New Thriller Releases

It’s always fun to read books by friends, even more so when they’re YAs. I confess, I’m a YA addict. Maybe because I’m still a teen at heart. Or maybe I love them because YAs are usually better written, more tightly plotted, and faster paced than adult books. I prefer stories that move along rather than meander along. I’m big on action and characters, not too interested in getting bogged down with description and setting.

So I found Jill Williamson’s YA thriller, The New Recruit, a rapid rollercoaster ride that met all my requirements.

Here’s the book blurb:

Forced to choose between military school and a Christian spy organization, skeptic Spencer Garmond signs on with the Bible geeks. But before he even boards the plane for Moscow, Spencer realizes this is no Bible club.

These guys mean business.

Stumbling onto a case involving a gang of homeless boys, a chilling tattoo, and the always beautiful Anya Vseveloda, Spencer struggles to find the faith needed to save the Mission League from enemy infiltration.

For more about the series, go to the Mission League. Jill is also offering an undercover scavenger hunt with some terrific prizes.

The book trailer:

This isn’t the only book of Jill’s that I’ve enjoyed. She has an award-winning fantasy/speculative fiction trilogy, The Blood of Kings, and the recent YA sci-fi release, Replication. Coming  in 2013 is the first of a dystopian YA trilogy, Captives.

And this must be thriller release month for my friends, because one of my CPs, Don Helin, just released Devil’s Den (Headline Books), a fast-moving adult suspense that moves from a ghostly disappearance on the Gettysburg battlefield to a plot involving an Irish mob. The hero, with his post traumatic stress syndrome, becomes the prime suspect in a ghost-related crime.

What Are You Doing to Help Mother Earth?

I thought I’d devote some time this week to promoting a fellow author I admire not only for her writing, but also for her commitment to the environment. Her latest book, Stakeout, was a finalist for the Green Earth Award this year.

Bonnie J. Doerr not only writes green, she lives green. Her home is a log cabin set in a patch of woods in North Carolina. Bonnie has carved out a space for herself to garden. You can see some of her lovely landscaping in this picture, but to truly appreciate what she’s done, you need to look at the before and after pictures of her garden space (see below). It’s difficult to believe that these pictures are of the same place. Bonnie’s hard work and green thumb are evident. In the first picture, she’s hard at work planting her garden.Then in the next picture, here’s how her garden grows. Amazing! Bonnie brings the same dedication and passion to her writing and to her environmental activism. So I asked her to write a blog post in honor of Earth Day.

By Bonnie J. Doerr

During Earth Week I’m reminded more than ever about why my writing took off in the direction it did. A deep appreciation of nature and the need to be immersed in the outdoors on a regular basis has defined my mental health for as long as I remember. I’ve been astounded to learn how many people are missing the gene that connects them to nature. In recent years my astonishment has turned into alarm. This dissociation from nature, I believe, is in many ways at the core of our environmental crisis.

Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods (Algonquin, 2005), defines this as Nature Deficit Disorder. As a result of a lifetime indoors, children have limited respect for their immediate natural surroundings. According to Louv, “An increasing pace in the last three decades, approximately, of a rapid disengagement between children and direct experiences in nature… has profound implications, not only for the health of future generations but for the health of the Earth itself.”

Watch the wonder and delight on a young child’s face when first observing a nest of eggs hatching, a tadpole growing into a frog, or a bean sprouting and reaching for the sky, and you know how much joy children naturally find in nature. We are wired to appreciate nature’s gifts. To nurture that appreciation, before it is lost to modern day society, can be soul saving.

Without first having experienced something, how can we come to care for it? So it seems tragically understandable that a lack of association with the natural environment leads to ecological abuse, or at the very least, taking our natural environment for granted.

I began to write poetry first, then short stories. But by the time I drafted my first novel, the die was cast. Each piece of writing had brought me closer and closer to natural settings, to crimes against the environment, and finally to where I am now—writing ecological mystery/adventures. I realize not every child can visit a wilderness, or explore a National Refuge, but every child can feel like they have when immersed in my novels. Teens can learn how much fun it is to be outdoors, how sensitive the environment is, and how they can set a good example for the adults in their world. They can virtually join other teens as they work to improve the Earth and save its creatures. It’s one small thing I can do to inspire environmental stewardship.

This month the Girl Scouts of USA are featuring Bonnie at their site. You can learn more about Bonnie and her novels on her website and by reading a recent interview. You can also see more about Bonnie’s work on her videos, which are posted at the Leap Books blog. And even better, Bonnie’s books are on sale the rest of this month for 40% off the paperbacks: Stakeout is only $7.79 and Island Sting is only $7.19.

Here’s one video of Bonnie’s work to whet your appetite:

Free and Bargain E-books

Pass it on… Some great bargains for lovers of YA books are available this month:

FREE, yep, that’s right, FREE for the next few days (for Amazon prime members). It will be only 99 cents from April 1 to May 1:

Check out Island Sting at Amazon.

Anthology by authors Maria V. Snyder, Candace Havens, Shannon Delany, Jill Williamson, Judith Graves, Kitty Keswick, Dawn Dalton, Linda Joy Singleton, and others...

Spirited available on Amazon for 99 cents!! It has augmented reality by Karl Gee.

Under My Skin regularly $4.99, available for 99 cents on Amazon for a limited time.

And for adults, check out Dancing with the Devil, by Cate Masters, FREE on Amazon for a limited time. For other great bargains, check out the Leap Books site on April 1, 2012, for some great bargains.

