Matt Taibbi's New Book

Read a little bit about Insane Clown President at Rolling Stone.

An Agatha Christie mystery

Not written by Agatha Christie--but using Agatha Christie as a character.Not only is this a GREAT cover, but the sales pitch makes it sound really fun:

Hoping to make a clean break from a fractured marriage, Agatha Christie boards the Orient Express in disguise. But unlike her famous detective Hercule Poirot, she can’t neatly unravel the mysteries she encounters on this fateful journey.
Agatha isn’t the only passenger on board with secrets. Her cabinmate Katharine Keeling’s first marriage ended in tragedy, propelling her toward a second relationship mired in deceit. Nancy Nelson—newly married but carrying another man’s child—is desperate to conceal the pregnancy and teeters on the brink of utter despair. Each woman hides her past from the others, ferociously guarding her secrets. But as the train bound for the Middle East speeds down the track, the parallel courses of their lives shift to intersect—with lasting repercussions.
Filled with evocative imagery, suspense, and emotional complexity, The Woman on the Orient Express explores the bonds of sisterhood forged by shared pain and the power of secrets.

Mysteries with Senior Sleuths

My mystery book club is meeting today and our subject is Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg's "International Bestseller" The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules. One of the club members suggested it, and it's a fun book but it is not super mysterious.  Here's the sales copy:

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel meets The Italian Job in internationally-bestselling author Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg’s witty and insightful comedy of errors about a group of delinquent seniors whose desire for a better quality of life leads them to rob and ransom priceless artwork.
Martha Andersson may be seventy-nine-years-old and live in a retirement home, but that doesn’t mean she’s ready to stop enjoying life. So when the new management of Diamond House starts cutting corners to save money, Martha and her four closest friends—Brains, The Rake, Christina and Anna-Gretta (a.k.a. The League of Pensioners)—won’t stand for it. Fed up with early bedtimes and overcooked veggies, this group of feisty seniors sets about to regain their independence, improve their lot, and stand up for seniors everywhere.
Their solution? White collar crime. What begins as a relatively straightforward robbery of a nearby luxury hotel quickly escalates into an unsolvable heist at the National Museum. With police baffled and the Mafia hot on their trail, the League of Pensioners has to stay one walker’s length ahead if it’s going to succeed….
Told with all the insight and humor of A Man Called Ove or Where’d You Go Bernadette?, The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules is a delightful and heartwarming novel that goes to prove the adage that it’s not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years.

Reading the book made me think--where are all the books featuring older sleuths? Yes, yes, there's Agatha Christie's "Miss Marple" series and Dorothy Gilman's wonderful Emily Pollifax novels. But the only books that came to mind were Daniel Friedman's terrific Buck Schatz novels, Don't Ever Get Old and Don't Ever Look Back.  I reviewed Don't Ever Look Back for Criminal Element nearly three years ago and I've been waiting for another book in the series ever since.

I decided to go Googling around to see what else is on offer and the answer is, not a whole lot. Rita Lakin and Madison Johns and Lorena McCourtney all write cozy mysteries staring LOL (Little Old Lady) detectives. And the books sound like fun reads. But where are the books that feature senior citizens who aren't cozy and cuddly. I have a strong dislike for all the euphemisms used to describe old people. I grew up in a three-generation household and believe me when I tell you, I learned early that being old is not fun and it's not for the weak-willed. But I also learned that old people could be fearless and tough and wily and smart and funny and inventive. I learned to value them.  Every time I see movie ticket prices broken out into "child/adult/senior" I think--is a senior a defective adult? Why not just do the age group thing? Under 12/Over 50? And if I ever hear the phrase "Ninety years young" applied to me, I might vomit all over the person who says it.
But I digress--a habit I have that will likely only get worse as I age but I tell you now, it's been with me since I was a child, so you won't be able to attribute it to my advancing years. Where are the mystery books with protagonists who are no longer young? If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.


 

Free mysteries, thrillers and horror stories

This offer will be up for a week. Check out the offerings here.

MLK meme for MLK Day

Monday meme

Gabby Giffords speaking truth to power

I admire Gabby Giffords so much. Watching her speech at the 2016 DNC brought me to tears. But because I write a lot of dark fiction, when I saw this meme, I had a thought. You know all those cheesy revenge fantasy movies out there? Usually with someone like Clint Eastwood or Jason Statham in them?
"Their mistake was they left him alive..."
I thought--if she'd died, people would have mourned her, but she didn't die and she came back to become the gun lobby's worst nightmare. I stand with Gabby; if you do too, find out more about what you can do at Americans for Responsible Solutions.

