Fatal Deduction by Gayle Roper - Join us for a Twit Chat

Don’t forget to join us for a Twit Chat on my Twitter Page, today at 11am PST - which is 2PM EST, 1PM CST, and 12PM MST. Dee Stewart, Brandon Satrom and I will discuss Gayle Roper’s newest mystery, Fatal Deduction. If you want to take part in the discussion, just sign up with Twitter - it’s free - and follow Dee Stewart, Brandon Satrom and me.

See you there!

 

Fatal Deduction by Gayle Roper

Gayle Roper is the accomplished novelist who a few years back encouraged me to write a novel of my own. So when Dee Stewart put out a call for two bloggers to review Gayle’s latest, Fatal Deduction, I jumped at the chance. Gayle is an a great mentor, and a kind lady. Besides, this way I got to read her novel early. What a pleasure.

In the story, single mother Libby Burton is compelled by the provisions of her aunt’s will to live in the same house with her twin sister, Tori, who she’s never gotten along with. Even though Tori and Libby look just alike, Tori still somehow manages to make Libby feel bland by comparison. Worse, Tori’s shady lifestyle casts a dark shadow on Libby, endangering her and her teenage daughter, Chloe, when a dead body turns up on their doorstep with a warning note - or rather a warning crossword puzzle - for Tori.

Of course, this is a romantic mystery, so Drew Canfield, the single father across the street, is on hand to help Libby sort through her feelings about her sister, as well as her painful past. But can this tender relationship survive the turmoil brought on by Libby’s family?

Fatal Deduction is a delightful, intricately plotted romantic mystery. I loved the characters, or else loved to - well - dislike them. I chewed off the fingernails on one hand while gripping the book with the other, worrying through the story, puzzling over the crosswords that (no kidding!) serve as clues throughout the book, smiling at the tense, fun, unexpected resolution.

Gayle Roper has written more than forty-five novels over a period of more than thirty years, and has won multiple awards for her excellent work. Fatal Deduction may be her best yet.

Be sure to read Dee Stewart’s post, and Brandon Satrom’s post on Fatal Deduction. (Those are links to their blogs. I’ll provide specific links to the posts as I have them.)

Also, Monday would be a great time to click on over to Twitter, because the three of us are going to discuss the book in a Twitter Chat. I’ll post the link here on Monday. I hope you’ll join us.

UPDATE:

I’m still new to Twitter, and I obviously have a lot to learn. Case in point, I didn’t know what a Twitter Chat was. So here’s the scoop, copied almost directly from Dee Stewart’s post, since she’s the expert:

Now here are the details on how you can participate in our live Twitter chat on Monday.

1. Read the book. If you don’t have it, goto your public library or buy it a your local store. If you still can’t snag a copy between now and Monday, don’t worry. Download this excerpt, to warm you up. You can still chat. After we chirp this book, you will go and get it.
2. Get a Twitter Account, if you don’t have one. Twitter is a miniblog platform that you can link to your blog and read via your cell phone. So you can participate via SMS technology, if you don’t have internet access.
3. Follow me, Kathleen and Brandon. Here are our usernames:
   1. http://twitter.com/deegospel - Dee/ Me
      
   2. http://twitter.com/kathleenpopa - Kathleen
      
   3. http://www.twitter.com/thesatch - Brandon
4. Participate in Christian Fiction Blog’s Weekend Chatterbox Question here and at Twitter. Come to the site for the chatterbox question, if you are an email subscriber or read the most current post.
5. Join us Monday, 5/9/08 2PM EST, 1PM CST, 12PM MST, 11AM PST to read, chime in and participate in the book chat.
6. If you decide to join us, leave me a comment, so I can follow you and add you to the discussion.

 

River Rising, and The Cure by Athol Dickson

I love discovering new writers. Well all right, Athol Dickson is not a new writer to anyone but me. But this is my blog. He’s new.

