Volume 2

Hardcover Fiction

1. WORST CASE, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
2. THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett
3. FLIRT, by Laurell K. Hamilton
4. WINTER GARDEN, by Kristin Hannah
5. THE LOST SYMBOL, by Dan Brown

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. GAME CHANGE, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
2. THE POLITICIAN, by Andrew Young
3. ON THE BRINK, by Henry M. Paulson Jr.
4. I AM OZZY, by Ozzy Osbourne with Chris Ayres
5. THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS, by Rebecca Skloot

Paperback Trade Fiction

1. A RELIABLE WIFE, by Robert Goolrick
2. THE LAST SONG, by Nicholas Sparks
3. DEAR JOHN, by Nicholas Sparks
4. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, by Stieg Larsson
5. THE LOVELY BONES, by Alice Sebold
.
Paperback Mass-Market Fiction
1. DEAR JOHN, by Nicholas Sparks
2. HOT ROCKS, by Nora Roberts
3. TATE, by Linda Lael Miller
4. THE SCARECROW, by Michael Connelly
5. THE LOVELY BONES, by Alice Sebold

By Marlis Day

If you really want to write, it will gnaw at you until you do it. It’s a calling, a need to express yourself, a deep desire to share your thoughts.

As soon as I developed the skills to write sentences and paragraphs, I began writing letters to friends, relatives, & pen pals. I was in the fourth grade. Later, as my life became more interesting, I entered essay contests at school and wrote articles for the school newspaper. When I began my teaching career in Chicago at the age of twenty, I wrote plays for my students and sent lengthy narratives home to my family. I loved doing it; it fed some deep inner need in me.

During those busy years of being a stay-at-home mom and then a working mom, it was difficult to find time to write. But I thought, and imagined, and recorded life experiences. I was forever plagued with the “what-ifs.” Since I emerged from a family of storytellers, plots formed and developed in my mind – stories begging to be told. I worked and waited. I read good books and noted how authors expressed themselves.

When the kids left home for college and the dust settled, I purchased my first computer and learned word processing. How refreshing to be able to create and delete, to let stories flow from my fingertips. I used my newly-found freedom to write articles and short stories, which I sold to magazines. I wept when I received my first check ($150.) for doing what I loved.

A few years later, I began my first book. I have never been more intense than when I wrote WHY JOHNNY DIED. My mind traveled to the fictional town and dealt daily with the host of characters I had created. What fun to determine the weather, settle scores, and kill off the bad guys at will. When it was published in 1999, I felt a love and pride surpassed only by my wedding day and the birth of my children. I now have four books in print and a fifth one scheduled for release later this year, but none of the others sent my spirit soaring like the first one. Interestingly, it’s still my best-selling book. Why do I write? How can I not?

Marlis Day is a graduate of Indiana State University and is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. She teaches language arts and is the author of the Margo Brown Mystery Series. http://www.marlisday.com/ or http://wwwmarlisday.blogspot.com/ for more info.

By Kimberly Hamilton, International Book Management Corporation

It’s common to see candy companies change their packaging to red and pink hearts and cupids in February, or to see more hype over diet plans and calorie counting in (post-New Year’s resolution) January. Consumers expect to see these things, so maybe its time for marketing teams to think outside the box. Check out http://www.brownielocks.com/month2.html to see lists of forgotten and out-of-the-ordinary observances and holidays (did you know that 2010 has been named by the United Nations as the “International Year of Biodiversity”?) Linking your book marketing to these unfamiliar days could put an original spin to an old marketing strategy. For instance, surely something can be tied to National Peanut Month in March!

By: Sarah Benjamin

I was on winter break in Florida at my parent's house. I had only one thing on my mind: read my new book that I had just bought. Finally! A book that I wanted to read, not for school but for me. It was a long awaited new book by my all-time favorite author, Margaret Atwood, prodigiously titled The Year of the Flood. Instead, I found myself one week later, relaxed and content, but without Atwood’s books having even been cracked open. Why, might you ask? Well, as soon as I walked in to my old bedroom I was side-tracked by the old bookshelf in the corner. The books that I had painstakingly scrounged up money to buy, found in thrift stores and tag sales, were still held warmly on the shelves. I experienced an overwhelming sensation joy of seeing them again mixed with an equally overwhelming feeling of guilt for having abandoned them in the first place. The old justification for leaving them was repeating in my head: I can only take a few of you with me. It's not you, It's me! I don't have room in my luggage! I'll come back for you!

