Sunday, February 27, 2022

An Edgar Could in the Works for Erin Flanagan's Deer Season

Deer Season, the debut novel by Erin Flanagan, my colleague over in the English department, has been nominated for an Edgar!

The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, presented by the Mystery Writers of America, celebrate the best mystery fiction, nonfiction and television published or produced each year. Deer Season was one of five nominees for the category Best First Novel by an American Author.

Here's a handy list of Edgar winners in all categories for the past decade.

You can order Deer Season from the publisher, University of Nebraska Press, or wherever books are sold.

Saturday, February 26, 2022

A Little Reminder to Pre-order

It's time to do the obligatory reminder that pre-ordering books (ordering your copy in advance of publication) is very helpful to the author, the publisher, and to bookstores. Pre-orders show that readers are eager to get that book, and if you've ever wondered how something can be a bestseller on its first day in print, pre-orders are how that happens! Lots of people pre-ordered those bestsellers (whether they were individual people or bookstores ordering to stock shelves).

And you, of course, can help In Search of the Magic Theater by pre-ordering. You can order via anyplace that sells books, but I especially recommend ordering direct from the publisher. So if you haven't yet ordered your copy of In Search of the the Magic Theater, you can get it in paperback or special edition hardcover from the Regal House website! There is also an e-book edition.
Why, the rather staid young cellist Sarah wonders, should her aunt rent their spare room to the perhaps unstable Kari Zilke? Like the nephew in Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf, Sarah finds herself taking an unexpected interest in the lodger, but she is unable to stop at providing a mere introduction to Kari’s narrative of mid-life crisis and self-discovery, and develops her own more troubled tale of personal angst and growth, entwined with the account Kari herself purportedly left behind. Generational tensions, artistic collaborations, and even a romance steeped in Greek myth follow as Kari and Sarah pursue their very different creative paths in theater and music. And while Kari seems to blossom, Sarah must grapple with the question of what the role of mothers, fathers, aunts, mentors, and male collaborators should be in her life as a young musician.

Friday, February 25, 2022

In Sadness for Ukraine

On February 24th, Russian forces invaded Ukraine. Observers worldwide hope for a speedy end to this war, but are not optimistic. My heart goes out to the people of Ukraine, and to those of Ukrainian heritage elsewhere in the world, and also to the many people in Russia who oppose their government's unjustified action.

Thursday, February 24, 2022

One Little Word

Audra McElyea's One Little Word is a 2022 Debut suspense thriller launching February 22nd. Madeleine Barton, a recently widowed single mother, strugges to make ends meet as a freelance reporter and hopes that covering the mysterious death of a bestselling local author could be the career-launching story of her dreams. Of course, this could also be a dangerous undertaking!

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Beneath the Stairs

Canadian playwright Jennifer Fawcett's 2022 Debut novel Beneath the Stairs takes its characters from their teenaged foray into an abandoned house where murder happened to an adulthood in which one returns to the same house to attempt suicide.

This tale has been compared to Shirley Jackson's classic The Haunting of Hill House; it'll be interesting to see if we agree.

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

The Hitman's Daughter

The Hitman's Daughter, a 2022 Debut by Carolyne Topdjian, is a gothic mystery set in a haunted chateau on New Year's Eve. Guests are trapped there by a massive blizzard, and then there's a murder...

If you enjoy supernatural mysteries, this could be just the thing to read on a chilly winter's night!

Monday, February 21, 2022

Divine Vintage

Divine Vintage, a 2022 Debut by Sandra L. Young, launches February 21st. This genre-melding paranormal mystery and romance takes the owner of a vintage clothing boutique into unexpected territory investigating a 1913 murder. Bonus: if you're on Instagram, you can find the author modeling clothing from her own vintage collection to go with write-ups on fellow 2022 debut novels!

Saturday, February 19, 2022

Away to Stay

Away to Stay, by Mary Kuryla, launches February 18th from Regal House.

From the Regal House website:

Weary of rundown motels and long nights sleeping in her mother’s car, Olya wants nothing more than a home. It seems she might finally find one with Jack, her mother’s cousin who lives in a tumbledown ranch in Southern California’s Inland Empire. But safety is not all that it seems. Away to Stay burns with the urgency of its young narrator who bears witness to a world of desperate people flailing inside a broken system. Olya’s mother Irina is a Russian émigré and self-serving liar, obsessed with becoming a prima ballerina and stalking Mikhail Baryshnikov. Cousin Jack is haunted by demons from the Afghanistan war—and the oft-absent Irina. Jack turns his obsession onto his untrainable dog named Bird that he kidnapped from the Riverside Police Department. To Olya, Bird is Job on four legs. Away to Stay is an off-beat and probing exploration of the precarity of shelter and home in the life of an immigrant and American working family.

Friday, February 18, 2022

The Almond in the Apricot

Sara Goudarzi's magical realist novel The Almond in the Apricot, a 2022 debut, launched February 14. Emma, an engineer leading a happy life, suddenly finds herself having nightmares that threaten to disrupt the space-time continuum –– nightmares of hiding from bombs, in which she is someone named Lily. I'm looking forward to reading this one!

Thursday, February 17, 2022

Breathless

Breathless, a 2022 debut thriller by Amy McCulloch, debuts on February 17 and features a set of deaths high on one of the world's tallest mountains, Mt. Manaslu in Nepal. Will journalist Cecily Wong, the least experienced climber in the group, figure out who is killing the climbers before the mountain defeats all of them? (By the way, in 2019 the author became the youngest Canadian woman to scale this peak!)

