This World
By E.A. Aymar (also E.A. Barres)
This World
It wasn't until my late thirties that I wanted to be a father and, in all honesty, it probably took a few months after my son was born for me to accept this new role.
I was perfectly happy with my life the way it was - sleeping late, going out whenever my wife and I wanted, spending weekends writing, not changing diapers. That resistance wasn't something that magically disappeared the day he was born (although the birth itself was stunning to see).
But I remember the exact moment that acceptance happened.
My son was doing head lifts during "tummy time," lying on a blanket and lifting his head to strengthen his neck muscles, and he grunted, and that little strain in his voice and his face broke me. I didn't want him to suffer, even though I knew he needed to do this. Days after that, he laughed for the first time in his baby life, and I was done. He'd hooked me. Seven years later, he still has.
After the shootings in Atlanta earlier this month, my friend Angie Kim wrote a wonderful piece for the Washington Post about her experiences suffering racism as an Asian-American. I was really impressed with her essay, and proud of her for writing it. You should read it.
For those that don't know, my wife's Vietnamese, I'm half-Panamanian, and our son is a beautiful blended mix. My wife and I, of course, have both experienced heated racism in our lives, and it's something we're very conscious about in regards to our son. We're lucky in some ways - the area we live in is exceptionally diverse, as is his school, as is our family. We can't escape it, but we hope to lessen the dejecting, minimizing isolation racism often brings, and which is so hard to explain.
I've written about my son before. In the early months of the pandemic, Lynn Chandler Willis invited me to contribute an essay to Writers Crushing COVID, and I wrote a letter to my son about what was happening in the world and in our lives. And after a bullet went through my son's daycare window, in the room where he was sleeping at the time, I wrote an essay about the incident for Eric Beetner's anthology Unloaded: Volume 2. Both those essays, and this one, I suppose, are about the same thing.
My uncertainty with introducing him to this world.
His life often feels unfair, particularly after we suffer another school shooting, or racism is brought to the attention of the public sphere, or when we witness the eager willingness people often have to settle disputes with weapons rather than words.
And I have to remind myself that, sluggishly, things are improving. The shootings seem endless and everywhere, but neither is true. In regards to social awareness, every generation has been better than the one preceding it, and this is a trend that will continue, despite resistance. I have to remind myself that our social and news media often traffic in misery, occasionally necessarily, and it is easy to forget that there is more than misery in life.
I remind myself that, although we live with snakes, we do so in a garden.
And as much as I love watching my son run and play in that garden, I fear for the day when I will lose sight of him. When his delighted young cries coarsen with age, turn stoic. When those bright wide eyes begin to fill with conflicting emotions, rather than the simple pure obviousness of glee or sadness or love. When he has to suffer, and it's not a suffering I can prevent, and my comfort can't end it. When I have to let him disappear to find his own path through the garden, and I can't hold his hand and walk with him, and I can no longer see him. Or the snake.
EA
Hey, let's turn down the seriousness for a second.
That book I wrote was selected for an Amazon Kindle deal!
TWO BUCKS, YO!
Click HERE (or the graphic below) to order!
Travel Money
By Jonathan Brown
(Part of The Grifters' Song series)
What is travel money exactly? It’s that little bit of cash to get you to the next gig. In the case of Sam and Rachel it’s the expense money to get them from one con to the next. But you can’t live on travel money. Certainly not Sam and Rachel. In the story Travel Money, the cash serves to get our two favorite cons from the small con to the big one. Once they find their mark, they’ll be sitting pretty on the beach of their choice—and for a good long while. The score is not only big, the stolen item itself is huge. Our cons will be looking at more than a few dollars north of a million. Roping the mark will be no easy feat. Especially one as savvy as Francisco Glanis. Add to this, it appears as though a blast from the grifter’s past in the form of a hitter for the Philly mob has located Sam and Rachel. However, if the score goes down as planned in the quaint little affluent town of Buckeye, California, the relentless grifters will have toes in sand, cocktails in hands and won’t have to concern themselves with travel money…for a long time.