As if books have feelings.

So to prove that I really did come back for them, I spent most of my vacation eagerly re-reading them. Spinners, Zel, Ella Enchanted, and then a few books by Robin McKinley, and Anne McCaffrey. Re-reading a book is like the comfort of an old friend. Sure, I know what happens and how it ends, but that lets me enjoy the novels in a new, more relaxing way. I can unashamedly turn to favorite parts. I can catch the intricacies of plot and character motives. I don't have to stay up to the wee hours of the morning because I can't put a book down. I can have a contended rest with the promise of more good reading bright-and-early the next day.

You may not have seen an old friend in a while, but when you meet for a coffee, suddenly you are laughing together as if you just talked yesterday. You relive old memories and begin to make new ones. An old friend can still surprise you sometimes, with a random letter in the mail, or a call on your birthday. A book’s meaning can change and age over the years, too. How you read and absorb a book years after your first reading can be a litmus test to how you may have changed over the years. But while you may have changed drastically since you read The Chronicles of Narnia as a child, the words on the page are the same as you left them, and that can be reassuring. A new reading of an old book can leave you with a feeling of simultaneous comfort, at their constancy, and surprise, at the details you may have missed.

So yeah, like old friends, maybe books do have feelings. Or maybe I just have feelings for books. Very strong ones, indeed.

Of course, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for a bunch of new friends; ones that will someday have the honor of being placed gently on a bookshelf to be re-discovered on some rainy day. I’m pretty sure that when that rainy day comes, I’ll go through the whole cycle of joy, guilt, and finally, discovery all over again. I hope they feel the same. I am pretty sure they do.

Tell me a story about when you re-discovered a book all over again. Contact me at sbenjamin496@yahoo.com.

By Carole Shmurak

When The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins first appeared in 1868, it was printed in weekly installments in Charles Dickens’s magazine All the Year Round. Each week, readers thronged the streets in front of the magazine office, eager for the next part. No book, except Collins’s The Woman in White, published 8 years earlier, had ever received such a reception. Many years later, the poet T.S. Eliot would refer to The Moonstone as “the first, the longest, and the best of the modern English detective novels.”

The moonstone is a diamond – not the semi-precious stone we call “moonstone” today – stolen from a statue of the moon god in India and later inherited by the young Rachel Verinder on her 18th birthday. It disappears the same night, and the three Hindu men reportedly seen nearby are immediately suspected. But of course things are not so simple as they first appear, and it is well over a year before the diamond is recovered and the mystery of its theft is solved. In the interim, many lives have been disrupted and several characters are dead.

The story is told in a series of narratives by some of the characters, making them much like witnesses at a trial. In this book, Collins originated many of the conventions of the mystery genre: a crime at an English country home, a small group of suspects present when the crime occurs, a bumbling local policeman, and investigation by both a talented amateur detective and the celebrated detective from Scotland Yard.

Life moved at a different pace in the 19th century, and books from the mid-1800s reflect that. Reading The Moonstone takes some patience in 2010, but it’s well worth it. The first-time reader will be intrigued by the mystery of the gem’s disappearance, while the re-reader can savor the gentle humor of some of the narratives and the biting satire of some of the others.

By Maxwell Dudeck

I must have caught the club right in the temple. I remember her pale face against the inky blackness of the room, then a flash of searing white. And then darkness; total and complete darkness for what may have been one second or six hundred. When I remembered that I had a body it felt like it had been sick for days, had died on Thursday, and had been tortured in hell for an extended weekend.

When I could see, it was through a kaleidoscope; the pieces of the room and the shadow of her face ordering themselves through pulses of intense red and neon blue and radioactive green. Then the colors were gone and so was her face; and the gloom of the room shimmered in black and white, like a reflection on a cold lake through a thick midnight fog. It seemed cavernous, emptier than it had been.

And then I felt the floor beneath my skull and shoulder blades and knew that I was lying like a dirty suit on the rough, rotting boards, staring intently and without comprehension at the black void that climbed up the vaulting ceiling.

I lay still for a minute, planning my sit-up, and then pulled myself up with numb paws grasping at my knees. From the coarse-gravel groan that let itself out of my mouth, I remembered my voice. If it sounded like I’d had a rough day, I had.

