JanG's comments (member since Apr 02, 2009)

JanG's comments from the M/T Reading Friends group.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from sunny and crisp Portland, Oregon! Everyone enjoy the festivities!

Carol/Bonadie wrote: "Horrors! I have the birthday list on my other computer, and will check when I get there. Maybe someone else has it. Where is Our Jan when we need her!"

OMG!! How could that happen? Oh no. Happy, Happy Belated Birthday to one of my favorite posters, DAN!! I'm so sorry your special day got bypassed.

Snap wrote: "Yo, gang! Long time no see. I'm finally getting around to visiting. Not sure how much I will post, but will definitely read what ya'll are up to. Nice to see so many familiar names! "

Wonderful to see you here. I don't post much, but I do love the end of the month lists!

Happy Birthday, Sally!!!!!!!

Happy Belated Birthday to you Leslie. I'm sorry to hear about your BIL. Take care.

Happy Belated Birthday, Jan O'Fun Cat! It was a holiday too. I hope you enjoyed your day!

A bit of a slow month:

1. The Plum Pudding Murder by Joanne Fluke. I felt she put in a lot of filler. It was quite boring to me.

2. Bundle of Trouble by Diana Orgain. NTMA, debut. #1 in Maternal Instincts series with Kate Connolly. New mom is on the case. San Francisco setting.

3. Whiteout by Ken Follett, NTMA. CPD and my heart was racing. Virus is stolen at a lab in Scotland and a race against time.

4. So Cold the River by Michael Koryta, NTMA, ARC Sandi gave me at BCon. Very interesting featuring real majestic hotels of old in the French Lick and West Baden, Indiana area. Enjoyed it.

Ugh. That's it!

All of my good vibes are coming your way!

Happy Belated Birthday, Susie, my main competitor in BB!!!

My day one of Bouchercon - Thursday

My first panel was called Killer Hobbies with: Joanna Campbell Slan (Moderator) scrapbooking, Sally Goldenbaum (knitter), Margaret Grace (miniatures), Beth Groundwater (baskets) and Betty Hechtman (crochet). This was a lighthearted panel and of course their own hobbies are a part of their mysteries. I had never heard of any of them. I think I will try the Beth Groundwater books and Joanna Campbell Slan. At the bazaar I did receive one of the scrapbooking books.

My second panel (not really a panel because it was just one person) was called Crankin''em out: The Edward Stratemeyer Story. This was probably the most informative session I attended. The speaker was Don Bruns. It was fascinating to hear all about the production of many, many series books that this guy, Edward was known for hiring the ghost writers. It was a book-packaging firm, the Stratemeyer Syndicate that he started in 1905. The most well known to all of us would be the Bobbsey Twins, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, Happy Hollisters and literally hundreds more. I knew that there wasn't a real Carolyn Keene or Frank W. Dixon, but I didn't know anything about this syndicate.

After lunch I attended the same one Sandi did: Murder, Therapy and Social Work. Elizabeth Zelvin was the Moderator. Also had Margaret Fenton, Lois Greiman, and Roberta Isleib. The moderator sort of hogged the spotlight, but there were some interesting comments from the others. Margaret Fenton has her first book out called Little Lamb Lost that might be good.

Next was Retail Murder with Maggie Sefton (M)knitting, Juliet Blackwell (witchcraft and an art series), Kate Collins (flowershop) and Monica Ferris (Needlepoint). All about how a retail shops are popular for book settings. None of these authors had worked in retail and had to do research and follow shop owners around to try to get it right.

Finally I went to Adaptation with David Montgomery (M), Sean Chercover, Joseph Finder, John Gilstrap, and Paul Guyot. I went to this because I really like Joseph Finder. It was a fun panel and was all about the possibility of getting your book into some kind of film. It's a long drawn out process and we learned what "optioning" was and how even if you're optioned it doesn't mean it will ever make it to screen. It just means they own the rights. I enjoyed this one.

