Rebecca Cantrell's Blog, page 2

Top 10 Smartest Women on Star Trek

I just got back from Hawaii Con, where Kandyse McClure challenged the audience to write a blog post about the 10 smartest women on Star Trek. Never one to back down from a writing challenge, and agreeing that such a thing should exist in the world, I decided to accept that challenge. How hard could it be?

Much later I stumbled home, weary after a day dodging storm troopers and supervillians, hungry from the complete absence of gluten-free food, but determined to complete my list before sinking into my pillow next to a very noisy air conditioner.

It was harder than I thought.

But if the women of Star Trek could persevere through battles with aliens in the hardships of space, then I could at least finish the list. I fortified myself with chocolate and forged on.

There’s a lot of brilliance to go around on Star Trek, and I wanted to make sure that everyone got a fair shake. So, I decided to include candidates from each of the television shows so that the list crossed both time and quadrants. With that in mind, here’s the list, in chronological order:

Original series

Lieutenant Uhura

Lieutenant Uhura is drop-dead brilliant. She’s a linguist, a philologist, and a cryptologist. Unlike everyone else on the ship, she speaks several alien languages. She takes over the navigation, helm, and science stations whenever that’s necessary, too, so she can clearly do most everyone’s job. She doesn’t have Kirk’s bluster, McCoy’s bellicosity, or Spock’s brows , just a quiet rationalism that gets the job done.
Carol Marcus

Dr. Carol Marcus is one of the leading molecular biologists in the entire freaking universe. She created the Genesis project—capable of instantly terraforming barren planets. She’s basically as close to a science god on the series—creating all life on a planet in a lot less than seven days. And she has to good sense to realize that Captain Kirk is not someone who will settle down and raise a son.

The Next Generation

Leah Brahms

Dr. Leah Brahms is a master physicist who literally wrote the book(s) on the Enterprise. Her manuals are so important that she’s the first person Commander LaForge calls upon when the Enterprise is stuck in an ancient trap. Even her cutesy hologram is smart enough to save everyone’s lives.
Guinan

Guinan possesses great wisdom. Her counsel from Ten Forward solves many a thorny problem for the crew. She’s part of a long-lived race, and helps the Enterprise crew when they travel back in time, and even manages to help them when they are caught in the Nexus when she isn’t even there. Most impressively of all, even Q respects her and says there is more to her than can be imagined. All that, and she pours a mean Samarian Sunset.

Deep Space 9

Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax

Jadzia Dax is a Star Fleet Science officer and a joined Trill. Through her symbiont, Dax, she has access to far more wisdom and experience than a human can acquire in a single lifetime. All on her own before that, she earns premiere distinctions (which I’m thinking are like PhDs, but correct me if I’m wrong) in astrophysics, exoarchaeology, exobiology, and zoology. She even discovers the wormhole to Bajor. Plus, she’s handy with a Bat’leth.

Voyager

Captain Kathryn Janeway

Kathry Janeway has the toughest job of any Starfleet captain—getting the crew and ship back from the Delta quadrant over the course of many years and adventures. Her wisdom is what keeps everyone going. She was also originally a science officer and often pitches in to repair the ship. In fact, she’s the only scientist we see captaining a Star Fleet vessel in any quadrant.
Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 0

Seven of Nine helped to assimilate millions of beings, including entire species, and she has all that knowledge at her command, making her arguably the most intelligent person in the entire Star Trek series (tied, perhaps, with Hugh from TNG, but he is sent back to the Borg). Although she has some trouble fitting in with the Voyager crew, she constantly rescues them. She helped to design the astrometrics lab, which cut years off their voyage, and was able to make it possible for the crew to communicate with the Alpha quadrant for a while. She even brought Neelix back from the dead. Not bad for a little girl who was taken from her family and assimilated by the age of seven.
All the Borg Queens

Same arguments as for 7 of 9, but even more so.
Lieutenant B’Elanna Torres

Chakotay describes her as “the best engineer I’ve ever known” and even though she has some disciplinary problems, Captain Janeway quickly promotes her to Chief of Engineering, because there’s no one else on board even close to her. She’s also fierce and strong, working as hard to integrate her Klingon and human sides as Spock does to unite his human and Vulcan halves.

Enterprise

??

I left this one open, because I haven’t seen this series yet. Who would you put in here?

Now, before I head off to rest up for another hard day of geeking out (this time with a bag lunch), I’m issuing a challenge to you. Who do YOU think should be on this list? And why?

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Published on September 18, 2016 00:59

What If The Patriots Hired This Crime Fiction Hero To Investigate Their Next Draft Choice?

Today I’m putting up a guest post from the talented mystery writer, Bruce DeSilva, winner of both the Edgar and Macavity awards also know by the less fancy title of “that guy who did the photo series of writers reading his books.” His latest novel, The Dread Line, comes out today and below he’s talking about what his investigative reporter hero might have done for the Patriots. Hang on to your hats, and your footballs!

