Charlaine Harris confirms end to Sookie Stackhouse series

Charlaine Harris made it official today when she posted on Facebook that Book 13 Dead After All in the Sookie Stackhouse series would be the last.

It's never too early to start marketing for that book either.

As you can see in Harris' post, the date of the release of the next and final book is May 2, 2013.

With the way the last book Deadlocked ended (check out my review here) it left Sookie's love life up in the air, but it seemed as though Sookie was leaning in a certain direction.

Many of the comments on Harris' page were positive and don't want the series to end, but now just might be the right time.

I've met several people who have stopped reading the books because the last three to four of them got kind of stale. Sookie's love life was always at the center of the books, but some readers have given up and don't care to see how it ends.

Perhaps they're just waiting for the spoilers.

What do you think? Was this the right time for Harris to end her series?

Book review: Karma Girl by Jennifer Estep

Carmen Cole is a character after my own heart. It seems I have a knack for picking up books where the main character is a reporter. I live that life. I get it. I know what it's like to go through the ups and downs of reporting.

In Karma Girl (Book 1 of the Bigtime Superheroes series) written by Jennifer Estep, Carmen Cole is an investigative reporter whose sole mission is to uncover as many superheroes and ubervillians and she possibly could. But it didn't always start that way. Cole became obsesses with this mission on her wedding day when she discovered her fiance and best friend in bed together. To make it worse, they were the town of Beginnings superhero and ubervillian.

Cole had her revenge by pasting their photos on the front of the local paper. She worked her way to bigger newspapers doing the same thing until she found herself in Bigtime, one of the biggest cities in the country with the deadliest ubervillians and hunkiest superheroes.

If it sounds a little goofy, that's because it is, but not in a bad way.

Estep has a good time with the book poking fun at old comics and superhero stories: everyone has the same initials as their first and last names, bombs use an agent called Explodium and radioactivity can be good for you.

The good guys want to save the world while the bad guys want to rule it.

Some of the reviews I read about Karma Girl called it predictable at times, which it might be as well. But, again, it's not something that bothered me.

I wasn't surprised when the big reveals occurred because I figured them out on my own, however, I did like getting confirmation on what I already thought.

Estep does a great job with description. She puts the characters in rooms and allows readers to fully see everything with their imagination.

I also enjoyed the Cole's inner dialogue. Estep writes it in a way that many women can relate to. She feels frustrations, anger, remorse, lust. All the things we probably go through in a 24-hour span.

The book really is a lot of fun.

You can buy the book on Smashwords, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Helping a friend with a book

Working with friends may be difficult, especially when working as an editor.

Recently, Bobby Deren asked me to look through his indie novella DRAFT SEASON: Preparing for the NFL.

The non-fiction book is about Deren's experience in training with several NFL draft prospects at Competitive Edge Sports in Atlanta. To football fanatics, that place is well know because the best of the best prospects go there to train. The systems employed at that facilities are used around the country in other gyms that seek similar atmospheres.

I read Deren's book in a day. At 61 pages, it wasn't terribly long and it didn't need to be either.

Deren gets right to the point in what its like to train by going through the training himself for a week. He put down his computer and threw on his sneakers instead to stand side by side with men who will make a career in the NFL.

Deren writes in first person, but also gets into several thoughts of his own as he's writing. My favorites passages were when he described the pain and – sometimes – torture of the workouts. He brings right into the gym and describes the workouts in a way that made me appreciate athletes just a little more.

Most of the work I did with Deren was tightening copy and making suggestions here or there. I was a bit tentative on the initial read because I was unsure how to tell my friend to “fix this” or “change this word” without offending him.

Luckily, Deren was ready to listen to anything I had to say.

It was a good experience and I'm glad I he trusted me enough with one of his books. Additionally, I'm glad I got to read this book. As a sports journalist, I tend to forget just how much some of these athletes put into their jobs. This was a reminder that many of them take it seriously and really is a full-time job.

