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I’m absolutely giddy over finally getting to show off the beautiful covers for the 9th Dragon King book, DRAGON MARKED, designed by the brilliant Hang Le! It will be out in the world April 15th. I would sell my dragon soul to possess her… From the moment I saw her, she held me enthralled. It...

The post Cover Reveal- Dragon Marked appeared first on Donna Grant.

We’ve been getting a lot of questions in the comments and emails of Hughday snippets, and since not everyone reads the replies, here they are in one convenient place.

Hugh 2– when does it happen?

The action picks up right after Iron and Magic (three weeks later according to chapter 1).

As the notice in front of Iron and Magic says, the entire Hugh series happens before Magic Triumphs. That has not changed.

The chronological order is: Hugh series (all installments) – Magic Triumphs- Sanctuary- Wilmington Years (all installments)- Blood Heir series.

How long will Hugh’s series be?

Currently, House Andrews are thinking of it as a duology, but since the manuscript of volume 2 is being written as we speak, things may change.

Does Hugh 2 have a title?

Not yet. We’ve been calling it Hugh 2, Iron Covenant 2, Iron & Magic 2, Elara’s book, the d’Ambray Bake Off – at the moment, whatever you recognize works.

Will Steve West narrate the audiobook?

The manuscript for Hugh 2 has not yet been finished. That means there is no known exact date when it will be ready for publication, how many pages it will have etc. Which in turn means we cannot yet go to the very busy Steve West and ask whether he is free to take on the project, this is how long it would take, this is when it’s needed by, and all the other necessary details.

What I can guarantee is that House Andrews, the agency and everyone involved believe as much as we do that Steve West is perfect for the role of Hugh and no effort will be spared to book him if that is at all possible.

Will it be a blog serial?

I think House Andrews will be generous with snippets up to a point, but not a traditional serial that shares most of the book in regular installments, as updated this past Friday.

Yes, admin, very interesting, very interesting, I’m not snoring at all. What about spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler?

No one knows about spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler yet in Hugh 2.

Stop mentioning spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler in the comments and spoiling spoiling spoiling spoiling fellow Horde colleagues who want to follow the natural course of the story.

Your comment will be hidden asap, but it might be too late. W*it for questions to be answered by the book and PUT DOWN THAT SPOILER, you Dushegubs!

That’s a good point, what about Blood Heir and put down that cow?

Blood Heir is currently the furthest in time KD World has ever gotten, and it’s roughly a decade after Hugh 2. Whatever bovine developments took place will require our p*tience.

The story was published somewhat out of schedule, because of the pandemic, and the similarities between what we were going through and what Julie was called to do. Like us, she couldn’t go home and see loved ones, or risk losing them. House Andrews wrote it and shared it with us in weekly chapters, as another loving hug in hard times, and I am very grateful it came when it did, even if it jumped the publication queue.

It will be followed by Blood Heir 2, which will be a sequel.

Let me clarify that: Blood Heir 2 will not be the story of Derek’s missing years and Julie’s time with Erra. That rumor started around the fire pits of my people, the proud pioneers of Team Facts be Damned. Love you guys, but no.

What House Andrews said was that it will explain what happened to Derek, but it will take place after Blood Heir 1. That’s why we need Wilmington 3 to come first, so we can fully understand some of the developments in Atlanta. ::cough Pack cough cough:: Oh dear, I really must have that seen to.

Yes, what about Wilmington Years?

The Wilmington Years series, in its entirety, happens between Magic Triumphs and the Blood Heir series.

There is a Wilmington 3 in plan, but not in progress. We have been given a tiny snippet from it here.

Currently, though, IA are working on Hugh 2. As much as we want all these books at once, and that once better be right now, and actually with Maud’s Innkeeper wedding on top, and you know Puffles … – we must attain fluffy awareness that they each take time and effort to be written.

What about Sanctuary 2?

Not on the schedule right now.

Where can I find any extras to tide me over?

All of them can be found on the Free Fiction page, organized by series.

For Kate’s World, they are :
A Questionable Client – prequel to the main Kate series
A bit more Roman – prequel scene to Sanctuary
Purpose, No Heroes – Wilmington Years extras
King of Fire– prequel to Blood Heir
Sandra – Kate’s POV during Blood Heir
Damian Angevin– the Order’s report of the events from the main series

And the fun fan service fiction of Kate and Curran texts, Luther and Roman’s Frinnterviews, Don’t Mess with Fate (Hugh and Roman).

I have a very important final Hugh question. Very very adminy, you have to answer. Don’t think too hard though, first thing that comes into your head, just tell us. Does Puffles fly home?

Nice try.

The post Hugh’s Question Corner first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Here are 7 Author Shoutouts for this week. Find your favorite author or discover an…

The post 7 Author Shoutouts | Authors We Love To Recommend appeared first on LitStack.

You’ve heard. I know you’ve heard. And I know what your reaction was — first, surprise… shock, even. Then sadness, and probably anger too. “Please, not again, Goddammit! And not him!” (And if you really haven’t heard, forgive me for being the bearer of bad news.)

Those were my reactions, anyway, when I read about the New York Magazine story that was published early this year (“There is No Safe Word,” by Lila Shapiro; the article may be paywalled), a story that contains appalling, sickeningly detailed accusations from multiple women of thoroughly vile conduct (up to and including outright sexual assault) by Neil Gaiman, one of the most successful and admired writers in contemporary fantasy.

Whatever the results of the inevitable adjudication, civil or criminal, I think it is safe to say that Gaiman (who has naturally denied everything, because that’s what a guilty and an innocent man alike would do) has, at the still relatively young age of sixty-four, entered the “public and professional pariah” stage of his life. This has been confirmed by the panicked corporate scramble to cancel any and all Gaiman-related film, television, and literary projects that were in any stage of discussion or production when the accusations began to surface.

I don’t know the truth about any of these allegations, of course, but given their number and scale and specificity, it’s extremely difficult to believe that the predicament Gaiman finds himself in is merely the result of a “misunderstanding” (his characterization). What I do know is how depressing and disheartening the whole thing is.

The strength of my reaction surprised me because I don’t have a deep relationship with Neil Gaiman’s work. He came to prominence writing the Sandman for DC, but that was in the late 80’s, after I had quit reading comics and before I started up again, so I’ve only read a few of those issues. Beyond that, I’ve read a half a dozen short stories and four of his books — his adult fantasy novels Neverwhere and Stardust, both of which I liked a lot, and his children’s fantasies Coraline and The Graveyard Book, which I liked more than just a lot.

