ON GOOD NEWS

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.
**Stephen King


It's BSP Day on Anything Can Happen Friday.
We're so delighted with all the good news you sent us! Congratulations to all from Jungle Red Writers. And keep us posted. We love to hear the latest.....

Elizabeth Zelvin's debut mystery, DEATH WILL GET YOU SOBER, will hit bookstores on April 15. That's just around the corner, especially if you haven't started working on your taxes yet. The book is available for pre-order at online bookstores and some bookseller websites. And everybody in New York is invited to the launch party at Otto Penzler's Mysterious Bookshop, says the veteran psychotherapist and addictions professional author. It's not just Liz's launch date and Income Tax Day--it's also her birthday.

http://www.elizabethzelvin.com/

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Murder On The Mind, by L.L. Bartlett
The mind is a complex entity; it can play strange tricks. Jeff Resnick's recurrent visions of a slaughtered buck take on terrible new meaning when a local banker is found in the same condition. Jeff sets out to find the killer--no matter what the personal stakes.
Dead In Red, 2nd in the series, debuts June 2008
http://tinyurl.com/3yp5xv

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Keep an eye out for the first book in Sarah Atwell's Glassblowing Mystery Series, appearing in March 2008! In Through a Glass, Deadly, glassblower Emmeline Dowell has made a home for herself among the artists of Tucson's Warehouse District. Between teaching her craft and selling her wares, Em has plenty to do–not to mention the occasional murder to put a crack in her routine. (Berkley Prime Crime, ISBN 978-0425220474)
(Sarah Atwell is the pen name of Sheila Connolly, whose Orchard Mystery series will appear in August.)

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From: Earl Merkel
My new website at Redroom.com: Where The Writers Are?? is now up and running with several audio interviews I've done for a talk-radio show I co-hosted and produced-- one of them involving Mr. Larry Block, MMA Grand Master.
On this audio segment, Lawrence Block talks about his work as a mystery-writing legend, his writing habits, and the ageless tips he first provided in his ageless writing guide TELLING LIES FOR FUN AND
PROFIT.
Another features Neil Gaiman (ANANSI BOYS, AMERICAN GODS) talking about his novels, graphic novels, screenplays... and the system he uses when he writes in collaboration.
What both writers share about their writing and their insights into the world of books is, I believe, well worth the listen.
They're available at http://www.redroom.com/author/earl-merkel
along with some other interesting stuff (including interviews with Alice Walker and Martin J. Smith, neither of whom write mysteries-- but are mysteriously intriguing in their own ways.)
For those in DL who are among the writers I'll be taping interviews with at next week's LOVE IS MURDER conference, you'll also find out just how crazy some of these segments can be.
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Felicia Donovan, author of THE BLACK WIDOW AGENCY series, continues her fundraising efforts on behalf of the Greater Squamscott Womenade . This dedicated group of women works tirelessly to provide grass roots assistance to neighbors in crisis or who have reached a stumbling block in their lives, without the complexity of red tape. Assistance can go towards things like groceries, automobile repairs, prescriptions and the like. Felicia is donating a portion of the proceeds from every book sold between Oct. 1, 2007 and Oct. 1, 2008. "Women helping other women is a subject very near and dear to the Black Widows' hearts," Donovan said. "It's a perfect fit to send the message that women are empowered when they help each other out." For more information, please visit Felicia Donovan's website at http://www.feliciadonovan.com/ .
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Susannah Charleson's SCENT OF THE MISSING, chronicling the author's adventures with her golden retriever as members of an elite Texas-based canine search and rescue team, taking readers from the wreckage of the space shuttle Columbia to the cold trail of a girl gone missing, to the trials and joys of living with a gifted search dog who isn't especially well suited to the role of obedient house pet, has sold to Houghton Mifflin for hardcover release in 2009.

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From: Jeffrey Cohen
SOME LIKE IT HOT-BUTTERED, the first in the Double Feature Mystery series (Berkley Prime Crime, ISBN: 042521799X) has been nominated for the Lefty Award for Most Humorous Mystery, to be presented at the Left Coast Crime conference in Denver on March 8. And that the second in the series, IT HAPPENED ONE KNIFE, will be available July 1. And I'm tickled to death about both those things.


