Seattle Mystery Bookshop

The Adventures of the 31st Street Saints

After such a wonderful first book signing at, The Mystery Bookshop, it is my pleasure to write this blog.

Growing up in Seattle, on 31st Street in Magnolia, Washington, I was surrounded by families of the Catholic faith. My best friend growing up, Jojo, was involved in everything I did in the early years of my life; he, fittingly so, plays a major role in my story. He lived across the street from me, with his 8, or 9, other siblings; there were so many that I lost count.

I was introduced to the Catholic faith through hanging around him, his family, and other Catholic families, on 31st Street.  As a Protestant, visiting his Church, hearing about how he mixed it up with the Nuns, and Priests at his private school, ate certain foods every week, touched specially "blessed" water, and much, much more was all fascinating to me. I was intrigued, to say the least, at a young age, by the many different rules, beliefs, and rituals that he and his family so faithfully adhered to.

Out of all of this, the Adventures of the 31st Street Saints, was born. Four orphans, Jojo, Hooch, Gus and Jill, who for one reason or another, did not fit in...anywhere. These four kids, by no choice of their own, find themselves on a journey that take them inside the workings of this very complex religion, and wondering if they'll ever get out. 

Please join these courageous upstarts on their quest to find answers that everyone else in their sleepy town, appear to be oblivious to. Their lives and the lives of many others, depend on it.

Sincerely...JA Mckinstry.

Boycott www.litpair.com

This web site has been insisting that Darryl Ponicsan and Anne Argula are not the same person. So who was it sitting at this charming bookstore today signing Anne's name to WALLA WALLA SUITE and HOMICIDE MY OWN, two novels featuring Quinn, a female detective crazy with hot flashes? Expecting a woman, you found a man. Is he posing, standing in? Do you believe your eyes or what you read on some whacked out website? Has a man ever written under a woman's name before, so convincingly as a woman, revealing secrets that only women should know about? Stay tuned. Look for the third in the series, next year, called KRAPP'S LAST CASSETTE, where the question of identity becomes central.

Anne Argula (the real one)

And On to Alaska!

At the beginning of the western leg of my Silent Counsel tour, what better place to start than Seattle Mystery Bookshop? A warm refuge from a chilling afternoon rain.

I was, however, treated to some spectacular weather yesterday, on arriving in Seattle from New Jersey. Being a complete stranger to the area, and at the mercy of my hotel's list of nearby restaurants, I settled upon Anthony's Homeport, in Des Moines. (Who knew there was a Des Moines, Washington?) Located on Puget Sound, it offers a “sunset dinner”--the baby boomer's answer to the early bird special--and I partook. Oh, there is the sunset too, of which the panoramic windows afforded a breathtaking view. I had to chuckle when I heard one or two of the wait staff grumbling about the intensity of the sun glare, even inside the dining room, as I was fairly certain there had been sunsets on previous nights. The phenomenon couldn't have been totally unexpected.

That this was not the first "indoor sunset" encountered by the servers was confirmed when, moments later, they all reached into their aprons and retrieved sunglasses. I gotta tell you, though, there's something just a little unsettling about interacting with someone wearing sunglasses inside--it was like being served by the Secret Service.

On to Anchorage tomorrow, for my first Bouchercon. Do come into Seattle Mystery Bookshop -lots of signed copies of Silent Counsel!

Ken Isaacson

Margaret Coel

A skeleton is found in a dry ravine on the Wind River Reservation. Forsencis says it's the skeleton of a twenty-year-old Native American girl, killed by a gunshot to the back of her head in the summer of 1973.The summer of AIM. 

In the previous months, the American Indian Movement had mounted demonstrations and protests around the country.  AIM activists had marched on Washington, D.C., and taken over the BIA building.  Then they had gone on to South Dakota and taken over the village of Wounded Knee. It was a
period of upheavals and violence.  By the summer, many activists were hiding from the FBI on reservations, where the violence continued.

