My New Cover! And Indie Bookstoires!
I mean, dang. LOOK at that cover. LOOK AT IT!
I'm so grateful to the folks at Crooked Lane Books, and my wonderful editor Terri Bischoff, for the work they've done with my new book. That cover is just beautiful, and gives me a pleasantly shivery feeling whenever I look at it.
It's a lovely cover, and my only concern is whether or not I'm sex-ay enough for my pseudonym, E.A. Barres. But then I realize I'm not, and the concern goes away. EASY.
If you follow other authors, you've heard our spiel about how important pre-orders are for sales...but, more than that, I'm so excited to share this story with you. It's important to me for a lot of reasons, reasons I'll detail in a later newsletter.
So, if you're so inclined, you can check out the book (publication date: November 10, 2020) at the following sites:
IndieBound
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
And you can see more sales sites at Penguin / Random House.
Thank you I love you very much.
So, here's the thing...
I hosted two of these virtual Noir at the Bars and they went REALLY well! These events were done in support of local D.C./MD/VA bookstores, and we all had so much fun! The readings were great, Sara Jones was amazing during her musical interludes, and it was just a warm, wonderful evening. And a much needed one.
So I decided that we should make this thing a series.
Starting this Friday night, we're going to have Virtual Noir at the Bars on Friday nights, through June 5th (for now). Each evening will be in support of a different local bookstore, and each evening will include Sara Jones providing a couple of songs and, as a new treat, local celebrity mixologist Chantal Tseng will create a custom cocktail based on one of the books that night! Ingredients will be posted ahead of time (so you can stock up on the necessary booze), and then Chantal will take a few minutes in the beginning to walk us through the prep.
I'm so excited by this idea, and others are too. DCist interviewed me, Sara, and folks at One More Page about the series, I wrote about it in the Washington Independent Review of Books today, and Chatter on Books gave it a shout-out on their popular podcast. You can register for and watch the first event at this link, tomorrow night at 8:30 PM EST, and information for all the others is below. Click on each flyer to be taken to that event page.
Is this going to be amazing? Yes. Is it going to be much work for me? Also yes. There's a reason I reached out to Chantal.
But that's not important. Here's what it is:
Readings! Music! Drinks! Door prizes! Bad haircuts! We have it all!
If there are any issues with the links below, you an also see event information at https://eaymarwrites.com/noirbar/.
Okay, so for this newsletter it's one writer, not two, but I really wanted to give Alex Segura some props. There's no one in crime fiction (especially among male crime fiction writers) who is as selfless and kind as Alex. This whole Noir at the Bar thing was copied from his idea (and he's having one before ours this Friday, at 7 PM, which is why we're starting at 8:30).
With Alex, one hand is always holding a pen, the other is reaching out to help a fellow writer.
Alex has won awards and accolades for his Pete Fernandez series, which concluded last year, and has since been tapped to write a story about Poe Dameron! Which is a DREAM gig, and one well-deserved. I'm proud to call him a friend, and click on the pics above to learn more about him and his work.
It's contest time! The monthly contest winner wins copies of the books listed in my "Two Writers You Should Read" segment. So, for this month, you're going to win pre-orders of Alex's new book, as well as mine, and a copy of his most recent, Miami Midnight.
The winner of this month's contest is:
libra_____@gmail.com
Congrats! Check your e-mail for a separate note from me, and happy reading!
Sarah M. Chen and I co-hosted Eric Beetner's wonderful podcast, Writers Types, and had the chance to interview two of my favorites - Sheena Kamal and Matthew Quirk! And Matthew will be one of the readers at an upcoming event.
Until next time, much love to all of you. Hope to see you Friday, and Happy Reading!