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Chloe Cates Is Missing

Chloe Cates Is Missing, launching February 15, is a 2022 debut thriller by Mandy McHugh. The 13-year-old star of a hit YouTube series vanishes, and her dysfunctional family is desperate to get her back!

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Second Star to the Left

Megan Van Dyke's Second Star to the Left is a 2022 fantasy debut that plays with characters from J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan in some new and surprising ways. It launches February 15.

Saturday, February 12, 2022

My Novel Appears on a "Most Anticipated" List!

It's not easy publicizing a debut novel when your publisher is smaller and doesn't have the deep pockets and clout of a major house. It's true that no matter who the publisher is, these days the author tends to have to shoulder a lot of the publicity burden, but yes, there's more work to it for those of us without a big publicity department behind us. And so every little bit of support from others, whether it's individuals, groups, or media, means a lot. In fact, I was just reading a piece in the New York Times that points out that talent is never enough--even the Beatles needed specific moments of support early in their career. Without key people and key fans, they wouldn't have gotten a recording deal or risen on the charts.

And so, I'm very thankful to the good people at Film-14.com, who noticed In Search of the Magic Theater (possibly on one of the Goodreads 2022 Debut lists) and decided that it was a book they are particularly looking forward to reading. They've chosen books for a wide range of reading tastes, and included authors of quite a few different ethnicities and backgrounds, so it's an honor to find myself and some other authors of my acquaintance on their list.

Friday, February 11, 2022

Save the Village

Michele Herman's Save the Village launches February 11th from Regal House.

From the Regal House website:

Life hasn’t turned out quite the way Becca Cammeyer of Greenwich Village – once voted most likely to land on Broadway or in jail for a good cause – had planned. Her only child has moved to another continent, she’s still living in a fifth-floor walkup with her aging dog, still single, still nearly broke, still not on speaking terms with her best friend or mother, and still hearing the ghost of her long-dead father whispering in her ear. But she’s a semi-famous tour guide, and on a perfect October evening, Becca almost believes all is well with her world as she helps a group of South Carolinian tourists fall in love with her beloved Village. The tour concludes, and Becca sends the women on their way, unaware that her world is about to be upended. In the aftermath of a tragedy, Becca must come to terms with her own paralysis, her survivor’s guilt, and the messiness of her life. She embarks on wildly improbable reconciliations and new relationships. At once a love story about Greenwich Village and a reflection on a changing world, Save the Village reveals how when a community comes together, everyone wins.

Thursday, February 10, 2022

No Stone Unturned

No Stone Unturned, by M. S. Peke, is a 2022 debut mystery set in Yellowstone featuring a newly divorced RVer and her rescue dog. I'd say this will appeal to many in the growing Girl Camper community!

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

A Dash of Death

Michelle Hillen Klump's 2022 Debut A Dash of Death is a cozy mystery featuring a Houston reporter-turned-mixologist who becomes a murder suspect when a member of the local historical homes council is poisoned at a meeting where her bitters were served.

As a frequent mystery reader and inhabitant of a Victorian in a historic district, I'm looking forward to learning who actually spiked the drink!

Monday, February 7, 2022

Quilt City Murders

Quilt City Murders, by Bruce Leonard, is a 2022 cozy mystery debut with a February 7th launch. Murdered quilters start turning up around Paducah, Kentucky, as Quilt Week approaches (did you know that Paducah is the home to the National Quilt Museum and hosts an annual Quilt Show?), and journalist Hadley Carroll, who discovers one of the bodies, starts investigating.

Saturday, February 5, 2022

Pre-orders Are a Win-Win

Don't forget, you can pre-order In Search of the Magic Theater at https://www.regalhousepublishing.com/product/in-search-of-the-magic-theater/--this is where you can get not just the paperback or e-book, but the special edition hardback that is only available from the publisher! Books will be shipped for the June 1 launch. With a pre-order, you get a nice surprise in the mail later on and you also help raise the visibility of the book via the mysterious algorithms. And when you pre-order from the publisher, the author and publisher earn more than when you pre-order though another site. (It's also lovely if you pre-order via your local independent bookstore, of course!)

Karla Huebner's debut novel offers a sophisticated meditation on the idea of art, mythology, (experimental) theater and music (classical and jazz) as two women, separated by a generation and divided by a cultural shift - from 60s to post-60s - negotiate sexuality, love, regret, grief, and above all forgiveness, all done in a style that's deceptively simple at first but grows on the reader and quietly lures him inside the magic theater only to discover that all lies within - the actors, the script, the theater, the magic. A treat for the denizens of the world of art and intellect. --Moazzam Sheikh, author of Café Le Whore and Other Stories.

Friday, February 4, 2022

Four February ARCs

Here are four 2022 Debut novels that are available for advance review on NetGalley and/or Edelweiss!

Thursday, February 3, 2022

Ramón and Julieta

Alana Quintana Albertson's 2022 Debut Ramón and Julieta, launching February 1st, is a contemporary romance that plays off a familiar and beloved story line (I'm sure you can guess which one!). This time around, fate and tacos bring Ramón and Julieta together on the Day of the Dead, and the star-crossed pair must decide whether to accept the bitter culinary rivalry that drives them apart or to surrender to love.

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

What the Fireflies Knew

What the Fireflies Knew, by Kai Harris, is a 2022 Debut launching February 1st. This coming-of-age novel follows almost-eleven-year-old Kenyatta Bernice (KB) after the death of her father from an overdose, when debts incurred from his addiction cause the loss of the family home in Detroit. KB and her teenage sister, Nia, are soon sent to live with their estranged grandfather in Lansing, Michigan. During the sweltering summer, KB attempts to navigate a world that has turned upside down. This novel of family, identity, and race sounds like one not to miss.