Seattle Mystery Bookshop

Seattle Bookshop Heroes

So I'm sitting here in Seattle on a clear, crisp day (isn't it supposed to rain all the time over here?  So much for cliches, huh?), surrounded by mystery books of every variety and I couldn't be happier.

Of course, the fact that I'm here to promote my own book, Heroes Often Fail,the second in my River City Series, might help a little.  Still, there's something so satisfying to being in the company of intelligent people with like-minded interests.  It's exhilarating.  It's inspiring.  It's fun.

It's...well, happy.

Looking around this bookshop at all the titles, it is also very humbling.  And humility is always a good thing.

Thanks for having me, SMB.  I look forward to more trips in the future.  Anyone reading this can help make that happen by doing two things:  pick up my book at SMB and then buy a half dozen other books while you're there!

Frank
http://frankzafiro.com

RUNOFF with CANDY in the Background

It was raining when I came to visit the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, but fortunately I was armed with the give-away umbrella from the 2007 Left Coast Crime, which was held in Seattle.

In spite of the rain, I had a great time signing my latest book, RUNOFF.

Speaking of give-aways, I brought several CDs with a recording of Bill Arney reading the first chapter of my prior novel, CANDY FROM STRANGERS, for public radio station KQED. Bill was the perfect choice to read the piece: he is the voice of the San Francisco Film Noir festival and he lives in Dashiell Hammett's old apartment on the corner of Post and Hyde in San Francisco.

The kicker is, I've placed my fictional protagonist, August Riordan, in the same apartment, so it was doubly appropriate that Bill did the voice work.

If you'd like to take a listen to his reading, you can do so on the Writers Block section of the KQED web site.

Mark Coggins

STOP THIEF

We need your help: on Wed the 14^th, we noticed that someone had stolen a very valuable and collectable book. We had a set of The Da Vinci Code for sale – a review copy 1^st print hardcover with publisher’s materials laid in and an advanced reader’s copy of the book. Both were new, unread and signed and dated (“March 23, 2003”) on the title page. They were displayed discreetly on a high shelf behind the front counter, so it took some audacity to take the hardcover out of the box, leaving the advanced copy behind.

If someone offers the book to you, turn it down. It is stolen. And then let us know. We’ve filed a report with the SPD, alerted other local dealers about the missing book, and done what we can to get the word out. You are hereby deputized to help us. We really don’t expect to recover the book, though that would be great. But we want whoever stole it to not be able to enjoy it, to have to hide it away and to not be able to show it off or brag about it to their fellow book collectors.

Thanks for your assistance.

Delirium Tunes

So here I am in the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, Ros Sereysothea playing in the background - I've brought them a CD I compiled of her greatest hits - when in walks a customer who actually recognizes that it's Khmer pop music. Hmmmm. A very nice woman - an auditor with the IRS, though she assured me audits corporations rather than individuals - who was born here, but whose family is Khmer. Considering that my newest book, GRAVE IMPORTS, is mostly set in Cambodia and about the theft of Cambodian art, it all seemed very fortuitous.

That's the great thing about bookstore appearances. I love hanging out in the places, I nearly always meet interesting people. I have yet to have hundreds of screaming, adoring fans show up to tear my clothes off or anything like that, but it seems unnecessary by way of keeping me happy.

Ros Sereysothea, by the way, was the biggest pop singer in Cambodia in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She, like most of the country's musicians, was killed by the Khmer Rouge during their reign from 1975 to 1978. Her music has only recently begun re-emerging, having been, literally, buried for many years. Now, it is being unearthed and digitally cleaned up an becoming available. It's great stuff. Come into the bookstore here and make them play it for you. Then buy a book - of course.

But, now I got to get in the car and head south - the Eric Stone Drive-by Book Tour '07 continues. I'll be back in Seattle, if they'll have me back, next fall for Flight of the Hornbill - the next book in the Ray Sharp series. And I'll bring a CD of strange Indonesian pop music.

