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C. J. Box
2007-12-14 20:07:00
C. J. Box, a master of the outdoor mysteryby Steven WilliamsC. J. Box, a popular American writer of outdoor mysteries, currently lives in the area around Cheyenne, Wyoming. He has seven published novels, all set in Wyoming, with another coming out in January 2008 and they have all been critically well received. His professional recognition includes winning the Anthony Award, the Barry Award, the Macavity Award, the Gumshoe Award, and the French Prix Calibre .38 award. He has also been a finalist for both an Edgar Award and a LA Times Book Prize. In 2007, Box was named Writer of the Year by the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers association. Box is a native of Wyoming and so it is not too surprising that his work experiences include such things as ranch hand, surveying, fishing guide, and local newspaper reporter and editor. Also, not surprisingly, he is an enthusiastic outdoor sportsman having hunted, fished, hiked, ridden, and skied all over Wyoming and the American Mountain West.Box u...

Philip K. Dick
2007-12-13 05:09:00
Philip K. Dick , the film adaptations of a master of speculative fictionby Steven WilliamsPhilip Kindred Dick aka Philip K. Dick, born in 1928, was an American author who is most frequently recognized as writer of science fiction novels and stories. PKD aspired to a career in mainstream literature but his stylistic devices and subject material prevented the quality of his writing and the importance of his ideas from being widely recognized during his lifetime and left him relegated, at least in the mind of publishers, to the ghetto of pulp-style low-paying science fiction. This did not mean that PKD did not receive some recognition. Even though Kurt Vonnegut's fictional character Kilgore Trout is based loosely on the science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon, a large number of readers feel that the character of Trout is actually modeled on PKD. This comparison is based in part on Trout's back-story. He was supposed to have written profusely and creatively within the science fiction ...

John Updike, part 1
2007-12-11 18:11:00
John Updike part 1, The Rabbit Booksby Steven WilliamsJohn Updike is an American writer who was born in 1932 in Pennsylvania. Updike is renowned as a modern writer in English and particularly celebrated for the craftsmanship of his work. He is also relatively prolific having published, as of 2007, twenty-two novels, twelve short story collections, eight collections of his poetry, eleven collections of nonfiction prose, and six children's books. Contributing to this reputation for productivity, hundreds of his stories, reviews, and poems have appeared in The New Yorker magazine since his professional writing career began in the 1950s. His fiction has also been the basis for the feature length films Rabbit, Run (1970), Too Far to Go (1979), The Roommate (1985), Witches of Eastwick (1987) as well as the short films The Music School (1974), Pigeon Feathers (1987), and A & P (1996). He has been relatively consistent in the ways he uses his fiction to explore the human condition, in part...
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David Clement-Davies
2007-12-11 01:31:00
David Clement -Davies , talking animals and pagan folkloreby Steven WilliamsClement-Davies is a British writer particularly known for his fantasy adventure novels. The critically best received of his novels are intended for young adult readers though there has been some crossover interest similar to what has been seen with the Harry Potter novels. Clement-Davies was born in London in 1964 though he spent his childhood in Wales. It was in Wales that he first became fascinated with wild nature and this interest remained with him, heavily influencing his approach to fiction. In college he studied the Italian Renaissance as well as Russian literature and society. After college he pursued interests in both acting and writing first studying drama and even working in the theater before going on to work as a freelance travel journalist which provided him with a variety of adventurous experiences in exotic parts of the world. Clement-Davies first book, Fire Bringer, was published in 1999 and r...
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Gabriel Cohen
2007-12-10 21:14:00
Gabriel Cohen , an emerging writer of noir police procedural mysteriesby Steven WilliamsGabriel Cohen is a relative newcomer to the mystery genre. Though as a professional writer he has worked as a reporter, script reader, teacher, and researcher, his first novel Red Hook was only published in 2001. He had previously publications have included articles for The New York Times and Time Out New York as well as mystery short stories appearing in various anthologies. He has approached novel writing in the mystery genre primarily as a hook to enable him to explore some of the fundamental mysteries of life, one of the more basic urges of authors of fiction. Red Hook was critically well received to the point of being nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author. His early success had created high expectations regarding the quality of his next mystery. This is always intimidating to emerging novelists but Cohen seems to have risen to the challenge. His second myster...
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Collecting Proofs
2007-11-30 05:21:00
The Collectability of Proofs and other Types of Advance Editionsby Steven WilliamsWhen book collecting is discussed, one of the most frequent type of collecting that comes up is the collecting of 'First Editions'. The meaning of first edition is slightly different for book publishers than it is for collectors. Publishers consider a first edition as all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of printing type, including all the minor typographical variations that might exist. These variations can arise from something as minor as a revised dust jacket with additional advertising 'blurbs', photos, or price to variations that come up as typesetting errors or broken type are discovered and corrected within the first printing. For collectors though, First Edition has a meaning closer to what is often called the 'First State' of the 'First Printing' and generally First Edition collecting is based on the idea that the First Edition of the book is the first comme...