I crawled to the cobwebbed baseboard of the plaster wall and leaned hard against it, like a sack of so many worm-eaten Idaho spuds. In my jacket I found cigarettes and my zippo, but my Hecate was gone, her holster hanging limp and useless. Two out of three ain’t bad, I thought.

As I lit the Marlboro the pinup on the zippo danced and I thought of the pale girl’s face. I could hold a pretty good picture of her for a few seconds if I concentrated, and then it’d shatter again, the way it had seemed to when I got hit by the golf club.
The Club. I could see what looked like it might have once been a pretty decent 3-wood in the flicker of the zippo, snapped in half like a matchstick. Something black and thick had grown around it in a grotesque slick. I’d seen enough of that particular brand of motor oil to know that it was blood. Blood. My blood. Fuck.

I touched my forehead too hard and felt a bomb go off, and the picture started to go fuzzy again. Sure enough, my fingers came back sticky red. The darker, sweet-smelling stuff that means you’re not just scratched.

The clues to the case: One bloody hand, my own. One broken fairway wood, not mine, in a puddle of half-dried blood; presumably mine. Elementary, my dear Watson. Someone who might have been but was not necessarily a very good golfer had put a hole in my fucking head with a golf club about five minutes ago. Maybe I’d pissed off Tiger Woods. Case closed.

Leaning against the rotting wallpaper I wondered if the girl had hit me somehow, it had been dark and I’d only seen her face. Maybe she was double jointed. I wanted to blame her; she was the only face that I had to blame. That fucking cunt had hit me with a golf club and then she took my lady from me, my Hecate. I almost had myself believing it by the time the Marlboro had burned down to my knuckles. I tossed it into the blood and listened to it hiss. I imagined that it was the blood hissing, and not the cigarette, but I couldn’t tell for sure.

Right now, I’ve got to get out of here. That’s the first move. Then, we’ll see. I can tell you it won’t be pretty. Blood will have blood – Willie Shakespeare wrote that, and he never even met me.

Tune in next week for the next installment of Vigilant by Maxwell Dudeck

By Allyson Castles

The thing that is really hard,
and really amazing,
is giving up on being perfect,
and beginning the work of being yourself.
Anna Quindlen
 
Your perfection is your destruction, he says,
before sneaking out the door,
my scale hidden stealthily under his jacket.
To believe him would be to give in.

In the closet, hard plastic hangers
rest solemnly, oblivious,
and are cradled by blood red, then pumpkin orange
and Steelers yellow.
Blouses and sweaters and tank tops and t-shirts
stand erect and ordered as
sticks of wax in a box labeled “Crayola”.
The door swings open
and I feel an insurmountable urge
to throw out a striped sweater I love,
because where does it fit?
 
My pantry is stocked like this:
Vegetables in watery crimson broth sit
stagnant in their aluminum prisons, next to
salty cardboard wafers, too fibrous and tough
for my intestines to tackle, next to
flimsy trays which house quarter-servings
of brittle noodles and tiny foil packets
of Thai spices. A contact-papered wooden shelf, and
then
bright cans of Folgers, unsweetened sugar in its
many Pepto-Bismol pink envelopes, a height-aligned
row of my friends Duncan Hines, Betty Crocker, Milton
Hershey,
who wait patiently in the tenebrous cupboard
until someone’s birthday calls for a celebration. And
the penthouse
is stacked and stuffed with the most fearsome items—
bags of evil starchy pommes de terre, spaghetti
and lasagna and linguini, innumerable
boxes of cereal that lurk around when the sun
goes down and prey on me.
 
He is gone, and I look through the glass at her
weary and dismayed countenance, at her
flawed skin and awful makeup, at her
strange body, whose cellulite responds to
neither asceticism nor exercise, at her
untoned belly, with its menacing threat to
rebel with one slip-up, at her
eyes, swallowed in an ocean of dark vessels
concealer cannot protect them from, at her
eyes, drowning her cheeks in tiny tsunamis of
salt and black charcoal, at her
eyes.
 
And I tell her, disdainfully,
the line that should have been delivered to her:
Your perfection is your destruction

By Carlotta G. Holton
Shobhan Bantwal is an award-winning author of The Dowry Bride and The Forbidden Daughter. Her third novel, The Sari Shop Widow was released this fall. Her articles have appeared in India Abroad, Little India, and India Currents. And her short stories have won honors and awards in fiction contests sponsored by Writer's Digest, New York Stories, and New Woman magazine.