What If The Patriots Hired This Crime Fiction Hero To Investigate Their Next Draft Choice?

In the end, the New England Patriots should consider themselves lucky. What if Aaron Hernandez had felt disrespected at practice one day, stalked out to the parking lot, fetched a handgun, and shot quarterback Tom Brady? Or head coach Bill Belichick? Or maybe both?

After all, he was capable of such violence according to Massachusetts authorities, who will try him early next year for shooting two men to death following a bar brawl in Boston’s South End in 2012. Not that a conviction will change Hernandez’s life all that much. At age 26, the former Patriots tight end is already serving life without parole for the 2013 murder of his wife’s sister’s fiancé, a guy he used to party hearty with.

To the casual football fan, this has been a shocking turn of events in the life of a once goofy, well-liked Bristol, Connecticut, kid who shattered state receiving records in high school, earned All-American honors at the University of Florida, got drafted by the Patriots after his junior year, and promptly formed the most prolific tight-end receiving combination in NFL history with teammate Rob Gronkowski.

It is worth pausing to remember what a remarkable athlete Hernandez was. As a Patriots fan, I spent many Sunday afternoons marveling at his talent. Sometimes squatting beside an offensive tackle, sometimes splitting out wide, and sometimes even lining up as a running back, he was too fast for linebackers to cover and too powerful for safeties and corner backs to handle. And in both the passing and running game, he was a ferocious blocker.

But by the time the Patriots drafted him in 2010, those in the know understood that Hernandez was troubled. That’s why several teams removed him from their draft board, and why, despite being one of the greatest talents available, he fell to the Patriots in the fourth round. Knowing little about Hernandez’s past and a good deal about his abilities, I was initially thrilled by the pick, imagining the havoc Tom Brady would wreak with both him and Gronkowski as targets for his laser-like passes.

But surely the Patriots had an inkling about the kind of man they were about to set loose in their locker room. Perhaps they thought that success, money, and being surrounded by “character” players such as Brady, Matt Light, and Vince Wilfork would tame Hernandez. If so, they were tragically mistaken.

Hernandez’s story was very much in my mind as I sat at my computer nearly two years ago and began writing The Dread Line, the fifth entry in my Edgar Award-winning series of hard-boiled crime novels. I considered fictionalizing Hernandez’s story but soon dismissed the idea. There were too many loose ends left, and with the double-murder case pending, there still are. Besides, I wanted to write an original tale. So I asked myself, what if?

What if the Patriots, still reeling from the Hernandez saga, decided that their scouting department needed a professional investigator to help them vet a college star they were considering drafting?

So I invented Conner Bowditch, a defensive lineman with the speed of J.J. Watt and the strength of Ndamukong Suh, who had starred at Central High in Providence, Rhode Island, and gone on to disrupt offenses at Boston College. I had the Patriots turn to McCracken & Associates Investigative Services, Providence’s best private detective agency, where the hero of my crime novels, Liam Mulligan, had just started working part-time.

Unlike Bowditch, a Providence son of privilege who was, to all appearances, a choirboy, Hernandez grew up in central Connecticut, where, according to multiple reports, he started hanging out with a bad crowd at age 16 after his father died. At the University of Florida, where Hernandez played for Urban Meyer and with Tim Tebow, there were reports of drug use and a bar fight in which he slugged an employee, puncturing his eardrum. And he was questioned about a 2007 shooting in which two men were wounded outside a Gainesville, Florida, club following an altercation with Hernandez and two of his teammates. Although local police wanted to charge Hernandez, prosecution was deferred after the player settled with the victims out of court.

The Patriots may have figured they were minimizing their risk by giving Hernandez a modest rookie contract. However, after he emerged as a superstar, they rewarded him two years later with a five-year, $40 million deal that included a $12.5 million signing bonus—at the time the largest bonus ever given to a tight end. But after the first murder charge was filed against him, the team cut him loose, costing him nearly $20 million in salary along with several endorsement deals.

In the aftermath, authorities began re-examining Hernandez’s role in the Gainesville shooting and asking what part, if any, he played in the 2013 Florida shooting of a man named Alexander Bradley, who was suing the player for the loss of his right eye. Last year, Hernandez was indicted for witness intimidation in connection with that incident. Bradley, according to published reports, had been a witness to the 2012 Boston double-murder with which Hernandez is charged.

Compared to Hernandez, the fictional Conner Bowditch seemed to be a great guy—an exceptional scholar and student leader who defended the weak against bullies, was beloved by his coaches, and planned to marry his high-school sweetheart.

At first, my man Mulligan thought of him as Saint Conner, assuming the investigative assignment would be routine. But once Mulligan started asking questions, he got push-back. Bowditch, Mulligan discovered, had something to hide, and someone was willing to kill to make sure it remained secret.

