When someone gushes over a book

I was wearing the earrings I bought in New Orleans today and the checker at my supermarket complimented me on them. I told her I'd bought them in NOLA and she told me she'd loved the city. I told her about a cab driver taking me by Anne Rice's house and she told me how much she loved Anne Rice's books. And that made me think of the time I was in a supermarket in L.A. looking over the new paperback books. An older woman, a total stranger, pointed out a book by James Patterson--The 9th Judgment, a book in the Woman's Murder Club series. "That's a really good book," she said.

How cool is that? Can you imagine how great it would be to have total strangers recommending your book to people? You cannot buy that kind of word of mouth. When the first of the Twilight books came out, they came highly recommended to me by a friend's daughter, who was in middle school at the time. She's now in college, a writer herself, and I still rely on her for opinions in all things YA and paranormal. Forget being a best-selling author. What I want to be is an author that people recommend to strangers. (Well, don't forget it but you know what I mean.)

Happy Birthday to authors and illustrators born in April

Before there were "listicles" there were lists and I always liked lists. Turns out Scholastic has a neat resource for teachers that lists authors and illustrators by their birthdays. turns out a lot of my favorite authors were born in April Like: Hans Christian Andersen (April 2) Washington Irving (April 3) Beverly Cleary (April 12, and next year marks her centennial) Marguerite Henry (April 13) William Shakespeare (April 23) Lois Duncan (April 28) There are more, but these are just my favorites.

Shameless Saturday self-promjotion

At midnight tonight, a count-down deal goes into effect for my short mystery novel Whipping Boy. You'll be able to snag it for 99 cents for a limited time as it makes its way back up to its normal price. I loved writing this book and am about halfway through the sequel (A Taste for Strange, which tells the story through the point of view of the cop who was the "co-star" of the first book). When you're a writer, you love all your books, but this one is close to my heart. I love writing the fantasy and the horror and the SF, but I really love my mysteries. It's got a 4.6 rating!! Bookmark it here and snag it at 12:01!

True Crime comjing March 31

I'm not really a true crime junkie, particularly not when it comes to chronicles of serial killers, which I find kind of depressing. But a good murder story, particularly one like this, always piques my interest. Upstanding doctor, a pillar in his church, finds his wife of 30 years dead in the bathtub. Terrible accident, or so it appears. The Stranger She Loved is already available from St. Martin's Press via pre-order and it'll be out in 10 days. Written by Shanna Hogan, who has also written books about Jodi Arias, and several other notorious cases.

Be an Honorary Mysterian

Thanks to Village Books in Bellingham--their motto is "building community one book at a time"--I have started a mystery book club--The Bellingham Mysterians. We will be meeting for the first time in May and our first book up will be Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris. This is the first in a series of mysteries set in Saudi Arabia, the tale of a missing girl who is found drowned in the desert. the book has been praised for its sense of place, and I'm looking forward to reading it. If you'd like to be a part of the Mysterians, please follow us @bhammysterians. And I'll be posting here about what everyone thought of the book.

QUEEN MAB by Kate Danley

I am a sucker for beautiful book covers (Why yes, I do judge a book by its cover) so when I saw the cover for Kate Danley's fantasy novel Queen Mab in one of my newsletters this morning, I immediately clicked on the link. I looked her up and realized that this is a woman whose books I need to read NOW. (On her Amazon author page she includes the information that she went on Hollywood Squares and lost.) You can just tell she doesn't take herself too seriously despite her impressive credentials.

Queen Mab has garnered a slew of awards and when I went Googling around looking for information on it, I discovered that it has gone through three covers. The crown/arrow one here is the most recent but she's also tried out several others, including one that (sorry Kate) looks like every cover of a paranormal romance ever created with a stock photo. (I use stock photos and illustrators myself. So do we all. But that cover did not POP. Not the way the other two did.) So, I CANNOT wait to read this book. Has anyone else read it? If you want to know more about Kate and her books, check out her website here. You can also follow her on Twitter (@katedanley) or find her on Facebook.

For the TBR pile

As I promised, it's going to be all mysteries, all the time soon here at Kattomic Energy, but life has been interfering. For one thing, I've been busy finishing DAUGHTER OF THE MIDNIGHT KING, the sequel to my debut fantasy romance, BRIDE OF THE MIDNIGHT KING. Bride started out as a lark--write a vampire version of Cinderella--and to my surprise, it's turned into my best-selling book. Who knew? The sequel weaves "Sleeping Beauty" into the mix. It's been a lot of fun. But I digress. Coming very soon, I will have reviews of the following:

Eve Paludan and Stuart Sharp's "witchy detective" series, which sounds like way too much fun. Dale Phillips' books A Memory of Grief and Fall From Grace. Fireproof by Gerard Brennan. Fireproof is another book from Blasted Heath, which consistently offers interesting fare. Also upcoming is the first book that my new bookclub--the Bellingham Mysterians--will be reading. It's Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris.

It's going to be a great month for reading mysteries.