you’re at it.
March 1, 2010
Tags: mystery Posted in: Hamilton, Tales of a Bookseller No Comments
Looking for Some Leads
I’ve been thinking lately about some folks I’d like to interview for Buried Under Books, authors but also some other folks like agents and publicists. It might also be nice to interview some people that have nothing to do with the book world except that they are readers—that’s practically a must or they wouldn’t even know who we are, you and me, book addicts extraordinaire. So, I’m throwing the question—questions, actually—out to you.
1. Who would you like to have me interview? Be reasonable, please. Stephen King is not going to while away an afternoon with me.
2. What are the questions you’d like to have answered? You can suggest as many or as few as you’d like.
3. Think of someone else who’s been interviewed before but the one question you were dying to know about wasn’t asked. Who is that person and what is the question?
4. Would you like to be an interviewee? Why? (Don’t be shy; everybody is interesting in some way!)
Leave your comments below or, if you prefer, email me at cncbooks1@gmail.com and we’ll see what mayhem we can cause 
February 28, 2010
Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller One Comment
Loading ...
