Dear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker

I've always liked actress Mary-Louise Parker. She's done so many different kinds of parts and has always been relatable. (I found her adorable in Red.) But it wasn't until a year or so ago that I discovered she's also a writer, and a very good one.

Dear Mr. You is a collection of "letters" Parker has written to the men who entered and departed from her life with varying degrees of damage and joy. It's a book any woman will relate to. By turns funny and bittersweet--she is REALLY hard on herself sometimes--Dear Mr. You might be a great present to give your mother for Mother's Day--especially if she's a fan of Weeds.

For a sense of her personality, check out this interview from the Washington Post. It also deserves shelf-space next to Carrie Fisher's memoir Wishful Drinking.

Apocalypse Sky

Years ago, I submitted a story called "Monochrome" to an anthology with the premise that suddenly all the color was leached out of the world and writers were asked to explore how that would affect them. "Monochrome" wasn't a great story and it didn't make the cut but I think of that story often when I see the apocalyptic chiaroscuro sunsets we get here in the Pacific Northwest.

Say what you will about the pollution in Los Angeles, it made for some extraordinary, Technicolor sunsets. Here we get sunsets in black and white--gorgeous dark blacks and whites like some heavenly cinematographer was shooting the world in black and white. It's another kind of beauty but it's taken some getting used to.

And I want to write a story about it.

Next for the TBR pile: The Merchant by V.R. McCoy

I actually heard about this #SupernaturalThriller on Twitter. (Yay for social media.) It's got gangsters and vampires and crooked politicians and the Big Easy. What's not to like. I don't know this author but at 99 cents, what do I have to lose?  Can't wait to read it.

Ghost Storm Giveaway

I love finding new writers by reading "gateway" books being offered as cheese for signing up on thier mailing lists. This cover caught my eye today and looking around at Jessie Costin's site, I'm pretty sure I'm going to love her YA paranormal books. What I  liked about this cover was the colors. Bonus--it's the two Pantone colors of the year!  But the colors drew me in because this is not the same old/same old book cover. You can buy Ghost Storm for 99 cents on Kindle or you can get it free by signing up for the newsletter.Go here to sign up.

The blurb sounded interesting too, sort of a YA version of Haven. I like that the stakes for the heroine go beyond her love life. Another thing I like about Jessie Costin is that she promotes other writers on her site. That's how I heard about D.S. Murphy and her mermaid fantasy Shearwater. (It's been very, very well reviewed and only been out for three months, so it's on the ever-expanding TBR bookcase.)

The next best thing to being in Paris

Is paging through this gorgeous book by Girls Guide to Paris founder Doni Belau. I love the beautiful graphic cover of Paris Cocktails, and the photographs are gorgeous. If you buy the book directly from the author's site, you get bonuses plus a discount, so go here.

In praise of Kinuko Y. Craft

Artwork: © Kinuko. Y. Craft, All Rights Reserved,

  www.kycraft.com

The first piece of Kinuko Y. Craft's work I ever saw was this beautiful, strange illustration of a leopard woman drinking from a pool. Or at least that's what it seems to be to me. I wish I knew more. (The painting is called "The Transformation of Angarred" and I don't know anything about the story it's based on.) It immediately spoke to me, taking me to a place beyond reality and I wanted to write a story to match it. Craft calls herself a "storyteller," and it's true. Even if you don't know the story that she's given life in her art, A story suggets itself to you.

Kinuko Y. Craft's beautifully illustrated hardcover retelling of Beauty and the Beast (written by Mahlon F. Craft, Kinuko's husband, an artist/photographer) arrives from Harper Collins this July. You can pre-order it here and you should, because it looks exquisite. And while you're there, you should pick up a copy of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, their previous collaboration,  as well.On her site, you can buy signed posters she created for the Dallas Opera House. They're a bargain for their beauty and this one is going to be my birthday present to myself:

Artwork: © Kinuko. Y. Craft, All Rights Reserved,

  www.kycraft.com

March Mystery: Aunty Lee's Chilled Revenge by Ovidia Yu

There are a couple of copies of Aunty Lee's Chilled Revenge up for grabs in the early review section of Library Thing and I would so like to snag one because I know it's not going to show up in my local library any time soon. (My local library is so strapped for cash that you're kind of out of luck if you don't want the new James Patterson or Debbie Macomber or Stephen King).  To be fair, it's available in a trade paperback priced under $15, which is about what it costs to go to a movie at my local theater, so one way or another, it's on my TBR list.

The book is set in Singapore where Aunty Lee is a widow who runs a "home cooking" restaurant. This is not the first of her adventures and I've already ordered Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials and Aunty Lee's Delights. I've always been a fan of feisty, crime-solving widows, from Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax to Cabot Cove's Jessica Fletcher.