Loser's Guide to Life and Love

This is a YA book set in Salt Lake City and written by my friend Ann Cannon who used to work Monday nights at TKE with Shelly Williams and I. The launch was last night on our Patio and it was a really fun event. Instead of the usual author reading Ann gave us an insight into how the book came about and how it was a bit ahead of it's time, she took a couple of questions and then we had a little "Loser's" theatre with four kids reading the parts of Ed, Quark, Scout and Ellie. So much fun and the place was packed. I have my signed copy and though I didn't get the chance to review it for the Inkslinger or Inklinks here's my take.

Ed works in a video store with his best friend Scout. Ed doesn't have his own name badge so Ali the owner gives him one with Sergio on it. So Ed becomes Sergio and when the girl of his dreams walks into the video store Ed doesn't stand a chance of going out with her but Sergio does. It doesn't help that Scout has a massive crush on Ed and Ed's next door neighbour Quark has a similar crush on Scout. Will Ed get the girl, and which girl will he get? This will appeal to YA and adults alike because we've all been teenagers and had to go through some - or all of the mis-steps that Ed and the others make. This is laugh-out-loud funny and a great read.

Live from Park City

Discovered some things I didn't know about Park City
1)You can park underground
2)but you need to get validation to park for free
3)The Alpine Internet Cafe has fantastic coffee and comfy chairs.
4)It's 20degrees cooler than SLC.
Props to Donna for suggesting we go up there. She blogged and wrote and I wrote.

A title I couldn't resist

OK I admit it I'm a sucker for a good cover and a spectacular title and this book has both. It's not an arc I'm having a bit of a dry-spell arc-wise. I was shelving on Friday and this book just hooked me and get this it's not a mystery! Well it's more the story of a search. It's called "The 351 books of Irma Arcuri" by David Bajo. Irma Arcuri has vanished, not just left the country, she bascially stopped the world and got off, she absented herself from her life. Philip Masryk a maths genius has been in love with Irma since University. Their friendship spanned Philip's two marriages but Irma leaves Philip her collection of books all 351 of them and Philip whose first language is numbers starts with 3,4 and 7 as she knew he would.

Irma a writer, restorer and binder of books has bound the collection herself and that's not all. She's added little pieces of herself into the books - altered texts added stories that perplex and unsettle Philip. Philip travels from Philadelphia to Spain seeking clues to Irma, along the way he finds that her influence has pervaded his family and friends even his step-children. Is Irma trying to warn him away, or to open him to a better life. Will Philip find Irma?

NB There is an awful lot of sex in this book - just so you know. It didn't detract from the story but for a maths geek this guy is really nookie friendly!

I'm also reading the second of the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes books 'Monstrous Regiment of Women' it threw me a bit on the first couple of chapters (marriage? when we left Mary at the end of the first book she was having trouble tolerating any man but we are five years further on so I'll forgive Laurie King that) Plus I'm experimenting with a TV tie in. Torchwood - I love the series but books of TV series aren't usually very good. However I downloaded a couple of TWood audiobooks last year and they were pretty good so we'll see.

David who?

So Chris phones me up from St Louis about 30 mins ago and says "Have you heard of David Sedaris?" Well of course I have. "Oh" he says, "I'm having dinner across the road from Left Bank Books and he's there doing a reading". He couldn't get in - it was packed duh! - so that makes me feel a little better but bummer! I would love to have listened to him.

I Love My I-Tunes

Most of the time I write with music in the background and I-tunes just threw out 2 treats I'd completely forgotten were on here. "Gorecki" by Lamb and "Sour Times" by Portishead course then it ruins everything by playing the only Spice Girls track I own!

Research teaches you the weirdest things

At one of our meetings recently we discussed the factual side of fiction ie even if the event is made up if you don't have your facts straight you could turn off some readers.So I've just spent most of my time online today researching amongst other things water heaters, yes water heaters. I could tell you the number for the nearest corgi installer with my eyes shut. I now know far too much about gas water heaters I could probably troubleshoot any problems in ours. I know why the tank doesn't smell funny, how to relight a pilot light and that the gas I researched yesterday is not only highly toxic but highly flammable (dammit!!) and therefore wouldn't work in the context I was using it in.

Not much going on this week.

I finished the Darnton - it's good and I'll review it when it comes out in July. Darnton worked for the New York Times and there is a lovely swipe at a certain Australian media tycoon:-)
Writing is throwing my reading out of balance the other arc - the Martini - I couldn't get into it. I'll let someone else have a crack at that one. Need some non-fiction I think. The second draft is going well, I made some of the changes suggested by the girls but a couple of things I couldn't take out so I tinkered and made a character a bit less pompous and even though he's pure exposition hopefully he's a bit less of a puzzle piece.