Dickens' Christmas
2007-11-30 00:25:00
Christmas holiday food and drink from the works of Charles Dickens by Steven WilliamsChristmas Punch, Negus and Smoking BishopChristmas Punch(from A Christmas Carol (1837), by Charles Dickens)"Heaped up on the floor, to form a king of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, suckling-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam. In easey state upon this couch, there sat a jolly Giant, glorious to see; who bore a glowing torch, in shape not unlike Plenty's horn, and held up, high up, to shed its light on Scrooge, as he came peeping round the door."A Christmas Punch recipeby Charles Dickens (from an 1847 letter written by Dickens)"Peel into a very common basin (which may be broken in case of accident, without damage to the owner's peace or pock...
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Writer and Artists recipes
2007-11-23 17:46:00
Beef Burgundyby James A. Michener"Peel and sauté heavily twelve small onions in one half pound of thinly-sliced salt pork. When onions are done add twelve carrots and sauté slightly. Remove onions and carrots and throw into the pand two poundsof lean chuck beef cut into small cubes. When well browned put contents of pan, including all scrapings, into a casserole and add salt, pepper, bay thyme, garlic salt, celery seed, parsley flakes, green pepper flakes and marjoram. Cover all with a cheap red wine and add two cups of water. Place the casserole in a three hundreed degree oven for one hour. Then add onions, carrots and two tablespoons of tapioca. cook everything for one more hour. Add enough red wine to make the consistency as desired, plus a cupful of mushrooms. Cook for thirty minutes, then raise temperature to fivehundred degreesand cook until the consistency is proper for serving. For those who prefer morecontinental flavoring, whole peppercorns can be used in pla...
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Dagoberto Gilb
2007-11-22 04:26:00
Dagoberto Gilb, a voice of the Southwestby Steven WilliamsA broader reading audience is beginning to recognize Dagoberto Gilb for his fearlessness, wit, and authenticity and originality of his voice. This is good news for readers since the literary community has been aware of his work for some time: Gilb has won a Whiting Writers Award, received Guggenheim and NEA fellowships, was awarded the Texas Institute of Letters' Jesse Jones Award, received PEN's Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award, . Gilb was born in Los Angeles and later lived for many years in El Paso. Gilb graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1973 with a double major in Philosophy and Religious Studies. In 1976, he earned a master's degree in Religious Studies. Gilb blames his inability to enter the white collar workforce on his looks. "I'm a kind of big guy and particularly then-now I look sweet and nice, but then I looked mean and ugly and scared people." It was simply easy to find work on c...

2007 Barry Awards
2007-11-21 22:46:00
The 2007 Barry Award Winners(for works published in 2006)by Steven WilliamsThe Barry AwardThe Barry Awards were created by Deadly Pleasures, the American premier fan-oriented mystery magazine and named in honor of Barry Gardner, a noted fan reviewer. The Barry Awards are currently being given out every Summer at the Boucheron World Mystery Convention. For a book to be eligible for a Barry Award, it must be published in English. For a book to be eligible for the British Crime Novel category, the book must also be published in Great Britain. None of the other Barry Award categories have any additional restrictions. Nominations for the various Barry Awards are made by the editor/publisher of Deadly Pleasures magazine with input from a panel made up of of Deadly Pleasures reviewers, mystery booksellers, and fans. The panel votes to determine the awards shortlists and then the winners are chosen from these shortlists by the readers of Mystery News and Deadly Pleasures magazines.The 2007 ...

Robert M. Utley
2007-11-17 21:29:00
Robert M. Utley, acclaimed historian of the American Westby Steven WilliamsRobert Utley is the former Chief Historian and Assistant Director of the National Park Service and recognized as a leading historian of the American West as well as a major pioneer public historian. He is also a founding member and former president of the Western Historical Association. The quality of his work as a historian has lead to the creation of the Robert M. Utley Book Award which is given out annually by the Western History Association for the best book published on the military history of the American frontier and American West, including Mexico and Canada from prehistory through the twentieth century. Utley is most widely known for his historical writings on General Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. " />This lifelong interest in Custer was initially sparked when, at age twelve, Utley saw the film They Died with Their Boots On (1942) starring Errol Flynn. At the age of seventeen, just out...
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The Neverland Books
2007-11-16 20:33:00
Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson and Greg Call and The Neverland Books by Steven WilliamsDave Barry is a syndicated humor comumnist who has also written about thirty books and has won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. His books Dave Barry Turns 40 and Dave Barry's Greatest Hits have been used as the basis for the TV sitcom Dave's World. He was born in New York. Initially he worked as a reporter and business writing instructor for a business consulting firm. In 1983 he was hired as a humor oclumnist for the Miami Herald and it is hear that he made his mark, notably including the award of his Pulitzer Prize. His writing has included fiction and his first novel Big Trouble was made into the motion picture of the same name and starring Tim Allen and Rene Russo. He was involved in the film adaptation of his book Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys. Since 2004, Barry has taken an indefinite leave of ansence from his weekly humor column to spend more time with his family but has continued wri...

