I've recently received some updates that I think are worth sharing, from various authors. Maria Murnane, author of Perfect on Paper (<---link will take you to my review) wrote to say her book made it onto the front cover of USA Today. The image of her book was cut from the online version, but you can read about her book and other self-pubs that have been republished by Amazon, here: Amazon gives the self-published a second life.
In case you choose not to read the USA Today article, I've pasted the image of one of the books mentioned above. I tend to stay quiet during chatter about controversial issues, such as "cover white-washing", although not for any particular reason -- art departments have been getting the cover images wrong for decades; it's nothing new. What's new is awareness of white character faces on covers of books containing protagonists who are described as dark-skinned. I'm not particularly thrilled or drawn by "face covers," anyway. The cover of A Wish After Midnight (<----Amazon link that does not benefit me) is, to me, a perfect example of how cover art can be stunning and draw people in while maintaining accuracy in the characterization. Isn't that cover beautiful?
Michael Palmer, medical thriller author of many books, including the new release The Last Surgeon, is going to donate donate $1 to the Mass General Hospital Red Sox Homebase PTSDFoundation for every additional Facebook fan added between now and February 16. You can add/fan him here: Michael Palmer's Facebook fan page. I have an ARC of The Last Surgeon and plan to read that in the coming weeks.
Chef Alain Braux is gathering stories for his next book, tentatively entitled: "How to Live Gluten and Dairy-free with French Gourmet Food". If you are gluten- or dairy-intolerant, you can write to Alain to share your story. The deadline is February 28.And, last I heard, Simon Van Booy was working on the final chapter of his first novel, "set in a small French village" (he posted about it on Facebook, Jan. 22 -- perhaps he's finished and revising, by now). If you follow my blog regularly, you know I'm a big fan of Simon Van Booy's short stories. Of all of the books I'm most looking forward to, anything by Simon will always fall at the top of my wish list.
That's all for today. Bookfool is dog sick and headed back to bed. Happy Reading!
Addendum: At the time I wrote this post, I stuck a copy of A Wish After Midnight in my cart. It was reasonably priced and available for pre-order. A few days later, I returned to Amazon and found that the book had gone up $3. That's about a 40% hike. This seems to happen frequently -- if you don't purchase immediately, the price goes up when you leave something in the cart. That is one reason I have not become an Amazon Associate. I don't like Amazon's sneaky devil ways. I took the book out of my cart, but I will keep it on my wish list and seek out another source for purchasing the book.
Yay for a Simon novel! I'm sure it'll be amazing. I'm still working on getting a copy of his second book. Just haven't decided if it's going to be the e-text or the real thing.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry you are so sick! I hope you feel better soon. :)
ReplyDeleteAndi,
ReplyDeleteA Simon novel will be a definite wahoo! He had just decided how to approach novel-writing when I interviewed him for Estella -- till then, he'd been strictly a short story writer. So, this chick has been bouncing on her toes for years, waiting for the novel. :)
Well, hmm. The print copy of Love Begins in Winter has little me in the acknowledgments. I don't know about e-books, since I haven't an e-reader. I'm not ready to move into that new galaxy, yet.
Brittanie,
Thank you. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better. I think the weather may have something to do with it, although migraine meds are not working. It could be that I'm suffering from lack of kittens.
I may have to buy Simon's full novel just cause I spent some time in France. My favorite author Peter Mayle does wonderful writing. I need to buy them, I borrowed them from my old pastor. :)
ReplyDeleteOMG a Simon novel!! THat sounds so fantastic :D It can't happen soon enough! I really hope it comes out soon! I sure hope you feel better soon Nancy :( I hate to hear that you're feeling bad. This rain has my migraines going haywire!
ReplyDeleteKrista,
ReplyDeleteI haven't yet read Peter Mayles, but I've got at least one of his books lying about. I'm glad you enjoyed them. I was only in France briefly, but I enjoyed my time there and love reading books set in France, too.
Chris,
I would guess we have a bit of a wait on that novel because there are likely still revisions, editing, galleys and then an official release date, but I can bounce on my toes for another year and you should join me in bouncing. It burns calories, you know. ;)
Thanks and sorry you've been suffering from migraine woes, as well. The weather has been horrendous, hasn't it? I think I have a little bit of a virus or something, as well, but I'm feeling a tiny bit better, today. I have no problem staying in bed to read, again. It seems to help.
Guess what's sitting on the top of my TBR stack right here on my desk? Oh, come on, guess! Yes!! How did you know? And I see your name in the acknowledgments!! :) Woot! I plan to read this next week. Thought it was appropriate since Valentine's Day is coming up. And of course, Love Begins in Winter. It did for me and my hubby. :)
ReplyDeleteHope you're feeling better. I'm getting a migraine working on our taxes. Argh. Lots of writing expenses to figure out. Argh.
Les,
ReplyDeleteWahoo!!!! I cannot WAIT to hear what you think of Simon's writing. Really, you fell in love in the winter? LOL I guess we did, too, sort of. I mean . . . it was really hot when we met, but he gave me a promise ring in December sooooo.
We haven't even gotten all our tax forms! Annoying! We got a note from Edward Jones (I've got an IRA account with them) saying, "The gov't says we have to have all tax forms sent by such-and-such date BUT some might not make it till the end of the month." Huh. That's interesting. Hope you feel better, soon. Boo to migraines.
I'm just about finished with one of my two current reads. Once the second one if finished, I'm reading Simon's book. Finally!!
ReplyDeleteWe use Edward Jones, too. I think we got all our documents... Hubby met with the tax man this morning. Apparently we're not going to jail. ;)
No more headache, but my knee is really aching. This getting in shape thing is almost hazardous to one's health. ;)
Les,
ReplyDeleteSqueeeee!
And, I'm glad you're not going to jail. We're still getting tax documents, but we're slow to get around to taxes so I'm not worried. No biggie. My husband is our "tax man". He uses TaxCut and the IRS disagreed with TaxCut, once. It was a little painful.
I know what you mean. If I have a good workout day, the next day something is bound to go wrong -- need an extra potassium pill or some body part hurts enough to ice down. Aging truly sucks. I've had a treadmill for a month (we now refer to it as the "Chuck machine" because I'm still watching Chuck episodes when I walk)and I think I've gained weight. It's the German chocolate, no doubt.