When I listened to the audio of River Rising, I was blown away by the story about the small town of Pilotville, Louisiana, a haven of equality in the deep South of 1927, and about the miracle man who exposes and transcends Pilotville’s shameful secret. I thought, What a beautiful book. Wonder what else he’s written.

I went for another audiobook, because I had deadlines, and my sitting down time was largely taken up with edits and such. I needed something I could listen to when I wasn’t sitting down.

Which meant my next listen would be The Cure, the only other Dickson novel that had been recorded. 

Like River Rising, it was both elegant with spare writing, and rich with an artist’s use of language. It had an interesting plot line, about the town of Dublin, Maine where a cure for alcoholism had been found, and about the questions and intrigues surrounding that discovery.

I had questions of my own. Having had some experience, growing up among the people of Alcoholics Anonymous, I took special interest in the direction the story took. Would alcoholics really flock to such a cure, when so much of their addiction is characterized by denial? Would an out and out cure be the only or even the best solution? I’d known enough recovering alcoholics to observe that the struggle builds into people a kind of gentle strength. Would that strength be lost to an easy cure? (Then again, could we spare that strength to save the lives of those who never do recover?)

Even with his fine writing, Dickson would have a hard time winning me over to this story.

But he managed to do just that, with an ending that first distressed, then surprised me, and at last left me satisfied and renewed.

I’ll leave it at that, because I don’t want to spoil the experience for you. But read or listen to River Rising. And when you’re finished, go get The Cure. Both are wonderful. And by the way, both audios are extremely well narrated.

Now I can hardly wait to read his Winter Haven.

 

Untold Treasures

“We Christians must simplify our lives or lose untold treasures on earth and in eternity. Modern civilization is so complex as to make the devotional life all but impossible. The need for solitude and quietness was never greater than it is today.”

~A. W. Tozer

That’s the A.W. Tozer who died in 1963.

He’s still right.

(sigh.)

(Thanks to Ariel Camilo for the image.)

 

Oh Help! Part 1 - Call for Cinnamon Roll Recipes

You know how on a DVD there are (I always hope) Special Features, the little value-added somethings that extend the pleasure of the film?

And you know how books often have the same sorts of things in the back pages, little interviews and articles and guides for book clubs?

Well, that’s the topic of the hour for my novel, which will release in September. My editor and I had a discussion today, and there will be Special Features in the back of The Feast of Saint Bertie.

If you read the excerpt on my website, you’ll get the very correct impression that cinnamon rolls figure into the story. Luscious, fabulous cinnamon rolls made by my character, India Moon. So here’s the plan: why not feature India’s recipe for cinnamon rolls?

One big reason: I haven’t the slightest idea what it is, and I’m not a great cook.

Are you? Do you have a recipe for cinnamon rolls that’s over the moon? (Get it? India Moon/Over the moon?)

If you will share it with me, and if, of all recipes submitted I choose yours, I will feature it in the back of my novel. With your name.

Please, don’t send anything taken directly from a cookbook. I don’t want copyright issues. This has to be your recipe, and you have to give me permission to use it.

And if your recipe doesn’t end up in the book, it may well find it’s way into one or two or three “Honorable Mention” posts, in September.

I can’t wait to see what you’ve been cooking up. Contact me here.

(Thanks to Alícia Roselló Gené for the image.)

 

beholding… My New Photo Blog!

What do you give a writer who loves photography? For at least a year I’ve admired the work of countless artists on Flickr and Deviant Art, and built up enormous favorites lists. Always wanted to dive in myself. Or at least wade into the shallow end. So…

For my Mother’s Day present, my husband and my son teamed up on a fancy new camera, and I’ve been having the best time, playing with it. I’ve even posted pictures on Flickr, and…

To top the celebration, I’ve started a new photo blog!

Please do go check it out. I’m so proud of it.

It’s called beholding…

(Image courtesy of… me! Care to join me on the porch?)

