Sleuthsayers: Drinking With Archivists

Up at the Sleuthsayers mystery blog today, I’m sharing the story of a real-life mystery that popped up during World War II.

I first learned about it from an archivist at the National Archives in Atlanta, who told me how researchers there had found a couple of cryptic advertisements that ran in the New Yorker magazine during the war. Back in the 1940s, US Naval Intelligence thought the ads looked suspicious, and flagged them for further investigation.

Interestingly, one of the blog’s readers did some more research, and discovered that at least some parts of the story did check out. You’ll find it all at the Sleuthsayers blog today,

You can check out the post here.

If you like my work, kindly consider bookmarking Sleuthsayers. The next post will be in three weeks, when I’ll be talking about the time, as a kid, when I launched a detective agency in my parents’ garage.

If you’re looking for reading material during your pandemic down-time, I hope you’ll consider one of my books or my wife’s. If ever there was a time for escapism, it’s now!

Check out Denise’s book here: We Gather Together.

The e-book versions of both of my two most recent books, Murder on Book Row and the fantasy novel, Sorceress Kringle, are available at almost every online retailer. You can order print copies at the usual suspects online, or autographed copies from Malaprop’s, the bookstore in my nabe. Yes, this wonderful bookstore is still operating, and shipping books all over the world.

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Credit: Bookshelf image at top by 🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič on Unsplash

Sleuthsayers: How I First Met Sherlock Holmes

My first blog post of 2021 talks about my first encounter with the great detective, Sherlock Holmes.

The post, which is up at the mystery blog, Sleuthsayers, features a couple of old paperback covers from the first set of Holmes books I received one Christmas.

I’m running the story this month because among Sherlock Holmes fans, January is the unofficial month of Sherlock’s birthday.

You can check out the post here.

If you like my work, kindly consider bookmarking Sleuthsayers. The next post will be in three weeks, when I’ll be talking about a real-life World War II mystery that popped up in the pages of the New Yorker magazine. Yes, the New Yorker.

If you’re looking for reading material during your pandemic down-time, I hope you’ll consider one of my books or my wife’s. If ever there was a time for escapism, it’s now!

Check out Denise’s book here: We Gather Together.

The e-book versions of both of my two most recent books, Murder on Book Row and the fantasy novel, Sorceress Kringle, are available at almost every online retailer. You can order print copies at the usual suspects online, or autographed copies from Malaprop’s, the bookstore in my nabe. Yes, this wonderful bookstore is still operating, and shipping books all over the world.

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Credit: Bookshelf image at top by 🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič on Unsplash

WE GATHER TOGETHER with Denise Kiernan

My wife — the New York Times Bestselling author Denise Kiernan — introduces her new book on the Sleuthsayers blog today.

The post is in the form of a Q&A. I fire off the questions, and her answers give us all a glimpse of her new book, WE GATHER TOGETHER, which is a look at how the American holiday of Thanksgiving came to be.

The link to the blog post is here.

If you like my work, kindly consider bookmarking Sleuthsayers. The next post will be in three weeks, in December, when I’ll be talking about a surprising Christmas literary mystery that endures to this day.

If you’re looking for reading material during your pandemic down-time, I hope you’ll consider one of my books or my wife’s. If ever there was a time for escapism, it’s now!

Check out Denise’s book here: We Gather Together.

The e-book versions of both of my two most recent books, Murder on Book Row and the fantasy novel, Sorceress Kringle, are available at almost every online retailer. (The Kringle e-book will be on sale for the duration of November, right up until Christmas!) You can order print copies at the usual suspects online, or autographed copies from Malaprop’s, the bookstore in my nabe.

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Credit: Bookshelf image at top by 🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič on Unsplash

Indies First: The Freaking Upshot

Indies First: The Freaking Upshot

The freaking upshot is that just because Joe D’Agnese worked in your bookstore on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, that doesn’t mean his presence resulted in the sale of actual books.

Denise and I enjoyed ourselves immensely participating in the Indies First event over Thanksgiving weekend, which I described briefly here. I met some local authors whom I hadn’t met before, like children’s book author Alan Gratz and Terry Roberts, whose work of historical fiction greatly impressed the booksellers at our local shop.

Early on, I spent some time behind the gift wrap station, where I wrapped exactly one gift. Then, later, feeling that I HAD to hand-sell the shit out of some books, I wandered the aisles of the store, foisting myself and my expertise on people. In a matter of seconds I discovered:

1. I don’t do well speaking to the public.

2. I have no expertise that would allow me to intelligently sell the vast majority of books. I can hold my own in fiction, children’s, and some genre categories, but don’t asking me what book you should get if you’re planning to can tomatoes or build a chicken coop.

3. People in bookstores want to be left alone. I don’t blame them. I hate when salespeople come up to me in stores, too.

In the end, I spent a good deal of time talking to the booksellers, to friends who happened to be shopping that day, and to the authors I happened to meet. I bought a bunch of books for my nieces and nephews, so it was a profitable day on the Christmas to-do list front.

But I don’t think many retailers will be clamoring for my services anytime soon, and they’d be wise not to. I will say that the bookstore, Malaprop’s, was excited to be participating in the Indies First event. Next year they hope to be organized early enough to persuade our city’s biggest-name authors—Ron Rash, Sara Gruen, Elizabeth Kostova, Charles Frazier—to participate. A lot of authors said they wanted to participate but had made out-of-town-plans for the holiday weekend. The store plans to hit everyone on its list with a save-the-date email early in the New Year.

As for Denise’s Black Friday signing in Oak Ridge, it went incredibly well. Half of the store’s stock of her title were sold by the time we arrived, and people returned to the store after shopping elsewhere to get their books signed. According to Bookscan, this region of the country is in the Top 10 for sales of her book, which should surprise no one.

Asheville's Weird and Wonderful Thanksgiving Parade

Happy Thanksgiving!

Think we can get some momentum behind the idea of banning Christmas? Nearly every blogger I’ve read this week has said that Thanksgiving is their favorite holiday. I know it’s mine. It’s probably yours, too. So how about it? No Christmas this year. Let’s just have two Thanksgivings and be done with it. Santa can put in an appearance at the Thanksgiving Parade, but he can’t really arrive. I’m into it.

Above: Some photos from the Thanksgiving Parade in our little mountain town in NC.