Dana Stabenow reps for used books

Why I Love Used Books

JULY 27, 2011 by Dana

I found this copy of Ernie Pyle’s Here is Your War in — wait for it — the local Salvation Army thrift shop.

I opened it to find that the endpapers were a montage of still photographs fromThe Story of GI Joe, the 1945 film made from the book, with Burgess Meredith playing Pyle and Robert Mitchum playing the character based on Captain Waskow, from Pyle’s most famous story.

I paged through and it is wonderfully illustrated by Carol Johnson.

It was a foregone conclusion that I was going to buy this book, which I did, for the princely sum of fifty cents, and I took it home and started reading it. At page 107 (Chapter 9. Sherman Had a Word for It), this fell out.

Here’s the other side.

First, “Rambo” is an actual name? I thought Hollywood made it up.

Second, there is a whole story in that little two-and-a-half by four-inch piece of paper. Who was Norman? What was he doing in Nome? Was he stationed there during the war? It had been over for four months, why was he still there? How long had he been there? Did he really only get to Chapter 9? Maybe he finished Chapter 8 and he got his orders to go home and he was in such a rush to pack he left the book behind.

I got nothing for how the book got from Nome to Homer.

Did Norman head straight on down to the Board of Trade the evening of December 18th, 1945? I’d like to think that in accordance with pass rule number 2 (see above) that he did not do anything in public to disgrace himself or the Army.

But I wouldn’t bet on it.

When I eventually do get that iPad, there won’t be anything that interesting falling out from between its pages.

HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS BOOK by Pascal Marco

Signed copies available from www.poisonedpen.com

As of last month, my debut thriller novel, IDENTITY: LOST has been available in Hardcover and Kindle versions.  To say I'm excited is an understatement.  This journey has been one remarkable serendipitous event after another.

I've had fun quoting Oprah's "There's no such thing as a coincidence" mantra and I will tell you I have fully embraced this belief with Lady O.  She has been the world's #1 proponent (besides my own personal life coach and wife, Karen) of the belief of intention. I believed that imagination was best left to children and seldom harnessed in adulthood.

Then it all changed about five years ago.

Things started to happen that felt coincidental but had a distinctly stronger message for me than just mere happenstance occurrences.   The first was when I attended Game 5 of the 2005 ALCS Championship when the Chicago White Sox (a major theme in IDENTITY: LOST)  visited the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.  If the White Sox won this game then they would be playing in their first World Series in 46 years. Chance got me and a friend not only into a game when we were told no tickets were available but had us sitting in the opposition owner's box seats with his family.
  

The White Sox won and that event spurred me on to write a story about it. That story turned into half-a-dozen more I wrote over the next year on a White Sox fan web site. By this time my desire to write had been rekindled and I began to think about this story I had locked away, figuratively and literally, for over twenty-five-years.  Back in the '70s when I was a young father, a boy had witnessed a murder and decided to come forward as a witness.  But, tragically, his desire to do good turned into a life-changing situation; one not so good for him and his family.

Pascal signs at The Poisoned Pen on  August 8th, at 7pm

At the time of my “light bulb moment,” I had recently sold my business, which provided me with a very modest profit, not enough to retire on but enough to possibly give me a brief amount of time to not have to work full-time, at least for a year, maybe two. I took that time to find my notes I had kept along with newspaper clippings about that story only to find that after moving a few times over those 25 years I had misplaced the documents.  The power of the Internet and the help from a friend's daughter who attended a Chicago university, allowed me access to the Chicago Tribune's historical archives.

I plunged headlong into finding the details of that crime that had been committed along the shores of Lake Michigan in Burnham Park. Along the way, I discovered this rich, long forgotten history of the area where the crime was committed. That took me down another road and re-ignited my love of history, especially local Chicago and American history.  I was completely hooked and spent every moment I could researching and writing and reading.

It was at about this same time I stumbled upon a brochure (yes, a printed brochure) inviting would-be writers to join the Scottsdale Writers Group, which held its meeting every other Tuesday. I was now back to work, keeping afloat a fledgling Internet business I had started on the side and this was taking up the majority of my time. But I was too deep into my pledge to myself to not quit on this dream of writing this story. So, with some trepidation, I walked into the group one day and announced I'd like to join.  I was welcomed with warm smiles but more so by such an unselfish group of people who were willing to help me (as well as themselves) develop their writing skills and story ideas.

After two years of bringing in a new chapter every other week, I was done, and my novel (with the working title "The Murder of Manny Fleischman--Last of the Black Sox") was complete.  How naive I was because from that point forward the real work had only just begun.

