Vero Beach Book Signing - Friendships are priceless

(Lynn Greene Waldenbooks mgr.)

My signing at Waldenbooks in Vero Beach, Florida, the first of October went very well. Bob Soos interviewed me on his Morning Magazine radio show Friday, Oct. 3, and we talked about my book, "Chasin’ the Wind," and the signing. Bob gave three copies of the book away to people who could answer Key West trivia questions he came up with.

(Michae, Gina & Bob Soos)

I first met Bob, and his wife Gina, when he was the general manager of US1 Radio in Key West, and Gina was in its sales department. With his Keys background, Bob had no problem coming up with trivia questions.

Two things you should know about Bob. During Hurricane Georges, Sept. 1998, Bob and his station staff stayed on the air 24/7 and were the only contact many of us had with the outside world for days after Georges kissed us and skedaddled. Second thing you should know is you can spell Bob’s name forward or backward and it’s still right!

(Book winner Marie Mack, Bob & Michael)

I stayed with Bob Friday night.

Bob has been gone from the Keys for a few years, but we kept in touch. He was a member of our Monday Luncheonaires and even today remains on our mailing list and we were on the Crime Stoppers board together. I didn’t stay in touch with Bob because I was expecting to stay with him after he interviewed me and I was in Vero for a book signing. No. I kept in touch because he was a good friend. And sometimes friendships can pay off in unforeseen ways!

Soon after I posted on my website – http://www.michaelhaskins.net/ – that I was going to be in Vero, I received an email form Miss Vero Beach. Seems she’s a fan. She’s also somewhat of an enigma in Vero and her blog – http://www.missverobeachhouse.blogspot.com/ – is scathingly popular. Add to that, that no one really knows who she is! And she likes it that way. Her comments about me are also posted on my website.

(Darlene Schade)

Okay, so I talked about how important friendship can be, let me now make a comment on belonging to networking groups, like the Mystery Writes of America. I am a member and have been since the ‘80s. Now I belong to the Florida chapter and we have a Yahoo group that discusses most anything to do with writing and sometimes if Don Bruns - http://www.donbrunsbooks.com/ - gets on we find out a little something we didn’t know about music, or an award he deservedly won in Nashville, or Bob Morris - http://www.bobmorris.net/, or his blog: http://www.surroundedonthreesides.blogspot.com/ - will pass along a new recipe – sometimes for food and sometimes for rum! Bob also blurbed my book, thank you!

But this time, Nancy Cohen - www.nancycohen.com - passed along a little info about Lynn Greene from the Waldenbooks in Vero Beach being a mystery fan and she welcomed mystery writers to sign in her store. I had an email out to Lynn before Nancy shut her computer off. And Lynn got back to me just as quickly and in a matter of hours of my first email, we had a signing date for me at Waldenbooks in Vero!

I had met Nancy at SleuthFest a few years back and she even was nice enough to give me a great blurb for my novel. So, as you can imagine, I support joining MWA even if you are not a published writer. I joined in Los Angeles, attended luncheons, workshops, funerals, beach parties, all before I was published, and continued my membership when I moved to Key West. Today, I still keep in touch with some of the SoCal members and read its monthly newsletter.
Friendships, professional or otherwise, and networking pays off, as my Vero Beach signing proves.

Now, Miss Vero did show up and I would gladly tell you her name and what she looked like, but she wouldn’t tell Bob or me her name and she wore a disguise. Knowing what a gossip I am, she expects me to tell you she’s a buxom blonde bombshell, but my trained writer’s eye picked up small telltale signs that the Dolly Parton hairdo was wig and the buxom part, well across the food court of the mall is a Victoria Secrets, so I question the buxom part, too. I can report that she is an attractive woman, her blog is fun to read, and someday Bob and I would like to take the real Miss Vero to lunch. Maybe when I call Lynn about my next book and arrange a signing, she’ll join Lynn, Bob and me. So until then, all you Miss Vero fans can ignore the buxom blondes, that ain’t her. The little sprinkling of freckles across her nose would make me think red head, but it’s only a guess.

Okay, what have we learned form this, other than I am two weeks late posting?

One, I hope, is that friendships are priceless.