Eric Stone

Jingle Bones, Jingle Bones--okay, so it's really called A COLD DAY IN HELL

We know all authors get to keep the brilliant titles they lovingly dream up for their books.

WRONG!

JINGLE BONES, became A COLD DAY IN HELL and all of my tantrums didn't make a bit of difference.  That's my sad story for the day.  But I still like the book:)

No, that's not my only sad story for the day.  The deadline for my current book runs out tomorrow and I'm going to make it or bust.  I'm in my fifth total revision--I can finish this puppy, I know I can.

Being here with the folks at Seattle Mystery is always a blast and today I really needed the break.

Mwah!

Stella Cameron

Losing It On Cherry Street

Being new to glasses, I thought I'd wear them to find Seattle Mystery Bookshop as it was my first visit as an author.  But being new to glasses, I didn't see the step and promptly tripped down the stairs.  Obviously, I made a good impression as staff rushed to what I thought was my aide, but was to lock me out.  But Mrs. Wood didn't bring up any boy that was going to get shut out and rushed the door in time.  Sadly, it opened out--and not in.  Pity was taken upon me and they let me in... 

I'll take pity any time.  Maybe writing about a nasty kidnapper scared them a bit...

I think my reputation as rough tough guy (in glasses) preceeded me and I scared everyone away, but damn it, I was signing books whether they liked it or not.  Luckily they did.

I just hope they'll have me back...

Simon Wood (Anthony Award winning author of Paying the Piper and Accidents Waiting to Happen)

Always be nice to mystery writers

When my first book came out, JADE LADY BURNING, I met Bill Farley at a meeting of the Mystery Writers of America and he asked me to sign at his store, the Seattle Mystery Bookshop.  Of course, I agreed.  While signing, Bill told me that he's alway nice to mystery writers because it's wise to be nice to people who spend most of their day plotting how to murder someone.  So I'm nice to mystery writers too.  He also told me to always mention the title of my book, THE WANDERING GHOST, which I do now, even when I call my mom.  So thank you, Seattle Mystery Bookshop, for your words of wisdom.

Martin Limon

Assassins and Bank Robbers in Seattle

It's been great fun visiting and signing in Seattle again. Seattle Mystery Bookshop rocks! I last signed here for my debut novel, 47 RULES OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE BANK ROBBERS, as part of the gang of authors signing for Left Coast Crime. That was the big finish of my whirlwind tour for 47 RULES, culminating in Anthony, Macavity, and Lefty nominations. Now I'm having fun promoting my new novel, THE ONE MINUTE ASSASSIN. Well...maybe fun isn't the right word. It's a hell of a lot more fun writing than promoting.

However, when I tour I get to leave my cubbyhole of an office and interact with new readers. Usually that's a good thing, but once in a while things got strange. With 47 RULES, I actually had bank robbers show up at signings (in between stints in prison). I've also met lots of siblings of bank robbers, lots of police officers that have caught bank robbers, along with one FBI agent who was in charge of the bank robbery division. He'd bought my book in a non-fiction section of a bookstore and was concerned that it was a "How to" book. He was happy to find out that it wasn't, and that my novel was an "extremely entertaining read."

Now that I'm touring with THE ONE MINUTE ASSASSIN, I'm starting to get a little nervous. Hopefully, I won't meet up with many assassins. :)

Troy Cook

October bestsellers

Here are our bestsellers for October, 2007. We've broken out the 'softcover' into two distinct lists - one for trade paperbacks and one for mass market. Most of the lists that we report to don't make the distinction but the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association is aiming to it so we tried it this month to see how it's work and how it'd affect the various books involved. We're more of the mind that a paperback is a paperback, no matter whether it is a trade paperback or a mass market. But we must admit that breaking them into two lists does make more room for other books and other authors. After all, it makes for two lists of 10, so more will benefit. - the Crew

October Hardcovers

1 - Walter Mosley, Blonde Faith, Little Brown

2 - Stephen Hunter, The 47th Samurai, Simon & Schuster

3 - Robert B. Parker, Now and Then, Putnam

4 - tie

Alice Sebold, The Almost Moon, Little Brown

Dick & Felix Francis, Dead Heat, Putnam

6 - Ken Follett, World Without End, Dutton

7 - Robert Greer, The Mongoose Deception, Frog, Ltd.