More Free SF and Fantasy Books

Tons of books by best-selling authors in half a dozen sub-genres of fantasy and science fiction and all FREE!!!!!  Check out the offerings here.

MLK Day...it's not just about the day off

Proof that the PRINCESS BRIDE is *everything*

Free Art Downloads

The Amplifier Foundation, which "creates unique visual campaigns and story-telling with their non-profit partners" is offering free downloads of some fantastic art, including this poster for the women's march. Get yours here.

Free books!

I buy a lot of books. I buy them at the grocery store, at yard sales, at library sales, at bookstores. I buy them online. (I love those penny and postage deals at Amazon.) I have a library card but my local library is so small that when I bring in bags of books to donate, it doubles their inventory. So. Books. I love them.

I also love my kindle. And my kindle app for phone. And for computer. So I buy ebooks too. But I also partake of the many, many, many freebie promotions. Because the only thing better than a book is a FREE book. Here's the latest InstaFreebie promotion for thrillers. If you like free books too, check it out.

A Writer Whose Work Scares Stephen King!

Stephen King is known to be generous in his blurbs, but even so, I'll take his recommendation of a writer any day. This is the newest book from Nick Cutter. (Doesn't his name just SOUND like a horror writer? Or maybe a thriller writer? It's from Simon and Schuster (which also publishes King), and here's the sales pitch:

An all-new epic tale of terror and redemption set in the hinterlands of midcentury New Mexico from the acclaimed author of The Troop—which Stephen King raved “scared the hell out of me and I couldn’t put it down...old-school horror at its best.”

From electrifying horror author Nick Cutter comes a haunting new novel, reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and Stephen King’s It, in which a trio of mismatched mercenaries is hired by a young woman for a deceptively simple task: check in on her nephew, who may have been taken against his will to a remote New Mexico backwoods settlement called Little Heaven. Shortly after they arrive, things begin to turn ominous. Stirrings in the woods and over the treetops—the brooding shape of a monolith known as the Black Rock casts its terrible pall. Paranoia and distrust grips the settlement. The escape routes are gradually cut off as events spiral towards madness. Hell—or the closest thing to it—invades Little Heaven. The remaining occupants are forced to take a stand and fight back, but whatever has cast its dark eye on Little Heaven is now marshaling its powers...and it wants them all.

Sounds good, doesn't it?  The book was published this week. Check it out.

199 books for 99 cents each

Who doesn't love book sales?Here's where you can find all the details.

Kattomic Energy Book Club pick for January

The phrase "rape culture" has recently resurfaced in American discourse--fueled by the charges against predators as diverse as Bill Cosby, Bill O'Reilly, and Bill Clinton and the boasts of our president elect--but this book does the best job of clarifying the "problem" and offering solutions.
This is from the product page:

Every seven minutes, someone in America commits a rape. And whether that's a football star, beloved celebrity, elected official, member of the clergy, or just an average Joe (or Joanna), there's probably a community eager to make excuses for that person.

In Asking for It, Kate Harding combines in-depth research with an in-your-face voice to make the case that twenty-first-century America supports rapists more effectively than it supports victims. Drawing on real-world examples of what feminists call "rape culture"—from politicos' revealing gaffes to institutional failures in higher education and the military—Harding offers ideas and suggestions for how we, as a society, can take sexual violence much more seriously without compromising the rights of the accused.

Read the Rolling Stone interview with Kate Harding here.

A Michael Malone book I haven't read!

Michael Malone is one of my favorite writers. His book Handling Sin is hands-down the funniest road trip book I've ever read. I also love his mysteries. I did not know this book existed--it was published in 2002--until it popped up when I was looking at one of my books to see if I had any new reviews. This is like a late Christmas present. Malone writes about southerners in a way that is absolutely true to the best parts and I cannot wait to dig into this collection of short stories. You can find Red clay, blue cadillac here.

Artwork by Narya Marcille

Artist Narya Marcille has made this awesome image public.

Find her work on Etsy.

Follow her on Pinterest.

Spread her name far and wide.

Sunday Meme: Life imitates Art

The Russian Hacking of the 2016 election

Here's a link to download the unclassified intelligence report on the Russian hacking. Hint--the Russians really did it and Vladimir Putin orchestrated it.

Investigative Journalism is not Dead

“Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect: like a man, who hath thought of a good repartee when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.”
― Jonathan Swift

Fake news is everywhere today. The PEOTUS blames the press itself, labeling reporters "dishonest" (at best) or "scum" (at worst). Delegitimizing the press, trying to muzzle it, is a familiar first step on the road to autocracy, which makes it all the more important to seek out information and compare notes and think.