6 Things about me and books . . .

Joan Reeves, from Slingwords.blogspot.com, tagged me to write “6 things about me and books.” She also tagged: Sweet But Sassy Adina, Bill Crider, Cait London, and L. C. Hayden.

Books, as I look over my computer desk I have four room-length bookshelves above me, filled past capacity with books I’ve read and, laying on their sides, books on my ‘to read’ list. So 6 things . . . here goes . . .

1) In high school, I was anything but a motivated student. I think it was the ninth or tenth grade, while in study class, in the English teacher’s classroom, I pulled a book from a rack called “Men Without Women” by Hemingway. Mr. Carlin, the teacher, came up to me and said something like, to paraphrase, “put the book back you aren’t bright enough to understand it.” He may have been kinder, but I was insulted (you can’t hurt a teenager) and went home to borrow against my allowance and bought the book the next day. I soon devoured all of Hemingway’s books I could find at school (not many) and the library. So, I guess, I turned an insult into a bad habit, reading and buying books!

2) When I was young, before God decided to call dirt, dirt, magazines of all sorts had at least one short story in it. I got in the habit of going through all my mother’s magazines, looking for short stories; that soon had me going through the short story anthologies in the library.

3) Somewhere, out of place, I discovered the Beats! The movement was almost over, but I couldn’t relate to hippies and dropping out. I loved to read about the Beats and their writings and adventures. Of course, that led to Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road.” I think I’ve read all of Kerouac’s works and many of the other Beats, including the poetry. It was about this time I decided I wanted to be a writer and, in many cases, unfortunately, it had to do with the way Hemingway and Kerouac lived!

4) During high school, I got a weekend job on the Boston Record-American/Sunday Advertiser as the midnight-8 a.m. office boy. Yeah, I know, it’s political incorrect today, but back then, that’s what I was. Following in Hemingway’s footsteps, right? I learned more about journalism those years than I ever did from higher education! I read all I could of books by journalists like Jimmy Breslin, and, of course, Damon Runyon. I wanted their style and today I will still watch “Guys & Dolls” when it’s on an old movie channel!

5) I will always be a short story fan, but by the time I moved to Los Angeles, I was reading mysteries and discovered LA had a hatful of mystery writers, long after Raymond Chandler had died. I also discovered Mystery Writers of America, SoCal Chapter and joined. Hell, the list of writers I met at the socials and dinners is too long to print here and I would probably miss more than one writer that was good to me and listened to my questions and gave answers. It was a great time in my life and got me to start writing my own novels. Of course, I had a draw full of short stories no one would publish, too.

6) Fast forward to my leaving LA and moving to Key West, end of the road – or the beginning, depending on your vision. I had come full circle; I was the business editor/writer for the daily rag, the Key West Citizen. I found time to write, while I lived on a floating home in a local marina – think of a two-story, one-bedroom house on a barge and that was my home. Come 1998 and Hurricane Georges blew the floating home out to sea and it was never found! Everything I had, including a great collection of first editions – many signed – were lost. I began to rebuild my library, but it was hard because I was living on a sailboat. But I had joined MWA Fla. Chapter and got to meet many talented mystery writers and began attending their events – 150 miles north of Key West. And I kept writing. A couple of years ago, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine bought and published my short story, “Murder in Key West,” and a few weeks later I received a contract from Five Star for my book, “Chasin’ the Wind.”

It took a lot of books and time to get from high school to Key West and published. Books are as much of a passion as is writing, in fact, I believe, as does Steve King, if you don’t’ read voraciously, you can not write.

Now, there are 6 things about me and books you could probably have lived a good long life without knowing, but I was asked to participate, so I did. What 6 things about you and books don’t we all know? Why not tell us?

Do you know your First Amendment rights?

As a journalist/mystery writer, the following quote frightens me and holds various meanings, as it should to anyone that uses the written word to make a living or to blog. So many of our freedoms are in peril these days and way too many of us are willing to give them up for feeling secure when we fly or visit the mall or drive on our roads.

Personally, I think Homeland Security is made up of smoke and mirrors and security at our airports is still being run by the seat-of-its-pants, a fact that has been proven by the media that has been able to smuggle contraband aboard plans.