Book review: Deadlocked (Sookie Stackhouse)

When a book comes out that is part of a series, there is a little bit of excitement around release day. We're meeting up with old friends and want to know what they have been up to.

When Charlaine Harris announced there would be just two books left in the True Blood series some time last year, it meant some of our friends – Sookie, Eric, Tara, Jason and others of Bon Temp – would eventually be leaving.

The second to last book Deadlocked recently came out. I tore through it in about two days not able to relish in some of the final moments with the characters.

Sookie is at a crossroads – but when is she not - figuring out her relationships with her boyfriend and relatives. Most of her human friends are either getting married or having children, which seems to be weighing on Sookie's mind.

This version of catching up with Sookie meant getting to hang out with her as she cleaned and ran errands. There was not much action or romance, which is something True Blood fans have come to enjoy from the books.

Deadlocked started off well. A dead woman is found on Eric's lawn the night he's hosting the king from Nevada. A murder mystery is on hand, but instead of learning what happened how her death could affect Eric and rest of the vamps in Shreveport, Sookie spends the rest of her time moping and whining.

I missed the spunky Sookie, but maybe this is just old friends growing up – or an author getting tired of writing the series.

This felt like a set up for the series ending. Sookie will get her “happily ever after” but the question remains with whom.

If the end of Deadlocked is any indication, there are going to be many fans who will not be happy and will not like that they invested all these years.

Catching up with old friends is still fun, even if you don't always agree with what they've been doing. With the series ending so soon, maybe it was nice to get Sookie to take some time off from the craziness that usually surrounds her – but that's not why we became friends in the first place.

Rating: 2.5

Regardless of how mundane this book seemed, I still enjoyed the book. It wasn't what I wanted it to be, but that seems to often be the case in a long-running series – at least the ones I have read.

You can purchase Deadlocked at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Book review: Game 7: Deadball

As a baseball fan, I'm pretty much a sucker for anything to do with my favorite sport. But at the same time, I'm also very critical.

Game 7: Deadball by Allen Schatz is a mystery thriller with the 2008 World Series as a backdrop. For the record, I was at that World Series, so it was interesting to see how certain things would be incorporated into an event I attended.

The first thing I noticed was how well the book was written. As an indie author, Schatz's writing is very polished. It was a refreshing start because it meant there would be no cringing throughout the book from poor grammar or something else that a good editor could have helped.

It allowed me to just enjoy the book, which I did.

Marshall Connors, a Major League Baseball umpire, is at the center of the book. Connors has to cut his vacation short as he's asked to become crew chief for the 2008 World Series. Not a bad gig, but mysterious and dangerous messages start popping up around Connors until he realizes he's in the middle of a large revenge scheme.

There are a number of characters to track in the book – and at times it felt as though there were too many. During certain passages when there was a mention of a lesser character, I had to go back and remind myself of whom Schatz was writing about.

The difference with Connors and the rest was Schatz's characters was the use of perspective. Connors' passages were written in first person while the others were written in third person. It took some getting used, but I found it interesting.

When I asked Schatz about it he said it was a way for him to incorporate a bit of himself into the character. He wanted the focus to be on Connors although I found myself intrigued by another character, CIA agent Thomas (Suggestion: maybe a book on Thomas' adventure and how he became the person he is).

The book was quick with short sections and chapters only hitting on important moments for each character. There were no long poetic passes. Just action.

It was an enjoyable read and Schatz did a good job of building suspense.

There are two more books currently in the series and I intend to check them out as well.

Rating: 4 - Well written and good action. A bit too many characters for me to keep up with, but the ones that mattered came to life well. 

Want to purchase this book for $2.99? Click here.

Book review: Grimsley Hollow

Grimsley Hollow is about a character many people don't get to read about often.

It's about a young boy without any friends, but he is smart. Gage loves Halloween and it's one of the holidays that break him out of his shell. While that may seem like many characters, it isn't.

