Sara J. Henry's Blog, page 5

Some lovely reviews, on the eve of launch day

In Sara J. Henry’s second Troy Chance mystery, A Cold and Lonely Place,
she brings the Lake Placid, New York, area to life with a story of
family secrets, emotional and physical isolation, and sudden death. It
is a landscape turned white and dangerous, a place “so cold that lakes
freeze into solid masses that people walk on, cut holes in for
ice-fishing, and drive sled-dog teams across,” as Henry’s narrator, a
newspaper reporter, puts it. “It took my first long winter here to learn
to gaug...

At 13 I sobbed my way through John D. MacDonald's CRY HARD, CRY FAST, an aptly titled novel...

Today I'm visiting at the Crimespree Magazine blog, where I talk about five books that influenced me - and here's one:





The Deep Blue Good-by , by John D. MacDonald (1964)


I was probably 12
when my dad decided I was old enough for the Travis McGee series – heady
stuff for someone just graduating from the Hardy Boys and Holmes. McGee
was a self-described “salvage consultant” who lived on a houseboat in
Fort Lauderdale and engaged in long soliloquies with his economist
friend Meyer between re...

Sometimes your dream doesn't make sense - but you chase it anyway

Recently read this post by my friend Bill Wynne (yet another advantage of attending Booktopia book retreat weekends - the astounding people you meet there): the story of a white boy from New Jersey who dreamed of playing Hawaiian music. Take a few minutes and read the whole thing - here's a tidbit, written just before going into the hospital for surgery:

Should I not sing the same way tomorrow as I did today, I will at least
still have my hands to lay upon steel guitars and ‘ukuleles. I ha...

A taste of the opening pages of my new novel (totally aimed at hooking you)

Available for pre-order anywhere. It comes out Feb. 5.

And I make my debut in Ben LeRoy's end-of-the-year video

Twice, I might add. Once around 3:43, eating an apple in a taxi, and again toward the end, on the basketball court (I was shanghaied into service). And I'm happy that I was part of Ben's world during this past year.

Why did we believe Lance for so long?

Because we wanted to.



We wanted to believe local-boy-makes-good and American drive triumphs and sheer willpower overcomes setbacks and propels someone to win a gruelling event seven times in a row, with no rule breaking and no collusion and no lies.



What dupes we were.



We believed Lance for so long because he did - he believed himself. He believed in himself and his goals so completely that he could, apparently, lie convincingly and appealingly. He was strong and attractive and charismatic...

Galley giveaway for A COLD AND LONELY PLACE

My publisher is giving away some advanced copies of my new novel, A COLD AND LONELY PLACE (it's the sequel to LEARNING TO SWIM). This is an uncorrected version, with typos and without some clarifications - but if those things won't bother you, here you go! Hope you enjoy it.

http://www.randomhouse.com/quizzes/in...

The actual book will be published Feb. 5.

Some things Amazon does very very well ...

... such as these promotional email blasts. I wish everyone would get books at their favorite independent bookstore (hey, you can get signed copies at Northshire Bookstore and Mystery on Main Street!), but the fact is I could not buy this sort of advertising. Wish publishers could do something like this, or maybe IndieBound, with links to local stores (if they do, I don't know about it).

Delighted to be returning to Booktopia Vermont ...

If you happen to listen to a podcast called Books on the Nightstand, you'll know exactly what this means - they've been waiting for this announcement for weeks.







Booktopia is a series of weekend retreats for book lovers dreamed up by the two book lovers who run BOTN (Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness) - 75 readers from around the country meet up with eight to ten authors - none of whom are announced until after registration is done - in a bunch of small groups and informal meetings, and one...

Last day to enter Minotaur first novel contest

If you've never published a novel (other than self-publishing) and have a crime novel - whether thriller, cozy - sitting in your hard drive ready to go, head over to the Minotaur site and enter the Minotaur/MWA Best First Crime Novel Contest. Prize: a publishing contract with  Minotaur.  Doesn't matter if it's a novel you're already querying, as long as you do not have a publishing contract.



Open to all countries. No fee. Online submission. Entries due before midnight EST tonight,...