Don't believe every Tweet you read. Instead, seek out real news, which is currently coming from a variety of unlikely sources, including Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and Teen Vogue.  The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), founded by the Center for Public Integrity, is a group of 165 investigative journalists in more than 65 countries. Most famous for breaking the "Panama Papers" story, they have also exposed smuggling, trafficking, and dirty dealings in a number of industries, including Big Tobacco and Asbestos. You can find their website here.

The organization cherishes its role as "global muckraker" and is dedicated to:  ensuring all reports we publish are accurate. If you believe you have found an inaccuracy let us know.

Women making Herstory

CHANGE THE WORLD, the cover line urges readers, offering 28 bold thinkers and unsung heroes to inspire YOU today. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling the need for a little inspiration and I can't think of a better place to start than with the new issue of Essence Magazine featuring the stars of Hidden Figures on the cover.The story of the team of African-American women mathematicians who helped launch the nation's space program is a must-see movie (and a must-read book).

And Justice for All

Not just rich white males. Senator Jeff Sessions is PEOTUS' pick for Attorney General. This is a terrible choice for pretty much anyone who isn't an American-born male ofNorthern European extraction

Don't take my word for it. Here's a link to a Washington Post article entitled "10 Things to Know About Jeff Sessions." (The article actually has a couple of good things to say about Senator Sessions, which honestly, I do not.) Also, if you'd like a refresher on what exactly the Attorney General does and why it matters who it is, here's a link to a Wikipedia article.

Here's a petition you can sign to let lawmakers know you are appalled at the prospect of this man becoming Attorney General of the United States.

New Maisie Dobbs...In This Grave Hour

I'm part of a mystery book club and the other members introduced me to Jacqueline Winspear's "Maisie Dobbs" series. When the series opens, Maisie is newly returned to London after her service as a nurse in WWI.  Now the books are into the next World War and In This Grave Hour, the focus is on refugees. The author discusses her fictional refugee crisis with the one going on IRL on her website.  I cannot wait to read this new book. Maisie is a complicated and complex character.  And the books are beautifully designed.

New from USA TODAY Best-selling author Cristine Pope

If you're a fan of Christine Pope's "Witches of Cleopatra Hill" series (and who isn't?), you'll want to snap up her new novella, The Arrangement. Set in 19th century Flagstaff, it continues to fill in the backstory of the Wilcox witch clan. It's filled with great period detail and the plot is achingly romantic.

Hawthorne by Heath Lowrance...a review

Don't go to Coyote Hill, they'd told him in the last town. They got they-selves some black magic out there. It ain't natural. They's things that hunt out in that desert, demons and what-not. And they don't care none if it's beast or man they kill ...

Heath Lowrance knows how to start a story, doesn’t he? This collection of linked tales centers on the enigmatic Hawthorne, a gray-eyed man on a tall black horse who has been known by other names at other times and places. He is a man who can be touched by innocence, but not by beauty and his path is a lonely one. And a bloody one. Because where Hawthorne goes, death follows.

If your only experience with the “weird western” genre is the movie Cowboys and Aliens, you’re in for a treat. These stories are filled with monsters, both supernatural and human, and after you read the story, “the Spider Tribe,” you will never look at arachnids the same way again. Lowrance braids his stories together out of bits and pieces of western myth—the lone avenger, coyote legends—and ties them off with a modern, blood-soaked sensibility that is tough and taut. When he writes a fight scene, you feel the fist impact the flesh and get the idea that maybe the writer’s been in a fight or two himself. Do yourself a favor and read Hawthorne while you’re waiting for the Dark Tower miniseries to air. Enjoy the underpinnings of the horror and the atmospherics of the land that Hawthorne inhabits. And enjoy being scared to death. When the gray-eyed man with the scarred face shows up, things get weird. 

I interviewed Heath Lowrance four years ago. (I know a good writer when I read one.) You can read that interview here.

One Under the Sun...the new trailer is here!

The new trailer for the science fiction movie I wrote, One Under the Sun, is now playing on YouTube. It's also now on pre-order at iTunes, and will be available as VOD later this year. Yes, I am excited.  (Especially since I've never seen the movie all the way through.) Follow the movie on Facebook. Follow us on Instagram (@oneunderthesunmovie).  Generally--get in touch!!!

It's tome to not be nice

In the movie Road House, the late Patrick Swayze plays legendary bouncer Dalton and in one of the movie's best moments, he tells some wannabe bouncers the way it's going to be. "Be nice," he says. "Until it's time not to be nice any more."

I think about that sometimes when I hear people offering up lame arguments for something, like abolishing school lunches because it affront's a kid's "dignity" to be offered food when he's hungry. (That, to me, is Paul Ryan's lowest moment and it had to beat out stiff competition for the honor.)

