Wanted to let you know about two Matinicus giveaways going on just now, one at http://www.goodreads.com/ (ending May 10) and another at http://www.librarything.com/ (ending May 18).  All winners receive a signed, personalized copy of the book. If you win, please remember to leave feedback on these sites and on Amazon.com!

Upcoming events include a radio interview discussing Matinicus with the folks at Zone Radio, 103.1 FM and AM620 in Bangor, Maine at 9:05a.m. on Tuesday, May 8, followed on May 17th by the official Matinicus Book Launch Party, 7:00 p.m. at RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, NH. Hope you'll join us!

Baby Ruth

The candy bar, that is.

Those of you who follow me know the only time I eat one of these things—candy bars, I mean—is when something significant is about to happen in my "book life." It's a guilty little pleasure I've come to love. And not only are we creeping up on the May 17th launch of Matinicus (RiverRun Bookstore, Portsmouth, NH, http://www.riverrunbookstore.com/), but I'm heading south to Newtown, CT early this coming week for a May 1st Hunter Huntress reading at the Booth Library (http://chboothlibrary.org/) where I plan a quiet little pre-launch launch.

So why a Baby Ruth bar? It's the name, of course. One of many theories as to its origin back in 1921 was that it was named for the ballplayer Babe Ruth, whose star was then on the rise. Early readers of Matinicus will know that the book's hard-drinking protagonist, Gil Hodges, is not only named for another All Star ball player, but is himself a baseball nut known to quote Ruth at odd moments. Seemed appropriate.

So kick back and join me, won't you? I've even cut you a piece!

The Lobster Lamp

I'm a firm believer that things come into your life when you're meant to have them. I'm not talking big spiritual concepts, here, but things. Stuff. A lamp, in this case--one I brought home from an old cottage slated for demolition the other day. This thing is made from a ten-inch tall lobster claw mounted on a simple block of wood. It's so big, in fact, I though it was plastic or maybe fiberglass, but a lobsterman friend of mine assured me it is (or more accurately "was"), a claw belonging to a very big, and very old lobster. Close to a hundred years, was his guess.

Now, the fact this thing had been in the cottage for at least 25 or 30 years prior to my taking it home, means it's really 125-130 years old, which puts the birth of the thing somewhere around 1885. That's about 20 years after the end of the Civil War. Freaky.

Anyway, something about the thing spoke to me--I mean other than a rather bizarre level of kitsch. Because it's a lobster. Get it? If you don't, you're clearly not reading my blog enough. Because Matinicus, my double mystery due out in May, is about life on an island of lobstermen gone wrong. An island of outsized problems, you might say. Gotta be a sign, don't you think?

The Thing About Reviews

All authors want reviews. Okay, maybe not want them the way we want love and chocolate and oodles of money, but we need them. And just the good ones, thank you. They're important for the exposure they generate, and if you're lucky enough to land a few of these priceless things pre-publication and have a half-decent marketing plan in place, you can hit the ground running. Creating early buzz is important when so many hundreds of thousands of books come out every year. That's hundreds of thousands. I try not to think about that part.

Thing is, getting someone to agree to a review is a crapshoot. Even if you've managed to ink out the best book of the year, there'll be plenty of folks who don't like it. Trust me on this. Say your reviewer is a woman who was once jilted by a guy who just happens to have the same name as your lead character, lost a child the exact age as one who dies in your story, or has a fight with the boyfriend or the boss the day she sits down to read your novels. Maybe yours is the hundredth mystery/romance/science fiction/western (take your pick) she's reviewed this year and she's simply had it. Makes herself a big old martini, sits down at the keyboard and takes her snarly mood out on little-old-you.

Paying for reviews is a whole other ball of wax. Some of the most prestigious review sites charge big bucks for a review they promise will be completely honest, which doesn't necessarily mean "good" (see above). That means you can pay a lot of money for the chance to get majorly, where-did-I-hide-those-razorblades depressed. These companies charge a ton for their reviews because they know that you know that if by some miracle you manage to eek out a good one, you've got a leg up in the game.

All of this by way of explaining, perhaps, that I'm fully aware the absolutely stunning review I just received from Kirkus for Matinicus (due out in May) http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/darcy-scott/matinicus/, had as much to do with the luck of the draw as anything else. Don't get me wrong. I'm really proud of the book, I busted my ass on it, and I'm ever-so-grateful that whoever reviewed it liked it almost as much as I do.

Just sayin'.

On the Road with Hunter Huntress

Here again to tell you about two upcoming Hunter Huntress book signing events.

Thursday evening, February 23, I'll be participating in a "Local Authors Night" at the Nashua Public Library in Nashua, NH (www.nashualibrary.org). A bunch of authors will be there signing books, talking about craft and the long road to publishing. This is always a great night, in part 'cause I can never get enough of talking about this stuff, but also because it's a place to meet some really terrific writers. 

Flash forward a month and a half. May 1st at 7:00 p.m., I'll be at the Booth Library in Newtown, CT for a reading/signing. This one's hosted by a local book club, but is open to the public, so if you follow me and are in the area please stop by!

BTW, keep an eye out for my revamped website, which will go live prior to the launch of Matinicus, and where I'll have an actual events page, but until then this is the place for all things writerly about moi.

Let's Launch This Thing!

Okay, so we're really rolling now. The Book Launch for Matinicus (my double mystery set on the Maine island of the same name) has officially been scheduled, so if you're a planner like me and you're going to be anywhere near Portsmouth, NH on Thursday evening, May 17, please join us at RiverRun Bookstore for a short reading and signing followed by a reception just down the street at the Portsmouth Athenæum. If you've never been the Athenæum, this alone will be worth the trip. Portsmouth's oldest cultural institution, its four floors are home to thousands of books, documents, centuries-old maps and all manner of ephemera relating to NH's Seacoast. Hope to see you there!

FYI...The cover for Matinicus is just about finalized, so be sure to check back!

Changing Publishers

Okay, I promise to be better about keeping you updated. Been offline for a bit while I regrouped. The long and short is that I needed to change publishers to guarantee my vision of Matinicus (the first book in my Maine Island Mystery Series) as both a tree book and an e-book. 

So here's my rant...While it's true that e-readership is very much on the rise and the costs of putting out paper books have become nothing short of ludicrous, it's also true that the world is chock full of people who still prefer to curl up in their favorite chair with the real thing. And when all is said and done, it's about making your readership larger, not smaller. A no brainer, really--well to me anyway. But apparently not to my former publisher's bean counters, who decided to nix my softcover version. That was all it took for me to jump ship. Scary to give up a sure thing for something as ephemeral as artistic vision, but well worth it in the end. So, after a few months of teeth-gnashing and sleepless nights, I'm back on track with "real" books and all manner of e-versions due out in May. Yeehaw!

The other biggie is that I finished the draft of Reese's Leap, sequel to Matinicus, and have sent it off to readers for commentary. One long-time reader came back with the comment "Boy, you do paint those baddies well," and I'm hoping she's right. Murderous scumbags bent on twisted, seemingly unwarranted revenge are too easy to get wrong. Tentative pub date for this one is spring, 2013.

And here's another promise...this one to share the cover of Matinicus as soon as it's ready!