Guest Posts From Some of Your Fellow ROBUSTers

[Sjm]

In the past few days I have featured four of your fellow ROBUSTers on Cookie's Book Club.

Christopher Bunn shared his thoughts on the meaning of Christmas.

Matt Posner dropped by to review STIEG LARSSON Man, Myth & Mystery.

André Jute recommended the Dalziel and Pascoe series of books by the prolific Reginald Hill.

Finally, Patricia Sierra waxed philosophic about the short story.

These gents and a lady raise the calibre of the content on Cookie's Book Club. I hope you will pop on by, read their contributions and share your thoughts.

Thanks Christopher, Matt, André and Sierra for your guest posts and for books offered as giveaways!

[Andre Jute]

It is no secret that ROBUST was founded among other reasons to elevate the level of discussion among the book people on the net.

It's great to have someone as discriminating as Sue confirm it by inviting so many of us to contribute to her blog. Not that everyone wouldn't have been invited as individuals, but it would have been so much harder for Sue to find them.

[James]

Good post on short stories Patricia - always nice to see someone defending the form.

And Andre - not a topic I expected from you at all, but fun nonetheless!

[Patricia]

Thanks, James.

Andre's post surprised me, too.

[Andre Jute]

I don't get it. Why should you two be surprised that I enjoy one of the best writers working in Britain today? Nobody is surprised when I say I like James Lee Burke or Ross Thomas, who're also crime writers.

[Patricia]

I can't speak for James, but I expected you to make a holiday tie-in to your own work.

[Andre Jute]

Never occurred to me.

[Sjm]

Tee hee.

[Patricia]

Did someone just giggle?

[Sjm]

I didn't hear a thing, but it's hard to hear much of anything over the sound of Andre's screaming fans.

[Katie]

Yes, they're very loud, aren't they? He needs to get an electrician in.

[Andre Jute]

Not half as many as Christopher's fans, judging by the number who said they were entering the competition in hope of winning his book (the one in which I appear as a character, of course).

January 3rd, when Sue's competitions all end at once, is going to be a big day for some lucky readers.

Elvis is now leaving the building.

[Patricia]

You're a character, all right...

[James]

Andre - think I was surprised because I associate the names with the pretty mundane TV show. Never actually read the books, which I'm sure you'll castigate me for...

[Andre Jute]

The books are superb.

Whether the TV is mundane or fab depends on when the set you're watching was made. For the ones made from the books by Hill, rather than newly invited stories by others, they hired the best British playwrights to adapt the books and it shows.

[Sjm]

Katie wrote: "Yes, they're very loud, aren't they? He needs to get an electrician in."

LOL

Andre Jute wrote: "January 3rd, when Sue's competitions all end at once, is going to be a big day for some lucky readers."

January 3rd is going to be a big day for the organizer as well! January 4th I may be found reclined poolside, drink in one hand, Kindle in the other.

[Andre Jute]

Uh-huh. I was wondering what happened to time off you were going to take, once you had all these guest posts to cover for you.

Guess the best laid plans of mice and Cookie's Mom...

[Patricia]

Maybe we need to hack into the blog and just take it over.

[Sjm]

Would you? That'd be great, thanks!

Jack has had the flu twice in a month with just enough time in between for me to have a cold. I am SO ready for a vacation!

[Katie]

Happy and healthy New Year, Sue!

[Andre Jute]

I used to get to a point where I knew I needed one good night's sleep, or I'd fall over. And then I'd wonder about mothers of small children who for years on end don't get that one good night of sleep often enough or at all.

[Sjm]

Thanks Katie. Jack is pretty chipper today - an uneventful overnight. I was in bed by 8pm. It's a happy and relatively healthy household today.

Andre, I had no idea until becoming a mom what sleep deprivation is!

HAPPY NEW YEAR all!

[Sjm]

Sierra, there are a couple of interesting comments on your guest post. I really must stop neglecting my short story TBR 'pile'.

[Patricia]

Thanks for telling me, Sjm. I hope those short story fans know that of the three books, only one contains short stories.

[Sjm]

Good point. I imagine they do, but I clarified as follows:

WIN ALL of the following:

Two full-length novels, The Prettiest Feathers & Tunnel of Night by Patricia Sierra and John Philpin

PLUS, courtesy of Patricia Sierra, a copy of The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea, a collection of short stories by Christopher Meeks

[Patricia]

Thanks.

[Brian]

I've got a (2) free book give-away going on just now. Is this somewhere I can flog it?

[Sjm]

Brian, there's a giveaway section on the main Robust page. That's the best place to put it so that everyone interested in a giveaway will see it. There's also a general Goodreads giveaway group here: http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/14094.Free_Book_Giveaway

[Brian]

Sjm wrote: "Brian, there's a giveaway section on the main Robust page. That's the best place to put it so that everyone interested in a giveaway will see it. There's also a general Goodreads giveaway group her..."

Thanks, Sjm; I just saw this.

[Sjm]

You're welcome, Brian.