April 2024

Ask Google, Yahoo!

Greetings from the road, although my travels are almost over. But while I'm traveling, I've decided to have a (decidedly odd) contest. Remember the mnemonic devices for memorizing the planets of our solar system, back before Pluto got demoted? (My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles = Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto.) Now:

1. Imagine that you are the child of an irascible classics professor who has an emphatic preference for the names of Greek gods over Roman ones.
2. Furthermore imagine that your dad is so cracked that he insists on calling Earth "Gaia."
3. And keep in mind that, among the original names, one does hark back to Greek mythology.
4. Now create your own mnemonic device for memorizing this transposed solar system. (Dang, I feel like Will Shortz.) I won't promise to use the best one, by my very subjective standards, in the book-in-progress, but there will be a prize for the one I like best -- a free unabridged audio version of ANOTHER THING TO FALL. And, yes, I'm well aware that I haven't supplied the Greek names. Do a little homework, y'all.

The news from the road has been mainly good. ATTF hit the New York Times list on March 30, so I am officially not a one-hit wonder. What the Dead Know proved to be the little engine that could, debuting on the Times mass market paperback list at #19, falling off the printed list, then zooming back to #10 as of April 6th, returning to #19 on the 13th. I'm told that's proof of strong word-of-mouth, so thank you to those who said nice things.

WTDK also got nominated for some things -- the Strand Award, and the Gumshoe, and earned second place, after John Connnolly's The UNQUIET, in votes cast by Crimespree readers.

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