August 2008 Archives

Paramedic Sophie Phillips is shattered when her cop husband is shot and their baby kidnapped. Detective Ella Marconi fights to discover whether the act is revenge by a bereaved father whose wife and child Sophie couldn't save, or if Sophie's husband Chris was involved with police corruption. Sophie soon makes up her mind however, and decides she will stop at nothing to save her son. Like 24  meets ER, Frantic is a race against time packed with real-life paramedic drama.

Australian novelist, Katherine Howell, took time to discuss her debut novel, Frantic, as well as the second in the series, The Darkest Hour, with The Big Thrill. Here she talks about her unusual career change from paramedic to author, her writing process, authors she's inspired by, and how a real-life murderer inspired her to become a crime author.

Describe how and why you made the leap from paramedic to author? Has that hands-on experience helped your storytelling? How has it shaped your writing process?
 
I was one of those kids who was always scribbling down stories - first about our family pets, then more wishful ones about girls whose parents bought them a pony. Later I moved on to Stephen King "tributes." Then when I began reading crime in my late teens, I began writing it as well. At one point I tried to write a non-crime novel, but before I knew it up popped a dead body then a bad guy, and I decided that's just what I was meant to do.
 
My interest in writing crime fiction was further bolstered on my first day on the road as a paramedic. My very first case was a call to a cardiac arrest. My trainer and I leapt into the ambulance and roared out of the station, my heart going so hard I could hardly hear what he was saying. How do we diagnose cardiac arrest? My fevered mind produced the answers: unconscious, no pulse, gasping breaths or no breathing at all. I can do this, I thought. I've practiced CPR on plastic dummies until my knees and back were screaming. I can do this.
   
But of course this time it wasn't a plastic dummy, it was a real person. And she wasn't in cardiac arrest at all - she was dead.

When Michael Palmer, M.D., first thought about writing a medical thriller, his sister had a dissenting view. "You're dull," she said.

"One of my younger (I have two of them) sisters' missions has always been to keep me right-sized," Palmer explains. "That hasn't always been easy. When my first book (The Sisterhood) made the New York Times list, one of them had 500 business cards made up for me with my name on them and underneath: MINOR LITERARY FIGURE."

Well, this "figure" has only gone on to write a dozen New York Times bestsellers. But he had a lot to learn to get there.

"I have always been many things," says Palmer. "Scattered, distracted, imaginative, goofy, intense, withdrawn, expansive, caring, disciplined, forgetful, adventurous, technophobic, funny, frustrating, and predictably unpredictable.....but never dull. What I have done since that first year is, I have grown as a writer. Except for some English and literature courses at Wesleyan, I never had any formal training in writing--especially creative writing. My agent Jane Rotrosen actually took less money for my first book so that I could work with the legendary editor (now, the late) Linda Gray at Bantam. She line-edited my first four or five drafts of The Sisterhood, and taught me editorial adjectives such as 'mawkish' and its nasty little cousin, 'purple.' She taught me how to use rewrites to choose better words and how to carefully avoid (split infinitive intentional) those passages that I think say to the reader, 'Hey, look what a great writer I am. . . . How inventive and clever.' Samuel Johnson is quoted as saying that the secret to good literary style is to take those words and sentences and paragraphs you are particularly fond of, and get rid of them immediately. Linda and my subsequent editor Beverly Lewis never stopped teaching me that."

Oline H. Cogdill is the mystery fiction columnist for the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. More than 250 newspapers around the world rely on her reviews. She is also a regular contributor to Mystery Scene magazine and Publishers Weekly.
 
What attracted you to the Mystery/Thriller genre?

I started reading mysteries, crime fiction and thrillers when I was about 9 or 10; started with my mother's collection that she had read when she was a young woman. By age 12, I was checking out these books by the armful at my small hometown library. A memorable event was when, at age 12, I was trying to check out the Ian Fleming novels and the librarian called my mother to make sure it was all right for me to check out these books. It was.
 
From the very beginning what attracted me to these novels was the fact that the plots took you to new places, let you see the world through different eyes, put you in situations that might be outside your experience and, yes, comfort level.
   
