Win a free copy of Chihuahua of the Baskervilles

Lesa of Lesa’s Book Critiques sent me some great questions after reviewing Chihuahua of the Baskervilles, and today she posted our conversation on her site. She’ll pick one commenter to receive a hardback copy, signed by the author (that would be me). Remember, that’s commenters on her site, not mine. Here’s a bit of the interview.

We have two sweet-cherry trees, and when they’re full of ripe fruit, I like to go outside, turn the hose on high, and blast the robins that are busily taking one peck from each cherry. “Get out of here, you red-breasted bastards!” I yell. This both enhances the experience and keeps the neighbors from interrupting my workday with needless social calls.

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Chihuahua of the Baskervilles: Librarian review, Facebook ad

Allbritten’s debut mystery offers a good mystery, a terrific team of sleuths, ghost stories, and a number of possibilities for future locations. I can’t vote, but half-way through 2011, Chihuahua of the Baskervilles would be one of my nominees for the Agatha for Best First Mystery.

That’s from a wonderful review by Lesa Holstine, of Lesa’s Book Critiques. Lesa has been a library administrator and manager for 30 years. She’s a contributing Book Reviewer for Library Journal, Mystery Readers Journal, and various websites, and was also winner of the 2009 and 2010 Spinetingler Awards for Best Reviewer. So this is kind of a big deal. My eyes got a little prickly feeling when I read her review.

She also sent me a list of great interview questions, and the results will be on her site tomorrow.

In other news, I’m picking my parents up from the airport today. They often visit, and are timing this one so they can attend my first book signing. Of course, this meant that I woke up from a dream this morning where I lost track of time and looked at my watch to realize I was supposed to be at the airport five minutes ago.

Ten of my author copies came yesterday. I’ve never understood why they arrive in dribs and drabs like that (I’m due another ten). I got one all on its lonesome a while back, but immediately gave it to a well-connected friend at her birthday party, so it’s nice to have one to fondle again.

Still have three blog posts to write. — Wait, maybe four. I’ve discovered that it’s a good idea to keep checking back with people to make sure they still have you on the schedule. Also gotta make a bunch of glow soap for the signing, and also to mail to various people as thank-you gifts and for general promo.

I whipped up a Facebook ad last night.

Am having it click through to my website (with excerpt, reviews, etc.) rather than straight to a sales page on Amazon or whatever. Don’t know if that’s a good idea or not, and of course, it’s impossible to track actual sales when you’re not working with your own sales site. If you’re wondering about the headline, Chihuahua of the Baskervilles was too long to fit, so Chihuahua of Doom is what I came up with. I went back and forth on the all-capped Doom, but in the end decided it was funnier. I’m running a week-long test.

Chihuahua of the Baskervilles hits the shelves!

It’s here, the day you had no idea you were waiting for — Tuesday! Ah, but a Tuesday different from all others, because you can finally get Chihuahua of the Baskervilles in either hardback or ebook. (Yes, ebook! You could be reading it right now, instead of this parenthetical comment!) Links to your favorite sellers are in the sidebar, top right.

I had some extra excitement this morning in the form of a short radio interview with Tron Simpson of the popular morning radio show, “Tron in the Morning.” Super nice guy. I requested anything by Aretha Franklin.

Also today, if you’d like an extra-special (aka “tiny”) bonus scene from the lives of Angus, Suki and Michael, come over to the Killer Characters blog, where I am answering any and all questions, many with the same answer. (“I don’t know.”)

Hope you all had a great holiday weekend. We watched the Folsom Field fireworks from our super-secret parking lot, which was enlivened by a guy who had smoked a great deal of pot (“This is just like when I was sucked up into the cosmos as an enormous ball of light! I was pure love!”).

Happy Tuesday!

Boulder Daily Camera reviews Chihuahua of the Baskervilles

I’ve had good reviews, I’ve had bad reviews, but this is the review of my dreams, from today’s edition of the Boulder Daily Camera.

To curl up with a book about a ghost Chihuahua named Petey is to thank heaven you ever learned to read in the first place.

Dude. Here’s the rest.

Exclusive preview for free!

CriminalElement.com has made the first three chapters of Chihuahua of the Baskervilles available to members. It’s free to register, and the site has a ton of great features/content for people who love mystery books.

As far as I’m concerned, this is what the internet is for.

You’ll have to click the pic to make it go. WordPress frowns on gifs.

Ada Nieves on David Letterman!

Ada Nieves just sent me an email that she’s going to appear on David Letterman’s show tonight, and I am so excited for her, I CAN HARDLY STAND IT! Ada is a wonderful woman in the Chihuahua community (yes, there is a Chihuahua community). She designs small-dog fashion, just like the gal in my first mystery book (only she’s much younger, more attractive, and Puerto Rican).

Update: She was showing her little clothes for rats! But they still showed photos of her Oscar dresses for dogs, which are fantastic.

Village Voice trashes my book without reading even the back cover blurb.

Ah, Google Alerts. They let me know when people are talking about me, and this time, it’s a doozy.

James Hannaham, author of God Says No and apparently a professional angry person, put together a vitriolic little paragraph entitled “Dumb Dog Books” at the end of the May 25 book page in the Village Voice newspaper. Here’s what he had to say about mine:

Chihuahua of the Baskervilles claims to be the first novel in a moronic series about a ghost pup…

Um, no. That’s like saying Mark Twain wrote river-rafting stories. The Tripping Magazine series is about a cut-rate travel magazine that covers destinations of supposedly supernatural interest (I use that qualifier a lot in my promo text). The canine apparition appears in this one book only. The book’s title references a rather well-known story where the ghost dog turns out not to be a real ghost. So, yeah… I’m thinking he got his idea strictly from the cover. (Isn’t there some kind of saying about that?)

Since he has a website with his contact info on it, I was able to send him an email, in which I noted,

Based on your cover, I’m guessing God Says No is about the wacky things someone finds in a U-Store-It unit, but I wouldn’t write that in a newspaper without making sure.

Here’s a link to the original Village Voice article (the pertinent paragraph is the last one, and the link takes you directly to page two).

Don’t go on any rampages on my behalf, but do make a mental note that you can’t believe everything you read. And hey, I got mentioned in the Village Voice!

Chihuahua of the Baskervilles excerpt

Simultaneous ebook release for Chihuahua of the Baskervilles!

This is exciting! I just got on Amazon.com and saw that Chihuahua of the Baskervilles will be released simultaneously in hardback and ebook versions (Kindle and Nook)! The price for both platforms is $10.99. If you’ve pre-ordered the hardback and would prefer the ebook version, I think you can log onto your online bookstore account and cancel the hardback order. The ebook version has a pre-order option as well. Don’t hesitate to buy the the lower-priced ebook on my account. I get a bigger percentage of those sales. 🙂