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Betty Webb's new Lena Jones mystery, DESERT CUT, will be released February 10. Like all the Lena Jones books, it's set in the desert near Phoenix, Arizona, and this time, takes an entirely new look at immigration issues. As a journalist, Betty came across some information that shocked even her.
But for the cozy crowd, Betty is delighted to announce that an entirely new series of hers will hit bookstores early next year (March, 2009). "The Anteater of Death," is just the first. The books are all set in a California zoo, and star a new protagonist -- a non-neurotic zoo keeper who lives on a boat. These books will NOT be as dark as the Lena Jones books. Instead, they're actually cozies! And because they're so warm and fuzzy, Betty's editor at Poisoned Pen Press wants her to use a pen name, so Lena Jones fans won't get a nasty shock (well, a warm and fuzzy shock). So next year, be on the lookout for "The Anteater of Death," by Jo Howell -- Betty's new pen name.
Website at http://www.bettywebb-mystery.com/Blog at http://bloggingwebb.blogspot.com/

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From Jessica Park Conant and Susan Conant:
The Gourmet Girl returns to solve the murder of one bad egg when TURN UP THE HEAT, the third book in the Gourmet Girl series, arrives on March 4th.
Chloe Carter has a lot on her plate-exams for grad school are coming up, and her chef boyfriend needs her support as his fledgling trendy restaurant comes into its own. The staff of Simmer gets along like petits pois in a pod, everyone pulling pranks on one another now and then. Everyone, that is, except for Leandra, a waitress who treats the busboys like chopped liver-and can never take a joke. One morning, Leandra's dead body is found in a fish truck. So people start to wonder:
was this just a prank gone awry? Or did somebody actually want her to sleep with the fishes?
************************************ From Clea Simon:
OK, it's not much of a contest, but sort of...
I'm looking for ideas for the title of my next mystery and somehow I seem to have run out of cat pun/literary references. There are countless "claws/clause" variations I can use for a legal angle, but nothing is clicking yet. And while I love "Bright Lights, Big Kitty," I can't quite make that work either.
Anyway, I'm taking suggestions over at my blog - http://cleasimon.blogspot.com/ . If I choose yours, I'll send you a signed book and thank you in the acknowledgments. (Final title approval is up to my publisher, but if I like it, I'll send you the books and thank you anyway.)

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Pari Noskin Taichert will have the launch party for her third Sasha Solomon novel, THE SOCORRO BLAST, in Albuquerque this weekend. She'll be busy for the next few months with book signings throughout the West (and Alabama).
For more info: http://www.parinoskintaichert.com/

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I will be appearing on panels at Love Is Murder in Chicago the first weekend of February, Murder in the Magic City in Birmingham, AL the second weekend, and the Smyrna, TN library for SINC authors the last weekend of the month to speak about my new book, Fifty-Seven Heaven.
Lonnie Cruse
http://www.lonniecruse.com/

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The large-print edition of Beth Groundwater's A REAL BASKET CASE wasreleased by Wheeler Publishing on January 22nd, she signed the contractfor the sequel, TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET, last month and it will bereleased in early 2009, and her VIRTUAL DEATH manuscript is asemi-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest and can be readand reviewed at: https://mail.whdh.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0011ZCAME.

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From: Ayn Hunt
I'm being interviewed Friday, Jan. 25th by Melissa Alvarez on her radio show on the Net from 11 to 12 noon EST at http://blogtalkradio.com/MelissaAlvarez We'll be talking about a few paranormal things like the ghost who took up residence at our house when I was writing my first Gothic about ghosts LOL. Talk about first hand experience! And we'll also be talking about my other books and my life down here in Texas as well.
The call-in number for anyone who'd like to ask questions or make comments is 347-215-8473. Thanks!
Ayn Hunt also writing as Ayn Amorelli
Author of Unwilling Killers, Obsessed, The Haunting and
Contract Bride
www.AuthorsDen.com/aynhunt
www.GottaWriteNetwork.com/aynamorelli

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Ken Isaacson’s SILENT COUNSEL was nominated for the Arty Award for best cover art on a mystery published in 2007, to be awarded at Left Coast Crime in March. The New Jersey attorney reports that the book has been doing exceedingly well, hanging in there this month on Amazon’s list of Bestselling Legal Thrillers behind only Harper Lee’s TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and John Grisham’s soon-to-be released THE APPEAL. He tells us that SILENT COUNSEL has gone into its second printing. Check out his TV interview on Good Day Arizona at www.KenIsaacson.com/GDAZ_Video.htm, listen to his radio interview on WBTC Talk Radio at www.KenIsaacson.com/WBTC.htm, or hear him read a chilling excerpt from SILENT COUNSEL at www.KenIsaacson.com/Excerpt.htm .