Mystery/thrillers are novels that are the social novel of our day. Not to get too heavy, but no matter whether it is crime fiction or mystery or thriller, the authors are not just giving you an action-packed plot, they are showing us what it is like to live in our society at this time. Look at Joseph Finder's novels. These take place in businesses but they show us the high stakes involved in economics, how a microcosm, in this case a company, can be like a country into itself, complete with laws and ruthlessness. Jeffrey Deaver's novels are packed with action, but his Lincoln Rhyme series shows us what happens when a brilliant man becomes paralyzed.
 
To get the essence of a country, look at its crime fiction.  Chris Grabenstein's Hell Hole was a perfect example of showing us what it means to be a hero and how heroism can be co-opted for political gain. A modern tradition of the thriller is showing what happens to ordinary people swept up in circumstances beyond their control; Harlan Coben, Marcus Sakey, Jeff Abbott, Brad Thor. The list is endless of authors who use this devise to produce some wonderful stories.

Those who have read Larry Beinhart's novels are unsurprised to discover his extreme erudition and the deep thought and care he applies to all of his work. Take, for example, 1993's American Hero, the book that would become the film Wag the Dog. The film - and the book - resonated with so many readers and viewers because we recognized the reality of the ridiculous situation Beinhart created in his story. In his own words, "war as a performance for home viewership." What could be more silly, right? Yet, as told by this author, what ever felt more chillingly real?

To hear him tell it, Beinhart's newest novel, out this month from Nation Books, takes an entirely different path to get us to the same place of incredulous recognition. In Salvation Boulevard, says Beinhart "the corpse is an atheist professor, the accused is an Islamic foreign student, the defense attorney is a Jewish lawyer, the investigator is a born-again Christian. The Mystery is God."

In a starred review, Publisher's Weekly seemed to find it impossible to resist the temptation of comparing Beinhart's best known novel with what may well come to be thought of as his most important. PW said Salvation Boulevard is "less jaunty," than Wag the Dog, "but definitely more ambitious," at the same time calling the new book a "splendid religious legal thriller." The screen rights to the film have already been acquired. George Ratliff (Hell House, Joshua) will write the script and direct while Mandalay Independent Pictures will finance, produce and develop.

Ten victims, each with pale skin and long dark hair. All have been slashed across the throat, the same red lipstick smeared across their lips.

In the mid-1980s the Snow White Killer terrorized the streets of Nashville, Tennessee. Then suddenly the murders stopped. A letter from the killer to the police stated that his work was done.

Now four more bodies have been found, marked with his fatal signature. The residents of Nashville fear a madman has returned, decades later, to finish his sick fairy tale. Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson believes the killings are the work of a copycat killer who's even more terrifying. For this monster is meticulously honing his craft as he mimics famous serial murders...proving that the past is not to be forgotten.

Big Thrill contributing editor Cathy Clamp recently sat down with J.T. Ellison, author of the upcoming thriller, 14, and chatted about this new episode in the life of her ongoing character Taylor Jackson.

Did your heroine work on the original files in the 80's that she never solved, or is this a case of having to dig up old files to figure out what originally happened?

Taylor was actually in junior high when the original Snow White murders took place. The case sparked her interest and she always vowed that if she had a chance, she'd try to solve the mystery. When she started with the Metro Nashville Police Department, she checked the files out of storage and memorized them. The case sat in the Cold Case files for thirteen years before bodies with the Snow White's signature began showing up in Nashville. Now, being the Homicide Lieutenant, she not only has the jurisdiction, but the team to solve the case. Hardly a dream come true, but a fulfillment of a desire she's had since she was a child.

Did you model the events or killings on any real cases that happened in Nashville? If so, were they ever solved?

Nashville has never had an egregious, famous serial killer, thank goodness. For the story to work, though, I needed to give us a killer on par with serial killers like the Boston Strangler, the Zodiac, the Son of Sam. A killer who has altered the culture of a city through their reign of terror. The Snow White killer became that man in Nashville's history.

Rankin's Ratings, More Televised Awards, Samurai Swords and we don't get to journey through to Edinburgh...