K-9 Cold Case
By Elizabeth Heiter
With the help of his K-9 companion, Patches, FBI victim specialist Jax Diallo vows to help police chief Keara Hernandez solve the attacks rocking their Alaskan community. Evidence suggests the crimes are connected to her husband’s long-unsolved murder. And the strikes are becoming more personal. When dodging bullets becomes a daily event, Jax risks everything to keep his beautiful new partner from meeting a violent end…
Call Me Elizabeth Lark
By Melissa Colasanti
Twenty years ago, Myra Barkley's daughter disappeared from the rocky beach across from the family inn, off the Oregon coast. Ever since, Myra has waited at the front desk for her child to come home. One rainy afternoon, the miracle happens--her missing daughter, now twenty-eight years old with a child of her own, walks in the door. Elizabeth Lark is on the run with her son. She's just killed her abusive husband and needs a place to hide. Against her better judgment, she heads to her hometown and stops at the Barkley Inn. When the innkeeper insists that Elizabeth is her long lost daughter, the opportunity for a new life, and more importantly, the safety of her child, is too much for Elizabeth to pass up. But she knows that she isn't the Barkleys's daughter, and the more deeply intertwined she becomes with the family, the harder it becomes to confess the truth. Except the Barkley girl didn't just disappear on her own. As the news spreads across the small town that the Barkley girl has returned, Elizabeth suddenly comes into the limelight in a dangerous way, and the culprit behind the disappearance those twenty years ago is back to finish the job.
The Arrangement
By M. Ravenel
New York City, 1975. Another case has fallen onto the desk of Tootsie Carter; a female detective armed with a snub-nosed Colt .38, unmatchable wit, and a pocketful of Tootsie Rolls. A missing wife. The seedy underbelly of the boxing world. Lace your gloves and ring the bell, PI Tootsie Carter is on the case. When a desperate man stumbles into her office, pleading for help locating his wife, Tootsie launches into the investigation. Following the clues, she uncovers a boxing racketeer with a deadly agenda. Can Tootsie deliver the one-two punch that brings the woman home safe? Or will more bodies fall to the mats?
Murder at Wedgefield Manor
By Erica Ruth Neubauer
England, 1926: Wedgefield Manor, deep in the tranquil Essex countryside, provides a welcome rest stop for Jane and her matchmaking Aunt Millie before their return to America. While Millie spends time with her long-lost daughter, Lillian, and their host, Lord Hughes, Jane fills the hours devouring mystery novels and taking flying lessons—much to Millie’s disapproval. But any danger in the air is eclipsed by tragedy on the ground when one of the estate’s mechanics, Air Force veteran Simon Marshall, is killed in a motorcar collision. The sliced brake cables prove this was no accident, yet was the intended victim someone other than Simon? The house is full of suspects—visiting relations, secretive servants, strangers prowling the grounds at night—and also full of targets. The enigmatic Mr. Redvers, who helped Jane solve a murder in Egypt, arrives on the scene to once more offer his assistance. It seems that everyone at Wedgefield wants Jane to help protect the Hughes family. But while she searches for answers, is she overlooking a killer hiding in plain sight?
Our Wicked Lies
By Gledé Browne Kabongo
Alicia Gray knows she's a lucky woman. With a gorgeous, successful husband who whisks her away on romantic trips, a beautiful home in one of the country's wealthiest zip codes, and two wonderful daughters, life couldn't be better. However, she'll soon discover that an enviable marriage comes at a deadly cost. Who is Faith and why are dozens of email messages between her and Alicia's husband hidden in his draft folder? Why were the messages never sent? As Alicia embarks on a desperate quest to uncover Faith's identity, a shocking death hits close to home and sends her reeling. In this beautiful town of wealth and privilege, nothing is as it seems, and everyone has something to hide. As Alicia struggles under the weight of dark secrets from her own past, someone knows more than they’re saying—someone who knows the truth will come at a devastating price.