The Graveyard Book (which I read last summer, right before the first cracks began to appear in Gaiman’s reputation) was, I thought, absolutely magnificent — deliciously eerie, bloodcurdlingly frightening, genuinely wise, deeply humane, flawlessly imagined and above all, beautifully written. I had tears in my eyes when I finished it, and I immediately began enthusiastically recommending it to anyone I knew who hadn’t read it. The Gaiman book that most people think is his greatest achievement, American Gods, is one that I’ve never gotten around to, though a copy has been sitting close to the top of my TBR pile for the past few years; I was thinking that maybe I would finally read it this summer.

My feelings about this awful news are based as much on the attractive public persona that Gaiman has so successfully projected as it is on his work itself, of which I’ve read only a fraction. I personally experienced his charm and magnetism at the San Diego Comic-Con once, where he was a guest at the annual Jack Kirby Tribute Panel; I was sitting just a few feet away as he spoke about his regard for the King, and talked movingly about how heartbroken he was for Kirby when he first read the 1970’s Eternals series and reached the point where it became clear that Kirby had, because of Marvel’s editorial interference, just given up on the story and characters he had invested so much in. (It was issue #15, actually.) I thoroughly approved of Gaiman at that moment — we all love it when a smart, successful, famous person echoes thoughts that we’ve had ourselves. (I too had noticed the big change in issue #15.) We’ve probably seen the last of that witty, convivial public figure.

I guess my dismay mostly stems from a feeling that I (and a lot of other people) had, that Neil Gaiman was one of the Good Guys, someone who championed all the right things, someone emblematic of all that’s best about the genre, a big-hearted, generous mentor, a major writer who always took the time to encourage and support other writers everywhere. Certainly no one was ever readier with an appreciative forward or an enthusiastic blurb. I’m not sure which author I’ve read the most of in my life, but I know I’ve read more blurbs by Neil Gaiman than by anyone else, by a couple of orders of magnitude; if I added them all up, they’d probably make a whole book in themselves. (The first thing I read this year, V.E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, came emblazoned with a rapturous Gaiman recommendation. We’ve probably seen the last of those, too.)

This news has sparked so many emotions (always understanding that the real victims here are not paperback readers with hurt feelings) — the shock, sadness, and anger that I mentioned before, along with disappointment and resentment, too, resentment at being reminded of something that I would rather not be reminded of, something that all of us who love books and writers (any art, really) would much rather forget. You know what it is.

Baldly stated, it’s this: there is no necessary connection between a person’s moral character and the quality of his or her art.

In practice, this means that second-rate books (or mediocre music, or uninspired paintings, or worthless films) may very well be the sincere productions of otherwise admirable people, upright, honorable men and women of unshakeable integrity.

Good character, in other words, is no guarantee of talent. We know that and don’t have too much trouble acknowledging it; even if it doesn’t seem altogether fair, it’s something we can live with. There’s an obverse side to the coin, though, and that’s something we’re not nearly so comfortable looking at: a morally bad person may nevertheless be capable of producing great art, and we definitely don’t like that. We feel that it shouldn’t be so, because it somehow seems wrong in a way that the other side of the principle doesn’t. But the paradox is still true, even though we may wish it were otherwise.

We’re happier when the two halves come together neatly, when the artist and the art perfectly mesh, as in the case of Mary Anne Evans, who was, by all accounts, one of the finest people ever, and who wrote (under her pen name George Eliot) what I think is the greatest novel in the English language, Middlemarch, a book that glows with the decency, compassion, and generosity that exemplified its author’s private character. Mary Anne Evans poses us no problems.

Not everyone is Mary Ann Evans, though, and the number of people with very serious marks against their character who have produced great works of art is legion. (Dickens treated his wife abominably, Tolstoy was a monster of selfishness, Caravaggio was a murderer, and don’t even get me started about Roman Polanski.) For that reason, I guess this story shouldn’t have surprised me at all — but I’m glad it did. Though Gaiman may have played us all for suckers with his glowing public persona, I’d rather be a sucker than be so cynical that I couldn’t be shocked and depressed by such revelations. If you’re taken off-guard by something like this, it at least means that you still have faith in people; you don’t automatically expect everyone to be a hypocritical scumbag.

Now that this dreadful news is out, though, I’m stuck with the question — how can I reconcile the Neil Gaiman who could write the wonderful, uplifting, life-affirming Graveyard Book with the Neil Gaiman who could commit the atrocious acts that he is accused of?  How can they be the same person?

I don’t know… but it looks like it may be necessary for me to make room for both the revulsion that I feel towards Neil Gaiman the man, and for the genuine joy and pleasure I received from this strange thing that he was somehow able to separate from himself, The Graveyard Book. I can do it, I guess. I’ll have to.

I’m not sure, though, if now I’ll ever read American Gods; I’m not sure I want to anymore.

Thomas Parker is a native Southern Californian and a lifelong science fiction, fantasy, and mystery fan. When not corrupting the next generation as a fourth grade teacher, he collects Roger Corman movies, Silver Age comic books, Ace doubles, and despairing looks from his wife. His last article for us was In Dreams: David Lynch: 1946 – 2025

 

 

The Chaos Weaver (The Chaos Chronicles #1)by Aubrey Winters
What is it about:A dragon took my brother.I’m going to get him back.
My entire world changes when a scheme-gone-wrong results in my brother being taken by a dragon.
I’ve followed them into a strange and dangerous world filled with magic and enemies, but its handsome king has promised to help me hone powers I never knew I had.
Can he help me find my brother, or will I lose my heart—and everything I ever knew—in the process?
What did I think of it:So on social media the author was giving people the opportunity to sign up for an Advance Reader Copy. At her mention of necromancy and a mysterious king, I immediately signed up. And I got an ARC!
This is a really cool read!
I loved Everly from the start. She and her twin brother had a bad start in life and are surviving by conning people and stealing. I didn't really like her brother, but to Everly he is the world. So I could understand she follows and wants to do anything to get him back when a dragon drags him off to another world.
I really enjoyed getting to know this other world together with Everly. She immediately lands in trouble, manages to get out of it, to fall in the next mess. At times she is a bit too trusting, but as the world she landed in has very different rules and she's on her own for the first time in her life, I could understand .
And then there's the mysterious king! 
Without giving away too much I can tell you he was my favorite character (although long time blog followers might be fearing for his life now, I know I do). 
The ending although not a complete cliffhanger was exciting, leaving lots of questions, and made me hungry for more!
I might need to get this in print when it releases (ebook releases January 31st, go preorder!), and I already got a book from another series by this author to try soon.
Why should you read it:Necromancy and a Mysterious King!Need I say more?!