 

A Book is Like a Man

“A book is like a man - clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun.”

~John Steinbeck

(Somehow this comforts me.)

(Thanks Diodoro to for the image.)

 

Writing Like a Child in Play

“When we are self-conscious, we cannot be wholly aware; we must throw ourselves out first. This throwing ourselves away is the act of creativity. So, when we wholly concentrate, like a child in play, or an artist at work, then we share in the act of creating. We not only escape time, we also escape our self-conscious selves. The Greeks had a word for ultimate self-consciousness which I find illuminating: hubris: pride: pride in the sense of putting oneself in the center of the universe. The strange and terrible thing is that this kind of total self-consciousness invariably ends in self-annihilation …The moment that humility becomes self-conscious, it becomes hubris. One cannot be humble and aware of oneself at the same time. Therefore, the act of creating–painting a picture, singing a song, writing a story–is a humble act? This was a new thought to me. Humility is throwing oneself away in complete concentration on something or someone else. …that special kind of creative courage which is unself-conscious: the moment you wonder whether or not you can do it, you can’t.” ~Madeleine L”Engle

(Thanks to Weliton Slima for the picture.)

 

Work Less, Enjoy More

Related to the last post’s topic of time management, see this week’s podcast of Dick Staub’s Kindlings Muse.

“Who do you want to jott?”

“Myself.”

“Beep!”

“Remember: must have something left, both of time and self, once I’ve finished managing.”

“Got it.”

(Thanks to Rodolfo Clix for the picture.)

 

Time Management For the Hopeless Writer

Time management is an eternal struggle with me.

I do try. I’ve got loads of calendars of every size, format, and price range, two or three for this year alone, and it’s only May. The small ones are too small to do any good. The big ones are too big to fit in any purse I want to carry. I dearly love PDA’s but don’t love the cost. Neither do I love it when they stall, crash, or just totally die.

Book person that I am, I’ve read books. Lots and lots of books.

I’ve read GTD. I’m reading ZTD. So far the latter seems better suited to my fragmented little brain.* But my problem still is that little notebook I’m supposed to carry around, to collect all the gems that pop into my head so I can later transfer them to my other lists, calendars, on and on…

I can carry the notebook. I can slip a nice Moleskine Cahier into the back pocket of my jeans. I can write things down in it. But for some reason, I can’t be sure I’ll get around to making the transfer from Cahier to calendar and list.

Years ago I had a similar frustration regarding my checkbook. Lots of great ideas as to how to manage the thing, but the actual balancing of the checkbook was a rare and arduous process.

Then came Quicken and online statements, and I learned that, given the right tools, I could accomplish the heretofore impossible. Now I balance my checkbook every single day, down to the penny. Well… mostly.

Could it be that, similarly, the right tool would come along one day that would make time management as simple as balancing my checkbook? Dare I hope?

I think I’ve found it: My cell phone, the one I already have. And a free (got that?) service called Jott.

Here’s how it works: I think of something I must remember to do. Or my sister tells me she’s having a party next Saturday. I speed-dial Jott’s phone number, tell the electronic lady all about it, and when I go back to my calendar and/or todo list, there it is in text, right on the list or calendar day where it belongs. There’s no second step to flake out on. There’s only one step, and the scheduling’s done.

Jott works with any of a bunch of online calendars, lists, and blog services - most of them free. You can even talk your tweet into Twitter.

I’ve ended up switching to Google Calendar and Toodledo, because the two services work well with Jott and with each other. You can set Toodledo up to integrate your list with your calendar. There’s a Firefox sidebar extension that let’s you check your list while you’re working on other pages.

Dare I hope that my struggle is over? Could this be what you’re looking for, too? If so… well okay, you can thank me for the tip. Or send chocolate.

*Leo Babauta, who wrote ZTD (Zen to Done) also has an excellent time management blog.

(Thanks to Nocturna for the image.)