WRITERS messages for interested fans--

Over the past years, one co-worker would post her mail correspondence from writer Janet Evanovich in the staff break room bulletin board. It was a newsletter called "Plum News" (of course, named after the writer's series protagonist Stephanie Plum) and checking the author's website, I see it is up to volume 13 now.

The newsletter is a fun product with personal family fun info (pet news, anyone?) aside from promos about the newest Evanovich book to hit the book shelves. Now, Evanovich does produce books with a cheetah's running pace so a newsletter is a good idea, however, others need to reach interested readers too and I've been the recipient in some instances. You may definitely put me in that camp but move me over to the email category as those are my only messages after shooting off an email to an author.

My most recent messages have been a series of emails--blog updates, actually--from writer Kwei Quartley ("Update from KweiQuartley.com") in Ghana doing research for an upcoming novel Children of the Street. It is a new book to feature his series protagonist Darko Dawson, who does reside in Ghana. The other writers I've received upcoming book updates include Julia Spencer-Flemming (e-newsletter "News from the Kill") and Sara Paretsky.

This is a fun practice and I'd suggest anyone really interested in a certain author or their work to sign up for email alerts if available.

Writer's messages for interested fans--

It is very nice to get a message from a writer you've been in contact with that person at some point. That occurred just last week when I heard from Mike Lawson, creator of the Joe DeMarco series.

He wrote the following to several and included me:

Although I know I've told many people recently that my new book, House Justice, is coming out June 1, I wanted to spread the word to everyone that's emailed me in the past. House Justice is about a press leak that gets a CIA agent killed and was sorta inspired by the real life Valerie Plame case. Library Journal called House Justice "a perfect political thriller" and Booklist said it was "a superb example of the post–cold war espionage novel." Personally, I doubt it's perfect - but those are great quotes. At any rate, House Justice will be stores on June 1 and the mass-market version of my fourth book, House Secrets, will be out the same day. House Secrets, by the way, was listed as one of the top thrillers of 2009 by three different publications. Also, I'll be signing my books in a lot of stores this summer. Usually I only sign in the Northwest but this year I'll be in Portland, Phoenix, Houston, and San Francisco as well. My website has the dates and places. Anyway, hope you'll consider getting the new book and telling your friends about it if you like it.

Thanks, Mike

(And thanks for writing Mike.)

Final Nights for New "Law & Order" Episodes on NBC-TV--

I was stunned when I read NBC-TV's long running series "LAW & ORDER" was cancelled from the upcoming fall season. It has hung around through cast changes and time changes over the years until I thought it could air another two or three years. Well, that was not to be.

I liked the set-up of the shows episodes split between the police detectives and the district attorneys' work on a case. And I liked the New York City sets. I became hooked on the show during the last season of the Briscoe/Curtis detective (with actors Jerry Orbach and Benjamin Bratt) era and hung in ever since. The procedural set-up won me over as good and life-like storytelling for TV crime fiction. Here's a pix of the current cast from Google.

I like the current cast and think they have done some good work. And yet, we have all favorites and my true favorite was during the Briscoe/Green detective (with actors Orbach and Jesse L. Martin) era. In any regard, I'm a bigger fan of watching the detective work for the set-up of the case although I do want to see how the case survives (and concludes) in court.

Thanks to various cable stations over the years, I've been able to see most shows going back the first episode and I have a greater appreciate for the entire body of work. Some stories stretch too hard for the famed "ripped from the headlines" theme of the show but I have found most "Law & Order" shows very watchable.

I'll miss it--or do you think 20 years was too long for this series?