Mystery author DENISE SWANSON in Nashville

Tomorrow night (Tue, Apr 28, 6:30 PM) mystery author Denise Swanson will be at Nashville's Mysteries & More Bookstore to discuss and sign her books. Mysteries & More is in Lenox Village, 6965 Sunnywood Drive, Nashville, TN 37211. Call (615) 837-3300 or get directions here.

Best Mann 1.10: BANG BANG

Now online is the tenth installment of Erica's and my crime/mystery comic Best Mann For The Job. Grace Mann is a woman with a complicated past who returns home to become sheriff of Hope Falls, Tennessee. Even as Grace is sworn in, the deputies are grumbling ...

Latest strip exclusive at TitleTrakk.com
Missed an episode? Archive at ComicSpace.com/EricaWell
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Tonight on CASTLE (Apr 27)

This entry has been moved to Crime TV:
Tonight on CASTLE (Apr 27)

Help Len Wein restore his life's work!

Early this month, award-winning comic book writer and editor Len Wein lost his home to a fire. He and his family were safe; sadly, their beloved dog died in the fire.

Wein also lost a lifetime of awards and comics and books and artwork. That's something, considering the scope of his comics career: The co-creator of Wolverine and Swamp Thing (among others), he has served as writer and/or editor for several companies, on a multitude of comics -- including Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men, Watchmen, The Hulk, Superman, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Justice League of America, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, The Simpsons, Futurama, and many others.

Friends and fans are working to help him restore the collection of comic books he's worked on. Details at The “Let’s Rebuild Len Wein’s Comic Book Collection” Project.

The return of FEMME NOIR

Christopher Mills blogs on Atomic Pulp that an all-new 5-page Femme Noir adventure appears in Ape Entertainment's CartoonaPalooza #2 Free Comic Book Day special. This "previously unrecorded" case is written by Mills, with art by Joe Staton (Huntress, Green Lantern) and Mark Stegbauer, and colors by Michael Watkins. Also coming soon is the trade paperback Femme Noir: Dark City Diaries (Pictured -- Erica and I are looking forward to that!) More info: Free Comic Book Day Noir

This year, Free Comic Book Day is Saturday, May 2. Comic book retailers all over the country will be giving special edition comics FREE to anyone who walks into their stores. (Check your local shop for participation and rules.) Titles printed especially for the event include The Avengers, Disney/Pixar's Cars, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Transformers Animated/G.I. Joe, Aliens/Predator, Atomic Robo And Friends, DC Kids Mega Sampler, NASCAR Heroes: Origins #1, Owly And Friends, William Shatner Presents #1, Wolverine: Origin Of An X-Man, and more. (Many stores also run special sales during the event as well.) Details at freecomicbookday.com.

Tonight on CASTLE (Apr 20)

This entry has been moved to Crime TV:
Tonight on CASTLE (Apr 20)

Best Mann 1.9: "Robbing that bank was stupid!"

Now online is the ninth installment of Erica's and my crime/mystery comic Best Mann For The Job. Grace Mann is a woman with a complicated past who returns home to become sheriff of Hope Falls, Tennessee. Even as Grace is sworn in, the deputies are grumbling ...

Updated weekly at TitleTrakk.com
Missed an episode? Catch up at ComicSpace.com/EricaWell
Become a fan at Facebook

Chester Campbell's THE SUREST POISON

Mystery author Chester D. Campbell is on a blog tour through May 1 promoting his latest, The Surest Poison. (Follow the blog tour here.) For those in the Nashville area, there's a book launch party tomorrow (Apr 19) 2-4 p.m. at City Road Chapel United Methodist Church in Madison, and he'll be signing at Barnes & Noble in Brentwood Saturday, Apr 25 2-4 p.m.

Chester happens to be president of The Middle Tennessee Chapter of Sisters in Crime. The group meets the second Tuesday every month (except Jan and Oct), 6-7 p.m. at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Green Hills. (The meetings are open to the public.)

