Late Last Night Books - Page 32 of 36 - because so much reading, writing, and living happens after-hours

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GUEST BLOGGER: The Best Kind of Trouble is Girl Trouble.

6/1/2014.

GUEST BLOGGER: The Best Kind of Trouble is Girl Trouble
So you’re trying to come up with a compelling story—one with drama, tension, and maybe even some danger. My suggestion for a go-to main character: a teenage girl.

Teenagers may not seem like an ideal main character, especially for a mystery. They’re under their parents’ thumbs so they can’t easily investigate crimes. They don’t usually have a wealth of resources at their disposal. They can’t be FBI agents or police officers or even dirty politicians.

But teenagers, especially teenage girls, can realistically bring some other wonderful qualities to the table, namely

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PREVIEW OF OUR JUNE 1 GUEST BLOGGER, BARB GOFFMAN.

PREVIEW OF OUR JUNE 1 GUEST BLOGGER, BARB GOFFMAN.

Barb Goffman is an award-winning writer of crime short stories. In 2013, her first story collection, Don’t Get Mad, Get Even, was published by Wildside Press. Her blog will be “The Best Kind of Trouble is Girl Trouble.”

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How Much Is It Worth? – May 26, 2014

HOW MUCH IS IT WORTH? – May 26, 2014

I recently heard high praise for a book by a new author and immediately went online to purchase the ebook. When I saw the price however, I was shocked. $12.99 for an ebook?! The Bird Box by Josh Malerman, and published by HarperCollins, was so highly praised, I thought it was bound to be great. But that price completely turned me off. The publisher wisely dropped the price after only a week, to $9.99 and even though I felt that was still a high price for an ebook, I went ahead and bought it. After reading it, I wish I’d waited a bit longer.

The experience led me to ask, what’s a book worth?

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5-23-2014 Stolen Remains: A Lady of Ashes Mystery REVIEWED by Sonia Linebaugh

5-23-2014 A REVIEW OF CHRISTINE TRENT’S STOLEN REMAINS: A LADY OF ASHES MYSTERY

A lady undertaker, a summons from Queen Victoria, a questionable death, a grieving housekeeper, arguing relatives, a body gone missing. In this second of the Lady of Ashes mysteries, when Queen Victoria summons her, Mrs. Violet Harper can’t refuse. She leaves her ill mother, her harried father, and her beloved second husband on their own while she rushes to London to tend to a dead viscount whose burial must be delayed until the Queen gives permission. The Queen trusts Violet’s discretion because she was so very kind and helpful when Prince Albert died.

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Interview: Johanna Garth, author of Losing Beauty

5/20/14 INTERVIEW WITH JOHANNA GARTH, AUTHOR OF LOSING BEAUTY AND LOSING HOPE, THE PERSEPHONE CAMPBELL URBAN FANTASIES

Q: After an Amazon bestseller in urban fantasy, you’re changing directions with your fiction, right? Tell me as much as you want to share about THE FAMILY WARR, the novel you’re working on now.

A:My favorite kinds of books encapsulate the twists and turns of human experience. Whether they accomplish that through an urban fantasy with paranormal elements or the tale of a damaged family, such as the one portrayed in THE FAMILY WARR, is almost irrelevant.

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What’s Cozy About Crime?

5/17/2014
I enjoyed a weekend of murder and mayhem this month at Malice Domestic, an annual convention of cozy mystery authors and fans in Bethesda, Maryland. I met some of my favorite authors and learned a whole lot about common poisonous plants and the Washington, D.C. Crime Lab.

What is a cozy? Even authors and fans try their hand at definitions. Generally, it is a crime novel without the blood and gore with an amateur detective who is somehow involved with the victim and/or suspect. Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple series is a prime example. Current authors include Margaret Maron, Joan Hess,

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Dave Barry, The Complete Guide to Guys

A HUMOROUS EXCERPT FROM DAVE BARRY’S THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO GUYS

At Three Editors Journal I read the excerpt below from Dave Barry’s The Complete Guide to Guys, immediately went to Amazon, read more, and bought the book. Here’s the excerpt from the Journal:

Let’s say a guy named Fred is attracted to a woman named Martha. He asks her out to a movie; she accepts; they have a pretty good time. A few nights later he asks her out to dinner, and again they enjoy themselves. They continue to see each other regularly, and after a while neither one of them is seeing anybody else.