The story moves between 1973 with  a girl named Liz Plenty Horses, accused by AIM of being a snitch, running  for her life and the present, with Father John and Vicky trying to identify the skeleton of the young girl, find out what became of her and who might have murdered her.  As they draw closer to
the killer, they realize that the killer is also coming after them.

Margaret Coel

M.J. Rose

After a great signing at one of my favorite mystery bookstores, I’m thrilled to offer up a blog post.

A little background first. I’ve spent the last few years studying reincarnation from the sublime to the ridiculous, the religious to the metaphysical. Along the way, I’ve read 60 books on the subject and have a shelf of at least 30 more to tackle. When I started I had no idea how popular a subject it is. Not only is there a Reincarnation for Dummies there’s also The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Reincarnation.

Turns out more than 26 million people in America believe in it. Vanity Fair is uses a simple and yet revealing questionnaire to interview celebrity subjects. The history of the origin of the questionnaire itself is rather fascinating.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proust_questionnaire

So I thought it would be interesting to alter and abridge Proust’s ubiquitous questionnaire and find out what my favorite authors think about the subject. I also invite you to fill out the questionnaire and send it in to us here at the blog and we’ll post your answers too. (Post your QA to Comments). To get started, I answered my own questions.

THE QUESTIONS: Do you believe — even a little bit — that reincarnation is possible? Yes.

Have you ever read anything on the subject that made an impression on you? I’ve read about 60 books to date on the subject while doing research for this new novel. I’d say that Deepak Chopra’s book Life After Death is one of the most important books I read on the subject along with everything I’ve read written by and written about Dr. Ian Stevenson who studied over 3000 cases of reincarnation in his lifetime.

What is your most marked characteristic that you believe could be a hold over from a past life? A fear of medical procedures. I’ve never had any reason to be as fearful of even the most simple procedure as I am.

What is your principle defect that you believe might be inherited from a previous incarnation? An attachment to certain people and places that have made me unhappy.

Which of your favorite heroes do you think you actually could have been and why? I don’t think I’ve ever been any one famous.

What three people from history would you like to have over to dinner for a discussion about reincarnation? This is such a hard question. I’ve written about ten answers to it and keep changing who I want to invite. So screw it. This is my blog and my question so I’m going to have a big dinner party and invite: Edgar Cayce, Bridey Murphy, Dr. Ian Stevenson, Carl Jung, Buddha, as many Dali Lama’s as are free, Benjamin Franklin, William Wordsworth, Pythagoras, Ayna Seton, Baal Shem Tov and the Grand Duchess Anastasia.

What do you think happens when we die? I think our souls break apart into thousands of pieces of light and we rejoin the collective consciousness.

When you come back next time, who would you like to be? Someone wise.

To read interviews with great thriller suspense writers including Doug Preston, David Morrell and Douglas Clegg, please visit

http://www.Reincarnationist.org 

and scroll back over the last week. And enjoy.

Cheers, M.J. Rose, Author

(http://www.mjrose.com) THE REINCARNATIONIST - SEPT 07

AuthorBuzz (http://www.authorbuzz.com)

Buzz, Balls & Hype (http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/buzz_balls_hype/)

Bourbon on the Rocks With a Splash of Water

I'd contemplated a tone poem of sorts, an epic in onomonopoetic phrases to express my deep joy at being back in the warm confines of the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, alas, it is not to be.  Sources in my organization inform me that time is both pressing and fleeting; I must away.  Cocktails beckon.  Me, I have never been one to spurn a beckoning cocktail.

Best to the Northwest,

Charlie Huston

Sleepless in Seattle - but the coffee helps ...

If this is Thursday, it must be Seattle. Or, alternatively, if this is Seattle, it must be Thursday. We're fifteen days into a mad tour round the US for the hardcover of Second Shot and the paperback of First Drop. Seattle was the stop that worried me because it was the tightest on time. And, of course, this was the day Southwest kept us sitting on the tarmac for fifteen minutes waiting for a gate. Argh!

But what a fabulous skyline to drive towards with a mad cabbie. Heavy industrial mixed with elegant skyscrapers. What a place.