8 - tie

Donald Bain, Murder She Wrote: Panning for Murder, Obsidian

F. Paul Wilson, Bloodline, Forge

10 - tie

Vicki Delany, In the Shadow of the Glacier, Poisoned Pen

Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Last Rituals, Morrow

John Sandford, Dark of the Moon, Putnam

October Paperbacks

1 - Ayna Meppelink, I See a Red Door, James A. Rock

2 - Cricket McRae, Lye in Wait, Midnight Ink

3 - Gabriella Herkert, Catnapped, Obsidian

4 - Tim Maleeny, Beating the Babushka, Midnight Ink

5 - tie

Carol O'Connell, Find Me, Jove

Kelly Armstrong, Exit Strategy, Bantam

7 - Natalie Roberts, Tapped Out, Berkley

8 - Tim Maleeny, Stealing the Dragon, Midnight Ink

9 - tie

Mike Lawson, The Second Perimeter, Vintage

James Cobb, The Arctic Event, Grand Central

Anne Argula, Walla Walla Suite, Harper

Oct trade paperbacks

1 - Ayna Meppelink, I See a Red Door, James A. Rock

2 - Cricket McRae, Lye in Wait, Midnight Ink

3 - Tim Maleeny, Beating the Babushka, Midnight Ink

4 - Tim Maleeny, Stealing the Dragon, Midnight Ink

5 - tie

James Cobb, The Arctic Event, Grand Central

Anne Argula, Walla Walla Suite, Harper

7 - Erik Larson, Thunderstruck, Random House

8 - Kat Richardson, Greywalker, Roc

9 - tie

- Kat Richardson, Poltergeist, Roc

Matt Ruff, Bad Monkeys, Harper

Oct mass market

1 - Gabriella Herkert, Catnapped, Obsidian

2 - tie

Carol O'Connell, Find Me, Jove

Kelly Armstrong, Exit Strategy, Bantam

4 - Natalie Roberts, Tapped Out, Berkley

5 - Mike Lawson, The Second Perimeter, Vintage

6 - tie

Casey Daniels, Tombs of Endearment, Harper

Zoë Sharp, First Drop, St. Martin's

Natalie Collins, Wives and Sisters, St. Martin's

9 - Natalie Roberts, Tutu Deadly, Berkley

10 - Sarah Stewart Taylor, Still as Death, St. Martin's

eunuch detectives in seattle...

Hurrah! This is my second signing in Seattle - the first event, many years ago, was attended by one confused woman and one librarian who sensibly saw no reason to actually purchase a book. So I guess my stock has risen slightly... Thank you, Mystery Bookshop.

And thank you, too, mystery books. They are astonishingly good fun to write - and winning the Best Novel Edgar 2007 for The Janissary Tree was icing on the cake.

The series, which continues with The Snake Stone, springs from a lifelong affair with the city of Istanbul. At school I fell for the city as it was presented in Yeats' mystical poetry; later I got to study Byzantine history at college. Eventually, in 1990, I walked to the city from Gdansk in Poland: 2000 miles, almost six months on the road, walking to the beat of a vanished empire.

Intrigued by the Ottoman story, I researched and wrote Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire.

That was fact: this is fiction. In The Janissary Tree and The Snake Stone, I've tried to ensure that the story comes first. These are mysteries, not histories with a mystery element. And when I say they're fun to write, I mean: with fiction, you don't have to look it up. You can make it up.

Freedom! The series stars Yashim, a eunuch and investigator in 1830s Istanbul, a city which stands as the gatekeeper between Asia and Europe, between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. It's a time of change and disturbance, as the sultan tries to drag the mediaeval Ottoman empire into the nineteenth century. A time of tension, with Istanbul poised between a dangerous future and a glorious past. 

Salutations to the Seattle Mystery Bookshop folks, and their friends.

Jason Goodwin