 

It's that time of the month again, where your intrepid wee Scots bookseller dips a toe into the waters of the crime and thriller world. Although when we say waters we really mean it as Scotland has been flooded over the past several weeks and your hero has been spending his time in wondering whether or not to protect his precious books with a layer of tarpaulin.

 

At the moment, between bailing buckets of water out the front door, the bookstore is preparing for an onslaught later this month by the irrepressible Mr Christopher Brookmyre later this month, who will be reading from and talking about his new novel, Snowball in Hell. A swipe at celebrity culture filled with all the insanity we've come to expect from Brookmyre, its definitely one of his best books and had me genuinely belly-laughing before feeling just a little at guilty at doing so, considering some of the horrendous things he does to (fictional) celebrities.

 

And speaking of celebrities, we're talking TV this month, with Cactus's ITV3 Crime and Thriller awards, we're broadcasting a couple of readings from the Aye Write Festival earlier this year and we're making a pledge to make more time next year for Edinburgh International Book Festival...

 

 

Tim Waggoner brings us another gripping tale of demonic possession in his newest book, Cross Country In this story, Sheriff Joanne Talon investigates brutal killings and finds herself confronting gruesome truths from a suppressed past.  To research the book, Waggoner explored an ancient burial ground close to his home and studied  
criminal forensics.  Blending the supernatural with crime drama is a challenging technique that he revisits in many of his works to build rich, textured settings.

Like most of us ink-stained wretches (to use Kirk Vonnegut's term for his fellow writers), Waggoner's career as a professional storyteller began in childhood.  His father was an avid reader of genre, particularly science-fiction, and Waggoner was intrigued by these books with their imaginative covers.

One of his first attempts at storytelling was a comic book he created: The Bionic Team.  But the ideas came faster than Waggoner could draw them and he abandoned the sketchpad for the writing tablet.  He pursued his desire to tell stories by studying theater but discovered that his passion was in creating and writing stories of his own.  So he shifted his studies to teaching and English.  Waggoner wrote several short stories and two novels as an undergraduate.  Convinced that his future was as a writer, he honed his craft in a creative writing Masters of the Arts program.  Even though he was immersed in classic literature, Waggoner's professors encouraged his interest in  
genre fiction.  But Waggoner didn't just want to write, he wanted to get published. He spent many hours studying articles in Writer's Digest.  And he relentlessly applied that proven dictum for successful writers: read, read, read, then write, write, write.

Set primarily in Brooklyn's DUMBO neighborhood of cavernous streets and arty venues, Aphrodisiac is the first book in a humor-laced romantic suspense series featuring sex therapist, Dr. Saylor Oz. Saylor pursues her misgivings about the suicide of Gwendolyn Applebee, a brilliant archaeobotanist and perfume-maker, who'd been her childhood pal. When Saylor discovers that Gwendolyn was murdered for an ancient olfactory secret that could topple the balance of power between men and women -- and that the secret which eluded the murderer is now supposedly in Saylor's keeping -- she and her roommate, tough talking female boxer, Benita Morales, are swept into a deadly seven-day race to find it . . . while staying one step ahead of a ruthless killer.

"Stephanie Plum, meet Saylor Oz. Aphrodisiac is sexy, suspenseful and laugh-out-loud funny."-- New York Times bestselling author Susan Elizabeth Phillips

"Aphrodisiac is an action-packed romantic suspense with a strong and complicated mystery." -- Darque Reviews

"This book is full of action and mystery with a touch of local and ancient history." -- Fresh Fiction

Allyson Roy is actually . . . Alice & Roy, a husband and wife team. With backgrounds in the arts -- Alice in dance and choreography, Roy in fine art, theater and standup comedy -- they spent many gypsy years living and working in the different neighborhoods of New York City and Philadelphia. Their humor-laced romantic suspense series is set primarily in the Brooklyn waterfront neighborhood of DUMBO. For more information visit http://www.allysonroy.com 

Jassy Mackenzie had an itch. Was hopelessly addicted.

But the itch she needed to scratch wasn't about booze, or drugs, or cigarettes.  It was about fiction. Crime fiction in particular.

And once Mackenzie started reading stories of murder and mayhem, she naturally found herself overcome by an even stronger, more persistent itch: the desire to write her own thriller.

