'Bout Books Reviews the Shopkeeper

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Coming Soon--The next Steve Dancy Tale

Murder at Thumb Butte is with the editors. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of work before publication. Beyond editing, there is internal design, cover design, proofreading, and all the administrative set up. Still, I'm pretty excited about this one. Steve, Jeff, and Joseph are back, of course, but I'm really happy that Maggie decided to make another appearance. She really livens up the story. I'll continue to provide updates on the progress and share more of the story as production moves along. Thanks to everyone for your patience. This novel has certainly taken longer than I expected. By the way, this is a prototype of the cover:

Finding the Past

 

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Constituting America Guest Essayist: James D. Best

Article II, Section 1, Clause 5

5:  No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

The president of the United States must meet three eligibility requirements. He or she must be a natural born citizen, be at least thirty-five years old, and have resided within the United States for fourteen years.

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A Great Book That Should be in Every Writer's Library

Lawrence Block

When I transitioned from writing non-fiction to novels, I probably read a dozen books on writing fiction. Now, every three months or so, I pick up a book on writing to remind myself about the basics or to pick up an advanced tip or two. I breeze through most of these books because they are pedestrian rehashes of the same basic advice.

Spider, Spin me a Web by Lawrence Block breaks from the pack. Originally written in 1988, it is not only filled with solid advice, it's fun to read. The book is actually a series of magazine articles by Block, which means the narrative is not straight-line, how-to instructions. Nonetheless, the organization, deft editing, and lively writing make it more cohesive than most books of this sort.

Spider, Spin me a Web appeals to me because it is filled with truth and treats me like an adult when it address basic issues. The comments on the publishing industry are out-of-date, but this is a small part of the book. Spider, Spin me a Web talks mostly about the writing craft, and the advice is timeless.

Kindle vs. iPad

The Christmas season is behind us, and it appears the Kindle and iPad were two popular gifts. That makes us writers happy, because people have to fill all those devices with content. (My best Kindle version sales date was December 27.) Since I have owned four Kindles and my wife uses an iPad, I thought a consumer comparison might be useful to the seven or eight people  who haven't acquired one or the other yet.

First, my wife and I love our gadgets, and neither of us is willing to trade. Buying a Kindle or iPad is not a lifestyle choice. It's a amplification of an existing lifestyle.

I'm a writer and a heavy reader. I'm almost always reading at least three books at the same time, especially when I'm in research mode. I read text-heavy narrative non-fiction and novels.  I can get lost in my Kindle for hours. The only game I play is Spider Solitaire on my laptop. I travel a lot, so subscribing to my newspaper on the Kindle means my paper is always there to enjoy with my first cup of coffee. Last, I use a laptop for writing, and almost always have mine within reach. The Kindle is perfect for me. It's light to carry along with my laptop, holds an entire library, and is easy to handle and navigate. With the search, highlight and note capabilities, it's also the best research tool invented since the Internet. (I still trust history books more than most websites.)

My wife is visual. She loves the graphics, color, and touch features of the iPad. We make family movies together with iMovie on our desktop Mac. She is also an excellent photographer. I love carrying around a library on a device that can almost fit in my hip pocket, while she loves carrying around all her movies and photographs. (Don't get caught sitting next to her on a long plane ride.) She'll search the web for entertainment, and loves the process of exploration. I go to the web with a purpose, and get frustrated when I can't immediately find what I want. She is a big game player and moves to different game right after a yelp of victory. My wife still prefers to read her books in hardcover printed form, but will read an occasional book on her iPad, especially if I've raved about something I've read on my Kindle. She tends to pick up her iPad and use it for an hour at the most before she bounces off the couch to do something in the real world.

We both love our respective machines because they fit our personalities and lifestyles. Someday they may merge, but I don't think so. I predict they will each just keep getting better at providing a service to their constituencies. I've owned all three versions of the Kindle, and each has been better—that is better for me in what I am looking for in a companion device. Despite these improvements, my wife was never tempted to get her own Kindle, but immediately went out to buy an iPad. To each, his own makes for a great world.

The Future of the Western Genre

For the last couple of decades, enthusiasts have lamented the demise of Westerns while the rest of the world has gone about its business, ignorant that anyone might care about a genre relegated to a few obscure shelves at the local bookstore. Westerns were hugely popular for over a hundred years. Not only were they popular in the United States, but the whole world devoured them. The Western was a staple of fiction, Hollywood, television, and daydreams. What happened?

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The Perfect Gift

Books are perfect gifts. They're already a great value, but with the speed the world is going to those nifty electronic readers, books will soon be valuable antiques. Heck, in the near future, you may only be able to gaze at books in those brick and mortar museums they call libraries.

My bet is that children's books won't go electronic anytime soon. We always search for autographed storybooks for our grandkids. A great find is when the author and the illustrator both sign the book. We've done this for several years, so now our grandkids' bedrooms have dedicated shelves for signed books. The icing on the cake is that we get to read them a story from one of these books when we visit


Several of our relatives have hobbies and special interests. Some people can be hard to buy for—unless you pick a book about their hobby. Whether your relatives or friends are interested in the Civil War, railroads, guns, cooking, or collecting old comic books, there's always a book around that will grab their interest.

Books are the best entertainment value around. They provide hour after hour of personal pleasure, and then they can be passed on to another person. I also like that when I give a book as a gift, I can write a personal note that won't get tossed out like last year's Christmas cards.

By the way, if you're thinking about a gift for me, I collect vintage Western books from the first half of the twentieth century. I especially like the ones with great illustrations on the dust cover. But if you give me one of these, do me a favor and write your personal note on a Post-It.