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You’re invited to join Rosemary Harris to celebrate the publication of Pushing Up Daisies
The first in The Dirty Business Mystery series from St. Martin's Minotaur

February 5, 2008, 7pm
Wine, nibbles, & dirty(business) martinis
Partners & Crime
44 Greenwich Avenue
New York City
212-243-0440
RSVP Hector.DeJean@stmartins.com

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Got Friends? Have them stop by the comments section--we'd be happy to include them. Should we do it again? Let us know!

ON WHAT WE CARRY

Boy, youre going to carry that weight,

Carry that weight a long time

**Paul McCartney

HANK: I was looking for my little black notebook, the one I use to collect all the fabulous words and observations that are certainly going to make my next book into a blockbuster, and I couldn't find it. I couldn't find it because it was lost in the black hole of my purse, buried among two black pouches (for bandaids, earrings, advil, library cards, unused gift cards, stamps, a safety pin and a lipstick in case I lose my other lipstick), a black makeup bag, a black checkbook, a black calendar, a couple of black glasses cases, and well, you get the picture. So I was going to ask you all, and I still will, about what you carry. And why.

And then, as so often happens, the world provided something else along those lines . The incredibly talented Jonathan Soroff, who does the interviews for the Improper Bostonian(a Boston alternative magazine), did a story on what the teenaged debs at the Boston coming out cotillion, the "WINTER BALL" carried in their tiny dressy handbags.

And wow. The book ideas came spilling out. Here, from Jonathan's article:

Deb #1: a cell phone, a fake ID, lip gloss, an extra set of false eyelashes and a bit of cash.

Deb #2: cash, a fake ID, a real ID, a cell phone, lip gloss, a diamond bracelet and a pearl necklace

Deb #3: a pack of Parliaments, a pink lighter, a cell phone, cash.

Deb#4: a camera, phone, hotel, fake ID, and Adderall

Deb #5: wouldn't say.

What's in your purse? (An *extra* set of false eyelashes?)What's in your main character's purse? How important is what they carry?

ROBERTA: Well now I really want to know what's in Deb #5's little bag!

Funny thing, I just wrote a scene in which Rebecca Butterman's purse is snatched. She very foolishly chases the perpetrator down an alley, when the strap on her purse breaks and all her stuff scatters at the foot of a dumpster. So I can tell you exactly what's in there: Sunglasses, Palm pilot, pens, lip gloss, wallet, tampons, comb, cell phone...not a diamond bracelet or pearl necklace to be found! You can see she's a practical sort of woman.

A friend asked me this week whether I'd ever gotten into buying fancy bags to match my outfits. Not a chance--just one big clunky back-saver that doesn't really go with anything. But that's certainly another kind of detail that could reveal character, right?

JAN: My protagonist, Hallie Ahern, is definitely too unstylish to carry a designer bag, real purse or laptop tote. She drags around an unsightly backpack which is an important part of her journalistic life.Inside? Notebooks, pens, wallet, Chronicle ID and cardkey, her cell phone, breathmints, files, sometimes saltines, and a digital recorder to capture "ambient sound" for the website. But it all spills out, and whatever she needs is rarely there when she needs it.

My own purse is somewhat smaller, although still in the large category. I carry sunglases, breathmints, wallet, checkbook, keys, Advil, small notebook, cell phone,an IPOD, and a PDA I almost never remember to use. I have dreams of being organized and prepared. Pipe dreams.

RO: When I saw the title for this blog I was reminded of a really great book called The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. Vietnam story, very powerful. No debs as far as I can remember.

HANK: I thought of it too, Ro. And my Dad told me he carried a little book of poetry with him all though World War Two. (Which included the Battle of the Bulge and a prison camp.) He says it was to remind him there was still beauty in the world. And that's kind of why I thought of it all...it could certainly reveal character. Even if character is pack rat. Or paranoid.

ROSEMARY: Paula Holliday, my heroine, is a backpack kind of gal. She, like me, carries a cell phone, but, kind of, under protest. (Ask anyone who's ever called my cell...it's rarely turned on.)But she's also likely to be hauling around ziplock baggies, Felco nippers, two pairs of garden gloves, and a magnifying glass to look at bugs.

