FUN & GAMES by Duane Swierczynski

FUN & GAMES is perhaps the most aptly titled book I’ve ever read because it is both descriptive and vivid. FUN & GAMES is as much fun—classic, old-fashioned fun—as a rollercoaster (or merry-go-round, for those of us who don’t like heights).

FUN & GAMES doesn’t pull any punches. Some would describe it as graphic, and they would not be wrong. The thing is, nothing about the story, no detail, is gratuitous. It begins on a wild and twisty road (literally) and pulls the reader through a tale that is as enthralling as it is fantastic.

I’ve spoken with a few folks lately about the length of books, and our consensus is that generally, books are getting longer. Which is not necessarily good. Weighing in at just over 300 pages, FUN & GAMES is exactly the right length. Long enough to tell a rip-roaring good story without anything extraneous.

FUN & GAMES is also unusual in that it will appeal absolutely equally to men and women. For different reasons, but equally nonetheless. I also think it’s a fantastic selection for kids—tween boys especially. Parents should probably read it first because it is somewhat graphic, but I think no more so than the video games, movies, and even some ads they are exposed to daily.

Ok, so what’s it about? FUN & GAMES reminded me in many ways of old western movies, not because any of the characters would be caught dead in cowboy hats, but because it gives us a damsel in distress, an unlikely hero, and a conspiracy of bad guys of epic proportions. Our protagonist, Charlie Hardie, has all the attributes we love in a classic hero. He’s rough around the edges—he’s no Jimmy Bond—in ways that readers will relate to.

FUN & GAMES was the first of author Duane Swierczynski’s books I’d read, but it will certainly not be the last. Luckily, he has published several that will keep me going while I wait for the second episode of the Charlie Hardie trilogy, HELL & GONE, which is out in October.

Duane Swierczynski was kind enough to get Charlie to do an Interview with a Character for me—no mean feat. Also, the uber-talented Elizabeth A. White did a week of posts about and by Swierczynski, which you can and should read.

Blurb: It’s impossible to not enjoy every moment

Author’s Website: www.secretdead.com


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Interview with a Character: Charlie Hardie

Charlie Hardie burst onto the literary landscape this week...I mean, really. Burst. Thankfully, FUN & GAMES by Duane Swierczynski is the first of a trilogy starring Charlie, because he has immediately endeared himself to readers, even though one would be hard pressed to describe him as endearing (read the book...it makes sense...promise).

Charlie is not exactly a "sit down and pour his heart out" guy--far from it. I'm grateful to Duane for indulging in a little bribery to get his answers. Here's the conversation, starting with my email to Duane...

Ok, here are my questions for Charlie...if he's inclined to answer them all, great, but feel free to pick and choose as well.

Erin, I asked Charlie to sit down to answer a few questions. He hemmed and hawed, but then finally caved in when I poured him a cold Yuengling and told him it would be painless. He took a long pull of the beer, looked me in the eye and said, “I seriously doubt that.”

The answers to the following questions are direct quotes from Charlie. This conversation takes place before the sordid events of FUN & GAMES.

1. What's your favorite city--other than Philly?

Who says I even like Philly? I used to like Southern California because of the weather, but then I almost died in a wildfire, so that kind of soured me on the place. That said, a job came up recently, up there in the so-called Hollywood Hills. Actualy headed there in the morning.

2. If you could have only one weapon in a life-threatening situation, what would it be?

Could I have a Howitzer? Of course, that wouldn’t help at all if I was choking on a piece of steak in a restaurant or drowning or something. There are so many ways to die, I don’t think there’s any magic weapon that could save you from all of them.

Don’t meant to get dark here, but… this is kind of a touchy subject. I’ve watched people very close to me slip away, and there’s no worse feeling than the knowledge that you could have…

You got another question, maybe?

3. You're a fan of old movies. What your top three favorite movies and/or actors?

Thanks for lightening up the mood. Freakin’ love old movies. I could watch anything with Audrey Totter in it. She’s a honey. Myrna Loy, too. And okay, here’s a weird one for you—Barbara Bel Geddes from Vertigo. Jimmy Stewart went all ga-ga for Kim Novak’s creepy reincarnation, or whatever… but he had this gorgeous sweetheart right there are at home, showing him pictures of bras and stuff. I wanted to throw something at the TV when I first watched Vertigo. Hello, dummy! That means she likes you!

4. What's your favorite mode of transportation?

My own two feet. Everything else breaks down, sooner or later. Then again, I guess that applies to me, too. At least I could still crawl.

5. Who would be best suited to play you in a movie?

Why on earth would anyone ever want to play me in a movie?

6. Have you ever had any pets? What kind?

My boy once had a lizard, which he said reminded him of me. I wasn’t sure how to take that. Easy to care for? Cold-blooded? Armor-plated? The boy can be as cryptic as his mother.

