Roller coaster ride

by: Joelle Charbonneau

This week has been an up and down ride.  For those keeping score, SKATING ON THE EDGE, the second of the Rebecca Robbins novels launched on Tuesday.  The best part of this launch is that it involves Roller Derby girls.  Members of the Windy City Rollers were on hand to celebrate the book, the sport and give away free stuff.  They even gave me my derby name – Jo-Hell!

Of course, when any new book launches, there is nerves, worry and a large dose of fear that people won’t like it.  That those who once loved the characters now think they are dull or boring or unbelievable.  Happiness and fear often go hand in hand in this business.

Luckily, I didn’t have all that much time to dwell on the worry since Wednesday I packed the car and headed out to Cleveland for the annual celebration of crime fiction, mysteries and thrillers – Bouchercon.  And yep – I’m still here.  There are lots of late nights catching up with friends, panels that discuss writing (I was on the Popularity of Young Adult fiction panel), parties and meetings with editors and agents.  I am fortunate enough to say that I had amazing conversations with Heather Graham (who graciously asked me to sing with her band at the House of Blues Friday night), Jeffery Deaver, Val MacDermid, Lee Child and Michael Connelly.  Yeah – pretty amazing!  I’ve also had a chance to go bowling and laugh with people who are creative and smart and somehow allow me to be their friend.  YAY!

During the happiness, there is also a bit of sadness.  Perhaps that is because life needs to be balanced in order for us to really understand that we need to celebrate the good in life.  On Thursday, my family said goodbye to a beloved member.  She has joined my father who I am missing more today than ever.  Today is the fourth anniversary of the day he found peace and left us with the memory of his love.

I am happy.  I am sad.  Through it all I celebrate the good.  I hope all of you find something wonderful to celebrate today.

Book of the Month Club

by
Scott D. Parker

I received a strange thing in the mail the other day: an invitation to the Book-of-the-Month (BOMC) club. The club isn’t odd. Far from it. I remember back in the day avidly scanning the catalogs of books I could get for a dollar each! It was a bibliophile’s dream. Not only would you get the latest hardbacks (for a dollar; did I mention that?), but you could double-up you points and get something in a slipcase. Tis how I got my hardback version of The Hobbit. I would pore over that catalog, getting my top 15, then paring it down to my top 10, and, finally, writing the numbers of my top 5 there on the card. You’d mail a thin piece of paper and, later, you’d get a big box in the mail. It was awesome.

What surprised me is that the BOMC is still around and making their pitch via a mailer. I forget that, for a large majority of the folks out there, paper books are still the go-to reading medium. As someone who has (mostly) made the paradigm shift to ebooks, where all the books hover between $4.00 and $14.00, it just surprised me that BOMC is still around and making their pitch via paper. That is, I expected them to be online, perhaps, and still have their service available to readers, just that those readers would have to go online to order paper books. I know it’s not an earth-shattering idea, but it still struck me as funny.

I wonder if there’s an ebook version of BOMC? A quick check of their website revealed a “no” on ebooks. I wonder how that’d work? Would they send you a epub (or whatever) file every month that would be readable in an app they created? If you want the title, you pay for it and the code gets removed? If you didn’t, the file would “close” after 7 days? Is that even feasible? I dunno, but it’s an interesting idea.

Anyone still a member of the BOMC?

Tom Piccirilli

By Jay Stringer

Weddle mentioned this yesterday, and Brian Keene has been keeping us all updated on ways to help. The show of support from the writing community has already been amazing, but I wanted to put this information up here too.

Tom Piccirilli is one of the best writers working today, and more importantly he's one of the good guys. By now you've probably heard that he's had to undergo an operation to remove a brain tumor. Now, that tumor doesn't know who it's messing with, and Tom's going to come back better than ever. But in the meantime, there will be bills to pay both for him and his family.

This information is already up on a few other sites, but here's a list of places you can go to help out.

1. In a fantastic gesture, Crossroads Press have announced that 100% of proceeds from sales on Tom's books between now and the end of the year will go straight to him. 
2. In similar move, CZP have said that proceeds from Every Shallow Cut will also go direct to him.
3. The family have set up a fundraiser via IndieGoGo and the funds go straight to them. The amount of support shown there is already amazing.
4. You can also donate directly via paypal to Tom's sister-in-law here. This is also an important option, because these funds will help his wife Michelle with costs of living before the royalties and fundraisers kick in. 

There are plenty of ways you can help, and there are also plenty of great Piccirilli books you an buy. If you've already got them, howsabout buying one or two for someone else as a gift, so that he has new fans waiting for him when he recovers.