So, when I saw this meme about gun conrol, all I could think of was, "Yes."

Americans for Responsible Solutions
Everytown for Gun Safety
Newtown Action Alliance

Derek Murphy Knows Things

Derek Murphy is a book designer with a PhD in literature. I ran across this excellent blogpost he did (* Cover Design Secrets publishers use to manipulate readers into buying their books) If you're an indie author who creates your own covers, or someone who buys a lot of premades, like I do, the article is definitely worth the read.

In one instance, he points out that an author's name looks a little "crowded" on the cover. That's a problem I run into when I use my real name. On premade covers, designers often use the placeholder text: Book Title and Author Name. As it happens, "Author Name" has the same number of letters as my pseudonym, "Kat Parrish," so I usually have a pretty good idea of how it's going to look on the cover. "Katherine Tomlinson," though, is a long name, taking up 19 spaces with the space between my first and last names. It's annoying to fall in love with a design and know that your name is just not going to look good all spelled out.

The Midnight Queen is (Almost) Here

The Midnight Queen, the conclusion of the three-partstory cycle that began with Bride of the Midnight King, is in final edits. I wrote much of it while sitting by the bedside of my hospitalized best friend, who was mercifully asleep most of the time. (He's fine now.)

 The setting helped put me in the mood to write about witch kings and dark omens. (Hospitals at night are creepy places. There's a reason why Lars von Trier's The Kingdom was so eerily effective. If you've never seen it, check out the trailer here.)

I love my characters in this series and am sorry to leave them behind, but it's time. The book will be out later this month. The cover is by the wonderful people at Indie Author Services.

A book to boost your faith in humanity

I've known people who chose to die by their own hands, including one who jumped off a bridge to end his life. I found this book by accident while I was checking on titles for a client. It's about a man named Kevin Briggs who is known for talking suicides out of jumping off the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. There's a video about him on YouTube, or you can get the book here.

I write urban fantasy, and in my fiction there are "protector" characers who have a calling to help humanity. It's not often you ruin into one of these people in real life. 

Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist

I am a huge fan of Ryan Gattis' multi-POV novel All Involved, which revolves around the L.A. riots that ensued when an all white jury acquitted four white cops for the horrific beating of Rodney King. When this book popped up on a friend's list of the books she'd read last year, I was intrigued enough by the title, to find out more. Set in 1999 during the Seattle protests over the World Trade Organization meeting being held there, Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist was Sunil Yapa's debut novel. Here's the NPR review of it. Like All Involved, the story is told by multiple characters, including a kid who's in the streets, not to protest but to sell marijuana to the activists. The NPR reviewer found Yapa's work full of compassion but decided, ultimately, that his execution was a little amateurish.On Amazon, the book has 92 reviews and comes in with a solid 4-star ranking. The top review is headlined, "Edgy, Dystopian, Melodramatic Lyricism." I'm willing to forgive a lot if a book gives me passion and lyricism. This may be my first book purchase of 2017. I'll get it here.

The Three Best Books about Work I've Read

Studs Terkel's oral histories are treasure troves. (The zombie novel, World War Z is actually an homage to Turkel's WWII history, The Good War.) His book Working (which was made into a musical), is a tapestry woven from many voices--celebrating the working woman and man in all their diversity. There is pride in work here--from the construction worker who likes looking at a skyline and seeing what he has helped build--but there is also despair and anger. But most of all there is a sense that work gives meaning to a life. The book was published in 1974 and in the 40-some years since, some of the jobs chronicled have ceased to exist. Writers, especially, should dip into this book--the characters are real, and fascinating, and original.

Barbara Ehrenreich is a writer with a feminist slant who has written on subjects as diverse as God and sex workers. When she set out to investigate the idea that a job--any job--could be the key to a better life, she went undercover to see just how that might work. The answer was--not very well. Her book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, is an eye-opener that anyone who has voted against a minimum wage needs to read. Ehrenreich's prose is graceful, and the book never descends into ranting, though there is passion here. She had an idea that all was not as rosy as it appeared on the surface, but some of what she found (particularly insie a "cleaning service job") shocked her. It will shock the reader too.

The latest book I'm recommending is Diane Mulcahy's The Gig Economy, which has a totally different focus. Yes, it talks about how work has transformed from a linear career to a series of "gigs" strung together by workers, but Mulcahy's focus is on how making this new reality work for a worker.  It's not just fast food workers and Uber drivers, she points out. As an adjunct professor, she's also part of the gig economy, moving from position to position in what one reviewer called, "an empowering search for freedom." As someone who has been a full-time freelancer for more than 20 years, and someone who has had to
hustle for gigs on Craigslist at times, I can vouch for the freedom, but also for the uncertainty. Mulcahy's book has some great strategies and tips for finding more and better work and also some pep alks about defining and refining goals. Well worth the read.