7. What's your favorite color?

Right now it’s black and white. Wouldn’t it be grand to see the world that way, just like in the old movies?

Anyway, thanks for these, even though I have no idea why you’re asking this stuff. I’d better go pack. Got an early flight, which means I’m sure something will go wrong, and I’ll be sitting in an airline terminal all damn day bored out of my skull. Have a good one.

My Dad

Dad and his Grandmother

This Sunday is Father’s Day, and my dad’s birthday is next Wednesday, June 22. This is my gift to him.

Thirty-seven years ago my dad made a choice that changed our lives. He was just 28 years old, and my mom had been killed in a horrific car wreck. I was 3.

Dad won’t admit that he made a choice at all; he insists that it never occurred to him to do anything but raise me on his own. Yet in the early 1970s, a young widower raising a daughter solo was far from the norm. And I believe that our every action is a choice, and so I’ve always seen it as a choice he made.

Was it hard? Yes, definitely. My teenage years were particularly painful for us both. Did he make mistakes? Sure, plenty of them. Show me a parent who has not.

My husband and I were talking about gratitude the other day, specifically about kids showing their parents gratitude (or not). When I affirmed that I am grateful to my dad, my astute husband asked me how I demonstrate that to him, how any kid does. It’s a fantastic question, and my best answer is that I show my father my gratitude by living the best life I can.

Which I can do because of the lessons he taught me. Because he was always the best dad he could be.

My dad didn’t shield me from the world. I watched R-rated movies. Read “adult” books. Over-listened to him and his friends discussing work and politics. This is not to say he didn’t protect me—he did—but by letting me see the world around me, he taught me to cope. To understand that we cannot bend the world to our will. That sometimes things happen that we just have to deal with.

Green Lake Library

My dad talked constantly about the importance of reading. He still does. And he shored up his talk with actions. I spent hours in the Green Lake branch of the Seattle Public library. About once a week when I was growing up, we would go out to dinner (The Frankfurter was my favorite) and then make a circuit of small independent bookstores in Seattle’s University District (this was long before book superstores) . We didn’t buy a lot of books—money was tight—but we browsed and I found books I would then check out of the library. Dad taught me that the best way to pick a book was to open it to the middle and read a page, because the jacket description doesn’t tell you whether you’ll like reading it, and the first pages can be deceiving.

Dad also taught me to love ice cream. Sounds like a small thing—and definitely not in any manual of How to Rear Children—but he would bring me to Baskin-Robbins, where he would patiently read me each of the 31 flavors, even though my selection was the same every time (mint chocolate chip). As a result, eating ice cream has always been a joy for me. Dad also instilled in me a joy in making things. We made soap once—from scratch—and candles, and he used to make pizza dough starting with actual flour and water.

My dad also gave me a love of history and deep appreciation of Ireland, the land of our ancestors. He named me after the country, and shared his profound knowledge of W.B. Yeats’ poetry. He endowed me with a spirit that is uniquely Irish, and I am reminded of this every time I step off the plane in Dublin. I think this was fate's way of preparing me for my Irish family.

The most important lesson my dad taught me is that we each are given control over our own actions and opinions. We can sometimes influence others, but if each individual was to do the right thing, the world would be a much better place. And that begins with me. It’s sometimes a tall order, but I try to remember this.

I was thrilled when my dad remarried, interestingly in the same year I married the love of my life. Dad’s wife is a smart, funny, and kind woman who has infinite patience for his foibles. She has a daughter, and so Dad got to be a dad again. My stepsister has two beautiful young sons now, and Dad revels in being “Granpa.”

I’m blessed to have married a man who is also an extraordinary father. As I watch him sometimes struggle with his relationship with his kids, I know that I am able to recognize his heart because I was raised by my own dad.

For all these things and many others, I thank my dad.

Interview with a Character: Ellie Hatcher

Alafair Burke and Duffer,
who is not really a ladybug

I liked Ellie Hatcher from the moment I met her in Alafair Burke’s ANGEL’S TIP, the second in the Ellie series (I read them out of order). Ellie is a New Yorker, but not by birth. She’s from Wichita, just like my mom’s family, and that endeared her to me. She takes pride in excelling at her work, and she strives to be the best cop she can. She also has a complicated relationship with her family, living and dead.

Ellie is savvy and tough. She’s strong enough to admit her mistakes and smart enough (most of the time) to know when to ask questions. I measure most fictional New York cops with a Steve Carella yardstick, and Ellie measures up just fine.

Ellie is a perfect series lead because she’s far from one-dimensional. With each book, we learn more about her. Like the denizens of the 87th Precinct, she evolves.

