Where Writers Write: Collin Kelley

Welcome to TNBBC's 3rd Installment of Where Writers Write!

Where Writers Write is a weekly series that will feature a different author every Wednesday as they showcase their writing spaces using short form essay, photos, and/or video. As a lover of books and all of the hard work that goes into creating them, I thought it would be fun to see where some of TNBBC's favorite authors roll up their sleeves and make the magic happens.

This is Collin Kelley, a novelist, poet and playwright from Atlanta, Georgia. His second novel, Remain In Light (Vanilla Heart Publishing), was a finalist for the 2012 Townsend Prize for Fiction and is available in eBook format and trade paperback. His critically acclaimed debut novel, Conquering Venus (Vanilla Heart Publishing), was released in 2009 and an Amazon bestseller.

He is co-director of the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival, sits on the board of Poetry Atlanta and on the advisory council for Georgia Center for the Book. By day, Kelley is the managing editor for Atlanta Intown newspaper. He has been a journalist for more than 25 years. 

Collin wrote a guest post for TNBBC back in April of 201o on unconscious connections, and also submitted a previously unpublished poem to our Tell Me A Story feature. 

I'm excited to share today's Where Writers Write post with you because Collin took things up a notch and shot a video for us!!! Check it out....

Where Collin Kelley Writes

Check back next week to see where TNBBC newbie Katherine Scott Nelson works HER magic!!

Author Spotlight and Giveaway: Lauren Carr

To authors, it can be an uncertain world out there. If you've written and published a book (whether it's your first or twenty-first), you want nothing more than for the whole world to fall in love with it. 

At the same time, you wish you could clutch it to your chest and refuse to let it go because, let's be honest,  there's always that fear that someone, somewhere, won't like it. And they might just try to tell the whole world about it!

Lauren Carr, author of the Mac Faraday Murder series, is not one to hide her books from the public. In fact, once she got over her first bad review, she's come to appreciate them for what they are... and wants to help other traditional and self-published authors come to the same realization. 

Fear not the reviewer. Set your novels free... Check out Lauren's take on authoring up and getting your books out there:

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Writers! It’s Time to Author-Up and Get Your Books Out There

The number one fear of any author is—Reviewers.

It’s bad enough if a reader doesn’t like your book. Most readers, if they don’t like your book, will keep it to themselves. Or, at the worst, they will keep it within their immediate circle of friends. Or, if they have a big mouth, they’ll keep it within their book club or community.

Since it’s their job, reviewers will broadcast their dislike of your book to the whole world! Their distaste used to be confined to the subscribers of whatever publication they were writing for. But now, with the Internet, a reviewer’s hatred for a particular book is broadcasted throughout cyberspace for everyone in the universe to see exactly how bad your book is.

That’s enough to scare any writer into wanting to lock their baby up behind closed doors and never let anyone read it.

Yes, you can do that.

But, like a parent protecting her child from the outside world by locking him up in his bedroom and never letting him step outside, it’s not a realistic option. Children who are over-protected don’t develop a tough enough skin to deal with all that life has to throw at them. As scary as it is, sending them out there where they can fall down and skin their knees is a good thing.

Likewise, any writer wanting her book and career to be all it can be, needs to “author-up” and get her book out there into the hands of reviewers…who may or may not like it.

Yes, some reviewers may not like your book.

I was surprised to learn not too long ago that many authors don’t send their books out to reviewers for precisely that reason. One author shocked me with the announcement, “I don’t let strangers review my books.” I was still wrapping my head around that statement when he went on to say that he knew several authors who don’t solicit book reviews. Those who did would stipulate to the reviewer, “If you can’t give me 5-stars, then don’t bother posting any review at all.”

Yet, these same authors scratch their heads and wonder why they have failed to find their audience and can’t break through to have good book sales.

Book reviews are FREE advertising. With every review site that your book is featured, more and more people are learning about it. I have had reviewers contact me asking for copies of my book as a result of reading about it on other book review sites. I send them the books, they read it, and then yet another review is posted for even more readers to learn about my books.

All it costs me is the cost of the book and postage, unless it’s an e-book, in which case, it costs me NOTHING! Beat that price for advertising!

Based on successful reviews for my previous books, I have over fifty reviewers WAITING for the advanced review copy of Shades of Murder, which will be out in a couple of weeks. That’s over fifty websites that will publicize my new book as soon as it is released. Many of these reviewers will read the e-book version, which means it will cost me nothing.

Do I have a guarantee that all of these reviewers will love Shades of Murder as much as they loved the other books in the series? No. Most likely they will since they loved my previous books, but there’s no guarantee. I consider it the chance I have to take to be a professional author. It’s worth the risk to get the word out there about my books.

Here’s the way I see it. I publish my books because, in my heart, I know I’m a great writer. If I didn’t think I was good, I wouldn’t be investing my time and effort into writing and publishing my books. To me, authors who clutch their books to their breasts and refuse to show them to reviewers have a lack of confidence in their own writing.