Q: You have acknowledged that you are a "late bloomer" when it comes to writing, having started at 50. What message does this send to other women who have considered trying their hand at writing but are afraid it's too late?

A: One of the lessons I have learned after living in an emancipated and open society like America is that it is never too late to take up any kind of hobby. Writing happens to be an excellent form of mental exercise as well as pleasantly productive. It appealed to me as a way of occupying my evenings when I was alone on weekdays as my husband used to travel out of state for his job. What started as a pastime gradually evolved into a second career. Becoming a published author, despite the trials and tribulations involved, has been a most unexpected and delightful journey for me. I believe my personal story sends an optimistic message to women of any age, women who perhaps always wanted to try their hand at writing, but were afraid to take the plunge.

Q: You call your writing "Bollywood in a book." Please explain.

A: Bollywood is the whimsical term for Bombay Hollywood. The Indian movie industry churns out hundreds of movies a year, even more than Hollywood. Indian movies are full of drama, high emotion, colorful characters, romance, and intrigue. They are the ultimate escape from daily drudgery for the Indian masses. Many, if not all the above-mentioned elements are in my books. Any one of my novels could be adapted to a screenplay for a Bollywood movie. For that reason I call my writing “Bollywood in a Book.”

Q; In your short career you have written a play that you also directed and acted in at an Indian-American Konkani convention in Chicago, and published short stories and novels. How does writing in such different formats affect your writing in general? How does it help you grow as a writer in terms of flexibility? Is any one format more enjoyable for you than the others? Should writers who have become established in a particular genre stick to that format or try branching out to other areas of interest? Why or why not?

A: Writing the play and acting in it was something I did on a whim some years ago. When the organizers of an Indian-American convention in Chicago complained that they had very few plays for their variety entertainment show, I took that as a challenge. After I finished writing my skit however, I had a difficult time locating amateur actors for the roles. So I decided to play the lead myself and sweet-talked my husband and some close friends into taking on the other parts. The play turned out to be not only a fun project but was highly appreciated and got a great response from the audience. It was my first taste of creative writing, and I was hooked. It encouraged me to try my hand at writing seriously and gradually explore short and full-length fiction. Although I can switch from one format to another fairly easily, I prefer writing short stories and novels. I honestly don’t think I would make a good screenplay writer. I believe it is a good idea to become established in one genre before dabbling in another, mostly because branding is difficult to achieve in today’s saturated fiction market. To get noticed in the fiction arena one needs to have a unique hook. Once a writer manages to nail that down, he or she can probably delve into other genres. However, I have seen some writers make the switch between genres in a very short period of time with amazing success.

Q : You have said that you felt compelled - even destined - to write The Dowry Bride and The Forbidden Daughter and that you believe in fate, karma, Kismet, whatever the name is. Can you elaborate on this connection to writing?

A: Although Indian writers abound in the realm of fiction, very few write commercial fiction like I do. And the ones that do have not tackled certain hot-button social issues like India’s notorious dowry system and the practice of gender-based abortions. Those subjects have been dealt with mostly in non-fiction academic books. Despite my late entry into writing, those topics had somehow been waiting out there, begging to be written about. It seems I came along at the right time, plucked them out of a ripe bunch of controversial themes, and made them my own. I consider that karma or fate, just like I believe everything and everyone happens for a reason.

Q: Your novels present social themes entailing romance and intrigue, yet do not read like a manual on Indian culture. How are you able to convey the unique aspects of Indian culture to non-Indian readers so effectively?

A: As a student of sociology, I always loved discussing controversial social issues. That interest combined with fiction writing made for a great combination. Writing about social themes allows me to bring awareness to American and other readers without writing dry non-fiction essays filled with facts and figures. It is so much more fun to take a social theme and spin it into an interesting Bollywood-type story that captures readers’ imaginations. That way I can entertain and inform my readers a little at the same time.

Q: You and I recently spoke on a panel together at a symposium sponsored by Sisters in Crime. How do such occasions present good networking opportunities for writers?

A: Symposiums and conferences are valuable venues for networking opportunities for writers. It is especially interesting for me to meet authors of other genres than mine. The symposium you mention was an eye-opener for me, because I came across so many writers of crime fiction right here in my state, something I was not aware of. It was particularly intriguing to meet such a large number of women who write mysteries and thrillers. One never knows whom one will meet, or sit next to, or chat with at a conference. A good example is right here. You and I met at the symposium, and we began talking about our respective writing, promotion, and marketing. Now you are interviewing me for a wonderful publication, giving me lots of exposure. Many a career is made as a result of networking at conventions and special events.