Great to meet with fellow Brit author - Carola Dunn, who had managed to just wreck her car, and the delightful Meg Chittenden and her husband, as well as old friends from the UK, now living in Seattle area. This afternoon we get to chill out and take in some of the sights and drink our own weight in coffee. Preferably at the top of the space needle. And here's me not that good with heights. Wish me luck :)

Zoë Sharp

www.ZoeSharp.com

This damn city--but JB says it's Bellevue's fault

Started the day with wrecking my car in a parking garage in Bellevue--I'm holding Seattle responsible! So I come into the store not quite covered in blood but glittering with windshield glass and everyone lets me weep on their shoulders and runs for tea and holds my hand which is shaking too much to sign--well, my signature is even worse than usual, let's put it that way. What a lovely sympathetic bunch to come to and thank heaven my agent lives in the area!

I guess I'll be taking the train home.

I ought to mention what I came to sign: The Bloody Tower, the 16th Daisy Dalrymple mystery, set--you've guessed it--at the Tower of London. Yet another gruesome unnatural death to add to the Tower's long list, and of course Daisy's in the thick of it. Everyone runs to bring her tea...

And so it goes. I guess I'd rather have a wrecked car than a dead body at my feet.

I just finished writing the next Daisy book, The Black Ship, and just started writing a new series of Cornish mysteries (not to worry, Daisy will continue too). Watch for the former next year and Manna from Hades in '09--unless the publisher changes the title on me. It's a strange business.

Cheers,

Carola Dunn

September 19th in Seattle ...

Wednesday 19th September, 2007, in the Seattle Mystery Bookshop; almost at the end of a three-week tour to promote Tokyo Year Zero - London, Brighton, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, New York, and now here in Seattle. Tomorrow, San Francisco and then Friday back to Tokyo, the children and reality. But of all these places, Seattle is the most tranquil and beautiful on this day and the staff here the most friendly. So thank you to the Seattle Mystery Bookshop ... David Peace.

Entertainment Weekly's gaff

A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from a guy at Entertainment Weekly - a magazine, I must admit, I've never looked at, but then I don't look at many. He wanted to have a bestseller list from us to use in an issue that would be going to press soon. This was the last week of August so I offered to work up a list of top 5 hardcovers and paperback sellers for the month. He said fine, I did the report and e-mailed it to him and he told me when it would be on sale.

I figured, what the hell, it would be a bit of free publicity and, who knows, we might even get some orders out of it. I really didn't expect to get any reactions to it, but all it took me was 15 minutes at the computer, so...

It slipped my mind that the list was 'on the newstand' until we got a congratulatory e-mail from Alafair Burke saying she saw the list and she was happy to see her Dad's book on the list. Fran found a few copies near the end of the week and brought them in and, to our surprise and dismay, saw that they'd make a mistake.

Entertainment Weekly had substituted an author we had never heard of but who had a similarly titled book for our actual entry: Scot on the Rocks by Brenda Janowitz in place of Scots on the Rocks by Mary Daheim. I'm not sure how they accomplished this as they had my list. When I brought the mistake to their attention, they agreed to run a correction, which is only fair. Mary got the sales and got the position on our bestseller list and she and her publisher should be able to bask in the spotlight.

To make it worse, there is now 'poor Brenda' movement on the web, as if she was robbed of her spot on the list instead of Mary. EW, I'm sure, will be apologizing to both authors. It was Mary who was besmudged by this mistake, but I have no reason to believe it wasn't an honest, simple mistake and these things do happen - somehow. Right?

But it is odd how Janowitz's supporters would believe that her book could show up on our list. After all, it isn't a mystery, it was published in April, and it is a trade paperback original - so nothing about it makes sense to be on our August bestselling hardcover list. (We've looked at her website and there is nothing on it to direct readers or fans to an independent bookseller, so she doesn't appear to be cultivating the support of independents and their customers. As we all know, support equals sales.)

So, for the record, #4 on our August list of bestselling hardcovers was and is, and forever will be, Mary Daheim's Scots on the Rocks.

- JB