Exciting news: "Murdermobile" is published in paperback! Go to https://www.createspace.com/4481587 or click on the link from our home page. Buy it through this link and the authors make more money than if you buy it elsewhere. ;-)
Wouldn't it be ironic if a book tweaking the book-banning crowd were targeted by book banners? Hmmm. We have a new one-star review of "Murdermobile" on Amazon that raises that specter. Here's a response we've posted that we think deserves as much attention as that one-star review. -- Brian and Barbara Cantwell
We believe in letting fair criticism stand on its own, so we don’t usually respond to negative reviews. However, this review offers some pointed accusations that demand a response. First we should say that we stand firmly with the American Library Association in its longstanding and eloquently stated opposition to book banning (see http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned), and our “Murdermobile” heroine, librarian Hester McGarrigle, shares that widely held view. We take exception to this reader’s leap of thought that says opposition to book banning equals bias against Christians, or any church or faith. The reader implies that Christians want to ban books; we do not make that implication. Nowhere in “Murdermobile” will you find a statement linking the book-banning group to Christianity or to any church. The group could just as well be atheists, or Hindus, or simply a social club that opposes open library shelves. One blanket statement we will make: Book banners are people who want to tell others what they or their children should or should not read. That’s something against which we profess a bias without regret. We stand firmly on the side of freedom of speech and freedom of thought; that's a very American tradition. Perhaps we portray the book banners as a little clownlike, with our tongue planted firmly in cheek. Call it artistic license -- it is a work of fiction -- but it is based in part on research in which we attended a public school-district hearing where a book-banning proposal was being aired. A careful reader might also note that “Murdermobile” has its share of fun at the expense of “tell-it-like-it-is” books for teens with ludicrous titles such as “Boy Krazy” and “Cheerleader Mom.” Nobody gets off scot-free here. Finally: This reader makes some assumptions about us having "a big problem" with "normal" (her loaded word) families. In fact, we’re an old married couple who just celebrated our 40th year together and enjoyed watching our daughter graduate from college in June. We believe healthy and happy families -- and we draw a wide circle there -- are the foundation of civilization. The reader assumes we never step foot in a church. We won’t dignify that with a response other than to say that our personal spiritual life is OUR personal spiritual life, and nobody’s business but our own. It's no big surprise that "Murdermobile" is collecting fans from Portland or with links to Oregon, since that's where the story is set. A couple of samples, with commenters' real or online names: SUSAN HANSON: I used to live in Portland and I'm familiar with the area. This librarian with the improbable name of Hester Freelove McGarrigle is not a prim spinster as her name might imply. I enjoyed the book because her character seems like a real person rather than a caricature. I liked roaming the streets of Portland with Hester and her magenta bookmobile. The cop-meets-the-heroine romance takes a satisfactory turn when the case is solved. The book is just a fun read. HAPLU: I have to preface this by saying I am a native Portlander and therefore enjoyed all her references to places in Portland But we are a little surprised -- pleasantly so -- at another focal point of "Murdermobile" fans: the great big state of Texas! We have no idea what makes it fertile ground for a story about a red-haired bookmobile librarian and a trail-running, pizza-gobbling cop who hang out in lefty-liberal Portland, but here are a couple comments from the Lone Star State: JUDY BROWN EYES (TEXAS): The book is so much fun! The biggest plus is having the Portland Bookmobile come alive by the talented pen of Ms. Cantwell. Do yourself a favor and get started on this series, it a great buy for the price. MYSTERYANDSCIFIWOMAN (IRVING, TEXAS): This was an entertaining cozy mystery, great for fun, light Summer reading. The major characters were interesting and the descriptions of Portland and surrounding areas allowed me to easily visualize them. I look forward to a second book in this series! In any case, thanks to all you readers, and especially those who liked the book and took the time to write thoughtful reviews. Ms. Cantwell (and Mr. Cantwell, too) are hard at work on that second book.
It's finally summer in Seattle, with 93-degree heat today. We sat out in the cockpit of the boat and enjoyed the marine breezes while doing some writing on "Murdermobile 2." Glad to see a nice review of "Murdermobile" on Cozy Mystery Book Reviews (click here to see it). June sales matched the 900+ in May, so we're closing in on 2,000. (Going viral soon, we just know it.) We're heading to the cabin in the San Juans for a long Fourth of July weekend and some intense mystery writing. Several nice reviewers have wished for another story from us. We're on it.
So, hmmm, we focused more on being storytellers than being historians.
For us, writing "Murdermobile" was a labor of love over a number of years, squeezed in between careers and raising a child. We always thought we had a good story -- not great literature, just a fun and entertaining cozy mystery that might be a good summer read. There are worse things to give the world. New York publishers didn't show interest, so it sat on the shelf. When e-publishing emerged as a viable, easy way to put a story in the public realm, we got all excited and took the plunge quickly. In the process, we revisited our story and, on a whim, decided to make our heroine five years younger by moving the story's date five years earlier. (Now that we think about it, we're not sure why. Perhaps it was society's relentless adoration of youth and the pressure to present a younger face to the world that made cutting five years off Hester's age seem a clever stroke. Or perhaps one of us just had a stroke. Maybe both.) In any case, it wasn't the brightest whim we've ever had. Moving the date up, it turns out, played havoc with the timing of a bunch of real-life events to which our story alludes, ranging from the O.J. Simpson trial to the advent of dot-com millionaires. It's sort of the same reason that time travel is so perilous: There are just too many tricky side-effects you have to watch out for. Noble reader, forgive us. One of you called us on it ("Hey, you said your story was set in 1991 but the Simpson trial wasn't until 1995!") and we have to admit we muffed it. So -- One advantage to being the publisher of your own novel is that you can issue a revised, second edition anytime you wish. So that's what we're doing. The new edition is now on Amazon. We've asked that they make the updated version available to previous buyers. We've restored the original date of the story, to 1996. Hester is five years older, in her late 30s instead of early 30s. In many ways, that age better fits her personality as we wrote her. It stands to reason that she's more world-wise, a bit more experienced in relationships, perhaps more open to trusting her own judgments of people and, well, forming close friendships in a flash. (If you've read the book, you'll know what we're talking about.) In the end, we're really just doing this writing for the fun of it. But we do take it seriously, because we're creating a world into which we hope you'll enjoy escaping for a few hours. And if that world has a problem with time warps -- well, that's just not right. Thank you for reading. We hope you'll join us for the next story, "Murdermobile 2: Corpse of Discovery." We're having fun writing it. -- Brian and Barbara Cantwell A rainy Memorial Day weekend at the island cabin gave us time to conspire on the next book, "Murdermobile 2: Corpse of Discovery." At the same time, Kindle sales of the first book (Murdermobile) hit 700 on the one-month anniversary of publication! Whee, as Mom Cantwell used to say. It might not be a New York Times bestseller, but if our fans out there tell their friends about it -- and add a nice REVIEW to our Amazon or Goodreads pages (or both!) -- we are going viral any day now! If you are our fan, welcome to the blog, by the way.
We're having fun with "Corpse" -- with the new(ish) "Sara Duffy Memorial Bookmobile" careening around Portland during the annual Rose Parade. Stay tuned, fans of Hester and Nate. |
AuthorBrian and Barbara are the B.B. in B.B. Cantwell. Here we'll share occasional updates on coming stories, plus general observations on the good, the bad and the ugly in the process (mostly the good). Please feel free to join in with a comment or question. Categories
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