Several thousand words later, Random Violence was born.

Random Violence is the story of Jade de Jong, a private investigator who returns home to Johannesburg, South Africa, after an unexplained absence, only to find herself drawn into a police investigation involving a troubling, brutal murder. A woman shot dead in front of her own house.

Jade soon discovers that what looks like a botched hijacking -- another random act in a city steeped in violence -- is actually much, much more. Shortly before the victim died, she hired a private investigator. And now that investigator has gone missing.

But as Jade and her old friend, police detective David Patel, work together to uncover the secrets of the dead woman's past, Jade is harboring a secret of her own. Her father's killer has just been released from jail, and she's come back home to give him the death sentence he deserves.

Cheryl Norman's newest novel, Running Scared, has already been called an "edge-of-the-seat page-turner" and a "terrific thriller." The protagonist, Ashley Adams, has finally divorced her abusive husband and regained control of her life. Months of therapy have helped her adjust, and months of training have prepared her to run her first marathon. But little does Ashley know that when she runs for the finish line, she'll be running for her life.

The Big Thrill caught up with Cheryl in her RV "somewhere in Iowa" to talk about the September release of Running Scared.

One of the main characters in Running Scared, Ashley Adams, is a marathon runner. How (and why) did you come up with the idea to set your story in the world of marathon running? And why Jacksonville?

I trained for my first three marathons in Jacksonville. My training partner and I trained in a neighborhood similar to the one in which my heroine witnesses a shooting. We came up with the plot idea while running a twenty-miler, just to entertain ourselves and pass the time. Running four to five hours gets boring. Who knew that years later I'd take that idea and write a novel?
 
Ashley is a victim of spousal abuse. Can you discuss your decision to handle this delicate topic in one of your novels?

Someone close to me suffered spousal abuse from a control freak.  It never ceases to amaze me how abusers succeed in convincing the victims that it's their fault. Abuse doesn't have to be physical, either. Verbal abuse is more common (unfortunately) than most people know. 

Blending a career in journalism and fiction writing is a delicate balancing act, but for a number of years, Stephen Hunter has done just that. A Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic, Hunter has long made daily deadlines and also created a world of action-packed fiction with his characters Earl Swagger and Bob Lee Swagger. His books are consistent NYT bestsellers.

Hunter recently retired from the Washington Post, where he was a film critic for a number of years. His latest novel is Night Of Thunder: a Bob Lee Swagger Novel.

In this latest action-packed thriller, Bob Lee Swagger must protect his journalist daughter Nikki, who is injured while following leads that point at the Dixie Mafia. There's also a bit of corrupt law enforcement and deranged evangelicals thrown into the mix. All of this is set against a week long NASCAR event in Tennessee.

What inspired this particular plot? And I have to know, are you a fan of NASCAR?

My professional athletic poisons of choice are the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, who between them have tried to drive me to suicide for years. (The Patriots game last year came close!) So, no to NASCAR, not a fan, didn't have policies or attitudes or favorites going in. Never even changed the oil on a car. But I went to Bristol to visit my daughter, Amy, a reporter on the Courier-Herald, during big race week (entirely by accident) and consequently stumbled not upon NASCAR but NASCAR culture. It was astonishing! It was rapture combined with tribal unity, lubricated by beer and cigarettes and it was the damndest thing I ever saw or felt in my life. I had never even suspected such a great wild festival still existed, and I realized no book or movie had ever briefed me. So the book more than anything is meant as a kind of tribute to the crazy joy of NASCAR, the cone of utter happiness and obsession its zealots generate as they gather in the glens and hollows, Bud cans in hand, and enjoy. Not being a lyric poet or a penetrating New Yorker essayist (both way above my pay grade), I could only offer a thriller in tribute. I just tried to think of ways to get the scene into the book, really to make the scene the star of the book.  It was great fun.

A bomb goes off at the Conklin Art Gallery, killing eight people associated with a unique Michelangelo exhibit. Hummingbird Collins, an aspiring artist, may be the one person who saw the bomber, the leader of the Michelangelus Movement, a cult group bent on eliminating all "unpretty" things. When Hummingbird is abducted by the cult, her friends must discover where she's been taken before she becomes the latest addition in a horrific replication of Michelangelo's the Last Judgment.