That was in March, 2008 and about two months later I had another serendipitous event occur that would change my life forever. I was summering in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and one day saw another small little poster at the local Fontana, Wisconsin Public Library announcing that New York Times best-selling author Brad Thor would be signing his latest book.  I had never heard of Brad Thor but I knew I had to go to this event. When would you ever expect to meet a NY Times best-selling author in Fontana, Wisconsin?  So with my wife and brother-in-law in tow, we went to meet Mssr. Thor. 

It was a very small book-signing for his latest book, THE FIRST COMMANDMENT, but that fact gave me an opportunity to speak with Brad.  I told him I had never heard of him but that as a budding writer I felt compelled to meet a real author, let alone a best-selling one. The words gracious and warm don't do justice to describing Brad's demeanor with me that day and when he found out I had a completed manuscript he immediately recommended I attend ThrillerFest in NYC. He promised me if I attended to "look him up" and he'd be happy to help me in any way he could.

Pascal with fellow author Douglas Preston.

"IDENTITY: LOST by Pascal Marco is a grand slam of a novel, swift and sure and true to life, with spot-on characters, an evocative setting, and a relentless plot swirling around the brutal killing of the last surviving member of the Chicago Black Sox team. Imbued with a deep love and understanding of the South Side of Chicago, homicide cops, and the history of baseball, this novel is as true as it is gripping. Don't miss it!"-- Douglas Preston, co-author of The Monster of Florence and Fever Dream

When I got to my computer and investigated this event, I was blown away at the cost. Of course, it was less than two weeks away and putting a last minute trip to NYC for an event of this magnitude added to the financial challenge. We were stretching dollars (squeezing a more appropriate word) at this point and as far as I was concerned, if there was a definition of a trip we could not afford, this one was it.  But my partner and best friend, my wife Karen, scoffed at me, dismissing the idea of not going.  "He invited you, didn't he?" she reminded me.  "If you really want to get this manuscript publish you have to go."
Well, that was just the beginning. 

I went to ThrillerFest in July 2008. I paid the last minute airfare, booked the mid-town Manhattan hotel, sent in my non-member attendee fee, landed at La Guardia, and hailed a cab. And here I am now, getting to see my novel on bookstore shelves across the country.

There are no coincidences anywhere in this tale. It is just a story of a naive guy who grew up on the southeast side of Chicago who always kept believing even someone like him could make his intentions come true.

TO FIND OUT MORE VISIT 

www.pascalmarco.com

YA Reviews from Lorri!

The Reapers Are the Angels ($15) by Alden Bell 

This post-apocalyptic zombie novel by Alden Bell is powerful! Through the eyes of Temple we witness the horrific extinction of the human race, yet still find quiet moments to marvel at the awe-inspiring beauty of the natural world that can only be reflections of God Himself. Brilliantly depict, this story is as beautiful as it is sad. 

White Cat by Holly Black (Curse Workers, Book 1)

17 yr old Cassel is the youngest of a magic-worker family. Having no power himself, he is at the mercy of his old brothers, or so he thinks...I loved this darkly imagined world! If you find you also enjoyed this story then you should try Holly Black's Modern Tales of Fairie (Tithe,Valiant and Ironside.)

Hunger ($8.99) by Jackie Morse Kessler. (Riders of the Apocalypse Book 1)

This series deals with teens and teen issues and the awkwardness of discovering that you have become one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Begin with Hunger the story of seventeen-year-old Lisabeth who suffers from anorexia and  is victim of an inner Thin Voice that holds her to both a strict eating regime and a exhaustive exercise regiment. When death shows up with a set of scales and a midnight steed, Lisabeth relives that her obsession is out of control and that she may lose her life if not conquered.  Don't miss Rage the story of Missy a cutter.

Cate Tiernan's Sweep is a lovely witchy teen series that is as addictive as is is delightful. 16 year old Morgan Rowlands thinks she's average until she meets Cal, the new boy at school who is not only captivatingly handsome but a coven leader. With his guidance Morgan soon discovers that she is a bloodwitch with a disturbing history and a nautal power that is beyond both of their control.

