I Told You There'd Be Cake

And not only was the cake a damn good looking cake, it was delicious too, and Tim Hallinan was even more interesting, personable and funny than he is on line. It's an interesting thing to "meet" someone face to face when you feel like you know him already -- it certainly saves on the getting to know you small talk. Here's Tim with the cake and here is his post on the signing.



Murder by the Book in Denver is the kind of place I'd love have a signing -- er, um, I mean if I published a book and they invited me.

Here's Lauri, owner of Murder by the Book with the cake and Tim with the actual book:


After the signing, I got Tim, Karen and Scott -- three of my very favorite people -- to hold still for a photo outside Murder by the book.


Okay and of course I had to have a picture too:

After the signing, Tim allowed Scott and I to spirit him away for dinner and we had a great time talking about everything from art forgery to plein air painting to travel, great books, ghosts, religion, the creative process and of course -- writing.
I'm so glad Tim was here to promote The Fourth Watcher. Luckily, he's a fast writer and the next novel of Bangkok, Misdirection should be published sometime in 2009. With a little luck, we'll talk him into coming back to Denver again.

Later this week, I hope to post about the books I read in July. I also hope to capture a few thoughts about my recent self-imposed exile from the internet and how that's working for me.

An Important Announcement for My Colorado Friends

Most of you who visit here regularly know that I can't say enough about crime fiction author, originator of the Dickens Challenge and blogger extraordinaire, Timothy Hallinan. He will be here in my hometown of Denver this Thursday to sign his latest novel, The Fourth Watcher at Murder by the Book on S. Pearl. at 5:30 P.M.

I confess to having found Tim through the Writer's Resources section of his blog -- where he shares his insights and some great advice on something very near and dear to my heart: Finishing the Novel.

The Fourth Watcher is Tim's 8th published novel, so he really does know a thing or two about finishing novels!

Tim is a generous, wise and funny guy and after following his posts for a few weeks last year, I decided to pick up A Nail Through the Heart, which was the first of the two novels he's written that are set in Bangkok (The Fourth Watcher is the second). I don't read many thrillers, but once I started it, I couldn't put this one down.

This Amazon review of A Nail Through the Heart, although not written by me does capture my thoughts:

"A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART, first in Timothy Hallinan's Poke Rafferty series, is terrific.

Poke Rafferty is an offbeat American travel writer living in Bangkok with a Thai girlfriend, Rose--a former bar girl trying to start a straight business--and a Thai foster daughter, eight-year-old Miaow. The book opens with a murder among thieves. The plot thickens as we meet Poke and his menage, and Miaow insists Poke rescue her street-urchin friend, Superman. Poke reluctantly becomes a missing persons investigator when an Australian woman asks him to help find her uncle, who's apparently lost in the shadowy deeps of the vice-ridden city. Poke becomes involved in animosities left over from war and atrocities of a defunct regime, has to deal with institutional greed and avarice, and must confront the tragedies of Southeast Asia's thriving porn-tourist trade. He soon realizes his main goal is not so much to solve the missing-persons mystery, but to protect Rose, Miaow, Superman, and himself from the accelerating evil around him.

Why I loved this book: The characters are realistic and human, without being stereotypes, and the reader cares about them. The action is fast-paced, relentless, and unpredictable. The book captures the exotic feel of modern-day Southeast Asia, where Westernization of an ancient culture is overlaid by urban blight and underpinned by thousands of years of Oriental civilization and wisdom. Hallinan's writing is rich and descriptive, yet his prose never overwhelms the reader or slows the pace of the story. He's skillful at giving the reader information without clumsy info dumps, so the reader's never pulled out of the story. At the end of the story, I wished for a "prequel" novel, so I could learn more about Poke, Rose, Miaow, and Poke's cop friend, Arthit.

I can't wait to start the second book in the series, THE FOURTH WATCHER. "

Here's my Amazon review of The Fourth Watcher:

In the second book of Timothy Hallinan's beautifully written Bangkok series, we continue to follow Poke Rafferty, an American expatriate who is about to give up writing his "Looking for Trouble" travel series in order to settle down with his new family. In A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART we met Poke's girlfriend Rose, a former bar girl, Miaow, Poke's newly adopted daughter and Arthit, his police officer friend. Creating multi-faceted characters using deceptively simple prose is one of Hallinan's many gifts.

On Peachy, Rose's business partner: "The bank teller's eyes follow her all the way across the lobby: a woman in her late forties, wearing clothes that could provoke buyer's remorse in a seventeen-year-old."

Poke's observation about his father: "Except for a slight stoop, a lot of missing hair, and that shuffling walk, he looks surprisingly like the man Rafferty remembers from all those years ago. He has to be in his seventies, but time has barely laid a glove on him. It strikes Rafferty for the hundredth time that serenity and selfishness aren't that dissimilar. They both keep people young."