It is time that the American people - the farmers, the mechanics, cooks, servers, office workers, writers, journalists, white-collar, blue-collar and no-collar workers, executives and, most importantly, our elected officials – reread the Constitution; discuss it at home, at the workplace, at taverns, on TV specials, and bus stops.

It was written to protect us from the men and women in Washington and state capitols and in city hall chambers. It was written before we had labeled influence peddlers as lobbyists and before large corporation arranged whom we could vote for.

Time and history has shown that 200-years ago, our Founding Fathers were a lot smarter than our leaders are today. Maybe it wasn’t intelligence; maybe the Founding Fathers were just honest enough to be concerned about the future of their own children and families and wanted to protect them from British counter attacks against the freedoms their blood and sweat had won. Today, it's all about profits - as we are learning daily on the news.

The Founding Fathers had all the human frailties of the times, but created the greatest document in our short history and today there are those that would line item veto sections of the Constitution. And they will, if we the people do not fully understand what it is they are trying to have us give up and stand up and say “no!”

When I first read the following quote, it sent shivers through me! Just from what I've learned over the years, I didn't even doubt it. That was sad, in itself, but then I got to question what rights I have and am aware of, per the Constitution. I am ashamed to say I couldn't list too many and I think I am someone who follows local, national and international politics.

If the written word is important to you, by writing it or reading it, it is time to stop and think about the following quote and decide how you fit into it. Novelists, poets, playwrights, journalists, and bloggers are all threatened and should pay attention because otherwise your right to petition may well be gone by the time you take notice!

Now I have to go and order a copy of the Constitution and re-learn all that stuff they tried to teach me in class that I knew was a waste of time because it would never involve itself in my life. Should I order one for you, too?

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM . . . Monday, Sept. 22, 2008
http://tedsword.blogspot.com/

State of the First Amendment 2008:
"Perhaps one reason so many [Americans] are not fearful of, or would even invite, government limits on the five freedoms is that so few of us can even name them.
"The survey found again this year that just 3 percent of those questioned could name 'petition' as one of the five freedoms in the First Amendment. Only 'speech' was named by a majority of respondents, 56 percent. Less than 20 percent named religion (15 percent), press (15 percent) or assembly (14 percent). . . . 4 in 10 could not name any freedom--the highest such result in the survey's history.
"[These are] 'inalienable' rights for all, indeed--but in today's United States, rights that are unknown, unnamed, or even undefended, by many."
--Gene Policinski, vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center, Washington, DC.
(For full survey results, see http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/pdf/SOFA2008survey.pdf )

St. Augustine book signing

I did something after it was clear Hurricane Ike wasn’t going to hit Key West that I hadn’t done in more than 12-years, I drove almost 500-miles to St. Augustine, Fla. I was invited to participate in the first Florida Heritage Book Festival as a panelist to discuss journalism. I was also offered two different signing opportunities for my mystery novel, “Chasin’ the Wind.” Unlike many events, the festival paid for my hotel room.

Round trip from Key West to St. Augustine took six tanks of gas, so there was no way I expected to make that cost back on book sales. In fact, I only sold eight books! One to my co-panelist, Kay Day and three to a woman who had each one personalized to different men in different mid-western cities.

“Are these old boyfriends?” I kidded her.

“No,” she laughed. “One brother and two beer-guzzling brother-in-laws.”

So, I signed the books as she directed and mentioned that there was always a good supply of cold beer in Key West and no snow, not even in the coldest months. What I saw, as I signed, were three guys reading the book, enjoying it and passing it along, or at least mentioning it.

The fifth book went to a woman who assured me a dozen members of her book club would read it also. Of course, I told her of the small print in the back of the book that didn’t allow the passing of the book along without compensation to the author. It took a second or two, but then she got the joke and laughed. (I wasn’t joking!).

An attorney, a friendly talkative guy, bought a book and talked to me about his family’s property in Key West. According to him, they own the property where West Marine is located and he was going to town to check on it.

“I thought your book might give me an idea of what to expect when I get there,” he told me. “I haven’t been there in 20-years.”