Breaking through to the big time is not going to happen if you keep your book a secret from reviewers.

What if the reviewer doesn’t like your book?

That is one thing that I can guarantee. Not everyone is going to love your book.

Being a Mom, that’s something that I can understand and deal with.

The other night I prepared Tuscan Ribeye for dinner. I marinated the steaks for four hours before putting them on the grill. They came out juicy and melt in your mouth delicious. I also put equal amount of love into preparing garlic mashed potatoes with fresh garlic and butter drizzled in it. I topped off the mashed potatoes with fresh chives. They were so beautiful I didn’t want to eat them!

Then, for the vegetable, I broiled parmesan tomatoes. The parmesan and tomato were the perfect accompaniment to this a meal that had my husband rubbing his tummy saying, “I can’t wait to see what you come up with next.”

My son shrugged his shoulders and said, “Eh!”

Lesson: You can’t please everyone.

I put my heart and soul into that dinner. It was with pride that I presented it to the world (okay, the dining room) and only pleased half of my audience. My son would have been happier with a cheese dog and fast food fries.

Likewise, you can spend months slaving over a storyline, invest money in an editor, and hand picking a cover, and have a reviewer say “Eh!” She would have preferred it if your deep thinking, spunky protagonist that saved the world was a vampire with big boobs.

All right, so you’re thinking, “Yeah, Lauren, you don’t have to tell us that not everyone will love our books. We know that. That’s why we’re keeping them locked up in the trunk of our cars and not telling anyone about them. If a reviewer doesn’t like them, THEY’LL TELL SOMEONE ABOUT THEM.”

Here’s a news flash for you: As long as your book is for sale to the public, bad reviews can still happen—even if you aren’t soliciting them to reviewers.

My first book, A Small Case of Murder, has a couple of really horrible reviews posted on Amazon. The first one appeared over a year after its release. I was depressed for a week before my husband suggested I look up the other reviews this reviewer had posted on Amazon. I found that she had posted one. It was a five-star review for a rap CD entitled something along the line of “Kill All the People”. Of course, someone like that would not like a book about a functional family with a Christian protagonist.

Every bad, spiteful review I have received, I did not solicit. They were posted by readers who had come upon the book themselves and felt compelled to vent about their hatred for it.

As I have learned from readers and reviewers, hateful and spiteful reviews are not taken seriously by readers. The best way to combat them is, when you find such a review, to click on the button below the review saying that it was not helpful, and have your friends and family do the same.

The second line of defense against unsolicited bad reviews is to solicit reviews that will be positive from professional reviewers.

Generally, professional reviewers do not post hateful criticism. They will find something good to say, or say nothing at all. Yes, they will be honest, but they won’t be hurtful and you may find the criticism helpful.

I have had a couple of reviewers comment, nicely, that they would like to have a cast of characters listed in the front of the book. So, in Shades of Murder, I have listed a cast of characters, and will do so with future books.

Here’s another surprising note about criticism, it gives your book creditability in the eyes of some readers. Believe it or not, I was dancing around the house a few weeks ago when I received my first two-star review for It’s Murder, My Son, which was released over two years ago.

Have I lost my mind? I was dancing about a two-star? Yep.

Here’s why? Many readers view books with only positive reviews with suspicion. Maybe it’s the society we now live in. A while back I had read a thread in a book forum in which a lot of writers and readers commented that when they come upon a book on Amazon with forty or fifty 5-star reviews touting the book as the best thing since Gone With the Wind, they regard the reviews with suspicion, especially if there are no four, three, or two or one-star reviews. The suspicion grows deeper if the book and author are unknown. How do you get so many highly positive reviews without anyone knowing about you or your book? There are many readers who will assume all of the reviews were by family and friends of the author. When I brought up the matter in my book writing class, I was surprised to find that many of my students feel the same way.

I read not too long ago about an author who went into Amazon, using various different accounts, and posted dozens of five-star reviews for his own book. Then, he bragged about it on a blog. Amazon found out about it and pulled all of the reviews.

Reviews that state some form of objective criticism for a book gives it credibility. Readers take that book and the reviews listed for it more seriously. Thus, when I got my first two-star review for It’s Murder, My Son, I proceeded to dance around the house. After two years, It’s Murder, My Son has credibility!

Lesson to be learned: Even a critical review can be good for your career.

What are you waiting for? You have a book that you’ve labored over and now it’s ready to push that baby out of the nest and send it out into the world to the applause and acclaim of reviewers—who will pass on the word to your audience—which will open the doors to the authorship that your books and you deserve.

Go get ‘em, Tiger!

Lauren Carr fell in love with mysteries when her mother read Perry Mason to her at bedtime. The first installment in the Joshua Thornton mysteries, A Small Case of Murder was a finalist for the Independent Publisher Book Award. A Reunion to Die For was released in hardback in June 2007. Both of these books are in re-release.

Lauren is also the author of the Mac Faraday Mysteries, which takes place in Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. The first two books in her series, It’s Murder, My Son and Old Loves Die Hardhave been getting rave reviews from readers and reviewers. The next book in this series, Shades of Murder, will be released May 2012. This will be Lauren’s fifth mystery.