 

Buy A Letter to the Luminous Deep

OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: Sylvie Cathrall writes stories of hope and healing with healthy doses of wonder and whimsy. She holds a graduate degree in odd Victorian art and has handled more than a few nineteenth-century letters (with great care). Sylvie married her former pen pal and lives in the mountains, where she dresses impractically and dreams of the sea. 
FORMAT/INFO: A Letter to the Luminous Deep was published by Orbit Books on April 25th, 2024. It is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats. 
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: One year ago, a disaster struck the underwater residence known as the Deep House, leaving its two inhabitants, E. and Henerey, presumed dead. After a year of grieving, E.'s sister Sophy and Henerey's brother Vyerin begin to investigate the events that led to their siblings' death. Sifting through correspondence between the many individuals involved, the two begin to uncover a much more ominous mystery than they expected.

A Letter to the Luminous Deep is a charming underwater tale that ultimately dragged too much to keep me hooked. This is a very slow-paced affair, told largely through letters written in the style of the late 1800s. This is certainly a difficult form of novel to pull off. For one, there are occasional moments where the author has to do some narrative contortions to explain why certain events or conversations were put to paper. While I understand the necessity in order to convey certain key information to the reader, it does strain the credulity a bit in some places.

That said, there were also numerous ways the narrative structure worked. I did enjoy the subtle ominous foreboding that builds up over the course of the story. Certain innocuous observations of things that are "off" in the world begin to create an unsettling pattern, especially as we have a rough idea of how events end. Several people each have a piece of the puzzle, but it's only in assembling those pieces by collecting these letters that they (and the audience) start to see the whole picture.

I also liked the slow romance between the two characters of E. and Henerey. Each is a shy or reticent person for various reasons. Through the letters, however, we can see two people being understood in a way they haven't before. The use of aborted "first drafts" of letters also lets us see a little glimpse of their respective nervousness as they try to fumble through how to address a person they've developed feelings for, even though they've never met in person.

The author has also built up a fascinating maritime culture. Some calamity 1000 years ago left this fantasy world with minimal inhabitable land. As a result, whole peoples live one boats or floating collectives. As our focus in this story is on the colleges and scholarly life of these people, most of the details do remain frustratingly out of sight, but perhaps not unreasonably. The people writing the letters are focused on their own narrow slice of life, not on the workings of society as a whole.

CONCLUSION: While I did enjoy my read of A Letter to the Luminous Deep overall, I found it struggled to hold my attention towards the end. The narrative structure of letters just dragged events out. We have a good idea of what happened some thirty pages or so before the ending, with the rest of the characters trying to catch up through their long-winded missives. As someone who struggles with slow books, ultimately this just didn't click for me. While the set up for part two of the duology is intriguing, this tale simply isn't my cup of tea.

  

Image by Ervin Gjata from Pixabay

Good afterevenmorn (or whenever you’re reading this)!

Welp, what a start to 2025. Personally, it hasn’t been great. I kicked off the year very ill (thanks, Covid), languishing in bed wondering if this was the moment I drown without ever touching water. ‘Twas not pretty. Looking wider, the world appears to be literally on fire, or underwater, or deliberately reduced to rubble. It’s not been a good time for a whole lot of folks. I have been taking care of myself by largely staying off social media (sorry if I was missed. But I was already overwhelmed and unable to cope with my own busy-ness, let alone the worries of the world at large), and engaging in art. Not creating physically, as I’ve been very unwell, but consuming, art. Okay, I’ve been watching lots of Chinese dramas (some of which I don’t remember because I was in a feverish haze). That still counts, though.

I’ve also been daydreaming a lot, which is usually the important first step in my creative process. I have a new book in my head. All I need to do is finish the book I’m working on now, and then sit down and draw out this story word by word. I expect that it will become my next free online serial.

Though I’m sick… again (not Covid this time, just an annoying flu)… I’m in a much better place, coping-wise. And I owe that to art.

Some art, to cheer up the page.

It has been a recent (or not so recent, depending on your perspective) trend toward denigrating the arts; removing funding for it, making absurd claims that those who provide it should not be properly compensated, or ignoring complete just how important the arts are and how much we rely upon them.

Think about it.

What usually happens when we’ve had a rough day? Most folks will go home, mix themselves a drink, and then turn on the television, or fire up that console or gaming PC. Those shows that you watch? Art. Those games you play? Art. Someone wrote, blocked, shot, and edited those episodes/games. Actors and voice actors stepped in to fill those roles. Composers created the score. This is also true for those of us who turn to films to make us feel better. I often watch movies that make me cry when I’ve had a rough time. It helps me get the angst out (as I usually struggle to feel at all. Yay, depression!). Sometimes, I’m not in the mood to cry, so I’ll put on a really dumb action flick because explosions and absurd situations make me happy. Sometimes it’s to laugh at the movie. Sometimes it’s to experience the catharsis of evil getting what it deserves. We so infrequently see that in the real world.

From the game Detroit Become Human – a fantastic exploration of AI what makes a person a person.

Television and film aren’t the only way we interact and lean on art.

I cannot tell you the number of times I have been struggling with, well, everything, and unable to find a way to express or clear it away. Then the right piece of music hits, and suddenly I’m a puddle on the floor, or my mind is hijacked and taken on a really impressive adventure. I lean on music a lot for coping with the world. It is even an incredibly important part of my writing process. I have crafted entire novels off a single song (the most recent example would be Skylark, which was written the moment I listened to a song, and then also with that one song on repeat for the three months it took to get that story out onto the page). I have listened to a song, and a critical scene plays out like a movie in my head, guided by the music. The most striking example is this song:

One day, if that story is ever published, I’ll let you all know which scene in particular this song engendered.

Books, of course, including audio books and comics, are other ways the arts create space for us. There are so many reasons and ways literature of all kinds can help. The simplest is a brief escape. I’m no longer me, sitting on the sofa, utterly destroyed by the state of the world. I’m a silent observer; part of adventuring party, or even the main character in another story. And in this story, however high the stakes may be, I am still safe on my sofa. It doesn’t matter what kind of escape. A low stakes, cozy read? Excellent escape. A dire, world-ending threat full of struggle and grief? Excellent escape (and also an opportunity to let those tears out at last). Escape is so important. It’s not forever. And it won’t solve the real-life problems for you.

Image by Mystic Art Design from Pixabay

But rest is important. If you don’t have a rest day in your workout regime, your muscles will have not time heal, recover and grow. If you do not get adequate sleep, your cognitive function will be severely impacted. It’s no different for your mind/heart. If you don’t take a break from what is causing you distress, you’ll collapse beneath the weight of it all. It’s important to escape. Do it, and don’t feel guilty for it.

Literature also helps navigate terrible situations and scenarios for those of us who struggle with doing so in the real world. It helps give voice, using someone else’s words, to our experiences with enough separation that we remain safe. And sometimes, sometimes it can unlock the tings we need released in order to move forward. I have often been struggling with a completely separate grief, read a particularly tragic incident in a story that has nothing to do with whatever is weighing on me, and then cried. And cried. And cried. Not about the events in the book. But about the situation I’m facing. It’s just that the book helped unlocked the emotions that were trapped behind a dam I didn’t know I had built. Visual media has also helped with this; more with videogames than television shows or films of late, admittedly.