And then, one evening when they’re driving home, a thought occurs to Martha, and, without really thinking, she says it aloud: “Do you realize that, as of tonight, we’ve been seeing each other for exactly six months?”

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INTERVIEW WITH BETHANNE PATRICK, WASHINGTONIAN BOOKS EDITOR AND SO MUCH MORE

5/10/2014—INTERVIEW WITH BETHANNE PATRICK,WASHINGTONIAN BOOKS EDITOR AND SO MUCH MORE

Bethanne Patrick’s Twitter ID, @TheBookMaven, couldn’t be more appropriate. I don’t know anyone in recent times who’s done more to promote literary culture. Bethanne is the Books Editor at Washingtonian magazine, and her reviews have appeared in The Washington Post, O the Oprah Magazine, People, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and many other places. She’s blogged about books for venues including AOL, Publishers Weekly, and BN.com, and helped to launch Shelf Awareness for Readers and Book Riot.

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The Hunting by Kerry Peresta: Review & Interview

5/7/14 — KERRY PERESTA’S THE HUNTING: HOW A GUY LEARNED TO LOVE CHICK LIT

When Pen-L Publishing offered a contract for my first novel, I went into high research mode, ordering a bunch of their books to see what they were like. I needed to know whether the books were well edited, well designed, and professionally produced. I also wanted to find out whether Pen-L’s stable of authors was any good; after all, I had a little of that natural insecurity, wondering how good could the company be if they wanted me.

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MY BURDENS, MYSELF: WHY I CAN’T GIVE AWAY BOOKS

5/4/14 – MY BURDENS, MYSELF: WHY I CAN’T GIVE AWAY BOOKS

My daughter is giving away her books. I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach.

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Who? What? Why? Character, Plot, and What compels Us To Turn the Page

5/1/14 – WHO? WHAT? WHY? GUEST BLOGGER SHERRY AUDETTE MORROW ON CHARACTER, PLOT, AND WHAT COMPELS US TO TURN THE PAGE

On two occasions last December the UPS guy knocked on my front door with packages from Amazon. Each contained a book I had read about and was eager to read, but had not purchased — Donna Tartt’s 2014 Pulitzer Prize winner The Goldfinch and Julian Barnes’s 2011 Man Booker Prize winner The Sense of an Ending. A mini-plot emerged in the minutes it took to carry these boxes inside and slice the tape that sealed them: What was in the packages? Who had sent these books? Who even knew I had wanted to read them?

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PREVIEW OF OUR MAY 1 GUEST BLOGGER, SHERRY AUDETTE MORROW

4/29/14 – PREVIEW OF OUR MAY 1 GUEST BLOGGER, SHERRY AUDETTE MORROW

Which comes first in a novel, the character or the plot? Sherry Audette Morrow is uniquely qualified to offer insights about how these two critical elements can make readers want to turn the page. Sherry is the founding editor of Scribble magazine (www.scribblemagazine.us) as well as a freelance writer/editor and a past president of the Maryland Writers’ Association. Her articles, poetry, and short fiction have appeared in numerous publications, including Chesapeake Life, Baltimore magazine, the anthology New Lines From the Old Line State, and Mean Girls Grown Up. I’ve benefited first-hand from her discerning literary eye, and I’m so pleased that readers of Late Last Night Books will have the opportunity to share this as well.

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Broccoli and Books

BROCCOLI AND BOOKS

4/26/2014 – Sometimes I feel as if I need to grab people by the shoulders and shake them while screaming, “but you HAVE to read this book!” This form of persuasion usually overtakes me after hearing someone say, “I don’t read (insert some genre).”