Brian Gordon Sinclair, the Canadian writer/actor who comes to town for Hemingway Days and does an incredible one-may Hemingway play, told me both the short story and novel helped him find some local hangouts he didn’t know existed. I took it as a compliment, since Brian has been coming to Key West for years.

I don’t know who bought the other books, I guess they didn’t care if they were signed or not, but I do know that more that eight people will read the book and that is good for name recognition. And, that’s what the book signings are about. Not sales, but name recognition. Though, sales are nice.

On the way to St. Augustine, Celine and I stopped in Vero Beach and had lunch with an old Key West friend, Bob Soos. How many people do you know that if you spell their name backward, it’s still right?

Since moving to Vero, Bob has created his own morning FM radio show. And, it just so happens, I will be signing in Vero on Oct. 4, at Borders/Waldenbooks, and Bob will interview me on Friday the 3rd. Free publicity, can’t hurt and the radio station will have a give-away contest, with the winner getting a signed copy of “Chasin’ the Wind.”

Promotion has a lot to do with name recognition!

My Friday panel at the festival was on journalism and my topic was “working your own backyard.” My co-panelist, journalist Kay Day, talked about national and international outlets for freelance journalists. Kay had a lot of good insight to offer the full room. She promised to review my book on her blog, so you are likely to hear more about her. She has been published in many of the country’s leading newspapers and magazines.

The festival actually had to turn people away because the Friday event sold out!

Friday night, Celine and I tried to find a place to park in Old Town, but couldn’t. The tour of the old city was great, but I’d wanted to walk around, since so many people told me it was a lot like Key West. I’ll take their word for it.

I did get to have lunch Friday with another friend who had left Key West, Jen Musselman, and her daughter Sydney. Also got to see a friend from my days in Los Angeles, Kathy Shea. Kathy was a volunteer at the festival, so she was kept pretty busy. It was nice seeing two old friends and catching up on things.

The Saturday event was free and held at the student union at Flagler College. I got to sign books from 9-10 a.m., and then headed south.

Was it worth the time and expense? Yeah, I believe so. I was told going in that promotion was as much involved as writing; and that is the truth. I’ve been to NYC, LA, and South Florida, and now North Florida, met a lot of nice people and hope created a fan base, no matter how small.

www.michaelhaskins.net

My Southern California Book Signings - Part III

(Before blogging about past signings, I want to let you know of two recently scheduled signings in Florida. On Sept 12 & 13, I will in St. Augustine at the Florida Heritage Book Festival – www.fhbookfest.com – and on Oct. 4, I will be at the Waldenbooks in Vero Beach, Fl., from 1-4 p.m. If you are in the neighborhood, please stop in and say hi.)

My signings in Southern California were in mid July and, I believe, were successful and fun. But, it was also work. I went to the Los Angeles area in July 2007, to personally talk with the bookstore owners, and drop off my press package, which consisted of a photo, bio, website info, and copies of blurbs by established mystery writers that would appear on the book’s jacket. I also promised copies of the books ARCs – advanced reading copies, which are used by reviewers. I sent ARC copies, as soon as they arrived.

I first joined the Mystery Writers of America when I lived in Los Angeles and found out in June 2008, that July was the SoCal chapter’s off time. How soon we forget! A friend from those days, one I hadn’t been in touch with for way too long, writer Diane Pugh (now married and is Diane Emley – http://www.dianneemley.com/) replied to my email to the club’s newsletter. She explained there were no meetings in July, but put word out on the club’s Yahoo.com page that I would be in town for signings.

While firestorms ravaged Northern California, sunny Southern California is still over crowded, smoggy, and hot. I stayed with my sister in Malibu where the temperature never rose above the mid 70s (winter temps for me), but a short ride over the mountains to the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles remedied that. Temps were in the 90s. I can say this about LA, you can see what you’re breathing! When I left, 12-years ago, the state said it hand a handle on smog and it was diminishing. No way, José!

My first signing was at “Mysteries to Die For,” in Thousand Oaks – http://www.mystriestodiefor.com/ – a ‘must stop’ bookstore for mystery writers and Heidi and her staff are friendly and supportive – something a first-time writer appreciates!