Gail Simone, the DC Comics writer of Wonder Woman, describes Unpretty as "a rare thriller with a daring, original plot and rich, fascinatingly oddball characters that leaves you bound and helpless against the need to turn the page. Great stuff!"

When asked about the inspiration behind Unpretty, Rogers said that during a visit to a bookstore she saw a coffee-table book on the life and work of Michelangelo. She was instantly transfixed and brought the book home. Riveted by its pages, she discovered Michelangelo's masterpiece the Last Judgment, which adorns the Sistine Chapel. "The fresco is both scary and beautiful in its violent, graphic depictions. It achieves an impression on the viewer that is both repugnant and holy. This apparent juxtaposition of values was fascinating for me--and it sparked within me an exploration of the concept of God's presence in suffering, in art, in beauty and ugliness, in life, and in eternity."

Contributing editor and thriller authors Keith Raffel and debut thriller author Andy Peterson found out they had much in common as they hung out together at ThrillerFest this past July.  Now they've renewed their friendship to discuss Andy's debut thriller, First to Kill, which Publisher's Weekly called "a complex and action-packed conspiracy thriller."

Andy, congrats on First to Kill.  Tell me what it's like being a debut author.

The most interesting and fun part of being a debut author is networking with the seasoned pros of the Industry. At ThrillerFest, I spent a good hour talking with Steve Martini about all kinds of things. I spoke with R.L. Stine at length as well. I really enjoy talking to such nice and interesting authors. On the other hand, the most difficult part of being a debut author is time management. I'm afraid I'm not very good at it yet. Promoting and marketing is essential, but so is writing the next Nathan McBride adventure. Right now, my writing has taken a back seat. It's a Catch 22 situation.  Unless you promote and market yourself, few people will know about your book. But if all the effort pays off, people are going to want the next one. For now, I feel the media effort is more important.

Can you give us a sneak preview of the book? 

Sure. The book's hero, Nathan McBride, is a former Marine Corps sniper and CIA covert operative. His career ended after being captured on a botched mission in Nicaragua. He was brutally interrogated for three agonizing weeks.  Emotional and physical scars remain.

Twelve years later, Nathan reluctantly agrees to search for a missing FBI agent, but demands things be done "his way."  As his search deepens, he realizes things aren't adding up. What begins as a simple missing person assignment deteriorates when Nathan is forced to kill a young militia group member. The slain member's brothers, both ex-soldiers, become hell-bent on revenge and go after Nathan and the FBI.

When Reverend Preston Cashdollar and his traveling tent revival come to town, James and Skip reinvent themselves-as Holy Rollers. But James and Skip aren't seeking salvation; they're seeking the Almighty Dollar. After all, Cashdollar's prosperity gospel draws thousands of people with open minds and open wallets. After some minor modifications to their white box truck, "Less or Moore" Catering is ready to roll, and the entrepreneurs are born again, intent on making a mint by selling cheap meals to the hungry masses.  

As James and Skip become entangled in the Cashdollar culture, they realize the good reverend is nothing but bad news. Cashdollar may preach about seeing the light, but his organization has a dark side of greed, power, corruption, and murder.  When James and Skip see something they shouldn't, their meals-on-wheels venture becomes hell on wheels and they either have to keep the faith, or run like the devil.

Not many aspiring authors have the privilege of working with one of the industry's kindest and most successful talents. After winning an auction to have his manuscript evaluated by renowned mystery novelist Sue Grafton, he sent her the book. After reading it, she fired off eight pages of criticism, pointing out numerous structural problems, plot problems and character problems. Sometimes sarcastic, sometimes caustic, her comments stung the fledgling writer. After reading her remarks, Don Bruns remembers telling his wife Linda that he may as well hang up the towel.  Getting published wasn't in his future. Well, two days later, Grafton called and asked if he was ready to shoot himself, or her.

Bestselling author Tess Gerritsen says she is learning to read Egyptian hieroglyphs. No, it's not in preparation for an Ancient Egyptian edition of one of her novels, it's in preparation for a fall trip to Egypt. It is also a spin-off from her latest novel, The Keepsake, the seventh Jane Rizzoli novel.

