Giveaway: One signed paperback of Death Wish Three pdf ebook versions of Covert Dreams – enter at the end of the post No one likes villains — or, at least, no one admits to it. But if an author crafts villains carefully, imbuing them with disturbing ambitions, giving them access to the tools and resources they need to wreak their own, personal havoc, and notches their peculiar, twisted natures in just the right way, then we have no choice but to love to hate them. And a great thriller is born. James N. Frey, novelist and writing instructor, explains the villainous nature and the essential role villains play in story structure, in his book, How to Write a Damn Good Thriller.“The villain in a thriller is not just evil,” Frey writes. “The villain is evil right down to the soles of his or her feet.” But he adds, “the villain creates the plot behind the plot — the plot that has to be foiled by the hero — and that… is what thriller writing is all about.” Danielle Blanchard Benson Mike Markel Michael Meyer Today, three indie authors: Danielle Blanchard Benson, author of the paranormal thriller, Death Wish; Mike Markel,…

President Clinton stopped by the Today Show yesterday and talked about the books he likes to read. I was surprised and delighted to discover what the President read and to discover that we share the same taste. Image from http://clinton2.nara.gov/WH/kids/html/bill.html Jerusalem by Simon Sebag Montefiore President Clinton says: “Truly a biography of the city“ Lincoln by David Herbert Donald President Clinton says: “A book you could read if you wanted to read a novel… an astonishing book“ The Way of the World by David Fromkin President Clinton says: “[A] one volume short history of civilization” Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow President Clinton says: This is a book for “anybody who really wants to understand how we started should read“ And I agree President Clinton also likes to read fiction, crime fiction nonetheless. His favorite fictional character is Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon and I must admin that it is mine as well. Check out Daniel Silva’s Amazon Page. I can recommend any of the Gabriel Allon books, but if you’re new to the series try to start at the beginning. As well as Gabriel Allon, President Clinton also said he enjoyed the Alex Cross series as well as books by…

With all the action and adventure, this is ultimately a melancholy book. Allon is a flawed hero (but aren’t they all), who is, this time, out for revenge

Steven Say­lor is a well known historical fiction author whose books about ancient Rome are not only entertaining, but well researched and enlightening as well

A novel that follows the life and after-life of its title character. Many people will recognize Marley’s name from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. As you can tell, I am a fan because I think that Don Quixote is still one the most relevant stories in the world.

This week is “Banned Books Week” and I’ve seen a lot of posts against the practice of banning books. As a long time reader I often scoffed at those trying to ban books, however, now that my beloved daughter entered first grade I see things differently. 1 ) Books can give you paper cuts. 2 ) Books can make you angry and sad 3 ) Romance books gives a young, impressionable lady unrealistic view of life 4 ) Mysteries hurt the brain too much 5 ) Paranormal is just … freaky and G-d knows I need my sleep and wake up enough times without being woken up more times than I should. 6 ) Biographies are scary 7 ) History books are boring and really, who needs to know about the past when the future is so bright? 8 ) Stopping to read books will free up some time for her to help around the house (wishful thinking), watch wholesome TV shows and practice her hand/eye coordination with video games. 9 ) Reading can give her the unrealistic idea that life is “fair” and that the good guys actually win. Of course banning books has many other benefits:…

I’m going to tell you right off the bat that I’m going to cheat. This weeks marks the 2011 Book Blogger Appreciation Week. Yes, I have my favorite book bloggers and they know who they are. There are several which I follow religiously but mostly I simply enjoy looking at my RSS feed knowing that there are many other bookish people out there who like to share their experience reading. I’m a firm believer that reading was, and could be again, a social activity. In days of yore people use to sit around the fireplace taking turns reading passages out loud and discussing them. Those days were gone but they’re coming back. Instead of a glowing fire (sounds romantic but imagine the dirt, cinder and smoke) we have glowing computer screens and we don’t read out loud anymore but we certainly discuss the books. The beauty of it is that we can get opinions of people across the ocean and, based on our own depiction of reality, discuss how a certain book affected us in different ways. Book blogging also takes a huge amount of time, several hours a day to maintain a consistent blog (lots of reading and writing)….

Even operations that seem mundane, such as smuggling out of the Soviet Union of Nikita Khrushchev’s secret speech gets an air of reverence and complexity

Starting with the early Roman settlers, salt traders, the book introduces readers to fascinus, the winged phallus which becomes a family heirloom & each chapter