Murder by Page One
By Olivia Matthews
Marvey, a librarian, has moved from Brooklyn to a quirky small town in Georgia. When she’s not at the library organizing events for readers, she’s handcrafting book-themed jewelry and looking after her cranky cat. At times, her new life in the South still feels strange...and that’s before the discovery of the dead body in the bookstore. After one of her friends becomes a suspect, Marvey sets out to solve the murder mystery. She even convinces Spence, the wealthy and charming newspaper owner, to help. With his ties to the community, her talents for research, and her fellow librarians’ knowledge, Marvey pursues the truth. But as she gets closer to it, could she be facing a deadly plot twist?
Red Widow
By Alma Katsu
Lyndsey Duncan worries her career with the CIA might be over. After lines are crossed with another intelligence agent during an assignment, she is sent home to Washington on administrative leave. So when a former colleague--now Chief of the Russia Division--recruits her for an internal investigation, she jumps at the chance to prove herself. Lyndsey was once a top handler in the Moscow Field Station, where she was known as the "human lie detector" and praised for recruiting some of the most senior Russian officials. But now, three Russian assets have been exposed--including one of her own--and the CIA is convinced there's a mole in the department. With years of work in question and lives on the line, Lyndsey is thrown back into life at the agency, this time tracing the steps of those closest to her. Meanwhile, fellow agent Theresa Warner can't avoid the spotlight. She is the infamous "Red Widow," the wife of a former director killed in the field under mysterious circumstances. With her husband's legacy shadowing her every move, Theresa is a fixture of the Russia Division, and as she and Lyndsey strike up an unusual friendship, her knowledge proves invaluable. But as Lyndsey uncovers a surprising connection to Theresa that could answer all of her questions, she unearths a terrifying web of secrets within the department, if only she is willing to unravel it....
I knew of Mia P. Manansala before I met her. She was an active member of Sisters in Crime while she was writing her debut novel, and her unpublished work was already gaining more attention than a lot of published writers receive. Deservedly so - she won the 2018 Hugh Holton Award, the 2018 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, the 2017 William F. Deeck - Malice Domestic Grant for Unpublished Writers, and the 2016 Mystery Writers of America/Helen McCloy Scholarship. No one was surprised when a publisher snatched her up, and next month, her already-acclaimed debut Arsenic and Adobo hits bookshelves!
And a writer Mia recommends? Roselle Lim:
My author recommendation is Roselle Lim. I love crime fiction, but the themes that draw me in the most are family and food, and how the two are often interwoven in complicated ways. It's something I explore in my own writing, and I absolutely love the way Roselle Lim handles them simply yet beautifully in her books.
To learn more about each writer, click the photos above.
I have no events this month.
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, the winner of Arsenic and Abobo and Vanessa Yu's Magical Tea Shop is:
ma___daca8@_.com
But wait! I ran a second contest on Facebook, and the winner of THAT contest wins a gift card to an independent bookstore! And the winner of that contest is:
laton______ie2@gmail.com
Congrats to both of you! I'll be in touch.
Northern Virginia Magazine was nice enough to interview me for their "Local Author Love" section of their magazine, so you can see my giant dumb face grinning at you and a short paragraph where I incoherently ramble. Fun times!
(But seriously, that was really nice of them and it was awesome to be included.)
I was also Sherry Knowlton's guest on the Milford House Mysteries podcast, and Sherry is a terrific writer and interviewer, so it was great to chat her up. And I also spoke with Dana Kaye on her "Breakout Book" podcast series. For those that don't know, Dana is a wonderful book marketer, and has some of the best advice about PR and marketing. And her entire podcast series is a goldmine of information.
Until next time, stay safe. Much love to all of you, and Happy Reading!