My book, “Chasin’ the Wind,” and notice I would be signing were in the window right next to a notice about Robert Crais’ signing. Bob’s large fan base might see it and be curious enough to come in and check my book out!

(photo: Mysteries to Die For/ Kevin Hart & Patti Bolter)

I brought Key West Hog’s Breath Saloon foam cup holders for all the stores – http://www.hogsbreathsaloon.com/. You put your beer bottle in them and they help keep it cool. I left six with Heidi for her and the staff.

The afternoon signing went well and my cousin from Boston, Kevin Hart, was in Santa Monica for a concert and showed up. That was a great surprise. I talked, briefly, about where the idea for the book came from and then signed.

Somewhere in the past I read, or was told, that an average sale at book signings was 10 copies. I sold my 10 copies plus, and some were presale orders. I am sure the store’s email newsletter helped, since it gave the book a good mention. That was Saturday, July 12.

Sunday, July 13, I met some friends at “My Way,” a bar in Montrose. Norm Cote has been a friend forever and he participated in a jam session there one or two Sunday nights each month. Another friend, Rob Murdock, had copies of “Chasin’ the Wind” he wanted me to sign for his daughters. You remember the old commercial, “I’d walk a mile for a Camel?” Well, imagine how far I’d go to sign three copies of my book!

(Photo: Norm Cote, Rob Murdock & Michael at My Way Bar)

Rob showed up, I signed the books, listened to Norm play, and got to hang out with the bar’s owner, Steve. I was fortunate to spend time with everyone, because a few weeks after returning to Key West, I called Norm and found out that Steve had a massive heart attack and died.

Kris Williams, the event coordinator at Barnes & Noble, in Encino, was one of the only major book chain people to get back to my request for a signing. She was kind enough to explain the store’s policy for signings was set to include the major best sellers and local authors only, but she and some of her associates had read my ARC and enjoyed it, so she invited me to sign stock. It’s not a book signing, but it is getting copies of my book into the mystery section of Barnes & Noble, so, of course, I said “Yes.”

(Photo: Kris Williams, event coordinator at B&N in Encino)

When I walked into the store on Tuesday, from the back parking lot, I remembered that I had attended many signings of MWA members there. Making it even more exciting to have my book displayed where fellow writers would see it and how surprised I was to find “Chasin’ the Wind” displayed in the store’s ‘New Arrivals’ section.

Kris got six Hog’s Breath holders, too.

Thursday, July 17, I signed at the Flintridge Bookstore & Coffeehouse in La Canada-Flintridge, between Pasadena and Glendale – http://www.flintridgebooks.com/ . The store had just opened in 2007, when I stopped by and offered to sign. Sandy Willardson, the event coordinator was supportive in 2007, and said the store employees enjoyed the ARC and looked forward to my signing.

Two other signings in the area, Book ‘em in South Pasadena and Mystery & Imagination in Glendale fell through, so I was very appreciative to Sandy for her support. Sandy put three of the Hog’s Breath cup holds in a raffle and staff got the other three.

She even had a sign in the window about my signing and called me “author and adventurer.” Go figure, I guess my sailing to Havana a few times made me an adventurer!

(Photo: Window display at Flintridge Bookstore & Coffeehouse)

Sandy introduced me and then introduced my sister Patty, who told awful lies about my misspent youth. Maybe they weren’t lies, exactly, but it wasn’t the way I remember things.
It was a fun evening and some friends from my past showed up and I sold more than my quota of books.

My next signing was on Saturday, July 19, at the Mystery Bookstore in Westwood – http://www.mystery-bookstore.com/ . When I lived in LA, the store was on Beverly Boulevard and one of my favorite haunts, especially at signings.

Since moving to Key West, the store has moved and been sold. Bobby McCue, the manager wasn’t there last year when James Lincoln Warren – http://www.criminalbrief.com/ – brought me to the store. JLW is a short story writer and has a popular blog that also features other short story writers. Via emails, Bobby and I communicated and finally with a good old phone call established the signing date. Later, closer to the signing date Bobby called and asked if I’d share the signing with San Francisco writer Michelle Gagnon – http://www.michellegagnon.com/ – and her two books, “The Tunnels” and “The Bone Yard” are terrific thrillers, so, of course I

said yes.