Lauren’s sixth book, Dead on Ice, will be released in Fall 2012. Dead on Ice will introduce a new series entitled Lovers in Crime, in which Joshua Thornton will join forces with homicide detective Cameron Gates.

The owner of Acorn Book Services, Lauren is also a publishing manager, consultant, editor, cover and layout designer, and marketing agent for independent authors. This spring, two books written by independent authors will be released through the management of Acorn Book Services.

Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She also passes on what she has learned in her years of writing and publishing by conducting workshops and teaching in community education classes.

She lives with her husband, son, and two dogs on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.

Visit Lauren’s websites and blog at:

E-Mail: writerlaurencarr@comcast.net, Website: http://acornbookservices.com/ ;                  http://mysterylady.net/

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The Giveaway

Where are all the murder mystery fans at?!!

TNBBC is happy to offer a set of all three Lauren Carr "Mac Faraday" novels 

to one lucky US resident!

This giveaway will end on May 28th.

Winner will be announced here and via email on May 29th.

Here's how to enter:

 1 - Leave a comment stating why you believe the Mac Faraday series should go to you.

 2 - You must leave me a way to contact you (email is preferred). AND you must be a resident of the US!!!!

Good luck!

Audioreview: Open Your Eyes

Listened 5/7/12 - 5/11/12
2.5 Stars - Recommended lightly: Fans of sci-fi / nightmare / deus-ex-machina space stories
Audio Download (approx 3.5 hrs)
Publisher: Iambik / Apex Book Company


Now, I know I am not the only person who's ever picked up a book and been like "Ok, so this is totally not what I would typically read but man, the cover is kinda creepy and the story sounds kinda interesting so I'm going to give it a shot" only to turn around once you start getting into it and think "what in the holy hell have I gotten myself into this time?!"


Those were the thoughts that ran through my head as I listened to the Iambik version of Paul Jessup's Open Your Eyes - a self described "space opera". This short, dense story begins with a woman named Ekhi  having sex with a star that suddenly goes supernova. Yes, that's right. She's having sex... with a star... you know, those little pinpricks of light in the sky at night?


She - now empregnated, floating naked and unconscious  - and her ship are found some time later by a group of space scavengers. The scavenger ship is piloted by a captain, suspended in a container of sticky goo that feeds her visuals  and sensations through small spider-like machines and sends out creepy dolls to do her bidding, and crewed by a very strange cast of characters indeed - including a woman with a half metal face and a violently jealous brute of Hulk-ish proportions. They, with Ekhi in tow, are driven deeper into space on a rescue mission of romantic proportions. 

The mission isn't really what matters, though. The book is driven by the ebb and flow of the characters aboard the ship, and the ways in which they find themselves pulling each other together and suddenly tearing one another apart. Throw in some "pirate ships" run by odd elephant-headed space creatures, a weird brain virus that forces our crew members to carry others' consciousnesses around in their heads, and the fact that our scavenger ship appears to have a heart and agenda of its own ... and you're going to be one completely confused reader, like me.  

The downfall of this novel, which sounds fun and unique in summary, is how much it attempts to do and in how few words it attempts to do it in. Time and time again, I found myself absolutely lost in the thick of things. Jessup, much like a tour guide who reminds its participants to keep up and remain close to one another at all times at the risk of being left behind, refuses to slow down and allow his readers to catch up to his lightening quick plot schemes and changes of scenery. There is no time to 'stop and smell the roses' because Jessup and his characters are off and running and will leave you standing there to suck in great lungfuls of their dust without a second thought. Jessup does not waste words on bringing his readers up to speed. You are either with him or not. You either "pick up what he's laying down" or you don't. 

I think it also didn't help that I was listening to this (1) on audio and (2) that the audio was narrated by Tadgh Hydes, who I admittedly dislike as a reader. So to be fair, with one strike against it, it was already doomed before I even began. 

So here's the rub, right? Since I didn't read it in print and had it read to me by a narrator I don't care for, I am not 100% comfortable recommending this book, which is why I gave it a very 'light' rating. I would certainly not recommend the audio version - not through any real fault of Iambik. The recording was clean, I just don't think the reader matched the story. 

Interested in checking it out in print and giving me your opinion on it? You can read the book in its entirety through the goodreads book page. How can you argue with that? A free read of a book that I just didn't dig, and a chance for you to yay or nay my review of it? Go on... do it.  What do you have to lose... 

and the IBBA Adult Fiction Winner is....

... no, not us!

But I am stoked to congratulate Susan of The Insatiable Booksluts, my book blog crush, and her blogmates for winning the Goodreads.com Independent Book Blogger Award!

~**Throw the confetti and streamers if you got'em!!**~

Not only do they win a cool award, which is awesome in and of itself, but Susan gets a free ride to NYC for BEA (air fare, hotel, BEA and BBC pass all included). I think she even accepts her award at the Book Blogger Convention. Holy moly right??