Among Others by Jo Walton In this magical Welsh coming-of-age tale we meet 15-year-old Morwenna, bright, crippled and somewhat geeky she endearingly relates to the world through the applied works of a host of science-fiction masters which isn't such a bad thing since she is magical and has to thwart the attacks of her evil witch mother...

or for a lovely sampling pick up a copy of Teeth: Vampire Tales edited by Ellen Datlow
In this YA anthology, Ellen Datlow has assembled 19 fresh and clever stories, some from my favorite YA authors, to create a collection of young and hip vampire tales. Featuring stories from Garth Nix, Melissa Marr, Cassandra Clare, Holly Black, Lucius Shepard,Emma Bull and Tanith Lee.

To order any of these titles from The Poisoned Pen please drop an email to sales@poisonedpen.com. 

A Westing Game for Adults, Dominance Will Change the Way You Read

A review of Will Lavender's Dominance by Chantelle Aimee Osman 

“What if you could read a book and treat it as a competition between you and its author?” 

This is the question at the heart of Will Lavender’s second novel, Dominance. Like in his debut, Obedience, which was a 2008 New York Times Bestseller, we once again find ourselves on a college campus.

Will Lavender signs Dominance, at
The Poisoned Pen 7/26 at 7:00pm. Click
here for details. To order a signed copy. 

It is 1994, and Vermont’s small Jasper College has decided to offer an experimental night class, “Unraveling a Literary Mystery”, to only nine handpicked students. The class is shrouded in controversy as the professor, famed literary scholar Richard Aldiss, will be teaching via video feed from prison, where he has been serving a life sentence since 1982 for the murder of two female graduate students. The victims killed with an axe and their bodies’ decorated with the works of reclusive author Paul Fallows. It is Fallows around whom the night class revolves. His two novels, The Coil and The Golden Silence, are believed by scholars to be riddled with clues. The goal of the class? For the students to follow the clues and learn Fallow’s true identity. 

Aldiss inducts the students into the Procedure, a game played by Fallow scholars where the players reenact scenes from the novels - but the game becomes dangerous, and lines begin to blur when students realize they have been playing far longer than they knew. Alex Shipley quickly emerges as the student fated to complete the task set by the professor, and follows the twisted path to solve the riddle of Fallow’s identity - acquitting Richard Aldiss of the murders in the process.

In the present day, a student from the night class is found murdered - the body arranged in the same way the graduate students’ had been years before. Alex, now a professor at Harvard, returns to Jasper at the request of the police to investigate Aldiss and her former classmates, who have all been brought together for the funeral. Had she been wrong fifteen years ago, has the Procedure begun again, and how many of the nine will survive?

Lavender created a fabulously diverse cast of characters for the night class. Calling them together to stay in a mansion inhabited by an eccentric, makeup-wearing dean makes the modern story line reminiscent of one of Christie’s manor house mysteries. Dominance is truly a feat of psychological suspense (though Lavender prefers to call his genre “puzzle thrillers”) - you think you know what happened fifteen years before, but as Lavender unveils each clue, the faster the finger of guilt changes direction. Dominance keeps you guessing to the end . . . or is it just the beginning?

If you liked Dominance, consider:

Obedience by Will Lavender

The Magus by John Fowles

39 Clues by Rick Riordan (Y.A.)

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (Y.A.)

The Game (1997 film, which some believe was loosely based on The Magus)

For the hard-boiled fan...

A huge event featuring four authors was 'one of the best events' a long-time customer had ever been to. Though not available online, you can get a sense of it from the video. Keith Rawson, hard-boiled writer and media guru,  conducted a brief interview with Duane Swierczynski from the humble shipping room at The Poisoned Pen. Other authors in attendance were Harry Dolan, Michael Wiley and Thomas Kaufman. Click here to see which signed titles of Duane's we have on hand. (Many of the trade-paperbacks were signed, but that is not indicated on the website. If you want to check on one, give us a call. 888-560-9919

News

Poisoned Pen and Bards Books Owners React to Borders' Official Closure

By Bryan Scott Dugan Mon., Jul. 18 2011 at 4:40 PM

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The Ewan via flickr

RIP

​Today, Borders Books sent out the inevitable announcement: "We're-closing-up-shop." After filing for bankruptcy in February, those in the book-publishing world followed news of the company through its rough patch, and ultimately to its death.

"I wasn't a bit surprised," says Barbara Peters, owner of Poisoned Pen, located at 4014 Goldwater Blvd in Scottsdale. "I've been saying for the past five years that the chain store model is over."

Peters places most of the blame of Borders' closure on growing technology, saying that the Internet and Amazon's Kindle have made book selling more economical. 

Stocking shelves is a thing of the past, she says, and bringing authors to their audiences (a typical occurrence at Poisoned Pen) is the future.

See complete article here...