Friday Stuff

As usual, I'm using this free Friday to catch up on things, and this morning I took the time for a quick turn through the blogosphere ... something I obviously haven't done in quite a while, because I missed this little tidbit somewhere along the way: My buds over at Killer Year have decided to shut down the KY blog. Sniff. I understand, though - they've all moved on, the Class of 2007 has graduated, with all their debut novels out and some even with their second ones recently released or about to be. They all blog or exist on the web in some other capacity - and the Killer Year website itself remains intact. It's just time for them to leave the nest, so to speak. The fledglings are all grown up and flying on their own. And fly they have - critical acclaim, awards left, right and center ... I hope you've had the chance to read the fabulous debut novels from all the Killer Year bunch, and in case you haven't, here's a rundown of what they are, with links to their websites so you can see what they're doing now:

J.T. Ellison - All the Pretty Girls (jtellison.com)
Brett Battles - The Cleaner (brettbattles.com)
Jason Pinter - The Mark (jasonpinter.com)
Toni McGee Causey - Bobbie Faye's Very (very, very, very) Bad Day (tonimcgeecausey.com)
Gregg Olsen - A Wicked Snow (greggolsen.com)
Dave White - When One Man Dies (jacksondonne.blogspot.com)
Patry Francis - The Liar's Diary (patryfrancis.com)
Marcus Sakey - The Blade Itself (marcussakey.com)
Sean Chercover - Big City, Bad Blood (seanchercover.com)
Bill Cameron - Lost Dog (billcameronmysteries.com)
Derek Nikitas - Pyres (dereknikitas.com)
Marc Lecard - Vinnie's Head (marclecard.com)
Robert Gregory Browne - Kiss Her Goodbye (robertgregorybrowne.com)

Confession. I'm not doing so hot at getting caught up with my reading on this terrific list. I have roughly half of them under my belt, with two more in the TBR (to be read) stack. The rest are on the TBP (to be purchased) list. You know that old saying, "When I get a little money, I buy books - if any is left, I buy food and clothes"? (Erasmus said that - he was a Dutch humanist and theologian - I had to look that up.) If it were just me, I'd live by that maxim. Unfortunately, the WGH, The Tall One, The Boy and Little Bit like to eat and not go naked more than I do, so the budget has to allow for that. At any rate, I'm working on it. It has been my honor and privilege to be on the sidelines with this class - and that term can be applied in a lot of different ways when it comes to this group - and I will continue to follow their careers and new releases, and try to get those books on the TBP list as quickly as possible. (To that end, I'm adding another special section to the menu - so if you're interested in seeing what's going on with some of my favorite writers all you have to do is click a few links.)

Speaking of Kiss Her Goodbye, here's another bit I learned from my wanderings this morning - KHG has just been released in paperback! This is one of the half I have read, and it's really good - The Tall One read it too and gave it her stamp of approval - as a matter of fact, I'm doing a review on it for RTE so stay tuned for that link.

What else did I find on my journey through cyberspace this morning? Glad you asked, let's see ... oh, my Wonder Twin is off playing in The Big Apple, but had the presence of mind to prep this bit of musing over at Murderati. I commented that I might steal her idea sometime and take inventory of what's on the desk in the ol' JBTAuthor study. At the moment it's kind of scary, but at least there's not a cat on it (which is actually a tad unusual).

I have found a kindred spirit in Regina Harvey, a cohort of our pal Tasha Alexander at The Good Girls Kill for Money Club - she recently gave up caffeine, as I was forc-- ... er, encouraged to do, and she blogs about her love-hate relationship with caffeine. I hear you, sister.

Amongst the bazillion emails I get every day (and no, I am not exaggerating) is a weekly update on the movies that are being released over the coming weekend. Iron Man, starring the delicious Robert Downey, Jr., comes out today, and Premiere.com calls it "a Marvel Comics superhero movie that doesn't suck." What a concept. Read Glenn Kenny's review for more. Personally, I think the flick looks kinda cool.

Now to life in general - tomorrow is prom, of course, but the WGH has given me a reprieve from having to run to the mall to pick up The Boy's tux this morning - he's going to take him this afternoon. We were all a bit concerned about picking it up cold and not having the chance to make sure everything fits the way it's supposed to. With what the lovely but rather frazzled saleslady had to go through to punch in the order, I have this fear that my son is going to put on the jacket and have the ends of the sleeves come up to his elbows. Yooou raaaang? Oy. But the WGH will take care of it. He's good at that sort of thing. And I did remember to order the flowers, so we're set. And we'll do pictures, of course.

Speaking of pictures, I can't remember whether I promised a few of the new landscaping, but I'll give you a sampling anyway.

Here are a couple of the 'before' disaster:





And here are the after shots of the same areas:





Nice, huh? We came home last night and found the landscaper's sign in our front yard - finally. I told him he should've put it in when they finished the job, but he says he doesn't like to do that unless he's taking care of the whole yard. Which he isn't, but what he accomplished is good enough for me. I'm just pickled tink.

Announcements. It turns out that BABY SHARK isn't the only book I'm going to have the privilege of giving away - but don't forget you only have another week to get registered for the HIGH PLAINS REDEMPTION drawing if you haven't signed up already. So what are you waiting for? Send me an email now - and be sure to include your full name. A lot of you have included your address too, and that's fine - optimism, I like that in a reader. ;) As soon as the Baby Shark drawing is over I'll announce the details of the next one, and we'll be having the author as our special guest in the Lunch Room in the very near future as well, so stay tuned!

Enjoy your Friday - we have some rain moving in, but it'll be good for the flowers. Read a book and do something good for you today.

=) JB

"Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it's at the end of your arm, as you get older, remember you have another hand: The first is to help yourself, the second is to help others."
-- Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) American actor