How did TNBBC do, you ask? Well, we made it into the finals - one of 60 finalists from a combination of 4 categories (one of 14 in the Adult Fiction category.. whoot whoot!) out the hundreds and hundreds that entered! That's nothing to sit in the corner and cry about, am I right?

And we never would have made it that far if it wasn't for everyone who went out and voted for us! So thank you! Truly. Your support means the world to me, and it let's me know we've got something here that people want more of. If I could reach through the computer screen, I would give you all a great big hug (greasy cheek be damned!) (inside joke... ). But since I can't, please except this post as a virtual one instead!!

You couldn't have gotten a better winner in the Adult Fiction category, to be honest. Susan and her team take blogging to the level I wish TNBBC could be at. Their energy, insight, incredible honesty, and healthy dose of cursing is something we should all strive to achieve when blogging. And did you know they aren't even a year old yet? Holy moly again!!

Show them the love by stopping by their blog or tweeting a big ole congrats to them!

Congrats to the winners of the other categories too:

Adult Non-Fiction: Sophisticated Dorkiness
Children's/Young Adult: The Nerdy Book Club
Publishing Industry News: Writer Beware Blogs!

Where Writers Write: Patrick Wensink

Welcome to TNBBC's brand new blog feature!

Where Writers Write is a weekly series that will feature a different author every Wednesday as they showcase their writing spaces using short form essay, photos, and/or video. As a lover of books and all of the hard work that goes into creating them, I thought it would be fun to see where some of TNBBC's favorite authors roll up their sleeves and make the magic happen. 

This is Patrick Wensink. Patrick wrote a collection of bizarro fiction called Sex Dungeon For Sale a few years ago. He just released a new novel and book-on-cassette titled Broken Piano For President (which I am really excited to read). He also makes his own Wentastic BBQ sauce, and from time to time might be found authoring greeting cards. He made his TNBBC debut back in 2010 when we interviewed him here. 


Today, he joins us again, to show off his extremely green and incredibly messy writing space!

Where Patrick Wensink Writes

Love the green walls and index cards

My office is a shithole.  Or so my wife tells me a couple times a week.  To me, it’s not so much a shithole as a meticulously managed chaos, all neatly packed within square footage smaller than most bathrooms. And for reasons that would require a stunningly large therapy bill, this cyclone of crap is the only place I can focus.

A quick survey of this room finds:

• A half-bag of confetti.
• Dozens of crumpled pastel Post-its (Featuring such stumble-drunk bits of wisdom as “There is a loop and I am out of it” and “Big Shadow Shits Little Shadow.”).
• A plastic tiger mask.
• Crumbs.
• A rumpled souvenir flag from Turks and Caicos.
• An On the Road with Charles Kuralt DVD.
• A seafoam green suitcase filled with an ancient 4-track recorder. Plus, dozens of tapes from back when I was in bands that I don’t have the heart to throw away.
• A fantasy football trophy I was supposed to pass on several years ago (My team, the Unicornholes, was something like the 2009 champions).
• Crumbs.
• Easily, 1000 CDs (I was a rock critic for many years). All of which I have listened to.
• Hundreds of books. Maybe half of which I’ve actually read. (Just stacked on my desk, we have Roget’s Thesaurus, JA Tyler’s A Shiny, Unused Heart, Tim Kinsella’s Karaoke Singer’s Guide to Self Defense, Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop and John Le Carre’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.)
• A broken DVD player.
• Some contraption called “The One-Armed Boozer,” which was some 1970s gag gift that converts a liquor bottle into a slot machine that doles out shots.
• More crumbs.
• An enormous cardboard poster of Sting encouraging literacy.

Sting promotes reading!

I purchased that ridiculous Sting poster at a Dayton, OH library sale in 2002. It is the centerpiece of the room. The poster features the man born Gordon Sumner, wearing some leftover costume from Game of Thrones, reading a book next to…a castle. Nice work, Sting. It’s not like reading doesn’t already have a pretentious enough reputation amongst America’s youth.

During my decade of Sting-ownership, especially the past six years, he’s helped me write my latest novel, Broken Piano for President (Lazy Fascist Press). “READ” it says in enormous blue letters above the Brit’s bleach blonde mane. The poster has hung in every pseudo-office I’ve ever scraped together since starting the book in 2006. From that crumbling duplex, to that house with no heating where I wore a winter coat while typing, to that walk-in closet I used in Portland, to my current shithole in Louisville, KY…Sting’s always looking over my shoulder, forcing Charles Dickens down my throat.

And Sting will stay if this cleaning lady’s nightmare of an office ever moves again. In some weird way, Sting is motivation. Not because his lacy cuffs and collar promise a whimsical world hidden within literature, but because he sucks so badly. (Remember, I was a rock critic. “Sting Sucks” is embossed on the back of our business cards. Union rules.)

I was born to do the exact opposite of what Sting asks. If he sings, “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You,” I lose faith faster and change the station.