Gerritsen says, "I've long been interested in archaeology, and was an anthropology major in college. Like almost everyone else I know, I'm fascinated by Egyptian mummies, and had been corresponding with an Egyptologist who arranges CT scans on mummies. I thought: what if one of those scans reveals a shocking surprise? This story allowed me to explore some of the creepiest preservation rituals known to archaeologists, from mummies to shrunken heads to bog bodies."

In The Keepsake, a Boston museum discovers a long forgotten Egyptian mummy in their basement and they decide to study it with a CT scan. Gerritsen says, "To everyone's horror, a bullet is found in the leg, evidence that the 'ancient' mummy is, in fact, a modern murder victim. And she's not the only victim who's been hidden in the museum. For years a killer has been collecting women and preserving them using ancient techniques that indicate may be an archaeologist. And he's started a gruesome collection all his own."

New York Times bestselling author Mariah Stewart's newest thriller, Forgotten (Ballantine, September 2008), focuses on an investigation of old child homicides that quickly escalates into a hunt for a new killer.  Contributing editor, CJ Lyons, takes us behind the scenes with Mariah as she discusses Forgotten.

Many authors shy away from deeply charged emotional subjects such as child homicide, but you seem drawn to these topics. How do you balance good story telling without tipping over into sensationalism?  

I think the balance is achieved by focusing on the emotional impact of the violent act, rather than on the act itself, and playing that out through two very different points of view: that of the victim's family and loved ones, and that of the law enforcement agents who are charged with solving the case.

So you have the juxtaposition of sheer emotion (on the part of the loved ones) and the logic and skill necessary to bring the villain to justice. Unfortunately, in real life, even the most Herculean efforts often do not result in a satisfying conclusion. In my books, the bad guy always gets what he deserves.

Do you feel an emotional connection to the victims in your novels?

Yes, I do feel an emotional connection with my victims and their families. For example, in Forgotten, the book opens in the point of view of the mother of a boy who was murdered twelve years ago.  I think it will be obvious to the reader that this woman still grieves terribly for her lost boy. The reader knows what happened to this child without me having to show them all the terrible details on the page. It's the pain and the grief that is the focus these many years later.

You really can't judge a book by its cover. And in the case of T. Lynn Ocean it's as true of the author as it is of her latest thriller, Southern Poison. The cover is bright and cheerful and you might think this is a chick-lit novel. You look at the author photo of a young, smiling woman in a cowboy hat and dangling earrings and you might think that it's a southern belle who has written chick-lit.

Then you go to page one and those assumptions get blown all to hell. What you have here is a thriller in every sense of the word. Fast-paced, wickedly funny, vicious, violent, and packed with believable characters caught up in a series of escalating adventures that leave you breathless.  

Ocean's protagonist is Jersey Barnes, a tall, capable, acerbic and very tough modern woman who takes no crap from anyone and dishes out the damage with the best of them. She was tough when we first met her in Southern Fatality, and she keeps getting tougher and more interesting. No wonder Publishers Weekly calls her the "Southern-styled answer to Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum..."

I had a chat with Lynn about her tough and iconic female action hero.

Monthly Book Giveaway

Congratulations to Jeff Schumacher, the winner of this month's BIG THRILL giveaway. Jeff will receive a collection of signed thrillers including Stuff Dreams Are Made Of by Don Bruns, Shadow of Power by Steve Martini, Record of Wrongs by Andy Straka, Lie Down With the Devil by Linda Barnes, Every Breath You Take by Sheila Quigley, Faceless by Debra Webb, Lady Justice by Vicki Hinze, Southern Fatality by T. Lynn Ocean, and Unholy Grail by D.L. Wilson.

All subscribers to THE BIG THRILL webzine are automatically eligible for the monthly drawing. Click here to subscribe to the BIG THRILL email.

Here's our new Big Thrill Photo Gallery featuring pictures submitted by our members of their latest book signing or conference event. Enjoy the sideshow or visit our Flickr Gallery anytime to see pictures of ThrillerFest '09, '08 and '07.

