May has shaped up to be a month of book launches.
On May 7, my wife Tara Laskowski, our son Dash, and I were in Atlanta for the launch of our good friend Brandon Wicks’ debut novel, American Fallout—a terrific book and a fun event at Charis Books in Atlanta.
This past weekend, on May 14, I joined other contributors to Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning at The Writer’s Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland, to celebrate that anthology’s official launch, and we were fortunate (if that’s the word) to have a storm rolling in as the party took place. Pictured above are (standing, left-right) Marianne Wilski Strong, Shaun Taylor Bevins, Diane Davidson, Shaun Taylor Bevins, Adam Meyer, Robin Templeton, Alan Orloff, me (!), and Linda English; (sitting, left-right) Lauren Silberman, KM Rockwood, Donna Andrews, and Barb Goffman; and photobombing with a tortoise frisbee, my son Dash.
Then this coming weekend, Brandon and Tara and I (and Dash again) will be at the Santa Fe Writers Project’s Spring Launch Party, celebrating Brandon’s American Fallout, Tara’s Bystanders, Daniel M. Ford’s Ordination, and Elizabeth Hazen’s Chao Theories. That party will take place Saturday, May 21, at the Waverly Street Gallery in Bethesda, MD—with music, food, and specialty cocktails in addition to readings by each of the authors. (I’ll be introducing Brandon.)
Beyond the flurry of book launches, I’ve been keeping busy online as well, with a couple of blog posts over the past week or so. Check out:
Femmes Fatales, where Marcia Talley invited me to talk about On the Road with Del & Louise in the wake of the recent Agatha win and Anthony nomination—and I segued from the novel in stories to comments on several recent short story events and anthologies- SleuthSayers, where I invited my fellow finalists for the Anthony Award for Best Anthology/Collection to discuss their work; pleased to have Murder Under the Oaks on the same slate as works by Christopher Irvin, Thomas Pluck, Todd Robinson, and Kenneth Wishnia!
More soon down the road.