of Birkin bags and Skrull infiltrators

Jo Barrett and Greg Pak have charmed the critics!

Publishers Weekly enjoys "[p]eeking into the misfortunes of formerly rich heirs of Houston's oil barons" in DON'T LET IT BE TRUE. "Barrett discovers a mixed Birkin bag of rueful romance and tongue-in-cheek mayhem. Barrett's wit makes watching these down-on-their-luck bluebloods reclaim their fortunes a fun little diversion."



Greg Burgas at ComicBookResources.com dubs Pak's INCREDIBLE HERCULES the Best Ongoing Series:

"Greg Pak and Fred van Lente’s adventures of Hercules and Amadeus Cho across the Marvel Universe is the best ongoing series out there. It’s very funny, but also filled with intense action and some incredibly devastating moments...it’s little things that make the comic wonderful - the identity of the Skrull infiltrator, the Japanese god who speaks in haiku, Amadeus’s desire for sex overriding his common sense. This is the most consistently entertaining comic on the stands right now, and although others in this category might be more 'classic,' I have a feeling I’ll still be re-reading this in 20 years and loving every panel of it."

Sharing the 'splode

Check out Talksplode #8 with Duane Swierczynski of Immortal Iron Fist, Cable, and Werewolf by Night

Posted using ShareThis

Pounding that pavement

The fabulous Laura Berman Fortgang, personal coach extraordinaire, gives some great advice on The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet.

Laura's been working on her new book, THE LITTLE BOOK ON MEANING. Look for it in stores in late April or you can pre-order on Amazon.

Pic gets picked

Congratulations to Tom Piccirilli -- the Edgar nominations are in and THE COLD SPOT is up for Best Paperback Original!

Good things come in threes

The 3rd book in Reed Coleman's Moe Prager series, THE JAMES DEANS has won 3 awards: the Shamus, the Barry, and the Anthony.

The new paperback reprint comes out next week from Busted Flush Press, with 3 new treats: a new foreword by New York Times best-seller Michael Connelly, and two Moe Prager short stories.

There's also a sneak peek at Reed's forthcoming, original novel, TOWER, with co-author Ken Bruen... who has 3 syllables in his name. (OK, maybe that one's stretching it a little, but you get the picture -- now go get the book!)

Ziele stays strong

Congratulations to Stefanie Pintoff on her new 2 book deal with Minotaur Books!

Her debut novel, IN THE SHADOW OF GOTHAM, won the 2008 Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel competition, and will be released in April. The next books will also feature Detective Ziele, as he solves crimes in early 20th century New York City.

Shout-out in the Dallas Morning News

Alan Peppard's column leads with some thrilling DHS Lit news:

"Dallas book agent David Hale Smith and his DHS Literary continue to be the little engine that could, landing big book and film deals from his Texas HQ. The latest success story is his young novelist Michael Koryta..."

Doolittle draws first blood

Bantam Dell's brandspankin' new suspense book club, Blood on the Page, launches with SAFER!

Get your own - Open publication

Make it safer

Sean Doolittle's newest book "Safer has everything it needs to achieve commercial success...The plot is slick and inventive. The author is skilled at ratcheting up readers’ foreboding, sympathy, and fear, creating the deep need to see how things turn out. The primary characters—Paul, Sara, Roger, Paul’s attorney, and an ambitious TV journalist—are vividly rendered, and lesser characters are well sketched with a sentence or two. And looming over everything is the specter of the Heartland’s dark side." (Booklist)