FREE STUFF!

JENN McKINLAY: As you can see, we are giving away SEVEN books to one lucky reader! Click this link – GIVEAWAY – to enter to win the six books shown plus one mystery book! FREE BOOKS, ya’ll, does it get any better? No, it does not!

Now being a thrifty sort, I LOVE free stuff. When I was younger (read poorer), I took everything that was offered to me that had the right price of FREE. This is why I have an upright piano in my house that, once the Hooligans stopped taking lessons, no one has played except Hooligan 1’s Plus 1 when she visits and I adore her for that! Now that I am older and more discerning, I curate the freebies that I accept such as my in-laws gorgeous dining set from Copenhagen – yes, please, and thank you! Other stuff, not so much.

How about you, Reds, how do you feel about free stuff?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: It’s like, gift with purchase. SO irresistible, even if we know i’;s not a gift!  Or the points we get at CVS. I know they make the stuff more expensive (my opinion at least) so it’s a wash for them, but oooh, free points so I can get free stuff.  Airline miles, too, so fabulous.  (I cannot bring myself to use them, though, and have no idea what I’m saving them FOR, which is annoying. ) And all those little bookish trinkets we get at conferences–I have so many canvas bags! And pens.  But..they were FREE! 

Anyway! We are so happy with all of you that we decided to have some summertime fun and offer YOU free stuff!  And we’re thinking we’ll do this again.That’s why you’ll see on the entry form that we’re calling it a quarterly giveaway.

LUCY BURDETTE:  Hank, I do not get those CVS points, do not understand how to use those at all. So I just throw the receipts in the trash. Airline points are tricky because it’s very seldom you can actually use them. I encourage John to use them when he’s going somewhere with multiple flights like skiing from Key West. One thing I do adore is free books! Particularly something I desperately want to read anyway. We hope you will feel that way about this giveaway! And by the way, come to the Reds and readers Facebook page and chat about Jenn’s Hallmark debut, Thursday, July 30! I can’t wait…

HANK: Lucy, you throw those receipts in the trash? Even if they say Extra Bucks? Nooooooo.. And yes, free books. The total scourge. How can anyone resist?

HALLIE EPHRON, who is still trying to give away an upright piano (no takers) that my kids learned to play on. No takers.

CVS coupon deals? Meh. Every time I go to CVS I try to use one of those deals (25% OFF ON YOUR NEXT PURCHASE!!) and it turns out whatever I’m shopping for doesn’t qualify. 

Having said that, I love it when the grocery store offers two avocados or mangos or cucumbers for the price of one. But two 5-pound bags of potatoes? They’ll sprout before go through them. Still, I take that “free” extra bag and drop it in the food donation bin on my way out of the store. 

RHYS BOWEN : The one I don’t get. But one pair of shoes get the second free. Who needs two pairs of identical shoes? In my early marriage/ raising a family days I loved  free stuff. Who  else collected Green Stamps? They paid for kids Christmas presents. These days I’m happy to pay. I do get and use airline miles. I’ve books trips to Europe for several family members on my miles. I currently have 249,0000 miles on AA. 

 

I don’t claim most freebies. I feel other people need free stuff more than me  But I do love a bargain!

JENN: I am also a flyer miles collector. Love upgrading my seat to one with legroom every chance I get!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Ditto here on the CVS points. I am just annoyed by all the extra paper added to my receipt. Airline miles, on the other hand, have made trips to London and back much more comfortable over the years. I will take those upgrades, although they're not exactly "free" these days, even with mileage.

Otherwise, I'm not so big on free stuff these days. I'm trying to get rid of stuff, not add to it!

 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I adore free stuff (well, except for the $15,000 cat.) I occasionally have dreams where I get to go through some sort of thrift shop and take anything I want. Seriously, I don't know what that says about me, but I do. My first time at the American Booksellers Conference in NY, I took EVERY advance reader copy I thought I might be remotely interested in - and then had to stagger back to my hotel from the Javits Center carrying approximately 500 pounds of books, sine there wasn't a cab to be had anywhere.

