Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Fresh Pick | HELL IS EMPTY by Craig Johnson
Fresh Pick / August 2, 2012

Walt Longmire #7 May 2012 On Sale: April 24, 2012 Featuring: Walt Longmire; Henry Standing Bear 352 pages ISBN: 0143120980 EAN: 9780143120988 Kindle: B004IYIJ5W Paperback $14.00  Add to Wish List Mystery, WesternBuy at Amazon.com Hell Is Empty by Craig Johnson Well-read and world-weary, Sheriff Walt Longmire has been maintaining order in Wyoming’s Absaroka County for more than thirty years, but in this riveting seventh outing, he is pushed to his limits. Raynaud Shade, an adopted Crow Indian rumored to be one of the country’s most dangerous sociopaths, has just confessed to murdering a boy ten years ago and burying him deep within the Bighorn Mountains. Walt is asked to transport Shade through a blizzard to the site, but what begins as a typical criminal transport turns personal when the veteran lawman learns that he knows the dead boy’s family. Guided only by Indian mysticism and a battered paperback of Dante’s Inferno, Walt braves the icy hell of the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area, cheating death to ensure that justice—both civil and spiritual— is served. and all the devils are here Previous Picks

M.L. Buchman | My Wife Loves When I Laugh
Author Guest / August 2, 2012

It’s how she knows the book is going well. I’m sitting off in my writing corner; surrounded by pretty pictures, important sayings, a couple cats, and a bunch of love notes from my lady. Then a laugh just bursts out. I can hear her even now, “You just think you’re so clever.” And she’s right, I do. I laugh, I cry, I get angry when one of my characters screws it all up, and I chortle when I’ve been particularly evil and given them some impossible challenge. I used to be embarrassed about it. As if I was just being foolish, I’d try to suppress it. Then I’d forget myself and find myself wishing I had someone to nudge and wink with. (Thankfully I do. Much of my story lines are worked out while walking hand-in-hand with my wife.) The thing that surprises her every time I mention it is that she’s my audience. She’s the one I hope to make laugh, cry, and sigh. And it works. She’s my first reader (she’s awesome at grammar). And I get to hang out in the corner of the living room and pretend that I’m not perched on the edge of my…

Molly O’Keefe | In Praise of Older Men
Author Guest / August 1, 2012

Watching the Smurfs movie (for sadly about the fifth time) I was struck anew by how much more handsome Neil Patrick Harris is as a thirty something than he was as a twenty something. His face has weathered in a beautiful way, full of character and charm. He twinkles like he knows something good.  And that’s pretty damn attractive. Maybe it’s my own age, but I’m taking another look at men of a certain age.  Men who when younger, might not have caught my eye.  As a writer and a reader, I like going on a journey with characters who have some life behind them. I like the “I don’t want commitment” conflict, but it works so much better with someone who has actually been committed and been burned. Or maybe burned someone.  A guy that is aware of all the grey area in life. Men with scars and baggage are intriguing and they make for good reading, but there’s a fine line between an alpha male and a guy acting like a child.  Older heroes can skip all of that –  they can be damaged but  still stand up and do the right thing. Men who are men, I…