And that’s all I’m going to say about that. To find out what the secret is, what it has to do with a sleazy sports agent named Morris Dunst, and whether the Patriots draft Bowditch anyway, you’ll just have to read the book.

To order The Dread Line, the fifth in the Edgar Award-winning series of crime novels by Bruce DeSilva, please click here: https://www.amazon.com/Dread-Line-Mulligan-Novel-Liam-ebook/dp/B01BSMZKJO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465593488&sr=8-1&keywords=the%2Bdread%2Bline%2Bdesilva#nav-subnav

This article first appeared on J. Kingston Pierce’s blog, The Rap Sheet.

Best of luck with the latest, Bruce!

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Published on September 05, 2016 23:56

Demon of Rock and Roll

This blog is going to have quite a soundtrack!

In your novel, Wannabes, you talk about the lack of good music in Hell and how it drives a bureaucratic demon named Murmur to come to Earth to do bad things. In the spirit of that, what song would you recommend readers listen to while reading this interview? Maybe something Scottish, because of your heritage? Or something demonic, because of his? Or both?

There’s only really one song I can put in here, since Jeff Buckley plays such a big role in the book. It isn’t Hallelujah, although that number is particularly important to the thrust of the book. It’s Lover, You Should’ve Come Over. This is my favourite Buckley number, a truly haunting song, and one that helps rehabilitate the biggest baddy in the book – perhaps the biggest baddy of all time. It was also the first song at my wedding, which seemed like a good idea until we started trying to dance to it and ended up shuffling awkwardly to the funereal beat while everybody asked themselves why, on this happy day, we had chosen such a downbeat number.

OK, everyone, get the music started. I’ll wait.

Right then, today I’m interviewing Michael Logan. He’s an award-winning Scottish journalist and writer with tons of accolades and such on his website, but that isn’t why I picked up his first book.

I was wandering around Berlin’s largest English-language bookstore when a title caught my eye: Apocalypse Cow. It had a blurb on the front cover from Terry Pratchett–the author of the Discworld books and co-author of Good Omens (with Neil Gaiman), which I had literally finished the day before. That made me turn the book over and start reading about three unlikely heroes who must save the world from zombie cows (Forget the cud. They want blood.). I was hooked. I have to ask: did you have a traumatic experience with cows as a child? With zombies?

I didn’t have any traumatic cow experiences as a kid, since they are pretty docile and everywhere in Scotland – even ginger cows, with which I obviously feel an affinity. I did get chased once on a hike as an adult, though. We climbed a fence without considering that the farmer probably had a good reason for putting it there and shortly found ourselves confronted by a somewhat miffed bull. Luckily I’ve always been a fast runner, so I made it back over the fence before it could spear my buttocks. I think my friend made it out too, although I haven’t seen him since. It was only 20 years ago, so I’m sure he’s fine. Do you think I should call him?

As for zombies, they’re sweethearts really. Just misunderstood.

You might want to make that call. Probably not too late to avoid prosecution. Are you a vegetarian now, to spare yourself the cow attacks? Why or why not?

I was a vegetarian, but then I moved to France to study. I had a little apartment, with no cooking facilities, so I had to eat at the cafeteria. This is a country where you can buy shrink-wrapped brains in the supermarket (I assume not human), so you can imagine there wasn’t a great deal of choice for a vegetarian. I went back to meat, and haven’t stopped since. I rarely eat red meat, though, in large part due to its environmental footprint.

That book occupies pride of place on my son’s bookshelf, next to the sequel, World War Moo. Then I ran out and bought his standalone, Wannabes, which comes out today in paperback. First off, congratulations, and secondly, I love the new cover!

Thank you! It was my first self-published experience, and very liberating to have complete control over the cover (designed by the very talented Nats Grant, fellow shuffler to Buckley), pricing and whatnot after dealing with the machinery of big houses.

Wannabes was rightfully shortlisted for an International Thriller Writers award, and it’s a fantastic read. It’s funny, but very, very dark. It features a bureaucratic demon trying to destroy all good music and musicians to make Earth a sadder place, a serial killer who murders celebrities because he thinks he will receive their powers if he wears their tattoos, and a washed up singer trying to restart his career. That all sounds terribly bleak, and sometimes it is, but it’s also screamingly funny. How on Earth did you wrangle these characters?

The idea for the book started off, more or less, with Gareth the serial killer. He was a little different then. The idea was that a tattoo shop owner had created a gimmick: a one-off tattoo, split into ten pieces, that when assembled formed some profound message (allegedly). Gareth was to go around killing everyone and trying to piece it together. He was always tragi-comic, an attempt to embody that desperate search for meaning and love that we all feel at some point in our lives, but are usually able to contain or ward off. He stayed that way as the story morphed, with the addition of the little voice in his ear directing him (Murmur), the celebrity angle, the music, and the equally desperate Jackie Thunder trying to take advantage of Gareth’s killing spree. I wanted to tell a story with no obvious antagonist, one that showed that even ‘bad’ people can be understood and rooted for. At heart, pretty much everybody wants to be loved and admired. This was my starting point.