It’s no mistake that nearly all of us turn to the arts when things start going wrong. The arts are important and necessary.

So this is how you survive these interesting times. Consume art.

Image by Jose Antonio Alba from Pixabay

And make it.

I know it’s incredibly difficult to create with the world literally on fire. Or if you’re sick in bed with all the energy of a sloth after a big meal. All the same, human beings are creators by nature. It doesn’t matter what art you create. Or if other people think that art is good. You don’t have to share it at all. It’s just for you. Just create.

That can mean something as simple as buying yourself a colouring book and going to town with crayons or pencils. Hell, even a ball-point pen will work if you’re in a pinch. Got some time between tasks at work? Doodle. Write a short poem. A piece of flash fiction. It doesn’t have to practical. It doesn’t have to be monetized. It does not have to appeal to anyone else. It’s just for you, unless you want otherwise.

If you want, share your art. But that is not required.

It is hard right now. It’s alright if you’re struggling to create. Lord knows, I am. Finding motivation is tough in the current clime. Sometimes I think that’s by design. If you’re too busy trying to stay afloat, how can you imagine anything better for yourself, your neighbours, or the world? So, if anger, frustration and rage is all you have left, use that. Create from that.

Create out of spite.

Create. Make it a giant middle finger to the people who are trying to hold you down, make it hard, steal your joy, stop you from imagining.

Create art. Consume art. It is good for your soul, and the world could use more soul, I feel.

And if you have the means, consider tossing a coin to your Witcher (artist), for their skills have kept the monsters at bay for a little while longer. And in a world full of monsters, that is not nothing.

When S.M. Carrière isn’t brutally killing your favorite characters, she spends her time teaching martial arts, live streaming video games, and cuddling her cat. In other words, she spends her time teaching others to kill, streaming her digital kills, and a cuddling furry murderer. Her most recent titles include Daughters of Britain, Skylark and Human. Her serial The New Haven Incident is free and goes up every Friday on her blog.

Polish publisher Vesper has revealed the cover for Godzina Wilka, their upcoming translation of The Wolf’s Hour, to be published in April 2025! The art is by Maciej Kamuda, and the translation is by Janusz Skowron.

The book has not been added to the Vesper website yet, but details can be found here.

Dive into Vanishing Treasures, by Katherine Rundell, exploring the delicate balance between cultural heritage and…

The post “Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary and Endangered Creatures” by Katherine Rundell appeared first on LitStack.

Is it too late to say Happy New Year? Since this is the first newsletter of 2025 and the theme of today is being a happy writer, I’m okay with it.

I’m also more than happy to announce that today is the day that THE HAPPY WRITER book is out in the world!

THE HAPPY WRITER: GET MORE IDEAS, WRITE MORE WORDS, AND FIND MORE JOY FROM FIRST DRAFT TO PUBLICATION AND BEYOND!

From #1 New York Times bestselling author and the creator and host of the popular podcast, The Happy Writer, comes the ultimate guide to writing with less stress and more JOY.

If you aren’t suffering, you aren’t creating. Right?

Wrong!

Writing can and should be joyful, fulfilling… even fun! Applicable to writers in all genres and disciplines–from screenwriters to novelists, journalists to picture book authors, aspiring to many-times published–The Happy Writer is a heartfelt and optimistic guide that will show you the way to a happier writing journey.

Part craft guide, part writing coach, and part cheerleader, this book offers useful advice on a slew of common writing and publishing ailments, such as how to end procrastination, how to build a social media platform that reflects your personality, how to get your imagination to overflow with new ideas, how to listen to your intuition when receiving a critique on your work, how to overcome impostor syndrome, what to do when you’re stuck in the query trenches, and so much more.

No matter where a writer might be on their creative journey, Meyer encourages them to tap into their own personal sources of joy and to celebrate every milestone, all while confronting challenges (writer’s block! rejection! burnout!) with a reservoir of resources for every temperament, budget, and career.

Known in writers’ circles as a generous mentor, Meyer shares stories from her own writing path to help every writer discover the ultimate joys of living their best writing life.

Buy Links: Bookshop | Barnes and Noble | Indigo (Canada) |

Also available in audio, read by ME! Wherever you get your audio books.

More buy links and audio/ebook excerpts here.

To celebrate, I’m giving away finished copies and swag. To enter, fill out this form:

Happy Writer Final Episode Giveaway

In bittersweet news, now that the book is out in the world, it’s time to wind down the Happy Writer Podcast. It’s been an amazing nearly five years, filled with amazing authors, inspiring conversations, personal stories, and, of course, fantastic books, but it feels like the right time to turn to other things. I’m incredibly proud of every one of the 225 episodes, including this week’s final sendoff, and will be keeping them all available indefinitely so you can catch up and return to your favorites.

I hope the podcast, that started as a pandemic project to help authors get the word out about their books, has been inspiring and valuable to you as a reader and writer.

We’ll continue to post on Instagram and Facebook for the foreseeable future – writing tips, clips from past episodes, writing prompts, and more (maybe even some giveaways?)!

Follow on Instagram and Facebook.

WITH A LITTLE LUCK

If you’ve been waiting to pick up this companion to INSTANT KARMA, it’s now available in paperback.

Purchase Links: Bookshop | Barnes and Noble | Indigo (Canada) |

Upcoming Appearances

Feb. 8, 12:00pm PST – Online Webinar with Jessica Brody and the Writing Mastery Academy. Sign up at https://www.writingmastery.com/

Feb. 11, 6:00pm PST – Fireside chat with J. Ann Thomas. Grit City Books, Tacoma, WA. This is a free event but is ticketed. Reserve your spot here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launch-event-for-j-ann-thomas-tickets-1131364263969

Feb. 12, Time TBD, Barnes & Noble Grand Opening, Issaquah, WA

Feb. 21-22, StoryCon, Salt Lake City, UT. More info: https://www.storycon.org/

Don’t forget, you can get all your official Marissa Meyer/The Happy Writer merchandise at our shops: Etsy, Spring, and Teepublic.

Until next time, stay inspired and keep writing.

With love,

Marissa

The post The Happy Writer Book is Finally Here! first appeared on Marissa Meyer.

 

Our realm, splintered and broken, yearned to be united under a single ruler. The Witches may have won and put one of their own on the throne, but even they had suffered.