About The Surest Poison:
Three seemingly unrelated murders crop up during the investigation of a decade-old chemical dump that plagues a rural community west of Nashville. Former park ranger Sid Chance, whose career as a small town police chief was cut short by malicious accusations, is coaxed out of self-imposed exile to pursue the case. But Sid soon finds himself confronting the unsavory people responsible for his past troubles ...

Buy from Mysteries & More
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Mysteries in Nashville

Today, my wife and I finally made it out to Mysteries & More, the only brick-and-mortar bookstore in Tennessee dedicated specifically to mystery and crime fiction. What a great store! It's quaint and homey, but well-stocked -- with everything from cozy mysteries to dark thrillers, from classic rarities to the latest page-turners. The store, which recently celebrated its first birthday, also hosts mystery book clubs and offers mail order. (They even have a Book Club by Mail.)

(If you must know, our purchases today included titles from Rex Stout, Agatha Christie, Donald Westlake, and Wilkie Collins. We were so overwhelmed with the selection, we had to leave before the list got any longer.)

Mysteries & More is located in Lenox Village at 6965 Sunnywood Drive, Nashville, TN 37211. Get directions here -- it's worth the drive!

Next time on CASTLE (Apr 13)

This entry has been moved to Crime TV:
http://crime-tv.blogspot.com/search/label/Castle

Crime (fiction) takes a holiday

For the Easter break, Erica's and my crime/mystery comic Best Mann For The Job is taking a week off. But rest assured that, come the week of April 19, Sheriff Grace Mann will be back on the job.

Archive at ComicSpace.com/EricaWell
Become a fan at Facebook

Romancing book readers

With all the troubles rumbling through book publishing right now -- dwindling sales, fewer books on schedules, and massive layoffs -- Harlequin is one of very few publishers actually thriving. The New York Times reports how romance fiction (and, to a lesser extent, SF & fantasy) are beating the statistics.

Next time on CASTLE (Apr 6)

This entry has been moved to Crime TV:
http://crime-tv.blogspot.com/search/label/Castle

Best Mann 1.8: "Sounds like they've called the cops ... "

Now online is the eighth installment of Erica's and my crime/mystery comic Best Mann For The Job. Grace Mann is a woman with a complicated past who returns home to become sheriff of Hope Falls, Tennessee. Even as Grace is sworn in, the deputies are grumbling ...

Updated weekly at TitleTrakk.com
Archive at ComicSpace.com/EricaWell
Official page at Facebook

Related links:
Preview #1: Sheriff Grace Mann
Preview #2: Deputy Todd Baxter
Preview #3: Rev. Hezekiah Mann
Preview #4: Elizabeth Mann

Publishing: some good news, and some bad news

My literary agent, Chip MacGregor, recently outlined several updates in the world of book publishing: some of them good, some of them bad, and one of them an out-and-out head-scratcher ...

Mr. Monk and the Final Season

This summer, USA Network starts airing the eighth and final season of Monk. Obsessive-compulsive detective Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) returns for 16 brand-new episodes, the return of Sharona (Bitty Schram), and the long-promised resolution of the only case Monk has never been able to solve: The murder of his beloved wife, Trudy. Updates at usanetwork.com/series/monk.

Meanwhile, Season Seven comes to DVD July 21 (Info at TVShowsonDVD). And the latest tie-in novel in stores is Mr. Monk is Miserable, by Monk writer Lee Goldberg.

Related links:
MONK ends with season eight
Mr. Monk and the Finished Manuscript
The stars shine for MONK 100
MONK: New therapist, new episodes
ADRIAN MONK: The face of OCD

MySpace vs. Blogger

I just discovered that MySpace indiscriminately blocks EVERY SINGLE LINK to blogspot, taking you to a page that calls it "spam" and "very much like head lice." (The legal term for this is defamation.) Until they decide to fix this problem, MySpace is officially useless to me.

How to find me online:
StudioWell
Channel StudioWell
Chris Well Readers Group
Facebook
ShoutLife
Giant Monsters On The Loose