 

I have learned since then. Like the rest of you, I've gotten a lot more picky as the count-of-items-owned has increased but my storage space has not. It's still a delight, but it has to 1) actually be worth it (do I want to spend the money on the skin are to get the "free" gift-with-purchase) and something I need (buy-one-get-one-free is my trip-up here.) 

 

I'm still a sucker for free books, though... 

Your turn, Readers, where do you stand on free stuff?

AIR TIME and TWO fabulous giveaways!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: It's "What We're Writing" week--as you could see from Susan's wonderful post about Paris yesterday. And we'll be talking about, well, what we're writing, and what we're thinking, and what's happening in writing world.  First, four things.

One: Hurray! WHAT YOU SEE is nominated for the Anthony for Best Novel! I am so thrilled!

Two:  Tell us--if you're writing--what YOU're writing! Published, not published, we'd love to hear.

Three: at the bottom of this post is a wonderful giveaway from my dear and talented pal Andrew Gross. This is--amazing.  Readers, you MUST enter--all you have to do is click.

And four--my dear AIR TIME is coming out on June 14. The level with which I love AIR TIME beyond description  Here's the beginning of the book. (Is this completely fiction? What do you think?)  

Do you have to read the TIME books in order? Nope. As Sue Grafton says: "Sassy, fast-paced and appealing! This is first-class entertainment!}

 (And make sure you scroll down to the big giveaway!)

And--have you had any travel trouble recently? Are you traveling this summer?  A copy of AIR TIME to one lucky commenter!


AIR TIME

 Chapter 1

It’s never a good thing when the flight attendant is crying. Franklin, strapped into the seat beside me, his seat back and tray table in the full upright position, headphones on and deep into Columbia Journalism Review, doesn’t notice her tears. But I do.

She’s wearing a nametag that says Tracy, a navy blue pencil skirt, a bow-tied striped scarf, flat-heeled pumps and dripping mascara. We’re sitting on the Baltimore airport tarmac, still attached to the jetway, a full fifteen minutes past our scheduled takeoff for Boston and home. And Tracy’s crying.

I nudge Franklin with my elbow and tilt my head toward her. “Franko, check it out.”

Only Franklin’s eyes move as, with a sigh, he glances up from under his new wire-rimmed glasses. Then, without a word, he slowly closes his CJR and finally looks at me. I can see he’s as unnerved as I am. His eyes question, and I have the only answer a television reporter can give. 

“Get your cell,” I whisper. “Turn it on.”

“But, Charlotte—” he begins.

He’s undoubtedly going to tell me some Federal Aviation Administration rule about not using cell phones in flight. Like any successful television producer, Franklin always knows all the rules. Like any successful television reporter, I’m more often about breaking them. If it could mean a good story.

“We’re not in flight,” I whisper. “We haven’t budged on this runway. But one of us—you—is going to get video of what ever it is that’s going on here. The other—me—is going to call the assignment desk back at Channel 3 and see if they know what the heck is happening at this airport.”

I look out my window. Nothing. I look back up at Tracy, who’s now huddling with her colleagues in the galley a few rows in front of us. Their coiffed heads are bent close together and one has a comforting arm around another’s shoulders. The faces I can see look concerned. One looks up and catches me staring. She swipes a tapestry curtain across the aisle, blocking my view.

Part of me is, absurdly, relieved that our takeoff is delayed. I hate takeoffs. I hate landings. I hate flying. And if something terrible has happened, all I can say is, I’m not surprised.

But I have to find out if there’s a story here. Maybe Tracy just has some sort of a personal problem and I’m making breaking news out of a broken heart. I yank my bag from under the seat in front of me and slide out my own cell phone. Bending double so my phone is buried in my lap, I pretend to sneeze to cover the tim-tee-tum sound of it powering up, then sneeze again to make it more convincing. As I’m contemplating sneeze three, I hear my call to the assignment desk connect.

“It’s me. Charlie,” I whisper. I pause, closing my eyes in annoyance at the response. “Charlie McNally. The reporter? Is this an intern?” I pause again, picturing a newbie twenty-something in over her head. Me, twenty-two years ago. Twenty-three, maybe. I start again, calm. Taking the snark out of my voice. “It’s Charlotte McNally, the investigative reporter? Give me Roger, please.” I glance at the curtain to the galley. Still closed. “Right now.”