 
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Larry Beinhart's upcoming novel, SALVATION BOULEVARD, has been optioned for the screen by Mandalay Independent Pictures, with George Ratliff set to write the screenplay and direct.

The novel, to be published this fall by Nation Books, concerns a private detective who confronts religious issues while investigating the death of a professor. According to Variety, "The exercise proves to be a clash of faiths: The detective is a born-again Christian, the dead man an atheist, the accused killer an Islamic foreign student and the D.A. is Jewish" and the book has a "satirical bent, targeting organized religion."

Beinhart's earlier novel novel American Hero was adapted for the screen in 1997 as the film Wag the Dog.

Heather Graham, Joe Lansdale, Brian Keene and L.A. Banks are the guests of honor at the First Annual Las Vegas KillerCon -- a new multi-genre (horror, thriller, and paranormal romance) convention. The event runs September 18th through the 20th, 2009 at the Palace Station Casino. For more details and registration information, visit www.killercon.org.

What do you call a series of books, geared towards male readers, that is similar to the "chick lit" genre? Unfortunately, there's no punchline, because we have no idea.

Here's the quandary: We released a book last fall, STUFF TO DIE FOR by award-winning novelist Don Bruns. STUFF TO DIE FOR received some phenomenal reviews, and it seems the novel's protagonists, James Lessor and Skip Moore, twenty-something slackers/would-be entrepreneurs/ amateur sleuths, really struck a chord with reviewers and readers. Numerous readers and reviewers described James and Skip as the Hardy Boys grown up, and Deadly Pleasures magazine said the book was "written with both the wit and the wisdom that seems to leave the actions, but not the minds, of most men once they hit thirty."

But one article really got us thinking. Jay MacDonald, book reviewer for the Ft. Myers News-Press, wrote this: "Bruns may have stumbled upon a goldmine: a legitimate male counterpart to the hugely successful chick lit novels."

A legitimate male counterpart to the hugely successful chick lit novels? That's good stuff.

But, what on earth should said genre be called? We put our heads together and made a few feeble attempts at coming up with a name. Male-o-drama (ugh), Histery, as opposed to mystery (double ugh), and one other idea that is just too unpalatable to print. Frankly, we're stumped.

Got an idea, a suggestion, a thought you'd like to share for this as-yet-to-be-named genre? Then kindly drop us an email at namethegenre@oceanviewpub.com. If your entry is chosen, Don will gladly include you as a character in book three of the Stuff series. Entries will be accepted until August 31, 2008.

STUFF TO DIE FOR has been awarded the Gold Medal in the Mystery Category of the ForeWord Book of the Year Awards, and won top honors in the mystery/suspense category of the 2008 National Indie Excellence Awards. Book two in the Stuff series, STUFF DREAMS ARE MADE OF, will be released on September 1, 2008.

Don Bruns is an award-winning novelist, songwriter, musician and advertising executive. He and his wife, Linda, divide their time between Ohio and South Florida. Oceanview Publishing (www.oceanviewpub.com) is an independent book publisher headquartered in Ipswich, Massachusetts. For more information, please contact Maryglenn McCombs by phone - (615) 297-9875, or by email - maryglenn@maryglenn.com.

Six thriller and mystery authors, all members of the International Thriller Writers, have banded together to launch Kill Zone, a new writer's blog. Michelle Gagnon, John Gilstrap, Clare Langley-Hawthorne, Kathryn Lilley, John Ramsey Miller, and Joe Moore will be posting six days a week on topics that inspire and interest them in their writing. Guest bloggers will be featured from time to time as well. Visit the Kill Zone at http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/

On August 1st, 2008, the City and County of San Francisco recognized a new fiction genre: Roman Noir.

ITW Debut Author Kelli Stanley received a Certificate of Honor, signed by Mayor Gavin Newsom, congratulating her on inventing a new literary genre and wishing her success on her historical thriller, NOX DORMIENDA (The Big Thrill, July '08).

Kelli celebrated her book launch and civic honor with a party the same evening, held at the nationally acclaimed speakeasy, Bourbon and Branch.

For more information on Roman Noir, Kelli or NOX DORMIENDA, visit Kelli's website.