Tampa Book Buzz

local author k.l. nappier is having a book launch party on february 23 and we’re all invited

Local author K.L. Nappier’s supernatural thriller Full Wolf Moon will be in wide release as a paperback by the end of this month by Aisling Press. Full Wolf Moon was originally released as an e-book at Double Dragon Publishing (and will remain available as an e-book there).

What fun is a book launch without a book launch party? Mark your calendars for this one:

February 23 — 4-6 p.m.

Panera Bakery and Cafe at Feathersound
2285 Ulmerton Road
Clearwater, FL 33762

In addition to the book signings, there will be entertainment and door prizes.

No werewolves, though, thank goodness. (I checked the Farmer’s Almanac lunar schedule to make sure.)

Hope to see you there! In the meantime, you can watch the Full Wolf Moon trailer on Nappier’s website.

book buzz:darkness falls by kyle mills

Darkness Falls by Kyle Mills

Have you ever wondered what would happen if the world’s supply of oil was suddenly unavailable? Author Kyle Mills has, and it’s scary as hell.

In Darkness Falls, bioterrorists have discovered a way to quickly wreak havoc and panic on a world-wide level: using a nasty strain of crude-oil-eating bacteria to wipe out the world’s oil fields. High gas prices are nothing compared to not having gas or oil at all. The inconvenience of useless individual automobiles is minor. Think about delivery trucks, military vehicles, barges, planes, fire trucks and ambulances. Without oil, grocery stores have nothing to sell, factories can’t use plastic in their products and medical personnel can’t rush to victims’ homes. There’s nowhere to go, no way to get there, and nothing we can do about it. Society breaks down and chaos ensues. The terrorists win.

Unless the good guys can stop them first, of course. Because genetic engineer-turned environmentalist Erin Neal had previously used similar bacteria to clean up toxic spills, he is now the only person with the knowledge and expertise to thwart the bioterrorists’ attack. Neal is a reluctant hero, tucked away in his desert home, quietly mourning the death of his environmental activist girlfriend. He sets aside his personal demons, however, to work with Homeland Security to try to trace the source of bacterial infestation and to minimize its effects. Neal discovers a tangled knot of conspiracy, lies and madness that is far worse than any personal demons he has.

Mills has done some amazing things with this book. Sure, he’s created a suspenseful thriller that’s fun to read. But he’s also presented a powerful ecological argument for living a conscious, earth-friendly lifestyle without being preachy, whiny and judgmental about it. (Darkness Falls inspired me far more than all the current “Go Green” campaigns and Al Gore combined.) Mills examines both sides of important, complex issues — global warming, energy dependence, activism, the U.S. military, consumerism, large corporations, the environmentalist movement, dependence on technology, social constructs — in a thoughtful and respectful manner. His characters are flawed and conflicted, which makes them realistic and compelling.

Darkness Falls entertained me, freaked me out and even inspired me a little. Pumping gas in my car will never be the same again, that’s for sure.

Book Buzzometer: A

You can read an excerpt of Darkness Falls here.

michael palmer, myspace and me

For the past few weeks, I’ve been drowning in a sea of social networking site requests, spam and a million of those god-awful Facebook requests. (Please go poke, tickle, hug and zing yourself and leave me out of it.) I was actually thinking about quitting the social networking game.

Then something happened.

Someone messaged me through MySpace to thank me for listing him as one of my favorite authors. I didn’t recognize the MySpace ID and the photo didn’t ring any bells, so I looked at his MySpace profile. It was Michael Palmer. MICHAEL PALMER. New York Times bestselling author. Real-life M.D. Author of Side Effects, Silent Treatment, Extreme Measures, Fatal and more. One of my all-time favorite authors who is listed in every one of my online “Favorite Author” lists. MICHAEL FREAKIN’ PALMER.

MP saw his name on my MySpace profile and messaged me. After I picked myself up off of the floor, I sent him the goofiest, gushiest fan note ever. I got to tell him (nicely, of course) that it’s his fault that I was slightly creeped out during a recent hospital stay. (I read Flashback, The Sisterhood and Side Effects back-to-back during my teenybopper years and was scarred for life — and addicted to Palmer’s books — because of it.)

Being the ruthless, self-promoting blogger that I am, I tried to wheedle my way into an interview and onto his mailing list, his publicist’s mailing list and anything else I could think of.

And guess what?

He agreed to an interview and gave me his email address! (His email address could very well be published on his MySpace page and on his website, but I prefer to believe that it’s not and that I’m way cool for having it.)

What a great Christmas present. Thank you TPTB (The Powers That Be)!

That’s enough blogging for now. I’ve got to go check my MySpace page…and Facebook…and LinkedIn…and…

news and notes:harper, micklersmith florida book traders, sorey

• New York Times bestselling suspense fiction author and part-time South Florida resident Karen Harper (Black Orchid, Hurricane) recently wrote to say hello and to let me know that her suspense novel Below the Surface will be released January 29. “Besides being a thriller with a touch of romance, it tackles the eco-issue of clean gulf water.” Harper often sets her books in southwest Florida and her earlier books “also deal with preserving old Florida from the onslaught of tourists and weather.” Visit www.karenharperauthor.com to learn more Harper and her work.
• I heard through the grapevine that the Florida-centric St. Pete bookstore MicklerSmith Florida Book Traders has closed. Sniff, sniff.
• An excerpt of local author Barbara J. Sorey’s Florida Girl:Short Stories of Family, Community and History, 1804 to 1969 is available online. “Go to www.wusf.org, click on Learn More (under the Florida Stories logo) to hear excerpts” of Special Times, a holiday story from Sorey’s Florida Girl book.