Q: The Forbidden Daughter takes the reader into a world where gender-selective abortion still thrives and female children are disappearing. What kind of reactions have you had from readers about such a controversial topic?

A: Practically all of the reactions and feedback have been very positive. Readers are most appreciative of the awareness I have brought to this particular subject without making it a scholarly treatise. Naturally they are shocked that such things occur in this day and age in a seemingly modern society, but they also appear to enjoy reading an intriguing story built around this sensitive issue. I am often asked if there will be a sequel. Most of my readers are eager to read my next book. I consider that a blessing, and a sure sign that the subject matter is interesting to many.

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact, Touching The Dead and Vampire Resurrection, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Jacquelyn Sylvan is the author of the young adult fantasy novel, Surviving Serendipity.

Q: Reviewers have called your characters complex. What advice can you give writers in developing a believable character? Any writing aerobics to hone their skills?

A: I think the key to believable characters is believable dialogue. You can ruin a completely authentic character if what comes out of their mouth doesn't match the person they are. So... I practice. Out loud. Some people sing in the shower, I try out my characters' conversations. Running through it in your head or putting it down on paper is one thing, but when you say it out loud and you can hear your character's voice underneath your own, that's when you know you've got it nailed.

Q: Why did you choose to write young adult fiction? Were you a passionate reader as a youth?

A: I was. I wasn't a popular kid or teen; I got picked on a lot, and I used books as my escape. Funnily enough, though, Surviving Serendipity didn't start out as a YA novel; I originally wrote it for adults. But after my publisher suggested putting it out as YA, I started doing some market research, and I realized what a great genre YA is. And knowing that my book might serve as an escape for a teen experiencing what I went through in school, well, it's like coming full-circle.

Q: You work at another job full time. Describe your "writing" time.

A: Very hit-and-run. I write in notebooks during the day, since it's hard to bring my computer to work with me. Two or three days a week, I sit down and type what I've written into the computer. It works out better than you'd think; I get to take a second look at what I wrote, and I usually hit a groove and keep writing straight onto the computer for another few hours. Hey, you do what you can.

Q: Surviving Serendipity is published through Quake, which is a small house. What made you go that route and describe the advantages/disadvantages of such a decision.

A: The advantages are that it's a smaller group, so all of the authors know each other and help each other out. The disadvantages are that you're responsible for your own marketing, financially and physically, and it's a much larger job, since you're with a publisher that's not as visible as the big guns. Anyone who wants to get published today, though, whether with a large house or a smaller one, needs to understand that they are going to be responsible for much of their own marketing, so keep that in mind when you're signing that contract.

Q: Any special tips in marketing your book? Media? Lectures? Book Festivals? What has worked best for you?

A: Book festivals and signings are very gratifying, because you get to see the results right there in front of you. I've done lectures and presentations, but I'm a lot more choosy about what I participate in now, because you can't be assured that you're going to reach the demographic you're aiming for. Case in point: I recently participated in a series of two panels promoting a local library. At the first, there wasn't a single person under the age of fifty in the room. At the second, it was mothers with toddlers in their laps. Although it was nice to talk to them all, sales-wise they weren't the people I need to reach. That's why the internet is so great. I blog Monday through Friday at http://www.serendipitoustimes.blogspot.com, I tweet at http://www.twitter.com/jacquelynsylvan and Surviving Serendipity's main character, June, even has her own Twitter account, at http://www.twitter.com/PrincessJune, where you can follow along with her adventures. You can reach everyone on the internet.

Q: What has been your experience with acquiring a literary agent?

A: It's been interesting, to say the least. But I'm hoping that publishers will pay more attention to the manuscripts my agent, Claire Gerus, and I are sending them, since they've already passed through one or two sets of critical eyes. But whether you're trying to get an agent or submitting directly to publishers, perseverance is the key. I've got drawers and email folders full of rejections, but you only need one acceptance.

Q: Some authors opt to have their books published online. What is your take on this avenue of publishing?

A: I think it's great. I don't think ePublishing will ever replace the physical book, nor do I recommend that any author rely solely on internet publishing. But it's cheap, portable, environmentally responsible and accessible from virtually anywhere. As I said, it's never going to replace the traditional book, but ePublishing gives authors another way to reach their readers. Not a bad thing.

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.