Gage has autism.

The book dives into his emotions and it's interesting to see the perspective of someone with a disability some cannot understand. Put me in that category. I don't know many people with autism, and Nicole Storey helped me understand what a scary and brilliant world it could be for someone with it.

But even though Gage has autism, he has found ways to enjoy life whether it's through Halloween or playing make-believe games in his fort. The story starts with Gage finding a key that leads to a secret land where creatures he read about or saw in movies are real: vampires, werewolves, fairies and witches.

Storify: A collection of Trayvon Martin hoodie up photos

Looking through Twitter today made me want to put a collection together of photos of those supporting Trayvon Martin and looking for justice from his tragic murder.

Going through all the photos literally brought tears to my eyes. Race, age, gender - none of that mattered. Celebrity and just the kid around the corner.

 They all put their hoodies up to support Martin's family and, like many people, just want to see justice.

Has the New York Times gone far enough in covering female authors?

Many authors have voiced concerns about the lack of female authors being reviewed in the New York Timer' Sunday book reviews. Twitter has become a popular venue for the criticisms.

Perhaps things have gotten better since the out cry began more than two years ago, it seems the New York Times still has long ways to go to write about women in the same way that they do men. But two years ago, it was bad. Real bad - as this tweet from 2010 illustrates.

Author Jennifer Weiner put together this piece on her blog where she broke down the numbers by gender – as she notes compiled by her assistant – on Jan. 17.

PayPal revises its decision on banning erotica

Several days ago, PayPal came out with a revised version of its decision to ban certain categories of ebooks from the online marketplace.

Instead of focusing on categories as a whole, the online payment processing company intends to focus on individual books that "contain child pornography, or e-books with text and obscene images of a rape, bestiality or incest."

This should be considered a victory for the indie authors as PayPal seemingly intended to cause a disruption in the entire ebook world with the ramifications of its original decision affecting hundreds of authors and dozens of ebooks sites.

This allows more legal fiction to flow in the marketplace. People should not be censored.

PayPal forces Smashwords to ban certain erotica titles

PayPal has decided to play moral police to the eBook publishing world, although this is not the first time the company has decided to stick its nose into other people's business.

On Feb. 18., PayPal contacted Smashwords and told them them to lose the porn or its account would be deactivated, according to Dear Author, a blog on romance books.

According to a letter sent to Smashwords authors, the site's founder Mark Coker wrote: “I’ve had multiple conversations with PayPal over the last several days to better understand their requirements. Their team has been helpful, forthcoming and supportive of the Smashwords mission. I appreciate their willingness to engage in dialogue. Although they have tried their best to delineate their policies, gray areas remain. Their hot buttons are bestiality, rape-for-titillation, incest and underage erotica. “

Smashwords already deals with underage erotica. It doesn't allow underage characters in erotica even as bystanders. But these rest of the categories weren't as defined by Smashwords – but now they are.

Unfortunately, Smashwords is being strong-armed into complying with PayPal's demands. Without a mainstream alternative, sites such as Smashwords and Bookstrand (another place hit by PayPal's demands) have to agree. That doesn't mean they are happy about it or that they are going to just say “Sure, no problem.”

Also in the letter, Coker wrote: “Like many writers, censorship of any form greatly concerns me. It is with some reluctance that I have made the decision to prohibit incest-themed erotica at Smashwords. Regardless of your opinion on incest, it’s a slippery slope when we allow others to control what we think and write. Fiction is fantasy. It’s not real. It unfolds in our imagination. I’ve always believed fiction writers and readers should have the freedom to explore diverse topics and situations in the privacy of their own mind.”

It seems for the foreseeable future this is the way it's going to be and it will not be changing. PayPal has taken a strong stand against sexually-explicit material in the past.

There are many who are not happy with the stance and have created a petition opposing the changes on Smashwords. You can find that petition by clicking here.