Like Hank, I have a collection of squarish black things, none of which is ever the one I'm aiming for when I fish around in my black hole of a handbag. Apart from the usual suspects - phone, wallet, card case, camera, Ipod, and makeup case (black, of course)I carry two Tibetan protection mandalas that my sister gave me when I climbed Kili. They worked, so I carry them everywhere.

HANK: That's very hip, Ro. I have a good luck coin that came from...well, another story. But my purse weighs, I bet, 15 pounds. I cannot leave it behind. So I wondered, wht's making it so heavy? Besides my wallet and a little black pouch of stuff, I just counted 10 pencils, 6 pens, a stack of bookmarks for Face Time, a 2007 calendar, a 2008 calendar, my notebook, a stack of gift cards just in case I run out of money, a checkbook, business card case, a little bag of almonds, gum, those listerine breath strips, car keys, house keys, a makeup bag that you don't even wanna know what's in, a little flashlight..should I go on?

Is there a way to ditch all this? I try to think of it as a kind of weightlifting exercise.

Oh and PS--oops. We didn't mean "anything can happen Friday" to include nothing happening. Our bad. But watch this space--in fact, check the comments on Wednesday for what's going to happen Friday. Newly published or soon to be published mystery authors? Better visit JR!

Taste

HALLIE: Eyeliner reveals character. It's all in the details. Put a character on the page wearing frayed cutoffs and flip-flops, her hair pulled back in a red plaid scrunchy, and you've got a very different vibe going from a character in pencil thin pants, gold stiletto sandals, her hair cut short and spikey. Pick the telling detail and you don't have to "tell" the reader a thing.

Food can do the same thing. One character gets depressed, she polishes off a half-dozen Godiva truffles, another character fights the blues with a box of Ritz crackers slathered in Peter Pan peanut butter.

So what do the foods you have them eat say about your characters...and you?

ROBERTA: Cassie Burdette, the protagonist in my golf mysteries, never did learn to eat well. Or to cook. Tons of readers commented on the junk food, the fried food, the hamburgers, the beer. The only recipe she was ever quoted as cooking had canned beans and sliced hot dogs as its main ingredients. Her eating style definitely reflected her youth and a self-destructive tendency.

My advice columnist character, Dr. Rebecca Butterman, is a gourmet cook who uses food and cooking to calm herself down, help herself think, and overcome any incoming bad news. My husband is pleased that she's brought my standard of cooking up quite a bit too! I have to try out new recipes in order to write about them, right?

JAN:I love to cook and am always trying out new recipes, but I never eat when I'm nervous. My protaganist Hallie Ahern is usually under a lot of pressure as the story closes in around her, so rarely does she eat. In fact, in a version of an early book, one of my editor/readers commented that Hallie almost seemed anorexic, so I had to go back and give her a meal or two. Now that she's got her life together a bit more, she eats better. But since her character is still single-minded and career driven, usually her boyfriend Matt cooks. Left on her own, she often eats a buttered Pop Tart for dinner.

I chose Pop-Tarts both because I love them(brown sugar cinnamon) and because as a main course, they show a certain recklessness.

HANK: Oh, I love brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts, but I don't eat them anymore. Sigh. Neither does Charlie McNally. Co, um, incidentally, Charlie is kind of calmly obsessed about her eating. And it's built in to her TV reporter job, because TV does indeed add ten pounds. So there are scenes where she extracts croutons from a salad, and eats a hamburger without the bun. And of course she lives on coffee.

Once, though, I had written myself into a corner. There needed to be some tension, but low-level, you know? Personal. So I made Charlie really really really hungry. Then as I went back into the chapter, I realized I had already tucked in several times when she ALMOST got to have a turkey sandwich without the bread, ALMOST got to have an apple, ALMOST got to have low-carb lasagne. And she wound up eating a fistful of almonds in the car. And that was a fun way of introducing her eating habits and her work habits at the same time. I deliberately had her producer, Franklin, be able to eat anything. And what's more, he eats it very neatly. Franklin eats onion rings with a fork. And his fried clam roll doesn't leak. Charlie is more prone to drip balsamic vinaigrette on her blouse. She eats in a hurry. So even how food behaves can be illustrative. And how and when someone *doesn't* eat.

Okay, now I'm hungry.

HALLIE: Food is also a great stand-in for sex. But that's another column...