When the king of new age prisses—a man who once titled an album The Dream of the Blue Turtles for God’s sake—urges me to donate to UNICEF, I hunt down a Filipino sweatshop to invest in.

meticulously managed chaos

Whenever the former Police frontman has told me to, “Read,” I’ve defied him. Instead, I force myself to “Write.”

Broken Piano went through about 25 revisions during its lifespan. And as the garbage piled higher in my office, the novel got better. I’d like to think if Sting and his smug face weren’t watching, I might have given up, or worse listened to his music. Instead, I penned a book I’m very proud of, concerning such un-Stingly topics as productive alcoholism, noise rock bands, hamburgers more addictive than meth and cosmonauts.

Sting, you might have just earned yourself a half-bag of confetti to say, “thank you.” Watch your mailbox.

Check back next week to see where Collin Kelley works HIS magic!

Review: Manual of Painting and Calligraphy

Read 4/21/12 - 5/5/12
3 Stars - Recommended to hard-core Saramago fans / Not recommended as an intro to this author
Pgs: 242
Publisher: Mariner / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Letter to an Author I Thought I Knew Better:

Jose. You horn dog, you! I didn't know you had it in you, man. And here I thought, after having read you for so many years, that you were this compassionate, emotional, political, yet purposefully sexless author. Well, your Manual of Painting and Calligraphy certainly showed me differently, didn't it?!

I mean, ok, I'm not completely blind to the fact that you liked sex, and had sex, but seeing it written out on a white page in all of its stark and egotistical glory was a bit jarring. Almost like walking in on your parents doing the horizontal mambo. You KNEW they did it, you just never wanted to PICTURE them doing it, and now here you are, standing in the doorway SEEING them do it, in total shock and feeling slightly sick to your stomach.

To be honest, I think I prefer the older, wiser, 'sex-as-a-form-of-power' version of you over the first time novelist, 'I'm-a-sexual-being' version of you. As you matured as a writer, your take on sexuality matured as well. I feel as though sex is at its most powerful when it's hiding beneath the surface of your stories and not displayed as an intimate part of the story.

I wonder what your influences were here. I mean, sure, painting and writing and the pains of trying to define your character as one or the other were the catalyst behind the story, since it appears your character - who refuses to allow himself to be named - is unable to carry the burden of being both a painter and a writer. I am also certain that the sexuality of your character is bred from the school of thought that painters are hyper sexual creatures. Perhaps that has something to do with the texture and slippy-ness of the paints, the slathering of oils against canvas, the passion the artist exudes over the object of his attention, the fact that painting aligns itself more in the physical world vs. writing which is incredibly more cerebral?

I see this internal struggle in your character - the definition of himself in relation to his choice of medium. As a writer he focuses more internally; he can express his demons smartly, exorcise them more precisely through the words that drip from the tip of his pen. As a painter he emits an arrogance, a pettiness, and displays this pent up aggression at his inability to paint perfectly - hence the two paintings of the same sitting at the start of the novel - in a more physically degrading way. It seems the painter in him is more about 'marking his territory' and 'sexual conquests' than the writer in him, which is about emotional connectivity. And so there is this almost imperceptible shift that begins to take place within him as he moves from painter to writer to painter again...

Dueling personalities. MoPaC certainly delivers those.

Your writing style managed to shock me as well. The Saramago I've loved all this time, the man who creates those uniquely beautiful run-on sentences that deliberately distracts his readers with parallel trains of thought, that Saramago isn't here yet. This Saramago, the Saramago of MoPaC, hasn't found his flow yet. He's still feeling it out, experimenting with it. I can see him in there, like the caterpillar that's about to emerge from its cocoon as a butterfly, flexing his wings and stretching against the paper-thin boundaries that currently constrain him. I can appreciate what I'm reading, but it's missing that something special that finds its way into your writing later on. You're still developing your "you-ness".

I'm writing to tell you to keep pushing, Jose. Move out of the sexual predator phase quickly, it's not becoming of you. It's not who you really are. I'll be waiting over here... don't rush on my account. Perfection takes time, and you'll get there. I promise.

Love, your biggest fan.

Audioreview: The Failure

Listened 4/2/12 - 4/12/12
3 Stars - Recommended to fans of funny bank-heists-gone-wrong / Not as an intro to audiobooks
Audio download (approx 3.5 hrs)
Publisher: Iambik Audio / Akashic Books


First, I feel I should apologize for allowing nearly a month to pass without posting my review of James Greer's The Failure. I've been trying to decide if it was the book or the narrator that left me feeling sort of 'meh' about the whole thing, and didn't want to review it until I was sure which way I was leaning.

You see, the narrator of the audio file, Tadhg Hydes, has one of the oddest reading voices I've ever heard. His thick accent and rushed, breathy way of speaking made it very difficult for me to follow the story. Nearly every sentence began with a big push of air and ended on a soft whisper.

If you can't imagine what I am describing, you need to listen to the sample of the audio. Go on, I'll wait. It's only 4 minutes long, so you'll be back in no time....