Rick Riordan
2007-11-15 18:08:00
Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians seriesby Steven WilliamsRick Riordan is a successful and critically well-received mystery writer living in the San Antonio, Texas area with his wife and two sons. He is best known to adult readers for his Tres Navarre series of mysteries starring a former Berkeley professor now working as a private investigator in his native San Antonio. The series is noted for gritty, suspensful style. The market success of Riordan's Tres Navarre thrillers is reflected in the writing awards he has received: Big Red Tequila (1997), winner of the Shamus and Anthony Awards and The Widower?s Two-Step (1998), winner of the Edgar Award. Beginning in 2005, Riordan, who has taught in middle schools Rick has taught in middle schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Texas for the past fifteen years, released a new young adult fantasy, adventure series Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief in 2005, The Sea of Monsters in 2006, The Titan's C...
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Rosa Martha Villarreal
2007-11-15 02:52:00
Rosa Martha Villarrealby Steven WilliamsRosa Martha Villarreal, born in Texas, is descended from several Spanish founding families of early colonies in Northern Mexico in the 1500s. Viallrreal began her college education initially a pre-med major at San Jose State University in California. Eventually she received undergraduate degrees in Botany and English as well as a Masters Degree in English, having changed her college major under the influence of a professor who recognized her abilities as a writer. Villarreal began to establish herself as a writer with the production of her short story The Mendel of Hidalgo which was awarded the Phelan Literary Award from San Jose State University as well as being published in Sabine Magazine. In 1995 she published a novella Doctor Magdalena. A second book was published in 1999, Chronicles of Air and Dreams. In 2003, with An H. Nguyen, and Bernardo Salinas, she co-founded Tertulia Magazine with the intention of providing a forum for publishing ...
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Paulette Jiles
2007-11-14 23:18:00
Paulette Jilesby Steven WilliamsPoet and writer Paulette Jiles was born (1943) and raised in Salem, Missouri, a town set within in the Missouri Ozarks. After earning a degree in Spanish Literature from the University of Illinois she moved to Canada in 1969, and now has dual citizenship with Canada. She spent eventually spent ten years in Canada. In 1974, while working as a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. journalist, she was sent to a village in remote northern Ontario. She eventually spent seven years in the Canadian north working with native communication groups among the northern Cree and Ojibway peoples. She began her career as a published author with the acceptance of some of her poetry for publication in Mindscapes in 1971. In 1984 her collection of poems, Celestial Navigation, won the Governor-General's Literary Award, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and the Gerald Lampert Award. In 1986, her chase movie spoof novel Sitting in the Club Car Drinking Rum and Karma-Kola was nominate...

James Lee Burke
2007-11-13 02:44:00
James Lee Burkeby Steven WilliamsJames Lee Burke is an American author best known for his two mystery series featuring the Louisiana police detective Dave Robicheaux and the Texas ex-sheriff turned lawyer Billy Bob Holland. Burke was born in 1936 in Houston, Texas and grew up on the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast. He worked at a variety of jobs before beginning to write. His first book was published in 1965 but it was not until the 1989 success of Black Cherry Blues, notably because of his choice to meld his skills as a writer with the genre of crime fiction. The success of this novel allowed Burke to leave teaching after twenty years as an untenured and somewhat migratory English professor to become a full time writer. He is noted for his lush writing style and his preference for morally complex main characters. He now divides his year between a winter home in the New Iberia region of Louisiana and a summer ranch home in Missoula, Montana. Burke's character Dave Robicheaux lives in N...
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Michael Hoeye
2007-11-10 23:57:00
Michael Hoeye's Hermux Tantamoq adventuresby Steven WilliamsThe children's book industry is primarily driven by young readers' almost insatiable appetite for books. At the same time, for writers, it is a highly competitive genre where publishers are swamped with author queries which results in only a small fraction of aspiring authors being published. This limited access to the marketplace can be overcome by authors willing to take on the risk of self-publishing. At one time, self published books had a reputation for poor quality binding and design. Lower-cost, short-run printing techniques and the encreasingly easy accessibility to typsetting and desktop publishing page design software has contributed to a situation where contemporary emerging and aspiring authors, with enough attention to design quality can produce books professional enough to be able to compete for shelf space with more traditionally published books. On this equal footing, it is story and character that makes ...
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Downfall
2007-09-26 04:09:00
Downfall aka Der Untergang, a major film about the Second World Warby Steven WilliamsThis is a brief digression not directly related to books. I have read fairly heavily about the 'Dark Valley' of the 1930s (borrowing the phrase from Piers Brendon's deeply interesting book on the subject). I think this interest is sparked in part as a reaction to the loss of living history as the generation of the 1930s rapidly begins to disappear. Beyond the sense of loss with the passing of this generation, I find myself drawn to the question of how a culture as sophisticated and as intellectually rich as Germany's could have descended into industrialized genocide. While I feel I have obtained no particularly deep personal understanding of the issues, I am convinced that the ongoing discussion and exploration of this period by historians provides an important caution to everyone that 'it can happen here.'Notwithstanding an interest in history but in part related to it, I also have a particul...