I’m assuming that Murmur the demon, at least, is based on a real person. Spill.

Err, litigation alert! I’ll let people draw their own conclusions. Plus it would be a pretty big spoiler..

Then let’s get right to the death and mayhem. Who are the musicians that Murmur tries to destroy and why?

He starts off with Buddy Holly, who was a pivotal figure in the burgeoning Rock’n’Roll movement that brought so much energy, optimism and enthusiasm to youth, and scared the crap out of a very conservative generation. That’s why Satan sent Murmur upstairs to bump him off in a plane crash. He was worried that music, this incredibly powerful force for good that speaks to some indefinable part of us, would make people better and therefore closer to God. From there, Murmur goes off on a spree, taking out other musicians who are threatening to spread love and happiness. A lot of the names will be familiar to those who know their dead musician history.

Which musicians does he promote?

In the course of the book, Murmur begins to fall in love with music and doubt his mission. His first big music crush is Hendrix, but he quickly builds up a catalogue of musicians he should kill but can’t bring himself to. Buckley is among them. In terms of those he actively promotes … well, they’re all fabricated echoes of dreadful manufactured bands.

Do you have a playlist for this book?

Everybody’s tastes are different, so listen to the music that makes your heart sing. Having said that, some of my favourite songs of the moment, a few of which are name-checked in this book (did I mention it’s my most personal work?) follow:

Romulus, Sufjan Stevens

Bugs Don’t Buzz, Majical Cloudz

Pink Rabbits, The National

Pyramid Song, Radiohead

Location, Freelance Whales

All We Have Is Now, Flaming Lips

The Swimmer, Metz (please do forgive the abrupt change of pace, but this song kicks all kinds of arse)

Steady As She Goes, Shellac

Walking Spanish Down The Hall, Tom Waits

My favourite songs do tend to change pretty regularly, so ask me again tomorrow and I’ll give you another list (although these songs will always be up there).

What are you working on now? Are there demons? Tell me there are demons!

There are demons. Next up is Hell’s Detective: Lost Angeles. Here’s the pitch:

Kat Murphy is a private detective tortured by demons. Real ones. She is serving a death sentence in the depraved city of Lost Angeles, where her own personal Torment forces her to relive, night after night, the moment she killed her lover and put a bullet in her own skull.

Kat longs to make amends for her sins. When the city’s Chief Administrator hires her to retrieve a stolen box with a mysterious power, offering to call off her Torment in return, she gets the chance to do just that.

But if Kat has learned one thing, it’s that every case has a wrinkle. As she trawls drug dens, porn hubs and fighting pits in search of the thief, she discovers that both box and city contain secrets darker than she could ever have imagined. With time running out, Kat must choose between her own desire for peace and the fate of the world above.

I can’t wait to read that one! For now, though, what’s a good song to send us on our way today?

In Wannabes, I bang on quite a lot about how cover versions, at least how they are done in reality TV shows, are evil. However, there are some great covers out there – not least Buckley’s version of Hallelujah, which outshines the Cohen original in every way (sorry, Leonard, you know I love you). Another great example is the James Vincent McMorrow cover of Wicked Game, used in the Game of Thrones Season 6 trailer. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Chris Isaak original, a bit too cheesy with the twangy guitars, but this stripped back cover is a thing of beauty. I defy you not to feel every broken love affair you ever had sweetly prick your tender heart when you listen to it.

This for my blog readers. Which songs do you think Murmur should most promote to (whatever your why is)? Which ones should be destroyed to save humanity?

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Published on May 06, 2016 01:09

Cute little dogs and asparagus–finding comedy in the everyday

A is for Asshat Audiobook When Sean Black and I decided to do an audiobook of the Sofia Salgado series we knew we wanted a special narrator–a performer who could read the books without blushing and bring out the humor in Sofia’s wacky life.

We had a lot of auditions that were close, but the second we heard Madeline Mrozek read the opening lines of A is for Asshat, we knew we’d found our Sofia. Here’s a five minute clip of A is for Asshat so you can hear it for yourself:

Here’s an exclusive sneak preview of the first five minutes of B is for Bad Girls, too!

So: how did Madeline do that? Let’s find out!

Madeline, what were you thinking when you decided to audition for this project?

I’m not gonna lie, the title of the book and the cover really caught my attention! Once I read the audition piece, I knew I had to go for it. A fast-paced and funny mystery series set in the Southern California coast, starring a sexy and sarcastic P.I.? Yes, please!

How did you get started in audiobooks?

I love performing on stage and decided last year to explore other avenues of acting which led me to voice over training with the remarkable David H. Lawrence XVII. That experience introduced me to the world of audiobook narration and I’ve been hooked ever since!