Hallinan gives us a view into the experience of being the westerner looking in from the outside, attempting to assimilate, but recognizing and accepting that he will never really "get it". One of the great benefits that come with reading these novels of Bangkok is a glimpse into eastern culture and philosophy and the often humorous view of westerners from an Asian perspective.

The city of Bangkok is a prominent character in THE FOURTH WATCHER and in A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART. Hallinan masterfully reveals a city made up of a unique blend of spirituality, carnality, ghosts, superstitions, the rich, the poor and unseen circles of power and influence.

In THE FOURTH WATCHER, the author deftly weaves together several subplots and skillfully brings them to a satisfying conclusion. One of the things I most admire about this writer is that when he explores dark and violent themes, the worst of both occurs "off screen" and within our own imaginations. Hallinan implies the worst, but does not hit his readers over the head with it.

A wonderful, fast paced read with deeply drawn characters I cared about, a richly textured setting and a gripping story.

So if you can stop in on Thursday, please do. Did I mention that I think there will be cake?

Note: I am now returning to the "real" offline world. This was the time sensitive post I mentioned when I went into internet exile, so I'll see you at Murder by the Book or back "out here" next week!

In Which I Admit I am Powerless

First, I have some good news. I got my Foundling Wheel groove back this weekend and I have a new first chapter, (don’t tsk, you tskers, I really did need to go back and rewrite the beginning of the story so I could pick it back up again in the middle). I finished chapter 12 and got halfway through chapter 13. I’m back in the saddle and crawling forward again.

Now, the bad news: Hi, my name is Lisa and I’m addicted to the internet.

Between the malaise of summer, taking off for that heavenly writing retreat in the mountains and a growing to-do list that I never seem to make any progress on, I have allowed myself to slip into a state of inertia and near-depression. Why can I not get anything done?

I’m like Pavlov’s dog whenever Google reader alerts me to a new blog post or whenever a new email comes in. Not long ago I added fuel to the fire by subscribing to more blogs! I started Twittering – why? I can’t exactly say. And don’t forget Facebook – where I admittedly spend very little time, but do end up wasting time every time I accept an invitation to “friend” someone new. Might as well check out their page and see who else they’re friends with!

I have always rationalized that reading and commenting on blogs doesn’t interfere with the time I so desperately seek to work on The Foundling Wheel. I have a full time job and I tell myself that if, in between tasks at work I read and comment a little here and there, it’s not impinging on writing time because I can’t write while I’m working.

I finally had to call bullshit on my own bullshit this week.

Maybe I couldn’t work on TFW in that stolen ten (okay, twenty) minutes after the Monday morning conference call and before I answered the first email, but if I had used the ten (twenty?) minutes to go and clean the kitchen, write that thank-you note, respond to the two letters still waiting answers, pay my bills, swiffer vac the hallway, run out and restock the fridge, brush my cat, or godforbid go take a walk and get some exercise, perhaps I wouldn’t feel so constantly behind.

Some of you are disciplined, determined souls and I envy and respect you for it. You get a post out there, comment on occasion, but keep your noses to the grindstone and you make progress on your work. Then there’s me who has to click every link on every post. There’s me who somehow ends up watching YouTube videos of Lang Lang at two o’clock in the morning or I wonder whatever happened to that girl I was stationed with in 1982 and I’m on Classmates.com, Whitepages.com and all over the internet following cyber-leads until I find her and in the meantime, holy cow, I wonder what happened to that couple from Minnesota? Damn, Jensen is just too common a name, but I’ll bet they stayed in touch with…

I’m out of control. On a side note: I did reconnect with an old friend from 1982 and I also reconnected with an old childhood friend this week. Evidence of my cyber investigative prowess and I’m delighted to reconnect, but it’s not getting me any closer to “the end”.

This calls for drastic measures. I have to give up the web – cold turkey – for a week, just to see if I can.

I have to prioritize and here are the “must-do” items in order of precedence.

1. Work. I never neglect the hand that feeds me – despite some evidence to the contrary.

2. Work on The Foundling Wheel – too easy to neglect due to poor time management.

3. Take care of my body – I have turned into a junk food eating sloth.

4. Establish a routine and a schedule and stick to it – at least a little.

5. Read. It’s just as important as writing is.

I’ve got at least one time-sensitive blog post that I’ll allow myself this week.

I won’t ignore email. The time it takes to read an answer email is infinitesimal, in comparison to my unbridled out of control web surfing. While I’m “away” please feel free to email me at lisa dot eudaemonia at gmail dot com. As a matter of fact, please do! I'll be suffering severe withdrawal from all of you.

I’ll comment back to this post, but I won’t allow myself to do it until Wednesday.

I won't be reading or commenting on any posts until (ugh) Friday. There, I said it.

Is it just me, or has anyone else had to find ways to set limits on their internet time?