Log on for madness and mayhem with everyone’s favorite psychopath, Serge Storms, in Tim Dorsey‘s forthcoming 11th book in his Florida serial-killer comedy series.

“If you think the Three Stooges would have been funnier if Moe, Larry, and Curley used chainsaws and automatic weapons, Tim Dorsey is your kind of writer.” (Associated Press)

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(Publisher’s Weekly, Tom Rob Smith, Jan. 26)

Introduction by Tom Rob Smith; compiled by Juan Martinez

Your first book is a success. No matter how success is defined, the specter of the second book looms large. The question you’ve been continually asking of your narrative—“What happens next?”—is asked of you. And it seems as if the story of your career is already written: success is followed by a fall.

In storytelling there’s little drama in consistency. But your career is not a piece of fiction and there’s no reason why a monotonous pattern of success couldn’t be established. In many ways, the odds are in your favor. You’re no longer subject to the corrosive uncertainty of wondering if you’re wasting your time. You have editors, agents and readers who want you to repeat your success. Perhaps there lies the problem: it isn’t one of success, it’s one of repetition. Writing is creative. Repetition is mechanical. Factories and assembly lines repeat. Artists do not. Should everything that was loved about your first book be avoided? To copy yourself is the surest way to devalue that which you’ve already written.

And so on, the second book anxieties rumble. For unpublished writers, the obstacles of a second book must appear like a distant and wonderful fantasy. That is because the challenge in being published the first time around is one of brute stamina, tolerating humiliation and rejection, and juggling jobs. The challenge of a second book is an intellectual one. You have too much time to think.

I decided to write Child 44 after months of pitching original movie and television ideas. As a remedy, I showed the book’s outline to very few people, wary of having my enthusiasm whittled down by a thousand polite doubts. There is no greater enemy to getting anything done than speaking to someone reasonable. If your first book is an act of madness, stepping off a cliff without any idea if there’s water underneath you, the danger with your second book is one of rationalization. You consider. You analyze. You search for a spot along the cliff face where you calculate the drop is shallow and the water deep. You consider some more.

I caught a quote the other day from the very wonderful Lee Child. He was asked if he had any tips for first-time writers. His advice was to ignore all advice. It strikes me that a first-time novelist will run with that sentiment, charging headlong into success or disappointment. A novelist writing his second book will spot the paradox of being advised to ignore advice. Should he disregard this advice also?

In the end, what’s the worst that could happen? And even if the worst does happen, there’s always book three. And everyone loves the story of a great comeback.

(Publisher’s Weekly, Sept. 2008)

Pocket Books reports that Vince Flynn novels are taken so seriously by intelligence professionals worldwide that one high-ranking CIA official told his people, “I want you to read Flynn’s books and start thinking about how we can more effectively wate this war on terror.”  Wonder how many of the one mnillion copies of Protect and Defend in print are being read by CIA operatives.

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(Variety, Jan. 29, Michael Fleming)

Trevor Sands adapting Dan Simmons’ novels

The Day the Earth Stood Still” helmer Scott Derrickson is set to direct “Hyperion Cantos” for Warner Bros. and GK Films.

Derrickson boards a project that will take two Dan Simmons sci-fi novels — “Hyperion” and “The Fall of Hyperion” — and meld them into one film being scripted by Trevor Sands.

Story is set in the distant future, as a space war threatens Hyperion, a planet known for the Time Tombs — large artifacts that can move through time and are guarded by a gruesome monster called the Shrike.

Sands co-wrote and directed the 2002 film “Inside.” Recently he’s worked on Dimension’s “Six Million Dollar Man” and adapted the David Brin sci-fi novel “Startide Rising” for Paramount.

Derrickson is also attached to direct “Paradise Lost” at Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures. Derrickson also co-scripted “Devil’s Knot” for Dimension Films with Paul Boardman, his writing partner on “The Exorcism of Emily Rose.”

King just wrapped “Edge of Darkness” with Mel Gibson.

(newreleasewire.com, Jan. 16, Scott Lorenz)

A rich tradition has existed for hundreds of years for fiction writers to use pen names. The most famous pen name, of course, was Samuel Clemens writing under the name Mark Twain.

A lesser known use is Romance writer Nora Roberts who uses the pen name J.D. Robb when writing suspense novels.

“Alice in Wonderland” was authored by Lewis Carroll which was a pen name used by Charles Dodgson who had gained a considerable reputation as a mathematician and didn’t want to create confusion by writing fiction under his real name.

As a book marketing expert I have represented a long list of authors, some of whom have chosen to use pen names. Others have asked me about the wisdom of using a pen name. My general response is to advise (more…)

(Publisher’s Weekly, Jan.26)

Lisa Scottoline‘s story should inspire wannabe writers.  Divorced with a young child, she left the legal world to attempt writing legal thrillers for financial support.  On her Web site, she notes that she gave herself five years or $50,000 in credit (whichever came first) to write and seller her first book.  It only took her three years – HarperCollins published Everywhere That Mary Went in 1993 (PW called it “an engaging, quick read, sprinkled with corny humor and melodrama”) and it was nominated for an Edgar.  The next year, her second book, Final Appeal, won the Edgar.

Order signed first edition books by Lisa Scottoline at www.vjbooks.com

(Publisher’s Weekly, Sep. 2008)

All of Brad Meltzer‘s books have been antional bestsellers, and they’ve been translated into more than 25 languages, from Hebrew to Bulgarian.  in his first, The Tenth Justice, the original opening lines are:  “Ben Addision was sweating.  Like a pig.”  In the Hebrew translation, it became:  “Ben Addision was sweating.  Like a horse.”  The author’s not sure if it’s a koher thing or what.  Grand Central’s announced first printing for The Book of Lies:  500,000 copies.

Order you signed copies of Brad Meltzer books from www.vjbooks.com

Nora Roberts was born in Silver Spring Maryland, the youngest of five children. After a school career that included some time in Catholic school and the disciplines of nuns, she married young and settled in Keedysville, Maryland. She worked briefly as a legal secretary. “I could type fast but couldn’t spell, I was the worst legal secretary ever,” she says now.

After her sons were born she stayed home and tried every craft that came along. A blizzard in February 1979 forced her hand to try another creative outlet. She was snowed in with a three and six year old with no kindergarten respite in sight and a dwindling supply of chocolate.

Born into a family of readers, Nora had never known a time that she wasn’t reading or making up stories. During the now famous blizzard, she pulled out a pencil and notebook and began to write down one of those stories. It was there that a career was born. Several manuscripts and rejections later, her first book, Irish Thoroughbred, was published by Silhouette in 1981.

Nora met her second husband, Bruce Wilder, when she hired him to build bookshelves. They were married in July 1985. Since that time, they’ve expanded their home, traveled the world and opened a bookstore together. Through the years, Nora has always been surrounded by men. Not only was she the youngest in her family, but she was also the only girl. She has raised two sons. Having spent her life surrounded by men has given Ms. Roberts a fairly good view of the workings of the male mind, which is a constant delight to her readers. It was, she’s been quoted as saying, a choice between figuring men out or running away screaming.

Nora is a member of several writers groups and has won countless awards from her colleagues and the publishing industry.

See all Nora Roberts / J.D. Robb signed first editions at www.vjbooks.com

Brady also wrote comic novels about life on Long Island and, for nearly three decades, had a column in Advertising Age in which he enjoyed the freedom and budget to roam wherever his imagination took him. (more…)