(page 1, The Queen's Blade by Evelyn Ward)
---------
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, previously hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: - Grab your current read - Open to a random page - Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) - Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their  TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The finale to John Gwynne’s Bloodsworn, The Fury of the Gods, brings the Norse epic to a grand conclusion. The conflagration of warriors, wolf-gods, dragon-gods, rat-gods, and other various and sundry supernatural entities comes to a head as the dragon god, Lik-Rifa, seeks to take over the world and expunge her sibling gods while Varg,…

 Yep.

 

 

 About:

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The Federation is finally ticking along as things start to come together. The Tauren war is over in the west, the Federation is growing steadily, and the economy is bright. There are dark clouds on the horizon however. The Spirits have returned with dire warnings of an ancient evil alliance brewing in the northern sectors.

Admiral Irons has his hands full with politics and the pirate war in Sigma Sector. They finally have a lead on the pirate capital, the battle moon known as Atlas XIV or El Dorado. Fleets and the Cadre are on the move to Sigma in preparation of the final assault there.

Pirate Empress Catherine the Great has been scheming and readying her titanic ship to flee to a new hiding spot. It is now a race to see if she can get away before the fleet finds her. But Admiral Irons is first and foremost an engineer. Engineers have a motto, when in doubt, use a bigger hammer. Well, Admiral Irons is the premier engineer and if he is good at anything it is that he is an expert on Lowering the Hammer.

Amazon:  Amazon

B&N: B&N

Crime reporter Atkins discovered Scrawny Pete at the scene of a murder-suicide. The hard-bitten reporter took to the cat, and the cat took to him.

Together they travel through the city on the police beat—until the day they come across another crime, one that Scrawny Pete understands.

“Scrawny Pete” is available for one week on this site. The ebook is also available on all retail stores, as well as here.

 

Scrawny Pete By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

He found Scrawny Pete, flea-bitten, hair coming out in patches, and eyes like a baby’s, in a fifth floor walk-up, crouched beside two dead bodies. The cat wouldn’t come to anyone but him, and in a moment of weakness, he took the damn thing. The vet’d cleaned him up, put antibiotics on the scabs, gave Atkins some salve and some special food and sent him on his way.

A cat owner.

And not just any cat. Scrawny Pete was on his way to becoming a legend.

The dead bodies had been part of a domestic. Typical, in its way. Murder-suicide. Always seemed that the man shot the woman and ate the gun. Fifteen years on the crime beat for whichever daily tabloid paid him enough to write his five hundred words of wisdom showed him that there was nothing in the human existence that someone didn’t try to solve with a gun. In the mouth, out of the mouth, in the heart, in the stomach, it didn’t matter. In America, someone whipped out a gun and entire lives ended. A flash, an instant, leaving more heartbreak than any newspaper could cover.

As if it wanted to. Whoever said, “All happy families are alike, but all unhappy families are unhappy in their own ways,” had been more right than Atkins wanted to imagine.

The problem with Scrawny Pete, as Atkins soon learned, was that the damn cat was terrified of being alone. Surprisingly, loud noises didn’t bother him, and neither did the smell of blood, but his own company in the quiet of Atkins’s apartment drove the cat absolutely crazy. Atkins tried leaving the television on, and bringing home a kitten, but Scrawny Pete was intelligent enough to know that a TV wasn’t company, and he didn’t tolerate any furry companions in his fancy abode.

Somehow the damn cat talked Atkins into taking him everywhere. Atkins started wearing a great coat with a large pocket that Scrawny Pete—who was smaller than most six-month-old kittens—took to riding in. Atkins found that Pete could be smuggled anywhere, restaurants, hotels, even doctor’s offices. And once he started writing about Pete in his column, well, he didn’t have to smuggle the cat anywhere any more.

It was June 21st, one year to the day after he’d gotten Scrawny Pete, that he found himself taking an old Otis to the top floor of a scrungy apartment building on the lower East Side. The cops were already on the scene. Some rookie was standing outside the main door, arms crossed, unwilling to let in any comers even with press badges until he saw Scrawny Pete. Atkins mumbled as the Otis’s doors slid open on the fourteenth floor that if he’d known a cat was worth more than a press badge he’d’ve gotten the cat years ago.

Scrawny Pete had no answer. If anything, the cat seemed tenser than usual.

Pete was always unnaturally tense. Atkins attributed it to the poor critter’s upbringing by such obviously happy folk. He could only imagine how awful it had been. The walk-up hadn’t had any cat food. The only sign that a cat had even lived there were the claw marks on the living room sofa. Obviously the happy couple had let Scrawny Pete fend for his dinner in the hall with the other stray cats, and had let him the bulk of his life outside—which had probably been good for Scrawny Pete or he might have been the first to taste the gun, long before hubby decided the family needed a vacation in Never-Never-Land.

But in this hallway, which smelled of grease and garlic and Asian cooking, overlaid with filth and a bit of despair, Pete’s naturally tense body became a hard little wire. Atkins put a hand on Pete’s back, like he used to do when they first started traveling together, before he realized that nothing—not honking horns, not screaming people, not the breeze from a passing train—could spook Pete enough to make him leave the pocket. Pete’s security was Atkins, and that cat wasn’t ever going to let go.

Apartment 14A had a crooked metal sign and an open presswood door, the outside of which had once seen the backside of someone’s foot. The breaks in the wood weren’t new and they weren’t clean, and all they left was a thin layer of really cheap oak covering between the inhabitants—or former inhabitants as the case might be—and the rest of the world.

Atkins pushed his way inside, felt Pete turn into a statue against his side and start making little huffing noises. Two detectives stood inside, both in plainclothes, cheap off-the-rack suits that had seen better days. The ME stood over the bodies with the department’s camera, preserving the scene for posterity, although it was obvious what had happened.

Husband shot the wife before eating the gun. The air still had an acrid whiff from the double discharge. Atkins was surprised he could smell it over the stench of blood and voided bowels.

The detectives recognized him, showed him where to stand so that he wouldn’t violate the scene. Pete was still huffing, his fur rising on his back. Strange behavior. Stranger way still to spend their one-year anniversary.

Atkins stared at the couple. Young, by the looks of their hands. Poor, by the looks of the apartment. But not that poor, by the looks of their stuff. In fact, a bit upscale for a neighborhood like this.

“Slumming, Atkins?” one of the detectives asked.

“Heard the call,” he said, hand still on Pete. “What is it about this day, hm? It’s not Christmas. Not nothing at all. What makes people go off on this day?”

“What?” the detective said. “There been other calls today?”

Atkins shook his head. “A year ago today, I got Pete at a place just like this one. In fact…” His voice trailed off. He shuddered, something he hadn’t done at a crime scene in more than a decade.

“What?” the detective asked, but Atkins ignored him. Instead he crouched, put his hands up to his face as if he were forming a camera, and looked through the frame.

“Do bodies always fall like that in a murder-suicide?” he asked.