See what I mean?


I also struggled with his strange phrasing - his Irish blood has him dropping the h's from words (so 'thanks' becomes 'tanks' and 'thoughts' becomes 'toughts') and the breathy-ness I mentioned makes his r's sound like wannabe w's (so 'rolling around' sounds an awful lot like 'wolling awvound'). The r's aren't affected all of the time. Just some of the time. And I would often catch myself listening more for those lazy r's than to the words he was actually speaking. It was a mess. Trust me.

One thing I did like about Tadgh was the fact that he didn't change his voice to differentiate between male and female characters, like other narrators I've listened to. He read everyone pretty straight, which was refreshing, even if I didn't care much for his natural voice. And his less-than-animated reading made some of the humor more humorous, if you can believe that. It was almost as though his rushed, deadpan delivery kicked my funny bone into high gear.

Now on to the story. The Failure is about two best friends - Guy Forget (what a name!) and Billy - and their absolutely insane idea to rob a check cashing building in order for Guy to get the backing money he needs for a breakthrough internet advertising website called Pandemonium that some stranger named Sven is trying to sell him. He and Billy know next to nothing about robbing a building, but they have a guy on the inside and feel pretty confident they can pull it off. And of course, it wouldn't be worth reading if everything goes as planned.

The book begins with Guy in a coma, so you know right from the start that this robbery thing was a bust, but that won't deter you from reading on. As a matter of the fact, the book is told completely out of order, and spans a five month period of time, so the entire novel you're sitting there trying to decipher and reorder the events  to determine what exactly went down and who the hell foiled who.

James Greer seemed to have a good time playing around with the writing. It definitely shows through, even if I didn't appreciate Tadhg's interpretation of the text.  A good chunk of the book is just out and out conversation taking place between characters. It's witty and wacky and a little all over the place. Greer understands human awkwardness - awkwardness between strangers, awkwardness between friends -  and infuses Guy and Billy with the best and worst of it. If I had read this, rather than listened to it, I think I would have had a lot more fun with this one!

I mean, who the heck hasn't sat around and imagined robbing a bank or a jewelry store? Who hasn't wanted to make a cool 100k in the blink of an eye, by slipping on a ski mask and running into a store screaming "this is a stick-up, everyone down! Nobody moves, nobody gets hurt!" Ok, ok, so I admit, I've never fantasied about robbing a bank. But I have been driving behind an armored truck before and wished really hard that it would crash and explode, shooting hundreds of thousands of dollars into the sky so I could snatch them out of the air and run!!!

Listen, if you like books that mess with the sequence of events and share the end at the beginning, then you should check this one out. And if you like books that you know don't stand a chance of turning out well, and get a kick out of watching it all go wrong, check this one out. But I'm going to recommend sticking with the print version on this one, guys, and ask that you just trust me on this....

Where Writers Write: Andrez Bergen

Welcome to TNBBC's brand new blog feature!

Where Writers Write is a weekly series that will feature a different author every Wednesday as they showcase their writing spaces using short form essay, photos, and/or video. As a lover of books and all of the hard work that goes into creating them, I thought it would be fun to see where some of TNBBC's favorite authors roll up their sleeves and make the magic happen. 

To kick it all off, here's Andrez Bergen!! Andrez made his TNBBC debut back in January for our Indie Spotlight series, where he shared how his book Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat came to be. He is Senior Writer and Editor at Impact Magazine (UK) and Writer and Editor at Forces of Geek. His new novel, 100 Years of Vicissitude is coming soon.

Where Andrez Bergen Writes

It's so clean and crisp

You're looking at the sum total of my current working space, a square metre or so of territory that I grudgingly share with my wife Yoko and, occasionally, with my six-year-old daughter Cocoa. I've been using it since about 2006, and the limited space does have its benefits - sometimes I feel like I'm a cramped X-Wing pilot, dodging the wide world and distractions around me. The kitchenette is just behind (to my left) and the TV and stereo are just to my right. The three of us share an apartment that is thirty-three square metres in size, so the place does get rowdy and it's a little... er... little.

Just a little space of his own

Around the working space (or cubby hole, more like it), I have pictures of Cocoa as a baby, and another photo of Yoko and my best friend in Australia, Briony. There's a Tony Tony Chopper mascot (from 'One Piece'), a small book case (with CDs, DVDs, paperwork, dusty old manuscripts, and manga in it), and a poster from one of the hilarious old '70s Japanese Bōsōzoku biker romps - along with Christmas lights that we haven't removed since December.

Sneak peek at the new book cover

You'll usually find me here after 4:00 a.m. most mornings now, pottering on stuff, writing and the music I do as Little Nobody - with a couple of mugs of very strong black coffee to nurse me through the wee hours! Clothes-wise, I'll wear whatever's comfy. When you're sitting for hours on a hard Fritz Hansen Series 7 chair (my wife's choice), you need good padding. Sadly, no rituals are performed here. There's no space to swing a black cat.

Check back next week to see where Patrick Wensink works HIS magic!!