212, the third in Ellie’s series (preceded by DEAD CONNECTION and the aforementioned ANGEL’S TIP), has been released in paperback just in time for summer (in case you’re not inclined to tote around a hardcover as the mercury rises). Like any series, ideally you’ll read Ellie’s tales in order, but you won’t be lost if you don’t.

Alafair was good enough to have Ellie answer some questions for me, and I’m grateful, because it was a little like chatting with a good friend. Enjoy!

1. If you were not a cop, what would you do for a living?

Ugh, I shudder to think.  Before I was a cop, I was a waiting tables, and before that, I earned part-time college money in really crappy Wichita beauty pageants.  I love bars, so owning a bar would be nice.  It also sounds like a lot of work, a potential money pit, and a whole lot of trouble once I inevitably knock some drunk asshole on his butt with a roundhouse kick.  So, yeah, I'll stick with the cop thing.

2. Who is your favorite fictional detective?

I don't have much time to read, but I always like Harry Bosch.  He says there's no such thing as coincidence, and that's usually right.

3. You encounter situations that would scare most of us regularly. What frightens you most?

A person whose motives (if you can call them that) are completely sociopathic.  My father (who was a detective in Kansas) used to tell me that motive was the key to finding your man.  Find the motive, find your man.  It's usually money or jealousy -- something we can all understand, but wouldn't act on ourselves.  Then there's that occasional person who will maim, torture, and kill for what they see as rational reasons, but the chain of thought from a to b to c is so twisted, you realize these people aren't even human.

4. Despite encountering some of the worst aspects of human nature, you seem to maintain an optimism in the human spirit. How do you manage to not lose all faith in humanity?

I have to believe that most people are fundamentally good.  The minute I stop believing that, I lose the game.  I'll check out.

THE TWO DEATHS OF DANIEL HAYES by Marcus Sakey

THE TWO DEATHS OF DANIEL HAYES is the riskiest book on my “money back guarantee” list for a simple reason: Not everyone is going to love it.

THE TWO DEATHS OF DANIEL HAYES has already met with a great deal of critical acclaim, and rightly so. Marcus Sakey is simply a gifted author, and this layered, complicated, intricately detailed story is not one bit self-indulgent (unlike a certain tale of a tattooed young woman that I could mention, but won’t).

But here’s the rub: If you’re looking for an easy read, this isn’t it. THE TWO DEATHS OF DANIEL HAYES will raise your heart rate and blood pressure. It will keep you up past your bedtime. It will frustrate you because just when you think you have it all figured out…you don’t. Trust me, you really don’t.

So what’s it about? No easy answer to this. It’s about a guy who has amnesia. It’s about good and evil. But it also includes subplots that shine a light on love and marriage, the criminal justice system, celebrity culture, American geography, and more. THE TWO DEATHS OF DANIEL HAYES starts with a bang on a cold and deserted beach in Maine, and takes a wild and gloriously twisted road from there.

It all starts on a beach in Maine...

If you’re looking for a book in which you can lose yourself, THE TWO DEATHS OF DANIEL HAYES fits the bill. It’s a standalone novel, and you need not have read Sakey’s previous novels to appreciate it. My experience reading this book was interesting, too, because I took longer with it because the typeface was small, and so I couldn’t read it at night (when I have to put goop in my eyes that makes small fonts blurry). This meant I sometimes went several days between sessions of reading it, but each time I picked it up, I had no problem remembering where I’d left the story. I didn’t have to backtrack a few pages, which is unusual for me.

One of my most common complaints about books (yes, I do complain sometimes) is that some novels have too many characters. Authors can occasionally throw in characters that don’t serve a real purpose, or there are just so many that keeping track of who’s done what to whom is cumbersome. While THE TWO DEATHS OF DANIEL HAYES has a large cast for sure, Sakey gives the right amount of attention to each. He gets the balance just right. I never had to flip back to a character’s last appearance to remember his or her role.

So are you brave enough to read THE TWO DEATHS OF DANIEL HAYES? Ready to lose some sleep and need to take deep breaths? I hope so.

Oh, and that critical acclaim I mentioned? Have a look:

• Jen's Book Thoughts
• Spinetingler
• Jenn's Bookshelves
• Chicago Sun-Times
• Chicago Tribune

Blurb: A tremendous story from an author who is among the young masters.

Author’s Website: http://marcussakey.com


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In Defense of Facebook Pages

Keith Rawson made a compelling case recently for authors not having Facebook Pages. While I see—and appreciate—his points, I have also over-thought myself into a fervor…and decided that Pages do have a viable role for other-than-household name authors. Here’s my logic:

Facebook profiles are personal. If you’re a published author, you are, by definition, a celebrity, even if you’re just starting out or have a smaller fan base. But your profile is for you as a person. Not for your brand.

