And how about that great review that Jean posted about Murder by Dewey Decimal? Was that awesome? That was awesome. Have you read it yet? Go read it. I'll wait ... Back? Cool, eh?
Busy day at work. In one way, that's bad because I get stressed, but it does make the day go fast. Well, faster. It never goes fast enough. That's life.
Hey, this is my new chair. It's an Acadia chair from Staples.
My old chair was worn out. And I need a good chair because I'm looking at doing some heavy-duty, butt-to-the-chair, write-until-my-fingers-bleed writing sessions. I have Murder by the Acre to finish rewriting, NaNoWriMo in November, Floozy to rewrite and arrange and get published, Passion to turn into a Lulu book, family newsletters to produce, postcards to produce, etc. It's going to be busy around here, and I needed a new chair to support my back. I hope this helps.
I also have a new bed arriving tomorrow. No, I haven't come into money -- I wish -- but the old one was so bad that even I couldn't sleep on it anymore. So I reluctantly went to the local bedding store and bought one. At least I qualified for a 12 month no interest plan. I have to have it paid off before the 12 months are up; otherwise, interest kicks in. Basically I need to keep selling those books. Want one? Or two? They would make perfect Christmas gifts! I'm trying to figure out an affordable way for you to buy the books directly from me so that I can personalize and sign them before mailing them to you. The problem is the postage. I'll see what I can come up with.
I'm very tired tonight. I'm hoping I'm not coming down with a cold. That would be a bummer.
Speaking of reviews, and we were earlier, I need a couple of people to write a good, solid review of MBDD that I could send off to various media outlets. I can't write it myself -- although I am a great fan of me -- so I need someone else to do so. The reviews would have your byline on them, but I would send them out to various review sites and magazines, etc. Naturally should there be any payment involved, it would come to you, but I wouldn't count on that. It might give your byline a chance to appear in various publications across the nation. What do you think? Do I have a couple of volunteers? Please let me know. I'd like to get the reviews out there in conjunction with wholesaler release of MBDD.
And now an OU joke -- because I can.
When I was younger, we lived near a house of OU fans. They were mean! When we would go outside, they would throw firecrackers at us! Mean, mean, mean. Of course, then we'd pick up the firecrackers, light them and throw them back. (Thanks, TL!)
And now we'll close. Have a great night and a great tomorrow. Okay? Okay. Night.
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10 comments:
Jean gave you a wonderful review! I loved it :)
I bet you see a big improvement with your health now that you have a new chair and bed.
Hmm now I am going to check out your link for the Great Slim Down.
Good night Tech
That's the same chair I have at work! I hope you enjoy it and your new bed. Nothing better than having the right furniture.
Have a great day! The sun is coming up here in rivers of silver and the forecast is for cooler temps today. Yay!
No problem! Very creative twist! Hope today is better than yesterday.
Yes, she did, Rain. And I am hoping the new bed and chair will make me feel more like my old self. If you want to, we'd love to have you join us at GSD. We need all the support and inspiration we can get!
Trixie, my old chair wasn't supportive and was -- I confess -- held together with some wire and duct tape. The new one has to be better than that! Have a wonderful day yourself.
Sorry I wasn't myself last night, TL. I wasn't feeling well. I feel better today, although still tired. Next time we need to arrange it so Mel can join us. She always makes me feel better! :) Have a great day!
I'm glad you're working on other issues that are making you feel crummy. A new bed for me made a great improvement. I think we just get in the rut of the day-to-day stuff that we don't notice, or put off, the improvements we can make.
I don't know about good and solid, but if you'll define exactly what that is, I'll see what I can type up for you--that is if I'm allowed after being quoted on the book itself. :)
I might be buying more, but I've already purchased books for Christmas. Just waiting on the personalized bookplates. ;)
FF, I'm hoping the new bed will make a difference on my back pain. But overall the best thing would be for me to lose more weight. See the Great Slim Down for more details on that.
Yes, you're allowed! Type one up and send it to me. I'll look around from some examples. It should be between 200 and 250 words, which seems to be an average length for a review.
Bookplates! YIKES! I'll get to work on them this weekend!
Here are some excellent reviews by MARILYN STASIO of the New York Times Book Review.
There are no daredevil steeplechase races in DEAD HEAT (Putnam, $25.95), no close-ups of quivering horseflesh, no heroic jockey to vanquish those villains who would corrupt the sport of kings. Rather, this new novel by Dick Francis, written with his son Felix, focuses on the restaurant business, even to the point of tossing in some cooking tips.
