Words by Sooz

I needed a Google+ invite badly when the social media was in its earliest stages. When one showed up in my inbox before many of my friends and colleagues, I thought I was cooler than everyone. I signed up, followed a couple of people I knew on the site and wrote a post. I might have been back about a dozen times since then. Instead, my time is usually spent on Twitter, Instagram, reading RSS feeds or working. Occasionally, Facebook works its way into the mix. But never Google+. This article by Ad Age “Google+ aGhost Town as Brands Decamp for Pinterest” doesn't come as a surprise. I'm even on Pinterest too, but even my usage in that has waned. “The broad consensus is that Google+ is an empty city where the masses go to set up a profile but then seldom return.” That sounds about right.

Charlaine Harris made it official today when she posted on Facebook that Book 13 Dead After All  in the Sookie Stackhouse series would be the last. It's never too early to start marketing for that book either. As you can see in Harris' post, the date of the release of the next and final book is May 2, 2013. With the way the last book Deadlocked  ended ( check out my review here ) it left Sookie's love life up in the air, but it seemed as though Sookie was leaning in a certain direction. Many of the comments on Harris' page were positive and don't want the series to end, but now just might be the right time. I've met several people who have stopped reading the books because the last three to four of them got kind of stale. Sookie's love life was always at the center of the books, but some readers have given up and don't care to see how it ends. Perhaps they're just waiting for the spoilers. What do you think? Was this the right t...

Carmen Cole is a character after my own heart. It seems I have a knack for picking up books where the main character is a reporter. I live that life. I get it. I know what it's like to go through the ups and downs of reporting. In Karma Girl  (Book 1 of the Bigtime Superheroes series) written by Jennifer Estep, Carmen Cole is an investigative reporter whose sole mission is to uncover as many superheroes and ubervillians and she possibly could. But it didn't always start that way. Cole became obsesses with this mission on her wedding day when she discovered her fiance and best friend in bed together. To make it worse, they were the town of Beginnings superhero and ubervillian. Cole had her revenge by pasting their photos on the front of the local paper. She worked her way to bigger newspapers doing the same thing until she found herself in Bigtime, one of the biggest cities in the country with the deadliest ubervillians and hunkiest superheroes. If it sounds a l...

Working with friends may be difficult, especially when working as an editor. Recently, Bobby Deren asked me to look through his indie novella DRAFT SEASON: Preparing for the NFL. The non-fiction book is about Deren's experience in training with several NFL draft prospects at Competitive Edge Sports in Atlanta. To football fanatics, that place is well know because the best of the best prospects go there to train. The systems employed at that facilities are used around the country in other gyms that seek similar atmospheres. I read Deren's book in a day. At 61 pages, it wasn't terribly long and it didn't need to be either. Deren gets right to the point in what its like to train by going through the training himself for a week. He put down his computer and threw on his sneakers instead to stand side by side with men who will make a career in the NFL.

When a book comes out that is part of a series, there is a little bit of excitement around release day. We're meeting up with old friends and want to know what they have been up to. When Charlaine Harris announced there would be just two books left in the True Blood series some time last year, it meant some of our friends – Sookie, Eric, Tara, Jason and others of Bon Temp – would eventually be leaving. The second to last book Deadlocked recently came out. I tore through it in about two days not able to relish in some of the final moments with the characters. Sookie is at a crossroads – but when is she not - figuring out her relationships with her boyfriend and relatives. Most of her human friends are either getting married or having children, which seems to be weighing on Sookie's mind. This version of catching up with Sookie meant getting to hang out with her as she cleaned and ran errands. There was not much action or romance, which is something True Bl...

As a baseball fan, I'm pretty much a sucker for anything to do with my favorite sport. But at the same time, I'm also very critical. Game 7: Deadball by Allen Schatz is a mystery thriller with the 2008 World Series as a backdrop. For the record, I was at that World Series, so it was interesting to see how certain things would be incorporated into an event I attended. The first thing I noticed was how well the book was written. As an indie author, Schatz's writing is very polished. It was a refreshing start because it meant there would be no cringing throughout the book from poor grammar or something else that a good editor could have helped. It allowed me to just enjoy the book, which I did. Marshall Connors, a Major League Baseball umpire, is at the center of the book. Connors has to cut his vacation short as he's asked to become crew chief for the 2008 World Series. Not a bad gig, but mysterious and dangerous messages start popping up around Conno...