“Like what?” the detective asked.

“Side by side, twinned up like they’re in bed next to each other, only they’re on the floor.”

“Naw.” The answer came from the ME. He’d taken the last shot. “Usually, they are in bed. It’s only a few who do it in the middle of the living room. I think they had some kind of argument, he grabs the gun, waves it in her face, she thinks he ain’t gonna do nothing, maybe even dares him, he shoots, realizes what he’s done, then shoots himself.”

Sounded plausible.

Pete was making little sounds of distress. Atkins put his hand back in his pocket. Pete was shivering. In the whole past year, in all the strange situations, he’d never once felt Pete shiver. Not even in the middle of winter.

“Never figured you for one of them animal lovers who took his friggin pet everywhere,” the other detective said.

Atkins shrugged, pretended an indifference he didn’t really feel. “It gets readers.”

“Sure does,” the first detective said. “The wife reads your column now like you’re writing the adventures of Scrawny Pete. You should mention him every day.”

“Yeah,” Atkins said. “He sure has a place in a story like this one.”

“I don’t see no story here,” the ME said. “Sad to tell, but who really cares when some guy takes out himself and his wife. ‘Cept the friends and family, of course.”

Atkins looked at him. The ME was a skinny redhead with premature aging lines from frowning instead of too much sunlight. “No kids?” he asked.

“Not a one.”

“How common is that?”

The ME shrugged. “I’m not a walking book of statistics.”

“I mean, isn’t it usually long-marrieds, or newly separateds, or bad divorces who resort to this?”

“Can’t say.” The ME looked over his shoulder. But one of the detectives frowned.

“Where you going with this, Atkins?”

“Nowhere,” he said. “Just seems strange to me. The couple that I got Pete from, they were in this position, no kids, dead in the living room in a fifth floor walk-up not a lotta different from this.”

“The world’s weird, Atkins,” one of the detectives said. “Who’d’ve figured? It’s like you and that crazy cat.”

“Yeah,” Atkins said softly, not taking his hand off Pete. “Who’d’ve figured.”

***

It didn’t stop him from checking anyway. Superstition was sometimes a reporter’s best friend. He and Pete spent the afternoon digging through records, and what he found chilled him. The past five years, there’d been a murder-suicide on the same date. Same day, same pose, different precincts. No one recognized the scene. And because it was looked like a murder/suicide, no one did more than a cursory investigation. Did he shoot her? Yeah. Did he shoot himself? Yeah. End of story.

But not really.

Atkins called the detective in charge of the latest one, told him what he’d learned, and didn’t explain how he got his hunch, except to say that he remembered the anniversary of getting Pete.

Pete was still freaked. Atkins had learned, in the year he’d had Pete, that cats had memories, emotional memories, like people. The apartment drove him crazy; whenever one of the neighbors got to shouting, Pete dove under the couch. He sat in the corner like a terrified rabbit when Atkins wasn’t home, not moving at all, defecating and urinating in the spot where Atkins left him in the morning. He’d done that for a week before Atkins, who knew that Pete understood a litter box, tried taking Pete to work.

The rest, of course, was history.

The detective didn’t call back for two days. By then, Atkins was three columns away from the scene. He remembered it, of course. That night, Pete had slept like a baby in his arms, something he wouldn’t admit to anyone, barely admitted to himself, and the cat seemed spookier than usual. But life marched on and Atkins with it, turning in his five hundred words, crime beat, the most popular column in the city with or without mention of Scrawny Pete.

“Atkins,” the detective said.

“Yeah?”

“You got a story here. Want it? We wouldn’ta got it without you.”

Reporters lived for calls like that. Atkins was no different, even after fifteen years. He went to the precinct, which was gray and dirty and smelled like ancient coffee, just like every other precinct in the city, and listened as the detective explained, in excruciating detail, how they went over the crime scene, how they found things that didn’t exactly fit: a shoe mark in blood that didn’t belong to any of the cops; a handprint on the coffee table; fibers in the wounds that had nothing to do with either deceased.

The detective didn’t apologize. He knew that Atkins was a pro, Atkins understood how overworked they all were, how they liked to close cases, especially easy ones, like a murder/suicide, how hard sometimes serial killings were to see.

Luckily, or so the detective said, this one was easily solved. A neighbor—one Tobias Craig—heard the fighting, complained, complained again, finally decided to take matters into his own hands. Apparently he snapped every June 21st. Left a visible trail once they knew what to look for. Every apartment super with the June 21 murders remembered the guy complaining about the noise.

The cops had interviewed him at every scene and he’d always been the one who said the expected litany: It don’t surprise me, officers. They were fighting all the time.

Atkins knew better than to ask for a why, but he got it anyway: Apparently Craig’s name was all over the system, not as a criminal, but as a victim. Parents dead of a murder/suicide—a confirmed one—that happened in front of the children on June 21st, 1979. He’d been six at the time.

Atkins found the clippings, saw the blood-spattered children being led out of the apartment. In his imagination watched them watching their father pull out the gun like the ME had said, pull the trigger, kill his wife, then in sudden remorse, kill himself. He’d forgotten the children, sleeping in the next room, the children who’d crawled out of their shared bed to see what the noise was just in time to watch him eat his gun.

Scrawny Pete’d seen it of course. That explained the terrors, the fears of being left alone with neighbors who shouted and screamed. Was he their cat, the dead couple’s? Or had he originally been a stray who’d taken food from Craig? No telling, and certainly Pete wouldn’t say. Not in any way Atkins wanted to see anyway.

So he wrote the column, asked if it could go on more than 500 measly words, and because he rarely asked, and because his longer columns usually got national attention, sometimes awards, his editor said sure. Atkins wrote the story, mentioning Pete’s reaction to the smells, the repeated scene. Mentioning, only mentioning. And then he’d gone on to reflect on the way the system failed the victims and the way it created more victims and was it guns or the human race’s innate violence that caused a man to shoot his wife and then himself, to start a ball rolling that would leave five couples dead after some kind of terror at the hands of a crazy man who’d once been a blood-spattered six-year-old kid.

People didn’t remember the analysis or the arguments or the excellent prose, some of the best of his career. Nope. They remembered the bizarre nature of the story, and they remembered Pete. And over the years, it became the crime that Pete solved, and Scrawny Pete became a legend.

Atkins didn’t mind. Cats could become legends. Reporters shouldn’t. Reporters schlepped from scene to scene, observing, recording, trying to make sense out of one corner of the world. Sometimes he managed it, sometimes he didn’t. But he was the best at it, for a few years at least.

The years he had Scrawny Pete in his pocket.

 

____________________________________________

“Scrawny Pete” is available for one week on this site. The ebook is also available on all retail stores, as well as here.