Franklin’s up and in the aisle, holding his cell phone as if it’s off as he pretends to take a casual stroll toward the galley curtains. I know he’s got video rolling. I know his phone has a ten-minute photo capacity, and he’s done this so many times he can click it off and on without looking. Talk about a hidden camera. Our fellow passengers will only see an attractive thirty-something black guy in a preppy pink oxford shirt checking out the flight attendants. I see Franklin Brooks Parrish, my faithful producer, getting the shots we need. Whatever is happening—all caught on camera. Exclusive.

“Roger Zelinsky.” The night assignment editor’s Boston accent makes it Rah- jah. “What’s up, C?”

“We’re in Baltimore, on the way home from the National Journalism Convention,” I say, still doubled over into my lap and whispering. Luckily Franklin and I had an empty seat between us. A hidden camera is one thing— a hidden forbidden conversation on a cell phone is another. “We’re at the airport. In a plane. On the tarmac.”

“So?” Roger replies.

“Exactly,” I say. “That’s what I’m trying to fi nd out.” I give him the short-version scoop on the tears, the delay, the closed curtain. 

Franklin’s now made it to the galley, his phone camera nonchalantly pointed at the spot where the curtain would open. But it hasn’t opened. Maybe Tracy broke up with the pilot. Maybe they don’t have enough packages of peanuts. Maybe someone decided to smoke in the bathroom.

Then, even through the fuzzy phone connection, I hear all hell break loose at Channel 3. Strapped in and surrounded by passengers and pillows and carry-on bags, on Flight 632 there’s only the muted sounds of passengers muttering, speculating. But about five hundred miles away, in a Boston television newsroom, bells are ringing and alarms are going off . I know it’s the breaking news signal. The Associated Press is banging out a hot story. I bet it’s centered right here. And any second, I’m gonna know the scoop in Baltimore.

 “Runway collision. Two planes. A 737 and some commuter jet. Cessna. I’m reading from the wires, hang on.” Roger’s voice is now urgent.

 I can picture him, eyes narrowed, racing through the information coming through on his computer. Bulletins appear one or two sentences at a time and with every new addition more alert bells ping. “No casualty count yet. One plane taxiing toward takeoff, one on the ground.”

“The little plane,” I begin. “How many— was it— which—”

“Don’t know,” Roger replies. Terse. The bell pings again and our connection breaks up a bit. “Fire engines,” he says.

I’ve got to get off this plane. I’ve got to get into the terminal. This story is big, it’s breaking, and I’m ready to handle it.

“Call you asap,” I whisper, interrupting. “I’m getting out of here.”

HANK: So--tell us what you're writing. Tell us about your travel troubles--and I'll pick a winner.

And don't forget--here's Andrew Gross's giveaway! (Click on Andrew's name) Can you believe how great it is?

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November - for Julia's New Book!

 

RHYS BOWEN: Here at Jungle Red we're jumping for joy, tooting our horns, waving flags and generally behaving with extreme excitement because today, November 5th, Guy Fawkes Day back in England, celebrates the release of Red Julia's new book. So I'm handing the floor over to her to tell you all about it.

 

 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING:  I'm spasming with excitement because finally, finally, THROUGH THE EVIL DAYS is available in stores and online! Here's the cover copy:

     On a frigid January night, Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne and Reverend Clare Fergusson are called to the scene of a raging fire. The extent of the tragedy isn't known until the next day, when the charred remains of a man and woman are recovered—along with evidence showing they were shot execution style.

     The last thing Russ needs are two potential homicides. He's struggling with the prospect of impending fatherhood, and his new wife is not at all happy with his proposal for their long-delayed honeymoon: a week ice-fishing at a remote Adirondack lake.

     St. Alban's Church is still in turmoil over the Reverend Clare Fergusson's news that she's five and a half months pregnant—but only two and a half months married. Worried her post-deployment drinking and drug use may have damaged the baby, she awaits the outcome of the bishop's investigation into her "unpriestly" behavior: a scolding, censure, or permanent suspension.