Are you a former child star turned detective who narrates on the side? Because I think you’re channeling Sofia!

seagull Funny you should ask…..Since I was a little girl, I’ve wanted to be an actress and now here I am at age 49, sitting at the microphone every day, ‘channeling’ more characters than I could have imagined! It’s a dream come true for sure.

What were the best and worst parts of narrating the Sofia books?

There are too many ‘bests’ to count! The stories themselves are well-written, hilarious and I love finding out ‘whodunit’. Bringing each character to life and giving them their own distinct personality is so much fun and just feels very natural to me. Being a Southern California native definitely helps me connect even deeper with the story, which I love.

The worst part of narrating the Sofia books? I can’t think of one thing, honestly. It’s all good!

Aww…thanks! Sometimes, it seems like the books actually come to life for you, like the other day when you were on a walk and met one of the character in B is for Bad Girls. What happened there?

We went for a family hike to Echo Mountain in Pasadena last week and when I passed a lady with her adorable little white Bichon Frise that had its ears dyed cherry red, it stopped me in my tracks instantly! I wanted to ask Snow Cone if we could take a selfie but she just winked at me and kept walking…..too much paparazzi perhaps??

What are you working on now?

B Is For Bad Girls is in production and I’ll be starting work soon on the 4th book in another series I’m doing in the young adult paranormal genre. I’m very busy and very grateful.

Where can people hear more of your books?

My books are for sale on audible.com as well as iTunes and Amazon alongside their printed and e-versions.

Where can authors reach you to hire you as a narrator?

madelinemrozeknarrator@gmail.com as well as Facebook and Twitter!

If you have any questions for Maureen, please post them in the comments either here or on my Facebook page. I’ll make sure that she gets them!

Thanks for listening!

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Published on February 02, 2016 11:04

Speakeasy: What’s Your Favorite Song?

I’ve been humming the tunes from Speakeasy all week, and I can’t decide which one is my favorite. I’ve narrowed it down to three. Which one do you like best?

First one: Speakeasy

I like this one because it pulls you into the show and gives you a sense of all the magic and whimsy that are to come as Jane goes down the rabbit hole and John goes through the mirror and they end up in Wonderland.

http://www.rebeccacantrell.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/SI-01Speakeasy-1-1.mp3

Second one: It’s A Dream

This is the one that I used in last week’s post. I still love it. Here’s Danny’s explanation of the song: Although it sounds like Jane and John are singing about each other in this song, they are actually not. Jane is dancing with Duchess, and John with Julian at this point, unaware of what their spouse is doing only feet away on the same dance floor. But they will meet soon enough.

http://www.rebeccacantrell.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/SI-18-Its-a-Dream.mp3

Third one: Dance Into the Light

Dance into the Light is Master of Ceremonies Chet Cheshire’s theme song, as sung at the Wonderland nightclub, when both John and Jane first arrive in the company of Julian and Duchess.

http://www.rebeccacantrell.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/SI-16-Dance-Into-the-Light.mp3

Danny has written some wonderful posts about the show and his inspiration for many of the songs on his blog (he has more musical excerpts there as well) in the Speakeasy section.

And, if you want to help make the musical as spectacular and amazing as possible on a New York stage, visit the Kickstarter for Speakeasypage to chip in. Every little bit helps!

So, which if these three songs was your favorite? Or do you have another one from the show that you like even better?

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Published on November 23, 2015 23:00

Speakeasy: A Musical Trip Down the Rabbit Hole

Remember that time that you met someone who seemed cool in high school but then didn’t see him again for twenty years? And he wasn’t cool anymore? This is NOT that time.

I’m happy to have a chance to interview my still-cool friend, Danny Ashkenasi, about his latest project: a musical set in the world of gay 1920s New York called Speakeasy. It’s not the first Ashkenasi musical I’ve liked though–in high school he wrote and directed in an amphibian musical called Once Upon a Frog about an extraterrestrial transformed into a frog. Because that is just how Danny rolls…err…hops.

Danny, one a scale of 1 to 7, do you regret not casting me in “Once Upon a Frog,” even though you would not even meet me for another year and I can neither sing nor act and used to throw up when I had to go onstage?

No regrets. The original cast was absolutely fabulous: Chris Cruz, James Miller, Jeff Copfer, Christina Huth, Michelle Carroll and Modjgan Goudarzi. They each owned those parts. So much so that when I saw Once Upon a Frog done in German as Es War Einmal ein Frosch in Wetzlar years later, it was uncanny how so many of the actors in that production resembled the original cast, even though they had never seen it done at our school.

Speakeasy is set in the flourishing gay world of 1920s Prohibition-era New York. What led you to this topic?

