David Abrams's Blog, page 9

Friday Freebie: Still Come Home by Katey Schultz

Congratulations to Lisa Murray, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie contest: Now You See Them by Elly Griffiths.

This week’s giveaway is for Still Come Home by Katey Schultz, author of Flashes of War . I was privileged to read an early copy of this novel and wrote this at the time: “Katey Schultz’s debut novel Still Come Home is a remarkable book, impressive in its breadth and depth of story, engaging with its finely-drawn characters, and breathtaking in its pace. I know of few authors...

Sunday Sentence: Dad’s Maybe Book by Tim O’Brien

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.

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Friday Freebie: Now You See Them by Elly Griffiths

Congratulations to JT O’Neill, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie contest: We Love Anderson Cooper by R. L. Maizes.

This week’s giveaway is for Now You See Them by Elly Griffiths. It’s the fifth book in the Magic Men series, a mystery that follows detective Edgar Stephens and the magician Max Mephisto as they investigate a string of presumed kidnappings in the swinging 1960s. Keep scrolling for more information on the book and how to enter the contest...

My First Time: Katey Schultz

The First Time I Read My Story to a Veteran
I’d been in Sitka, Alaska all of twenty-four hours and had already fallen in love with its deep, dark winter—the way the snowpack held the moon’s reflection and the old growth spruce draped their boughs like the tired arms of towering women. I would live on this island in the North Pacific for five weeks and to kick-off my writing residency through The Island Institute , I was asked to read from my work-in-progress at the public library.

By this poi...

Sunday Sentence: Dad’s Maybe Book by Tim O’Brien

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.

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Friday Freebie: We Love Anderson Cooper by R. L. Maizes

Congratulations to John Smith, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie contest: King of the Mississippi by Mike Freedman.

This week’s giveaway is for We Love Anderson Cooper by R. L. Maizes. I started reading this collection of short stories earlier this week and I fell in love with Maizes’ writing style and her oddball characters from the first page. You know who else loved this book? Jill McCorkle, author of Life After Life, that’s who. Here’s what she had to say about it: “The title story in We Love Anderson Cooper will...

Front Porch Books: November 2019 edition

Front Porch Books is a monthly tally of new and forthcoming books—mainly advance review copies (aka “uncorrected proofs” and “galleys”)—I’ve received from publishers. Cover art and opening lines may change before the book is finally released. I should also mention that, in nearly every case, I haven’t had a chance to read these books, but they’re definitely going in the to-be-read pile.

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The Shriek and Thunder of War: Arthur Machen’s “The Bowmen”

Early this morning, as chilly wraiths of fog haunted the hills outside my window, I read the final spooky selections in Ghost Stories: Classic Tales of Horror and Suspense , edited by Lisa Morton and Leslie S. Klinger. As I said earlier at the blog, it is one of the best anthologies of supernatural stories I’ve ever read, impeccably edited and vibrantly alive in its impact (unlike most of its sheet-draped characters).

The next-to-last story in the book is “The Bowmen” by Arthur Machen, which first...

Tuesday Tune: “Town Underground” by Christy Hays

As anyone who has pranked around with interstate mileage signs will tell you, Butte, Montana is frequently the butt of jokes. Sometimes it deserves to have the “e” removed, and sometimes it doesn’t. When traveling on the interstate between Bozeman and Missoula, it’s easy to bypass this place, but those who pull off the nearest exit will find a place worth a linger...if only long enough to drive past the large mansions built by mining tycoons, eat a greasy pork chop sandwich, or stare into the...

The First Time I Found a Title For My Novel

What you’re seeing here is the very first photo of Fobbit when it lived on a thumb drive and was called Fobber.

I recently stumbled across this image on my computer and it was as unrecognizable to me as a grainy ultrasound photo is to parents after their child is finally born, weaned, and raised to be a walking, giggling toddler. For starters, that name, that work-in-progress title! How wrong-headed could I have been?

I imagine I wrote the term “Fobber” on a slip of a Post-It note and bound it in...