Kelli Stanley: City of Dragons
978-0312603601 – Hardcover – Thomas Dunne/Minotaur Books – $24.99
Reading Kelli Stanley’s City of Dragons was a pleasure from beginning to end. I liked her incredible attention to details in the San Francisco of the 1940s setting. I really liked her main character, the wounded private eye, Miranda Corbie. Kelli’s love of noir fiction, and love for a great story really show. Good fiction should be able to take you into another place and time coupling the author’s skills with your own imagination. This book certainly succeeds in grabbing you early, and keeping your attention. Anyone who has read and loved the great classic detective novels will feel at home with Kelli Stanley’s writing. And she has that political edge that so many writers of the 30s and 40s brought to their work.
There’s a lot going on here. You can feel San Francisco in the dark of pre-World War II, taste the cigarettes and booze, and feel the very real danger her characters experience, the otherness of Chinatown, and the deaths and broken lives that dot this sometimes harsh and painful cityscape. And you can feel throughout how much heart and soul the author has put into this book. It’s a pleasure to read, and has a story that won’t let go. Lots of fun overall, and City of Dragons works on many levels, so it will satisfy readers looking for entertainment or something with a bit more depth as well.
Kelli loves her work and loves to talk about it too, so we had a great conversation. This is a writer with a great future and I am very much looking forward to her next book. I’m also hoping to get her to contribute a reading from this novel to Writerscast in the near future. Kelli’s own website is worth a visit as well. City of Dragons is available as an e-book in various formats, and in digital audio as well.
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Kwei Quartey – The Wife of the Gods
978-1400067596 (Hardcover)
Random House $24.00
Dr. Kwei Quartey is medical doctor, born in Ghana and raised by an African American mother and a Ghanian father. He has lived and practiced medicine in California (where he is the lead physician for an urgent care clinic) for a number of years; he wanted to be a writer since he was a young boy and writes in the morning before going to work. Writerscast host David Wilk interviewed Kwei during a recent visit to New York where he was appearing at Book Expo America. Dr. Quartey talks about his writing, the background for his new novel, a complicated and beautifully written mystery set in contemporary Ghana. Wilk and Quartey explore many aspects of the writing life as it has emerged for this first time novelist. Wife of the Gods is an impressive debut by a new talent, and as the first in a series based on his compelling main character, Inspector Darko Dawson. This interview should be an equally compelling introduction to the author and his work for many readers.
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Tony Abbott-The Postcard-a Mystery within a Mystery-Pt 2
March 21, 2009 by David
Filed under Children's Authors, Fiction
978-0316011723 (Hardcover)
Little Brown Young Readers, $15.99
(paperback is due out in May 2009)
Writerscast host David Wilk interviews Tony Abbott, the author of over 60 books for young readers, including the extremely popular Droon series, which has sold over 4.5 million books, and the Golden Kite winner Firegirl.
This is part two of Wilk and Abbott’s in depth and wide ranging conversation about books and writing. Wilk and Abbott talk extensively about Tony’s latest book, The Postcard , an exciting and well written mystery set in Florida in the sixties that is based to a great extent on Tony’s experiences visiting there as a child. They also talk about some of Abbott’s many other books and how his newest projects are developing. Abbott’s many fans will find this a great opportunity to get to know him as a writer and person. Part One of their conversation was posted earlier in March 2009.
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Tony Abbott – The Postcard – a Mystery within a Mystery
March 11, 2009 by David
Filed under Children's Authors, Fiction
978-0316011723 (Hardcover)
Little Brown Young Readers, $15.99
(paperback is due out in May 2009)
Writerscast host David Wilk interviews Tony Abbott, the author of over 60 books for young readers, including the extremely popular Droon series, which has sold over 4.5 million books, and the Golden Kite winner Firegirl.
This is part one of Wilk and Abbott’s in depth and wide ranging conversation about books and writing. Abbott talks about what he did before he became a full time writer and discusses in detail his writing methods and how he develops ideas that turn into books. Wilk and Abbott talk extensively about Tony’s latest book, The Postcard , an exciting and well written mystery set in Florida in the sixties that is based to a great extent on Tony’s experiences visiting there as a child. Abbott’s many fans will find this a great opportunity to get to know him as a writer and person. Part Two of their conversation will be posted soon.
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Starvation Lake – a mystery – Bryan Gruley
978-1-4165-6362-4 (paperback)
Touchstone, $14.00
Writerscast host David Wilk interviews Bryan Gruley, award-winning Chicago bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, whose first novel, a mystery called Starvation Lake is about to be published as a paperback original from the Touchstone imprint of Simon & Schuster. Gruley’s novel is set in small town Michigan, and centers around a journalist with an unresolved past, local hockey players, and an engrossing story that captures the reader from the beginning and won’t let go. Harlan Coben has called Starvation Lake “A great debut from a major talent.”
Wilk and Gruley talk in depth about the writer’s work, what it’s like for a full time journalist to take on a novel, small town newspapering, and explore in depth some of the background and underpinnings of Gruley’s first novel. They discuss character development, story development and plotting, and the life and work of the novelist. Listeners will enjoy the opportunity to hear from a writer who clearly has alot to say and is an emerging new talent in American fiction.
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A World I Never Made by James LePore
A World I Never Made
ISBN# 978-0981608723
The Story Plant, Hardcover $24.95
The inaugural WritersCast podcast has host David Wilk interviewing author James LePore, whose first novel, a thriller entitled A WORLD I NEVER MADE will be published by The Story Plant in April, 2009. Wilk and LePore talk about the characters in the book, and LePore’s writing methods and other topics in a wide ranging interview. LePore is a former trial attorney who turned to writing fiction full time after selling his law practice.
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