Words to Live By

I am increasingly troubled by conspicuous consumption on any level. I'll see an ad for "affordable shoes" and think, "they're cute" and discover they're $138. Here on Planet Reality, we don't buy $100 shoes. Maybe if I worked in an office and I had to keep up appearances...
When I worked for Los Angeles Magazine, which was owned by ABC at the time, I wore corporate attire, and that meant Anne Klein heels and little designer suits. But these days, it just kind of makes me sick that people buy $85 lipsticks and don't really think about it. Maybe if it was the only lippie they were going to buy for the season...
I think about Gilded Age excesses. I think about all the money I've wasted over the years myself, buying tons and tons of frivolous stuff.I live a simpler life now. I am learning the difference between "want" and "need." But it's harder than I would have thought.

Daughter of the Midnight King

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This magical, novella-length sequel to Bride of the Midnight King continues the love story of Yalira and the vampire king Idrax. 

Now pregnant with their child--the first natural-born vampire in centuries--Yala becomes the center of a three-way struggle for control of the kingdom of Eindar. Alliances are made and broken among those loyal to Idrax, the humans who want a larger say in their government, and the magic-born vampires whose thirst for power knows no bounds. While intrigue threatens the court of the Midnight King, Lord Thyr, the king's roguish cousin, finds love in a most unexpected place and the queen's stepsister Rilla encounters romantic difficulties in her relationship with master painter Ruel who initially courted her but who has been distant of late.

It's complicated.

This is the story of what happens after happily ever after in a Cinderella story of another sort. A blend of fairy tale romance, political and court intrigue, and familiar and fresh fantasy themes, The Daughter of the Midnight King expands the universe in Bride of the Midnight King--adding even more magic to the mix. New characters are introduced and fresh facets of familiar characters are explored. 

Daughter of the Midnight King does NOT contain a cliff-hanger. 

Bride of the Midnight King

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Bride of the Midnight King is a fairy tale fantasy with a dash of the paranormal. This is a novella set in a fabulous fairy tale land where humans and vampires co-exist. Bride of the Midnight King is based on one of the most beloved fairy tales of all time, melding the romantic/classic Cinderella story and a richly textured vampire mythology to create something unique and fantastical.
And like all the best fairy tales, the story begins with ...

Once upon a time...

There was a land called Eindar, and those who lived there called it “home,” but those who lived beyond its borders called it “The Divided Kingdom” because it was a place where humans and vampires shared the land but divided the day’s hours into sunlight and shadow, and there were only a few whose lives were lived in both realms.
Eindar had once been ruled by a royal house of humans, but that era ended when the last human king—Lorant the Third—took a vampire wife and died, leaving the kingdom in her care. Queen Isix abdicated in favor of her son Adraxus, and the sons of his line had occupied the throne of the Shadow Palace ever since.

If you're in the mood for a sweet story....

Check out Selling the Lite of Heaven. It reminded me a lot of the movie Crossing Delancey with a bit of My Big Fat Greek Wedding thrown in. It's the story of a woman who's left at the altar by a man who has decided to become a priest and what happens when she tries to sell her engagement ring in the Pennysaver. (Nowadays, it would probably be CraigsList.)

The characters are very likable and relatable and if you generally turn up your nose at "romance novels," this is more like a lit fic read than, say, a Harlequin. I liked it a lot and think it would make a lovely small movie, character-driven and full of community color. You can find the book here.

Wear Your Politics

I've never been much for wearing t-shirts with slogans (or putting them on bumper stickers either), but after the events of last year, I think it's important to make a stand in any and every way I can. It horrifies me to think that people might be afraid of me because so many women who look like me--white, middle aged--voted for hate and exclusion and racism and bigotry. A t-shirt with this graphic on it is my first purchase of 2017. I will be wearing it to the local anti-inaugural march. You can get yours here.

In Sunlight or in Shadow

A few years ago I participated in Brian Lindemuth's "Short Story a Day" challenge for a year. I discovered a lot of new writers that way and it also gave me an excuse to re-read short stories that I'd always loved. I'd like to read more short stories in the coming year and I'm going to start with this colleciton. I'm intrigued by the concept but look at the lineup of writers--Stephen King, Megan Abbot, Joyce Carol Oates, Craig Ferguson!!!  In Sunlight or in Shadow is currently available in both digital and hard cover here.