Last week I offered to give away six copies of Make, Take, Murder to six lucky blog commenters. To choose the winners, I used a random number generator. Here they are: Sharon M Dru Judy C Sarita Colleen SarahA Please send me your postal addresses (email me at JoannaSlan@aol.com) and I'll pop the books in the mail to you. If the spirit moves you, I'd love to have you post a review.
Do reviews help readers decide which books to buy? I don't know. Usually I read the book reviews in the newspapers and online, but I don't know that the reviewers' opinion matters as much as the information about the book. I think that Make, Take, Murder is my best effort so far. In fact, I'm having a hard time turning loose of Ink, Red, Dead because Make, Take, Murder hit a high-water mark in the series--and I want every book to be better than the last.
As many of you know, I try to include topical themes in my books. Make, Take, Murder involves domestic violence, but it also traces the roots of an abusive relationship. Kiki's daughter Anya and her friend Nicci are hanging around at the mall, when they bump into an older boy. Anya has a crush on this guy. He knows it. To impress his friends, he teases Anya and says something inappropriate and demeaning. I won't tell you how it ends, because that would spoil it for you, but Anya learns not to tolerate such disrespect.
In Ink, Red, Dead, I tackle the relationship between parent and child. How can we honor our mother and father when they are no longer logical or lucid? What do we owe an aging parent? How do we balance being responsible caregivers and taking care of our own needs? It's a tough series of questions, so my writing time REQUIRES a lot of long walks on the beach. Yep, that's my thinking time, the solitary moments when I wonder how each of my characters will deal with the challenges I've given her. I also ponder how I can make the situations realistic without tipping into melodrama.
CONTEST
Make, Take, Murder is the PERFECT beach read. You can win your own copy--plus a "Beach in a Bag"--by guessing where I was when I took the picture at the top of this post. If no one gets it right, or if multiple people get it right, I'll go back to the randomizer and pull a winner. So...dear readers, where was I when I snapped that photo? What is a "Beach in a Bag"?
I'll show you next week.
13 comments:
Congratulations to the winners. MAKE, TAKE, MURDER sounds interesting. Your photo is also interesting and I'd guess you were in a car going through a car wash.
Mason
Thoughts in Progress
I love your novels, and I can't wait to read Make, Take, Murder! I think you took the photo in a carwash.
Yup, carwash is my guess, too!
That totally looks like the clear coat applied at the car washes around here which smells like fruit stripe gum!
Boy, I have no idea where the picture was taken, but it's intriguing. Those walks sound wonderful! I do read reviews, not by professional reviewers, though. I read the reviews on Amazon, and in blogs, because they're from readers, and I tend to average them in my mind with what I know about the author and series before making a purchasing decision.
looks like a car wash. Oh I see most have the same guess.
Thanks for selecting my name.
Don't enter me.
You were at the car wash!!!
jane1 at cp-tel dot net
The World Aquarium in St. Louis?
Car wash!
You were going through a carwash...my kids love this portion of our trip through "bubble world" as they call it!
Car wash, yep. Maybe a Bubble Wash? We have one of those nearby and the kids always get excited when they see the multi-colored foam.
Nadja
Carwash (though I admit that while I recognized it, I didn't identify how till I read the other comments).
The winner is Mason Canyon! I randomized all the correct entries and Mason won!
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