     Officer Hadley Knox is having a miserable January as well. Her on-again, off-again lover, Kevin Flynn, has seven days to weigh an offer from the Syracuse Police Department that might take him half a state away. And her ex-husband's in town—threatening to take custody of their kids unless Hadley pays him off with money she doesn't have.

     When Hadley discovers that the dead couple fostered an eight-year-old girl who was a recent liver donee, the search for the killer takes on a new and terrible urgency. With no access to immunosuppressant drugs, transplant rejection will kill the girl in a matter of days.

     As a deadly ice storm downs power lines and immobilizes roads, Russ and Clare search desperately for the truth about the missing child, but the hunters will become the hunted when they are trapped in the cabin beside the frozen lake and stalked through the snowbound woods by a killer.

I'm in Pawleys Island, SC today, appearing at Litchfield Books, and I'll be on the move for the next two weeks, visiting Massachusetts, Houston, Michigan, Chicago, Arizona, New York and of course, Maine. You can find my whole book tour at my website and under the Events section of my Facebook.  To celebrate, let's go all Oprah around here and give away three hot-off-the-presses hardcovers of THROUGH THE EVIL DAYS to three lucky commentors! You get a book! And you get a book! And you get a book!

Can't make it to one of my signings? No problem - my friends at WCSH TV have a great interview with me and anchor/207 host Rob Caldwell. (By the way, if you think my outfit looks good, you can thank Hank - she gave me tips on what to wear on TV!) And thanks to all my sister Reds and our Honorary Red community for the encouragement and support - during the 50 weeks a year when I'm not touring, writing is a lonely profession. It's beyond great to have friends for this daily kaffeklatch (with bodies.)

For those if you in the UK: THROUGH THE EVILS DAYS is being released today from Headline Publishing! Yes, all eight of the Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series are now available in the UK. So grab a light and a few of your friends and head down to your local bookshop to pick up a copy today!

I believe these are eager Britons marching to Waterstones to demand THROUGH THE EVIL DAYS.

Good news, fabulous awards, and TWO irresistible contests!

Deborah Crombie: Lots of news this week! Yesterday, you heard about my daughter’s engagement, and Rhys’s son… (not to each other!) and thank you for all your advice. More Jungle Red news this week, the paperback of Red Hank’s much-lauded (Mary Higgins Clark winner! Anthony, Agatha, Daphne and Shamus nominee!) THE OTHER WOMAN is out!

 Hank: Thank you Debs! Yes, and you know one of the Red’s credos is “celebrate everything.” This is such a big one for me…I am so thrilled I am brazenly telling everyone about it. (Funny about paperbacks…you get to make changes from the hardcover if you want...I made ONE. But I’m not telling what it is. If you discover it, Reds, okay then, you’ll get a prize. But really—it’s no biggie.) 

Debs: Speaking of prizes… 

 Hank: Well, yeah. To celebrate summer reading, I couldn’t resist coming up with some irresistible (!) contests not only for the arrival of THE OTHER WOMAN in paperback, but the brand new THE WRONG GIRL, which is coming out in hardcover this fall! So here’s the scoop…and then see below for one more contest—just for you, Reds readers!


Did we mention:n
THE OTHER WOMAN—now in paperback
Good news, fabulous awards, and TWO irresistible contests!



    
GOOD NEWS
The paperback version of THE OTHER WOMAN is here! But wait, there's more—it includes the first three chapters of THE WRONG GIRL. (Tess Gerritsen says: "Riveting!" And Linwood Barclay says: THE WRONG GIRL has all the right stuff!") Keep reading for the irresistible contests!
    
FABULOUS AWARDS
Yes, this is the iconic Mary Higgins Clark—she presented THE OTHER WOMAN and me with the incredibly prestigious MHC award during Edgar Week.

THE OTHER WOMAN is also an Anthony, Agatha, Shamus and Daphne nominee—the only book to be nominated for all four.

    
IRRESISTIBLE CONTEST NUMBER ONE! Just send me proof you bought THE OTHER WOMAN in paperback...and you'll be entered to win your choice of a Kindle Paperwhite, a Nook Simpletouch, or a $100 gift certificate to the bookstore of your choice! (Oh, okay, three winners!) And hey, if you already have the hard cover of THE OTHER WOMAN, you could use your paperback for the beach or vacation or a gift for a friend.
ORDER THE OTHER WOMAN:
   

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#HANKONTOUR!
Hope to see you this summer and fall—watch for Facebook and Twitter invitations to meet me and THE OTHER WOMAN and THE WRONG GIRL at a bookstore or library near you.
Check the entire schedule here.

