David Abrams's Blog, page 175

Trailer Park Tuesday: Sightings by B. J. Hollars

Welcome to Trailer Park Tuesday , a showcase of new book trailers and, in a few cases, previews of book-related movies.  Unless their last name is Grisham or King, authors will probably never see their trailers on the big screen at the local cineplex.  And that's a shame because a lot of hard work goes into producing these short marriages between book and video.  So, if you like what you see, please spread the word and help these videos go viral.





I got a very distinct Benjamin Pe...

My First Time: Claire Bidwell Smith

My First Time is a regular feature in which writers talk about virgin experiences in their writing and publishing careers, ranging from their first rejection to the moment of holding their first published book in their hands.  Today’s guest is Claire Bidwell Smith, author of the memoir The Rules of Inheritance , which has just been released in paperback.  The Rules of Inheritance describes how, when she was still a young adult, Smith lost both of her parents to cancer.  Caroline...

Soup and Salad: Anna Keesey's paperclip, Adam Mansbach's book tour hell, Board games for book nerds, J. M. Barrie unveils Thomas Hardy statue, Jonathan Franzen visits Portland

On today's menu:

1.  Last October, fellow debut novelist Anna Keesey ( Little Century ) and I were squished up against a mutual wall in the Texas Monthly editorial offices during a party kicking off the Texas Book Festival.  The room was lousy with writers and loud with writerly conversation.  Somehow, Anna and I found each other in the midst of all that literary chaos.  Even though we'd never met, we instantly bonded.  I think we could both smell the fear sweating out o...

Book Radar: A Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly duet, a Shirley Jackson thriller, Matthew Quick's Good Luck, the return of Robert Stone

Book Radar rounds up some of the latest publishing deals which have caught my eye, gathered from reports at Publishers Marketplace, Galley Cat, office water-coolers and other places where hands are shaken and promises are made.  As with anything in the fickle publishing industry, dates and titles are subject to change.

I was noodling around my agent's website last night and stumbled across this joyous announcement: a new Tom Franklin novel is imminent.  The buttercream frosting on th...

Friday Freebie: Thrill-Bent by Jan Richman

Congratulations to Sophia Anzaroot, winner of last week's Friday Freebie: The Cove by Ron Rash.


This week's book giveaway is a signed copy of  Thrill-Bent , the new novel from poet Jan Richman.  This work of fiction is narrated by a character named Jan Richman, a journalist and armchair thrill-seeker who gets a freelance assignment to write about the nation's antique wooden roller coasters.  She takes off across the U.S. to report on a fanatical sub-culture and her research also h...

Front Porch Books: January 2013 edition

Front Porch Books is a monthly tally of books--mainly advance review copies (aka "uncorrected proofs" and "galleys")--I've received from publishers, but also sprinkled with packages from Book Mooch, Amazon and other sources.  Because my dear friends, Mr. FedEx and Mrs. UPS, leave them with a doorbell-and-dash method of delivery, I call them my Front Porch Books.  In this digital age, ARCs are also beamed to the doorstep of my Kindle via NetGalley and Edelweiss.  Note: most of t...

Trailer Park Tuesday: A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash

Welcome to Trailer Park Tuesday , a showcase of new book trailers and, in a few cases, previews of book-related movies.  Unless their last name is Grisham or King, authors will probably never see their trailers on the big screen at the local cineplex.  And that's a shame because a lot of hard work goes into producing these short marriages between book and video.  So, if you like what you see, please spread the word and help these videos go viral.





Wiley Cash's debut novel is as So...

My First Time: Sam Thomas

My First Time is a regular feature in which writers talk about virgin experiences in their writing and publishing careers, ranging from their first rejection to the moment of holding their first published book in their hands.  Today’s guest is Sam Thomas, author of the historical mystery The Midwife's Tale , released earlier this month by Minotaur Books (an imprint of St. Martin's Press).  Thomas teaches history at University School, an independent day school outside Cleveland, Ohio. ...

Soup and Salad: A Conversation with Alex Gilvarry, World Book Night, Inauguration Poetry, Story Prize Finalists, Jeffrey Eugenides' Advice to Young Writers

On today's menu:


1.  At Barnes and Noble's Discover Great New Writers blog, Alex Gilvarry (who's certainly a great new writer you should discover) and I have a conversation about Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire , the politics of war literature, and what it's like to date a fashion model (Alex, not me).  We talk about a whole bunch of other stuff, too.  Check it out , and then go pick up a copy of Alex's debut novel From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant . ...

Friday Freebie: The Cove by Ron Rash

Congratulations to Christine Norris, winner of last week's Friday Freebie: Spectacle , short stories by Susan Steinberg.

This week's book giveaway is a new paperback copy of  The Cove  by Ron Rash, one of my favorite contemporary authors--based almost solely on the incredible novel Serena .  Janet Maslin praised The Cove in the New York Times by saying, “Mr. Rash’s writing is so richly atmospheric…[he] can make words take wing…. A breathless sequence of events lead the book to its d...