I have always wanted to set a show in the 1920s or 1930s because I had a lot of melodies tumbling about in my head or written down in saved music scrap paper that seemed to belong to that era musically. I imagined the theatrical setting to be a nightclub perhaps, that also acts like the stage for the whole world of the story. But for many years I didn’t know what the story would be. Then I got interested in writing a musical about the queer subculture of the era. Because that era at the time seemed so removed from the modern Gay Rights Era, it seemed to me a magical realist approach may be appropriate, that the show could have the feel of a dream rather than be a realistically structured drama. Once I hit upon using Lewis Carroll’s Alice books, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, as inspiration and narrative templates. I finally knew how to approach the writing of Speakeasy.

Are there any characters based on actual historical figures from the era?

Quite a few. Many characters are a hybrid of Wonderland denizens and historical figures. For example, Chet Cheshire is part Cjeshire Cat, and part Gene Malin, a successful openly gay nightclub M.C. who thrived during the “Pansy Craze” of 1929. Duchess Bentley is part Duchess and Humpty Dumpty from the books, and also based on Gladys Bentley, a notoriously bawdy black lesbian nightclub singer who sang at the Ubangi Club in Harlem. Julian Carnations is partly the Red Queen and the Mad Hatter as well as based on Julian Eltinge, a very successful female impersonator during the Roaring Twenties. The Tweedle Sisters are part Tweedledum and Tweedledee and part Dolly Sisters, a famous vaudeville act. Caroline Chrysalides is part Caterpiller, part Queen of Harts, and also based on several politically and socially active high society ladies of the era. Our leads, newlyweds Jane and John Allison, are part Alice but as far as history goes wholly invented and take their narrative cues from Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass respectively, by which I mean Jane’s adventures follow the first book, John’s adventures follow the second book; at the beginning at least, until they meet and realize they are both having this crazy dream not on their own but together…

What made you decide to do a Kickstarter campaign to fund Speakeasy?

For the last 14 years my husband Ed and I, as Fredrick Byers productions, have been self-producing musical theater productions and concert performances, mostly in New York City. Usually with smaller casts. But Speakeasy needs a large cast and a bigger productions, and we first thought this would be too large a show to produce on our own like we had been so far.

I had heard but not known much about crowdfunding projects on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, yet hadn’t initially thought about those being avenues for raising funds to get musical workshops or showcases off the ground. But then I heard about George Takei’s Allegiance and how he raised money for his show by crowdfunding. And friends told me about theater projects on Kickstarter and I started to investigate as well as back several projects myself. Not only did I feel that we would need Kickstarter to help get Speakeasy on its feet in a properly scaled workshop showcase. I also felt Speakeasy as a project would be a good fit for the Kickstarter community. That its historical and social perspective, its ability to give great performing opportunities to a big multitalented cast of all genders, sizes and colors, would be particularly attractive to the Kickstarter community.

Could you give my readers a sneak listen of one of the songs in the show? How about It’s a Dream? I love that one!

Here you go. Although it sounds like Jane and John are singing about each other in this song, they are actually not. Jane is dancing with Duchess, and John with Julian at this point, unaware of what their spouse is doing only feet away on the same dance floor. But they will meet soon enough…

http://www.rebeccacantrell.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/SI-18-Its-a-Dream.mp3

If this sounds like the kind of show that needs to be brought to the stage, pop on over to the Kickstarter campaign for Speakeasyto help! Every little bit helps–even a dollar will buy a feather for some performer’s cap! (BTW, if you scroll down on the campaign page, you can listen to a lot of the songs in the musical!)

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Published on November 17, 2015 00:14

Dark Justice is here: Name that Author!

What do you get when you combine ten award-winning and New York Times bestselling crime authors? Dark Justice. That’s the name of a bundle of novels I’m proud to be included in, from current novelists whose work I just discovered (like Kris Nelscott) to writers I read under the covers as a teenager (like Lawrence Block), it’s pretty heady company indeed. The novels all explore the topics of justice, but from many different perspectives–professional detectives, agoraphobic millionaires, doctors, bounty hunters. There’s a lot to love about this bundle, including the price–which is whatever you want to pay.

Name that Author!

Love this audio description of the Crime Storybundle put together by J. Daniel Sawyer. I listened to it and tried to match as many authors as I could in 1 minute, 18 seconds. (authors are: Lawrence Block, Kris Nelscott, Dean Wesley Smith, J. Daniel Sawyer, Julie Hyzy, Libby Fischer Helman, David DeLee, Patrice Greenwood, Meliss Yi, and me)

http://www.rebeccacantrell.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/dark_justice-finished_promo.mp3

To fill you in on all the details, I’m going to bring in Kris Nelscott, aka Kathryn Kristine Rusch.

THE DARK JUSTICE BUNDLE

Curated by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

This bundle comes as close to crime fiction perfection as possible.

When I put the bundle together, I considered various authors and stories. I wanted books similar enough to attract readers (and to allow me to name the bundle), but different enough to provide a sample of the crime fiction genre. (Insiders call “mystery” fiction “crime” fiction because that word is much more accurate.) I also wanted a mix of long-established writers and up-and-comers.