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SAVE THE DATE
And mark your calendars—save the date September 10! That's when THE WRONG GIRL goes public at Brookline Booksmith! Come celebrate with delicious treats and special loot. Hope to see you there.

---

WATCH THIS
Here's a fun video from BookBliss taped at BEA—with all the scoop on THE WRONG GIRL.

---

    
IRRESISTIBLE CONTEST NUMBER TWO!
Can you pre-order THE WRONG GIRL right now? Well, of course! And proof of pre-order (print book or Macmillan audiobook version) enters you in a very special drawing—to have a character named after you in the next Jane Ryland adventure! (Told you it was irresistible!) It's a fun (and legal) way to put yourself in the middle of a murder mystery.
ORDER THE WRONG GIRL:
   

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Debs: Thanks, Hank.   Sounds terrific...and we wish you all the best.

Hank: Aw. Thank you. 

Debs:  So you said: one more contest?

Hank: Yes, indeed! One lucky Reds commenter will win an ARC of THE WRONG GIRL!  So let’s see--tell us:  are you taking any wonderful vacations his summer? Or happily staying home? 

And thank you again, dear Reds, for everything…

Getting into the Game: a guest blog by Sara J. Henry

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING:  It won't come as a surprise to anyone who reads my writing to find out I;m always on the look-out for a good book set in the Adirondacks. Which is how I stumbled across Sara J. Henry. I had read some excellent reviews of her debut novel, Learning to Swim, and upon realizing it took place in the Adirondacks, I snatched it up. 

Reader, I loved it. I wasn't the only one, either; Learning to Swim was nominated for the Barry and Macavity awards and won the Anthony, Agatha and Mary Higgins Clark awards. Hoping to ride on her coattails, I asked if I could blurb the sequel, A Cold and Lonely Place. (When it, too, picks up a bunch of award nominations, I figure Sara will be good to stand me a few drinks.)

Sara's here today to answer the one question I didn't get a chance to ask her when we met at Bouchercon: how does a nice girl from Tennessee wind up writing about the North Country?

It took exactly twelve weeks to decide I wanted to make a living writing – the twelve weeks I spent working as a soil scientist in Gainesville, Florida. I was twenty, with a boss who told me every Friday, “Only thirty-five years to retirement.” Maybe that was his way of hinting that this was not the career for me (kids, the career that seems fun in college may not be anything close to fun when you’re doing it forty hours a week, in a hot Florida town where the clay layer doesn’t kick in until eighty inches, which is how deep you have to dig to map soils.)

Time for a new plan.

I got a column in the local paper, and started journalism graduate school. After a series of part-time newspaper jobs, I turned to the ads in the back of Editor & Publisher. One week I applied for jobs as farm editor, religion editor, and sports editor – all of which I was equally unqualified for.

One editor responded, from a tiny newspaper in a tiny town in the Adirondacks in upstate New York. I arrived for my interview in what seemed the dead of winter, stepping off the small plane at a tiny airport into a world that was white as far as the eye could see. It was cold in a way I’d never experienced.

They offered me the job as sports editor.

I took it.

Never mind that this was an area where sports were big – with three high schools, two community colleges, softball teams, three-day sled dog races, canoe races, Winter Carnival competitions, rugby tournaments. With the Olympic Center nearby, there was luge, bobsled, biathlon, ski jumping, horse show competition, boxing, triathlon. And more.

It was my job to cover them all.

Never mind that my sports experience was limited to competing in bicycle and running races, and writing a string of sports features. I’d been to exactly one college football game.

I worked the way you can work only when you’re in your twenties and have already flubbed one career and don’t want to flub another. I bought a book that detailed the rules of various sports. I went from event to event, shooting hockey from the penalty box, basketball from under the hoop, football from the sidelines. With this many sports to cover, understanding the nuances of game play was neither possible nor necessary. I took a lot of photos, got quotes from coaches, and spelled names right. I worked nearly around the clock, coming in at 3 am on Monday morning to write features and develop film and lay out my pages. Nearing deadline, the press room guys would stare at me through the window in the door while I hustled through my last page.

