Appearing today at Do Some Damage

Guest-Blogging Tour

There's blogging, and there's a blog tour. This month I've been doing a tour of bookstores all over the US, but I've also been guest blogging on the net. Here's a list where you can find me:

July 1

Barnes & Noble Mystery Book Club

www.bn.com



July 3

Junglered

www.jungleredwriters.com



July 5

Allison Leotta

www.allisonleotta.com/blog



July 7

International Thriller Writers

thethrillbegins.blogspot.com



July 8

Murderati

www.murderati.com



July 9

Gelati's Scoop

http://www.gelatisscoop.blogspot.com



July 11

Spinetingler

www.spinetinglermag.com



July 13

Lesa's Book Critiques

lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com



July 14

Criminal Minds

7criminalminds.blogspot.com



July 15

Page 69

page69test.blogspot.com



July 18

Jen's Book Thoughts

www.jensbookthoughts.com



July 20

The Rap Sheet

http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/



July 22

Writers Read

whatarewritersreading.blogspot.com



July 31

The Lipstick Chronicles

thelipstickchronicles.typepad.com

On the road so long...

Just finished a great week with Michael Wiley, author of A BAD NIGHT"S SLEEP among other fine books. Together we went to Murder by the Book in Houston, The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, and Murder by the Book in Denver. Fun times. Also got to meet up with Duane Swierczynski (FUN AND GAMES) and Harry Dolan (VERY BAD MEN). Thanks to all the store owners who made this possible.

Today is a double-header.

#1 Writing about 10,000 hours of pure joy at Murderati: www,murderati.com, courtesy of JT Ellison

#2 Writing about the art of killing people at Hardboiled Wonderland, a terrific crime site hosted by Jed Ayers:

http://bit.ly/oT7P7c

Many thanks to the International Thriller Writers. For starters, today they published my guest blog about heroes and myth structure. They've also nominated DRINK THE TEA for Best First Novel.

You can read the blog here: http://tinyurl.com/3pkt72r

Blogging today at Allison Leotta's site. Make sure you read LAW OF ATTRACTION, her debut novel!

Ruth Cavin

I first met Ruth Cavin at Bouchercon in 2000. My friend Walter Wager introduced us, but we didn't really get a chance to talk.

A few years later I submitted a manuscript in the Private Eye Writers/St Martin's Press PI Novel Competition, then forgot all about it. Really. I mean, I knew there was no way I would win, right?

Fast forward three months, and I'm in Wisconsin shooting a commercial when my cell phone went off. I sent the call to voice mail (hey, I was in the middle of a shot). When I retrieved the message it was from Ruth. I wish I could've saved it, she had this warm tone in her voice, as though she had something extraordinary to tell me. What she said was,

"Hi, this is Ruth Cavin calling from St Martin's Press. I have wonderful news for you, but you have to call me back to find out what."
Other folks might have just left a message saying, hey, you won the competition. But not Ruth, she wanted to do it person-to-person, in real time. That's the kind of lady she was.

Shortly after that, I went to see her in New York. I was nervous about meeting her, but she put me completely at ease. We talked about mysteries, Ross Thomas in particular, and my book. When she asked me what I thought about my book, I said I hoped she could help me make it better. She smiled and nodded and, of course, that's just what she did. Not just for me, but for so many writers who came before and after.

There are very few people who have helped me as much as Ruth. She knew so much more than me about mysteries, yet she always treated me with kindness and respect. I'll miss her very much.