I achieved all of those things and more. This bundle boasts one Grand Master, several award-winners, bestsellers who’ve hit lists like the New York Times and USA Today with multiple books, household names, and writers who’ve just entered the mystery field—sometimes with a bang.

We also have a lot of diversity here. Our investigators include an African American detective, a Canadian doctor of Asian extraction, a disabled stockbroker and a group of retired cold case detectives. Throw in a few amateur detectives, a disgraced ex-cop, a female bounty hunter, and the famous Matthew Scudder, who has appeared in film (most recently A Walk Among The Tombstones), and you’ll encounter the full range of characters the mystery genre has to offer.

I’ve read and loved the work of each and every one of these writers. Some of them I’ve read since I started reading mystery and some I’ve read since before they ever had a book published. In one of my other incarnations, I’m an award-winning editor, so believe me when I tell you that if there were some kind of Kristine Kathryn Rusch Gold Seal of Approval, the books in this bundle would receive it.

For those of you who have never purchased a bundle from StoryBundle before, welcome! StoryBundle makes ordering and downloading these books spectacularly easy.

The initial titles in the Dark Justice Bundle (minimum $5 to purchase) are:

Cold Call by Dean Wesley Smith
And Then She Was Gone by J. Daniel Sawyer
An Eye For Murder by Libby Fischer Hellmann
Code Blues by Melissa Yi
A Fatal Twist of Lemon by Patrice Greenwood

If you pay more than the bonus price of just $15, you get all five of the regular titles, plus these outstanding books:

Fatal Destiny by David DeLee
Playing With Matches by Julie Hyzy
A Dangerous Road by Kris Nelscott
The Night and the Music by Lawrence Block
The World Beneath by Rebecca Cantrell

Our curator, on the authors:

Cold Call by Dean Wesley Smith

I fully admit I might be biased when it comes to Dean Wesley Smith the person. I married him because I think he’s one of the most terrific people I know. But I’m not biased when it comes to his fiction—or not biased in the way you’d think I should be.

I’m his first reader, and it’s my job to tell him if something’s brilliant or if it needs to go back to the drawing board. Dean writes a several series, but only two make me grab the books out of his hands the moment he finishes them. (And nag him to finish more.) One is the Thunder Mountain series. I think you should look it up now.

The other series? The Cold Poker Gang. I insisted he participate in this bundle with first book in the series, Cold Call. Once you start this series, you’ll become as rabid a fan as I am.

And Then She Was Gone by J. Daniel Sawyer

Daniel Sawyer has the most amazing voice of any writer I’ve ever encountered. It makes sense, since he started writing for audio and writing for the ear is all about voice. His most popular series, featuring ex-cop Clarke Lantham, focuses on his other specialty—computers and technology. Dan used to work in the tech industry when he lived in the Bay Area, and his expertise comes through in every sentence. He’s added the first book of that series to this bundle, and believe me, you’ll want to read every single one of the others.

An Eye For Murder by Libby Fischer Hellmann

When popular mystery writer Libby Fischer Hellman offered the Anthony-Award nominated first novel in her Ellie Forman series for this book bundle, I jumped at the chance. This book travels from Prague in World War II to modern Chicago, Libby’s stomping ground. I discovered Libby through her amazing short fiction which led me to her novels. You get to start with one of her very best novels which will ease you into one of her best series to date.

Code Blues by Melissa Yi

When I first met Melissa Yi, she was an emergency room physician with dreams of becoming a professional writer. Her writing, including her award-nominated short fiction, has always had power, but she has truly found her niche with the Hope Sze mystery series. Drawing on her personal experiences in the ER in Canada, Melissa has created medical thrillers that shine with authenticity and are impossible to put down.

Another first book in a series (like others in this bundle), Code Blue provides the perfect introduction to a world we often experience, but rarely understand.

A Fatal Twist of Lemon by Patrice Greenwood

There are a lot of mean streets in this bundle, dark stories and creepy villains. Patrice Greenwood provides a respite from all of that. Her Wisteria Tea Room falls into a subgenre that I often find twee—the cozy. Yet Patrice writes a mean cozy, the kind I absolutely love. And I mean “mean” in the best possible way.

Under another name, Patrice is an award-winning western and historical writer. You can see those influences here. She’s also from New Mexico, where this book is set, adding yet another layer of authenticity to A Fatal Twist of Lemon, the first book in this marvelous series.