NYC through the eyes of a book-shopper

This past Thursday, Tara (of Booksexyreview) and I found ourselves in NYC for the PEN Festival. With plenty of time to kill before the first panel, Tara took me on a tour of New York City's most popular bookshops. (Yes, yes, I know... I've been to the city more times than I can count, but I've never popped into a New York City bookshop before. Go on and gasp, I know you want to!)

McNally Jackson

The first threshold we crossed was McNally Jackson's. Can I just tell you how lovely the window displays were? There was one designed for PEN, with books suspended from the ceiling, dangling precariously every which way...

Once inside, I was drawn immediately to the tables at the front of the store. *oooh lookit all the pretty new books* They shone like lovely little jewels. I wanted to grab every single one of them and shove them into my pockets. Instead, I whipped out my Droid and added a ton of them to my Goodreads to-buy list.

With some effort, I pulled myself away from the front of the store and headed toward the back. Now, McNally's looks deceivingly like every other bookshop in my neck of the woods with one major exception - their quirky way of shelving their novels. I was in the mood for a little Saramago or Duncan and struggled to find them initially, only to discover that they shelve their books by the location of the story. So Saramago, since most of his novels take place in Portugal, can be found on the Italy, Spain, Portugal shelf.

Though extremely tricky, it's actually a pretty clever way of shelving books, dontcha think? It certainly forces the hardcore author-fan to use their brain, doesn't it? *what country was that darn novel set in again? c'mon brain, think! think!*  While fun for browsing, I suppose the store must hire some of the most patient and helpful associates in all of Manhattan; I can only imagine how many times a day confused customers must approach the desk questioning the whereabouts of a specific novel!

**** 4 stars for creative shelving and cool titles on their main tables!!

St. Mark's

Second on the must-hit list was St. Mark's. The second I walked in the door, I was struck by two things. The silence. And the floor layout. You could hear a pin drop, it was so quiet. It felt so strange. But I quickly got over the lack of noise when I started to browse their side-facing front shelves. 

Of all the bookstores I've ever been to (in NYC or otherwise), St. Mark's appears to carry more of "my kind" of books. On their hardcover fiction shelf, I oooh'd and aaah'd over almost ever novel I saw. No fluffy stuff showing their spines on those shelves, no sirree. 

In search of the paperback fiction, I followed the back wall and stumbled across the shelf you see pictured here. It's a rack containing self published novels and chapbooks, held under consignment. *hello sweetheart.* The moment I saw that rack, this bookshop won my heart. Sadly, as I browsed the rack, I found that most of what was there was not to my taste and, those that were, were waaaay overpriced. But that doesn't lessen the coolness factor one bit! 

Also, compared to the other book stores we visited, it felt a heck of a lot more modern and indie. Perhaps the uneasy silence I noticed when I first walked in was more of an revered awe? This is a bookshop I plan on visiting again.. and again.. and again.

***** 5 stars for awesome indie vibes and that incredible self-publishing rack!

Housing Works 

Onto the Housing Works we go... non-profit bookshop and cafe that offers supportive care to the homeless and those suffering from HIV/AIDS. 

This bookshop definitely has that warehouse feel to it - from its super high ceilings right down to the exposed structural columns and that wonderfully unmistakable old book smell.  Everything you see here has been donated, so the collections are quite eclectic. Like any other used book store, they have great sales (there was one for 30% off everything this weekend) and you never know what gems you might find. 

I hung out on the lower level, where all the fiction was, while Tara browsed the non-fiction upstairs. As I wandered around, I found a small bookshelf off near a door to the back room where they stock the arcs and galleys. Though I didn't find anything I would read, I thought it was cool that they had a special spot for those. 

The overall atmosphere was a welcoming one. There's plenty of room to wander and browsing is highly encouraged. This is the type of bookstore you want to take your time in, since you never know what you'll stumble upon, and you can feel good making a purchase, knowing that your money will be put towards a good cause. 

*** 3 Stars for the welcoming, book sale / warehouse feel and wonderful old book smell.

The Strand

Our last bookstore, and for good reason, was The Strand. 18 miles of books, and they ain't kidding! Probably my least favorite when it comes to design and layout, this beast of a bookstore has some amazing deals on some pretty cool fiction. 

I saw an old Two Dollar Radio title that I'm currently experiencing some guilt over - I restrained myself and didn't buy it when every ounce of my being was screaming that I should. Downstairs, in their audiobook displays, I tossed and turned over copies of Lamb and Threats (and ended up getting neither, but I did purchase a print copy of Threats, so....). Man it sucks when you try to be careful with your cash! 

Floor upon floor and row upon row and shelves upon shelves, The Strand felt extremely maze-like and claustrophobic. Tara warned me about the sensory overload, but I didn't really know what to expect until we got there. It's like the anti-Housing Works - where the Housing Works makes you feel ok about browsing and lingering, The Strand makes you feel anxious and rushed. So many people and so little space, but so many floors and such incredibly tall bookshelves. *i'm feeling a little panicky just thinking about it.* I totally get why, I mean, it's the best known bookshop in the city! 

