A Few Days in the North Woods Part Deaux

Just so you don't think I spent all of my time up north in/on the water.

In addition to working on my next book while reclining lakeside, I put in about five hours at the range.

Unlike the indoor ranges in the Chicago area, these are outside and, most of the time, we're alone. Occasionally, hunters arrive to keep up their skills in the off-season, but the pistol range is never crowded.

Here's a question to test your handgunning knowledge. The first person to get the right answer wins one of the very popular Every Secret Crime t-shirts.

What about this picture tells you I'm posed for the camera instead of ready to take a shot?

A clue...what's missing? Hint...it has nothing to do with my finger being outside the trigger guard.

A Few Days in the North Woods

I've just returned from a place where I relax more easily than anywhere else on the planet.

I've been going to the North Woods of Wisconsin, up around the Minocqua/Woodruff area, since I was about six years old. Usually I head out in the late summer, which I plan to do again this year, but a couple of weeks ago a friend bought a boat (a sixteen foot Donzi, the little brother to the cigarette boats made popular on Miami Vice) and I felt it was my responsibility to be there to help him put it through its paces. So I slipped north for a couple of days this week or, what my dad liked to call, "an extra added dividend."

It looks like any other boat, doesn't it? Having never previously blown across the water at seventy miles per hour, however, I have three initial observations:

(a) At that speed, your eyes spin in their sockets like the symbols in the windows on a slot machine;

(b) Your lips become silly putty;

(c) The idea of having a "cocktail cruise"is laughable. Imagine trying to lift a drink to your lips but, instead, throwing it over your shoulder. At that speed, tortilla chips become lethal pellets.

Nevertheless, my time spent on the lake and among friends, listening to the loons, feeling the breezes through the pines, looking up at the crisp blue sky, was a marvelous getaway. I can't wait to return (as part of my book tour) in August.

I also couldn't resist posing with my very own copy of Every Secret Crime.

As We Begin

Like just about everybody, I never had much patience for those acceptance speeches at the Oscars, The Emmys the Grammys and so on.

You know what I mean? Everyone thanking everybody on their list, from their director to their mom's hairstylist and then a few more, including their postal carrier and the little girl running the lemonade stand down the block. Of course, I'm a cynic so I always wondered, are their thanks heartfelt or merely politic? Like, you best be thanking the stunt and technical guys 'cause on your next movie shoot, you don't want those blanks they're shooting at you to suddenly, ow! become real bullets. That sort of thing.

Then I get a book published and I'm preparing to start a book tour and I discover I have one of those lists myself. And darned if I couldn't hold onto that microphone forever.

Can you see it? Up there on the stage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and I'm unfolding my little cheat sheet and thanking everybody from my best friend to a couple of mentors to my events planner and publicist and the publishers and printer and graphic designer and web maven and my blog friends and readers and bookstore owners and librarians and my personal trainer and naprapath and chiropractor and insurance guy and the plumber and the music is coming up and the announcer is starting to talk over me and . . .

Okay, so we leave Fantasy Island and return to me sitting in front of the computer in my underwear in the little room at the back of my house at five oclock in the morning and I'm remembering how, many years ago, a woman surprised me by paying for dinner on our first date. When I protested, she said, "If someone hands you money, just say thank you and shut up."

When a whole bunch of people work hard to hand you your dream, just say thank you and shut up.

Thank you, God, for those people and these blessings.

Another Stop on the Blog Tour!

Today I'm visiting with Helen Ginger on StraightfromHel. She has asked me some really excellent questions and I'd be eager to hear your reactions to my answers...and to answer anything that comes into your head.
By the way, the first person to post a comment here today or tomorrow will win one of those nifty Reno McCarthy t-shirts...

What You Can Do To Help Market My Book

Two days to go before Every Secret Crime is released.

I could really use your help marketing my book. No, I don't need to have you carry a bag of them in your trunk.

The first thing you can do is buy the book or check it out from your local library. More on that later.

Once you've read the book, please, please write a review on either Amazon(http://www.amazon.com/) or Barnes and Noble's (http://www.bn.com/) website. On Amazon you have to post under a valid user name that you've previously set up. It's easy and you can use whatever name you choose. On Barnes and Noble you can just post without registering.

Point of sale reviews are critical. Many people who have bought the book tell me they did so only because of the reviews they found on the listing page. Please review the book. Of course, it helps if you say you liked it!

Another huge thing you can do to help is . . . ask your local library to buy the book. That's easy to do, too. Some libraries will honor your request. Some won't. Call the Adult Reader Services Desk to make your request. A librarian friend tells me, "If one of our taxpayers asks me to order a book, I ask how many copies they want us to have." It can be that simple. A library purchase is a purchase and I need people, and libraries, to buy the book.

So to review (so to speak).

Buy the book. Read it. If you enjoyed it, please post a review on Amazon or Barnes and Noble's website. Go to the listing page for Every Secret Crime and follow the instructions. Easy.

Ask your local library to order Every Secret Crime. Please.

Thanks!

New T-Shirt Contest

Here's an extremely difficult question for you:

How many gunshots are fired on my video trailer?

Have a great weekend!

T-Shirt Giveaway---Again!

Want a fantastic t-shirt?

Leave a comment for me about my post today on Working Stiffs (http://workingstiffs.blogspot.com/) and I will randomly choose one or two of you to get the shirt.

Hint: asking a question will make you more noticeable!