news and notes:williams, mitchell, smith

• Jacksonville author Gary Williams (Fish of Souls, The God Tools) wrote to let me know that Half-Red Skull, his fourth novel, is now available. Here’s the description: “A serial killer is terrorizing Northeast Florida. The murderer’s callingcard: each victim has one-half of their face colored red. On Amelia Island, reporter Fawn Cortez is planning her wedding while trying to reconcile her father’s tragic death. When she learns of a startling ancestry, it will take her intuition and persistence to unravel the clues and understand the bizarre link between the severed skull of an 1800s Seminole Indian, the modern-day murders and her father’s lifelong search for a legendary treasure. But dark secrets abound. Fawn will soon discover that those she depends on the most . . . cast the deadliest shadows.” Visit www.authorgarywilliams.com or www.floridanovels.com for more info.
• Local author Maria Mitchell recently published a poetry book called Something On My Mind, which is available through AuthorHouse.com. The poems are “about love, life, friendships and God…and were written from the heart and soul.” To read an excerpt or get more info, click here.
• Local author Joy V. Smith is one of the children’s writers included in the brand new e-book I Wish Someone Had Told Me That! 64 Successful Children’s Authors Give You The Advice They Wish Someone Had Given Them. You can see a video preview at http://write4kids.com/wishbook.html. Read Smith’s interview with BestBookTour.com here.

book buzz:requiem for the phoenix by skip allen

Requiem for the Phoenix by Skip Allen, ISBN #0-595-40319-0

In Out of the Ashes, al Qaida narrowly missed its goal of unleashing a biological weapon of mass destruction on the American heartland. The sequel, Requiem for the Phoenix, picks up two years later with al Qaida’s deceptive and detailed plot to launch a new series of attacks designed to bring America to its knees.

Author Skip Allen has crafted an incredibly rich, intricate and complex story about obsessed, fanatical, dedicated terrorists willing to give their lives for al Qaida and the obsessed, dedicated, hard-working CIA agents who will do anything necessary to protect our country. I must confess that Requiem for the Phoenix was a little too intricate and complex for me to follow. In the 31 pages of Chapter One, approximately 32 different characters are mentioned by name, with events — both current and via flashback — taking place in at least seven different cities.

Allen did a good job of summarizing what happened in the first book, so don’t despair if you haven’t read Out of the Ashes yet. I recommend, however, that you read that book first if possible before tackling Requiem for the Phoenix in order to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the main players in Allen’s detailed world of political intrigue.

Book Buzz Barometer: C+

Allen’s website is www.skipallen.com.

local author dusty miller

Systems analyst, former member of the military and local author Dusty Miller wrote to say hello and to let me know about her books, the thriller novel Lab Rats and Hens and her sci-fi Hunters of the Cloud series.  One of her books just became available at Barnes and Noble and all of them can be found at her website www.huntersofthecloud.com.

fang land by john marks

I recently received an email about Fang Land, an “ambitious, thrilling and erudite novel by an exciting American writer and former 60 Minutes producer, John Marks. Fang Land explores themes of global politics, the American media and America’s identity crisis in the framework of a fantastical, gripping thriller which has strong parallels with Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  Fang Land explores:

• American paranoia in the wake of 9/11 and ‘the fear of the outsider’
• How this paranoia is reflected in the American media. The characters work in an American newsroom very similar to CBS’ 60 Minutes where author John Marks was a producer.
• Using the literary device of a modern-day vampire novel to illustrate important global themes – why did John Marks choose this vehicle?
• America’s struggle to empathize with other cultures and ideologies
• The gap between the ‘old world’ and the ‘new’ - evident in the novel by the comparison of the frenetic energy of New York with the isolation of the Transylvanian hinterland”

Learn more about Marks’ book or order it online at Amazon.com here.

great opening lines:beautiful lies by lisa unger

There were times when she wished he were dead.  Not that she’d never met him, or that he’d never been born, but that he’d get hit by a car or get himself killed in some other violent way like a bar fight, or his arm would get caught in a machine and he would bleed to death before anyone could save him.  And she wished that in those final moments, when he felt his life draining from him, that he’d understand what a bastard he was, what a waste of life.  She could envision him, his blood pooling in a black kidney-shaped puddle beneath him as he repented in terror, understanding with a final clarity that he was about to pay for the man he was.  In those dark moments he’d be sorry, so sorry.  But it would be too late.  That’s how she felt about him.

—-Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger

british author patrick mackeown

British author Patrick Mackeown wrote to let me know about his thriller The Expendability Doctrine.  Here’s the synopsis he sent me:

An oil conspiracy thriller with global dimensions. Intelligent, readable, and guaranteed to get the grey matter going.  In the midst of an international oil crisis, Keith Connors, a British industrialist, is murdered.  In accordance  with procedures, the police investigate his family and acquaintances.  The professional nature of Keith’s killing is never in doubt.  However, when the victim’s wife absconds, a pattern of sinister events unfolds.

The Expendability Doctrine races on a roller-coaster thrill ride across the globe - from the East Coast of Britain, to the horrors of deaths in Libyan gaols - in an extraordinary mixture of super suspense and authentic information on a subject of global concern.

To read an excerpt, to purchase or to read reviews, click here.