.

Winters were brutal. Bit by bit I assembled an essential wardrobe – wool-lined Sorel boots, long johns, insulated gloves, head warmer, wool hat, thick coat. I learned to carry cardboard to stand on at outside events for insulation. I kept a sleeping bag in the car in case I got stranded. I put a lot of miles on my car and shot a lot of film. I discovered coffee. I ate on the run. I was thinner than I’d ever been.

I loved it.

Toward the end of my second year someone sent one of my bobsled articles to a magazine that reprinted it and sent me a check that was more than I earned in a week. Light dawned. I couldn’t keep up this pace and didn’t want to cut corners, so not too much later I resigned to write freelance write. Then after a few years, I went off to other places, to work at magazines, at other papers, as a book editor.

But I never forgot this place I loved, and the people who made me feel I belonged for the first time in my life.

So when I sat down to write a novel, years later, this was where it had to be set.
 

Location, location, location. It's as important for a novel as it is for real estate. What are your stand-out settings in fiction, dear Readers? What sort of settings do you love to read about? And has a new place ever made itself home in your own life? One lucky commenter will win a copy of A Cold and Lonely Place!

Sara’s first novel, Learning to Swim, won the Anthony and Agatha awards for best first novel and the Mary Higgins Clark award. Its sequel is A Cold and Lonely Place (Crown, Feb. 5, 2013), which Howard Frank Mosher describes as “a character-driven thriller set in one of the coldest and loneliest places in the United States: the Adirondack Mountains in mid-winter.” (Publishers Weekly refers to “Henry's bone-deep sense of this terribly beautiful place,” and Booklist says the book “perfectly conjures the lure of living in a small and beautiful mountain town during a bitterly cold winter.” Which makes the author very happy.)

You can read excerpts of Sara's books at her website, friend her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter as @SaraJHenry. She blogs at Sara in Vermont.

You're invited to a Cinco de Mayo party!

ROSEMARY HARRIS: Let's not let a little thing like, oh...being in different states and cities (or a cracked pelvis) spoil the party! This Saturday the Jungle Reds will be celebrating Cinco de Mayo and you're all invited. There will be book and tchotchke giveways - more books from the Edgars winners and nominees - virtual margaritas and paella.

But you have to bring something to the party and tell us what you'll be wearing, what kind of music you'd like to hear. Five of the best party guests will win book prizes and the winners will be announced on Cinco de Mayo.

I'm bringing a six-pack of Negro Modelo beer (even though the Dos Equis man IS the most interesting man in the world) and I may resurrect the outfit I wore when I went to a Halloween party as Frida Kahlo a few years back - hair braided, long skirt, peasant blouse, shawl, unibrow and I forced Bruce to dress up as Diego Rivera. What will you be wearing?

JAN BROGAN: I'll bring tequila shots - the cute ones that come in a sampler kit- with lots of salt and lime. All my peasant blouses and colorful skirts got given away in eighties, but I have cowboy boots and a tooled leather belt I can throw over a white beach dress I picked up in the Dominican Republic.

HALLIE EPHRON: I'm bringing fish tacos -- the kind I had in Florida last time I was there. And churros with sugar and cinnamon. I'm wearing a red mini-skirt an a black bolero jacket embroidered with white curlicues... and tap shoes. Definitely tap shoes. Not sure why.

ROSEMARY: I love it! And tap shoes make perfect sense to me. Why is that?

LUCY BURDETTE: I'm bringing Jimmy Buffett and his band to play for us. And key lime pie for dessert (no poison, I promise!) Wearing my imitation cowhide skirt and red boots...

