Lansing State Journal's The Hub review

Here's a nice, positive review of the book. Please note that I never stated that I needed "street smarts to survive", but hey, I guess that's creative license. Check it out if you have a moment by clicking the HEADLINE to this post.

The Road is stunning

I recently spent the weekend in Indianapolis for a swim meet that my two oldest daughters were in. Swimming, while a great sport, is replete with sitting and waiting, and then sitting some more. Because the girls are in two separate age groups, the waiting (and sitting) is made longer making it a day-long event. I sat down with the Cormac McCarthy apocalyptic tome figuring I'd slog through it. The guy's vocab is over my head most of the time, but he's got such a unique, original style. I read The Road in one sitting and plan on reading it again. It was quite simply one of the most well- and efficiently-written books I've ever read. It was stark, beautiful writing. The book presents a terrifying world view of a burned and scalded America, but there's a faint glimmer of hope laid bare. Like most of his work, (No Country For Old Men) it's no day at the beach, but it will leave you thinking about it for days. I plan on re-reading it again, it was that good. A friend told me that Cormac's probably near the end of his life, and that much of what's in there by way of themes echoes his remaining days on Earth, and the fear of death vs. living and trying to survive. He's probably right. Either way, I highly recommend it.

Eight Dogs for Christmas

I was thrilled when a friend of mine, Linda Petty, told me she wanted to buy my book as Christmas gifts for her the male members of her family. This included her father, brothers and brother-in-laws. I signed the books pre-holiday, and getting bogged down in my own Yuletide madness, forgot about it. Today Linda sent me a photo from the holidays with a very thoughtful note. Hopefully the men are still smiling after reading the book, not hoping they'd received ties or socks instead. Thanks again Linda for making my day.

Dirty Book for Sale--CHEAP!

I have to confess that at the advice of Kelly Gehart, the lovely and talented marketing specialist at my publisher, Momentum Books, I keyed on a Google Alert for my name and the title of the book. In case you've been living in Amish country, the alert can "alert" you either daily, weekly or monthly, whatever to the information you input being searched on the web. This is helpful if you're an unknown hack desperately seeking support and/or love from SOMEBODY regarding your quickly evaporating pub--or whatever your interest may be. Anyhoo, I saw an alert (it comes by email) that my book was for sale on Craigslist, which forgive me, but shouldn't there be some kind of apostrophe in that title? I was struck to see the book was being discounted to the nearly wholesale price of 15 clams, but it was the description that had me snorting java through my nose. Read on:

Eight Dogs Named Jack by Joe Borri and fourteen other storides from the Detroit streets and Michigan wilderness.
Hard cover and jacket. Excellent condition. (Was $24.95 new.) Hardly read as mother-in-law started to read it but found it was too dirty.
She said to get ride of it.
We are near the Detroit Zoo.
Thanks,

I'll tell you what, grammatical deficiency aside, this dude needs to grow a pair and tell his mother-in-law that we all didn't grow up in the pretty "zoo world" she lives in. Hey, I kid. But wow, did this make me laugh. Better hurry--at this price, smut like mine is sure to sell.

Happy 2008

I don't know about you all, but I am still living in food hangover, and in my case, all Dago food. From stuffed shells overflowing with monicatti to frutti di mare from Volare Ristorante in Wixom, I feel a tad sluggish. Slow. Lazyish, if that's a word. But I wanted to take a moment to, along with Baby 2008, wish all of you out there much prosperity, happiness and health in the new year. God bless us and the brave men and women of our country who fight to keep the USA the greatest nation on Earth.