Barr, Nancy's blog

Thanks to the success of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson stories, one would be safe saying that the series is the very foundation of the mystery genre. Mystery fans all have their favorite series novelists (some of mine include Sue Grafton, Lillian Jackson Braun, Rett MacPherson and Carolyn Hart). From Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple to Steve Hamilton’s Alex McKnight, readers who love a good puzzle have a multitude of settings and characters they can return to again and again, some cozy and comfortable, some more edgy and tragic.

Finally, after three books, I received my first review in a national publication and it was a good one. Yea! “Library Journal” said of “Page One: Whiteout”: “Nicely plotted with good characterization, this Midwestern mystery will appeal to Steve Hamilton fans.” While this certainly isn’t my first good review, it means a lot that a national publication recognized little ol’ me from the Great White North!

"Page One: Whiteout" is finally ready to hit the stores and I will be hitting the road for a few personal appearances across the Upper Peninsula in November. Unfortunately, travel time is limited due to a hectic work/graduate school schedule and an ailing feline companion (unclassified cardiomyopathy that led to congestive heart failure).

The Internet has revolutionized so many aspects of our daily lives, especially when it comes to information about books and authors. The following are some links of interest to me and, I hope, to my readers. Some are for authors I enjoy reading, some are links to bookstores where you can find my books, and others are associations that are supportive of the mystery community. Please click and browse at your leisure. This list will be updated periodically.

Authors
http://www.colleencoble.c...
http://www.authorsteveham...
http://www.carolynhart.co...

It’s been a long time since Gershwin’s “Summertime” had much meaning for me. Living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan means summer is a relative term. It doesn’t really get warm (at least 75) on a consistent basis until mid-June. By mid to late-August, just in time for the U.P. State Fair, temperatures can struggle to reach the 50s and 60s during the day in a bad year.

My community is losing a bookstore, one that has supported me with great signings and staff that promoted the books year-round and provided dozens of Christmas and birthday gifts to friends and family.

The loss of yet another bookstore isn’t news to booklovers, especially authors. Nearly everyone has personally witnessed or heard about the wide-scale closing of independent booksellers across the country in the last five years. What makes my store a little different is that it is part of a national chain in a mall in a university community.

It’s election day here in the United States and it brings to mind a question I was asked a few years ago as a panelist at Bouchercon, one of several large mystery conventions. The mid-term elections were approaching and the reader wanted to know if the panelists wrote about their characters’ political leanings. My answer was a firm “no,” but not for the reason you might suspect.

The main reason that writers write is that they love to write and can't imagine life without a pen in hand or keyboard close by ready to receive their most creative, poetic, literary thoughts. You would think that with two novels published and a legion of fans eagerly awaiting the third that an author would be able to tap out that next book in no time flat. Well, at least I thought that was the way it was supposed to work. Wrong!