I know, I know…as an author, you are your brand, but bear with me…

If you’re like most people, your personal profile includes stuff that can only be described as, well, personal. Family photos. Comments on politics. Reminiscences from your high school days.

Some of that might have a place within your brand, but to promote your book just on your personal profile page is odd because that’s exactly what a Page is for. A Page lets people who are interested in your product—your books or blog or anything else you write—discuss said products.  If you’re a writer and you have just a personal profile, you’re missing an opportunity to stake out your corner of the social media sandbox, where your band of fans can gather. Believe me, we want to gather.

The single most important reason I think authors/writers should have pages is that they create a place where those who like your books can talk to each other without having to be connected through their personal profiles. For example, I might want to share my joy in reading a specific author’s books with a random stranger in Omaha, but I don’t necessarily want to let said stranger in on pictures of my friends and family or my diatribes on American culture.

On a Page, you can choose to post updates and interact, or not. Of course, the marketeer in me recommends that you do, but you need not feel compelled to respond to every single post. No, really. Don’t feel compelled.

If you’re inclined to figure out Facebook’s cumbersome rules regarding contests and giveaways, a Page is also an excellent venue for those. If you don’t want to read the fine print, drop me a line…yes, I bothered to read it all.

Facebook is the largest site, yes, but it’s also not all about numbers. Counter-intuitive, I know. When you first set up a Page, it’s impossible to not watch the number of who like it tick up…sometimes quickly, sometimes painfully slowly. Still, successful pages—that is, those that actually sell products (again, books) and build brands, rather than just attracting lots of people who click Like for the chance of getting a free sample of Tide—deliver content. They give people a reason (other than a desire to click “Unlike”) to come back and hang out.

For the record, the above actually supports Keith’s #1 Facebook Don’t. Even though I’m advocating doing it on a Page. And on that topic…

Some things I agree with Keith completely, unabashedly and unreservedly about deserve repeating:

• Using a page to spam people via posts is stupid and lame. And so unnecessary, because you can share links, videos, pictures and text relevant to your product (books) and brand (yourself) easily. I also love the “questions” functionality, where you can do little polls. Yes, they’re silly and unscientific, but they’re fun, dammit.
• Page admins used to be able to message everyone who liked a page en masse, but they’ve thankfully done away with that. Now, you can only message someone if you’re friends with that person through your personal profile.
• For the love of whatever you believe in, do not use Twitter to post to Facebook. Turn. That. Off. Now.

And the last reason I like Pages: View Insights. Insights provide aggregate data on where those who visit your page are coming from (both geographically and which sites), how old they are, whether they’re male or female, and what kinds of content resonate with them. They’re not super-fancy analytics, but they’re useful in guiding marketing strategy and tactics, particularly if you’re spending your own money.

Don’t get me wrong; I get as mad at Facebook as the next gal. Use the F word and everything. But  I’m not giving up on Pages just yet.

What do you think? Are Pages worthwhile? Or just annoying?

Life Is Too Short for Bad Books

Maureen Johnson started an interesting discussion on Twitter the other day about what makes a good book blog. Opinions varied, but one thing that emerged is that some folks dislike and/or distrust book blogs that don’t contain negative reviews.

As you might have noticed, I don’t do negative reviews. And I’m not going to start. The reason for this is quite simple. If I start reading a book and it’s lousy, I don’t finish it.

I believe that a lot of people are less fond of reading than they might otherwise be because as kids, they’re forced to finish crap books. Or good books that they, for whatever reason, just don’t like. For example, Charles Dickens never blew my skirt up—not as a kid and not now. But I’ve wiled away more hours than I can count with Ed McBain, starting when I was about 8 (yes, my dad was of the mind that I didn’t need to be restricted to kids’ books because reading, by definition, was never going to harm me).

Some people think it’s important to give a book at least 50 pages before giving up on it. My threshold is more like 10 pages. That said, I have occasionally finished books whose characters I was not fond of because they were good stories. Just like I don’t adore every person I meet, some book characters just piss me off. I think that’s OK. I just read one such book, in fact. I didn't like any of the characters, but they told me a great story so I put up with them.

Oh, and I walk out of bad movies too. So at least I’m consistent.

To be clear: I do marketing/PR/publicity in my day job, but I’m not compensated for anything I do here. If that ever changes, I'll include a disclosure statement, but I'm never going to sell my honest personal opinion of a book. I've managed to get a hold of early review copies of books, but never with any kind of caveat of a positive review, or any review for that matter. I think it’s pretty obvious that what I’m writing here is my opinion, and I’m happy to share my excitement about books, authors and characters I like. If you’re looking for snarky beat-downs of unreadable drivel, you’ll need to look elsewhere.

I’d love to know what you think…do you find book blogs that don’t contain negative reviews less valuable? What do you think makes a book blog interesting and readable?