Doldrums & interviews

I’m going to be away for four days at the end of the week. I won’t have much time to write, so I’ve been avoiding working on my bigger projects, knowing that if I get a full head of steam going now, I’ll end up with literatus interruptus. I’ll take my journal along and might do some writing while in transit and in airports, but I never count on getting much done when I’m away from home.

I’m preparing questions for an e-interview with Tabitha King about her upcoming book Candles Burning, co-authored with the late Michael McDowell. If any of you out there have any questions pertinent to this topic or to her writing in general, post ‘em and I might add them to the list.

I was planning to read the Blackwater books while traveling, but I discovered they are out of print. Discovered too late to track ‘em down online and get them to me before I leave. I used to have a BOMC two-volume hardcover set with three installments in each, but they were among the many, many things I abandoned when we cleaned out the family home last year. Rather than ship hundreds of hardcover books halfway across the continent, I decided to donate them to the library, figuring it would be cheaper to repurchase a book if I decided I wanted to read it again. Hadn’t factored in the convenience of having a book on the shelf or the potential difficulty in finding a particular volume. Hindsight.

If anyone plans to be at Book Expo America convention (formerly the ABA) in Washington DC on May 19-21, please give me a holler at MaxDevore at hotmail dot com.

As a reviewer, I often end up with duplicate copies of books. Some publishers send me the galleys and then the finished books a few weeks/months later (so I can confirm any quotes I intend to use in the review, presumably). Since I’ve already read the books, I’m passing them along via e-Bay, brand spanking new hardcovers starting at $4 each plus shipping. Gone by Jonathan Kellerman (an Alex Delaware novel) and Fortunate Son by Walter Mosley (a standalone novel).