Favorite TV Theme Songs?

Pop Culture Nerd has a great post listing her Favorite TV Theme Songs Ever. It includes Mission Impossible and M*A*S*H. Those are indeed great theme songs. Here are some of mine.

1. The Sopranos
2. Hawaii 5-0
3. Mission Impossible
4. Star Trek
5. True Blood (I’ve only rarely seen the show, but “Do Bad Things to You” is awesome.)
6. Game of Thrones
7. Jonny Quest
8. I Love Lucy
9. NCIS (Because whenever the show came on, the kids used to pick up the cat and make him bob his head like a dancer mesmerized by trance music. Then they’d leave the room and say, “I can’t believe you spend your Friday nights watching that show.”)
10. Wide World of Sports (Because I spent my childhood Saturdays listening to Jim McKay intone, “The agony of defeat.”)

How about everybody else?

The Shadow Tracer: June-July events

The Shadow Tracer will be published in the US and Canada (yes, Canadians — did you hear that?) on June 27th. Here are the book events on tap for me right now:

The Shadow Tracer US publication launch
June 27, 2013
Book People
603 N Lamar Blvd  Austin, TX 78703
(512) 472-5050
7 p.m. — It’s a book party. Come on down.

Houston: Murder by the Book
The Shadow Tracer: Author Talk
June 28th, 6:30 p.m.
Murder by the Book
2342 Bissonnet Houston, TX 77005
713-524-8597 / 888-424-2842

Oklahoma City
The Shadow Tracer: Author Talk
July 2nd, 7 p.m.
Barnes & Noble
6100 North May Ave
Oklahoma City, OK 73112
405-843-9300

ThrillerFest VIII
July 10-13
Grand Hyatt, New York City

At ThrillerFest I’ll be the panel master for “BOXERS OR BRIEFS? Making Your Attorney Stand Out,” Saturday, July 13 from 9:30 am – 10:20 am. Panelists will be Linda Fairstein, Al Giannini, John Lescroart, John Sheldon, Andy Siegel, and Walter Walker. And if that bunch doesn’t make for a fantastic discussion, nothing will.

I’d love to see you at any of these events.

What makes you abandon a book?

When do you give up on a book? What makes you roll your eyes and stop reading? Have you ever thrown a book across the room?

Tell me what drives you to abandon a book. Is it mediocre writing? A meandering plot? No discernable plot? Strident politics? Sexism? Racism? Cardboard characters? Characters who act endlessly, ridiculously stupid? An ending that dribbles to nothing?

I’ve abandoned books for all those reasons. I’ve grumbled and snarled and pitched novels against the wall.

How about you?

(Yes, I am cribbing this topic shamelessly from Chuck Wendig’s blog at Terribleminds.)

Because we could all stand to smile today

Here’s a picture of my (late great) dog Duke, with a hat and a bone in his mouth.

I just thought we needed something to smile about.

(Thanks to Nate for the photo.)

Awkward conversations

Here’s a transcript of an awkward conversation for a thriller writer. Leave it to my son Mark to recognize an aspect of my novels that no reviewer has ever asked about.

Bonus points for the kid throwing in a Game of Thrones reference.

And no, Mark doesn’t actually have an evil twin in the attic.

The Shadow Tracer: Library Journal reviews

Library Journal gets my Friday off to a great start:

“Single mother Sarah Keller makes a living by tracking down folks on the run from, say, debt or prison. But maybe she’s on the run herself; after her five-year-old, Zoe, is in a school bus accident, tests show that she’s not the daughter of Sarah but of Sarah’s sister Beth, who was murdered. Now Sarah has a lot to prove. A standalone from the Edgar Award winner that should not be missed.”

And even better, LJ includes the novel on its list for “A Suspenseful Summer: Ten Thrillers for the Hot Months Ahead.”

Yes, you may picture me jumping around like a dork. Thanks for letting me brag on the good news for my novel. As you were.

Geoguessr

Google Street View is an amazing tool for writers. If you want to get a sense of a faraway place you can’t visit, you can use Street View and feel as though you’re walking around the locale — whether that’s Tokyo, San Francisco, Rio, or the Australian outback.

Geoguessr is a game to warm a thriller writer’s — or geography geek’s — heart. It drops you at a random unnamed spot on the globe, and you have to guess where you are. Try it. I dare you to stop playing.

Mwahahaha.

In the comments: I offer hints on how I’ve been playing the game.