Scrawny Pete

Copyright © 2016 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
First published as an Amazon Short, June 2005
Published by WMG Publishing
Cover and layout copyright © 2016 by WMG Publishing
Cover design by WMG Publishing
Cover art copyright © Jeffery Koh/Dreamstime

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

After a cataclysmic interstellar war that came very close to exterminating humanity, the Daybreak Republic has risen from the ashes and embarked upon a mission to unite hundreds of human colony worlds under its banner, in hopes of preventing a second and final conflict that will complete the destruction of the human race. But not everyone agrees that the empire’s ends justify the means.

Though a technicality, Lieutenant-Commander Leo Morningstar commanded the lone starship in the Yangtze Sector, but no more. The arrival of reinforcements brings a senior office who has no patience for jumped-up officers, and an axe to grind against Leo personally. Relieved of command, Leo finds himself serving under an old enemy and then assigned to an isolated war-torn world while his rival steals the glory Leo rightfully earned. They think they’ve gotten rid of him for good …

But that didn’t work out very well last time, did it?

Read a FREE SAMPLE, then download from the links here: Amazon US, UK, CAN, AUS, Books2Read.

It is Monday the 89th of January (or certainly feels like it) and if, like me, you need reasons to push through to the end of the month, I have them right here.

The dramatized adaptation of Magic Shifts will be released by Graphic Audio this Friday, on their website as well as on other third party retailers platforms (Audible, Chirp, Audiobooks.com etc).

Because the Horde is what? Beloved! I have 2 generous exclusive samples director Nora sent over just for us:

Why *does* Kate always hang out with weirdos? aka Luther in the hooooouse!

And car chases are a girl’s best friend. (Only if that girl is Dali)

For more, including the classic Apple + Bee moment and the heart-wrenching earring carrying scene, we’ll have to make it until Friday. Courage!

Nora and team are hard at work already on Magic Binds, unapologetically my favourite, so I preordered and can’t w*it for March. That means the main Kate series will be entirely adapted this year and we will potentially hear more about the dramatized fate of other books in Kate world.

I will also have more exciting announcements from Graphic Audio for you next week, if all goes well, but until then, the fun isn’t over!

Giveaway

The second volume of the Clean Sweep graphic novel is being released tomorrow by Andrews McMeel – this is the Tapas run comic book, turned into paperback and Kindle formats.

To celebrate, the publisher is running another Innkeeper sticker sheet giveaway for US-based readers, from now until February 2nd which can be accessed here – also includes an extensive list of retailers. Good luck all!

Disclaimers: This is not Sweep in Peace, a sequel to the Tapas episodes. It’s the second volume of Clean Sweep. The comic book has expanded the story and added new characters. Tomorrow’s date is the US release, please check your retailer of choice for international dates (Amazon, Bookshop.org, World of Books etc) – in the UK for example, we have to w*it until March.  

We have a lot of surprises coming, and we heard you about more quizzes, games and snippets each Friday. In the meantime, happy listening, reading and sticking!

The post Kate Exclusive Samples and Innkeeper Giveaways first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

The Alchemist of Aleppo bends the space-time continuum and embodies our fascination with what science…

The post Spotlight on “The Alchemist of Aleppo” by Marie K. Savage appeared first on LitStack.

I meant to do that.

Of course you did.

Yeah, every cat dreams of getting covered with water.

They do? Huh. Guess I need to revise me thinkages.

It’s been a whole month since I randomly shared my opinions on things I think How in the world have you made it through the start of this new year, without that????

So, I think that:

1) THE CITY OF MARBLE AND BLOOD IS TERRIFIC

If you follow me on Facebook – or even read my column here every Monday, you know I’ve been talking about my Black Gate buddy Howard Andrew Jones, who passed away earlier this month. Click on over to see what I had to say last week about a really great guy.

I had not yet read Howard’s most recent trilogy, the Chronicles of Hanuvar. Howard’s Arabian fantasy mystery short stories featuring Dabir and Asim have been my favorites of his work (even more so than the two novels featuring the duo).

But man – this first book in the trilogy is his best work. Incorporating several short stories previously published, it’s very episodic in nature, which I liked. They’re linked together, making up Hanuvar’s ongoing quest, and the format keeps things moving. There’s no padding here.

While I have Robert E. Howard and Fritz Lieber on my shelves, I’m more an epic fantasy fan, ala JRR Tolkien, Terry Brooks, David Eddings, and Robert Jordan. I feel like Howard’s trilogy is epic sword and sorcery – a hybrid of the two which would also include Glen Cook’s The Black Company. It contains the individual adventuring aspect of sword and sorcery (stakes are more focused on the hero, not nations or empires), with the epic story scope of high fantasy. Howard’s trilogy is Epic Sword and Sorcery.

I finished Lord of a Shattered Land, put it on the Shelf, and immediately sat down and began The City of Marble and Blood. And boy, does something big happen by page twenty-five!! The latter two books are in traditional novel form. So be it – I’m in.

2) D&D NOVELS ARE STILL ENJOYABLE

I used to own a bunch of the old D&D novels. Series’ such as Ravenloft, The Cleric Quintet, Dragon Lance, Forgotten Realms; dozens of them. I unloaded them during one of my periodic sell-offs over the years (I still have over 2,000 print books, but I’d love to have a lot of the ones which are gone. I still have the Gord the Rogue books, though!

I’ve written about The Temple of Elemental Evil and The Village of Hommlet more than once here at Black Gate. And right now, I’m listening to the audiobook of the ToEE. And it’s not bad.

If you’re looking for a quite D&D-like series, check out the Dhampir books by Rob and C.J. Hendee. They read a lot like a Dungeons and Dragons adventure.

3) JOHN MADDOX’ SPQR MYSTERIES ARE MY FAVES

I have now listened to the first ten (of thirteen) of these mystery novels set in Ancient Rome, and I’ve talked about them in What I’ve Been Listening To. I have enjoyed every single of one of these, and John Lee is a PERFECT match as narrator. I can’t imagine anyone else voicing Decius Caecilius Matellus the Younger. I talked about it a little bit, here.

The cover itself is blurry – that wasn’t me! 4) YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT QUINTILIAN TOO

So, if you like SPQR, and you’re looking for more in that vein, check out Michael Kurland’s The Trials of Qunitilain. I’m a fan of Kurland’s Professor Moriarty novels. The Trials of Quintilian contain three stories that use the real-life Marcus Fabius Quintilianus as the hero.

He was an orator, rhetorician, barrister and educator. Here, he’s also essentially a private eye, gathering evidence for the client he is representing as a lawyer. I like the mix of PI and law, set in Ancient Rome. I picked up the ebook at a real steal, and it’s a fun, quick read. More old world Roman mystery stuff for me, please!

5) TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER II KEEPS DRAWING ME BACK

There are a few games I reinstall every so often (sometimes a couple years apart), dive deep into, then move on. This – and WarHammer I, because combining them lets me play any faction from either game – is far and away my favorite RTS strategy game (it’s properly a hybrid, I think).

But man, I can sink hours upon hours into this. Often having to go back to a prior save and try a different path. While frustrating, it’s still kind of fun to try and make it work out. The first 10 – 15 turns for any faction are always hard for me, and I have a lot of false starts. I don’t actually fight the battles; I auto-resolve them. I like the city and troop building, and the strategies and faction relations. The fantasy aspect of WH makes this far and away my favorite.

They REALLY need to buy the Tolkien license and do TW: Middle Earth. THAT would be fantastic!! I cut my teeth on TW: Rome, and I suspect any Total War game in your interest area (Attila the Hun, Brittania, Egypt – whatever) would work for you. I’m not into Warhammer, but I do like this game.

6) NO WRITING PROJECT IS EVER BEYOND RESUMPTION

I haven’t been writing much lately, beyond my weekly column here (Note to self – quit playing TW: Warhammer II, then!!).

But last week I dusted off a project I started in 2011, and hadn’t worked on for quite a few years, I’m certain. But some real-life downs put me in a frame of mind where it was exactly what I needed to dive into. So, I’m almost done with the first draft of a Companion/Study Guide to Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. It’s my favorite book of the Bible, and I plan on honing this guide to the sharpness of an obsidian blade.

I had to dig this off a recovered hard drive, it was so dusty. And though I abandoned it over a decade ago, it is thriving right now. No project – even no idea – is ‘dead’ unless you deem it so. And sometimes, an old one just might save you in more ways than one.

7) ANIMAL CONTROL AVOIDS BEING TOO DUMB FUNNY

I only watched a couple episodes of Community, though I know about it. Star Joel McHale is the lead on Animal Control, which manages to stay on the side of being good dumb funny. It’s not clever dumb funny, like Galaxy Quest. But it’s not beyond stupid dumb funny, like Dumb and Dumber.

It’s not a thinking-heavy sitcom, but I like it pretty well. I am enjoying it more than Dennis Leary’s Going Dutch, which I haven’t given up on yet. However, Going Dutch doesn’t have much of any any depth to it, so we’ll see how long I can last.

8) I FAILED ON MY ANNUAL CHRISTMAS POST IDEA

Every Christmas (often Christmas Eve), I re-watch Humphrey Bogart’s ‘dark’ comedy, We’re No Angels. And every year, I observe that I really should write a Black Gate post on it. I’m 0 for every year on that. But hey – it’s a new year!!!

A terrific cast and light-hearted dark humor, it’s just about my favorite Christmas movie. Every time I see Peter Ustinov in this, I think that he would have made a good Dr. Watson back then. There was a modern remake (sort-of) with Robert DeNiro and Sean Penn. If that’s the only version you’ve seen, you really should go check out Bogie, Rathbone, and company.

9) I KINDA HAVE A NEW CHRISTMAS FAVE AS WELL

Though it’s certainly not ‘new’ anymore, Jingle All the Way is about my favorite modern Christmas movie. It’s a silly (but not too dumb comedy with Ah-nuld Schwarzenegger, Sinbad, and a deliciously creepy Phil Hartman.

I think I’ve added Red One alongside Jingle, after watching it this year. When a Rock movie works, I really enjoy it, and this is like a Marvel-lite Rock Christmas movie. And that’s exactly what I want.

10) I LIKE ONE-OFF CHRISTMAS EPISODES FOR BRITISH TV SHOWS

Some British mystery shows I watch, like The Cleaner, and Death in Paradise, air a new episode around Christmas day. I look forward to these now. I actually started a Death in Paradise re-watch after seeing the new Christmas episode (which featured ANOTHER cast change).

We’re talking 109 one-hour episodes, with multiple cast changes. We’re talking quite the investment. I’m almost through season five (of thirteen), and loving every episode. The ‘Christmas episode’ relit a fire. I wrote about the show some, here.

If you’ve seen episode one of season three (and you will absolutely know whether or not you have. A BIIIGGGG thing happened), I wrote an entire post on that one, earlier this month. Do NOT read it if you haven’t seen that episode. Trust me.

Prior Ten Things I Think I Think

Ten Things I Think I Think (December 2024)
Nine Things I Think I Think (October 2024)
Five More Things I Think: Marvel Edition (September 2024)
Ten Things I Think I Think: Marvel Edition ( September 2024)
Five Things I Think I Think (January 2024)
Seven Things I Think I Think (December 2023)
Talking Tolkien: TenThings I Think I Think (August 2023)
A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Ten Things I Think I think (August 2023)
5 More Things I Think (March 2023)
10 Things I Think I Think (March 2023)

Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every summer since.

His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).

He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’

He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories — Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXIII.

He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.

Bonded in Death Series: In Death #60
on July 30, 2025

His passport read Giovanni Rossi. But decades ago, during the Urban Wars, he was part of a small, secret organization called The Twelve. Responding to an urgent summons from an old compatriot, he landed in New York and eased into the waiting car. And died within minutes…

Lieutenant Eve Dallas finds the Rossi case frustrating. She’s got an elderly victim who’d just arrived from Rome; a widow who knows nothing about why he’d left; an as-yet unidentifiable weapon; and zero results on facial recognition. But when she finds a connection to the Urban Wars of the 2020s, she thinks Summerset―fiercely loyal, if somewhat grouchy, major-domo and the man who’d rescued her husband from the Dublin streets―may know something from his stint as a medic in Europe back then.

When Summerset learns of the crime, his shock and grief are clear―because, as he eventually reveals, he himself was one of The Twelve. It’s not a part of his past he likes to revisit. But now he must―not only to assist Eve’s investigation, but because a cryptic message from the killer has boasted that others of The Twelve have also died. Summerset is one of those who remain―and the murderous mission is yet to be fully accomplished…

Goodreads
Pages: 400

Genres: Fiction / Crime, Fiction / Mystery & Detective / General, Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Police Procedural, Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths
Format: Audiobook
Source: NetGalley
ISBN: 9780349443362



Also in this series: Obsession in Death, Devoted in Death (In Death, #41), Down the Rabbit Hole (includes In Death, #41.5), Brotherhood in Death (In Death, #42), Purity in Death (In Death, #15), Apprentice in Death (In Death, #43), Secrets in Death (In Death, #45)


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Another great novel from J. D. Robb.  These books are one of a few series that I can enjoy hearing and not reading myself.  You will miss much of the story if you haven’t read the previous books.   The author usually writes books that may have a little back story but this one has a lot of links to previous books and you would need the previous book to solve the murder mystery.