After that I was pooped and went to my room to rest. Then I got a second wind so I managed to go to the Thursday Night Extravaganza which was a talent show over at the Gameworks in the Circle Center Mall. It was lots of musical skits and standup and most of the numbers had cute lines all about blood and murder in a funny sort of way. I'm glad I went. Don Bruns put this on and he is talented in his own right with his guitar. He's kind of a funny guy.

That ends my first day. More later, I hope.

Carol/Bonadie wrote: "Sandi wrote: "Usually when you check in to the conference you get a big bag of free books but this year they decided to give everyone 5 tickets to use at the Bazaar...."

Yuck, not sure I would hav..."

You know, we all sort of felt the same way. Getting the big bag of books was something we all looked forward to. I too remember spreading them all out. Sandi and I didn't hear any positive comments about the changes this year. Unless they can spread it out more, I don't think it will fly. Plus, many people leave early on Sunday morning - either to start driving or flying out. Normally I do fly out early, but this year was different so I was able to get some books. Otherwise I wouldn't have gotten any. So, I'm sure they will re-think this situation for coming years.

I will start trying to post my reports soon. I'm still slightly recovering from returning home so late.

Sherry wrote: "Ann wrote: "Today is the day we'll attend the Southern Festival of Books - DD and I are leaving for the event now.
I am eager to have a book filled day! We aren't going to a specific sessions exce..."

Have fun Ann!!

Sandi wrote: ">>I would like to get together Wednesday night, if possible. Is anyone else going to hear S J Rozan with Sandi? We could meet before or after at the bar/lounge in the Hyatt. They have sandwiches an..."

Wednesday night dinner would be great but then I will probably turn in. I will have gotten up at 4:00 to catch my 6:00 a.m. flight. I just invited Janet (from Chicago) to come down if she wanted to visit. She said she might since she has relatives in Indy. I met her at the Chicago BCon and she, Carol, my dh and I went to dinner. I'm really looking forward to this.

Susie in KS wrote: "Vanished is sitting on my shelf...just waiting for me :)"

I enjoyed Vanished and other books by JF. They are definitely CPDs. I remember JF at one of the BCon conferences and he was really nice.

Hi all,
I had 8 books this month:

1. Lethal Legacy by Linda Fairstein. I like her books, set in NYC and I always learn something new. This one featured the NYC public library.

2. The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand. Not M/T, a novel set on Nantucket like all her books, I guess.

3. Prairie Tale by Melissa Gilbert. A memoir. Enlightening information about the child star of the Little House series.

4. Intent to Kill by James Grippando. A woman is killed by a drunk driver and three years later clues start to emerge as to what really happened.

5. Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour by Marti Rulli with the former captain of the Splendour Dennis Davern. Told from his POV about the night Natalie Wood drowned. I remember that November weekend rather well. It was all over the news.

6. Lying With Strangers by James Grippando. Peyton (a doctor) is run off the road. Someone is stalking her through the computer.

7. Fed Up by Susan Conant & Jessica Conant-Park. This is #4 in the series "Gourmet Girls" or something like that. Set in the Boston area.

8. Murder in the Fjord by Katherine Page Hall. Set in Norway but doesn't have Faith Fairchild in it. It was fun for me because it took place in Balestrand and my dh and I had been there in 1978. It's a small town in the beautiful fjords.

Carol/Bonadie wrote: "You were prolific in your reading this month, Sandi. I've never read Billingham either, but don't tell him. I'll get to Sleepyhead one of these days. He is a top notch panelist and moderator, I ..."

Acck, I'm not sure they are going to be there! I've checked the list of attendees/authors and didn't see any of them. I haven't checked in a couple of weeks tho. I sure hope I'm wrong. Carol, I wish you were coming to Indy. I'll sure miss seeing you...

Happy Belated Birthday, Susan. Another late one...

Happy Birthday, Liz!! Sorry to be late.

I'm very late also! So sorry, Merrilee. Hope your birthday was great!!!!

Happy Birthday, Kit!! I hope you are having a great day!!