Death of a Charming Man
The lovely, witty, and wonderful Lludmila Mirrikh will be leading a new cozy mysteries book group at Bookstacks. The group kicks off by reading M.C. Beaton’s Death of a Charming Man. You may join Lludmila on Monday, May 18 at 11 a.m. SLT/PDT for the discussion. If you have any questions, please contact Lludmila, Simeon or Kghia in-world.
Book cover of Traitor
On last week’s “learning experience episode,” we interviewed author Mark Eller. In addition to being a entertaining writer, Mark is a talented podcaster, which you can discover by visiting his site hellholetavern.com (or search for “Hell Hole Tavern” on iTunes). Mark’s new book, Traitor, is available electronically and will be available in print in a few short days. To celebrate, Mark is giving away a signed copy of the book to a lucky Off the Shelf/Bookstacks fan (we love Mark!).
Summary of Traitor
Last Chance – a small town set on the edge of the far frontier. It is a place of gentle manners and common civility. After all, it should be since more than three quarters of its residents are women.
However times change when a Talent Master runs rampant, savages threaten war, and an illegal militia from an alternate universe plans invasion and empire. A hero is needed. A Savior.
Meet Aaron Turner, the small unassuming man who runs the Last Chance General Store. He is this town’s–this world’s–only hope.
Unfortunately for the town, Aaron also happens to be a soldier and Militia spy whose job is to prepare the ground for the Militia’s invasion. To help him with this task, he has a cellar filled with advanced weaponry and the unique ability to teleport between the two worlds.
However after a year of living within Last Chance, Aaron is no longer sure in which direction his loyalties lie.
How you can Register to Win
We originally planned to accept entries for 2 weeks, but with our technical difficulties, I’m going to extend the deadline. You have until May 17 to sign up!
The Write Stuff
As long as I’m talking about Mark’s new work, I should mention that he is involved in a new reality show — about WRITERS!!! Can you believe it? The show it titled The Write Stuff, and since Mark knows what the writers on the show are going through, he is a great advocate for the show. He recorded 8 motivational minutes that will be played before each of the 8 competitions.
Final Comments
Mark would like me to mention he is a “stunningly handsome, lizard skinned, short, fat, talon challenged, and a bit smelly.” (Unfortunately, he is not available.)
Radio Riel records the Off the Shelf podcast over Skype. Other than some inconsistencies in sound, we have been pretty successful so far. Until today. One of our guest could not get Skype to recognize his mic, even though he had successfully tested it the day before.
After trying several times to get the mic to work, we moved onto plan B. We moved to in-world voice. The sound quality wasn’t as good, the levels varied by person, but we went forward with the interview. Gabi diligently recorded the show…or so we all thought. Unfortunately the show didn’t actually record – we have a lovely show with the intro, outro and musical selection, but no interview.
Mark Eller and Glenn Manewell were excellent guests (Glenn was up before dawn in Australia to appear on the show). I’m not sure how we are going to rectify things, but when we figure it out, I’ll update you.
In the meantime, when I asked if we should call this episode 5 or pilot 2, our stage manager extraordinaire, Dilana, named the episode A Learning Experience.