(Photo: Joe Bolter, Michael & Michelle Gagnon)

Michelle and I planned to meet for something to eat before our afternoon signings. I was walking around Westwood with my niece, Alexis Bolter and nephew, Joe Bolter when my cell ran. It was Michelle trying to locate me. She was at a Starbucks and I was on the sidewalk less than a yard away. We met and not only is she a talented writer but she is also beautiful!

Bobby, Sarah Chen and Linda Brown greeted us at the store and had area by the door filled with items promoting our books. I eventually got to sign the “arrest records book” the store has had for years. I read the signatures and comments by some of the famous mystery writers I had been reading for years. It was a wonderful feeling to add my name and comments to the book. I gave them the last six Hog's Breath drink holders.
(Photo: Sarah Chen, Bobby McCue, Michael & Linda Brown)

Because of presales, I actually got sell my quota of books at the store and then Bobby had me sign stock!

I flew back to Key West the next morning and was still flying high from the experience of signing my book in some of the best bookstores in the country when the jet landed in Miami. As I exited the smaller prop plane in Key West, I still couldn’t believe I’d just come back from LA and book signings. It was like a dream come true, no, it WAS a dream come true and I want to thank everyone at all the bookstores – Florida, NYC and SoCal – that helped make a novice feel and look like a pro.

To see photos of all those that heped make my book signings successful, go to http://www.michaelhaskins.net/ and click on photos.

(Photo: Michael signing arrest register at Mystery Bookstore)

Friday's Forgotten Book

(When Patti Abbott asked me to write a blog about a book I thought had been forgotten, it didn’t take me but a nanosecond to know what book it would be about. When I pulled it off the bookshelf, I realized I couldn’t explain it without going into explanation of the author, because the book affected my teenage years and the author a good part of the rest of my life.)

Writer Dennis Lynds had many claims to fame in his lifetime; being one of the most prolific writers in America has to be the one that will remain on the record books for years to come.

If you are new to the mystery genre, the name may not be recognizable. But Dennis wrote under many names, the most popular being Michael Collins, the creator of the Dan Fortune series, but there were others: William Arden, John Crowe, Mark Sadler, to name only a few.

I discovered Dennis Lynds while I was a senior in high school and his book, UPTOWN DOWNTOWN, Signet Paperback 1963, had just come out and it affected the direction my life would take. It was the early ‘60s, the beginning of the end of the Beat Generation and the first inkling of the hippie movement and time of teenage angst.

UPTOWN DOWNTOWN is a story about Dave Garber, an up-and-coming executive in NYC, but at night another Dave Garber emerges, one who strums a guitar in Village bars, frequents free-and-easy parties in dim, beatnik attics.

The book fully portrays that time when writers and artists, experiments in drugs and sex and jazz, were all mixed together and you had an enthusiasm for life and living that was dying a slow death. It mirrored my weekend trips to coffeehouses on Beacon Hill in Boston.

UPTOWN DOWNTOWN influenced my decisions at the time, because I wanted to be a writer and part of a living movement, even if it was fading from the mainstream. The dropout attitude of the hippies held no appeal, where the live-life-to-the-fullest mantra of Dave Garber and the Beats did. The weekend coffeehouse-poetry readings I attended were right out of UPTOWN DOWNTOWN and I latched onto the tail end of beatnik movement, and dropped into life instead of dropping out.

Almost 20-years later I met Michael Collins at the mid-March writers social hosted by The Mysterious Bookstore in Beverly Hills – since then, it has moved to Westwood and no longer holds the social because it conflicts with other literary events in LA. I was a fan and asked to have my Dan Fortune books signed. We got to talking and I discovered Michael Collins was really Dennis Lynds; I did not connect the man and UPTOWN DOWNTOWN at the time. I did guess that he took the name Michael Collins because of the Irish rebel and leader in the rebellion against the English in 1916 and he laughed and said, “Yes, that’s why I took the name.”

We became friends and Dennis was always supportive of my writing. We attended Mystery Writer of America, SoCal, meetings and socials at the Sportsmen’s Lodge in the San Fernando Valley, often sitting in the bar afterward. When I discovered why the name Dennis Lynds sounded familiar, I told him and got a thank you and a smile.