If you don’t read a particular genre (romance, fantasy, mystery, military, sci fi), how could you possibly know if you’d like it or not? Isn’t refusing to try something from a different genre a bit like a child who refuses to taste broccoli before deciding he doesn’t like it?

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4/23/14 WHAT CONNECTS DOLLS, LADY UNDERTAKERS AND NANCY DREW?

4/23/14 WHAT CONNECTS DOLLS, LADY UNDERTAKERS AND NANCY DREW?

The titles of Christine Trent’s five books of historical fiction will give you some clues about the answer to the Nancy Drew question. The Queen’s Dollmaker, A Royal Likeness, By the King’s Design, Lady of Ashes, and the forthcoming Stolen Remains.

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Author interview: John O’Hern, Sweetspot, Confessions of a Golfaholic

4/20/14 INTERVIEW WITH JOHN O’HERN, COMEDIAN, PLAYWRIGHT, AND AUTHOR OF THE LAUGH-OUT-LOUD FUNNY NOVEL SWEETSPOT, CONFESSIONS OF A GOLFAHOLIC

The International Network of Golf named Sweetspot its 2013 Outstanding Achiever, and the New England Golf Monthly said, “If you’re crazy about golf or you’re a golf widow, then you have to put the book Sweetspot, Confessions of a Golfaholic by John O’Hern on your must-read list.” Or if you just plain like to laugh, I say.

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Remembering the Holocaust

4/17/2014

On My Own: Decoding the Conspiracy of Silence, by Erika Schulhof Rybeck and published last year by Summit Crossroads Press, is just one of the increasing number of Holocaust memoirs from survivors who want to tell their stories.

Rybeck escaped the Holocaust by traveling via the Kinder Transport train to Scotland in 1938. She grew up there in a Catholic boarding school, protected from the horrors of the war and the fate of her parents by a “conspiracy of silence.” As an adult, she spent years seeking the truth of the Holocaust and how it claimed her family.

That is just one story. On my desk are two recent memoirs from Gihon River Press,

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Losing the Label

4/13/14 – LOSING THE LABEL

“She’s an old maid! She never married … She’s just about to close up the library!”

Recognize that line? It’s from the film It’s A Wonderful Life and illustrates the sad fate of Mary Hatch had her husband George Bailey never been born. That’s right; the poor thing would have lived her life repressed, bespectacled, alone. In short, she’d have been … *gasp* … a librarian!

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SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE TIME

4/10/2014. SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE TIME

Every few days I receive an email suggesting new novels I might like to read. I hear from Kirkus Reviews, Oprah’s Book Club, the Washington Independent Review of Books, Goodreads, and more. Granted, I asked to be on these mailing lists, but occasionally I find so much information overwhelming. And that doesn’t even count the bestseller lists and reviews. So many good novels are coming out every day that I’ll never be able to read them all. Priorities must be set, but how?

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Book Review: Dislocation by Margaret Meyers

4/7/14 – BOOK REVIEW: DISLOCATION BY MARGARET MEYERS

With more than a million books published each year in the United States alone, it’s all too easy to overlook a wonderful author. Don’t do that to Margaret Meyers, whose new story collection, Dislocation, has just been published by Entasis Press.

Meyers’s multilayered stories are charming, insightful, and significant, with writing that’s filled with wit and humor. There’s no better way to capture the power of her prose than to quote it. Consider the opening of Doing Good:

“As the young black woman climbs into the front passenger seat of the VW Bug, Delia, crosslegged in the back, notes that her mother’s ears are still ripe-tomato red. Her mother speaks to the young woman in her calm, warm, Sunday-morning voice but those ears, generally very pale with tiny gold freckles, tell Delia that her mother is very far from calm.”

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IN PRAISE OF THE LONG NOVEL

4/4/14 – IN PRAISE OF THE LONG NOVEL

Pundits have it that the age of the long, rambling novel is over. Having just read two super long books with book clubs that couldn’t get enough of them, I beg to differ.

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