A Dangerous Road by Kris Nelscott

Full disclosure: I’m Kris Nelscott. In the introduction to this bundle, I promised you high quality work and believe me, I wouldn’t say that about something of mine without some outside confirmation. The Smokey Dalton mystery series has received a large number of award nominations, including the prestigious Edgar Award (mystery’s highest honor) and the Shamus Award (for best private eye novel). A Dangerous Road made the New York Public Library’s recommended lists and several top ten lists when the novel first appeared. And, like so many others here, A Dangerous Road marks the beginning of the series, a series I love writing, seven books down the road

Playing With Matches by Julie Hyzy

New York Times bestselling writer Julie Hyzy is best known for her cozy mysteries, but she writes darker crime stories as well. Originally hidden under a pen name, Playing With Matches bears Julie’s bestselling award-winning name for the first time. Like David D. Lee, and Melissa Yi, Julie first came to my attention before she had ever published a word. Her writing was good then; it’s spectacular now.

I’m hoping Playing With Matches marks the first book in the Riley Drake series. At the moment, the novel stands alone and will, I hope, lead you to Julie’s other marvelous work.

The World Beneath by Rebecca Cantrell

I discovered New York Times bestseller Rebecca Cantrell the old-fashioned way—in a bookstore. The first book in her Hannah Vogel series caught my eye, and boy, oh, boy was it worth the read. Later, we became Twitter pals. Then she introduced Joe Tesla. I’ll be honest: I wasn’t sure she could make this Hannah Vogel fan happy. Yet she did.

The World Beneath didn’t just make me happy. It made other readers happy too. It won the International Thriller Writers’ Best Ebook Original Novel Award and it hit the USA Today bestseller list due to word-of-mouth.

I envy those of you about to embark on your first Rebecca Cantrell novel. I remember my first. Those of you who’ve already encountered her will know what I’m talking about.

Fatal Destiny by David DeLee

Award-winning novelist David DeLee is one of those writers I knew way back when, in the days before he published anything. I thought he’d veer into science fiction. Instead, he’s made a heck of a career as a mystery and thriller writer.

He’s best known for his award-winning Grace deHaviland series, and we’re lucky enough to have the first book in that series to share with you. Grace is a bounty hunter, who takes on some pretty tough clients. I think you’ll enjoy every moment you spend in her company. I know I have.

The Night and the Music by Lawrence Block

I have loved Lawrence Block’s work for decades. Literally. I read my first Lawrence Block novel in the 1970s, and I’ve read many of them since. I won’t say I’ve read all of them, because he has written a lot of books under pen names and some books are just starting to come back into print.

He writes a number of series characters. They appear in both short stories and novels. He’s a master of the short story form, someone I’m still stealing —oops, I mean learning— from. I’ve found that his short work provides the perfect introduction to one of his series character.

He contributed one of his best known characters to this bundle, Matthew Scudder. Scudder has appeared on the big screen twice that I know of, first portrayed by Jeff Bridges in Eight Million Ways to Die, and just last year by Liam Neeson in a Walk Among The Tombstones.

The Scudder books have hit bestseller lists and graced award ballots. The Scudder short stories have received award attention as well. This collection not only lets you sample Scudder stories, it also contains a list of all the Scudder books in order.

I’m going to assume that, if you’ve never read Larry’s work, you’ve just started your mystery reading habit. If you’ve read Larry’s work but somehow missed Scudder, you’re in for a treat.

In fact you’re all in for a treat. Because once you read the short stories, you’ll move to the novels. I guarantee it.

The bundle is available for a very limited time only, via http://www.storybundle.com. It allows easy reading on computers, smartphones, and tablets as well as Kindle and other ereaders via file transfer, email, and other methods. You get multiple DRM-free formats (.epub and .mobi) for all books!

It’s also super easy to give the gift of reading with StoryBundle, thanks to our gift cards – which allow you to send someone a code that they can redeem for any future StoryBundle bundle – and timed delivery, which allows you to control exactly when your recipient will get the gift of StoryBundle.

Why StoryBundle?

Here are just a few benefits StoryBundle provides.

Get quality reads: We’ve chosen works from excellent authors to bundle together in one convenient package.
Pay what you want (minimum $5): You decide how much these fantastic books are worth to you. If you can only spare a little, that’s fine! You’ll still get access to a batch of exceptional titles.
Support authors who support DRM-free books: StoryBundle is a platform for authors to get exposure for their works, both for the titles featured in the bundle and for the rest of their catalog. Supporting authors who let you read their books on any device you want—restriction free—will show everyone there’s nothing wrong with ditching DRM.
Give to worthy causes: Bundle buyers have a chance to donate a portion of their proceeds to charity.
Receive extra books: If you beat our bonus price, you’re not just getting five books, you’re getting ten!

StoryBundle was created to give a platform for independent authors to showcase their work, and a source of quality titles for thirsty readers. StoryBundle works with authors to create bundles of ebooks that can be purchased by readers at their desired price. Before starting StoryBundle, Founder Jason Chen covered technology and software as an editor for Gizmodo.com and Lifehacker.com.

For more information, visit our website at storybundle.com, tweet us at @storybundle and like us on Facebook.

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Published on October 30, 2015 16:00

Dark Justice is here!