And for a blog about FREE and BARGAIN BOOKS, see Downtown YA.

Can You Resist a Free Book?

I don’t know about you, but I can never resist a free book, even if it’s a genre I don’t normally read. So I jumped at the chance to get this Free e-book and thought I’d share the link in case you wanted a copy too:

Linda Joy Singleton has a FREE YA paranormal romance  Dead Girl Walking for the Nook and Kindle available at Amazon.

Writing the Mystery

Authors Bonnie J. Doerr, Erica Spindler, and John Hart will be appearing on a panel on Writing the Mystery at Bookmarks 2010 in Winston-Salem, NC. 11 a.m. on September 11, 2010:

Crime Doesn’t Pay, Or Does It?

So as I head off to Killer Nashville, where a horde of potential killers and criminals gather–or should I say writers who write about such things (let’s hope it’s all done vicariously)–I’m looking forward to meeting like-minded individuals.

I wonder if those of us who read and write mysteries do so to get rid of, or to fuel, our aggressive and antisocial tendencies. Where else can you find a better, law-abiding way to torture your enemies or an irritating spouse than in the pages of a book? Ah, the imagination runs wild.

Your boss fires you? You’ll make him pay. He’ll become a victim in your next crime novel. Wife driving you crazy? You can plot lots of great ways to do away with her. Lots of possibilities there to work out your negative feelings and revenge is sweet. It’s even sweeter if you make a profit on it. And this is one time that crime definitely DOES PAY.

Killer Nashville

Well, I’ll soon be off to Killer Nashville, the great crime writing conference. Looking for tips on how to bump off pesky characters, pull off a heist, or escape a jail sentence? You’ve come to the right place. Where else could you sit down to dinner with tablemates who are all interested in discussing the best way to poison people so it’s undectable. Sort of makes me a bit paranoid. I find myself curling my arm around my plate to protect my food, but who knows if that would help. One of these would-be writers might have experimented with their poisons in the kitchen.

So what turns people crazy enough to write about sneaky ways to kill other human beings, or to read these books by the dozens? Not sure I want to delve into the psychology behind it, but I once heard that crime writers are often perfectionists who love to solve puzzles. Perfectionists do tend to get themselves all worked up over small details & threaten to kill people who mess up their orderly lives. So I’d suggest you steer clear of perfectionists when you’re choosing a spouse or a friend. You never know when they might knife you in the back.

Here’s a schedule if you’re interested in attending. Keynote speaker is Jeffery Deaver; find out more about him on his website. Agent and editor pitch sessions are included in the registration price. Conference runs from Thursday evening, August 19, to Sunday afternoon, August 22, 2010. Hope to see you there.

YALSA Popular Paperbacks for YAs

YALSA has announced the finalists for their 2011 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults lists. YALSA is the Young Adult Library Service Association, a division of ALA (American Library Services).

And Island Sting (Leap Books) by Bonnie J. Doerr is on their Crime Scene list. Way to go, Bonnie!! It’s nice to see a fellow member of the Piedmont Plotters making it big.

Lots of great titles have made the list. Here’s the list of contenders for the Crime Scene category:

Abrahams, Peter. Down the Rabbit Hole: An Echo Falls Mystery

Arnold, Tedd. Rat Life

Blundell, Judy. What I Saw and How I Lied

Cormier, Robert. Tenderness

Cusick, Richie Tankersley. Walk of the Spirits

Doerr, Bonnie J. Island Sting

Doctorow, Cory. Little Brother

Donnelly, Jennifer. A Northern Light

Ferguson, Alane. The Christopher Killer: A Forensic Mystery

Gerber, Linda. Death by Bikini

Gerber, Linda C. Death by Latte

Giles, Gail. Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters

Gordon, Roderick and Williams, Brian. Tunnels

Kate, Lauren. The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove

McClintock, Norah. Dooley Takes the Fall

McNamee, Graham. Acceleration

Olin, Sean. Killing Britney

Parker, Robert B. The Boxer and the Spy

Perez, Marlene. Dead is the New Black

Price, Charlie. Dead Connection

Shepard, Sara. Pretty Little Liars

Sorrells, Walter. First Shot

Stolarz, Laurie Faria. Project 17

Vande Velde, Vivian. Never Trust a Dead Man

Weingarten, Lynn. Wherever Nina Lies

Werlin, Nancy. Killer’s Cousin

Urasawa, Naoki. Naoki Urasawa’s Monster

If you love to read, check out all their other lists of Popular Paperbacks:

2011 Themes

Crime Scene: May cause anxiety. . . don’t read at home alone.

What’s Cooking? Tasty reads to fill your belly and warm your soul.

What If…: It’s the end of the world as we know it.

Zombies, Werewolves, and Things with Wings: Because vampires suck!

Have any favorites on these lists?? Or know of books you think should be on the list?

Live in California?

If you’re anywhere near Turlock, CA, this weekend, be sure to stop by the Borders in Turlock to meet paranormal author Kitty Keswick:

A New Adventure

Ahoy, mateys! I’m sailing off to the Seven Seas. Shiver me timbers, pirates are my next writing gig.

Soon I’ll be buried in primary source materials, digging for thrilling tales of skullduggery and intrigue, Jolly Rogers and dungeons, raiding and looting, swashbuckling and sword fighting, sloops and pieces of eight…

Can’t wait!!

Among all these tales of derring do and digging for treasure, who knows what I’ll find…