Dennis was more than a friend, he was someone I looked up to. As Michael Collins, he was able to turn Dan Fortune, a one-armed private detective, into a successful and popular character and series, when the rest of us were writing about superheroes without limitations!

He did it with well-written, well-plotted stories that often asked hot-topic questions and just as often gave the answers; and he did it with some of the best writing in the genre.

I moved to Key West in 1996, but kept in touch with Dennis and his wife Gayle, and we often emailed back and forth about my sailing trips to Cuba and how he hoped to someday visit Havana and maybe meet me there.

In 1998 Hurricane Georges attacked the Lower Keys and blew my two-story floating home out to sea, with my more than 1,000-book library and worldly possession on it, never to be found. Think of it as a one-bedroom house on a barge.

I mentioned it to Dennis in an email and told him how I was starting over and had bought a sailboat to live on. A few weeks later, I received a plastic covered copy of UPTOWN DOWNTOWN in the mail. He had remembered after all these years!

My library is almost rebuilt, now that I am back in a house on solid ground, and books written by Dennis Lynds, no matter what name he used, sit on the shelf above my computer screen, so that I often think of him when I am writing. In between the hardback copies of books, bearing the name Collins, Sadler, Crowe and Arden is the small, plastic covered paperback, UPTOWN DOWNTWON, and it stares down overpowering all the others because it reminds of my youth and how it, and its author, helped direct me to where I am today.

Dennis wrote most everyday for eight hours, or more. How I envy him for that. He was driven and loved writing. And that paid off, because so many of us love reading him.

For more information on Dennis, his life and his writing, go to http://www.dennislynds.com/.

Michael Haskins
www.michaelhaskins.net

SLING WORDS - BLOG REVIEW

“Chasin' The Wind”
by Michael Haskins Hardback: 238 pagesPublisher: Five Star, Gale Cengage LearningISBN-13 978-1-59414-638- Copyright 2008

The cover of Chasin' The Wind has palm trees gilded by a setting sun and a boat, silhouetted on a patch of gleaming water. All else in the peaceful scene is darkness. The cover artist perfectly captured the essence of this book, the first Mad Mick Murphy Mystery, by Michael Haskins.

Set in Key West, the darkness beneath the bright surface of this tourist mecca is revealed in the opening sequence when Murphy, former globe-trotting investigative journalist, stumbles upon the near-dead body of his friend and fellow sail enthusiast.

Haskins has a lean, spare style that gives you the facts and paints a picture of the Key West known to its denizens but rarely seen by the tourists. Forget the glitz and glamor of the other odes to Floridian excess as seen in book, television, and film. "Chasin' The Wind" is the real deal. It's the bite of lime in a mojito, the festering, relentless antipathy still nurtured for Fidel, and the spray of salt in your face when you're on the water.

Mick Murphy is not some unrealistic super hero sleuth. He might be the guy you pass on the street. He's known tragedy, and he's haunted by the past. He probably isn't extraordinary in his beliefs: that loyalty and friendship are everything and that justice should be sought.Haskins has created an intelligent sleuth, and you'll get a kick out of following Mad Mick Murphy from Key West to Cuba in "Chasin' The Wind."

You'll wish you could hang with Murphy in a seedy bar and share a beer while you wait for the next book in this promising new series.

Takeaway Truth:

Small publishers are nurturing some big talent. If you're a reader, start buying some of these heretofore-unknown authors on a regular basis.

ABOUT THE REVIWER:
SLING WORDS aka Joan Reeves.
Just call me Paige Turner. Oh. Real name is displayed? Well, darn. I was hoping the Paige Turner moniker might make me a hot commodity. Guess that means I'll have to write great fiction instead. (But that's sooo hard! *whine, whine*) You want to know more about me? Hmmm.... At this moment in time, I guess I'm a multi-published author of fiction and a hard-working freelance writer published all over the web (under my own name, pseudonyms, and as a ghost)...yada yada yada. Need to know more? Just go to http://www.joanreeves.com,/ for details. Joan donates the copies of books she reviews to various libraries.