Max Moreton, the personable young master chef who narrates this thriller, may care less about the ponies than he does about pied de cochon; but his restaurant, the Hay Net, is located near Newmarket and is a favorite with the owners and trainers. His giddy success skids to a halt when guests at a black-tie dinner he catered for “250 of the great and the good of the racing world” come down with food poisoning. And there’s worse to follow. The next day, a bomb goes off at the gala luncheon Max is serving in two of the glass-fronted boxes of the grandstand, for the American sponsors of the prestigious 2,000 Guineas stakes. “Carnage was not too strong a word” for the devastation, which the authors take care to render in vivid color.
Aside from taking a detour to address the seemingly obligatory specter of Middle East terrorism (barely examined and quickly dispelled), the sure-footed plot closely follows the increasingly dangerous steps Max is forced to take to salvage his business, restore his reputation and unmask the architect of the bombing — all the while falling in chaste love with a nice English girl. Like other Francis heroes, Max is cool under pressure and a stoic about physical punishment. But for someone who isn’t a jockey or a trainer, he also has a solid feel for the politics of the racing world; because he depends on the good will of this moneyed crowd, he knows as much about their business as he does about his own.
So while it doesn’t feature the Francis trademarks of high-strung horses in high-stakes races, “Dead Heat” doesn’t abandon the sport as much as turn it inside out, so we can inspect one of the many small, labor-intensive businesses that operate behind the scenes in this rarefied and utterly exotic world.
*
Scholars can be such cutups when they put their minds to it. Jennifer Lee Carrell, who holds degrees in English and literature from Harvard, Oxford and Stanford, really kicks up her heels in her first novel, INTERRED WITH THEIR BONES (Dutton, $25.95), a weighty piece of scholarship packed into a feverishly paced action adventure. The heroine of this brainy romp is Kate Stanley, an American authority on Shakespeare who has come to London to direct “Hamlet” at the reconstructed Globe Theater — which promptly burns down around her. That’s only the first of many disasters that befall Kate once she accepts a murdered mentor’s challenge to search for the manuscript of a lost Shakespeare play. And oh, while she’s at it, could she kindly resolve the nagging question of the playwright’s true identity?
Carrell nimbly dramatizes various Shakespearean academic theories, cuckoo and otherwise, although the methods of operation she assigns to Kate are ludicrously facile, and her speculative resolution is sure to startle Bardolators of all persuasions. In fact, the most imaginative scholarship goes into Kate’s pursuit of the lost play across the landscape of the American West, where Shakespeare was once popular with cowboys, miners and gamblers, and where the author’s wild storytelling style finally clicks with the dashing Indiana Jones spirit of the adventure.
*
Jeff Lindsay’s bad boy is back in DEXTER IN THE DARK (Doubleday, $23.95), and what a relief it is to find the amiable serial killer unspoiled by his success as the hero of the Showtime TV series he inspired. True, this heartless, soulless self-described “monster,” who has made it his mission to stalk and kill other predators (but only those who “truly needed it”), doesn’t personally commit much mayhem here. And the two homicidally inclined tykes he hopes to train after he marries their unsuspecting mother have barely gotten around to stringing up a neighbor’s cat. There’s good reason, though, for all this restraint. Dexter’s animating force, the insane killer he holds within and has christened his “Dark Passenger,” has fled in the face of a far more potent and evil force that’s orchestrating the mischief of other killers in Miami. “What was Dexter without Darkness?” the paralyzed antihero laments. What indeed? After toying unmercifully with his pathetic psychopath, Lindsay takes relish in resolving Dexter’s existential crisis in his own cruel, perversely funny way.
*
Stanley Hastings, the hangdog hero of Parnell Hall’s droll mystery series, is a private eye who would be more fulfilled teaching linguistics. It seems entirely appropriate, then, that in his latest outing, HITMAN (Pegasus Books, $24.95), Stanley is hired by an English teacher who wants to retire from his sideline profession as a contract killer. The shamus and his new client mix it up at their first meeting, at odds over whether “hit man” should be one word or two — and what distinguishes a sentence fragment from a phrase. The more important issue, yet to be addressed, is whether Stanley can see the weary killer safely into retirement. Fans of this offbeat series already know that the chances of Stanley’s getting anything right are fairly slim. But the fun of having him around again, if just to ponder the modern-day failure of the Socratic method, is worth the agony of watching him trip over his own feet or lose yet another intellectual argument with his wife. “Hitman” is the kind of pithy, clever, modestly erudite mystery that was once a genre staple. It’s nice to know somebody still has the knack.
Me thinks I'm going to need to re-read MBDD! ;)
WHAT?!!! You're not rereading it over and over and over?!!
Um, not at present. I've amassed a stack of books, including a couple of textbooks, that I've been reading.
In my own defense, I've already read it more than once! :)
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