Omlette Aurore
2007-09-14 22:03:00
Artist and Writers Recipesby Steven WilliamsOmlette Aurore(source: Alice B. Toklas from a recipe sent by George Sand to Victor Hugo)"Beat 8 eggs with a pinch of salt, 1 tablespoon sugar and 3 tablespoons heavy cream. Prepare the omelet in the usual manner. Before folding it, place on it 1 cup diced candied fruit and small pieces of marrons glacés which have soaked for several hours in 2 tablespoons of curaçao. Fold the omelet to keep the fruit in place, on a fireproof serving dish. Surround with marrons glacés and candied cherries. Cover at once with frangipani cream made by stirring 2 whole eggs and 3 yolks with 3 tablespoons of sugar until they are pale lemon-colored. Then add 1 cup flour and a pinch of salt, stirring until it is perfectly smooth. Add 2 cups of milk and mix well. Put the mixture in a saucepan over the lowest heat and stir until it is quite thick. It must not boil. Be careful that the cream does not become attached to the bottom or sides of the sauce...

Michael Harvey
2007-08-19 01:14:00
Michael Harvey, debut of a noir thriller writerby Steven WilliamsMichael Harvey's first novel The Chicago Way will be released in August 2007. It is a noir thriller featuring a former Chicago cop named Michael Kelly who has become a private detective. He is hired by his former police partner to help solve a case of rape and battery. The case has remained unsolved for eight years because the ex-partner had been ordered to forget about it. The day after being hired to help reopen the case, Kelly's ex-partner is found murdered and Kelly has been framed for the killing. As he works to extricate himself he discovers a network of political corruption and crooked cops which seems to be protecting a serial murderer. He elicits the help of a television reporter, a forensic DNA expert, a detective with a special interest in rape cases, and someone form the District Attorney's office to pursue the case. Following the trail puts him in confrontation with Chicago's mob, the serial killer, do...
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John Graves
2007-08-18 23:10:00
John Graves and the Texas literary heritageby Steven WilliamsJohn Graves was a native Texan, born and educated there. Though he traveled for a brief period after graduating from college, in 1958 he returned to Texas. It was here that the core of his being as a writer developed. He had been familiar with the Trinity River as a child and in 1957 deliberately took a canoe trip down the Brazos River when the river was threatened by a dam. He went on to produce his best known major work Goodbye to a River: A Narrative (1960), developing it from an original magazine article about the natural state of the river.The second of Graves' major books was Hard Scrabble: Observations on a Patch of Land (1974). By this time he had purchased land near Glen Rose, Texas and it was his experiences living there that provided the ideas and materials for the book.Third in his most influential books is From a Limestone Ledge: Some Essays and Other Ruminations About Country Life in Texas (1980). It represe...
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Dave Oliphant
2007-08-18 19:15:00
Dave Oliphant, Texan poet and Jazz historianby Steven WilliamsDave Oliphant is a native Texan poet, a recently retired (2006) professor at the University of Texas in Austin, a noted writer on the history of Jazz in Texas, and editor/publisher of Prickly Pear Press.The newest book by Dave Oliphant is Jazz Mavericks of the Lone Star State (2007). It is a collection of sixteen published and previously unpublished essays on Jazz in Texas. Several of these essays describe the contributions of Jazz musicians Eddie Durham, Kenny Dorham, Leo Wright, and Omette Coleman. He also expands on earlier work on the history of swing to discuss Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies as well as Duncan McLean's Lone Star Swing. He also discusses the relationship between British Jazz criticism and Texas Jazz while covering the work of Texas folklorist Alan Lomax's biographical work on Jelly Roll Morton. There is also discussionn of the links between Jazz and literature in Texas, particularly Texas poe...
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