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Going against the grain here.  I do LOVE Cinco de Mayo. BUT it's Kentucky Derby Saturday!!! So I will be wearing a sundress and the most suitable derby hat I can find (will post pic.) Last year, never having had a mint julep, I very carefully looked up a recipe and made one from scratch.  Hated it!!!!  As in violently hated it.  So this year I'm going with the English Derby favorite, Pimm's #1 cup, and will be glued to the big screen TV for the whole extravaganza.  Afterwards, maybe I'll switch to Jan's tequila shots, put on some latin/reggae (I'm sure there is such a thing,) and cook some shrimp on the grill!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Sangria! No, Palmyras. Our favorite summer drink--its vodka, simple syrup, fresh lime juice--put in a shaker full of ice. Add several stems of fresh mint. Shake shake shake shake shake..and the ice pulverizes the mint. It turns out to be frothy pale green, icy and wonderful! After a few, you won't care what I'm wearing!
Queso fondito with jalapenos and chips for food...

But okay....Derby Day on Cinco de Mayo...I've got a long black chiffon skirt, wide black leather belt, dark green leather boots, and a white T-shirt from Hellman's. (Because Hellman's makes...) (I know, that outfit makes NO sense. But it's a look, right?) And still thinking about a hat...hmm.

ROSEMARY: LOVE mint juleps and have a bottle of Maker's Mark which my Kentucky pal Brian and his wife Melissa brought over one day but - Dios mio - my heart belongs to CERVEZA! Melon and mango on the street coated with chili pepper. Me gusta! Y usted?

Bring something to our Cinco de Mayo party, tell us what you're wearing and you'll be entered to win an MWA canvas bag filled with books!

Daniel Judson - Confidence Man

ROSEMARY HARRIS: We all suffer from it occasionally. That niggling feeling. A loss of confidence. After all the hard work...can we really do this thing? Can we finish that book? Or write another? Here's JR pal Dan Judson's take on confidence, a little perspective and coming full circle. And just to prove that Dan did survive his crisis of conscience and CAN keep writing great books, he's offering a free download of one of his best books.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+gin+palace+trilogy

DJ: I started my first book on May 11, 1982.  I was all of nineteen and ending my sophomore year of college.  My summer job as a cemetery worker was waiting for me back home in Connecticut--mowing the grass, trimming hedges, and yes, digging graves.  When school ended, I headed back home determined to actually finish the book I had started.  (I’d started several books before that, the first when I was fifteen, but could never get any of them past 100 pages.) 

Upon my return home I quickly established a routine:  I would work from eight to five, eat a steak and baked potato for dinner as I watched two reruns of M*A*S*H, then write until ten or so.  Whenever it rained (and it rained a lot during the summer of ’82), I didn’t have to work, so I was free to spend all day on my book, which probably explains why, even now, thirty years later, rain often plays a part in so many of my stories.

I had a draft finished by the end of that summer, so I brought it back to school with me.  But instead of going to classes, as I should have been, I found myself staying in my dorm room and obsessively rewriting.  By the time November came around, the book was done—a whopping 180 pages, but that was the same length as The Great Gatsby, so I thought I was in good company. 

Shortly after my twentieth birthday I submitted my less-than-epic manuscript to several editors at New York publishers, having gotten their names and addresses from a library copy of The Literary Marketplace.  Then I sat back and waited for the inevitable acceptance letter, and subsequent riches.   That book never sold, of course.  But I had found what I wanted to do.  I wanted to be a novelist.  And I knew what I would have to do to make that happen.

I would have to write and rewrite obsessively. But more importantly, I would need a confidence that bordered on delusion.  I mean, I was twenty and sending my manuscript to Knopf.  Without an agent.  What the frick?

The thing about confidence, I’ve learned over the years, is that it comes and goes so easily.  Too easily.   Over the next eighteen years, I wrote nine novels, and not one of them sold.  My tenth book, though, that one felt…different.  Things were coming together in ways they hadn’t before.  I knew this was the one.

It took me over a year to complete that book, entitled The Bone Orchard.  And within a matter of weeks of my finishing it, it sold to Bantam.  (ROSEMARY: Here's a snippet of one of TBO's great reviews " THE BONE ORCHARD is an exciting private detective mystery that belies the fact that this book is D. Daniel Judson's first novel. The story line is loaded with action as readers take a tour of the underbelly of the Hamptons.")   And that, strangely enough, was when my battle with confidence really began.  I’ll spare you all the ups and downs of my career (there’s a longer version of this essay on my website, www.danieljudsonbooks.com  should anyone want the gory details), but after ten years and eight novels, I found myself, along with a disturbing number of my fellow midlist authors, suddenly unable to find a publisher. Just like I had been for eighteen years.