*** 3 Stars for the great selections and prices that counteract the anxious crowded feeling.

By the time Tara and I left The Strand, we were bookshopped out. We each had our little bag of books because no matter how good we want to be, we just don't know how to say no to ALL of the books. 

God, there is nothing better than walking the city streets with an ex-resident when she's as much into books as you are! Some people like to bar-hop... We love to get our bookshop-hop on! So what about you? Have you been to one, or more, of these bookshops? Which are your favorites? Did I miss one that you absolutely adore? 

Book Giveaway: Boleto

Since July 2010, TNBBC has been bringing authors and readers together every month to get behind the book! This unique experience wouldn't be possible without the generous donations of the authors and publishers involved. 

TNBBC and Graywolf Press are at it again!

We are partnering up to bring you next month's Author/Reader Discussion.

In June, we will be featuring Alyson Hagy and her upcoming release

Boleto

In order to stimulate discussion, 

Graywolf Press is offering 10 copies, domestically

(sorry, international folks!)

Here's the Goodreads description:

An unforgettable story of men and horses, the American West, and the dream of a ticket out.

Will Testerman is a young Wyoming horse trainer determined to make something of himself. Money is tight at the family ranch, where he's living again after a disastrous end to his job on the Texas show-horse circuit. He sees his chance with a beautiful quarter horse, a filly that might earn him a reputation, and spends his savings to buy her. Armed with stories and the confidence of youth, he devotes himself to her training -- first, in the familiar barns and corrals of home, then on a guest ranch in the rugged Absaroka mountains, and, in the final trial, on the glittering, treacherous polo fields of southern California.

With Boleto, Alyson Hagy delivers a masterfully told, exquisitely observed novel about our intimate relationships with animals and money, against the backdrop of a new West that is changing forever.

This giveaway HAS BEEN EXTENDED and will run through May 12th.

Winners will be notified here and via email on May 13th.

Here's how to enter:

1 - Leave a comment stating why you would like to win a copy.

2 - State that you agree to participate in the group read book discussion that will run from June 15th through the end of the month. Alyson Hagy has agreed to participate in the discussion and will be available to answer any questions you may have for her. 

 *If you are chosen as a winner, by accepting the copy you are agreeing to read the book and join the group discussion at TNBBC on Goodreads (the thread for the discussion will be emailed to you before the discussion begins). 

 3 - You must leave me a way to contact you (email is preferred). AND you must be a resident of the US!!!!

Good luck!

Is Finding New Content the Issue...

...or is it finding the time?

I was sitting here this morning, scrolling through the last few weeks of posts on my blog, and I noticed that... short of writing reviews... I've been slacking off on actual content.

Which is quite funny, really, because Tara from booksexyreview and I have been discussing this exact topic quite a bit over the last month or so.

What stimulated all the talk? Well, to be honest, it was the birth of The Reading Ape's Book Blog UnCon (which is taking place on the same Monday as BEA's Book Blogger Con) and its call to bloggers for prospective sessions that got the conversation started. Our slightly obsessive love and passion for building content and developing blog-worthy ideas has kept the discussion-ball a'rollin'.

See, for me, content ideas always come fast and furious. I find I'm never short of cool new series to kick off. But the series I envision typically rely almost entirely on content from publishers and authors. Why? Well, partly because I'm incredibly fascinated with what goes on behind-the-books. So I develop ways in which I can gather information from people in those fields and showcase it here on the blog. But I also do it because I really don't have the time to sit and write out my own content. I'm sure my hard core followers have noticed this habit of mine by now, yes?

Over the years, I hope you'll agree that I've had some really fun series kicking around the blog: "What I Want to Know" where bloggers, authors, and publishers were questioned on a different topic each week; the Indie Spotlights where publishers and bloggers are thrown under the stage lights and given carte blanche to share whatever they wish with TNBBCer's; Indie Book Buzz's like this one, where publishers dish on the upcoming books they are most excited to publish... among many others.

The Insatiable Booksluts is a great example of a blog that develops timely, intriguing, and engaging self-content. They use what they see and hear in the news, on Twitter, and in similar social media sites to snag content and then go on lovely rage-rants that make my heart swoon and my brain hurt! These are the types of blog posts I wish I had the time and energy to write, but lo! I do not.

Some bloggers seem to rely heavily on meme's to generate new weekly content. For my own personal reasons, I steer clear of meme's. However, I can see their appeal - without a doubt, meme's are excellent community builders.

Others do nothing more than review books.

The great thing about all of this? Content is content. It doesn't really matter what it is -reviews, interviews, vlogs, meme's, series - what matters more is where you're getting it from and why you choose it.

So, Tara and I are proposing an Uncon group session focusing on open discussion about just that:

- Blogger/Publisher relationship: who decides what is buzz-worthy?
- Deciding what to review
- Beyond the "Review": finding and developing new content.

Hopefully you find this subject matter as intriguing as we do!!