Frustrated, I decided to take a break from writing.  I began reading every memoir written by a WWII paratrooper that I could find.  I don’t know why I was drawn to paratroopers in particular, but I was, and I trusted that, and with each memoir I read I began to see something. Every single man had who jumped out of an airplane in the middle of the night over Nazi-Occupied France had carried with him one thing.  Confidence.

M1 rifles, trench knives, hand grenades--these were important, but what was crucial—what would ultimately make the difference—was confidence.  In fact, the courses paratroopers ran during their training weren’t called “obstacle courses”, they were called “confidence courses”. 

Now, I hadn’t given up on writing, but I had stopped.  My confidence was shot.  Publishing was in chaos.  Things were, and still are for many of us, bleak.  I had been unable to find a publisher for my last book. Did I really want to write another one? Did I even have what it took to write another?  Send it out?  Wait?  Been there, done that.

And then one morning it just dawned on me:  if some kid could jump into France to fight Nazis, then maybe, you know, I could write another book.  I mean, compared to what those who served in WWII risked—not to mention what was at stake if they failed—what, really, was I risking?

I’m not a kid anymore, but somehow that reckless confidence that had set me on my way—and that had carried me through eighteen years of rejection—returned.  Or at least enough of it did.  I’ve been working on a new project for almost a year now.  Will it sell?  I don’t know.  But I like this one.  It’s…different.  And things seem to be coming together in ways they haven’t before…

Also, it seems that traditional publishing isn’t the only game in town these days.  However you may feel about Amazon.com, it is, right now, offering “out of work” authors like me a chance to reach readers.  A lot of readers.  And new readers, too. 

I hesitated at jumping into that, though.  Maybe it was a confidence thing—my books have always benefited from the editorial process, and putting your stuff out there without that seemed…daunting.  I could of course hire a freelance editor, but there is a difference between an editor you pay and an editor who pays you.  At least in my mind there is.

But I had two early books of mine—The Poisoned Rose and The Bone Orchard, both published in 2002.  A Shamus Award-winner and a Shamus- and Barry- nominee.  I should feel confident about those, right?  And I had a third book, The Gin Palace—the final book in a trilogy, actually, that had started with Rose, and that ten years ago Bantam didn’t want, then wanted, then didn’t want again (long story).

They’d all been edited—and the first two had already been read and enjoyed (for the most part) by tens of thousands of readers.  (Heck, Bruce Willis had wanted to buy the film rights to The Bone Orchard—yet another long story.)  Why not put those up on Amazon as e-books and see what happened?

So that’s what I’m doing.  I don’t claim to be a trailblazer here—many others have made this jump before me.  (In paratrooper terms, those brave souls jumped into Normandy on D-Day, and I’m coming in around, say, Operation Market Garden.)  And while those authors did it all on their own, I’m taking advantage of a new division that sprang up at my agent’s agency—Trident E-books Operations.  The theory is, TEO will do a lot of the “leg work”—get the books up on Amazon, assist with marketing, and actively pursue all sub rights—which will/should free me up to actually write. 

Maybe that book I wrote last year and couldn’t get published will go up on Amazon soon.  Not sure whether I’ll do it through TEO or on my own—the jury is still out on that.  And maybe the book I’m working on now will go up on Amazon as well.  We’ll see.

One way or another, I’m determined to get my stuff read by readers.

Just like I was when I was nineteen.   I tend bar these days—at the same hotel, in fact, where I was working when The Bone Orchard sold.  I guess that brings me full circle.  I no longer eat steak, and my work routine has flipped; I write in the mornings instead of at night.

It’s May 2nd, 2012, which means nine days from now will be the thirty year anniversary of the day I started my first book.

And today it looks like it just might rain…    

ROSEMARY: That's a pretty inspirational story! Let's get Dan off to a good start with his Amazon promotion. (I'll be publishing with Amazon in a few weeks too!)
Read more about Dan at www.danieljudsonbooks.com